• Ivory Coast leaders, rebels pressed for peace
• Annan set for summit on Côte d’Ivoire peace process next week in Ghana
• Trial of Zim 'mercenaries' again postponed
• Mugabe urges S African nations to establish independent democracy
• American ambassador hits out at Zimbabwe
• Kenyan Muslims plead for hostages
• Poor rainfall, crop failure has Kenya on verge of national disaster – UN
• South Africa to chair SADC defence organ
• Chinese premier vows to enhance trade links with Namibia

• Khartoum: 38 killed in aid convoy attack
• Sudanese FM says Sudan would pull troops out of violence-wracked Darfur if Britain sent its forces
• Life-saving UN relief operations in Sudan face $200 million budget gap - Annan
• Rwanda fires judges in judicial reform
• Hundreds flee Goma in the DRC
• Burundi group rejects power-sharing proposal
• UN agencies team up to provide health care for refugees returning to Burundi
• Guinea still occupies Sierra Leonean territory

Kenya: State Forms Team to Address Plight of Orphans:The Government has formed a national steering committee to address the growing numbers and plight of orphans and other vulnerable children. The committee's main task will be to spearhead the National Rapid Assessment Analysis and Action Planning Process for orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV/Aids.

Eritrea: Hundreds of Thousands of Children Living in Extreme Poverty: UNICEF said in a humanitarian update that an estimated 425,000 children under 14 years of age were affected, mostly in families that were largely dependent on and headed by women.