For the next two weeks from 22 July - 8 August the feature article on the Development Gateway's Population and Reproductive Health Portal will be entitled "Working Together to Improve Refugee Reproductive Health". The article features the programmes and activities of the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium, founded in 1995 to pool expertise and increase commitment and funding for reproductive health programmes for displaced populations globally.

The repatriation of Sierra Leonean refugees from Liberia by sea - currently the only safe way to move them - started last Friday and is expected to continue with a weekly load of 600 persons, the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees reports. Some 4,500 refugees had registered to return home, UNHCR said.

With the number of civilians in flight from Liberia's war surging at 200,000, refugees reaching safety in neighboring Guinea speak of worsening atrocities by President Charles Taylor's forces -- looting, raping, burning and killing trapped villagers.

The U.N. Security Council tightened its 10-year-old arms embargo on Somalia on Monday, saying the flow of weapons was undermining efforts to stabilize the deeply splintered northeastern African nation.

Humanitarian agencies have expressed concern at the plight of Somali refugees camped in the northeastern Kenyan town of Mandera who, they say, were forcibly returned by police to Somalia; and called on the government and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to provide better protection.

Homesick Angolan refugees are packing up their meagre belongings, throwing caution to the wind, and trekking back to battle-scarred homesteads many of them have not seen in decades.

A significant increase in donor support was needed to help displaced people return to their homes and productive lives - a critical component in consolidating peace, Kenzo Oshima, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs said.

European Union foreign ministers have agreed to extend sanctions on the leadership of Zimbabwe to include an extra 52 people.

Classified documents obtained by Stephen Weissman, the former staff director of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Africa, confirm the role that a CIA covert action program played in bringing down Congo's only democratically elected government. The documents confirm widespread suspicion that the Eisenhower administration was involved in the overthrow and execution of nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba in 1960-61. Dr. Weissman argues that the four-decade old events have implications for the war-ravaged Congo of today.

Cameroon's Supreme Court has ordered fresh legislative elections in nine constituencies because of irregularities committed during polls held on 30 June.

At least 500 people are reported to have died of hunger and disease since April in demobilisation camps set up for former rebels and their families.

Malawi's congested 23 prisons, home to about 8 000 convicts but with a capacity of 4 500, are "hell on earth", a high court judge said in a newspaper interview published last Saturday.

Liberian government forces committed scores of war crimes and other serious abuses against civilians between April and June 2002 in the northwest of Liberia, according to Human Rights Watch, who have called for decisive action to end the bloodshed in the country.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Agricultural, Plantation and Allied Workers Union (Saapawu) have expressed concern about the “marginalisation and gross violation” of the rights of farm workers, labour tenants and other similar farm dwellers.

Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade has broken ranks with the African Union on the issue of Madagascar by formally recognising Marc Ravalomanana as president of the island state.

Haile Mariam Dessalegn is the president of the Southern Nations and Nationalities People's Region (SNNPR). The region has recently seen two serious clashes between security forces and protesters, in Tepi in March and Awasa in May, leaving an estimated 145 people dead. Here the president responds to calls by the European Union (EU) for a public inquiry and tells IRIN what action is being taken.

The Sudanese Government and the country's rebels have been urged to grasp the opportunity offered by a recent breakthrough in negotiations and end their 19-year conflict.

Calm returned to Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, last Friday after clashes between rioting youths and Nigerian businessmen in the city centre on the previous day, sources told IRIN.

Rwandan backed rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have stepped up a crackdown on fellow ethnic Tutsis led by a dissident commander, rebels and aid workers said on Thursday.

Peace talks between the transitional government in Burundi and the country's two main Hutu rebel groups have been delayed as the Forces pour la defence de la democratie (FDD) were not ready for negotiations, a Burundian official told IRIN last Thursday.