MacDonald Dzirutwe | Harare | Oct 11

Reuters - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has allocated three important government ministries to his ZANU-PF party, angering the opposition and threatening a power-sharing deal.

A government notice on Saturday showed Mugabe had allocated to his party the powerful ministries of defence, home affairs -- which is in charge of the police -- and finance, a crucial portfolio to the resuscitation of Zimbabwe's devastated economy.

I thought giving Mugabe control of the military in the original deal was stupid but taking control of the police and military just means the same-o same-o. With 231 ml% inflation this year one would think Mugabe would want to start taking his country forward. You have got to wonder what is in the water there that the presidential fight was so close in the first place, but who are we to talk ;)

Bosasso | Oct 9

Reuters - Pirates in the commercially strategic waters between Somalia and Yemen hijacked one ship and released another on Friday, a government official and a shipping line said.

The panama-flagged Wail, carrying cement, was the latest in a long list of ships that have been boarded by pirates in recent months. Several have been released on payment of a ransom and one luxury yacht was liberated by French commandos.

"A Panama-flagged ship, Wail, was hijacked on Thursday night between Socotra Island and Bosasso," said Ali Abdi Aware, state minister for northern Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region.

** Off the lawless coast of Somalia, questions of who is pirating who

Oct 9

BBC - Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate - already the world's highest - has soared to 231,000,000%, newly released official figures show.

The rise - from 11,200,000% - was largely due to increases in the prices of bread and cereals.

A landmark power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has not eased the country's economic crisis.

The UN estimates that two million people are in need of food aid.

Chris McGreal | Johannesburg | Oct 9

The Guardian -
• Former minister planning to form new party
• Zuma leadership accused of betraying democracy

South Africa's ruling African National Congress is on the brink of splitting after senior allies of the toppled president, Thabo Mbeki, said yesterday that they were "serving divorce papers" on the new party leadership under Jacob Zuma because it had abandoned the movement's founding principles and put "our national democracy in danger".

Mosiuoa Lekota, a former political prisoner and party chairman who quit as defence minister when Mbeki was forced out as president last month, said he and other disillusioned officials planned to canvass for support within the ANC in a process that seems to be "leading logically" to the creation of a new political party to run in next year's general election.

"This is probably the parting of the ways," said Lekota.

A number of African crises continued to draw world attention this week, and the effects of US politics and policies are being felt in several African countries.

The standoff between Somali pirates and European powers and America drags on. The pirates are taking a hard line on the issue of a ransom for a Ukrainian tank-bearing ship captured over a week ago, and so far no other forces have taken military action against them. Though Somali Islamists deny ties with the pirates, they've leapt into the fray, encouraging the pirates to destroy some of the cargo if payments are not received. The Islamists have also demanded some of the weapons on board the ship, and local anecdotal evidence indicates that money has changed hands between the pirates and the Islamists before.

Jeffrey Gettleman | Asmara | Oct 5

NYT -

WE were covered in soot, sitting on rock-hard benches, hot, sweaty and crawling along at maybe five miles an hour.

But we were loving every minute of it, chugging straight up a mountainside, puff by puff, in a 1938 steam train built by the Italians when Eritrea was the jewel in their African crown. Outside our windows unfurled a sun-blasted landscape untouched by modernity — stone walls, trickling waterfalls, boys tugging camels, women with beautifully braided hair and gold hoops through their noses trudging up the mountain paths. The sky was impossibly blue — it always seemed to be like that here — and from the railway tracks 7,000 feet above sea level, we could see for hundreds of miles in each direction.

“More popcorn?” our hostess asked.

The whole creaky carriage car was redolent with the irresistible smell of freshly popped popcorn.

“Yes!” I said. “More popcorn!”

Eritrea, for better and for worse, is a nation locked in a time capsule. Visiting here is like spending your vacation in a vintage shop. Old men in dapper Fedora hats and antique Italian shades haunt Harnet Avenue, the palm-studded main drag in Asmara, the capital. The city itself is a showcase for some of the world’s boldest, most whimsical examples of 1930s Art Deco architecture, perfectly preserved by the thin desert air.

