African Union Peacekeeping

(CNN) -- Somali government forces backed by forces from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces took over a base used by al Qaeda-backed Al-Shabaab militants on the northern outskirts of Mogadishu, AMISOM said in a statement.  The based had been used to execute civilians suspected of being spies for the government and to launch attacks on the capital, accoding to AMISOM.

The Ethiopian peacekeeping force deployed in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, under the auspices of an AU-UN hybrid operation, has been honoured with medals for what the government describes as an outstanding peacekeeping operation.The awards comes after a high level delegation, led by Ethiopian minister of defense, Siraj Fegesa, paid a visit last week to Ethiopia's peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

Sudan's president has launched a governing body to oversee a peace agreement intended to end the war in the western region of Darfur.

The deal was reached last year, but signed by only one of Darfur's weaker rebel movements.

JOHANNESBURG, 3 February 2012 (IRIN) - The belief that the end is nigh for Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) - a small but ruthless transnational armed group operating in four African states - underestimates its resilience and overestimates the unity and capability of the forces ranged against it, say analysts. 

The Somali capital, Mogadishu, has been hit by some of the fiercest fighting in the city in months, in what is seen as a major setback for the government.

The clashes began shortly after dawn between Islamist al-Shabab militants and government forces, backed by African Union (AU) troops.  The AU forces are reported to have used tanks and heavy artillery.

December 6, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on Tuesday slammed statements made by a Sudanese official in which he said that Khartoum did not participate in a Washington workshop that discussed peace in Darfur in order not to give rebel groups legitimacy.

Sudan’s former chief negotiator for Darfur Amin Hassan Omer said this week that the government did not take part because it "does not want to give these [rebel] movements a legitimacy they lack".

In East Africa, hopes are high that the long-running Somali conflict will soon abate with the United Nations Security Council’s approval Monday of tougher sanctions against Eritrea. The nation is accused of supporting Somali militants, including al-Shabab. For its part, Eritrea denies the allegations and calls the sanctions “illegal and unjust.”

Analysts and some of those involved in the long-running Somali conflict say they are hoping for a quick end to the fighting following Monday’s decision by the United Nations Security Council.

MOGADISHU — A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday in central Mogadishu after being arrested, killing two soldiers and wounding at least four civilians, a security official said.

"A man was detained by soldiers driving a car we believed was full of explosives, but when the soldiers told the driver to open the car, he detonated explosives on his body," said government security official Abdi Hashi.

Khartoum, Sudan - United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Susana Malcorra, on Wednesday visited UNAMID’s headquarters in Fashir, North Darfur, to meet with the Mission leadership and assess the situation on the ground ahead of a review of uniformed personnel due to take place in the coming weeks.

Addressing UNAMID staff, Ms Malcorra said as the situation in Darfur shifted towards peace and development, there would be a need for a readjustment in the way the Mission’s personnel delivered their mandate, making sure they were closer to where they were needed most.

A little over a week ago, aid workers in Somalia were cautiously celebrating news that half of the areas previously classified as most at risk had improved and were no longer “in famine.”

But by Wednesday there were several warnings that those hard-won gains were under threat from renewed conflict and the decision by Somalia’s Islamist insurgency to ban most Western aid agencies from its territory. The developments have aid workers warning that famine may return in places.