28 August 2009

Lagos — The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)'s onslaught against troubled bank chiefs and debtors may have yielded bountifully.

Yesterday, the commission announced that it had recovered N25.5 billion from loan defaulters.

EFCC Chairman Farida Waziri told journalists in Lagos that the recovered sums were in fulfilment of her promise to go after debtors who had failed to take advantage of the seven-day ultimatum given them to pay their debts.

She said the anti-graft body had continued with the arrest of loan defaulters and that by last night, 16 bank chiefs and 68 debtors were in EFCC's custody, though she did not reveal their identities.

The commission also announced that it had acceded to the order of a Lagos High Court that the two former Managing Directors of Afribank Nigeria Plc and Finbank Plc, Sabastine Adigwe and Okey Nwosu, who have been in the commission's custody for over a week now, be released on bail.

A Lagos High Court had on Tuesday granted an order that Nwosu and Adigwe, be released from detention on bail on reasonable terms.

EFCC, however, set stringent bail conditions that have to be fulfilled before they can regain freedom.

The conditions are that they-"deposit bank guarantee in the sum of N1 billion in favour of the commission and such bank guarantee should be procured from banks not involved in the current CBN/NDIC/EFCC investigations; the procurer of the said bank guarantee must provide tax clearance certificate of the preceding three years payable as at when due and in tandem with the amount of the guarantee; a surety in respect of each suspect/accused person; such surety must be a serving/current minister of the Federal Republic of Nigerian who will provide a landed property in Victoria Island or Ikoyi in Lagos or Maitama or Asokoro in Abuja whose title and value will be verified and found acceptable to the commission".

The EFCC boss said the two former bank MDs allegedly defaulted their banks through non-performing credits to the sum of N30 billion respectively.

Three of the five bank chiefs sacked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the wake of the post consolidation banking reforms namely Union Bank's Bartholomew Ebong, FinBank's Nwosu and Afribank's Adigwe have been in EFCC custody for more than one week now.

Their two other former colleagues, the Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic, Cecilia Ibru, and Intercontinental Bank Erastus Akingbola were declared wanted by EFCC for failing to honour the commission's invitation.

Ibru, however, surrendered herself to the commission on Wednesday and was interrogated and detained, though she had also secured a court order that her fundamental human rights should not be infringed upon.

Akingbola, on the other hand, is yet to show up.

EFCC, has, however, decided that notwithstanding that the order related to only two persons who had approached the courts, it shall extend same discretion of bail to all other suspects in custody in line with appropriate constitutional provisions.

Waziri, however, stated that EFCC's efforts were not targeted at genuine business people who had existing credit obligations to the affected banks and had dutifully complied with the terms of the facility.

The EFCC boss stated further that the agency was not out to criminalize legitimate borrowing from banks and was mindful of the fact that banking thrives on robust credit administration system.

"For the borrowers, we have been able to group them into two categories, namely, those who have legitimate business intentions and have continued to service their loans; and those whose loans did not follow due process and non-performing," she said.

Waziri declared that it was unfortunate that some of the bank chiefs in trouble at present abused their offices by granting unsecured loans in total disregard of banking rules and regulations to the second category of people.

She explained that the huge amounts owed by the latter category had enormous effect on the national economy, adding that every nation must guard that very seriously.

Waziri gave an example of an undisclosed businessman who secured a loan of N14billion from one of the banks to export crude and as soon as the crude was sold, instead of paying back the loan went to Dubai to buy choice properties.

She said the commission was committed to the rule of law and would not do anything to the contrary.

The total non-performing debt of the five troubled banks is put at N747 billion.

A breakdown of the loan indicated that Oceanic had N278 billion, Intercontinental N210 billion, Afribank N141.8 billion, Union Bank N73.6 billion and Finbank N42.445 billion.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere at the EFCC office was charged when the Group Managing Director of Global Fleet, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim visited.

The Global Fleet boss arrived EFCC premises at about 12:39 pm in a black Toyota Avalon Car with registration No. FG 274 C43, accompanied by Lagos lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, carrying cartons of documents, which he claimed were payment of his supposed debt.

He said: "We have paid Oceanic Bank International Plc the sum of N3.1bn and the rest M4.8 Billion will be paid later. We have to go through auditing as the bank has undertaken to reconcile their account and as soon as that is done, if there is any figure against us, it will be paid within 24 hours.

"Oceanic alleged that we owed them N8bn; we have paid N3.1bn, remaining N4.8bn. We will reconcile the account and once that is done, they will get the cheque within 24 hours".

He distributed a letter by the management of the bank dated May 27, 2007 and jointly signed by the General Manager (Corporate Banking Group), Mrs. Abisola Okoakin and Mr. Robinson Ofomata, to show that the bank billed excesses charges to Global Fleet Group account totaling N1.9bn.

The Managing Director of Dansa Group, Ahaji Sani Dangote, had earlier visited the office.

