KHARTOUM, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Friday admitted that Sudan's upcoming general elections are facing challenges.

"It is a very challenging election, because Sudan has not held elections since 1986," Carter told reporters following a meeting with the National Elections Commission (NEC) Friday.

However, Carter said the NEC is doing its utmost to make the elections a success.

"The NEC's (officials) have done their best under these circumstances," he said.

NEC Deputy Chairman, Abdalla Ahmed Abdalla, for his part, affirmed that there was a full coordination between the NEC and the Carter Center to observe the elections.

The U.S.-based Carter Center, which was founded by Jimmy Carter, sent 65 observers to monitor the general elections in Sudan besides the EU observation team of 130 observers.

Multi-party elections, the first of its kind in more than 20 years, are scheduled to be held in Sudan on April 11.

NAIROBI, April 9 (Xinhua) -- At nine people died on Friday and more than 10 others turned blind after consuming illicit liquor locally known as chang'aa at a den in Nairobi's residential Shauri Moyo estate.

Area residents said the incident that occurred late Friday has left many perplexed with adding that the brew might have been laced with other additives.

However, the area Police chief Kipkemoi Rop confirmed three deaths and six blinded adding that they were yet to make any arrests but were looking for the culprit.

However, witnesses refuted the number putting it to at least nine. "It is difficult to tell the exact number of people dead because there are those who died in their houses and others in hospitals, please give us time to compile all that data," Rop told journalists. "It is even difficult to tell those who have been taken to hospital because many of them were taken there by their relatives and well wishers, our officers have so far ferried seven to hospital but shortly we will be able to get all the data," he said.

The blind were transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital after receiving treatment at local health centres.

Angry residents demolished the chang'aa den and vowed to pull down more structures where the brew is sold within the estate, even as they demonstrated.

A number of the victims' relatives said that they became worried after their kin, who had consumed the alcohol Thursday night, did not respond to their promptings Friday morning.

The residents said the first three victims were found dead at about midday while another four, including a woman, were pronounced dead on the way to hospital, hours later.

In June 2005, 49 people died in Machakos after they consumed illicit home-made brew suspected to have been laced with a poisonous substance while over 200 others died in the same district in similar circumstances in 2000.

NAIROBI, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Successful counter measures by the Panama-flagged container ship helped beat off pirate attack near Yemen-Somalia border early Friday, the European Union Naval Force said.

The Naval Force Commander John Harbour said the MV Nada which is registered with MSCHOA was reporting to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

He said the attack on the MV NADA, Panama flagged with a crew of 24 (nationality unknown) and deadweight of 35,100 tonnes, occurred approximately 100 nautical miles east of Socatra," Harbour said. "The ship, which increased speed and conducted other best management practices with appropriate counter maneuvers, are now safe. It is understood that all the crew are safe and well," Harbour said.

The Horn of Africa nation's coastline is considered one of the world's most dangerous stretches of water because of piracy.

Somalia is at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, which leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shipping channels.

The country has been plagued by factional fighting between warlords and hasn't had a functioning central administration since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian police in southeast River State has confirmed the abduction of four expatriates by gunmen operating in the oil rich region. One police officer was killed.

State police spokesperson Rita Abbey told Xinhua on phone on Friday that the gunmen numbering about 10 abducted three Syrians and one Lebanese.

"Yes, it is true," she said.

"Our rescue team is still in the bush in Omumma local government of River State where the incident happened," she told Xinhua.

MOGADISHU, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Islamist insurgents in Somalia on Friday banned rebroadcasts of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Voice of America (VOA) on local the FM stations and confiscated the equipment of an FM station that solely relays BBC programs 24 hours a day. "From today onwards all FM (radio stations) that rebroadcast the BBC inside the Islamic Wilayats (regions) shall stop broadcasting and all their equipment will be confiscated," said a statement issued by Al Shabaab, an Islamist group that controls much of south and central Somali regions.

Soon after the statement was issued, fighters from the Islamist rebel movement stormed an FM station that broadcasts BBC programs including the Somali language service of the station in Mogadishu.

The group accused the BBC of implementing what it termed as the agenda of the colonizer Crusades a term they use to refer to non- Muslims particularly Christians.

Al Shabaab also banned the VOA from rebroadcasting the programs from its Somali language section in Mogadishu.

Both outlets use various FM stations in Mogadishu and other regions to air their programs to the region.

Late last week another Islamist movement, the Hezbul Islam, issued a 10-day ultimatum for FM radio stations in Mogadishu to stop broadcasting music on their stations.

Islamist groups, who are fighting the internationally recognized Somali government, see music and films as un-Islamic and ban them in areas under their control in south and center of Somalia.

The groups want to establish an Islamic state in the war torn horn of African nation that has been without a strong central government for almost two decades.

KHARTOUM, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Thursday arrived in Khartoum to take part in monitoring Sudan's General elections, slated for April 11.

He expressed regret over pulling out of candidates of some opposition parties from the elections, especially Yassir Arman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

"I regret that some of the parties decided not to participate", Carter told reporters upon arrival at Khartoum airport Thursday.

He refused to describe his impression about the preparations for the electoral process and said that the final assessment would be after the elections.

The U.S.-based Carter Center, which was founded by Jimmy Carter, have sent 65 observers to Sudan elections to monitor the general election in this African country besides the European Union observation team which includes 130 observers.

