Pambazuka News 553: Nato occupies Libya; Famine, genocide and the Senegalese Spring
Pambazuka News 553: Nato occupies Libya; Famine, genocide and the Senegalese Spring
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) has a job opening for a full time Senior Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Officer for a minimum of two years subject to renewal.
'As we observe the 30th anniversary of the African Charter, there are reports of continuous harassment, arbitrary arrests, rapes and murders of Africans on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Such is the case in Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, among others. In many other African states the criminal laws against same sex sexual conduct continues to expose an already marginalized population of people to abuse and violation.'
Topics of inquiry can include but are not limited to:
- How race relations impact the accessibility to land and land distribution in marginalized communities.
- How ethnic minorities define their rights and access to land in the age of economic neoliberalism and market fundamentalism.
- Have land deals, as experienced in many African countries, for example, undermined or increased social stratification in terms of class, gender, and ethnicity?
- How is the current trajectory of land grabs changing the nature of land use and land rights and the structural balance of production, social norms, and gender roles?
'The current food crisis in East Africa is an extreme example of the broken food system. In a world with enough food for everyone, over 13 million people are fighting for their lives. It’s the world’s worst food crisis in many years. Droughts may be inevitable in this region, but disasters are not. Years of neglect of pastoralists and small scale food producers - those who can, with the right support, significantly boost the availability of food locally – has been a key contributor to the crisis. Action to address the long-term issues that make people vulnerable in the first place, like the right investment and like ensuring climate change does not intensify the challenges facing the region, means disasters will not be inevitable.'
From the very first notes of her a cappella solo that introduce this album, it's clear that Amira Kheir is not afraid to take risks. Born in Italy of Sudanese parents and now residing in London, Amira draws upon her own multicultural background to create a unique and compelling acoustic amalgam. View From Somewhere is her debut album, but it's not happened just by chance. Rather this recording is a signpost on an ever-extending road, and since 2009 Amira has performed at the Albany for the London Jazz Festival, the Queen Elizabeth Hall for the African Music Festival, and at the Southbank for the Celebrating Sanctuary Festival.
'The Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is disturbed with reports that Nation Publications Limited (NPL) Journalist Phillip Pemba is receiving death threats over an article that revealed that Robert Chasowa had dealings with the police before he was murdered. We are also disturbed with reports that the police summoned Weekend Nation Editor George Kasakula and Malawi News Deputy Editor Innocent Chitosi of Blantyre Newspapers Limited - papers that carried detailed insights into Chasowa’s death and dealings with the police - for questioning over recordings of the articles.
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) has become a major peace and security issue. In order to fill some of the training gaps observed within the subject area, the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) will be running a course on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) in Fragile, Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations. The course will run from 14 to 25 November 2011.
We, as editors, are searching for material for a book that is tentatively titled 'Worlds of Movement, Worlds in Movement' (or 'New Movement, New Politics'). This note is to invite your help in finding such material, either written or produced by you yourself or by someone you know.
'For years since the dramatic 2001 decision by Federal District Judge William Yohn overturning Abu-Jamal’s death sentence on grounds that the trial judge’s instructions to the jury had been faulty and that the jury verdict form was dangerously misleading, Abu-Jamal has remained stuck in brutal solitary confinement at SCI-Green,' writes Dave Lindorf, the author of 'Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal'. 'That’s the super-max facility that houses Pennsylvania’s condemned prisoners, where Abu-Jamal and the others who are actually facing death are denied any human contact either with each other or with close relatives and friends.'
Iowa-based investor Bruce Rastetter and fellow investors in the industrial agricultural corporation AgriSol Energy have their sights on 800,000 acres (325,000 hectares) of land in Tanzania that is home to 162,000 people. The proposed site is inhabited by former refugees from neighboring Burundi. Most of the residents, several generations of families who have successfully re-established their lives by developing and farming the land over the last 40 years, will be displaced against their will. They will lose their livelihoods and their community. Once they are gone, Agrisol Energy will move in. Despite rising international criticism of the proposed plan to evict the residents in the proposed lease areas for foreign investors, the Tanzanian government plans to move forward with the project. We need your help today to make sure that won’t happen. Please send a message to Bruce Rastetter, other principal investors, and the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, to urge them to drop this project.
