The Agonist - Africa: Sub-Saharan

Mugabe says opposition must drop claim to power

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:54:57 -0700

MacDonald Dzirutwe | Harare | July 4

Reuters - President Robert Mugabe said on Friday that although he accepted the need for negotiations to end Zimbabwe's crisis, the opposition must drop their claim to power and accept that he was the country's leader.

Returning home after an African Union summit in Egypt that called on Tuesday for him to open negotiations with the opposition of Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe struck a tough line.

"Tsvangirai and his group must disabuse themselves of their claim (to power), he said, adding: "We are open to dialogue but reality is reality and it has to be accepted... I am the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe."

US submits Zimbabwe sanctions resolution at UN

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:18:42 -0700

Harare | July 3

AFP -

The United States on Thursday formally submitted a sanctions resolution in the UN Security Council that would target Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and 11 of his aides.

US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters here that he hoped that the text, which would also impose an arms embargo on the Harare regime, would be voted upon by the 15-member council next week.

The text would slap an assets freeze and a travel ban on Mugabe, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and nine others for their role in abetting the state-sponsored violence against the opposition, repressing human rights or undermining democracy.

It would condemn the Harare government's decision to proceed with last Friday's one-man runoff presidential election won by Mugabe "and the campaign of violence against the political opposition, which has resulted in scores of deaths, thousands of injuries... making it impossible for a free and fair election to occur."

Clashes in Somalia kill 47, dozens wounded

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:52:57 -0700

Abdi Sheikh | Mogadishu | July 2

Reuters - At least 47 people were killed in Somalia when Islamist insurgents clashed with Ethiopian troops and Ugandan peacekeepers in separate battles, a human rights group said on Wednesday.

The latest flare-up in the 18-month-old insurgency came a week before a U.N.-mediated ceasefire between an Islamist faction and the interim Somali government is to take effect.

"A total of 47 people died yesterday in central Somalia and in the capital Mogadishu last night," Ahmed Sudan, chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Peace and Human Rights organisation, told Reuters.

Mandela off U.S. terrorism watch lists

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:44:43 -0700

Washington | July 2

CNN - Former South African President Nelson Mandela is to be removed from U.S. terrorism watch lists under a bill President Bush signed Tuesday.

Nelson Mandela arriving in London last month for his 90th birthday celebrations.

Mandela and other members of the African National Congress have been on the list because of their fight against South Africa's apartheid regime, which gave way to majority rule in 1994.

Apartheid was the nation's system of legalized racial segregation that was enforced by the National Party government between 1948 and 1994.

The bill gives the State Department and the Homeland Security Department the authority to waive restrictions against ANC members.

"He had no place on our government's terror watch list, and I'm pleased to see this bill finally become law," said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Abu Dhabi develops food farms in Sudan

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:58:33 -0700

Xan Rice | Nairobi | July 2

The Guardian - · Oil-rich countries seek to guarantee supplies
· Global shortages trigger new land-lease deals

Abu Dhabi is to develop nearly 30,000 hectares of farmland in Sudan in the first step towards ensuring food security in the emirate.

The move follows similar projects by Middle Eastern countries locking up land from Brazil to Pakistan and Thailand to guarantee supplies of cereals, meat and vegetables at a reasonable cost. Although the region is rich in oil, lack of rain makes large-scale food imports a necessity, and it has been hit by the global food shortage, with prices and inflation rising sharply.

Watered by the Nile, Sudan has great agricultural potential, and it is reported to have offered Abu Dhabi free use of the land, hoping to benefit from the business links and technical know-how.

Voting Mugabe Style

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:30:26 -0700

Cris Chinaka | Harare | First posted June 27

Reuters -

A polling agent and a police officer look on as a voter casts their ballot on election day in Harare, Friday, June, 27, 2008. Voters were led to polls. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Early turnout low in Zimbabwe's one-man vote

Zimbabwe's one-candidate election drew a low early turnout on Friday after President Robert Mugabe went ahead with the vote despite widespread international condemnation.

Mugabe, in power for 28 years, stood alone after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew six days ago because of state-backed violence and intimidation.

Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change, who say the vote is a farce, urged people to abstain but said they should vote if their lives were in danger.

** In Pictures: Financial Times
** Zimbabweans Vote in Runoff Poll Deemed Unfair by World Leaders
UPDATE: Shocker! Mugabe wins in a landslide.
UPDATE June 29
** Mugabe won run-off with 85.51 pct of vote-official
** Mugabe wins overwhelming victory widely criticized run-off election
** FACTBOX-Zimbabwe's meltdown in figures

Negotiators quit Darfur, saying neither side is ready for peace

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:42:22 -0700

Steve Bloomfield | June 27

Independent - The UN negotiators attempting to bring peace to Darfur have resigned, admitting that their mission has been a failure.

Jan Eliasson, who has been leading the UN's peace efforts in Sudan for the past 18 months, announced that he and his African Union counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, would stand down to make way for a new negotiator.

"It is a very, very sombre situation," Mr Eliasson told The Independent. "I don't believe the parties are ready to sit down and make the necessary compromises."

Since the start of the year the level of violence in Darfur has dramatically increased. Both the government and some of the rebel groups have intensified their military activity. Banditry is also on the rise and aid groups delivering much-needed food and supplies to Darfur's 2.5 million displaced are facing daily attacks.

From arms deals in Africa to oil speculation in China - the mercenary world of Mark Thatcher

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:49:18 -0700

Kim Sengupta | June 26

Independent - Mark Thatcher, say those who know him, has always liked two things: the limelight and wealth. But in the recent past the former prime minister's son has been remarkably elusive, hiding his money-making activities from the public eye, keeping away from the minor celebrity events which were once his regular haunts.

Perhaps it is not surprising. He is on the run from Equatorial Guinea and the safest place for him at the moment is Spain's Costa del Sol – the infamous bolthole of Englishmen who have issues with the law.

But The Independent has established that his new-found reticence has not stopped Sir Mark from staying in the oil business, a venture, he declares, he finds hugely lucrative. Like most enterprises he has taken part in the exact details of what he does are rather hazy: "Oil futures", he would say airily when someone asks. "..

Four European tourists seized from yacht in Somali waters

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:07:58 -0700

Mogadishu | June 24

M&C - Four European citizens have been seized from a yacht off Somalia's pirate-infested coast, officials said Tuesday.

The district commissioner of the Las Korey area said that the four - the pilot of the yacht plus a family of three - were abducted overnight on Sunday as they sailed through the Gulf of Aden.

The kidnappers then abandoned the yacht on the shore and disappeared inland with their hostages, believed to be of German or French nationalities.

Tsvangirai pulls out of Zimbabwe election

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:14:55 -0700

Lee Glendinning | June 22

The Guardian - Speculation mounted today that the Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was to pull out of the presidential run-off against Robert Mugabe, as ruling party militants blockaded the site of an opposition rally.

UPDATE:

Zimbabwe opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai quit the country's presidential run-off on Sunday, saying violence had made a fair vote impossible and almost certainly handing victory to veteran leader Robert Mugabe.

"We in the MDC cannot ask them to cast their vote on the 27th when that vote would cost them their lives," Tsvangirai told reporters. "We will no longer participate in the violent illegitimate sham of an election process."

The opposition chief said Mugabe had "declared war by saying that the bullet has replaced the ballot", referring to the president's earlier threats to fight to keep the opposition out of power. AFP

UPDATE June 23: Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai takes refuge in embassy
UPDATE June 24: UN security council says free and fair election impossible
UPDATE June 25:

'The West can scream all it wants, elections will go on,' says defiant Robert Mugabe

UN Blocks British, US Attempts to Halt Run-Off
The United Nations yesterday blocked attempts by Britain, the United States and France to declare MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai as the President of Zimbabwe on the basis of the results of the March 29 harmonised elections. ~ AllAfrica

Kenya biofuel plans threaten wetland - eco-groups

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:01:56 -0700

Daniel Wallis | Nairobi | June 23

Reuters - Kenya should reverse a decision to grow biofuel crops which will threaten wild life on an important coastal wetland, two conservation groups warned on Monday.

