NIGERIA Parties at work 11th September 1998 After the political jamborees in Abuja, former military leader General Obasanjo emerges as a frontrunner Presidential candidate Party politics are back in Nigeria with all their ebullience and razamatazz. Alongside marching bands more than 10,000 supporters waving party flags packed out Abuja’s central parade ground on 8 September to launch the All Peoples’ Party. The APP is Nigeria’s second political juggernaut; the first, the Peoples’ Democratic Party was launched more solemnly in Abuja on 31 August. Both are dominated by figures from the country’s political past eager to seize General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s offer of an unimpeded transition to civil rule by 29 May 1999. Nigerians outside the political carnival seem less than elated.
NIGERIA Opening up Aso Rock 11th September 1998 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site ‘After General Abacha you have a rather easy act to follow, don’t you?’ Lola Alakija, a feisty TV interviewer asked Head of State Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar on 7 September at the Ni...
CONGO-KINSHASA Holding up the peace 11th September 1998 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Both the government and rebels grow weaker as the neighbours press for a ceasefire Congo’s worried neighbours want peace badly, but may have botched the chance of it at Victoria Falls on 7 September. The first idea was that President Laurent Kabila’s government w...
ERITREAETHIOPIA Brothers at war 11th September 1998 In diplomacy and the shooting war, both Eritrea and Ethiopia are confident of victory War has weakened Premier Meles Zenawi but the conflict with Eritrea has certainly not brought him down. Rumours had run through Addis Ababa that he was under house arrest and forbi...
ERITREAETHIOPIA On the border 11th September 1998 With the guns mostly silent along the border, the war is being waged through local media. In Addis Ababa, ETV daily broadcasts rallies country-wide supporting the war, parading mot...
GUINEA BISSAU Pushing for Praia 11th September 1998 After a turf war between mediators, peace has begun to break out With attention focused on the Congo-Kinshasa war, the rebellion which broke out in Guinea Bissau in early June (AC Vol 39 Nos 13, 14 & 16) has already become one of Africa’s fo...
SIERRA LEONE Rebels and revenge 11th September 1998 In Sierra Leone’s far interior - including Koinadugu district, with some diamond and gold deposits - the remains of the ousted Armed Forces Ruling Council/Revolutionary United Fron...
CÔTE D'IVOIRE Off the rails 11th September 1998 This month, the International Monetary Fund is due to pay Côte d’Ivoire the second and larger instalment of a US$385 million enhanced structural adjustment facility loan, and a mis...
RWANDA Arusha verdicts 11th September 1998 After four years of existence, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has reached its first two verdicts. On 2 September in Arusha it found Jean-Paul Akayezu, a former Mayo...
ETHIOPIA Oromo opening 11th September 1998 Last year’s abortive talks between the Ethiopian government and the Oromo Liberation Front precipitated changes in the OLF leadership. In April an extraordinary National Congress, ...
