The battle for the control of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Women's Assembly has exposed several issues which key stakeholders have to note. Key issues that require a critical analysis include the role of the women in the MDC, the election process, the use of women by men, the use of financial resources, the 50/50 campaign, Morgan Tsvangirai' s propensity to reward those with financial muscle, lack of constitutional respect and the unfair distribution of party resources to the structures.

Increasing awareness about Internet Governance issues and working together on the development and growth of the Internet in Africa are part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the African Telecommunications Union (ATU).

Cisco Systems is to invest $10 million to develop its network infrastructure on the continent. According to the report, five African countries who stand to benefit from the initiative are Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya. Cisco, a global leader in networking is known to have transformed the way people connect, communicate and collaborate using Internet Protocol (IP)-based technologies.

A South African court has upheld an appeal by prosecutors against a lower court ruling that prevented them from using documents seized in a raid against Jacob Zuma, a former deputy president accused of bribery and fraud. The ruling by the supreme court of appeal on Thursday could allow the revival of corruption charges against him.

Sylvie Niombo, APC-Africa-Women Co-Coordinator, examines a role of information and communication technologies in the fight against female circumcision, a harmful practice carried out on over a hundred million girls and women in West African countries. She explores 'shadow areas' through a closer look at thus launched a research programme “Contribution of information and communications technologies (ICTs) towards the discontinuation of female genital mutilation in Francophone Africa: civic role of the youth” by Enda Third World of Senegal, a member organisation of the Association for Progressive Communications network.

Yves Sahinguvu, 58, has been voted by the lawmakers as the 1st Vice President of Burundi. Sahinguvu replaced Martin Nduwimana who had resigned from the post. Like his predecessor, the new Vice President is also a key member of the Tutsi-dominated UPRONA political party.

Hungry, exhausted and traumatised, thousands of civilians have been pouring into Afmadow, a Somalian town near the Kenyan border, having fled the “hell on earth” of their embattled capital, some 630 kilometres to the north. Among them was Hawo Ali, who arrived in Afmadow on 15 November, five days after escaping Mogadishu with 20 of her relatives and neighbours, including a 10-month-old baby. Ali said she saw troops in the city killing 21 people, including women and children.

Namibia's land reform programme is a "zero sum game" that merely swaps one form of poverty for another in its current resettlement programme, according to an independent report on attempts to find a equitable solution to racially skewed land ownership.

Zimbabwean non-governmental organisations (NGOs) claim their operations have been paralysed since the Reserve Bank raided their foreign currency accounts (FCAs). In his mid-year Monetary Policy Statement at the beginning of October, Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), said NGOs would now maintain 'mirror accounts' that would reflect how much money they had in the bank while the actual money would be kept by the RBZ.

Up to 40,000 people poured out of two camps for displaced civilians near the main town in Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province after fierce fighting broke out nearby, according to the UN. “Shooting, some from heavy weapons, could be heard this [13 November] morning near the camps. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people who were living there are on the road to Goma,” said Louis Igneault, spokesman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Togo's Prime Minister, Yawovi Agboyibo, on Tuesday said he had tendered his resignation to President Faure Gnassingbe ahead of the formation of a new, post-elections government. "I came to hand in my resignation to the president of the republic," Agboyibo, leader of the opposition Action Committee for Renewal (CAR) party, told national television.

Twenty African migrants were feared dead after the boat in which they were trying to reach Spain capsized in bad weather off the coast of The Gambia at the weekend, Gambian state television said on Monday. It quoted a police officer as saying seven bodies had been recovered from the capsized boat, the third such tragedy involving would-be migrants headed for Europe from West Africa in the last three weeks.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the arrest of Noureddine Boukraa, the national daily "Ennahar"'s bureau chief in the city of Annaba (600 km east of Algiers), who was detained on 12 November 2007 in connection with an article about alleged corruption within the local security services and was held overnight. "Algeria's journalists are not able to work freely, despite the deceptive calm they seem to have enjoyed since the start of the year," the press freedom organisation said.

Hunger and HIV/AIDS are reinforcing each other in Southern Africa, "leading to a potentially tragic new level of famine", says a book published by a regional agricultural think-tank. The World Bank's annual report, released last week, also raises concerns over the pandemic's impact, pointing out that most people affected by HIV and AIDS depend on agriculture.

As America and Europe diversify oil and gas supplies away from the volatile Persian Gulf, West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea is set to become its counterweight: “The Next Gulf”. This book is written by Andy Rowell, James Marriott & Lorne Stockman and published by Constable.

For decades now, many countries in Africa have been involved in internal and external civil wars and conflicts. It is estimated that there are over 9.5 million refugees and internally displaced persons and thousands of civilians killed. In our last issue of the Our Rights Newsletter, FEMNET would like to focus on key debates around The Role of Women in Peace building Processes and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Articles should be in English or French, not exceeding 800 words and should be submitted to [email][email protected] [email][email protected] by Monday 19th November 2007.

African Journal of Reproductive Rights (AJRR) is currently accepting manuscripts for publication. AJRR publishes scholarly articles and advanced empirical research in all areas of the reproductive rights. We welcome articles or proposals from all perspectives on reproductive rights pertaining to Africa, legislations, comparative policies, case laws, global perspectives etc.
Further details are available in the Journal section of

Kenya is gripped by election fever. In the frenzied atmosphere everything has become extremely partisan and claustrophobic operating essentially as 'if you are not for me' then you are against me!

Last Saturday, 3rd November 2007, at Nairobi's famous Ufungamano Hall, I (not unexpectedly) walked straight into the brawling ring of Kenya's ongoing 'do or die' political campaigns. I was a key note speaker at a public Lecture on 'the Great Majimbo debate' organised by the Young Professionals for Raila.
It was obviously a partisan platform but the matter being discussed was of a very public nature in which I had both personal and professional interest. I will debate this matter on any platform. We may not yet have votes in other African states but we should not collaborate in our silencing by also refusing to contribute to public spaces. What gives foreign diplomats, NGOs and so called 'experts' the right to lecture our leaders on all things under the sun and beyond the skies but require other Africans 'to stay quiet'?
I had made it clear to my hosts that I was not coming to speak as a UN staff but rather as a concerned Pan Africanist and a political scientist with some insight into the subject matter.

That entire caveat was of no use in the ensuing reports of the meeting in the Kenyan papers. I do not usually blame the media for 'misrepresentation' or 'misquoting' but on this occasion my colleagues in the fourth estate of the realm really undersold themselves. Sample these headlines: 'UN envoy defends Majimbo system' (Sunday Nation, November 4); 'UN official backs controversial Majimbo system' (Sunday Standard November 4); or 'Majimbo system: ODM now brings in an expert' (the people on Sunday, Nov 4) including claims that I was specifically flown in by ODM for the event! Even in their preoccupation with my UN status they did even bother to be accurate. All the reports managed to get my position and particular UN affiliation wrong.

