Eritrea's hardline regime has jailed at least 10,000 political prisoners, many in "unimaginably atrocious conditions", rights group Amnesty International said in a report Thursday criticising the situation in the Red Sea state. With political opposition banned, independent media quashed and religious minorities targeted, the ex-rebel government uses a system of underground cells and shipping containers to house the prisoners, the report read.

The Central African Republic's neighbours gathered at a summit in Brazzaville on Friday proposed the creation of a special fund to stem smouldering post-coup unrest and plan elections next year. The final declaration issued at the end of the international meeting in the Republic of the Congo suggested a dedicated fund should be created to help Bangui through the transition process. The "Appeal of Brazzaville" said the fund should help "finance the preparation and holding of the electoral process" promised by Central Africa's new strongman Michel Djotodia.

The M23 rebel group in eastern DR Congo said Monday that hundreds of its commanders were undergoing special training to face an offensive by a newly-formed UN combat force. "462 unit commanders have been on a refresher course since Friday in Rumangabo," a large military base in the North Kivu province, the group's military spokesman Vianney Kazarama told AFP. The UN Security Council this year approved its first ever offensive peacekeeping brigade in a bid to end years of failure in rooting out rebel groups and killer gangs in the restive region.

LONDON/ABUJA (Reuters) - Pirates kidnapped four crew members when they attacked a container ship off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, the vessel's management company said on Thursday. Hamburg-based shipping firm Leonhardt and Blumberg said the four hostages - two Ukrainians, a Russian and one from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati - were taken when the Liberia-flagged Hansa Marburg was attacked on Tuesday by armed men. The raid took place around 130 nautical miles off the coast of the small West African oil producer.