15 Sep 2009

A British filmmaker from the northwestern city of Liverpool has been freed following his incarceration without charge in the Republic of Congo.

Graham Hughes, 30, was arrested last week in Brazzaville, the country's capital, while on a round-the-world charity tour. He had been taken into custody at a checkpoint and held since September 10, when security officers accused him of taking pictures of “political figures.”

His arrest in the Central African state was the globetrotter's second in his attempt to travel to some 192 world states by public means of transportation.

Hughes had earlier been taken into custody in June at Santiago - the largest island of Cape Verde - on allegations of unlawful entry into the country.

The video director set off for his global charity journey from West Derby in January. He has great hopes of raising 1 million British pounds (nearly $1.65 million) for the London-based WaterAid, a charity dedicated to providing safe drinking water and hygiene education to the world's poorest people.

The thirty-year-old adventurer captures episodes of his journey on camera for transmission on Lonely Planet Television and for display in National Geographic.

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afrol News, 15 September - The European Council has adopted a joint action on the EU mission to provide advice and assistance for security sector reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Joint Action renews EUSEC RD Congo's mission statement and under the new Joint Action, the EUSEC RD Congo Mission is designed to assist the Congolese authorities in setting up a defence apparatus capable of guaranteeing the security of the Congolese people, while respecting democratic standards, human rights and the rule of law, as well as the principles of good governance and transparency.

In particular, the mission will also contribute, in close coordination with international partners, to creating conditions to facilitate the implementation of the guidelines adopted by the Congolese authorities in the revised plan for reform of the Armed forces of DR Congo (FARDC) approved by the DRC President at the end of May 2009.

The Joint Action will cover a period of one year, from 1 October 2009 until 30 September 2010, with about 10,9 million euros budgeted for thw whole mission.

The European Union has been conducting the EUSEC RD Congo mission since June 2005. The mission, currently composed of some 60 personnel headed by General Jean-Paul Michel, has been instrumental in the implementation of several key projects such as the "chain of payments" project and the biometric census of the troops in the DRC's armed forces.

The EU has consistently supported security sector reform in the DRC, as one of the elements of a more general EU commitment to supporting development and democracy in the African Great Lakes Region.

afrol News, 15 September - Thirty-One people have been reported killed in a cattle rustling battle between the herdsmen in the northern district in central Kenya.

The conflict is reported to have taken place between comunity members of Samburu and Pokot.

The Daily Nation reported Internal Security assistant minister Orwa Ojode confirming the killings and further saying that over 100 heads of cattle had been stolen during the early morning raid in the mainly pastoral area.

“I’ve been told that even children have been killed. I will give the correct picture once I land on the ground,” he told the newspaper.

The persistent drought in the region has largely been blamed for the conflicts where pastoralists have had to fight over greener patches and watering holes for their animals.

The Kenyan government has vowed to sweep the region of such incidents this time around, calling for supporting for the regional leaders.

The northern region of Kenya borders parts of Somalia, Southern Sudan and Southern Ethiopia, where the proliferation of small arms into the hands of the pastoralists has been seen as a major security crisis in the region.

Conflicts over pastural land have even crossed the borders creating serious diplomatic feuds between Kenya and its neighbours.

This hand out picture released on September 15, 2009 by the Belgian navy shows a seaman rescuing a refugee in the Gulf of Aden on September 14, 2009.

15 Sep 2009
The United Nations refugee agency fears as many as 65 Somali migrants have died off the Yemeni coast in separate incidents onboard three smuggling boats.

The UNHCR said on Tuesday that sixteen deaths had been confirmed, including eleven cases of suffocation and three deaths due to excessive beating by human traffickers.

The fate of 49 people, missing after one of the three boats capsized and another one sank, remains unknown,

The UN refugee agency fears the death toll in the incidents, which occurred in the dangerous Gulf of Aden waters on Sunday and Monday, will rise to 46.

Ninety-eight people swam ashore.

One of the boats experienced engine failure and capsized when the smugglers onboard attempted to jump overboard.

The other vessel, carrying 112 Somalis, imprisoned some passengers in the engine room, where 14 people died of asphyxiation and beating.

The third boat with 46 people onboard sank. The Belgian navy says 38 refugees were rescued.

According to UNHCR estimates, 43,586 refugees on 860 boats have fled politically unstable and famine-ridden Horn of Africa on perilous journeys to Yemen.

The UN refugee agency also expressed alarm at the “increasing number of larger vessels making the journey” that put more lives at risk.

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A Southern Sudanese woman (file photo): Poor rains and conflict have increased the number of people who do not have enough to eat in Jonglei and Eastern Equatoria states

NAIROBI, 15 September 2009 (IRIN) - The number of people who do not have enough to eat in Southern Sudan has increased significantly from initial projections, due to poor rains and escalating conflict between communities, a food early warning agency has said.

Recent assessments found that up to 1.3 million people were food insecure - an increase of 20 percent on earlier projections. Most of these were in Jonglei and Eastern Equatoria states where needs have tripled and doubled respectively, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net) said in a September update.

Current food insecurity, it added, would persist until late October, when harvests were expected. Despite predictions of a high probability of normal to above normal rainfall between September and December, delayed crops were at risk of flooding - something which is common in Southern Sudan.

