Special reports	Darfur	Zambia	Malawi

Recent
Peacekeepers in Darfur pay fighters $1m a year 'The roads are too dangerous today' - how rebels and army control freedom of movement for African Union monitors.	Kidnap Briton 'strong enough to survive': Foreign Office and SAS teams poised for action as Ethiopia lays blame for tourists' capture at door of Eritrea's military Friends and family of one of the British women kidnapped in Ethiopia say they believe the strength of her personality will see her through the ordeal.	China puts a continent in hock to its ambition to reclaim Taiwan Historian 'was murdered over a debt' Warning to Eritrea over seized Britons Elephants culled to feed state's crocodiles British soldiers to join Darfur peace force Our corrupt system is failing, admits bank chief Police threaten to shoot lawyers seeking election result
Sudan masses its troops for a decisive strike on Darfur  THE SOLDIER pushed at the bomb with his foot, rolling it through the dust towards the white Russian-built Antonov aircraft standing on the runway of El Fasher airport. The plane was being loaded for another bombing run, as Sudanese government forces gear up for a military onslaught when Ramadan ends today or tomorrow.	Sudan defies UN with plan to crush rebellion in Darfur THE SUDANESE government is preparing to launch a huge military offensive with the aim of crushing the rebellion in Darfur by the end of the year and emptying the refugee camps that are home to more than two million people.
The forces of change mount against Mugabe The Zimbabwean president's dream of a new term in power looks likely to be shattered by his own MPs and the country's economic woes. Robert Mugabe is facing humiliation at the hands of his rattled political supporters, who appear set on shattering his dream of a fresh term as president of Zimbabwe.	Mugabe 'wants to step down within 18 months'   Robert Mugabe is planning to step down from power within 18 months if he is eventually declared the winner of Zimbabwe's bitterly contested presidential election, say senior figures in his party. Colleagues say he is tired and had wanted to hand over the leadership before the election, but decided to fight on to rally support for his Zanu-PF party. He is said to have chosen a long-time ally, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as his eventual successor.

Audio visual	Darfur rape victim interview	Darfur in pictures

Selection
Shallow grave is testimony to Sudan's lies THE grave is just a mound of earth, no more than two feet high at its peak and 10ft in diameter. It lies about 50 yards from the edge of the village of Nami in North Darfur. The nine bodies buried had lain on the ground for more than a week before the Janjaweed finally left the village and the people who had escaped the killing felt brave enough to return.	Hope dies for Africa's lost generation CAROL Singwoma is weaving her way through the crowd, the eyes of the men on her dirty white knitted turtle-neck top and the little skirt covering her thin legs. Her skin is a deep black, her eyes big and open, her features attractive, if not quite pretty. She is giggling, her arms folded across her small breasts, aware of the attention of the men swigging from bottles of beer and swaying to the sound of the African dance music as they spill out of the open-air bar into a darkened side street on the edge of the Zambian crossroads town of Kapiri Mposhi.
Litany of rape and abuse in Darfur region One men held her arms, others her legs. They took it in turns to rape her. It lasted six hours. Afterwards, they sat her naked on a donkey and she rode back to her village as dusk fell. When the baby is born in four months time she will keep it. But a part of her will always think of it as her Janjaweed child.	Without aid now, this child and millions more will starve to death In the shade of the grass roof of a hut in a village at the end of a dirt road, in the heart of a country the tourist brochures call the warm heart of Africa, a young girl is dying. Madaloo James's eyes are bloodshot, her belly distended from the parasitic worms feeding inside her, her feet swollen from the oedema which starvation brings. Thirteen months old, she has weeks to live, perhaps less.
'Even the stones were destroyed' HALAWA'S body lay on the mountainside where she fell when the bombs exploded, her womb torn open, the tiny body of her unborn baby lying by her side, the blood soaking into the soil congealing in the heat of the sun. She was nine months pregnant; her friends said she was due to give birth to her fifth child within days.	They wait clutching cards they hope will be their bus ticket to escape from this terrible place Koubra Hassabou watches the buses go; she and her family had packed their things away, but there was no place for them today. She sits in the sand, her face blank. "What are we to do?" she asks. "If we had donkeys we could go ourselves but we have no donkeys. We put a lot of luggage on our donkeys and they died here."
The little cowherd was just ten. They found her body riddled with bullets WHEN the men found Fatouma Abdallah Adam, their anger overwhelmed them. Her young body had been riddled with bullets; they counted seven wounds in total. The sight of her lying there was more than any of them could bear.

Copyright ©2006 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved.