Full Coverage: North Africa

27.10.2005 Three activists have won the prestigious Human Rights Defender Award: Omid Memarian, a journalist and web-blogger from Iran, Salih Mahmoud Osman, lawyer and human rights activist from Darfur, and Beatrice Were, an advocate for the rights of women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Uganda.
* The "ladies in white", wives and mothers of imprisoned dissidents in Cuba, this week received the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, along with Nigerian lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim and Reporters Without Borders.

27.10.2005 The situation in Sudan's Darfur region is deteriorating sharply, warns the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who says that a further calamity there could have "a devastating impact" on neighbouring countries.

27.10.2005 U.S. Ambassador John Bolton recently called for U.N. to take action, not merely talk about the deteriorating situation in Darfur, but the arms embargo he's suggesting would be ineffective and insufficient, say Africa advocates, urging Bolton to do more.

25.10.2005 Stoves requiring less wood or charcoal fuel not only help curb deforestation and air pollutants, they also decrease the time women and children must spend outside the safety of the camp, say refugee advocates.

21.10.2005 A growing demonstration in a small park in Egypt offers dramatic insight into the situation of those forced to flee their homelands, yet shunned by officials and neighbors where they take up residence seeking peace.

21.10.2005 As violence and lawlessness escalate, African Union (AU) soldiers struggle to protect refugees displaced by the continued fighting in Sudan's western region of Darfur. Refugees International accompanied the AU mission as it monitored the humanitarian ceasefire in effect since 2004.

19.10.2005 "The monitoring of the crises in Sudan will certainly become emphasised during the Finnish Presidency of the EU," said EU Special Representative for Sudan Pekka Haavisto, who had just returned from Darfur to Helsinki.

11.10.2005 African immigrants are dying near Spain's Moroccan enclaves. Their tragedy is Europe's responsibility, says Nicholas Mead on openDemocracy.

06.10.2005 UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 6 (One World) - Extreme hunger and malnutrition could take the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in southern Sudan if the world fails to take immediate action, humanitarian aid activists are warning.

06.10.2005 MADRID, Oct 5 (IPS) - Spain's announcement that it plans to build a third fence to separate its enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco, using the most advanced technology aimed at keeping out undocumented immigrants, has drawn loud criticism while giving rise to many questions.

03.10.2005 Immigrants crossing from Morocco to Spain are being attacked and abused by the authorities and gangs, a new report by Medecins sans frontieres reveals.