Nairobi  - Kenya will be happy to see the back of 2008, a year in which one of sub-Saharan Africa's most stable states exploded into an orgy of violence following disputed presidential elections.

The future peace of the East African nation now depends upon the implementation of two crucial reports commissioned in the wake of the violence.

Observers are warning that the 2012 elections could prompt more bloodletting should the recommendations not be taken onboard, but so far the signs are looking good.

Nairobi  - The war in Somalia, one of Africa's bloodiest ongoing conflicts, shows little sign of letting up as 2008 draws to a close, with analysts warning it may actually continue to intensify.

Somalia has been plagued by chaos and civil war since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The conflict deepened this year as Islamist insurgents stepped up their efforts to seize control of the Horn of Africa nation.

The insurgents have been fighting Somalia's transitional federal government (TFG) since Ethiopian troops helped oust the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in early 2007.

Aid agencies estimate that over 10,000 civilians have died in the crossfire and almost one million have fled their homes since the insurgency began.

Nairobi - A UN tribunal trying the most high-profile figures accused of involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide was Thursday expected to pass judgement on a man accused of being one of the slaughter's top planners.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) - based in Arusha, Tanzania - accuses Theoneste Bagosora, 67, of helping to plan and carry out the genocide and of organizing and arming the notorious Interahamwe Hutu militia.

More than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by militia in the space of only a few months following the assassination of Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana.

Nairobi - Sudanese government forces and government-aligned militia have forced adults and children into slave labour and sexual service in Sudan's restive Darfur province, a new report by a coalition of African charities has found.

The Darfur Consortium said it had eyewitness accounts from over 100 people that showed men had been forced to work as farm labourers for the Janjaweed militia, while women and children had been used as sex slaves and domestic help for Sudanese troops in Khartoum.

Nairobi  - For a long time, Rosemary Agutu idolized US actor Robert Redford, who played the character of Denys Finch Hatton in the movie Out of Africa.

Agutu is a museum guide at the Karen Blixen Museum and Redford can no longer compete with her latest idol.

"Barack Obama, of course. His election victory has given us a big lift," says the 26-year-old. Agutu now hopes that the tourist industry in her country will benefit from the "Obama effect."

Nowhere else in the world does US president-elect Obama have so many relatives as Kenya - his father's birthplace.

Rosemary knows almost all of them. "After all, I was born in Kogelo where Obama's grandmother Sarah lives," she says.

Nairobi/Kampala - Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan have attacked the base of Ugandan rebels holed up in the jungles of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, military officials said Monday.

Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), failed to turn up to sign a peace agreement on November 29.

He has repeatedly stalled on signing a final agreement and it now appears that patience with him has run out.

A joint statement from the three armies said that Kony's main camp in the Garamba region of DR Congo had been attacked over the weekend and burned down.