The Sudanese National Elections Commission (NEC) said over 100 national and foreign observers will be monitoring the elections at all stages.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday said he welcomes the Carter Center, and pledged to facilitate its movement in all states of the country.

Multi-party elections, the first of its kind in more than 20 years, are scheduled to be held in Sudan on April 11, 2010.

2010-04-9
TEREKEKA, Sudan (Reuters) - With southern Sudan stumbling towards independence next year, the Chinese oil workers in Africa's biggest country are bracing for trouble. For southern villagers like Maria Jande, trouble is already here.

Dinka tribesmen briefly abducted Jande, her family and more than a dozen other women and children in a raid last month that destroyed crops and food stores and killed five men from her Mundari tribe.

It's a far cry from the hopes that sprung up in southern Sudan five years ago, when a peace deal with the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in Sudan's north promised to end a generation of conflict.

Elections this month and a secession referendum by January were meant to secure a stable future for the south after 22 years of civil war and the loss of two million lives.

Instead, age-old rivalries between the south's dozens of different tribes are resurfacing.

"If we stay here, we'll die of hunger. There's no food," Jande said, standing beside a pot of rancid goat meat cooking beneath a mango tree in Terekeka, a tiny town 100 km (60 miles) north of southern Sudan's capital, Juba.

As she spoke, her five-year-old twins hid in the folds of her tattered brown skirt, which would be scant protection from the annual rains and malaria-carrying mosquitos due in force within days.

A host of foreign governments including the United States, Kenya, Uganda and Britain backed Sudan's 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which gave the south autonomy, a 50-50 share of oil revenues from wells within its borders and a route to independence via referendum by January 2011.

Mutual distrust and vitriol between Khartoum and Juba in the run-up to the April 11-13 elections mean the plebiscite is not assured: if it does proceed the south is almost sure to split and declare itself an independent state within six months.

So the deeply impoverished region's outlook is far from clear.

In the worst-case scenario, the hostility between north and south that has riven Sudan since before its independence from Britain in 1956 will boil over once again, rekindling a civil war that would destabilise east Africa and halt oil output from the sub-Saharan region's third-biggest producer.

Or the south could negotiate -- as the United States is hoping -- a "civil divorce, not a civil war" with Khartoum, securing billions of dollars in oil revenues that it can use to drag itself out of its war-induced time-warp.

Under this view, a flood of foreign investment should ensue, developing hoped-for oil reserves across the region and giving birth to state-of-the-art farms and fisheries fed by the waters of the upper Nile and its tributaries.

In their more fanciful moments, southern ministers even talk of droves of foreign tourists flying in to witness wild animal migrations said to rival those in Kenya's Masai Mara.

ARMS FLOWS

History suggests optimists in southern Sudan, a region nearly as big as Texas and with a population estimated at anywhere between 8 and 13 million people, are more likely to be wrong than right. A return to war is not out of the question.

In the five years since the peace accord, the bulk of oil money accruing to the south -- more than $2 billion a year -- has gone on pay for civil servants and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the southern rebel movement that has morphed into its government.

But the SPLA, whose soldiers rescued Jande and her family from her Dinka captors, has also spent at least some of the cash re-arming, according to the Small Arms Survey, a global arms trade watchdog.

Citing satellite images and reports of arms shipments from Ukraine via Kenya, the Survey estimates the south bought more than 100 Soviet-era battle tanks, anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers and 10,000 AK-47 assault rifles from 2007 to 2009.

Not only do such flows break an agreed weapons embargo, they also ensure that any conflict would have implications beyond southern Sudan's borders.

"The southern Sudanese arms acquisitions are rooted in civil war-era political alliances, with regional allies, including Ethiopia and Kenya, acting as conduits for arms supplies from their own stocks or acquired on the international market," the Survey said.

Alongside reported arms purchases by the north from China, Iran and Belarus, this has set nerves jangling at the Chinese, Indian and Malaysian oil firms running the south's oil fields, which all lie close to the unofficial border.

In the event of conflict, they would have little option but to halt production from a country that was China's fourth or fifth largest supplier of crude oil for much of 2009.

State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the largest foreign player with a roughly 40 percent stake in Sudan's oil industry, is "hoping for the best but preparing for the worst", according to an industry source familiar with Chinese operations in Sudan.

"An independence vote for the south is likely to lead to clashes between the north and south, a worst-case scenario that we do not wish to see," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

CNPC would have no option but to "halt production and evacuate our 2,000 people in Khartoum and the oil-fields," the source added.

WANING APPETITE FOR WAR

However, analysts say neither north nor south have much to gain from a resumption of hostilities: the disruption of oil exports would cut a cash lifeline that both governments need, now and in the foreseeable future.

"As much as oil has been a major source of conflict in the past, it also potentially represents the single greatest disincentive to renewed conflict if the parties can agree on wealth-sharing," said Zachary Vertin, a Sudan analyst for the International Crisis Group in Nairobi.

Southern oil accounts for the lion's share of Sudan's total output, although the precise proportion depends on the final demarcation of a north-south border in areas such as Abyei, which was too sensitive to be included in the 2005 pact.

However, more importantly for the south, all its oil goes by pipeline through the north to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. This means that if it wants to, Khartoum can cut off a revenue stream that accounts for 98 percent of Juba's budget.

In that event SPLA soldiers would quickly find themselves without pay, suggesting the south's generals would struggle to mobilise large numbers of troops.