This report, 'A Partnership for Human Rights: Civil Society and National Human Rights Institutions' (NHRIs) encourages close cooperation between national human rights institutions and civil society. It has been deliberately designed to be a constructive point of engagement to improve the relationship between NHRIs and civil society. The report makes practical suggestions on how engagement can be used, and has been optimised in the past, to enhance the promotion and protection of human rights in the Commonwealth.
A on World Food Sovereignty Day
As a British journalist based in London, Lara Pawson says she feels increasingly uneasy about media representations of the politics and people of southern Africa. She even wonders whether international journalism serves any purpose any more.
Despite a media blackout and a ban on visits to the occupied Western Sahara, there is evidence of Moroccan authorities torturing many of the Saharawis they have detained, reports Peter Kenworthy. The commonest methods include beatings, electric shocks and threats of rape.
The return of skulls of Namibians by Germany rekindled painful memories of European colonialism in Africa and the continuing struggle to make the continent really free, writes Saunders Jumah. Africa must now support Namibia to demand apologies and reparations from Germany.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/537/june_23_c_tmb.jpgElla Scheepers wonders whether the June 23 Movement in Senegal suggests a growing recognition that achieving political and social change requires collective consciousness and organisation, and cannot rely solely on the short-term impact of street protests or the individual efforts of any one party.
Organising the unemployed is a full time job - one the Unemployed People's Movement in South Africa is making it's own. Jeanne Hefez talks to UPM organisers about the challenges they face.
Charles Nhamo Rupare discusses xenophobic attacks in South Africa and the concept of ubuntu. 'We are all children of Afrika and our future is in our actions and relations,' he writes.
Earlier this year, the Blue Planet Project launched Maude Barlow's report: ‘’. The Blue Planet Project is calling for domestic right to water plans that will form a local sixth chapter to Maude Barlow's five-chapter report.
Egypt's apparently crucial role in orchestrating the Palestinian prisoner swap with Israel leaves those who have observed the cooling relations between the two countries wondering what more the deal signals. Omar Ashour, the director of Middle East Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter told Al Jazeera that, while many Egyptians view their government's involvement in the deal with pride, there was also a sense of 'bitterness and frustration'. Deals like this, he said, spell 'continuity rather than change in foreign policy.
A group of 30 African smallholder farmers who participated at a Via Campesina training on agro-ecology in Ghana have issued the following statement, reaffirming their commitment to food sovereignty.
Experiencing a traumatic event affects survivors in many ways. This guide gives working journalists concrete tools for understanding the effects of trauma and for conducting sensitive reporting and writing on trauma stories.
For genuine partnership to be be built between local government and South African shackdwellers' movement Abahlali base Mojondolo, it must be on the basis of respect for all people, writes Bishop Rubin Phillip.
Algeria's ruling party is facing the biggest internal crisis in seven years. The divisions have surfaced between the National Liberation Front Secretary-General Abdelaziz Belkhadem and some reformist elements within the party. Some 600 party dissidents recently held a meeting authorised by the interior ministry amid tight security measures. The reformists debated three topics: the condition of the ruling party, evaluation of the party reform movement and political reforms initiated by the government.
Tens of thousands – perhaps hundreds of thousands of people – are scattered throughout Blue Nile state in Sudan after fleeing their villages to avoid aerial bombardment. Blue Nile state lies south east of Khartoum and borders Ethiopia. The rebel Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) says Sudan is waging a war of terror from above against civilians. 'The main strategy of Khartoum to bomb the civil population is to break the will of the combatants,' Malik Agar, leader of the SPLM-N, told IPS.
Freedom House says it is deeply troubled by the recent outbreak of violence in Cairo that resulted in the deaths of more than two dozen Egyptians and has condemned the manipulation of the media by the ruling authorities. 'While events were ongoing, the state-controlled television claimed that violent protesters had attacked the military and three officers were killed...Egyptian authorities stormed buildings hosting two independent channels and cut electricity to the office of newspaper Al-Shorouk, apparently due to their coverage of the violence.'
The South African government will enact an emissions cap and new energy industry regulations in an effort to spur development of alternative, clean and renewable energy and mitigate climate change. The new regulations will penalize heavy polluters that don’t comply with greenhouse gas emission limits with fines.
Africa’s attempt to create a continent-wide free trade area may end in failure like so many other previous regional developmental schemes, unless leaders do things differently, writes William Gumede.
