The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, has expressed "grave concern" over the apparent forced repatriation, since 31 August, of some 1,500 Congolese refugees from Rwanda to North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Unrelenting attacks by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have created a "horrendous" humanitarian situation and stretched local resources in northern Uganda beyond their limits, according to a UN report.

Human rights bodies have condemned the alleged "silencing of dissent" and "disregard for the rule of law" in Zimbabwe. Amnesty International said the Zimbabwean authorities were "intensifying harassment of human rights organisations, the independent media and the judiciary", ahead of local council elections later this month.

Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh has announced the introduction of multiparty politics to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the country's constitution on 4 September.

Persistent wrangling between the executive and legislative arms of government in Nigeria took a critical turn when the House of Representatives last month gave President Olusegun Obasanjo a fortnight to resign or face impeachment. The two weeks have since passed, with Obasanjo defying the motion of the lower chamber of parliament, ridiculing it as "a joke taken too far".

The Kenyan president has sacked a junior minister and told those Kanu party members who oppose his choice of successor to quit the party. On Monday, the official presidential press service announced that deputy Foreign Minister Peter Odoyo had been relieved of his duties with immediate effect.

This book looks at education as a vehicle for rebuilding refugee children's lives, through social interaction and gaining knowledge and skills for their future lives. It reviews the state of the art, identifies key issues and best practices, and aims to assist in updating UNHCR guidelines for assistance to refugee education in developing countries. The five chapters in this book address different issues within the context of education for refugees.

The presidents of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a peace accord aimed at ending three years of hostility. The signing took place last Friday in Angola, whose president Jose Eduardo dos Santos has taken on the role of peace broker in the Congo conflict.

The recent decision issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that there is “insufficient evidence” to proceed with the prosecution of Col. Léonidas Rusatira at this stage, demands further explanation, says the organisation African Rights. Col. Rusatira was indicted by the ICTR on five counts of genocide and crimes against humanity and arrested in Belgium on 15 May 2002.

The Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Dr. Ghanim Alnajjar, has called on local leaders, civil society organizations, and the international community to work together to address serious human rights problems throughout Somalia, and advocated for the establishment of national and regional Independent Human Rights Commissions.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, has launched a major military offensive in southern Sudan, ordering his army to act without restraint. Peace talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos collapsed on Monday after the rebels seized a key garrison town.

In Peace (Or Pieces)

Comrade, since you say
We can't eat democracy with
All those sour choices
Pinstriped lies
And decorated fools

Since you say
Only war will do

Tell me then -
How else can we dream in peace?
How else?
Can we dream?
In Peace?

© Akwasi Aidoo
Pokuase, 21 August 2002

Human Rights Watch has condemned the imposition of a death by stoning sentence on a man in the northern state of Jigawa in Nigeria. Earlier this month, an appellate Sharia court in northern Nigeria upheld a stoning sentence against a 30-year old woman for having sex outside marriage.

Swaziland's High Court has acquitted the leader of a banned opposition political party on charges of sedition. Mario Masuku, leader of the Peoples United Democratic Party (Pudemo), was arrested almost two years ago after allegedly calling for the overthrow of King Mswati III at public gatherings in Mbabane and Manzini.

The United States government has said it wants to see President Robert Mugabe removed from power and that it is working with the Zimbabwean opposition to bring about a change of administration.

In yet another row over racism in the Democratic Alliance (DA), black members of the party in Gauteng North this week complained bitterly about a Gauteng legislature caucus decision instructing them to circulate separate pamphlets for "white supporters".

For more than a decade, the West African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone have been roiled by civil conflicts that have caused millions to flee their homes and left up to 200,000 dead. Even as the fighting has systematically destroyed the two countries’ economies, infrastructures, and social institutions, the interlinked conflicts have spilled across borders, drawing in neighboring Guinea and raising tensions in Cote d’Ivoire.

More than 20,000 Sudanese refugees who fled a rebel attack in northern Uganda could be relocated to a permanent new camp in western Uganda as soon as next week as the UN refugee agency steps up efforts to move them to safety.

Recent fighting between Sudanese government troops and forces of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in the oil rich regions of southern Sudan, which has led to massive displacement, has further undermined the already precarious food security situation and increased rates of malnutrition in the area.

The humanitarian situation in the region of Ituri, in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) "remains worrying", the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the DRC reported on Tuesday, with an estimated 10,000 families having been displaced in the city of Bunia due to fighting in July and in the past couple of weeks.