2010-04-01
JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian authorities charged 20 people on Thursday over their roles in sectarian clashes that killed hundreds in central Plateau state last month, and some could face the death penalty.

Authorities are under growing pressure to prosecute those behind the March 7 attacks on three villages near Jos, the capital of Plateau state, in a bid to prevent future violence.

More than 160 people have been arrested and police say more suspects will be charged in the coming weeks, but Nigeria's judicial system is known to be slow and it can take months before any are convicted.

Police said last week that of the 162 suspects arrested, they intended to charge 41 with terrorism and culpable homicide, which are punishable by death.

All 20 who were charged pleaded not guilty to five counts of arson, terrorism, killing, maiming and possession of dangerous weapons at a federal court in Jos.

Justice Stephen Adah ordered they remain in prison and adjourned the case until April 15.

Fierce competition for control of fertile farmlands between Christian and animist indigenous groups and Muslim settlers from the arid north have repeatedly sparked unrest in central Nigeria's "Middle Belt" over the past decade.

Politicians, diplomats and rights groups have called on the government to prosecute the community leaders and gangs behind the fighting if it wants to avert future conflicts.

Those arrested in past violence have been freed after a few weeks, rights groups said.

MOMBASA, Kenya, April 2 (Xinhua) --Three crew members of a Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) vessel attacked off Somalia waters were on Friday rushed to a Kenyan hospital in Mombasa after docking at the port of Mombasa.

The vessel, named Chol San Bong Chong Nyon Ho, was attacked by pirates on its way to Somalia from Brazil with a sugar cargo on Wednesday.

Port police chief Ayub Gitonga said the vessel had a 40 crew member on board at the time of attack where eight of them were injured.

He said the vessel docked at the port of Mombasa to take the injured to hospital for further treatment. "The crew had documents, we could not deny them entry for treatment," said Gitonga adding that they had been cleared by immigration officers.

He said were it not for good fire-fighting equipment the vessel would have caught fire under the pirates' attack.

The vessel had a large mark suspected to have been caused by a rocket propelled grenade launcher during that daring attack

A crew member on board the vessel suspected to have been injured was seen limping with a bandage on one of his legs.

Despite a heavy presence of well equipped international naval forces patrolling the high seas of the Indian Ocean, Somali pirates have continued to launch attacks on ships passing through the corridor.

Almost three weeks ago, eight pirates were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after the court found them guilty of attempting to hijack a ship.

LAGOS, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Ailing Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has met with top Islamic clerics in the country's capital of Abuja, media reported on Friday.

DAKAR, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Guinea-Bissau President Malam Bacai Sanha held a meeting with Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior on Friday after the West African country was shocked by soldiers' action to arrest the government leader the previous day.

Gomes Junior was witnessed with a group of soldiers on his way to the presidency for an urgent meeting, a sign indicating that he was still under watch after reportedly released on Thursday, according to reports reaching here.

The situation is complicated with government ministers condemning Thursday's event at an extraordinary meeting, and soldiers detaining the chief of defense staff, General Jose Zamora Induta, and 40 other officers.

Induta's deputy Antonio Indjai replaced him as the new army chief, who said on Thursday that the army was still submissive to political powers, while threatening to kill the prime minister if protests continued against the military action.

Hundreds of people gathered in front of the office of the prime minister in the capital Bissau, protesting against "coup d'etat" after Gomes Junior was taken away from his office by soldiers to an unknown place on Thursday morning.
Although President Sanha declared later in the day that "calm" had returned, the detention sparked an outcry from the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and the United States.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Thursday called on the military and political leadership in Guinea-Bissau to "resolve differences by peaceful means and to maintain constitutional order and ensure respect for the rule of law."

The unrest in Guinea-Bissau is the latest in a series to hit West Africa, where Mauritania, Guinea and Niger have witnessed the military coup since 2008.

The regional bloc ECOWAS was wary of another coup in Guinea- Bissau after President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated on March 2, 2009. ECOWAS kept watch on the country until the holding of elections on June 28, 2009, when Sanha was elected the new president.

ECOWAS has since warned that the military reform is critical to ensure the post-assassination stability in Guinea-Bissau.
Instability including the 1998-1999 civil war has haunted the country of 1.5 million population since its independence from Portugal 35 years ago. Coup attempts have repeatedly hit the headlines in Guinea-Bissau, especially since 2008.

