Andre Ntagerura was freed in 2006 and is still waiting to find a country of refuge

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Rwanda: Haunted Nation

Slow pace of justice

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Paul Kagame's hold on Rwandans

Children of rape

The court trying Rwandan genocide suspects is appealing for countries to give refuge for those acquitted, the UN tribunal's spokesman has told the BBC.

Five of 10 people cleared of involvement in the 1994 killings believe they cannot return to Rwanda.

They remain in a house in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is based, guarded by police.

The ICTR is due to wind up its trials by the end of this year.

Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in 100 days in 1994.

‘Burden’

ICTR spokesperson Roland Amoussouga told the BBC that finding countries willing to accept those acquitted of charges “was one of the key challenges facing the tribunal”.

“It's a burden on us to continue hosting for so many years these acquitted people and we've worked with them and their lawyers to identify suitable countries were they can be sent. So far we have not been successful,” he said.

The five men still living in Arusha and acquitted by the ICTR are all Hutus and include a former brigadier general, ex-ministers and a businessman.

They live together in a safe house and can go to town and to church, but otherwise cannot leave.

Andre Ntagerura – the former minister of transport – has been waiting nearly six years for refuge since his acquittal.

The five have been joined in the safe house by two others who have served their sentences, but also have nowhere to go.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says their fate resembles the detainees at Guantanamo Bay – the detention facility which the US wishes to close but whose inmates other countries are reluctant to take.

The men in Arusha have families in Belgium, Canada and France but so far they cannot get permission to join them, despite appeals to the UN Security Council.

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Tanzania has been spared the internal strife that has blighted many African states.

Though it remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with many of its people living below the World Bank poverty line, it has had some success in wooing donors and investors.

Tanzania assumed its present form in 1964 after a merger between the mainland Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar, which had become independent the previous year.

Unlike many African countries, whose potential wealth contrasted with their actual poverty, Tanzania had few exportable minerals and a primitive agricultural system. To remedy this, its first president, Julius Nyerere, issued the 1967 Arusha Declaration, which called for self-reliance through the creation of cooperative farm villages and the nationalisation of factories, plantations, banks and private companies.

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At a glance

Politics: Tanzania has enjoyed stability. Multi-party politics was introduced in 1992

Economy: Annual growth rate has averaged 6.7% since 2006, one of the best in sub-Sahara Africa. Power supplies are erratic and fall short of demand. Gold earnings have been rising

International: Tanzania hosts thousands of refugees from conflict in the neighbouring Great Lakes region

Environment: Experts fear a planned highway threatens the Serengeti game park, Tanzania's biggest draw for tourism

But a decade later, despite financial and technical aid from the World Bank and sympathetic countries, this programme had completely failed due to inefficiency, corruption, resistance from peasants and the rise in the price of imported petroleum.

Tanzania's economic woes were compounded in 1979 and 1981 by a costly military intervention to overthrow President Idi Amin of Uganda.

After Mr Nyerere's resignation in 1985, his successor, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, attempted to raise productivity and attract foreign investment and loans by dismantling government control of the economy.

This policy continued under Benjamin Mkapa, who was elected president in 1995. The economy grew, though at the price of painful fiscal reforms. Tourism is an important revenue earner; Tanzania's attractions include Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, and wildlife-rich national parks such as the Serengeti.

The political union between Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania has weathered more than four decades of change. Zanzibar has its own parliament and president.

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A vast, arid state on the edge of the Sahara desert, Niger endured austere military rule for much of its post-independence history and is rated by the UN as one of the world's least-developed nations.

The drought-prone country sometimes struggles to feed its people. Its main export, uranium, is prone to price fluctuations and agriculture is threatened by the encroaching desert. Niger is bargaining on oil exploration and gold mining to boost its fortunes.

Historically a gateway between North and sub-Saharan Africa, Niger came under French rule in the late 1890s.

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At a glance

Politics: President Tandja changed the constitution to stay in power, but was ousted in a coup in 2010. Polls to restore civilian rule were held in January 2011

Security: Tuareg nomads seeking greater autonomy for the north have been waging a low-level war. Fears of Al Qaeda activity have been heightened by the kidnapping of foreigners

Economy: Niger is a leading producer of uranium, and is rich in other minerals. UN rates it as one of world's poorest countries

International: Niger shares borders with seven countries. Some boundaries are disputed

After independence in 1960 its progress was stymied by political instability and a five-year drought, which devastated livestock and crops.