For the north, the prospect of disrupted or no production is almost as alarming, given that oil currently accounts for 45 percent of Sudan's national budget.

As southern Presidential Affairs Minister Luka Biong Deng put it, both sides know what they stand to lose.

"Peace is our common objective because nobody will benefit from going back to war or seeing either party collapsing," he told Reuters.

The United States has broadly backed the south, mainly due to its dislike for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the western region of Darfur.

But analysts say Washington will be loathe to take sides in a fiendishly complex conflict in the heart of Africa, and is more likely to focus on avoiding a new north-south war and keeping an independent south in one piece and on its feet.

"I would guess that the preference for the U.S. government all along is the unity of Sudan," former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia David Shinn told Reuters.

"But you have to make plans for a divided Sudan -- and then just hope that it doesn't divide into more than two parts."

2010-04-09
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya is preparing for a referendum on a draft constitution meant to avert a repeat of the post-election tribal bloodletting that shook east Africa's largest economy in early 2008.

The new charter, seen as a crucial step in healing the ethnic divisions that plague Kenyan politics, is generally expected to win approval in a referendum likely in July but could yet fall foul of emotive issues of land and abortion.

An earlier attempt to rewrite the constitution in 2005 was shot down in a highly polarised vote, largely because it failed to dilute presidential powers. However analysts expect most political leaders to campaign with a united voice this time.

"In many ways it is a big leap forward," constitutional lawyer Patrick Lumumba said.

"The general sense is that a critical mass of parliamentarians will pull in one direction, that is the direction of an endorsement of the draft by the electorate."

Kenyans have been calling for a new constitution since the 1990s to replace one dating back to 1963. Guarantees of a new charter was key to a power-sharing deal in 2008, ending weeks of violence that killed around 1,300 people after a disputed poll.

The new legal framework would curtail sweeping presidential powers and strengthen civil liberties. Parliament last week voted unanimously in favour of the draft.

But some politicians have threatened to back a 'no' vote in the referendum, angry at the failure to devolve power to the regions and plans to cap private land holdings.

Christian church leaders are also vowing to spearhead a 'no' campaign after an amendment to abolish abortion on medical grounds failed, while Islamic courts dealing with divorce and inheritance were left enshrined in the constitution.

"Kenyans are once again headed to a referendum where they will be highly polarised ... their leaders are forcing an unjust document that enshrines injustice down their throats," said a statement by church leaders.

ECONOMIC IMPACT?

"The potential for scuttling should not be under-estimated," said former legislator and prominent lawyer Paul Muite.

Economic analysts said that a 'yes' vote could help ease investors' concerns about a repeat of the 2008 violence that dented Kenya's economic growth in 2008 and hit regional trade.

"There are still (ethnic) tensions ... and a positive outcome ... could ease those tensions that have a lot to do with abuse of power," said independent analyst Robert Shaw.

Foreign exchange traders said a surprise 'no' vote would be a blow to the fragile coalition government and might generate a short-term negative reaction in international markets.

Legal experts say that on paper the draft constitution could herald an end to Kenyan politics being defined by ethnic loyalties and characterised by cronyism and corruption.

Under the new proposals, presidential appointments to high-ranking public sector jobs will need lawmakers' approval.

Constitutional lawyers also expect that by preventing the president and ministers from sitting concurrently as lawmakers, parliament will act more effectively to check the executive.

But Lumumba warned that a new constitution would not change the behaviour of politicians overnight.

"It is not an instant coffee solution. There were those who were born and bred on ethnic politics and they are not about to abandon it," he said.

2010-04-09
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who had been prime minister in a short-lived pre-independence government and was dismissed by his opponents as a puppet of former white minority rulers, has died at 85.

Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa of the United Methodist Church agreed to share power with the minority government of what was then Rhodesia in 1978 and 1979 and during that period renamed the country Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.

He retired both from politics and the church in the 1990s, but he remained opposed to President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party, which defeated him in elections at Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980.

2010-04-09
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's first multi-party elections in 24 years are on track to start on Sunday, with Khartoum dismissing a U.S. suggestion that it would consider supporting a brief delay to ensure greater stability.

Incumbent President Omar Hassan al-Bashir hopes a win in the complex presidential, legislative and gubernatorial polls would legitimise his government, in defiance of an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest for war crimes in Darfur.

A Bashir victory is almost certain after his two main rivals withdrew, alleging widespread fraud, but it would be overshadowed by questions over the elections' credibility.

"Even if all these parties participated I don't think there would be fair or credible elections," said Sudanese activist Omer Elgarrei, founder of the Democracy First group.

Western powers, particularly Washington, have made clear that no matter how bad the elections are, their priority is that Sudan holds a peaceful referendum next year when the south of the country votes on whether to secede.

But the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations suggested that Washington might accept a late start to the polls, which along with the referendum are a key stage in a 2005 north-south peace deal which ended Sudan's 22-year civil war.

"I think our view has been that if a very brief delay were decided to be necessary, and we thought that a brief delay would enable the process to be more credible, we would be prepared to entertain that," Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters.

"That's obviously up to the authorities themselves, but the larger picture is that much is awry in this process, and that is a real concern," she said.

Khartoum's U.N. ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem rejected the suggestion.

"The government itself cannot do that and elections are not going to be delayed at all," he told reporters. "After all, these types of functions is the responsibility of the national electoral commission and not the government."

