The government of Chad has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the capital and six interior regions, in an effort to restore calm after a rebel offensive.

The U.N. refugee agency reports about 20,000 civilians have fled fighting in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, and crossed the river into the Cameroon border town of Kousseri. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.

Mauritanian refugees stuck in Senegal for nearly two decades after fleeing ethnic clashes in their home country have begun returning to Mauritania under a U.N. sponsored program. But many do not want to return. VOA's Nico Colombant has more from Dakar, with reporting by Ebrima Sillah on the border between the two countries.

The European Union has officially launched a European peacekeeping force for Chad and the Central African Republic to protect hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled violence in the region, including strife-torn Darfur. Tendai Maphosa has more in this report from London.

Conservation groups say they have found an unusual threat to east Africa's wildlife - hunting by hungry refugees.

Palestinian refugees in unofficial camps are living in slum conditions redolent of UK housing in the last century, finds research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Trying to avoid violence and harassment in Iraq, Palestinians are living at the Iraqi-Syrian border in awful conditions with they sick children having no medical treatment, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday.

At least 47 migrants trying to reach European waters died of cold and thirst after their boat ran aground on the coast of Mauritania in west Africa.

EU sees lack of consistency in its asylum policy, with refugees assured of acceptance in some countries and absolutely not in other, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.

Australia has announced a temporary freeze on the settlement of refugees from Africa, including those from Sudan's Darfur region. Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews says the refugees had trouble integrating into Australian society, and that refugee requests from other parts of the world, such as Iraq and Burma, are being given higher priority at the moment.

Angelina Jolie have visited refugees stranded in the blazing desert near the Syrian-Iraqi border and seen the conditions of their living.

The Diana Memorial Fund plans to mark the tenth death anniversary of the Princess of Wales by spending ten million pounds of its funds on a campaign to promote the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.