But this should not detract us from the political significance of the debate that is wrongly termed Majimbo by Kenyans and Ugandans will know as FEDERO. For me it is about wider issues of political and economic governance, devolution of power and the degree to which people of Kenya should have control over their destiny and the accountability of their leaders to them at various levels. It is a debate that has echoes in many African countries. It is about how to deepen democracy beyond just the right to ritually vote periodically. It is about how to stop our Presidents from monopolising power at the centre and reducing representative institutions like parliaments to personal choir groups. It is about creating alternative centres of power and a wider democratic basis for recruitment of leaders and avoid the 'he is the only one they have got ' syndrome that has turned formerly visionary leaders into tin pot, overstayers in office. In the current charged competition for votes the Kenya debate is couched in exclusive terms. President Kibaki's side have succeed in wrong footing the pro devolution group as Majimboists (code word for Tribalists just as Federo is seen as another word for Buganda hegemony in Uganda) and their supporters as enemies of the Unity of the country. Whereas in Uganda it is the majority nationality that has historically championed Federo, in Kenya it is the minority groups, with majority Kikuyu elite being opposed to it.

The opposition has reacted defensively to say that it is not the old divisive Majimbo of the 1960s that they are clamouring for rather it is a limited political devolution that will give Kenya back to every Kenyan. What is clear is that both sides agree on devolution but cannot agree on by how much. The government thinks the Constituency Development Fund which came under this regime (even though it was from a Private Members bill instead of government or opposition Legislative agenda) is enough. The opposition thinks it should be extended to regional levels. I think if devolution is so good why is it being limited to 2.5 %? Who controls the rest? Both Government and Opposition have to give clear answers to the voters.

Whether you call it Majimbo or devolution the consensus means that everyone is not happy with the status quo. This is where my defence of Federalism begins and the substance of my contribution to the debate last Saturday. One, the response to an overbearing centralised state is devolution of power and clamouring for same by the constituent units in that system. They could be Districts, provinces, regions or other administrative areas.

Two, in the specific case of Kenya it is clear that the BOMAS consensus was to have a very weak form of federalism / devolution which shares powers and resources between the constituent units on a more equitable way but retaining substantial and most importantly the power to levy taxes, at the centre. It will be very much different from the Nigerian federalism which is though centre-centric (all mineral resources are controlled by the centre) but every state (and even local governments) can levy and collect taxes as they deem fit and permissible under the constitution. They can also make laws on non exclusive legislative areas However if there is a clash with federal law the Federal law will prevail. The Kenyan model also differs from the Ethiopian federalism which is based on Ethnic Nationalities and guarantees 'the right to self determination including secession'. It will appear that what the political class in Kenya agreed in BOMAS as more generic association with the South African halfway house between federalism and unitarism. And even that may seem too much for sections of this class as evident from the inability to implement it and the emotional debates around it.

The political scoring games between the politicians is preventing a serious discussion but whoever wins the election cannot defer the matter any longer, Unfortunately the government side seem to be scaring Kenyans with a break-up of the country if federalism is accepted and the opposition side is too fearful of losing support to put up a principled case for a devolved federalism with Kenyan compromises (even scared of using the word). Both sides are surcharging the public.

While there may be many challenges with establishing a federal system including threats of narrow nationalism, regionalism or statism. The solution is not to continue to defend the unsatisfactory status quo but to agree on rights of all Kenyans wherever they may be and the full commitment to the rule of law to defend them. The opportunities of a federal system are just too many for fear to intimidate supporters from articulating it. One, it offers greater opportunities for wider political recruitment of leadership instead of the current situation of being limited to National cabinet level. For instance you may not have heard of Yar'Adua in Nairobi but he did not come from inside Obasanjo's hat of dirty tricks because he had been Governor of one of Nigeria's 36 states for two terms. Two, Marginalised peoples or regions, Youth, Women and others have wider opportunity for accessing leadership position through the state / regional levels and graduating to national level. A situation in which 60 year old Kenyans are being asked 'to wait for their turn' or regarded as 'Young Turks' only demonstrate the limited space available at the top.

Three, gone are the days when it was wrongly assumed that in order to be a nationalist you have to deny being part of a particular community. That strategy has generally not worked instead it produced all kinds of ethnic, regional and religious manipulation in the name of nation-building. The problem is not in our diversities but the denial of those differences and the politics of exclusion required to enforce this regime of denials. There are greater opportunities for real 'unity in diversity' in a genuine federation of peoples at peace with themselves than being forced to remain in political community as though it is a catholic marriage. The possibility or fear of divorce does not mean that all marriage will end in divorce. The fact that the option exists does not mean it will be exercised. Local autonomy gives the constituent units the security to be genuine 'good neighbours' and free citizens of a larger unit. That is why even in its 5th decade of Independence marginalised groups in Nigeria are still calling for 'real federalism'. It is not a call to break up the country it is a cry for equal participation for all Nigerians so that they are real stakeholders in the joint affairs of their country. "Forward ever, backward never".....Kwame Nkrumah (1909 - 1972)

..................DON'T AGONISE! ORGANISE!!....................................

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Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of volunteers and professionals standing up for human rights. Our purpose is to research and take action to effect change and protect individuals wherever justice is denied. This high profile role is key to shaping and driving AI's human rights agenda in this region. Providing strategic and political analysis to the movement, you’ll lead AI's regional and country work and motivate your team both in London and in the field. Closing date: 28 November 2007.

The Rio Tinto ilmenite mine in the Fort Dauphin area of southern Madagascar is the first of a number of mining projects planned for Madagascar with the support of the World Bank. The effects of this mine are widespread, not only on the people and economy of the region but also on its unique environment. The new Panos report 'A mine of information?' examines the debates, grievances, consultations and negotiations that have taken place between the mining company and the many different stakeholders affected by the project, not least members of the local community.

Is there only one model for empire, based on European empires? How might the critique of European empires serve to understand imperial forms elsewhere? This collection by Ann Laura Stoler, Carole McGranahan and Peter C. Perdue moves beyond the Euro-centric slant of colonial studies to compare European and non-European empires with socialist states and empire beyond colonialism.

On 6 February 2007, President Bush announced that the United States would create a new military command for Africa, to be known as Africa Command or Africom. The Bush administration wants to significantly expand its security assistance program for regimes in Africa that are willing to act as surrogates, says Daniel Volman. It also reflects the growing alarm at the efforts of China to expand its energy supplies in Africa and to extend its political influence on the continent.