"Persistent inter-clan and inter-tribal cattle raiding conflicts since last year, and last year’s crop shortfalls caused by June-August dryness followed by floods, have been the main causes of food insecurity," it noted.

"Below average rains from May through August have now dampened the prospects for recovery that were expected with the onset of the September-October harvest, which has now been delayed."

In August, Lise Grande, the UN deputy resident and humanitarian coordinator in Southern Sudan, warned that the region faced a massive food deficit caused by a combination of late rains, high levels of insecurity and displacement, disruptions to trade and high food prices.

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Ostracized for marrying a man from a marginalized clan

NAIROBI, 15 September 2009 (IRIN) - In the eyes of her family and relatives, Ubah Abdi Adood committed a serious crime by marrying a man from the "wrong" clan.

Adood, 29, fled her home at the end of 2008 not because of fighting but because of threats and beatings from those closest to her. Adood's husband, Mahamud Abdi, is from one of Somalia's marginalized minority groups, the Madiban.

Minority groups such as the Madiban, Gabooyo and Tumal, are often discriminated against, mostly for the work they do, such as shoemaking and iron-smelting. Though Somalis and Muslims, these minority groups have traditionally never married into the larger Somali clans and do not mix with them socially. Adood spoke to IRIN on 15 September:

"I knew Mahamud [husband] before we got married. We both grew up in Galkayo in the same area. But because of his clan, I never really paid any attention to him. I was married off young to a man who died shortly afterwards, and my family then married me off again - but that marriage ended up in a divorce.

"We met again in 2007 and we started seeing each other secretly. I fell in love with him. He is kind, gentle and handsome. I adore him.

"We decided to get married in secret. We did it in July 2007. That is when all my problems started. My family and relatives found out and immediately wanted me to get a divorce. I refused. I was beaten repeatedly by my brothers, cousins and uncles. He [Mahamud] was threatened and on one occasion shot at. He fled to the south side of Galkayo [the town is partly in Puntland and partly in south-central Somalia].

"My relatives found out that I was pregnant with Mahamud's child and tried to force me to abort. I had to sleep in friends' homes or hotels to evade them.

"My mother was the only one who tried to protect me. At one time they broke my mother's arm while she was trying to protect me from the beatings.

"I told them my husband is Muslim and that is all I care. I didn’t break any laws, but they would not listen.

"Finally, my mother and I decided that I should leave before they killed me.

"I am now in Nairobi but even here I don’t feel safe. I was recently attacked and now I stay indoors. I don’t go anywhere. My husband fled to Ethiopia. I hope we will be reunited soon in a place we can both feel safe.

"I know we will never be able to return to our homes and live in peace. I am sure if we return to Galkayo we will be killed."

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A government car is set ablaze in Hargeisa, capital of the secessionist territory of Somaliland , on 12 September as opposition supporters and civil service activists protested the closure of the lower house of representatives

HARGEISA, 15 September 2009 (IRIN) - There is a need for all-inclusive consultation and support for local mediation efforts in secessionist Somaliland, which has recently experienced sporadic opposition and civil society-led protests over the indefinite postponement of national elections there, say analysts.

Initially set for April 2008, national polls were pushed to July, then 27 September, before being postponed indefinitely due to the current political situation.

In July, Somaliland president Dahir Riyale Kahin announced that he and the National Election Commission had decided to discard a recently completed hi-tech biometric voters' register, over the generation of an unreliable list, and would proceed with elections without it. This prompted opposition protests.

According to Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, a veteran of the 1981-1991 Somaliland liberation war, the situation in Somaliland is alarming.

"Somaliland has experienced so many difficult situations but this is unique because it is not a matter that can be resolved traditionally. It is based on voter registration, elections, and a motion to impeach the president," Gabobe said. "For this reason, we are obliged to make wide consensus consultations to deal with the issue."

Protests

The 14 September re-opening of the House of Representatives, which had been shut days earlier after a scuffle among members of parliament, has not eased the conflict, Gabobe said. The closure sparked deadly protests in the capital, Hargeisa, on 12 September in which four people died and 22 were injured.

"The solutions must come from an all-party or stakeholder agreement. The National Election Commission, political parties, the upper and lower houses of parliament, traditional elders and civil society should be consulted; it is not an issue for one party," he said, adding that more public protests were likely.

The opposition-led house was set to debate an impeachment motion against president Riyale over the oft-postponed elections before its closure.

Somaliland is governed by an elected lower House of Representatives and an upper house comprising clan elders. The elders have twice extended president Riyale's mandate.

A Nairobi-based regional analyst who preferred anonymity told IRIN the recent violence showed that the crisis in Somaliland had changed from being "political to one of security and stability".

"It underscores the importance of political dialogue to defuse the situation," he said. "For things to improve, the rule of law must be followed. This includes the holding of credible elections based on an agreed formula."

"For any elections to be credible there must be changes in the electoral commission," he said. "In the short-term there has to be some sort of short extension for the government, but if it does not hold elections in that time, then the other option would be a caretaker government."

Nicole Stremlau, a research fellow with Oxford University's Comparative Media Law and Policy Programme, said the recent violence did “not necessarily mean that the country will erupt into civil war"... Things in Somaliland appeared to be settling down after Saturday [12 September] as the negotiations are continuing."

