Nestled among lush fields of bananas and cooing wood pigeons, Ntarama's church bears witness to a horrific past that Rwanda will confront afresh in the months and years to come. In the hope of emptying overflowing cells, the government on Tuesday announced the relaunch of a traditional form of justice, aimed at letting ordinary Rwandans decide the fate of those who frenziedly shed blood throughout the land.

The Gambian government has described as "untrue and unfounded" reports by Guinea-Bissau's president, Kumba Yala, that the Gambia was involved in two reported plots to overthrow the Bissau government.

Two global human rights watchdogs, Amnesty International (AI) and Survival have protested the arrest of four activists of the Mbororo ethnic group in Cameroon's North West province, and launched a campaign for their release. All the four suffered various types of torture, AI and Survival said, adding that the arrests were part of human rights abuses against the Mbororo Fulani of the North West Province.

Justice ministers and Supreme Court presidents from the Economic Community of Central African States have signed the "Yaounde Declaration", in which they pledge to promote human rights in their respective countries. Signed at the end of a two-day meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon, the declaration calls on each country to prioritise the promotion and respect for human rights.

Heavy fighting broke out Monday between rival militiamen in the very fertile Middle Shabelle region of southern Somalia. The fighting is between the supporters of the interior minister of the transitional national government Dahir Dayah and those of warlord Mohamed Dhere controlling Jowhar town, the capital city of Middle Shabelle region.

Obstruction of union work, intimidation, arrests and even deaths of strikers again characterised the very sombre picture of anti-union repression in Africa in 2001. Zimbabwe alone accounted for the three dead workers on the continent and for 223 of the 282 cases of injured trade unionists throughout the 37 African countries covered by the new ICFTU Survey.

Amnesty International has called on authorities in Equatorial Guinea to retry fairly within a reasonable period of time or release the nearly 70 people who received unfair and heavy sentences last Sunday. The accused were sentenced on the sole basis of statements extracted under torture during detention while they were deprived of communication.

The military continued to surround key government buildings on the main Comoros island of Grande Comore on Monday as a power struggle for control of key ministries continued.

At least 10,000 people have fled Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, following two days of fighting between government forces and Ninja militias that began on Friday, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordination Office in the country reported. On Friday, it said, Brazzaville endured two sustained military attacks in the northeastern outskirts of the town. The first was against the military based near the international airport at Maya Maya, and the second targeted a police school and a station of the gendarmerie in the neighbourhood of Moukondo.

Riot police used teargas and fired shots in the air on Sunday to halt a Zimbabwe opposition rally held to mark South Africa's youth day, arresting more than 30 activists and a freelance television journalist. A freelance journalist at the scene said police armed with batons, guns and teargas attacked the rally of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 20 minutes after it had begun.

The sustained offensive by the Ugandan army against the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in southern Sudan, code-named Operation Iron Fist, is forcing its leader, Joseph Kony, to release and allow his noncombatant captives to return to northern Uganda, according to a senior army official.

Are South African intelligence services using a controversial French businessman in their Congo peace bid? The answer to a recent parliamentary question suggests they may be. The man, Jean-Yves Ollivier, has long been regarded as a frontman for French intelligence and business interests in Africa -- allegedly also serving as a key sanctions buster for apartheid South Africa.

A military team from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Wednesday met Liberian President Charles Taylor to discuss plans for peace talks to stop the ongoing civil war, a diplomatic source told IRIN.

The government has placed a crack army battalion and riot police units on high alert in Harare and directed them to crush any opposition mass action meant to force a fresh presidential election, security officials said this week. They said the government's Joint Operation Command (JOC), a think-tank of top military and security officials, had mapped out a broad security plan to stamp down on the mass action that is being planned by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which accuses President Robert Mugabe of stealing the March vote.

Viewed in contrast to many of its neighbors, Kenya is often seen as a bastion of stability. The country has several strengths that militate against the outbreak of mass violence, but it also exhibits many of the factors that have been markers of civil strife elsewhere in Africa: strong ethnic divisions, polarized political issues, political manipulation, rampant violence, socio-economic disparities and a lack of economic opportunity, and endemic corruption. When combined with the increased availability of firearms, this dangerous mix becomes all the more volatile. The easy availability of such weapons within the country contributes to the growing culture of violence that is taking root inside Kenya. In addition to rising crime and generalized insecurity in recent years, the country has experienced repeated flashes of politically inspired ethnic violence, especially during election periods. Those instigating this deadly violence have not been held to account. This continuing pattern of violence and impunity, together with the spread of small arms, threatens Kenyan society and greatly endangers human rights.

From January through June 1999, 45,000 Congolese refugees arrived in Lugufu camp in western Tanzania, surpassing the maximum camp capacity by 15,000 persons. During this 6-month period of rapid population influx, both the crude and under age 5 years mortality rates dramatically increased. A retrospective mortality survey in conjunction with a review of key programmatic indicators to identify risk factors for mortality was conducted in July and August 1999. This investigation revealed that all refugees, not solely the new arrivals, were at increased risk of dying. The population increase exceeded the camp's capacity to meet the basic needs of the refugees, resulting in a reduction in access to resources and services for the entire population.

The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Asma Jahangir, will go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 16 to 22 June to gather information concerning extra-judicial killings alleged to have occurred in the city of Kisangani on 14 May 2002 and immediately thereafter.

In a landmark decision, the Namibian Supreme Court has ruled that 128 people accused of high treason, murder and a number of other crimes, must be provided with legal aid by the government. The Namibian government has been opposed to spending taxpayers' money on funding the defence of the treason trialists, arrested for alleged secessionist activities in Caprivi.

Forty thousand people - mainly children - in Zimbabwe's western Binga district will not receive their food aid after a food distribution programme run by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace was closed by police on Wednesday. Father Tom McQuillen told IRIN that as trucks were being loaded with food in the morning, war veterans arrived and put a chain and a padlock around the gate of the church grounds and wouldn't let them leave.

Madagascan politician Marc Ravalomanana said on Tuesday he was considering a plan to end his power struggle with the Indian Ocean island's veteran ruler despite the failure of weekend peace talks. Ravalomanana held face-to-face discussions on Sunday with rival presidential claimant Didier Ratsiraka in Dakar, where five African presidents had hoped to broker an end to the crisis dividing the giant island.