Some 600 pygmies, or Batwa, have fled Burundi for neighbouring Rwanda to escape persecution and hunger, officials say. Batwa MP Liberata Nichayenzi said the majority had fled because of intimidation by ethnic Hutus. Correspondents say the pygmies are often accused by Hutus of being allied to ethnic Tutsis. They have mostly fled the drought-hit north-eastern Kirundo province.

Food rations for 50,000 refugees in Rwanda will be cut by nearly one-third next month unless donors provide another $2.6 million, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said. Refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi, fleeing unrest and violence, have been pouring into Rwanda over the past year.

Members of a Rwandan human rights watchdog, Kangurirwa, are due to travel to Burundi this month to join other electoral observers during the long-awaited Burundian referendum on the new constitution, set for February 28, an official said here Sunday. "We shall dispatch a delegation of about thirty six observers for the Burundi Referendum," said Frank Asiimwe, the director of Kangurirwa. He said the organization also plans to send another team of observers to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during the presidential elections scheduled for June this year.

In the 1960s and 1990s, internal strife in Rwanda has caused a mass flow of refugees into neighbouring countries. This paper explores the effect of violent conflict on the reproductive behaviour of affected populations, particularly on the cumulated fertility of Rwandan refugee women and the survival of their children. To this end, the authors use a national survey covering 6420 former refugee and non-refugee households conducted between 1999 and 2001.

I am an independent filmmaker out of Vancouver Canada. I will be going to Rwanda this May with Canadian Baptist Ministers to film three five minute films raising awareness about AIDS/HIV, Mirco-Enterprise, and Church Leadership. Apart from the volunteer work I will be doing I have had a great desire laid upon my heart to go into a project of more depth. I have been working over the past few months on reading, learning and trying to develop a documentary about the children of Rwanda and reconciliation. My hope in this is to understand and to raise awareness of the struggles these children are forced to face and the amazing bravery to overcome it, so that their stories may not go unnoticed. I am currently in the process of trying to build a story and I am looking for more information with regards to the efforts going on today to bring reconciliation to these children. In addition to that I am looking for interviewees, reconciliation programs in Rwanda and personal stories. If you have any information that can assist me or if you could point me in the direction of who could it would be a big help. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter. Contact [email][email protected]

The contractor will be responsible for the on-site development and implementation of the civic education and capacity-building component of the robust CRS-IFES technical assistance program in Rwanda.

For the past six months Digital Links, a London-based charity, has been working with World Links to computerise primary schools in Rwanda. The collaboration between the two brings together the two themes of delivering renewable energy powered education and communication to one of the most disadvantaged countries in Africa. 94% of the schools, especially in rural areas, have no electricity supply. To answer this challenge, Digital Links developed a product consisting of a refurbished laptop powered by a solar PV (photovoltaic) panel, used in conjunction with a car battery, which provides a reservoir of power for the computer.

In an era when film festivals have become the focal points for urban, national and regional film sector activities as well as showcases for social message documentary and youth training initiatives, the first annual Rwanda Mini-Film Festival will be a gathering point for filmmakers, students, film professionals, development communications practitioners and the general public. The theme for this year’s festival is: "Regional Cooperation for Audiovisual Excellence in Central and East Africa". The 2005 Rwanda Mini-Film Festival will be held at various urban and rural locations across Rwanda: Kigali, Butare, Kibuye, Cyangugu and others – from Wednesday, March 16th – Wednesday, March 30th.

Relatives of victims in Rwanda's genocide say they plan to file a lawsuit accusing French soldiers of complicity in the 1994 massacre. Meantime, a board of inquiry composed of French rights groups and lawyers has issued a 600-page report on the genocide, saying that French troops were complicit in the slaughter.

Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, has reiterated the role ICT can play in accelerating the socio-economic development in a recent interview. The recent Accra preparatory regional summit has provided the Rwandan government an opportunity to review its ICT policies.

