Pambazuka News 470: Shell in Nigeria: The struggle for accountability
Pambazuka News 470: Shell in Nigeria: The struggle for accountability
A new documentary portraying a white Zimbabwean farmer’s struggle to resist the unlawful seizure of his land by a senior Zanu PF politician is undermined by its lack of ‘historical and political context’, writes Blessing-Miles Tendi.
Ben Amunwa looks at how the settlement of the Wiwa v Shell case affects the ongoing Niger Delta crisis, and the settlement's implications for human rights, environmental justice and the control of resources in the region.
No human being is going to be perfect when it comes to always aligning their personal principles with their public words and actions, writes Dale T. McKinley, but we should ‘expect those who are in positions of political and societal leadership to be what they claim to be – leaders’.
Azad Essa crawls the bars of Durban trying to find punters interested in watching President Jacob Zuma’s ‘State of the Nation Address’ live on television. He finds that most people are more interested in the football.
Much has been said in the media and private conversations on the latest revelations of the South African president’s paternity of a child ‘out of wedlock’. Pumla Gqola counters some of the anti-feminist arguments put forward by defenders of Jacob Zuma’s choices.
Impunity in Kenya is ‘so deeply entrenched that it has become a sort of public office entitlement or perk’, writes L. Muthoni Wanyeki. But as yet another corruption scandal rears its head, Wanyeki calls for a more ethical response from the government, which demonstrates concern for how the public’s money is used.
Africa’s bargaining power has been increased, as Chinese interests open up alternatives to US and European investment in the continent, writes Khadija Sharife. But while China is free from colonial stigma and approaches resource-rich countries through the ethos of brothers-in-arms, a closer look at Beijing’s approach suggests that the benefits it brings to Africa do not include ‘justice and real development’.
The University of Stellenbosch will be hosting the bi-annual conference of the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS) in Stellenbosch from 1-4 September 2010. The Theme for the Conference is Democracy in the First Decade of the 21st Century
Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, freed by the popular struggle of a network of activists that delegitimised South Africa’s apartheid system, writes Horace Campbell. Campbell celebrates Mandela’s major contribution to African politics, South Africa and the ANC, ubuntu, and honours those who live out this principle – ‘grassroots liberation forces who have continued the struggle for social justice and system change.’
The World Bank president Robert B. Zoellick just ended an African tour that took him to Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia. He told the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa that an estimated 64 million people worldwide will fall into extreme poverty because of the global financial meltdown crisis and some 30,000-50,000 babies may die in Sub- Sahara Africa in 2010. He later addressed African journalists via video conference, which was attended by The Independent's Patrick Kagenda.
As the great and good of the mobile industry browsed the exhibits at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona this week, they may have overlooked a couple of watershed moments in emerging-market telecoms, writes Matthew Reed.
The members of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya are appalled at the behaviour of the people of Mtwapa, Kilifi, but more especially by that of the provincial administration and the police. The five arrested people committed no crime, and we demand their immediate release.
Vrije University (VU) Amsterdam has established the Desmond Tutu Programme in honour of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond M. Tutu. This Programme focuses on the theme Youth, Sports and Reconciliation and aims to strengthen the co-operation between VU Amsterdam and South African Higher Education Institutions.
In a paper to be published in the March issue of the academic journal Conflict, Security & Development, Joseph Hanlon argues that Mozambique poses some stark questions for development cooperation. In particular, "Current economic management strategies mean that a growing group of young people are leaving school with a basic education but no economic prospects. Will ‘marginal’ youth in towns and cities pose a threat of political and criminal violence? Can peace be built on poverty and rising inequality? Are elections and expanded schooling enough when there are no jobs?"
CSDG, King's College London/ALC, is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Peace, Security and Development Fellowships for African Scholars starting September 2010. The Fellowships are over 18-month period and comprise a rigorous training programme on peace, security and development, which includes a 12-Month Master's (M.A) programme at King's College London and an attachment to an African University.
Zimbabwe's power-sharing government has made no real progress in implementing political reforms and ending human rights abuses after a year in office, Human Rights Watch has said. The government has demonstrated little political will or capacity to enact meaningful changes to improve the lives of Zimbabweans.
