The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) have finalised a programme under which thousands of soldiers, including senior officers, will be demobilised as a way of modernising the institution, the 'Sunday Monitor' reported.

The trial of a former Rwandan minister began at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, on Tuesday. According to a press release from the Tribunal, the former higher education minister under the interim government of April-July 1994, Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, appeared before judges Laity Kama, Mehmet Guney and William Sekule. His charges include genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.

Rebels of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) have reversed a decision to block UN peacekeepers from deploying in the city of Kisangani. The UN announced that the deployment of 120 Moroccan peacekeepers - due to have taken place last Sunday - would now go ahead on Friday.

The coup attempt in Burundi by a group of junior army officers is over and the perpetrators have surrendered, Defence Minister Cyrille Ndayirukiye announced on Thursday. A group of about 30 soldiers, led by Lieutenant Gaston Ntakarutimana, briefly took over the state radio and television station on Wednesday and announced that the hitherto unknown Front de la Jeunesse Patriotique (FJP) had taken control of the country. President Pierre Buyoya was away in Gabon at the time, but has since returned to to Burundi.

The malnutrition figures just in from Kasika, near Bukavu, had Claude Jibidar and his World Food Programme (WFP) team in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) more than a little confused. Like many parts of the DRC they had had little or no access to Kasika since war began in the DRC 32 months ago. "We didn’t know quite what to expect not having had access to the area for so long," said Jibidar, "but we certainly didn’t expect what we found."

Asylum seekers not in possession of permits issued under a new refugee act will be treated as illegal immigrants from next month, the South African government has announced. In a joint communiqué with UNHCR, South Africa's department of home affairs said decisions would be made by the end of April on the thousands of asylum seekers in the country. Those successful would receive a new refugee identity card, unsuccessful applicants would be treated as illegal aliens, the communiqué added.

The Chairperson of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) was assaulted and two lawyers working for the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum narrowly escaped in ZANU (PF) instigated violence in the Chikomba constituency on April 7.

SVTG has received confirmed information that 54 people were arrested on 10 April 3, 2001 in Green Square, Khartoum following the cancellation of an Easter ceremony on April 10. More than 50 Christian protesters - almost all from the predominantly Christian south - convicted of taking part in the demonstration against the government order were beaten.

The Resolution on "Securing observance of the Principles of International Law in the interest of world peace and security" adopted by the 105th Inter-Parliamentary Conference on April 6th in Havana, Cuba welcomes the "progress toward the establishment of the International Criminal Court.

I am writing to express my great concern that public comments and policy statements in recent years by your new appointee for Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Walter H. Kansteiner III, could be a harbinger of a nightmarish U.S. foreign policy for the resolution of the tragic war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I hope that this is not the case and I respectfully request your immediate and most forceful assurances that these statements do not reflect your view on the resolution of the current crises in Congo.

About one third of the more than 26,000 cases of abduction recorded to date in Uganda involved children under the age of 18, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today in Geneva. Mary Robinson said that if there was no change in the situation, hundreds of children, both boys and girls, would be abducted by a rebel movement in the country known as the "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA). "Many of them," she said, "will ultimately perish in the bush, either as a result of the harsh living conditions or at the hands of other captives."

More than 10,000 Somali refugees have arrived in the Kenyan border town of Mandera in the past two weeks, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said today.

Welcoming the end to yesterday's aborted coup attempt in Burundi, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said the incident served to highlight the need for efforts to bring calm to the country.

After years of fighting Africa’s most complex contemporary war, the armies of six nations disengaged March 29 and allowed U.N. observers to deploy in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Contingent upon the complete disengagement of the estimated 60,000 foreign troops, the deployment marks the first substantive step toward ending the country’s nearly three-year-old war.

The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the African Association for the defense of Human Rights (ASADHO), a member of the OMCT network, about the arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention and the subsequent placement under house arrest of Brazilian Pastor Carlos Rodrigues and an aide, Mrs. Christine.

Let us call upon all SANCO members to join us in our celebration of conquering the powerful Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association by forcing them to withdraw the case against our government...This, the third National Conference of SANCO, is an extremely important event that will definitely find itself in the history book of our revolution when we account to the next generations.

Thousands of children as young as six years old are trafficked across borders into slavery in West Africa to work as domestic servants, on farms and in markets in the region's wealthier countries. Most work long hours in harsh conditions and receive little or no pay.

Rebel leader Cossan Kabura has claimed he is still in charge of the PALIPEHUTU-FNL movement, the Hirondelle news agency reported. In a letter to the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, Nelson Mandela, Kabura said that Agathon Rwasa, the "former commander" of the movement's western forces, had attempted a coup against him but had failed, and "disciplinary measures" had been taken against him, along with two other senior FNL members - Alain Mugabarabona and Anicet Ntawuhiganayo.

A humanitarian assessment mission has visited the province of Rutana in the southeast following a wave of fighting between the army and rebels last month in three of its communes - Gitanga, Rutana and Musongati. A report issued by UNOCHA-Burundi noted that 1,500 families had been displaced in Gitanga and 1,187 in Rutana. Musongati was still affected by fighting and a final estimate had not been made.

Opposition leader, Joseph Olenghankoy, last week urged Masire to convene the inter-Congolese forum to "usher in a new political order" in the DRC, AFP reported. At a press conference in Kinshasa, Olenghankoy asked Masire to convene and determine the a dates and venue of the forum, adding that "beyond this date, the peaceful and democratic opposition and the civil society would be forced to choose a president of the republic."