Mogadishu | Oct 4

Reuters - Islamist insurgents controlling swathes of southern Somalia have warned Western charities working there not to meddle in their affairs, stoking fears of increasingly hardline rule.

As when they ruled south Somalia for six months in 2006, residents say the Islamists are again providing much-needed security but also imposing fundamentalist practices in areas they have re-taken this year.

"We warn International Medical Corps and Care International operating in areas under our control not to interfere as they have done before," Sheikh Muktar Robow Abumansoor, the spokesman of al Shabaab Islamists, told Reuters without elaborating.

"The same case applies to all NGO's if they misbehave. We have already taken NGO property in Bay and Bakool regions."

In August, al Shabaab captured Kismayu, a port that is the second biggest city in the south after the capital Mogadishu.

The United States, which has launched air strikes inside Somalia in recent months, has listed al Shabaab as a terrorist organisation with close ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.

Recent?

Campaign Billboard in Kumasi, Ghana, click for larger version.

The Perfect Gift
Before I left for Africa, I raced around looking for a place to buy Obama buttons to give as small tokens of thanks. They’re an enormous hit. I felt bad when I didn’t have enough for all of the students at the University of Ghana who wanted one.

Will the U.S. Election Results Influence Ghana’s Elections?
Ghana is holding its presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously just one month after we vote in the United States. The two dominant parties are the New Patriotic Party (NPP), concluding its second four-year term in power, and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which governed from 1992-2000 and badly want to return to power. President John K.A. Kufuor must step down as he is concluding his second term.

Peter Heinlein | Addis Ababa | Oct 3

VOA - Ethiopia's fractious political opposition is planning a unified parliamentary campaign to demand a complete withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia. But as VOA's Peter Heinlein reports from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is under pressure by the international community to hold the line at a time of hopeful diplomatic maneuvers and deteriorating security conditions.

Virtually all of Ethiopia's opposition parties have opposed military involvement in neighboring Somalia since troops were sent to dislodge Islamic militants controlling Mogadishu and surrounding territory in late 2006.

But last week, the lone holdout among the opposition groups, the Ethiopian Democratic Party sent a letter to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi saying the sacrifice of lives and scarce financial resources had become unbearable.

Party President Lidetu Ayalew says after nearly two years of propping up Somalia's weak transitional government, it is time for Ethiopian troops to go home and demand international organizations such as the United Nations and the African Union take responsibility.

Nairobi | Oct 3

Reuters - Kenya accused Western envoys on Friday of "shameless blackmail" and "gross condescension" for trying to pressure the head of the electoral commission out of his job over the chaotic presidential poll.

Local media reported this week that U.S. and European Union ambassadors visited Samuel Kivuitu, chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, to urge his resignation or face a travel ban to their countries.

Mary Engel | Oct 2

LA Times - Genetic analysis of tissue specimen recently discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo leads researchers to believe the virus that causes AIDS has been present for more than a century.

A genetic analysis of a biopsy sample recently discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has led researchers to conclude that the virus that causes AIDS has existed in human populations for more than a century, according to a study released Wednesday.

The study, led by evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona in Tucson, puts the date of origin at around 1900, which is 30 years earlier than previous analyses.

HIV-1, the most common form of the virus, is known to have originated in chimpanzees because of close genetic similarities to a simian virus. It now infects an estimated 33 million people worldwide.

Robert Walker | Oct 2

BBC - Salim Awadh is talking to me from inside a cell somewhere in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

There are seven other prisoners kept in the same small, dark room, he starts to tell me.

Then he suddenly stops speaking. I can hear frantic whispering in the background. Then he says it is safe to carry on.

"The conditions are really bad: we don't have enough food, we don't have enough access to medicine. The cell is wet," he says.

"We sleep on the floor rather than the sodden mattresses. One of the other prisoners was beaten so badly he's had his leg broken."

Salim is able to speak to me because he has bribed a guard and got access to a mobile phone.

