Africa - Affairs At - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa -South-Sudanese flee to escape deadly ethnic vendetta - 02/01/2012
South Sudanese flee to escape deadly ethnic vendetta Tens of thousands of South Sudanese are fleeing their homes after inter-ethnic clashes around the town of Pibor. The UN is warning villagers to run for their lives as some 6,000 fighters advance on their ethnic rivals. Fighters from the Lou Nuer ethnic group are pursuing members of the Murle community, reports say, as a deadly vendetta over cattle raiding continues. A UN official told the BBC that peacekeepers and government troops are heavily outnumbered. The government is sending additional police and troops in a bid to quell the violence. About 1,000 people have been killed in recent months as reprisal attacks over cattle raids have escalated. Tens of thousands of Murle fled Pibor after it came under attack from the Lou Nuer on Saturday. BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the Lou Nuer are attacking villages and burning homes and that it could take a week for the Murle to walk to an area of safety...

Africa - Affairs At - http://www.monitor.co.ug - Donors - may-cut aid-to- Uganda in corruption-protest - 05/03/2010
In Summary * Government unwilling to curb rising corruption * Proceeds from newly discovered oil likely to be embezzled * Donors provide about 30 percent of Uganda's budget resources KAMPALA Donors will suspend aid to Uganda to protest at escalating corruption unless the government undertakes urgent measures to curb the vice, the donors warned government in a letter. Uganda's economy has maintained a powerful growth momentum over the last decade, riding on liberal reforms and rising entrepreneurial energy. However, mounting corruption and government's reluctance to combat it have stoked fierce criticism and analysts have warned the vice may dampen the country's otherwise bright growth prospects. Kundhavi Kadiresan, World Bank's representative in Uganda and current chair of the donors' group that presented the statement to the government, said Kampala's tolerance of corrupt public officers was deepening a culture of impunity. "The undeniable lack of government action to follow up on cases of grand corruption is a key area of development partner concern," she said in the letter seen by Reuters on Thursday. "Donors ... are currently considering a range of actions. This may include withholding disbursements, reductions in aid or reprogramming away from direct budget support." The east African country has also faced intense pressure from Western governments and human rights groups over a draft anti-gay law that would prohibit sexual relations between people of the same sex as well as the recognition of homosexual relations as an acceptable lifestyle...

Africa - Affairs At - http://www.washingtonpost.com/asia_pacific -Oil interests push China into Sudanese mire- 25/12/2011
JUBA, South Sudan — At a restaurant along the River Nile offering crocodile and ostrich meat, officials of the world’s newest — and desperately destitute — nation hosted a lunch this month for Liu Guijin, China’s visiting envoy for African affairs. Liu’s visit to Juba, the dirt-track capital of South Sudan, which split from Sudan in July, came at a tense time: Sudan had just bombed a refugee camp, armed militias were mining roads, and troops were clashing in disputed border areas...

Africa - Affairs At -http://crestedjournal.com-ICC to investigate Museveni, Uganda Army over Genocide allegation - 03/06/2010
Citing increased complaints from Ugandans, mainly from the war-ravaged northern region, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) said Thursday he plans to investigate the country's army over alleged crimes against humanity. Ocampo made the statement after he had received a formal complaint package from one of Ugandan's opposition politicians...

Africa - Affairs At -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa - Ivory Coast: Ouattara fighters 'capture Yamoussoukro' - 30/03/2011
Forces loyal to one of Ivory Coast's rival presidents, Alassane Ouattara, have captured the administrative capital Yamoussoukro, residents say. They have continued their advance from the north despite a ceasefire appeal from incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo. Mr Gbagbo refuses to stand down despite the UN saying he lost November's poll. The UN has voted to impose sanctions on Mr Gbagbo and his main aides, adding to economic measures already taken by the EU and African groups. The UN resolution, drafted by France and Nigeria, imposed a travel ban and assets freeze on Mr Gbagbo, his wife Simone, and three of his closest associates. One million people have fled the violence - mostly from the main city Abidjan - and at least 462 people have been killed since December, according to the UN. 'Residents clapping' Abidjan remains largely under the control of Mr Gbagbo. But the BBC's John James in the central city of Bouake says Yamoussoukro's capture is a major symbolic victory for the pro-Ouattara forces...

Africa - Affairs At- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa - Libya foreign minister 'defects' - 31/03/2011
Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is in Britain and "no longer willing" to work for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime, the Foreign Office says. He flew into an airport near the capital earlier on Wednesday. He has subsequently spent hours talking to British officials. His apparent defection comes as rebels in Libya are retreating from former strongholds along the eastern coast as Colonel Gaddafi's forces advance. The rebels have now lost the key oil port of Ras Lanuf and the nearby town of Bin Jawad, and are also in full retreat from Brega. In the west, the rebel-held town of Misrata is still reportedly coming under attack from pro-Gaddafi troops, reports say. 'Own free will' A British Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Moussa Koussa arrived at Farnborough Airport on 30 March from Tunisia. He travelled here under his own free will. "He has told us that he is resigning his post. We are discussing this with him and we will release further detail in due course. "Moussa Koussa is one of the most senior figures in Gaddafi's government and his role was to represent the regime internationally - something that he is no longer willing to do...

Africa - Affairs At -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa- Libya: Gaddafi must step down, says 'contact group' - 13/04/2011
The newly formed international "contact group" on Libya has called for Muammar Gaddafi to stand down as leader. It said his continued presence threatened any resolution of the crisis in the country, and that Libyans should be allowed to determine their future. The call came in a final statement read out by Qatar's prime minister at a summit on Libya in Doha. Rebels seeking to topple Col Gaddafi made their first high-profile diplomatic appearance at the summit. The contact group also agreed to continue to provide the rebels with "material support" - a form of words described as ambiguous by the BBC's Jon Leyne - and also to consider channelling funds to them. Earlier, delegates were told by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that more than half of Libya's population of six million might eventually require humanitarian aid...

Africa - Affairs At-http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - Ivorian women protesters killed - 05/03/2011
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has condemned the killing of at least six female protesters in Cote d'Ivoire on Thursday. The women were taking part in a demonstration calling for president Laurent Gbagbo to step down following November's disputed election...

Africa - Affairs At-http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - South Sudan suspends Khartoum talks - 13/03/2011
Southern Sudan has suspended talks on independence with the north's National Congress Party, accusing the north of planning to overthrow the south's administration. Pagan Amum, the secretary-general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), reiterated the accusation on Sunday, saying that the northern government was arming local tribes to use as proxy forces. "The country is in a crisis because the [National Congress Party, or NCP] has been planning and working to destabilise Southern Sudan,'' he told reporters in the southern capital of Juba. Amum said that the northern government wanted "to overthrow the government of Southern Sudan before July and to install a puppet government". He offered to provide documentary evidence on Monday and called on the United Nations Security Council to investigate the allegations...

Africa - Affairs At-http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - UN authorises no-fly zone over Libya - 18/03/2011
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has backed a resolution authorising a no-fly zone over Libya and "all necessary measures" - code for military action - to protect civilians. Ten of the council's 15 members voted in favour of the resolution on Thursday, while Russia, China, Germany, India and Brazil abstained. France said on Friday morning that military action in Libya would come "rapidily ... within a few hours", but did not specify the targets or in what form the action would come. However officials in the US and Britain have suggested that military intervention would not begin until Sunday or Monday. The NATO military alliance is also due to meet later on Friday to discuss its response to the resolution. Despite choosing not to use its veto to block the resolution, China on Friday expressed serious concerns about imposing the no-fly zone. "We oppose the use of military force in international relations, and have serious reservations about some of the content of the resolution," Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, said in a statement. Turkey on Friday also voiced concern over military intervention, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Libya instead. But no votes were recorded against the resolution, which was co-sponsored by France, Britain, Lebanon and the United States...

Africa - Affairs At-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa - Ivory Coast fighting in Duekoue traps people at church - 29/03/2011
Some 30,000 people are trapped in a church compound in Ivory Coast as fighting worsens in the west of the country, a missionary has told the BBC. The priest at a Roman Catholic mission in Duekoue said people had been arriving there with gunshot wounds. Forces loyal to UN-backed President-elect Alassane Ouattara are on the offensive on several fronts against the army loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo. Mr Gbagbo refuses to stand down despite the UN saying he lost November's poll. The UN has accused pro-Gbagbo forces of shooting at civilians in the country's largest city, Abidjan, on Monday, killing at least 10 people. It said a group of Gbagbo supporters had burnt another man alive in the city. Some one million people have fled the violence - mostly in Abidjan - the UN says. UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure also accused pro-Ouattara forces of shooting at a UN helicopter near Duekoue. The fighters have been gaining ground in two offensives from their northern bases. In the west, the pro-Ouattara forces have attacked Duekoue and the major town of Daloa, while in the east, they say they have taken the town of Bondoukou...

Africa - Affairs At-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa - Libya: Coalition launches attacks - 19/03/2011
The UK, the US and France have begun attacking Libya as enforcement of the UN-mandated no-fly zone gets under way. More than 110 missiles have been fired by the UK and US, officials at the Pentagon say. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has confirmed that British planes are in action over Libya. Earlier, French planes destroyed Libyan vehicles. Western planes bombed targets in the capital, Tripoli, said the AFP news agency, quoting witnesses and state TV. US President Barack Obama, speaking during a visit to Brazil, said the US was taking "limited military action" as part of a "broad coalition". "We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy," he said. He repeated that no US ground troops would take part. 'Necessary' A British submarine has fired a number of missiles at Libyan air defence targets, the Ministry of Defence said...

Africa - Affairs At-http://www.monitor.co.ug - China-to-send delegation-to-Uganda-on-oil - 19/08/2010
China is sending a high-level delegation to Uganda next month to explore possibilities of building the much-needed oil refinery in the country. Uganda’s ambassador to China Charles Wagidoso told Ugandans in China this week that the delegation from SINOPEC, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), a petroleum and petrochemical group incorporated by the State in 1998, will be travelling to Uganda on an oil mission. “The President of Uganda has been emphasising that we will not export crude oil and that we must refine it from here. The Minister for Energy has been to China for talks,” Ambassador Wagidoso said. “SINOPEC officials will be visiting Uganda sometime next month (September) for more negotiations.” SINOPEC is a listed company on domestic and international stock exchanges namely the Hong Kong, New York and London, with strong oil and petrochemical core businesses and a complete marketing network. It is one of the largest integrated energy and chemical company in China...

Africa - Affairs At-http://www.monitor.co.ug-Fire destroys Kasubi tombs - 17/03/2010
Kampala The historic Kasubi Tombs last night went up in flames, engulfing the main building housing the mausoleums of four former Buganda kings (Kabakas). Hundreds of Kingdom subjects, some prostrating, crying and screaming, gathered in front of the embers. The grass-thatched hut was completely destroyed within minutes, leaving the skeletal brick wall. The burial grounds, revered by the Baganda, are 128 years old. Witnesses Witnesses said the blaze started around 8:30pm. One woman, Lydia Nabambulide, said she heard “a loud explosion” behind the tombs, just before the fire began. She said: “I saw a white box wrapped in something like bark cloth and it looked strange.” A white numberless pickup truck reportedly emerged from the tombs shortly after the fire broke out, Mr Andrew Jjuko said, quoting Boda Boda men who were at the scene. Other reports suggested that the fleeing man shot in the air to scare away riders in his pursuit. Mr Charles Peter Mayiga, the Buganda information minister, said they were puzzled by the mysterious fire outbreak and “it is a dark moment for the kingdom.” “We don’t know what is really going on in the kingdom,” he said...

Africa - Affairs At-http://www.monitor.co.ug-Kabaka, Museveni visit burnt Kasubi tombs - 17/03/2010
The Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi has visited Kasubi Tombs where his father and grandparents lie shortly after president Yoweri Museveni toured what remains of the cultural site that was burnt to ashes on Tuesday night. The visibly sad Kabaka, accompanied his wife the Nabagereka Sylvia Nagginda toured the grounds He however did not address the gathering as expected. Earlier, the military opened fire after a crowd of people tried to stop the president's convoy from accessing the historical site. The five minutes gunfire that later dispersed the crowd also left three people injured. It is not yet clear whether there were any deaths. Also, a man, whose identity has not yet been revealed has been arrested at the tombs with a pistol. The man in civilian clothes was led away by the military. Mr Museveni who later arrived at the site, called for calm and ordered that a special investigation be carried out to establish the cause of the fire. “I am suspicious but I don’t know whether it was a deliberate act or an accident. Unfortunately these people have interfered with the scene of the crime because we would have been able to ascertain if it was intended arson. Government will see how it can assist in undoing the damage caused,” the President said. Meanwhile, Buganda cabinet that convened earlier today to forge a way forward also agreed to form a committee to investigate the fire that burnt the main building housing the mausoleums of four former Buganda kings (Kabakas). The kingdom’s Deputy Information minister Medard Sseggona told journalists in the morning, “It’s too sad that we have lost such valuable property as the kingdom. We will also set up independent investigations as a kingdom.” Reports indicate that Peter Sematimba, the Rubaga Chairman division was beaten up and denied access to the site in the morning...

Africa - Affairs At-http://www.ugandarecord.co.ug-Crisis-in-Rwanda: Another-failed-state-in-the-making - 05/03/2010
By Timothy Kalyegira The tiny East-central African nation of Rwanda has suddenly been thrown back into the world news focus for the very reasons it has spent 16 years trying to overcome: political instability. Since the 1994 genocide --- which the Uganda Record late last year demonstrated was actually orchestrated by the RPF rebels, using the tactics they as the NRA rebels had used in Luwero Triangle in central Uganda --- the RPF government has tried to conceal its skeletons. It has deflected attention from the truth of the genocide and the shooting down of the presidential jet by embarking on a sustained public relations drive, paying Ugandan journalists, academics, and columnists to write flattering articles about RPF Rwanda and President Paul Kagame. Reports of massacres of Hutu civilians in eastern Congo and inside Rwanda itself are carefully concealed from the public and the mostly Tutsi RPF government has put up the face of a common front...

Africa - Affairs At-http://www.upi.com-U.S. aims-to-help-Somalia-reclaim-capital - 06/03/2010
MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 6 (UPI) -- U.S. military assistance could prove critical in the Somali government's effort to reclaim control of its capital, Mogadishu, The New York Times reports. The American military has provided training to Somali intelligence officers and troops, logistical support to the peacekeepers, surveillance information on insurgents and money for bullets and guns. But if the Somali offensive, which could begin within a few weeks, drives al-Qaida terrorists from Mogadishu, U.S. covert forces would get involved, an unidentified American official told the newspaper. "What you're likely to see is airstrikes and Special Ops moving in, hitting and getting out," the official said...

Africa - Affairs-At - http://news.bbc.co.uk - Niger junta arrests ministers loyal to ousted president - 29/03/20
Ten former ministers and officials loyal to ex-President Mamadou Tandja have been arrested in Niamey. Among those detained were the former ministers of finance and justice, and the heads of the national electricity and water companies. Interior Minister Cisse Ousmane said they were accused of carrying out subversive activities. In February, Mr Tandja was overthrown in a coup and replaced by a military junta led by Maj Salou Djibo. The junta, which calls itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, has said it wants to make Niger an example of "democracy and good governance". After the coup, the largely arid but uranium-rich country was expelled from the African Union and the international community urged the junta to hold elections as soon as possible. Mr Tandja had ruled Niger for more than a decade before the February coup and had come under increasing criticism both at home and abroad. In 2009, opposition parties accused Mr Tandja of effectively mounting a coup when he forced through a change in the constitution to secure an unprecedented third term as president.

Africa - Affairs-At - http://news.bbc.co.uk- Nigerian President Yar'Adua dies after long illness - 06/05/2010
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has died at his presidential villa following a long illness. The government announced seven days of national mourning and said the president would be buried on Thursday. Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has been sworn in as head of state in a ceremony in the capital Abuja. Mr Yar'Adua, 58, came to power in 2007 promising many reforms. Analysts say he made the most progress in tackling unrest in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Nigerian TV interrupted normal programming to announce the news in a brief statement early on Thursday...

Africa - Affairs-At- http://news.bbc.co.uk-DR Congo human rights activist found dead in Kinshasa - 03/06/2010
A leading rights activist in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been found dead in the capital, Kinshasa. Floribert Chebeya's body was discovered, partially clothed, on the back seat of his own car. A BBC reporter says Mr Chebeya had received regular threats from police in the past, and had been ordered to meet the national police chief on Tuesday. Rights group Amnesty International says oppression of activists in DR Congo is growing...

Africa - Affairs-At-http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa -Editor's murder 'approved by Rwandan President' - 02/07/2010
From a safe house, journalist who survived assassination attempt tells Daniel Howden the truth about Paul Kagame's rule Jean Bosco Gasasira is in hiding. Instead of running a newspaper in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, reporting on the political assassinations that have plagued the country of late, he spends his time moving between safe houses in neighbouring Uganda, trying to avoid the same fate himself. According to police in Kampala he was the victim of an attempted assassination last week; in the same week, his friend and co-editor of the banned newspaper, Umuvugizi, Jean Leonard Rugambage, was shot dead in Kigali.

Africa - Africa - Affairs At - bbc.co.uk-Landslide 'kills 100' in Uganda region of Bududa - 02/03/2010
More than 100 people have been killed in a landslide in the mountainous eastern region of Bududa in Uganda, a minister has told the BBC. Minister for Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru has gone to the area to assess what help is needed. Rescuers are digging through the mud with handheld tools, looking for survivors and bodies. Up to 60 children are missing. They took shelter in a health centre which was reportedly destroyed. Mr Ecweru said he had counted 58 bodies himself but local officials had told him at least 106 people have died. He said the government had provided 100 coffins "to give the dead citizens a very decent burial". More than 300 people are reported to be missing after their homes were buried in the area after recent heavy rains. Correspondents say the region often suffers from landslides but this is an unusually high death toll...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At - bbc.co.uk-Timeline: Niger - 04/11/2009
Timeline: Niger A chronology of key events: 1890 - French occupy Niger. 1958 - Niger becomes autonomous republic of the French Community. 1960 - Niger becomes independent; parliament elects Diori Haman president. 1968-73 - Severe drought devastates Niger's livestock and crop production. 1974 - Diori Herman overthrown in military coup led by Lt-Col Seyni Kountche. 1987 - Ali Seybou, the armed forces chief of staff, succeeds Kountche who dies of a brain tumour. 1989 - A new constitution brings Niger back to civilian rule, but under a one-party system; Seybou re-elected president...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At - http://news.smh.com.au-Junta-lifts-curfew-in-Niger after coup - 20/02/2010
Sydney-Morning-Herald / AFP Niger's new ruling junta has lifted a curfew and reopened the borders after cementing control of the uranium-rich west African state amid growing international condemnation of its deadly coup. Convinced it is in charge, the military has authorised free movement in and out of the country after capturing President Mamadou Tandja and sacking his government. "The situation is under control," Colonel Goukoye Abdoulkarim, spokesman of the junta, told journalists on Friday. The army stormed the palace during a cabinet meeting and seized Tandja and detained his ministers before announcing it was suspending a constitution the 71-year-old forced through with a contested referendum last year. "There is no single voice of dissension in either Niamey or in other parts of the country," Abdoulkarim said. The junta swung into action late on Thursday with a call for support from the 15 million population, promising to make the world's third producer of uranium a beacon of "good democracy and governance" after months of political turmoil. Calling itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD), the junta dissolved the government of the impoverished nation, then held a meeting with senior officials of ministries on Friday morning. In his first public speech to reporters, junta leader Major Salou Djibo said he would set up a consultative working council to take collective decisions...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At - http://www.france24.com-Guinea-massacre a-crime against-humanity-ICC - 20/02/2010
AFP - The massacre of opposition supporters by Guinea's military junta in September 2009 amounted to a crime against humanity, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said. "As the deputy prosecutor of the ICC, I end this visit with the feeling that crimes of the order of crimes against humanity were committed," Fatou Bensouda told reporters at the end of a three-day mission to Conakry on Friday. Bensouda spoke of "atrocious crimes" committed on September 28 in Conakry's biggest stadium, adding "men in uniform attacked civilians, they killed and wounded. "In full daylight they mistreated, violated and submitted women to unprecedented sexual violence." A United Nations commission of enquiry had already reached a similar conclusion. It investigated the incident when troops attacked opponents of Guinea's military regime who had gathered for a rally. Soldiers shot, stabbed and beat protesters, publicly raping women. It declared in a report published on December 21 that "it is reasonable to conclude that the crimes perpetrated on September 28, 2009 and the following days could be qualified as crimes against humanity." The commission said the violence had resulted in at least "156 deaths or disappearances" and that "at least 109 women" had been victims of rape or other sexual violence...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At - http://www.guardian.co.uk-Is it time for Museveni to go? - 19/02/2010
Anne Perkins guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 February 2009 11.30 GMT The state of Uganda: President Yoweri Museveni has ruled Uganda for almost a quarter of a century. Anne Perkins examines his record in office and debates his chances of retaining power if he runs in the next election in 2011. In his inaugural address 23 years ago, the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, was cheered as he declared: "The problems of Africa, and Uganda in particular, are caused by leaders who overstay in power, which breeds impunity, corruption and promotes patronage." Museveni is still in power, and it looks very likely that he will fight for a fourth term in 2011. "He'll be another Mugabe" is the gloomy prediction among opposition politicians in Kampala. Tim Allen, professor of development studies at the London School of Economics, sees the successful resolution of Zimbabwe's crisis as one of the most influencing events in African politics now. "If Mugabe goes, it would change the landscape," he says. "And if he is held to account, it would be very liberating."...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At -bbc.co.uk-African Union suspends Niger after military coup - 20/02/2010
The African Union has suspended Niger following Thursday's military coup, in which President Mamadou Tandja was deposed and the government dissolved. The organisation said it had imposed sanctions on the country and demanded a return to constitutional rule. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the coup, and appealed for calm and respect for human rights. Earlier, the new military council announced it was lifting a curfew and re-opening borders. Col Abdul Karimou said the situation was "under control" and that there was "no single voice of dissension" in the West African state. Thousands of people took to the streets on Friday in support of the takeover. Ten people are said to have died when the junta seized power. Tandja 'safe' Troops stormed the palace during a cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon, seizing Mr Tandja and his ministers before announcing that they were suspending the constitution and dissolving all state institutions...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At -bbc.co.uk-ICC: Guinea killings 'crime against humanity' - 19/02/2010
The killing of opposition supporters in Guinea last year was a crime against humanity, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has said. The deputy prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, made the statement in Guinea after a preliminary investigation into the deaths in the capital, Conakry. Security forces have been blamed for the killings of more than 150 people at an opposition rally on 28 September. Ms Bensouda said "atrocious crimes" had been committed by men in uniform. Senior members of the ruling military junta have also been implicated...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At -bbc.co.uk-Ivory Coast opposition to join new unity government - 26/02/2010
Opposition leaders in Ivory Coast say they are ready to join a new unity government, ending a standoff that has threatened the country's peace process. The move follows President Laurent Gbagbo's decision to appoint a new electoral commission. The latest crisis began two weeks ago, when President Gbagbo dissolved the previous body, accusing it of fraud and being controlled by the opposition. President Gbagbo's decision led to deadly protests. Early on Friday, the authorities announced a new election commission, headed by a member of the opposition and tasked with preparing long-delayed elections. Later senior opposition leader Alassane Ouattara told reporters that opposition groups had agreed to take the 11 seats reserved for them in the 27-member cabinet. Mr Ouattara also said the opposition was "suspending all demonstrations". Fraud accusations The move comes two days after a new unity government was announced - the previous one had been sacked along with the electoral commission. Voter registration has been at the heart of the dispute.

Africa - Africa - Affairs At -http://www.reuters.com-Gunfire-erupts in-Niger capital-in apparent coup bid - 18/02/2010
NIAMEY, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Smoke was seen rising from the presidential palace amid heavy gunfire in Niger's capital, Niamey, on Thursday in an apparent coup attempt. Political tensions have been high in the central African uranium exporting country in recent months over President Mamadou Tandja's extension of his rule, which drew widespread criticism and international sanctions. "We can hear gunshots from time to time but ... the President is in his office," a security source inside the presidential palace told Reuters by telephone. Witnesses said machine gun and heavy weapons fire erupted in the city at around 1200 GMT and that smoke was rising from the presidential palace. A Reuters witness later saw five injured soldiers at a hospital in Niamey. An intelligence officer, who asked not to be named, said the violence was a coup attempt that the presidential guard was trying to put down...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At-bbc.co.uk - Niger's coup leaders lift curfew - 19/02/2010
Niger's new military rulers have lifted a curfew and reopened the country's borders, a day after they overthrew the government and detained the president. Ten people are said to have died when the junta seized power in gun battles - a move which has been widely condemned. The African Union has suspended Niger from the regional organisation and demanded free elections are held. A junta spokesman, Col Goukoye Abdul Karimou, earlier told the BBC President Mamadou Tandja was "safe and well". "We are taking care of him - remember he is one of our elder soldiers," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa. The colonel said most of the cabinet ministers captured along with the president had been released and had gone home. The three still being held would be free in a couple of days, he added. It is believed they are being held at a military barracks in Niamey. 'Under control' The day after the takeover, people in the capital were going about their business as normal - attending mosques and going shopping. There was no obvious military presence on the streets, although heavy artillery was deployed around the presidential palace...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Kenya faces political 'meltdown' - 16/02/2010
Ongoing political wrangling in Kenya's coalition government is having a major detrimental effect on its fight against corruption, a lobbying group warns. Transparency International warned Kenya risked turning into a failed state. A rift in the fragile power-sharing government developed after PM Raila Odinga announced the suspension of two ministers after corruption scandals. President Mwai Kibaki annulled the suspensions, saying the Mr Odinga did not have the power to take the action. The head of Transparency International in Kenya, Job Ogonda, said the political dispute in Kenya's coalition government was sending out a very dangerous message. It was showing that the struggle for power was more important than the fight against corruption and this, he said, would have dire consequences come the next election. "In 2012 it's very likely we're going to have a meltdown," said Mr Ogonda. "We have the significant risk that Kenya will be generating to a failed state. "This is how in Sierra Leone and indeed Liberia were fomented: the executive being eliminated and oblivious for the failed state risks that corruption causes especially where the population is young, educated and unemployed"...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua returns home - 24/02/2010
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has returned home after three months' treatment in Saudi Arabia, officials say, but his condition is unknown. A plane from Jeddah landed at Abuja airport in the early hours, where an ambulance was waiting on the tarmac. Earlier this month, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan became acting leader as fears mounted of a power vacuum. Mr Yar'Adua has not attended the weekly cabinet meeting, and it is unclear if he is well enough to resume duties...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At-http://uk.reuters.com-Nigerian-president's-return - 24/02/2010
LAGOS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The return of Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua after three months in a Saudi hospital has renewed uncertainty over the leadership of Africa's most populous nation. His deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, assumed executive powers two weeks ago to fill the vacuum and immediately set to work to address priorities kept on hold by Yar'Adua's absence, but that role is now in doubt. Below are some possible scenarios for what could happen next: YAR'ADUA RESUMES WORK This scenario could avert a new crisis, but an adviser said it was doubtful Yar'Adua would resume work immediately. Yar'Adua would have to make his full recovery very clear to the cabinet, parliament, regional governors and Nigerians. This would be difficult without a public appearance and there is no suggestion that he is fit enough. His night time arrival was shrouded in secrecy. Nobody from outside his circle was allowed near as he was unloaded from a plane with dimmed lights and driven to the palace under escort. No images have appeared of Yar'Adua during his stay in Saudi Arabia. The only words from him were a few brief comments on BBC radio in a weak voice. YAR'ADUA RESUMES ROLE AS PRESIDENT BUT CANNOT WORK Some of Yar'Adua's allies argue that simply by returning to Nigeria, the president has re-established his place and therefore roles go back to what they were before. The constitution is not clear on this, but then it was not clear on Jonathan being able to take on the role of acting president without written instructions from Yar'Adua. This could be a recipe for further government paralysis although one possibility is that Yar'Adua delegates to Jonathan or others while he remains in a weakened state...

Africa - Africa - Affairs At-http://www.monitor.co.ug-450,000 sign to kill anti-gay Bill - 02/03/2010
Parliament Almost half a million people have petitioned Parliament to drop debate on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Religious leaders and HIV/Aids activists handed a copy of the petition with signatures, collected mainly through the Internet from all over the world, including Uganda, to Speaker Edward Ssekandi on Monday. Canon Gideon Byamugisha, the first practicing African religious leader to declare he was living with HIV, and a prominent campaigner against the disease, handed over the petition. Retired Anglican Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo accompanied him and the two men described the law as “draconian” and demanded for its withdrawal. “In the interests of safer, healthier, more peaceful, and more prosperous lives for all Ugandans; we as Aids Service Providers, pastors and spiritual mentors of all Ugandans are calling for the withdrawal of this Bill from Parliament,” the petition read in part. Other key activists in the delegation included, HIV/Aids campaigner Maj. (rtd) Rubaramira Ruranga and Ms Noerine Kareeba, founder of The Aids Support Organisation. Homosexuality is already a criminal offence in Uganda but the private member’s Bill brought by MP David Bahati proposes the death penalty for gay rape and defilement, as well as stiff penalties for those who do not report gay acts...

Africa - Africa - Affairs-At -http://www.independent.co.uk -Uganda's oil deal fuels concerns - 17/02/2010
The gas flares that have blighted the Niger Delta are set to arrive in Uganda in the next year under the terms of a secret deal between the East African government and a British oil company. Uganda is believed to be sitting on the largest onshore oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa but there are mounting concerns that the influx of petrodollars could encourage corruption and degrade the environment. Leaked documents released yesterday by the oil watchdog Platform have done little to dampen those concerns as the production-sharing agreements between London-based Tullow Oil and the government in Kampala contain few environmental safeguards while guaranteeing the company what the NGO calls "excessive profits". "The confidential documents we have published make clear that the corporations and the government cannot be trusted to protect the Ugandan people from the negative impacts of oil extraction," said Platform's Kampala researcher Taimour Lay. The production-sharing agreements (PSAs), which the Ugandan government had refused to publish, pave the way for the controversial practice of gas flaring, which has repeatedly been outlawed but continues around the clock in Nigeria. This is the process in which unwanted natural gas tapped during production is burned...

Africa - Africa Affairs At - bbc.co.uk-Oil-deal 'damaging-for-Uganda-environment' - 17/02/2010
Uganda's environment is being put at risk by a secret deal between the government and a UK oil firm, a lobby group has told the BBC. The pressure group Platform said Tullow Oil had framed a deal with no provision for the environmental or social impact of oil extraction in Uganda. But the firm said the deal was standard and that its company practices would ensure environmental protection. Oil extraction has been controversial in other African countries. In Nigeria, several militant groups claim to be fighting for a fairer share of oil wealth for local people. And analysts say oil wealth in places such as Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria and Libya has brought little benefit to the general population. 'No secret' Platform say they want Uganda to learn the lessons of the other countries and renegotiate their deal with Tullow. "There are no penalties or fines for environmental damage caused in any way - including a major pipeline project through Kenya," said Platform's Taimour Lay...

Africa - Africa Affairs At - http://news.bbc.co.uk-Guinea unveils interim government - 15/02/2010
Guinean authorities have appointed a transitional government to steer the country from military to civilian rule, an official statement has said. The 34-member line-up was selected by interim Prime Minister Jean Marie Dore, appointed last month by the general in charge of Guinea, Sekouba Konate. The new caretaker government consists both of civilian and military leaders. Mr Dore has pledged to hold elections within six months, ending a crisis sparked by a coup in December 2008. That would lead to the first democratically-elected administration in Guinea, which has been controlled by the military for decades. Mr Dore was appointed by Gen Konate in January after crisis talks in which the military government agreed on a programme to step down. He has vowed to reform the armed forces and prioritise the economic revival of Guinea - the world's largest exporter of bauxite...

Africa - Africa Affairs At - http://www.npr.org-Ivory Coast's Leader Dissolves 'Unity' Government - 12/02/2010
Ivory Coast's president dissolved the government and disbanded the election commission late Friday, throwing into doubt the political reconciliation process in a divided country that was about to hold elections. "The government is dissolved," President Laurent Gbagbo announced in a recorded message broadcast on national television, specifying that Prime Minister Guillaume Soro will be asked to stay on to form a new government. The move comes two months after the government last failed to hold presidential elections to either re-elect or replace Gbagbo whose term expired five years ago. A date for the election has been set — and then canceled — every year since 2005...

Africa - Africa Affairs At bbc.co.uk-Nigeria: Goodluck Jonathan becomes acting president - 10/02/2010
Nigeria's Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has become acting president, after weeks of political turmoil caused by the absence of its ailing leader. In a televised address to the nation, Mr Jonathan described the role as a "sacred trust". The National Assembly earlier voted to recognise him as acting leader in place of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Mr Yar'Adua has not been seen in public since going to Saudi Arabia in November for medical treatment. His continued absence has sparked legal challenges, cabinet splits and mass street protests. It has led to a freeze in government business and threatened progress made in combating unrest in the oil-rich Niger Delta. 'Pray fervently' "I am fully aware of the responsibilities reposed in me, and I want to reassure all Nigerians that this is a sacred trust, which I shall discharge to my fullest abilities," Mr Jonathan said in his televised address on Tuesday...

Africa - Africa Affairs At bbc.co.uk-Rwanda leaders 'bullying critics' - 10/02/2010
Rwanda's government is attacking and intimidating its critics in the run-up to August's presidential election, the US-based Human Rights Watch says. The group says the leaders target opponents by accusing them of having taken part in the 1994 genocide. The aide of one opposition leader has been jailed for genocide crimes, but he claims he was abroad at the time. President Paul Kagame says he respects people's rights but will not tolerate anyone undermining peace and stability. However, Human Rights Watch says intimidation of the opposition is undermining democracy. Beaten, jailed The group cites the case of opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who recently caused controversy by suggesting that crimes committed against the Hutu population during the genocide should be investigated. She was denounced in media outlets close to the government as a "negationist" of the genocide. Last week, her aide Joseph Ntawangundi was beaten up at a local government office and later jailed for crimes committed during the genocide...

Africa - Africa Affairs At-af.bbc.co.uk-Sudan like a powder keg, says AU chief Jean Ping - 31/01/2010
A vote for independence in oil-rich Southern Sudan's referendum next year could be catastrophic, the African Union's top diplomat has warned. In an interview with French broadcaster RFI, Jean Ping likened Sudan's situation to "sitting on a powder keg". He suggested the nation could once again face north-south conflict and said other areas like Darfur would try to follow the south to independence. Southern Sudanese are due to vote in an independence referendum next year. The vote was agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal which ended a 22-year war between north and south. The BBC's James Copnall, in Khartoum, says it is rare for such a senior official to be so outspoken...

Africa - Africa Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Nigeria assembly-votes-for-Yar'Adua-power-transfer - 09/02/2010
Both houses of Nigeria's National Assembly have passed a motion for sick President Umaru Yar'Adua to hand power to his deputy until he recovers. The BBC's Ahmed Idris in Abuja says the move among the political elite to back the vice-president is unprecedented. The ruling party alternates leadership between north and south, and Mr Yar'Adua's northern backers wanted to keep his southern deputy out of office. Mr Yar'Adua has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia since last November. His absence has sparked legal challenges, cabinet splits and mass protests. It has led to a freeze in government business and threatened progress made in combating unrest in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Cabinet challenge Our correspondent says members of the Senate, House of Representatives and state governors are usually loyal to the president, and the office of vice-president carries little weight...

Africa - Africa Affairs At-http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke-Museveni faces complicated new ‘war-with Baganda— analysts - 03/01/2010
President Yoweri Museveni may have won the 22 year-old war against northern Ugandan rebels, the Lord’s Resistance Army, but another, much more complicated war is afoot — with pro-monarchy supporters of the Buganda kingdom. Analysts say the “war” took a new turn on December 17, the day Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, traditional king of the over five million Baganda, called a conference in the heart of the city to denounce opponents of his demands for poltical power. Baganda are Uganda’s largest and most influential tribe. They live on the northern shores of Lake Victoria — the country’s most fertile belt. Baganda kings, who had reigned in almost unbroken succession since the 1300s, had almost absolute sway and could demand death on the spot, as they did for the 22 world-renowned Uganda Martyrs in 1884. Ugandan legislators began debating a new Bill in parliament mid-December aimed at allowing disparate districts to come together and form regional blocs that would resemble the old kingdoms, albeit without political power for the monarchies...

Africa - Africa Affairs-At af.reuters.com - UN probe blames Camara for Guinea killings: reports - 21/12/2009
PARIS (Reuters) - Guinea's junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara bears direct responsibility for the September 28 killings by security forces of more than 150 pro-democracy marchers, the French daily Le Monde quoted a U.N. inquiry as saying on Monday. Guinea, the world's top exporter of bauxite and a pivotal country for the security of West Africa, has been on the brink of chaos since the massacre and a botched assassination attempt against Camara on December 3 by his former aide de camp. Camara, who has not been seen in public since he was rushed to Morocco for medical treatment after the attempt on his life, could face international prosecution for crimes against humanity if the conclusions are confirmed. "The commission considers there are sufficient grounds for presuming direct criminal responsibility by President Moussa Dadis Camara," Le Monde's website said, quoting the report which was delivered to the U.N. Security Council and African regional bodies at the weekend. It asked that the International Criminal Court to take action against Camara and members of his entourage for crimes against humanity that involved mass killings, rape and sexual mutilations of opposition supporters, Le Monde said...

Africa - Africa Affairs-At-bbc.co.uk- Niger-anger-over-Ecowas-snub-of-President-Tandja - 23/12/2009
Niger's government has expressed its anger over a decision by the regional body Ecowas that it no longer recognises the country's president. Ecowas said that as it did not condone the referendum that enabled Mamadou Tandja to stay in power, his term had therefore expired on Tuesday. But the communications minister said no other countries should try to impose their will on the people of Niger. The West African trade grouping has already suspended Niger. However, Ecowas said it would continue to mediate in negotiations which began this week between Niger's government and opposition in an attempt to resolve the political deadlock...

Africa - Africa Affairs-At-bbc.co.uk-Guinea leader 'should be tried for massacre'-HRW - 19/12/09
Guinea's military leader Capt Moussa Dadis Camara could be held responsible for the massacre of 157 protesters in in September, a report says. The Human Rights Watch report says the killings were designed to silence opposition to military rule. The authors say Guinea's presidential guard fired into the crowd until they ran out of bullets. Capt Camara has previously blamed the deaths on "out of control" elements in the military. The junta has said that 57 people died - and most of these were trampled underfoot, rather than shot... The Human Rights Watch report says the military tried to cover up the massacre by removing bodies from hospital for secret mass burials. They say this was a crime against humanity, coming under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The report names several military officers, including the current head of state, Capt Camara, who it says should be investigated further and face trial. He is currently undergoing hospital treatment in Morocco after being shot by one of his aides. The aide, Lt Toumba Diakite, on Wednesday said he had shot Capt Camara, because the military leader was trying to blame him for the massacre...

Africa - Africa Affairs-At-bbc.co.uk-Niger vows to arrest exiled opposition leaders - 24/12/2009
Niger has reactivated arrest warrants against three exiled opposition leaders - including a former president. The move jeopardises talks aimed at ending a crisis sparked when President Mamadou Tandja changed the constitution so he could stand for a third term. Opposition delegates were taking part in talks because the government agreed to suspend the arrest warrants. This week regional group Ecowas, mediating the talks, said it no longer recognised Mr Tandja's authority. And on Wednesday the US suspended aid and announced it was imposing travel bans on senior officials. Had he honoured his term limits, Mr Tandja would have stepped down as president on Tuesday...

Africa - Africa Affairs-At-news.sky.com-'First Step' Climate Deal Branded 'Toothless' - 19/12/09
Jo Couzens, Sky News Online Campaigners have reacted furiously to a climate agreement struck in Copenhagen after hours of frantic talks, branding it a "toothless declaration". World leaders hailed the deal as a "first step" in tackling global warming but aid agencies say it would fail to avert catastrophe. Friends of the Earth executive director Andy Atkins said: "This toothless declaration by four countries that the US is spinning as a success is exactly the opposite - as it stands it condemns millions of the world's poorest people to hunger, suffering and loss of life as climate change accelerates. "A 2C rise in temperature would still mean the deaths of millions of people and the complete destruction of at least four low-lying island states. "And asking countries to list their national actions on climate change is absolutely no substitute for a legally binding international agreement." John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: "The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport...

Africa - Africa at bbc.com - Niger hits back over suspension - 21/10/09
Niger has accused West Africa's trade bloc Ecowas of misunderstanding the situation in the country a day after the group suspended Niger's membership. A government spokesman told the BBC that President Mamadou Tandja, widely criticised for tightening his grip on power, was a man of peace and dialogue. Moctar Mahamane Kassoum said he hoped to resolve the problems through talks. Niger was suspended after Mr Tandja pressed ahead with a parliamentary vote which was boycotted by the opposition. The election came after months of political turmoil sparked by Mr Tandja's attempts to stay in power for a third term. He dissolved parliament and the constitutional court earlier this year when they refused to allow him to change the constitution. The Economic Community of West African Stateshad warned the 71-year-old president to delay the election or face "full sanctions"...

Africa - Africa-Affairs At - af.reuters.com - Madagascar leader tears up power-sharing agreements - 21/12/2009
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has formally rejected internationally brokered power-sharing deals and said any attempt by the opposition to form a parliament this week would be illegal. Rajoelina named an army colonel as his new prime minister on Sunday after months of power-sharing talks to end nearly a year of instability on the Indian Ocean island collapsed. In a statement published late on Sunday night, Rajoelina said Friday's presidential decree firing his prime minister annulled an earlier decree signed in September ratifying peace accords signed in Mozambique and Ethiopia. The 35-year-old instigator of a coup in March said the posts of two co-presidents --created under the terms of a deal reached in the Ethiopian capital-- and that of speaker of parliament were therefore scrapped...

Africa - African Affairs - At - bbc.co.uk - Ethiopia rebels 'capture towns' - 14/11/09
Ethnic-Somali rebels in the south-east of Ethiopia say they have launched an offensive against government forces and captured several towns. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) said it began attacking on several fronts on Tuesday. The separatists said a "significant number" of Ethiopian troops had been killed and their equipment captured. The reports could not be verified and Ethiopia has in the past dismissed rebel accounts of military gains. "The operation involved thousands of ONLF troops and resulted in two days of heavy fighting," an ONLF statement said. The group added that its forces had been "warmly welcomed" in the towns it claimed to have captured - Obolka, Hamaro, Higlaaley, Yucub, Galadiid, Boodhaano and Gunogabo. The ONLF, formed in 1984, is fighting for the independence of ethnic Somalis in the oil-rich Ogaden region...

Africa - African Affairs - At - reuters.com/article/topNews - China to boost aid to Africa as ties blossom - 08/11/09
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered Africa $10 billion in concessional loans over the next three years on Sunday, saying China was a "true and trusted friend" of the continent and its people. The aid offer is double that unveiled by President Hu Jintao at the last summit in Beijing in 2006, as China aims to boost a relationship which politically goes back decades and is now economically booming, to the discomfort of some in the West. Wen brushed aside concerns that China was only interested in Africa's natural resources to help feed its booming economy...

Africa - African Affairs - At -.bbc.com -Uganda-rebukes-Somali-Islamists - 23/10/09
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said Somali Islamists will "pay" if they attack Uganda's capital, Kampala. He spoke after a commander of the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab said it would target Uganda and Burundi, which have peacekeepers in Somalia. The commander said al-Shabab wanted to retaliate after at least 20 civilians were killed as peacekeepers shelled insurgent strongholds in Mogadishu. A spokesman for the peacekeepers said militants had caused the deaths. The peacekeepers, who are part of the African Union force Amisom, were responding to an insurgent attack on the airport that occurred as Somalia's president was leaving for a conference in Uganda. After heavy shelling left at least 20 dead and more than 50 injured, al-Shabab commander Sheikh Ali Mohamed Hussein said militants would attack Kampala and Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. "We shall make their people cry," he said. "We will move our fighting to those two cities and we shall destroy them." Peacekeeper denial Mr Museveni rebutted the threat. "Those terrorists, I would advise them to concentrate on solving their problems," he said. "If they try to attack Uganda, then they will pay because we know how to attack those who attack us."...

Africa - African Affairs - At af.reuters.com - Unrest in Gabon as Bongo poll win disputed - 03/09/09
By Linel Kwatsi and Media Coulibaly LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Security forces clashed with opposition supporters in Gabon's capital on Thursday after Ali Ben Bongo, son of long-time ruler Omar Bongo, was declared the winner of a disputed presidential election. Protesters targeted facilities owned by French oil giant Total and U.S. oil field services firm Schlumberger in the Port Gentil oil hub, and ex-colonial power France's consulate there, the French Foreign Ministry said...

Africa - African Affairs - At af.reuters.com - ECOWAS imposes arms embargo on Guinea - 17/10/09
ABUJA (Reuters) - West Africa regional bloc ECOWAS on Saturday imposed an arms embargo against Guinea, accusing the ruling military junta for "mass human rights violations" during anti-government protests last month. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also threatened full sanctions on Niger if President Mamadou Tandja does not take immediate steps to resolve the country's political crisis. International pressure has increased for Guinea's military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara to step down after gunmen used live rounds against protesters in a stadium on September 28. More than 150 people died and thousands more were wounded in the incident, according to a local rights group. The 15-member regional body said the violence in Guinea posed a "real threat to the peace, security and stability of the region." "In view of the atrocities that have been committed ... the authority decides to impose an arms embargo on Guinea under the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons," said the communique at an ECOWAS heads of state summit in Nigeria's capital Abuja. It was unclear how the group would enforce the embargo. The United States, France and the European Union have called on Camara to resign and the International Criminal Court said Thursday it was investigating the killings...

Africa - African Affairs - At af.reuters.com - Nigeria charges ex-customs chief over import duty - 15/08/09
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-corruption police charged a former customs chief on Friday with helping three deported Indian businessmen evade the payment of $17 million in rice import duties. Hamman Bello Ahmed, comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service from June 2008 to last March, and five others, are accused of colluding with the Vaswani brothers to defraud the government of 2.5 billion naira. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had in March charged the Vaswani brothers -- Sunil, Haresh and Mahesh -- with non-payment of 3 billion naira in import tariffs. The Vaswanis, who own automobiles, real estate, agriculture, textiles and heavy industry businesses under the Stallion Group brand with revenues in excess of $1 billion a year were deported by the authorities in April, for the second time in seven years. The Vaswani brothers never appeared in court and the EFCC which said then they were at large, noted that the immigration service had been instructed to make sure the three Indians who hold British passports never re-entered Nigeria under false identities. Ahmed and the five others -- including the customs officer in-charge of the Lagos main port of Apapa, Stallion Group general manager Tajudeen Olalere, a clearing agent and a shipping company owner -- all pleaded not guilty to a 46-count charge at a Federal High court in Lagos...

Africa - African Affairs - At af.reuters.com - Total removes staff from riot-hit Gabon oil hub - 05/09/09
PARIS (Reuters) - French oil group Total has moved expatriate staff and their families from Gabon's industry hub Port Gentil to the capital Libreville because of post-election violence, the company said on Saturday. Port Gentil has been hit by riots, looting and attacks on Total facilities and the French consulate since Ali Ben Bongo was declared the winner on Thursday of a presidential election denounced as fraudulent by opposition leaders. Leading opposition figures have said they would mount a legal challenge to the victory of Ben Bongo, son of the late president Omar Bongo, who ruled the Central African oil exporter for 41 years until his death in June...

Africa - African Affairs - At af.reuters.com - Zimbabwe's MDC boycotts unity gov't with Mugabe - 17/10/09
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition MDC said it would boycott the country's power-sharing government until sticking points have been resolved and a political deal is reached, sparking the biggest crisis since the administration was formed nine months ago. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Friday his Movement for Democratic Change would disengage from President Robert Mugabe's "dishonest and unreliable" ZANU-PF party in the country's unity cabinet set up in February. "It is our right to disengage from a dishonest and unreliable partner. In this regard, whilst being in government we shall forthwith disengage from ZANU-PF and in particular from cabinet and the council of ministers until such time as confidence and respect are restored amongst us," Tsvangirai told reporters. A key test of the MDC's decision may come next month when Finance Minister Tendai Biti -- who is a senior MDC leader -- is due to present Zimbabwe's 2010 national budget. Mugabe's ZANU-PF said the MDC's move would have to be considered seriously by the party. "That is a matter that would require a collective response from all of us in the party. It needs some serious consideration. I wouldn't want to pre-empt the party's position," said Didymus Mutasa, a senior ZANU-PF official and Minister of State in Mugabe's office. STALEMATE The MDC's decision could lead to a stalemate in the government, analysts said...

Africa - African Affairs - At alertnet.org/thenews - Libya: Mark Anniversary by Restoring Rights - 31/08/09
Source: Human Rights Watch (New York) - Colonel Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi should mark his 40th anniversary in power by wiping repressive laws off the books and freeing political prisoners, Human Rights Watch said today. Notwithstanding movements toward reform in the past five years, laws and policies that restrict the most basic rights and freedoms of Libyan citizens remain in force, and Libyans are not free to criticize the government or to form political associations...

Africa - African Affairs - At aljazeera - Gabon riots follow Bongo poll win - 03/09/09
Soldiers have clashed with opposition supporters after Ali Bongo, the son of Gabon's long-time ruler Omar Bongo, was declared the winner of the country's disputed presidential election. Pierre Mamboundou, a rival of Bongo's, was seriously wounded in the capital, Libreville. Rioting also broke out in Port Gentil in the central African nation's oil zone, French media reported...

Africa - African Affairs - At bbc.co.uk - Call to ban Guinea weapon sales - 09/10/09
The sale of arms to Guinea's military government should stop after the shooting of opposition supporters last week, says Amnesty International. Human rights groups say 157 people were killed in the incident, while the government puts the figure at only 57. Amnesty says France and South Africa have recently supplied military equipment to Guinea. France has already suspended military ties. The opposition has rejected a proposed enquiry into the deaths. Opposition leader Mamadou Bailo Diallo told the BBC he wanted an international investigation to ensure it was neutral. The soldiers opened fire on a crowd of some 50,000 people who were protesting at reports that military leader Moussa Dadis Camara ws planning to stand in elections due next year. Some witnesses report that the women were also raped by the soldiers during the crackdown...

Africa - African Affairs - At bbc.co.uk - Guinea confirms huge China deal - 13/10/09
Guinea's military rulers have agreed a huge mining and oil deal with China, officials have told the BBC, amid continuing criticism of the junta. Guinean Mines Minister Mahmoud Thiam said a Chinese firm would invest more than $7bn (£4.5bn) in infrastructure. In return, he said the firm would be a "strategic partner" in all mining projects in the mineral-rich nation. Guineans are currently on strike to remember dozens of protesters killed by soldiers during a rally two weeks ago...

Africa - African Affairs - At bbc.co.uk - Guinea embargo over 'atrocities' - 17/10/09
West African states have imposed an arms embargo on Guinea over the mass shooting of opposition supporters. It comes amid growing criticism of the junta, led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, which seized power in December. The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) condemned "atrocities" in September in which Guinean troops opened fire on an opposition rally at a stadium in the capital Conakry. Human rights groups say 157 people died but the junta puts the toll at 57. It says most of the victims were trampled to death rather than shot, as opposition activists say. Human rights groups say soldiers raped and sexually abused women during the crackdown, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened an investigation into the deaths. The EU has called for Capt Camara to be tried for crimes against humanity, while the African Union has called for him to step down. Banditry An Ecowas statement issued on Saturday at the end of a special summit in Nigeria said: "In view of the atrocities that have been committed... the authority decides to impose an arms embargo on Guinea". The 15-member group called on its chairman, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'adua, to take "all necessary measures" to obtain the support of the African Union, European Union and United Nations to enforce the embargo...

