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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ANGER

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

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

Few predict major trouble, though.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CRACKDOWN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TEENAGE GIRLS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2010-04-08
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The firebrand youth leader of South Africa's ruling party made clear on Thursday he will not be silenced, demanding Zimbabwe-style land seizures from white farmers and vowing to keep singing a controversial song.

Under pressure after the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terre'blanche stoked fears of racial strife, the African National Congress told members on Wednesday to avoid inflammatory songs and comment.

Youth League leader Julius Malema said he would accede to the demand to drop the phrase "Kill the Boer" from the song which dates from the era of the struggle against apartheid, but keep singing the rest of it. Boer is the Afrikaans word for a farmer.

"We will take out the 'Kill the Boer' in the song," Malema told a press conference. "We do so because the ANC says we should restrain ourselves."

Malema, 29, is accused by critics of encouraging racial division 16 years after the end of white minority rule and opposition parties have called on President Jacob Zuma to rein him in.

But Malema has a passionate following within the youth wing and among many other black South Africans who complain they have not benefitted as much as they should from majority rule.

Malema dimissed accusations that his singing of "Kill the Boer" was a factor in Saturday's murder of Terre'blanche by two black workers -- which police suspect was over a pay dispute.

"We have no blood on our hands," said Malema, who threw a British journalist out of the news conference, calling him a bastard with a "white tendency".

The ANC rejects the suggestion of a link to the song and appealed on Thursday against a court's decision to ban it on the grounds that it is hate speech and unconstitutional.

Malema was speaking after his return from a visit to Zimbabwe, where he met President Robert Mugabe and hailed the seizure of white-owned farms to give to landless blacks as a success that South Africa should emulate.

"We are in a serious economic struggle that seeks to redistribute the wealth to the people. This is what we need the ANC to champion," said Malema, who has no direct influence over party policy and also champions mine nationalisation.

"Land reform in Zimbabwe has been very successful."

Malema said land seizures in South Africa should be "aggressive" and "militant" but he was not calling for violence.

Mugabe's critics say his land confiscations helped ruin the country's rich agriculture and drive more than three million Zimbabweans overseas -- most to seek work in South Africa.

Parliament in South Africa is set to review a draft policy later this month for a new land tenure system, although the government in Africa's biggest economy and largest maize producer stresses this will not mean nationalising land.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank has committed a record $100 billion in financial support over the past 18 months to help developing countries recover from the global economic crisis, the poverty-fighting institution said on Wednesday.

The World Bank stepped up lending in July 2008 at the request of member countries as demand from developing countries increased in the face of a worsening world recession and sharp drop in global trade.

The bulk of the lending since the onset of the crisis in 2008, about $60.3 billion, was to middle-income countries, which struggled to borrow on global financial markets. Typical lending for these countries had averaged about $15 billion a year before the crisis.

Meanwhile, loans and grants through the Bank's fund for the world's poorest countries reached $21.2 billion during the crisis. This compares to about $12 billion a year prior to the crisis.

Kyle Peters, World Bank director for country services, said such demand was natural for countries facing economic stress.

"A lot of countries wanted to make sure that social safety nets were expanded both in terms of the amount of support and the number of people who needed them," he told Reuters.

As governments saw their revenues shrink due to the fall in global demand, countries turned to the World Bank for budget support to avoid cuts in spending for social programs.

CREDIT STRAINS

Since July 2008, the World Bank supported 497 projects to promote economic growth, fight poverty, and support the private sector, including $28 billion in infrastructure financing, the institution said in a statement. Commitments to shore up troubled financial sectors also increased as banks in emerging and developing countries faced credit strains.

In particular, countries such as Latvia and Hungary, which were not borrowers from the World Bank when the crisis struck, resumed borrowing from the institution as their economies were rocked by the financial turmoil.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has warned that as the world emerges from the crisis, the economic recovery will be uneven and countries will "face recurring and new challenges".

To cope with increased demand the World Bank has asked member countries to replenish its coffers in a general capital increase to be decided later this month at meetings of the World Bank and its sister organization the International Monetary Fund.

