The Agonist - Africa

Death toll in Zimbabwe cholera epidemic reaches 1,732

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:17:58 -0800

Geneva | Jan 7

AFP - At least 1,732 people have died in Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic and the number of cases diagnosed has risen to 34,306, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

The organisation last Thursday reported 1,586 dead and 31,656 suspected cases of the water-borne disease.

United Nations aid agencies have been warning for weeks that the number of cases could top 60,000, with the impending rainy season likely to facilitate the spread of the disease.

Piracy raises pressure for new international tack on Somalia

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:03:35 -0800

Scott Baldauf | Johannesburg | Jan 6

CSM - With Islamist militias in control of much of the country, pirates using Somali coasts to attack commercial ships with ease, and mounting hunger among civilians, Somalia is a failed state begging for new ideas in 2009. US-backed Ethiopian troops who've been propping up an unpopular transitional government are now fleeing the country. Yet as the growing presence of European, American, Indian, and, soon, Chinese navies off the Somali coast show, the world is not willing to allow this strategic nation in the Horn of Africa – with its long coastline along key shipping routes – to remain ungoverned. One of the central questions for 2009: Can a coordinated international effort help create a lasting and stable government?

You are being lied to about pirates

Some are clearly just gangsters. But others are trying to stop illegal dumping and trawling

Opposition leader wins Ghana poll

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:56:15 -0800

Accra | January 4

BBC - Opposition candidate John Atta Mills has won a tight presidential run-off in Ghana, saying he will be "a president for all".
Electoral officials announced the result after the last constituency to vote showed him extending his lead over his rival, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Mr Akufo-Addo congratulated Mr Atta Mills, but a spokesman said the party would challenge the result in court.

Ethiopian Army begins pullout from Somalian capital

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:39:00 -0800

Mohamed Ibrahim & Jeffrey Gettleman | Mogadishu | January 2

IHT - Ethiopian Army trucks, packed with soldiers, tents, mattresses and other gear, began to pull out of Mogadishu, Somalia's battle zone of a capital, on Friday in the first signs of the expected Ethiopian withdrawal.

Many Somalis in their path fled, predicting that the Ethiopians would be attacked by mines and insurgents. Almost as soon as they began to move, the Ethiopians hit a roadside bomb.

Swiss end year still entangled in row with Libya

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:53:34 -0800

Shabtai Gold | Geneva | Jan 1

DPA - In July, employees at a Geneva hotel decided to call the police to complain about the treatment of two servants at the hands of their foreign bosses, setting in motion a chain of events that would cast a dark cloud over Switzerland's relations with Libya.

The foreign bosses who were allegedly beating their servants were Hannibal, 32, and his pregnant wife, the son and daughter-in-law of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

A subsequent arrest and two-day detention of the couple, who were released back home on 500,000 dollars bail, angered the Libyan leadership and first family. Hannibal's sister, Aisha, known for her bright blond hair and penchant for occasionally wearing tight outfits, threatened 'eye for an eye' retaliation against the Swiss and demanded an apology.

This was not the young Gaddafi's first run-in with the European law. Hannibal had gotten himself in trouble in both Italy and France for violent and erratic behaviour twice in the last seven years prior to the Geneva incident.

Tears as British couple get year's hard labour

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:03:55 -0800

Jonathan Brown | Jan 1

The Independent - Gambian judge makes an example of Christians who criticised Muslim state

Two British missionaries broke down and wept as they were sentenced to a year's hard labour in jail after pleading guilty to charges of sedition. Relatives and friends of David and Fiona Fulton, who have three children – including a two-year-old adopted daughter – expressed their dismay and horror at the severity of the punishment handed down to the couple from Torquay by a court in Gambia.

The judge quoted from an email sent in September, entitled "Hell In The Gambia," in which the country, which is 97 per cent Muslim, is described as "sinking fast into a morass of Islam". The couple face imprisonment at the country's high-security Mile Two jail. It houses some of the state's toughest inmates – including some women. Malaria and beriberi are reported to be prevalent there.