Africa - African Affairs - At bbc.co.uk - MDC boycotting Zimbabwe cabinet - 16/10/09
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said his MDC party has "disengaged" from the unity government over the treatment of his senior aide. He said all outstanding issues of a power-sharing deal had to be dealt with before the MDC would work with Zanu-PF. Senior MDC member Roy Bennett was later released on bail after two days in prison, but Mr Tsvangarai's spokesman insisted the boycott would continue. Mr Bennett was detained for alleged arms and terrorism offences. Mr Tsvangirai said the detention showed Zanu-PF was an "unreliable" partner. "It has brought home the reality that as a movement we have an unreliable and unrepentant partner in the transitional government," AFP quotes him as saying...

Africa - African Affairs - At guardian.co.uk - No more excuses for Africa - 11/10/09
When Gabon's president of 42 years, Omar Bongo, died in June, many breathed a sigh of relief, hoping his departure would usher in a new era of democracy and responsible leadership. Bongo had been the world's longest-serving leader, having banned political opposition for much of his tenure to reinforce a stranglehold on the presidency and plunder the tiny central African nation of much of its oil wealth. Despite 80% of Gabonese living in poverty, Omar Bongo thought nothing of decorating his private jet using $2.6m of aid money, hoarding $130m of public funds away in foreign accounts and maintaining at least 39 luxury properties in France worth $190m. It is easy to empathise with the exasperation and accusations of rigging, therefore, when Bongo's son Ali-Ben was "democratically elected" as his father's successor last month. A despicable cycle of corruption continually repeats itself across Africa and is becoming tiresome – as are some of the usual explanations for underdevelopment in Africa: colonialism, neo-colonialism and the inability to fully recover from its lingering after effects. These old excuses are little more than convenient spiels designed to divert attention away from the most immediate root of underdevelopment in much of Africa today – greed and corruption, which according to the African Union costs the continent around $140bn a year and seriously hampers economic growth. It is high time for Africa to stop passing the buck and acknowledge the role its leaders, whose mental faculties are held to ransom by their own avarice, are having on the continent's inadequate rate of development...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://af.reuters.com - Chavez seeks Africa's help for new world order - 26/09/09
By Frank Jack Daniel and Fabian Cambero PORLAMAR, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hosted some of Africa's longest-serving leaders at a sleek Caribbean resort on Saturday for a summit he says will help end U.S. and European economic dominance. High-profile guests included Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who is celebrating four decades in office and had a white limousine flown to Venezuela to meet him at the airport, and 85-year-old Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since leading it from British colonialism nearly 30 years back. Chavez has governed for just over 10 years and makes no bones about his aim to stay in office for decades more while he works to turn Venezuela into a socialist state. He said the two-day meeting of African and South American leaders, which also includes many recently elected presidents, would help the mainly poor nations build stronger trade ties and rely less on Europe and the United States. Chavez said Europe and the United States were empires that have imposed poverty on much of the world...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://af.reuters.com - Kenya to miss ICC deadline for post-poll tribunal - 22/09/09
NAIVASHA, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenya has said it will miss a September 30 deadline to set up a local tribunal for the architects of the 2008 post-election violence, raising the possibility of International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions. The Hague-based court is ready to step in if the government does not come up with a way of putting on trial those accused of causing violence that killed at least 1,300 people and uprooted more than 300,000 in east Africa's biggest economy. While some see justice for last year's chaos as crucial to future stability in Kenya, which faces its next presidential election in 2012, others have warned that any judicial process could destabilise the country by stirring up old hatreds. "I am sorry but we cannot be able to form a local tribunal as ordered by the ICC," Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo told a meeting late on Monday in the Rift valley town of Naivasha, which saw some of the worst ethnic bloodshed. "We have only nine days and can't beat the deadline by producing a tribunal of international standards." Kenya's parliament adjourned last week until November 10 without finalising discussion of the bill that could have created the tribunal. That will now be impossible unless President Mwai Kibaki recalls legislators from their recess. Kenyan media said on Tuesday that Kilonzo would now inform the ICC of the new development...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://af.reuters.com - Rift between Somalia's rebel groups deepens - -03/10/09
By Mohamed Ahmed MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's two main insurgent groups clashed on Saturday near the southern port of Kismayu and residents said al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam were squaring up for battles elsewhere in the Horn of Africa country. The rebel groups fought for control of the lucrative port and main airport in southern Somalia this week. Al Shabaab won the battle, in which a local rights group said at least 28 civilians and an unknown number of combatants were killed. Until then, the two influential insurgent groups, which control much of southern and central Somalia, had been allies in their fight against the U.N.-backed administration that is chiefly confined to the capital, Mogadishu...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://english.aljazeera.net - Zimbabwe PM hits out at Mugabe - 14/09/09
Zimbabwe's prime minister has accused the country's president, Robert Mugabe, of violating terms of their power-sharing agreement. Morgan Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters marking his Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) 10th anniversary on Sunday that despite guarantees of political freedoms in the unity deal, Mugabe's Zanu-PF party continued to persecute MDC supporters. "I am not going to stand by while Zanu-PF continues to violate the law, persecutes our members of parliament, spreads the language of hate, invades our productive farms, ignores our international treaties," he said...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - UN chief condemns Somalia attacks - 18/09/09
The UN chief has condemned the two suicide car bombings at the African Union's main base in Somalia, with the death toll rising to 21, including 17 peacekeepers. Some 40 others were wounded in Thursday's double suicide bombing - the deadliest against African Union peacekeepers since they arrived in the country two years ago. "I condemn this terrorist attack in the strongest terms," Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said in New York...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - Scores killed in Sudan clashes - 22/09/09
More than 100 people have been killed in clashes in the Jonglei state in southern Sudan, officials have said. The extent of the clashes, which erupted one day earlier when fighters from the Lou Nuer tribe raided a rival village, emerged on Monday after officials reached the remote settlement. Kuol Diem Kuol, a spokesman for the South's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), said a total of 51 villagers and 28 soldiers, police and national security officers had been killed. "From the attackers, 23 bodies were found on the ground. These attackers were found in uniform with arms and organised in a military organisation in platoons with G3 rifles," Kuol said. Soldiers attacked Mayen Ngor, the commissioner of Duk County, said the attackers had burned down 260 huts, the police station and local government buildings. "This is a campaign against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement [the 2005 accord that ended Sudan's north-south civil war] and against the people of Duk," he said...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - Abacha's son 'to enter politics' - 22/09/09
The son of Nigeria's former military ruler Sani Abacha has told the BBC he is strongly considering running for the governorship of Kano state. The BBC's Bala Ibrahim in Kano says colourful posters of Mohammed Abacha have been put up across the city. Mohammed Abacha spent three years in prison on charges of embezzlement before being freed in 2002. His father ruled Nigeria from 1993 until he died in 1999. He is thought to have embezzled billions of dollars...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - 'Dozens killed' at Guinea protest - 28/09/09
At least 58 people have been killed after troops in Guinea opened fire on a huge opposition rally in the capital Conakry, reports say. A local doctor said that many victims brought to a government hospital had suffered bullet wounds. Some 50,000 people rallied against Capt Moussa Dadis Camara who seized power in Guinea in a bloodless coup last year. The rally was triggered by indications he is to reverse a pledge not to run in a presidential vote set for January...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - Guinea massacre toll put at 157 - 29/09/09
At least 157 people were killed when Guinean troops opened fire on opposition protesters on Monday, a human rights group says. But the country's interior ministry has told the BBC that a total of 57 people have died in the protests. Human rights groups say they have had reports of soldiers bayoneting people and women being stripped and raped in the streets during the protest. Junta head Capt Moussa Dadis Camara denied knowledge of sexual assaults. But he admitted that some of his security forces had lost control. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France was suspending military ties with Guinea after the "savage and bloody" crackdown on opposition protesters, French news agency AFP reported. Out of control About 50,000 people were protesting over rumours that Capt Camara intends to run for president in an election scheduled for next January...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - Guinea under Camara: Story so far - 29/09/09
A look back at events in Guinea under the rule of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara: DECEMBER 2008 Capt Camara seizes power by military coup, six hours after the death of long-time President Lansana Conte. He promises to hold presidential elections and says he will not stand. The African Union suspends Guinea until the restoration of constitutional order. JANUARY 2009 The West African regional body Ecowas suspends Guinea until elections are held. Capt Camara names a new ruling body to replace the government, made up of military men and technocrats. Several senior army officers are arrested, including the former chief of staff...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - Guinea's erratic military ruler - 29/09/09
Moussa Dadis Camara, Guinea's somewhat eccentric military leader, was a virtually unknown army captain when he seized power in December 2008. But he captured the imagination of a country desperately seeking change after the death of long-time leader Lansana Conte, who had also taken charge in a coup in 1984...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - Mugabe hails landmark EU meeting - 12/09/09
President Robert Mugabe says Zimbabwe's first high-level talks with top EU officials in seven years went well. After the talks, in Harare, he again called for international sanctions imposed since disputed presidential election in 2002 to be lifted. The EU team also praised the meeting but indicated it was not appropriate yet for sanctions to end and complained about the slow pace of reforms...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - Outrage at Jammeh's death threat - 24/09/09
An online petition has been launched in protest at the Gambian president's threat to kill human rights workers. President Yahya Jammeh told state TV earlier this week he would kill anybody who wanted to "destabilise" The Gambia. "If you are affiliated with any human rights group, be rest assure that your security is not guaranteed... we are ready to kill saboteurs," he said. The campaign by a coalition of pressure groups wants the African Union's human rights commission HQ moved from Gambia. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu from the the Open Society Institute, one of the bodies behind the petition, said Mr Jammeh's comments were "beyond the pale"...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - UN General Assembly: Key issues - 22/09/09
As world leaders gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York for the General Assembly, we (BBC Online)look at the key issues that will be dominating the agenda - from the challenge of climate change to shifting security issues in the Middle East...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa - Somali deaths 'will not deter AU' - 18/09/09
The African Union (AU) has vowed to continue its mission in Somalia, despite the killing of 14 peacekeepers in suicide blasts claimed by Islamists. The dead included the deputy commander of the AU force in Somalia. Shelling after the double bombing left at least 13 people dead, mostly civilians, witnesses say. Spokesman Maj Barigye Ba-hoku said the AU would continue to work with "peace-loving Somalis", however he admitted that the mission was "complicated". "We do not run away when the situation worsens," said Lt Col Felix Kulayigye, a spokesman for the Ugandan military, which contributes about half of the 5,000-strong AU force. We have got our revenge for our brother Nabhan Ali Mohamud Rage Al-Shabab spokesman "We go there hoping for the best and expecting the worst. If it's good, we'd be glad, but if it's bad, we'd adjust accordingly to deal with it," he said. The peacekeepers are helping to protect the weak, UN-backed government in its battle against Islamist insurgents. Burundi is the only other country to have sent peacekeepers to Somalia. Its senior officer in Somalia, Maj Gen Juvenal Niyonguruza, was among the dead...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://ugandarecord.co.ug - What to do about Museveni’s iron rule - 22/09/09
It is five days since the most serious riots to break out in Buganda in 60 years took place. In the wake of the riots has come the most draconian and iron-fisted measures that the NRM government has taken in the southern half of Uganda since 1986. Until now, only Teso, Acholi, Lango, Karamoja and to a lesser degree West Nile had experienced the full fury and brutality of the NRA's and Museveni's counter-insurgency measures. Buganda, long complacent and almost indifferent to the twenty-year tragedy in the north and northeast is now starting to face President Yoweri Museveni --- military forces on the streets, a media clampdown, the arrest of scores of civilians, a Member of Parliament, senior DP officials, and many more to come. In this changed climate in less than a week, what is the Uganda Record to do? What should Ugandans do? Since he assumed the reins of office in Jan. 1986, Museveni has ruled Uganda using the classical Machiavellian principal of power: the double standard...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://www.crestedjournal.com - AU Soldiers from Uganda die in Mogadishu Explosion - 17/09/09
Somali insurgents detonated two suicide car bombs at an African Union (AU) peacekeeping base in Mogadishu this morning killing several African Union Peace keepers. The base is predominately run by soldiers drawn from the Uganda Military. The al-shabaab forces who claimed responsibility for the attack called it a revenge for this week's U.S. killing of a top al Qaeda suspect. Eyewitnesses saw several wounded soldiers being carried away from the site of the explosions, some bleeding heavily, while thick smoke poured into the sky over Somalia's capital. Witnesses said AU troops had died, along with some Somalis who had been waiting for medical treatment at the AU base, but the number of casualties was not immediately clear. It looked to be the worst attack on the peacekeepers since 11 Burundians were killed and 28 wounded in February by two suicide bombers -- one in a car, one with a suicide vest -- who infiltrated their base. It also followed one of the most violent months the city has seen in 20 years. Western security agencies say lawless Somalia has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot attacks across the region and beyond. Al Shabaab's spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, said Thursday's attacks were to avenge the death of Kenyan-born Salah Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was killed in southern Somalia on Monday during a raid by U.S. Special Forces...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://www.monitor.co.ug - 200 suspected rioters charged - 15/09/09
At least 200 people arrested in connection with violent riots that engulfed Kampala and neighbouring districts from September 10 to 13, were yesterday charged and remanded to Luzira Prison in various courts in the city. At Buganda Road Court, 122 suspects faced charges of holding unlawful assembly, rioting, demolishing buildings and inciting violence. The suspects denied the charges and were remanded until September 23 when the hearing reopens. The decision to remand the suspects, some of who had tried to apply for bail in vain, followed an objection raised by the prosecution that the situation is still tense. Prosecution led by Mr David Lukwago, said if the suspects are released on bail, they could pose problems for investigators. Mr Lukwago asked court to consider their bail application at the next court sitting...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://www.monitor.co.ug - 500 suspects held, 14 dead in Uganda city riot - 13/09/09
Kampala At least 550 people have so far been arrested in connection to the riots that have, for three days, affected business in Kampala city and claimed 14 lives, police announced yesterday... The Police chief also said that the rioters had retreated to the suburbs describing the mayhem as pre-planned by ill intentioned and malicious characters. “There has been orchestrated violence and lawlessness in the suburbs of Kampala this (Saturday) morning; surburbs like Nateete,Kyengera,Kamwokya and Kireka have experienced sporadic incidents of hooliganism and brief episodes of disturbances,”Mr Kayihura said... He also disclosed that 82 victims including 13 police officers were being treated for injuries in various hospitals. The police also paraded 11 suspects who reportedly torched down Nateete police station. The hunt for other suspects was still on by last evening...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://www.monitor.co.ug - A Broadcasting Corporation boss fired over riot pictures - 02/10/09
The Uganda Broadcasting Corporation Television manager, Mr Mark Walungama, has been dismissed for allegedly allowing disturbing pictures of recent city riots to run on a national broadcaster, Daily Monitor has learnt. Mr Walungama, 44, is reportedly accused of sanctioning nasty pictures where armed security personnel were seen clobbering rioters in city streets. Sources at UBC TV who preferred anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, told Daily Monitor yesterday that Mr Walungama ceased to be the station manager on the second day of the riots. “He had misunderstandings with some of the top officials at the station over which content of riot video footage to air out and the following morning he was told never to report for work,” a source said. Mr Walungama joins other journalists suspended from work like Mr Peter Kibazo (WBS television), Mr Kalundi Sserumaga (Radio one), Mr Ssenkubuge Siasa (Radio Simba), Mr Charles Odongotho (Vision Voice) and Radio Sapientia journalists; Matovu Aloysius and Irene Kiseka and Ben Mutebi Amayengo...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://www.monitor.co.ug - Media clampdown underway in Uganda - 13/09/09
Kampala The Radio One talk show host, Mr Kalundi Sserumaga, who was on Friday night grabbed by unidentified people, became the first journalist to fall victim as government continues to clamp down on the media amidst chaotic scenes in parts of the country. The government yesterday also suspended two other media practitioners on allegations of inciting violence and demeaning the President. Uganda Broadcasting Council (UBC) yesterday confirmed the suspension of Mr Sserumaga, who is still in police custody, on charges of media-related offences, WBS-TV talk show host, Mr Peter Kibazo, Radio Simba’s local dramatist, who hosts Binsangawano morning show, Mr Charles James Senkubuge Siasa...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://www.monitor.co.ug - Uganda - Smell of death at Mulago: Relatives, friends mourn victims - 13/09/09
As Kampala filled with acrid tear gas on Friday, choking thousands; to the east, Mulago Hospital reeked with fresh blood flowing from dead or injured victims on the second day of city riots. Over-stretched health workers; some having worked overnight, scrambled with trolleys to pick growing numbers of casualties. The howling of gunshot victims, the piercing sirens of fast-approaching ambulances and Police pickup trucks dropping the injured, underlined the colossal damage to life of the ongoing violent protests in and around Kampala. It is a fight pitting the Executive against Buganda Kingdom loyalists. But the bleeding and dying are ordinary citizens! “It is like a slaughter house here,” said a male medical worker as he pulled a bleeding man off an ambulance. Nearby, distressed relatives – and sympathisers, gathered on the porch and around the hospital compound sobbed uncontrollably. Some shook violently with apparent anger. It was the body language of frustration and hopelessness. Health workers, among them doctors and nurses, had their trademark white overcoats and theatre gumboots soiled by blood of violence victims they helped to treat. There was no end in sight for agony here...

Africa - African Affairs - At http://www.reuters.com - Ugandan opposition wants clarity on oil sector - 09/09/09
By Jack Kimball KAMPALA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Uganda's opposition wants more transparency in awarding oil contracts to foreign firms and may seek to review some deals if it wins power from President Yoweri Museveni in 2011, its main leader said on Wednesday. Investor interest is heating up in the western region bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an estimated 2 billion barrels of crude have been discovered by explorers including London-listed Tullow Oil (TLW.L)...

Africa - African Affairs - At-aljazeera.net - Sudan 'regrets' independence call - 02/11/09
Sudan has said it regrets a southern leader's call for regional independence in a referendum scheduled for 2011. The governing Sudanese National Congress Party, or NCP, said on Sunday the call by Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, contradicts a peace deal that ended a two-decade civil war. Kiir, a former guerrilla commander, said on Saturday that he backed independence for the semi-autonomous southern region in the crucial referendum. He also warned that unity would make southerners "second-class" citizens. "My understanding is that these remarks contradict the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), according to which priority must be given to unity," Mandour al-Mahdi, an NCP official, said on Sunday. The remarks were contained in a statement quoted by the official Suna news agency. Kiir's comments have added pressure to the already troubled relationship between his Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the north's dominant NCP...

Africa - African Affairs - At-bbc.co.uk -EU soldiers to help Somali troops - 13/11/09
The European Union is expected to endorse plans to send troops to help train up to 2,000 Somali troops, according to an EU official. Under the plan, up to 200 EU troops will train Somali military personnel in Uganda in a bid to broaden engagement in the crisis-hit state. A decision is expected to be taken at a meeting of EU ministers next week. The move comes on the heels of a request by the Somali government to help build a 6,000-strong police force. "Once this is approved, which we expect is going to happen during the (EU) council then we will be launching the real planning," said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana...

Africa - African Affairs - At-bbc.co.uk -Nigeria-peace-talks-'fruitful' - 15/11/09
Nigeria's main militant group in the oil-producing Niger delta has described peace talks with President Umaru Yar'Adua as promising. A spokesman for the Mend group said the meeting signalled the beginning of "serious, meaningful dialogue". The government said it was "fruitful". Attacks by the militant group in the Delta region cost Nigeria around $1 billion (£598m)a month in lost revenue. A ceasefire was declared three weeks ago to allow talks to go ahead. President Yar'Adua's spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi said the discussions on Saturday were "frank and fruitful". Nobel-prize winning Nigerian writer and political activist, Wole Soyinka, also took part in the talks.

Africa - African Affairs - At-bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa -ICC seeking speedy Kenya trials - 07/11/09
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor says he wants to move quickly against the perpetrators of Kenya's 2007 post-election violence. Luis Moreno Ocampo said two or three cases could come to trial by July next year. Mr Ocampo said "speed" was important so Kenya could hold its next election in 2012 without the threat of violence. On Thursday, Mr Ocampo formally requested judges at the Hague to open an investigation into the violence. "Everyone is worried about the next election in Kenya in 2012. That is why I understand the importance of speed," Mr Ocampo told reporters in Nairobi as he ended a three-day visit. He indicated that any trials could take place in Kenya, or at least in Arusha - in Tanzania - where suspects involved in the 1994 Rwanda genocide have been prosecuted. After meeting with the chief prosecutor earlier in the week, Kenya's government said it would co-operate with an ICC probe. Prominent Kenyan politicians, including cabinet ministers, are suspected of being behind the violence. The clashes between December 2007 and February 2008 left some 1,300 people dead and forced 300,000 from their homes...

Africa - African Affairs - At-bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa -Madagascar rivals reach agreement - 07/11/09
Madagascar's rival political leaders have agreed to form a power-sharing government after months of wrangling. Current leader Andry Rajoelina said the four leaders agreed at talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that he would continue as president until elections next year. He said that instead of vice-presidents there would be two co-presidents representing other political groups. Mr Rajoelina replaced Marc Ravalomanana in March, but failed to win international backing. Mr Rajoelina and his allies, who accused Mr Ravalomanana of being a tyrant who misspent public money, were themselves accused by the African Union of taking power through a coup and foreign aid was frozen...

Africa - African Affairs At - http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - US condemns Guinea violence - 18/11/2010
The US has condemned the post-election in violence in Guinea, saying the incidents "have no place in the democratic society that Guinea aspires to become". Washington's reaction came after General Sekouba Konate, the interim president, declared a state of emergency against a backdrop of unrest since a disputed presidential election in the West African nation. "The United States condemns the violent clashes between rival political supporters in Guinea following the November 15 announcement of the provisional presidential election results," Philip Crowley, the state department spokesman, said on Wednesday. "Such incidents have no place in the democratic society that Guinea aspires to become. The United States calls on Guinea's political leaders to urge their supporters to refrain from violence during the State of Emergency period implemented as of November 17. "We further urge those who wish to challenge the provisional results to use the established constitutional procedures to reconcile such disputes." General Konate, who has led the country since January, decreed that a state of emergency would last until the results, which name opposition leader Alpha Conde the victor, are confirmed by the supreme court...

Africa - African Affairs At - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world- africa-12201042-Tunisia-seeks-to-form-unity cabinet after Ben Ali fall - 16/01/2011
Tunisian political leaders have started efforts to fill the power vacuum created by the fall of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali amid mass protests. Interim leader Foued Mebazaa - who was sworn in on Saturday - promised to form a unity government. The country appears to be mostly quiet, although gunfire was heard in Tunis during a second overnight curfew. The previous night had seen widespread violence, including looting, torching of buildings and deadly jail riots. A state of emergency remains in force and there is very little economic activity. Schools, government offices and most shops are closed Election demand The BBC's Adam Mynott in Tunis says the immediate future of the country, thrown into unprecedented turmoil, is in the hands of the military. Mr Mebazaa, who until Saturday was the Speaker of parliament, has asked Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi to form a national unity government...

Africa - African Affairs- At af.reuters.com - ECOWAS suspends Niger, says election invalid - 21/10/09
NIAMEY (Reuters) - West Africa's regional bloc suspended Niger on Tuesday in protest against what it said were flawed parliamentary elections being held there. The Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, said it would not recognize the results of the vote, which is expected to allow President Mamadou Tandja to tighten his grip on power and deepen the uranium-mining country's constitutional crisis. "The holding of the elections is a clear move by the authorities in Niger to further entrench the constitutional illegality currently prevailing in the country," said a spokesman for Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, who is ECOWAS chairman. Turnout for the election was patchy after the opposition called for a boycott of the vote. Tandja's second term in office was due to expire this year but he defied domestic and international pressure and extended his mandate for a further three years and increased his presidential powers at the expense of parliament's. "I hope for my people's sake that those elected will be true patriots," the retired army colonel, who says he must stay to oversee lucrative infrastructure projects, said as he voted. The White House urged ECOWAS to impose a full set of sanctions against the country. "We urge ECOWAS to move towards the immediate imposition of full sanctions given President Tandja's non-compliance with the ECOWAS request to suspend legislative elections," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "We urge President Tandja to resolve the political crisis in Niger through dialogue, rather than through self-serving actions that continue to erode Niger's ten-year commitment to democracy and good governance."...

Africa - African Affairs- At af.reuters.com -Egypt party meet won't answer who succeeds Mubarak - 31/10/09
CAIRO (Reuters) - Choosing a possible successor to Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, 81, is not on the agenda for a ruling party conference this weekend, a party official said, despite silence on the issue fueling speculation it might be. Mubarak, who has run Egypt for 28 years and will address the National Democratic Party conference that began on Saturday, has yet to say whether he will run in the 2011 election. His politician son Gamal, 45, a top party official, is tipped as the most likely candidate to lead U.S.-ally Egypt after his father leaves office, although father and son have denied any such plans...

Africa - African Affairs- At af.reuters.com -Ethiopia's Meles agrees to election rules - 31/10/09
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and three opposition parties have signed a set of rules for next year's national elections amid accusations of a crackdown on dissent ahead of the poll. The code of conduct was negotiated over two months under the observation of Western diplomats in the capital Addis Ababa. It will become Ethiopian law before parties begin registering in December for the May 23 poll. "This puts us all on equal footing and forces us to have an election that reaches the standards of a democracy," Meles told an audience of politicians and diplomats late on Friday. "It will be conducted peacefully," Meles said. But a coalition of eight parties called Medrek refused to participate in the talks. The group is demanding bilateral negotiations on issues they say were left out, including electoral board reform. The government says Medrek is the most significant threat to Meles, despite holding only 80 of parliament's 547 seats, and that it can still sign up to the code. "We will sign only if we are satisfied on substantive issues we want to discuss around the rule of law and we want bilateral talks," Medrek spokesman Gebru Asrat told Reuters. "Our party members are harassed and jailed."...

