At least 60 people, mostly women and children, were killed in a massacre in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the weekend, Ugandan army spokesperson Major Shaban Bantariza said on Monday.

The hardline leader of one of Ivory Coast's three rebel factions has been killed during a flare-up in fighting between rebels and their former battlefront allies from savage West African wars. A rebel statement said Sergeant Felix Doh, leader of the Ivorian Popular Movement of the Far West, was ambushed near the Liberian border last Friday and "was captured and executed" by men loyal to notorious regional warlord Sam Bockarie.

The United States plans to boost its military presence in Africa to respond to new threats, Nato's supreme commander of allied forces in Europe, General Jim Jones, said on Monday. "We might wish to have more presence in the southern rim of the Mediterranean, where there are a certain number of countries that can be destabilised in the near future, large ungoverned areas across Africa that are clearly the new routes of narco trafficking, terrorists training and hotbeds of instability," Jones said. He also spoke of "potential threats to the Alliance and our interests."

At just 13, Gisele Buhendwa possesses a tough exterior that reveals little. She tells her story in a matter-of-fact manner: her deep, scratchy voice never changing tone, and her scrawny, boyish body never showing a hint of emotion. The only physical sign that displacement, kidnapping and rape affected her, like thousands of other girls in war-tortured East Congo, is that she refuses to look anyone in the eye.

This paper focuses on the transfixing configurations of migration dynamics in a new South Africa, while examining the context of migration and migration dynamics with an emphasis on the historical and institutional setting; the role of immigrants, including those doing the dirty and dangerous jobs, even when they are unwanted; the dynamics of replacement; and policy responses to fashion out appropriate migration regimes in the country.

Nyarugunga is one of four sectors in Kanombe district, Kigali. It is divided into five cellules: Nyarugunga, Kamashashi, Gihanga, Nonko and Rwimbogo. According to testimonies from different groups, the killings in Nyarugunga sector began on the night of President Habyarimana's death, so that a number of the targeted families had no opportunity at all to leave their houses. Several families who took refuge at Kanombe commune office were driven back by the soldiers and communal policemen who were patrolling there, and headed for Masaka parish where they later met their deaths. In two of its sectors, Nyarugunga and Busanza, gacaca trials have got underway. They began in Nyarugunga the day after the official launch of gacaca activities in June and in Busanza in November 2002, with the second series of pilot sectors.

Only days after the World Bank gave the Bujagali power project the go-ahead, environmental lobby groups have warned that the storm is far from over, reports Charles Wendo and Gerald Tenywa. The National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) and the Save Bujagali Crusade on Monday said unless key concerns such as the unfair purchase agreement, absence of competitive bidding and environmental concerns were addressed, the project was doomed.

Amnesty International has called on the Rwandese government to ensure the security of individuals named in a March 2003 parliamentary commission report that requests the dissolution of the opposition Mouvement Démocratique Républicain (MDR), Democratic Republican Movement political party.

The Nigerian government should act immediately to address the political violence and intimidation that occurred during the recent elections, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch called on President Olusegun Obasanjo and other leaders of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to restrain their party members and supporters from committing further acts of violence, and urged opposition leaders to ensure their supporters do not react violently to the elections.

As Uganda prepared to withdraw some 2,000 troops from northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kampala warned that there would be "chaos" in the volatile Ituri region if a security vacuum was not quickly filled.

Education must be a priority for those organisations providing aid during and after conflicts and emergencies, says this publication from the International Institute for Educational Planning. Education, alongside the pressing concerns of food, water and housing, is essential if normal life is to be resumed and children are to be able to find jobs and establish lives. Equity and rights in education must also be considered so that girls and certain social groups are not excluded.

While many observers regard the tidal wave of police brutality, arbitrary arrests, torture, assassinations and generalised state-sponsored ultraviolence to be the primary focus for the tribulations engulfing Zimbabwe, it is the trial of Movement for Democratic Change President Morgan Tsvangirai that should provide the core analytical context for the crisis. "In other words, the crisis should be viewed and analysed through the lens of the trial, rather than vice versa for reasons that will become apparent in the paper that follows," says a recent memorandum submitted to the United Kingdom Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

Rebel leaders finally took over their portfolios in Ivory Coast's new power-sharing government on Wednesday to finish weeks of uncertainty and raise hopes of an end to nearly seven months of war. The aim of the coalition, set up under a French-brokered deal signed back in January, is to reunite the fractured West African country, disarm fighters and get to grips with the causes of a conflict that left thousands dead.

President Robert Mugabe's ruling party has told the United States to "go to hell" over its statement that Mugabe should step down and hand over power to a transitional government pending new elections.

Rebel leaders finally took over their portfolios in Ivory Coast's new power-sharing government on Wednesday to finish weeks of uncertainty and raise hopes of an end to nearly seven months of war. The aim of the coalition, set up under a French-brokered deal signed back in January, is to reunite the fractured West African country, disarm fighters and get to grips with the causes of a conflict that left thousands dead.

Although Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo described last weekend’s national assembly ballot as “rig free” and "very successful", his competitors are crying foul. Obasanjo’s leading presidential challenger, former military head of state and retired army general, Muhammadu Buhari, told a news conference on Wednesday: "What happened on Saturday April 12, in many parts of the country, fell short of the minimum requirements for a free, fair, credible and transparent election."

Nigerian opposition parties rejected the results of the 12 April parliamentary elections in statements issued on Tuesday as the ruling party appeared headed for a comfortable victory.

The littered, dusty street could hardly be described as teeming with activity, but unlike most streets in refugee camps in Western Tanzania, which are often characterised by a sense of hopelessness imposed by years of waiting to return home, the unnamed street between residential villages 1 and 5 of Lugufu 1 refugee camp was definitely alive. On its right hand side stood an impressive array of hairdressing establishments, with "Salon Las Vegas" and "Le Don de Dieu" selling themselves as a cut above the rest. Intermingled and sometimes hidden behind the saloons were artisans of various kinds. This seemed to be the area for carpenters and tailors.

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been the targets of constant harassment, intimidation and forced conscription by armed government militias at IDP camps in the western suburbs of the Liberian capital, Monrovia, displaced persons have said.

The London-based rights group Amnesty International (AI) has called for human rights to be at the forefront of discussions at the Somali peace conference now being held in Kenya. In a statement issued this week, AI said a new interim government was likely to emerge from the talks within few months if obstacles to an agreement could be overcome. For that reason, "strong international support for human rights reconstruction is now needed more than ever".