Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels issued a statement May 19 charging that the army has opened an offensive that is targetting civilians in the ethnically Somali region in the country's east (see map). ONLF spokesman Abdirahman Mahdi accused Ethiopian security forces of attacking villages near oil exploration sites in the Ogaden, which borders Somalia and has been the scene of a low-level insurgency since the early 1990s. "It is a random killing aimed at terrorizing the public," Mahdi said from his office in London. "This is the first time security forces turned up in villages, rounded up villagers and killed them in brutal manners." The statement called the attacks, centered around the towns of Nogob (Fik, by its official Ethiopian designation) and Jarar (Degahbur), a "pogrom," with at least 100 dead in recent days, and demanded an immediate UN investigation. Mohamed Gure, information minister for the Somali state government, called the claims "baseless propaganda." (AP, Ogaden Online, May 19)

South Sudan is witnessing a sharp rise in armed conflict—with less than three months to go before the formal independence of the fledgling nation. Heavy fighting has killed some 1,000 and displaced an estimated 100,000 since southerners voted overwhelmingly for independence in January, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The fighting is centered in Unity and Jonglei states, near the border with the North (see map). The most recent clashes have pitted the southern armed forces of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) against a breakaway SPLA faction led by Peter Gadet, who has taken up arms against the South Sudan government. (Reuters, May 11; IRIN, April 26)

At least two people were killed and some 120 injured in the Ugandan capital Kampala April 29 as police fired bullets and tear gas at crowds protesting the arrest of opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye. who had led recent demonstrations over rising food and fuel prices. Besigye, who was attacked with pepper spray as police snatched him from his car the previous day, was roughly treated before being released hours later. He then flew to Kenya for treatment—after an airport standoff with government agents trying to block his departure. President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the Uganda Communication Commission to shut down all social networking sites, fearing they will be used as a tool for organizing protests. (Irish Times, Reuters, April 30; Computerworld Kenya, April 28)

Inspired by the Arab Spring, protesters in Swaziland are calling for King Mswati III—Africa’s last absolute monarch—to allow multi-party democracy and rescind salary cuts to public employees. The king has not responded publicly, but his army and police have unleashed a heavy crackdown, including preemptive arrests of labor leaders, journalists, and student activists, as well as the use of tear gas and water cannons on the streets. On April 13, the third day of protests, labor and student leaders announced a pause in the campaign to rethink their strategy, but some warned against backing down. "You can choose, if you want to, to end the protests and in the process send a clear a message to your government that ... the best way to deal with protests is clubs and tear gas," the Swaziland Support Network (SSN) in a statement. "The alternative is fighting back." (CSM, April 14)

French special forces April 11 aided in the capture of Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan. Gbagbo surrendered after French tanks moved in on his residence while it was surrounded by opposition leader Alassane Ouattara's forces. Gbagbo had refused to leave office since his defeat in presidential elections last November. France deployed forces to the Ivory Coast as part of a UN-backed peacekeeping mission to stem the post-electoral violence. It was reported that French special forces captured Gbagbo and turned him over to Ouattar's forces, but Youssoufou Bamba, UN envoy of president-elect Ouattara, said it was the opposition leader's forces who made the arrest. However, there are still conflicting reports over what forces actually made the arrest. Gbagbo is being held in a hotel with his family under the protection of UN and pro-Ouattara forces. France claims that its intervention in its former colony is only at the UN's request.

A Somali pirate was sentenced by the US District Court for the District of Columbia on April 7 to 25 years in prison for attacking a Danish ship off the coast of Somalia in 2008, for which he and other pirates received a $1.7 million ransom. US Department of Justice officials say Jama Idle Ibrahim, who pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit piracy and conspiracy to use a firearm during a violent crime, and other Somali men were armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades when they seized the Danish vessel MV CEC Future and held its 13-member crew for ransom. Ibrahim's sentence will run concurrent with the 30-year sentence he received in November, stemming from a failed assault on the Navy's USS Ashland.

Forces loyal to president-elect Alassane Ouattara took Ivory Coast's administrative capital Yamoussoukro and principal port San Pedro on March 31, and are currently moving on Abidjan, the country's principal city—where rumors are flying about the imminent fall of Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power. Ouattara, the internationally recognized president, said Gbagbo would not be harmed if he agreed to leave. Civilian residents throughout Abidjan, however, do not have such assurances.

The shelling of a market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on March 17, which killed at least 25 people and wounded 40, may be a crime against humanity, the United Nations says. The UN blamed forces loyal to the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to cede power set off the crisis. The market was in the suburb of Abobo, a stronghold of Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the Nov. 28 presidential race. “Such an act, perpetrated against civilians, could constitute a crime against humanity,” the UN said in a statement. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the Security Council to “take further measures with regard to the Ivorian individuals who are instigating, orchestrating and committing the violence."