POLITICS OF SECURITY AND CONFLICT ISSUES
West Africa In Ghana the Zongo Caucus of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has mapped-out schemes to expand and solidify its dominance in the Muslim communities nation-wide
to boost the party's chances of retaining power in Election 2012.
Meanwhile participants at a review meeting in Ghana on the 1992 Constitution has called for an amendment of Article 71 (1) to allow the Fair Wages and Salary Commission (FWSC) to determine the salary and allowances of the President.
Togolese Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo last week tendered the resignation of his government to make way for the formation of a new governing team following the presidential inauguration. Incumbant President Faure Gnassingbe, while praising his predecessor has asked Houngbo to "ensure the expedition of current affairs until the nomination of a new prime minister."
Meanwhile US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated the people of Togo on the nation’s 50th independence anniversary.
Following recent reports of tension among Guinea's transitional authorities, the interim President Sékouba Konaté has reassured the United Nations and its African partners that presidential elections will be held as scheduled on 27 June this year.
Two newly elected MP’s for the Conservative Party in the UK, are of Ghanaian origin.
Ghana’s Vice President John Dramani Mahama has pledged that the Government would offer all the necessary support to Zimbabwe to politically stabilize for economic prosperity and freedom for all its citizens.
A potential boundary dispute is looming within the Mano River Union basin as Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has confirmed that Guinea has grasped portion of Liberian territory along Liberia's northern border with neighboring Guinea.
South Africa: Madagascar's armed forces have rowed back on an ultimatum given last month to the island's leader Andry Rajoelina and said they have no place to influence the make up of a new government.
Meanwhile Madagascar's leader said that he could form a politically "neutral" government after last-ditch power-sharing talks failed over the weekend, and said he expected to retain the military's support.
Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam is set for a second term after the opposition conceded victory to an alliance led by his Labour Party following a landslide election win in parliamentary elections.
Three U.S. senators have introduced a bill, Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (DEERA), aimed at bringing a more flexible approach to sanctions against Zimbabwe.
According to the police minister South African police have broken up a plot by white supremacists to plant explosives in black townships, just a month after the murder of a prominent white separatist.
Central Africa: In Rwanda a new accomplice Capt. Jean Marie Vianney Karuta in the case involving Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, was produced in court last week, accused of being a member a terrorist group and planning activities aimed at causing state insecurity.
Meanwhile Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) members in the eight districts of the Southern Province last week voted overwhelming for incumbent President Paul Kagame as their party candidate at the district level.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: The Supreme Court of Liberia has placed a stay order on the passage of the controversial population Threshold Bill currently before the Liberian Senate. The bill amongst other things, seeks to reapportion constituencies in keeping with the conduct of the Population and Housing Census.
Ghana’s Mr. John Tia Akologu, Minister of Information, last week assured Ghanaians of government's commitment to passing the Information Bill into law that would encourage democratic participation in the national development process.
Meanwhile Doha-based Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad & Sons Group is setting up the first Islamic university in Ghana at an estimated cost of $30mn.
The United Nations is setting up a human rights office in Guinea to help the Government prevent abuses such as last year's violent suppression by the then military junta of mass protests in which 156 people were killed, women raped, political opponents arrested and their homes looted.
South Africa: Parliamentarians from all over Africa are pushing for a continent-wide ban on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and are calling on the UN to pass a General Assembly resolution appealing for a global FGM/C ban.
Central Africa: The Human Rights Advisor to the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), Oumar Kane, has described Rwanda's progress in observation of human rights as impressive and promising.
In DRC a report alleging that government troops summarily executed fifty civilians in early April in fighting around Mbandaka, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo's northwestern Équateur Province has been rejected by the government.
Meanwhile the top United Nations humanitarian official last week ended a five-day visit to areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that have witnessed some of the worst atrocities against civilians, stressing the vital need that UN peacekeepers remain beyond the August 2011 deadline set by the Government.
Reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) indicate that 'disarmed' FDLR elements have been allowed to relocate to Kisenge in DRC's south-eastern Katanga Province. The United Nations-funded Radio Okapi, revealed last week that the move is a bid to diminish the militia's security threat to Rwanda.