After a three and a half year legal battle, Canadian publisher Les Éditions Écosociété has reached an out-of-court settlement with multinational mining company Barrick Gold. Écosociété has now ceased publication of the book ‘Noir Canada’, which analyses the controversial activities of Canadian companies in Africa, in order to end the $6m proceedings the corporation had launched against it.
It used to amaze me that even though
Pre-dreadlocked,
Dressed in khanga from head to toe,
Carrying my babies on my back
Basket on my head
Chewing sugar cane sticks
And
pepper sprinkled muhogo roasts…
Just like everybody else…
'We are trying to get as many organizations as possible to sign onto this appeal letter by Thursday, October 20th,' writes Kali Akuno. Please email all endorsements to kakuno[AT]ushrnetwork.org.
The Occupy Grahamstown demonstration on 15 October ‘shows that radical students and the poor can form a political alliance based upon equality and solidarity,’ writes Ben Fogel from Rhodes University.
In the run-up to Tunisia’s first free elections on 23 October, Amanda Sebeysten shares the manifesto of a small independent party, linked to an association of unemployed graduates in in Kasserine, a town in the country’s interior which lost the largest number of lives in the revolution.
In the immediate aftermath of this spring’s revolution, something new and unfamiliar happened in Egypt: women and men participated equally in political events. But this article also notes: 'Yet today, political, economic and cultural barriers prevent women from being accepted as full members of society. Egypt’s dwindling economy prevents women from landing jobs in the public sector - which used to offer guaranteed employment.'
Occupy New York's Wall Street. Occupy Cape Town's Company Gardens. Occupy mailboxes of senators and congressmen. Occupy your mind...The millions of unemployed around the world can, finally, find an occupation these days, it seems, as momentum from the camped protest at New York's Zuccotti Park near Wall Street continues to spread to other cities in the United States and beyond American borders to Australia, the Czech Republic and South Africa. In South Africa, an academic in Durban, who chose to remain anonymous, said: 'The protest here is being organised totally arse-backwards.' The Facebook campaign, the Occupy Durban City Hall page, has 126 people confirmed to attend the protest. It was being run 'by white kids who are not usually plugged into social activism or to activist networks. I think it will be a massive fizzle-out, but I'm still going.'
Robert Chasowa, a student and political activist, was found dead on the campus of Malawi University Polytechnic on 24 September in circumstances that were far from clear. 'Reporters Without Borders deplores the death of this activist and is surprised at the pressure being put on journalists investigating the case,' the organisation said. 'We urge the judicial authorities to conduct an impartial investigation into Chasowa’s death, which took place in particularly worrying circumstances and in a climate hostile to freedom of expression.'
Its gritty portrayal of sex, violence and gangsters in Kinshasa will come as little surprise to people who live there. The unknown quantity is how Congolese film Viva Riva! will play from Kenya to Senegal, from Zimbabwe to Burkina Faso, reports The Guardian. 'The award-winning thriller is set for release in an unprecedented 18 African countries, its producers say, signalling hopes that a new generation of African cinema-goers will watch home-grown productions instead of foreign imports. Viva Riva! is the first film shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the industry was shut down by President Mobutu Sese Seko 25 years ago.'
The popular MTV drama Shuga is back on Kenyan TV for a second series and the introduction of new characters including a high profile gay character. Speaking about Shuga’s inclusion of an LGBTI character in their show, Denis Nzioka former PR, Media and Communications Officer of Gay Kenya said, 'I believe there is an attitude shift in Africa. This move indicates an open, accommodation and recognition of gay persons as part of Kenya’s society.'
Gaddafi's killing - with all the hallmarks of a 'coordinated assassination' – marks 'one more episode ion this NATO war in Libya and North Africa', writes Horace Campbell. The 'remilitarisation of Africa and new deployment of Africom is a new stage of African politics,' says Campbell.
Gaddafi was murdered by the henchmen in the service US imperialism and its subaalterns in NATO. The 'court' that was promised to try Gaddafi never met. That would have upset the patrons of the imperialist system. The assassination was therefore expected, if not planned.
Obama disdains not only international law but the rule of law, like his mentor, the sinister Bush. Obama and his subaltern allies in NATO have no respect for the sovereignty of nations and states. But then, there are so many politicians and unpleasant heads of state in both the North and the South, enemies of each other; it is obvious now that their assassinations could be seen as the "normal" way to settle political affairs. State terrorism has reasserted itself.