Environmental Film Festival of Accra is currently accepting films and videos made about the environment or about issues around the environment throughout the world. We also accept films and videos that explore the relationship between the environment and other socio - economic, political and cultural themes. Whilst we give preference to films about Ghana and Africa, we screen highly acclaimed international films. Films should preferably depict positive and realistic images and can be of any genre - drama, comedy, horror, adventure, animation, romance, science fiction, experimental, etc.
The coming 12 months are very critical for the political history of Sudan. Two landmark events in the country’s history will take place. In April 2010 Sudan is expected to organise the first multi-party general executive and legislative elections after more than 20 years of authoritarian military rule. In January 2011 the people in Southern Sudan will exercise, in a popular referendum, their right to self-determination and decide on the future of the country. This DRDC report is documenting for some aspects of Sudan’s 5th Population and Housing Census and drawing attention to key areas of weaknesses of the census operation.
Cultural Survival is appealing to Kenyan government authorities to halt police operations in Northern Kenya, where Indigenous Samburu villages have suffered brutal police attacks over the last year.
Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa is pleased to announce its call for applications for the 2010 Moremi Leadership Empowerment and Development (MILEAD) Fellows Program for young African women leaders. The MILEAD Fellows Program is a one-year leadership development program designed to identify, develop and promote emerging young African Women leaders to attain and succeed in leadership in their community and Africa as a whole.
Ahmed Maher and Amr Ali, both leaders in the April 6th Youth Movement, were arrested in the early morning on 16 February as they were driving home from a meeting regarding the welcoming reception planned for Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mohamed Elbaradei, who many activists are calling on to run for presidency in Egypt's upcoming election. Maher and Ali were stopped at a security checkpoint, forced out of their car, and taken to jail.
International pressure on Uganda as the country attempts to pass an anti-homosexuality bill is important, but other nations remain havens of anti-LGBT oppression. Cary Alan Johnson and Ryan Thoreson call for an end to the criminalisation of same-sex relationships that is fuelling homophobia in Senegal and elsewhere.
One of the findings on a study done by MISA-Mozambique on behalf of UNESCO on the landscape of media development in Mozambique is that Mozambique has a political and legal framework that is generally favorable to freedom of expression, and to pluralism and diversity in the media, although constraints still persist in the practical application of media-friendly laws and policies. The findings were launched at a conference on 10 February 2010 in Maputo.
Evidence of grand corruption is mounting in Beijing’s showcase $6 billion barter deal with the Kinshasa government.
This five-day training, offered by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), aims to equip minority and indigenous peoples activists (individuals and NGOs) with media skills to generate their own information and to interact with local, regional and international media especially in the European Union.
You are invited to join us a screening of ‘’, a documentary that features the voices of women speaking in the aftermath of Kenya's 2007 post-election crisis.
The film (30 minutes) will be followed by a Q&A session with Firoze Manji, editor of Pambazuka News. Titles from Pambazuka Press will also be on sale.
DATE: Tuesday 2 March
TIME: 7pm
PLACE: Oxford Brookes University Human Rights Film Festival.
Savo Heleta analyses Sudan’s current political situation and asks how suitable and feasible the planned April 2010 elections are. He argues that the Sudan’s current state, with so many unresolved issues, would complicate an election and ‘would not lead to pluralism and democracy, but rather to instability, further polarisation and post-election chaos’. Furthermore, Heleta holds that the current election plan is so complex that its success is questionable, particularly given the extent of illiteracy in the voting population: ‘As currently planned, the elections would be a logistical nightmare for any country, let alone Sudan, leaving too much room for post-election manipulation of votes.’ Heleta colncludes that elections in Sudan need to be either postponed until after the 2011 people’s referendum or simplified and focused on executive positions only.
