The Rwandan government has violated the basic rights of tens of thousands of people by forcing them to abandon their homes in rural areas and move to makeshift dwellings in government-designated sites, Human Rights Watch has charged in a report.

Large numbers of Kamajor militiamen have left Guinea's troubled "Parrot's Beak" region and returned to Sierra Leone leaving behind their families, the World Food Programme said in its latest emergency report released on 8 June.

A senior Congolese rebel Commander, Col. Gideon Kibonge, has been arrested and is detained in connection with the recent fighting in the northeastern Congolese town of Beni, sources have said. Emmy Allio reports that Kibonge is the defence minister of Jean Pierre Bemba's Congolese Liberation Front (CLF). He is also head of military intelligence in the Congolese Liberation Movement.

Angola's long and brutal civil war has robbed millions of children of their youth and their futures. Statistics indicate that long after Angola extricates itself from its internecine conflict, its youth will continue to pay dearly.

The 25th Anniversary of the Soweto Uprising will be commemorated in Soweto on Saturday under the theme Non-Racialism: A Youth Vision for the 21st Century.

Residents of the eastern Congolese town of Beni are caught in the crossfire of week-long violent clashes between two competing rebel factions, with many civilians killed and injured, Human Rights Watch said today.

Black on black racism and xenophobia in South Africa.

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has described as "positive" the South African government's apparent shift towards a policy of engagement with his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The MDC in the past had been kept at arm's length by a South African government pursuing a policy of "quiet diplomacy" with President Robert Mugabe.

Zambian police said on Thursday they had banned political rallies in light of a solar eclipse on 21 June and an Organisation of African Unity summit in July, Reuters reported. Opposition parties immediately rejected the ban as illegal and said they would ignore it.

Twelve sugar cane farms in eastern South Africa have been torched and about 1,000 black families are occupying portions of 63 sugar farms in a land dispute that has turned violent, the 'Mail and Guardian' said on Thursday. The report said that police and soldiers have been on the farms since last week to protect the farmers and to patrol the land but had been unable to prevent the arson. It added that the arson was the latest manifestation of a bitter dispute pitting the farmers, who are mostly mixed-race, against blacks who say they want back the land some 180 km north of Durban from which they were removed under apartheid.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has told Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to respect the rule of law and publicly assure Zimbabweans and the international community that his government will conduct a free and fair presidential election next year, 'The Financial Gazette' said on Thursday.

Two field workers from Refugees International in Washington DC have started a month-long mission to Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone to assess the needs of internally displaced Liberians and those who have sought refuge in the neighbouring countries, the NGO told IRIN on Friday.

Two Nigerian human rights groups have called on the police and the federal authorities to take urgent steps to end the spate of extrajudicial killings being carried out across the country, 'The Guardian' Lagos daily reported on Friday.

Ghana's minister of defence, Addo Kufuor, has inaugurated a special committee to work out modalities for setting up a national emergency response unit, 'Accra Mail' newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing an official statement. The committee headed by Deputy Minister of Defence Edward Martey Akita is charged with identifying resources, including personnel and equipment, required to set up the unit. The unit will manage disasters around the country and will comprise doctors, nurses, paramedics, army paratroopers, firefighters and divers. This will enable the unit respond effectively to road, rail and aviation emergencies as well as disasters such as oil spills, floods, earthquakes or even communal conflicts, the report said.

Minister of External relations Mustafa Usman Isma'il on Wednesday admitted that the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) had captured the towns of Raga and Deim Zubier in Western Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, the 'Khartoum Monitor' newspaper reported on Thursday. SPLA spokesman Yasr Arman said the rebel movement had captured all of western bah al-Ghazal, opening up a lucrative trade corridor to the neighbouring Central African Republic and also offering access to Darfur regions in western Sudan, where people have their own grievances with the government in Khartoum, the BBC reported.

The European Union (EU) on Friday called for the Government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to immediately stop hostilities in order to create a conducive atmosphere for negotiations to end the 18-year civil war. It also encouraged Kenya, in its capacity as chair of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) committee for Sudan, to press ahead with its fellow IGAD members to reinvigorate the peace process, which has not made much progress so far.

On Britain's second National Holocaust Memorial Day, the Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library, London is organising a conference focusing on four genocides of the twentieth century. Highlighting Armenia, the Balkans, Rwanda and the Holocaust, the conference will examine the history, processes, implications and responses during and after the conflicts.

As forces loyal to Central African Republic (CAR) President Ange-Felix Patasse surrounded remaining mutineers one week after a failed coup attempt in the capital Bangui, relief organisations issued urgent warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis.

Over 500 refugees from the Zanzibari islands of Unguja and Pemba were now being registered at Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya in preparation for their voluntary repatriation later this month, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski reported on Tuesday.

With Central African Republic (CAR) government forces of President Ange-Felix Patasse back in "full control of the situation" in the capital, as confirmed by the French embassy in Bangui on Thursday, an increasing stream of residents who fled a failed coup attempt were returning to the city.