Southern Sudanese hopes of attaining their own independent state have suffered two setbacks within a matter of days. In his report on Sudan, U.S. special envoy John Danforth dismisses the option of secession, enshrined in the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Declaration of Principles. These seven brief proposals, agreed in 1994, have formed the basis of subsequent peace negotiations aimed at ending Sudan's decades-old civil war. Instead, Danforth argues that it is more ''feasible'' and ''preferable'' for Sudan to remain one country, with southern Sudanese living under a government that respects their religion and culture. Samson Kwaje, spokesperson for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), says he is unhappy with Danforth's conclusions.

All of Zimbabwe's rain-fed crops have failed and the country only has a quarter of the food it will need for the next 12 months. "I have never seen the country so dry and it is supposed to be end of the rainy season. I can't imagine what it will look like after the traditional dry season," UN Development Programme (UNDP) resident co-ordinator for Zimbabwe Victor Angelo told IRIN.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (Human Rights Forum) claims its members are under a mounting threat from the authorities, which perceive them as anti-government. Human Rights Forum co-coordinator Tor-Hugne Olsen told IRIN that "we fear at the moment that while the main targets in the past have been members or alleged/perceived supporters of [opposition Movement for Democratic Change] MDC [now the targets] are other parts of civil society".

West African countries are considering creating a peacekeeping force under the auspices of their economic community (ECOWAS) to intervene in Liberia if negotiations between the government and rebels fail, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said on Friday.

Post-war Angola must invest heavily in its children if it wants to consolidate and preserve its new-found peace, a senior UN official said in Luanda.

The Inter-Congolese dialogue held at Sun City in South Africa, which lasted more than seven weeks, finally produced a partial agreement on a transition government for the Democratic Republic of Congo on 19 April. After years of war, the accord reached between President Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba of the MLC (Mouvement pour la libiration du Congo) marks an important new political alignment. However ICG's Africa program Co-Director Fabienne Hara said: "Despite the agreement, the negotiations are far from complete and the future of the Democratic Republic of Congo remains uncertain. The talks left the RCD (Rassemblement congolais pour la Dimocratie) and its military ally Rwanda isolated, threatening renewed hostilities and even partition. Strong international leadership will be essential to reach an all-inclusive agreement".

Leader of the National Assembly Harry Thomson has said nobody in the United Democratic Front [ UDF] can force the party's MPs to support a bid to change the Constitution to allow an incumbent President to run for more than two term. He described UDF Regional Governor John Kapito statement that the party would fire MPs who did not support the amendment in Parliament as "emotional."
Thomson, who also noted that MPs have a right to speak their mind, was speaking in an interview. "I think it [Kapito's ] was an emotional statement. MPs will have to do their own soul searching and make their own decisions. You can say anything but you can't force everyone to think the same way," said Thomson.

RADIX has just begun to develop a page devoted to the current food emergency in southern Africa. We would welcome any materials (brief comments, reports on work-in-progress, suggestions of web links, electronic reprints of good background essays, etc.) from anyone and everyone. We are particularly interested, from both scholarly and humanitarian points of view, in the differences between 1991 and 2002. The earlier event amounts to a 'success story' in drought mitigation and prevention of famine. A preliminary analysis suggests three sets of differences:
Stresses: more numerous and severe in their interactions this time (HIV-AIDS, cholera, flood followed by drought, standing crops damaged by hungry mega fauna/ stolen by hungry thieves, mismanagement of stored food reserves, deterioration of democratic governance, level of corruption) Regional cooperation: possibly less vigorous SADC level activity (could this be because of tensions due to members taking different sides in the conflict in Congo?)
International response: slower (?) (Are there signs of 'compassion fatigue'? or distraction by Afghanistan and the Middle East? or reluctance to provide aid to regimes seen as corrupt?).
Among the countries currently included in WFP bulletins on the food emergency (Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Mozambique), there are very great differences in terms of history, political economy, political ecology, regime stability and credibility. Nevertheless, the composite factors give rise to concern that this time around more lives could be lost (400% rise in the price of maize in Malawi in the face of which many of the rural poor who have already sold off all assets simply starve). Another question is why Botswana appears to be escaping the current crisis. We are also particularly interested in what happened to the large number on NGO initiatives in this region in the early 1990s that were designed to build local capacity to cope with drought and other hazards. Have some been successful? Is the current crisis simply too large for these to provide much protection or resilience? Are women faring much better this time around? (Megan Vaughan's book on the 1949-50 famine in Malawi -- then Nyasaland -- provides an excellent baseline study of gender and famine: The Story of an African Famine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). We invite comments in this discussion list and also contributions of documents for posting on the RADIX web site addresses to [email protected] or [email protected].

