Reputed for decades to be the melting pot of Nigeria's cultures, the northern state of Kaduna has witnessed some of the most violent confrontations between different ethnic and religious groups since President Olusegun Obasanjo was elected in 1999.

Sixteen people have been confirmed dead and 200 houses burnt down as the pasture wars in Tana River District entered the third day.

The South African arm of Economists Allied for Arms Reduction has asked the Cape High Court to torpedo the multibillion-rand arms deal on behalf of the "the poor people of South Africa".

Amnesty International is deeply troubled by the Military Order signed by President George W. Bush on 13 November allowing for the trial by special military commissions of non-US citizens suspected of involvement in "international terrorism."

President Frederick Chiluba has said Zambia will not retaliate to the mass abduction and massacre of Zambians by the Angolan armed forces last week.

Images of poverty and squalor are everywhere at Porta farm, a fast-expanding squatter camp 18 km southwest of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.

The Namibian Red Cross Society (NRCS) is withdrawing its services from the Osire refugee camp. "We will be withdrawing as of 31 December 2001," Geniene Veii, deputy secretary-general of the NRCS told IRIN on Tuesday. "Part of the reason that we are doing this is because of a lack of donor funding and partly because donors have been slow in making payments."

Despite continued differences between the two sides the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea is “on track” a spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said on Friday.

At least 18 students were killed and many others wounded when gunmen opened fire on a Koranic school on 16 November, a local source told IRIN on Monday.

The failure of the inter-Congolese dialogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in October was foreseeable, according to a new report from the International Crisis Group, 'The Inter-Congolese Dialogue: Political Negotiation or a Game of Bluff?', that analyses the impasse in the peace process.

At least 1,700 people fleeing rampaging rebels in the communes of Kiremba and Gasorwe arrived in the nearby northeastern Burundi town of Muyinga on Monday where most of them were sheltered in two primary schools, humanitarian sources told IRIN.

The chairman of the Political and Peace Council of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Omrie Golley, told IRIN on Tuesday that he has put his resignation on hold following "various pressures" from some quarters within and outside Sierra Leone.

Fighting broke out in Garowe, the regional capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, on 21 November, a local journalist told IRIN.

Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has thrown out charges of terrorism against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, declaring that the law under which he was charged was unconstitutional.

Angolan rebel movement Unita claims to have killed 298 government soldiers, police and militia forces in operations between November 8 and 19, according to a statement.

Refugees have the right to legal representation during the asylum determination process, but until recently, for thousands of refugees in Egypt, professional legal services have been almost non-existent. Egypt guarantees the right to asylum in its constitution; it has acceded to UN and the Organisation of African Unity conventions on refugees. However, in Egypt, it is the Office of the UN High Commissioner (UNHCR) who determines who gets refugee status, not the Government of Egypt. There is no independent appeal process against negative decisions. There are more than 23 nationalities represented in Egypt's refugee population. In July 2000, the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies programme at the American University in Cairo began to address this deficiency. It now provides formal training in refugee law through courses that are part of the Diploma in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies and the MA in Human Rights Law, as well as 'hands on' practical experience of preparing cases for refugees seeking asylum in Egypt.

Women's Human Rights Net wants civil society worldwide to protest the war, rebuild a fair society in Afghanistan and support Women's Human Rights. The Twelve Points were developed in exchanges among several women's human rights activists in New York, Asia and Latin America following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. They are intended to suggest alternatives to military action and the cycle of violence, destruction and death. Please use these suggestions in whatever way you find helpful.

Peace has been elusive in Africa's largest nation for almost five decades, the bitter dispute between the Christian and Animist south and the Muslim north dominating the period. US relations with sudan are also ambivalent, as it seeks to place sanctions on Sudan, and wants its cooperation in the fight against terrorism. allAfrica's Charles Cobb Jr. spoke with Sudan's Ambassador to the United States, Khidir Haroun Ahmed.

Clareville Primary, a school in Durban, South Africa, has a number of children of refugees at its school, and has gone out of its way to welcome them.

The Director of Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Tymon Katlholo, has said that a well informed media could play a crucial role in exposing corruption and fraudulent practices in government, private sector and civil society among other areas.