Dambisa Moyo's 'Dead Aid' fails in its attempt to provide a radical critique of ‘aid’, because of Moyo's unwilingess to conduct it within the framework of political economy, says Samir Amin. ‘The politics of aid, the choice of its beneficiaries, the forms of intervention and its immediate objectives are inextricably linked to geopolitical considerations’, says Samir Amin, yet Moyo does not speak to or critique ‘the central role of aid in the strategy of domination, pillage and exploitation by imperialist capital. Neither does she address the need for a “different aid” based on the solidarity of peoples.’
'I couldn't agree more with the assertions made' in Jason Hickel's , writes Michael.
'If Africa is the antelope in the global jungle it must learn that just because the leopard is beautiful does not make it less dangerous than the hyena', writes Julius Gatune.
None of the arguments in Funmi Feyide's support the title, writes Beauty.
Pambazuka's failure to mention ten years of sanctions against Zimbabwe with a is a crime against the country's people and humanity, writes Mike.
For the sake of the ANC, Jacob Zuma should come clean, apologise, ask for forgiveness - and resign from the national presidency, writes Peter Townshend.
Pambazuka News 469: How Yar'Adua has improved Nigerian democracy
Pambazuka News 469: How Yar'Adua has improved Nigerian democracy
Ten years ago the WTO-protests in Seattle were the beginning of a powerful re-vitalization of global struggles against capitalist globalization. What is the state of the global justice movement today? Is there a need for a strategic re-orientation? Franco 'Bifo' Beradi argues that social movements were in a deep crisis. His article 'Ten years after Seattle. One strategy, better two, for the movement against war and capitalism' recommends a retreat into monasteries and change of concepts and strategies.
ICRW is offering a post-doctoral fellowship for a social scientist with gender and population expertise at its Washington, DC office. This fellowship is geared toward early career Ph.D. professionals who would like to conduct research within an action research organization and network with a wide range of experts on gender, population and development.
IRIN Films is pleased to release a short film about displacement in Haiti as part of our series on internal displacement entitled Forced to Flee. Filmed in late 2009, just weeks before the earthquake struck, this short film tells the extraordinary story of what used to be Haiti's finest hotel, the Simbi Continental.
The emergency aid industry has improved but must try harder, according to the broadest ever assessment of its performance. Reviewers from the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in humanitarian action (ALNAP) assessed how well donors, UN agencies, the International Organization for Migration, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement and NGOs were meeting humanitarian needs worldwide and coordinating.
If nothing else, President Jacob Zuma’s belated apology about his out-of-wedlock child with Sonono Khoza following unprecedented outrage at the way he has demeaned the highest office in the land has shown the power of public opinion in a democracy. We have also established once and for all that the personal is political and that leaders must practice what they preach where HIV and AIDS is concerned.
I have been following with interest the debate around Zuma and the baby with Irvin Khoza’s daughter. Of course, we know that polygamy is an old-age cultural norm among the Zulu and the Ndebele from Zimbabwe. We may debate the pros and cons of this practice; some say it is disrespectful of women while others say it is a tradition that should be preserved for future generations. Whatever you believe, we need to scrutinise the real issues around the outcry about Zuma.
On the ground floor of a squat building in downtown Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, tellers sit inside tiny wooden cabins, counting out money. Welcome to the Indo-Zambia Bank, which came into being after three Indian state banks and the Zambian government joined forces in 1984. Its 57-year-old Managing Director, Satish Shukla, describes it as a “joint venture of four cultures”.
MA in international labour and trade union studies
Start: October 2010
Full-time (12 months) OR
Part-time (24 months)
Limited scholarships available
Each year, the May 18 Memorial Foundation announces this award in a spirit of solidarity with those working towards democracy. The award goes to one individual or organization who has contributed to the promotion and advancement of human rights, democracy and peace in their work.
The UNESCO Chair & Institute of Comparative Human Rights at the University of Connecticut invites applications for the sixth annual International Leadership Programme: A Global Intergenerational Forum. The Forum seeks to empower young leaders by involving them in finding solutions to emerging human rights problems, and nurturing individuals to be effective leaders in the field of human rights.
The deadline for submitting your nomination for the 2010 Red Ribbon Award is February 28, 2010. The award honours and celebrates outstanding community leadership and action that has helped curtail the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. Twenty-five community-based organisations will be selected through a community-led process and invited to attend the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) to be held in Vienna, Austria, July 18 – 23, 2010 where they will have an opportunity to showcase their work.
