7 August - The military chiefs of the United Nations’ largest and most complex peacekeeping operations have urged member states to provide the troops and equipment necessary to carry out their missions in the war-ravaged regions of Darfur in western Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

“We have had a challenging time to meet all our mandated tasks because of the issue of deployment and lack of capabilities,” General Martin Luther Agwai, Force Commander of the joint African Union-UN mission in Darfur (UNAMID), told reporters in New York yesterday.

The Security Council authorised the deployment of UNAMID to quell fighting and protect civilians in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed and some 2.7 million others forced from their homes since fighting erupted in 2003, pitting Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen against rebel groups.

UNAMID has been working in Darfur, having less than 70 percent of the authorised number of troops under the 2007 Security Council resolution setting up the force, said Gen Agwai.

In addition, “we have been able to be one of the best sources of authenticated information of what is happening in Darfur,” he said. “We have come a long way, but there are still a lot of challenges, no doubt about it.”

At current strength UNAMID is unable to provide full-time security to all of the makeshift camps sheltering the millions of people who have fled the violence engulfing the region over the years.

“We have not been able to have a 24/7 protection coverage in most of the IDP [internally displaced persons] camps,” said Gen Agwai. “We have prioritized the most vulnerable and volatile camps.”

He noted that some of the displaced people camps have 90,000 to 100,000 people taking refuge in tents and makeshift shelters.

“The bigger the camps the more volatile and problematic they are and those are the ones with a 24/7 UNAMID presence,” he said, including patrols that protect women when out collecting firewood.

With full deployment the mission would be more mobile and have a further reach, “instead of [looking like] very small ink spots on blotting paper. [We currently have] 32 spots, but we’re beginning to expand and spread.”

Gen Agwai expected 92 percent deployment by the end of the year, but stressed that there is little “point having boots without capabilities. Ethiopia has now pledged five [attack] helicopters to the mission … [but] to the best of my knowledge nobody has pledged one utility helicopter to the mission.”

As a sign of UNAMID contributing to an increasing sense of security in the region, Gen Agwai said that the incidence of rapes and assaults has been cut. “The number of people dying because of the crisis is down. The figure is now ranging from about 120 to 150 deaths in a month and not hundreds or thousands in a month as in the past.”

The UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, known as MONUC, is effectively engaged in three separate military operations, said the operations Force Commander, Lieutenant-General Babacar Gaye.

MONUC is supporting the Congolese army (FARDC) in an offensive against the notorious Ugandan rebel militia, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on one front; a group of remnant armed groups in Ituri province in northeastern DRC; and a Rwandan rebel force, known as the FDLR, in North and South Kivu.

“Our mission is so far the largest peacekeeping mission deployed around the world and we are facing all the challenges that peacekeeping have to face today,” Lt-Gen Gaye told the press briefing. “This means the use of force, the protection of civilians and so on and so forth.”

The latest bout of fighting between DRC troops and the rebel FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) and their local allies uprooted a further 35,000 people in South Kivu last month, bringing the total displaced there since January to 536,000, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). More than 1.8 million people are now internally displaced in the DRC’s east.

Lt-Gen Gaye stressed the drastic need for extra troops on the ground to implement MONUC’s protection mandate. “Everything is on track but unfortunately the first boots are still expected.”

He said that MONUC is slated to soon receive a Bangladeshi battalion, an Egyptian battalion, a Jordanian special force company, an Egyptian special force company and a Bangladeshi engineer company.

“Unfortunately, we are yet to have the 18 helicopters that have been authorised by the Council,” he added.

By staff writer

© afrol News

7 August - Access to food for the people of Madagascar remains unreliable because of the impact of natural disasters, which routinely strike the island, and continuing political tensions, a United Nations report has warned.

The joint Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) mission tasked with assessing crop and food security in Madagascar underscored the effect a run of cyclones on the east coast in 2008-2009 and several years of drought in the south has had on the country’s crops.

In addition, the political crisis – involving the resignation of President Marc Ravalomanana in early March, amid a dispute with the mayor of the capital, Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, who now leads the country – combined with the global economic recession has had repercussions for public finances, exports, tourism, unemployment and the national currency, and a knock-on effect on the agricultural sector, according to the FAO-WFP report.

The report noted that food production varies widely across the Indian Ocean nation with good rainfall benefiting the 2008-2009 harvest in the centre, north and west of the country, as well as favouring rice-growing areas with an estimated 8 per cent increase in paddy production to over 4 million tons of rice.

However, the drought devastated the south, home to some of the country’s poorest communities, has caused national maize, sweet potato and cassava production to slump.

The production of maize in the province of Taliara in the south, which contributes 30 percent of the national total, is expected to halve next year, and its sweet potato harvest, around 20 percent of the national total, will slump by around 20 per cent, according to the report. In addition, cassava production in the area will fall by 15 percent.

The report also stressed that the amount of cereal required by the country, including cassava and sweet potato, will exceed total cereals availability by about 206,000 tons. Although commercial wheat and rice imports would normally cover the shortfall, a government announcement of its intention to import 150,000 tons of rice to be sold at moderate prices could unsettle free-market trade.

Commercial interests are likely to “wait-and-see” how market prices react to Government imports, which could lead to delays or breakdowns in stocks, causing a price explosion during the lean season – beginning in September-October – reminiscent of the timing of events that led to the 2004-2005 food crisis.

The humanitarian wing of the UN had earlier revised downwards its appeal for aid for Madagascar but warned that the country's population still remained highly vulnerable to the impact of cyclones, drought and continuing political tensions.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was seeking a $22.3 million for its “flash appeal” for Madagascar, a reduction from the $35.7 million it had sought in April.

OCHA also said Madagascar remains unprepared for the next cyclone season, with inadequate stocks of emergency goods and inefficient mechanisms to coordinate any emergency response. The Indian Ocean country is often battered by cyclones in the early months of the year.

By staff writer

© afrol News

5 August - Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), has pronounced its stand of the money for disarmament, saying its struggle was not for sale.

