Since the mid-1990s, the northern and western districts of Uganda have been plagued by high levels of insecurity resulting from armed insurgencies and rebel attacks on civilian targets. The Acholi people of northern Uganda have borne the brunt of the violence, with some 500,000 people - roughly half the Acholi population - forced to remain in "protected camps" guarded by the Ugandan military.

Victims of the tactics of two armed forces, Angola's four million internally displaced persons (IDPs) face a future as uncertain as their past. Throughout 2001 and the first quarter of 2002, UN figures indicate that the number of new IDPs in Angola fluctuated between 20,000 and 50,000 each month, the number rising to over 60,000 in September 2001 owing to a massive movement of people following UNITA rebel attacks in the north of Bengo province.

Sixteen years of conflict in the north has cost the Ugandan economy about US $1.33 billion, more than the sum spent on health care, according to research just published. "The cost of the war is greater than central government spending on health. All Ugandans are paying for this war," Phil Vernon, Country Director for CARE International in Uganda, said in a statement on Thursday.

Members of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance recently held a protest outside the Sapref plant in South Durban, South Africa and demanded to know why Shell MD, Richard Parkes had allegedly lied about a recent incident at the plant.

The leader and last remaining member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) - a group that committed politically motivated crimes in the United States in the 1970s - was arrested in Cape Town last Friday. James Kilgore, 55, who had been using the name Charles Pape, had been on the run from the FBI for the past 26 years. An article on the South African Independent Media Centre web site notes that Pape is the third international leftist arrested in South Africa over the past three months and threatened with deportation. "This is clearly part of a campaign by the ANC-IFP-NNP centre-right government to demonise internationals working alongside the emergent social movements and by doing so to demoralise the movements," the article said.

The Somali peace talks, under way in the Kenyan town of Eldoret, "are on course", a statement issued on Tuesday by the office of Elijah Mwangale, the Kenyan special envoy and chairman of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development's technical committee, has said.

Sierra Leone's war was neither 'rebellion', in the sense of it being an internal uprising, nor 'civil', in the sense of it being about clearly understandable and achievable political goals. Rather, it was part of a continuous narrative of escalating regional violence and terror driven largely by criminal economic interests. Now its recovery from decades of economic meltdown and political and social turmoil will depend, to a very large extent, on how it manages its vitally important extractive sector, especially the diamond industry. This is part of a new report released by Partnership Africa Canada. Related Links:
* http://www.actionaid.org/resources/pdfs/endconflict.doc
* http://www.actionaid.org/resources/pdfs/gatefold.pdf

Despite progress in peace negotiations, and additional pressure on Khartoum from the passage of the Sudan Peace Act in Washington, many observers remain skeptical about the willingness of the Sudanese government to make peace as long as its access to increased oil revenue is unimpaired. This posting by Africa Action contains a briefing on recent developments in the peace process in Sudan, from Justice Africa, a non-governmental organization focused on peace and human rights, particularly in the Horn of Africa.

A non-governmental organisation has filed a lawsuit against 21 multinational corporations and leading international banks for helping prop up the apartheid state. The Khulumani Support Group (Khulumani) filed the suit in its name as well as that of 85 of its 33000 members, in the New York Eastern District Court on Monday. This posting from Africa Action contains a press release from the Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign, a statement from the law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, a list of the companies that are the defendants, and a profile of the Khulumani Support Group. It also contains excerpts from the stories of individual plaintiffs who are parties to the case.

The situation for Rwanda's estimated 1 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS and decades of civil conflict is aggravated by the disruption of traditional structures, including the extended family system and community solidarity, UNICEF says.

The restrictions on political and civil liberty in Rwanda, though partly understandable in view of the fragile security situation related to the 1994 genocide and its aftermath as well as the long Congo conflict, are radicalising opposition to the leadership of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), stifling reconciliation and hindering the transition to democracy, says a new report from the International Crisis Group.

In a move reminiscent of taking the fight to the lion's den, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), has visited President Olusegun Obasanjo in the State House, and told him that his decision to seek re-election would impair the nation's unity.

U.S. officials have reportedly uncovered what they believe is an al-Qaida terrorist connection in West Africa, which could pose a threat to stability in the subregion. The Voice of America (VOA) quotes intelligence sources as saying that a man identified as a former Algerian Army Colonel named Mokhtar Belmokhtar has been operating an arms smuggling network in West Africa that has links to al-Qaida.

The government was still investigating on Tuesday whether there was any truth to claims that South African mercenaries were helping the Ivory Coast army counter a rebellion. "Our mission in the Ivory Coast is following the matter closely," foreign affairs department spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said.

Niko Shefer leaned forward and explained the competitive advantage small entrepreneurs enjoy over corporate multinationals when doing business in war-ravaged countries like Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I move with cash. I can buy the president a Mercedes 600. How can a normal company justify that? How do they explain that to the shareholders? I do not need board meetings. I am the board.” Shefer is one of a new breed of adventurers and opportunists who have the acumen and the ruthlessness to profit from Africa’s war zones.

Office of the President minister Joseph Nyaga has resigned from the Cabinet and defected from Kanu, rocking the party as it prepares for crucial nominations. He announced the move as former presidential trouble-shooter Mark Too also declared he was joining the opposition to contest the Eldoret South seat.

Shell Nigeria has reacted angrily to threats by human rights groups who say they will disrupt Shell's activities in the Niger Delta unless it compensates women who were injured in protests against Shell's environmental record earlier this year.

At least 20 women have been shot dead in northeastern Ethiopia, humanitarian sources told IRIN last Friday. The women, all ethnic Afars, were killed as they were on their way home from a market, the sources confirmed. The shooting, which took place in late October, is believed to be part of increasing tensions in the Afar Regional State sparked by a severe drought affecting many parts of the country.

Nigeria’s Supreme Court has unanimously thrown out several guidelines used by the country’s electoral body to deny registration to five political parties. The court's seven judges, led by Chief Justice Mohammed Uwais, ruled that 11 of 18 conditions imposed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the registration of political parties were unconstitutional.

Nigeria's government has said it will not allow people to be stoned to death on the order of Shari’a courts. Junior Minister of Foreign Affairs Dubem Onyia said in a statement that the government was aware of widespread international concern over recent death sentences imposed by Islamic courts and would "use its constitutional powers to thwart any negative ruling which is deemed injurious to its people".