Emerging market economies have said they are willing to raise their contributions in exchange for a greater stake in the development institution.

Peters said uncertainty about the global economic recovery was behind the increased demand for World Bank support.

"It is a very mixed picture across different regions and even across countries, as illustrated by the demand, which is much stronger than we had before the crisis," Peters said.

He said it was important that governments do not crowd out private businesses by borrowing too much in domestic markets -- thereby pushing up the cost of credit for companies.

"We are trying to keep our lending up to help them not crowd out their private sectors who also need financing for recovery," Peters said.

"Without a capital increase, we would have to come down more sharply and we will be unable to provide the same level of support we have in the past 18 months if the recovery stalls," he added.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities have freed 16 Muslim Brotherhood members, including senior members, who were arrested in February after a court ordered their release last week, the group's lawyer said on Thursday.

Deputy leader Mahmoud Ezzat and Essam al-Erian, members of the group's governing body, were set free late on Wednesday while the remaining 14 members, including senior members Abdel-Rahman Al Bar and Mohi Hamed, were released on Thursday.

Egyptian authorities had accused the senior members of setting up a body aligned with the thinking of former leader Sayyed Qotb who was executed in the 1960s and whose ideas have inspired militants.

But a criminal court ordered their release on April 4 as no evidence was found.

"We are glad to see the authorities' swift execution of the court's release order," the group's lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud told Reuters.

The Brotherhood says it wants peaceful political reform to establish a democratic state. Though banned, the group won a fifth of the seats in parliament in 2005 when members ran as independents.

"Accusations against these members as well as others are false. This is a political case and we hope that the rest of the detained members are released especially as parliamentary elections are coming," senior member Gamal Nassar told Reuters.

The Brotherhood says the series of security sweeps are aimed at disrupting the group's political activity.

Analysts expect the group's numbers in parliament to shrink at the election in the second half of this year after increasing state suppression of the group.

The government of President Hosni Mubarak, whose predecessor was gunned down by Islamic militants, is wary of any group with Islamist leanings, including the Brotherhood.

2010-04-08
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank is set to approve a controversial $3.75 billion loan on Thursday to help South African state utility Eskom develop a coal-fired power plant despite objections from the United States and environmental groups.

Eskom has argued it has no immediate alternative but to develop the 4,800-megawatt Medupi coal-fired plant in the northern Limpopo region to ease chronic power shortages in South Africa and ensure power supplies to neighboring states.

While $3 billion of the loan will fund the bulk of the coal-fired plant, the remainder of the financing will go toward renewables and energy efficiency projects.

"We believe this project is important for South Africa and South Africans and we expect it will be well received by the board," World Bank spokesman Peter Stephens told Reuters.

Arguing that the World Bank should be promoting clean energy sources, the United States is expected to withhold support for the loan at Thursday's meeting of the World Bank board, made up of member countries.

It is unclear whether Britain, which has threatened not to back the loan, will support the project in the end after a recent visit to London by South African President Jacob Zuma in which he lobbied British officials to support the loan.

Regardless of U.S. opposition and possible British opposition, the loan is expected to be approved. The question is whether they attach conditions to the loan that compels Eskom to meet certain criteria on energy efficiency and extending electricity to the poor.

The opposition to the Eskom loan has raised eyebrows among those who note that the two advanced economies are allowing development of coal powered plants in their own countries even as they raise concerns about those in poorer countries.

The South African plant is using the same "cleaner coal" technology used in the United States and other developing countries to lower carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, environment and development groups stepped up pressure on the World Bank ahead of Thursday's meeting not to finance the project.

In a letter endorsed by 125 organizations, the groups argued that the project will not bring electricity to the poor but will benefit large mining houses and smelters.

In a complaint submitted this week to the World Bank's independent complaint body, the Inspection Panel, on behalf of residents living near the Medupi plant claimed that the project violated World Bank policies.

"This coal loan is not about alleviating poverty or supporting sustainable development and the World Bank has no business making it," environmental group Friends of the Earth said in a statement on Wednesday.

