CONGO-KINSHASA Transition on hold, again 27th August 2004 A massacre in Burundi threatens the power-sharing government in Kinshasa and peace in the region Congo-Kinshasa's transition to normality ground to a halt on 23 August, when the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie-Goma 'temporarily' withdrew from the transitional government in Kinshasa. The RCD-Goma's Vice-President in that government, Azarias Ruberwa, cited bad faith by President Joseph Kabila's Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et le Développement and the gruesome massacre of 163 refugees, most of them Congolese Tutsi, in a camp in Burundi on 13 August.
Long haul, slow progress 27th August 2004 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The small advances made since Congo-Kinshasa's transitional arrangements began work in July 2003 include the creation of a Parliament, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and an ...
CÔTE D'IVOIRE Cocoa wars 27th August 2004 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Mediators put together another peace deal as presidential finances come under scrutiny If President Laurent Gbagbo still worries about what people think of him, the row over the resignation of cocoa producers' leader Henri Amouzou has triggered some embarrassing reve...
ZAMBIA Success unseen 27th August 2004 Zambia grows richer but people feel poorer and they blame the President Political fumbling is overshadowing real economic achievements. President Levy Mwanawasa has failed to deliver a constitution and the anti-corruption crusade against his predecesso...
SUDAN Darfur's turning point 27th August 2004 Without international peacekeepers the massacres will continue In a few weeks, the direction of the Darfur crisis should be clearer: if the pressure for an international peacekeeping force and sustained pressure on the National Islamic Front g...
UNITED STATES World Banker 27th August 2004 The United States president appoints the World Bank president. James Wolfensohn (AC Vol 45 No 14) finishes his second five-year term at the Bank on 31 May and has carefully not sai...
EQUATORIAL GUINEA New twist 27th August 2004 The 25 August raid by South Africa's 'Scorpion' police squad on the Cape Town house of Mark Thatcher, son of British ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, follows a private meeting ...
MAURITANIA Taya's travails 27th August 2004 President Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya has turned the latest alleged coup plot, on 10 August, to his advantage, detaining Islamist leader Mohamed Jemil Ould Mansour and a dozen sen...
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK Accra ahead 27th August 2004 As the race heats up to succeed Morocco's Omar Kabbaj as President of the African Development Bank (AC Vol 44 No 3) next year, Ghana's Kingsley Amoako, Executive Secretary of the U...