On 6 February 2007, President Bush announced that the United States would create a new military command for Africa, to be known as Africa Command or Africom. Throughout the Cold War and for more than a decade afterwards, the U.S. did not have a military command for Africa; instead, U.S. military activities on the African continent were conducted by three separate military commands: the European Command, which had responsibility for most of the continent; the Central Command, which oversaw Egypt and the Horn of Africa region along with the Middle East and Central Asia; and the Pacific Command, which administered military ties with Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean.

Until the creation of Africom, the administration of U.S.-African military relations was conducted through three different commands. All three were primarily concerned with other regions of the world that were of great importance to the United States on their own and had only a few middle-rank staff members dedicated to Africa. This reflected the fact that Africa was chiefly viewed as a regional theater in the global Cold War, or as an adjunct to U.S.-European relations, or—as in the immediate post-Cold War period—as a region of little concern to the United States. But when the Bush administration declared that access to Africa’s oil supplies would henceforth be defined as a “strategic national interest” of the United States and proclaimed that America was engaged in a Global War on Terrorism following the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, Africa’s status in U.S. national security policy and military affairs rose dramatically.

According to Theresa Whelan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs—the highest ranking Defense Department official with principal responsibility for Africa at the Pentagon, who has supervised U.S. military policy toward Africa for the Bush administration—Africom attained the status of a sub-unified command under the European Command on 1 October 2007, and is scheduled to be fully operational as a separate unified command no later than 1 October 2008. The process of creating the new command will be conducted by a special transition team—which will include officers from both the State Department and the Defense Department—that will carry out its work in Stuttgart, Germany, in coordination with the European Command.

Africom will not look like traditional unified commands. In particular, there is no intention, at least at present, to assign the new command control over large military units. This is in line with ongoing efforts to reduce the presence of large numbers of American troops overseas in order to consolidate or eliminate expensive bases and bring as many troops as possible back to the United States where they will be available for deployment anywhere in the world that Washington wants to send them. Since there is no way to anticipate where troops will be sent and the Pentagon has the ability to deploy sizable forces over long distances in a very short time, Washington plans to keep as many troops as possible in the United States and send them abroad only when it judges it necessary. This, however, was exactly the intention when the Clinton and Reagan administrations created the Central Command and based it in Tampa, Florida; and now the Central Command is running two major wars in southwest Asia from headquarters in Qatar.

Africom will also be composed of both military and civilian personnel, including officers from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the commander of the new command will have both a military and a civilian deputy. On 10 July 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that the President had nominated four-star General William E. “Kip” Ward to be the commander of Africom. General Ward, an African-American who was commissioned into the infantry in 1971, is currently serving as the deputy commander of the European Command. Previously he served as the commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) in Mogadishu, Somalia during “Operation Restore Hope” in 1992-1994, commander of the NATO-led Stabilization Force in Bosnia during “Operation Joint Forge” in 2002-2003, and chief of the U.S. Office of Military Cooperation at the American Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. The novel structure of the new command reflects the fact that Africom will be charged with overseeing both traditional military activities and programs that are funded through the State Department budget (see below for details on these programs).

The Bush administration has emphasized the uniqueness of this hybrid structure as evidence that the new command has only benign purposes and that and that, in the words of Theresa Whelan, while “there are fears that Africom represents a militarization of U.S. foreign policy in Africa and that Africom will somehow become the lead U.S. Government interlocutor with Africa. This fear is unfounded.” Therefore, Bush administration officials insist that the purpose of Africom is misunderstood.

On closer examination, however, the difference between Africom and other commands—and the allegedly “unfounded” nature of its implications for the militarization of the continent—are not as real or genuine as the Bush administration officials would have us believe. Of course Washington has other interests in Africa besides making it into another front in its Global War on Terrorism, maintaining and extending access to energy supplies and other strategic raw material, and competing with China and other rising economic powers for control over the continent’s resources; these include helping Africans deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other emerging diseases, strengthening and assisting peacekeeping and conflict resolution efforts, and responding to humanitarian disasters. But it is simply disingenuous to suggest that accomplishing these three objectives is not the main reason that Washington is now devoting so much effort and attention to the continent. And of course Washington would prefer that selected friendly regimes take the lead in meeting these objects, so that the United States can avoid direct military involvement in Africa, particularly at a time when the U.S. military is so deeply committed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and preparing for possible attacks on Iran. The hope that the Pentagon can build up African surrogates who can act on behalf of the United States is precisely why Washington is providing so much security assistance to these regimes and why it would like to provide even more in the future. Indeed, as argued below, this is actually one of the main reasons that Africom is being created at this time.

So why is Africom being created and why now? I would argue that the answer to this question is twofold. First, the Bush administration would like to significantly expand its security assistance programs for regimes that are willing to act as surrogates, for friendly regimes—particularly in countries with abundant oil and natural gas supplies—and for efforts to increase its options for more direct military involvement in the future; but it has had difficulty getting the U.S. Congress and the Pentagon to provide the required funding or to devoting the necessary attention and energy to accomplish these tasks. The creation of Africom will allow the administration to go to the U.S. Congress and argue that the establishment of Africom demonstrates the importance of Africa for U.S. national security and the administration’s commitment to give the continent the attention that it deserves. If Africa is so important and if the administration’s actions show that it really wants to do all sorts of good things for Africa, it hopes to be in a much stronger position to make a convincing case that the legislature must appropriate substantially greater amounts of money to fund the new command’s operations. And within the Pentagon, the establishment of Africom as a unified command under the authority of a high-ranking officer with direct access to the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will put the new command in a much stronger position to compete with other command for resources, manpower, and influence over policymaking.

Secondly, key members of the Bush administration, a small, but growing and increasingly vocal group of legislators, and influential think tanks have become more and more alarmed by the growing efforts of China to expand its access to energy supplies and other resources from Africa and to enhance its political and economic influence throughout the continent. These “alarmists” point to the considerable resources that China is devoting to the achievement of these goals and to the engagement of Chinese officials at the highest level—including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, both of who have made tours of the continent and have hosted high-level meetings in Beijing with African heads of state—as evidence of a “grand strategy” on the part of China that jeopardizes U.S. national security interests and that is aimed, ultimately, at usurping the West’s position on the continent. The creation of Africom, therefore, should be seen as one element of a broad effort to develop a “grand strategy” on the part of the United States that will counter, and eventually defeat, China’s efforts. It should also be understood as a measure that is intended to demonstrate to Beijing that Washington will match China’s actions, thus serving as a warning to the Chinese leadership that they should restrain themselves or face possible consequences to their relationship with America as well as to their interests in Africa.

