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Page last updated at 16:31 GMT, Monday, 29 December 2008
Ugandan LRA 'in church massacre'
Many LRA fighters are abducted children
Uganda's army has accused the Lord's Resistance Army rebels of hacking to death 45 civilians in a Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Capt Chris Magezi said the scene was "horrendous... dead bodies of mostly women and children cut in pieces". The attack happened on 26 December.
A rebel spokesman has denied responsibility for the killings, which follow a collapse in the peace process. The UN says at least 189 people were killed in several attacks last week. Some reports say more than 100 people were killed in the church alone.
Page last updated at 11:50 GMT, Monday, 29 December 2008
Cholera deaths soar in Zimbabwe
The UN has warned the total number of cases could reach 60,000
The latest figures from the UN and Zimbabwe's health ministry reveal that two-thirds of the victims of the cholera outbreak have died this month.
The death toll at the end of last week stood at 1,564, with 29,131 suspected cases since August, the UN said.
Figures from the health ministry on 1 December put cholera deaths at 484.
The UN has warned it could take six months to control the outbreak that has been fuelled by the collapse of the health, sanitation and water services.
No food According to the World Health Organization, cases have been reported in all 10 of Zimbabwe's provinces.
Page last updated at 01:55 GMT, Saturday, 27 December 2008
Zimbabwe child malnutrition rises
Some five million Zimbabwean rely on food aid, the aid agency says
Acute child malnutrition in parts of Zimbabwe has increased by almost two-thirds compared with last year, aid agency Save the Children says.
In a report, the UK-based agency concluded that some children were "wasting away from lack of food".
It said there was a shortage of 18,000 tonnes of food needed for January and urged world donors to increase aid.
The agency said innocent Zimbabweans should not suffer because of a political crisis out of their control.
"There is no excuse for failing to provide this food," said Lynn Walker, programmes director for Save the Children in Zimbabwe.
The agency said some five million people in Zimbabwe - or about 50% of the country's population - were now in need of food aid. Zimbabwe's farming sector collapsed after President Robert Mugabe launched a controversial land reform programme more than five years ago.
Page last updated at 19:05 GMT, Thursday, 23 October 2008 20:05UK
Congo terror after LRA rebel raids
By Thomas Fessy
BBC News, Dungu
Pierre Ndifumba, a village chief in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is slowly recovering after being attacked by rebels from across the border with Uganda.
"They hit me on the neck with a wooden stick several times," he told the BBC.
"As I fell, blood was coming out of my ears, my nose and my eyes. They kept on beating me until I fainted," he added, while showing scars on his neck and on his back.
Pierre Ndifumba says he was left for dead
"When they thought that I was dead, they pulled me over 35 metres further and buried me in a hole with leaves to cover my body."
Mr Ndifumba was left unconscious but he eventually managed to escape and reached the town of Dungu four days later.
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes after the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters raided 16 villages, according to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, known as Monuc.
Some of them walked up to 80km (50 miles) through the bush to reach Dungu, where local people have been sharing their few possessions with them.
'Kidnapped'
"We came over here because the LRA looted and burnt our houses," says Marie Bimisa, who fled from Kiliwa, a village north of Dungu.
Page last updated at 16:39 GMT, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 17:39 UK
Homeless Kenyans face grim return
By Josphat Makori
BBC News, Molo
After spending the past four months in a tent in a camp for the homeless, Mary Wambui, a Kenyan mother five, jumped at the chance to return home.
"Life here is so miserable. We live in the same tent with our children; you literally have to jump over each other, to get in," she told the BBC.
"Look around, there are no toilets, bathrooms or anything else. it's been unbearable."
She and her family were among the first to take advantage of the government's programme to resettle the 140,000 people still displaced by the violence following last December's elections.
But others in the camp in Molo are not convinced that the inauguration of a power-sharing government last month really means the violence is over. "We are not livestock to be taken back to the slaughter," one old man said. "Yes we want to go back home but we want to go and stay. So let the government first facilitate meaningful peace talks and then we can be comfortable to return."
Page last updated at 15:35 GMT, Monday, 29 December 2008
Somalia facing further power struggles
Al-Shabab rebels control large parts of Somalia
By Peter Greste
BBC News, Nairobi
With few friends at home and abroad, Abdullahi Yusuf had little choice but to quit as Somalia's president.
His decision to go could not have come at a more critical point for Somalia.
In his nationally broadcast resignation speech, Mr Yusuf reminded Somalis of the promise he had made when he was elected more than four years ago. "When I took power, I pledged three things," he said. "If I was unable to fulfil my duty, I will resign.
Page last updated at 14:13 GMT, Friday, 26 December 2008
Somalis held in Ethiopia capital
By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Addis Ababa
Hundreds of young Somalis have been arrested in the past few days in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
A number were questioned and then released but it is thought at least 200 are still being held.
Most of the arrests took place on Tuesday night and Wednesday in the Bole area, the part of the town where most of the Somali community live.
A Somali embassy spokesman said he understood that security was being
tightened before a regional summit. In some cases young men were taken from their homes while others were arrested in the streets. A spokesman for the Somali embassy in Addis Ababa said he and his colleagues were going around the police stations to find out what was going on.
Page last updated at 12:46 GMT, Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Ethiopia's Somalia dilemma
By Roger Middleton
Chatham House
Ethiopia entered Somalia two years ago to remove the Union of Islamic Courts , elements of whose leadership had been making provocative and aggressive statements about Ethiopia.
But the reality is that Ethiopian intervention, backed by the US and others, seems to have bolstered precisely the elements of the UIC, al-Shabab, that are most at odds with Ethiopia's interests and may very well have fatally undermined any chance Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) had of gaining legitimacy. Ethiopia has announced that they will leave Somalia, come what may, by the end of the year.