The West African country of 1.5 million population foiled a mutiny after holding a legislative election in November 2008, when the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde won the victory.

The Interior Ministry reported another "coup attempt" in early June 2009, just days ahead of the June 28 presidential election.

The country is among the poorest in the world, being ranked the 175th out of 177 nations in the U.N. Development Program's Human Development Index.

With a jagged Atlantic coastline, Guinea-Bissau is chosen by traffickers as a major hub for the flow of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.

BEIJING, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Guinea-Bissau's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior was briefly detained on Thursday by military officers amid renewed fears of coup in the West African country.

Instability including the 1998-1999 civil war has haunted the country of a population of 1.5 million since its independence from Portugal 35 years ago.

The following is a chronology of key political events in Guinea-Bissau since 1980:

In November 1980, then prime minister Joao Bernardo Vieira ousted then president Luis Cabral, and took control of the country as president of the military-dominated revolutionary council.

In August 1994, Vieira won the first multiparty presidential election.

In June 1998, Vieira dismissed the army's chief of staff Ansumane Mane. The latter mounted a coup which failed and led to a civil war

In May 1999, Vieira was ousted by Mane's force. The president of the National Assembly (parliament), Malam Bacai Sanha, was named president of the transitional government.

In November 1999, Kumba Yala was elected as new president.

In September 2003, General Verissimo Seabra Correia launched a non-violent coup and arrested Yala. Henrique Rosa was named head of state.

In October 2004, several soldiers shoot Seabra to death.

In July 2005, Vieira returned and won the presidential election. He took office in October.

In March 2009, Vieira and army chief of staff Tagme Na Waie were assassinated. President of the National Assembly, Raimundo Pereira, assumed the interim presidency.

In June 2009, three senior politicians including a presidential candidate were killed by military police in what authorities said was a foiled coup plot.

In July 2009, Malam Bacai Sanha won the presidency.

MOGADISHU, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Islamist insurgent group of Al Shabaab in Somalia on Thursday vowed to take over the capital Mogadishu before the conclusion of the planned by European Union (EU) mission to train Somali government forces in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

The EU governments on Wednesday approved a Spanish-led military mission, starting April, to train almost 2,000 Somali government forces in Kampala, the Ugandan capital.

Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Raage, spokesman for Al Shabaab, the hardline Islamist group fighting the Somali government, said that the EU mission will further escalate Somalia conflict but vowed the group would take over the capital before the end of the training for the Somali troops.

The Islamist group, which controls much of south and center of Somalia, is the biggest and most powerful insurgent movement and has been waging deadly insurgency against the Somali government.

Somali government, which controls only parts of the restive capital with the backing of 5,000 African Union peacekeepers, has sent hundreds of new recruits for training in neighboring countries.

Somali government has lately been planning to launch a major offensive to drive out Islamist rebels from the capital Mogadishu in the initial stages of the onslaught and extend it to other insurgent controls parts of south and center of Somalia.

The EU mission is part of Somali government's plan to train nearly 6,000 troops to help stabilize the chaotic east African nation which has been through civil conflict for almost the past two decades.

KHARTOUM, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese opposition parties on Thursday divided among themselves where some decided to boycott the general elections, slated for April this year, some decided to participate and others said would announce their positions later.

After a prolonged meeting in Khartoum Thursday, the opposition parties issued a statement in which they said they have decided to boycott the elections.

However, the Popular Congress, the National Alliance and the Sudanese Congress parties have said they would participate in the elections, while the two major parties, the National Umma, led by Sidq al-Mahdi, and the Democratic Unionist Party, led by Mohamed Osman al-Merghani, have not yet decided their position.

The statement demanded postponement of the elections until November citing the lack of suitable political atmosphere, and the need to avail the opportunity to resolve the Darfur issue and involve the region in the elections.

The opposition parties, in their statement, also demanded dissolving of the National Elections Commission (NEC) and replacing it with personas, to be selected consensually by the political parties and the government, and correcting the NEC mistakes.

"The Sudanese political parties' alliance has seen defects in the current electoral process, a matter which will cause the elections to be unfair," the statement said.
The opposition parties further accused the NEC of being biased in favor of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

In the meantime, the Umma Party (Reform and Renewal) and the Communist Party affirmed that they have withdrawn their candidates from the Sudanese presidential race.