So, what will Africom actually do when it becomes fully operational? Basically, it will take over the implementation of a host of military, security cooperation, and security assistance programs, which are funded through either the State Department or the Defense Department. These include the following:

Bilateral and Multilateral Joint Training Programs and Military Exercises

The United States provides military training to African military personnel through a wide variety of training and education programs. In addition, it conducts military exercises in Africa jointly with African troops and also with the troops of its European allies to provide training to others and also to train its own forces for possible deployment to Africa in the future. These include the following:

Flintlock 2005 and 2007

These are Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) exercises conducted by units of the U.S. Army Special Forces and the U.S. Army Rangers, along with contingents from other units, to provide training experience both for American troops and for the troops of African countries (small numbers of European troops are also involved in these exercises). Flintlock 2005 was held in June 2005, when more than one thousand U.S. personnel were sent to North and West Africa for counter-terrorism exercises in Algeria, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Chad that involved more than three thousand local service members. In April 2007, U.S. Army Special Forces went to Niger for the first part of Flintlock 2007 and in late August 2007, some 350 American troops arrived in Mali for three weeks of Flintlock 2007 exercises with forces from Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Both Flintlock exercises were conducted as part of Operation Enduring Freedom—Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) which now links the United States with eight African countries: Mali, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria. In 2004, the TSCTP was created to replace the Pan-Sahel Counter-Terrorism Initiative, which was initiated in 2002. The TSCTP also involves smaller, regular training exercises conducted by U.S. Army Special Forces throughout the region. Although changing budgetary methodology makes it difficult to be certain, it appears that the TSCTP received some $31 million in FY 2006, nearly $82 million in FY 2007, and is expected to receive approximately $100 million annually from FY 2008 through FY 2013.

Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance Program (ACOTA)

This program, which began operating in 2002, replaces the African Crisis Response Initiative launched in 1997 by the Clinton administration. In 2004, it became part of the Global Peace Operations Initiative. ACOTA is officially designed to provide training to African military forces to improve their ability to conduct peacekeeping operations, even if they take place in hostile environments. But since the training includes both defensive and offensive military operations, it also enhances the ability of participating forces to engage in police operations against unarmed civilians, counter-insurgency operations, and even conventional military operations against the military forces of other countries. By FY 2007, nineteen African countries were participating in the ACOTA program (Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia). New budgetary methodology makes it impossible to ascertain the levels of funding for ACOTA, since the program’s funding is subsumed within the budget for the Global Peace Operations Initiative.

International Military Education and Training Program (IMET)

The IMET program brings African military officers to military academies and other military educational institutions in the United States for professional training. Nearly all African countries participate in the program—including Libya for the first time in FY 2008—and in FY 2006 (the last year for which country figures are available—it trained 14,731 students from the African continent (excluding Egypt) at a cost of $14.7 million.

Foreign Military Sales Program (FMS)

This program sells U.S. military equipment to African countries; such sales are conducted by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency of the Defense Department. The U.S. government provides loans to finance the purchase of virtually all of this equipment through the Foreign Military Financing Program (FMF), but repayment of these loans by African governments is almost always waived, so that they amount to free grants. In FY 2006, sub-Saharan African countries received a total of nearly $14 million in FMF funding, and the Maghrebi countries of Morocco and Tunisia received almost another $21 million; for FY 2007, the Bush administration requested nearly $15 million for sub-Saharan Africa and $21 million for the Morocco and Tunisia; and for FY 2008, the administration requested nearly $8 million for sub-Saharan Africa and nearly $6 million for the Maghreb.

African Coastal and Border Security Program (ACBS Program)

This program provides specialized equipment (such as patrol vessels and vehicles, communications equipment, night vision devices, and electronic monitors and sensors) to African countries to improve their ability to patrol and defend their own coastal waters and borders from terrorist operations, smuggling, and other illicit activities. In some cases, airborne surveillance and intelligence training also may be provided. In FY 2006, the ACBS Program received nearly $4 million in FMF funding, and Bush administration requested $4 million in FMF funding for the program in FY 2007. No dedicated funding was requested for FY 2008, but the program may be revived in the future.

Excess Defense Articles Program (EDA)

This program is designed to conduct ad hoc transfers of surplus U.S. military equipment to foreign governments. Transfers to African recipients have included the transfer of C-130 transport planes to South Africa and Botswana, trucks to Uganda, M-16 rifles to Senegal, and coastal patrol vessels to Nigeria.

Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA)

In October 2002, the U.S. Central Command played the leading role in the creation of this joint task force that was designed to conduct naval and aerial patrols in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the eastern Indian Ocean as part of the effort to detect and counter the activities of terrorist groups in the region. Based at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, long the site of a major French military base, the CJTF-HOA is made up of approximate 1,400 U.S. military personnel—primarily sailors, Marines, and Special Forces troops—that works with a multi-national naval force composed of American naval vessels along with ships from the navies of France, Italy, and Germany, and other NATO allies. The CJTF-FOA provided intelligence to Ethiopia in support of its invasion of Somalia in January 2007 and used military facilities in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya to launch its own attacks against alleged al-Qaeda members involved in the Council of Islamic Courts in Somalia in January and June of 2007. The command authority for CJTF-HOA, currently under the U.S. Central Command, will be transferred to Africom by 2008.

Joint Task Force Aztec Silence (JTFAS)

In December 2003, the U.S. European Command created this joint task force under the commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet (Europe) to carry out counter-terrorism operations in North and West Africa and to coordinate U.S. operations with those of countries in those regions. Specifically, JTFAS was charged with conducting surveillance operations using the assets of the U.S. Sixth Fleet and to share information, along with intelligence collected by U.S. intelligence agencies, with local military forces. The primary assets employed in this effort are a squadron of U.S. Navy P-3 “Orion” based in Sigonella, Sicily. In March 2004, P-3 aircraft from this squadron and reportedly operating from the southern Algerian base at Tamanrasset were deployed to monitor and gather intelligence on the movements of Algerian Salafist guerrillas operating in Chad and to provide this intelligence to Chadian forces engaged in combat against the guerrillas.

Naval Operations in the Gulf of Guinea

Although American naval forces operating in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea and other areas along Africa’s shores are formally under the command of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, based in the Mediterranean, and other U.S. Navy commands, Africom will also help coordinate naval operations along the African coastline. As U.S. Navy Admiral Henry G. Ulrich III, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces (Europe) put it to reporters at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, in June 2007, “we hope, as they [Africom"> stand up, to fold into their intentions and their planning,” and his command “will adjust, as necessary” as Africom becomes operational. In a significant expansion of U.S. Navy operations in Africa, the U.S.S. Fort McHenry amphibious assault ship will begin a six-month deployment to the Gulf of Guinea in November 2007. The ship will carry 200-300 sailors and U.S. Coast Guard personnel and will call at ports in eleven countries (Angola, Benin, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, and Togo). Its mission will be to serve as a “floating schoolhouse” to train local forces in port and oil-platform security, search-and rescue missions, and medical and humanitarian assistance. According to Admiral Ulrich, the deployment matches up perfectly with the work of the new Africa Command. “If you look at the direction that the Africa Command has been given and the purpose of standing up the Africom, you’ll see that the (Gulf of Guinea) mission is closely aligned,” he told reporters.

