Congo (DRC)
Eight Red Cross workers taken hostage in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on April 9 have been freed unharmed. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they were released unconditionally by the pro-government Mai Mai Yakutumba militia group. The seven Congolese and one Swiss were abducted in the Fizi region of South Kivu province as they returned from a trip to help displaced people. The militia group’s leader said they had been held “for their own safety.” The self-styled General Aluri Yakutumba told the AFP news agency that there had been fighting in the area last week between his fighters and the Congolese army (FARDC). But an army spokesman in South Kivu, Capt Olivier Hamuli, told the Associated Press that the group had seized the ICRC workers to thwart an attack on its hideouts. There has been violent conflict in eastern DR Congo for almost two decades and the ICRC is one of the few aid groups working there. (BBC)
Ethiopia
Ethiopia accused Egypt of stalling talks aimed at reaching an accord over sharing water from the Nile River. Egypt has employed a delaying tactic which has dragged the negotiating process, Shimeles Kemal, a spokesman for the Ethiopian government, told reporters in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia and six other downstream countries plan to sign a new accord that will redistribute rights to water from the Nile. Egypt and Sudan, the two-largest consumers of Nile water, have refused. Egypt warned it would withdraw from the Nile Basin Initiative, a World Bank-funded program aimed at resolving disputes over the rivers water, if the seven downstream states sign the accord, AFP reported. Egypt claims 55.5 billion cubic meters (14.5 trillion gallons) of the Niles annual flow under a 1959 treaty with Sudan, according to the Web site of Egypts State Information Service. That agreement didnt include Ethiopia, which is the source of about 85 percent of the rivers water, or other downstream states. (Bloomberg)
Madagascar
Security forces in Madagascar arrested 19 people on April 18 on suspicion of plotting a coup, the latest in a series of plot rumors to hit the Indian Ocean island’s capital in the past few weeks. Lieutenant Colonel Rene Lylison, the head of the security unit that carried out the arrests, told reporters the plan was to attack the prime minister’s residence early on April 19. “Some officers had prepared a coup d’etat, to kill Malagasies ... fortunately, we were able to prevent the attempt,” he said. “Their goal was to kill, and divide the military.” There is growing disquiet in Madagascar over the rule of President Andry Rajoelina, a former mayor of the capital who seized power with the help of dissident soldiers in March 2009. The African Union imposed sanctions on Rajoelina and 108 of his backers in March this year for failing to install a unity government with the country’s three main opposition groups. Analysts say some high-level military officials are frustrated at Rajoelina’s failure to end the crisis and restore constitutional order. (Reuters)
Nigeria
Police and security forces in Nigeria routinely engage in random violence that results in hundreds of killings annually, according to human rights groups. There was the truck driver who drove past a police roadblock in February in the town of Kazaure because of poor brakes. Police dragged him from the vehicle and beat him to death. Or the motorcyclist killed in January for getting in the way of a police convoy in Kaduna state. “They got out and shot him,” said lawyer Shehu Sani of the Civil Rights Congress, an NGO. In a rare admission, last month then-Police Minister Ibrahim Lame condemned the violence in a meeting with federal police commanders. “The current rate of crime across the nation, rising cases of extrajudicial killings, human rights violations, robberies, high-profile assassinations and deliberate failure to comply with government directives are testimony to the sheer incapacity or willful defiance of police high command,” Lame said. (Los Angeles Times)
Rwanda
Two high-ranking officers have been suspended from Rwanda’s military and put under arrest, a military spokesperson told the BBC. Maj-Gen Charles Muhire has been accused of corruption and misuse of office, Lt-Gen Karenzi Karake of immoral conduct. This comes just days after a reshuffle in Rwanda’s military leadership and ahead of elections due in August. It follows reports in a local newspaper that the men had misunderstandings with President Paul Kagame. However, the government has dismissed these reports as rumors. A few days later, the Kinyarwandan (one of Rwanda’s official languages) independent newspaper was suspended for publishing false information and inciting resentment in the army, says the BBC’s Geoffrey Mutagoma in Kigali. Investigations into the two generals’ alleged crimes are still underway and it is still not clear whether their cases will end in trials, Rwandan army spokesperson Maj Jill Rutaremara told the radio. (BBC)
Somalia
Somalias main Islamist insurgent group, the Western-backed government and African Union forces that support it violate the laws of war by shelling residential areas in the capital, Mogadishu, Human Rights Watch said. While the U.N., the U.S. and the European Union condemn abuses and attacks by al-Shabaab, they turn a blind eye to violations by the transitional government, known as the TFG, and the 5,300-member AU mission, HRW said. Mortars fired by al-Shabaab and African Union troops deployed to protect the internationally backed TFG continue to kill civilians and ravage the city, HRW said in a 62-page report. All sides have violated the laws of war by conducting indiscriminate attacks and other abuses. Somalia has one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises, with about 1.5 million people internally displaced and more than 560,000 living as refugees in neighboring countries, UNHCR said in January. Al-Shabaab, which the U.S. says has links to al-Qaeda, has used repression and a strict interpretation of Islamic law to impose stability in many areas of Somalia, HRW said. (Bloomberg)
