With Sudan and South Sudan already effectively at war, reports indicate that each are arming rebel movements in the other's territory. Last week the South Sudanese military—officially the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA)—took the oil-producing enclave of Heglig from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), ostensibly in retaliation for SAF raids across the border. Sudan's President Omar Bashir on April 20 threatened to teach the South "a final lesson by force" if it doesn't withdraw from the enclave. (LAT, April 20) Amid the stand-off, the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey released a report finding that the SPLA is arming the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLMN), which is fighting to liberate South Kordofan state—where Heglig is located—from Khartoum's control. The report similarly charged that the SAF is arming the South Sudan Democratic Movement (SSDM) and South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA), which are fighting the SPLA in South Sudan's Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states. (See map.) The report also found evidence that Eritrea is cooperating with Khartoum in arming the SSDM and SSLA. The Small Arms Survey's Jonah Leff told Sudan Tribune that the support of rebels on both sides is "a symptom of the greater issue, which is oil and land." (ST, April 17 via AllAfrica)

The latest coup d'etat in Guinea-Bissau is being linked by Western diplomats to the international drug trade. Soldiers took control of much of the capital Bissau on April 13 as the military announced that it had arrested interim President Raimundo Pereira, as well as Carlos Gomes Jr., a former prime minister and leading presidential candidate. Press accounts cite speculation that Gomes ran afoul of the military by promising to end a lucrative arrangement with drug traffickers. While the economy is officially based on cashew nuts, the country has become a key transshipment point for South American cocaine en route to Europe, with the army receiving big pay-offs. "The drugs are behind it all," said Jan Van Maanen, the honorary British consul in Guinea-Bissau. "It's a nice income for the army and they stand a chance of losing it all." (McClatchy Newspapers, AP, BBC News, April 13)

South Sudan accused Khartoum April 5 both of bombing an oil pipeline near the town of Heglig, in South Kordofan state, and of trying to build an "illegal" pipeline crossing the border towards the South's oil fields. "This is oil piracy," military spokesman Philip Aguer charged, adding that a "foreign company" was involved. South Sudan also said it had shot down a Sudanese MiG-29 aircraft over South Sudan's oil-producing Unity state. The claims were denied by Khartoum. Heglig was taken by South Sudanese forces late last month, with the South's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), saying it was responding to incursions by Khartoum's Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). (Reuters, AlJazeera, April 5; Sudan Tribune, March 28)

The International Criminal Court (ICC) March 14 issued its first verdict, a unanimous decision that Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is guilty of the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate actively in hostilities. The three-judge Trial Chamber I found that Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo established beyond a reasonable doubt that Lubanga, former president of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), coordinated and actively supported the enlistment of child soldiers into his Patriotic Force for the Liberation of the Congo (FPLC) militia, the military wing of the UPC believed to have committed large-scale human rights abuses in Congo's violent Ituri district. Lubanga and his co-perpetrators designed to build an army for the purpose of establishing and maintaining political and military control over Ituri, a plan which resulted in boys and girls under the age of 15 being conscripted and used to participate actively in hostilities in 2002 and 2003. The court determined that Lubanga's contribution was essential to the common plan, that Lubanga personally used children below the age of 15 as his bodyguards, sex slaves and fighters and that he regularly saw guards of other UPC/FPLC staff members who were below the age of 15. Lubanga requested a separate sentencing hearing under article 76(2) of the Rome Statute, and he is entitled to appeal his conviction within 30 days. He faces life imprisonment.

Former Somali prime minister Mohamed Ali Samantar on Feb. 23 accepted legal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity before the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The civil suit was brought by the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) in 2004 against Samantar, who had been living in Washington, DC, for more than 15 years, on behalf of five Somalis under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991. The plaintiff Somalis had been granted asylum in the US after being imprisoned and tortured while Samantar was in office under dictator Siad Barre. Samantar said he will not contest his legal responsibility but made clear that by doing this he is not admitting guilt. The CJA said this is the first time anyone will be held legally responsible for the events that occurred during Barre's regime.

As Ethiopian forces press their offensive in Somalia, Shabaab rebels relinquished control of Baidoa, a key southern city that had been under their control for three years. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that about 50 vehicles, including some 20 tanks, had entered Baidoa, which was apparently abandoned by the Shabaab. After the port of Kismayo, the town was the Shabaab's most important base. Since the city changed hands, scattered IED attacks have been reported near former Shabaab bases. Shabaab's Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab said: "Baidoa will be a cemetery for the Ethiopians."

Nigeria's Bayelsa state government said Feb. 9 it will speed up the release of money to help hundreds of thousands of villagers affected by a Chevron off-shore oil spill in January. The affected areas are Kolo Ama I and II, Akasa, Sanagana, Fish Town, Fropa, Ekeni, Ezetu and Lobia—all in Bayelsa state, and with a combined population of some 500,000. Bukola Saraki, chairman of the Senate committee on environment and ecology, said his committee had convened several meetings with senior Chevron Nigeria officials, the Nigerian National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, and the Nigerian Department of Petroleum Resources to plan an initial impact assessment of the contamination and begin clean-up operations. "We will also ensure that Chevron takes appropriate steps to contain the spill, remediate the impacted area and if there has been any loss as a result, ensure that adequate compensation is paid to the immediate community," Saraki said.

Arms sales from China and Russia are fuelling serious human rights violations in Darfur, Amnesty International said Feb. 8. A new briefing, "Sudan: No end to Violence in Darfur," documents how China, Russia, and Belarus continue to supply weapons and munitions to Sudan despite compelling evidence that the arms will be used against civilians in Darfur. Exports include supplying significant quantities of ammunition, helicopter gunships, attack aircrafts, air-to-ground rockets and armored vehicles. Although the war has largely disappeared from global headlines, an estimated 70,000 people were displaced from eastern Darfur in 2011, in a renewed wave of ethnically targeted attacks against the Zaghawa community by Sudanese government forces and militias. Amnesty said that arms supplied to the government of Sudan are used in Darfur both directly by the Sudan Armed Forces; and government-backed militia including the Popular Defense Force. (AI, Feb. 8)