The election results are likely to stand, even if voting provokes as much controversy as last year's Afghan presidential polls which were marked by fraud. "These elections could be as bad as Afghanistan but with such a tight timetable before the referendum I doubt anyone will insist on a rerun," said one international source following the polls.

CARTER DISAPPOINTED

The semi-autonomous south is widely expected to vote for independence in the 2011 referendum.

All Sudan's opposition parties agree Bashir's National Congress Party, which has ruled for 21 years, has tried to rig the polls but they failed to agree a joint reaction.

While two of the largest parties agreed to boycott the polls in most of Sudan's north, other smaller groups remain in the race. International observer missions from the European Union and the Carter Center will still monitor voting.

However, a seven-year conflict has hindered movement in Darfur. The EU said it could not effectively observe the polls there and withdrew its observers from the western region.

The International Crisis Group think tank said Darfur had been so manipulated, with many of the region's millions of displaced people not registered to vote, that the territory could swing the national vote and secure a win for Bashir.

"Winning big in Darfur is central to the NCP's plan to capture enough votes in the North to ensure its continued national dominance," an ICG report said.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Thursday he was disappointed by the boycotts. "I regret that some of the parties have decided not to participate," he told reporters after he arrived in Khartoum to observe the voting.

Sudanese activists say the irregularities began with a flawed 2008 census, demarcating electoral constituencies and fraudulent voter registration.

An umbrella group of civil society bodies called Tamam said that more than 1,900 security force members were registered to vote at a tiny police post on an island in the river Nile in Khartoum. Only five policemen are stationed there.

Campaigning has witnessed some rare political freedoms. Direct newspaper censorship was lifted, opposition politicians were given some air time on live television and young Sudanese protested outside the National Elections Commission, carrying a coffin which they said symbolised the body's integrity.

But the same activists say they were arrested and harassed with one member tortured and still in hiding.

"The international community should acknowledge that whoever wins will lack legitimacy," says Fouad Hikmat, ICG's special adviser on Sudan.

2010-04-09
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa on Friday welcomed a decision by the World Bank to grant Africa's biggest economy a controversial $3.75 billion loan to develop a coal-fired power plant to boost flagging power supply.

The loan -- the first World Bank loan for South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994 -- was approved despite the lack of support from the United States, Netherlands and Britain, which abstained mainly due to environmental concerns.

South Africa, which is battling a chronic power shortage said it would address the concerns raised over emissions. The country is reliant on coal for 95 percent of its electricity supply, and is the worst emitter on the continent.

South Africa's national grid suffered a near collapse in early 2008, costing the country billions of dollars in lost output across all sectors as Eskom enforced rolling blackouts.

The loan will finance the Medupi power station -- Eskom's first such plant in more than two decades -- and the country's first large wind and concentrated solar power projects.

Medupi is part of several new power stations planned to boost generation capacity to satisfy fast-rising power demand.

"This (loan) will ensure the country's economic development objectives remain on track and that security of electricity supply is restored," the Treasury said in a statement.

The loan rate is at 6 month LIBOR + 0.5 percent fixed margin and a variable spread of 0.24 percent, to be reset semi-annually. The maturity is 28.5 years with a grace period of 7 years, the Treasury said.

TARIFFS

Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said last month South Africa -- which increased power tariffs in February -- may have to raise electricity prices further if it did not secure the loan.

Analysts said without the loan, South Africa would have faced a far steeper climb towards energy security.

"Since the country has not constructed any new base load power stations since the mid-1980's and hence is faced with ageing infrastructure, it is critical for energy security that Medupi is completed as soon as possible," Frost & Sullivan's energy analyst Cornelis van der Waal said van der Waal said.

State owned power utility Eskom has said it plans to invest 461 billion rand to boost generating capacity and diversify away from coal-fired power station.

Eskom has defended the 4,800 megawatt Medupi plant in the northern Limpopo region, saying there is no immediate alternative to easing the country's chronic power shortages and ensuring power supplies to neighboring states.

The utility said the approval of the loan cleared the way for the full construction of the Medupi power station, which is expected to produce its first power by April 2012 when the first of six 800 megawatt units will be commissioned.

"We are very pleased that the World Bank has agreed with our planning and granted this substantial loan," Eskom's Acting Chairman, Mpho Makwana, said.

He reiterated the electricity system would be "critically tight" between 2011 and 2012, until new generation capacity kicks in.

2010-04-09
NAIROBI (Reuters) - For centuries, Somalis used poetry and songs to pass protest messages to powerful rulers they were too afraid to confront directly.

Now, some young Somalis are using rap to speak out against Islamists who they say are using religion to wage war in their country.

The 11-member Waayaha Cusub band, currently in exile in neighbouring Kenya, wants its rap lyrics to encourage fellow Somalis to stand up to Islamist rebels known as al Shabaab.

They have handed out at least 7,000 free copies of their newly-released album titled "No To Al Shabaab" to residents in Nairobi's Eastleigh neighbourhood, home to many Somali migrants.

"We will wipe out the fear of our people that no one can speak out against al Shabaab. We will show our people that we can challenge them," said Shine Abdullahi, the group's founder.

Al Shabaab have besieged Mogadishu's Western-backed administration and control much of the countryside. The United States says it is al Qaeda's proxy in eastern Africa.

The rebels have been joined by foreign militants who Western security agencies say are using the country as a haven to plot attacks in the region and beyond.