"We have decided to withdraw from the presidential and legislative elections and we will not return to take part unless the government agrees to reform the NEC and respond to the complaints filed on broad violations in the electoral process," Spokesman of the Sudanese opposition parties, Farouq Abu Iyssa told reporters Thursday.

Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud, the chairman of the Sudanese Communist Party and the party's presidential candidate said that his party had decided to boycott the elections at all levels.

As for the Popular Congress Party, led by Hassan al-Turabi, it said it would participate in the elections.

The Democratic Unionist Party has not stated whether it would participate in the elections or boycott them, but the party leader Mohamed Osman al-Merghani earlier in the day affirmed that his party's position regarding the elections "will be decided in the coming days."

Abdul-Aziz Khalid, the presidential candidate of the National Alliance Party, and four others have affirmed their participation in the elections.

On Wednesday, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) announced withdrawal of its presidential candidate and said it would boycott the elections in the Darfur region.

KHARTOUM, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government on Thursday expressed appreciation of what it termed as "supportive U. S. stance" in the preparation of the country's general elections.

"We express our appreciation of the United States' keenness to help Sudan hold the elections on scheduled time, as well as the U. S. commitment to providing logistic support for the elections," Nafie Ali Nafie, assistant to the Sudanese president, told reporters following a meeting with U.S. special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration in Khartoum.

In the meantime, the Sudanese official praised what he considered as a "rational political stance" on the part of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the preparation of the general elections.

He vowed to organize the referendum on self-determination for southern Sudan, saying "we are committed to organizing the referendum with the same transparency and keenness. We are fully ready to accept the referendum result."

The U.S. envoy on Thursday held a series of talks with the Sudanese government officials and leaders of a number of opposition political parties, with the focus on the opposition parties' stance regarding the general elections.

KHARTOUM, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The opposition may nominate one candidate for the presidential race, said a major Sudanese opposition leader Thursday, only a few hours before a meeting for Sudanese opposition parties to decide their position towards the elections.

"The opposition parties may agree to support one presidential candidate to compete with candidate of the National Congress Party (NCP), Omar al-Bashir," Mubarak al-Fadil al-Mahdi, chairman of National Umma Party (Reform and Renewal), told reporters in Khartoum Thursday.

He suggested that the opposition parties could agree also to partial elections and exclusion of the Darfur region until the Darfur crisis is resolved.

"It will be difficult to conduct the elections in Darfur under the deteriorated security conditions there," he said.

Sudanese opposition political parties recently submitted a memo to the Presidency and the National Elections Commission (NEC), demanding postponement of the elections until November, but the Sudanese president refused to postpone the elections even for "a single day".

This year's general elections will be the first multi-party elections in Sudan in more than 20 years.

DAKAR, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Guinea-Bissau's new army chief Antonio Indjai said on Thursday the country's army is submissive to political power, according to news reaching here.

The move came after the west African nation witnessed a political unrest early in the day.

In a statement read on national radio, the new army chief reiterated that the army remains to political power.

Guinea-Bissau's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior was briefly detained on Thursday by military officers amid renewed fears of coup in the Atlantic Ocean country in West Africa.

Instability including the 1998-1999 civil war has haunted the country of 1.5 million population since its independence from Portugal 35 years ago. Coup attempts have repeatedly hit the headlines in Guinea-Bissau, especially since 2008.

In the latest incident, which is already seen by many as another coup d'etat, Minister of Territorial Administration Luis Sanca was also taken hostage after the military officers broke into the office of the prime minister in the capital Bissau.

On Thursday morning, national radio stopped broadcasting programs and started playing military songs.

In the capital city, banks and office buildings were shut down.On the streets, only military vehicles could be seen moving, witnesses told Xinhua by phone.

Reports reaching here said the situation in the capital in under control now.

The West African country of 1.5 million population foiled a mutiny after holding a legislative election in November 2008, when the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) won the victory.

The country is among the poorest in the world, being ranked the 175th out of 177 nations in the U.N. Development Program's Human Development Index.

20100402
PRESS TV

After an apparent coup attempt in Guinea-Bissau, the country's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior says he will not resign his post.

The West African nation's premier, who was arrested by a group of soldiers on Thursday and freed after several hours, downplayed the army mutiny, adding that he would not resign.

