Week # 130, Dated 25th – 30th July, 2010 POLITICS OF SECURITY AND CONFLICT ISSUES
West Africa: As the Cameroonian government enjoys the ceding of Bakassi Peninsula to it, it has extended its claims of ownership to the Obudu Ranch Resort in Obanliku local government area of Cross River State in Nigeria.
Response from the Cross River state government in Nigeria through the Director-General of the Cross River Border Development Commission (BORDERCOM), Mr. Leo Aggrey says such a claim is only an empty threat that is yet to be substantiated and considered as rumor.
Issa Hassan Sesay, who is taking time from his 52 years jail sentence in a Rwandan cell told Special Court for Sierra Leone judges last week that he was not made interim leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group by Mr. Taylor alone but rather by a group of West African leaders after a meeting in the Liberian capital Monrovia.
Burkina Faso and Niger Refer Border Dispute to UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) as part of a wider agreement by the two States to resolve the situation peacefully.
In Ghana the electoral commission last week announced that it would start nation-wide distribution of ballot papers for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) National Congress to elect its presidential candidate on August 03. The congress was scheduled for Saturday, August 07.
In Guinea the candidate who came out on top in the first round of Guinea's presidential election, Cellou Dallein Diallo, has won the backing of third-placed Sidya Toure for the run-off. No date has been set yet for the run-off between the top two candidates.
Nigeria’s new Electoral Law bans consensus candidature; the law provides strictly for compulsory balloting at primary elections by parties with prescription that only aspirants with highest number of votes cast at primaries will be forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as candidates for the main elections.
Central Africa: New Evidence Shows U.S. Role in Congo's Decision to Send Patrice Lumumba to His Death controversy has continued to swirl over allegations of U.S. government responsibility. After all, the U.S. had at least as much, if not more, influence in the Congolese capital as Belgium.
Local authorities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are reporting that almost 90,000 people have been uprooted from their homes following recent military operations in the region, six civilians have died and dozens of others have been injured in the fighting between the national army and fighters associated with the Ugandan rebel group.
In Rwanda the Civil Society Election Observation Mission (CSEOM) last week officially launched its National Election Observation Mission to observe the presidential elections slated for August 9.
A top official of the Democratic Republic of Congo said that President Joseph Kabila will soon approve of a seven-member panel to form a new Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to organize next year’s general election.
East & the horn of Africa: French and African leaders are pledging to counter al-Qaida-backed violence in East and West Africa with more military force in the aftermath of suicide bombings in Uganda and the killing of a French aid worker in Mali.
Sufi group a Somali militant backs more African Union troops in Somalia the war-torn country of an al Qaeda-linked movement to expand its peacekeeping presence in the country. Meanwhile the African Union summit ended without a resolution to change the mandate of its mission in Somalia from peacekeeping to peace enforcing, despite calls from some African leaders to do so.
Burundi goes to the polls again to holds Senate elections. Only the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy - Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) and the opposition Union for National Progress (Uprona) will contest the polls.
Southern Africa: South Africa is mulling sending army and navy personnel to Somalia to reinforce the troubled African Union peacekeeping mission there.
Political Outreach Leaders in Zimbabwe is in the process of drafting a new constitution that is aimed at bringing new elections and ending years of political conflict. As part of the process, specially trained leaders are consulting with citizens across the country in a process called the Constitution Outreach Program.
The chairman of the opposition Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) said that talks among other opposition parties are seeking to form a coalition aimed at breaking the dominance of the ruling party in the next general elections, which must be held by 2014.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: In Liberia civil society groups are gearing up for protests, insisting that the 2011 elections should be held in accordance with the constitution, With the Legislature' trashing of the census despite guaranteed constitutional provisions against their acts.
Over Sixty Messages of Congratulations from world leaders and sovereign governments, as the Liberia graciously celebrated its 163rd National Independence Anniversary.
Southern Africa: In Amid the women’s struggle for fair representation in Madagascar, where the political world is deemed to be dominated by men, Brigitte Rasamoelina Brigitte Rabemanantsoa Rasamoelina, a female politician from Madagascar plans to contest the November elections.
A South African court has ordered four white South African men to pay fines for making a video degrading black university workers three years ago. The men pleaded guilty to deliberately harming the integrity of the workers. The former students have to pay $ 2,720 in lieu of a one year jail sentence, provided they stay out of trouble.
Close to 200 prisoners died in Malawi prisons in less than one year says a report that has also revealed massive abuses of rights of people in conflict with the law in this country.
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said that Zimbabwe food security is improving. It has made improvement from 1.2 million tones to 1.3 million tones.
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND DOMESTIC POLITICS
West Africa: According to reports Ghana is close to total eradication of Guinea worm disease since the inception of the Guinea worm eradication programme in 1989. It has achieved 99.99 % reduction of the disease.
President John Atta Mills of Ghana has appealed to other African leaders to commit themselves to the health of expectant mothers, infants and children and tackle their health issues in a holistic manner. President Mills said this in his contribution to a debate on the theme of the 15th African Union Heads of States summit in Kampala, Uganda. Members of the African Union (AU) reaffirmed at the end of their meeting on 27 July in Kampala, Uganda, that they would strive to spend 15 % of their national budgets on health, but at the end of the day it is about how “effectively and efficiently” you spend the money, not about how much.
Many African countries battle to bring down staggering rates of maternal and child mortality, maternal and child health made for a fitting theme at the African Union (AU) Summit in Kampala, Uganda.
Southern Africa: Madagascar's unique biodiversity could be lost - possibly forever, and at incalculable cost to ordinary Malagasy and the world - by the continued suspension of environmental funding in response to an ongoing political crisis, says a new report by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the main environmental donor. Also UNESCO has added Florida's Everglades National Park and Madagascar's tropical rainforest to a list of world heritage sites at risk.
POLITICAL ECONOMY
West Africa: In Nigeria Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said after a critical review of the national economy that 7.63 % growth rate has been recorded and concluded that there was no cause for alarm.
Ghana’s Government has begun the process of privatizing some state-owned loss-making enterprises, with the aim of injecting millions of cedis to improve their performances.
Meanwhile Mr. Franklin Fiifi Kwetey, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning has assured that the Ghanaian government will continue to implement policies to compel local financial institutions to reduce their lending rates (interest rates). He said the reduction of interest rates would make funds available and affordable to entrepreneurs and investors to expand their businesses.
Cameroon's economy is projected to grow by 3.3 % this year, before rising to an average of 4.7 % annually until 2012, mostly due to increased in foreign demand for its commodities.
The African Union said last week that Africa must turn ever more to China for its development because conditions and checks often stalled the flow of funds from Western nations and the World Bank.
The research analyst for Chinese studies at the University of Stellenbosch, Mathew McDonald has said that Chinese moves into Africa have more to do with the promotion of solidarity with previously colonized countries rather than with a new scramble for Africa or actually attempting to colonize the continent for itself. §
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