She said: "President Riyale believes his government should remain in power whereas the opposition argues a caretaker government should be put in place… "

Riyale's term in office expires on 29 October.

More active role for media urged

A September report on the upcoming Somaliland elections, in which Stremlau and Gabobe are among the authors, said: "Just as Somaliland’s pre-election period is proving exceptionally divisive and conflictual, there are strong indications to suggest that if the election is as close as predicted there will be challenges in the post-election period."

The report thus urges the media to be more proactive. "It [the media] can have a role in potentially exacerbating tensions and violence as well as mediating, appealing for calm and explaining the political developments to the population," Stremlau said.

"In recent years there has been little international attention on Somaliland as the focus has been on the south. But Somaliland has made significant progress and has held competitive elections in the past."

HRW report

Echoing this, a July report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), warned that 18 years of progress in security and governance were threatened by the delayed elections.

"Somaliland now faces a moment of real danger. The president may be intending to prolong his mandate without elections for as long as possible, and his administration risks doing lasting damage to Somaliland’s emerging democratic system in the process," warned HRW.

HRW noted that there are also "severe limits to public willingness to openly challenge government actions for fear of threatening Somaliland’s hard-won peace and stability or damaging its chances of international recognition."

It went on: "The president and his party have successfully exploited this widespread aversion to direct confrontation to occupy a space well past the legal limits of their power but short of what would trigger real public anger. Many Somalilanders lament that they are effectively 'hostages to peace'."

According to Stremlau, the international community must support local negotiation efforts: "The Somalilanders have shown an extraordinary ability to mediate themselves. This is part of Somaliland’s success, particularly compared with the south where international involvement has further complicated and prolonged the violence."


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Central Bank of Nigeria


A Nigerian court sets tough bail terms for the chief executive officers of three banks who are facing trial over alleged financial crimes.

Two other bail applications by FinBank PLC and Intercontinental Bank PLC officials, also facing charges, will be decided on Tuesday.

Judge Dan Abutu of a Lagos court ordered each of the former heads of the Oceanic International Bank PLC, Union Bank Nigeria PLC and Afribank PLC, to pay a bail for 100 million naira (USD 649,000).

Conditions under the bail included barring the three executives from leaving Nigeria and the securing of the bail by two guarantors who are serving members of parliament or chairmen of a financial or oil services firm which have assets of at least one billion naira.

All the chief executive officers were charged on August 31 and are facing charges ranging from recklessly granting loans, to share price manipulations following a USD 2.6 billion bailout last month. Their trial will continue on November 23.

The Central Bank of Nigeria injected 400 billion naira (USD 2.6 billion) into Afribank, FinBank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank a month ago and sacked their chief executives, saying they were so weakly capitalized that they posed a systemic risk.

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Picture released by the Kenyan police in 2002 shows Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan

After interference in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US has now made itself busy in Somali soil, claiming to have "likely killed" one of their most wanted men and his companions.

American sources familiar with the operation said late on Monday, that their Special Forces' helicopter-borne troops attacked a car in southern Somalia and killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was wanted over a hotel bombing that killed 15 people and a failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner departing from Kenya's Mombassa airport in 2002.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States has retrieved what it believed was the body of the 28-year-old Kenyan-born Nabhan.

Meanwhile, a senior Somali government source in Mogadishu told Reuters that the fugitive had been riding in a car with four other top foreign commanders when they were attacked near Roobow village in Barawe District, some 250 km (155 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu.

The Somali source said all five were killed in the raid. However, a BBC report quoted witnesses as saying that the troops took away two people and left two bodies in the road after the attack near the southern town of Barawe.

A local witness said the foreign commandos, who carried out the raid, were wearing French flags on the shoulders of their uniforms. But a spokesman for the French Defense Ministry, Christophe Prazuck, denied any French soldiers were involved.

Paris maintains a large military base in neighboring Djibouti.

The US military is known for launching airstrikes inside Somalia, targeting individuals that Washington considers "legitimate targets" for assassinations.

In May 2008, the US claimed its war planes killed the then-leader of al-Shabaab group and alleged al-Qaeda's top man in the country, Afghan-trained Aden Hashi Ayro, in an attack on the central town of Dusamareb.

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Although Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has defused crisis for now, he is accused of rights abuses and political repression of opponents, analysts say.

Last week, three days of rioting rocked the Ugandan capital Kampala, leaving at least 21 people killed and more than 80 others injured, while the government arrested hundreds.

Protesters from the Baganda tribe took to the Kampala streets to protest against government's decision to bar their King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II from attending a ceremony in capital's north-eastern district of Kayunga.

Police spokeswoman Jujith Nabakooba said that 663 people had been arrested. Some 120 protesters were brought before a Kampala court on Monday and charged with offences, which include rioting and unlawful assembly and incitement, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Security forces have been accused of firing live bullets that killed more than a dozen people. As a result protesters reportedly attacked some security officers with guns and burned down a police post and some public premises, bringing the capital's business and traffic to standstill.

Meanwhile, critics accuse Museveni of rights abuses, political repression of opponents and of turning a blind eye to high level corruption, and they denounce his authoritarian leadership style.