"I will not resign because I was democratically elected. I consider what happened on Thursday as an incident," he told journalists after discussing the situation with the country's president, Malam Bacai Sanha.

Renegade soldiers threatened to kill Gomes on Thursday.

Despite Thursday's rebellion, which drew global condemnation from the United Nations and many other countries, Gomes said the situation in the country had stabilized.

"The situation is now stable. I can assure you that institutions will return to their normal functions," he stated.

The poor West African nation has fallen victim to a series of coups since declaring independence from Portugal in the 1970s.

20100402
PRESS TV

Two weeks after dissolving the country's cabinet, Nigeria's acting president Goodluck Jonathan says he will swear in 38 ministers to a new cabinet on Tuesday.

The announcement, which is expected to ease political uncertainty in Africa's most populous nation, comes as the country's Senate confirmed a list of 33 ministerial nominees for the new cabinet earlier on Wednesday.

"The acting president will on Tuesday, April 6 swear in the newly appointed ministers at the state house," spokesman Ima Niboro said, adding that Jonathan would assign them portfolios immediately afterwards.

Only nine ministers from the former cabinet have been included in the recently-approved list.

Former oil minister Odein Ajumogobia, ex-justice minister Adetokunbo Kayode and former Niger Delta minister Godsday Orubebe are among those scheduled to be retained in the cabinet.

Former vice president Jonathan took over as Nigeria's acting leader a month ago, seeking to fill a power vacuum imposed on the country due to President Umaru Yar'Adua serious illness.

20100402
ALLAFRICA

Harare — THE South African government has appealed against a ruling by a Pretoria High Court judge last month upholding a Sadc Tribunal judgement ordering Zimbabwe to compensate white farmers for land acquired for resettlement.

The appeal effectively stops the farmers, represented by a body that calls itself Afriforum, from attaching Zimbabwe Government property in South Africa.

Chief Director for Public Diplomacy in South Africa's Department of International Relations Mr Kgomotso Molobi on Wednesday told The Herald that they had appealed against the ruling.

Justice Garth Rabbie's ruling sought to enforce the Sadc Tribunal judgement in South Africa and white farmers were preparing to attach what they said were Zimbabwe Government properties in that country.

"The South African government has studied the judgement and it is appealing against it. However, we can't comment further because the matter is before the courts and it would be sub-judice," Mr Molobi said.

Zimbabwe's Ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, on Wednesday said: "The whole effort by this Afriforum organisation is to push a racial agenda.

"It is a well-known racial organisation represented only by white people," Ambassador Khaya Moyo said.

"They only serve the interests of white former Rhodesian farmers who do not appreciate the land reform programme but we cannot be bound by their wishful thinking.

"This push to attach Zimbabwe Government property is absolutely nonsensical."

In a recent interview with The Herald, Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa said all Government properties were protected by diplomatic protocols and could not be attached.

"Any judgement cannot be enforced and it is a matter of what the South African government would do to protect our properties.

"They cannot touch any of our properties because they are under diplomatic immunity. If they think they can get anything through the South African courts, they are just daydreaming," he said.

Online news reports on Tuesday indicated Afriforum was trying to attach three properties on the Cape Peninsula after identifying about 11 others, including four houses in Cape Town.

Zimbabwe's High Court has already refused to register the Sadc Tribunal ruling here saying it is against the national interest.

Government has said the ruling seeks to reverse the revolutionary land reform programme.

20100402
PRESS TV

A US warship has captured five suspected pirates who had opened fire from a small boat in the Indian Ocean near the Seychelles, the US Navy says.

On Thursday, The USS Nicholas, a US Navy frigate, was in the Indian Ocean just west of the Seychelles when it began to take fire from a suspected pirate vessel shortly after midnight local time.

The navy ship returned fire and pursued the pirate skiff for over an hour until it broke down and US sailors were able to board the vessel.

The Americans took three suspects into custody before sinking the vessel, the US Sixth Fleet said in a statement.

Two more suspected pirates were detained from a 'mother ship,' which was also seized, it said.

20100402
aljazeera



Five of Sudan's opposition parties have decided to boycott voting for parliament and regional governorships, a day after pulling out of presidential elections.

The extended boycott is part of an effort to further discredit forthcoming polls after allegations of widespread fraud and bias were ignored by the governing National Congress Party (NCP).

But unity amongst the opposition ranks is being threatened with at least two other opposition parties still unwilling to commit to a full withdrawal from the polls at present.