LAWMAKERS' CONCERNS

In a letter to World Bank President Robert Zoellick on March 26, three senior Democrats, including John Kerry, Barney Frank and Patrick Leahy, who chair congressional panels, raised concerns about the loan and the Bank's rationale for supporting a project that will be a major polluter.

They said while developing countries should not be constrained by a lack of access to energy "we cannot ignore the reality that our planet is hurtling toward potentially catastrophic climate change."

The lawmakers said the World Bank loan contract should include a commitment by Eskom to update the Medupi plant with additional environmental protection as new technology becomes available, and should insist that Eskom upgrade the environmental standards of its other power facilities .

In his April 5 response, Zoellick told the lawmakers the World Bank had worked with the South African government to significantly improve the Eskom project over the past year, guided in part through discussions with the U.S. Treasury.

In the letter obtained by Reuters, he said without the new power plant South Africa would face rolling blackouts similar to the ones that crippled its economy in 2008. He said South Africa had taken an "early and strong position" on cutting carbon emissions and scaling up renewable investments.

"We have conducted due diligence on all aspects of the project and have concluded that the projects development and poverty reduction merits, along with the need to support South Africa in meeting its energy crisis, should lead us to submit the project to our board for their consideration," he added.

UNITED NATIONS, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese Ambassador to the UN Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad expressed confidence here Thursday that the upcoming Sudanese national elections set for Sunday will be "fair, transparent and successful."

"I can ensure that everything is set for a fair, democratic and transparent elections that everybody in Sudan will be proud about, " Mohamad told reporters here at the UN Headquarters after Security Council consultations on Sudan, which will hold the elections on Sunday.

The Sudanese multi-party elections, the first set of its kind in more than 20 years, are set for Sunday through Tuesday.

"The moment for democratic transformation for the country for which the government committed itself is now coming and is now a reality," Mohamad said.

Noting that there may be "some crises within some political parties," Mohamad reiterated that it is "their problem (and) not the problem of the Sudanese people."

"Preparations are now underway for a fair, transparent and successful elections," Mohamad said, adding that there is "no electoral crisis at all."

On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concerns for the "sensitive" period and recommended an extension of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) for another year.

The secretary-general noted that the elections should play "a positive role in strengthening opportunities" for the Sudanese people and called on concerned parties to ensure that the electoral environment is "free and fair."

With the referendum set for January 2011 on the independence for southern Sudan, Ban noted challenges UNMIS will face, such as referendum preparations, security in the south, and capacity- building in areas UNMIS operates.

Next year's vote is among the key milestones of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the pact between the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement ( SPLM) that ended the long-running north-south civil war.

In his report, Ban proposed an extension of UNMIS until April 30, 2011. The current mandate is set to expire April 30.

LUSAKA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- State House of Zambia confirmed to Xinhua that President Rupiah Banda on Wednesday retired all the top defense force commanders and their deputies from the Zambia Army, Zambia Air force, and the Zambia National Service (ZNS), replacing them with other officers with immediate effect.

Announcement of Banda, obtained by Xinhua from the State House, said that the President had retired General I.S. Chisuzi as Zambia Army Commander, replacing him with W.M. Lopa, former Zambian Defence Attaché in Addis Ababa. Lopa was elevated from Brigadier General to the rank of Lieutenant General.

"General Chisuzi has served with diligence and loyalty. I do hope Gen. Chisuzi will accept my offer to re-deploy him to a position where he can continue to serve his country which he has protected so professionally," Banda said in the Statement.
Banda also said he had retired Lt. Gen. Samuel Mapala as Zambia Air Force Commander, replacing him with Andrew Sakala, who recently retired from the Air Force and was recalled by Banda. Sakala was elevated from Brigadier General to Lieutenant General.

Banda said he will re-deploy Mapala in a different position.

Concerning the Zambia National Service, Banda said he had moved Maj. Gen.Raphael Chisheta from the position of Commandant of the Zambia National Service to "an appropriate position". Chisheta was replaced by Antony Yeta, who was elevated from Brigadier General to Major General.