South Africa
South Africa’s ruling party said April 20 the leader of its youth wing Julius Malema will face disciplinary proceedings over recent remarks that have stoked racial tensions. “There has been a notice” informing Malema of the proceedings, said Thandi Modise, deputy secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC). “There have been no formal charges given because the disciplinary committee ... is still in motion,” she told a press conference. Malema, 29, a polemical figure who has said he would go so far as to kill for ANC leader Jacob Zuma, earlier this month called a BBC journalist a “bloody agent” after the reporter interrupted him at a briefing on his recent trip to Zimbabwe. Malema is also at the center of a storm over a song, “Shoot the boer” (“farmer” in Afrikaans), which opposition parties say incites violence against whites. Right-wingers have linked the song to the killing this month of white supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche, which reignited race tensions 16 years after the end of apartheid. The song has been banned as hate speech in two court rulings, and Zuma said these decisions should be accepted. (Radio Netherlands)
Sudan
The U.S., Britain and Norway on April 19 urged Sudan’s election body to tackle “effectively and impartially” disputes from the country’s first multi-party poll in 24 years. International observers said the polls -- which much of the Sudanese opposition had boycotted amid charges that they had been rigged by the ruling party -- had failed to meet international standards. In a statement on behalf of the troika, the U.S. State Department said it noted the verdict of the international observers from Europe and the U.S. “We are reassured that voting passed reasonably peacefully, reportedly with significant participation, but share their serious concerns about weak logistical and technical preparations and reported irregularities,” it said. It also noted “the limited access of observer missions” in the western conflict-torn region of Darfur. “We regret that the National Elections Commission (NEC) did not do more to prevent and address such problems prior to voting,” it said. The NEC said on April 19 that results from the election, which had originally expected on April 20, would be delayed. (AFP)
Tanzania
The U.N. has praised Tanzania for granting citizenship to some 162,000 refugees who fled Burundi 38 years ago. “It’s the most generous naturalization of refugees anywhere,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. The head of the agency, Antonio Guterres, described it as a “historic moment” and urged other countries with long-term refugees to follow Tanzania’s example. Until 2000, Tanzania had one of Africa’s largest refugee populations, 680,000, from Burundi and DR Congo. Some 350,000 Burundians have returned home in recent years, says the UNHCR. A U.N. spokeswoman said most of those granted Tanzanian nationality were Hutus. They had mostly fled conflict with the Tutsi-dominated army. The spokeswoman said they were already integrated into Tanzanian society and were not living in refugee camps, reports the Reuters news agency. (BBC)
Uganda
Uganda’s main opposition leader Kizza Besigye had told the BBC of his anger that proposed electoral reforms have not even been debated in parliament. Dr Besigye was talking after being re-elected leader of his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party. He has warned that failure to implement reform could see Uganda experience violence at next year’s polls, similar to that seen in Kenya in 2007-8. The FDC leader has twice been beaten by President Yoweri Museveni. Dr Besigye used to be Museveni’s personal doctor and the two men were allies in the guerrilla war which brought Museveni to power in 1986 before they fell out. The BBC’s Joshua Mmali in the capital, Kampala, says the opposition wants the electoral commission to be disbanded and another set up with members of opposition parties included. They also want a law forbidding the army from providing security on election day. (BBC)
Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe has denounced political violence and urged fellow citizens to unite in rebuilding the nation. He made the remarks during ceremonies marking the 30th anniversary of Zimbabwe’s independence. Mugabe told a packed sports stadium in Harare on April 18 that Zimbabweans need to foster an environment of tolerance and treat each other with dignity and respect. “The leadership of the inclusive government urges you to desist from any acts of violence that will cause harm to others and become a blight on our society,” he said. He was speaking at festivities commemorating the 30th anniversary of Zimbabwe’s independence. The partner in his power sharing government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, also attended the ceremony, but did not speak. Human-rights organizations have accused Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party of using violence and intimidation in elections two years ago in order to retain its 30-year-long hold on power. (VOA)
compiled by developmentex.com
