Ivory Coast's army has reclaimed another town, pushing deeper into the country's rebel-held, cocoa-rich West as a nearly three-month conflict escalates toward all-out war, military officials said Wednesday.
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Analytical Kenyans are about to give up on the coming elections. Rather than tackle specific policy questions, the campaign has centred around posturing, spin doctoring and procrastination. The sad reality is that, as ever, the campaign is really being fought on the power of personalities and the ethnic allegiances they command.

Power-sharing talks between the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and its opponents resumed in the South African capital, Pretoria, on Monday.

The rebel Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD) and the government army accused each other on Tuesday of numerous violations of the ceasefire agreement they signed on 2 December.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Guinea reported on Wednesday that some 17,857 Guinean nationals, fleeing the insecurity in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire, had been registered by the Lola Prefecture near the border with Cote d'Ivoire.

Ethiopia’s ruling coalition is stifling opposition groups in the country which is leading to increased ethnic violence, the European Union (EU) has said. It said a “remaining challenge” facing the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) was to advance democracy in the country.

Nigeria's ruling party has announced that its presidential candidate in next year's elections will be from the south. President Olusegun Obasanjo is from the south and is standing for re-election.

There has been no cohesive voice recognizing the effects of the war on terrorism on Africa and no progressive discussion with regards to what role Africans should play in making the world safe for Africans and other marginalized people in the world. And as the slogans - war on terrorism, axis of evil, with or against us - continue to be brandished like weapons, the world, which includes Africa, sits in a precarious position. These are not innocent slogans: they are intended to close the debate, to put a lid on reason and replace it with nursery school rhymes, says this commentary for www.zmag.org.

Namibians in Windhoek marked Human Rights and Namibian Women's Day with two separate commemorations - one Government-sanctioned and the other organised by civil society.

Most of the outside world has turned its back on what it thinks is an "insoluble mess" in Somalia, says the NGO Médecins sans frontières. MSF has appealed for a reversal of this neglect and says the last ten years of suffering endured by the population "demands a response".

After relative quiet, Swaziland's labour unions are about to embark on the first national stay-away in five years. Union leaders are confident that the time has come to press for democratic reforms in the country. This will happen despite a government ban on strikes and threats from the royal establishment, and if the stay-away takes place during the annual kingship pageant, strikers would be committing sacrilege.

As the first anniversary of last year's disputed presidential elections approaches, Amnesty International has called for impartial and independent investigations into all reports of human rights violations and abuses unleashed in the context of the political unrest following the elections.

Communities from across Durban will converge in Merebank on the 11th December 2002 to plan a campaign of rolling mass action against the City's new relocation policies. Residents in South Durban who face increasing industrial expansion and pollution have found common cause with the poor of Chatsworth, Sydenham Heights and Umlazi, who face evictions for rental arrears and unpaid rates bills.

Vice President Moses Z. Blah has requested international support for thousands of returnees and refugees fleeing fighting in neighbouring Ivory Coast.

The International Rescue Committee supplied emergency services for thousands of Burundians who fled northern and eastern regions of Burundi’s capital Bujumbura late last month following a heavy attack by rebel forces.

One Gambian was killed while another was rendered lame for life after they were beaten in two separate incidents in Sweden, where immigrants, especially Africans are reportedly being subjected to racist attacks that are said to have received overt approval from right wing politicians.

Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) signed an agreement on Monday for the voluntary repatriation of 193,000 Angolan refugees in the Congo, a UNHCR official said.

The fate of hundreds of Liberian refugees who had qualified to resettle in the United States and elsewhere remains uncertain. This is due to hostilities in the Ivory Coast where they had been interviewed under the United Nations High Commission for Refugees(UNHCR) Resettlement Program.

Somalia's political leaders signed a promising new declaration at Eldoret in Kenya on 27 October 2002. The framework for dialogue is sound and comprehensive, most major political movements are represented, and key members of the international community are engaged. However, mismanagement, regional rivalry, lack of political support and financial constraints have brought the talks to near collapse. As the conference enters its main phase, the UN Security Council should ensure that the arms embargo against Somalia is actually enforced and commit to targeted sanctions against warlords or politicians who undermine the negotiations. The EU and U.S. should construct a package of incentives for reaching a peace agreement, enhance their representation and technical aid, and conduct robust public diplomacy in support of the process, says the International Crisis Group.

Approximately 20 million young people around the world have crossed an international border or moved to another location in their own country to escape war, persecution and/or abuse and a significant number of these are adolescents.