This edition of the methodological workshops that is on offer for 2010 is designed for doctoral and masters students as well as young, mid-career African researchers based in Nigeria and elsewhere in English speaking Central and West Africa.
On February 3, 2010, the Brazilian Congress approved the Constitutional Amendment Project (PEC in Portuguese) 047/2003, to incorporate the Right to Food as a fundamental right in the national constitution. The Right to Food will be included in article 6 of Brazil’s supreme law that already contemplates other social rights such as the right to work, health, education, and social security.
If man and woman are equal, why should the former be allowed to have several wives while the latter can only have one husband? This is the question the Constitutional Court will answer after listening to submission from a human rights organisation, Mifumi (U) Ltd that wants the polygamous marriages declared unconstitutional.
This guide on positive prevention1 was developed to assist people living with HIV, service providers and policy makers to understand, promote and implement appropriate rights-based strategies for addressing the prevention needs of people living with HIV. The guide includes sections which focus on action points and provides useful information on key issues to consider when developing prevention programmes for people living with HIV.
Schools in Dongo, Equateur Province, in western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the scene of inter-ethnic clashes from October to December 2009, are still closed because parents are worried about security, despite a call for their reopening by the provincial government.
Foreign nationals are being attacked with "impunity" in South Africa, a leading human rights organization charged as the latest service delivery protests turned violent and several hundred residents turned their anger on Ethiopian refugees living in Siyathemba township, about 80km east of Johannesburg.
Reporters Without Borders calls on National Security Chief Emmanuel Edou to immediately explain what has happened to two journalists, Simon Hervé Nko'o and Serge Sabouang, who were arrested by members of the General Directorate for External Investigation (DGRE), an intelligence agency, on 5 February 2010. There has been no news of them since then.
The Oxford University Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) course on statelessness and international law will take place from 16–18 April 2010 and is intended for experienced practitioners and graduate researchers. It draws on the expertise of RSC staff and associates, as well as members of external institutions, including UNHCR. Registration is now open. The for this course is available to download (PDF).
Jabulile Dlamini* is sweet sixteen and has never been kissed. And she is not expecting to be kissed any time soon or to even receive any gifts this Valentine’s Day.
Sixteen years after the Rwandan genocide, many women are struggling to come to terms with the violence they endured. According to the association of genocide widows NGO, Avega Agahozo, sexual violence was used to humiliate, degrade and abuse women during the 6 April to 16 July 1994 killings. In many cases, the violence was meted out before, during or after the women had witnessed the killing of a relative.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) adds its voice to the many in wishing its Honorary President and former President of the Republic Nelson Mandela well on the 20th anniversary of his release. Nelson Mandela whom the NUM conferred an Honorary life Presidency long before his release in 1990 is a symbol of hope to many hopeless and impoverished people across the globe and continues to inspire hope amongst mineworkers.
African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), a project of the CGIAR Gender & Diversity Program, is now accepting applications for its 2010 fellowships. The deadline for all applications is 22 March 2010.
The 2010 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the workshops will be open to all the social research discipline. The East and Southern Africa edition of the methodology workshops is designed for doctoral and masters students and young, mid-career African researchers resident in East and Southern Africa.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa is pleased to announce the 2010 session of its Advanced Research Fellowship Programme and to invite interested scholars based in African universities or research centres to submit applications for consideration for an award.
Some 15,400 people who fled violence in the central Nigerian city of Jos remain displaced three weeks later and despite dire living conditions, many do not plan to return and rebuild their destroyed homes.
Eight months after the end of joint military operations by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, many parts of Orientale Province, in northeastern DRC, are still in turmoil, says the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Attacks on civilians by Ugandan rebels and local militias have left 340,000 people displaced, and 30,000 refugees have fled to Sudan.
