About 300 of the 2,061 Sierra Leonean refugees in Nigeria have opted for voluntary repatriation and are expected to go home soon, according to a senior Nigerian official. Nigeria's Federal Commissioner for Refugees, Professor Isaac Gabriel, told a news conference on 21 June that efforts were being made to help the refugees go back now that peace had returned to Sierra Leone.

International human rights groups have expressed concern over what they describe as a "sharp increase" in death sentences this year in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Following another round of ethno-religious violence which erupted last week in some parts of Plateau State, non-indigenes of the state comprising mostly Igbos and Yorubas have continued to leave the worse hit areas in spite of appeals of community leaders from those areas.

People in the Republic of Guinea are voting in parliamentary elections overshadowed by opposition calls for a boycott. Early estimates suggest turnout has been low.

Minority rights activists in Nigeria have called on the government to act urgently on a ruling by the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) that the state perpetrated massive abuses in the southeastern area of Ogoniland. The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) said in a statement sent to IRIN last Friday that it was seeking an audience with Justice Minister Kanu Agabi to obtain the prosecution of those who violated the rights of the 500,000-strong Ogoni and compensation for the victims as requested by ACHPR.

The opposition in Cameroon has said that Sunday's parliamentary and municipal elections were marred by fraud and should be annulled. The leader of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), John Fru Ndi, said many voters had not been given voting cards in time for the poll or had not been registered.

A move by Zimbabwe's frustrated Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to boycott parliament could spell disaster for the opposition party, analysts have warned. They said parliament was the last remaining platform for the MDC to safely challenge the government.

The Zambian government said Sunday it has put the armed forces on high alert following an alleged plot to overthrow it and to assassinate leaders. Home Affairs Minister Lackson Mapushi told journalists that the country' s police authorities have set up investigative wings to expedite a probe into the planned coup.

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso has expressed his satisfaction with the "peaceful" manner in which the local government election was conducted. "All in all the process has been peaceful. There have been some unfortunate incidents but no violence or disorder. So we have reason to be happy," Sassou Nguesso told journalists after he had voted in the Ouenze residential area north of Brazzaville.

Ethiopia and Eritrea are to meet at a key summit which should "set the pace" for the peace process, the United Nations said last Friday. The two countries, which fought a bitter two-year war, are due to meet in The Hague later this month where the crucial border ruling over their disputed boundary was first announced.

Nearly six months after the end of disarmament in Sierra Leone, at least half of the ex-combatants demobilised between September 1998 and January 2002 are yet to be reintegrated, officials in the capital, Freetown, told IRIN. The reintegration programmes were intended to prepare the 69,463 demobilised ex-combatants for re-absorption into their communities. However the process has been slow and ex-combatants were becoming "restless", the officials said last Friday.

Heavy fighting has flared up between rival militiamen from two clans in and around the Golol Valley, about 270 kilometers Northeast of the central town of Galkaio last Wednesday. This new round of fighting broke out just a day after an agreement was reached over conflict between the same two subclans in Gellinsor village, about 90 kilometers south of Galkaio town.

In a surprise move, the United States became the first major world power to formally recognize the government of Marc Ravalomanana in Madagascar. A letter to that effect from President George Bush was presented by American ambassador Wanda Nesbitt in Madagascar on Wednesday.

The renewed Sudan peace effort that began in Nairobi on 17 June may be the last chance for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) process to set meaningful negotiations in train, says a new International Crisis Group (ICG) report. The decisive issue in negotiations will be self-determination for the South, combined with reform of the central government. ICG urges diplomatic support for self-determination as the only way to get an agreement that has a chance to maintain Sudanese unity.

The tension was ratcheted up a notch in Zimbabwe this week as farmers vowed to ignore a government order banning them from farming as millions of people struggle with the daily grind of food shortages. Under the country’s Land Acquisition Act, nearly 3000 farmers roughly half of the farming population will be breaking the law from June 25 if they continue to farm their land.

Why are we so afraid of admitting our racism/s? Media coverage of racism often extends only to sensational killings or attacks, or the media defending itself against being racist. There is little space for open, honest debate on race, and when there is, where are the voices of ordinary people? And why are the voices so often male? Do women experience racism?

A Grootvlei Prison warder on Monday denied claims by inmates that he had made racist and sexist remarks about members of the Jali Commission into prison corruption.

The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned that escalating conflict in Liberia and increasing incursions by armed elements into Sierra Leone portend a "worrying trend".

When the three-year tenure of Nigeria's 774 local government councils lapsed at the end of May, new elected officials should have taken their place. However, no new councillors have been voted into office. In fact, it seems increasingly doubtful that local government polls will be held on 10 August as had been announced, and this has raised fears of a prolonged crisis in the country's third tier of government.

Sierra Leone's newly elected parliament sat for the first time on Tuesday, electing Justice Edward Cowan as speaker and Elizabeth Alpha Lavallie as deputy speaker. Both are from the ruling Sierra Leone's People's Party (SLPP). The session, held at Parliament Building, Tower Hill, in the capital, Freetown, was attended by 120 members out of 124, including opposition leaders.