Amnesty deplores African rights record

Liberian children were recruited as combatants in the civil war

Human rights group Amnesty International has produced its annual report, which says the US-led "war on terror" is behind a surge of human rights abuses around the world.

Governments everywhere were tempted to use it as an excuse for abandoning established rights and humanitarian principles, it said.

But alongside the global human rights crisis, old abuses persisted.

In Africa, 2003 saw widespread armed conflict, the repression of political opponents, the failure of governments to live up to their professed standards - and near total impunity for past and continuing abuses, the report said.

The following are some of the abuses cited across Africa:

Burundi

Scores of civilians killed in armed conflict by government forces and armed groups

Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves

Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict

Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects

Central African Republic

Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves during armed conflict

Numerous extrajudicial executions and widespread sexual violence reportedly carried out by those involved in the March 2003 coup, involving armed groups from neighbouring DR Congo

Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict

The worst abuses were found in areas of conflict, the report said

Ivory Coast

Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves

Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict

Democratic Republic of Congo

Mass slaughter, rape and mutilation of men, women and children during armed conflict

Tens of thousands killed and internally displaced in the east due to clashes between armed ethnic groups supported by outside powers, including Rwanda and Uganda

Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves

Liberia

Thousands of deaths, sexual violence against women and children and mass displacement within Liberia and to Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea and Sierra Leone

Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves

Nigeria

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor offered refuge and implied immunity from prosecution

Sharia (Islamic law) courts continued to hand down death sentences based on penal legislation passed since 1999 - but no executions reportedly carried out

Culpable homicide used as charge in cases of abortion and miscarriage in some states

Sudan

Conflict in western region of Darfur killed hundreds and led to displacement of hundreds of thousands

Thousands have fled Sudan's Darfur region, where militias are accused of "ethnic cleansing"

Recruitment of child soldiers as combatants and sex slaves

Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict

Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects

Uganda

Lord's Resistance Army continued to abduct children and abuse them as combatants and sexual slaves

Women and girls raped and sexually abused by perpetrators from different parties to the conflict

Cameroon

Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression

Chad

Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression

Eritrea

Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression

Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects

Ethiopia

Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression

Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects

Rwanda

Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression

Togo

Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression

Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects

Zimbabwe was criticised for widespread torture

Zimbabwe

Malicious prosecution, arbitrary arrest and excessive force against demonstrators as tools of political repression

Widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspects

Commonwealth renewed suspension of Zimbabwe because of government's poor human rights record

Kenya

Legislation prepared to allow detraction from key human rights obligations on grounds of combating "terrorism"

Zambia

More than 40 people sentenced to death for participation in alleged coup attempt - but no executions reportedly carried out

Chad

Nine men executed in the first death sentences carried out since 1991

South Africa

Failure to protect women effectively from criminally motivated sexual violence or to support them as survivors of violence - largely due to inadequate law enforcement and judicial process

Swaziland

Failure to protect women effectively from criminally motivated sexual violence or to support them as survivors of violence - largely due to inadequate law enforcement and judicial process