The United States military has been covertly involved in the wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a US parliamentary subcommittee has been told. Intelligence specialist Wayne Madsen, appearing before the US House subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, also said American companies, including one linked to former President George Bush Snr, the father of the current US President, are stoking the Congo conflict for monetary gains.

The Angolan government has dismissed as "nothing new" comments made on Wednesday by rebel leader Jonas Savimbi in a BBC interview. The ruling party's information secretary Norberto dos Santos told the Portuguese radio station RDP on Thursday that "what Angolans really want to know is when Savimbi is going to end the war".

Opposition parties in Mauritania and human rights groups condemned on Thursday the five-year prison term handed down to the leader of the opposition Front populaire party, Chbih Cheikh Ould Malainine. The Criminal Court in Aioun, 800 km east of the capital, Nouakchott, sentenced Malainine and two others on Thursday for plotting to overthrow the government, media organizations reported.

A centre for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants being built in Yengema, eastern Sierra Leone, is expected to hold 1,120 rival irregular fighters, UNAMSIL reported on Thursday. The centre, which UNAMSIL Force Commander Daniel Opande visited on Wednesday, will take in fighters of the Revolutionary United Front and the pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF).

Hunger and war have made Sudan one of the most immediate humanitarian challenges for the US, one of "the three nightmares" it faces, according to the US special humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Andrew Natsios. "Many of us are horrified at the very serious humanitarian situation in Sudan, caused by both drought and war," AlertNet has quoted him as saying at a forum of voluntary agencies and relief NGOs in Washington, USA.

DRC President Joseph Kabila has launched a national campaign to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers and to prepare for their demobilisation from the Congolese army and their reintegration into society, UNICEF announced on Thursday. The initiative, which has the financial support of UNICEF, seeks to prohibit all children under 18 years of age from being sent to the frontline and from being involved in any purely military task, such as the handling of weapons.

Burundi's permanent representative to the UN Marc Nteturuye on Wednesday stressed there would not be lasting peace in the DRC if that country had to rebuild itself at the expense of Burundi. He told a Security Council debate on Congo that "the welcome peace prospects in the DRC are paradoxically, but deliberately, at the root of the worsening security situation in Burundi".

President Daniel arap Moi on Monday brought opposition leader Raila Odinga into his cabinet, Kenyan radio reported. In a cabinet reshuffle, Moi appointed Odinga - leader of the National Development Party (NDP), which had recently established a partnership with the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) - as Energy Minister. Another NDP member, Adhu Owiti, was appointed Planning Minister, in what was the first time the first time KANU has been joined in cabinet by members of other parties.

The situation affecting people displaced by intensive fighting in Western Bahr al-Ghazal was now reaching crisis levels as many of the 30,000 who had fled their homes "have been found to be in quite bad shape already, especially those who haven't made it to some of the major centres," UNOCHA reported on Thursday. David Courrie, an official of the OCHA office in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, said that rains expected any time now would render many roads impassable and complicate efforts to deliver aid.

This posting contains a press release from Africa Action and a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell from Africa Action, the Religious Action Network and the Health Gap Coalition, protesting the racist remarks by USAID Adminstrator Andrew Natsios in an interview with the Boston Globe. Natsios said antiretroviral treatment for AIDS was not practical in Africa because 'Africans don't know what Western time is'.

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by a reliable source about developments in the trial of at least 98 prisoners of conscience in Tripoli, Libya. According to the information received, a group of at least 98 prisoners of conscience are being tried before the people’s court, having been arbitrarily arrested en masse in Libya’s main cities during June 1998, ostensibly on the grounds of political opposition and, more specifically,for supporting or showing sympathy for the underground Islamic movement, the Libyan Islamic Group.

Ishmael Beah, a 19-year-old veteran of Sierra Leone's battlefields, pleaded with world leaders Tuesday to help the hundreds of thousands of children pressed into armed service in war zones around the world. "Conferences are great. UN reports are great. But we need to go out and rescue those children," Beah said at the release of a report condemning the use of child soldiers.

The 13 June 2001 resolution of the United States House of Representatives to provide Sudanese rebels with ten million dollars worth of assistance has confirmed the concerns of much of the international community at the negative influence American government policy continues to exercise on the long-running Sudanese conflict.

Tony Blair and Thabo Mbeki are right to describe the fight against poverty in Africa as the most pressing moral challenge of our time. They are also right to say progress depends on leadership from African governments, but that rich countries can and should do more to help. The coming months offer several opportunities for Tony Blair to take specific action which would further his commitment to Africa and we urge him to take the following steps.

Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an internationally renowned sociologist and advocate of democracy and human rights, was sentenced in Egypt to seven years in prison on May 21, 2001. This trial, held in a court that falls far short of international legal standards, was clearly politically motivated - intended to muzzle civil society in Egypt. His 27 co-defendants, colleagues from the Ibn Khaldun Center for Developmental Studies and the League of Egyptian Women Voters (HODA), were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 1-5 years (some suspended). Eight defendants, including Nadia 'Abd al-Nur, Magda Al Bey, Mohammed Hassanein, Khaled al-Fayad, and Ussama Hisham Ali, remain in prison at this time.

Getting justice for the worst war crimes may be impossible. But two United Nations courts are trying, and a court in Belgium has just joined in.

SUMMARY executions are being carried out daily in the Central African Republic following a failed coup bid, sowing terror among members of the Yakoma ethnic group who are being targeted, witnesses claimed.

A local council in Hartbeespoort which is trying to maintain apartheid got a favorable court ruling. The South African Mine Workers Union is protesting this ruling.

Amnesty International welcomed the judgment late last night of the Brussels Court of Assizes which convicted four Rwandese nationals of war crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994.

The government of Uganda has announced that the closed Rwenzori Mountains National Park bordering the strife ridden Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will reopen on July 2. The opening will pave the way for mountaineers to have access to Africa's third highest peak - the scenic 5,100 meter (16,575 foot) Mt. Margherita.