Members of the United Nations and the Belgian government should be held to account for the events that led to the massacre of thousands of unarmed civilians in one of the worst atrocities of the Rwandan genocide in the first half of the 1990s, according to a prominent rights group which campaigns on behalf of abuse victims in Africa.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday ruled out an extension of peace talks designed to end a four-year civil war, saying a deal it had reached with one rebel group was final. "The Inter-Congolese Dialogue has run its term and is consequently finished," Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu told private television channel Antenne A. "The facilitators should now acknowledge the agreement that was signed in Sun City," he said.

The latest edition of the London-based newsletter Africa Confidential says there are "growing business ties between Tanzania's and Zimbabwe's elites, particularly over the supply of arms, military logistics and the smuggling of Congolese diamonds and other precious stones.

Political violence in Zimbabwe has worsened since President Robert Mugabe's election victory last month, compounding the plight of people grappling with food shortages, a rights group said on Monday. "It is almost two months since the elections took place in Zimbabwe and there is a worsening situation of intimidation, forced displacement, violence and systematic torture," the Amani Trust said in a statement.

Reaffirming its previous resolutions on the question of Western Sahara and its commitment to assist the parties to achieve a just, lasting and mutually acceptable solution, the Security Council decided to consider actively the options contained in my report of 19 February 2002 (S/2002/178). The present report covers developments since that date.

The risk of conflict developing or escalating in
the West African countries of The Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone exists, but in varying levels, according to an April 2002 assessment by the Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP) project.

Madagascar's High Constitutional Court has ruled that challenger Marc Ravalomanana won the presidency in December's election. The court said Monday that its recount showed Ravalomanana's KMMR party gained 51.46% of total ballots cast against 35.9% for Ratsiraka's Arema party. Four other candidates shared the remainder of the votes.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has urged President Robert Mugabe to quickly end what he said was state-sponsored violence targeting his MDC supporters, warning that failure to do so will derail landmark inter-party talks aimed at resolving Zimbabwe’s deepening political and economic crisis.

One of Liberia’s most prominent human rights lawyers, Tiawan Gongloe, has been brutalized in police custody and is hospitalized as a result, Human Rights Watch has said. Police guards remain near his hospital bed, and the police director has announced that Mr. Gongloe remains in police custody without charge pending an investigation.

Perhaps the most visible sign that peace has come to Angola are the trucks that have again begun winding between the country's far-flung towns and cities, along roads rarely passable during 27 years of civil war. As Angola begins the slow process of rebuilding, one crucial test of the new peace will be whether the government is able to control these remote spaces, home to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the rebel group that has been fighting for control of Angola since 1975. The price of failure, diplomats, and analysts say, is that Angola could become a "failed state," like Somalia, where trucks can no longer pass, and the rule of law exists only in theory.

he Rwandan-backed rebel Rassemblement congolais
pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has formed an alliance with five other
political parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to fight
attempts by President Joseph Kabila and the Mouvement pour la liberation du
Congo (MLC) to form a new government, following an agreement made between
them at the end of the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD) last week.

The Mozambican army hopes to destroy the more than 30,000 landmines it still has in stock by next year, the National Institute for Demining (IND) said on Friday. A batch of 2,500 of the killer devices was destroyed on 19 April and
immediate plans are to destroy another 10,000 in the central and southern
regions, IND national director Artur Verissimo said.

Sudan announced a "new era" in relations with Ethiopia on Thursday and said it wanted to improve ties with all its neighbours. Speaking at the end of a four-day official visit to Ethiopia, Sudanese First Vice President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha said that closer relations would be "conducive" to all countries in the Horn of Africa. He said both countries had reached a "common understanding" on many issues.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a leading
conflict prevention body, has reported that Liberia is the main cause of
instability among the Mano River Union countries of West Africa; and
recommended that France, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, the United States, the
United Nations, international donors and civil society take corrective action.

To manage peacemaking and peacebuilding activities in various countries and undertake mediation, facilitation and/or conflict resolution training. Applications close 3 May 2002.

The second pilot scheme of a Commonwealth strategy to promote tolerance and help fight racism and discrimination through education has been launched in Pretoria, South Africa. The pilot framework for citizenship education, part of the new approach to citizenship education being developed by the Commonwealth Secretariat, involves teaching recognition and respect for the heritage of every group in society as well as promoting values that support a multicultural society.

Africa is facing a “toxic time bomb” from dangerous obsolete pesticides, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on Wednesday. Thousands of tonnes of highly poisonous chemicals are contaminating land and finding their way into the food chain, it said. “These are very dangerous chemicals,” Dr Alemayehu Wondagegneh from the FAO told IRIN in Addis Ababa. “Most of them have been banned elsewhere.”

Thousands of people have fled, or are fleeing, their homes in the Gedo region of southwestern Somalia because of fighting between rival groups, local sources told IRIN on Thursday. They have been streaming out of the border towns of Bulo Hawa, and Lugh, despite the onset of the main Gu season rains.

With only a month to go before elections, Prime Minister Mosisili has finally conceded and officially announced a state of famine in the country, after numerous attempts of subsidies and counter productive initiatives to curb the serious threat of cereal crop deficit in Lesotho.

The entire Pool region of the Republic of Congo (ROC) remains inaccessible, even for humanitarian missions, with Congolese authorities stating that access will not be possible until at least 25 April, the office of the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in the ROC reported on Monday.