Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have expressed concern about the security threat posed by ex-combatants mingling with genuine refugees and asylum seekers in the sub-region, and called on UNHCR to review the situation. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- A two day consultative meeting opened in Gaborone Thursday to discuss the worsening refugee situation and related matters in the southern African region. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The Nigerian government Wednesday gave Zambia 92,000 US dollars to help it cope with refugees in the country. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- Refugees in Botswana's Dukwi camp have threatened they would commit suicide to protest against what they term as unbearable living conditions. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- The hunger crisis that hit several refugee camps in western Tanzania this year has been eased following increased donations and pledges of food supply from donor countries, a senior official of the World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Exiled soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday requested authorities in neighbouring Congo Brazzaville to prepare a legal framework for their return home. Full text...

Boston- United States (PANA) -- Black lawmakers in the US state of Massachusetts and advocates for African immigrant causes in the country have joined efforts to ensure equity and fairness in US refugee admission policy in respect of Africa. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- More than 20,000 Burundian refugees have been repatriated home from neighbouring Tanzania and given assistance for reintegration, an official disclosed in Bujumbura. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Some 350 Burundi refugees have returned home from northern Tanzania in the past one week, officials said in Bujumbura Monday. Full text...

Impfondo- Congo (PANA) -- More than 2,000 nationals from the Central African Republic (CAR) who took refuge in Congo Brazzaville in the heat of last May's failed coup have said they cannot return while President Ange Felix Patasse was still in power. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzania and the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo currently host the largest refugee population within the 14-nation Southern African Development Community, according to new data provided by the UN High Commission for Refugees. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger police have dispersed some 60 African refugees who were occupying the premises of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Niamey, the local press reported Thursday. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The UN refugees agency and its partners have worked out an emergency plan for resettlement of 1,068 refugees in the Guiglo region of Cote d'Ivoire. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Some 64 Congolese who were exiled in Gabon since 1977 returned to Brazzaville Thursday aboard a government chartered aircraft, state radio reported Friday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- As industrialised nations face a huge influx of refugees seeking asylum, a French philanthropist Monday urged developed and developing countries to address the root causes of the problem in order to stop the increasing number of refugees worldwide. Full text...

Douala- Cameroon (PANA) -- Only 288 out of the 500 Chadians registered for repatriation from Cameroon actually turned up at the local offices of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- About 4,300 Liberian refugees have crossed into Cote d'Ivoire since May after escaping from the fighting in the Lofa county on the border with Guinea, a humanitarian source said Tuesday in Abidjan. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Burundian refugees in Tanzania are at the centre of discussions between experts from the two countries, attended by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Full text...

N'djamena- Chad (PANA) -- The voluntary repatriation of some 1,000 Chadian refugees from Yaounde and Douala would begin next Monday, the UNHCR programme officer in Chad, Haoua Sylla said Wednesday. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- At least 200 nationals from five West African states have arrived in Freetown by boat after escaping from civil war in Liberia. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sierra Leone has confirmed the arrival of some 16,000 Liberian refugees in the eastern part of Sierra Leone's Kailahun District. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- About 700 Burundi refugees in the last few days returned from neighbouring Tanzania to Rumonge in Bururi Province, official sources in Bujumbura said. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Two days after it sailed into Nigeria's main Apapa port with its Liberian passengers, "MV Alnar Stockholm" is yet to leave the country's shores due to some procedural issues being sorted out with owner Henning Kielberg, port officials said Thursday. Full text...

NAIROBI- Kenya (PANA) -- Nine out of 40 Addis Ababa University students living as refugees in Nairobi collapsed Thursday on the fourth day of their hunger strike. Full text...

