Zone 2- Africa Summary, week # 131

Week # 131, Dated 1^st- 7^th August, 2010

POLITICS OF SECURITY AND CONFLICT ISSUES

West Africa: In Ghana Parliament on last week passed the Organized Crime bill which seeks to establish a comprehensive legal framework to monitor, investigate and facilitate the prosecution of organized crime.

Still on Liberia’s former President’s case in Hague, Supermodel Naomi Campbell testified last week before the Special Court for Sierra Leone judges about allegations that she received a gift of blood diamonds from former Liberian President Charles Taylor while they were both present in South Africa in 1997.

Also last week, Issa Hassan Sesay, the former convicted interim leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, told Special Court for Sierra Leone judges in The Hague that RUF fighters have been framing stories against Mr. Taylor because the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) made promises to them and that some of them saw the Special Court as a place to make money for their evidence.

According to a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day international seminar on peace support operations, organized by the Ministry of Defence, Nigeria Lacks Peace-keeping Policy and has lost some 2,000 men in conflict zones.

Also in Nigeria zoning of Presidential Flag bearer continues to divide the core north and Northern minorities in the build-up to the 2011 elections, the pro and anti-zoning forces in the region have begun meeting to forge a common front.

In Liberia the standard-bearer emeritus of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), George Weah, has accepted a petition to run for president in the 2011 presidential elections.

Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo pledged last week that his nation would hold elections this year at last, despite many years of missed electoral deadlines and political crisis. Ivory Coast should be able to hold long overdue presidential elections in October, the electoral commission said, five years after they were first meant to happen.

West Africa's mediator for Guinea called last week for the second round of presidential elections to be held soon to ensure that the attempt to return power to civilians stays on track.

In Nigeria the 2011 Elections is feasible in January if the new voters’ registration exercise is completed on time by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

East & the horn of Africa: In Kenya the controversial constitution referendum went to poll, which proposed reducing president's powers, Devolving power to regions, creating a commission to manage public land, creating a senate and recognizing Kadhi (Muslim) courts. The referendum saw a big voter turnout where Kenyan voters backed the new constitution.

Southern Sudan will in early 2011 hold a referendum to determine whether to remain part of a united Sudan or become a separate state. The referendum was a core component of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended decades of conflict between the Southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Khartoum government.

A long-standing ally of successive U.S. governments Rwandan President last week vowed to Crush Troublemakers Ahead of Monday's Vote. The president finds himself in the middle of a controversial election campaign, marked by media repression, jailing of opposition leaders, threats of war, attempted assassinations and several killings of political opponents.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN DOMESTIC POLITICS

West Africa: Chinese suspects are in Nigeria for trial over N4 billion cocaine, according to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency; Ahmadu Giade has said that all suspects arrested in connection with the unlawful importation of 450.400kg of cocaine will be prosecuted in the country.

This month marks the sixteenth anniversary of the military takeover in The Gambia, in which President Yahya Jammeh ascended to power via coup d'état. A former wrestler and soldier, Jammeh has proven himself a tough man to deal with, as the Gambian media has discovered.

Turmoil in poverty-stricken Guinea-Bissau has forced the EU to end its mission to reform the country's security forces - a move that may further embolden powerful generals and drug traffickers.

Central Africa: Rwandan political fugitives in South Africa are complicating bilateral relations between the two countries. Meanwhile South African High Commissioner to Rwanda Gladstone Dumisani Gwadiso was summoned back to Pretoria amid growing concerns about Kigali's repressive policies as the country prepares for presidential elections.

HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND DOMESTIC POLITICS

West Africa: A ministerial committee in Ghana has been established to probe the spillage of toxic substances in the country’s oil fields by oil drilling giant, Kosmos Energy, has slapped a punitive fine of ¢400bn on the company. Within five months, Kosmos spilled a total of 699 barrels of Versaclean, a type of drilling fluid or oil based mud, which contains poisonous heavy metals, on three occasions.

According to reports parts of sparsely populated and arid eastern Niger, north of the city of Diffa, are strewn with putrid dead cows: amid a drought pastoralists traveled great distances to find food and water for their animals. The region is in dire need of aid.

Africa is cooking up a climate deal with another round of negotiations towards a global treaty on climate change concluded in Bonn on Aug. 6, with activists calling on parties to rediscover a spirit of compromise and make offers rather than demands

East & the horn of Africa: In Rwanda the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion, Jean d'Arc ujawamariya, has commended Project Ubuzima for the clinical research its carrying out in microbicides, as an alternative HIV prevention tool especially for women, terming it as "a new initiative that could help protect millions of women against contracting HIV/AIDS."

POLITICAL ECONOMY

West Africa: Ghana Company AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi, increase production from 383,000 ounces to 500,000 within the next three years, Mr. Kwesi Enyan, the Managing Director, has announced.

In Nigeria stock market loses amounted to N51 billion transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that opened the week on a negative note as most blue chip companies suffered considerable loses while the All-Share index shed 209.79 or 0.8 to close at 25,634.39 as against 25,844 .18 as its opening index.

Meanwhile the Nigerian Federal Government met with some members of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the National Union of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) in a bid to avert a strike targeted at stopping the lifting and supply of fuel to the nation’s capital city, Abuja.

Ten African countries ranked in order from most to least progressive are vying to be among the most progressive nations on the continent in accordance with the 2010 State of the Union Continental Report, these countries are Nigeria, Rwanda, Mozambique, Ghana Algeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.

Framework for ECOWAS Single Currency Regime out Soon to speed up the process of actualizing a single currency regime in West African states

African countries should invest in broadband infrastructure to improve the welfare of their people and not Roads to Transform Africa, according to Ajai Chowdhry, co-founder and CEO of HCL Info systems, the global IT services provider.

The recent seizure of more than two tones of cocaine, worth an estimated $1bn (about £675m) in The Gambia has once again shone a light on West Africa as a major transit point for narcotics making their way from Latin America to Europe.

Central Africa: According to reports Ugandan President Museveni's government is paying $14.2 million (about Shs31.3 billion) to the Burundi government as compensation for material and financial support offered to the National Resistance Army (NRA) before the rebel group seized power in 1986. §

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