War Child started its program in 3 refugee-camps (Gashbarka) in 2001. It consisted of teacher training and sports and music activities with children. Nowadays War Child also works in Barentu and recently in Debub, where a creative arts and sports program is implemented as a school curriculum. The program is moving into a new community based approach and for this development and expansion War Child is looking for an experienced Head of Mission.

CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights has warned of a growing link between famine in Africa and the suppression of press freedom and freedom of expression. In a statement issued to commemorate World Press Freedom Day marked annually on May 3, the organisations coordinator Rotimi Sankore said: “Varying estimates of between thirty million to forty million people are threatened with starvation in several African countries, many with unacceptable records on press freedom and freedom of expression. These countries include Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Between them they account for at least eighty percent of those in danger.”

Amnesty International has accused the Zimbabwean government of using "repressive" legislation to silence dissent, and perpetrate human rights violations. In a report entitled "Zimbabwe: Rights Under Siege", released on 3 May to mark World Press Freedom Day, AI said the government had introduced and selectively used legislation as a vehicle for committing "widespread human rights violations" with impunity.

Everywhere in the world where there are conflicts and wars children tend to be used as key factors in fighting. Countless numbers of these children are forced to join whilst others are determined and willing to join because of lack of parental care. Most of these children are under the ages of 18 and are used as tools by the politicians and other elderly people in the society in order to fight for or against the government. The situation of child soldiers is very rampant in the African continent. Visit this web site to read the stories of children caught up in wars.

Fighting has intensified in Burundi in the months before the transfer of power to a new president, Human Rights Watch says in a new briefing paper, "Transition in Burundi: Time to Deliver." There have been military operations in nine of Burundi's seventeen provinces in the last two months.

Unlike being a murderer, being a 'terrorist' is often a function of being on the wrong side of power rather than possessing any inherent and universally disagreeable qualities or having committed a readily identifiable act. This is according to a statement by the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) about a submission to the South African Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security on the Anti-terrorism Bill, B12-2003.

This report from the International Crisis Group unravels the involvement of many West African leaders in their region's worsening conflict. While Charles Taylor of Liberia is the key to regional instability, the conflicts in the Mano River Union (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone) and Côte d'Ivoire are interwoven and cannot be treated separately. A comprehensive strategy is required, including a stronger U.S. role. A phased approach is needed to get a ceasefire and press Taylor to postpone elections and stand down. The Security Council should prepare a peacekeeping mission to monitor the ceasefire and help establish an interim administration, and make standby arrangements for a more robust multinational force if the ceasefire collapses. If there is no ceasefire, tougher measures should be taken, including wider sanctions and steps to bring Taylor and others before a war crimes tribunal such as Sierra Leone's Special Court.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must acknowledge that although it may have set out to conduct free and fair elections, not everything went according to plan. INEC should be bold and honest enough to admit its errors and successes. The INEC cannot seriously claim that elections have been successfully conducted in states such as Rivers, Enugu and Delta. In some other states, including Anambra, Abia, Benue, Imo and Plateau, where the election results have been willfully falsified, INEC must quickly review the process and restore the legitimate votes recorded.

This report documents that internally displaced women and girls in Sierra Leone have suffered an extraordinary level of rape, sexual violence and other gross human rights violations during their country's civil war, with half of those who said they came into contact with RUF (Revolutionary United Front) forces reporting sexual violence.

Scratch the surface of post-apartheid South Africa, and deep-rooted racism lurks underneath. Almost every week, newspapers carry reports of another racist attack, or a racially motivated murder. "People's attitudes haven't changed," says Dr Zonke Majodina, a commissioner at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).

The United Nations Security Council should maintain the arms embargo against the Liberian government and Liberian rebel factions, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Security Council. The Security Council will review existing sanctions on Liberia on May 7, 2003. Human Rights Watch has documented numerous human rights abuses against civilians by Liberian government and rebel groups in the past year, including summary executions, recruitment of children, sexual violence, looting of civilian property, and forced labor.

Since apartheid collapsed, the Afrikaners have been a lost and divided race. Some have formed an unlikely alliance with the ANC, while the extreme right are blowing up anything they disapprove of. Now even moderates want to create a new homeland. Novelist Christopher Hope reports in the Guardian UK.

PUDEMO Secretary General IB Dlamini has been arrested in Swaziland for a speech calling for a people's offensive on Worker's Day. The release of PUDEMO President Mario Masuku from jail recently did not mean a change of heart on the part of the Mswati's government, reports the Swaziland Solidarity Network.

The United Kingdom government has failed to denounce incidents of violence and intimidation that occurred in several areas of Nigeria during the elections of April 12 and 19, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office had issued a press release welcoming the “relative calm in which the elections took place.” “In a situation where we have seen serious violence, with deaths and injuries, it is extraordinary for the British government to talk of ‘calm,’” said Steve Crawshaw, London Director of Human Rights Watch.

Before receiving a triple life sentence for murdering three black people on a Pretoria bus in 2000, De Wet Kritzinger told the city's high court he had intended to kill many more, and had no remorse for what he had done. "I believed I would be a hero in the eyes of my Father (God)," he said. After choosing not to testify in his own defence, Kritzinger went into the witness box in mitigation of sentence last Friday. He would not take the oath, saying it was a sin.

Lobby groups last Wednesday said the failure of governments to agree to an independent monitoring system to prevent potential abuses of the Kimberley agreement on conflict diamonds could undermine the credibility of the scheme.

Splits in Malawi's United Democratic Front (UDF) began to emerge this week as another senior official announced his resignation from the ruling party. Last Thursday, Jan Sonke, a UDF lawmaker for the commercial capital Blantyre, cited the party's failure to "reduce poverty, strengthen democracy and improve the economy" as reasons for his resignation.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun repatriating more than 5,000 Rwandans living in Zambia as refugees, the UN agency reported last Thursday. The first 16 of the refugees arrived in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, aboard a Kenya Airways flight.

A new ceasefire between government and rebel forces in Cote d'Ivoire took effect at midnight on Saturday following talks between the two sides earlier this week aimed at stabilising the volatile situation on the Liberian border.

As Bush creates a corporate protectorate in Iraq, many companies who stand to benefit from reconstruction and oil exploration there are familiar to Africans. Shell, Bechtel and Fluor Corporation are all associated with massacres and crimes against humanity in Africa. Oil giant Shell Corporation had a hand in the death of Ken Saro Wiwa and the massacre of hundreds of Ogoni in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Bechtel has profited from and exacerbated the ongoing war in the DRC. And Flour Corporation had tight relationships with the Apartheid regime of South Africa.