Africa - African Affairs At af.reuters.com-Ethnic tensions simmer in crisis-struck Guinea - 13/12/09
By Richard Valdmanis and Saliou Samb CONAKRY (Reuters) - An assassination bid aimed at the first Guinean leader from the minority Guerze tribe has raised concerns that ethnic and regional divisions in the country could deepen. Junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara is in a hospital in Morocco after rogue soldiers attacked him and fled last week. "I am worried that if Camara comes back and he chooses to blame other ethnicities for supporting the attack, it could cause trouble," said Conakry resident Mohamed Lamine Soumah. Guinea is the world's biggest supplier of aluminum ore bauxite and is seen as a lynchpin of stability in a region still recovering from three civil wars this decade. The country, which won independence from France in 1958, is dominated by the Malinke, Peul and Sousou ethnicities, but has more than a dozen smaller groups, including the Guerze from the forested "forestier" region in the southeast. Camara took power last December in a coup after the death of former military strongman Lansana Conte, a Sousou. The coup drew support from forestiers who feel their region and its people have been underrepresented in power. "Dadis was chosen by God to lead Guinea," said Balla Dopavogui, a forestier working as a tyre-repairman who lives in Conakry's Dixxin neighborhood. "He must come back to lead." The strong support among forestiers comes despite widespread outrage over a crackdown on protesters September 28 in which more than 150 people -- mostly Peul -- were killed by a force that witnesses said included many forestiers...

Africa - African Affairs At af.reuters.com-Mugabe's-ZANU-PF battles to regain absolute power - 13/12/09
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has told his deeply divided ZANU-PF to prepare for elections but his movement may never regain absolute power after losing its parliamentary majority last year, analysts said. Mugabe had enjoyed uninterrupted rule since independence in 1980 but ZANU-PF suffered its first defeat last year in March and was forced to form a unity government with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The next election is expected in 2011 after a new constitution is drafted that is expected to guarantee a fair vote. The poll could otherwise be in 2013 if the unity government runs its full five-year term. "Let's begin to work for the party and to organise it strongly. Elections are not very far off," Mugabe told ZANU-PF members at the end of a two-day congress late on Saturday. His party resolved that its strategic aim would be "the checking, containment and ultimate defeat of the West's neo-colonial regime change agenda by securing a decisive and uncontested victory in the next harmonised elections". Political analysts said that would be difficult as ZANU-PF is increasingly being weakened by in-fighting over who will succeed Mugabe when he steps down, with no candidate seeming strong enough to challenge Tsvangirai other than Mugabe...

Africa - African Affairs- At aljazeera.net/news/africa -Nigeria rebels say truce could end - 01/11/09
Nigeria's main rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), is threatening to call off its ceasefire with the government if foreign oil companies do not leave their land. Henry Okah, the group's leader, told Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege that the government has not stuck to its part of the deal and that "there will be a resumption of violence very soon". Many of the armed groups argue that they are fighting for a greater share of oil revenue to remain in the Niger delta and complain of the pollution caused by the industry. Attacks on pipelines and industry facilities - along with the kidnapping of oil workers - since early 2006 have cost the world's eighth-biggest oil exporter billions of dollars a year in lost revenues and added to volatility in global energy prices...

Africa - African Affairs- At bbc.co.uk -Africa backs Darfur crimes court - 31/10/09
African leaders have agreed to establish a new court to bring justice to the Sudanese region of Darfur. The hybrid court would consist of Sudanese and foreign judges appointed by the African Union in consultation with the Khartoum government. US-based Human Rights Watch told the BBC the new court should not replace the International Criminal Court. The ICC is seeking to prosecute Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for committing war crimes in Darfur, which he denies. A rebel leader is currently on trial in The Hague and the court has also issued arrest warrants for a Sudanese minister and pro-government militia leader...

Africa - African Affairs At bbc.co.uk-Nigeria criticises 'unfair' US air passenger screening - 04/01/2010
Tougher screening of passengers wanting to fly to the US has been condemned as unfair by Nigeria - one of the nations singled out for special checks. Information Minister Dora Akunyili said the rules, brought in after a Nigerian allegedly man tried to blow up a plane, discriminated against 150m Nigerians. Bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab did not represent Nigeria, she said. Nigerians are among 14 nations whose nationals face stiffer rules including body searches and luggage checks. Four other African countries - Algeria, Libya, Somalia and Sudan - are also subject to the new measures...

Africa - African Affairs At bbc.co.uk-Obama blames al-Qaeda for Christmas Day jet 'bomb' - 02/01/2010
US President Barack Obama has for the first time publicly accused an offshoot of al-Qaeda over the alleged Christmas Day bomb plot to blow up a US plane. He said it appeared Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had armed and trained the accused, 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The group admitted responsibility in an internet statement last week. Mr Obama has already condemned lapses that allowed the accused, who was on a terror database, to board the jet. In his weekly radio and video address posted on the White House website early on Saturday, Mr Obama said more details of the alleged plot were becoming clear. "We know that [Mr Abdulmutallab] travelled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies," said Mr Obama, who is on holiday in Hawaii. "It appears that he joined an affiliate of al-Qaeda, and that this group, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America."...

Africa - African Affairs At bbc.co.uk-Senegal offers land to Haitians - 17/01/2010
Senegal's president says he will offer free land and "repatriation" to people affected by the earthquake in Haiti. President Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal. "The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin," said Mr Wade's spokesman, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye. Tuesday's earthquake killed tens of thousands and left many more homeless...

Africa - African Affairs At -bbc.co.uk-Suda-leaders agree deal over referendum for South - 13/12/09
The leaders of Sudan and of its semi-autonomous southern region say they have reached a deal on the terms of a referendum on independence. It was one of four issues at the heart of crisis talks between President Omar al-Bashir and Salva Kiir. Officials said they had agreed on the proportion of votes and turnout needed for the referendum to be binding. One other issue remains unresolved. The peace process between North and South has been looking shaky. The two leaders fought each other during the country's two-decade long civil war and have been uneasy partners since a peace deal - which has been looking increasingly shaky - was signed in 2005. Elections are due in April next year and in 2011 the South will vote in a referendum on possible independence...

Africa - African Affairs At bbc.co.uk-Sudan-MPs-pass-key-referendum-law - 29/12/2009
Sudan's parliament has passed a key law paving the way for a referendum on independence for the oil-rich south. The move ends months of wrangling between the north and south about how the referendum should be conducted. Last week, southern politicians walked out of parliament in a row over where southerners would be able to vote. The referendum, scheduled for January 2011, is a crucial part of the peace deal signed nearly five years ago which ended two decades of civil war. The 2005 peace agreement saw President Omar al-Bashir's northern National Congress Party (NCP) going into government with former Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) rebels from the south. It is widely predicted that the south will vote for independence but there are concerns that tensions will increase in the run-up to the referendum and a general election in April...

Africa - African Affairs At bbc.co.uk-US warns of attacks on Uganda-Sudan planes - 09/01/2010
The US embassy in the Sudanese capital Khartoum has warned of a possible attack on Air Uganda planes. The embassy said it had information that US travellers faced a potential threat between Juba in Sudan and the Ugandan capital, Kampala. But the Sudanese foreign ministry said the threat was "not serious". Sudan is on a list of 14 countries where US-bound passengers will be subjected to extra searches following the attempted plane bombing last month. Other Sudanese officials said they had known of a potential threat for some time. The AFP news agency reported that one plane en route to Juba was diverted as a precaution...

Africa - African Affairs- At blogs.reuters.com/africanews -The African brain drain - 26/10/09
Africans living in the United States are twice as likely to graduate from college as the average American. These African students often come from families who value education as a way to get on in life and place a high value on working and studying hard. Sara Tsegaye, a straight-A student at UCLA, is one example of that success. Her parents fled Ethiopia in the late 1980s, first to Sudan and then, when Sara was one year old, they moved to San Jose, California. Sara’s father works on a mobile ice cream truck in San Jose and her mother used to be a factory worker before she got laid off. “We manage to pay for school because I’ve been working since I was 11,” Sara told Reuters Africa Journal. “I’ve been working with my dad on his ice cream truck, he’s been paying me and I’ve been saving the money. Also I had two jobs in high school and I saved up a lot of money. I understand the value of money.” Sara wants to work with an NGO or a non-profit organisation after she graduates. She wants to travel and she wants to make a difference in the world. Other African students say they want to go home once they get a bit of experience in their careers. But Africa is suffering from a massive brain drain just now and it’s questionable whether enough of those highly motivated students from America will return home in large enough numbers to really make a difference...

Africa - African Affairs At boston.com/news-No. 2 leader leaving Guinea for Senegal - 08/01/2010
CONAKRY, Guinea—Guinea's Health Minister on Friday denied reports that this West African nation's No. 2 leader was heading to Senegal to be hospitalized, rejecting rumors he was being evacuated for a medical emergency. The confusion over Vice President and Defense Minister Gen. Sekouba Konate's health underscores just how much Guinea is on edge. The country has been in limbo since its junta leader was shot last month in an assassination attempt and evacuated to a military hospital in Morocco. Guinea Health Minister Abdoulaye Cherif Diaby said over state radio that Konate was heading to Senegal's capital, Dakar, "for an official visit, but he is not sick. He's doing well." Bamba Ndiaye, a spokesman for Senegal's president, also said the trip due late Friday had nothing to do with any illness. He told The Associated Press Konate would meet President Abdoulaye Wade but called it "a private visit for consultations." Earlier, two officials told The Associated Press Konate was being taken to Senegal and suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information...

Africa - African Affairs At- http://english.aljazeera.net- News Africa Timeline: Tensions in Nigeria - 07/03/2010
Nigeria's population of more than 149 million people is made up of over 250 ethnic groups. It is also split along religious lines with Muslims making up about 50 per cent of the population, Christians 40 per cent and the remaining 10 per cent registered as professing indigenous beliefs...

Africa - African Affairs At- http://english.aljazeera.net- Hundreds killed in Nigeria attack - 08/03/2010
Nigeria's acting president has ordered security forces to hunt down those behind an attack near the central city of Jos that left more than 200 people dead. Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from the capital Abuja, quoted police as saying that the attackers were Muslim Hausa-Fulani herders while the victims were mainly from the Borom community, a predominantly Christian ethnic group. Villagers in Dogo Nahawa, located south of Jos in Nigeria's Plateau State, said the herders from nearby hills attacked the village at about 3am (02:00GMT) on Sunday, shooting into the air. "The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes," Peter Jang, a Dogo Nahawa villager, told the Reuters news agency. 'Roving bands of killers' The office of Nigeria's acting president said Goodluck Jonathan had "directed that the security services undertake strategic initiatives to confront and defeat these roving bands of killers", who it blamed for "causing considerable death and injury". Officials from the central government were holding an emergency meeting, she said, adding that there was now a heavy police presence in the area to prevent any reprisal attacks. According to a Red Cross official, at least two other nearby communities were also targeted, in an area close to where sectarian clashes killed hundreds of people in January. It was not immediately clear what triggered the latest unrest, but four days of sectarian clashes in January between mobs armed with guns, knives and machetes left hundreds of people dead in Jos, which lies at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and predominantly Christian south. The tension appears rooted in resentment between indigenous, mostly Christian groups, and migrants and settlers from the Hausa-speaking Muslim north, all vying for control of fertile farmlands...

Africa - African Affairs At -http://www.monitor.co.ug-UN report links Uganda-to-war crimes in Congo - 13/09/2010
A United Nations draft report documenting alleged Rwandan atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo also implicates Ugandan forces in civilian massacres and rapes, as well as in the training of child soldiers. International media reports on the leaked UN “mapping exercise” covering the 1993-2003 period have focused on Rwanda’s role in the DRC, especially the suggestion that Rwandan forces may have carried out genocide against Hutu refugees.

Africa - African Affairs At http://www.nyasatimes.com-Malawi police arrest gay couple, ‘honeymoon’ behind bars - 29/12/2009
Malawi Police on Monday arrested two Malawian men who had become the first gay couple to publicly tie the knot, in a country where homosexuality is illegal. Steven Monjeza (pictured left -The Nation) and his bride Tiwonge Chimbalanga were married in a traditional but symbolic ceremony in southern Malawi on Saturday, attracting hundreds of curious onlookers. Southern region police publicist, Davie Chingwalu confirmed the arrest of the gay couple. “Police arrested the two and questioned them,” said Chingwalu. “We have charged them with gross public indecency contrary to section 156 of the penal code,” said the police spokesman. According to Monjeza, he met his partner (Chimbalanga) at a prayer house. “We met at church where we both pray and we have been together for the last five months … I have never been interested in a woman,” Monjeza told The Nation newspaper. Homosexuality is banned in Malawi and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. The debate of legalizing homosexuality took a different shape recently when from Dr Mary Shawa, secretary for nutrition, HIV, and AIDS in the president’s office, pointed out that recognizing the rights of gay citizens is essential to success in the fight against AIDS...

Africa - African Affairs At http://www.telegraph.co.uk-Togo pull out of African Nations Cup after bus attack in Angola - 09/01/2010
Togo have withdrawn from the African Nations Cup in Angola following the terrorist attack on their team bus. The death toll has now reportedly risen to four after the bus came under machine gunfire on Friday. It had just crossed the border from the Democratic Republic of Congo into the Angolan enclave of Cabinda... It was reported last night that the bus driver was killed in the attack, while today it has been confirmed that assistant coach Abalo Ametele, press officer Stan Ocloo and reserve team goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale have also died from their injuries. Confederation of African Football (CAF) official, Kodjo Samlan, speaking from Cabinda, said: "Communications chief Stanislas Ocloo and assistant coach Abalo Ametele died at four o'clock this morning." Togo striker Jonathan Ayite confirmed Obilale had died. He told French radio station RMC: "He (Obilale) is dead and even if you bring the president and even (Barack) Obama himself, we're leaving immediately, we're going back home. Ghana and the Ivory Coast are in solidarity with us."...

Africa - African Affairs At-af.bbc.co.uk-Son of Charles Taylor ordered to pay torture damages - 06/02/2010
A US judge has ordered the son of ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor to pay more than $22m (£14m) to five people tortured during its civil war. The abuses were carried out by a paramilitary unit led by the son, Charles McArthur Emmanuel Taylor. It comes a year after Taylor, known as Chuckie, was sentenced to 97 years in prison by the same Miami federal court. He was the first person convicted by a US court of committing human rights abuses outside the US. The five Liberians had testified before the court that they had been tortured and abused by the Anti-Terrorist Unit - the official title by which the group Mr Taylor ran was known. They said they had been held in pits in the jungle that were filled chest-high with water, had been exposed to electric shocks to the genitals and other body parts and had witnessed the killing of others by the paramilitaries...

Africa - African Affairs At-af.reuters.com-Nigerian rebels end truce, threaten oil attacks - 30/01/2010
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's main militant group called off a three-month-old ceasefire in the Niger Delta on Saturday and threatened to unleash "an all-out assault" on Africa's biggest oil and gas industry. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for years of attacks on oil facilities, said it could no longer trust the government to negotiate demands for greater control of the region's natural resources. The threat of unrest comes at a time when President Umaru Yar'Adua has been out of the country receiving medical treatment for more than two months and there is uncertainty over who is in charge of state affairs. "It is sufficiently clear at this point in time the government of Nigeria has no intentions of considering the demands made by this group for the control of the resources and land," MEND said in a statement emailed to media. "All companies related to the oil industry in the Niger Delta should prepare for an all-out onslaught against their installations and personnel," it said. Attacks by MEND on Nigeria's oil and gas industry in the past few years have prevented the OPEC member from producing much above two-thirds of its capacity, costing it about $1 billion a month in lost revenues...

Africa - African Affairs At-aljazeera.net/news/africa-Migrant workers at risk in S Africa - 21/11/09
Zimbabwean migrants in search of employment in South Africa are facing persecution at the hands of local people who are blaming them for taking their jobs. The persecution, which forced about 2,000 migrants to seek refuge in a rugby stadium, began on Tuesday when the migrants' shacks in a farming community in De Doorns were levelled. Local residents say they are tired of competing with Zimbabweans for space and jobs. Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from De Doorns, said the residents want farmers to hire workers from neighbouring towns like Rainsburg a few kilometres away. 'Horrific attacks' Many of those displaced came from a squatter camp and they left after they lost everything, our correspondent reported. "Some of the attacks are just so horrific [that] whole houses have been razed to the ground," she said. Last year violence unleashed on migrants on the outskirts of Johannesburg, the commercial centre, left at least 62 people dead, forcing the UN refugee agency to move many migrants into relief camps. Aid groups have dubbed Tuesday's attacks xenophobia, but government officials say it is a labour matter that local farmers shouldn’t favour one nationality over another...

Africa - African Affairs At-bbc.co.uk - Country profile: Haiti - 12/01/2010
Haiti became the world's first black-led republic and the first independent Caribbean state when it threw off French colonial control and slavery in a series of wars in the early 19th century. However, decades of poverty, environmental degradation, violence, instability and dictatorship have left it as the poorest nation in the Americas...

Africa - African Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Father alerted-US about-Nigerian-plane bomb-suspect - 27/12/2009
The father of a Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic jet on Christmas Day had voiced concerns to US officials about his son. The father, a top Nigerian banker, warned US authorities last month about 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's extreme views, say officials. US sources confirm a file was opened, but say the information did not warrant placing the accused on a "no-fly" list. Airports worldwide have increased security after the alleged attack. Mr Abdulmutallab was formally charged by a US federal judge at a Michigan hospital where he is being treated for burns after allegedly trying to detonate a device. British police are also searching a flat in a smart area of London, where Mr Abdulmutallab is believed to have lived while studying in the city...

Africa - African Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Guinea vice-president returns after assassination bid - 05/12/09
Guinea's vice-president has returned from business abroad to take charge of the country after an attempted assassination on the president. President Moussa Dadis Camara was flown to Morocco, where a spokesman said he underwent a "minor operation" after being shot on Thursday. Vice-President Sekouba Konate returned from Lebanon to take charge. The aide who allegedly shot Capt Camara remains on the run. The capital city Conakry was calm after the violence. The airport was heavily guarded as Mr Konate, who is also the defence minister, returned on Saturday to fill the gap left by Capt Camara.

Africa - African Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Guinea's leader 'shot and wounded by aide' - 04/12/09
Guinea's military leader has been fired on by one of his aides in the capital, Conakry, a government spokesman says. Officials said Capt Moussa Dadis Camara had been injured in the shooting, but his exact condition is not known. Communication Minister Idrissa Cherif said Capt Camara was "doing well". He named aide-de-camp Aboubacar "Toumba" Diakite as being behind the attack. Meanwhile, neighbouring Senegal has sent a medical plane to evacuate Capt Camara, Senegalese officials said. "Senegal has sent a medical plane to Conakry to bring Dadis to Dakar," the official said, quoted by AFP news agency. "He is injured. We don't know the degree and the nature of his injury." Mr Cherif said Capt Camara, who took power in a bloodless coup last year, was at a military camp when the shooting occurred...

Africa - African Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Nigerian family of jet bomb suspect speaks of shock - 28/12/2009
The family of a Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic jet on Christmas Day says his actions are "completely out of character". They said that, until recently, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, had never given them cause for concern. His father, a prominent banker, alerted security agencies about two months ago when his son broke off communication. Meanwhile, the UK said on Monday that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been on its security watch list. This meant he could not come into the UK, although he could pass through the country in transit. Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he had been refused a visa 14 months ago after applying to study at a bogus college. 'Sought help' The Abdulmutallab family, based in Abuja, said that they "like the rest of the world were woken in the early hours" of 26 December to the news of their son's alleged attempt to blow up a flight between Amsterdam and Detroit. They said that prior to this event, his father, "having become concerned about his disappearance and decision to break off communication while schooling abroad", had approached security officials in Nigeria and overseas. "We were hopeful that they would find and return him home," the statement said. "It was while we were waiting for the outcome of their investigation that we arose to the shocking news of that day." The statement went on to say that the recent disappearance and end of all communication by their son was "completely out of character and a very recent development"...

Africa - African Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Pohamba and Swapo party re-elected in Namibia election - 04/12/09
Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba has been re-elected for a second term after winning 76.4% of the vote in last week's poll, official results show. Mr Pohamba's governing Swapo party got 74% of the parliamentary vote, maintaining its two-thirds majority. Eight of 13 opposition parties that took part in the vote have vowed to contest the results in court, alleging voting and counting irregularities. The groups say counting was very slow, permitting widespread vote rigging. African observer missions have pronounced the elections held on 27-28 November as largely free and fair. The main opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) party, led by Hidipo Hamutenya, won 11.3% of the vote, results showed. Two years ago, the party broke away from Swapo, which has dominated Namibia's politics since the country gained independence in 1990 after a long struggle against rule by South Africa...

Africa - African Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Profile: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - 27/12/2009
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day, appears to have lived a life of privilege. As the son of one of Nigeria's most prominent businessmen he had access to international travel and a world-class education. He has been described by one former British teacher as a dream student. But people close to him have said he was increasingly showing extremist views in recent years. His family told the BBC they had not heard from him since October. Mr Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, said he had approached the US and Nigerian authorities to warn them about his son's views six months before the alleged attempt to destroy the flight to Detroit. Nigerian media quoted Mr Mutallab, an influential banker who is well connected in Nigerian politics, as saying his son first became radicalised while studying in Lome, Togo. Michael Rimmer, a Briton who taught him history at the British School in Lome (BSL), told the BBC Mr Abdulmutallab had been "every teacher's dream - very keen, enthusiastic, very bright, very polite". He had excelled in Islamic scholarship at the British school and gained a reputation for preaching to other students, said Mr Rimmer...

Africa - African Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Shot Guinea strongman Camara 'flies to Morocco'- 04/12/09
Guinea's military leader, Capt Moussa Dadis Camara, has arrived in Morocco for medical treatment after being shot by an aide on Thursday, officials say. He has been rushed to the Hay Riyad military hospital on the outskirts of Rabat, reports Reuters news agency. Guinean officials insist Capt Camara is able to walk and talk but some sources say he has a serious head wound. This is believed to be the first time Capt Camara has left the country since seizing power last December. Analysts say he may fear being toppled in his absence and so his departure indicates his condition may be serious. But this was denied by government minister Keletigui Faro.

Africa - African Affairs At-bbc.co.uk-Somalia graduation day suicide attack condemned - 03/12/09
There has been widespread condemnation of a suicide bomb attack in Somalia that killed at least 19 people, including four government ministers. The prime minister of Somalia's UN-backed government, Omar Sharmarke, described it as a "vicious and calculated outrage". The African Union condemned the bombing - at a graduation ceremony for medical students - as "inhumane and cowardly". No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, in the capital Mogadishu. However, presidential spokesman Hassan Haile told the BBC he believed it was the work of Islamist militants al-Shabab. Militant groups control most of Mogadishu and much of the country...

Africa - African Affairs At-Daily-Monitor-Online-E African-leaders_sign_common_ market_pact - 21/11/09
Zephania Ubwami, Saturday Monitor Correspondent Arusha The long awaited East African Community Common Market Protocol was signed yesterday afternoon in Arusha, after 18 months of sweat-breaking negotiations. The deal is meant to tie up the last knots of the regional economic integration process. Leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda signed the document in front of cheering officials from the region and development partners at the Arusha Convention Centre. The pact whose negotiations were completed only last month in Kampala, aims to enhance free movement of people, goods and services across the regional block of 120 million people...

Africa - African Affairs At-guardian.co.uk-Guinea president survives assassination attempt by military aide - 04/12/09
The president of Guinea has survived an assassination attempt by his military aide, who is head of the presidential guard, amid rumours of deep divisions in the African country's armed forces. Moussa Dadis Camara, leader of the military junta that seized power 11 months ago, was shot at by Aboubacar "Toumba" Diakité, according to communications minister Idrissa Cherif. Cherif said Toumba clearly intended to kill the president. "When you pull a gun on someone, is it your intention to scare him? No. Your intention is to kill him." He declined to say whether the shot just grazed Camara or wounded him. He said Camara was "doing well" and "the situation is under control". He added: "The president of the republic is still the president of the republic and he is in good health." The attempted assassination, which took place in a military camp run by Toumba in the capital, Conakry, follows a crackdown on opposition protesters on 28 September in which at least 157 people were killed and dozens of women were drugged and gang raped by soldiers, according to survivors and human rights groups. Toumba is accused of having led the presidential guard that opened fire on the peaceful protesters. The massacre led the EU and the African Union to impose sanctions on Guinea, including a travel ban on senior members of the junta. A UN mission is in the country investigating the incident, which the junta has blamed on opposition leaders for ignoring a protest ban. Military sources said the massacre exacerbated divisions within the junta. International observers believe Camara dare not arrest Toumba, who has a private militia, over the massacre out of fear he would lead a coup. Both Toumba and Camara may face charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.

Africa - African Affairs At-http://af.reuters.com-Military mentality haunts Nigeria governance - NEPAD - 19/12/09
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's leaders still need to shed some of the attitudes and values built up under military rule if Africa's most populous nation is to reach its full potential, according to a review by its continental peers. The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is part of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), set up eight years ago to try to make African leaders promote democracy and good governance in return for increased Western investment. "Corruption in the political and economic spheres primarily explains poverty in Nigeria," says the report, presented in Abuja late on Thursday by Nigerian economist Adebayo Adedeji. "Nigeria also faces the challenges of reversing some values and attitudinal practices, particularly during the later part of its military history," it said. Nigeria vies with Angola as Africa's top oil producer yet the majority of its more than 140 million people live on less than $2 a day, many with limited access to power or clean water. It emerged from military rule a decade ago but critics say democracy still has a fragile hold...

Africa - African Affairs At-http://blogs.reuters.com- Support slumps for rival to South Africa’s ANC - 18/12/2009
It would be hard for the leaders of South Africa’s COPE party to put a positive spin on its latest poll rating of just over 2 percent. If the breakaway group from the African National Congress gave the ANC a bit of a jolt before elections in April, the ruling party doesn’t seem to have much to worry about from that quarter now. In terms of electoral success, it hasn’t been a good year for parties trying to challenge the former liberation movements that run most of southern Africa. In Namibia, a breakaway group from the ruling SWAPO party emerged as the main opposition, but still only won just over 11 percent of the vote and complained of foul play. In Mozambique, Frelimo won another resounding victory, beating both old rival Renamo and the new MDM – which complained at the barring of some of its candidates...