For the Foresight journal’s Special Issue on the theme “Is Africa the land of the future?”, we invite papers that look at the potential conditions and the roles of Africa and Africans in the future world. In addition to the exploration of possible futures, the theme of the Special Issue also calls for considerations for robust policies and creative strategies that could ensure sustained transformation within the African continent.
In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, China wary of ICC genocide ruling against Sudan president, Asia unseats South Africa in gold race, India re-draws strategy in African oil assets, and Brazil accelerates its investment in Africa.
The Winter 2009 issue of Food First News reports that last November the World Summit on Food Security in Rome issued a declaration that the world is now hungrier than ever before. Significantly, this is not the result of food shortage, with world production at 11/2 times that needed to feed every man, woman, and child on the planet.
Nigeria will be struck off the list of 'countries of int erest' by the United States if the African nation can meet four conditions, the local media have reported. The conditions, issued by the US - according to Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe - include that the Nigerian government must make a public condemnation of acts of terrorism wherever they occur in the world and for Nigeria to take urgent steps to address security lapses at its airports.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced to 15 years imprisonment Tharcisse Muvunyi, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Rwandan army, for direct and public incitement to commit genocide in 1994. Presiding Judge Dennis C.M. Byron, assisted by judges Gberdao Gustave Kam and Vagn Joensen, Thursday also ordered 57-year-old Muvunyi to remain in the custody of the Tribunal pending his transfer to a country where he will serve the sentence.
Soldiers have been deployed to help restore order after a resurgent communal violence in Nigeria's northern Gombe state has claimed six lives and left many more injured, the News Agency of Nigeria reported Thursday, quoting a Nigeria Red Cross official.
The Ivorian government has announced the suspension, "until further notice," of the review of voters' list, due to the tension surrounding the process of validating the provisional list. The decision was made at the end of a working session between President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro Wednesday evening.
The global rights watchdog, Amnesty International (AI), has called on the Senegalese government to intervene and engage its neighbours, Gambian, with a view to improving the latter's "worsening" human rights record.
Amnesty International (AI) has called on the Chadian government to allow UN peacekeepers to continue protecting 250,000 refugees from Darfur and 170,000 internally-displaced people (IDPs) in the east of the country.
Nigeria's Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has assumed office as the country's Acting President, after the two chambers of the National Assembly (parliament) passed separate res olutions that ended 78 days without anyone being in charge of Africa's most populous nation,.
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party has called for fresh elections if the current logjam in talks between rival factions of the frayed power-sharing government persisted.
"No disruption to learning" touts a newspaper ad for a new private Zimbabwean school, one of many springing up in living rooms, backyards and plots across Harare.
Local chiefs and Kenyan officials have prevented a planned "gay wedding" in Kenya - where such unions are illegal. The marriage had been due to take place in a private villa near the resort of Mombasa but chiefs took action after it was reported in the local press.
The international peasant's movement La Via Campesina welcomes the preliminary UN recognition of the role and rights of peasants and small farmers in the world. The Fourth Session of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council, who met in Geneva on 25-29 January 2010, adopted the report of the Advisory Committee titled “Discrimination in the Context of Right to Food” (A/HRC/AC/4/2).
Just over a month ago the legendary Dennis Brutus passed away. He became a legend for so many across South Africa and indeed the whole world not simply because of his exquisitely crafted poetry of passion and his never-ending activist commitment to justice and equality for all but precisely because he lived a life of principled consistency. The content of his public legend was umbilically linked to the character of his personal example. Simply put, Dennis practiced what he preached, writhes Dale McKinley.
This new report from the International Crisis Group, examines the rise in tensions before communal, presidential, legislative and additional local elections that are to be conducted separately between May and September. Such an escalation could lead to new violence that would ruin the credibility of the electoral process and endanger a fragile democracy.
The Zuma administration has clearly taken a far harder line on crime, in accord with its populist approach. Central to this is the direct threat to 'get' criminals. Invoking this 'shoot to kill' philosophy has already impacted tragically on innocent lives, writes Glenn Ashton.
Opposition party members are facing increasing threats, attacks, and harassment in advance of Rwanda's August 2010 presidential election, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch urged the government to investigate all such incidents and to ensure that opposition activists are able to go about their legitimate activities without fear.