More than 80 square miles (207 sq. km) of the Tana River Delta will be planted with sugarcane, threatening 350 species of birds, lions, elephants, rare sharks and reptiles, Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said.

"This decision is a national disaster and will devastate the Delta," Paul Matiku of Nature Kenya said in the same statement.

The society said targets set by Western governments to increase their biofuel use as part of plans to fight climate change were actually driving the destruction of valuable environments.

Somali gunmen kidnap senior U.N. aid worker

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:38:40 -0700

Mogadishu | June 22

Reuters - Somali gunmen have kidnapped the local head of the U.N. refugee agency in Mogadishu in the latest abduction of aid workers in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, witnesses said on Sunday.

Ten assailants raided the home of Hassan Mohamed Ali -- a Somali who runs the agency's operations in the Mogadishu area -- in Elasha, 11 miles (17 km) south of the capital on Saturday, residents said.

"They broke into his house after exchanging gunfire with his guards and took him with them," resident Farah Abdi told Reuters. "We see stains of blood in front of his house but we do not know who the kidnappers were and where he is held now."

Kidnapping is lucrative business in Somalia, with hostages generally treated well in anticipation of a large ransom.

Gunmen are still holding hostage four foreign aid workers -- two Italians, a Kenyan, a Briton -- and another three Somalis abducted in April and May.

Mugabe allies 'set up' political terror

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:59:21 -0700

Chris McGreal/Harare & Tracy McVeigh | June 22

The Observer - Secret documents drawn up by Zimbabwe's ruling party and obtained by The Observer reveal that the campaign of violence and voter intimidation which has marred this week's presidential run-off election was meticulously planned by Robert Mugabe's allies.

The papers name one of Mugabe's closest and most powerful allies, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as 'supervising' a 'plan of action' that includes 'harassing MDC activists', 'declaring no-go areas' for the opposition and purging independent election officers, replacing them with party loyalists.

The dossier provides clear evidence that the violence has been orchestrated at the top of Zanu-PF and the security organs it controls. More than 100 people have been killed, 200-plus are missing and thousands have been tortured, raped and mutilated as Zanu-PF seeks to overturn Mugabe's defeat in the first round of elections three months ago. Tens of thousands have fled their homes.

Nigerian rebels declare war

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:02:07 -0700

Lagos | June 21

IOL -

Nigeria's most active armed group on Saturday urged foreign workers to leave oil facilities in the volatile Niger Delta, warning of fresh unrest following a government crackdown on the militants.

"In order to avoid being caught in a cross-fire, we are asking all expatriate oil workers to vacate oil facilities and living quarters in the Niger Delta while we settle our score with an insincere federal government," MEND said in a statement.

President Umaru Yar'Adua on Friday ordered the arrest of those behind an attack on Shell's Bongo offshore oilfield and called for tighter security at all oil facilities in the restive oil-rich Delta.

"An attack on any militant position is tantamount to a declaration of oil war. The type of war they are expecting is far from what we plan to engage in," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said.

Describing the president's order as "a joke", MEND challenged the Nigerian authorities to attack any of its positions.

Rape is a way of life for Darfur's women

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:19:09 -0700

Zam Zam Displacement Camp | June 20

CNN - Sudan's Darfur crisis has exploded on many fronts -- violence, hunger, displacement and looting -- but United Nations peacekeepers say the biggest issue now affecting the region is the systematic rape of women and children.

Thousands of women as young as 4 caught in the middle of the struggle between rebel forces and government-backed militias have become victims of rape, they say, with some aid groups claiming that it is being used as a weapon of ethnic cleansing.

Relief workers say they are powerless to stop the attacks and say that if they do speak out, they fear that the Sudanese government will tell them to leave the country.

Humanitarian group Refugees International said in a report last year that rape was "an integral part of the pattern of violence that the government of Sudan is inflicting upon the targeted ethnic groups in Darfur."

Some relief workers say that almost every woman living in aid camps has been raped or become a victim of gender-based violence.