Oru- Nigeria (PANA) -- Travel-weary Liberians who arrived in Nigeria aboard a Swedish ship Tuesday, after a 26-day high-seas saga, are settling down at the country's national refugee camp in Oru, in the south-western State of Ogun. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Five days after the Nigerian government offered to take in some 186 Liberians said to be fleeing the fighting in their home region, ports officials and journalists have been keeping vigil at the Lagos port awaiting the arrival of the Swedish ship carrying the Liberians. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- An independent Ghanaian newspaper has appealed to the international community for lasting solutions the world-wide problem of refugees. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Over 50 nationals of Central African Republic have fled to Congo following the recent coup attempt against President Ange Felix Patasse, a senior government official in Brazzaville has disclosed. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- As Nigerian Port and Immigration officials await the arrival of the Swedish ship carrying Liberians believed to be refugees, the UN agency for refugees (UNHCR) said it is not involved in the plans to receive them. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- The minister in charge of re- integration and resettlement of displaced people Wednesday said Burundi was ready to welcome "in dignity" all refugees who voluntarily return home. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian ports and immigration officials said Wednesday they were still awaiting the arrival of the Swedish ship carrying Liberian refugees, who were granted conditional asylum by the federal government Tuesday. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Ivorian Defence and Civil Protection Minister, Lida Kouassi, says his country is "exhausted" from 10 years of "sacrifices" for Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees in Cote d'Ivoire. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has described the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo as most encouraging, raising hopes that hundreds of Congolese refugees currently in Zambia may soon return home. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- The government of Tanzania has petitioned the international community to help it manage thousands of refugees currently in the country. Full text...

Ziguinchor- Senegal (PANA) -- The first batch of nearly 200 Casamance refugees expelled from the Gambia arrived early Sunday morning in Ziguinchor, capital of the civil-war troubled southern Senegalese region. Full text...

Ziguinchor- Senegal (PANA) -- Gambia Saturday expelled hundreds of Senegalese nationals who had sought refuge there from the fighting in Senegal's southern Province of Casamance between government forces and separatists. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- Lawyers representing 13 Namibian refugees in Botswana, wanted back home on charges ranging from treason to possession of firearms, argued Friday that their clients risked persecution on repatriation. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- An official of the UN refugees agency has dismissed the argument that groups of Burundians in exile could use their repatriation to create insecurity in the country. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has evacuated 130 Liberians and Guineans from the Liberian-Sierra Leone Kailahun border town to Kenema in eastern Sierra Leone. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Tension is mounting at northern Kenya's Daadab refugee camp where its occupants are threatening to stage a hunger strike to protest the drastic reduction of regular rations by the UN World Food Programme (WFP). Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Some 2,585 DR Congo refugees recently repatriated from Sudan and Angola tabled their suffering before a UN official who visited their Sicotra camp east of Kinshasa Friday. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says it has completed the relocation of more than 54,000 refugees from an insecure area near Guinea's volatile border with Sierra Leone to what it said were better protected camps further inland. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has described the security situation in Sierra Leone as "fragile," cautioning that "for the time being the conditions for the immediate return of all refugees to Sierra Leone do not exist. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- A delegation from the OAU Commission for Refugees on Tuesday inspected the Inga camp in Lower-Congo Province which hosts Angolan refugees in the south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Full text...

Ziguinchor- Senegal (PANA) -- Some 53 Casamance refugees deported from Guinea Bissau arrived Monday night in Ziguinchor, southern Senegal, from Sao Dominga where they had been since last week. Full text...

Bissau- Guinea Bissau (PANA) -- The deputy chief of staff of the Guinea Bissau Armed Forces, Brigadier Emilio Costa, has refuted news reports that his country deported refugees from the Senegalese province of Casamance. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Some 21,719 people were illegally detained at the Lindela detention centre between August 1996 and September 1999, only to be released once they were identified as South African citizens, according to the Auditor- General's latest report on the Department of Home Affairs. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Wednesday expressed grave concern over the fate of one million Eritreans still in need of food aid nearly a year after their country's border conflict with Ethiopia ended. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Food rations for Angolan refugees in Namibia would return to a minimum energy value following a Swedish cash grant of one million dollars to save those who were starving, the World Food Programme announced Tuesday. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Hundreds of refugees have crossed into Gambia from the troubled southern Senegalese Casamance area where government forces are fighting separatists of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC). Full text...