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."

Some 20 prisoners escaped in Burkina Faso on March 8 after middle and high school students set four police stations on fire to protest the killing of four youth by police last month. The police stations were burned down in the towns of Yako, Koupela, Gourcy and Dori. Peaceful protests were held in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso's second city, and six other towns. Six people, including four students and a police officer, were killed in riots in late February in the town of Koudougou, 100 kilometers west of the capital Ouagadougou, after a student died in disputed circumstances. (SAPA, March 8)

Clashes between South Sudanese forces and two separate rebel militias have left at least 90 people dead, an SPLA spokesman said March 7. In Jonglei state, the SPLA battled a militia loyal to renegade southern general George Athor, while in neighboring Upper Nile state SPLA troops fought an apparently allied militia under a warlord who was formerly backed by Khartoum, and whose name is rendered variously as Ulony or Oliny. Despite obvious fears that Khartoum is sponsoring rebel militias to take back lands from the SPLA before South Sudan's formal secession in July, Jonglei governor Kuol Manyang said that the fighting was due to a "long-time dispute" over land between the communities of Ayual and Dacuek. The clashes come despite the an offer to let the militias join the SPLA as part of South Sudan President Salva Kiir's amnesty to rebel fighters in October. (Middle East Online, BBC News, March 7; Sudan Tribune, March 4)

Government troops in the Comoros killed or repelled white mercenaries who tried to seize control of part of the Indian Ocean archipelago nation Feb. 22. The apparent coup attempt was launched in the island of Moheli in the early hours by about 20 French-speaking soldiers wearing balaclavas who took over government buildings and cut telephone lines. The troops were reported to have distributed leaflets written in English, linking President Azaly Assoumani to Osama bin Laden.

Senegal cut diplomatic ties with Iran Feb. 22, accusing Tehran of arming separatist rebels in its restive southern Casamance region, where 16 soldiers have been killed this year. A cache of weapons concealed as building material intercepted in Nigeria in October was determined to be one of several Iranian shipments passing through Gambia and destined for the Casamance guerillas. "Senegal is outraged to see that Iranian bullets caused the death of Senegalese soldiers," said the statement announcing the breaking of ties.

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled Feb. 15 that former Somali prime minister and defense minister Mohamed Ali Samantar is not entitled to legal immunity from civil lawsuits. Samantar, who has lived in the greater Washington DC area for more than 15 years, was sued in 2004 by two Somali men who alleged he spearheaded a campaign of ethnic repression against the northern Somali Isaaq clan during his tenure in office.

A rebellion by former pro-Khartoum fighters in South Sudan's Upper Nile state has sparked two days of clashes, leaving at least 20 dead. The fighting around Malakal airport, close to the border with the North, began when loyalists of Gabriel Tang, who commanded a pro-Khartoum force during the 1983-2005 civil war, refused to withdraw to the North. The dead include two children and a Sudanese driver for the UN's refugee agency.