Since the incursion of the al-Shabaab insurgent group in southern and central Somalia in late 2007, many Somali children under the age of 18 - both boys and girls - have gone missing.

Under the guise of ‘recruiting’, the group has kidnapped these children to serve as fighters (and for other purposes) against its many opponents, including Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces, African Union peacekeeping forces (AMISOM), Ethiopian troops and Kenyan Defense Forces.

As a result of their forced participation in combat between al-Shabaab and their enemies, many children have been killed or severely injured, including some who are permanently maimed or disabled.

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Ugandahas deployed an additional 1700 troops in volatile Somalia, bringing the total number of Ugandan peacekeepers in the Horn of African country to 8000, a military spokesman said here on Monday.

Col. Felix Kulayigye, spokesman of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces, told Xinhua by telephone that the troops will stay in the Somali capital Mogadishu as their colleagues advance deep into hostile territory.

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Troops loyal to Bosco ‘Terminator’ Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, have taken multiple towns in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

BBC News reported that thousands of people are fleeing the fighting between government troops and rebel forces in Mukashe and Rubaya, and are heading toward the nearby town of Goma. The UN and Congolese military have said 400 to 500 heavily armed soldiers loyal to Ntaganda defected from the Congolese army earlier this month, deserting their base in Goma.

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There have been new attacks against Christians in Africa where one person was killed ad ten wounded, four seriously, when a grenade was thrown at a Catholic church in Nairobi.

Police sources have reported that twenty people died in an attack in Nigeria. According to the daily newspaper the Daily Nation, no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack during Mass at the international Church of God’s Miracles in Nairobi’s Ngara district.

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Heavily armed forces from Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland have on Monday conducted major operations against al-Shabaab fighters in Galgala mountainous hideouts in Barri region.

Cabdullahi Mohammed Donyale, the security advisor of Puntland president Abdirahman Farole told reporters in Garowe town that Puntland has began this operations after al-Shabaab has shifted its guerilla-style warfare in Galgala, a small town that strategically located 40 Km away south of port town of Bosaso.

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South Sudan President Salva Kiir told his Chinese counterpart of Tuesday that Sudan had declared war on his newly-independent country, following weeks of border fighting between the two countries.

“It (this visit) comes at a very critical moment for the Republic of South Sudan because our neighbour in Khartoum has declared war on the Republic of South Sudan,” Kiir told President Hu Jintao during a meeting in Beijing.

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More than 1 000 South Sudanese troops died during the battle for Sudan’s main oilfield of Heglig, the Sudanese armed forces commander said on Monday, as a stench of death filled the air.

“The numbers of killed from SPLM are 1 200,” Kamal Marouf said during an address to thousands of troops in the area, from which Southern forces said they had withdrawn at the weekend.

The toll is impossible to verify but an AFP correspondent who accompanied Marouf said the putrid bodies of dead South Sudanese soldiers lay beneath trees which are scattered about the area.

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