Ugandan LRA 'in church massacre'
Many LRA fighters are abducted children
Uganda's army has accused the Lord's Resistance Army rebels of hacking to death 45 civilians in a Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Capt Chris Magezi said the scene was "horrendous... dead bodies of mostly women and children cut in pieces". The attack happened on 26 December.
A rebel spokesman has denied responsibility for the killings, which follow a collapse in the peace process. The UN says at least 189 people were killed in several attacks last week. Some reports say more than 100 people were killed in the church alone.
Page last updated at 11:50 GMT, Monday, 29 December 2008
Cholera deaths soar in Zimbabwe
The UN has warned the total number of cases could reach 60,000
The latest figures from the UN and Zimbabwe's health ministry reveal that two-thirds of the victims of the cholera outbreak have died this month.
The death toll at the end of last week stood at 1,564, with 29,131 suspected cases since August, the UN said.
Figures from the health ministry on 1 December put cholera deaths at 484.
The UN has warned it could take six months to control the outbreak that has been fuelled by the collapse of the health, sanitation and water services.
No food According to the World Health Organization, cases have been reported in all 10 of Zimbabwe's provinces.
Page last updated at 01:55 GMT, Saturday, 27 December 2008
Zimbabwe child malnutrition rises
Some five million Zimbabwean rely on food aid, the aid agency says
Acute child malnutrition in parts of Zimbabwe has increased by almost two-thirds compared with last year, aid agency Save the Children says.
In a report, the UK-based agency concluded that some children were "wasting away from lack of food".
It said there was a shortage of 18,000 tonnes of food needed for January and urged world donors to increase aid.
The agency said innocent Zimbabweans should not suffer because of a political crisis out of their control.
"There is no excuse for failing to provide this food," said Lynn Walker, programmes director for Save the Children in Zimbabwe.
The agency said some five million people in Zimbabwe - or about 50% of the country's population - were now in need of food aid. Zimbabwe's farming sector collapsed after President Robert Mugabe launched a controversial land reform programme more than five years ago.
Page last updated at 19:05 GMT, Thursday, 23 October 2008 20:05UK
Congo terror after LRA rebel raids
By Thomas Fessy
BBC News, Dungu
Pierre Ndifumba, a village chief in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is slowly recovering after being attacked by rebels from across the border with Uganda.
"They hit me on the neck with a wooden stick several times," he told the BBC.
"As I fell, blood was coming out of my ears, my nose and my eyes. They kept on beating me until I fainted," he added, while showing scars on his neck and on his back.
Pierre Ndifumba says he was left for dead
"When they thought that I was dead, they pulled me over 35 metres further and buried me in a hole with leaves to cover my body."
Mr Ndifumba was left unconscious but he eventually managed to escape and reached the town of Dungu four days later.
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes after the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters raided 16 villages, according to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, known as Monuc.
Some of them walked up to 80km (50 miles) through the bush to reach Dungu, where local people have been sharing their few possessions with them.
'Kidnapped'
"We came over here because the LRA looted and burnt our houses," says Marie Bimisa, who fled from Kiliwa, a village north of Dungu.
Page last updated at 16:39 GMT, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 17:39 UK
Homeless Kenyans face grim return
By Josphat Makori
BBC News, Molo
After spending the past four months in a tent in a camp for the homeless, Mary Wambui, a Kenyan mother five, jumped at the chance to return home.
"Life here is so miserable. We live in the same tent with our children; you literally have to jump over each other, to get in," she told the BBC.
"Look around, there are no toilets, bathrooms or anything else. it's been unbearable."
She and her family were among the first to take advantage of the government's programme to resettle the 140,000 people still displaced by the violence following last December's elections.
But others in the camp in Molo are not convinced that the inauguration of a power-sharing government last month really means the violence is over. "We are not livestock to be taken back to the slaughter," one old man said. "Yes we want to go back home but we want to go and stay. So let the government first facilitate meaningful peace talks and then we can be comfortable to return."
Page last updated at 15:35 GMT, Monday, 29 December 2008
Somalia facing further power struggles
Al-Shabab rebels control large parts of Somalia
By Peter Greste
BBC News, Nairobi
With few friends at home and abroad, Abdullahi Yusuf had little choice but to quit as Somalia's president.
His decision to go could not have come at a more critical point for Somalia.
In his nationally broadcast resignation speech, Mr Yusuf reminded Somalis of the promise he had made when he was elected more than four years ago. "When I took power, I pledged three things," he said. "If I was unable to fulfil my duty, I will resign.
Page last updated at 14:13 GMT, Friday, 26 December 2008
Somalis held in Ethiopia capital
By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Addis Ababa
Hundreds of young Somalis have been arrested in the past few days in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
A number were questioned and then released but it is thought at least 200 are still being held.
Most of the arrests took place on Tuesday night and Wednesday in the Bole area, the part of the town where most of the Somali community live.
A Somali embassy spokesman said he understood that security was being
tightened before a regional summit. In some cases young men were taken from their homes while others were arrested in the streets. A spokesman for the Somali embassy in Addis Ababa said he and his colleagues were going around the police stations to find out what was going on.
Page last updated at 12:46 GMT, Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Ethiopia's Somalia dilemma
By Roger Middleton
Chatham House
Ethiopia entered Somalia two years ago to remove the Union of Islamic Courts , elements of whose leadership had been making provocative and aggressive statements about Ethiopia.
But the reality is that Ethiopian intervention, backed by the US and others, seems to have bolstered precisely the elements of the UIC, al-Shabab, that are most at odds with Ethiopia's interests and may very well have fatally undermined any chance Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) had of gaining legitimacy. Ethiopia has announced that they will leave Somalia, come what may, by the end of the year.
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