From Human Rights Watch, June 12:

Ethiopia: Army Commits Executions, Torture, and Rape in Ogaden
In its battle against rebels in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali Region, Ethiopia's army has subjected civilians to executions, torture, and rape, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The widespread violence, part of a vicious counterinsurgency campaign that amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, has contributed to a looming humanitarian crisis, threatening the survival of thousands of ethnic Somali nomads.

As the UN Security Council, Arab League and African Union urge Eritrea to halt military action against neighboring Djibouti, French officers stationed in the Horn of Africa mini-state say that France is providing Djibouti with military support—and preparing to send more troops and war material. Speaking to the official Agence Djiboutienne d'Information (ADI), a French officer identified as Col. Ducret said French forces are "providing assistance in logistics, medical [and] intelligence service to the Djiboutian army."

An estimated 100 people were killed and thousands fled their homes in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in renewed fighting over the weekend following between Ethiopian troops and insurgents. Another 200 were wounded as the Bakara market, Somalia's largest open-air market, was hit by artillery fire. The fighting started when Ethiopian and Somali government forces moved into the restive Yaqshid and Wardigley districts.

In late 2006, when Mengistu Haile Mariam was found guilty of genocide by an Ethiopian court, we noted the irony that the verdict came as charges of mass killings of ethnic minorities were mounting against the current Ethiopian regime. Mengistu is now sentenced to death—just as Amnesty International has issued a report accusing Ethiopia of war crimes in Somalia. From AlJazeera, May 26:

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statement May 26 its fighters had sabotaged Shell Oil's "major trunk pipeline" at Awoba flow station, and killed 11 soldiers in an ensuing gun battle. Sagir Musa, military spokesman in Nigeria's Rivers state, dismissed the claims as "mischievous lies... There was no attack on the facility and none of our soldiers were killed." But a spokesman for Shell Petroleum Development Corporation said: "SPDC can confirm an attack on the Nembe Creek trunk line at Awoba," adding that an overflight had revealed some oil had spilled. "We have mobilised equipment to contain a further spread of oil," the spokesman said. (Sydney Morning Herald, May 27; AlJazeera, May 26)

Egyptian authorities escalated their crackdown on Darfur rebel groups maintaining offices in Cairo, expelling Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) representative Hafiz Youcif Hamoda from the country. The move comes with increasing pressure on Sudanese migrants and refugees in Egypt. No explanation was given for the expulsion of Hamoda, an adviser to SLM leader Abdel Wahid al-Nur and member of the SLM negotiating team. Speaking with Sudan Tribune from Nairobi, Hamoda said the Egyptian decision is motivated by the "tremendous rapprochement between Khartoum and Cairo."

For the past three days, the disputed Sudanese territory of Abeyi has been undergoing what one local SPLA official calls a "bloodbath," with Misseriya ethnic militiamen attacking local Ngok (Dinka) residents, and Battalion 31 of the Sudan Armed Forces shelling the area "indiscriminately." The SPLA and Ngok residents accuse the Sudan Armed Forces of arming the Misseriya militia in violation of the peace agreement. (New Sudan Vision, May 20)

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change accused President Robert Mugabe's government of setting up a sham investigation into electoral violence to deflect international criticism. The MDC says 43 of its members have been killed and scores forced from their homes by militias loyal to Mugabe since disputed March elections. It says the violence is intended to throw a June 27 run-off vote pitting Mugabe against the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai.