From Amnesty International, Aug. 5:

Amnesty International has condemned attacks on politicians and journalists in the run-up to the presidential election on Aug. 9 and calls on the government to ensure the poll is held in an atmosphere where Rwandans can freely express their views.

Nearly 400 have been killed in recent clashes between the Sudanese army and Darfur's main rebel group, according to Sudanese state media. Most of the casualties were members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). UN peacekeepers in Darfur confirmed that there were at least two major clashes between the two sides. Gen. Al-Tayeb al-Musbah, of the Sudanese army, told the state-run Suna news agency that the army destroyed "scores of JEM vehicles" during the fighting.

Somalia's Shabab insurgents claimed responsibility for July 11 simultaneous attacks in Uganda's capital Kampala that targeted crowds watching the World Cup final at public gathering places. Aleast 74 were killed in the bombings—the deadliest attacks yet carried out by the Shabab, and their first outside Somalia. The statement said the attacks were in retaliation for Uganda's role in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The Uganda attacks were the deadliest in East Africa since the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which left more than 200 dead.

The opposition candidate in Somaliland, an unrecognized independent republic in northwest Somalia, prevailed over the incumbent president in elections held late last month and approved by international observers. The election saw the defeat of President Dahir Riyale Kahin and his United Democratic People's Party (UDUB), which has been in power since independence in 1991. The new president-elect, Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo of the Kulmiye party, will be sworn in by July 26. All parties have pledged to respect the result, boosting Somaliland as a "model" for the Horn of Africa.

Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on July 12 charged Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with three counts of genocide in relation to the Darfur conflict. The chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to conclude that Bashir had committed genocide against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. The charges included "genocide by killing, genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm and genocide by deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction."

Somalia marked its 50th anniversary of independence from colonial rule June 26 with bullets on one end of the country and ballots on the other. In Mogadishu, the official capital in the south, the president of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, gave a hopeful but solemn address—even as violence continued in the city. On June 27, a Mogadishu market came under mortar bombardment as Shabab insurgents attacked TFG troops and African Union peacekeepers, leaving three dead and nine injured. Since the beginning of the year, 200,000 Somalis have fled Mogadishu. Many have sought refuge in the camps that ring the city, such as the Afgooye Corridor, home to the world's largest concentration of displaced people—more than 360,000.

Sweden's international prosecutor, Magnus Elving, announced June 21 that he would investigate the possible role of Lundin Petroleum in crimes against humanity committed in Sudan from 1997 to 2003. The investigation will examine allegations made in a report released by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS), which alleged that Sudanese troops attacked and displaced civilians so that Lundin could have access to land for oil drilling.

Two Sudanese rebel leaders suspected of committing war crimes related to the ongoing Darfur violence surrendered June 16 to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain (Banda) and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus (Jerbo) are suspected in connection with the September 2007 attack on African Union (AU) peacekeeping troops at Haskanita, which resulted in the death of 12 peacekeepers. Summonses for Banda and Jerbo were issued under seal by Pre-Trial Chamber I last August and include charges of murder, intentionally attacking a peacekeeping mission, and "pillaging."