A UNHCR project launched last month is aimed at providing an income for internally displaced people (IDP) while making it easier for people to travel to and from Halabokhad. UNHCR provided 11 tuk-tuks, the three-wheeled motorized rickshaws common in developing nations. Each vehicle was to be maintained and operated by four IDPs, who would pocket any money made from passengers.

Fearing mass arrests and deportations, a group of about a hundred desperate undocumented asylum-seekers have turned to the South African Human Rights Commission to seek redress. New applicant asylum-seekers in the province have been languishing in the cold by the Department of Home Affairs former Refugee Reception Office at the Foreshore after it shut down the Maitland Refugee Reception Office and ordered these asylum-seekers to travel up to Pretoria or Musina for documentation. The department’s refusal to process new-comers is in defiance of two recent Western Cape High Court orders ordering it to resume documenting new applicants at their refugee offices on the Foreshore.

The European Union is suspending new aid to Rwanda following allegations that the country is backing rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, an EU spokesman said. The decision follows a report by experts of the UN Security Council's sanctions committee alleging Rwandan support for M23 rebels, who launched an uprising in April. The DR Congo government also accuses its neighbour of involvement.

An Egyptian newspaper has launched a campaign against the obscene cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo. Al-Watan, a secular daily, published 13 cartoons on Monday under the slogan 'Fight cartoons with cartoons'. One shows a pair of glasses through which the burning World Trade Center is seen, with the caption: 'Western glasses for the Islamic world'. Charlie Hebdo's cartoons played on the uproar over a video which mocks Islam.

Children in the Kivu provinces of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are not only getting caught in the crossfire of the area’s ongoing violence, but also facing health risks, threats of forced recruitment by local and foreign militias, and interrupted education, say officials. 'Children are swept up in the mass population movements that are currently ongoing in eastern DRC, with entire families fleeing multiple conflicts. Our hospitals have operated on children with bullet wounds who have been caught in the crossfire. Some children present late with life-threatening malaria, malnutrition or respiratory tract infections,' Jan-Peter Stellema, operations manager at Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), told IRIN.

Uganda's broadcast regulatory body, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), has banned radios from airing a new song by renowned local artist Ssentamu Kyagulanyi (a.k.a Bobi Wine), pending investigations into claims that it is critical of the Kampala Capital City Authority's (KCCA) Executive Director, Jennifer Musisi. The song 'Tugambire ku Jennifer', translated to mean 'please talk to Jennifer on our behalf' was released earlier this month by Wine, the self-proclaimed 'Ghetto president'. The translated chorus says, 'tell Jennifer on our behalf to reduce her harshness, because the town is ours'.

After a summer of protests, government has cracked down on independent media, forcing some journalists out of work, reports Al Jazeera. At one newspaper in Khartoum, journalists said they lost their jobs when their boss got a sudden call from Sudanese intelligence telling him to close down the newspaper. Two papers have been closed in as many months, and others - even those not aligned with the opposition - are claiming harassment.

Large-scale water-related projects are a model global environmental issue. From dams controlling and rerouting water flow to providing access to clean drinking water and monitoring the nutrient quality of water resources, local, national, and international players often have to work together to manage these water resources. A new study of nearly 200 major international water-related projects over the past 20 years has identified existing and emerging challenges and how science can offer solutions. The report claims that 'insufficient and disjointed management of human demands on water and aquatic systems has led to situations where both social and ecological systems are in jeopardy and have even collapsed.'

Many world regions face 'water bankruptcy' due to mismanagement of water resources, with implications for food and energy security, experts have warned. This mismanagement of water and aquatic systems has 'led to situations where both social and ecological systems are in jeopardy and have even collapsed,' said the report, 'Science-Policy Bridges over Troubled Waters' - a study of almost 200 major international water-related projects over the past 20 years.

