The Congress of South African Trade Unions notes Zimbabwe President Mugabe’s verbal undertakings to yesterday’s SADC summit meeting in Blantyre that he agrees to hold free and fair Presidential elections, to allow independent observers and journalists and to investigate reports of political violence. COSATU is however sceptical about this pronouncement and disappointed that the SADC leaders appear to have accepted these promises at face value.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for reconciliation and rehabilitation in Somalia, saying these were among the Horn of Africa's key concerns. In this respect, he urged Somali leaders to put aside their differences.

A new effort to merge two parallel but different peace efforts on Sudan under the chairmanship of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has emerged from last week's summit meeting of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

The opposition Ugandan People's Congress (UPC) party has vowed to press ahead with plans to publicly challenge a government ban on political rallies, despite Saturday's aborted effort in the capital, Kampala, in which a student was killed and four others were injured.

The UN Security Council has expressed deep concern over the mounting problems affecting the political and economic situation in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Research by International Peace Information Service, an independent Belgian institute, shows that European companies trading coltan in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) contribute to the financing of the Congolese war.

The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement has expelled 193 Burundians from Museke in the Ubwari Peninsula of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Four human rights activists, all members of the umbrella Zimbabwe Crisis Group (ZCG), returned safely to Harare on Monday after being detained overnight in Malawi and deported.

At least 36 Nigerians died in clashes between an ethic militia group, Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC), and security forces in the southwest on Saturday, police told IRIN on Monday. Over 12 cars were also destroyed.

Somalia's fragile peace could unravel under the threat of United States military action, giving the upper hand to warlords opposed to recent efforts to rebuild the war-torn country, a British-based charity have said.

The UN announced this week that it is creating a new unit, based in Europe, to have responsibility for internally displaced persons. An estimated 50 million people around the world have lost their homes due to war and natural disasters, but do not become refugees while they remain in their countries.

An eagerly awaited report by Nigeria's Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission has been delayed because the commission has run out of money, an official said Wednesday.

This report presents an analysis of recent trends in migration movements and policies in OECD countries as well as in certain non-member countries. It includes a detailed description of the flows, the different channels of immigration and the nationalities of the migrants concerned. It highlights the contribution of immigration to increases in the total population and the labour force and describes the changes that have taken place in the sectoral distribution of foreign workers.

An inter-ministerial meeting of the Southern African Development Community has decided to draw up a plan of action to combat terrorism at the regional level.

The Angolan army, FAA, has drawn closer to defeating Jonas Savimbi's UNITA movement, with army sources indicating that the rebel leader is within weeks rather than months of capture. A FAA source stated that in Moxico province - in the east of the country - it has surrounded a large UNITA military contingent which it believes is protecting Savimbi.

Rwandan authorities should immediately investigate the murder of Gratien Munyarubuga, a founder of the opposition Democratic Party for Renewal-Ubuyanja, and end harassment of other opposition and press figures, Human Rights Watch have said.

President Joseph Kabila should take immediate steps to ensure that his government and security forces practice what he promises the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Amnesty International urged today as reports show an alarming increase in arbitrary arrests and detentions.

The World Bank recently concluded consultations with UN and donor partners on a planned Greater Great Lakes Regional Demobilization and Reintegration Program and Multi-Donor Trust Fund. The purpose of the meeting was to consult with partners in the international community on opportunities to support the consolidation of peace and stability in the region through a comprehensive framework for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, and to lay the basis for generating the resources required for its implementation.

Progress towards a resolution of the long-running conflict in the west of Uganda must now be followed up by substantial commitments aimed at improving social and economic conditions in the region. According to the findings of African Rights’ latest report, Avoiding an Impasse, Understanding the Conflict in Western Uganda, people in the west are weary and impoverished after some five years of attacks and destruction by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Tens of thousands are still displaced from their homes. There is general approval of intensified efforts by the government to resolve the conflict, but people still feel vulnerable and neglected.

Belgian's final court of appeal, the Cour de Cassation, rejected on Wednesday the appeals for a retrial by a Rwandan businessman and two Rwandan nuns sentenced to prison in Brussels on 8 June 2001 for war crimes committed during the 1994 genocide.