NIGERIA Boko Haram declares war 24th June 2011 Hearing in a Sharia court - Sven Torfinn / Panos Image courtesy of Panos Pictures Building on growing northern resentments, the Islamist sect wants to create a political and security crisis by bombing the police Few seem convinced by President Goodluck Jonathan’s assurances that the security situation is under control following the bombing on 16 June of Louis Edet House, the national police headquarters in Abuja. It killed at least two people and wounded seven. Agents of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived to help investigate claims of international terrorist links.
NIGERIA Power to the people, profits to the chiefs 24th June 2011 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Community control of oil can worsen local strife, to judge by the experience of the Neconde Group, which won the bid for Shell’s 45% of Operations Management Licence (OML) 42. Shel...
SUDAN Blood and oil 24th June 2011 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Khartoum has intensified its war in central Sudan to crush its Nuba opponents and keep control of oil exports before partition After launching another war against his opponents and threatening to cut off South Sudan’s oil, President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir will meet top officials in China next week in ...
African summitry is following an Iberian theme this year. First, the African Development Bank held its annual meeting in Portugal on 10-11 June, now African Union leaders will have their summit in Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea on 23 June-1 July. The fascist regimes of Spain and Portugal marked Africa: liberation wars in Guinea Bissau, Angola and Mozambique helped dim the legacy of Portugal’s Salazar and Caetano regimes but the ghost of General Francisco Franco st... African summitry is following an Iberian theme this year. First, the African Development Bank held its annual meeting in Portugal on 10-11 June, now African Union leaders will have their summit in Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea on 23 June-1 July. The fascist regimes of Spain and Portugal marked Africa: liberation wars in Guinea Bissau, Angola and Mozambique helped dim the legacy of Portugal’s Salazar and Caetano regimes but the ghost of General Francisco Franco still haunts Equatorial Guinea and Western (formerly Spanish) Sahara. The current regime of President Teodoro Nguema Obiang would surely have met with the general’s approval for its arbitrary treatment of oppositionists. Ahead of the AU’s summit in Malabo, President Obiang has ordered the release of some 20 political prisoners, most of whom were tortured before making confessions. At the same time, police have arrested several hundred students and foreigners in Malabo and Bata in what looks like a move to pre-empt protests during the AU summit. As Equatorial Guinea is widely ranked as one of Africa’s worst violators of human rights and also one of its most corrupt (it was thrown out of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative), the willingness of AU leaders to accept Obiang’s offer to host the summit raises questions about their commitment to the organisation’s constitutive act, which enshrines the right to protest and hold corrupt regimes to account. Read more
KENYA The trouble with Tobiko 24th June 2011 Under the new constitution, the DPP should be independent of the executive but the nomination of Keriako Tobiko prompts questions from MPs President Mwai Kibaki swore in Keriako Tobiko as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on 20 June following an acrimonious vetting last week. Members of Parliament on the Constitut...
CONGO-KINSHASA Election express 24th June 2011 The government’s determination to push through the heavily contested national elections by December is raising concern about their credibility Regional antagonisms and logistical problems are overshadowing presidential and parliamentary elections due on 28 November. After much delay and after constitutional reform pushed ...
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC The devil you know 24th June 2011 The European Union backs a fraudulently elected President because it fears the consequences of his fall President François Bozizé emerged strengthened from an aid-pledging conference in Brussels on 16-17 June when European Union states promised more than 400 billion CFA francs (US$87...
ZIMBABWE Regional leaders take on the President 24th June 2011 President Mugabe’s men misjudged the mood of the summit in South Africa: they lost yet more political ground in the negotiations The performance of President Robert Mugabe’s team at the 11-12 June Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Sandton, Johannesburg, was little short of disastrous. T...
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK The rise of Team Kaberuka 24th June 2011 Outpacing the World Bank’s operations on the continent, the African Development Bank is winning greater international attention A year into his second term as President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka was cheering on North Africa’s revolutions at the AfDB’s annual meeting in Portugal on 9-1...
SIERRA LEONEMINING Feast ore famine 24th June 2011 The Tonkolili iron-ore mine looks set to make a billionaire of Frank Timis but the dividend for the nation is less sure Sierra Leone will start earning hundreds of millions of dollars from taxes when iron-ore production begins in November. At least that is what the controversial British-based mining...
ZIMBABWE Reports of Mugabe’s demise 24th June 2011 Opposition politicians insist that President Robert Mugabe will retire before the end of 2011, which may be one reason why they want to delay the polls. The 87-year-old Mugabe had ...
TANZANIA The battle to succeed Kikwete 24th June 2011 Internal divisions are deepening within the governing party over corruption and political ambition Ructions in the Chama cha Mapinduzi over corruption and the succession to President Jakaya Kikwete are intensifying, while the party dithers over the expulsion of some senior membe...
GHANA Parallel lines 24th June 2011 As the political stars hit the campaign trail a year early, they start a national debate about the economy So far the election season is a three-cornered contest with a lively battle for the leadership of the governing National Democratic Congress, which has prompted the leader of the m...
CONGO-KINSHASA Call back 24th June 2011 A United Nations group of experts on Congo-Kinshasa broke new ground in its twice-yearly report of 7 June by offering those it criticises the right to reply. In 2008, the group acc...
MALAWI Only a miracle 24th June 2011 President Bingu wa Mutharika is ploughing ahead with an optimistic ‘zero-deficit’ budget despite the fact that most of the aid that supports 40% of that budget is missing. Western ...
MOROCCO Reform dilemma 24th June 2011 Traditional constituencies linked into the Makhzen system will probably swing the 1 July referendum in favour of King Mohammed VI’s proposed constitutional reforms. Makhzen means t...
SENEGAL One day, son 24th June 2011 On 22 June, President Abdoulaye Wade – officially 84 but probably nearer 90 – was about to propose a constitutional amendment to secure a guaranteed third term in February’s electi...