MEND said in a statement late yesterday that its taking of the deal would not be in exchange for money

"When we choose to disarm, it will be done freely, knowing that the reason for our uprising which is the emancipation of the Niger Delta from neglect and injustice has been achieved," said the group in a statement.

The Nigerian government has made offers to the militants in the Delta offering cash deals as part of the settlement and general amnesty to push for peace in the region. The amnesty deal is offered from 6 August until 4 October.

The Nigerian President, Umaru Yar'Adua, had also in late June offered unconditional amnesty for all militants who lay down their arms, but militants had stepped up their attacks after what they called unprovoked assaults by the government forces.

MEND has declared several ceasefires, with the latest being the last month a 60-day ceasefire in response to the amnesty offer. The group claims to be fighting for a larger share of the oil revenues for the Niger Delta communities and has distanced itself from other groups that have been said to be criminally motivated and involved in kidnappings for ransoms and other monetary deals.

By staff writer

© afrol News

4 August - The World Bank has approved a US$500 million Development Policy Credit to support Nigeria’s economic reforms in the financial sector and public financial management.

The credit, according to the bank, is in response to the current global financial crisis.

“The loan is intended to provide budgetary support to the Federal Government of Nigeria to partially off- set the fiscal impact of the crisis as well as maintain its current economic reform path in the financial sector, fiscal policy and financial management, and governance,” said Michael Fuchs, and Lead Financial Economist and Task Team Leader.

This assistance package builds on strong government ownership of a medium-term reform program, which consolidates the successful record of economic management and reforms since 2001, while putting emphasis on cushioning the damaging impacts of the financial crisis on those at the poorest of the poor, the World Bank also said.

Commenting on the assistance, the Country Director for Nigeria, Onno Ruhl said, “The benefits to be derived from the program include maintaining confidence and stability in the financial system, strengthening the banking system, supporting reforms spearheaded by the Central Bank of Nigeria, as well as supporting the Government’s fiscal and financial management, including the objectives of the 2009 budget that focuses on maintaining fiscal stability while raising government investment spending to accelerate non-oil growth”.

The operation involved extensive consultations with a wide array of government agencies and other donors.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), recently spoke with AllAfrica about the future of international assistance and the role of agriculture in Africa's development. IFAD aims to eradicate rural poverty in developing countries by increasing access to financial services, markets, technology, land and other natural resources.
Having grown up in Nigeria, do you have any specific memories of how you saw foreign aid being effective or ineffective? How might this experience have shaped the direction you took in the development field, or now at IFAD?

I was a beneficiary of development assistance from the Ford Foundation, which supported my post-graduate studies in the United States where I got my advanced degrees in agricultural biology.

I think coming from a background where I had uncles who were small farmers, I certainly saw my potential role in working with farmers, and agriculture was the line that I decided to take. So in a sense the Ford Foundation grant [made it] clear to me that well-targeted assistance to developing countries - human resource development, capacity building, helping the countries themselves to grow their own potential change agents - was certainly the way to go. That in a sense shaped my own career path in agricultural development.

Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested more than U.S. $10 billion in at least 800 projects and programs, reaching more than 340 million rural poor. Taking this into account, what specific examples can you describe to illustrate that development assistance works?

We have many examples. I think the figures you have just given are very clear indications of how much IFAD has invested in supporting countries' development programs and strategies and priorities. And we have very good stories coming out of Africa in particular: the cassava program in West Africa where we've invested about 100 million dollars, [for example]. We have excellent stories coming out of Ghana. We have a food bank in Niger, which helps farmers to borrow food during difficult periods or in case of bad harvests.
It's not the volume of investment or the number of projects and the number of countries so much as the tangible impact of these investments on the lives and livelihoods of poor people. I think this is essentially the transformation that we expect, the outcome of our investment in improving lives, creating wealth and linking these farmers to markets.

This is what IFAD does, working with communities at the grassroots level, and it's certainly a very lofty mission that the institution has and we'll continue to work in this direction with our partner countries.

In the past, how do you think foreign aid has failed in Africa?

I'd rather talk about success stories. Africa has benefitted tremendously from development assistance. Until the current economic crisis some sub-Saharan African countries were experiencing tremendous growth of close to eight to 10 percent average. This has dropped significantly. I think the recent estimate is about 1.5 percent economic growth.

Barring the current financial crisis, development assistance to Africa has had considerable impact in helping countries grow their own economies and supporting infrastructure development.

It's very important that we recognize that it is the responsibility of African countries, of Africa's leadership, to set the tone for Africa's development. They have to demonstrate a commitment, they have to give political leadership to their countries. No plant, no tree is able to make use of the energy from the sun if it's not fully grounded in its own soil. So I think it's important that African countries establish the foundation from within for any development assistance to be of value to their countries.
I do not know any country, any nation, any people whose development, whose transformation has taken place solely on the basis of foreign assistance. Each country must be grounded in its own transformation.

This is where African leaders must demonstrate the goodwill and the political will to transform their own countries.

You have said that Africa is ready to shift from food aid to farm investment. How can this be achieved and how do you find the right balance between food aid and long-term agricultural investment?

As long as there are situations of crisis and there are famines and droughts and loss of crops due to extreme weather conditions and the increasing impact of climate change, people will need emergency food aid. But African governments will have to learn to stand on their feet, solidly grounded in their own soil to be able to maximize foreign assistance.

For Africa, long-term investment into agricultural development is key.

To ensure a sustainable transformation of agriculture in Africa we must talk about medium- to long-term investments and this is what IFAD does

Not just agriculture, but investing in smallholder agriculture. Why?

Eighty percent of the farmers in Africa are smallholder farmers. The majority of them are women. They produce 80 percent of the food that is consumed by Africans. Obviously, if these are the people that produce the food that we eat we must invest in smallholder agriculture.

We have proof that investment in smallholder agriculture is two to four times more profitable than investment in any other sector or sub-sector. It's very simple mathematics.
If you are talking about a majority of the population that produces the food that we eat then we must provide them with the right technologies.

We must link them to markets both for inputs and for outputs. We must be able to give them assistance for the whole value chain so they can add value to their produce, they can be able to sell their produce in markets and connect with the last mile of road to lead them to markets.

