The restoration of relative calm in southwestern Guinea has enabled the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide emergency food rations to 25,000 refugees in Kolomba camp, located in the Parrot's Beak, WFP said in a communique on Thursday.

Beninese police yesterday questioned the children found on the MV Etireno, a vessel originally believed to be carrying 250 enslaved children, the police agency said. While it is now believed that the Etireno did not transport slaves, the incident has drawn attention to the problem of child slavery in other African nations.

The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) have finalised a programme under which thousands of soldiers, including senior officers, will be demobilised as a way of modernising the institution, the 'Sunday Monitor' reported.

The trial of a former Rwandan minister began at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, on Tuesday. According to a press release from the Tribunal, the former higher education minister under the interim government of April-July 1994, Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, appeared before judges Laity Kama, Mehmet Guney and William Sekule. His charges include genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.

Rebels of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) have reversed a decision to block UN peacekeepers from deploying in the city of Kisangani. The UN announced that the deployment of 120 Moroccan peacekeepers - due to have taken place last Sunday - would now go ahead on Friday.