EFCC Spokesman Femi Babafemi told THISDAY that Ibrahim and Dangote were part of the group of debtors that are servicing their debts and that they only came, were interrogated and allowed to go.

Counsel to Nwosu and Adigwe, Mr. Wole Olanipekun (SAN), was also at the EFCC office.

He told journalists that Waziri had promised to release his clients yesterday in line with the Lagos High Court's order.

allafrica

28 August 2009

The Executive Director of the Rescue Alternative Liberia (RAL), Jarlee Tweh Geegbe says a one day consultative meeting amongst stakeholders in the country to draft an anti torture bill expected to start in Gbarnga City, Bong County.

He said the meeting is gear towards drafting the bill in order to make it a crime under the laws of Liberia, stating that torture in Liberia has not been considered under the country's criminal justice system over the past years. Mr. Geegbe also said at the consultative working meeting, ideas will be solicited as to what should found part of the anti torture bill which according to him will be submitted to the 52nd national legislature.

He made the disclosure yesterday before his departure to the city of Gbarnga City in Bong County. According to Mr. Geegbe, the 1986 Liberian Constitution under article 21 (e), and the United Nations Convention against torture article (4), request that torture be considered as a crime.

"at this working meeting, we are going to solicit ideas in what should be part of that bill that will be submitted to the national legislature making torture a crime as requested for under article 21 of the 1986 Liberian Constitution and the UN Convention against torture article (4)" Mr. Geegbe.

Speaking furthered, he said that the Gbarnga consultative meeting will not be the only one, more meeting have planned for Montserrado Constitution and the UN Convention against torture.

allafrica

28 August 2009

Kigali — Tanzania and Uganda clash in today's first semifinal match of the Cecafa Under-17 tournament following their victories in Thursday's quarterfinals.

Tanzania confirmed their place after a hard fought 1-0 victory over Ethiopia while Uganda ran down Malawi 2-0. Tanzania started their match strongly making a series of attacks in the Ethiopian goalmouth.

Their efforts were rewarded in the 35th minute when Hamisi Thabit headed past towering Ethiopian goalkeeper Zerihun Tadele. Uganda scored in the 30th minute through Julius Kigori who slotted home a penalty and Danniel Sserumkuma in the 58th minute capitalizing on a defensive blunder that left hard working goalkeeper and captain Victor Nangwale exposed.

Uganda would have run off with a bigger score line but the Malawi goalie was always at his best pulling off a series of saves. In the other quarterfinal played last evening in Wad Medani Eritrea beat Zanzibar 2-1.

The last quarterfinal between defending champions Burundi and Sudan had not yet been played by press time.

Eritrea scored their goals through Osman Mohamed (11) and Kulu Berhane (55). Yohanes Tilahune got Zanzibar's consolation in the 42 minute.

allafrica

NAIROBI, 27 August 2009 (IRIN) - Following below-average harvests in 2007 and 2008, Kenya's grain farmers need seed and fertilizer support to enable them to make use of El Niño rains, expected between October and December 2009, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says.

"Given that most of the farmers, both in high potential and agriculturally marginal ecosystems, lost most of what they invested in the short rains of 2008 and long rains of 2009, there is an urgent need to support them with inputs such as seed and fertilizer, to enable them to utilize the anticipated El Niño rains … [to enhance] their household food security and contribute towards bridging of the deficit in the national grain and other food budget," FAO said on 27 August.

The agency appealed for US$23 million to enable it and the Ministry of Agriculture to supply various inputs to at least 100,000 families, "each growing an average of three acres in Rift Valley, Central Kenya highlands and marginal agricultural areas of eastern Kenya".

Kenya’s Meteorological Department on 26 August said the outlook for the October-December short rains indicated that much of the country would likely experience near-normal to above-normal rainfall.

"This El Niño is currently classified as moderate or mild compared with that of 1997-1998. The distribution of the rainfall in time and space is expected to be generally good over most places," it said.

The department said the rainfall expected over most of the country's agricultural areas would be adequate for good crop performance.

"Farmers are, therefore, advised to work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and take advantage of the expected good rainfall performance, the extended rainfall season, and extended length of the growing period, to maximize on the crop yield," the department said.

It recommended that the emergency measures currently in place – food and water being distributed by the military to drought-affected populations - should be sustained until March 2010.

FAO said the near-certain El Niño type of rainfall during the short rains, due to start mid-September, provided “an opportunity to utilize the rains in both agriculturally high to medium potential areas and marginal ecosystems in production of off-season crops such as Irish potato, hybrid maize-500 series, green grams, cowpeas and horticultural crops".

Insufficient harvests

Kenya’s annual consumption of maize, the staple food, is 33 million bags of 90kg each, said FAO; of this, 22 million are produced in agriculturally high and medium potential areas of Rift Valley and Western Province, mainly during the long March-June rains; another six million are produced in marginal agricultural eco-systems of Eastern Kenya, mainly during the October-December rains, while the remainder come from the Central Kenya Highlands and informal cross-border and official imports.