Ugandan LRA 'in church massacre'

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:42:43 -0800

Dec 29

BBC - Uganda's army has accused the Lord's Resistance Army rebels of hacking to death 45 civilians in a Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Capt Chris Magezi said it happened the day after Christmas near Doruma, close to the border with South Sudan.

He said the scene at the church was "horrendous... dead bodies of mostly women and children cut in pieces".

A rebel spokesman has denied responsibility for the killings, which follow a collapse in the peace process.

Community Gardens Contribute to Food Security

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:44:10 -0800

Stephanie Nieuwoudt | Cape Town | Dec 29

IPS - A few years ago 66-year-old grandmother Regina Fhiceka and her family of five ate vegetables only once a week. They would survive on maize and bread the rest of the time -- the cheapest food available in the poor township of Philippi, just 15 minutes from the affluent business district of Cape Town.

But then Fhiceka got to hear about a municipal project where people were encouraged to get together to establish community gardens.

"I knew a few of the other women in the community who had started their own backyard gardens where we were growing small amounts of vegetables. We asked the local social worker to help us obtain a bigger piece of land. We filled out the necessary application documents and the local department of agriculture made a piece of municipal land available to us."

Fhiceka and five other women were given land on the outskirts of Philippi where 150,000 people live in squalid conditions. After a few months, Fhiceka’s group had an abundance of vegetables, including tomatoes, cabbage, carrots and beans, and they started selling the surplus.

"I had no choice. I had to start farming because I had no money to buy vegetables from the shops. I also realized that if we farmed as a group, we would have more than enough food to eat and that we could generate an income from selling the rest."

Somali President Yusuf resigns

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 23:37:14 -0800

As all hell breaks loose in Gaza and the twitching continues between Pakistan and India Somalia continues to deteriorate. As the Somalian president resigns there is also news that the the deputy minister for the reconciliation has been assassinated prompting 27 other MP's to flee to Puntland. AMISON has decided they can handle Somalia after the Ethiopian troops leave. The Ethiopians oddly enough claim mission accomplished. Fighting has continued in central Somalia where the militants are now fighting each other. Some feel with the Ethiopians leaving there is a small window of time to try to engage the Islamists into a ceasefire and dialogue. Meanwhile more and more ships heading to stop the pirates.

Malta: Africans' way station to the EU

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:43:31 -0800

Aidan Jones | Valleta, Malta | Dec 29

CSM - Island nation struggles with a flood of illegal migrants bound for Europe

Shaqaale Hassan handed $1,000 to people traffickers, confident it would secure his passage from Libya to Italy, and the European Union's sprawling labor market.

Instead, after three days adrift in the Mediterranean Sea, the small speed boat carrying the 23-year-old Somali and two dozen other illegal migrants was intercepted by a European Union patrol and the passengers were taken to a detention center on the nearby island of Malta – the EU's smallest member state.

Mr. Hassan says that he fled Mogadishu, Somalia, after a close friend was killed in cross-fire between militias. But after five months on Malta he says his prospects are limited. "The Maltese people don't want us. There's no work here and when we find a job we are paid nothing," he says. "In Somalia you live or you die, ... Here I am not dying, but I am not alive. I want to go to Italy."

He is among nearly 2,500 Africans – the majority from Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan – to arrive this year. At least 550 other migrants fleeing war and poverty are reported to have died during the journey, although the actual toll is likely to be much higher.

China's new export: farmers

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:31:15 -0800

Clifford Coonan | Hebei province | Dec 29

The Independent - China has a shortage of land, Africa a shortage of food. So one entrepreneur had the bright idea of persuading Chinese farmers to emigrate.

Liu Jianjun is wearing a brightly coloured African tunic, the tall hat of a tribal leader, a string of red beads round his neck and carrying a stick with a secret knife in the handle. Beside him sits a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong. It is a slightly incongruous scene but one that mirrors the ever-closer relationship between Asia's economic giant China and the world's poorest continent.