Africa has to go from food aid to sustainable, long-term production.

This is the time for us to do it because the food crisis and the current economic crisis have shown us that we cannot continue to be dependent on food aid or imported food.

Is that message being heard?

The message is being heard because we have been fortunate here in Rome to have been associated with the whole G8 process. For the first time the G8 agriculture ministers were meeting and the WFP (World Food Programme), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and IFAD were present. We delivered our message. We participated in the development ministers' meeting in Rome and also in the finance ministers' meeting in Lecce. The finance ministers recognized the importance of food security for national and global security.

Twenty-five years ago Vietnam was a net importer of food. Today Vietnam is the second largest exporter of rice, produced by smallholder farmers - 70 percent of the rice farmers in Vietnam. If it can be done by China, by India, by Vietnam, I'm sure Africa should be able to do it.

What lessons can be learned from the past to assure that development assistance in Africa is done more efficiently and effectively?
Let's look at the history of support to agriculture. The figures that we have show that a percentage of ODA (overseas development assistance) to agriculture dropped in the 1980s from as high as 18 percent to 2006 where it was about 2.5 percent. It's now about three or four percent.

This was international assistance to agriculture. National investments in agriculture also dropped in Africa, in particular, from as high as 14 percent to as low as four percent.

We saw this food crisis of 2007, which resulted in riots in over 30 countries across the world, and in Haiti it resulted in the fall of a government. For these changes to occur we need to invest more in agriculture and, certainly in Africa, it's the basis for economic growth. It provides not only essential food and nutrition, but it also is the largest sector for employment.
One other impact that we must recognize is that with the financial crisis remittances are beginning to drop because migrant workers are returning to their home countries, to their villages, to their rural communities. So you have a drop in income. Investing in smallholder agriculture you are doing two things. You are able to stem the migration from the rural to the urban cities, and from the urban cities to the West.

So you are investing not only in food security, you are also investing in national security and international global security because you can stem the migration of people from the developing world to the developed world. We have to look at this as an investment in our common future.

IFAD works at the grassroots level - how important do you think this is to ensure that foreign aid is used properly?
Communities know best what is good for them and when you are engaged in supporting programs and projects that are community driven you essentially are building that ownership and leadership that the community needs.

We have, at IFAD, invested in over 60,000 communities where we have helped them build farmers' organizations, build their own institutions and link them with financial services through rural financing.

Grassroots, community-based development is the bedrock for solid societies. We have to look at this as investing in smallholder agriculture. Our experience has shown that when you invest in community development you basically invest in the future of a country.

Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?
It is important that we do not allow the economic crisis to impact on development assistance to Africa. While the impact is apparent in terms of loss of jobs in the developed world, in the African context it's going to be later. It's a ripple effect.

It's going to begin to impinge because of a drop in commodity prices, less income to governments and an inability to meet civil servants' salaries. So it's important that the commitments of the G7 that were made in Gleneagles, to double aid to Africa by 2010, are met. Today we are about $22 billion below the mark.

Having said that, my message to African leaders is what I've said earlier: put your house in order, get your act together and demonstrate commitment and responsibility and accountability. They have to demonstrate their willingness to make the necessary changes to transform their governments and their policies to be able to receive the full support of the development community.

5 August 2009-all africa
This week, business and policy leaders from the United States and Africa are in Nairobi for the eighth annual United States-African trade and economic cooperation forum, Agoa.
This year, the forum tackles a crucial issue: How Africa can take full advantage of the export opportunities offered by trade with the world's largest economy.
For Africa's smallholder farmers - who dominate the agricultural sector - the challenge involves access to finance and to markets.
The solutions require public and private investments to transform Africa's small-holder-based subsistence agriculture into a highly-productive, efficient, sustainable and competitive system.
Agriculture represents a third of the gross national product of sub-Saharan African countries, and employs two thirds of its workers.
Most of these are smallholder farmers who cultivate a hectare or less of land, and produce one-quarter the average global yield.
Sound investments could quickly and sustainably double or triple this current low yield, and do so while protecting the environment.
The investments needed to trigger such changes have been calculated at up to $39 billion a year for all of sub-Saharan Africa.
The funds will come from a variety of sources: from African governments committed to allocating 10 per cent of their annual budgets to agriculture; from international partners; and from a range of private sector investors, including Africa's own commercial banks.
The latter represents a largely untapped source of funds for agriculture. Although farmers have long been considered "too risky" for lending, we have recently seen close to $200 million in market-based and low-interest loans made available to them from African banks.
This money is available to smallholder farmers, small-scale agricultural businesses, and African entrepreneurs across the value chain. The seeds of these partnerships are beginning to bear fruit in many parts of Africa.
In Kenya, Equity Bank's programme with AGRA and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Kilimo Biashara, has provided nearly $10 million to thousands of farmers and agri-businesses. Rural agro-dealers and suppliers have used the loans to stock their shops with improved seeds and fertilisers.
Farmers have used them to purchase these inputs and increase their yields.
AGRA would like to leverage an additional $4 billion in financing for smallholder farmers and agricultural value chains over the next five years.
Such financing can help fill a large gap for cash-strapped farmers, who otherwise have little to invest in their farms, and whose unsustainable farming remains a poverty trap for millions.
Such financing is especially important to women farmers, who produce 60-80 per cent of Africa's food, yet receive less than 10 per cent of rural credit.
To unleash Africa's agricultural potential, women farmers need full and equal access to finance - as well as to land, technologies, extension services and markets.
Such access will enable farmers to produce an abundance of food. But raising productivity is not enough. Farmers must also be able to get that food to markets.
To link farmers to markets, investments are needed: in adequate storage to reduce post-harvest losses; market information systems; food processing and other forms of value addition; in strengthening farmers' associations and ability to negotiate; and in developing the underlying infrastructure.
The region must also develop a unified grading system for agricultural products that meets rigorous standards for trade.
Given the scale of investments needed, AGRA is focusing its efforts on directing resources and building partnerships in areas that have the best chances of success - the breadbasket regions of Africa.