Since the harvest from the 2006 long rains, Kenya has not had a bumper maize crop with adequate surpluses that could stabilize supplies, the agency added.

"The declining trend in domestic maize supply is destined for the worst situation in the recent past, only comparable to 1984, this year, mainly due to an estimated 45 percent decline in production in the agriculturally high and medium potential areas during the long rains of 2009," FAO said.

"This will imply that the country will anticipate a deficit of 10 million bags from the traditional grain surplus regions. The impending scenario has been caused by inadequate and poorly distributed rainfall during the main growing long rains season this year."

Warmer oceans

According to the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), El Niño conditions have become established over the tropical Pacific, and it is likely these will continue through the remainder of 2009 and probably into the first quarter of 2010.

"The ocean surface and subsurface in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific has been substantially warmer than normal during June and July, supporting the development of an El Niño event," WMO said in an update issued on 19 August. "Atmospheric conditions across the tropical Pacific are increasingly showing patterns typical of a developing El Niño event. The development of a basin-wide El Niño has implications for the expected climate patterns in many parts of the world."

irinnews

27 Aug 2009
A march on government buildings by South African troops who demand higher pay has worried authorities, prompting an investigating into the affair.

More than 1,000 soldiers from Pretoria barracks approached the Union Buildings, which houses the president's office, on Wednesday in the countries latest campaign for higher pay.

Police dispersed the troops, who are campaigning for the highest demand so far -- a 30% pay rise --, with rubber bullets and teargas.

The strike has sparked concerns over the country's national security, with Defense Minister Lindiwe Sisulu saying that the defenseless bases that the troops had abandoned could have been exposed "to potential raids by criminals".

A wave of job boycotts has gripped the financially-challenged country since President Jacob Zuma took office in May this year. He has made several economically challenging concessions to nip the crippling strikes in the industrial and public sectors.

"Our position is that the march was illegal. The union needs to take responsibility for the actions of their members," ministry spokesman Ndhivuwo Mabhaya told AFP on Wednesday.

Sisulu announced that all of the participating soldiers would be suspended without pay.

The government has criticized the army strike, stressing that the military requires that personnel abide by a set of rules different from that of other sectors.

The country's largest walkout was by nearly of municipal workers, including city police. The workers settled for a 13% pay rise.

State power firm Eskom, with the country's largest union, threatened earlier this month to have all members on strike and to cut power across the country -- an economically crippling venture that could bring work to a halt in the country's gold mines.

But the union later said an agreement over pay and housing policy had helped avert the strike.

presstv

NAIROBI, 28 August 2009 (IRIN) - Countries tackling food insecurity and climate change adaptation can greatly benefit from agroforestry - integrating fleshy plants and trees into their farming systems, environmental specialists say.

Sub-Saharan Africa has a history of food insecurity brought on by meagre rains, land degradation, declining soil fertility and bad management of resources, among other factors.

"How do we, in a world of more than six billion people, rising to perhaps over nine billion, feed everyone while simultaneously securing the ecosystem services such as forests and wetlands that underpin agriculture, and indeed life itself in the first place?" Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), posited at the second World Congress on Agroforestry in Nairobi.

"We can empower people - not to wait for others to do something for them – but to take the initiative, one tree at a time," Steiner said. "Trees are one of nature’s most ingenious answers to many of our problems."

Agroforestry helps supply fodder, fruit and nuts as well as trees and shrubs that produce gums, resins and valuable medicines.

Steiner said agroforestry may have many roles to play in the new landscape of rewarding countries for their natural or nature-based services.

"Firstly it offers the potential for maximizing sustainable food production in the zones surrounding natural forests while also boosting biodiversity and other ‘natural infrastructure’.

"Secondly, it offers an opportunity for timber production and thus alternative livelihoods to meet perhaps a supply gap that may emerge under a fully-fledged REDD [Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation] regime.

"Thirdly these agroforestry areas can also potentially secure flows from carbon finance in their own right."


Better REDD

REDD is a strategy to help local communities conserve forests, including funding these efforts through governments and market-based mechanisms, such as trading the carbon stored by forests as credits to greenhouse gas-emitting industries.

Trees such as the Faidherbia albida, a leguminous acacia-like tree, are especially useful.

“Faidherbia goes dormant at the beginning of the rains and deposits abundant quantities of organic fertilizer on to the food crops to provide nutrients and increase yields, totally free of charge," said Dennis Garrity, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Director-General. "They are fertilizer factories in the food crop fields."

The leaves and pods of the Faidherbia, which are adapted to a wide array of climates and soils from deserts to humid tropics, provide fodder in the dry season too.

Garrity said: "The much higher food prices... have exacerbated the pain of hunger in hundreds of millions of households. The standard solutions just aren’t working. The question is, what are we as agroforestry scientists going to do about it? What are we going to contribute to sustainable solutions?"

