One-third of all internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan plan to return to the south within six months, posing considerable humanitarian challenges to aid organisations, an interagency survey found. Sudan has experienced the worst population displacement in the world, mainly due to prolonged conflict since 1983. Although it is difficult to determine the exact number of IDPs, the figure is commonly rounded to four million, the survey report noted.

Botswana's health authorities are battling climbing malnutrition rates among young children, despite sustained economic growth in recent years. A recent report by the National Early Warning Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture showed a dramatic decline since April this year in the nutritional status of children under five years in the northeastern districts of Kgalagadi North, and Mabutsane and Gantsi in the west.

Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade, one of the main promoters of the ambitious program for African development known as Nepad, argued on Monday that the program's headquarters in Johannesburg should be closed as a waste of money. "They are spending money for nothing; they should close that office," Wade said. "Since Nepad was founded (in 2001), its officials have spent $15m; they have not moved anything forward an inch and they will not move anything forward."