In the debate over justice and reconciliation after the Rwandan genocide, the question has been raised of how best to restore health to a society smashed by devastating violence. One prescription — substituting therapy for justice — ventures into dangerous moral territory.

Thousands of Angolans continue to spontaneously return to their homeland following the end of that country's decades-long civil war, said the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Repression in Swaziland is being ignored by the international community because of a misguided perception that its people live in traditional peace and harmony, an opposition activist says. "We have not resorted to violence and it would be our choice not to do so," Ignatius Dlamini, the secretary general of the banned Peoples United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), told a seminar at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.

One million of Eritrea’s 3.7 million total population were at risk from drought-associated diseases and malnutrition due to a failure of seasonal rains aggravated by the aftermath of the recent war with Ethiopia, the UN and the Eritrean government have warned.

A total of 225 Eritreans left Ethiopia Tuesday for home under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said the ICRC in a press release.

The world woke up to global warming at the 1992 Rio Earth summit, but 10 years on, what some consider the planet's biggest environmental danger has fallen off the agenda of a major follow-up conference. Next month's summit of world leaders in Johannesburg will focus on poverty, not pollution — a worry for some environmentalists who say the poor will suffer first if climate change is not stopped.

About 66,000 people are currently displaced in the Pool region, just northwest of Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, since fighting broke out in late March, the UN country team reported on Monday.

Without rapid progress towards achieving a comprehensive power-sharing agreement that includes Congolese civil society, the climate of mistrust and uncertainty prevailing in the DRC may undercut the political momentum generated by the peace deal Tuesday between the DRC and Rwanda, an NGO grouping has warned.

AN estimated 2,000 DR Congolese refugees have fled Bundibugyo district following ethnic clashes between Hema and Lendu in Ituri region, reports The New Vision newspaper.

Whether it is army officers smuggling gems, government officials demanding multi-million-pound bribes for oil contracts or teachers wanting money for exam certificates, millions of pounds are being misappropriated every week. And with more than one million of its 11 million population in need of food aid after the end of decades of civil war, corruption in Angola means yet more human suffering.

A conference on the United Nations and the protection of human rights in post-conflict situations will be held at the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham in the UK on 12 and 13 September. The conference will consider the UN and human rights protection in post-conflict situations. As the largest provider, as well as the organisation that, to a large degree, has the responsibility for setting the standards in this area, a critical evaluation of the UN's involvement should be a significant contribution to the development of best practice in this area.

Soldiers escorting President Olusegun Obasanjo fired into a crowd of protesters Monday in the northern city of Kano. A number of people were wounded and some were feared killed, witnesses said.

Dotted around the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, there are at least 14 camps for internally displaced people (IDPs). They house more than 17,000 people, and disease is rife.Now, however, the government wants them to move on. Already the police and local authorities have cleared three camps.

Uhuru Kenyatta, who appears to be President Daniel arap Moi's chosen heir, now has three cabinet ministers racing with him to be the ruling party's presidential candidate. Raila Odinga, Katana Ngala and Musalia Mudavadi have said they will fight Mr Kenyatta, son of Kenya's first president, for the Kenya African National Union (Kanu) nomination ahead of the elections due later this year.

Peace efforts in Africa suddenly seem to be making progress, with major breakthroughs toward ending fighting in Congo, Sudan and Burundi in less than week.

Zimbabwe's Minister of Home Affairs John Nkomo has dismissed the impact of expanded European Union (EU) sanctions on the country's ruling elite, despite five government officials being denied entry to Europe last weekend.

At least 15 people died when an armed group launched an attack on policemen deployed to trouble spots in Nigeria's central Plateau State, police sources said last Saturday.

As Africa emerges from decades of authoritarian rule, what role should donors play in fostering democracy? Are democratisation programmes working? Are they based on an analysis of how civil society functions in Africa or are donors creating a new elite to promote economic liberalisation and limited forms of procedural democracy?

The House of Representatives has written to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to furnish it with names of commercial banks in the country involved in financial crimes.

The Anti-Corruption Police Unit has established a secretariat to oversee training of personnel in the fight against the vice.