With shrinking forests, he said, "the rising demand for tree products will have to be met from farm-grown sources. Clearly, agroforestry science has much to offer in overcoming the food security challenges in Africa, and elsewhere in the world."

Tree cover

According to a 24 August report by ICRAF, "tree cover is a common feature on agricultural land", and represents over one billion hectares of land.

"Agroforestry, if defined by tree cover of greater than 10 percent on agricultural land, is widespread, found on 46 percent of all agricultural land area globally, and affecting 30 percent of rural populations," stated the report.

Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), said: "Seventy-five percent of Africa’s farm lands are degraded, and deforestation is taking place at four times the global average, destroying 1 percent of our forests every year."

Agroforestry alone could remove 50 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 50 years, meeting about a third of the world’s total carbon reduction challenge, according to ICRAF studies.



Carbon payback

Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai suggested that subsistence farmers might be more willing to invest in farming trees if there were carbon credit revenue guarantees.

UNEP recently launched a Carbon Benefits Project in the catchments of Lake Victoria, Niger, Nigeria and China, which seeks to find a standardized way of assessing how much carbon is actually locked away in vegetation and in soils under different land-management regimes.

This has been a major challenge for African smallholders seeking to access the carbon market. Preliminary findings are expected within 18 months.

According to Steiner, economic incentives are required to reverse deforestation and forest degradation.

"...Simply locking away forests to secure their carbon as if they are the Queen’s jewels, or putting up the modern equivalent of a Berlin Wall between forests and people, is almost certainly folly and almost certainly a recipe for disaster," he said.

irinnews

28 August 2009
Luanda — The Angolan head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, Friday in Luanda received congratulation greetings on the occasion of his 67th anniversary.

The Noble Hall of the Presidential Palace in Luanda receives personalities linked to legislative, judicial and executive bodies, as well as other individualities of the most varied sectors of Angolan society.

The speaker of the National Assembly, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos will make a "brief intervention" before the guests to toast champagne with president dos Santos, who is accompanied by his wife, Ana Paula dos Santos.

Afterwards, in the gardens surrounding the Palace, the Kitoco Foundation will award a diploma to José Eduardo dos Santos during a fraternisation dinner.

Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, was born in Luanda on August 28, 1942.

allafrica

28 August 2009
Luanda — The Angolan head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, Friday in Luanda received congratulation greetings on the occasion of his 67th anniversary.

The Noble Hall of the Presidential Palace in Luanda receives personalities linked to legislative, judicial and executive bodies, as well as other individualities of the most varied sectors of Angolan society.

The speaker of the National Assembly, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos will make a "brief intervention" before the guests to toast champagne with president dos Santos, who is accompanied by his wife, Ana Paula dos Santos.

Afterwards, in the gardens surrounding the Palace, the Kitoco Foundation will award a diploma to José Eduardo dos Santos during a fraternisation dinner.

Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, was born in Luanda on August 28, 1942.

allafrica

28 August 2009
Civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are continuing to suffer at the hands of a notorious Ugandan rebel group, whose attacks have forced at least 125,000 people in Orientale province to flee their homes in the last three weeks alone, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a "staggering" 540,000 Congolese have been uprooted in Orientale province by deadly attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) since last September.

This includes at least 125,000 people known to have been driven out of their villages in the province's Haut Uele district in the past three weeks, UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told reporters in Geneva today.

Among other atrocities, the LRA is accused of widespread killings, kidnappings of civilians and raping of women. Over the past year, it has reportedly killed some 1,270 people and abducted 655 children in Orientale province, in addition to causing widespread destruction to homes, health centres and schools.

Mr. Mahecic said UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies have provided much needed supplies to some 11,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) near Dungu, the capital of Haut Uele district, but insecurity and impassable roads continue to hamper relief efforts.

"Moreover, as the number of IDPs increases, friction over the meagre resources has erupted between the displaced and host families who have been stretched to the limit," he stated, adding that some of the host families have been hosting the displaced since last September when attacks started in the area.

The attacks by the LRA have also forced an estimated 8,000 Congolese to flee to neighbouring South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR).

allafrica

28 August 2009

Lubango — The chairman of the association of military attachés accredited in Angola, colonel Alessandro Pompeu Coelho, last Thursday in Lubango City, in the southern Huíla Province, considered as healthy the existing military relations between the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and his organisation.

Speaking at the end of a meeting he held with the commander of the southern military region, general Apollo Felino Yakuvela, the military diplomat said that it is necessary to strengthen and preserve the friendship and cooperation ties between both institutions, so as to increase the integration between the association and FAA.

The members of the association left for Huíla Province in order to learn more about the country, the particularity of each province and FAA in different regions of Angola.

The diplomat said that initiatives of this kind will continue so as to strengthen the relations even more.

On his turn , the commander of the southern military region, general Apollo Felino Yakuvela, highlighted the contribution of Armed Forces from the different countries whose defence attachés are part of the mentioned association, in the training of Angolan military cadres, logistical supply, among other issues.

