POLITICS OF SECURITY AND CONFLICT ISSUES
West Africa: The United Nations and European Union have condemned a call from Libya's leader Gaddafi for Muslims to carry out jihad against Switzerland over a recent vote to ban the construction of minarets in the European country.
A two day national workshop on ECOWAS Cross-Border Cooperation, the first of its kind, was held last week in collaboration with the government of Gambia.
In his testimony Charles Taylor told the Special Court for Sierra Leone last week that he did not work for the United States' top spy agency while he was a rebel leader in Liberia, but did receive sophisticated communication equipment from the agency in the hope that Mr. Taylor's forces could help protect American citizens and property during Liberia's brutal civil conflict.
Niger's military junta has named a new transitional government of 20 ministers, including five soldiers, after seizing power from former President Mamadou Tandja on February 18. Junta leaders have promised to hold democratic elections in the future.
Following Presidential polls in Togo Faure Gnassingbe, son of a late dictator, had reportedly beaten opposition challenger Jean-Pierre Fabre. Meanwhile the opposition party has claimed widespread irregularities in the country's presidential election.
South Africa: Last week British Prime Minister Gordon Brown rejected a proposal from South Africa's Jacob Zuma to soften travel and financial restrictions against Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle. Mr. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party charge that the measures are holding back the country's economic recovery. Many, however,
in the streets of Harare say the restrictions should remain until there is more political progress. U.S. President Barack Obama too has extended sanctions against Mugabe and his key supporters for another year. Meanwhile Botswana has rescinded her decision to recall her defence and intelligence attaches from Zimbabwe.
Central Africa: Burundi is approaching elections designed to cap the country’s democratic transition after years of civil conflict, however there is growing concern about worsening security and limits to political freedom.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: Strike action was taken last week in Ghana by the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) over demands for payment of vehicle maintenance allowance arrears and supervision. The strikers have said they will return to the class rooms only after the formal acceptance by the ministry is carried through.
In Nigeria Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has called for criminal proceedings against First Lady Turai Yar’Adua while opining that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and security chiefs in the country should be held responsible for the renewed Jos crisis which claimed around 200 persons.
Nigeria last week put security forces on red alert after a new outburst of sectarian violence left at least 100 people dead, mainly women and children, as machete wielding gangs burned down villages. Meanwhile according to local authorities the unusually large-scale migration of southern Nigerien farmers and pastoralists, heading north to look for work, has prompted concerns about food shortages in the northern Agadez region.
UN Deputy Envoy to Liberia, Ms. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu has described an agricultural training pilot project for inmates at the National Palace of Corrections “as a bold step towards institutionalizing active programs for rehabilitation of inmates.”
In Mali Legislative efforts to update a decades-old family code sparked nationwide protests from Muslim associations, which say the new code would threaten religious values.
South Africa: A delegation of Mozambican gays and lesbians visited Malawi on a solidarity mission over the arrest of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza. The two were arrested on December 28 last year, two days after staging Malawi's first-ever public gay engagement in the country's commercial city, Blantyre.
A recent court ruling has given Swazi women the right to own and administer property in their own names.
Central Africa: Rwanda is seeking the extradition of a former first lady who was arrested by French authorities last week on genocide-related charges. France has detained Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the former Rwandan leader whose death in 1994 set off the ethnic slaughter which killed 800,000 in just 100 days.
A to
p peacekeeping official reported that the first group of United Nations troops could leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by the end of June, as requested by the Government. Amnesty International however has opposed the DRC government’s call for U.N. forces to withdraw from the country by the middle of next year.
A senior United Nations official last week sought to raise awareness of the "forgotten tragedy" of ethnic Mbororo refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR), who are seeking refuge in Cameroon.
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: a joint campaign by the Red Cross and United Nations has been launched to eradicate polio in west and central Africa, targeting 85 million children.
Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organization, (NADMO) has intensified its anti-bushfire campaign in schools to create the necessary awareness among school children on the dangers of setting fires indiscriminately.
United Nations agencies are ramping up efforts to assist around 2 million Chadian who will require food aid this year because of poor rainfall and lean harvests. Meanwhile Nutrition experts in Guinea are studying options for treating moderately malnourished children, as funding shortages disrupt normal programmes using fortified flour.
Liberia’s Deputy Health and Social Welfare Minister, Dr. Bernice Dahn, has disclosed that there is no Swine Flu virus in the country.
POLITICAL ECONOMY
West Africa: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is reviewing its prescriptive fund disbursement method in Africa for a quicker, country-specific process. The new programme dubbed the Rapid Credit Line, is expected to provide less conditionalities and ease access to funds at lower interest rates.
Ghana announced last week the discovery of a significant accumulation of oil and gas on the Cape Three Points Deep Water Block located offshore the West African nation.
The Administrator of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Mallam Imamudeen Talba has blamed the collapsed state of the nation's energy sector on the lack of discipline and inefficiency in the usage of electricity. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, has disclosed that the nation's oil and gas behemoth, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is currently running at a loss of more than N200 billion, with contingent liabilities of more than N146 billion and $277 million.
South Africa: A new Zimbabwean law that forces companies to sell a majority stake in their businesses to indigenous people has come into effect. President Mugabe says the new law is designed to correct historical imbalances, while the MDC claims it is 'null and void'. A monitor from the Kimberly Certification Process, which was set up to end international trade in conflict diamonds, has arrived in Harare to check on output from controversial diamond mining in eastern Zimbabwe. §
West Africa: The United Nations and European Union have condemned a call from Libya's leader Gaddafi for Muslims to carry out jihad against Switzerland over a recent vote to ban the construction of minarets in the European country.
