(New York) - Today's unanimous decision by the UN Security Council to add a further 900 peacekeepers to the UN mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) was welcomed by a group of 16 non-governmental organisations including Aegis Trust, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Mercy Corps, and Invisible Children.

The situation in the country has been worsening in recent months, with fighting between rival militias forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their homes, and rendering 2.4m in need of humanitarian assistance.

The Swedish Embassy in Rwanda today announced funding for an ambitious new Rwanda-wide peace-building programme.

The Rwanda Peace Education Programme is designed to counter behavioural risk factors for genocide by promoting social cohesion, pluralism, personal responsibility, empathy, critical thinking and action to build a more peaceful society.

15 May 2013 – From this week, the Aegis Trust’s peace-building education programme in Rwanda will no longer be limited to the Kigali Genocide Memorial; it’s going mobile – starting in Rubavu, Rwanda’s Western Province, where it is being hosted by Vision Jeunesse Nouvelle (VGN), with support from GIZ (the German Society for International Cooperation), 13 May – 3 June.

Profiled by the London Guardian in March, the programme is changing attitudes and behaviour not only among participating students, but also among their peers.

18 Jan 2013 - Dr Mukesh Kapila, Special Representative for the Aegis Trust and former UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, has just travelled 1000km through Sudan’s Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, where international humanitarian relief access has been blocked since armed conflict erupted there between the Sudanese Government and opposition groups in June 2011. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people remain in the two areas, where Government bombing has severely hampered agricultural activity for the past 18 months, triggering desperate food shortages.

28 Sept 2012 - Outcomes of the Presidential Summit between Sudan and South Sudan announced on 27th September 2012 are an important step in reaching peace between the two neighbouring countries. The ongoing human rights catastrophe however, and its devastating humanitarian consequences in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile regions of Sudan, remain unaddressed.