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Published 26th May 2006

Vol 47 No 11

Nigeria

Pop goes the third term balloon

With a third term for President Obasanjo blocked, there is a frantic race to find a successor

The attempt to change the constitution, allowing President Olusegun Obasanjo to stand for a third term in 2007, has failed, defeated in a Senate vote. The result damages the government and splits the ruling People's Democratic Party. Yet the third-term row, which had in recent months overshadowed all other political activity, is over and the battle to find a presidential flag bearer for the PDP may be brutal enough to break up the party. Stretching credulity, Obasanjo welcomed as a 'victory for democracy' the Senate's rejection on 16 May of the proposed constitutional amendment.

Business backers

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The business lobby Corporate Nigeria and mega-company Transcorp give substance to the view in Nigeria that all politics is business and all business is politics.

Terror in Mogadishu

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In its bid to defeat Islamists, the CIA has become entangled in Mogadishu's clan warfare

This month's fighting in Mogadishu has been the heaviest for years. Between 7 and 12 May, over 200 people died, at least 1,000 were injured and the price of ammunition, a reliable ...

Taping the LRA

South Sudan tries to bring Uganda's rebels to peace but not to justice

At the celebrations to mark the founding of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army on 16 May, Southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit told supporters that his fledglin...

Southern discomfort

The new Government of Southern Sudan has to reconcile the rivalries of its many peoples, exacerbated for decades by Khartoum regimes. The mandatory disarmament is proving tricky – ...

Slapping the messenger

They may descend into farce but attacks on the media are no laughing matter

Raids, law suits and board-room reshuffles are putting the heat on Kenya's journalists. The governing coalition is accused of corruption and its parties are squabbling but until re...

Star-studded in Ouaga

Dancers, presidents and tough talking marked Kaberuka's first annual meeting

It was a glittering debut annual meeting for the Africa Development Bank's new President, Donald Kaberuka, at Burkina Faso's Ouaga 2000 Conference Centre on 17 May. Alongside the 5...

Uncle Sam's ban

The United States' decision to bar four prominent businessmen - Alfred Getonga, Jimmy Wanjigi, Deepak Kimani and Anura Perera - named in former anti-corruption czar John Githongo's...

Pointers

Konaré's stopover

NATO had offered to provide 'substantial support' to the African Union in Darfur under new arrangements to strengthen its peacekeeping operation there, said a communiqué following ...

Omissions

The latest meeting of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, in London on 17 May, started badly, with the Commission President, Sir Elihu Lauterpacht QC of Britain, irritated by...

Cocoa wars

The United Nations and European Union are stepping up pressure on President Laurent Gbagbo's government to account for its oil windfall funds and its levies on cocoa exports. The W...

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