Agoa can open up important market opportunities for agricultural produce from Africa. The challenge will be to produce enough, and to meet the standards required to qualify for market access.
If agricultural productivity remains low, food insecurity and hunger will remain the norm, and export opportunities will be lost.
The United States and Africa should invest in stimulating agricultural growth for millions of Africa's small-holders, enabling them to feed themselves and earn higher incomes from expanded markets.
Only then will the benefits of Agoa reach those who matter most - small-holder farmers, especially women.
Dr Ngongi is president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

5 August 2009-all africa
Nairobi — US Secretary of State has told African countries to increase trade with each other to realise the enormous potential that exists within the continent in an address to the Agoa summit.

She told delegates at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi that Africa should "tear down trade barriers with each other."

"The biggest opportunity for African countries is to open up trade with each other," said Mrs Clinton.
She urged Africa to pursue product diversification so as to take advantage of market access across the world and said that the US viewed Africa as a "partner and not patron."

She gave the Rwandan example saying that it was the fastest growing economy in Africa with its health indicators improving. Mrs Clinton said this was commendable given the fact that the country was coming from years of "genocidal conflict."

Mrs Clinton said the US will double foreign assistance to Africa by 2014, increase trade capacity, pursue public private partnerships and expand number of bilateral treaties with African nations.

The Secretary of State said the continued social, political and economic marginalisation of African women has "left a void" that "undermines progress" in the continent.
She said that given the opportunity women can have "lasting influence" on their nations and gave the examples of Kenya's Wangari Maathai and Liberia President Elen Johnson-Sirleaf who have played key roles in driving social and economic progress in their countries.

In a video address to the delegates, US President Obama said his country will help Africa harness its vast national resources and put in place strong institutions to promote democracy.
Kenya is hosting the eight annual Agoa summit and Mrs Clinton officially opened the conference on Wednesday.
She will also tour six other African countries in an 11-day tour, the longest of an American top diplomat to the continent.
Mrs Clinton will visit Angola, South Africa, Liberia, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Cape Verde and Gabon.

5 August 2009-all africa
With reports of widespread rape and other atrocities pouring in from the eastern Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations mission there has sent some 40 teams to the region over the past six months to bolster the protection of civilians.
By identifying early warning signs of potential threats to civilians the joint UN teams, which include child protection, civil affairs and public information officers, allow peacekeepers to react rapidly to counter them, the mission known as MONUC said today.

The teams were set up earlier this year to help stem abuses in North and South Kivu provinces where Rwandan rebels have been active since the 1994 genocide in the small neighbouring country where an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

In his most recent report to the Security Council on sexual violence in armed conflict, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted last month that at least 200,000 cases of such abuse had been recorded in eastern DRC since 1996.

MONUC has also sent an evaluation mission to look into strengthening preventive measures against sexual exploitation and abuse involving UN peacekeepers. The evaluation is expected to produce a report soon.
The Secretary-General's Special Representative in DRC Alan Doss visited Rwanda over the weekend for talks with Rwandan President Paul Kagame on disarmament, the UN-DRC joint operations against illegal armed groups in eastern DRC, and voluntary repatriation of Rwandan nationals living there.

On the latter, the MONUC said 1,284 former Rwandan rebels and their dependents have returned home since January while the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has helped repatriate some 11,500 Rwandan civilians in the same period.

The latest bout of fighting between DRC troops and the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and their local allies uprooted a further 35,000 people in South Kivu last month, bringing the total displaced there since January to 536,000, according to UNHCR. More than 1.8 million people are now internally displaced in the DRC's east.

5 August 2009-all africa

The death of Vice President Joseph Msika threatens to tear ZANU PF apart, with its two main feuding factions already jostling to have their own candidate replace him.

The exact day on which Msika died is still unclear with suggestions Mugabe delayed the announcement to manage hostilities within his party. Most reports said he died on Tuesday, but Mugabe later told his party Msika died Wednesday morning after his organs stopped functioning.
Even more bizarre are reports he died on Saturday, and ZANU PF then had a fiery impromptu politburo meeting on Sunday. Whatever the real date, there is no hiding the tensions that have openly exploded since Msika's demise.

Under a unity accord signed between ZANU PF and ZAPU in 1987 the two Vice Presidents have to represent both of the two parties. With Vice President Joice Mujuru already occupying the ZANU PF slot it means former ZAPU leaders are now in contention to replace Msika.
This has made current ZANU PF national Chairman John Nkomo the front runner. But Newsreel is told the faction led by Defence Minister Emerson Mnangagwa is jostling to have Mines Minister and Mugabe blue-eyed boy Obert Mpofu as the replacement. This has infuriated Nkomo and most in ZAPU who consider Mpofu a 'sellout' after his defection to ZANU PF long before the unity accord.

A prominent analyst has also told Newsreel that National Healing Minister John Nkomo, the front runner, is battling a serious form of cancer and has been undergoing intensive chemotherapy. Mugabe would be risking appointing someone whose health is on the decline he said.
Another dark horse in the race to succeed Msika is Zimbabwe's Ambassador to South Africa Simon Khaya Moyo. Commentators say Moyo is far more senior than Mpofu in the ZAPU hierarchy, and Mugabe would be risking the fury of his ZAPU allies if he went for the junior official.

In terms of the succession dynamics, both the Mnangagwa and Mujuru factions would like to have a stake in the Vice Presidency with a view to having one of their candidates eventually replacing Mugabe. ZANU PF is due to have its 5-yearly congress in December to choose a new leadership that will also run in the next elections.

Last December the ZANU PF Midlands and Masvingo provinces were virtually 'falling over each other' in their rush to endorse Mugabe as life president, effectively blocking any challenge to his leadership. The 85-year old dictator used in-fighting within his party to justify his continued stay as the only unifying force.

5 August 2009-all africa
Addis Abeba — TWO Ethiopian stowaways have been repatriated from China on Monday, 62 days after they secretly boarded a ship for illegal immigration, according to reports from China.

