POLITICS OF SECURITY AND CONFLICT ISSUES
West Africa: Guinean opposition political parties have rejected the unity government offer by the ruling military junta in the wake of last month’s violence and government crackdown on demonstrators.
South Africa: Zimbabwe was thrown into constitutional crisis last week after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party pulled out of the unity government, citing President Robert Mugabe's reluctance to fully implement their power sharing agreement. Formed eight months ago, the unity government has lurched from one crisi
s to another amid accusations that Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF is unwilling to reform. Also the decision by a Zimbabwe court to send a close aide to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to jail has been condemned as politically motivated abuse by the Swedish EU presidency.
Botswana, the world's biggest diamond producer, held national polls last week where the incumbent President, Lt. General Ian Khama's Botswana Democratic Party retained power while Khama has been nominated as the President of the republic of Botswana until 2014.
East Africa/Horn of Africa: Tension is mounting along the Kenya-Sudan border between Kenyan security forces and armed Toposa pastoralists from southern Sudan.
While at least 7 people were killed last week in the Somali capital Mogadishu after insurgents attacked African Union peacekeepers (AMISOM). The 5,000-strong peacekeeping force consists of soldiers from Uganda and Burundi. Sheik Mohamed Mo'allin Ali, Information Secretary of the Islamist organization Hizbul Islam confirmed last week that some of their forces had joined the transitional government in Somalia.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: The International Criminal Court has launched a preliminary investigation into last month's violence at a Guinea sports stadium, where presidential guard troops opened fire on tens of thousands of demonstrators. The Community of West African States (ECOWAS) last week also imposed limited sanctions against the governments and people of Guinea and Niger Republic.
East Africa/Horn of Africa: More than 600 delegates, including 19 heads of state and government, are expected to attend a special African Union Summit on refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons this week in Uganda. The meeting will culminate in a declaration that will tackle the root causes and problems of the continent's 17 million IDPs and refugees.
Also a Ugandan government institution last week indicted the national army for continuing to torture civilians despite their intensified sensitization and awareness about human rights observance.
Central Africa: Human Rights Watch stated last week that the Government of Burundi should immediately evaluate the claims of up to 400 Rwandan asylum seekers and stop all efforts to coerce them to leave the country. Human Rights Watch also called on Rwandan authorities to stop pressuring Burundi to force the asylum seekers to return to Rwanda.
A former Rwandan intelligence chief who was caught recently after being on the run for nine years entered a plea of not guilty last week as he made his first appearance in front of the United Nations tribunal which indicted him for his role in the country's 1994 genocide.
More over the tit-for-tat expulsion of thousands of Angolan refugees living in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the repatriation of thousands of undocumented Congolese migrants working in Angola, is raising fears of a "humanitarian catastrophe" in the making.
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: 52 persons have died as a result of the cholera epidemic in Borno, Nigeria; while the state of Lagos was rocked by flashfloods last week which paralyzed business activities in different parts of the metropolis.
According to news reports the developed economies, under the aegis of Group 77 nations and China, are ‘uncomfortable’ with the campaign by African countries to extract an annual $67billion financial aid commitment from the industrialized economies, being demanded as a form of compensation to assuage the incidence of environmental pollution and degradation in the continent.
South Africa: The Minister of Health, Lesego Motsumi has announced that the spread of HIV/AIDS has stabilized in Botswana.
Also according to reports SADC (South African Development Community) Member States are slowly warming up to wider adoption of cleaner energy sources that result in less carbon emissions in line with new trends in the global energy sector.
East Africa/Horn of Africa: Some 16,000 volunteers are expected to take to the streets of Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, next month in a United Nations programme to tackle health hazards caused by public dumping of waste in a rapidly growing metropolitan area that has endured repeated fatal outbreaks of cholera, water-borne diseases and malaria.
Central Africa: Cholera has killed at least 51 people in the past few weeks in northern Cameroon, where health experts say safe water and proper sanitation are sorely lacking. Also the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned last week that Lake Chad, once one of the world's largest water bodies, could disappear in 20 years due to climate change and population pressures, resulting in a humanitarian disaster in central Africa.
A meeting of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) brought together experts from 20 countries to accelerate a massive effort to develop and deploy higher-yield, disease and drought resistant crop varieties of Africa's most important food crops.
West Africa: Guinean opposition political parties have rejected the unity government offer by the ruling military junta in the wake of last month’s violence and government crackdown on demonstrators.