"The African people yell, 'Mao Zedong is all right' and they are very warm-hearted when I'm there," says one of China's most prominent private sector ambassadors. "The minute Chinese people get off the plane, the Africans are friendly. Chinese do not bring rifles and weapons; they bring seeds and technology."

China's Ministry of Commerce triumphantly announced this month that its bilateral trade with the continent is set to hit $100bn (£67.8bn) by the end of 2008, two years ahead of schedule. Africa's plentiful oilfields and rich mineral deposits are top of China's imports, and in return the world's most populous nation is exporting tens of thousands of its countrymen.

Incoming Somali premier quits

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:10:14 -0800

Baidoa | Dec 24

AFP - A lawmaker whose appointment as prime minister was rejected by Somalia's parliament announced he was standing aside on Wednesday in a bid to end a political crisis in the war-torn nation.

Mohamoud Mohamed Guled told reporters that he had written a resignation letter to President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, saying he did not want to become an "obstacle" to dialogue between political rivals.

"After looking into the situation in the country I decided to resign as the prime minister of Somalia and I have given my resignation letter to his excellency the president of Somalia," he said.

"I am paving the way for the continuation of dialogue between Somali leaders and I don't want to become an obstacle.

"I hope the president will accept my resignation and I will remain a member of parliament."

Guled was named prime minister by Yusuf last Tuesday after the president had sacked the incumbent Nur Hassan Hussein and his entire cabinet.

However his appointment was promptly rejected by parliament which passed an overwhelming vote of confidence in Hussein, plunging the country into further political turmoil.

Military 'seizes power' in Guinea

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:34:43 -0800

Conakry, Guinea | December 23

BBC - A Guinea army statement has announced the dissolution of the government and suspension of the constitution, hours after President Lansana Conte's death.

An army officer said on state radio a "consultative council" of civilian and military chiefs would be set up. The EU and African Union condemned the move.

Pirating Today

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:44:03 -0800

Berne | Dec 22

DPA -

_{The crew of the Zhenhua 4 held off the pirates using molotov cocktails and water cannon Photo: AP}

Swiss to use military to protect ships against pirates

Switzerland is to protect its ships near the Horn of Africa by military means, Swiss President Pascal Couchepin said in an interview published Sunday in the weekly SonntagsZeitung.

'There is no solution other than to send some soldiers if our ships are threatened,' Couchepin said. 'We have no other choice. Do you want to go to the pirates and say: 'Stop, we're neutral - please highjack that ship over there'?'

Switzerland's merchant navy contains around 35 freighters and tankers with some 600 mariners.

A decision by the government has not yet been made, as the juridical questions have to be clarified. Military personnel participating in such an action, however, would be volunteers.

** Despite Wave of Piracy, Filipinos Crave Work as Sailors
** Iran sends ship against pirates
** China Plans to Send Three Warships to Somalia to Combat Pirates
** Germany Deploys 1,400 Troops to Combat Piracy in Gulf of Aden
** Somebody Is Giving Somali Pirates State-Level Intelligence Information

Nigerian troops ready for Somalia deployment - AU

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:40:10 -0800

Tsegaye Tadesse | Addiss Ababa | Dec 22

Reuters - Nigerian troops are expected to strengthen an African force in Somalia in January and prevent a security vacuum when Ethiopian soldiers pull out, the African Union said on Sunday.

Ethiopia's decision to withdraw its 3,000 or so troops from the anarchic Horn of Africa nation by the end of the year has raised fears the fractured, Western-backed government will collapse and Islamist insurgents seize the capital Mogadishu.

The Islamists control the south of Somalia and launch near-daily attacks on the Ethiopians propping up the government and 3,200 peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi guarding key sites in Mogadishu.

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed during the two-year insurgency, a million people have been uprooted and a third of the population need emergency aid. The chaos has led to an increase in kidnappings and offshore piracy.