They also say that he is determined to hold onto power in the region's third biggest economy.

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DAKAR, 14 September 2009 (IRIN) - Mamadou Ndiaye wades across his flooded house as his children bail out dirty water bucket by bucket. He and his family are among many thousands of Senegalese whose homes have been under water for days.

Thirty years ago when Ndiaye moved to Guédiawaye, 26km outside the city centre of the capital Dakar, the land was dry and cheap. Now residents of this densely populated suburb endure floods every rainy season.

Recurrent flooding in towns and cities across West Africa is more about people than rains, according to Professor Cheikh Mbow at the Institute of Environmental Sciences at the University of Dakar, who studies the impact of climate variability on urban flood risk. The region’s annual flooding reflects explosive population growth in the cities, poverty and poor urban management, he said.

“The rural poor come and settle on unsuitable land and are then exposed to flooding and other hazards like landslides and industrial risks.”

West Africa’s population is expected to grow at an average rate of 2.4 percent from between 2005 and 2010, and the population is likely to more than double from 293 million in 2008 to 617 million in 2050, according to the UN Population Fund, most of this growth in urban areas.

Amid this year’s flooding in West Africa, which the UN says has killed at least 160 people to date, observers repeatedly point to the problem of urban congestion. In Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown the main cause of recent flooding was “indiscriminate building” in green belt zones [undeveloped land] according to national disaster management head, Mary Kamara.

In northern Nigerian cities overpopulation has people building homes on waterways, with natural drainage systems becoming blocked by rubbish, according to Hassan Musa, an environmentalist at Bayero University in the northern city of Kano.

“In some cases when people build houses on waterways and the government hardly restrains them, this leads to a cycle of flooding, destruction and sometimes death,” Musa told IRIN.

''...We live in atrocious conditions. The flooding is a problem the government could solve. But they have forgotten us. It is that simple...''
Dakar: No urban plan

Fifty years ago Dakar consisted of a triangular peninsula surrounded by wetlands, known as “cap vert.” The once-green surroundings are now mostly grey, as a 1970s and 1980s Sahel-wide drought pushed rural dwellers to settle in the flood-prone depressions on the city’s outskirts in spite of regulations outlawing construction.

“The State has not really carried out a strong policy to ban occupancy of this unsuitable land," said Mbow. Now 95 percent of the Dakar region, which includes the districts of Pikine, Rufisque and Guédiawaye, is covered with buildings and roads that block natural waterways and basins.

Malick Faye, an urban planner at Dakar’s Regional Council, said the severely flooded neighbourhood of Wakhinane in Guédiawaye – where people have built at the level of the water table – is a good example of the wider problem.

“The water table used to be very low, but now that the rains have come back the water has returned to its natural level. So now all you need is 5mm of rain for it to flood,” he told IRIN.

While emergency response teams pump water from Dakar’s flooded neighbourhoods, experts agree that relocating people is the only solution.

“You can never fight the path of the water,” said the Mbow. “As you pump, the aquifer restores the water level. You have to take the people out and make sure others will not replace them.”

New cities

In response to devastating floods in Dakar in 2005 the government launched a housing scheme, ‘Plan Jaxaay’, aiming to relocate flood victims to an area 25km east of the capital.

The government has built 1,793 two-bedroom houses of a planned 3,000, as well as three primary schools, a technical college, a nursery school and a police station.

Cité Jaxaay resident Aliou Ba, a retired schoolteacher, is pleased with his new house. “I prefer living out in the sticks to living under water in the city,” he said. "The only problem is there is no electricity or running water yet.”

Chimère Diallo, field coordinator of Plan Jaxaay, said relocating 3,000 families is a good start, but it is not enough given the enormous scale of Senegal’s housing problem.

Some 1.6 million people live in Dakar’s suburbs, with 10,000 per square kilometre in some areas, according to Mbow.

The relocation task is enormous, said the regional council’s Faye. “If you want to move 2,000 families you must create a new city…with all the services and infrastructure required – electricity, water, drainage systems. This is an enormous task….Plan Jaxaay is a good thing. But we cannot build houses for everyone in a year.”

Frustration over the lack of services and dire conditions in Dakar’s suburbs recently boiled over into sreet protests.

Guédiawaye resident Ndiaye said: “We live in atrocious conditions. The flooding is a problem the government could solve. But they have forgotten us. It is that simple. We cannot count on our politicians. We can count only on ourselves.”

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JOHANNESBURG, 14 September 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will soon start distributing agricultural inputs funded by the European Union (EU) to 176,000 poor communal farmers in Zimbabwe.

The EU Food Facility is funding the inputs as part of a larger programme that brings together the humanitarian community in Zimbabwe to reach a total of 620,000 farmers with agricultural assistance this year.

The Food Facility funds are being channelled through UN agencies as well as other organizations. The FAO has allocated over $22 million of its share of more than US$290 million from the facility to Zimbabwe. The EU aims to bridge the gap between emergency aid and medium- to long-term development aid.

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HARARE, 14 September 2009 (IRIN) - It was in many ways a shotgun marriage, except that both the parties in Zimbabwe's unity government were equally unwilling.