Sudanese Children 2011 report, published jointly by the National Council of Child Welfare NCCW and UNICEF Sudan, shows Sudan’s progress in childhood indicators between 2006 and 2010, and outlines specific actions for every state that need to be taken in order to meet remaining challenges. 'The report is a call to fulfill children’s rights and provide welfare, protection and other services for every child. The growing awareness of communities on the child rights will support our efforts to improve the life of our children. Strengthening the concerned institutions at national and state levels is crucial for a joint action to guarantee the child rights in coordination with national and international partners,' says Fathelrahman Mohamed Babiker, NCCW Secretary General, officer-in-charge.

African leaders should take note of the lessons learned from the Arab Spring and realise that ensuring good governance and food security will avoid crises on the continent, says Kofi Annan, chairman of the Africa Green Revolution Alliance. The former United Nations Secretary General said that food shortage was one of the triggers of the protests in North African and Middle-Eastern countries that lead to the ousting of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak in February that same year.

The European Women's Lobby with the European Network of Migrant Women have launched a documentary aimed at breaking stereotypes of migrant women. The film follows the stories of three women of migrant background living in the Europe. While struggling for their equal rights, these women, like so many others, enrich their host communities in myriad ways.

While change has swept other parts of the world over the past couple of years, Togo, an impoverished and largely agricultural nation under French rule before independence in 1960, can sometimes feel like a throwback to another era. Lingering suspicions over an alleged coup bid in 2009 have added to tensions, with the president's half-brother sentenced to 20 years in prison and 32 others to a range of jail terms over the incident last year. Opposition and civil society groups have been organising protests that the government seeks to prevent, usually with police firing tear gas.

This manual from the Association for Progressive Communications is based on success stories and challenges in communicating research for influence. APC translated their knowledge and expertise into tips that other organisations or campaigners may find useful.

For Zimbabwe’s gay community, voting season is a time of dread. As political temperatures rise ahead of expected elections next year, gays and lesbians are being targeted by police in an apparent strategy to win over voters. On 11 August 2012, police raided a book launch at the headquarters of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), an NGO based in Harare that promotes the rights of sexual minorities. The police arrested 44 people, and although none were formally charged, the incident followed a familiar pattern of harassment, beatings and threats against people who openly identify as gay.

Brutal attacks against bloggers, politically motivated surveillance, proactive manipulation of web content, and restrictive laws regulating speech online are among the diverse threats to internet freedom emerging over the past two years, according to a new study released by Freedom House. Despite these threats, 'Freedom on the Net 2012: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media' found that increased pushback by civil society, technology companies, and independent courts resulted in several notable victories.

Kenyan fighter jets have bombarded an airport in southern Somalia, where they are fighting al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab fighters, officials have said. The strikes took place in the port city of Kismayo on Tuesday 25 September. 'Our forces have reached Kismayo with jets and they have destroyed the armoury and a warehouse used by al-Shabab at the airport,' Cyrus Oguna, a Kenyan army spokesperson, said. He could not provide figures on the number of casualties incurred.

The Millennium Development Goals may not be perfect but they are simple and straightforward - qualities diplomats and others fear could be lost in the process of crafting new targets to replace the MDGs, which expire in 2015. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon underscored this in remarks to members of a high-level panel charged with working out what comes next. 'We need a clear post-2015 development agenda - an agenda with shared responsibilities for all countries, with the fight against poverty at the fore and sustainable development at the core,' he said.

In this Peace and Conflict Monitor article, a researcher back from a trip to the Congo, shares her observations about the darker side of the peace industry in Kivu province. In a region where sexual violence is a prominent and ongoing issue, she provides a glimpse of how the UN Peacekeeping forces fuel a thriving underground sex industry.

A group of Tunisian civil society organisations last week warned that the draft law on a new electoral body might put the country's democracy on a dangerous path. 'The government's project is awash with shortcomings and gaps; something which would lead to an election that is neither democratic nor transparent,' Kamel Gharbi, representative of Ofiya coalition, said at the September 19th conference in Tunis. The Ennahda-dominated government in July proposed a set of regulations to establish a new commission to supervise next elections. According to the proposal, members of the Independent High Electoral Commission (ISIE) will be selected by the two-thirds majority of the Constituent Assembly, while its head will be named by the governing troika.