Meanwhile, the Zambian President also replaced the Zambia Army Deputy Army Commander and Chief of Staff Major General Eliad Mutwale with Vincent Mukanda, the Zambia Air Force Deputy Air Force Commander Major General Evans Chengeta with Monta J. Chileshe, former Chief of Operations in the Zambia Air Force, and Zambia National Service Deputy Commandant Brig. Gen. J.M. Miti with Nathan Mulenga, former Zambia National Service Secretary at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters.

Banda made this announcement Wednesday in the State House, with sworn in ceremony of the newly appointed defence and service chiefs held after that on the same day in the State House.

Banda urged the new defence and service commanders, commandant and their deputies to continue working hard in preserving the peace of the country as they have done in the past, while he also calling on them to respect their predecessors and to get handovers properly.

On the same occasion, Banda also sworn in Abiudi Shonga as the new Attorney General and Sastone Silomba as Public Policy Specialist in the Coordination Division at Cabinet Office, according to Zambia News and Information Service (ZANIS).

Banda said the new Attorney General had a difficult task but expressed optimism that he would perform well, according to ZANIS.

KHARTOUM, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday criticized a decision by its main partner in the government, Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), to boycott the country's general elections in the northern states.

The NCP "regrets this decision by the SPLM, and urges the movement to immediately reconsider it," senior NCP official Ibrahim Ghandour told Xinhua on Tuesday, terming the move as " unjustified."

Earlier on Tuesday, the SPLM said it will pull out of the elections in the north, except in the states of South Kurdufan and Blue Nile, two strongholds of the movement in the north, over " ballot rigging" measures by the ruling party.

"The SPLM seems to reel under internal division which triggered unreasonable and unjustified decisions," Ghandour, who is in charge of the elections file, said.

He also dismissed the poll rigging claims, saying "the elections have not kicked off yet."

"If the SPLM boycotts the elections due to rigging in the north, it still runs in the same elections in the south," he added.

"The SPLM is seemingly acting like a southern party that is only concerned with the south," he said, slamming the movement, which he says, "is acting as if it draws up the scheme of the separation of south Sudan."

Ghandour also stressed that the elections will take place on time set by the country's National Elections Commission (NEC).

"The elections will not be disrupted by the boycott of any political party, and no one can question their credibility," he added.

Sudan will hold its first multi-party elections in 24 years, a main landmark achievement of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement ( CPA) signed between the NCP and SPLM in 2005 to end a 20-year-long conflict between the north and south.

KHARTOUM, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), a main partner in the Sudanese power-sharing government, declared Tuesday a total boycott of the country's general elections in the northern states in protest of "ballot rigging" measures by Khartoum.

Yet, the movement said the decision will not apply to the states of South Kurdufan and Blue Nile, two strongholds of the movement in the north.

"SPLM's north sector decided to boycott the elections in all northern states, except in South Kurdufan and Blue Nile, where we are certain to win the polls," SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum told reporters in Khartoum.

The decision came in protest of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP)'s continuation to take measures with the aim of rigging the elections, slated for April 11, he said.

"The National Congress is going ahead with its plan to rig the elections, and we cannot partake in unfair elections," he said.

Sudan will hold its first multi-party elections in 24 years, a main landmark achievement of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement ( CPA) signed between the NCP and SPLM in 2005 to end a 20-year-long conflict between the north and south.

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Commercial banks have shrugged off efforts by Central Bank to have them cut their interest rates, citing the cost of funds and level of risk-- dashing borrowers' hopes for cheaper credit.

The Central Bank has made determined efforts to push down lending rates by cutting its rate to the current level of 6.75 per cent but banks, in a new CBK survey, have cited it as playing a very small role in lending rate determination.

While the Central Bank Rate drop has succeeded in pushing down rates at which the government borrows from the private sector through T-bill auctions as well as decline in rates that banks lend to each other, it has had no impact on private sector base lending rate that currently stands at nearly 15 per cent, about the same level as when the CBR was nine per cent in December 2008.