Africa - African Affairs At-http://news.sky.com-Hunt For Detroit Plane Bomb Plot Accomplices - 28/12/2009
British security services are hunting for possible accomplices of the alleged Christmas Day airline bomber and his possible links to other extremists in the UK. The Home Secretary has said he does not believe former British student Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab acted alone in the plot to destroy a transatlantic passenger jet. Police and security services are examining whether the Nigerian was radicalised while studying at University College London (UCL) between 2005 and 2008, Alan Johnson said. They are also trying to establish whether there was "any association with whoever may have been behind this plot", according to Mr Johnson. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, he said: "We don't know yet whether it was a single-handed plot or (there were) other people behind it. "I suspect it's the latter rather than the former."...

Africa - African Affairs At-http://thestar.com.my/news-TIMELINE- Bissau-PM-detained - 01/04/2010
(Reuters) - Soldiers entered the office of Guinea-Bissau's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior on Thursday and detained him, according to a Reuters witness. Here is a timeline on Guinea-Bissau's history of coups and strife...

Africa - African- Affairs At-http://www.independent.co.uk -Vincent Magombe: Britain must help defuse the situation – before it's too late - 02/07/2010
It's quite common to think of Rwanda as being split into Hutus and Tutsis – but the truth is much more complicated. It might have been the case in 1994, when Tutsis united in self-defence. Today, though, the picture is different. Tutsis are not a uniform group. They are split along lines that are crucial to the unrest unfolding in Rwanda now. The President, Paul Kagame, is from the Umwega clan, which has traditionally provided the Tutsi queen. When he became leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front in the early 1990s, many of the generals, members of the Nyiginya clan that traditionally provided the king were uneasy – but they accepted it because of the threat they faced. That was on the understanding that Kagame would return power to the Nyiginya – but he never had any intention of doing so. Now that his standing again at the forthcoming elections has made that clear, the Nyiginyas' patience has run out. They are so determined to be rid of Kagame that they have set up a rival political party and they are even willing to deal with the Hutus. Kagame is used to harassing the Hutus, but not other Tutsis. He is very frightened, very jittery and very aware that he is under threat.

Africa - African Affairs At-http://www.monitor.co.ug- Catholic bishops warn of poll chaos - 25/08/2010
Kampala The Catholic Church has raised “deep concern” over staggering preparations for next year’s elections and suggested review of “appointment of the Electoral Commission” as part of wide reforms to forestall likely anarchy. The Episcopal Conference, which brings together all the 32 current and retired Catholic bishops, in a June 11, 2010, pastoral letter but circulated to media houses yesterday, expressed dissatisfaction with government’s and the Electoral Commission’s handling of pre-vote activities. Deeply concerned “We write with passion and deep concern that the road towards the 2011 general elections is creating a lot of anxiety, doubts, fear and moments of hopelessness among people of God,” the letter says in its preamble. It adds: “Elections by their nature should and must provide our electorate with regular opportunities to peacefully comment, challenge, change and review their government ...As the country is preparing for general elections in 2011, we religious leaders cannot ignore Uganda’s problems of tyranny, war, violence and fraud.” The 32 bishops, who spiritually shepherd more than 10 million Ugandans, say they decided to speak out on the upcoming ballot to “avoid what may cause confusion and animosity among our people”...

Africa - African Affairs At-http://www.monitor.co.ug-Uganda Baby shot dead, And Besigye arrested - 22/04/2011
The unexpected finish to two-year-old Juliana Nalwanga’s life was sharp and brutal. Two of many bullets fired by security forces dispersing protestors in downtown Masaka town, yesterday ripped through her head and chest. Part of her brain spilled on the forehead as blood streamed all over the body. Within minutes, the toddler, fondly called Gift, was kicking in the air, gasping for breath where acrid and suffocating teargas smell dominated. Moments before, she was a lively kid running in the family compound satisfied after breakfast. The mother, overcome by sorrow, looked on helplessly at the way state actors’ excessive use of force was snatching a precious life - and with it the family’s dreams. A rush by sympathisers to resuscitate the infant bore nothing. Quickly, they put her in a vehicle for emergency treatment at Masaka Hospital, but was declared dead on arrival. Baby Nalwanga becomes the fifth person allegedly killed by security forces since the opposition-led ‘Walk-to-Work’ demonstration over escalating food and fuel prices began on April 11. Yesterday, seven people were seriously injured in Masaka, two of them policemen. A total of 30 people were arrested. Police last night tried to explain away Nalwanga’s death, saying “stray bullets” hit her as security forces shot in the air to scare protesters who had barricaded all access routes to Masaka town...

Africa - African Affairs At-http://www.ugandacorrespondent.com/articles/2011/01/uganda-rwanda-have-signs-of-imminent-rebellion/ -Uganda & Rwanda have signs of imminent rebellion - 28/12/2010
Uganda & Rwanda have signs of imminent rebellion By Dr. Vincent Magombe or some time now, the international community has described Uganda and Rwanda as Africa’s Superstars. Their leaders, General Yoweri Museveni and General Paul Kagame, have been variously praised as the new ‘kids on the block’ and a ‘new generation African leaders’. It is now becoming clear that these praises were nothing but misrepresentations of reality by a self-seeking international community; a community whose main interest was to nature and impose two pro-western warrior-rulers capable of protecting the West’s economic and geo-political strategic interests. Critical Ugandan and Rwandan journalists, academics, and opposition politicians have argued that in spite of the so-called “liberation” wars in both Uganda [1981-86] and Rwanda [1990-94], the political landscape in both these countries has been bedevilled by iron-fisted dictatorial rule, lack of democracy, and the rise of a minority war-mongering ruling class...

Africa - African Affairs At-news.yahoo.com-Guinea junta leader operated on, alleged shooter at large - 05/12/09
CONAKRY (AFP) – Guinea's junta offered a large reward Saturday for the capture of a junior officer accused of trying to kill the country's military leader, who was in stable condition recovering from gunshot wounds. Captain Moussa Dadis Camara underwent surgery in Morocco, where he was airlifted from his west African country on Friday after a bullet grazed his head in an apparent assassination attempt the night before. "He is very well," his spokesman Idrissa Cherif said in Conakry. "We have spoken on the telephone, there are no problems and his condition is stable." Cherif insisted "it was not a big operation but a minor intervention." The regime's number two, General Mamadouba "Toto" Camara, was also receiving medical treatment at undisclosed conditions in Morocco. General Sekouba Konate, junta number three and defence minister, thus became the country's de facto leader after returning from Lebanon late Friday. The junta offered a reward for the capture of the junior officer accused of shooting Camara, who said in a separate telephone call with AFP that he was still at large and "in a safe place." "I am in Guinea, I am free to move about," said Lieutenant Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite. "I have a fair number of men with me." Diakite, known as Toumba, refused to discuss the attack on Camara, saying he was waiting "to see how things develop." A junta officer appeared on state television late Saturday urging the population "to help actively in the search for Diakite and his henchmen," promising a "large reward" to anyone helping capture him...

Africa - African Affairs At-newvision.co.ug-East Africa sign customs union protocol - 20/11/09
By Vision Reporter THE five leaders of the East African Community (EAC) have signed a landmark agreement for a common market which allows free movement of people, goods, labour and capital across the member countries. The ceremony, that took place in Arusha, Tanzania, coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Community. It was attended by presidents Yoweri Museveni, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi. The common market agreement comes into effect on July 1, 2010 after ratification by the member countries. The next stage will then be to adopt one currency and later a political federation or one East African president. Under the common market, East African citizens can enter another country without a visa. Limitations can be imposed by individual countries on grounds of public policy, security and health. The protocol also allows for the right of residence, free movement of service and capital, and protection of cross-border investments...

Africa - African Affairs At-reuters.com-Sierra-Leone-suspends-tax-chief-over-corruption - 21/12/2009
FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's top tax collector has been suspended in a corruption investigation, authorities said on Monday in the poor West African country which has been trying to promote itself to investors. "Commissioner General Allieu Sesay was invited by the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain financial irregularities as head of the National Revenue Commission," Abdul-Tejan Cole, Commissioner for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), said in announcing the suspension. Sesay, in charge of the commission for a year, denied wrongdoing and in a statement said: "I have been doing my job effectively without involving myself in the finances of the authority." Sierra Leone emerged from a civil war in 2002 in which 50,000 people died. The suspension follows a string of anti-corruption cases since President Ernest Bai Koroma came to power in 2007. Sierra Leone's image has improved, with the country moving up 12 places in the index of anti-corruption efforts by Berlin-based governance watchdog Transparency International. The country stood in 146th position out of 180 in 2009, compared to 158th position last year. Set to record economic growth of around four percent this year, Sierra Leone discovered oil in September and is desperate to avoid the "resource curse" that has led to corruption and bloodshed in other African countries. The Anti-Corruption office has also made clear it is prepared to charge foreigners accused of taking bribes...

Africa - African Affairs At-reuters.com-Wounded Guinea leader in Morocco after gun attack- 04/12/09
By Saliou Samb CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was flown to Morocco on Friday for hospital treatment after being wounded in a gun attack by a former military aide, Moroccan authorities said. Guinea's leadership played down the extent of Camara's injuries and denied his departure left a power vacuum in the unstable West African nation, the world's top exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite. His powerful deputy Sekouba Konate returned to the capital Conakry from a trip abroad. But Camara's evacuation for treatment in Morocco's main military hospital raised questions about his health and political future, with many observers believing he may not return to Guinea and could be persuaded to go into exile. "I think he will probably undergo an operation because he was hit by bullets," Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore told reporters in his capital, Ouagadougou. "The information we had from his personal doctor an hour ago is that Dadis is in a difficult but not desperate situation," said Compaore, who has led mediation on the Guinea crisis and whose presidential plane was used to evacuate Camara to Morocco.

Africa - African Affairs-At - bbc.co.uk -Archbishop of York condemns Ugandan anti-gay bill - 24/12/2009
The Archbishop of York has condemned an anti-homosexuality bill going through parliament in Uganda. Dr John Sentamu, who was born in the African country, said the laws being debated were "victimising". Under the plans gays and lesbians would be jailed for life if convicted of having sex, and gay people who had sex with a minor would be put to death. Dr Sentamu told the BBC the Anglican communion was committed to recognising that gay people were valued by God. Aid threat Under the bill, proposed by MP David Bahati, people who fail to report homosexuality face up to three years in jail. Under its terms 'serial offenders' would face the death penalty. Dr Sentamu told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I'm opposed to the death sentence. I'm also not happy when you describe people in the kind of language you find in this private member's bill." He added it seemed not only victimising but also "a diminishment of the individuals concerned". He also pointed out that the current law in Uganda already had provision to jail gay people for engaging in homosexual acts. The new bill wants the 14-year limit raised to life imprisonment. Dr Sentamu said: "Sometimes people have not understood that at the moment the law in Uganda, without this bill, does exactly the same thing." Sweden has threatened to withdraw aid if the bill is approved and Africa minister Baroness Kinnock has raised concerns with her Ugandan counterpart...

Africa - African Affairs-At af.reuters.com - Botswana's BDP ahead in election results - 17/10/09
GABORONE (Reuters) - Ian Khama looked set to remain President of Botswana for another five years as election results from the world's largest diamond producer showed his ruling party taking the lead on Saturday. With counting in 25 of the 57 constituencies completed, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) was ahead with 20, main opposition party Botswana National Front held 2 and its splinter party Botswana Congress Party captured 3. The winning party needs 29 of the 57 seats in parliament to choose the president. Botswana held parliamentary and presidential elections on Friday and despite frustration over a recession and infighting, the BDP, in power since independence from Britain in 1966, is expected to retain control over the southern African nation...

Africa - African Affairs-At aljazeera.net/news/africa - 'US raid' kills Somalia commander - 15/09/09
A helicopter raid in southern Somalia has killed a man wanted for questioning over the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya in 2002, unnamed US sources say. Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al-Shabab commander, was killed along with at least one other fighter from the group when their car came under attack on Monday. The US official, who did not want to be named, said the body of Nabhan, 28, was in US hands. Nabhan, born in Kenya, was high on the FBI's list of most wanted "terror" suspects. US special forces are believed to have attacked the car carrying Nabhan, also described as an al-Qaeda operative, in Barawe district. An American official told the broadcaster ABC that a US Navy ship had been in the area to monitor the situation and to provide assistance...

Africa - African Affairs-At aljazeera.net/news/africa-Tsvangirai ends Zimbabwe boycott - 06/11/09
Zimbabwe's prime minister has ended his boycott of the country's unity cabinet, saying he wants to give the body time to work out its difficulties. Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the government three weeks ago after accusing the country's president, Robert Mugabe, of not implementing the power-sharing agreement and sanctioning the harassment of opposition MDC supporters. Tsvangirai's decision on Thursday followed a meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, with members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). "We have suspended our disengagement from the GPA (Global Political Agreement) with immediate effect and we will give President Robert Mugabe 30 days to implement the agreement on the pertinent issues we are concerned about," he told reporters. He said his return to the cabinet would give the southern African group time to mediate...

Africa - African Affairs-At aljazeera.net/news/africa-UN reduces support to DR Congo army - 02/11/09
The United Nations has suspended some of its support to the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), saying some soldiers have taken part in the deliberate killing of civilians. Alain Le Roy, the UN peacekeeping chief, said "civilians have been clearly targeted in attacks by certain elements" of the Congolese army. "We have decided that Monuc [the UN peacekeeping mission] will immediately suspend its logistical and operational support to the army units implicated in these killings," he told the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi on Monday. Le Roy referred to the killings of at least 62 civilians between May and September in the Nord-Kivu province, where the army is fighting Rwandan fighters. 'Investigation ongoing' Congo's government said an investigation into the killings was ongoing and that the withdrawal of support could destabilise the army...

Africa - African Affairs-At bbc.co.uk - Guinea 'facing new dictatorship' - 12/10/09
Guinea is in danger of slipping into dictatorship, the leader of West Africa's economic group, Ecowas, says. Mohamed Ibn Chambas said the junta, who seized power late last year, was repressing the people with "arbitrary and irresponsible" use of state power. Ecowas ministers are meeting in Nigeria to try to resolve the crisis in Guinea, sparked when soldiers opened fire on an opposition rally two weeks ago. Guineans are holding a two-day strike to remember dozens who were killed. Activists say 157 people were killed by troops, and rights groups have reported that soldiers raped women in the streets. The government put the number of dead at 57 and said most had died in a stampede. The AP news agency reports that Agriculture Minister Abdourahmane Sano has resigned in protest over the killings...

Africa - African Affairs-At bbc.co.uk -Nigerian MP's election 'rigged' - 30/10/09
An election appeals tribunal in Nigeria has sacked a senator, ruling that his election two years ago was rigged. A new election must be held within 90 days to replace Iyiola Omisore, who represented part of Osun state in the south-east for the ruling PDP. The opposition Action Congress had appealed against a tribunal ruling last year which upheld his election in 2007. It means Mr Omisore must step down from his influential post of chairman of the Senate budget and finance committee. The election appeals tribunal ruled that there had been widespread breaches of the electoral act, including the use of political thugs to break up voting stations and intimidate voters...

Africa - African Affairs-At bbc.co.uk-Talks aim to end Zimbabwe crisis - 05/11/09
Southern African mediators are due to begin talks in Mozambique aimed at preventing the collapse of Zimbabwe's unity government. The government has been in crisis since Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai began boycotting cabinet meetings. Mr Tsvangirai is protesting at the way President Robert Mugabe is implementing the power-sharing deal. Zimbabwean authorities are also under scrutiny at a meeting in Namibia of international diamond sales regulators. Zimbabwe faces suspension from the certification scheme following claims that the police and military committed human rights abuses in the Marange diamond mine fields, considered the richest in the world. 'Unreliable partner' Thursday's talks by leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will include Swaziland's King Mswati III, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, Zambian President Rupiah Banda and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa. Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Mugabe are also expected to attend. Former opposition leader Mr Tsvangirai has accused his long-time rival Mr Mugabe of being a "dishonest and unreliable partner" in the power-sharing deal, which was struck last year. The opposition MDC party also accuses Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party of persecuting its officials...

Africa - African Affairs-At-af.reuters.com-Mugabe says working to end power-sharing dispute - 31/10/09
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Saturday he was working to resolve a political dispute threatening his power-sharing government with rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said a fortnight ago it was "disengaging" from cabinet until Mugabe agreed to fully implement the fragile coalition's power-sharing deal, including swearing in several MDC officials. Speaking at the burial of a senior member of his ZANU-PF party on Saturday, Mugabe again condemned the MDC's partial boycott of the government as "baffling and illogical," but said the issue had to be addressed as a domestic issue...

Africa - African Affairs-At-bbc.Africa-news-online -Somali woman stoned for adultery - 18/11/09
A 20-year-old woman divorcee accused of committing adultery in Somalia has been stoned to death by Islamists in front of a crowd of about 200 people. A judge working for the militant group al-Shabab said she had had an affair with an unmarried 29-year-old man. He said she gave birth to a still-born baby and was found guilty of adultery. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes. It is thought to be the second time a woman has been stoned to death for adultery by al-Shabab. The group controls large swathes of southern Somalia where they have imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law which has been unpopular with many Somalis...

Africa - African Affairs-At-bbc.co.uk -ICC to investigate Kenya violence- 05/11/09
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor says he will request ICC judges to open an investigation into Kenya's post-election violence. Luis Moreno-Ocampo made the comments after meeting Kenya's president and prime minister, who said they would co-operate with the ICC probe. Prominent politicians, including cabinet ministers, are suspected of masterminding the violence. The clashes left some 1,300 people dead and forced 300,000 from their homes. President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreed to share power to end the clashes that followed the December 2007 poll...

Africa - African Affairs-At-bbc.co.uk-Government rules out ransom deal - 31/10/09
The government has insisted it will not make a ransom payment to Somali pirates who have kidnapped a British couple. Paul and Rachel Chandler, aged 59 and 55 and from Kent, were taken hostage by gunmen as they sailed their yacht in the Indian Ocean early on 23 October. A ransom demand of $7m (£4.3m) was made in a phone call to the BBC on Friday. The Foreign Office said the couple were "blameless tourists" but said no payment would be made nor advice given to relatives on how to make a payment. A spokesman for the Foreign Office added: "We are aware of reports that a ransom demand of $7m has been made. [Her Majesty's Government] HMG's policy remains clear: We will not make substantive concessions to hostage takers, including the payment of ransoms."...

Africa - African news - At af.reuters.com - Clinton seen taking tough line on graft in Nigeria - 11/08/09
ABUJA (Reuters) - The fight against corruption and electoral reform are expected to be high on the agenda when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua on Wednesday. Clinton arrives in Africa's most populous nation and its biggest energy producer on Tuesday as part of a seven-nation, 11-day trip to the continent, a month after U.S. President Barack Obama visited nearby Ghana. Obama's itinerary on his first official trip to Africa and his insistence on the importance of good governance was seen as a snub by some Nigerians, who will be looking to Clinton's visit to restore some of their damaged pride. "Nigeria is probably the most important country in sub-Saharan Africa: 140 million people, 75 million of whom are Muslims," Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, said ahead of Clinton's trip...

Africa - African News - At af.reuters.com - Kenya cabinet to meet on Thurs over violence court - 27/07/09
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya said President Mwai Kibaki's cabinet would meet again on Thursday in a third attempt to try and reach agreement on a local tribunal to deal with perpetrators of last year's post-election violence. In a debate being closely watched by foreign donors, Kenyans and local markets alike, ministers have twice this month failed to agree on the details of a domestic court. If they fail, the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) may take over the case following the explosion of violence in early 2008 that killed at least 1,300 people, uprooted more than 300,000 and badly damaged east Africa's largest economy. A statement from Kibaki's office said local newspaper reports that Cabinet was due to meet on Monday were wrong, with the next session in fact due for Thursday. Politicians stoked tribal tensions prior to the December 27, 2007, presidential vote that touched off the crisis, and activists say a handful of prominent Kenyans -- including several sitting ministers -- should face justice...

Africa - African news - At bbc.co.uk - Kenya impunity 'disappoints US' - 05/08/09
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described as disappointing Kenya's failure to investigate a bout of deadly violence after the 2007 election. Speaking in Nairobi on the first day of her African tour, Mrs Clinton urged the Kenyan authorities to end impunity. At least 1,300 people were killed in two months of violence, but the cabinet has resisted calls for a tribunal. Earlier, Mrs Clinton told a trade summit that Africa needed democracy to help boost its economic performance...

Africa - African news - At bbc.co.uk - Nigeria photo shows leader alive - 02/08/09
The BBC has obtained a photograph which shows that Yusuf Mohamed, the leader of the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria, was alive when captured by the army. They handed him over to the police. A few hours later, journalists were shown his bullet-ridden body. The police said he had been fatally wounded while trying to evade capture. Mr Yusuf's Islamic sect is blamed for days of violent clashes with security forces across northern Nigeria, which killed hundreds of people. Human Rights Watch in Nigeria have called for an immediate investigation into the killing of Mr Yusuf, 39, which they called "extrajudicial" and "illegal"...

Africa - African news - At bbc.co.uk - Nigerian Islamist attacks spread - 27/07/09
Islamist militants have clashed with Nigerian police in two northern states leaving many dead, a day after at least 39 people were killed in other attacks. Eyewitnesses told the BBC a gun battle had raged for hours in Potiskum, Yobe State and a police station set on fire. A self-styled "Taliban" group which has staged previous attacks also fought with the security forces in Maiduguri, Borno State, killing at least 30. A curfew has been imposed in Bauchi city after Sunday's violence...

Africa - African news - At bbc.co.uk - Will Shell payout change Nigeria Delta? - 09/06/09
Activists in Nigeria's delta region of Ogoni have welcomed a settlement agreed between the families of nine executed activists and Royal Dutch Shell. The family of author Ken Saro-Wiwa, hanged by the government in 1995, had accused Shell of being complicit in his death and other human rights abuses. But Shell has agreed to pay $15.5m (£9.7m) to stop the case...

Africa - African news - At http://allafrica.com - Africa: Botswana Faults Gaddafi Over 'Hasty' AU Decisions - 07/0709
Wene Owino, 7 July 2009 Gaborone — Botswana has declared the just-ended African Union Summit a failure and slammed Libyan President, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi for lack of respect for established procedures and use of coercion to conduct the affairs of the AU, which he chairs. "The Summit failed the people of Africa by not dealing with issues that are of immediate concern to their livelihoods such as what may be done to advance investments in agriculture to promote food security," Botswana vice-president Lt-Gen Mompati Merafhe who attended the Summit on behalf of President Ian Khama said in Gaborone on Monday...

Africa - African news - At http://www.nation.co.ke - Ghana: There’s more than democracy in Obama’s Ghana visit - 08/07/09
By KEVIN J KELLEY, NATION Correspondent NEW YORK. The White House is touting Ghana’s democratic development as the main incentive for the two-day visit by President Barack Obama that commences on Friday. But controversial or delicate matters – such as the US Africa Command (Africom), narcotics trafficking and Ghana’s oil deposits – will almost certainly be on the agenda for the US leader’s talks with Ghanaian President John Atta Mills...

Africa - African news - At http://www.newvision.co.ug - AU has decided that the dead and dying can go to hell! - 09/07/09
JERRY OKUNGU aN East african perspective From Sirte in Libya and The Hague in The Netherlands, the news hasn’t been very good for democracy and justice in Africa this week. Finally, the continent’s rulers have decided that enough is enough. They will no longer adhere to international obligations like the United Nations’ Rome Statutes. The dead and the dying in Africa can go to hell. The African Union (AU) rulers will no longer listen to their anguish. I want to quote Peter Kenneth, a Kenyan legislator who quipped appropriately that if in this day and age, “an attorney general, a minister for justice and a prominent pro-democracy lawyer legislator, all from Kenya can travel to Geneva and The Hague merely to plead for delayed justice, then we have lost it!” This was the reaction that spoke for millions of Kenyans whose anger could not be captured by the media. It must have been the same reaction across the continent from Liberia to Sierra Leone, from Darfur to the DRC and from Addis Ababa to Mogadishu where human life has lost value. It must have been a sad day for poor Africa when the AU leadership in Sirte decided to stand by one of their own against the dead and dying in Darfur. I wonder how Kagame felt sitting among such a despicable cabal of leadership. But I also wonder how Robert Mugabe, Meles Zenawi, Mwai Kibaki and El Bashir must have felt. They must have heaved a sigh of relief and felt a sense of victory when the brotherhood of the AU threatened to cut links with the ICC so that there would be no future threat of trials of Africa’s big men...

Africa - African News - At http://www.voanews.com - Zimbabwe's Unity Government Struggles to Move Ahead - 19/05/09
Zimbabwe's unity government is struggling to win financial support from western countries because very little progress is being made to resolve key outstanding issues, including those involving the Movement for Democratic Change, that prevent the government from meeting benchmarks set by countries. Despite the inclusion of the Movement for Democratic Change in the unity government in January, the prosecution of MDC legislators on what human rights lawyers say are trumped up charges continues. Others are awaiting trial. But lawyers say that no perpetrators of violence against the MDC have been charged and that there is no investigation into last October's kidnapping of eighteen MDC and humanitarian workers. Seven MDC supporters remain missing. Western governments say it is this type of activity that is against the rule of law and needs to end...

Africa - African news - http://af.reuters.com - American government gives Somalia about 40 tons of arms, ammunition - Sat. 27/06/09
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has provided about 40 tonnes of weapons and ammunition to Somalia's embattled government in the past six weeks to help it fight Islamist insurgents, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States spent less than $10 million on what he described as small arms and ammunition as well as on payments to other nations to train Somali government forces. While the State Department confirmed on Thursday that it was providing weaponry to the government, it had not previously provided details on the type, cost or amount. The senior State Department official told reporters the United States began providing the arms soon after Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents began a major offensive against the fragile transitional federal government (TFG) in early May.

Africa - African Union calls for sanctions on Eritrea - At bbc.co.uk - 23/05/09
The African Union has called on the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Eritrea for supporting Islamist insurgents in Somalia. It is the first time that the AU has called for sanctions against one of its own members. The organisation has more than 4,000 troops in Somalia supporting the fragile transitional government. Meanwhile, heavy fighting resumed in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday, reports say. Government forces launched a fierce counter-attack on Friday in a bid to regain control of parts the city taken by militants. Move 'unprecedented' The BBC's Martin Plaut says the AU's call for sanctions against one of its member states is an unprecedented development. The AU is normally reticent in any direct criticism of its membership, our correspondent says...