A two day national workshop on ECOWAS Cross-Border Cooperation, the first of its kind, was held last week in collaboration with the government of Gambia.
In his testimony Charles Taylor told the Special Court for Sierra Leone last week that he did not work for the United States' top spy agency while he was a rebel leader in Liberia, but did receive sophisticated communication equipment from the agency in the hope that Mr. Taylor's forces could help protect American citizens and property during Liberia's brutal civil conflict.
Niger's military junta has named a new transitional government of 20 ministers, including five soldiers, after seizing power from former President Mamadou Tandja on February 18. Junta leaders have promised to hold democratic elections in the future.
Following Presidential polls in Togo Faure Gnassingbe, son of a late dictator, had reportedly beaten opposition challenger Jean-Pierre Fabre. Meanwhile the opposition party has claimed widespread irregularities in the country's presidential election.
South Africa: Last week British Prime Minister Gordon Brown rejected a proposal from South Africa's Jacob Zuma to soften travel and financial restrictions against Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle. Mr. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party charge that the measures are holding back the country's economic recovery. Many, however,
in the streets of Harare say the restrictions should remain until there is more political progress. U.S. President Barack Obama too has extended sanctions against Mugabe and his key supporters for another year. Meanwhile Botswana has rescinded her decision to recall her defence and intelligence attaches from Zimbabwe.Central Africa: Burundi is approaching elections designed to cap the country’s democratic transition after years of civil conflict, however there is growing concern about worsening security and limits to political freedom.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: Strike action was taken last week in Ghana by the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) over demands for payment of vehicle maintenance allowance arrears and supervision. The strikers have said they will return to the class rooms only after the formal acceptance by the ministry is carried through.
In Nigeria Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has called for criminal proceedings against First Lady Turai Yar’Adua while opining that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and security chiefs in the country should be held responsible for the renewed Jos crisis which claimed around 200 persons.
Nigeria last week put security forces on red alert after a new outburst of sectarian violence left at least 100 people dead, mainly women and children, as machete wielding gangs burned down villages. Meanwhile according to local authorities the unusually large-scale migration of southern Nigerien farmers and pastoralists, heading north to look for work, has prompted concerns about food shortages in the northern Agadez region.
UN Deputy Envoy to Liberia, Ms. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu has described an agricultural training pilot project for inmates at the National Palace of Corrections “as a bold step towards institutionalizing active programs for rehabilitation of inmates.”
In Mali Legislative efforts to update a decades-old family code sparked nationwide protests from Muslim associations, which say the new code would threaten religious values.
South Africa: A delegation of Mozambican gays and lesbians visited Malawi on a solidarity mission over the arrest of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza. The two were arrested on December 28 last year, two days after staging Malawi's first-ever public gay engagement in the country's commercial city, Blantyre.
A recent court ruling has given Swazi women the right to own and administer property in their own names.
Central Africa: Rwanda is seeking the extradition of a former first lady who was arrested by French authorities last week on genocide-related charges. France has detained Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the former Rwandan leader whose death in 1994 set off the ethnic slaughter which killed 800,000 in just 100 days.
A to
p peacekeeping official reported that the first group of United Nations troops could leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by the end of June, as requested by the Government. Amnesty International however has opposed the DRC government’s call for U.N. forces to withdraw from the country by the middle of next year.A senior United Nations official last week sought to raise awareness of the "forgotten tragedy" of ethnic Mbororo refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR), who are seeking refuge in Cameroon.
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: a joint campaign by the Red Cross and United Nations has been launched to eradicate polio in west and central Africa, targeting 85 million children.
Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organization, (NADMO) has intensified its anti-bushfire campaign in schools to create the necessary awareness among school children on the dangers of setting fires indiscriminately.
United Nations agencies are ramping up efforts to assist around 2 million Chadian who will require food aid this year because of poor rainfall and lean harvests. Meanwhile Nutrition experts in Guinea are studying options for treating moderately malnourished children, as funding shortages disrupt normal programmes using fortified flour.
Liberia’s Deputy Health and Social Welfare Minister, Dr. Bernice Dahn, has disclosed that there is no Swine Flu virus in the country.
POLITICAL ECONOMY
West Africa: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is reviewing its prescriptive fund disbursement method in Africa for a quicker, country-specific process. The new programme dubbed the Rapid Credit Line, is expected to provide less conditionalities and ease access to funds at lower interest rates.
Ghana announced last week the discovery of a significant accumulation of oil and gas on the Cape Three Points Deep Water Block located offshore the West African nation.
The Administrator of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Mallam Imamudeen Talba has blamed the collapsed state of the nation's energy sector on the lack of discipline and inefficiency in the usage of electricity. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, has disclosed that the nation's oil and gas behemoth, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is currently running at a loss of more than N200 billion, with contingent liabilities of more than N146 billion and $277 million.
South Africa: A new Zimbabwean law that forces companies to sell a majority stake in their businesses to indigenous people has come into effect. President Mugabe says the new law is designed to correct historical imbalances, while the MDC claims it is 'null and void'. A monitor from the Kimberly Certification Process, which was set up to end international trade in conflict diamonds, has arrived in Harare to check on output from controversial diamond mining in eastern Zimbabwe. §
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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.
Please Preview your comments before posting.
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.
Please Preview your comments before posting.
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