Major factors

The actual lending rate is normally three to 10 percentage points above the base lending rate, depending on the risk premium place on a particular client.

At the same time, both local and foreign-owned banks reckon that their greatest cost is determined by the cost of funds as well as the credit risk of a client rather than the CBR.

Other major factors in determining lending interest rates to the private sector are profit margins, administrative costs, quality of collateral, return on capital, the level of capitalisation while CBR comes in the eighth place.

The level of capitalisation determines the total amount that can be lent out but with a smaller capital, the funds lent can yield more income for the bank if the lending rate is higher.

A CBK survey on the perceptions for this year's credit access said: "Most banks (50 per cent) expect lending rates to remain at the same level in 2010 relative to 2009. Main reason cited is that recovery of the global economy likely to spur demand and competition for credit by corporate entities."

The institutions that intend to keep rates the same are mainly the large and small banks which, respectively, have the ability to offer large loans to big number of borrowers and those that tend to have niche markets must charge high to maintain their profitability given their small asset base.

Medium-sized

Forty-five per cent of banks - which are mostly medium-sized - however expect the rates to fall on the back of declining credit risk, adoption of the credit reference bureau, moral suasion from CBK, high liquidity levels, declining yields on Treasury securities, and increased competition for customers.

For banks, the cost of funds in reality is about the cost of collateral or establishing the authenticity and value of an asset given as collateral when an entity or individual seeks a loan.

CBK governor Prof Njuguna Ndung'u has been asking banks to reduce lending rates but this indicates that they do not intend to heed his word.

Indeed, the recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) report lamented that interest rates spreads remain high even with the decline in the cost of funds and the CBR.

The governor said that the oligopolistic structure of the Kenyan banking industry was partly responsible for the failure to respond to regulator's signals to reduce lending rates.

Although the governor did not mention it, there is also a possible oligopoly where the few players in the market collude in fixing prices and force consumers to pay artificially high prices.

This happens more readily where there is competition by borrowers for credit as is expected to be the case for the better part of this year.

"Companies, consumers and even the government are coming back to the credit market for money to finance new projects in readiness for the expected economic upturn", said Mr James Macharia, the managing director of NIC Bank.

He explained that for banks, the upward lending profile is in response to enhanced opportunities stressing that the money has always been there but what has been lacking are the takers.

Investor confidence

According to the CBK survey, even the private sector expects that its demand for credit this year will rise for the rest of the year relative to January 2010 due improved investor confidence in the economy, increased import demand for raw materials and borrowing to finance expansion.

The government has predicted that the GDP will rise 4.5 per cent while the private sector expects 4-5 per cent, the World Bank has set 3.7 per cent while the IMF has put it at 4.0 per cent.

This is against 2009's growth of about two per cent and 2008's 1.7 per cent.

The banks themselves intend to give out more loans because of the recovery of the global economy, improved agricultural performance due to good rains, lower hydro energy costs, improved infrastructure and the impact of the fiscal stimulus package amidst a stable political environment.

Credit availability

In fact, 40 per cent of the banks expect to raise credit availability by more than 10 per cent.

The private sector is so buoyant about the economy that 62 per cent of firms expect that inflation will either decrease or remain at the same level as in January when it was at 4.7 per cent.

They may be right because inflation in March fell to 4.0 per cent against 5.2 per cent in February.

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The African Development Bank (AfDB) is setting up a political risk guarantee scheme that will cushion private investors in economies across Africa.

The scheme, which will undertake to cover potential risks such as political upheavals, is expected to provide investors with the confidence to put in their investments to spur economic growth in Africa.

"AfDB is setting up a political risks guarantee scheme that will provide cushion against loss of investment by private sector and this is expected to spur investment for economic growth", Aloysius Uche Ordu, AfDB vice-president for operations, said in an interview with the Business Daily on Monday.

Mr Ordu indicated that the scheme is expected to minimise the risk exposure to investors, giving them the confidence they need to put in their funds in Africa.