Despite deciding to pull out of the presidential polls, the Umma Party on Friday gave the government four days to meet a series of key demands, including a four-week postponement for the election.

The decision not to commit to full withdrawal comes amid concerns the party's grassroots activists may not support extending the boycott.

"Their lower ranks have invested time and personal money in their campaigns," one source said. "They may see a revolt if they go for a full boycott."

Demands

The party's other demands include freezing oppressive security laws, creation of a body to oversee the National Elections Commission they accuse of bias towards the NCP, fair access to state media, and for the ruling party to stop using state resources in its campaign.

"If these eight conditions are not fulfilled by April 6, the Umma party will boycott all the process of elections," Sara Luqdallah, a senior party official, said.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) appeared to retreat from an earlier committment to join a full boycott following talks with opposition leaders and the NCP on Friday.

Amid continuing uncertainty over the elections, Scott Gration, the US envoy, arrived in Khartoum on Thursday. Umma party officials said Gration was "trying to achieve the delay" to salvage the elections' credibility.

Analysts said that this week's withdrawals from the presidential election, triggered by a shock annoucement from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Wednesday that its presidential cadidate would not run, had effectively handed a hollow first-round victory to Omar al-Bashir, the sitting president.

Opposition fears

The boycott comes after al-Bashir repeatedly dismissed calls from opposition parties for the elections to be delayed until November on the basis that the country is not ready to go to the polls.

The opposition says many candidates have not been given fair opportunity to carry out significant electoral campaigns in the volatile country.

They have insisted that going ahead with the elections would be a "disaster" for Sudan.

Speaking on Wednesday, Khalil Ibrahim, the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), the biggest opposition group in Darfur, told Al Jazeera that many eligable voters are being excluded from taking part in the polls.

"These elections are based mainly on false senses, especially in Darfur," he said. "Masses of populations ... will be excluded from the elections."

'Chaos and war'

Ibrahim warned that an al-Bashir victory would be a catastrophe for the country. "He will continue the violence, especially in the west part of Sudan," he said.

"I don't think the other parties will accept this, there will be chaos and war if he [al-Bashir] wins."

But al-Bashir's NCP deny that there is a popular appetite for delaying the polls and say they will push ahead with the process.

Dr Omar Rahman, a senior NCP member, told Al Jazeera that people in Sudan are keen for the elections to go ahead.

"Whether they [the SPLM] participate or not, the people have decided that elections are something they have looked forward to for years," he said on Thursday, before news of the opposition boycott broke.

"We are looking forward to peaceful and transparant elections."

The NCP has ruled Sudan in a coalition with the SPLM since a peace deal ended a 22-year civil war between North and South Sudan in 2005, and many see successful elections as a key part of a fragile peace process.

The north-south war claimed an estimated two million lives and destabilised much of East Africa.

20100402
aljazeera



Umaru Yar'Adua, the ailing Nigerian president, has met senior Islamic clerics at his residence in the capital, Abuja, media outlets have reported.

Ustaz Musa Mohammed, the chief imam of the Abuja National Mosque, told Nigeria's ThisDay and Daily Trust newspapers on Friday, that he met Yar'Adua at the president's palace and prayed with him on Thursday.

Mohammed said Yar'Adua did not stand for the five-minute visit, though the president could pray aloud and raise his hands when "communicating with Allah".

"We set up the meeting because we wanted to know the truth to see whether he is alive," Mohammed said. "We have now seen him and we are satisfied that he is recovering."

The 58-year-old leader, who has long suffered from kidney ailments, has not made a public appearance since he left for treatment in Saudi Arabia at the end of November. He was flown back to Nigeria two months ago but remains too frail to govern.

Power transfer

Goodluck Jonathan, his deputy, has taken over his executive powers as acting president in his absence.

Yar'Adua's secretive return in the middle of the night raised fears that his inner circle of aides, led by his wife Turai, would fight to maintain their influence over Africa's most populous nation and seek to undermine Jonathan.

The country had been plunged into a near constitutional crisis, with protests held in the capital demanding Yar'Adua's resignation while he was away for treatment.

Jonathan sacked his entire cabinet in March only a month after parliament empowered him to run the country.

The senate on Wednesday confirmed 38 new ministers proposed by Jonathan for his new cabinet.