The delegation, which is comprised by France, Belgium, Cuba, Portugal and Brazil, visited the headquarters of the Organising Committee o the African Cup of Nations (COCAN) in Huila Province, the construction works of the new stadium that will host matches of CAN-2010, the plant of ornamental rocks (Emanha) and the factory of mineral water (Chela), as well as project of FAA's pension scheme dubbed "Laranjinha".

This is the second time that representatives of the military defence visited the province. The delegation is travelling this Friday to the south-west Namibe Province.

allafrica

28 August 2009

THE national under-17 football side are in Angola for theâ-¨FESA under-20 tournament starting today in Lunda-Norte Province.

The 20-man squad who left on Wednesday include two notable faces - African Stars striker Ikuaterua Tjozongoro and Hansa Rostock's Manfred Starke.

The 18-year-old Tjozongoro once represented Namibia at under-17 level, when Namibia played Angola in the COSAFA u/17 Championships in 2007 and promised to make an impact.

Tjozongoro said: "It is my first time with this team and I want to make it my home and move up the ladder to the senior side. I'm happy that finally I made the team and surely I will do my best in helping the team win in Angola and beyond."

Another new face, Starke, who is a midfielder, is delighted about the call-up as well: "I have been in Germany playing for the Hansa Rostock junior team in the Bundesliga second league and I'm determined to impress."

Namibia will compete the Eduardo dos Santos Foundation (FESA) Tournament, against hosts Angola, Botswana and Malawi and new coach Richard Starke is cognisant of the latest challenge.

"It's a challenge for me to get the best out of the boys and I'm confident that we have a strong team that will bring us success and that we can ultimately be proud of.

"We have to develop the team for two years and with the talent we have I don't expect major problems with them. I'm still bonding with the players and its going great", Starke said.

The NFA will be sending the same group of players to South Africa for the COSAFA under-20 tournament in Bloemfontein later in December.

Other travelling members include Head of Mission Franz Mbidi, NFA technical director Klaus Staerk and team manager Jakes Amaning and Paulina Amwenye as the medic.

The squad: Tarioq Claasen, Gregorous Tsuseb, Wallaceâ-¨Mosiane, Gregorious Issak, Eslin Kamuhanga, Sakeus Wilbard,Petrus Shitembi, Neville Tjiueza, Collin Ndjai, Ikuaterua Tjozongoro, Gerson Asheelo, Robinson Iyambo, Randall Goagoseb, Oswaldo Xamseb (captain) , Manfred Starke, Samuel Goagoseb, Alpheus Handura, Clerence Engelbrecht (NFA Secretariat).

allafrica

28 August 2009

Algeria's U-17 national team are undergoing intensive preparation for the upcoming World Cup, which begins on October 24 in Nigeria. The youngsters are currently in Nigeria's capital Abuja, on a training camp that will last until September 1 under the watchful eyes of coaches Othmane Ibrir and Hakim Meddane.

According to dzfoot.net, the technical staff will be focusing the majority of their efforts on tactical preparations given that this was identified as one of the weaknesses that led to a disappointing sixth-place finish at a regional tournament played in Tunis three weeks ago.

The North African players will look to improve by facing both JS El Biar's and CR Belouizdad's U-20 sides in friendly matches at the El Biar stadium.

The team has three goalkeepers that include Merzouki Abdenour, Zaâbat Nacereddine (Académie FAF) and Talhi Abdelouakil (OM Ruisseau).

Defenders are Khida Bilal, Bekakchi Brahim El Khalil, Belkadi Abderrahmane, Cheheima Ahmed, Cherchar Mohamed Ilyès, Bouteldja Anis and Djouba Djelloul (Academie FAF) while midfielders include Ziane Mohamed Nadir, Ait Ferguene Nabil, Ferkous Houssem Eddine, Boughoula Abdelghani, Omrani Mohamed Lamine, Ferhat Zineddine, Haddouche Zakaria (Académie FAF), Ferguène Saïd (JS Kabylie)

Strikers are Bezzaz Abdelhakim, Toulait Aghiles, Khelifi Youcef, and Athmani Walid (Académie FAF).

allafrica

27 Aug 2009
Egypt arrests 50 protesters who oppose the possible resettling of members of the Bahai sect in a village in the southern province of Sohag.

The demonstrators believed that the government plans to re-house the Bahais in Ezba who were forced to flee from the southern village of Sharoniyah, when four of their houses were set ablaze last April.

However, a security official denied that the people being relocated were Bahais, saying they were people whose homes had collapsed, AFP reported.

The inhabitants of both villages remained skeptical and several dozen furious villagers gathered outside the Ezba municipal offices on Thursday, demanding the names of those being re-housed be published, to ensure that none were Bahais, the official said.

presstv

28 August 2009
Four candidates who reportedly pulled out of Gabon's presidential race to back a rival to frontrunner Ali Bongo Ondimba have dismissed the allegation, the latest twist in a fast-changing and increasingly confusing electoral campaign.