With little primary education, Niger has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. Its health system is basic and disease is widespread.

After a break of a decade, Niger again experienced an insurgency by Tuareg rebels in the north in 2007.

The Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) complained that a 1995 peace deal that ended the previous insurgency has never been fully implemented and that the region remains marginalised. The group demands greater autonomy and a larger share of uranium revenue.

In 2009, the MNJ and the government held talks in Libya, at which they committed themselves to a “total and comprehensive” peace.

In 1999 voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution providing for presidential and legislative multi-party elections. These took place later in the year and saw Mamadou Tandja elected as president.

Mr Tandja introduced a new constitution in 2009 to extend his powers in a move described by the opposition as a coup. He was himself overthrown in a coup at the beginning of 2010.

Niger banned the centuries-old practice of slavery in 2003. But anti-slavery organisations say thousands of people still live in subjugation.

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Sudan: Coping with divorce

Horror of deadly cattle vendetta

Pointing to war?

Forced to choose between Sudans

Garang's ex-chef savours freedom

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011 as the outcome of a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest-running civil war.

An overwhelming majority of South Sudanese voted in a January 2011 referendum to secede and become Africa's first new country since Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993.

The new nation stands to benefit from inheriting the bulk of Sudan's oil wealth, but continuing disputes with Khartoum and a lack of economic development cloud its immediate future.

Geography

Formed from the 10 southern-most states of Sudan, South Sudan is a land of expansive grassland, swamps and tropical rain forest straddling both banks of the White Nile.

It is highly diverse ethnically and linguistically. Among the largest ethnic groups are the Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk.

Unlike the predominantly Muslim population of Sudan, the South Sudanese follow traditional religions, while a minority are Christians.

History

As Sudan prepared to gain independence from joint British and Egyptian rule in 1956, southern leaders accused the new authorities in Khartoum of backing out of promises to create a federal system, and of trying to impose an Islamic and Arabic identity.

In 1955, southern army officers mutinied, sparking off a civil war between the south, led by the Anya Nya guerrilla movement, and the Sudanese government.

The yes vote in the 2011 referendum on independence sparked scenes of jubilation

The conflict only ended when the Addis Ababa peace agreement of 1972 accorded the south a measure of autonomy.

But, in 1983, the south, led by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and its armed wing, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), again rose in rebellion when the Sudanese government cancelled the autonomy arrangements.

At least 1.5 million people are thought to have lost their lives and more than four million were displaced in the ensuing 22 years of guerrilla warfare. Large numbers of South Sudanese fled the fighting, either to the north or to neighbouring countries, where many remain.

The conflict finally ended with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, under which the south was granted regional autonomy along with guaranteed representation in a national power-sharing government.

The agreement also provided for a referendum in the south on independence in 2011, in which 99% of southern Sudanese voted to split from Sudan.

Economy

Most South Sudanese sustain themselves through agriculture

Long based on subsistence agriculture, South Sudan's economy is now highly oil-dependent. While an estimated 75% of all the former Sudan's oil reserves are in South Sudan, the refineries and the pipeline to the Red Sea are in Sudan.

Under the 2005 accord, South Sudan received 50% of the former united Sudan's oil proceeds, which provide the vast bulk of the country's budget. But that arrangement was set to expire with independence.

Despite the oil wealth, South Sudan is one of Africa's least developed countries. However, the years since the 2005 peace accord ushered in an economic revival and investment in utilities and other infrastructure.

Conflicts

Alongside the oil issue, several border disputes with Sudan continue to strain ties. The main row is over border region of Abyei, where a referendum for the residents to decide whether to join south or north has been delayed over voter eligibility.

The conflict is rooted in a dispute over land between farmers of the pro-South Sudan Dinka Ngok people and cattle-herding Misseriya Arab tribesmen.

Another border conflict zone is the Nuba Mountains region of Sudan's South Kordofan state, where violence continues between the largely Christian and pro-SPLA Nuba people and northern government forces.

Inside South Sudan, a cattle-raiding feud between rival ethnic groups in Jonglei state has left hundreds of people dead and some 100,000 displaced since independence.

And several rebel forces opposed to the SPLM-dominated government have emerged, including the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA) of Peter Gadet and a force led former SPLA general George Athor. Juba says these forces are funded by Sudan, which denies the accusation.

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