For weeks I have been trying to find out information about him and other detainees in what has been called "Africa's Guantanamo". It is a story the governments involved do not want to talk about: The first mass rendition of terrorist suspects in Africa.

I'm visiting Ghana and paired with a Republican to speak about our elections for the State Department.

I took this photo on my first day in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city and the capital of the Ashanti region.


David Lublin is a frequent travel-writer for The Agonist, currently in Western Africa, where he will be sharing his thoughts, insights and photos with us.

Lublin also maintains a personal blog: Maryland Politics Watch.
Give it a read!

A number of important stories broke in Africa this weekend.

The ICC's Luis Ocampo reiterated his intention to prosecute Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for crimes in Darfur. The move has drawn rebukes from the AU and the Arab League, who argue that prosecution will obstruct peace negotiations. As I've said before, my own scattered conversations with Moroccans when this news broke over the summer brought out the underlying issue for many in Africa and elsewhere - double standards in the treatment of rogue leaders.

Sept 26

BBC - Pirates off the coast of Somalia have seized a Ukrainian ship carrying T-72 tanks, an official has said.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said the ship had a crew of 21 and was sailing under a Belize flag to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

A report from Russia's Interfax news agency said earlier that the ship had a cargo of about 30 tanks, as well as spare parts for armoured vehicles.

The tanks were due to be delivered to South Sudan.

Edmund Sanders | Kalma Camp, Sudan | Sept 25

LA Times - A deadly standoff last month between Sudan troops and residents of one camp is raising fears that the front lines of the rebellion have shifted.

This overcrowded Darfur displacement camp is preparing for battle.

Men have dug trenches and dragged tree trunks across dirt roads. Young lookouts, some armed with sticks and axes, scan the horizon for invaders. Even aid workers and United Nations peacekeepers are increasingly wary of Kalma's besieged and, at times, belligerent population.

Since a deadly standoff a month ago in which Sudanese government troops killed 31 people here, including 17 women and children, the sprawling camp has been on the brink of eruption.

"We are like people living inside a fire," said Ali Abdel Khaman Tahir, the camp's head sheik. "Our anger is stronger than ever."

Sept 24

BBC - Nigeria's main oil militant group has accused the army of launching air attacks on its allies' camps.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) declared a unilateral ceasefire three days ago. A Nigerian army spokesman told the BBC that he was unaware of any air strikes on Tuesday.

Mend said it would not be drawn by military tactics into jeopardising the peace process and would continue observing its ceasefire.

Groups such as Mend claim to be fighting for greater control over oil wealth in the impoverished Niger Delta, but they are accused of making money from criminal rackets and trade in stolen oil.

Lagos | Sept 21

AFP - The most prominent armed group in southern Nigeria, MEND, declared a ceasefire on Sunday following a week of attacks on oil industry targets after launching an "oil war".

"Effective 0100 Hrs, September 21, 2008, exactly one week (since) we launched our reprisal, MEND will begin a unilateral ceasefire till further notice," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in a statement.

The ceasefire comes after MEND claimed a series of attacks targeting Royal Dutch Shell.

Shell confirmed only two of the six attacks claimed by the group, but on Friday declared force majeure on exports from the Bonny terminal to release it from contractual delivery obligations, citing the recent attacks.

MEND declared "war" on the oil industry a week ago in what it said was a response to an attack by the Nigerian army on its positions.

Johannesburg | Sept 19

AFP -

South Africa veered towards a new political era Saturday after President Thabo Mbeki accepted a call from the governing African National Congress (ANC) to stand down, his spokesman said.

"The president has accepted the decision of the ANC's national executive council," he said on 702 Talk Radio in Johannesburg, which reported that Mbeki is convening a special government meeting for Sunday to decide the way forward.

His comments came shortly after the ANC issued a call for him to resign.

Mbeki, 66, who succeeded Nelson Mandela as president in June 1999, has been under fire since allegations that he was influential in pressing corruption charges against ANC leader and political rival Jacob Zuma.