For Kenya this is critical as it edges toward the 2012 general election where investors are likely to be nervous, fearing a repeat of the 2007 election violence which led to massive destruction of properties, looting of businesses and deaths of over 1000 people.

With the coalition government still pulling in different directions, the recent ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to allow formal investigations into the post election violence and the expected referendum on the new constitution the political environment is likely to get charged as we move toward the next general elections.

"Political stability is critical to enhancing trade and a conducive business environment and we recognise the critical role of the private sector player in employment and wealth creation for economic growth", said Mr Ordu, adding that investors require a stable environment to realise return on their investment.

AfDB Bank scheme joins that of the Africa Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) and Multilateral Insurance Guarantee Agreement (MIGA) of the World Bank in providing political risks cover to businesses in Africa.

Mr Ordu reckons that the AfDB Bank scheme is provided as a realisation that investors are shying away from African economies especially those with minimal commodity resources and experiencing political instability denying them the room to improve their overall economic well-being.

Innocent victims

The scheme is expected to provide additional support to African economies which are recovering from the aftermath of the global economic crisis which impacted their growth momentum.

"Africa economies were innocent victims of the global economic and financial meltdown and suffered immensely through decreased remittances, falling commodity prices, lower number of tourists visits and inability to access credit and other fundings", said Mr Ordu.

The move comes at a time when AfDB bank is putting in more resources to enhance infrastructural development of countries affected by civil war.

A case in point is Burundi which is emerging from decades of civil war which has locked out investors.

The country, according to AfDB, requires $5.8 billion to address its weak infrastructural facilities such as roads, energy, water and sewerage and telecommunication.

The infrastructural projects which are estimated to cost $4.6 billion as capital expense with $1.2 billion dedicated to maintenance is expected to enhance regional trade through easy access to markets both in and out of the country, link the country to other major existing East African infrastructural facilities and reduce the cost of doing business.

Lowering the cost

The drive to enhance linkage into the East African Community is part of the broader drive by AfDB bank to leverage on the Africa regional trade blocs to boost trade among member countries.

"We need to enhance trade between member countries by lowering the cost of doing business through improved and interconnected infrastructural facilities such as power, railway, roads and telecommunication", said Mr Ordu.

For instance Mr Ordu indicated that it costs up to $230 to transport a tonne of fertiliser from the port of Mombasa to Burundi but with improved infrastructure especially railway, the cost can be reduced by a third or $100 per tonne.

JOHANNESBURG April 6 (Xinhua) -- A South African court has charged two men for murdering far-right movement leader Eugene Terre'Blanche, local media reported on Tuesday.

Terre'Blanche, the leader of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), was murder on Saturday. According to the police, Terre'Blanche was allegedly murdered by two of his farm laborers following a pay dispute

Reports quoted Prosecutor George Baloyi as saying that two men, aged 15 and 27 respectively, have been charged.

The prosecutor said the two have been formally charged with murder, housebreaking with intent to rob, attempted robbery and a new hearing has been set for April 14.

The murder has triggered fears in South Africa that violence may break out.

South African forces have joined hands in calling for calm amid the murder of Terre'Blanche.

South African President Jacob Zuma on Saturday appealed for calm in the country, warning against "agent provocateurs" inciting violence shortly after the murder of Terre'Blanche.

"The President appeals for calm following this terrible deed and asks South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fueling racial hatred," said the presidency in a statement.
"In any dispute, especially in a country like South Africa where we uphold the rule of law, no one is allowed to take the law into his own hands," said Zuma in a statement.

The South African Council of Churches (SACC) on Monday called for political parties to show strong leadership following the murder of Terre'Blanche.

"We call upon other political leaders to step forward and provide the reconciling leadership that is necessary for the country at this time," said Eddie Makue, the general secretary of SACC.

The South African National Civic Organization (SANCO) on Monday condemned the murder of Terre'Blancheand.

"We are concerned and condemn the callous and brutal murder of the man who was on the mend of his ways of being a patriotic leader," SANCO spokesman Dumisane Mthalane said in a statement.