Frontier police said it was the seventh time one of the stowaways had failed to immigrate illegally, ShanghaiDaily reported citing Oriental Morning Post.

The two men boarded the Belize-registered ship Arbit in Djibouti on June 3, the daily quoted the report as having said. The ship arrived in Shanghai on July 18.

They originally planned to sneak into a European country, but the ship traveled along the Indian Ocean eastward into the Pacific Ocean to transport its shipment of goods, police told the Oriental Morning Post.

Members of Arbit's crew found the pair five days into the voyage when they left their hiding place to look for food, according to the report. Singapore, India, Yemen and Sri Lanka all refused to repatriate the stowaways, the report said.

"Arbit's crew treated the Ethiopians well and allowed the pair to watch TV some nights, they told police with the help of a translator." Police sent the pair to Beijing on August 1 to catch a flight that departed for Ethiopia.

5 August 2009
Malakal — Five months after Southern Sudanese forces clashed with fighters allied to the north in Malakal town of Upper Nile State, the city has remained under divided control.

"Part of the town is controlled by Joint Integrated Units [JIUs] allied to the Sudan Armed Forces, and the southern areas by the Sudan People's Liberation Army [SPLA]," said a local resident, who requested anonymity.

Malakal town is just one of many potential flashpoints for the 2005 north-south Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

The agreement halted a war that began in 1983 over resources, power, religion and self-determination. Its endgame will require border demarcation, voter registration, national elections, and an eventual referendum on southern secession, all by the end of 2011.

The recent arbitration on the region of Abyei deals with only one of a range of potentially explosive problems.

The casualties, injuries and displacement of the long civil war dwarf Sudan's other conflicts, including Darfur. Some estimates suggest more than two million people died, while about four million were uprooted and some 600,000 people fled the country as refugees.

Now, both sides are accused of re-arming and positioning forces at likely flashpoint areas, either as a deterrent, in defence or preparation for conflict - including around the north-south border or in the three "transitional" areas of Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Southern Blue Nile.

"The situation is very complicated," a source at the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in Malakal told IRIN. "The SPLA is building up arms and bringing in tanks. During the 24-25 February [Malakal] clash, the JIU too had tanks."

According to the NGO Small Arms Survey, the government of Southern Sudan continues to be driven by the belief that a confrontation with the north is likely, while internal conflicts have also flared up in recent months.

"This stance has shaped its current security strategy, which focuses on defending the border with the north and other strategic positions [and] containing potential spoilers, including possible allies of Khartoum," it said in a 14 May briefing paper.

Malakal is one example of where partial implementation of the deal has left a fragile security situation.

Divided Malakal
"Spoilers" include organised armed groups and political groupings in the south opposed to the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS). The "Other Armed Groups" were supposed to be mopped up in the CPA.

During the war these were funded and encouraged by the north to disrupt the SPLA, according to analysts. Since the peace accord, former commanders of these militia have been absorbed into the SAF or the SPLA.

Tensions, however, remain between the various units. The February Malakal clashes, for example, occurred after a former Southern Sudanese militia leader, who was opposed to the SPLA and is now SAF, Major General, Gabriel Tang-Ginya, arrived in Malakal.

Malakal, according to the 2005 agreement, is meant to be manned by the JIUs, so the presence of a SAF officer was a provocation, observers at UNMIS said. In any case, analysts say the SAF component of JIUs in the South are comprised mainly of southerners who used to be in Khartoum-backed militias.

Tensions rose, leading to an exchange of fire in which one civilian was killed and two SPLA soldiers injured. Asked to leave Malakal, Tang-Ginya refused, sparking off fighting that escalated to involve tanks.

At least 62 people, including 30 civilians, were killed before Southern Sudanese Vice-President Riek Machar flew in to restore order.

"We believe that Tang-Ginya is being used by SAF as a catalyst to start another civil war in Southern Sudan," the Southern Sudanese information and broadcasting ministry said in a statement after the clashes.

Malakal's best-known political leader, former foreign minister Lam Akol, has meanwhile split from the ruling SPLM and announced the formation of a breakaway party.
The Enough Project, in a 1 July paper, noted that while no proof has been produced of Northern support to those involved in clashes in the south, it had a "history of using brutal tactics to sow chaos throughout Sudan's vast periphery [including] employing proxy militias to incite violence at the local level, from Darfur to the Nuba Mountains".

Clashes and massacres

This year, according to Oxfam, has so far been the most violent for Southern Sudan since the CPA. More than 1,000 people have reportedly been killed, largely in inter-communal clashes and at least 214,000 have fled their homes - more even than in Darfur this year.

The latest massacre, in which Murle are alleged to have killed Lou Nuer west of Akobo on 2 August, claimed the lives of up to 180 people, according to local officials.

Southern leaders have started to blame the north over related inter-communal clashes in Jonglei State, between the Murle and the Lou sub-section of the Nuer ethnic group.

"They [tensions and rivalries] emanate from a diabolical strategy aimed at projecting the people of Southern Sudan as a people who cannot govern themselves, particularly as we approach general elections and the referendum," Southern President Salva Kiir told the Southern parliament in Juba on 15 June.

The government in Khartoum denies these claims.

Aid workers say inter-communal violence and raids have added to the sense of precarious security and governance.

Southern disarmament

As southern clashes are turning increasingly lethal, it is partly due to the wide distribution of weapons among civilians.

Residents of Akobo in Jonglei, which hosts about 19,000 displaced people, say total disarmament would help reduce violence in the region. "Without a gun, you cannot easily kill," local trader Deng Gony said. "The solution is total disarmament."

Efforts to disarm fighters have been made, including partial disarmament by the southern government of mainly Nuer residents of Jonglei. This, however, left the Lou Nuer community exposed to attacks from the Murle and other communities. The result was that the disarmed community re-armed, observers said.

Lately, the UN has started backing a more comprehensive disarmament process, but analysts say there is a major challenge - the CPA has provisions for the disarmament and demobilization of armed groups, but provides little guidance on disarming civilians.