The team defending Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the only woman so far to be indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) begins its case on Monday. Nyiramasuhuko, the former Rwandan minister of Family and Women Affairs, is charged with 11 counts including genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and rape. She has become the first woman to be charged for rape as a crime against humanity.

Rwanda on Tuesday dismissed a United Nations report accusing it of violating an arms embargo in war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which it has twice invaded in the past decade. The report by an independent panel of experts, prepared for a U.N. Security Council committee and seen by Reuters on Monday, says Uganda and Rwanda are among those violating the embargo.

'Hotel Rwanda', a US film about the genocide, won three Oscar nominations on Tuesday, while Rwandan genocide movie 'Sometime in April' is set for the famous Berlin film festival in Germany.

Last Friday, the leading Rwandese human rights organisation, La Ligue Rwandaise pour la Promotion et la Défense des Droits de l'Homme (LIPRODHOR), closed its doors. All its employees are temporarily suspended, a suspension that will become permanent if donors are not found before March 2005. LIPRODHOR was the only independent human rights organisation in Rwanda that maintained human rights monitors at the provincial and district levels. The organisation's expected demise means that Rwandese, particularly those in rural areas, will no longer have an independent human rights monitor to either record or attempt to resolve their human rights complaints.

Computer Aid International, a British registered not-for-profit officially launched an innovative new partnership with local not-for-profit, E-ICT, on November 29 in Kigali. By providing an affordable solution to high cost computers, the partnership aims to increase access to ICT for schools and not-for-profits.

Congo's government insisted on Tuesday that its forces were fighting Rwandan troops in the mineral-rich east of the country and not dissident units of the national army, as local commanders had said. "The Rwandans have sent soldiers to reinforce the positions they never really left in North Kivu (province)," Democratic Republic of Congo Information Minister Henri Mova Sakanyi said. Local military commanders have said Congolese troop reinforcements have been fighting factions loyal to the Rwandan-backed RCD Goma former rebel group. Rwanda has repeatedly stated its troops are not involved.

After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Godelieve Mukasarasi returned to her village from a refugee camp with one goal in mind - to pick up where she left off months earlier. The social worker's house was destroyed. Some of her family members were killed. But her objective was to help others in her situation. She was in Canada recently to accept the John Humphrey Freedom Award, presented by the Montreal-based human-rights group Rights and Democracy. She said it was the genocide in Rwanda that prompted her to focus on the promotion of women's rights and the rights of women in such conflicts.

The UN Peacekeeping Mission to DRC (Monuc) should increase its presence in rebel controlled areas to ensure a greater proportion of children are demobilised with minimum risk, says a Save the Children report that looks at the Disarmament, Demobilisation, Repatriation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration process (DDRRR) of Rwandan boys and girls formerly associated with armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report recommends that community members and leaders should be trained on child protection issues.

Rwandan troops have invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo twice in the last decade. Press reports indicate that Rwanda troops have again crossed into Congo. Violence and instability in Congo have claimed the lives of three million people in the last five years and the dispatch of United Nations peacekeepers to eastern Congo has not brought stability to the region. Veteran Rwanda expert Alison Des Forges, a senior advisor to Human Rights Watch's Africa division and recipient of a 1999 MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, discusses current events in Rwanda and the Congo in a Q-and-A available on the website of Human Rights Watch. For further background on the situation in the Great Lakes, read the article 'Great Lakes: Yet another powderkeg?' available at: http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/6822.html and 'African Union may help disarm militias', available at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44573

The troubles in the Ivory Coast cast a long shadow over the 10th Summit of French-speaking countries (La Francophonie), which took place last week in the city of Ouagadougou, the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso. The summit leaders signed a resolution demanding that all sides in the conflict adhere to the terms of the French-brokered peace accord reached in January 2003 and that "the Ivorian authorities put an end to the incitements to hatred and violence circulated by certain media and to assure the protection of the foreign communities living in the country." Many observers now fear that the crisis has startling similarities to the events of Rwanda ten years ago, argues this commentary from the World Press Review.