The International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) has urged the Congolese government to prosecute former militia leaders instead of reappointing them to high-ranking positions in the newly integrated national army. "If the Democratic Republic of the Congo is to achieve a lasting peace, it must not appoint individuals to the army when there is evidence that they may be responsible for serious abuses," said the president of the ICTJ.

The tsunami triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean that struck the Horn of Africa coastline on December 26 has affected about 18 000 households of varying sizes in Somalia, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Many of those affected were living in small villages along the Somali coastline, particularly in the north-eastern regions. Their lives were devastated by the waves.