AFP - A bid to find a unity candidate in Gabon's presidential election backfired Friday, as four contenders denied having pulled out of Sunday's race to rally behind a rival to frontrunner Ali Bongo.

All four dismissed a statement issued earlier Friday saying they had agreed to back former minister Andre Mba Obame in a bid to beat Ali Bongo Ondimba, son of the former president Omar Bongo Ondimba.

But representatives of five other candidates told a press conference that they had decided to stand down and support Mba Obame, in line with an initial statement released by his camp.

Until Friday, 23 politicians were in the race to take over from Bongo, who died early in June after 41 years at the helm of the oil-rich central African nation, where an estimated 60 percent of the population of 1.5 million live below the poverty level.

The original statement, issued after talks that went into the early hours Friday, said 11 candidates had quit the race in favour of Mba Obame, who beat former prime minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong to become the unity candidate in a secret ballot.

But four of those listed in the statement swiftly issued denials.

Casimir Oye Mba, former minister for mines, oil and hydrocarbons, seen as one of the frontrunners, said he was still in the race.

"I am and I remain a candidate in Sunday's presidential poll," Oye Mba said, adding that he was about to take a plane to the provinces for a rally. "I'm pursuing my campaign like I began it."

Three other presidential hopefuls -- Victoire Lasseni Duboze, Bruno Ben Moubamba and Jules Aristide Bourdes Ogouliguende -- also denounced their inclusion in the statement.

"It's a dirty trick," Moubamba told AFP.

Those who confirmed that they had stood down were Eyeghe Ndong, former deputy prime minister Paul Mba Abessole, independent candidate Mehdi Teale, business leader Jean Ntoumoume Ngoua and the Pentecostal leader Anna Claudine Assayi Ayo.

Mba Obame's spokesman Francois Ondo Edou told Friday's press conference that 13 of the candidates or their representatives had attended the long meeting and said, "There was no hint of manipulation."

Oye Mba told journalists he had returned to Libreville late Thursday to find the meeting under way and said, "I observed that a whole day hadn't been enough for them to reach a precise political decision."

He had stayed until midnight, but was tired from campaigning, and went to bed, only to hear in the morning that "candidates had allegedly rallied round Mba Obama," he added.

"You can type my name on a statement, but what matters is my signature," Oye Mba added, disassociating himself from the text.

But Assayi Ayo told journalists, "The first person who voted was Casimir Oye Mba. It was he who suggested the idea of a vote!"

Ben Moubamba recalled that when Mba Obame was minister of the interior, he had last January jailed leaders of non-governmental organisations who wrote an open letter that was highly critical of the Bongo regime.

As things stand, Ali Bongo remains the overwhelming favourite to succeed his father, and he has himself spoken out against the former system of favouritism and kickbacks among an elite.

The ruling Gabonese Democratic Party backs him and he has a huge campaign war chest, but the opposition has denounce the corruption and favouritism that is endemic in Gabon and fears it will continue under Ali Bongo.

Gabon is sub-Saharan Africa's fourth biggest oil producer, the world's third biggest provider of manganese and Africa's second biggest wood exporter.

france24

28 August 2009
Former Centrafrican president Ange-Felix Patasse says he will leave his Togo exile and return to the Central African Republic this Saturday. Patasse has said he could "potentially" run in the country's presidential election scheduled for 2010.

AFP - Former president Ange-Felix Patasse of the Central African Republic said Thursday in exile that he was "potentially a candidate" for elections in his country next year.

"I am potentially a candidate in the presidential election of 2010 because there is a large groundswell of opinion in Centrafrica which is asking me to present myself," Patasse told a press conference at his home in Togo.

Patasse ruled the CAR from 1999 until 2003, when he was overthrown by General Francois Bozize, who has since quit the military and is elected head of state in his country.

"The time has come for me to return to my native country where my people is waiting for me," Patasse said, adding that he expected to return to Bangui on Saturday.

Asked about his ouster from the Movement for the Liberation of the Centrafrican People (MPLC), the party he founded in 1962, Patasse said he was "still its legal and legitimate president. When I am in Bangui, everything will return to normal."

The MPLC in 2006 announced that it was suspending its former leader from all political activity for "failing to respect the political line of the party."

Last June, the MLPC made former prime minister Martin Ziguele its candidate for the presidential election due next year, on a date that has yet to be announced.

Patasse returned to Bangui in December 2008 for a month to take part in a peace forum that brought together members of the government, the opposition, civil society and rebels, in an attempt to pull the deeply poor country out of years of conflict.

This forum decided that both presidential and parliamentary elections will take place in 2010 and stressed that they would be "transparent and fair."

france24

26 Aug 2009
Almost 8 million people in Kenya and Somalia are in need of emergency aid amid drought, rising food prices and conflict in East Africa, the UN has warned.

An assessment by the World Food Program (WFP) has found out that half of the Somali people need food aid. It has also appealed for $230 million in emergency aid to feed 3.8 million Kenyans over six months.

