Ethnic clashes that began two weeks ago in central Nigeria's Nassarawa State have spread to Lafia, the state capital, where more than 25 people have been killed, Radio Nigeria reported on Tuesday.

The football matches, parade, arts and craft exhibition and dance that marked World Refugee Day in Danane, 600 km west of Abidjan, may have allowed the many Liberians and Sierra Leoneans there to escape for just a while from the harsh reality of displacement. The relaxed atmosphere offered the refugees a sneak peek into what most are looking for: a life free of insecurity and instability.

Thousands of refugees who had earlier escaped fighting in Western Bahr al-Ghazal are being forced to flee once again as the Sudanese government troops attempt to recapture territory lost to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), UNOCHA reported.

The on-going police operation by the Transitional National Government (TNG) provoked fighting on Thursday, after attempts were made to erect a road block near the compound of faction leader Husayn Aydid. Confrontation between the TNG forces and militia loyal to Aydid led to five dead and at least ten wounded, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said. By late afternoon, the police had been forced to withdraw the checkpoint, local sources told IRIN.

The NGO, Medecins sans frontieres-Belgique (MSF-Belgium), on Thursday sent 22 mt of medical kits and logistical equipment for use in eastern and northern parts of the DRC. In a press statement, the organisation said the assistance was intended for people affected by measles, cholera and bloody diarrhoea. However, it warned, that despite the pressing need for humanitarian assistance, this alone was not enough.

While in New York to attend the UN summit on HIV/AIDS, Rwandan President Paul Kagame held a number of high-level meetings to discuss the current situation in the Great Lakes region and development support to his country, according to reports from Rwandan presidential spokesman Nicholas Shalita.

A joint communique, issued after a recent meeting between the defence ministers of Burundi and Tanzania, noted that security along the common border had not improved "in spite of the strong political will which exists between the two countries".

President Robert Mugabe said his government was ready for talks with Britain over land reform, but would not succumb to threats of economic sanctions, Reuters reported on Friday.

The Congolese authorities have reportedly prevented opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi from leaving the country to attend a meeting of the Socialist International organisation in Portugal. According to a statement from Tshisekedi's party, the Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS), he has been forbidden to leave his house in Kinshasa and is currently at home "under surveillance".

Violence in schools is fast turning into a menace in many countries. The Lesotho Youth Federation (LYFE) in Africa has initiated a Student Conflict Management project aimed at equipping students in secondary schools and high schools with transformational skills useful when conflicts arise in their schools.

Human Rights Watch warmly welcomed today's decision by the Security Council to recommend to the General Assembly the reappointment of Kofi A. Annan for a second term as the United Nations Secretary-General. Earlier today, the Council unanimously chose the Ghanaian to serve for another five years as the world organization's seventh head.

The multi-agency probe of allegations of corruption in the R43bn arms deal was expected to come up with recommendations on how the behaviour of international companies bidding for contracts should be defined and prescribed, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said yesterday.

A new international cybercrime treaty may soon be adopted despite heavy criticism from privacy groups and industry leaders. In response, several GILC member organizations, including Privacy International, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, have submitted a letter "to voice ... continuing concerns regarding the development and form" of the treaty.

The intersection between asylum and migration is to be discussed for the first time in a forum in Geneva during UNHCR's Global Consultations on the refugee protection regime. From the outset, given the present political discourse in predominantly Western countries, it is clear that this intersection evokes different concepts for different stakeholders. It is therefore to be regretted that two major stakeholders, UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), frame the discussion within a "control" perspective and use language such as "concerns about uncontrolled irregular migration."

A wide range of online resources on refugees in preparation for the UN World conference, from December18.

The Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants aims at promoting respect for fundamental human and social rights in all issues related to undocumented migrants within Europe. Their new website will provide extensive information on the specific theme of undocumented migrants within Europe.

UNHCR is planning to hold a refugee forum on 14-16 September 2001 in Rouen, France. 'The Refugee Perspective' will feed into the Global Consultations process that UNHCR launched this year in the hope of re-invigorating the 1951 refugee convention. The registration deadline is July 1. For information, please contact the Conference Secretariat.

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by SOS-Esclaves and Rencontre Africaine pour la défense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO), both members of the OMCT network, that Mauritanian Popular Front (MPF) opposition party president Mr. Mohamed Lemine Ch'Bih Ould Cheikh Malainine, and party members Mokhtar Ould Haibetna and Bouba Ould Hassann, have been convicted and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, on June 14th. Mr. Ch'Bih was arbitrarily arrested on April 8th, 2001 and was initially detained incommunicado for 10 days.

It is a racism that is not just directed at those with darker skins, from the former colonial territories, but at the newer categories of the displaced, the dispossessed and the uprooted, who are beating at western Europe’s doors, the Europe that helped to displace them in the first place. it is a xenophobia that bears all the marks of the old racism. It is racism in substance, but "xeno" in form. It is a racism that is meted out to impoverished strangers even if they are white. It is xeno-racism.

The approach of World Refugee Day has prompted the Catholic Church in Zambia, which hosts the biggest refugee populations in the region, to issue a strong warning against xenophobia. "We are dismayed that politicians and civil servants sometimes produce statements which tend to foster rejecting our fellow Africans. General criminalisation of a social group is an expression of racism and xenophobia completely contrary to the law of God and the tradition of hospitality that the people of Zambia have always honoured," a pastoral letter released by the Catholic Bishops of Zambia said.