A failure to enforce a 10-year-old U.N. arms embargo on Somalia is undermining regional efforts to bring a measure of stability to the deeply divided African nation, U.N. experts said last Thursday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week concluded a two-day visit to Khartoum and expressed optimism over the peace process, although concerns remain over repeated denials of humanitarian access by the Sudanese government and an escalation of the conflict in several areas of south Sudan.

The UN has expressed concern at the deterioration security situation in Burundi’s east and southeastern provinces. Tensions flared on 6 July when an estimated 1,500 militia attacked the eastern province of Ruyigi, displacing up to 5 000 people.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has agreed to talks with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), but stressed his government will continue to pursue the group. This comes amidst worries over the governments continued military action and security concerns from refugees in northern Uganda, reports IRIN.

The rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) says it will consider discussing a ceasefire with the government of President Charles Taylor, but warns of an intensification of its military campaign if its offer is refused.

Burundi's defence minister has accused neighbouring Tanzania of aiding anti-government rebels in their offensive. The claims came as Burundi's Tutsi-led army said it had killed 45 ethnic Hutu rebels in the south of the country this week.

Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) held talks late on Tuesday in Durban, South Africa, on issues concerning the DRC conflict, news agencies reported. Central to the discussions - brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki - was the issue of a security zone to be created along the border between Rwanda and the DRC to prevent incursions of Hutu rebels from the DRC into Rwanda.

Scores of people have died in fighting between the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML) and a militia representing the Hema people, in the northeastern town of Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). "We have counted 40 dead among the soldiers, and we do not know how many casualties there are on the other side," Ernest Uringi Padolo, a RCD-ML official, said from Bunia.

Three workers were knocked down by a car when they were leaving a march, even though they were walking on the pavement. Other workers were around and said that an unidentified white man drove directly at them. One worker has been killed and the other two are in hospital. The driver tried to speed off but the other workers caught his number plate.

Liberian government troops on Tuesday recaptured the town of Tubmanburg, northwest of the capital, Monrovia, from rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), the government has reported.

The new government of Sierra Leone must act decisively to address the issues that gave rise to the bloody decade-long war, Human Rights Watch says in a new briefing paper. President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who will preside over the formal opening of a newly-elected parliament, must set as top priorities steps to establish the rule of law and seek accountability for past abuses. Failure to do so will undermine efforts to establish lasting peace and stability.

Refugees in Ethiopia are to benefit from a US $1.7 million donation from the US government to help make up food shortages.

Burundian President Pierre Buyoya said Wednesday his government will hold peace talks with Hutu rebels in Tanzania next week, a report reaching here said. Briefing journalists upon his return from Durban, Buyoya said he met on the sidelines of the African Union summit with South African Vice President Jacob Zuma and Gabon's President Omar Bongo,as well as the head of the regional initiative for Burundi, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni.

The United States Department of Justice is reported to have alerted AES Corporation about the US$10,000 bribe a contractor in the Bujagali dam construction consortium gave a Ugandan official in 1999. “When the US Department of Justice tipped AES about the bribe, the company immediately instituted a probe into the allegations,” said a source.

Working with the representative in Lagos and other Ford Foundation staff, the Program Officer will be responsible for the Foundation's West Africa programming on human rights issues in the region.

A split has emerged within the ruling Kanu party in Kenya over the announcement by some party members that the son of Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, should be the party's presidential candidate at the next election.

About 500,000 people have been displaced in Afar and are migrating to neighboring regions as an imminent drought is just around the corner due to the failure of rains for the past two years.

An increasing number of Burundian refugees in camps in western Tanzania are "dropping out" of the repatriation process, despite having registered for it with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

In response to an outflow of refugees from Liberia into neighbouring countries, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) asked donors on Friday for US $10.4 million to fund its emergency relief operations in the region. The bid for funds "comes amid increasing concern over the condition of tens of thousands of displaced Liberians and Sierra Leonean refugees caught up in the conflict", UNHCR spokesman Rod Redmond said in Geneva. "It also follows the arrival of more than 76,000 fresh Liberian refugees in neighbouring countries since the beginning of this year - an exodus continuing."

"This is my motherland," said Pedro Mtondo, 27. "When I went to Zambia I went because of the war and now that I see my country is okay I want to come back - so I can do something so they can have a better life here." Between 8,000 and 10,000 former refugees are believed to have returned to Angola since the signing of a ceasefire between the Angolan government and the UNITA rebels on 4 April.