Somalia's transitional government has reiterated its plans to hold a congress to unite striving Somali clans, asking the international community to support the process. Plans for the congress are being made as insurgents continue to attack African Union troops and other targets.

Witnesses in Somalia's capital say at least 11 people have been killed in an attack on newly-arrived African Union (AU) peacekeepers.

The United Nations and international observers have identified rape as a tool used by Arab Janjaweed militias to terrorize women and girls in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. The African Union force charged with monitoring Darfur has tried to combat the threat of rape in the most unsettled areas.

The South African government has approved the deployment of 1,100 soldiers to an African Union special task force in Burundi.

Sudan suffered two major blows Monday when it was overlooked for the chairmanship of the African Union and was told by the chief of the United Nations to get serious about ending the conflict in Darfur. Cathy Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi.

Somalia's president agreed Tuesday to a national reconciliation conference to try to end 16 years of fighting in the war-ravaged country. As Les Neuhaus in Addis Ababa reports for VOA, the announcement paves the way for the deployment of African peacekeepers.

Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki says that any African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission sent into Somalia is doomed to failure.