Elections and commitments

Most importantly perhaps for Southern Sudan are national elections in April 2010 and a referendum on self-determination in 2011. A spanner was thrown into the works recently when the GOSS rejected the results of the 2008 census.

Announced in May, the results showed that Southerners constitute 21 percent of Sudan's population. The South said its population was greater than that.

It is increasingly evident that there is a widespread breaddown of peace in Southern Sudan, and that both the north and south are bracing for war in 2011, regardless of concurrent recommitments to implementation of the faltering [CPA]

There is also disagreement over the oil-rich Abyei region. While the results of the Abyei arbitration appear to have settled one issue, according to media reports, the two sides seem to have an almost inexhaustible supply of topics to disagree upon, such as the composition of the electorate in Abyei and the delineation and demarcation of the north-south border.

In Washington, Ambassador Richard Williamson told a Congressional hearing on 29 July: "The [CPA] was a monumental achievement toward beginning to overcome these religious, racial, ethnic and tribal divides. But the peace it brokered remains fragile, and the peace deal is neither simple nor neat.

"There still are legitimate and disturbing questions about Khartoum's commitment to full implementation of the CPA."

"It is increasingly evident that there is a widespread breakdown of peace in Southern Sudan, and that both the north and the south are bracing for war in 2011, regardless of concurrent recommitments to implementation of the faltering [CPA]," the Enough Project warned.

Recently, representatives of the two groups met in Washington and recommitted themselves to the agreement, but observers remain sceptical.

"If this agreement fails, there is a risk that all of Sudan will go to war again," Melanie Teff of Refugees International warned recently. "Every possible step must be taken to prevent a return to the horrors of the past."

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]

August 1, 2009
China's military celebrated its 82nd anniversary Saturday, with an editorial in the official paper calling on the armed forces to maintain social stability in the wake of unrest on the fringes of its territory.

The People's Liberation Army, the world's largest with 2.3 million members, should strengthen coordination with local governments to prepare to deal with all kinds of "unexpected" incidents, a front-page editorial in the official People's Liberation Daily said.

"We must closely pay attention to developments in the domestic and international situation ... and firmly oppose all violent criminal activities and attempts to split the country," it said.

The editorial echoed comments by Defense Minister Liang Guanglie on Friday in a speech to mark the anniversary. "Social stability" has become a watchword for China's leaders as economic growth slows and exposes rifts between rich and poor. The government is also worried about ethnic fault lines, particularly after a riot last month in the far western Xinjiang region between minority Uighurs and Han Chinese, the country's predominant ethnicity.

The violence in Xinjiang — where nearly 200 were killed — and a similar uprising in Tibetan areas last year were branded by Beijing as the work of terrorists, separatists and foreign forces, part of a plot to carve up China.

"The PLA will also prevent antagonistic forces from carrying out separatist and sabotage activities and safeguard national security and social stability," Liang said.

China has long been tightlipped about its military strength and capacity, drawing criticism from other countries wary of the Asian giant's growing power and military spending that has jumped by double-digit percentages every year for nearly two decades.

But in recent years, China has been increasing its international military ties as it attempts to modernize its army. Earlier this year, Chinese warships were sent to patrol waters off Somalia as part of the international effort against piracy. The Defense Ministry also recently said it will launch its first Web site in what state media billed as an effort to be more transparent.
abcnews

CARIO July 31, 2009
Sudan's U.N. ambassador said Friday that his government was pleased with an American envoy's assertion that there is no evidence to support the U.S. designation of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism.

President Barack Obama's special envoy to Sudan told a Senate panel on Thursday that U.S. sanctions linked to that designation were hurting efforts to help people affected by conflict in Sudan. On Friday, Sudan's U.N. ambassador welcomed the comments, saying that his country was a victim of terror, not a sponsor of it.

The Sudanese government's opponents were critical of the American envoy's remarks. One of them, a top leader of the rebels fighting government forces in the country's western Darfur region, said the American's views were naive.

The Obama administration is grappling with how to deal with Sudan's government about Darfur, where up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million displaced, and how to keep a separate conflict between the country's north and south from re-igniting.

Sudan, for its part, is pushing for stronger diplomatic ties with the United States, the lifting of sanctions and its removal from the U.S. list of states said to sponsor terrorism.

The U.S. envoy, Scott Gration, said Thursday in Washington that Sudan's government has been helpful in stopping the flow of weapons and in dealing with key members of the terror group al-Qaida.

Sanctions, Gration said, affect the ability of aid workers to ship in heavy equipment to build roads and other crucial material. "At some point, we're going to have to unwind some of these sanctions so we can do the very things we need to do," Gration told the Senate hearing.

Gration also maintained that the violence in Darfur — where the government has been accused of backing militiamen responsible for atrocities — no longer amounts to a "genocide."

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, said his country "values the positive indications" from Gration, according to a report by Sudan's official news agency, SUNA.
ABCnews

02 Aug 2009
A Nigerian military official suspects there are many foreigners among the dead killed in recent fighting between police and a radical Islamist sect, in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

"I know that there are a lot of foreigners among them. There are a lot of people that are not just Nigerians," Colonel Ben Ahanotu, of the Nigerian military said, without providing further details.

Ahanotu estimated around 700 people were killed in fighting, the toll was previously thought to be around 300.

Speaking from outside the smouldering compound of killed Boko Haram sect leader, Mohammed Yusuf, Ahanotu said on Saturday that mass burials have begun because bodies were decomposing in the heat.

The Islamist compound was destroyed this week by government troops.

The compound is one of the burial sites, he said.

Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, was largely quiet on Saturday, the streets had been cleared of bodies and blood spilled during five days of fierce fighting.

Banks and markets reopened, but sporadic violence continued.

Destruction was evident on Saturday only in some areas of the city: the police building was in ruins and smoke rose from the destroyed compound of the sect's leader, where bodies were now buried.

The compound was guarded by soldiers armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

A bloodied man, alleged to be a member of the sect, lay beneath a tree, his hands tied behind his back, guarded by the soldiers.

Borno Police Commissioner Christopher Dega said the members of the Boko Haram sect are likely in hiding and may be using the current calm to regroup.