Africa - Aljazeera English News online - Zimbabwe gets $950m loan from China - 01/07/09
Zimbabwe is to receive a $950m loan from China to aid its devastated economy. Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's prime minister, called the loan an "overhwelming success" and said it was the largest secured by the new government formed in February. The money is seen as a major boost to the country's global appeal for funds to rebuild the shattered economy. Speaking on his return to Harare, the capital, after a three-week tour to Europe and the United States, Tsvangirai said the money had been secured by Tendai Biti, the finance minister, while he was away.

Africa - AP news analysis - At http://news.yahoo.com - Analysis: Somali infighting could help al-Qaida - 27/05/09
By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer Katharine Houreld, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 27, 3:14 pm ET NAIROBI, Kenya – As battles rage between Somalia's Western-backed government and Islamist insurgents, another conflict is being fought behind the scenes between competing versions of Islam. The winner may determine not only the future of the failed state, but whether al-Qaida establishes permanent bases in the strategically vital Horn of Africa. Fighting has intensified in the past two weeks as insurgents attempt to push the government from the capital; nearly 200 people have been killed. The bloodshed has been fueled by the arrival of hundreds of radicalized foreign fighters who, experts fear, could use Somalia as a base for terror in the region. It's a pattern that has played out in bloody conflicts around the world, including Chechnya, Afghanistan, and Iraq: petrodollars from oil sheikdoms in the Middle East pay for fighters to travel to far-flung wars. Experts now fear Somalia has become a magnet for such fighters. "The radical factions need to boost their forces, and that means inviting in more foreign fighters," Mark Schroeder, an analyst for the international intelligence company Stratfor, told The Associated Press...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Thousands flee Nigeria Delta fighting - 21/05/09
By Andrew Walker BBC News, Warri Thousands of refugees from a remote area of a Nigerian oil-producing state have fled fighting between the military and oil rebels; sleeping in the swamps and too afraid to go home. When military helicopters buzzed over the small town of Oporoza, in Nigeria's Niger Delta, it was just two days after 19-year-old Happiness Michael had given birth. The helicopter gunships hovered low over a crowded street, where people had gathered to celebrate an annual festival, and opened fire with machine guns and rockets, according to several accounts...

Africa - At - http://news.bbc.co.uk - Guinea-Bissau leaders held in apparent coup - 01/04/2010
A group of army officers in Guinea-Bissau is reported to have detained the army chief of staff and PM Carlos Gomes Junior in an apparent coup attempt. President Malam Bacai Sanha is said to be in talks with the officers, who say they do not intend to replace him. Earlier, the officers threatened to kill the PM if his supporters continued street protests in his defence. The situation remains unclear, but there have been several coups since independence from Portugal in 1974. Military music Chief of staff Gen Jose Zamora Induta and 40 officers are being held, army sources have said. The deputy army chief of staff, Gen Antonio Indjai, has been chosen "to manage the situation", they said. Gen Indjai said he wanted to try Mr Gomes Junior as a "criminal", issuing threats to kill him if protesting supporters failed to disperse. "Cadogo [Mr Gomes Junior's nickname] is a criminal and he must be tried as one," he said...

Africa - At abc.net.au/news/stories - Protests turn violent in South Africa - 23/07/09
Violent protests in South Africa are putting the government under pressure to improve the living conditions of the country's poor. Thousands of people have taken to the streets of South Africa's Thokoza township to demand action. Protesters hurled stones at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Poor townships across South Africa have become battlegrounds as residents vent their anger. Protesters blocked a highway near Johannesburg in the worst disturbances since South African President Jacob Zuma took office, intensifying uncertainty after a wave of strikes and threats of industrial action in Africa's biggest economy. "You can see with your naked eye, there's no development around here, there's no entertainment, there's no youth development, there's no facilities, there's no job creation," one person said. Residents in Meyerton, south of Johannesburg, occupied farmland in invasions reminiscent of those in neighbouring Zimbabwe. They were protesting at being evicted from their temporary settlement. In the north-eastern region of Mpumalanga, residents in Balfour threatened to burn down municipal offices if 100 people arrested in protests on Tuesday (local time) were not released, Talk Radio 702 said. Poor South Africans complain they have not seen the benefits since white minority rule ended 15 years ago.

Africa - At af.reuters.com - Chaos stops Zimbabwe constitution conference - Monday, 13/07/09
By Nelson Banya HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean conference to draw up a new constitution descended into chaos on Monday as riot police broke up clashes between rival delegates, underscoring the tensions within a unity government formed this year. Police drove the delegates out of the venue and cordoned it off, while Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his old rival President Robert Mugabe met to discuss the disruption. The conference is part of a process which should lead to the adoption of a new national constitution and fresh elections in about two years. But the chaos reflected the divisions within the coalition government set up between President Robert Mugabe and old rival Morgan Tsvangirai in February to try to end political paralysis and reverse a decade of economic decline. Zimbabweans hope a new charter, replacing one inked in 1979 before independence from Britain, will strengthen the role of parliament and curtail the president's powers, as well as guaranteeing civil liberties and political and media freedom...

Africa - At af.reuters.com - AU force in Somalia needs stronger mandate: Uganda - 15/07/09
KAMPALA (Reuters) - African Union peacekeepers in Somalia need a stronger mandate to help bring security to the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, requiring at least triple the troops, the force's biggest contributor said on Wednesday. Embattled AU soldiers face near-daily attacks from insurgents in the Somali capital Mogadishu and are largely confined to protecting key areas such as the presidential palace, airport and seaport. Despite an initial pledge of 8,000 troops to help secure Somalia's weak government, only 4,300 soldiers -- the most from Uganda -- have arrived in the sea-side capital. "The way forward is to change the mandate from peacekeeping to peace enforcement. It would also require a change in the force levels," Ugandan army spokesman Felix Kulayigye told Reuters by telephone. "I think we need between 16,000-20,000 troops." President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government also wants a stronger mandate for AU peacekeepers to help his administration fend off Islamist-led rebel attacks in the latest cycle of violence in 18 years of civil conflict in Somalia. An AU spokesman said on Wednesday that three troops were killed over the weekend in Mogadishu. "We have lost three soldiers in mortar shelling on Saturday evening," Major Barigye Ba-hoku told Reuters...

Africa - At af.reuters.com - Ethiopia denies reports troops in Somalia - 19/05/09
By Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Guled MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Ethiopia denied reports from Somali residents and media on Tuesday that it had sent soldiers back into the neighbouring Horn of Africa country, where hardline Islamist rebels are battling Somalia's government. Ethiopia invaded in late 2006 to help the interim Somali government topple an Islamist movement controlling the capital and much of the south, but withdrew its troops this year. "This is a totally fabricated story. We have no plans to go into any of Somalia's territory," Wahade Belay, spokesman for Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry, told Reuters in Addis Ababa. Citing witnesses in the area, all the main Somali language websites and radio stations were on Tuesday running stories saying there had been an Ethiopian incursion. On Monday, Ethiopia said it was watching events closely but felt the situation was contained within Somalia and that there was no immediate danger that would prompt intervention. Residents near the central town of Baladwayne said Ethiopian troops in military vehicles arrived before dawn on Tuesday. "Some of their soldiers were on the hills ... We do not know what they want. They have not spoken to anyone," local man Hussein Osman told Reuters by telephone. "We believe they are concerned about the al Shabaab (rebels) flowing into our region."...

Africa - At af.reuters.com - Graft, electoral reform on Clinton Nigeria agenda - 12/08/09
By Sue Pleming ABUJA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take a tough line with Nigeria on Wednesday over rampant corruption and urge Africa's biggest energy producer to implement badly-needed electoral reforms. A month ago President Barack Obama visited nearby Ghana on his first official Africa trip, an itinerary seen by some Nigerians as a damning indictment of their nation's record on governance and graft. "Nigeria is undoubtedly the most important country in sub-Saharan Africa," Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson told reporters en route to Abuja. "It also faces challenges with respect to corruption and has been described by a number of organisations as the most corrupt state in Africa and we all know what corruption can do to public confidence," he said. Mismanagement and graft over decades have imperilled Nigeria's development, deterred investment, undermined democracy and deepened conflicts such as the insurgency in the southern Niger Delta and bouts of religious violence in the north...

Africa - At af.reuters.com - Islamist rebels holding French hostages - 15/07/09
By Abdi Guled MOGADISHU (Reuters) - One of Somalia's militant Islamist rebel groups was holding two French security men on Wednesday after receiving them from abductors linked to the government, police said. Gunmen from an Islamist faction within President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's security forces seized the two in a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday, then handed them to Hizbul Islam insurgents, senior police officer Abdiqadir Odweyne told Reuters. Hizbul Islam was now arguing over the Frenchmen's fate with another militant rebel group, al Shabaab, whom western security services view as al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state that has been mired in conflict since 1991. "Al Shabaab wants to take the Frenchmen from Hizbul Islam, they are on the verge of fighting," said Odweyne. "Al Shabaab wants to kill the Frenchmen and Hizbul Islam refuses. The situation is not good." Spokesmen for both groups declined to comment on the case...

Africa - At af.reuters.com - Malawi opposition says vote rigged as president leads - 21/05/09
LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi's main opposition leader John Tembo accused the government of rigging an election on Thursday as President Bingu wa Mutharika took a strong lead, and vowed to contest the result in court. The president was well ahead with almost 80 percent of constituencies counted in an election viewed as a test for political stability in the poor but rapidly growing southern African country. Final results are due at around 1500 GMT. But Tembo said he had evidence the vote had been rigged and would present his case in court. "I have received complaints from all over the country and believe that we have evidence to show that the election was rigged," Tembo, the main opposition presidential candidate, told a news conference...

Africa - At af.reuters.com - South Africa's Zuma moves Manuel to powerful new role - 10/05/09
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Trevor Manuel was appointed to head a powerful new planning body on Sunday, keeping South Africa's former finance minister at the heart of policy-making in President Jacob Zuma's first cabinet. A day after taking office, Zuma named tax authority chief Pravin Gordhan to replace Manuel in another sign of continuity as Africa's biggest economy heads towards its first recession in 17 years. "I think the positions that the financial markets were worried about have been skilfully handled," said independent analyst Nic Borain. Manuel had been in the job for 13 years, making him the world's longest-serving finance minister. Investors approved of the tight monetary and fiscal policies he kept in place. "Comrade Trevor Manuel has been given a new structure, a very powerful structure that is going to work out a national plan of government," said Zuma, who expects a positive financial market reaction to Gordhan's appointment...

Africa - At af.reuters.com - South Africa's Zuma sworn in as president - 09/05/09
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Jacob Zuma was sworn in as South African president on Saturday after a remarkable political comeback and quickly highlighted the challenges he faces as Africa's biggest economy heads towards recession. Former South African leader Nelson Mandela, considered a symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle, attended the presidential inauguration ceremony, in a huge political coup for Zuma. Zuma, 67, taking the oath of office before heads of state was unthinkable during turbulent years when graft and rape charges nearly ruined him, crises that might have buried many politicians. While Zuma promised to help South Africans realise their dreams, he took a sober view of the country's economy which may already be in its first recession in 17 years. "We must acknowledge that we find ourselves in difficult economic times. Jobs are being lost in every economy across the world," Zuma said in his inauguration speech. "We will not be spared the negative impact, and are beginning to feel the pinch." During the ceremony, air force jets flew over the presidential offices where Zuma will have to make tough decisions. He must juggle the interests of union and communist allies who helped him rise to the top, and foreign investors who fear he will steer the economy left...

Africa - At af.reuters.com/article - Fighting rocks Somali capital, at least 15 killed - 22/05/09
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali government forces attacked rebel strongholds in Mogadishu on Friday, triggering battles across the capital that killed at least 15 people. Neighbouring states and Western security forces fear Somalia, which has been mired in civil war for 18 years, could become a haven for militants linked to al Qaeda. Witnesses said four insurgents from the hardline Islamist al Shabaab group died and a journalist from local independent Shabelle Radio was also killed. Residents cowered in their homes as both sides swapped heavy weapons fire. "I saw masked men running away carrying the bodies of four of their friends," Halima Osman, a mother-of-three who lives in the city's sprawling Bakara Market, told Reuters. "We were surprised to see men in government uniforms fighting in Bakara. They have recaptured four police stations between here and the palace, and they are advancing further."

Africa - At af.reuters.com/article - Nigeria militant attack on Chevron shuts 100,000 bpd - 25/05/09
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian militants attacked an oil pipeline in the Niger Delta belonging to U.S. energy firm Chevron, shutting down 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production, the company said on Monday. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an email it had sabotaged pipelines to flow stations at Alero Creek, Otunana, Abiteye, Makaraba and Dibi feeding a Chevron facility in Delta state. Chevron confirmed in a statement that one of its pipelines in the Abiteye area was breached on Sunday. "To protect the environment, the incident has led to the shut in of approximately 100,000 bpd production from swamp operations in Delta State," a Chevron spokesman said in an e-mailed statement. MEND said it had carried out the attack in response to a military offensive against militant camps in Delta state. "At about 0200 (GMT) today, fighters from MEND destroyed major trunk lines to effectively put ... flow stations that feed the Chevron tank farm located in Delta state out of operation," the statement from MEND said. The commander of the joint military taskforce in the Niger Delta confirmed there had been an attack but gave no details...

Africa - At af.reuters.com/article/topNews - ICC prosecutor appealing Bemba's conditional release - 14/08/09
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court on Friday ordered the conditional release of Congolese rebel warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba pending trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Bemba is accused of leading rebels from the Democratic Republic of Congo in a campaign of torture, rape and murder in the neighbouring Central African Republic. Bemba, who was arrested in Belgium in May 2008, denies all the charges. The court said it could not release Bemba until it had decided which country he would stay in until his trial began. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement he was appealing against the decision by the court, the world's first permanent court established to try war crimes...

Africa - At Ajazeera English Online - Madagascar rivals 'reach deal' - 23/05/09
Madagascar's rival political parties have agreed to a transition accord that could allow the country's ousted president to face the interim leader in a new election, international mediators have said. Mediators on Saturday said the parties tentatively agreed on the "principles" for establishing a neutral, peaceful and consensual" transition until new elections can be held, the AFP news agency reported. The proposed final accord calls for the "the participation of the former headers of state and the head of the transition in the next presidential election," a statement from the mediators said. The agreement would mean that Marc Ravalomanana, Madagascar's ousted president, and Andry Rajoelina, who later took power, could both stand in the nation's upcoming polls...

Africa - At aljazeera.net - Kenya dismisses police chief - 09/09/09
Kenya's police chief, accused of running a force that killed and looted during violence that followed elections in 2007, has been dismissed. Mwai Kibaki, the Kenyan president, sacked Mohamed Hussein Ali and demoted him to the head of the country's postal services. Tuesday's announcement was welcomed by human-rights agencies...

Africa - At aljazeera.net - Profile: Jacob Zuma
Profile: Jacob Zuma. Zuma, born in the KwaZulu-Natal province, joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1959 and became an active member of its armed wing in 1962. He was arrested in 1963, convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government and sentenced to 10 years in prison on Robben Island. He comes from an under-privileged background and received formal education at primary level only. As such, he is hugely popular among poor black South Africans who see him as one of their own. The ever-smiling Zuma, 66, has the tendency to break into dance often accompanied by supporters singing his signature tune Umshini Wami - Zulu for Bring Me My Machine-Gun. "In Zuma we see ourselves, we see humility, down to earth. We see somebody we can speak to, who has a genuine love for people," Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), has said...

Africa - At aljazeera.net/news/africa - Clinton concludes Africa tour - 14/08/09
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has reached the end of her seven-nation tour of the African continent with a final stop in Cape Verde...

Africa - At aljazeera.net/news/africa - Madagascar rivals strike deal - 09/08/09
Madagascar's main political factions have signed a deal to set up a transitional government in an attempt to end months of instability following a coup on the Indian Ocean island. Tiebile Drame, the UN mediator, said on Sunday that the two sides had "agreed that the transition will last no longer 15 months from the signature of the accord". During that period legislative and presidential elections will be held under international supervision "which will lead to the re-establishment of stable democratic institutions in Madagascar," he said. Andry Rajoelina claimed power in March when Marc Ravalomanana, the president, fled into exile following protests that left more than 100 people dead. Since then, the country has become increasingly isolated as foreign governments have halted aid and sporadic violence has broken out...

Africa - At aljazeera.net/news/africa - Nigeria clashes kill dozens - 26/07/09
At least 42 people have been killed and dozens of others injured after clashes erupted between police and members of a Muslim group in Nigeria, a hospital source said. The clashes began after a failed dawn attack on Sunday on a police station in Dutsen Tenshin, a neighbourhood of the city of Bauchi, capital of the state of the same name. At least 70 Nigerians armed with guns and hand grenades attacked the police station in Bauchi, but they later retreated after heavy fighting with security forces, officials said. Awwal Isa, a nurse at Bauchi Specialist Hospital, told the AFP news agency that a total of 42 bodies had been brought to the hospital and that at least one of the dead was a soldier...

Africa - At Aljazeera.net/news/africa - Obama urges African democracy - 12/07/09
Barack Obama, the US president, has urged African nations to strengthen democracy and fight corruption in a keynote speech to Ghana's parliament. He hailed Ghana as a "beacon of good governance" in the region, during a short visit on Saturday to Accra, the West African nation's capital. He said: "The people of Ghana have worked hard to put democracy on a firmer footing with repeated peaceful transfers of power. "Development depends of good governance ... that is the change that can unlock Africa's potential and that can only be done by Africans." John Atta Mills, the Ghanaian president who greeted Obama on his arrival in Accra on Friday evening, was elected in a peaceful, transparent vote in December that set an example for the continent...

Africa - At aljazeera.net/news/africa - Polls close in Guinea-Bissau runoff - 27/07/09
Polling stations in Guinea-Bissau for Sunday's presidential runoff have closed. Desejado Lima da Costa, the head of the country's electoral commission, said results are expected next week. People in the coup-prone West African nation chose between two former heads of state, Malam Bacai Sanha and Kumba Yala. About 700,000 voters were eligible to cast ballots at around 2,700 polling stations nationwide. Sanha and Yala had won the biggest share of the vote in the first round of elections on June 28, with Sanha securing 39.59 per cent, a 10-point advantage over Yala. The runoff round was originally to have been held on August 2 but was brought forward to encourage a higher turnout as the later date could have interfered with harvest work in the predominantly rural country. Coup-prone The vote was triggered by the killing of Joao Bernardo Vieira, Guinea-Bissau's long-time president, by soldiers on March 2, in an apparent revenge attack following the assassination of army chief General Batista Tagme Na Waie in a bomb attack. In June, the army killed two senior political figures in what they claimed was an operation to foil a coup plot. The murder of Vieira, who ruled Guinea-Bissau for much of the past 25 years, came about a decade after the military ousted him during a previous term as president...

Africa - At aljazeera.net/news/africa - US pledges support for Somalia - 06/08/09
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, is due to meet with Somalia's president to discuss how to stabilise the war-torn country battling with Islamist fighters. The interim government of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, backed by an African peacekeeping force, has come under attack from groups including al Shabaab, which want to impose their interpretation of Islam across the country. Clinton is expected to promise financial aid, including shipments of weapons, to the Horn of Africa nation at talks in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, on Thursday...

Africa - At aljazeera.net/news/africa - US seeks 'good Africa governance' - 05/08/09
The US secretary of state has said that the growth of African business and trade depends on good governance and solid democracy. Hillary Clinton told regional leaders on Tuesday at a conference in Nairobi, Kenya that political transparency would provide the basis for economic growth. "True economic progress in Africa will depend on responsible governments that reject corruption, enforce the rule of law and deliver results for their people," she said. "This is not just about good governance - it is also about good business."...

Africa - At aljazeera.net/news/africa - US urges justice for DR Congo women - 11/08/09
The US secretary of state has said that young people in the Democratic Republic of Congo must press the government to take action against corruption and sexual violence in the war-torn east of the country. "You are the ones who have to speak out," Hillary Clinton told university students in Kinshasa, the capital, on Monday. "Speak out to end the corruption, the violence, the conflict that for too long has eroded the opportunities across this country. Together, you can write a new chapter in Congolese history." Clinton has focused on women's rights during her seven-nation tour of Africa, which has so far taken her to Kenya, South Africa and Angola. Call for justice She is expected to travel on Tuesday to Goma, a city in eastern DR Congo, to meet survivors of sexual violence...

Africa - At BBC Africa News Online - Jacob Zuma sworn in as SA leader - 09/05/09
Jacob Zuma, leader of the African National Congress, has been sworn in as South Africa's new president. He took the oath in front of 5,000 invited guests and crowds of supporters who had gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria for the ceremony. In a speech, he described it as a "moment of renewal" for South Africa, and vowed to work for reconciliation. Correspondents described a festive atmosphere in the capital that was not dampened by earlier rain and cold. Mr Zuma is expected to bring a populist touch, ensuring a very different presidency to that of his predecessor Thabo Mbeki. The 67-year-old was officially elected president by members of parliament on Wednesday, after the ANC won the general election two weeks ago. He is due unveil his new cabinet on Sunday...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Ethiopia troops 'back in Somalia' - 19/05/09
Ethiopian military forces have crossed back into Somalia, four months after leaving, witnesses told the BBC. Their reported return comes as Islamist militants continue to seize towns from the fragile Western-backed government. One resident said he saw Ethiopian troops digging trenches in Kalabeyr, a key junction that links much of Somalia to the Ethiopian border. An Ethiopian spokesman denied the reports. Its troops left Somalia in January after two years in the country. They entered Somalia in 2006 to help oust Islamist forces from the capital Mogadishu but withdrew under a UN-backed peace deal. When its troops left, Ethiopia made it clear it did still reserve the right to intervene in Somalia if its interests were directly threatened...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Somali militants capture key town - 17/05/09
Hardline Islamist militants have captured a strategically important town north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, eyewitnesses say. Members of al-Shabab, a group fighting government forces in Somalia, seized the town of Jowhar on Sunday morning. One resident told Reuters that there had been "serious fighting" in which at least seven people had been killed. Jowhar was in 2005 chosen as the temporary location for the country's transitional government. The Somali government has been losing ground in recent weeks and now controls little more than the centre of the capital, with the support of African Union troops. On 15 May, Somalia's president appealed to Islamist insurgents to negotiate as intermittent fighting continued in Mogadishu. Jowhar is the home town of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed - and now that the country's rainy season has arrived, the town is also the only passable route into central Somalia from the capital...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Chad says rebel attack defeated - 07/05/09
Chadian troops have defeated a rebel attack in the volatile east but some areas are still not under control, the government says. Aid workers were evacuated from several displaced people's sites in areas bordering the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur this week. The interior minister said all major towns were under control and the rebels had failed to gain any territory. The rebels denied being beaten and said they were still advancing, reports say. Chad has accused Sudan of sending the rebels over the border despite a truce.

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Clinton demands end to Congo rape - 11/08/09
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has demanded an end to widespread sexual abuse in war-ravaged eastern DR Congo, during a visit to the country. Mrs Clinton spoke out during a tour of a crowded refugee camp in the eastern city of Goma. Earlier, following talks with Congolese President Joseph Kabila, she said there should be no impunity for the perpetrators of sexual violence. The UN estimates 3,500 women have been raped in DR Congo so far this year. And in a report released to coincide with Mrs Clinton's visit, the aid agency Oxfam said it had monitored 20 communities and found that children, some as young as four, had been raped in half of them. Men have also been the victims of rape, Oxfam said...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - 'Clinton threatens Eritrea action - 06/08/09
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned that the US will "take action" against Eritrea if it does not stop supporting militants in Somalia. She said after talks with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, that Eritrea's actions were "unacceptable". She also said the US would expand support for Somalia's unity government. Eritrea denies supporting Somalia's al-Shabab militants, who are trying to overthrow Somalia's government...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Clinton to meet Nigerian leaders - 12/08/09
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Nigeria on the fifth leg of her seven-nation tour of Africa. During her 36-hour visit, Mrs Clinton will meet her Nigerian counterpart, Ojo Maduekwe, and later hold talks with President Umaru Yar'Adua. Analysts say she will take a tough line on corruption and electoral reform. Last month, US President Barack Obama skipped Nigeria on his first official Africa trip, in what was seen as a snub for its record on governance. "Nigeria is undoubtedly the most important country in sub-Saharan Africa," Assistant US Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency, en route to the Nigerian capital Abuja. But Mr Carson said it had also been described as "the most corrupt state in Africa"...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Clinton urges fair Angola polls - 09/08/09
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Angola to hold credible elections and address the country's past poor human rights record. Mrs Clinton was speaking after talks with senior Angolan officials in Luanda - the third stop of her African tour. Presidential polls in Angola were due to be held this year, but delays mean they are likely to be held in 2010. Mrs Clinton will meet Angola's leader on Monday to discuss closer trade links with the oil-producing nation...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Court gives bail to Congo's Bemba - 14/08/09
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ordered the conditional release of Congolese ex-Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba ahead of his war crimes trial. However, the court said he would not be freed until it was decided which country would host him. Mr Bemba, who led a rebel group during the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war, was arrested in Belgium last year and extradited to The Hague. The charges relate to unrest in the Central African Republic. Mr Bemba says his troops were not under his command once they crossed the border into CAR to help then-President Ange-Felix Patasse put down a coup attempt in 2002. After a peace deal in DR Congo in 2003, Mr Bemba laid down his arms and joined an interim government as vice-president...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Election Run-off in Guinea-Bissau - 02/07/09
Elections in Guinea-Bissau to replace assassinated President Joao Bernardo Vieira are to go to a second round, the electoral commissioner says. Mr Vieira was killed in March in apparent revenge for the death of the head of the army in a bomb blast. The two frontrunners from Sunday's vote are the ruling party's Malam Bacai Sanha with 39.6% of the vote and former President Kumba Yala with 29.4%. They will face each other in a run-off - the date of which is yet to be set.