On 15 September 2008 President Robert Mugabe, leader of ZANU-PF, and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway MDC faction, signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA), paving the way for the unity government to be established in February 2009.

For Mugabe it meant the dilution of nearly three decades of rule, while Tsvangirai agreed to accept the junior position of prime minister, even though his party had won a parliamentary majority and he had convincingly beaten Mugabe in the presidential ballot, but had withdrawn from the presidential run-off in protest over sometimes deadly political violence against his supporters.

The GPA was brokered by then South African president Thabo Mbeki - appointed as negotiator by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) - and was envisaged as the mechanism to begin healing the political rifts that had plunged once prosperous Zimbabwe into penury, disease and food insecurity.

A year later the GPA's track record is getting mixed reviews. Sokwanele, an NGO monitoring adherence to the agreement, cites Mugabe's ZANU-PF as being responsible for nearly 88.5 percent of all violations until the end of August 2009, the remainder being shared by Tsvangirai's and Mutambara's MDCs.

"ZANU-PF's favourite political tool - violence - still plagues Zimbabwe's populace to the extent that it is almost accepted as a norm by the majority," Sokwanele noted in a report published on 7 September 2009.
''ZANU-PF's favourite political tool - violence - still plagues Zimbabwe's populace to the extent that it is almost accepted as a norm by the majority''

A senior official in Mutambara's MDC, Renson Gasela, told IRIN: "There are a lot of positives that have been registered following the signing of the GPA - we now have goods in our shops, which was not the case before the GNU [Government of National Unity]. If the power-sharing deal is fully implemented, I think life will even be better for most Zimbabweans."

Tendai Musemburi, a political commentator based in the capital, Harare, told IRIN: "There are very obvious areas of improvement, especially in the area of availability in terms of food and basic commodities in the shops, which was not the case before the signing of the GPA ... The downside to that is that the US dollars needed to make purchases are not easily available."

The Zimbabwean dollar was discontinued and replaced by multiple foreign currencies to end hyperinflation measured in trillions of percent.

However, the GPA has failed to fulfil expectations that life would be better. "The disappointment emanates from the fact that many thought there would be more jobs, and that income levels would improve, but that has not really happened ... more needs to be done on the economic front to solve bread-and-butter issues," Musemburi said.

Degrees of peace

In a statement marking the anniversary Tsvangirai said: "A degree of peace and stability has begun to take root, and basic foods and services have returned to the country."

Nevertheless, he tempered the achievements of the GPA by commenting that ZANU-PF continued to "frustrate" full implementation of the agreement. "To make matters worse, the selective application of the rule of law, including the persecution and prosecution of MDC MPs, continues to inflame political tensions," he said in the statement.

"Equally problematic is the deliberately slow pace of progress on the implementation of key issues connected to human rights and the rule of law. This includes the self-evident deliberate stalemate on the constitutional reform process, as well as the slow pace of media reform."

Political analyst Godfrey Kanyenze said the GPA's first anniversary marked "a very clear stalemate. The MDC says there needs to be implementation of outstanding issues, while ZANU-PF says all issues have been implemented and that only sanctions are outstanding."

ZANU-PF believes the MDC has not campaigned enough for the removal of US and European Union sanctions targeting Mugabe and his associates for human rights abuses.

"The MDC, which urged its international supporters to impose the illegal sanctions, has the sole responsibility to ensure that its international supporters remove the sanctions forthwith," ZANU-PF said.

Western donors have adopted a wait-and-see approach, holding back billions of dollars in aid since the signing of the GPA in 2008 and the formation of the unity government in February 2009. Zimbabwe needs around US$8 billion to kick-start its ailing economy.

The MDC accuse Mugabe of bad faith in not swearing in its deputy agricultural minister, Roy Bennett, a former white farmer, and not resolving the outstanding issues of the appointment of the central bank governor and the attorney general without consulting the unity government partners, while also stalling the appointment of ten provincial governors that reflect the MDC's majority in parliament.

Media hatred

The state media continue to view the partners in the unity government "through the historic perspective of hatred and acrimony, blatantly advancing the interests of a single party [ZANU-PF]," Tsvangirai said.
''The distortions of the political reality by the state media present a real and credible threat to this inclusive government''

"The distortions of the political reality by the state media present a real and credible threat to this inclusive government and its ability to impact positively on the lives of all Zimbabweans."

In a recent report - The political and humanitarian challenges facing Zimbabwe's GPA leadership and its ordinary citizens - Solidarity Peace Trust, an NGO campaigning for peace, democracy and human rights, sounded a note of caution.

"In the absence of sound alternatives to the current political arrangement, the slow international response to the needs of the new government could strengthen the hand of the more regressive elements of the ruling party in the military and security, while frustrating the democratic forces within the transitional state."

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NAIROBI, 14 September 2009 (IRIN) - At least 12 disabled people were killed in Mogadishu when a shell landed in their compound, according to eyewitnesses.

"We were preparing to break our fast when a shell landed on our compound in Demartini hospital; 12 were killed on the spot and 16 injured and taken to hospital," said Abdullahi Hassan Hussein, a disabled activist.

The killing of the disabled is the latest act of violence in an increasingly conflict-ridden city, which has seen the displacement of hundreds of thousands from their homes since the end of 2006.