Top officials of the Dutch government at the weekend kept on the front burner efforts to bring lasting stability to the Niger Delta. The position of the government was articulated by Dutch parliamentarians and a representative of the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in charge of the Horn of Africa, East and West Africa. A Dutch parliamentarian, Sharon Gesthuizen, specifically tasked Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to clean up oil spill in all contaminated sites in the Niger Delta. Shell admitted that oil spill in the Niger Delta was wrong and it would do its best to remediate areas affected.
The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) has observed that refuse collection in informal settlements is often irregular and of very poor quality. Refuse is often left rotting for days or weeks, contributing to the spread of disease. All refuse collection for informal settlements in the City of Cape Town is outsourced to private contractors, which in our view limits accountability and recourse. In addition, the provision and maintenance of sanitation services, which are also outsourced, are either non-existent or of a poor quality. Since 19 September 2011, Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) (a partner organisation of the SJC) has requested the Supply Chain Management (SCM) office in the City of Cape Town to provide the public with access to the Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) that govern the provision and maintenance of sanitation services, as well as the provision of community-based refused collection services, in informal settlements. Despite sending several emails and letters, making several phone calls, and threatening legal action, we are yet to see the SDAs which by law should in any event be immediately available to the public.
A one-day high-level dialogue on international migration took place 17 October at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The dialogue was attended by senior African policy-makers and academics to discuss collaboration to ensure that migration is beneficial to economic growth and regional integration on the continent. In her opening remarks to the meeting, the director of ECA’s African Centre for Gender and Social Development, Ms Thokozile Ruzvidzo, pointed out that many studies have confirmed that migration is beneficial to both the countries from which the migrants originate and the countries of destination.
A new vaccine against malaria will help reduce African children's risk of acquiring the disease by about half, according to the first results of an ongoing phase III trial. The vaccine has been developed by the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline's lab in Belgium. Known as RTS, the vaccine is the first of its kind to attempt to block a parasite, rather than bacteria or viruses.
On 28 September, French authorities seized 11 luxury cars belonging to the family of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema as part of an ongoing corruption investigation, reports 'The seizures are part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the “ill-gotten gains” of African leaders Dennis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, the late Omar Bongo of Gabon, and Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. A judicial inquiry began after the NGOs Transparency International France, Sherpa, and the Arab Commission for Human Rights filed a complaint in 2007. In 2009, France’s Supreme Court ruled to admit the case, a landmark decision in the anti-corruption battle.'
17 October marked the 50th anniversary of the 'French-Algerian Massacre', when at least 200 Algerians living in Paris were killed by French police and another 11,000 or so were arrested while protesting for Algerian independence from France, says blog Africa is a Country in this post. This post remembers the date in the context of modern-day immigration to France.
Gambia's opposition will go into the 14 November presidential election as fractured parties after talks to field a single candidate to unseat incumbent Yahya Jammeh failed. President Jammeh, the favourite, has been in power since 1994 when he took power in a coup before holding a civilian election two years later. He has won three subsequent elections since then and will be seeking a fourth five-year term.
On 18 October, UNHCR released the companion to its annual Global Trends publication. The report, 'Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries: Statistical Overview of Asylum Applications Lodged in Europe and Selected non-European Countries', finds that industrialised countries experienced 'a 17 per cent increase in asylum applications in the first half of this year, with most claimants coming from countries with long-standing displacement situations'.
Johannesburg, South Africa, is home to more than 450,000 forced migrants, including 51,300 legally recognized refugees, 417,700 asylum seekers and others in refugee-like circumstances, says this report from the Women's Refugee Commission. 'A combination of high immigration and high unemployment means many forced migrants face xenophobia daily, resulting in discrimination, exploitation and abuse, often at the hands of the police and government. Women are particularly at risk of sexual harassment and violence every time they sell goods on the street or in flea markets, go to work or take public transportation. Denied access to proper employment, informal outdoor selling is the main occupation of urban forced migrants.'
