Nairobi is said to have given its consent for US and British special forces to use Kenya as a base for any military action in neighbouring Somalia, according to a report in the Times newspaper.

Peace talks aimed at bringing about reconciliation between the Transitional National Government (TNG) and factions opposed to it, due to open in Nairobi last week, failed to start because of the absence of some key faction leaders. However, efforts were now under way to get the talks started "by today or tomorrow", a Kenyan government source told IRIN on Tuesday.

The events of September 11 and their aftermath, in terms of UK government policy, have thrown up a series of contradictions for anti-racists about freedom of expression, human rights, religion and Islam, in particular. CARF asked veteran campaigner and anti-imperialist writer A Sivanandan for some pointers.

Zimbabweans might as early as Wednesday have to deal with draconian new security laws which would make President Robert Mugabe untouchable by his critics as the country gears up for the presidential election next year.

Northern Province farmers have given an undertaking to the Department of Home Affairs that they will no longer employ Zimbabweans who are working illegally in South Africa.

President Robert Mugabe’s campaign to retain power and win re-election was endorsed on Wednesday by ministers from neighbouring states who ignored reports of political violence, chaotic land reform and media repression.

Zimbabwe'S year-on-year inflation jumped to 103,8% in November, almost six percentage points above the 97,9% recorded in October.

President Robert Mugabe’s campaign to retain power and win re-election was endorsed on Wednesday by ministers from neighbouring states who ignored reports of political violence, chaotic land reform and media repression.

By most accounts the West is winning the war against terror and terrorism. And yet, there are disturbing signs, both in the United States and Afghanistan, that their actions might be laying the groundwork for other kinds of terror.

Southern African Migration Project, Migration Policy Brief No. 6.
In 2000, an estimated 200-220,000 former Mozambican refugees remained on South African soil. The South African Cabinet decided in December 1996 that Mozambican refugees who wished to remain in the country should be given permanent residence status. This amnesty was eventually implemented between August 1999 and February 2000 by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). Unlike earlier amnesties, a number of NGOs participated in the outreach, advocacy and monitoring components of the amnesty’s implementation. This paper presents a detailed examination of the amnesty process, including its planning, the criteria for eligibility, the information campaign, the application procedures, the problems encountered and the lessons learned. Recommendations from this document can be drawn upon to develop appropriate responses to any future refugee influx to South Africa, whether from neighbouring countries or further afield.

Southern African Migration Project, Migration Policy Brief No. 5.
Official South African statistics on the magnitude of emigration from the country seriously
undercount. In this paper, the authors have devised an innovative methodology which
reveals the extent of the undercount but also provides important insights into the volume and sectoral distribution of emigrants. One of the common strategies suggested for countering some of the negative consequences of “brain drain” is the mobilization of diaspora networks. The paper provides an introduction to one such network, the SANSA project.

A new executive four week course on International Migration Policy and Management is being offered in 2002 by the Southern African Migration Project in partnership with the Graduate School of Public and Development Management at University of Witwatersrand. Further details are available on their website.

The International Migration Policy Programme (UNFPA, UNITAR, IOM, ILO) is organising a meeting in Dakar, Senegal, 17-21 December 2001. It is held in the context of the Declaration of Dakar and the related Follow-up Proposals adopted by governments on 13 October 2000 at the 'West African Regional Ministerial Conference on the Participation of Migrants in the Development of their Countries of Origin'.

More than 3,500 Sierra Leonean returnees have finally been repatriated to their place of origin, in Kambia district northwest Sierra Leone. "Their return home means that peace has really returned to Sierra Leone," a UNHCR press release on Thursday quoted a woman from the hosting village in Lungi's Lokomasama Chiefdom, north of the capital Freetown as saying.

The Namibian government has lodged an appeal against a High Court ruling that it provides free legal representation to 128 high treason suspects.

Carla Del Ponte, the woman who took on the Mafia and Switzerland's financial institutions, is now applying herself to the Herculean task of making the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda less inefficient.

A Liberian general has been picked up as the capital, Monrovia, is awash with rumours of an attempted coup.

The head of the United Nations office in Africa has warned that the continent is failing to meet any of the development targets set at last year's UN millennium summit.

At least nine people have died in gang fights in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, local newspapers report.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has expressed fears for tens of thousands of Ethiopians in Tigray region who were displaced from their homes during the war with Eritrea, following a decision to withdraw food aid at the end of the month, a WFP spokesman told IRIN this week.