Ali Sheikh Yassin, deputy chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organization (EHRO), told IRIN the killings showed that parties to the conflict had reached a new low.

"We condemn this attack in the strongest terms possible and call on both sides to allow an independent investigation to find out who was behind it," he said.

Both the government and the opposition have denied being behind the attack.

The disabled were veterans of Somalia's 1977 war with Ethiopia and were considered heroes. The hospital compound is home to 90 of them and their families, said activist Hussein. "They have been here since the civil war started… I don’t know why they were targeted… These were our heroes and we are killing them now. No one is safe."

EHRO’s Yassin said more than 60 people were killed and 106 injured in fighting in Mogadishu in the last two weeks.

The fighting, between government forces backed by AMISOM (AU peacekeeping troops) and two Islamist insurgent groups, was entering a very dangerous phase "with both sides believing that it is now or never," he said.

People on the move

More families were leaving the city due to the uncertainty, he told IRIN, adding that the internally displaced persons' camps on the outskirts of Mogadishu were getting overwhelmed by the new influx.

Other people were moving towards the Kenyan border, said Asha Sha'ur, a civil society representative in Mogadishu. She said conditions in the camps around Mogadishu were deteriorating.

Previously, people fled north to the central regions but those regions have also become war zones. "Unfortunately no place seems safe inside our country," Sha'ur said. "How many more must die from hunger, disease or wounds, and how many more must lose their homes before this ends?"

Fighting has been going on in Mogadishu since Ethiopian troops withdrew in December 2008, leading to thousands of deaths and injuries, as well as thousands being displaced.

An estimated 3.76 million people - half the population - need assistance, according to the UN Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit.


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Ameerah Haq, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, meets civilians who fled LRA raids on their homes, during a visit to Yambio, Western Equatoria State

YAMBIO, 14 September 2009 (IRIN) - Attacks attributed to Ugandan-led rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have killed at least 188 civilians and displaced 68,000 in Southern Sudan since January 2009, with 137 abductions also reported, according to the UN.

"Many innocent people are losing their lives every week, and the United Nations is very concerned about the killing, abduction, maiming and displacement of innocent civilians," said Ameerah Haq, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan.

In Sudan, Western Equatoria State has been hardest hit by the recent upsurge in attacks blamed on the LRA, which have also taken place in several regions in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR).

"During the last six weeks alone, 11 incidents of LRA attacks have been reported, seven of them in the first week of September," Haq told reporters on 11 September during a visit to Yambio, the state capital of Western Equatoria.

In Nairobi, Justin Labeja, the head of the LRA's peace negotiating team, questioned the authorship of the attacks.

"It is very unfair because nobody can come up with clear concrete evidence. Who can say this is the LRA of [leader Joseph] Kony who is doing this?" he said.

What the "real LRA" is any more is hard to pin down. When it emerged in northern Uganda in the late 1980s the LRA was made up almost exclusively of people from the region's Acholi community, fighting perceived marginalization. The LRA now includes nationals from Sudan, the DRC and CAR - many as a result of recruitment-by-abduction. In Southern Sudan "LRA" has been used as a catch-all label for any armed group which attacks civilians.

However, those displaced by the latest attacks reported tactics which bore the hallmarks of the LRA, including grotesque killings and targeting church congregations.

Hard task

Combating the small groups of guerrillas - experienced in jungle warfare and able to slip across international frontiers with apparent ease - has become a hard task.

"There is not much coming from the [Sudanese] state, they are not able to provide the security that they [people] need," said the UN’s Haq. "While the humanitarian community is providing food and other non-food items, the food itself is becoming a magnet for LRA attacks… The answer to that is really how we can provide security around a perimeter."

Extra troops from the south’s military, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), have been sent to the region, according to spokesman Maj-Gen Kuol Diem Kuol.

"We are working hard and doing all we can to ensure the safety of ci vilians in the region," he explained.

The main military force are Ugandan troops, whose soldiers have established camps in Sudan to try and hunt down the now mobile LRA units in Southern Sudan, DRC and CAR.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNMIS) has just 200 blue helmets based in the sprawling region of Western Equatoria.

UN stretched

Officials said the force has been stretched by a string of recent violent inter-ethnic clashes elsewhere in Southern Sudan.

Its mandate, one official added, needed to be beefed up by the UN Security Council to allow active military engagement against the LRA.

"We need an integrated approach to really provide security to these people, [and] that will require the support of the UN and UNMIS," said Jemma Nunu Kumba, the governor of Western Equatoria.

"UNMIS needs to get involved just like MONUC [the UN peacekeeping mission] in Congo [DRC], to be able to repulse the rebels when they are attacking the civilians," he added.

Those displaced by the LRA say more effort is needed, not simply to hunt the rebels, but to provide security that would allow people to return to their homes.

"The LRA have killed our people, and they took two of my children," said Karina Zeferino, who fled after attacks in August on her hometown of Ezo, close to Sudan’s border with CAR.

She trekked the 155km to Yambio town with her remaining young daughter.

''The LRA will remain a problem and we will be unable to go home until pressure is really put on tnem by all sides''
After the attacks, peacekeepers airlifted UN staff and aid workers from Ezo by helicopter, shutting down international humanitarian work in that area.