"They are talking about Holy war, they are training and misleading youth, and we want to stop the spread of those ideas and warn our people there is no Jihad," Abdullahi, 27, said.

The new album attracted more than 100,000 viewers onto the group's website, www.waayahacusub.com, in the first three weeks. Abdullahi says it has since been corrupted, possibly by al Shabaab.

"They are unkind, teach terrorism, and worthless lessons, they blindfold, and cause pain, inject drugs, that lead to actions, force them to kill their fathers and relatives," one of the group's raps goes.

REPRISAL

The group's only female member, Falis Abdi Mohamud, is a rebel in her own right. In one video, the 23-year-old is not covering her head as most Somali women do, and is wearing tight jeans.

"They criticise me and say 'she is not Muslim because of wearing a trouser'. I am Muslim," she said. "I want to reach my people. I will not stop my mission because of fear or other people's desires. History will tell who is right and wrong."

Mohamud was born in the southern town of Kismayu that is now an al Shabaab stronghold. The insurgents have banned music in areas that they control and allow only Arabic Koranic chanting.

Waayaha Cusub toured the semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland in July but Mohamud hopes to perform in her hometown one day.

"The trip to Somalia was great. That is when I realised people like our music, and it really gave us confidence not to stop our campaign because a few people who dislike us."

The group's youngest member is 15-year-old Suleqa Mohamed, who is a student at an Eastleigh school.

Most of them want to return to Somalia and live off their music when peace returns but currently survive on sponsorships by businessmen and Somalis in the diaspora.

Their songs have angered some people. Even in the relative stability and security of Kenya they have been attacked. Gunmen shot and wounded Abdullahi in 2007.

He believes the attack was because the group released a series of songs criticising Ethiopia's incursion into Somalia and suicide bombings by the insurgents.

Even mobile phone text message threats from al Shabaab sympathisers in Kenya and Somalia have failed to intimidate Abdullahi.

He says he will never be cowered by what he calls "religious warlords" who present an awful image of Islam to the world.

"The attack was aimed at silencing the group, but that did not work," he said, showing scars on his stomach from a bullet and the surgery that followed.

"We will not allow anyone to silence us. They misread our religion and kill people. They are cursed," he said.

It is a difficult time to win the hearts of teenagers who easily confuse their religion with the ideology dispensed by groups like al Shabaab and al Qaeda, Abdullahi says.

However, he is more optimistic that he can win his part of the war, ridding Somalia of al Shabaab.

"This is real war. Those who refuse to honour their prophet cannot win," he said. "We will have the upper hand at the end of the day."

2010-04-09
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Gunmen in Ethiopia have killed a British geologist working for state-run Malaysian energy firm Petronas and two soldiers protecting him, an Ethiopian government spokesman said on Friday.

The Briton died in the shooting on Monday near Danot town in the Warder zone of eastern Ethiopia, the British Embassy in Addis Ababa said.

"Bandits ambushed a vehicle and shot and killed Englishman ... Jason Reid, and two army servicemen," government spokesman Shimeles Kemal told Reuters. "They were not rebels. They were mere bandits."

However, rebel groups have fought since the 1960s for independence for the region, which is populated by ethnic Somalis and borders Somalia. Foreign firms have been eyeing potential oil and gas deposits in the Somali region, despite threats from the separatist rebels.

British embassy spokesman Gavin Cook said that Reid, aged 39, was from the southern English town of Portsmouth. He was an employee of British firm IMC Geophysics International.

Ethiopia has not yet discovered oil or gas but companies including Petronas and Vancouver-based Africa Oil Corp are prospecting in its deserts, pointing to oil fields in neighbouring countries.

The Ethiopian government also said on Friday that an Islamist rebel group, the United Western Somali Liberation Front the Somali region had surrendered. It had warned oil and gas firms not to explore in the area.

"THEFT UNLIKELY"

Another rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which routinely warns foreign oil and gas firms away from Ethiopia, denied responsibility for the Briton's death.

"We are not involved in that assassination and we are sorry about the incident," a British-based spokesman, Abdurahmin Mohammed Mahdi, told Reuters. "We have ordered our military not to attack expatriate oil workers for now."

Several aid workers in the region, who did not want to be named, told Reuters they doubted theft had been the motive for the attack. "They didn't seek to steal anything," one senior foreign aid official said. "They simply opened fire with AK-47s and riddled the car."

In 2007 the ONLF attacked an oilfield run by Sinopec, Asia's biggest refiner and China's second largest oil and gas producer. Sinopec pulled out of the region where most of Ethiopia's oil and gas exploration activities have centred.

Ethiopia calls the ONLF a terrorist group, which it says is supported by rival Eritrea. The ONLF routinely accuses government forces of rights abuses.

2010-04-09
DAKAR (Reuters) - A sudden shift of power in the leadership of Guinea-Bissau's military has taken efforts to stabilise the West African state back to square one and underlines the threat it poses to regional security.

The April 1 ouster of the military chief by a rival faction of the army and brief detention of the prime minister dashed a quiet mood of progress that had been building after elections last year to replace a slain former leader went smoothly.

All sides from President Malam Bacai Sanha down played down the incident as an internal row within the powerful but unruly military rather than a failed coup d'etat.

But analysts said it was a blow to international efforts to bring order to a nation, whose role as a transit point for Latin American cocaine headed for Europe is perceived as a growing threat to West Africa's fragile stability.