Base Access Agreements for Cooperative Security Locations and Forward Operating Sites

Over the past few years, the Bush administration has negotiated base access agreements with the governments of Gabon, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Tunisia, Namibia, Sao Tome, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia. Under these agreements, the United States gains access to local military bases and other facilities so that they can be used by American forces as transit bases or as forward operating bases for combat, surveillance, and other military operations. They remain the property of the host African government and are not American bases in a legal sense, so that U.S. government officials are, technically, telling the truth when they deny that the United States has bases in these countries. To date, the United States has done little to improve the capabilities of these facilities, so that there is little or no evidence of an American military presence at these locations.

In addition to these publicly acknowledged base access agreements, the Pentagon was granted permission to deploy P-3 “Orion” aerial surveillance aircraft at the airfield at Tamanrasset in southern Algeria under an agreement reportedly signed in during Algerian President Aldelaziz Bouteflika’s visit to Washington in July 2003. The Brown and Root-Condor, a joint venture between a subsidiary of the American company, Halliburton, and the Algerian state-owned oil company, Sonatrach, is currently under contract to enlarge military air bases at Tamanrasset and at Bou Saada. In December 2006, Salafist forces used an improvised mine and small arms to attack a convoy of Brown and Root-Condor employees who were returning to their hotel in the Algerian town of Bouchaaoui, killing an Algerian driver and wounding nine workers, including four Britons and one American.

Over the course of the next eighteen months, there is one major issue related to the new command that remains to be resolved: whether and where in Africa will Africom establish a regional headquarters. A series of consultations with the governments of a number of African countries—including Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Djibouti, Kenya—following the announcement of Africom found than none of them were willing to commit to hosting the new command. As a result, the Pentagon has been forced to reconsider its plans and in June 2007 Ryan Henry, the Principal Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy told reporters that the Bush administration now intended to establish what he called “a distributed command” that would be “networked” in several countries in different regions of the continent. Under questioning before the Senate Africa Subcommittee on 1 August 2007, Assistant Secretary Whelan said that Liberia, Botswana, Senegal, and Djibouti were among the countries that had expressed support for Africom—although only Liberia has publicly expressed a willingness to play host to Africom personnel—which clearly suggests that these countries are likely to accommodate elements of Africom’s headquarters staff when they eventually establish a presence on the continent sometime after October 2008.

* This article is a revised and shortened version of an article that will be published in the next issue of The Review of African Political Economy

* Daniel Volman is the director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC, and the author of numerous articles on US security policy and African security issues. He can be contacted at the following email address: dvolman at igc dot org

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

You are invited to endorse and register for a Trade Unions Conference for African Liberation being co-ordinated by ALISC Network and SOAS Friends of Africa on Saturday 10 November from 10 am to 5pm at Vernon Square Building near King’s Cross, Room V111, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Vernon Square Campus, Vernon Square, London WC1 (near Kings Cross)

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/327/44280_nigeria_niger_delta.j... Bassey examines the factors behind the economics of oil and conflict in the Niger Delta and concludes that the violence in the Delta is “a boom for merchants of crisis capitalism”.

Simple lessons are not necessarily easy to learn. For example: oil is a non-renewable and limited resource. The fever our planet is suffering—global warming or, more accurately, climate change-- cannot be allowed to run its course. To do so would be to allow the global transformation of this planet, with even greater inequity than now exists between North and South, rich and poor, frail and strong.

Oil and conflicts appear to be twins in today’s world. When people think of oil, in general terms, what comes to mind is ‘progress’. Thus, people speak of oiling the wheel of progress. Today, however, much is being seen of oil as greasing the wheels of conflict. And this is very much the case in the Niger Delta.

The crisis we are witnessing needs to be viewed both in economic and political terms as a major for profit venture. Understanding it through this filter is crucial to our seeing why we appear trapped in intractable murky waters and it will also help us construct bridges over which we may come out of the malaise.

In answer to a question on what the likely consequences of the continued exploration of oil in the Niger Delta by oil corporations would be I had to recall first and foremost that the lure of oil is its cheapness as well as its easy yielding in the refining processes. What we mean is that oil is a cheap source of energy. It is cheap partly because its extraction in the Niger Delta and much of the tropical world is carried out in ways that pay scant attention to environmental costs. Thus the consequence of continual exploration and exploitation of the Niger Delta is that the poor people continue to subsidize the costs of crude oil by the losses they suffer in environmental services, quality of life and extreme environmental degradation. The result is, and will continue to be, deepened conflict as opportunistic groups as well as gangs find space to extract financial gains from the system; and ultimately as the people will eventually struggle to regain their sovereignty over their environment and resources.

The Niger Delta situation, rather then being resolved, appears to be getting more intractable. Meetings, programmes, commissions and what have you are being held or set up, yet the problems are growing more legs. As we examine the economic mechanics fuelling these tensions, it is worthwhile for us to have an overview of the local and global scenario exerting influence over related events here and globally.

Profiting from Crisis: the economics of war

The path of crude oil development has been strewn with skeletons and soaked in human blood across the world. The ongoing case in Nigeria is a glaring example. The case of Angola is still fresh in memory. In 1999, as the first barrels of crude oil were shipped from Sudan, so did the war between government forces and those of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army escalate. When we turn our eyes to the Middle East we see the raw situation of war waged for profit and resource appropriation and control.

The issue of the profitability of disasters has been expertly exposed by Naomi Klein in her new book. She states that “With resource scarcity and climate change providing a steadily increasing flow of new disasters, responding to emergencies is simply too hot an emerging market to be left to the nonprofits – why should UNICEF rebuild schools when it can be done by Bechtel, one of the largest engineering firms in the U.S.?” She also asks the question, “Why deploy UN peacekeepers to Darfur when private security companies like Blackwater are looking for new clients?” In a 2005 article with the title Allure of the Blank State she articulated the advancement of preventive war as normative behaviour by the government of President George W. Bush.

It should be instructive that at a time when oil fields have become hotbeds of conflicts and insurgency, that is precisely when oil companies are making record breaking profits. This boom is also enjoyed by those involved in weapons trade, deconstruction/reconstruction, private soldiers and the like. In the month of October 2006 when the highest Iraqi civilian casualties of 3,709 were recorded, a market analyst stated that Halliburton’s quarterly profit was “better than expected.” By the last quarter of 2006 this company had enjoyed an inflow of up to $20 billion from the Iraqi war alone.

Writing on the Niger Delta situation, a researcher declared that, “the low level of accountability is also attributed to weak electoral administration and process, and a pervasive undemocratic political culture which not only serves the interest of the political class but also encourages the personalization of state resources by those who wield political power, a bureaucratic culture of secrecy and impunity, which nurtures an already entrenched abuse of power by the political and administrative class.”