Jonathan, from the southern Niger Delta, is unlikely to run in elections in April next year because of an unwritten agreement that power rotates between the north and south.

Yar'Adua is a Muslim from the north and his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, was a Christian from the south.

A power struggle could paralyse the Nigerian government and threaten an amnesty programme in the oil-producing Niger Delta, jeopardising reforms in sectors from banking to oil and gas.

20100402
aljazeera



Guinea-Bissau's president has said the situation in his country is "calm" after soldiers arrested the army chief and prime minister in an apparent coup attempt.

Malam Bacai Sanha told public radio on Thursday that the army chief had been detained and the prime minister – who had earlier been taken by soldiers - was at home, apparently under house arrest.

Sanha put the situation down to some "confusion between soldiers".

A military source said soldiers had escorted Carlos Gomes Jr, the prime minister, to his home after his arrest and soldiers were controlling the streets in the area.

About 40 officers were also said to have been arrested.

Antonio Indjai, the newly-designated army chief, said on national radio that the show of force by mutinous solders was purely a military problem and the army remained submissive to political power.

"The Guinea-Bissau armed forces would like to make the point that events which occurred this Thursday morning are a purely military problem and do not concern the civil government.

"The army reiterates its attachment and its submission to political power. Military institutions remain, and will remain, submissive to political power."

Show of support

National radio broadcasts were interrupted by military music - often a signal that a coup is taking place - and hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the government headquarters after news of the arrest spread, to demand the prime minister's freedom.

Indjai threatened to kill Gomes - whose nickname is "Cadogo" - in a public radio broadcast if his supporters continued to press for his release.

"We ask you to stop anything that attracts a crowd in the streets. If you do not do this, we will have to kill Cadogo," the general said.

Indjai said Jose Zamora Induta, the army chief of staff, and Gomes "must pay for all the crimes they have committed".

During his news conference, Indjai was accompanied by Bubo Na Tchuto, a former head of the navy, who had earlier left a UN building in Bissau where he had spent 94 days.

A group of soldiers went to the UN office and walked out with Na Tchuto, who had been taking refuge there after being suspected of leading a failed 2008 coup.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, urged "the political leadership of Guinea-Bissau to resolve differences by peaceful means and to maintain constitutional order and ensure respect for the rule of law", on Thursday.

Jean Ping, the African Union commission chairman, said in a statement that he was following the events "with great concern".

"In the face of developments which show the volatile nature of the situation in the country and reveal the urgent need for reform of the defence and security sector, the commission chairman calls on all Guinea-Bissau armed forces to respect republican order," the statement said.

Spain, the holder of the rotating European Union presidency, on Thursday called for a swift re-establishment of "legitimate order".

'No problem'

Despite the turmoil and international concern, Sanha said on Thursday that "there is no problem".

"There was a situation of confusion," Sanha said in a statement broadcast on Portugal's Antena 1.

"There was a confusion between soldiers that reached the government, but the situation is calm.

"We are going to try to work on calming the situation and resolve the problem," he said.

The former Portuguese colony has seen repeated coups since independence in 1974.

A new crisis erupted in March 2009 when Joao Bernardo Vieira, the then president, was murdered by troops, apparently in revenge for the killing, hours earlier, of the armed forces chief.

The country has been overwhelmed by the international drugs trade, becoming a key transit point in cocaine smuggling between South America and Europe.

20100401
africanews

The African Union Commission (AUC) has decided to deploy an election observation mission to the Sudan for the general elections scheduled for 11 to 13 April 2010. The observation team would be led by John Kufuor, former President of the Republic of Ghana.

The AU Mission is expected to make an independent and impartial observation of the Sudan general election.

An advance team of eight monitors were also deployed to Sudan on March 18, 2010 in conformity with the Electoral Code of Conduct drawn up by the African Union High Level Panel on Darfur (AUHIP). It stipulates that “the African Union shall promote mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of this code”.

Accordingly, the advance team of monitors is working closely with political parties and relevant authorities to promote the implementation of the Electoral Code of Conduct.

Prepared by the AUHIP, the Code has been signed by 26 political parties contesting the forthcoming elections.

The AU Observer Mission is expected to observe the Sudanese elections in accordance with the AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa and the AU Guidelines for Election Observation and Monitoring. Based in Khartoum and in Juda, the AU Observer Mission is also expected to liaise with the National Electoral Commission and other election stakeholders.