"Where does this leave the country? It is back to square one," said International Crisis Group analyst Mohamed Jalloh.

"The military has overwhelmed the political institutions, which are not left to function by themselves. When there is blockage, (the military) gets involved."

Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior was facing a rebellion within his own party and survived a vote of no confidence in parliament a week before he was seized by soldiers.

The incident is the most serious since the twin assassination last year of late President Joao Bernado Vieira and his army chief by renegade soldiers.

BOLD STEP NEEDED

New armed forces chief General Antonio Injai has apologised for arresting and threatening to kill the prime minister and his supporters. Sanha has given his prime minister full backing.

But Jalloh said the international community needed to move beyond piecemeal solutions and push for structural change to end the cycles of mutinies, coups and instability that have dogged the nation since independence from Portugal in 1974.

"We need to create an atmosphere that (dialogue) can take place in. (But) until the military (problem) is resolved, I don't see how this can take place," a Western diplomat said.

Some factions of the military are associated with Gomes Junior's PAIGC party, while others, including leading members of the Balanta ethnic group, are seen to back the rival PRS.

Sanha has weaker connections with the soldiers and, as a result, diplomats say he will need strong international backing.

"We no longer have anyone to talk to in the army. The current situation is very complicated in terms of cooperation," said Spanish General Juan Sebastian Verastegui, who is in charge of the European Union's security sector reform programme.

The United Nations, European Union, West Africa's ECOWAS and Western nations are pushing for wide-sweeping reforms.

"We need a bold step. We need to start with a national conference that defines the parameters of the state, and the military," Jalloh added.

Currently, these lines remain blurred due to the legacy of the military's role in the independence struggle, which soldiers feel has given them the right to intervene in politics.

As a result, no president has completed his term in power.

This jostling for power has been exacerbated by the multi-billion dollar trade in Latin American cocaine.

High-level corruption has long been blamed for blockages in the fight against drugs and the U.S. government this week labelled two military officers as international drug kingpins.

"COULD GET A LOT WORSE"

A protest by hundreds of people, who took to the streets to demonstrate against the military's actions, offered a sign that Guinea-Bissau's population is sick of military meddling.

The official economy relies on cashew nut exports, though the country has unexploited bauxite, phosphate and oil deposits.

Military reform has been on the table for over a decade, and civilian leaders have repeatedly complained that soldiers have made the country impossible to govern.

Donors want the military reduced to around 3,000 men, down from an official number of 4,500, which military officers say is actually closer to 11,000 as ranks were swelled by veterans from the independence struggle re-enlisting during a 1998-99 war.

But in a job-scarce nation where the military has long provided incomes for many, slashing ranks has proved tricky -- despite the fact the government is seeking just 32 million euros in aid to pension off much of its swollen officer corps.

Donors are expected to be unwilling to commit any funding while the military still calls the shots and diplomats fear regional instability could grow if Guinea-Bissau's drugs economy infects nearby states like Guinea, Gambia and Senegal.

"It is already a threat to the region but it could get a lot worse," the senior Western diplomat said.

2010-04-09
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab rebels said on Friday they had taken the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) off the air in regions they controlled because it spread Christian propaganda.

The insurgents, who profess loyalty to al Qaeda and are fighting a deadly insurgency in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, also said they had looted transmission equipment belonging to the BBC.

"Starting from today all BBC FM stations in the areas controlled by al Shabaab will be off air and their equipment will be taken over," the group said in an emailed statement.

"BBC is owned by England and it spreads (a) colonial and Christian agenda in the Muslim world. BBC fights Islam ... it is against the Islamic administration in Somalia."

The BBC broadcasts its London-based programming onto its own local FM frequencies in Somalia and local stations relay its signal. The BBC does not have any studios in Somalia.

Jerry Timmins, BBC Head of International Relations & Africa Region, said, "We are disappointed in this interference with our broadcasts in Somalia as in the end, it is the Somali people who are most affected."

He said the broadcaster had no warning the rebel group intended to close down its relay stations and added that the BBC sought to represent all views in its broadcasts.

"The BBC speaks to all sides in Somalia -- including al-Shabaab -- and reports events as they unfold. It is essential for the people of Somalia that the BBC is allowed to continue to report accurately and impartially on the situation in the country without undue interference from anyone," he said.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has decried a crackdown on press freedom in recent weeks and called the clampdown on the BBC an act of repression.

"This...is a strong demonstration of the gravity of media repression by al Shabaab. We are very concerned at the obvious intent...to get tough on journalists and media organisations that have taken an independent attitude of reporting," NUSOJ said.

Somalis living in al Shabaab-held territories confirmed that BBC had gone off air on local frequencies but said programming could still be picked up on short wave.

Al Shabaab controls huge swathes of central and southern Somalia and has left the government, backed by the West, in control of little more than a few streets in Mogadishu.

Al Shabaab has already banned music from radio stations in areas they control and allows only Arabic Koranic chanting.

2010-04-08
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An Islamist rebel group which had threatened to attack oil and gas firms exploring a potentially mineral-rich region of Ethiopia has surrendered, the government said on Friday.

The United Western Somali Liberation Front (UWSLF) had been fighting since the 1960s for independence for Ethiopia's Somali region -- which includes the Ogaden and accounts for one-fifth of the country's landmass -- government head of information Bereket Simon told reporters.