A ground-breaking investigation examines the most secret aspect of America's shadowy drone wars and maps out a world of hidden bases dotting the globe, according to Using military documents, press accounts and other open source information, an in-depth analysis by AlterNet has identified at least 60 bases integral to US military and CIA drone operations. 'Over the last decade, the American use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has expanded exponentially as has media coverage of their use. On September 21st, the Wall Street Journal reported that the military has deployed missile-armed MQ-9 Reaper drones on the “island nation of Seychelles to intensify attacks on al Qaeda affiliates, particularly in Somalia.” A day earlier, a Washington Post piece also mentioned the same base on the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago, as well as one in the African nation of Djibouti, another under construction in Ethiopia, and a secret CIA airstrip being built for drones in an unnamed Middle Eastern country (suspected of being Saudi Arabia).'
Two people were killed on 17 October during clashes between security operatives and supporters of two LC5 contenders in Nebbi District. One of the victims, Henry Okwai, a trader, was shot as police and army fired live bullets in the air to disperse supporters of Mr Ezrom William Alenyo and Mr Robert Okumu. An eyewitness said Okwai, a resident of Pangero Village in Koch Parish, Nebbi Sub-county was shot in the ribs as he sold secondhand clothes at the Market Square.
Teargas and gunshots rocked Kampala on 17 October as police clashed with protestors who turned up for the second phase of the Walk-to-Work demonstrations. Organised by pressure group Activists for Change (A4C), the protests, whose first phase began on 11 April leaving several people dead, maimed or detained by the security forces, are aimed at shedding light on the plight of Ugandans suffering due to high fuel and food prices and rising cost of living.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and victims’ lawyer Morris Anyah have asked judges to dismiss the challenge on jurisdiction lodged by two of the suspects in Kenya’s second post-election violence case. The two have told the Pre-Trial Chamber II that Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and post-master general Maj Gen Hussein Ali erroneously applied the law when they presented their challenges at the beginning of their Confirmation of Charges Hearings.
Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has outlined an ambitious road map to improve service delivery in the courts and restore public confidence in the Judiciary. In his address on the state of the Judiciary, on the eve of Mashujaa Day celebrations, Dr Mutunga also said he will strive to help ease backlog of cases and tackle corruption in the corridors of justice. 'We found an institution so frail in its structures, thin on resources, low in confidence, deficient in integrity and weak in its public support,' he said in a candid assessment of the institution.
Malaysian police say they have broken up a ring of human traffickers who forced Ugandan women into prostitution. Twenty-one women, mainly in their 20s, have been released in a sting operation by the police. They were lured with promises of lucrative jobs, before being sent to China and then Malaysia where they ended up as sex slaves.
'From Kyoto, Copenhagen, Cochabamba, Cancun and to Durban: will Africa be incinerated?' is a document issued as a tool for popular education and mobilisation. Of the four documents set out one has been in the centre stage of official negotiations since its origin at the Kyoto Conference of 1997.
At COP15 held in Copenhagen the so-called Copenhagen Accord was contrived by a handful of countries with the aim of truncating accountability in efforts to fight climate change and instead promoting an era of voluntary emissions reduction targets that is not based on science.
The USA, Russia and European countries supplied large quantities of weapons to repressive governments in the Middle East and North Africa before this year’s uprisings despite having evidence of a substantial risk that they could be used to commit serious human rights violations, Amnesty International said in a new report. 'Arms Transfers To The Middle East And North Africa: Lessons For An Effective Arms Trade Treaty' examines arms transfers to Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen since 2005.
In October 2011, ARTICLE 19 analysed the Tanzanian Stakeholders’ Proposals on the Media Services Bill. The overall assessment of ARTICLE 19 of the Bill is positive. If enacted, the Bill would be bringing Tanzania closer with international legal standards and best practice governing the right of freedom of expression and freedom of the media.
Despite a partial victory for Fahamu and others who have raised the? alarm over stripping tens of thousands of Rwandan refugees of ?protection, individuals and organisations are still encouraged to endorse an to halt the measure.
‘We might not agree with other people’s sexual preferences. But where these preferences are confined to consenting adults, they really are of no business to any other person,’ argues Tapera Kapuya
Sureta Chana, defence lawyer for victims of post-election violence in the ICC trials, helped prosecute scores of Kenyan’s for sedition under the Moi regime. Shouldn’t she make an apology to the people she herself harmed, asks Shailja Patel.