Its manifestation is ubiquitous and its pinch is directly felt by the peoples of the Niger Delta who have become nothing short of pawns on the chessboards of political manipulators. The manifestations are seen on the boardrooms of corporations, shareholder dividends, and in the proverbial excess crude funds in the case of Nigeria. The ‘excess crude’ euphemism is a concept by which the political executives in Nigeria purposely base revenue projections on estimates far below the market value of crude oil in order not to be caught off guard by a slump in price, and probably also to skim off the ‘excess’ funds that must come where there are positive differentials, as always is the case. With current price of oil pushing beyond $90 per barrel, and with the current Nigerian national budget based on a $40 per barrel benchmark, political actors at various levels are already angling to share the ‘windfall’ which often have been seen as nothing but the ‘loot’, utilized without accountability. We note that for 2005 and 2006 budgets the benchmark was $30/barrel of crude oil and for 2008 the proposal stands at $53/barrel/

The Nigerian State: trapped in the barrel

One activist posited that the Nigerian government is a victim of disaster capitalism and that the new government is caught in the web of supremacist gangs engaged in the business of kidnappings and abductors of oil workers and children and parents of politicians. In a phrase, while both the government and oil companies are the beneficiaries of the crisis raging in the oil fields through huge profits and so called windfalls, both are equally vulnerable. Both face the challenge of access to oil fields and with time, not even the offshore installations will be so secure. This will come to pass unless steps are taken to look away from short term profits and to work for security of the environment, livelihoods and the rights of the people to live in a way that is favourable to their development.

Moreover, deep seas and far off offshore locations do carry special financial risks besides the physical ones. It will get to a point where oil prices will be so high that not even the producing countries will be comfortable with it. The costs spiral may in the long run assist in the finding of alternatives to crude oil and when that happens, unprepared nations like Nigeria will be in a quandary.

It appears the only real addition to our oil resources are with regard to the bitumen deposits to the west of the Niger Delta. Bitumen has a huge environmental downside. Like tar sand, the extraction of bitumen releases much more Green House Gases than the extraction of crude oil does. It also potentially has a heavier environmental footprint. The potential of replicating a violent mineral belt here is very real.

Oil Companies

Oil corporations are huge beneficiaries, and may even be said to be instigators, of the crisis related to the industry. The surge in global awareness about peak-oil and climate change, all-time-high price of oil as a result of conflicts in Nigeria, Iraq and disturbances in Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, etc can become rather unsettling. Add to this the indication that government is likely to renegotiate the contracts with the oil companies. These are all worrisome signals to a cartel that has always had its way and that is quite happy with business as usual as long as they hold the right end of the stick. If government goes through with the renegotiations, it is hoped that at the end of the day the companies will no longer have the lame excuses by which they heap blame on the government for not putting up the money to stop gas flaring, among other things.

It can only be in a state where impunity reigns that a corporation can leave a court order unchallenged for two years, not obey it and not be sanctioned over it. This is the case with a High Court judgement delivered on 14 November 2005 in which Shell was ordered to stop gas flaring in Iwerekhan community. The judgement has not neither been challenged nor vacated and yet the flaring continues unabated. An unwillingness to accept judicial decisions is a clear case of provocation, a clear attempt to ignite a fire where there ought to be none.

January 2008 has been set as the deadline for routine gas flaring to be ended in Nigeria. The oil companies have made some efforts at compliance. Only one of the majors has announced that they would be unable to meet the set target date. That is Shell. They state in their Sustainability Report 2006 that they would end gas flaring everywhere in the world by 2008 except in the Niger Delta where they claim that some of the locations are either inaccessible or it would mean shutting down production if the gas flares are to be shut off. Another indication that the flares out date may not hold is the recent announcement by the Federal Government that a fine of N12, 700 or $100 will be imposed for every million cubic feet of gas flared after the set date.

The government stated that oil companies would only be allowed to flare gas from their oil fields after reaching an agreement with the Federal Government to pay $100/Mscf. Moreover, from January1, 2008, oil companies who make false declarations will be fined $500/Mscf. The official who made the announcement added that “no excuse will be tolerated from any oil firm flaring gas without the approval of the Federal Government. Going by the state of preparedness, experts including officials of the World Bank are looking as far off as 2011.

Apart from being human rights monstrosities, gas flares are known to cause a cocktail of diseases and untimely deaths. Diseases associated with gas flares include cancer, respiratory illnesses and blood disorders.
The ‘benefits’ of disaster capitalism to oil companies include:

• Operating behind military shields as they have always done. This way the state apparatus of coercion does the dirty job and the oil companies involved can claim they were not a party to the assault.

• Refuse to pay adequate taxes unless publicly pressured.

• Make false declaration on the amount of reserves they have in Nigeria, get punished elsewhere and stay happy and quiet in Nigeria with no questions asked. False declaration ultimately is nothing but an exercise in self delusion.

• Be found guilty of bribing Nigerian officials by investigators outside Nigeria, whereas no questions are asked in Nigeria where governments make plenty of noise about fighting corruption.

• Declare that oil spills are caused by sabotage even where there is no evidence to support such claim. And based on these spurious claims, such spills are left unattended to.

Niger Delta Communities: beaten by all sides

The usual assertion that Nigeria suffers from a resource curse may not be true because the resource that we are endowed with is a blessing rather than a curse. Resource wealth does not necessarily have to subvert development. One would agree however that the scramble for the wealth does subvert our collective ability to resolve the conflicts into which we are immersed. And this is primarily because of the privatisation of public funds generated through the exploitation of these publicly held resources.

The crisis situation can best be seen as a result of interplay of a web of interrelated factors, and not the result of a single determinant. As an analyst put it, “While most of the attention is often placed on local actors: the state/political elites, militia groups/warlords, and weak and inept bureaucracies, very little attention is paid to the role of external and transnational actors and the lack of transparency that shrouds the extent of their involvement in these conflicts.

High Tide

Let us conclude by stating that much of the violence experienced in the Niger Delta has been inflicted without any shot being fired. For example, whenever the word restiveness is mentioned images of rampaging Niger Delta youths come to mind. A cursory look at the other geopolitical zones in Nigeria will reveal that youths are just as restive in those parts as they are in the Niger Delta. Secondly, whenever there is a pipeline tragedy consequent upon a fire or an explosion, most reports jump to the conclusion that pipeline vandals were responsible. By these ingrained constructs, the region is now known as a volatile region where the unthinkable become the expected.