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Kenyan MPs' fury over island row - 13/05/09
Kenyan MPs have expressed fury over remarks made by Uganda's president about ownership of the Migingo islands. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni sparked fury on Monday when he said the islands belonged to Kenya but the water around the one-acre rock was Ugandan. He suggested that no Kenyans should be allowed to fish off the Migingos under existing boundaries drawn up in 1926. Parliamentarians in Nairobi want the African Union and the United Nations Security Council to resolve the row...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Kenyan Prime Minister, Odinga, calls for new Kenya poll - 27/04/09
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said fresh elections may be needed if the rift in the power-sharing government cannot be solved. He is demanding that he be put in charge of government business in parliament, to replace Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka. Mr Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki agreed to share power last year to end months of post-election violence. But relations have soured and the two parties have held crisis talks. Over the weekend, President Kibaki's Party of National Unity accused Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement of "fomenting a coup". The president's allies say he has the power to decide who should hold the crucial position of leading government business in the house. The speaker of parliament is due to issue a ruling on Tuesday...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Obama speaks of hopes for Africa - 11/07/09
US President Barack Obama, on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office, has said Africa must take charge of its own destiny in the world. Mr Obama told parliament in Ghana during a one-day stay that good governance was vital for development. Major challenges awaited Africans in the new century, he said, but vowed that the US would help the continent. The US president's trip came at the end of a summit of eight of the world's most powerful nations, held in Italy. Ghana was chosen as the destination for the president's visit because of its strong democratic record...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - South Africa discontent spreads - 22/07/09
Violence in South Africa's townships has spread as residents protest about what they say is a lack of basic services, such as water and housing. Police have fired rubber bullets at demonstrators in Johannesburg, the Western Cape and the north-eastern region of Mpumalanga. In Mpumalanga, there were reports of foreign-owned businesses being looted as foreigners sought police protection. More than 100 people have been arrested during the past week. The rising tensions in the townships have revived memories of xenophobic attacks on foreigners last year in which more than 60 people died. The latest protests over service delivery come less than 100 days after Jacob Zuma took office as president, following a resounding election victory for the governing African National Congress (ANC). They are a reminder of the impatience felt in the most deprived areas of the country, says BBC world affairs correspondent Peter Biles.

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Thousands strike in South Africa - 27/07/09
Thousands of workers in South Africa have gone on strike, with unions saying most public services are disrupted. About 150,000 refuse collectors, city police and public-transport workers, among others, have stopped work in a campaign for higher wages, unions said. Last week there were violent protests over the lack of housing, water and electricity in the poorest townships. Analysts say the strikes and unrest are the first major challenges for new President Jacob Zuma. He has called for understanding from workers, but the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Johannesburg says crowd-pleasing promises he made during his election campaign are proving hard to keep. Our correspondent says a pledge to create 500,000 new jobs has already been retracted...

Africa - At bbc.co.uk - Zimbabwe's MDC seeks African help - 17/05/09
The party of Zimbabwean PM Morgan Tsvangirai has urged African leaders to help resolve problems within the unity cabinet with President Robert Mugabe. The Movement for Democratic Change wants the African Union and the SADC, a southern Africa body, to intervene. Long-time rivals Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Mubage agreed in February to form a power-sharing government. But differences remain over key issues such as the posts of central bank governor and attorney general. "The national council has resolved that all oustanding issues be referred to SADC (Southern African Development Community) and the African Union," the MDC said in a statement, following a meeting on Sunday...

Africa - At English.aljazeera.net - Quick guide: South Africa election - 16/04/09
South Africans go to the polls on April 22 in their fourth general election since the end of Apartheid 15 years ago. Read our quick guide to the voting system and the country's journey toward democracy... http://english.aljazeera.net/

Africa - At http://allafrica.com - Ghana: Obama Visits a Hopeful Nation on a Troubled Continent - 08/07//09
Guest columnist Richard Joseph, an Africa expert at the Brookings Institution and Northwestern University in the United States, has been travelling to Ghana for 30 years. Beginning 20 years ago, while working with former President Jimmy Carter, he followed closely Ghana's return to multiparty politics. On Saturday he will be in Accra for the visit of President Barack Obama, an event he describes as a "sublime and potentially transformative moment for Africa." He previews the visit for AllAfrica. There is perhaps no region in the world in which there is a greater gap between the high expectations of an Obama presidency and knowledge of his administration's intended policies than in sub-Saharan Africa. That gap should narrow when President Obama makes a fleeting visit to Ghana on July 10 and 11. Unlike Kenya and Nigeria – the countries he might have been expected to visit first in his presidency, but whose reputations are clouded by corruption, electoral misconduct, insecurity and other woes – Ghana is now regarded as a "beacon of democracy" after two decades of political progress and renewed economic growth. The country has witnessed five successive elections since its return to multiparty democracy in 1992. In 2006 the United States rewarded Ghana for its progress with a $547 million Millennium Challenge Account grant for capacity building -- an initiative of the administration of President George W. Bush.

Africa - At http://bbc.co.uk - Will Nigeria oil offensive backfire? - 27/05/09
For the past 13 days the Nigerian military has been mounting an offensive in the swampy creeks of the Niger Delta, pursuing oil militants who kidnapped 15 sailors, 18 soldiers and hijacked a petrol tanker belonging to the national oil company. They say the continuing military action is an attempt to rescue their men or confirm if they are dead. The militants started it, they say, and the military is just reacting, according to commander Gen Sarkin Yakin Bello, whose name means "lord of war" in the northern Hausa language. But security and diplomatic sources have told the BBC the military action in Delta State is part of a new "get tough" approach which has been on the army's drawing board for months in an attempt to deal with key militant leaders from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend). The clock is ticking on the offensive, as it is disrupting business, and may begin to have a bad effect on Nigeria's already depressed oil industry. The military action could backfire and stir up militancy in the western Niger Delta, observers say. It could also spark ethnic conflict in a race to secure lucrative patronage from government and business in the Delta. Alarming numbers Stories are emerging from the area of military brutality against civilians, as soldiers move through villages looking for guns and weapons...

Africa - At http://blogs.reuters.com - S.African Election: Democracy in tatters?- 16/04/09
William Gumede is the author of “The Democracy Gap: Africa’s Wasted Years” and ”Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC”. South Africa votes on 22 April with not only its globally admired efforts to build democracy in tatters, but against the backdrop of many other promising attempts to build viable democracies across Africa now backsliding. Military coups, such as the recent one in Madasgascar, assumed to be part of Africa’s terrible past, appear now to again have become a regular occurrence. The election earlier this year of Muammar Gadaffi - who himself came to power by military coup in Libya - as leader of the African Union, by his peers, is symbolic of the continental regression.

Africa - At http://blogs.reuters.com - S.Africa Election: Lessons for Africa - 16/04/09
Manoah Esipisu is deputy spokesperson at the Commonwealth Secretariat. He is co-author of “Eyes of Democracy: Media in Elections”. He writes in his personal capacity. Next week South Africa will hold its fourth elections since the extinction of apartheid and the rise to power of freedom icon Nelson Mandela. The election will come four months after the cliff-hanger 2008 election in Ghana, and ahead of potentially critical elections in Angola, Malawi and Mozambique. Elections do not have a very good reputation in Africa, and, in my view, there are seven reasons why. Lack of political will So profound and fundamental is this problem that if it is not addressed it can render all the others irrelevant. A botched election is as a result of a deliberate political decision by somebody to subvert the electoral process in their interest. For example, the (now defunct) Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) did not wake up one day and say “We think that we are going to change the results of this election...

Africa - At http://english.aljazeera.net/news - Who are Sudan's Jem rebels? - 28/05/09
The Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) is the most powerful anti-government faction involved in the Darfur conflict in Sudan. Jem leaders claim they have as many as 35,000 well-armed fighters in the western Darfur region of Sudan that borders Chad. On May 10, 2008, Jem fighters launched the first rebel attack on the Sudanese capital Khartoum – an event that marked Jem out as the major anti-government faction in Darfur. The rebels intended to topple the government and were only defeated once they had already reached the outskirts of Omdurman – one of three towns that comprise the capital city. The group was founded in 2000 following the publication of The Black Book: Imbalance of Power and Wealth in the Sudan. The book was authored by a number of Jem fighters, including Khalil Ibrahim Muhammad, the group’s leader. While espousing an Islamist ideology, Jem members believe that northern Sudanese Arabs are disproportionately represented within the Khartoum government and political elite, leaving southern Africans and western Arabs disenfranchised and impoverished. "The northern Nile elites are monopolising 95 per cent of the power and wealth of Sudan, while the rest of us, who make up 38 million people in 24 states, are holding only five per cent of the power and wealth in Sudan. Obviously, this is an imbalance," Abu Bakr Hamid Noor, one of the Black Book authors, has said...

Africa - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - Big attack on Mogadishu Islamists - 22/05/09
Somalia's Western-backed government forces have launched a major attack against Islamist militants in the capital, Mogadishu. The assault is an attempt to recapture areas seized by the rebels last week. Our correspondent in Mogadishu says the sound of heavy gunfire and shelling can be heard across the city...

Africa - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - Emergency powers for Niger leader - Friday, 26/06/09
The president of Niger says he will assume sweeping emergency powers, after a court again said he could not extend his rule. Mamadou Tandja, 71, made his announcement after Niger's top court ruled against a referendum that could give him three more years in office. Mr Tandja has governed the West African nation since 1999, serving two terms. His plans to remain in power have sparked domestic protests and been criticised by international donors.

Africa - At http://uk.reuters.com - American captain held by Somali pirates freed - 12/04/09
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - U.S. naval forces rescued cargo ship captain Richard Phillips from captivity at the hands of Somali pirates in a dramatic ending to a five-day standoff, the U.S. Navy said on Sunday. The U.S. Navy said Phillips was freed unharmed and that naval forces killed three of four pirates who had held him hostage on a lifeboat after trying to seize his vessel. It said a fourth pirate was in custody. "I can tell you that he is free and that he is safe," Navy Lieutenant Commander John Daniels said. The U.S. Navy 5th Fleet in Bahrain said the rescue took place at 12:19 p.m. EDT (1619 GMT/5:19 p.m. British time).

Africa - At http://uk.reuters.com - Somali piracy must be stopped "on land" - 12/04/09
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Rampant piracy off Somalia can only be stopped with stability and security onshore, not by international navies patrolling ever-larger stretches of sea, the Horn of Africa nation's fledgling government said. "It is a tragedy that things should have come to this stage," Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar told Reuters about the upsurge of attacks on foreign ships including the gripping case of an American hostage on a lifeboat. "But also this demonstrates clearly and categorically that the issue is based on land and has to be resolved on land." Omaar said the international community should focus resources on helping build up national security forces for the government that is the 15th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since it slipped into anarchy in 1991.

Africa - At http://www.monitor.co.ug - Free but no freedom for Uganda’s journalists - 03/05/09
Uganda marks World Press Freedom today with at least a dozen journalists facing prosecution over stories that the State deems are either seditious or defamatory. And with each passing day, the environment is becoming more dangerous and difficult for journalists to operate in. Lately, the formation of a Cabinet sub-committee to recommend a way of reining-in the media and the proposed Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Bill (loosely known as the phone tapping bill) are some of the schemes the government is seeking to use to clamp down on the media. And yet, journalists are still grappling with draconian laws that threaten freedom of the press and expression such as the colonial laws of libel and sedition that continue to exist in the Penal Code Act. Several journalists have also been arrested, detained and charged, while media houses have been shut down in the past for publishing or broadcasting information that the state deems prejudicial to national security...

Africa - At http://www.monitor.co.ug - Kampala - Uganda Security Organs Torture & Kill Political Opponents - (Human Rights Watch Report) - 8/04/09
A new report by a global human rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has accused the Joint Anti Terrorism Task Force (Jatt) of torturing to death at least four suspects in its custody. Five others are reportedly still unaccounted for. The accusations are a snapshot of many documented allegations of gross human rights abuse by Jatt, an urban anti terror unit established in 1999. It combines forces from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, the Police and the Internal Security Organisation (ISO).

Africa - At http://www.monitor.co.ug - Taju: Intellectual, dedicated father - 25/05/09
Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem who died in a tragic car accident on his way to Jomo Kenyatta airport, Nairobi, in the early hours of May 25, was a pleasant, colourful and larger-than-life figure. Many will remember his smile and great charm and the gap in his front teeth which gave his smile a special quality. He was more than one thing - a consummate conversationalist, a thoroughbred intellectual, a dedicated father, a comrade and a fighter for people’s rights – but above all else he was the frontline carrier of the pan-Africanist banner. History has a way of throwing up ironies. And Taju’s death – on Africa Day - is one of them. It has left a huge gap in the ranks of pan-Africanists for Taju took it upon himself to bring together pan-Africanists from across the continent and beyond...

Africa - At http://www.pambazuka.org - Tajudeen Abdul Raheem: a giant is lost on African Liberation Day - 25/05/09
25 May is Africa Liberation Day. What a day to learn the terrible news that one of the leading proponents of Africa's liberation – Tajudeen Abdul Raheem - should be so tragically lost in a senseless car accident in Nairobi. Messages have been pouring in from across the world as we all fail to hold back our tears at this loss. Tajudeen led Justice Africa's work with the African Union since its early days. He combined this with his role as General Secretary of the Pan-African Movement, chairperson of the Centre for Democracy and Development, the Pan-African Development Education and Advocacy Programme, and was a fighter in the struggle to get the UN's Millennium Development Campaign to support meaningful programmes. There was hardly a pan African initiative that took place without Tajudeen's inimitable presence, support, humour and perceptive political perspectives. Quite how he managed to combine all of this with writing his weekly 'Pan African Postcard' that were published regularly in Pambazuka News and in several newspapers including The Monitor (Uganda), Weekly Trust (Nigeria), The African (Tanzania), Nairobi Star (Kenya) and the Weekly Herald (Zimbabwe), has always been a mystery to us. You could always rely on Tajudeen to draw our attention to the most significant aspects of the latest political event in Africa - just as you could rely on him to provide guidance and encouragement during hard times, restoring in us the courage for the longer struggles ahead for emancipation of the continent...

Africa - At http://www.reuters.com - Johannesburg - South Africa prosecutors drop Zuma graft charges - (Reuters) 6/04/09
PRETORIA (Reuters) - South African prosecutors have dropped corruption charges against ruling party leader Jacob Zuma, who is expected to become president, ending a long legal battle that had raised doubts over his ability to govern. Chief prosecutor Mokotedi Mpshe said the former head of the country's elite anti-crime unit had manipulated the legal system and said "abuses of process" uncovered in taped conversations were behind the decision to drop the charges. The NPA said the case was now closed and no further charges would be brought against Zuma, whose African National Congress is widely expected to win an April 22 election and choose him as president of Africa's biggest economic power.

Africa - At Independent Online (Uganda) - Detained, tortured, amputated Horrors from UPDF detention dungeons - 22/04/09
[Horror Tales from Ugandan Torture Chambers]... Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see. I had waited for him for four hours. Earlier, he had refused to meet me. Issa Wazemba does not exude the confidence and energy of a 25-year-old man. When we met, his eyes constantly darted around suspiciously as he limped on his crutch towards the building I was in. He looked at me and whispered a few words in his native language, Lumasaba, to our middleman. He did not know I understood what he was saying. His words were: “Are you sure he is the one? This could be a trick.” Through a translator, Wazemba narrated his horrific ordeal at the hands of security personnel from the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT) and the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).

Africa - At monitor.co.ug - Swine flu could hide behind Africa’s other diseases - 03/05/09
Researchers in Africa fear they may not be able to identify swine flu cases swiftly enough to prevent the spread of infection because there are so many diseases around with similar symptoms. Although swine flu has spread from Mexico to several other continents, it has not yet been reported in Africa and in some respects the continent is well prepared, say researchers. Rapid response teams are accustomed to reacting to diseases such as meningitis and Rift Valley fever, as well as completely unknown new infections. South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), for example, was widely praised for its prompt quarantining of feverish suspects and quick analysis of a previously unknown acute infection — thought to be a type of viral haemorrhagic fever — which killed four people in October last year. The institute said it will have the specific PCR (polymerase chain reaction) primers required for confirmation of the presence of the virus by the end of the week. ‘’Many African countries have surveillance for epidemics, and some systems work well,’’ says Lucille Blumberg, head of the Johannesburg-based Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit at the NICD, highlighting laboratories run across the continent by the Pasteur Institute.

Africa - At nyasatimes.com - Bingu shamed in UK’s The Sun for blowing £3m on new Mercs - 15/05/09
Extravagant! Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has been exposed in an exclusive report in Friday edition of Britain’s highly circulating tabloid, The Sun that his administration has blown £3million on a fleet of Mercedes Benz cars from Britain. “Malawi’s rulers ordered 22 motors to help them campaign for Tuesday’s general election — as millions of citizens live in poverty,” The Sun reported in its edition. The newspaper said it has papers which show that Malawi’s finance ministry paid a British dealer to dispatch the £140,000 cars to the country. According to The Sun, London-based Crown Agents Bank Ltd is said to have brokered the deal...

Africa - bbc.co.uk - Somali gunmen 'renounce piracy' - 25/05/09
Around 200 Somali pirates are reported to have renounced piracy at a meeting in northern Somalia. Members of the group met local leaders and Somali expatriates in Eyl, in the autonomous region of Puntland, and promised to halt their activities. Pirate representative Abshir Abdullah told the BBC he urged other groups to free ships in return for amnesty. Pirates have been coming under pressure from local leaders, who have accused them of corrupting their communities. Somalia has been without a stable government since 1991, allowing piracy to flourish...

Africa - Elections - At Mail & Guardian Online - How your vote gets counted - 23/04/09
How does your vote get from your polling station to the massive electronic scoreboards at the Independent Electoral Commission's (IEC) results centre in Pretoria? Through a long and complex, but safe process, according to IEC staff. It started with thousands of SMSes sent by presiding officers to the results centre on Wednesday morning to confirm that polling stations were open and running. Ninety-nine percent of polling stations opened on time and, according to an IEC spokesperson, the others were sorted out early in the day...

Africa - Farewell Republic of Uganda, welcome Rwakitura kingdom - http://www.independent.co.ug - 11/03/09
And so, we have finally neared the summit of our journey from the Republic of Uganda to the Kingdom of Rwakitura under the Kaguta dynasty. The crowning moment of this journey was two weeks ago when President Yoweri Museveni appointed his wife, Mrs Janet Museveni, to cabinet. That there has not been a major outcry in the country against this increasing and narrowing patrimony is a sign of how deeply people’s expectations of the president have sunk. Short of walking nude on the streets of Kampala, there is really nothing that Museveni can do that can shock anyone anymore. Whenever I think he has reached the rock-bottom of moral and political depravity, Museveni somehow still finds a new depth to fall into. During its 48-year history, our nation has seen many leaders but none has been as openly corrupt and nepotistic as Museveni – not Idi Amin, Tito Okello and not Milton Obote. Our cover story shows the vast number of known relatives and in-laws of the president in government positions – his son, brother, sister, daughter, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law etc...

Africa - http://english.aljazeera.net - Sudan expulsions 'confirm crimes' - 21/03/09
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has criticised the Sudanese president's decision to expel 13 aid agencies from the country. Moreno-Ocampo said that the ejection of the non-governmental organisations proves that the ICC was correct to pursue Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, on war-crimes charges.

Africa - http://news.bbc.co.uk - Kenya-parliament approves 'historic' draft constitution - 02/04/2010
The Kenyan parliament has approved a draft constitution, after nearly 20 years of acrimonious debate. The new constitution goes to the Kenyan people in a national referendum later this year. The document provides for greater checks on presidential powers and more regional devolution. As part of a power-sharing deal to end deadly riots following elections in December 2007, it was agreed that a new constitution would be written. The previous constitution was criticised for concentrating too much power in the hands of the president. The draft constitution also recommends: • power be devolved to a senate and a network of local counties • the president should no longer be able to appoint judges • MPs appointed to a cabinet position should be obliged to give up their parliamentary seat...

Africa - http://news.bbc.co.uk - Madagascar's leader is sworn in - 21/03/09
Madagascar's Andry Rajoelina, who ousted President Marc Ravalomanana this week, has been installed formally as leader of the Indian Ocean island. Tens of thousands of his supporters attended the ceremony at a sports arena in the capital, Antananarivo, but it was boycotted by many diplomats. On Friday, the US cut off non-humanitarian aid to Madagascar and the African Union suspended its membership.

Africa - http://www.allAfrica.com - Full Text of Power-Sharing Agreement - Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe: Full Text of Power-Sharing Agreement

Africa - http://www.guardian.co.uk - DJ who has become Africa's youngest president - 21/03/09
He is the disc jockey politician, a charismatic, fresh-faced entrepreneur who swapped the turntables and nightclubs of Antananarivo for a movement that this week has culminated in the ousting of Madagascar's twice-elected president. So when Andry Rajoelina, 34, is inaugurated as Africa's youngest president today, expect a carnival of sound. His supporters have taken to blaring out Malagasy pop music to get crowds in the mood. This may even be the first African coup with its own soundtrack.

Africa - http://www.guardian.co.uk - Morgan Tsvangirai survives car crash but wife Susan killed - 06/03/09
Zimbabwe's prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has survived a car crash that killed his wife, Susan, near Harare today. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the prime minister was injured but not critically in the collision with a lorry. He was taken to a clinic in the capital. The driver of his official vehicle was seriously injured. There was no word on the condition of the lorry driver. MDC officials said the couple had been heading to Mr Tsvangirai's home town of Buhera for a political rally. Mrs Tsvangirai died at the crash scene.

Africa - Malawi NGO Doubts Guarantees of Free and Fair Polls - At http://www.voanews.com - 13/05/09
In Malawi, a local think tank, the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI), says it doubts assurances by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) that next week's presidential and parliamentary elections will be free and fair...

Africa - Malawi president is inaugurated - At http://news.bbc.co.uk - 22/05/09
Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika has been sworn in for a second term after a landslide election win. The election commission said he had won more than 2.7m votes, with nearest rival John Tembo taking nearly 1.3m. Mr Tembo cried foul but his opposition coalition backer, ex-President Bakili Muluzi, congratulated the incumbent. Mr Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also won a majority in parliament. Regional heads of state are in Malawi for the inauguration. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Zambia's President Rupiya Banda, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and Tanzanian Vice-President Ali Mohammed Shein were due to attend the ceremony...

Africa - Pan-Africanist dies in car crash - At bbc.co.uk - 25/05/09
Renowned Pan-Africanist Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem has died in a car crash in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Born in Nigeria in 1961, he became best known for his role as general secretary of the Pan-African Movement. He was also a director of the UK-based campaign group Justice Africa and wrote prolifically for newspapers and journals across the continent. Firoze Manji, editor of online forum Pambuzuka News, told the BBC he had the ability "to see through hypocrisy". "He will be remembered for his humour, his warmth, his support and above all for being a strong pan-Africanist," Mr Manji told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme...

Africa - Under Pressure By "People Power", Has Ex-U.S. Ally, Gen. Museveni Exhausted Bag Of Tricks After 27 Years?
Africa Analysis

Africa Affairs - At aljazeera.net - Niger Delta group ends ceasefire - 22/08/09
Nigeria's largest militant group has said it is to end its ceasefire and resume attacks against Africa's biggest oil and gas industry. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said the move to end the truce on on September 15 was in response to the government's 60-day amnesty programme. The government has invited fighter groups to hand in their weapons in return for cash, jobs and pardons under the scheme. Mend, a loose coalition of militant groups in the Niger Delta, denounced the hundreds of rebels that have participated in the amnesty, which began two weeks ago. "The ongoing amnesty programme by the government of Nigeria seems to have achieved separating those who still have the zeal to fight for our freedom from those who were in it for the money," the group said in a statement...

Africa Affairs - At-bbc.Africa-news-online -Africa population tops a billion - 18/11/09
The number of people in Africa has passed the one billion mark, the UN Population Fund says in a report. UNPF's Executive Director Thoraya Obeid told the BBC that the annual figures showed the continent's population had doubled in the last 27 years. "Africa countries are all growing fast... because there is large number of women who have no access to planning their families," she said. The populations of Nigeria and Uganda were growing the fastest, she said. "It's an African phenomenon of a large growing population and a large percentage of young people in the population," she told the BBC's Network Africa programme. In its State of the World Report, the UNPF says the world's population currently stands at about 6.8 billion. Africa's population is estimated to reach 1.9 billion by 2050, it says...

Africa -Affairs At - http://english.aljazeera.net - Bashir says Abyei belongs to the north - 24/05/2011
Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, has said that Abyei belongs to the north and that his forces will not withdraw from the disputed region. "Abyei is northern Sudanese land," Bashir said in a speech in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday. "We will not withdraw from it." He said he had given the green light to the northern army to respond to any possible "provocation" by the army of south Sudan which also claims the region and plans to become independent on July 9. The latest remarks marked a dramatic shift from his earlier statement that a "peaceful resolution" for Abyei would be found. Northern forces took control of Abyei by moving tanks into the main settlement on the weekend after weeks of tensions, forcing tens of thousands to flee and sparking an international outcry. Southern officials on Monday accused the north of trying to provoke a new civil war. Sudan's last north-south civil war ended in a 2005 peace deal that allowed southerners to vote overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum in January...

Africa Affairs At - http://www.independent.co.uk-Editor's-murder-'approved-by-Rwandan-President' - 02/07/2010
Editor's murder 'approved by Rwandan President' From a safe house, journalist who survived assassination attempt tells Daniel Howden the truth about Paul Kagame's rule Jean Bosco Gasasira is in hiding. Instead of running a newspaper in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, reporting on the political assassinations that have plagued the country of late, he spends his time moving between safe houses in neighbouring Uganda, trying to avoid the same fate himself. According to police in Kampala he was the victim of an attempted assassination last week; in the same week, his friend and co-editor of the banned newspaper, Umuvugizi, Jean Leonard Rugambage, was shot dead in Kigali.