"Red lights are flashing across the country," Burkard Oberle, WFP Kenya Country Director, said in a statement. "People are already going hungry, malnutrition is preying on more and more young children, cattle are dying."

The WFP said that many parts of Kenya had suffered from failed rains during the last three of four rainy seasons and that the situation was only likely to deteriorate.

Somalia is facing an even more acute crisis, according to the UN's Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSNAU).

Almost 1.5 million Somalis have abandoned their homes to live in camps for the internally displaced. Hundreds of thousands more have fled abroad, many of whom to the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya.


ptess tv

28 August 2009
Talks between Madagascar's ousted president Marc Ravalomanana (far right) and coup leader Andry Rajoelina (left) ended without a resolution to the country's political crisis, but the two sides have promised to form an interim government by Sept. 4.

AFP - Madagascar's power-brokers ended talks in Mozambique Friday without reaching agreement on the make-up of a transitional government to lead the country out of its political crisis, mediators said.

"The international joint mediation team regrets to inform ... (that) the heads of the movements have found it impossible to come to a consensus on the key posts of the transition," said a statement issued by the mediators.

Madagascar's rival leaders have agreed to name an interim government by September 4, mediators said.

Several institutions of the transitional government have already been decided, they added.

Marc Ravalomanana, the president who was ousted in March, and current leader Andry Rajoelina will each get to decide the leader of one of the houses of the transitional parliament.

The two rivals will also pick one vice-prime minister each.

Other institutions of the interim authority will be decided by former president Albert Zafy and members of civil society, mediators said.

Madagascar's rival leaders, together with former presidents Zafy and Didier Ratsiraka, agreed August 9 in a previous round of talks to name a transitional government that will return the Indian Ocean island to constitutional rule and organize democratic elections by the end of 2010.

This week's talks were extended an extra day to give the four factions time to settle their differences on the top posts in the transition.

But negotiations stumbled over the issue of who would be interim president.

Under the August 9 agreement, the president will be the only member of the transitional government eligible to run for election in 2010.

Rajoelina has said only he can lead the transition.

But Ravalomanana, who has pledged not to seek a direct role in the interim government, rejected giving the presidency to Rajoelina and said the post should go to a member of his movement.

"It's not normal to legitimize an author of a coup d'etat as the president of the transition," Ravalomanana said.

The August 9 agreement gives the leaders 30 days to name the new government.

Mediators said the factions agreed to settle their differences by September 4 in order to present the new government at the next summit of the Southern African Development Community, which starts September 6.

france24

26 Aug 2009
One of two French security advisors held hostage by al-Shabaab fighters has managed to escape his captors in Mogadishu, Somali officials say.

The French national escaped on Tuesday night accompanied by a white man believed to be a journalist who was also held as hostage by al-Shabaab in one of Mogadishu's environs, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The Frenchman and his colleague, who were on an official mission to Somalia for training Somali intelligent forces there, were kidnapped from their hotel room in Mogadishu on July 14 by heavily armed fighters loyal to al-Shabaab group.

"We understand he killed three al-Shabaab guys who were guarding him. I cannot understand how this good story happened but now he is in the hands of the government," Abdiqadir Odweyne, a senior police commander, told Reuters.

Earlier this month, Somali gunmen freed six foreigners -- two Kenyans, two French, a Bulgarian and a Belgian -- abducted in November.

press tv

27 Aug 2009
Somali pirates defying a multi-national anti-piracy mission in the region have reportedly opened fire on a US navy helicopter from aboard a hijacked vessel.

The US navy said Thursday that a shootout had happened the previous morning as a helicopter was carrying out a surveillance mission over the vessel.

There has so far been no report of casualties or damages from the incident in the piracy-ridden waters off Somalia.

"Somali pirates aboard the motor vessel Win Far fired what appeared to be a large caliber weapon at a US navy SH-60B helicopter," AFP news agency cited a statement from the Bahrain-based US Naval Forces Central Command as reading.

"The helicopter was conducting a routine surveillance flight of M/V Win Far, currently held at anchorage by Somali pirates south of Garacad, Somalia, when the incident occurred," it added.

According to the navy, the Win Far is a Taiwanese-flagged vessel seized along with its 30 crewmembers earlier this year and has been used as a 'mother ship' to conduct other known pirate attacks, "most notably the US-flagged Maersk-Alabama in April".

The international naval presence in the dangerous Gulf of Aden waters is unable to monitor and patrol all of the shipping lanes that connect Europe to Asia -- an area that spans more than 2.5 million square miles.

This year, the number of attempted attacks on merchant vessels rose to 114, only 29 of which were successful, according to the US navy figures.

