African church leaders at the World Social Forum in Nairobi urged governments to use the surrender of the leader of the Union of Islamic Courts of Somalia, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, as the basis for a peace initiative for the war torn country - writes Fredrick Nzwili for Ecumenical News Interational.

Mozambique is "owed an ecological debt by those who constructed and have made profits from the dams of the Zambezi River, that is to say, the Portuguese government and the South African company Eskom," Malawian economist Francis Ng'ambi told participants at a World Council of Churches (WCC) workshop on ecological debt at World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, which ended yesterday.

The international community's responsibility to protect endangered populations when their governments fail to do so, and church support for protective measures, has been the subject of lively debate at a World Council of Churches (WCC) workshop at the 20-25 January World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya.

At the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, speakers involved in a workshop organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) said that wealth, poverty and ecology are strongly linked to each other and to society's commitment to the common good.

Ethiopian soldiers occupying Somalia have been accused of raping Somali woman, according to reports circulating among church and development NGOs in the region. Observers are waiting for details to be confirmed.