Central African Republic (CAR) government forces, backed by the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have recaptured the towns of Bozoum and Sibut, Radio France Internationale reported on Sunday.

How is globalisation affecting the lives of the 3.4 million inhabitants of the Angolan capital, Luanda? Can the state use wealth from oil and diamonds to lift the city's poor out of poverty? Can civil society release the potential of the poor to become development actors?

In the state of the nation address, which was wide-ranging, positive, ambitious and delivery-orientated, President Mbeki sought to provide fresh hope for the poor, says the Institute for democracy in South Africa (Idasa).
Related Link:
* The State of the Nation Address - an Epoliticssa briefing
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=963

Amnesty International (AI) last Friday called on the Liberian government to release Aloysius Toe, a leading human rights activist, saying he was due to be tried on a trumped-up treason charge. "Toe has done nothing but work legitimately for the defense of fundamental human rights in Liberia. He should not be in prison and not on trial," AI said in a press statement.

Participants at a workshop on the "Rights of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons to Information and Communication" held at Abokobi, have endorsed the nomination of Nii Laryea Sowah, Editor of the "Spark" and Executive Secretary of the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana as West-Africa Coordinator of the newly created West Africa Media Network For Refugees.

Police arrested a High Court judge seen as having angered the government by ruling against it, accusing him of corruption, state television reported on Monday.

In an unprecedented show of unity, groups and individuals from across the political and social spectrum, men and women, young and old, from all sectors of society and from all shades of political opinion, all colours, religious beliefs and convictions came together at Johannesburg’s Library Gardens to oppose the threatened war against Iraq. Similar marches took place in Durban and Cape Town.
Related Link:
* Memorandum of demands to US and UK governments
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=969

There is an unprecedented influx into Zimbabwe of asylum seekers from the Great Lakes region, a United Nations official has said. Tapiwa Huye, the assistant programme officer at the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office, said: "The influx is unusual. The Transit Centre is full and we are looking for tents to accommodate the asylum seekers."

A section of the human rights fraternity in Kenya has welcomed the new government's intention to open up fresh inquiries into human rights violations attributed to the previous Kenya African National Union (KANU) government.

The plight of farm workers affected by Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform programme amid a serious food security crisis is being largely ignored, NGOs warn.

Concerned for their security, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday moved 406 Congolese refugees in Burundi farther away from the border with the "volatile" Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It reported on Thursday that the refugees had left Rugombo, a refugee reception centre located three kilometres from the border, for Cishemeye I transit centre.

Tanzania is scheduled to receive €24 million (US $26 million) from the EC this year to help meet the humanitarian needs of Burundian and Congolese refugees in the country, according to the EC Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO).

Protests marked Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's controversial first official visit to Europe for more than a year. On the day European Union travel sanctions were renewed for a year against him, he, his wife and about 70 other members of the Zimbabwean leadership flew into the French capital by private plane and checked into a five-star hotel.
Related Links:
* Obasanjo, Mbeki Move Could Plunge Country Into Violence
http://allafrica.com/stories/200302130394.html
* Letter from Obasanjo to Howard
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=964

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni convened a special cabinet meeting on Friday in the capital, Kampala, to discuss a report on allegations that Ugandan army officers were involved in looting natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to The New Vision government-owned newspaper.

Liberia's government said on Thursday that former Kamajor militiamen from Sierra Leone were fighting alongside the rebel Liberians United Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) in the western part of the country.

Delegates to the Somali peace talks, arriving at the new venue in Nairobi from the western Kenyan town of Eldoret, have been greeted by chaos and confusion.

The Southern Africa Human Rights NGO Network (SAHRINGON), consisting of human rights NGOs' in the region, has noted with "regret" the fact that the human rights situation in Zimbabwe has not improved since its March 2002 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. SAHRINGON has called on the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to take note of the various incidents of torture and increased violation of human rights in the country.

A Zimbabwean human rights lawyer is seeking political asylum in South Africa after fleeing his country. Gabriel Shumba bears scars of brutal torture he allegedly suffered at the hands of the security forces in Zimbabwe.

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has expressed alarm at the unprecedented wave of repression against Cameroon trade unionists in recent days, which culminated on 12 February in the arrest for the second time of Benoît Essiga, President of the ICFTU-affiliated Confederation syndicale des travailleurs du Cameroun (CSTC).

Deeply concerned by the continuous heavy fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), despite the signing of ceasefire agreements, two top United Nations officials have briefed the Security Council on the military situation and the deteriorating human rights conditions in that country. Information gathered "reveals that prosecution on ethnic and tribal grounds, extortion of property, rape and other forms of sexual violence against women, extra-judicial executions, and the forced recruitment of children are being committed."