Two leading activist groups in Nigeria's volatile Niger Delta oil region have accused President Olusegun Obasanjo's government of aggressively developing offshore oilfields in order to abdicate its responsibilities to the region's impoverished people.

Peri-urban areas in Southern and East Africa are characterised by: rapid change and spiraling socio-economic polarisation; divergent claims, competing interests and identities; and conflicts, disputes and tensions concerning the access, control and use of land resources. Research by South Bank University and African partners in the Urban and Peri-Urban Research Network (Peri-NET), shows that land resource based conflicts are critically important in peri-urban transformations – whether in Kampala, Lusaka, Nairobi, Durban or Johannesburg.

NO fewer than 18 persons have been killed in a violent clash between members of two rival secret cults in the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka. People believed to be secret cult members stormed the university in three vehicles including a Mercedes Benz car and started shooting sporadically at students within the Faculty of Engineering complex.

Emerging from three decades of civil war, Angola is up against an HIV/AIDS crisis largely exacerbated by the conflict, health experts and aids agencies point out. "The pandemic is spreading fast, and in some cases threatens whole communities in all regions of Angola," says Haturo Silva, emergency and humanitarian director of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Concerns about lack of financial transparency are resurfacing in Nigeria. The senate yesterday voted to debate in secret allegations that the government mismanaged finances, including almost $100m (ý68.4m) of stolen money recovered from the family of General Sani Abacha, the late dictator.

The government of Uganda and the rebel Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF-II) signed a formal ceasefire agreement in Kuru sub-county, Yumbe District, northwestern Uganda on Saturday, with the aim of paving the way for political dialogue in the West Nile region.

The government of Sudan has agreed to an extension of the local ceasefire agreement in the Nuba Mountains region of south-central Sudan from Thursday, and the rebel SPLM/A is set to follow suit, but there are still problems with its scope and implementation.

Liberian rebels Tuesday raided a town close to the country's capital Monrovia and killed some civilians, according to reports reaching here. The reports said the fighting cropped up in the market town of Gba, some 40 kilometers northwest of the capital, when rebel fighters from Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) encountered the government troops there.

Madagascar's Marc Ravalomanana formed a new government on Tuesday but excluded allies of his arch rival only days after saying he planned a national unity administration. There was no immediate explanation for the apparent about-turn and Ravalomanana's officials gave reporters in the capital Antananarivo the new list of ministers without comment.

Talks aimed at finding a lasting solution to the 19-year conflict between the Sudan government and rebels opened in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday with both parties expressing commitment to a ceasefire agreement. The talks are being held under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional body which groups Kenya, Uganda, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.

Visit http://www.vmcaa.nl/genocide for a virtual exhibition of artwork by the Ghanian sculptor Kofi Setordji. Accra based Setordji worked two and half years on this work of art, which consists of about 300 pieces. Setordji made a travelling monument from wood, metal, clay, waste materials and paint, that consists of a number of sculpture groups and objects. The artwork, that weighs more than a ton, depicts the victims, refugees, politicians, judges and eyewitnesses. The directness of the imagery speaks to the conscience of the viewer. Rows of numbered terracotta faces painfully depict the anonymity of the thousands of victims: the monument was created in memory of the more than 800,000 direct and indirect victims.

Nelson Mandela has met a controversial South African poet and song writer whose latest song has been branded "racism and hate speech". After meeting the former president, Mbongeni Ngema said the debate he had hoped to raise had gone the wrong way and he would not object if the song was banned from sale.

Kenya's political opposition has reacted furiously to a proposal by the country's ruling party to extend the term of President Daniel arap Moi and the current parliament by up a year. Opposition leaders threatened to call for mass protests if the government party tried to push through the change.

A behind the scenes deal between senators has derailed an opposition attempt to force President Olusegun Obasanjo to give details of the whereabouts of millions of dollars of public funds.

More than 85,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been resettled in their home villages in Nigeria's central region in the past two months, Red Cross officials said on Tuesday. The IDPs, mostly of the Tiv ethnic group, had fled ethnic and communal clashes that wracked the states of Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba and Benue between June and November 2001.

Angola's peace process has spurred preparations for the eventual return of 470,000 Angolan refugees sheltering in neighbouring countries. The UN refugee agency's (UNHCR) Assistant High Commissioner Kamel Morjane, toured Angola and Zambia last week to assess the conditions for the repatriation of people forced from their homes by close to three decades of civil war.

The worldwide campaign for the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana, received a publicity boost on the sidelines of an international diamond conference in Canada on Monday. Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG) demonstrated outside the World Diamond Conference because they believe the real reason the Basarwa are being removed is because of the government's mining interest in the reserve.

Thousands of Somali refugees will be moved from camps in north eastern Kenya to Kakuma, near the Sudanese border. The movement of 11,860 refugees from Ifo, Dagahley and Hagardera camps on the border with Somalia will be the largest movement of refugees inside Kenya in a decade. The camps are run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The UN agency for refugees, UNHCR, has planned a series of activities in Sierra Leone to celebrate this year's world refugee day, the agency reported in a statement. The activities are scheduled for 20-27 June, it said.

Refugees International (RI) is sending a mission to the United Nations mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) to gain an understanding of why it "succeeded and analyze the implications of its success for other missions", RI reported on Monday. "RI embarked on this mission because of its concern about the refugee outflow from Liberia and the lack of stability in the region. These countries are most affected by the refugee outflow. Liberia was not chosen because of the security situation and difficulties in access," an official of RI in Washington told IRIN.