Government ‘development’ schemes don’t always take into account the interests of the people affected by them. How do we decide whether or not the ‘right to development’ should take precedence over human and people’s rights, asks Khadija Sharife.
Following threats against S’bu Zikode, leader of South African shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, by the chair of a municipal housing committee, the group has called on democrats across the country to support Zikode and other activists ‘facing imtimidation and repression’.
In this book review, Gerald Caplan takes a critical look at ‘’, edited by Scott Straus and Lars Waldorf and published by University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 2011.
WFP has conducted an 'aggressive fundraising campaign to cover the needs of south and central Somalia till the end of the year.' But what are those needs, and who is assessing them, asks Rasna Warah.
Nigel Gibson’s book is a ‘refreshing and imaginative reading of Frantz Fanon’s groundbreaking thoughts regarding the theory and practice of revolutionary transformation,’ writes Percy Mabandu.
Sub-Saharan Africa's economy is expected to grow by 5.25 per cent in 2011, but if global growth slows, South Africa will be particularly hard hit, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday. The IMF predicted that the region's economy would grow 5.75 per cent in 2012. South Africa, a middle-income country with slower growth compared to the regional average, had yet to see its output and employment return to pre-crisis levels.
Madagascar's de facto premier has resigned along with his cabinet, paving the way for the formation of a new government by consensus, according to a letter. The official letter of resignation was the first step towards ending two years of political stalemate in the country. Albert Camille Vitalis resigned as premier, so a new person could be chosen for the job by November, to create a transitional government that would lead the country to elections in about a year.
Women worldwide have been forced or coerced by medical personnel to submit to permanent and irreversible sterilisation procedures, says this report. 'Despite condemnation from the United Nations, cases of forced and coerced sterilization have been reported in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Women who are poor or stigmatized are most likely to be deemed “unworthy” of reproduction. Perpetrators are seldomly held accountable and victims rarely obtain justice for this violent abuse of their rights.'
More than 450 economists from over 40 countries have called on the G20 finance ministers, who met in Paris recently, to take urgent action to stop financial speculation in commodity markets driving up food prices and fuelling hunger. 'Excessive financial speculation is contributing to increasing volatility and record food prices, exacerbating global hunger and poverty,’ say the economists in a letter to the finance ministers. ‘With around 1 billion people enduring chronic hunger worldwide, action is urgently needed to curb excessive speculation and its effects on global food prices.'
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged the authorities to drop accusations of terrorist activities leveled at five journalists including two Swedish reporters whose trial was due to start in Addis Ababa but was adjourned until 20 October 2011. The arrests of the journalists have sparked widespread criticism from the IFJ European and African groups, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) as well as the Eastern Africa Journalists Associations (EAJA) which have all accused the Ethiopian government of waging a campaign of intimidation against independent media under the cloak of anti-terror legislation.
President Jacob Zuma needs more time to decide if any remedial action will be taken against Minister of Cooperative and Traditional Affairs Sicelo Shiceka and national police commissioner General Bheki Cele. On Monday, Zuma's spokesperson Mac Maharaj told the Mail & Guardian the president is still 'applying his mind' on the two matters, despite them first having come to his attention several months ago. Shiceka and Cele find themselves in hot water after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela delivered two separate, damning findings into the duo's actions while undertaking official duties.
South Africa’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA) gave the green light to the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup attempt, along with the intelligence agencies of America, Britain, China and Spain, mercenary Simon Mann has claimed. Mann told London’s Daily Mail on Saturday night: 'I believe Britain and America had full visibility on what we were doing. The South Africans passed on intelligence to the UK and the USA, who had vested interests.'
The whereabouts of 25 lobbyists who were arrested on Saturday 15 October in Angola’s capital Luanda remains unknown. The 25 were seized while protesting against rights violations, poverty and the 32-year rule of President José Eduardo dos Santos. One of the organisers of the demonstration, Mr Carbono Casimiro, told the local Ecclesia Radio that police descended on peaceful protestors and journalists with unnecessary force before seizing them at the Independence Square, while accusing them of several political crimes.
At least seven children have died from a suspected diarrhoea outbreak which has affected over 6,000 children in two towns in Zimbabwe over the past week, a state newspaper said. 'Seven children died in Masvingo and Kadoma last week following a diarrhoea outbreak which has seen a total of 6,472 cases being recorded in the two towns,' The Sunday Mail reported. 'The main problem has always been unclean water and poor sanitation,' the newspaper quoted Portia Manangazira, director for disease control in the health ministry, as saying.