It is time for us to calmly re-examine ourselves and strive to uncover the truth. It is time for the Niger Delta to show the way in a collective drive to reconstruct our regional as well as national psyche. This will start by our people understanding that the violence in the Delta is a boom for merchants of crisis capitalism. The gun runners, the kidnappers, the ballot thieves and those engaged in illegal bunkering differ very little irrespective of whether some of them are tagged Excellencies or Honorable. In one short phrase, it is time for us to regain our sovereignty and to ensure that our ballots decide who holds the reigns of our government, who makes decisions and how and when we want our resources extracted. We propose here that as climate change pushes the world towards a cataclysmic brink, a major move is to tackle the trend at the root cause. It is estimated that temperatures in West Africa may rise by up to 4 degrees Celsius and that sea level rise is expected to lead to a loss of over half of the land of the Niger Delta by 2050. There will be an increase in vector-borne diseases as well as severe dislocations. With the downward march of the desert, environmental refugees from the south and from the north will put extreme pressure on the middle belt and raise new levels of crises.

We recommend that Nigeria halts all new oil field prospecting and no further auctioning of oil blocks. If we follow the example of the demands of Ecuador with regard to oil exploitation in the Yasuni national park this will not mean a reduction in our national income. Ecuador is demanding that they should be compensated for keeping the oil in the ground. The argument is that by that action the release of Green House Gases are blocked at source since the fossil fuel is not brought up for use. This is true carbon sequestration and deserves to earn carbon credits instead of the fictional approaches used to exploit an unsuspecting and at times gullible world.

In conclusion, we wish to state that keeping the oil in the ground will plug the holes of exploitation, violence and profiting from degradation and dehumanizing activities. We say NO MORE OIL BLOCKS until and unless it is with the express consent of the people. Our life and our future are in our hands.

This is an edited version of a paper delivered by Nnimmo BASSEY at the Niger Delta Roundtable held at Ibom Hall, Uyo, on Thursday, 1 November 2007

* Nnimmo Bassey is the Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Action, ERA/Friends of the Earth Nigeria with head offices in Benin City, Nigeria.

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

This week's AU Monitor brings you updates from the African Union. During the Pan-African Parliament's (PAP) Eighth Ordinary Session, members discussed the need for increased citizen involvement in international affairs, especially within the United Nations. Further, the PAP held motions on financial matters, following speculation of misappropriation of funds and mismanagement. UN Deputy Secretary-General Migiro met with AU and NEPAD officials in Ethiopia for consultation on various issues. Also, AU Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare delivered opening remarks at the Inter- Sudanese Peace Talks on Darfur in Lybia, encouraging leaders that there is no other choice but to make peace. ECOSOCC held it first General Assembly, electing eight African Civil Society organizations to its Council. Lastly, The African Commission on Human and People's Rights is holding its 42nd Ordinary Session in the Republic of Congo-Brazaville from November 14-28th.

In youth-related news, African youth are being urged to remain in Africa after completing school instead of going abroad to live and work, to play an integral role in developing their homeland instead of "selling their souls". Further, November 1 marked the first African Youth Day, an extension of the African Youth Charter, created to enhance the partnership between youth and public authorities towards the development of the continent.

In African Diaspora news, Activists Danny Glover and Nicole Lee advocate to stop the US Africom Command's (Africom) plans to establish permanent military bases in Africa, which will increase dependency on outside forces, inhibit Africa from devising its own solutions to its security problems, and further destabilize regions. Further, Ugandan President Musevini urged members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus to " support the African development cause by supporting pro-African policies and programmes in the US Congress", while reminding them that Africa is their homeland.

In Asia-Africa news, India recently hosted the India-Africa Hydrocarbon conference to increase partnerships and opportunities between the two regions in the hydrocarbon sector. Further, efforts are being made to increase the AU's role in business relations between Africa and China, ensuring that Chinese business decisions are made in the best interest of the African people. Lastly, Chinese Acting Ambassador to Rwanda, Wang Xinm Li, insists that China's presence in Africa is meant to improve living standards for Africans, not to merely extract resources from the continent.

In technology related news, the Euro-Africa Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Strategic Partnership seeks to strengthen science and technology cooperation between the two continents. Further, at the recent Connect Africa conference, investments were pledged to further develop Africa's ICT sector in order to facilitate economic growth in the region.

In trade news, The South African Development Company reports on plans to develop infrastructure in the region that " ensures the availability of an integrated, efficient and cost-effective system to sustain regional economic development and trade". Further, Russia's new trade agreements will allow African imports to be tax-free in hopes of increasing opportunities amongst Russian-African trade. Lastly, economic partnership agreements (EPA's) continue to be criticized, for their potential to destroy Africa's economic progress and "do little for its political self-determination".

While the South African open source software (OSS) market is still in its development stage, the recent decision by the South African Government to adopt a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) policy is a significant boost for the industry. A new analysis from Frost & Sullivan South African Open Source Software Market, finds that both the public and private sectors will benefit from the expansion of OSS, as the cost reductions realised will not only encourage the start up of new businesses, but will also allow the government to channel resources to much needed areas such as healthcare and education.

“15 Percent Now!” - Campaign Petition

Help end the pandemics. Join the call for sustainable financing for public health in Africa. Urge African leaders to fulfill the Abuja 15% commitment. Please Sign the petition to the African Union and African leaders. *Please remember to state your full name, title/profession, organisation, position, and country. *If your mail application does not open, please send to: petition[at]africa15percentcampaign[dot]org

WAAW foundation is pleased to announce its very first scholarship program, offering $500/year for need-based female African students admitted to a University, College or institute of higher learning in Africa. Scholarships are renewable annually, following proof of the student’s continued academic performance.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/327/nov08_01_chikaokeke-agulu.gif comments on the death of pioneer Nigerian novelist Cyprian Ekwensi:

“I am deeply saddened by this news of the death of the pioneer Nigerian novelist Cyprian Ekwensi this week. He was 86. Ekwensi, the author of arguably the earliest major novel in Nigeria (People of the City, 1954) and other vastly popular novels--Passport of Mallam Illya, African Night's Entertainment, Lokotown, Jagua Nana, The Drummer Boy, etc--that, as secondary students in Nigeria in the 1980s, captured, intrigued, and liberated our fertile imaginations and youthful fantasies. His simple, uncomplicated plots, while a subject of longstanding critique by literary scholars, was the very reason we read, and re-read his incomparably entertaining works. He was the people's novelist... a man who used his unpretentious yet prodigious fictive imagination to instill in me and a zillion others the love for the novel and for literature. Rest, Old Man; travel safely.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/327/nov08_02_omodudu.gifAmodudu writes about Africans who make the treacherous journey across the Sahara and the Mediterranean in search of the European Eldorado:

“This is Africa's story; a people in desperate need of a solution. An enterprising people held down by socio-economic conditions on the continent who would not take this situation anymore. In 2006, over 6000 bodies of African migrants were picked up trying to make it across the Mediterranean to the Canaries Island. This figure is up by 600% from 2005….