"After discussing with the government, the leaders of the organisation in totality have accepted to abide by the constitution of Ethiopia and desist from any armed practice," Bereket said. The rebels would now disarm and form a political party, he added.

The UWSLF and another rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), want independence for the region which borders Somalia, and had warned oil and gas firms not to explore there.

Foreign firms, including Malaysia's Petronas and Vancouver-based Africa Oil Corporation, are prospecting in the area.

The separatist cause has been fuelled by widespread resentment at the region's low level of development. Until Chinese engineers arrived in 2007, the entire region had only 30 km (20 miles) of tarmac road.

Bereket said the rebels had decided to surrender at the urging of locals who felt the insurgency was hampering government efforts to develop the region.

"They pursued a mistaken path, now they are desisting. We will respect their right to engage in peaceful, legal politics," Bereket added.

In 2007 the ONLF attacked an oilfield run by Sinopec, Asia's biggest refiner and China's second largest oil and gas producer, killing 74 people. Sinopec then pulled out of the region.

Most of Ethiopia's oil and gas exploration activities have centred on the vast desert province.

Ethiopia calls the ONLF a terrorist group, which it says is supported by rival and neighbour Eritrea. The ONLF routinely accuses government forces of human rights abuses.

Cash-strapped Ethiopia is keen to attract foreign investors and says the ONLF have been weakened since the 2007 attack.

2010-04-09
VENTERSDORP, South Africa (Reuters) - Murdered white supremacist Eugene Terre'blanche was buried on Friday by thousands of followers flaunting the symbols of apartheid after a killing that worsened South Africa's racial strains.

In a sign the ruling African National Congress had run out of patience with Youth League leader Julius Malema, accused by critics of stoking the tensions, the party condemned his behaviour and summoned him to explain himself.

As well as exposing the racial polarisation 16 years after the end of white minority rule, the murder has done nothing to improve South Africa's violent reputation barely two months before it is due to host the soccer World Cup.

Two black farm workers have been charged with beating and hacking Terre'blanche to death last Saturday in what police suspect was a pay dispute. His party says it was politically motivated and blames Malema in part.

"Mr. Terre'blanche's death is a time for us Boers (farmers) to take a stand and declare war against crime, especially farm murders," said Andre Visagie, Secretary General of Terre'blanche's Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB).

"We are going to exhaust every avenue of peaceful negotiations with the government but if that does not work we will fight for our own homeland."

Terre'blanche, 69, was marginalised after his failed efforts to preserve apartheid in the early 1990s, and became even more of a fringe figure after a prison sentence for beating a black man nearly to death.

As the coffin was wheeled into the church, mourners sang the apartheid-era national anthem. With space limited, a few thousand supporters filled the streets of the small farming town of Ventersdorp, 100 km (60 miles) west of Johannesburg.

The old South African flag and the party's flag -- which resembles the Nazi swastika -- fluttered from pickup trucks.

Police were out in force on streets where few black South Africans were to be seen. Some mourners, dressed in combat fatigues, muttered "housemaid" in Afrikaans when a black government minister paying official respects walked past.

The church lifted its usual "whites only" restriction to allow in black journalists.

ANGER

President Jacob Zuma has urged calm and the AWB has ruled out violent reprisals, but some mourners were in militant mood.

"We are here today to declare war and avenge the death of our leader," said one 46-year-old businessman from the northeastern Mpumalanga province who did not want to be named.

Few predict major trouble, though.

"To some extent Julius Malema and the AWB members are two sides of the same irrational coin," said Aubrey Matshiqi of the Centre for Policy Studies.

"I do not believe South Africa is in the middle of a race crisis, not the kind that will lead to a racial civil war, but I am not suggesting we should not be concerned at all because even fringe groups and figures can do harm."

Markets have paid little heed to the sound and fury and the rand is near a 20-month high against the dollar.

The murder has heightened a sense among AWB supporters -- a tiny minority of the 10 percent of whites in a population of 48 million -- that they are being targeted by the party that has ruled since apartheid ended in 1994.

Malema caused controversy last month when he sang a black liberation struggle song with the words "Kill the Boer" -- now banned by the courts as hate speech.

The ANC has appeared reluctant to move against Malema, who has a passionate following within the Youth League and among some black South Africans who feel the end of apartheid should have delivered more.

But it reacted harshly on Friday to his defiance of a demand to avoid inflammatory comment and his expulsion of a British journalist from a news conference on Thursday. On camera, Malema called the reporter a bastard with a "white tendency".

"The unfortunate outburst by comrade Julius Malema did not only reflect negatively on him, but also reflected negatively on the ANC YL, the entire ANC family, our Alliance partners as well as South Africa in the eyes of the international community," said party spokesman Jackson Mthembu.

2010-04-09
GENEVA (Reuters) - Somalis are fleeing fighting around Mogadishu but fewer are reaching safe havens in Yemen or Kenya due to rising insecurity and fears of recruitment by Islamist insurgents on the way, the U.N. refugee agency said.

Somalia's al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels are waging a deadly insurgency against the Western-backed transitional government and control large swathes of southern Somalia and the sea-side capital. They are intent on imposing a harsh version of Sharia Islamic law throughout the war-ravaged nation.

The conflict has forced an estimated 169,000 Somalis to leave their homes in south-central Somalia this year, mainly from Mogadishu, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday.

Somali refugees report growing difficulties in reaching the port town of Bossaso in the northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland, a base for human smugglers' boats to Yemen, it said.