Eight Red Cross workers taken hostage in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on April 9 have been freed unharmed. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they were released unconditionally by the pro-government Mai Mai Yakutumba militia group. The seven Congolese and one Swiss were abducted in the Fizi region of South Kivu province as they returned from a trip to help displaced people. The militia group’s leader said they had been held “for their own safety.” The self-styled General Aluri Yakutumba told the AFP news agency that there had been fighting in the area last week between his fighters and the Congolese army (FARDC). But an army spokesman in South Kivu, Capt Olivier Hamuli, told the Associated Press that the group had seized the ICRC workers to thwart an attack on its hideouts. There has been violent conflict in eastern DR Congo for almost two decades and the ICRC is one of the few aid groups working there. (BBC)
Ethiopia
Ethiopia accused Egypt of stalling talks aimed at reaching an accord over sharing water from the Nile River. Egypt has employed a delaying tactic which has dragged the negotiating process, Shimeles Kemal, a spokesman for the Ethiopian government, told reporters in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia and six other downstream countries plan to sign a new accord that will redistribute rights to water from the Nile. Egypt and Sudan, the two-largest consumers of Nile water, have refused. Egypt warned it would withdraw from the Nile Basin Initiative, a World Bank-funded program aimed at resolving disputes over the rivers water, if the seven downstream states sign the accord, AFP reported. Egypt claims 55.5 billion cubic meters (14.5 trillion gallons) of the Niles annual flow under a 1959 treaty with Sudan, according to the Web site of Egypts State Information Service. That agreement didnt include Ethiopia, which is the source of about 85 percent of the rivers water, or other downstream states. (Bloomberg)
Madagascar
Security forces in Madagascar arrested 19 people on April 18 on suspicion of plotting a coup, the latest in a series of plot rumors to hit the Indian Ocean island’s capital in the past few weeks. Lieutenant Colonel Rene Lylison, the head of the security unit that carried out the arrests, told reporters the plan was to attack the prime minister’s residence early on April 19. “Some officers had prepared a coup d’etat, to kill Malagasies ... fortunately, we were able to prevent the attempt,” he said. “Their goal was to kill, and divide the military.” There is growing disquiet in Madagascar over the rule of President Andry Rajoelina, a former mayor of the capital who seized power with the help of dissident soldiers in March 2009. The African Union imposed sanctions on Rajoelina and 108 of his backers in March this year for failing to install a unity government with the country’s three main opposition groups. Analysts say some high-level military officials are frustrated at Rajoelina’s failure to end the crisis and restore constitutional order. (Reuters)
Nigeria
Police and security forces in Nigeria routinely engage in random violence that results in hundreds of killings annually, according to human rights groups. There was the truck driver who drove past a police roadblock in February in the town of Kazaure because of poor brakes. Police dragged him from the vehicle and beat him to death. Or the motorcyclist killed in January for getting in the way of a police convoy in Kaduna state. “They got out and shot him,” said lawyer Shehu Sani of the Civil Rights Congress, an NGO. In a rare admission, last month then-Police Minister Ibrahim Lame condemned the violence in a meeting with federal police commanders. “The current rate of crime across the nation, rising cases of extrajudicial killings, human rights violations, robberies, high-profile assassinations and deliberate failure to comply with government directives are testimony to the sheer incapacity or willful defiance of police high command,” Lame said. (Los Angeles Times)
Rwanda
Two high-ranking officers have been suspended from Rwanda’s military and put under arrest, a military spokesperson told the BBC. Maj-Gen Charles Muhire has been accused of corruption and misuse of office, Lt-Gen Karenzi Karake of immoral conduct. This comes just days after a reshuffle in Rwanda’s military leadership and ahead of elections due in August. It follows reports in a local newspaper that the men had misunderstandings with President Paul Kagame. However, the government has dismissed these reports as rumors. A few days later, the Kinyarwandan (one of Rwanda’s official languages) independent newspaper was suspended for publishing false information and inciting resentment in the army, says the BBC’s Geoffrey Mutagoma in Kigali. Investigations into the two generals’ alleged crimes are still underway and it is still not clear whether their cases will end in trials, Rwandan army spokesperson Maj Jill Rutaremara told the radio. (BBC)
Somalia
Somalias main Islamist insurgent group, the Western-backed government and African Union forces that support it violate the laws of war by shelling residential areas in the capital, Mogadishu, Human Rights Watch said. While the U.N., the U.S. and the European Union condemn abuses and attacks by al-Shabaab, they turn a blind eye to violations by the transitional government, known as the TFG, and the 5,300-member AU mission, HRW said. Mortars fired by al-Shabaab and African Union troops deployed to protect the internationally backed TFG continue to kill civilians and ravage the city, HRW said in a 62-page report. All sides have violated the laws of war by conducting indiscriminate attacks and other abuses. Somalia has one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises, with about 1.5 million people internally displaced and more than 560,000 living as refugees in neighboring countries, UNHCR said in January. Al-Shabaab, which the U.S. says has links to al-Qaeda, has used repression and a strict interpretation of Islamic law to impose stability in many areas of Somalia, HRW said. (Bloomberg)
