ERITREAETHIOPIA Ceasefire under threat 5th November 1999 The OAU peace deal between Asmara and Addis Ababa is hanging by a thread as both sides rearm and turn up the war rhetoric Ethiopia and Eritrea are set to start fighting again (AC Vol 40 Nos 4 & 9). Neither trusts the other and each accuses the other of preparing for war - accurately, since troop numbers have been increased again along the border and arms are flowing in. Ethiopia has bought more Mi-35 attack helicopters, Eritrea has bought air defence units. Both sides have replaced lost tanks by purchases from China, Russia, Ukraine and other East European countries.
ERITREAETHIOPIA Battling for Badme 5th November 1999 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Badme, taken by Eritrea in May 1998, has this year been the focus of several deadly battles. In February, Ethiopia attacked with artillery, then aircraft and tanks, then human-wave...
ERITREAETHIOPIA Getting DC's drift 5th November 1999 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Ethiopia is angry at what it sees as the international failure to condemn Eritrean aggression. When receiving the new United States' Ambassador to Ethiopia, Tibor Nagy, in early Oc...
CONGO-KINSHASA Precious little peace 5th November 1999 Divided rebels, stay-put foreign troops and carpet-bagging threaten the ceasefire There is not much sign of peace. The Lusaka peace deal, signed in July and August, has survived, just. Implementation is moving painfully slowly, with only a handful of United Nati...
CONGO-KINSHASAZIMBABWE Rhodies to the rescue 5th November 1999 Some of Ian Smith's old friends are helping to finance Robert Mugabe's Congo war effort Zimbabwe's war in the Congo gets costlier by the day. As the bill rises, the failure of President Robert Mugabe's government to budget accurately for its intervention has caused a ...
GABON Digging deeper holes 5th November 1999 Debts and corruption are rocking President Bongo's African emirate A massive hole in Gabon's public finances - some say of more than US$350 million - is at the heart of its growing financial and political crisis. By the end of last year, arrears t...
MOROCCOWESTERN SAHARA Desert king 5th November 1999 Is the 'people's King' preparing an initiative that would win him huge support at home by underlining the 'Moroccaness' of Western Sahara but could seriously compromise the United ...
MOROCCO Bziz buzzes again 5th November 1999 In the latest slight to his father's old guard, King Mohammed VI has unbanned the country's leading satirist, Ahmed Sanoussi, better known as 'Bziz' for buzzing at the authorities....
MALI Counter-attack 5th November 1999 Beleaguered President Alpha Oumar Konaré and Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta chose la rentrée and the end of the rainy season to counter-attack, following ...
