ABIDJAN, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Eleven people were shot or hacked to death when unidentified assailants attacked a village in the volatile cocoa-growing western region of war-torn Cote d’Ivoire, hospital and police officials said on Tuesday.Full report

KHARTOUM, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - The first batch of 10,000 Sudanese refugees who have lived in the Central African Republic for 16 years arrived home this week following a recent agreement between the two governments and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.Full report

NAIROBI, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Some 376 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Sudan's Dinka ethnic group have returned to the southern town of Bor from the regional capital, Juba, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has said. Full report

GAGA, 3 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Ask Kaltouma Yaya Ato why three years into the Darfur conflict, she has only just decided to seek refuge in Chad, and the 80-year old says not a word. She simply rolls up the folds of her skirt to reveal traces of the Janjawid.Full report

MBABANE, 3 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Marijuana grown in Swaziland could help house South Africa's homeless, according to an NGO working with residents in informal settlements.Full report

KINSHASA, 3 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - At least 37,000 internally displaced persons are without humanitarian relief because of continued attacks by military insurgents in North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said.Full report

BANGUI, 2 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Some 5,000 Sudanese refugees living in the Central African Republic could return home by April following the signing of a tripartite agreement between the two governments and the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the agency said. Full report

KINSHASA, 1 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Thousands of Sudanese refugees living in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congolese refugees living in Sudan could soon be repatriated following the signing of corresponding tripartite agreements between the two governments and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, a spokesman for the agency said.Full report

NAIROBI, 1 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - The next international conference for Africa's Great Lakes region will be held in August or September, after the completion of the political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Ibrahima Fall, the special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to the region.Full report

NAIROBI, 1 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Delegates to the fourth and final preparatory meeting for the international conference on Africa's Great Lakes region analysed draft programmes of action to be tabled before a heads-of-state summit to be held in Nairobi later this year.Full report

SOMALIA: Year in Review 2005: Still waiting for change

UGANDA: Year in Brief 2005 - A chronology of key events

LIBERIA: A chronology of 25 years of conflict and turmoil

DRC: Crisis in Katanga ignored

SOUTH AFRICA: Evictees forced to squeeze into shanty towns

SUDAN: Interview with Bob Turner, UNMIS head of Returns, Reintegration and Recovery

SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE: Persistence pays off for border jumpers looking for better life

BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Refugees reluctant to return home