The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has suspended their food program in Gaza after demonstrators stormed a compound, protesting against cuts to a cash assistance program.

A spokesperson for the agency, Adnan Abu Hasna, stated,

“There will be no food tomorrow… The food distribution centers and the relief offices will be closed in the coming days unless there’s a real security being provided to the life of our staff, because there is a great concern about their safety.”

Dozens of Palestinian protestors forced their way into a UN compound after UNRWA budget cuts led a cancellation of a cash program, which helped sustain around 100,000 people in Gaza.Over 800,000 Palestinian refugees are cared for by the UNRWA, who provide food, education, health and other services.

The New York Times quoted father of seven, Abu Ahmad al-Massri, 42, who lives in a refugee camp in Gaza as saying,

“They want to make reductions, they should reduce the costs they spend for their bodyguards… I am ready to die in defending the food of my family. If I lost one of my kids it’s easier for me than losing my food.”

Hamas meanwhile condemned any violence against the UNRWA, but called the decision to close the food centres “unjustified”. A spokesman for Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, said,

“People have the right to protest against UNRWA’s cuts, but at the same time we condemn any violence against the organisation. When the administration of UNRWA asked the Palestinian security services to intervene, they stopped the chaos. We ask UNRWA to reconsider its decision and [reiterate] the importance of UNRWA’s role in helping Palestinian refugees”.

The Enough Project and Satellite Sentinel Project have released a new report detailing evidence of Sudan carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile region, and called on the International Criminal Court to further investigate the situation.

The report also calls on the United Nations to "immediately establish an impartial commission of inquiry", adding,

"The international community must do more to investigate the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and torture being perpetrated by Sudanese government forces against their own people. If implemented quickly, a commission of inquiry and the involvement of the International Criminal Court prosecutor could serve as a substantial deterrent force against future violence."

Read the report here.

Jonathan Hutson, a spokesperson for the Enough Project and the Satellite Sentinel Project, said,

"Justice demands that the international community investigate evidence of ongoing atrocities by the Khartoum regime against its own people. Consider Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda, also indicted years ago for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Many believed he would never be hauled into court. Last month, he surrendered; he is now in The Hague, facing those charges".

A reward of up to $5 million will be awarded by the US for information that leads to the arrest of wanted Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, under the War Crimes Rewards Program.

The US and Uganda suspended the search for Kony in the Central African Republic after last month’s coup.

Writing in the Huffington Post, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the State Department is tightening the screws on murderers like Kony.

“Through the expansion of the War Crimes Rewards Program, the Department of State is offering up to $5 million for information that leads to the arrest, transfer, and conviction of the top three leaders of the LRA: Joseph Kony, Okot Odhiambo, and Dominic Ongwen. All three are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Kerry wrote.

The UN Secretary General's Personal Envoy to Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, who is currently on tour of the region met with the Algerian Foreign minister on Monday.

Following his earlier visit of Sahrawi refugee camps, Ross said he would be "seeking solutions to the Western Sahara issue in line with the Security Council's resolutions."

He added,

"The grave situation in the Sahel region and its neighborhood makes a solution to Western Sahara issue more urgent than ever."

He is due to present the findings of his tour to the UN Security Council on 22nd April.

Last week, the British FCO Miniser, Alistair Burt, endorsed the right of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.

Responding to questions raised in parliament, Burt said:

"We strongly support UN-led efforts to encourage agreement on a long-lasting and mutually-acceptable political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara."

The ousted president of the Central African Republic, Francois Bozize, has accused neighbouring Chad of supporting the rebels who led a coup against him.

Bozize told the BBC that it was Chadian Special Forces who led the offensive and were involved in the attack on South African soldiers, which left 13 troops dead.

"On Saturday March 23 we had neutralised Seleka forces but overnight into Sunday 24, we knew that there had been support from an African country, which I inevitably believe was Chad," Mr Bozize told the BBC.

"We can confirm it was Chadian special forces that led the operation on the Sunday morning and attacked the barracks of the South Africans,

"To avoid a bloodshed I decided to resign after a phone call I made to the French ambassador,

"We had a solid and friendship relation with the Chadian authorities. Chad alone can give an explanation."

French authorities have arrested a Rwandan fugitive in Toulose, who has been wanted by Rwandan authorities over his role in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.

Among the charges that Tite Barahira will now face is conspiracy to commit genocide.