South Africa: Zimbabwe was thrown into constitutional crisis last week after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party pulled out of the unity government, citing President Robert Mugabe's reluctance to fully implement their power sharing agreement. Formed eight months ago, the unity government has lurched from one crisi
s to another amid accusations that Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF is unwilling to reform. Also the decision by a Zimbabwe court to send a close aide to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to jail has been condemned as politically motivated abuse by the Swedish EU presidency.Botswana, the world's biggest diamond producer, held national polls last week where the incumbent President, Lt. General Ian Khama's Botswana Democratic Party retained power while Khama has been nominated as the President of the republic of Botswana until 2014.
East Africa/Horn of Africa: Tension is mounting along the Kenya-Sudan border between Kenyan security forces and armed Toposa pastoralists from southern Sudan.
While at least 7 people were killed last week in the Somali capital Mogadishu after insurgents attacked African Union peacekeepers (AMISOM). The 5,000-strong peacekeeping force consists of soldiers from Uganda and Burundi. Sheik Mohamed Mo'allin Ali, Information Secretary of the Islamist organization Hizbul Islam confirmed last week that some of their forces had joined the transitional government in Somalia.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: The International Criminal Court has launched a preliminary investigation into last month's violence at a Guinea sports stadium, where presidential guard troops opened fire on tens of thousands of demonstrators. The Community of West African States (ECOWAS) last week also imposed limited sanctions against the governments and people of Guinea and Niger Republic.
East Africa/Horn of Africa: More than 600 delegates, including 19 heads of state and government, are expected to attend a special African Union Summit on refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons this week in Uganda. The meeting will culminate in a declaration that will tackle the root causes and problems of the continent's 17 million IDPs and refugees.
Also a Ugandan government institution last week indicted the national army for continuing to torture civilians despite their intensified sensitization and awareness about human rights observance.
Central Africa: Human Rights Watch stated last week that the Government of Burundi should immediately evaluate the claims of up to 400 Rwandan asylum seekers and stop all efforts to coerce them to leave the country. Human Rights Watch also called on Rwandan authorities to stop pressuring Burundi to force the asylum seekers to return to Rwanda.
A former Rwandan intelligence chief who was caught recently after being on the run for nine years entered a plea of not guilty last week as he made his first appearance in front of the United Nations tribunal which indicted him for his role in the country's 1994 genocide.
More over the tit-for-tat expulsion of thousands of Angolan refugees living in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the repatriation of thousands of undocumented Congolese migrants working in Angola, is raising fears of a "humanitarian catastrophe" in the making.
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: 52 persons have died as a result of the cholera epidemic in Borno, Nigeria; while the state of Lagos was rocked by flashfloods last week which paralyzed business activities in different parts of the metropolis.
According to news reports the developed economies, under the aegis of Group 77 nations and China, are ‘uncomfortable’ with the campaign by African countries to extract an annual $67billion financial aid commitment from the industrialized economies, being demanded as a form of compensation to assuage the incidence of environmental pollution and degradation in the continent.
South Africa: The Minister of Health, Lesego Motsumi has announced that the spread of HIV/AIDS has stabilized in Botswana.
Also according to reports SADC (South African Development Community) Member States are slowly warming up to wider adoption of cleaner energy sources that result in less carbon emissions in line with new trends in the global energy sector.
East Africa/Horn of Africa: Some 16,000 volunteers are expected to take to the streets of Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, next month in a United Nations programme to tackle health hazards caused by public dumping of waste in a rapidly growing metropolitan area that has endured repeated fatal outbreaks of cholera, water-borne diseases and malaria.
Central Africa: Cholera has killed at least 51 people in the past few weeks in northern Cameroon, where health experts say safe water and proper sanitation are sorely lacking. Also the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned last week that Lake Chad, once one of the world's largest water bodies, could disappear in 20 years due to climate change and population pressures, resulting in a humanitarian disaster in central Africa.
A meeting of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) brought together experts from 20 countries to accelerate a massive effort to develop and deploy higher-yield, disease and drought resistant crop varieties of Africa's most important food crops.
POLITICAL ECONOMY
West Africa: Reports of a large infrastructure and minerals agreement between Guinea and Chinese investors this week have turned a harsh spotlight on the human rights and geopolitical stakes of the scramble for Africa's natural wealth. Trade between China and Africa has been growing by around 30 percent annually since 2000. Deals such as those with DRC and Sudan have drawn criticism and frustration from governments like the U.S.'s that, analysts say, prefer to use investment as carrots in the African continent.