What makes a man leave his home, a land overflowing with natural resources, perfect weather and the distinctively cheerful rhythm of the African continent, and then move to the frigid clime where hopes of survival rest on the number of knock-off sunglasses he is able to hawk on the streets of Europe. What makes a man make these choices? Poverty in Africa does not make the headline of the evening news anymore. However the reality of poverty is stark and hope is grim in some parts of Africa. The immigrants feel the need to leave whatever memories they have of their dear homeland and move to another continent where there is a faint shimmer of hope.

I picked up blogging late 2005 when I saw pictures of African migrants left in the Sahara desert to die. For many they speak to, there's a palpable sadness -- even regret -- over the decision to come to Europe. The reality rarely lives up to the dream, and the sacrifices they made are rarely offset by their new life.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/327/nov08_03_alexengwete.gifCon... blogger Alex Ngwete criticizes what he considers President Idriss Deby’s exploitation of the alleged kidnapping of Chadian kids by the French NGO Zoe’s arc:

“…in a country where the whims of the head-of-state have oftentimes force of law (where the court system has no jury of peers), President IDRISS DEBY, in a rush of hot blood into his brains, hurled vile abuse at the suspects in front of the world media, accusing them, without one iota of evidence, of being part of a vast network of criminals specialized in supplying new flesh to pedophiles and body parts to rogue organ banks! The spectacle at the Airport of N'Djamena, the Chadian capital, just showed the world how so-called conspiracies by opposition leaders are cooked by paranoid African heads of states to justify the extra-judicial elimination of their political enemies. In the meantime, Chadians are cheering their president for having thumbed his nose at the whites, all the while forgetting about the ongoing rebellion and the government's lack of transparency in managing the oil royalty revenues”.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/327/nov08_04_civilexpression.gi... blogger Abdurahman Warsame however views the situation differently, or at least from a different perspective:

“One of the most demeaning things for Africa - and Africans - is the growing trend in the West to adopt African children, and justifying it as an act of "charity" for Africa. Now, a French charity took this a bit further, they kidnapped 100 kids from villages in Chad to be sold to French families (or may be even worse)…

The people who did this will eventually be freed, France will interfere on their behalf saying that the whole thing was a well intentioned misunderstanding (and perhaps pay some money). The "charity" will also have many chances to repeat the same in other poor African countries…

The kids were obviously Muslims but were going to be sold to non-Muslim families, adding to the gravity of what might have been waiting for these poor kids. This is a sad, but expected, climax to the "adopting an African child" fashion in the West.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/327/nov08_05_namforum.gifNamForum, one of the rare blogs that focus on Namibia, reports that less that than 4% of Africans are online:

“While these overall figures look indeed quite daunting, overall growth in Internet use is exceptionally high in Africa: while the figures of Internet World Stats currently show only 34 million Internet users in the entire African continent, that figure is currently also growing at a more than just "healthy" 874.6% - putting it way ahead of Asia with "just" a 302% growth rate, effectively making it the fastest growing market for Internet technology in the world.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/327/nov08_06_beninmwangi.gifBenin Mwangi fears that the new restrictions placed on airfreight produce imports to the UK would hurt African farmers:

“When I read this story my heart became heavy for the Kenyan and Ghanaian farmers who will likely lose income and might ultimately be forced to sell or reorganize their farms as a result of the harsh new standards imposed upon agricultural products flown into the UK from abroad... Up until very recently I’d always seen the growth of the international organic food market to be the best thing to happen to farmers in countries like Kenya or Ghana. Organic produce farmers in these and other African nations appear to have a comparative advantage over their European counterparts within this small, but growing agricultural sector. And indeed over time this industry did in fact become an African farmers' success story. However, according the UK Soil Association the air freighted produce imported into the country threatens to increase the country’s carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, they are making extreme efforts to tighten controls on air freighted produce imports.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/327/nov08_07_dibussi.gif Thus, rather than enlarging his public support, Biya narrowed it by his politics of exclusion. The result was an exacerbation of ethnic consciousness in the country, and systematic attacks against the political system by ethno-linguistic and regional forces which became commonplace during the multiparty years.”

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den, www.dibussi.com

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

A coalition of non-governmental organisations from Europe, North America, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has launched an international appeal demanding the publication of the final report of the ministerial commission on the review of mining contracts without delay.

Aiming to facilitate efforts to achieve a lasting solution to the crisis in the strife-torn North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a senior United Nations official has held meeting with local authorities there. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Haile Menkerios, who was sent by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the special mission last week, began his meetings in Kinshasa on Saturday, according to the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC).

Policymakers grappling with the challenge of attaining economic growth across Africa will do well to confront the twin challenges of desertification and land degradation that are silently robbing the continent of its soil fertility and ecosystem services.

A government funded human rights watchdog said Wednesday it wants an international panel of security experts to investigate extra-judicial killings in the last few months after the police commissioner rubbished their report which implicates them. Nearly 500 people have been killed between June and October and their bodies dumped in mortuaries in the city and its suburbs according to a Kenya National Commission on Human Rights report released this week.

Over 90 activists from women’s pressure group WOZA and its male wing MOZA were arrested on Tuesday in Harare before being released the same day in the evening. The group was protesting over a variety of issues including unaffordable school fees, power and water shortages and escalating state sponsored violence against pro-democracy activists. Human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama confirmed the arrest of at least 98 activists by lunchtime on the day.

The expulsion of the top U.N. humanitarian official from South Darfur will hinder efforts to provide aid to some 1 million aid-dependent Darfuris by removing a key member of the aid team, officials said on Thursday. Wael al-Haj Ibrahim was the 11th aid worker expelled from Sudan this year and the second Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) staff member expelled from South Darfur state in six months.

An antibiotic commonly used to treat chest infections may be the world’s new weapon against tuberculosis, and the first new TB drug in 40 years. Moxifloxacin, already approved to treat severe respiratory infections, has entered the final phase of clinical trials, offering hope that a shorter course, four-drug combination could be available to cure tuberculosis (TB) by 2011.

Shuro-Net is a Somaliland Human rights network comprising 38 separate organisations including women's groups, human rights defenders, youth groups etc.

This latest briefing from the International Crisis Group examines the risk of violent confrontation and new bloodshed in a country that is as fragile as ever. The popular movement that brought Kouyaté to power is splintering, giving the discredited President Conté and his clan opportunity to regain control. Kouyaté must urgently demonstrate that he is serious about changing how government operates.

“Young Men at Risk: Transforming the Power of a Generation” seeks to collect groundbreaking approaches to addressing these challenges and to sponsor informed debate and comment on work being done to help young men thrive. The competition will award funding for the most innovative work in fields from music to mental health to support the expansion of their impact on a generation of young men. Entry is between now and January 23, 2008.