The AU Mission to be deployed across Sudan is composed of fifty personalities including Ambassadors, members of national parliaments, members of the Pan African Parliament, high officials of national electoral bodies, members of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the AU (ECOSSOC), members of the African Human Rights Court and representatives of the African Civil Society.

As background, in 2005 the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) put forth, democratic and multiparty elections as an obligation in the implementation process of the National Unity Government of Sudan.

Election boycott

Nearly all Sudanese opposition parties have joined the southern SPLM in pulling out of this month's elections, citing fears of rigging and insecurity. The announcement comes after crisis talks hosted by US envoy Scott Gration.

Meanwhile, Veteran Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi confirmed that candidates from his Popular Congress Party would contest the poll.

But the Umma party of former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Communist party have all said they will no longer participate.

The opposition parties and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) - which serves in a coalition at national level with President Omar al-Bashir - all believe the electoral process has been rigged in favour of his National Congress Party.

They say the registration process has been flawed, and their access to state media and rights to hold rallies restricted.

SPLM presidential candidate Yassir Arman announced on Wednesday that he was pulling out of the election.

He also cited a lack of preparedness for the election in the Darfur region, where a rebellion has been taking place since 2003.

"The people of Darfur in the internally displaced people's camps asked the SPLM not to be involved in the election," he said. "Our response to the people of Darfur's Political Bureau is that we have decided not to run," according to the BBC.

The SPLM is still planning, however, to contest the parliamentary and municipal elections elsewhere in Sudan on the same day as the presidential poll.

The other opposition parties are still deciding whether to take part in those elections.

The US envoy to Sudan is meeting all the parties in an effort to keep the elections on track.

He said that if the opposition withdraw from the legislative elections it is not clear whether they will still be held.

President Bashir has threatened to cancel a promised referendum on independence for the South if the SPLM boycotts the poll.

However the SPLM and Western countries have said that the referendum and the election are separate issues, which should not be linked.

The SPLM joined the unity government in 2005 as part of a peace deal ending a two-decade civil war.

Some 1.5 million people died in the conflict between the mainly Muslim North and the South, where most people are Christian or follow traditional beliefs.

20100402
AFRICANEWS

Many houses in the capital of Zambia have been submerged due to the heavy rains being experienced compounded with poor drainage system. Lusaka is said to be built on top of a rock making it difficult for water to sink.
The townships are the most affected, the situation is worse in Kuku township commonly known as Blue Water Site located just one and half kilometers from the central district.

In some houses property has been damaged as residents fled their homes following the rising water levels. Some pit latrine toilets have been submerged threatening a health hazard situation because the water is contaminated with human excretion.. There have been cases of cholera in the townships.

Thieves are taking advantage of the situation by stealing from the vacated houses while cases of murder have also been recorded. Movements in the area is another hassle, gumboots is the convenient type of shoe.

The Disaster Management Unit has identified a site on the north of the city where a thousand plus floods victims have so far been relocated. The Zambia Army has erected some tents where the floods victims are accommodated. Some facilities such as water, mobile toilets have been brought to the site.

The Zambia Red Cross has set up a base to provide health care while a pre-school has been opened. The flood victims are happy with the new homes but their worry is where to since this is temporal. It may not be possible for many to go back to their houses and they are appealing to government to find a conducive permanent place.

Some sections of the society are calling on government to declare the situation as a national disaster.

The Local Authority says many affected places are settlements that were not planed for residential. Some people just occupied the area with the local authority approval. So far government is yet to come up with a lasting solution to the poor drainage system in the Lusaka.

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WASHINGTON, Apr 2 (IPS) - When Pres. Barack Obama took office in January 2009, it was widely expected that he would dramatically change, or even reverse, the militarised and unilateral security policy that had been pursued by the George W. Bush administration toward Africa, as well as toward other parts of the world.

After one year in office, however, it is clear that the Obama administration is following essentially the same policy that has guided U.S. military policy toward Africa for more than a decade. Indeed, the Obama administration is seeking to expand U.S. military activities on the continent even further.

In its FY 2011 budget request for security assistance programmes for Africa, the Obama administration is asking for 38 million dollars for the Foreign Military Financing programme to pay for U.S. arms sales to African countries.

The administration is also asking for 21 million dollars for the International Military Education and Training Programme to bring African military officers to the United States, and 24.4 million dollars for Anti-Terrorism Assistance programmes in Africa.