The wave of violence began on Sunday July 26 in Bauchi and quickly spread to three other northern states, including Borno.

The sect, Boko Haram (name means "Western education is sacrilege") attacked police stations, churches and government buildings.

The group is seeking the imposition of strict Islamic Shariah law in Nigeria, a country of several religions.

Nigerian troops retaliated on Wednesday killing about 100 people, half of them inside the sect's mosque.

The bodies of barefoot young men littered the streets of Maiduguri on Thursday morning as security forces hunted militants.

An Associated Press reporter saw dead bodies piled into at least six trucks in the hospital's parking lot on Wednesday.

Mohammed Yusuf, head of the Boko Haram sect, was killed on Thursday after he was found hiding in a goat pen at his in-laws' home.

The details of his death remain murky.

Nigeria's Civil Rights Congress, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for investigations into Yusuf's death and other killings during the upheaval in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria.
3news.co.nz

01 Aug 2009
Burundi has deployed a third battalion of 850 soldiers to Mogadishu to reinforce the African Union peacekeeping mission in the Somali capital.

With the new troops, more than 5,000 soldiers from Burundi and Uganda are now taking part in the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which began in March 2007 and has cost the lives of 17 Burundian soldiers.

"Burundi had already sent two battalions, or 1,700 soldiers, to Somalia as part of AMISOM," Burundian General Lazare Nduwayo told reporters.

"It just finished overnight the deployment of a third battalion of 850 men as part of this peacekeeping mission," the army spokesman said.

The deployment took place over four days with evening flights taking the forces from Burundi's capital Bujumbura to Mogadishu, he said.

AMISOM is the only foreign force in Somalia, a country which has been mired in civil war since 1991. Insurgents launched an offensive in May to topple a transitional government, which is backed by the international community.
presstv.ir

1 August 2009
Out of a teacher population of 4,540 in the Tamale Metropolitan Directorate of Education, 1,841 are pupil teachers who mostly teach at the Kindergarten level.

Mr. Edward Gayoni, the Metropolitan Director of Education who said this at a two-day training workshop for Kindergarten teachers in the Metropolis said: “Because a good number of these teachers are untrained, they lack the basic pedagogical skills to handle young innocent minds”.

The workshop, which was funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), seeks to equip the teachers with the basic skills to be able to handle their lessons well and also improve upon the performance of their pupils.

Mr. Gayoni said the best solution to addressing the shortcomings of the pupil teachers is in-service training and workshops to build their competencies and confidence.

He said it was sad to note that because of their shortcomings some of the Kindergarten teachers resort to unprofessional methods of beating and insulting pupils who do not understand their lessons.

He spoke about the importance of quality education at the basic level and said over 90 percent of people who became successful in the field of education had a good foundation at the basic level.

Mr. Gayoni said although some lapses occurred on the part of kindergarten teachers because of the lack of training all their failures could not be accepted when compared with their colleagues in the private schools some of whom are junior and senior high school graduates.

He urged the teachers to live up to expectation and said his administration would not hesitate to discipline non-performing teachers.

myjoyonline.com

In Nigeria, members of an Islamic Sect who believed by their ideology that the western education is a sin have clashed seriously with the Nigerian Police. An estimated number of over 300 people both the sect members and the police were said to have been killed in the clashes.
The Northern Nigeria is predominantly Muslim population comprising of nineteen states. So far, the clashes affected four states. They are Bauchi, Borno, Kano and Yobe states.
Full blown violence erupted between the members of the sect led by Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf the aforementioned states from Sunday evening through yesterday Monday in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital before escalating to the neighbouring states. The police engaged them when they started busting police barracks, prison gates, and razed vehicles.
Nigeria’s President, Umaru Yar’Adua reacted in Abuja by ordering the security agencies to take full charge of operations in the four states where the sad and shocking attacks occurred.
In his directive, the President said “No effort should be spared in identifying, arresting and prosecuting leaders and members of the extremist sects involved in the attacks.”
Security is to be beefed up in all neighbouring states and security personnel placed on full alert to ensure the attacks by the sect members do not spread elsewhere beside the clashes that happened already.
He therefore said, he deeply regrets the unnecessary loss of lives occasioned by the wanton and unprovoked attacks on the police and other innocent Nigerians in the affected states.
The crisis started in neighouring Bauchi on Sunday, where at least 200 members of the sect were reported dead. Earlier this year in the same state Bauchi in February, a clash occurred between Muslim and Christian communities which left four persons dead.
As reprisal for the incident in Bauchi on Sunday, the Muhammed Yusuf-led sect on Monday attacked the police headquarters barracks in Maiduguri, killed an officer, and set ablaze eight residential blocks. The group proceeded to the new prison complex and used bombs and other explosive devices to break in and set the inmates loose.
Following the clashes in Maiduguri, Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, ordered a dusk to dawn curfew in the city.
The curfew was ensued after the joint military/police security team had opened fire on the hoodlums, killing several.
They shouted ,,Allahu Akbar,, as they did.
A Police Area Commander, in-charge of Potiskum town in Yobe state, M.A. Mustapha, said the suspects are indigenes of the town and that when they visited their houses most of their wives confessed to them that the men did not pass the night at home.
In Kano, residents were gripped by anxiety following confrontation between the police and fanatical Muslim sect in Wudil, in which three people were killed and several others wounded.
The police said the agitation of the Kano group is similar to that of the Bauchi fundamentalists, corroborated by their leader, Abdulmimuni Ibrahim Mohammed, who was arrested along with dozens of his surrogates.
The timeline of the crisis is as follows: Thursday 11 June, 17 members of the sect shot and wounded by security men for alleged refusal to wear a crash helmets. This followed the reprisal attach threatened to undertake by the sect leader on Sunday 14 June.
Subsequently, on Thursday 21 July, nine members of the sect were arrested and paraded on Friday 24, by over suspicion of possession of 74 empty homemade shells and explosive devices. Same night, a locally made bomb exploded in the residence of another follower, Hassan Sani Badami from Biu town in Borno state blasting him to death while his friend sustained severe injuries.
On Sunday 26 July, followers of Ustaz Mohammed launched an attack in Bauchi, leaving more than 50 persons most of the supporters of the group dead.
While on Monday July 27, sect violence spread to Borno, Knao and Yobe states, leaving over 300 dead.