"People are fearful of moving around simply because there is too much insecurity and they fear to be caught up in the fighting," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told Reuters.

"They also fear forced recruitment if they pass through territory controlled by al Shabaab rebels or Hizbul Islam, especially the men," he said, citing refugees' accounts.

Hizbul Islam, a smaller rebel group in an alliance with al Shabaab in Mogadishu, on Wednesday expressed its loyalty to al Qaeda for the first time and invited Osama bin Laden to Somalia.

Somalia has lacked an effective central government for 19 years and Western and neighbouring countries say the country provides sanctuary for militants intent on launching attacks in east Africa and beyond.

CRACKDOWN

Most Somalis fleeing intensified fighting this year have found shelter in makeshift camps in the Afgooye corridor just outside Mogadishu or remain displaced within the capital, according to the UNHCR. The camps now hold some 400,000 people.

Many lack funds to reach Bossaso to make the trip across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, it says. Authorities in Puntland have also cracked down on human traffickers' in the area.

"These refugee flows are slowing down despite ongoing violence," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a Geneva news briefing. "The number of people crossing the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea has nearly halved during the first quarter of the year."

Some 9,400 people from the Horn of Africa (Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis) arrived in Yemen between January and March, compared to 17,400 in the same period last year.

Some 3,200 Somali refugees were among them, one-third the number in the same period last year, the UNHCR said.

Yemen, which automatically recognises Somalis as refugeees, currently hosts more than 170,000 Somalis. Kenya, which saw 27,000 Somalis stream into the country in the first quarter of 2009, has registered just 12,000 this year.

2010-04-08
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Sexual abuse by Catholic priests is a scourge in Africa as well as the Western countries where scandals have badly hurt the Vatican's image, a leading African Catholic archbishop has said.

Archbishop of Johannesburg Buti Tlhagale said the damage weakened the Church's ability to speak out with moral authority in Africa, where it has at times been a rare voice challenging dictatorship, corruption and abuse of power.

"What happens in Ireland or in Germany or America affects us all," Tlhagale said in a message on April 1 that was published this week on the website of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, which Tlhagale heads.

"It simply means that the misbehaviour of priests in Africa has not been exposed to the same glare of the media as in other parts of the world."

The Church is now engulfed in a scandal over the sexual abuses of children by priests. It faces accusations in several European countries of mishandling and covering up abuses, some dating back decades.

"I know that the Church in Africa, is inflicted by the same scourge," Tlhagale said.

Africa is one of the fastest growing regions for the Church and ever more important as the number of practicing Catholics in the developed world declines. Africa's Catholic population rose from about 2 million in 1990 to about 140 million in 2000.

While reports of sexual abuse by priests have come to light locally, they have not made global headlines.

The Vatican and Catholic bishops in Europe and the United States have protested against what they say is a media campaign against the Church.

Some reports have accused Pope Benedict of negligence in handling abuse cases in previous roles as a cardinal in his native Germany, and in Rome -- accusations the Vatican denies.

TEENAGE GIRLS

Some 40 complaints of abuses, some from as far back as four decades ago, have been received by the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference over 14 years, its website said. Over half involved the sexual abuse of teenage girls, it said.

Father Chris Townsend, the group's spokesman, said some clergy had been found guilty and action had been taken, although the bishops were responsible for those measures. Precise details were not given.

Celibacy is frowned upon in some traditional African societies and there have been reports of priests having mistresses and fathering children in parts of Africa.

The Church's reputation in Africa is far from unblemished -- priests were accused of aiding Rwanda's genocide, and AIDS activists challenge its opposition to condom use in the world's worst afflicted continent.

But in some countries, Catholic clergy have won a reputation for being willing to use their position to speak out against oppression and misrule when others cannot. Tlhagale said the abuse scandals undermined the Church's moral authority.

"As Church leaders, we become incapable of criticising the corrupt and immoral behaviour of the members of our respective communities," he said. "We become hesitant to criticise the greed and malpractices of our civic authorities."

2010-04-08
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday it has designated Guinea-Bissau's Air Force chief of staff and the former Navy chief of staff of the African nation as international drug kingpins.

The action prohibits Americans from conducting financial or commercial transactions with the two and freezes any assets they have in the United States.

"Today's action underscores the harmful role that narcotics-related corruption plays in West Africa, especially in Guinea-Bissau," Adam Szubin, director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a statement.

Targeting current Air Force chief of staff Ibraima Papa Camara and former Navy chief of staff Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto "impedes their ability to profit from the narcotics trade and engage in destabilizing activities," Szubin said.

The U.S. moves follow recent military infighting in Guinea Bissau, a major hub for drugs being shipped from Latin America to Europe and one of the world's poorest nations.

Soldiers briefly held Prime minister Carlos Gomes Junior last week and ousted armed forces Chief of Staff Admiral Jose Zamora Induta.

That incident was preceded by the re-emergence of Na Tchuto, an ally of new armed forces chief General Antonio Njai, from refuge in a U.N. building.

Na Tchuto was accused of plotting a 2008 coup and was due to be handed over to Gomes' government for trial.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Na Tchuto "was complicit in the activities surrounding the illegal detention" of Gomes.

The department said both Na Tchuto and Camara are involved in drug trafficking and are linked to an aircraft suspected of flying a multi-hundred kilogram shipment of cocaine from Venezuela to Guinea-Bissau in July 2008.