South Africa
South Africa’s ruling party said April 20 the leader of its youth wing Julius Malema will face disciplinary proceedings over recent remarks that have stoked racial tensions. “There has been a notice” informing Malema of the proceedings, said Thandi Modise, deputy secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC). “There have been no formal charges given because the disciplinary committee ... is still in motion,” she told a press conference. Malema, 29, a polemical figure who has said he would go so far as to kill for ANC leader Jacob Zuma, earlier this month called a BBC journalist a “bloody agent” after the reporter interrupted him at a briefing on his recent trip to Zimbabwe. Malema is also at the center of a storm over a song, “Shoot the boer” (“farmer” in Afrikaans), which opposition parties say incites violence against whites. Right-wingers have linked the song to the killing this month of white supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche, which reignited race tensions 16 years after the end of apartheid. The song has been banned as hate speech in two court rulings, and Zuma said these decisions should be accepted. (Radio Netherlands)
Sudan
The U.S., Britain and Norway on April 19 urged Sudan’s election body to tackle “effectively and impartially” disputes from the country’s first multi-party poll in 24 years. International observers said the polls -- which much of the Sudanese opposition had boycotted amid charges that they had been rigged by the ruling party -- had failed to meet international standards. In a statement on behalf of the troika, the U.S. State Department said it noted the verdict of the international observers from Europe and the U.S. “We are reassured that voting passed reasonably peacefully, reportedly with significant participation, but share their serious concerns about weak logistical and technical preparations and reported irregularities,” it said. It also noted “the limited access of observer missions” in the western conflict-torn region of Darfur. “We regret that the National Elections Commission (NEC) did not do more to prevent and address such problems prior to voting,” it said. The NEC said on April 19 that results from the election, which had originally expected on April 20, would be delayed. (AFP)
Tanzania
The U.N. has praised Tanzania for granting citizenship to some 162,000 refugees who fled Burundi 38 years ago. “It’s the most generous naturalization of refugees anywhere,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. The head of the agency, Antonio Guterres, described it as a “historic moment” and urged other countries with long-term refugees to follow Tanzania’s example. Until 2000, Tanzania had one of Africa’s largest refugee populations, 680,000, from Burundi and DR Congo. Some 350,000 Burundians have returned home in recent years, says the UNHCR. A U.N. spokeswoman said most of those granted Tanzanian nationality were Hutus. They had mostly fled conflict with the Tutsi-dominated army. The spokeswoman said they were already integrated into Tanzanian society and were not living in refugee camps, reports the Reuters news agency. (BBC)
Uganda
Uganda’s main opposition leader Kizza Besigye had told the BBC of his anger that proposed electoral reforms have not even been debated in parliament. Dr Besigye was talking after being re-elected leader of his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party. He has warned that failure to implement reform could see Uganda experience violence at next year’s polls, similar to that seen in Kenya in 2007-8. The FDC leader has twice been beaten by President Yoweri Museveni. Dr Besigye used to be Museveni’s personal doctor and the two men were allies in the guerrilla war which brought Museveni to power in 1986 before they fell out. The BBC’s Joshua Mmali in the capital, Kampala, says the opposition wants the electoral commission to be disbanded and another set up with members of opposition parties included. They also want a law forbidding the army from providing security on election day. (BBC)
Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe has denounced political violence and urged fellow citizens to unite in rebuilding the nation. He made the remarks during ceremonies marking the 30th anniversary of Zimbabwe’s independence. Mugabe told a packed sports stadium in Harare on April 18 that Zimbabweans need to foster an environment of tolerance and treat each other with dignity and respect. “The leadership of the inclusive government urges you to desist from any acts of violence that will cause harm to others and become a blight on our society,” he said. He was speaking at festivities commemorating the 30th anniversary of Zimbabwe’s independence. The partner in his power sharing government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, also attended the ceremony, but did not speak. Human-rights organizations have accused Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party of using violence and intimidation in elections two years ago in order to retain its 30-year-long hold on power. (VOA)
compiled by developmentex.com
African Development Institute
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