Nairobi - Tens of thousands of animals were at risk in Kenya on Monday after forest fires sent wildlife fleeing and dried up water sources in a country already suffering from drought.

A fire at Mount Longonot, an extinct volcano popular with hikers, continued to burn on Monday, with game wardens concerned that animals such as baboons, rabbits and mongoose were trapped inside the crater of the extinct volcano.

Nairobi/Banjul -  - Amnesty International called Wednesday on the Gambian government to halt a campaign against suspected witches that it says has seen up to 1,000 people kidnapped, poisoned and beaten.

Witnesses and victims told the human rights' body that witch doctors from neighbouring Guinea - accompanied by police, army and national intelligence agents - have been invading villages and seizing villagers accused of being witches.

Those taken are held at detention centres for up to five days and forced to drink an "unknown substance" that causes them to hallucinate.

Berlin  - Germany plans to ask Kenya to take custody of nine pirates captured earlier this week by the German Navy off the coast of Somalia, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday.

Prosecutors in the German city of Hamburg issued arrest warrants for the nine Somalis on Friday, but a day later said there was no need for them to be transferred to Germany.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said the request for Kenya to take custody of the pirates would formally be made to authorities in Nairobi by the German embassy on Monday.

Germany's government had been seeking the transfer of the suspects to Kenya, a move that was sealed Friday morning in an agreement with the European Union.

Hamburg/Berlin  - A court in Hamburg late Friday issued arrest warrants for the nine pirates captured earlier this week by the German Navy off the coast of Somalia.

The state's attorney requested the arrests based on charges of an attack on traffic on the high seas, justice spokesman Wilhelm Moellers told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The German government had been seeking the transfer of the suspects to Kenya, a move that was sealed Friday morning in an agreement with the European Union.

Nairobi/Geneva - The human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Friday of a possible humanitarian disaster in Darfur, western Sudan, if the Khartoum government went ahead with its threat to expel aid organizations.

The threat by President Omar al-Bashir to withdraw work permits for 13 Western aid agencies came after the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

London, Feb 26 : Reports from conservationists indicate that there has been a surge in poachers using poison arrows and spears to kill elephants in southern Kenya, for obtaining ivory.

The surge is part of a nationwide increase in attacks on the animals, according to a report issued earlier this month by the Amboseli Trust for Elephants.