A major change in the Nepalese political landscape was announced in Kathmandu on Friday 16 June. Marking a potential end to the 10-year-old Maoist insurgency, which has left some 13,000 dead, an interim government is to be formed.

New Prime Minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, and Maoist leader, Prachanda, signed a joint statement allowing for the development of a government in which Maoist leaders will serve. It is hoped that the new government will be formed within a few weeks. While there was no formal timetable outlined for the new government, Prachanda was

Pakistan sustained the heaviest death toll and destruction in its 58-year history after a powerful earthquake registering 7.6 on the Richter scale ripped through the north of the country and Pakistani-administered Kashmir on 8 October last year. More than 80,000 people were killed and over 100,000 were injured while nearly 4 million people were rendered homeless just weeks before the start of the bitter Himalayan winter.
Six months on, the emergency relief phase is almost over and focus is shifting towards rebuilding the shattered

According to a recent report from the NGO Coordinating Committee in Iraq the humanitarian situation in Iraq remains desperate and may well continue to decline in the coming months.
It argues that, "violence is a critical, all-pervasive characteristic in the lives of people in many parts of Iraq" and continues that, "needs will become acute and massive if the security situation worsens still further."

A further key part of the report details some of the current displacement that is on going inside Iraq as a result

Afghanistan has been and will remain a challenging environment for Ockenden International to serve its beneficiaries. The confluence of myriad forces including the ongoing insurgency by Anti-Government Elements, the ubiquitous drug trade and a still-weak central government continue to hamper efforts at reconstruction and development.

January saw a major donor conference in London, resulting in what is known as the "Afghanistan Compact". Despite the pledges of billions of dollars for Afghanistan over the next 5 years, challenges and obstacles remain massive.

Report on the current and potential impact of displaced people returning to southern Sudan
Jake Phelan and Graham Wood

Executive Summary

The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) heralds the prospect of huge population movements amongst southern Sudan's 4.5 million displaced people.

The return of refugees and IDPs to the south will not only increase the demands on the region's stagnant infrastructure. It will also force a re-negotiation of social, economic and political values

For the first time in 3 decades, Afghanistan has a popularly elected parliament. The last year that an elected national assembly functioned was 1973, before coups and a Soviet invasion brought 30 years of conflict and despair to the country. Elections took place in September, but the parliament was officially sworn in and convened on December 19 2005, marking the conclusion of the political transition process agreed on by Afghan factions in December 2001.
Hopes are high that a renewal of Afghanistan's democratic institutions will bring about a much needed stability and help

Over the course of the previous two nights security fears have grown in the town of Maridi, southern Sudan, as the rebel Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army(LRA) launched consecutive attacks on the population.

Ockenden International, who are working on capacity and skills based programmes in the area, have been informed that 3 people were abducted on Monday night and a further five on Tuesday.

The LRA are known to be operating in the Western Equatorial province of Sudan having recently been forced out of Uganda and the DRC. Security has been a concern after several

Woking charity Ockenden International has been to Sudan to explore ways it can help refugees of the country's bitter civil war.
Jake Phelan, a research consultant for Ockenden based in Constitution Hill, has just returned from a two-month fact-finding mission to Africa's largest country.

The country has been in a civil war for many years, which has displaced millions of people but when a peace treaty was signed in January, many refugees began to return.

Jake travelled to Western Equatoria in the south of the country, which is under the authority of the Sudan People's

Ockenden International currently maintains offices in six provinces of Afghanistan, employing approximately 200 Afghan and 3 expatriate staff to carry out a variety of programmes intended to address the most pressing needs of Afghanistan's most vulnerable populations.
In the central Ghazni province, Ockenden International commenced a large, 12-month, cross-border programme in collaboration with Ockenden's Pakistan office in September. The programme, funded by Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (BPRM), is a multifaceted