The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has announced that come June this year all their support for Sierra Leonean refugees reluctantly refusing to come will stop. This was disclosed by the new UNHCR Public Information Officer, Rachel Goldstein-Rodriguez during a question and answer session at the UNAMSIL press briefing last week. She said although UNHCR is not forcing the refugees to return home, they have nevertheless on several occasions been encouraging them, as according to her, "the Agency will soon stop all relief supplies to Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea and Liberia that do not want to return home."

The UN refugee agency has been tasked with setting up a working group to support the return and reintegration of millions of refugees in at least nine African countries, a move that could bring the continent a step closer to ending some of its most protracted refugee situations. The decision was taken at the end of Monday, the first of the two-day Dialogue on Voluntary Repatriation and Sustainable Reintegration in Africa. Sponsored by UNHCR, the Geneva meeting gathered delegates from some 60 countries, including senior government officials from throughout Africa, donor states and representatives of international organisations.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, a campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has been launched throughout Somalia, where an estimated 98 percent of all women have undergone the ritual. The campaign is being led by four networks of Somali women’s organisations, namely the Coalition of Grassroots Women's Organization (COGWO), IIDA Women's Development Organization (IIDA means celebrate in Somali), We Are Women Activists (WAWA) and NAGAAD (roughly translated in Somali as 'Stay Rooted'). The networks represent nearly 90 grass-roots women's groups, Maryan Abdulle Qawane of COGWO told IRIN.

The South African government has undermined its promising initiative to provide anti-AIDS drugs to prevent HIV among rape survivors, putting lives at risk amid a dual epidemic of sexual violence and HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The 73-page report, "Deadly Delay: South Africa's Efforts to Prevent HIV in Survivors of Sexual Violence," documents how government inaction and misinformation from high-level officials have undermined the effectiveness of South Africa's program to provide rape survivors with post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)-antiretroviral drugs that can reduce the risk of contracting HIV from an HIV-positive attacker.