Meanwhile the UNHCR says its teams have now regained access to some 35,000 DRC refugees now on the Republic of Congo (ROC) side of the Oubangui River. They are part of a larger group of some 114, 000 refugees, who have fled clashes sparked by fishing and farming disputes in Equateur Province in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo.
A week after Rwandan Prosecution revealed that it would soon issue a warrant of arrest for a top Genocide fugitive in the Netherlands ex-FAR Maj. Pierre-Claver Karangwa, three other alleged Genocide suspects have been confirmed to be living in the same country.
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: A United Nations-backed pilot programme that supplies electric generators to rural women farmers in Burkina Faso, freeing them from lengthy chores so that they can devote more time to education, childcare and health care, is to be adopted on a national scale.
South Africa: Meanwhile Zambia's ruling party has accused the Netherlands of financing the main opposition party, a charge that threatens to raise tensions with donors who froze funding for AIDS and other health programmes last year amid concerns about corruption. The ruling Patriotic Front (PF) has denied these allegations.
Decaying road infrastructure in Binga district, in Zimbabwe's province of Matabeleland North, prevented anti-malaria spraying teams from reaching the area, and is being blamed for an outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease.
Meanwhile $ 5.6 Million have been allocated under United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for Zimbabwe to fight against measles epidemic.
Central Africa: A recent survey by the Public Policy Information, Monitoring and Advocacy (PPIMA) project of the Rwanda Civil Society, shows that 90 % of Rwandans are happy with the education and health services offered by the government.
Meanwhile in a bid to maintain a healthy workforce, Rwanda’s ministry of Public Service and Labour (MIFOTRA) has embarked on a nationwide sensitization campaign to fight against HIV/AIDS within the public sector.
POLITICAL ECONOMY
West Africa: Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has challenged the Dunn Commission's report on the e-mail scandal linking her and some family members with the alleged transfer of US$600,000 from Cellcom.
As a strategic partner of Liberia’s post-war development goals, the Liberian Government in the Spring Meetings of the World Bank in Washington, D.C has made a series of pleas with the organization to step up and consolidate its efforts toward the country’s infrastructure and social services.
Meanwhile Ghana has struck a deal with Equatorial Guinea for the supply of one million barrels of oil a year.
The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), has committed $401.94 million in various contracts as at the end of April 2010. According to the Chief Executive Officer of MiDA, the five-year programme is on course and the expectation is that the Programme budget would be fully utilized within the period.
In Liberia the Ministry of Finance has confirmed that a select group of cabinet ministers and other top officials are benefiting from a dual remuneration scheme wherein they are paid lucrative sums - from both government and the United Nations Development Program's capacity development fund.
South Africa: According to last week’s reports Zambia has fired private lawyers who appealed against a court decision that acquitted former President Frederick Chiluba of stealing millions of dollars from public treasury.
Meanwhile in Zimbabwe a public disagreement between Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and Finance Minister Tendai Biti over pay increases in public servants' salaries is being seen as evidence of greater divisions between two of the most senior leaders of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Last week South African stocks booked their biggest one-day fall in almost 13 months as panicked investors dumped everything from banks to resource firms on concern about the fall-out from Greece's debt crisis.
Namibia and Angola are moving ahead with a $1.1 billion hydropower plant on a river that runs along their common border in a bid to end power disruptions that have plagued their economies for decades.
Meanwhile according to a senior official South Africa's goal-shy team has been offered one million rand ($132,200) to share for every time they find the net at next month's World Cup on home soil.
The leaders of Ethiopia, Malawi, the Netherlands, Spain and Vietnam have been invited to attend the G20 summit in Toronto next month.
Eastern Africa: Suspected Somali pirates have seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel off the waters of Seychelles, the second incident off Somalia in two days, according to a regional maritime body.
Central Africa: The Rawandan Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, has handed over 25 boats worth Rwf 346m to Rwanda National Police (RNP) and Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) to be used by marines to fight crimes that affect food production around the lakes.
IHT Network Limited, one of India's largest organizations in providing computer hardware, software and networking training is set to invest Rwf17m as a move to establish a base in the Rwandan market. §
to boost the party's chances of retaining power in Election 2012.
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