Chris McGreal | Sept 19

The Guardian - The ruling African National Congress begins a meeting tomorrow to decide whether to remove Thabo Mbeki as South Africa's president after a high court judge accused him of misusing the justice system in a bitter power struggle with his archrival, Jacob Zuma.

If the party leadership votes to "recall" Mbeki from office he will immediately be asked to resign. If he refuses to go, parliament is likely to vote to remove him - bringing a premature end to a presidency launched on the vision of leading an African renaissance but long tainted by his policies on HIV/Aids and an authoritarian and vindictive style of governing.

Powerful ANC figures have thrown their weight behind the proposal to sack Mbeki after a high court judge effectively accused him of using apartheid-style tactics in engineering the prosecution of Jacob Zuma for corruption in order to block him from becoming party leader.

Abdi Sheikh & Ibrahim Mohamed | Mogadishu | Sept 14

Reuters - Somali Islamists have threatened to stop planes using Mogadishu's main airport as part of an escalating insurgency rocking the Horn of Africa nation.

The hardline Islamist group Al Shabaab, which is fighting the Somali government and its Ethiopian military backers, said it would stop planes from landing after midnight on Tuesday.

"We banned all planes from Mogadishu after confirming that American spies, the African Union, Ethiopians and the infidel government troops use the airport,"said a statement in Somali on www.kataaib.net, one of several sites used by the militants.

The sea-front airport in south Mogadishu is used for government and commercial flights. African Union (AU) peacekeepers and some visiting U.N. missions also fly there.

Randy Fabi | Abuja | Sept 13

Reuters -

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for attacks that have cut more than a fifth of the OPEC member's oil output, threatened to target oil workers after it said seven people were killed in fighting between security forces and militants in Tombia, in Rivers state.

"Oil companies are warned to move out their workers within the next 24 hours because a hurricane is about to sweep through oil installations in the entire Niger Delta region," MEND, the country's most prominent militant group, said in an emailed statement.

MEND said security forces had used helicopters, jet fighters and over 20 gunboats in Saturday's fighting.

"This may be the beginning of a full scale oil war," the group said.

David Beresford | Pietermaritzburg | Sept 13

The Guardian - Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ANC overcame a big obstacle to becoming South Africa's next president yesterday when a high court judge threw out fraud and corruption charges against him.

Judge Chris Nicholson criticised prosecutors and upheld Zuma's claim that he was the victim of politically motivated charges, saying there was "a ring of Kafka" to the prosecution.

Zuma was accused of racketeering, money laundering, corruption and fraud relating to arms deals with Britain, France and Germany. Nicholson threw out the prosecution on procedural grounds but ruled that there was nothing to prevent the state from relaunching the prosecution.

In yesterday's judgement Nicholson said his ruling had nothing to do with Zuma's guilt, or innocence. But he said that the decision to prosecute Zuma appeared to have been politically motivated.

Chris McGreal | Sept 11

The Guardian - Robert Mugabe yesterday agreed to surrender day-to-day control of the government and much of his power in a historic deal with his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, to end Zimbabwe's long political crisis. But the agreement fell short of Tsvangirai's demand for Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader since independence 28 years ago, to become solely a ceremonial president after losing the last credible election six months ago.

The deal is also expected to result in a de facto amnesty for the military and Zanu-PF party leaders responsible for the bloody campaign against opposition supporters and activists over recent months. Their attempt to overturn Tsvangirai's election victory in March left hundreds dead and thousands badly injured.

Precise details of how power will be divided under the agreement, which has been mediated by South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, will be formally released at a signing ceremony on Monday.

Sept 10

BBC -
Somali MP Mohamed Osman Maye has been shot dead outside a mosque in the town of Baidoa, the seat of parliament.

He was thought to have been an ally of President Abdullahi Yusuf.

He is the first MP to have been assassinated since Ethiopian forces helped the interim government oust Islamists from power in December 2006.

Meanwhile, Islamist militants who took over the port town of Kismayo last month have imposed a curfew following the assassination of several residents.