"We call upon our people to desist from such criminality irrespective of the nature of incitement."

Also on Monday, AWB said that it would not retaliate for the killing of its leader amid fears of a backlash to spark racial tensions.

In a statement, Pieter Steyn, an AWB general, appealed for "calm" and not to engage "in any form of violence."

Terre'Blanche will be buried on his farm on Friday.

2010-04-06
LUSAKA, April 6 (Xinhua) -- About 40 people are feared dead after a boat they were traveling in capsized on a lake in northern Zambia, state broadcaster the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation reported Tuesday.

The boat capsized on Lake Tanganyika around midday when it was coming from the mountainous area Kapembwa to the Mpulungu district in the province, the report said.

It is near the place where nine people died early this year when rocks fell from a mountain due to strong wind sweeping through the area.

Northern Province Permanent Secretary Mwalimu Simfukwe said some people have since been rescued while efforts were being made to search for some more missing people. But he did not say how many people were in the boat as the tragedy occurred.

Early this year, nine people died after parts of the Kapembwa Mountain in the area fell on them following a strong wind which swept through the area, leaving 30 people homeless.

The area is part of the Great Rift Valley and mostly inhabited by fishermen who conduct their fishing on Lake Tanganyika. Three years ago, 80 people drowned on the lake when a strong wind swept through the area.

2010-04-06
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan will take charge of the power ministry and not appoint a minister for now, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

"The purpose (of the decision) is to achieve the set targets in the power sector by the administration," said presidency spokesman Ima Niboro.

2010-04-06
JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Three Nigerians were killed in clashes between Christian and Muslim gangs in the central city of Jos, where hundreds have died in similar violence this year, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.

A rally by the Christian Association of Nigeria briefly turned violent on Monday when members of the group fought with a Muslim mob. Police said the situation was now under control and no further violence was reported on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, in the course of the pandemonium, three persons lost their lives and some were injured," said Brigadier General Donald Oji, spokesman for the region's special task force.

The military has imposed a curfew on much of Plateau State since January, when sectarian violence killed more than 400 people.

After the January unrest, clashes flared again in March with attacks on the mostly Christian villages of Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Ratsat just south of Jos, in which hundreds more people were killed.

Plateau State, of which Jos is the capital, lies at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south, a region known as the "Middle Belt".

Fierce competition for control of fertile farmlands between Christian and animist indigenous groups and Muslim settlers from the north have repeatedly triggered unrest in the region over the past decade.

2010-04-06
CAIRO (Reuters) - An African trade body aims to finalise an internal investment agreement by August that would standardise treatment of investors from across member countries, Egypt's investment minister said on Tuesday.

"We are going to be discussing the possibility of a common investment area for the member countries of COMESA," Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin told a news conference, adding that a final decision would be made by heads of state in August.

COMESA is the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, a 19-country bloc, including OPEC member Libya and the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, which will host a forum in Egypt's resort town of Sharm El Sheikh next week.

"The common investment area is where we are trying to harmonise the rules of investment," said Heba Salama, a COMESA official based in Egypt. "An investor from Sudan will be treated the same, if he is investing in Kenya, as a Kenyan national."

Africa boasts some 30 regional trade arrangements, but the continent receives less than 4 percent of global foreign direct investment, in part because small markets often cannot attract big money and because onerous bureaucratic requirements tend to discourage foreign business.

Widespread corruption is another hindrance.

COMESA and two other African trade blocs agreed on a much-delayed free trade programme in November that is expected to be operational within two to three years and could improve coordination among existing trade schemes.

Mohieldin said regional cooperation was increasingly important in the wake of the global financial crisis and as the World Trade Organisation's Doha round drags on.

"Especially with the failure of the Doha round so far to reach any kind of positive impact on the organisation of trade between countries, the importance of regionalism ... is getting more and more enhanced," he said.

Mohieldin said the forum, which China, India and Gulf Arab countries would also attend, would focus on investment opportunities in infrastructure, communications, information technology and agribusiness.