Africa -Affairs At -http://news.bbc.co.uk-Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan sworn in as president - 06/05/2010
Nigeria's acting President Goodluck Jonathan has been sworn in as head of state following the death of President Umaru Yar'Adua after a long illness. Mr Jonathan, in charge since February, will appoint a deputy and serve out the rest of the current presidential term until elections due next year. Mr Yar'Adua died late on Wednesday in the capital Abuja. TV broadcasts were interrupted with the news. Seven days of national mourning have been announced. Mr Jonathan took the oath of office in front of government ministers and other officials in Abuja almost 12 hours after Mr Yar'Adua died. The ceremony was performed by Chief Justice Alloysius Katsina-Alu. Mr Jonathan put on a sash bearing the green, yellow and white colours of Nigeria, signifying he had formally taken over as president...

Africa -Affairs At -http://ugandarecord.co.ug -(Uganda)-Olara Otunnu's civil disobedience - 22/04/2010
Olara Otunnu, the president of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) opposition party was supposed to have gone to the police's CID to make a statement on his allegations that President Yoweri Museveni funded the rebel Lord's Resistance Army. Museveni ordered the police to investigate Otunnu, who was then summoned to record statements. Otunnu declined to go to the CID headquarters at Kibuli and instead sent his lawyer, the DP lawyer and Kampala Central MP Elias Lukwago. The police has extended Otunnu's appearance before the CID for tomorrow, Friday. It is possible he will not make it there. At some stage, Museveni's patience will snap and he will order the arrest of Otunnu. Something is brewing: Otunnu is slowly but steadily creating the conditions for what will be a dramatic 2010 in Ugandan politics. His low key civil disobedience is what FDC President Kiiza Besigye should have been practicing all along since 2005. Besigye's failure to do which now means he could be overshadowed by Otunnu. It is just possible that within the next several weeks, there will be an incident involving Otunnu and that incident will make national and international news, thus propelling this former UN assistant general from a politician of doubtful weight, into the new rallying point for Uganda's disenchantment with Museveni...

Africa -At http://www.hrw.org - Africa Division, Human Rights - Brutality in the name of security - 28/04/09
"I kindly beg you to ensure that you keep our children. I don't think I will be coming back." Those were the last words of Saidi Lutaaya, spoken over the phone to his wife. He had been picked up from Old Taxi Park in Kampala in November 2007 by men wearing civilian clothes driving an unmarked car. His family has not heard from him since. But sadly, they learned about his final hours from those who saw him die. Members of the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force (JATT) arrested Lutaaya even as President Yoweri Museveni welcomed Queen Elizabeth II to Uganda at the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). JATT personnel brought Lataaya to their headquarters in the lush Kampala suburb of Kololo. They beat him while interrogating him about his alleged knowledge of rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). He was severely injured, and soldiers took him to Mulago Hospital, where he died a few minutes later. Nurses there said that he had a hole in his foot and that the bone of his lower leg was poking out, that he had been hit in the head with a hammer, and that blood was oozing out. But his family was never formally informed of his death. Soldiers collected his body and took it away...

Africa in 2009 - At IndiaServer.com - (13/02/09) Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke named Somali Prime Minister
Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the US-based son of former Somali president, has been chosen to become the prime minister of Somalia

Africa in 2009 - [African Union, Battle of Egos?] - Museveni, Gaddafi clash in Ethiopia over Libyan Leaders African Unity Plans - Daily Monitor, Uganda, Feb 5 2009
President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday night openly clashed with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, after the two disagreed over the direction of the formation of a single government for all African states. According to sources at the summit, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe reportedly helped Mr Museveni take on Col. Gaddafi, who besides mooting the single African government plan, also sought to be bestowed the title “King of Kings”.

Africa in 2009 - Africa BBC News (03/02/09) - New Somali prime minister named
Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has chosen Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke to be the country's new prime minister. Mr Sharmarke, a former diplomat, is widely seen as a bridge between Islamists within the government and the international community.

Africa in 2009 - Africa News at BBC News Online - MDC LINE-UP in Zimbabwe Unity Government.
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has named Tendai Biti as his choice for finance minister in a unity government with Robert Mugabe. Mr Biti is secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Zimbabwe's main opposition party.

Africa in 2009 - Aljazeera News Online - Zimbabwe 'aid dependence growing'
Humanitarian groups are warning that more than half the people in Zimbabwe will be dependent on food aid by the end of the year.

Africa in 2009 - Aljazeera News Online- Zimbabwe Parliament Passes Unity Government Amendment
Zimbabwe's parliament has passed a constitutional amendment that opens the way for a unity government. It creates a prime minister's post, which main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will hold in Unity Government

Africa in 2009 - At BBC Africa Online - Obituary: of Guinea-Bisau President Vieira of Guinea-Bissau (2 March 2009)
Joao Bernardo Vieira led Guinea-Bissau for more than half of its time as an independent state. A military man, his turbulent history mirrors that of his country. He first came to power through a military coup and has also been ousted by rival soldiers. Widely known by his nickname "Nine", he twice won elections, before being shot dead apparently in revenge for the killing of the army chief of staff.

Africa in 2009 - at Daily Monitor Online, 08/02/09 - American Forces helped plan Ugandan Attack on LRA rebels -The New York Times
The American military helped plan and pay for a recent attack on the Lord’s Resistance Army, but the offensive went awry, scattering fighters who carried out a wave of massacres as they fled, killing as many as 900 civilians.

Africa in 2009 - At Dow Jones Newswires, (Frid 20 Feb. 09) - New Drilling Could Put Uganda in Top 50 Producers
An oil exploration firm in Uganda, Tullow Oil said Friday the wells it is planning to drill this year could put the country among the world's top 50 producers. However, Kampala should concentrate on further exploration rather than begin large-scale production, said Brian Glover manager in Uganda of the U.K.-headquartered Tullow.

Africa in 2009 - At guardian.co.uk - Feb 26 09 - Simon Tisdall - No honeymoon for Tsvangirai
No honeymoon for Tsvangirai. Far from observing power-sharing niceties, Zanu-PF bosses are behaving as if they are still in sole control of Zimbabwe... With a brutish determination born of fear for their own skins, the men most responsible for Zimbabwe's ruination are doing all they can to sink Tsvangirai before he can swim

Africa in 2009 - At New Vision Online (Sunday, 25th January, 2009) - Use new oil resources to improve lives of Ugandas
As Uganda continues to be blessed with discoveries of potentially lucrative oil resources, the time is now, not later, for a very transparent discussion on how these resources will benefit the local people who live in the immediate vicinities of the finds, the regional level and national level.

Africa in 2009 - BBC Africa News Online - Thomas Lubanga, DRC Rebel Leader Denies War Crimes at ICC
Former Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga has pleaded not guilty to charges of using child soldiers, at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Africa in 2009 - DRC / Rwanda, US Welcomes Arrest of General Nkunda - AFP story
The United States on Friday hailed the arrest of Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda as "a welcome step on the road to peace" in the war-torn African nation.

Africa in 2009 - DRC/Rwanda-Nkunda Arrest-Guardian Unlimited Analysis
Gen Nkunda - the 'Butcher of Bukavu & Kivu' arrested by former sponsors.

Africa in 2009. What lies ahead for Africa in 2009? (BBC Africa News Online,Tuesday, 6 January 2009)
Africa in 2009 - Mugabe will most probably leave power, forced to step down by his fellow ZANU-PF colleagues.

Africa in 2009-Aljazeera, Africa News Online - Need for Immediate International Action on Somalia
If the US and the international community was to help establish a legitimate and functioning state in Somalia this could, in fact, prove to be a cheaper and more effective solution to the piracy problem than some of the alternative suggestions.

Africa News - Affairs At - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa - Rwanda government denies link to assassinations - 05/08/2010
Rwanda's government has issued a statement denying any involvement in the killing of political opponents. The comments are in response to allegations made during a BBC investigation that President Paul Kagame's government had ordered assassinations. In recent months there has been a spate of attacks on government critics. "For sure my government and president are not involved in any way," said Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote He [Kagame] believes in killing his opponents... there is a long list of people that have died politically” End Quote Patrick Karegeya Former intelligence chief, Rwanda * Rwanda almost 'corruption free' * Just how democratic is Rwanda? "This is a leadership that is quite popular and therefore wouldn't gain anything from insecurity, killings and assassinations," she added. International concern In the run-up to this month's presidential election, a series of attacks has served to overshadow the campaign, instilling a sense of fear among opposition parties. In June, the former head of the Rwandan army was shot in South Africa. He survived and said President Kagame had ordered the attack. Days later, a journalist investigating that shooting was murdered in Rwanda. His editor said this was on the orders of the government. Then last month, an opposition politician was brutally murdered. The Rwandan government has vehemently denied any involvement in the attacks. But the events have raised international concern about what is happening in Rwanda. Critics say there is a long history of murders and disappearances of political opponents in Rwanda.

Africa news - At bbc.co.uk - Guinea coup leader 'must stay on' - 13/08/09
Supporters of Guinea's self-declared president, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, have formed a movement to call for him to be allowed to continue in office. Members of the new group, Dadis Must Stay, want him to stand for office in the next election, scheduled for 2010. Capt Camara has previously said he would not stand for the post. He emerged as the leader of a group of army officers who seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2008, after the death of President Lansana Conte...

Africa News - BBC Africa News Online. Thursday, 15 January 2009 - Somali Islamists take bases in Mogadishu
Somalia - An Endless Political Quagmire. Will Somali People Sort Themselves out, Now that Ethioppians Have Left?

Africa News - Ghana EC declares NDC's Prof. John Evans Atta Mills President-elect (Saturday, 3 January 2009. Online news portal, myjoyonline.com - Joy Fm / Multimedia Group Limited ).
Prof Ata Mills declared Winner of Ghana Elections. President-elect John Evans Atta Mills polled 4,521,032 representing 50.23 per cent of the total votes cast. President-elect Prof. Mills to be officially inaugurated on January 7, 2008

Africa News- Affairs At - http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - Blasts shatter Nigeria celebrations - 02/10/2010
At least eight people have been killed and another three wounded after two car bombs exploded in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, as the country marks its 50th independence anniversary. The explosives detonated on the parade grounds surrounding Eagle Square, where celebrations were under way on Friday. A third, smaller explosion also hit closer to Eagle Square, where the president stood with other dignitaries, injuring one person. "My information is that there was an explosion in a house," Emmanuel Ojukwu, a police spokesman, told the news agency AFP. "I cannot confirm any fatalities." Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said there were indications that police may have been aware of a potential attack. "Just yesterday the home of the alleged leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta [Mend], who lives in South Africa, in Johannesburg, was raided by Interpol," she said. "He spoke to us yesterday, saying that the Nigerian government had informed South African police that he was planning a terror plot, a bomb plot in Abuja. Now it seems that has happened but we don't know whether he's involved in this." Ndege also added: "There is shock and panic all over Abuja, we are waiting for the inspector general of police to arrive to tell us exactly what they believe to be the cause of this bombing and what they intend to do about it...

Africa News: Ghana's President Elect - Prof. Mills: It was a long struggle (Joy FM Online, Lagos. Saturday, 3 January 2009)
Prof. Mills: I will be a Father to all Ghanaians. It was a long struggle

Africa News-Ghana's News President to form inclusive government (Citi 97.3 FM, Accra-Ghana, Jan 3, 2009.)
Ghana Elections - Prof. Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress Wins

Africa-Affairs At- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa - Madagascar officers in coup claim - 17/11/2010
Military officers in Madagascar say they have taken over the island nation. Col Charles Andrianasoavina, who made the announcement, was one of the officers behind a coup that brought Andry Rajoelina to power last year. But Mr Rajoelina denounced the mutineers and said he was unafraid of their threats. He said the action involved a small group who were trying to stir up trouble on the day of a referendum on a new constitution. Madagascar has been beset by instability for several years. President Rajoelina has been diplomatically isolated since coming to power and has ignored attempts by regional mediators to broker a consensus with the opposition...

African - Affairs At - http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - Anger over Rwanda opposition arrest - 16/10/2010
Human rights groups have called on Rwandan authorities to allow political opponents "to carry out their legitimate activities" after the arrest of an opposition leader. Victoire Ingabire, the leader of the unregistered United Democratic Forces (FDU), was arrested on Thursday in Kigali on the basis of information given by a former military officer. Ingabire, who had already been under judicial control since April, has been detained in connection with an alleged plot to form a "terrorist group", according statements from the police, Carina Tertsakian, a researcher with Human Rights Watch (HRW), told Al Jazeera on Saturday. "We are asking that the Rwandan government fully respect the rights of opposition party members and allow them to carry out their legitimate activities without fear for their safety," Tertsakian said. "If Ingabire is to be charged, it should be on the basis of solid evidence, not as a punishment for her criticisms of the government," she said...

African - Affairs At - http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - First day of south Sudan vote ends - 09/01/2011
Impatient southerners flock to polling stations at the start of week-long referendum on region's secession. Ranjit Bhaskar in Juba... Polling stations have closed on the first day of voting in Southern Sudan's week-long referendum on secession. The atmosphere was festive in the southern capital Juba on Sunday, with voters queueing for hours outside polling stations. "The turnout was emotional," Chan Reec Madut, who heads the South Sudan Referendum Bureau, said. "We have never witnessed this kind of turnout before, even during the election," he said, referring to last April's presidential, parliamentary and state elections. "There is singing, there is dancing, this is a day like no other in the history of the people of south Sudan." He said the polling would continue as scheduled on Monday. A total of 3.9 million southerners have registered for the self-determination vote that may lead to the partition of Africa's largest country. They came in their thousands on the first day itself to participate in an event that matters to them deeply. They were in a hurry and impatient. Salva Kiir, the president of Southern Sudan, cast his ballot in Juba in the morning and appealed to impatient voters to spread the voting across the scheduled seven days, after having waited for more than 50 years to choose their own destiny...

African - Affairs At - http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - Guinea confirms Conde as president - 03/12/2010
lpha Conde, Guinea's veteran opposition politician, has been confirmed as president, overcoming complaints of electoral fraud in the presidential poll. The Supreme Court said on Friday that Conde, 73, had won the election, an announcement delayed by two weeks due to a state of emergency imposed following violence at the naming of Conde as winner in provisional results. "The candidate of the RPG [Rally of the Guinean People], Alpha Conde, having won a majority with 52.52 per cent of votes cast is elected president of the Republic," Mamadou Sylla, a magistrate who presides over the court's constitutional chamber, said. 'No choice' Cellou Dalein Diallo, the ex-president, conceded defeat on Friday to Conde after the Supreme Court threw out his complaints of electoral fraud and validated the results of the November 7 runoff. "Our complaints were not taken into account," Diallo told a news conference. "Since the decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed ... we have no choice but to conform to the decision made by the top legal institution in the republic." Diallo came second with 47.48 per cent of votes in the November 7 poll...

African - Africa Affairs - At http://www.monitor.co.ug - A Journalist on sedition charges in Uganda - 14/09/09
Radio One talk show host Kalundi Sserumaga who was on Friday night arrested by security agents, faces sedition charges and inciting violence, the Police said yesterday. Claiming that Mr Sserumaga committed “grave offences”, the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, who had earlier ordered for the release of the beleaguered journalist on police bond, later changed his mind, and forwarded the matter for criminal investigation. “I dint know why Sserumaga had been arrested but after I got a brief from the people following the case, I discovered that it was not a simple utterance,” Gen. Kayihura said yesterday at a news conference in Kampala...

African Affairs - At af.reuters.com - Zimbabwe cabinet reviews economic progress - 22/08/09
By Cris Chinaka HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's cabinet retreated to a holiday resort on Saturday to review the performance of a unity government set up to repair a battered economy, but analysts say the country's future lies in securing massive foreign aid. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who joined arch-rival President Robert Mugabe in February in a bid to end a decade of political hostility and economic crisis, chaired the closed door meetings to assess the government's first 100-day targets. Mugabe, 85, is on a week's holiday. Critics see the retreat as a waste of money by a bankrupt government struggling to pay its workers, including hundreds of doctors who went on strike two weeks ago over wages...

African Affairs At - bbc.co.uk--Kenya-holds-referendum as-part-of-political-peace deal - 04/08/2010
A count is under way in Kenya after its referendum on a new constitution, the centrepiece of measures designed to reform politics. Presidential powers would be limited and a commission set up to settle potentially explosive land disputes. The referendum was part of a deal to end violence after the disputed 2007 election in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Both the president and the prime minister called for a "Yes" vote... As the count began nationwide, votes were still being cast at some polling stations which had opened late, Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper website said. No major incidents were reported at the 27,689 polling stations set up to cater for Kenya's 12.5 million registered voters. "From the reports I have received, it is peaceful all over the country and we want this to remain that way so that Kenyans can peacefully decide their future," Prime Minister Raila Odinga said after casting his vote in Kibera. "I have no doubt in my mind that the 'Yes' will win resoundingly."...

African Affairs At - http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - African leaders confront Gbagbo - 28/12/2010
The government of Cote d'Ivoire's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo has rebuffed a call for him to step down or face removal by force, before several West African presidents deliver a final ultimatum. The three presidents - Benin's Boni Yayi, Sierra Leone's Ernest Bai Koroma and Pedro Pires of Cape Verde - arrived in Abidjan on Tuesday to hand over the call from the West African bloc ECOWAS to resign or face military intervention. Gbagbo's government originally said it would welcome the emissaries "as brothers and friends and listen to the message they have to convey". But shortly before the West African leaders were expected to meet Gbagbo at about 13:00 GMT, his government warned it would not tolerate any meddling in its affairs, nor would it heed any call to make way for Alassane Ouattara, rival presidential claimant who is internationally recognised. While doubts exist about whether the region could carry out such a military operation, Ouattara's camp remains confident that help is coming soon...

African Affairs At - http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa - Millions vote in Kenya referendum - 04/08/2010
Polls have closed in Kenya following a vote on the country's proposed new constitution, with long lines and high turnout reported in many areas of the country. The vote took place amid tight security aimed at preventing a repeat of the deadly violence that followed Kenya's 2007 election. There were no reports of violence during the ballot. "We are making history. Many of us were not here when we got the first constitution after independence, and it does not suit us,'' said Sam Ochieng, a businessman who voted in Kibera, a neighbourhood in Nairobi. Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, said the vote was peaceful, and predicted that the constitution would be approved. Initial results are expected within a few hours, with the final tally due to be released sometime on Thursday. Queues of several hundred people had already formed at several polling stations in Nairobi and elsewhere in the country when voting opened at 6:00am (0300 GMT). Some 12.4 million voters were eligible to cast ballots after a tense campaign rattled by a grenade attack on a "no" rally that left six people dead on June 13. The new law addresses corruption, political patronage, land grabbing and tribalism, which have plagued Kenya since it won independence in 1963...

African Affairs At - http://news.bbc.co.uk - Nigeria leader Goodluck Jonathan dissolves cabinet - 18/03/2010
Nigeria's acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, has dissolved the country's cabinet. Mr Jonathan became acting president in February amid the continuing illness of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Mr Yar'Adua went to Saudi Arabia for treatment in November last year and, despite returning to Nigeria recently, has not been seen in public. One outgoing cabinet minister denied there was any power vacuum, saying civil servants would take over. The cabinet was picked by Mr Yar'Adua and correspondents say Mr Jonathan is now trying to stamp his own authority. Observers see Wednesday's move as an attempt to consolidate power at the expense of Mr Yar'Adua...

African Affairs At - http://news.bbc.co.uk - Twin blasts in Uganda capital Kampala 'kill 23 people' - 12/07/2010
At least 23 people have been killed in twin explosions in the Ugandan capital Kampala, police said. It is not known what caused the blasts, which police said went off at a rugby club and at a restaurant, as football fans watched the World Cup final. "These bombs were definitely targeting World Cup crowds," Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura said. Somali militants have in the past threatened to attack Kampala; Ugandan troops are deployed in Mogadishu. Obama 'deeply saddened' Mr Kayihura said he believed Somalia's militant group al-Shabab could be behind the attack. "The information we have indicates 13 people have died here at the Ethiopian Village [restaurant] and many others are injured and more than 10 people are reported to have died at the rugby club," Mr Kayihura said at the scene of one blast. "The information we have indicates the people who have attacked the Ethiopian Village were probably targeting expatriates," he added. US President Barack Obama said the explosions were "deplorable and cowardly". US National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement: "The president is deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks, and sends his condolences to the people of Uganda and the loved ones of those who have been killed or injured. "The United States is ready to provide any assistance requested by the Ugandan government."...

African Affairs At - http://www.businessweek.com/news - Gbagbo Claims Ivory Coast Presidency, Spurns UN, U.S. - 04/12/2010
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Laurent Gbagbo was sworn in as Ivory Coast’s president, defying the United Nations, the country’s Electoral Commission and U.S. President Barack Obama, who have recognized his rival as the winner of last month’s elections. Gbagbo took the oath of office at a ceremony in Abidjan today, after the Constitutional Council said results released by the Electoral Commission showing Alassane Ouattara won 54.1 percent of the vote cast on Nov. 28 were invalid. Armed forces leaders backed the incumbent Gbagbo...

African Affairs At-http://news.bbc.co.uk-Mogadishu residents told to leave Somali capital - 12/03/2010
Mogadishu's mayor has told residents to leave the Somali capital's war zones, amid fierce battles with insurgents. At least 50 people have been killed in three days of Islamist insurgent attacks, witnesses and officials say. Mayor Abdurisaq Mohamed Nor said the long-anticipated government offensive may start soon, so residents should withdraw at least 2km (1.25 miles). About half of Mogadishu's residents have already fled the city after two decades of conflict. The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says this is the heaviest fighting since May 2009, when insurgents tried to topple the weak UN-backed government. He says those still in the city have not yet responded to the mayor's call. "We urge the civilians to flee from the battle zones and go at least 2km away to avoid being hit," Mr Nor said. The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that some 33,000 people have been driven from their homes in Mogadishu over the past six weeks...

African Affairs At-http://news.bbc.co.uk-Nigeria religious clash 'kills 500' near Jos - 08/03/2010
Some 500 people, including many women and children, are now reported to have died in a weekend religious clash near Nigeria's city of Jos, officials say. The figure was earlier put at 100 and it is hard to verify casualties. Troops have been deployed and local officials said dozens of arrests had been made. They said three mainly Christian villages near Jos were attacked from nearby hills by people with machetes. There is a long history of local tension between Muslims and Christians. The attacks are said to have been in revenge for the killing of several hundred people around Jos in January. Although sectarianism is blamed for such clashes, correspondents say poverty and access to resources such as land often lie at the root of the violence...

African Affairs At-http://news.bbc.co.uk-Nigeria-vote-'may-be-held-early' - 16/03/2010
Nigeria's forthcoming election could be held three months earlier than scheduled if electoral reforms are adopted, officials have announced. The election is due next April but one reform proposes bringing it forward to allow time for legal challenges before the next president is sworn in. Rescheduling the poll would also end uncertainty caused by the ill-health of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Politicians are considering changes proposed after a flawed 2007 vote. Electoral commission head Maurice Iwu said the presidential poll would either be held on 22 January or 23 April 2011. Mr Yar'Adua's term of office expires in May but he is not expected to stand again. He went to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment in November last year and, despite returning to Nigeria recently, he has not been seen in public since. This has left a political vacuum and various factions are jockeying for power. In his absence, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has been installed as acting leader. But the ruling People's Democratic Party has said its candidate in the next election will be a northerner - ruling out Mr Jonathan...

African Affairs-Nigeria Christians 'to defend churches from Boko Haram' - 29/12/2011
Nigerian Christians will have "no other option" but to defend themselves if attacks by Islamist militants continue, a coalition of churches has said. The Christian Association of Nigeria said the Boko Haram group had declared war with its recent violence. More than 40 people were killed in attacks on churches across the country on Christmas Day. Since then, some 90,000 people have fled their homes amid clashes between Boko Haram and police in Damaturu, in the north-east of the country. Earlier on Wednesday, six children and an adult were injured when a homemade bomb was thrown into an Islamic school in southern Delta state...

At BBC Africa News Online (27 February 2009) - Mugabe's $250,000 85th-birthday party.
Supporters of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe have raised $250,000 (£176,000) for his 85th birthday party on Saturday, state media reports. Former opposition leader, now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, will attend the bash, the AFP news agency reports. The lavish celebrations come as Zimbabwe asks other African countries for $2bn (£1.4bn) to rescue its collapsed economy.

At bizcommunity.com
AFRICA - A24 Media redefines African media landscape

At Daily Monitor, Uganda
UGANDA - After Kibaki and Mugabe, will Museveni Share Power in 2011? - Charles Onyango Obbo

At Mail & Guardian, South Africa
ZIMBABWE - Zim Economic Revival Could Take Years

At Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg
SOMALIA - Nato warships head for Somalia to combat piracy

BBC AFRICA NEWS Online
SUDAN / DARFUR - BBC uncovers Chinese military support in Darfur

BBC AFRICA NEWS Online
ZIMBABWE - Nkomo's ghost haunts Zimbabwe talks

BBC AFRICA NEWS Online
NIGERIA - Kidnappings of Foreign Oil workers Becoming Routine

BBC Africa News Online
NIGERIA - Niger Delta Rebels Using Surface-to-Air Missiles

BBC AFRICA NEWS Online
UGANDA - Justice dilemma haunts Uganda. Victims want Amnesty for Rebels to End war

Sudan Darfur rebels attack North Kordofan military
Darfur crisis intensifies

Sudan State of War
Bashir calls South Sudan leaders 'insects' Sudanese president make remarks while addressing party rally as tensions along border continue...

The EAST AFRICAN, Nairobi (Nation Media Group)
SUDAN-Milosevic, Taylor cases prove Bashir arrest will help Sudan

The ECONOMIST - UK - Uganda's Stability Under Threat
UGANDA-The Growing Crisis. How ancient animosities are threatening an east African country

The INDEPENDENT, uganda
UGANDA-Ugandan Peacekeepers selling arms to Somali Warring Groups

Uganda DAILY MONITOR
UGANDA - Ugandan Police Force Gets Teargas Chopper to Control Riots. General Kale Kayihura Threatens to Gas Ugandans from the Air.

Uganda DAILY MONITOR
UGANDA - Army Chief says Army to Intervene in Electoral Processes - UPDF to block Unlikeable Opposition Leaders to Assume Power

Ugandan DAILY MONITOR
UGANDA-Ugandan government on collision course with powerful Buganda Kingdom

Ugandan DAILY MONITOR
UGANDA-Uganda army & President Museveni - next International Criminal Court targets?