Yes, there was a secret plot to oust President Robert Mugabe. Yes, Sir Richard Branson was one of its ringleaders. But the British billionaire has vehemently denied last week’s extraordinary claims that he once offered a £6.5 million bribe to persuade the Zimbabwean leader to stand down. The mogul told The Independent exclusively that in 2007 he orchestrated covert meetings between Jonathan Moyo, a minister in Mugabe’s government, and several respected African statesmen.
Zambia’s former president Rupiah Banda has spoken out for the first time since leaving office three weeks ago, denying links to a gold scam and purchase of luxury vehicles.
The Oakland Institute has launched a campaign against Iowa-based investor Bruce Rastetter and fellow investors in the industrial agricultural corporation AgriSol Energy’s attempt to acquire 325,000 hectares of land in Tanzania that is home to 162,000 people. According to the institute the proposed site is inhabited by former refugees from neighbouring Burundi.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information says it has filed a lawsuit against the military council, prime minister, and minister of information for the misinformation and incitement against the protesters by the state TV during the events at Maspero. 'A group of Egyptians organized a peaceful March on 9 October that started from some areas in Cairo, heading to the area of Maspero. Once they had arrived there, violence erupted and nobody knows who instigated it. On the other hand, the Egyptian TV deployed all its vast potentials to outrage and incite the public opinion against the peaceful protesters.'
On the occasion of the 37th session of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) where a delegation of farmers from La Via Campesina will be present along with other actors from civil society to follow the discussions and participate in the debates, La Via Campesina has reiterated its demands for solutions based on the principles of food sovereignty. Important issues such as land tenure, price volatility, gender issues and nutrition as well as agricultural investments are on the agenda.
Libyans of Malian origin who had taken Libyan citizenship have started returning following the crumbling of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Mali was this week reported to have made preparations for the returnees including some thought to have fought for the on-the-run former Libyan leader. Among those expected to return are mercenaries recruited by Col Gaddafi in his fight against the National Transitional Council fighters.
Negative developments in the global economy could exert pressure on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) sovereigns over the coming months, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said. This is although SSA economies have been expanding since the global economic downturn of 2008-09, S&P’s said in a new report ‘Renewed External Pressures Could Cloud Sub-Saharan Africa Sovereign Ratings Outlook’. For the region as a whole, a drop in global risk appetite could also erode the confidence that foreign investors have shown in SSA markets since 2009.
The US has denied that its renewed interest in Uganda is a strategy to get hold of the newly found oil in the country. The US government has announced that it will deploy troops to help Uganda fight the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who are currently in the Central African Republic. Critics have said that the only reason that America seems to be coming up strongly to offer troops to help in fighting Kony when they did not when he was killing people here was because of the oil.
Two former rebel groups behind fighting in Central African Republic that claimed over 50 lives last month have signed a truce, government mediators said. The fighting was over control of a diamond mine near the town of Bria 600 km (360 miles) from the capital Bangui and risked escalating into a broader tribal conflict with reports of fighters going house-to-house hunting ethnic rivals.
Gunmen attacked a ship supplying an Exxon Mobil oil platform off the Nigerian coast, the company said on Tuesday, less than three weeks after someone was kidnapped from a vessel at one of its facilities in the same waters. The incident was the latest in a string of attacks on ships in the Gulf of Guinea that experts say is threatening an emerging trade hub and growing source of oil, metals and agricultural products to world markets.
Thousands of Moroccans demonstrated against the government in the North African kingdom's biggest city, threatening to boycott the upcoming elections. The weekly demonstration by the pro-democracy February 20 movement on Sunday 16 October attracted around 10,000 people in Casablanca, making it the largest demonstration in months.
Genetically modified (GM) food aid bound for Africa has long been a bone of contention among governments, scientists, activists, consumers and aid workers. On 18 August a drought-affected Kenyan government fired the head of its National Biosafety Authority for expediting the process to import milled food aid which might have contained genetically modified organisms (GMO). In the weeks preceding and after the incident, public debate on the issue was distorted by extreme positions either for or against GM food, say this IRIN report.