Nigeria's acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, should take immediate and concrete steps to address large-scale violence, endemic corruption, a lack of accountability for abuses, and other pressing human rights problems in Nigeria, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the newly mandated leader.
Africa needs urgent action on global warming. The consensus position adopted by African leaders ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen failed. African environmental activists are now debating their way forward.
Before the opening of the main conference at eLearning Africa, pre-conference meetings, seminars and workshops will be held on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010, offering participants the opportunity to learn a new skill, enhance their knowledge or gather information about a specific topic. Such activities are not only excellent opportunities in themselves, but are also valuable pre-conference networking activities in their own right.
Clashes between government forces and the Al-Shabaab militia in the Somali capital Mogadishu are displacing thousands of civilians. Reportedly, some 24 civilians have been killed and another 40 injured in the latest fighting, which erupted on Wednesday.
The number of women raped in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where sexual violence committed by warring factions has become endemic, topped 8,000 last year, according to fresh estimates released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced concern about events in Côte d’Ivoire, where the Government has suspended voter registration ahead of this year’s already delayed presidential election because of rising tensions.
Despite fighting that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Mogadishu, health workers have fanned out across the war-torn capital of Somalia in a three-month United Nations-backed campaign that has immunized nearly 300,000 women of child-bearing age and 288,000 children.
Officials from the United Nations health agency and the Beninese Government are urging the West African nation’s citizens to be extra vigilant in observing good hygiene amid a recent cholera outbreak that has already claimed several lives. Since the outbreak began in early January, 131 cases have been confirmed of which two resulted in death, according to Léon Kohossi with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in Benin.
Saviour Kasukuwere, the Minister of Indigenisation, in charge of the new regulation that requires businesses to hand over at least 51 per cent ownership to indigenous Zimbabweans, has said the regulation will not be reversed.
A refugee rights group in South Africa has accused the United Nations refugee agency of ‘xenophobia,’ for not affording Zimbabwean refugees the same treatment as other refugees in South Africa. The group PASSOP has this week said that Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa are victims of a form of ‘selective assistance’ by organisations meant to help them.
African leaders must cast aside a tendency to "manage poverty" and instead pursue basic economic growth if they want to improve the lives of their people, a leading regional development expert has said.
Madagascar's vice Prime Minister Ny Hasina Andriamanjato has resigned in a sign of growing divisions within the government over how to end the Indian Ocean island's year long political crisis.
Britain and Ethiopia will head a new United Nations panel that aims to secure $100 billion every year by 2020 to help developing nations cut emissions and adapt to climate change, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said.
Although South Africa has almost a million HIV positive people on treatment, actuaries tell us that over 300,000 citizens are still being infected with the virus every year. This prompted health economist Professor Alan Whiteside to remark recently that “HIV treatment without prevention is like mopping the floor while the tap is running”.
Treating herpes does not reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, a New England Journal of Medicine study has found. The anti-herpes medication is dispensed from all South African Primary Healthcare clinics in the public sector and has been added to the sexually transmitted infection treatment guidelines.
The lack of routine eye care was the likely cause of the unrecognised but significant and preventable vision loss and eye disease among 11% of HIV-infected adults attending an HIV treatment site in Kampala, Uganda, report Juliet Otiti-Sengeri and colleagues in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
Corruption scandals are piling up in Algeria, with allegations of nepotism and kickbacks connected to lucrative contracts reaching high-ranking officials. Mammoth state-run energy company Sonatrach still has more secrets to reveal. The courts confirmed on January 28th that two senior managers are being held along with two sons of the CEO, Mohamed Meziane, who himself is being probed for alleged corruption, bribery and criminal conspiracy
As Tunisians prepare to abandon analog TV for digital terrestrial television by the end of March, the government mandate announced in late December continues to pose adjustment problems for providers and the public.
The Ministry of Trade has moved to allay fears that Kenya may break ranks with the East African Community because of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) trade deal with Europe.
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with the aim of enhancing private sector development in the two regions.
On 12 February 2010, the world celebrates the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers in commemoration of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.