Government troops—the FARDC—in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are to blame for much of the epidemic of sexual violence in the east of the country, according to US and UN reports detailing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by various groups there. FARDC is trying to rout the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from the Kivu region and Oriental province in eastern Congo, but operations have been criticized for their impact on civilians.

The US State Department's annual human rights report, released this week, charges that Ethiopia is holding several hundred political prisoners, including the leader of one of the country's largest opposition parties. The 2009 report says Birtukan Mideksa, president of Ethiopia's opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice party, was held in solitary confinement for the first six months of the year despite a court ruling that it violated her constitutional rights.

In its annual human rights country report, released March 11, the US State Department accuses Eritrea of systematically abusing human rights, as well as sponsoring terrorism in the Horn of Africa region, and acting as a source and conduit for arms to insurgents in Somalia. The report charges the Asmara government oversaw unlawful killings by its security forces last year; used arbitrary arrests, beatings and torture against opposition supporters; and severely restricted freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association and religion. Throughout 2009, "consistent and systemic gross human rights violations persisted unabated at the government's behest," the report said.

The Israeli military has charged two soldiers with endangering the life of a Palestinian boy during Israel's Gaza Strip offensive last winter. The army said the soldiers, who had been searching a building, instructed the nine-year-old to open bags they suspected were booby-trapped. This practice, banned by the Israeli military, is known as using someone as a "human shield," and is widely considered a war crime. The soldiers, both staff sergeants, were charged with "engaging in unauthorized conduct in a way that endangered life and health." The bags the boy was forced to open turned out to be harmless.

Israeli warplanes opened fire on the southern Gaza Strip early March 12, striking two targets near the Egyptian border. There were no immediate reports of injury in the attack, which an Israeli military spokesman said targeted sites in Rafah and Khan Younis. De facto authorities in Gaza told the independent Ma'an News Agency that the strikes targeted a smuggling tunnel along the Rafah border and a warehouse used to store oxygen tanks in Khan Younis. The Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that the Rafah tunnel was used for smuggling weapons and the Khan Younis warehouse was actually a bomb-making lab. The attacks came after a projectile was fired at southern Israel, causing damage, the official said, adding, "We will not accept the firing of rockets at Israel and will response harshly to any attempts to disrupt the calm." A similar strike targeted tunnels near Rafah on March 3. (Ma'an News Agency, March 12)

Israel imposed a full closure of the occupied West Bank for 48 hours on March 12. The decision means those Palestinians with permits will generally not be permitted to access Jerusalem over the weekend. Defense Minister Ehud Barak made the move amid reports about possible new protests by Palestinians around Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque after Friday prayers. Some street clashes were reported around the Old City, and hundreds of men under the age of 50 were prevented from entering al-Aqsa mosque for Friday prayers. Authorities have deployed additional forces at al-Aqsa mosque and the Temple Mount. (AlJazeera, Ma'an News Agency, March 12)

Moroccan authorities "violently" put down peaceful protests in Western Sahara earlier this week, local human rights activist Aminatou Haidar said March 10. The crackdown on the two protests was Rabat's "response" to a request made by EU president Herman Van Rompuy at an EU-Morocco summit in Spain over the weekend that Morocco make progress on human rights, Haidar said in a statement.

Israel's plan to build 1,600 new housing units in occupied East Jerusalem is "dangerous" and has the potential to thwart US efforts to restart peace talks, the Palestinian Authority said March 9. The Israeli Interior Ministry's announcement came one day after it also approved 112 housing units in the Betar Illit settlement in Bethlehem—and a day after US envoy George Mitchell arrived in the region in a bid to reopen the talks. PA presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the move could "derail negotiations and ensure the failure of US efforts before they begin."