Spokesperson for the First People of Kalahari (FPK) Roy Sesana announced Jan. 19 that his organization plans to take its land dispute case against the Botswana government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The FPK is an advocacy group representing San, or Bushmen people who were relocated by the government from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in 1997. Sesana said that peace talks with President Ian Khama had broken down and that the FPK would initiate proceedings in the ICJ because previous court orders granting land rights to the Bushmen have been ignored.

Nigerian authorities imposed a curfew in the north-central city of Jos on Jan. 20 after four days of fighting between Muslims and Christians killed at least 200 people. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan deployed troops to Jos in one of his first acts of executive power since President Umaru Yar'Adua was hospitalised in Saudi Arabia with a heart condition in November. The troops have orders to shoot rioters on sight.

Thousands of internally displaced in Somalia's central town of Beletweyne are on the move again following 10 days of fighting between rival Islamist militias, amid reports of continuing heavy shelling in parts of the town. According to a humanitarian bulletin covering 8-15 January by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 30 people have been killed and 50 injured, mostly civilians, with many artillery shells landing on residential areas. OCHA could not confirm the number of displaced.

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a superseding indictment Jan. 12 against alleged Somali pirate Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, claiming that he led the takeover of two additional ships. Muse pleaded not guilty to the charges. The 10-count indictment does not provide the identity of the ships involved or details of the events, but prosecutors stated that hostages from one of the ships remain in captivity.

The Nigerian army Jan. 11 confirmed that a Chevron pipeline had been sabotaged, leading to the shutdown of 20,000 barrels a day in the Niger Delta. "A joint reconnaissance by Chevron Nigeria Ltd. and the [army's] Joint Task Force have confirmed that indeed there was sabotage at Chevron pipeline between Makaraba and Otunana," the JTF said in a statement, calling it "an isolated incident." The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said other militants had conducted the attack, though it had sanctioned the operation. (Dow Jones, Jan. 11)

World-renowned political organizer and one of Africa's most celebrated poets, Dennis Brutus, died early on Dec. 26 in Cape Town, in his sleep, aged 85. Even in his last days, Brutus was fully engaged, advocating social protest against those responsible for climate change, and promoting reparations to black South Africans from corporations that benefited from apartheid. He was a leading plaintiff in the Alien Tort Claims Act case against major firms that is now making progress in the US court system.

The Red Cross says that of the 39 killed Dec. 28 in a clash between government forces and the Yan Kala-Kato Islamic sect in the Nigerian state of Bauchi, some 60% were students aged between nine and 15. Sect leader Malam Badamasi was reportedly among those killed by a joint army and police squad at Zango. Fighting broke out at Zango, on the outskirts of Bauchi city, after a sermon delivered by the sect's leader created a disturbance. Preachers reportedly threatened those who refused to convert to their brand of Islam with being expelled from the area. (BBC News, IPS, Dec. 29)

Chad's military launched air-strikes and ground assaults against rebels from the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) in the east of the country Dec. 15, in the first major fighting since May. The UFR says four civilians were killed and many more wounded in the clashes, near the Sudan border. The government, which charges that Sudan backs the insurgency, denies any civilian casualties. (BBC News, Dec. 15)