The Federal Government of Nigeria shifted last week from the Western countries and requested China to raise a $500 million bond to finance its budget deficit. Also a battle between China and western oil multinational essentially about access to Nigeria's prolific deepwater oil fields continues.
In the meanwhile the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group Chief Economist, Louis Kasekende, has said that the continent's economic outlook is improving in the wake of the financial crisis.
Central Africa: Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) have voiced their concerns over high interest rates being charged by banks in Rwanda.
NORTH AFRICA:
An internet service linking African parliaments is expected to be created to enable MPs around the continent to share oversight experiences and views on matters of governance, according to the speaker of the Egyptian parliament, Dr Ahmed Fathi Sorour.
At the launch of the Nigeria Movement in Solidarity with the Western Sahara People by the Nigeria Labour Congress First Lady, Hajiya Turai Yar'Adua joined the call for the independence of Western Sahara from occupation by Morocco, stressing on absolute abolition of colonialism from the African continent. Also the Nigerian Federal Government has condemned human rights violations unleashed on workers of Western Sahara, stating that it would co-opt the Nigerian Labour Congress leadership to tackle some of the problems in the region.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, Gambia, has ordered the government of Libya to suspend the execution of Nigerians on death row in that country. The Commission is the body charged with overseeing states parties’ compliance with their legal obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
A new study documents serious human rights and humanitarian crisis resulting from more than three decades of warehousing of Sahrawi refugees confined to desert camps near Tindouf, in southwestern Algeria.
Oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa have been directly hit by the global financial crisis through a sharp drop in oil prices and a drying up of capital inflows, but the blow has been softened by countercyclical government spending, according to the IMF’s new regional forecast.
West Africa: Reports of a large infrastructure and minerals agreement between Guinea and Chinese investors this week have turned a harsh spotlight on the human rights and geopolitical stakes of the scramble for Africa's natural wealth. Trade between China and Africa has been growing by around 30 percent annually since 2000. Deals such as those with DRC and Sudan have drawn criticism and frustration from governments like the U.S.'s that, analysts say, prefer to use investment as carrots in the African continent.
The Federal Government of Nigeria shifted last week from the Western countries and requested China to raise a $500 million bond to finance its budget deficit. Also a battle between China and western oil multinational essentially about access to Nigeria's prolific deepwater oil fields continues.
In the meanwhile the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group Chief Economist, Louis Kasekende, has said that the continent's economic outlook is improving in the wake of the financial crisis.
Central Africa: Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) have voiced their concerns over high interest rates being charged by banks in Rwanda.
NORTH AFRICA:
An internet service linking African parliaments is expected to be created to enable MPs around the continent to share oversight experiences and views on matters of governance, according to the speaker of the Egyptian parliament, Dr Ahmed Fathi Sorour.
At the launch of the Nigeria Movement in Solidarity with the Western Sahara People by the Nigeria Labour Congress First Lady, Hajiya Turai Yar'Adua joined the call for the independence of Western Sahara from occupation by Morocco, stressing on absolute abolition of colonialism from the African continent. Also the Nigerian Federal Government has condemned human rights violations unleashed on workers of Western Sahara, stating that it would co-opt the Nigerian Labour Congress leadership to tackle some of the problems in the region.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, Gambia, has ordered the government of Libya to suspend the execution of Nigerians on death row in that country. The Commission is the body charged with overseeing states parties’ compliance with their legal obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
A new study documents serious human rights and humanitarian crisis resulting from more than three decades of warehousing of Sahrawi refugees confined to desert camps near Tindouf, in southwestern Algeria.
Oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa have been directly hit by the global financial crisis through a sharp drop in oil prices and a drying up of capital inflows, but the blow has been softened by countercyclical government spending, according to the IMF’s new regional forecast.
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Business and Politics in the Muslim World (BPM)refers to the project entitled, "Globalized Business and Politics: A View from the Muslim World.' The blog development project has been undertaken and jointly developed by the Gilani Research Foundation and BPM as a free resource and social discussion tool.
Business and Politics in the Muslim World (BPM)refers to the project entitled, "Globalized Business and Politics: A View from the Muslim World.' The blog development project has been undertaken and jointly developed by the Gilani Research Foundation and BPM as a free resource and social discussion tool.
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