"People are suffering, but we cannot go home because the LRA will attack again," added Zeferino, holding her child tightly to her side. "There is no help for us there, so that is why we have come to Yambio, but it is hard here too."

"The LRA will remain a problem and we will be unable to go home until pressure is really put on them by all sides," said Gaaniko Bate, a leader of the ever-growing Makpandu camp in Southern Sudan, which hosts some 2,530 refugees from DRC.

"These people will not be easily stopped," he added.

irinnews

Lake Kivu connects Goma and Bukavu; the capitals of North and South Kivu Provinces (file photo): In Goma, security incidents against humanitarian workers are on the rise

NAIROBI, 14 September 2009 (IRIN) - Security incidents against humanitarian workers in North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have increased by 26 percent since January compared to the same period last year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Goma city recorded a 44 percent increase compared with the same period in 2008. There was also an increase in the level of personal violence, OCHA said in a report on security incidents against humanitarian workers in the province.

NGOs were the primary target in rural areas, while UN agencies were less likely to be targeted due to their continued use of MONUC (UN military mission) military escorts when accessing insecure areas.

In Goma, UN staff appear to be as vulnerable as NGO staff, the report said.

On access, the report said UN agencies had easy access to only 0.9 percent of the 5,300km of roads in North Kivu; over 900,000 displaced people were in areas where military escorts were required.

irinnews

14 Sep 2009
France has denied claims that its forces were involved in a raid on a village in a rebel-controlled area of southern Somalia, in which elders say several were killed.

The raid in the village of Erile, about 200km south of the capital Mogadishu, saw four foreign helicopters opening fire on a vehicle believed to carry al Shabaab fighters on Monday, killing at least two people, elders and witnesses said.

A local Islamist commander who asked to remain anonymous claimed that the helicopters were French.

Some accounts of the incident in the southern coastal town of Barawe claimed that the foreign troops had uniforms with French insignia.

"There was no French operation," said Admiral Christophe Prazuck, spokesperson for the armed forces' general staff, insisting that the presence was strictly committed to the EU anti-piracy framework and would not "intervene over Somali territory."

Meanwhile, a Press TV correspondent in Somalia said one of the warplanes involved the raid was believed to be a US aircraft -- the low-flying AC-130. He added that the convoy was carrying at least 9 high-ranking al Shabaab fighters at the time of the attack.

The area is controlled by al Shabaab fighters, who are currently engaged in a massive offensive against the new transitional government in Somalia.

Two French intelligence agents were kidnapped from a Mogadishu hotel in July and separately held by two main rebel groups in the lawless country. One of the two was freed after six weeks, but the other is believed to be in al Shabaab captivity.

The French authorities maintain that the pair, who witnesses say posed as journalists while in Mogadishu, was advisors to the government of President Sharif Ahmed.

presstv

13 September 2009

Harare — Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party began high level talks at the weekend on proposals from its members to disengage from the unity government.

The party wants to put pressure on President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF to make concessions on the outstanding issues of their Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Mr Nelson Chamisa, the MDC spokesman said the party's national executive council met in the second city of Bulawayo on Saturday evening to kick start the consultation process.

The meeting will be followed up by that of the national council also in the same city on Sunday before the party holds celebrations to mark its 10 years of existence.

Mr Tsvangirai is under pressure from some hardliners in his party who want him to force Mr Mugabe to make compromises on the outstanding issues in the implementation of the last September 15 power-sharing agreement.

The failure by the Southern African Development Community to deal with Zimbabwe's long running crisis at its Democratic Republic of Congo summit has heightened tensions in the fragile coalition.

"We are looking at progress and the lack of it on the implementation of the GPA," he said. "This week's SADC summit will be a topical issue."

Key Western donors have refused to extend any support to the unity government until it implements major reforms.

But a defiant Mr Mugabe on Saturday claimed that he has met his side of the bargain in the GPA.

"They (the EU delegation) thought things were not working, yet we did all the things we were asked to do under the GPA, timeously even," Mr Mugabe said after he met a delegation of senior officials from the EU in the country for high level talks.

Mr Mugabe said he established a good rapport with the EU delegation during the meeting at State House.

"We established a good rapport," he said. "There was no animosity."

The delegation, which consisted off EU commissioner for development and humanitarian aid Karel de Gucht, Swedish International Corporation Corporation Minister Gunilla Carlsson and a representative from Spain is the visit to visit Zimbabwe in almost 10 years.

Mr Tsvangirai told them that there were serious challenges in the implementation of the GPA.

"We discussed the EU-Zimbabwe dialogue. We said there are issues in the GPA," he told a press conference after his meeting with the delegation," he told journalists in Bulawayo after talks with the EU officials.

"We want to see the full implementation of the agreement and that is why we have taken the issues to SADC.

"However there has to be progress. The pace of the GPA has been slow but I'm sure the three political principals will be able to sit down and solve the issues."

Ms Carlsson who led the delegation said the EU, which imposed sanctions on Mr Mugabe's inner circle for violating human rights said the block was prepared to re-engage Zimbabwe.

"We would like to engage with the government of national unity in Zimbabwe. But of course, we are concerned by the fact that there has been no progress on some issues included in the global agreement," she said.