FACILITATORS of talks between Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF and the opposition MDC are now consulting South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo in a desperate bid to try to save the negotiations from collapse, it was established Wednesday.

"Free and fair and free of fear and violence," appears to be the consensus on the general elections in Sierra Leone, after Tuesday's enthusiastic voting for a new president, a new parliament and peace after more than ten years of civil war. Sierra Leoneans are congratulating themselves, the United Nations, the British and all those who helped them reach the day when they were able to put a bitter conflict behind them and take the country forward.

The world's richest countries must help prevent the continuing use of rape by HIV-infected militia as a weapon of war in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), according to a new report from British-based charity Christian Aid.

Analysts and NGOs on Monday warned of a wider and more vicious confrontation in Madagascar if no political solution is found soon. Six people were killed and many others injured over the weekend in a fresh outbreak of violence in the north-western town of Mahajanga. Local news reports said the civil strife erupted after supporters of ex-president Didier Ratsiraka attacked members of ethnic groups they accused of favouring new president Marc Ravalomanana.

The BBC is reporting that a man has been condemned to death by stoning by an Islamic (or Sharia) court in northern Nigeria. He was convicted of rape in the northern State of Jigawa. This comes on the heels of the cases of two women who were recently sentenced to death by stoning for adultery but had their sentences reduced largely due to outcry from the international community.

The inaugural meeting of a new United Nations body, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues -- which will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Monday, 13 May, in Conference Room 2 -- will bring together indigenous leaders and civil society from all parts of the world. This is the first time that indigenous voices will be heard at such a high level by the world Organization. The new Forum represents an historic advance in indigenous peoples' efforts to reach the ear of the international community and make their needs and concerns known. While they have made steady progress at the United Nations -- from their first approach to the League of Nations, to the Working Group on Indigenous Populations and the subsequent establishment of the International Decade -- the creation of the Forum as a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council is a breakthrough achievement.

Fighting between government forces - supported by
Angolan troops - and Ninja militias allied to the Rev Frederic Bitsangou
(alias Ntoumi) in the Pool region of the Republic of Congo (ROC) is now well
into its second month. The total number of persons displaced by the conflict
there remains unknown, but is "at least 22,000 and probably more", according
to humanitarian sources in the country.

The spokesman for rebel group Rassemblement
congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), Kin Kiey Mulumba, told IRIN on
Monday that "no real progress" had been made during talks held among
opposition groups and the RCD late last week in Cape Town, South Africa. The
informal talks had been held, "to see what can be done to push forward the
peace process", following the end of the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD).

The Kenyan authorities have asked the office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to relocate about
10,000 Somali refugees who have been living in the northeastern Kenyan
border town of Mandera, the Nairobi-based Sunday Standard reported on 12
May. The Mandera district commissioner, Jamleck Baruga, was quoted by the
paper as saying he had met UNHCR officials, who told him they would comply.

The Bush administration's nullification of the United States signature to the 1998 Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC) has drawn heavy fire from major U.S. human rights, church, and peace groups as a potentially disastrous precedent certain to alienate Washington's closest allies.

Small arms proliferation is threatening lives of pastoral people in Africa, a report just released warned. The report on: "Pastoralism and Conflict in the Horn of Africa", jointly compiled by the University of Bradford, UK, Safe World, UK and Africa Peace Forum, Nairobi, Kenya pointed out that cattle rustling in the Horn of Africa has increased in which many are killed as a result of the proliferation.

Panic gripped Liberia's capital, Monrovia, this week as the sound of approaching gunfire sparked fears that fighting between rebels and President Charles Taylor's forces was drawing near.