The Obama administration has also taken a number of other steps to expand U.S. military involvement in Africa.

In June 2009, administration officials revealed that Pres. Obama had approved a programme to supply at least 40 tonnes of weaponry and provide training to the forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia through several intermediaries, including Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya, and France.

In September 2009, Obama authorised a U.S. Special Forces operation in Somalia that killed Saleh Ali Nabhan, an alleged al Qaeda operative who was accused of being involved in the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, as well as other al Qaeda operations in east Africa.

In October 2009, the Obama administration announced a major new security assistance package for Mali - valued at 4.5 to 5.0 million dollars - that included 37 Land Cruiser pickup trucks, communication equipment, replacement parts, clothing and other individual equipment and was intended to enhance Mali's ability to transport and communicate with internal security forces throughout the country and control its borders.

Although ostensibly intended to help Mali deal with potential threats from AQIM (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), it is more likely to be used against Tuareg insurgent forces.

In December 2009, U.S. military officials confirmed that the Pentagon was considering the creation of a 1,000-strong Marine rapid deployment force for the new U.S. Africa Command (Africom) based in Europe, which could be used to intervene in African hot spots.

In February 2010, in his testimony before a hearing by the Africa Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson declared, "We seek to enhance Nigeria's role as a U.S. partner on regional security, but we also seek to bolster its ability to combat violent extremism within its borders."

Also in February 2010, U.S. Special Forces troops began a 30-million-dollar, eight-month-long training programme for a 1,000-man infantry battalion of the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the U.S.-refurbished base in Kisangani.

Speaking before a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing in March 2010 about this training programme, General William Ward, the commander of Africom, stated "should it prove successful, there's potential that it could be expanded to other battalions as well."

During the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Ward also discussed Africom's continuing participation in Ugandan military operations in the DRC against the Lord's Resistance Army. Despite the failure of "Operation Lightning Thunder", launched by Ugandan troops in December 2008 with help of Africom (included planning assistance, equipment, and financial backing), Ward declared, "I think our support to those ongoing efforts is important support."

And in March 2010, U.S. officials revealed that the Obama administration was considering using surveillance drones to provide intelligence to TFG troops in Somalia for their planned offensive against al-Shabaab. According to these officials, the Pentagon may also launch air strikes into Somalia and send U.S. Special Forces troops into the country, as it has done in the past.

This growing U.S. military involvement in Africa reflects the fact that counterinsurgency has once again become one of the main elements of U.S. security strategy.

This is clearly evident in the new Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR) released by the Pentagon in February.

According to the QDR, "U.S. forces will work with the military forces of partner nations to strengthen their capacity for internal security, and will coordinate those activities with those of other U.S. government agencies as they work to strengthen civilian capacities, thus denying terrorists and insurgents safe havens. For reasons of political legitimacy as well as sheer economic necessity, there is no substitute for professional, motivated local security forces protecting populations threatened by insurgents and terrorists in their midst."

As the QDR makes clear, this is intended to avoid the need for direct U.S. military intervention: "Efforts that use smaller numbers of U.S. forces and emphasise host-nation leadership are generally preferable to large-scale counterinsurgency campaigns. By emphasising host-nation leadership and employing modest numbers of U.S. forces, the United States can sometimes obviate the need for larger-scale counterinsurgency campaigns."

Or, as a senior U.S. military officer assigned to Africom was quoted as saying in a recent article in the U.S. Air University's Strategic Studies Quarterly, "We don't want to see our guys going in and getting wacked...We want Africans to go in."

Thus, the QDR goes on to say, "U.S. forces are working in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Colombia, and elsewhere to provide training, equipment, and advice to their host-country counterparts on how to better seek out and dismantle terrorist and insurgent networks while providing security to populations that have been intimidated by violent elements in their midst."

Furthermore, the United States will also continue to expand and improve the network of local military bases that are available to U.S. troops under base access agreements.

The resurgence of Vietnam War-era counterinsurgency doctrine as a principal tenet of U.S. security policy, therefore, has led to a major escalation of U.S. military involvement in Africa by the Obama administration that seems likely to continue in the years ahead.

*Daniel Volman is the Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC. He is the author of numerous articles and reports and has been studying U.S. security policy toward Africa and African security issues for more than 30 years.