The pirates usually hold the ships and crew for millions of dollars in ransom.

presstv

TSERNAOUA, 25 August 2009 (IRIN) - The instructions were clear for aid workers with the NGO CARE Niger who were responsible for distributing to hundreds of Niger villagers more than US$80,000 in cash transfers: Withdraw small bills from the bank. Verify the amount placed in hundreds of envelopes. Oversee the bank employee lining up envelopes in a suitcase. Accompanied by plain-clothes security forces and the bank employee, deliver the suitcases of money to 24 villages throughout the central Tahoua region.

With the UK-funded cash transfers scheduled to end later this year, IRIN visited families in one village in south central Niger to learn whether $150 a year can stave off hunger and death, some of the goals of the transfers.

In 2007 CARE was one of four international non-profits, with one local NGO, selected by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to test whether cash transfers along with agriculture support, cereal banks and animal vaccinations and treatments, can achieve those objectives.

“What good is a cereal bank if villagers do not have money to buy anything?” said Nana Tchiemago, CARE’s disaster risk reduction manager in Niger until 1 August. CARE leads the NGOs in the three-year nearly $5-million programme.

More, but less

“I had never seen so much money in my life,” said Saka Salhou, who was identified by a village committee in Tsernaoua as “extremely vulnerable”. She told IRIN she used to weave straw mats, which on good days sold for up to $1.60 each. With the $150, split into a $100 payment in April 2008 at the start of the agriculture growing season when food runs low and $50 in October during harvest season, she told IRIN she bought a goat for $40.

The remainder she spent on food for her family and millet to sell porridge in the market.

When asked how her income had changed with the transfer, Salhou told IRIN she now had a baby goat, but that it was too soon to make any money from it. “My [most recent] payment of $100 is long gone. I used it for rice and millet, which are both gone.” She said she is now back to weaving mats.

In a February government survey of almost 400 families (one-third the number of households receiving cash under the DFID grant), 38 percent said their income had “substantially increased” and 15 percent that they had “diversified” work activities. But more than half of those surveyed said their money bought less than before.
Facts
54% of surveyed cash recipients said their purchasing power had decreased
38% households reported "substantial" increase in income
Source: Niger disaster risk reduction consortium, May 2009

The mid-way evaluation noted that a bad 2008 harvest in some areas and higher food prices wiped out the increased income for certain villagers.

food insecurity following the 2008 harvest, according to Almost 12 percent of Tahoua’s population faced extreme the government.

Disincentive?

CARE’s Tchiemago told IRIN money alone cannot solve structural problems like land degradation or bad weather. “Our goal is realistic. We want to get families to a certain level of stability so they can solve their immediate problems.”

But cash transfers can obstruct long-term development, according to coordinator Josef Garvi with the NGO Eden Foundation, which has worked with farmers in Niger for two decades on seed development and reforestation.

“Such measures [transfers] create dependency on external assistance and draw people away from their livelihoods in search of free donations,” Garvi told IRIN. “Generating unrealistic expectations of a continuous inflow of donations, cash handouts reduce people’s own motivation – and later ability – of taking care of themselves, thus destroying those very mechanisms that allow them to cope with the difficulties of their everyday lives.”

But producers work harder for their own livelihoods when they are relieved of the financial burden of working as day labourers for others, according to NGO Save the Children UK in an evaluation of its cash transfer programme in Niger’s southern Maradi region.

CARE’s Tchiemago told IRIN cash does not cause dependency. “Whether it is soap, millet or cash, families can become dependent on all or none of them. It depends on the household’s engagement to improve their situation.”

Concerns

There are no conditions on how the cash is spent.

CARE’s Tchiemago said the village selection committee and CARE staff educate villagers about their transfers, which can be many more times their average annual income. “Yes, it is a family’s right to organize a marriage or baptism [with the cash transfer]. It is a huge source of frustration and loss of dignity for them to have to wait until after the harvest to organize a baptism. But most families do not use transfers for that.”

She said that while her team does its best to follow up on spending, they are covering too many villages to track in-depth each family’s expenses.

Other concerns about using cash transfers in emergencies include the heightened security risks for staff who deliver money, the potential for household conflicts, the risk of inflation, the challenges of running cash programmes and the increased competition for cash over in-kind assistance, which can complicate targeting, according to a recent ODI report.


For villages in which CARE distributed transfers, village committees ranked families from “average” to “extreme” vulnerability based on health and income criteria. Tsernaoua village chief representative Saidi Al Bakhari told IRIN some people have approached the complaint committee – set up as part of the selection process – contending that they should have been selected.

The committee has evaluated all claims, but has not yet changed a family’s vulnerability ranking.

Though not selected to receive a cash transfer, Tsernaoua resident Toulla Abdourahame told IRIN she thinks the selection committee was fair. “I have enough money to buy soap wholesale at the market and resell it here in the village. There are other families who need the cash more,” the 30-year-old mother of two told IRIN.

She said both of her daughters are in school and that she has enough income from her livestock. When asked how she was able to have cash to buy goods wholesale, she said she had inherited two cows from her family. “From those cows, I bought more animals.”

Abdourahame told IRIN she now has three cows, five sheep and 10 goats.

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