"These specifically refer to governance issues."

The EU delegation made it clear that sanctions against Zimbabwe will not be removed until the GPA is fully implemented.

allafrica

13 September 2009

Police officers in riot gear have sealed off streets in Lusaka's main business area to stop hawkers from selling their merchandise.

The Ministry of Local Government and Housing, which is in charge of councils and sanitation welfare, recently released K2.1 billion (about Sh34.4 million) to the Zambia police to help remove the vendors from the streets of Lusaka.

Almost all streets of the Zambian capital, Lusaka, have a multitude of vendors selling all sorts of goods making it difficult for people to move on the streets or enter shops.

The vendors have even covered some lanes on main streets with their commodities. The vendors also sell their goods on the pathways, corridors of shops even entrances to shops.

Some shop owners are believed to be giving some of their goods to street vendors to be selling for them outside their shops because buyers opt to purchase goods from the streets instead of shops because the entrances are blocked by vendors.

The Ministry of Home Affairs - which is the parent ministry for the Zambia Police - and the Lusaka City Council gave the vendors an ultimatum of up to Saturday midnight to stop selling from the streets.

The police officers sealed off the streets early Sunday morning to prevent the vendors from continuing with their businesses.

But this is not the first time that the Zambia police and Lusaka City Council police have swung into action chasing vendors from the streets. Whenever they are barred, the vendors still come back on the streets after a period.

The government struggles to permanently remove street vendors because of their political influence as voters.

allafrica

14 September 2009

Nairobi — Despite the ongoing tensions in the region, President Paul Kagame sees a secure and peaceful East Africa and Africa in general thanks to ongoing efforts at economic integration.

And Kenyan politicians will need to display a higher degree of leadership and sense of ownership if the country is to pull back from the brink of self-destruction.

In a wide ranging interview with The EastAfrican, the Rwandan President argues it is not bullets and regional military formations that will bring enduring security to the region but aggregation of common interests across the region that will bring peace and stability.

"Security is not about guns. It is about the sentiments, the attitude, the benefit you get from the other and what he gets from you. Once you allow that to happen, work becomes easier," he says.

Making reference to the blood relations that cut across national borders in the region and official efforts at achieving regional integration, Kagame says while political leaders matter because they wield authority, it is important to find a point of convergence between the interests and hopes of the ordinary people for the process to pick up momentum.

Says he: "At times, even when there are issues between countries, like we have had for a long time with the DRC, ordinary people will still use informal panya [illicit] routes, they will trade with and visit each other. Even if you sent an army to stop them they will still do it because, for them, it is their life. I think they just fall short of saying, 'I don't know what these stupid leaders are doing.' Maybe they don't express it out of good manners, but this is what must be going on in their minds."

On the post-election violence that rocked Kenya and the ongoing debate over whether to try its suspected perpetrators at the International Criminal Court in the Hague or in a local tribunal, he advises caution.

"When I read about the International Criminal Court being used as a stick to whip people into line.... In the world where I come from, I would avoid that because it can be counterproductive. In our [Rwanda's] case, for example, if we had to strictly say, 'You did wrong, you must answer for it like this,' rigidly, we would not be where we are today," says the Rwandan leader.

"If we were to try everybody who was involved in the genocide and sentence them to hang, well, legally, it would be correct. Morally, it would sound good to hang everybody who was involved in killing people.

But realistically, we couldn't do that. Not that we don't understand the importance of justice, but ... we understood it to be the price we had to pay for a stable future.

"So there is a tricky, very complex balance between holding people accountable and therefore dealing with the question of impunity, and forging stability by way of a politics that is not always black and white -- you kill us, we kill you, you do this, we do that. This is the delicate balancing act we have had to go through."

President Kagame further says leadership has to start showing up among Kenyans so that they can work towards owning their problem. He says even if a semblance of stability came out of the international pressure as has been exerted on President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the results would be temporary.

So the political class need to show some leadership among themselves to make some of these sacrifices of give and take and own the problem, and not only deal with some of these superficial things," he says, arguing that the December 2007 elections just helped some problems that had been "in the mind" to surface and some people were using them to express other grievances.

Kagame also sees the uneasy relations with Rwanda's former godfather France thawing, saying: "A lot of things have happened and there has been easing of the bad relationship we had with France. I don't want to say much, I don't want to sound like I am pre-empting anything, but from the way they are progressing I think things are going to get better once we are done with these cases. We are sure moving in a positive direction."

Regarding the infrastructure deficiencies the region suffers in key areas such as transport, the President said there is an ongoing dialogue at the highest levels to take a regional approach to these problems.

"We have been working with the Tanzanians; we have worked with the Ugandans and, by extension, the Kenyans. We have been working closely with the Congolese and the people from Burundi on trying to develop a railway network. Every other day, we keep reminding ourselves of how important this is and how much difference it can make."

Looking forward at the political succession in Rwanda and in the wider African context, Kagame says: "It is important for East Africans, not just Rwandans, that we achieve stability to that level where succession should not be a problem. We should reach that level sooner rather than later.

"In my position, I think that can be obtained in this country where we can see leaders change hands without causing instability. I think that would be a gift from God and those of us who have played leadership roles of one kind or another."

allafrica