RIGHTS: Group Wants Intervention Timetable for Sudan’s Darfur

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) and the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) are the latest to urge the international community to act quickly to stop what Human Rights Watch (HRW) earlier this month called "ethnic cleansing" against the African communities of Sudan's Darfur region.

SUSTAINABILITY: Do ‘Water Wars’ Still Loom in Africa?

When water affairs ministers from countries along the Nile met recently to discuss the fate of the river, Boutros Boutros-Ghali was not in the room with them. But the lingering memory of his comment that future wars would be fought over water probably was.

POLITICS-SOMALIA: Bickering Leaders a "Pain in the Neck" at Peace Talks

A third and final round of peace talks for East Africa’s most beleaguered country – Somalia – is scheduled to begin on May 20 amidst funding shortfalls and frustration at the antics of faction leaders.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Are the Watchdogs Being Muzzled?

"The stability of any government is measured by the freedom it gives to the press. If the government is clean in its dealings, then I see no reason why it should be worried about the press," says Kenyan media activist Mitch Odero. Recent statements by authorities indicate that they have a less sanguine view of the country's journalists, however.

HEALTH-KENYA: A New Report Fires Up the Abortion Debate

A report suggesting the legalisation of abortion in Kenya to reduce maternal mortality has sparked a heated debate in the country. Pro-life organisations claim that preventing unwanted pregnancies is a better way of reducing these deaths.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Ensuring That the Truth Commission is an Honest Broker

The notion that the truth will set you free has enduring appeal in developing countries which are newly free of repressive governments, and anxious to explore past abuses in an effort to avoid repeating them. Kenya is no exception to this trend.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Slum Upgrade a Tale of ‘Later Rather Than Sooner’

The numbers say it all as far as Kenya's informal settlements are concerned. According to a regional non-governmental organisation, Shelter Forum, over a million people are spread amongst 199 settlements that urgently need upgrading.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Worth the Paper It’s Written On?

In the latest attempt to curb the circulation of small arms in Africa, foreign affairs ministers and other representatives from eleven countries signed a protocol on weapons control recently in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. But, the jury is still out on whether this initiative really has the ingredients for success.

ECONOMY-KENYA: Rights Campaign in EPZs Elicits Mixed Results

A number of employees in Kenya’s export processing zones claim they have been threatened with dismissal should they continue associating with human rights groups that are championing better conditions for workers. However, certain companies in the zones also appear to have taken heed of the groups’ concerns.

POLITICS-LIBERIA: Former Rebels Surrender Weapons in Return for Money

After four months of uncertainty and anxiety, the 15,000-strong UN troops in war-ravaged Liberia this week resumed a six-month campaign to disarm tens of thousands of fighters. The 15-million-dollar exercise is designed to end the country’s 14-year brutal civil war.

RELIGION: Africa Rejects Donations From Churches That Support Gay Unions

Africa’s Anglican archbishops have vowed never to receive donations from western churches which support the ordination of gay priests.

DEVELOPMENT-UGANDA: Fishing Industry Gets a Facelift

It weighs up to 250 kilogrammes. The Nile Perch, popularly known here as ‘sabulenya’, is one of Uganda’s most consumed fish species after tilapia.

POLITICS: World’s Promises Failing Ethnic Groups in Sudan

One week after world leaders warned of another 'Rwanda' in the making, pro-government forces reportedly continue attacks on indigenous groups in Sudan's Darfur region and the African nation's government is refusing access to human rights investigators.

RIGHTS-SUDAN: Women Demand a Place at the Negotiating Table

Strategic Initiatives for the Horn of Africa, a regional organisation that promotes women's participation in politics, has called for gender issues to be addressed in the Sudanese peace negotiations.

RWANDA-US: Papers Imply Hutu Hard-Liners Downed President’s Plane

As France and Rwanda exchange charges over responsibility for the Rwandan genocide that was launched 10 years ago this week, newly declassified U.S. documents make clear U.S. officials believed that Hutu hard-liners were responsible for the shoot-down of the Rwandan president's plane, which triggered the massacres.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Mounting Concern Over Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur

Pressure on Sudan's government to cease military activities in the western state of Darfur and open the region to relief shipments for hundreds of thousands of displaced people has grown sharply in recent days, with strong statements issued by both the White House and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.

RIGHTS-RWANDA: Can the Gacaca Courts Deliver Justice?

As Rwanda commemorated the 10th anniversary of the 1994 genocide this week, attention focused on the hundreds of thousands of people who lost their lives in the killing spree. But, what has become of the machete-wielding individuals who carried out the plans of the genocide masterminds?

U.N.-RWANDA: A Measure of Catharsis 10 Years After

The United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan acknowledge the "collective failure" of the international community 10 years ago to prevent the genocide in which some groups say as many as one million Rwandans were killed - most were ethnic minority Tutsi.

RIGHTS: Could U.N. ‘Special Adviser’ Prevent Future Genocide?

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has admitted he could have done more to stop the genocide of about 800,000 Rwandans exactly 10 years ago, says he is determined to prevent a similar tragedy in the future.

RIGHTS-RWANDA: Women Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide Face Grim Realities

Mamerthe Karuhimbi was 19 when the killers came to her home in the Rwandan town of Nyamata, a decade ago.

RWANDA-US: Intelligence Warned Early of Genocide, New Papers Show

Lest anti-George W. Bush forces become too self-righteous over his administration's failure to heed intelligence alarms about signs of an imminent terrorist attack by al-Qaeda in the summer of 2001, the refusal of his Democratic predecessor to react more forcefully to intelligence reports during the Rwanda genocide 10 years ago might inspire a certain humility.