Swaziland’s parliamentarians are questioning the purpose of a social safety net covering children, the elderly and the disabled. One dismissed it as little more than a public relations exercise, but in the teetering economy the recipients often depend on these small grants and pensions for survival. Donor-dependent Swaziland has been plunged into a financial crisis since receipts from the Southern Africa Customs Union dried up in the wake of the global 2008 slowdown, but finance minister Majozi Sithole recently conceded that government corruption cost the country nearly twice the annual amount budgeted for social services.
Making some simple, basic changes in education policy can result in many more girls attending school, experts said at a meeting here this week on Gender Equality in Education. Take the case of Kenya. The United Nations says that the country has made huge strides towards the goal of education for all by incorporating gender awareness in school administration. 'We offered free lunches, but not only that, we make sure that sanitary towels were available in schools, and that decreased absenteeism enormously,' Kenya’s minister of education, Prof. Sam Ongeri, told IPS.
Fighters from Al-Shabab will attack Kenya unless it withdraws its troops from Somalia, a spokesman for the group has warned. Analysts say the group will try to follow through on its threat. Hundreds of Kenyan troops entered Somalia on Sunday, backed by helicopters and tanks; officials in Somalia also said that jets had bombed al-Shabab camps, though Nairobi would not confirm the jets were theirs.
Pambazuka News 552: Occupation, land and peace: Organising from below
Pambazuka News 552: Occupation, land and peace: Organising from below
Kenyan troops have crossed into Somalia and have driven out al-Shabab fighters from two bases near the border in a joint operation with Somali soldiers, according to a Somali military commander. Kenya has said it would hunt the fighters they accuse of being behind several recent kidnappings of foreigners.
Why is the US sending its troops to finish off a fractured band of bush fighters in the middle of Africa?
President Barack Obama announced he is dispatching about 100 US troops - mostly special operations forces - to central Africa to advise in the fight against the Lord's Resistance Army - a guerrilla group accused of widespread atrocities across several countries.
Winston Tubman, Liberia's main opposition candidate, has withdrawn a demand for a recount of the presidential poll and said he will take part in a runoff. Latest results announced on Sunday showed that newly named Nobel Peace laureate Johnson Sirleaf was leading with 44 per cent of the votes, ahead of Tubman of the CDC party, on 32.2 per cent with 1,162,729 valid votes and 96 per cent of votes counted.
Lawyers for a Gambian minister charged with treason have said that his health is at risk as he was being held in a filthy prison cell. Mr Borry Touray told the high court in Banjul that former information and communication minister Amadou Scattred Janneh is confined in a leaking and dirty prison cell that could harm his health.
Almost half a million Ivoirians remain displaced five months after the country’s post-electoral civil conflict ended, afraid of returning to their homes for fear of reprisals, while a sluggish response to funding appeals means living conditions for many are getting worse. A 12 October report by NGOs Oxfam, CARE and the Danish Refugee Council warned of a two-thirds shortfall in the UN appeal for emergency funding to deal with around 450,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) throughout the country, as living conditions for many deteriorated.
The law does not necessarily make much difference when it comes to child labour: in Guinea and Mauritania the worst forms of child labour persist despite it being banned by law, leading child protection experts to call for a better understanding of the dynamics behind it. West Africa adviser for child protection at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Joachim Theis told IRIN: 'Until now there has been very little discourse which makes the links between strategies taken by parents to find a solution for each child in the context of informal employment, and the application of international norms.'
Rapid urbanisation is being portrayed – by the UN, the World Bank and many others – as a potential developmental 'silver bullet' for Africa. Cities, we are frequently told, will be the drivers of economic growth and poverty reduction on the continent in the years to come. But larger concentrations of people are not automatically generating benefits – quite the opposite, says this article. 'The social, economic and political consequences of policymakers continuing to ignore the best available demographic research could be grim. For example, appropriate food supply networks and health services require sound knowledge of population distribution and migration patterns.'
According to the 2009 United Nations Human Development Index, almost 80 per cent of households in this Central African nation now live on less than two dollars a day. Child poverty is estimated to be even higher, says the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with eight out of 10 children not having access to basic services, such as education, health, nutrition or safe drinking water. 'The situation of Congolese children is worrisome. Only about a third of children of primary school age attend primary school,' says UNICEF DRC monitoring and evaluation specialist Bertin Gbayoro.