His arrest comes as France faces increasing criticism from Rwandan authorities for their failure to arrest and prosecute genocide suspects, thought to be sheltering in the country.

See our earlier posts:

Prosecutor-General criticises France over genocide suspects (22 January 2013)

Rwanda threatens to take France to court over Genocide suspects (27 December 2012)

France criticised for sheltering Rwandan genocide suspects (17 December 2012)

The United Nations General Assembly in New York has passed the world’s first global arms trade treaty, seeking to regulate the industry thought to be worth over $70 billion.

The treaty, passed earlier on Tuesday, regulates conventional weapons, ranging from small arms and light weapons to warships, missiles and combat aircraft. It prohibits sales of weapons in violation of arms embargoes or if those weapons were to be used for acts of terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity or genocide.

The resolution was approved by a vote of 154 to 3 with 23 abstentions.

The United States, the world’s largest arms supplier, voted for the resolution. Other major arms producers such as Russia and China abstained, along with other mainly Latin American countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

The 3 countries who voted against the resolution were Iran, Syria and North Korea.

Iran stated the treaty had “loopholes” and was "hugely susceptible to politicisation and discrimination", while North Korea complained that it arms to those with a legitimate right to self-defence would be restricted.

Syria also stated the treaty failed to include an embargo on weapons being supplied to "to terrorist armed groups and to non-state actors" adding that countries backing the treaty were "fully engaged in supplying terrorist groups [in Syria] with all kinds of lethal weapons".

NGOs meanwhile welcomed the treaty, with Amnesty International stating those who abstained had “abysmal human rights records, having even used arms against their own citizens".

The head of Amnesty International’s Washington office, Frank Jannuzi, stated the treaty was not perfect, but commented,

“To the extent that there’s any enforcement mechanism in this treaty, it’s an actual benchmark in which we can judge states’ behavior, whereas before it was extremely subjective… Now there’s a process. So that’s a step forward. For all those unlicensed exports that end up fueling violence, this treaty begins to get a handle on that through much more rigorous licensing and reporting.”

Raymond Offenheiser, the president of Oxfam America, also added,

“The Arms Trade Treaty provides a powerful alternative to the body-bag approach currently used to respond to humanitarian crises… Today nations enact arms embargoes in response to humanitarian crises only after a mass loss of life. The treaty prohibits the weapon sales in the first place.”

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have rejected the decision by the UN to deploy a special attack force to dismantle armed groups in the east of the country.

The political leader of the M23 Bertrand Bisimwa said that the option taken by the UN is not promoting dialogue to end the conflict.

The United Nations Security Council last week approved the deployment of a 2,000 strong Intervention Brigade with an offensive mandate to “neutralise” armed groups.

DRC welcomes UN special force (29 March 2013)

Security Council approves intervention in DRC (28 March 2013)

Thousands of people have rallied in Banda Aceh to support the adoption of the flag of the now defunct Free Aceh Movement (GAM) as the official flag of the Indonesian province.

The Indonesian government is opposing the flag, which is prohibited, and has given local authorities seven days to change it.

Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah, a former GAM commander, defended the adoption of the flag, saying that it “is a manifestation of the people of Aceh’s cultural struggle. This [adoption] is what Aceh desires.”

“The flag represents Aceh’s pride. This is what we want. We can’t wait to wave the Aceh flag,” a protestor said.

The United States has expressed concern at the state of freedom of expression in Egypt, after the cuontry's top prosecutor recently issued an arrest warrant for a popular TV satirist.

Speaking at a press briefing, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said,

"This coupled with recent arrest warrants issued for other political activists is evidence of a disturbing trend of growing restrictions on the freedom of expression... we have concerns that freedom of expression is being stifled. This is something that came up when Secretary Kerry was in Egypt. He raised human rights concerns, including freedom of the press, with President Morsy, and we will continue to raise these concerns."

TV satirist Bassem Youssef has an arrest warrant issued over charges of offending Islam by "making fun of the prayer ritual" and insulting Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi by "making fun of his international standing".

There were also reports that Youssef was among at least 20 opposition figures who were arrested by Egyptian authorities for allegedly inciting violence against the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Lebanese state news agency has reported that shells from Syria have hit four Lebanese villages near the border with its neighbour.

Residents are said to have reported an “unpleasant smell” after the attacks. It is not clear whether the shells were fired by rebels or the government and whether there were any casualties.

Read more here.