Full Coverage: North Africa

27.01.2005 If U.S. President George W. Bush is serious about re-engaging with the global community and ending genocide in Sudan, he should support a UN move to refer war crimes committed in the country to the International Criminal Court, the grassroots group Citizens for Global Solutions said Wednesday.

26.01.2005 A fact-finding mission to Tunisia undertaken by IFEX members has found "serious cause for concern" about the current state of freedom of expression and of civil liberties in the country, including gross restrictions on freedom of the press, media, publishing and the Internet.

14.01.2005 South Africa's neutrality and history give it a moral authority in Africa that many richer countries (and former colonial powers) can't claim. From Burundi to Cote d'Ivoire, Congo, and Darfur, President Thabo Mbeki has drawn on this standing to try to spread peack across the continent in 2004, demonstrating to the world that Africa can be relied upon to solve its own problems.

13.01.2005 Darfur and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal dealt serious blows to global efforts to strengthen respect for human rights in 2004, according to a major U.S. human rights group.

12.01.2005 Can the peace agreement in Sudan lead to resolution of the long-running civil war in neighbouring Uganda? Civil society groups in Uganda are desperate for peace and plead with the international community to facilitate a resumption of talks which broke down in the new year.

11.01.2005 The newly agreed peace in southern Sudan could promote the end of fighting in Northern Uganda and Sudan's western Darfur region, aid officials and government spokespeople are saying. "The deal is surely a dawn of hope for us," a top Ugandan official in a district bordering the Sudan said on Monday.

10.01.2005 Although Sunday's signing in Kenya of a final peace accord marks a formal end to 21 years of war between the government of Sudan and southern rebels, human rights groups and other observers are growing more worried about the continued violence in the western region of Darfur.

10.01.2005 Hilary Benn attended this weekend's signing of the peace agreement between warring factions in Sudan. He announced UK government aid of £50m for Sudan, an encouraging sign that Africa's crises may not suffer aid fatigue from the tsunami disaster.

10.01.2005 Tomorrow Algeria appears before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to defend its record. Amnesty says that the country does little to protect women from violence and discrimination.

06.01.2005 Many believe that Sunday marks a seminal moment in Africa's history as a peace agreement will be signed ending one of the world's longest-running and most disastrous conflicts. Africa Action provides a brief look at the conflict, the peace deal, and the future.

06.01.2005 The top UN official in the Sudan is urging all parties to the Darfur conflict--government and rebel forces alike--to remain in their barracks and observe a three-day "period of tranquility" to allow for a polio vaccination campaign scheduled to reach nearly six million children next week. The peace plan scheduled to be signed Sunday in the country does not cover the Darfur region, where fighting has continued in recent weeks despite the nominal existence of a ceasefire agreement.

05.01.2005 The tsunami triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean that struck the Horn of Africa coastline just over a week ago has affected about 18,000 households of varying sizes in Somalia, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says.

03.01.2005 "We will work hard to resolve all problems in Sudan. But our work will not be complete unless we solve the problem of Darfur," said President el-Bashir at the December 31 ceremony where he and John Garang, leader of the southern Sudan liberation movement, signed permanent ceasefire agreement. The Sudanese president’s statement echoes fears by experts that the peace deal to end the 21-year civil war in the south will be jeopardized by the conflict in western Sudan.