Subsidy on petroleum products is not sustainable given the huge funds spent on it and would therefore be stopped, two ministers said yesterday in Abuja.
Petroleum Minister Rilwanu Lukman and Labour Minister Adetokunbo Kayode spoke separately in Abuja, saying the funds used in subsidizing fuel products would better be utilized by government in improving infrastructure.
Lukman said the amount spent on fuel subsidy was “more than the total expenditure total capital budget of the Federal Government.”
He added: “The removal of petroleum subsidy is ultimately inevitable because government is spending so much on subsidy that other government activities have become compromised to the extent that the resources which should have been put into these projects like health, education, road construction is being used on subsidy.

“This situation is untenable, it is unacceptable and we have to deregulate. We have virtually reached that point and the ministry has now finalized the approach. In the next few months we will get ready to effect this for the benefit of our economy and more importantly for the benefit of our teeming population.”
Lukman also said, “When we liberate the market, free the market by deregulation, it will be possible for people to bring in petroleum products freely. When they do so, there will be enough. At the beginning, there may be surge in the price, a little bit more but when the market is freed and products are able to flow freely, the price will tend to moderate and it will most certainly go down.”
He said major stakeholders including federal lawmakers and oil workers unions are gradually being convinced on the need for total deregulation.
The minister said the government is targeting crude oil production totalling 4 million barrels per day by the year 2010, saying the current daily production has reduced from 2.3mbpd to 1.4mbpd because of the Niger Delta crisis.
On his part, the labour minister, Adetokumbo Kayode urged workers to embrace the deregulation plan in order to stem the “huge loss that has followed the granting of subsidy and also stop the hike of price in the sector.”
Kayode said, “The high cost of deregulation is one of the challenges facing the textile industry today and unless government deregulates, the cost of LPFO will continue to go up. More so, deregulation is part of the subsidy issue and the bulk of money, trillions of naira paid on subsidy is going to where nobody knows because it is not rubbing off on you, it is not rubbing off on your factories but it goes to private pockets. So government wants to push that and remove it.”
He praised the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) for “understanding the real issues in the deregulation debate and supporting government in its quest to sanitize the sector.”
“Deregulation is the way of the future; we are not saying that government is fully abandoning everything to the forces of demand and supply but in the sense that government will block all loopholes to allow a substantial amount of money to support the stimulus plan that the manufacturing sector needs,” he said.
But Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Issa Aremu faulted the plan, citing a report released by the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) calling on less developed countries to stop further liberalization of their economies.

Kidnappers have grabbed up to 512 people across the country this year alone an increase of almost half of what was recorded for the whole of last year.
Minister of Police Affairs Ibrahim Yakubu Lame, who revealed this in Abuja, said 30 of those kidnapped since January died in the hands of their captors.
Lame also said the figures were a sharp increase over the 353 people abducted in 2008 with only two captives losing their lives.
He said militancy in the Niger Delta, which brought about kidnapping, grew because politicians use the militants.
Kidnapping in the country started growing since 2006 when Niger Delta militants began abducting expatriates for ransom.
Lame said the weapons used by criminals in the Niger Delta are more sophisticated than those used by the police, but added that government was moving to reverse this. He said no government in the last 20 years has supported the police like the present administration.
“The question of militants started as a political move,” the minister said. “Politicians use them. Gradually it degenerated from mere agitation to militancy. It became very disheartening to government that money has now become the central point for criminal situation in the Niger Delta.”
“We have realized that most of the cases of kidnapping are internally generated especially within the family. The action which started from kidnapping of oil expatriates moved to men of God and children. The police are very concerned about the life of those kidnapped,” he added.
Lame said a bill providing stiffer punishment for kidnappers had been submitted to the National Assembly.
He said special security would be provided for seven cities, namely Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Kano, Abuja, Maiduguri and Kaduna for which N7.45 billion had been budgeted this year.
The minister said there were plans to set up six forensic laboratories in each of the six geo-political zones in addition to mobile forensic laboratories.

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Prosper Igboeli has given reasons why it shelved its planned strike from today to October 1, 2009.
The doctors in a statement issued yesterday at the end of the NEC said they would undoubtedly go on strike by October 1 if the agreement was not ratified by the end of September as promised.
According to the statement signed by the NMA National President, Dr. Igboeli; and the National Secretary, Dr. Kenneth Jonathan Okoro: the Association said, “After due consideration of appeals from the Presidency, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Ministry of Labour, the Committee on Health in the Senate and House of Representatives as well as well meaning Nigerians, and taking particular cognizance of the fact that ordinary Nigerians who did not contribute to the ruin in our health system will be most affected by the horrible consequences of a withdrawal of services by doctors in Nigeria, NEC resolved to give the government the 'last chance' to avert this action by fulfilling the pledge by the Minister of Health, re-affirmed by the Vice President to resolve the dispute with the NMA by circularizing and implementing a Medical Salary Structure (MSS) on or before September 30, 2009. This is without prejudice to a Health Salary Structure for other health professionals, which was actually introduced alongside MSS in 1991 and was implemented up till 1998.
"This is a demonstration of the maturity, goodwill and patriotism of NMA and Nigerian doctors as well as the fact that it is government's insensitivity that ultimately leads to reluctant withdrawal of services by doctors.
"NEC also resolved that if by October 1, 2009, the MSS is not restored for medical and dental practitioners in Nigeria, all doctors will embark on indefinite withdrawal of services without further notice."
The doctors implored all Nigerians to urge the Federal Government to fulfill her promise to resolve the dispute within the time frame it has requested to avoid the ugly consequences of withdrawal of services by doctors.
The planned strike which had been on the cards since May when the NMA held its Yearly General Meeting in Abeokuta was supposed to be in reaction to the non-implementation of the MSS, which the doctors had been asking for since 1998.