AfricaDigest 12/17/08

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Zimbabwe neighbours' aid campaign

Southern African countries are launching an urgent campaign to help
Zimbabwe fight cholera and overcome its acute food shortage.

The plan was announced by President Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa
after a meeting in Pretoria of the Southern African Development
Community (Sadc).

President Motlanthe also said he hoped a unity government would be
formed in Zimbabwe in the coming days.

But Zimbabwe's opposition said it did not know what he was talking
about.

After disputed presidential elections in March and June, President
Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) agreed to form a power-sharing government.

But implementation of that deal, reached in September, has been
deadlocked over whose supporters would get key ministries.


Meanwhile, 18,000 Zimbabweans have been infected with cholera and
nearly 1,000 have died from the disease. Aid agencies warn cases will
surge with heavy rains.

President Motlanthe said on Wednesday the Sadc appeal was being
launched "for the people of Zimbabwe in order to help them overcome
the challenges facing their country".

All 15 members of the regional body were expected to contribute to the
aid effort, he added.

Correspondents say the Sadc campaign is firstly an international
appeal to mobilise funds and resources for Zimbabwe's people.

It will also seek to address donors' concerns about food distribution
being used by Mr Mugabe's government as a political tool.

'Tragedy'

The campaign was launched as Australia added its voice to growing
calls for Mr Mugabe to stand down and tightened sanctions against his
government.

Canberra added 75 individuals and four firms in Zimbabwe to a
blacklist of financial and visa restrictions.


Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the measures were "a clear signal
the Australian government holds the brutal Mugabe regime and its
closest supporters accountable for the tragedy occurring in Zimbabwe".

African countries like Botswana and Kenya have also urged Mr Mugabe to
quit.

But in South Africa's capital, President Motlanthe told journalists he
would not join calls for Mr Mugabe to step down.

He said: "The issue of whether President Mugabe should go or not was
never been raised by the parties. So, it's really not for us - I mean,
I don't know whether the British feel qualified to impose that on the
people of Zimbabwe."

President Motlanthe said he hoped a constitutional amendment paving
the way for power-sharing - with Mr Mugabe remaining president and MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai becoming prime minster - would become law
this week.

"We are hopeful that such an inclusive government will be put in place
this week," he said.

'News to us'

But Zimbabwe's opposition said it knew nothing about any such
breakthrough.

"We are not aware of any plans to form a government this week. It's
certainly news to us because the outstanding issues we have outlined
remain," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters new agency.


The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Pretoria says the prospect of power-sharing
still seems remote - in the week when Zimbabwe's government accused
Botswana of hosting military training camps for MDC insurgents.

Meanwhile Nigeria's Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe told the BBC's
HardTalk programme that while Nigeria shared the "moral outrage" about
Zimbabwe, the best way to move forward was the power-sharing talks.

Earlier, the UK think tank International Crisis Group suggested that
both Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai should step aside to end the
"hopelessly deadlocked" talks.

This could allow a transitional administration to implement political
and economic reforms, it said.

But BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says it is unlikely either side
would take up such an idea.


Story from BBC NEWS:
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Somali leader faces impeachment

Somali MPs have voted to start impeachment proceedings against
President Abdullahi Yusuf, accusing him of being a "stumbling block to
peace".

He must now appear before parliament to defend himself. The motion
would need a two-thirds majority to succeed.

The move in Baidoa comes a day after the president named a new prime
minister in defiance of parliament.

It also prompted neighbouring Kenya to announce sanctions against the
Somali president and his associates.

'Miscalculation'

According to the Somali parliament's motion, President Yusuf stands
accused of being a stumbling block to peace; of behaving like a
dictator and of failing to push the peace process forward after four
years as president.

He is also charged with side-lining some of the communities.

The BBC's Peter Greste in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, says this is
coded language referring to the increasingly bitter clan rivalries
that have deepened under his leadership.

President Yusuf's biggest miscalculation appears to have been a
decision to sack Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and his cabinet on
Sunday, for "failing to deliver peace", he says.

President Yusuf and Mr Nur had clashed in recent months over attempts
to deal with the Islamist-led armed opposition.

Our reporter says the government badly needs a unified front if it is
to find peace with Islamist insurgents who now control almost all of
southern Somalia.

The Ethiopian troops, which helped government forces drive Islamist
forces from Mogadishu two years ago, are due to pull out in just over
two weeks.

A small African Union peacekeeping force has indicated it may leave
with the Ethiopians unless it gets reinforcements.

About one million people have fled their homes - many after fierce
fighting in Mogadishu between Islamists and the Ethiopia-backed
government forces.

Somalia has not had a functioning national government since President
Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.

Story from BBC NEWS:
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Kenya agrees to election tribunal

Kenya's president and prime minister have signed a deal that will pave
the way for an election violence tribunal.

They agreed to it within hours of a deadline set out in a report into
the deadly clashes that erupted after last December's elections.

The court will try individuals suspected of being behind the violence.

Parliament now has 45 days to set it up to begin hearings by March or
a sealed list of suspects will be handed over to the International
Criminal Court.

A commission of inquiry into the violence, chaired by Justice Phillip
Waki, published a report in October.

It also handed over a list of suspects, some thought to be prominent
politicians, to the mediator of the power-sharing deal, former UN
chief Kofi Annan.

On Tuesday, Kenya's electoral commission was dissolved by MPs - a key
recommendation of another inquiry into the election.

Some 1,500 people died in the clashes and another 300,000 people fled
their homes.

President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga signed a power-sharing deal in
February to bring an end to the post-election violence and formed a
coalition government.


Story from BBC NEWS:
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'Thousands made slaves' in Darfur

Strong evidence has emerged of children and adults being used as
slaves in Sudan's Darfur region, a study says.

Kidnapped men have been forced to work on farmland controlled by
Janjaweed militias, a coalition of African charities says.

Eyewitnesses also say the Sudanese army has been involved in abducting
women and children to be sex slaves and domestic staff for troops in
Khartoum.

But Khartoum said the report was "very naive" and called the authors
ignorant.

"The government does not condone abductions and it is not government
policy," a government spokesman told the BBC.

"We are working hard to stop such violations. The rebel factions are
mostly to blame for abductions in Darfur."


Up to 300,000 people have died since conflict began in Darfur in 2003
and at least 2.7 million people have fled their homes.

Thousands of people from non-Arabic speaking ethnic groups in Darfur
have been targeted, says the report, published by the Darfur
Consortium on Wednesday.

The group of 50 charities says it has around 100 eyewitness accounts
from former abductees.

Victims have been rounded up during joint attacks on villages by the
Arabic-speaking Janjaweed and the Sudanese Armed Forces, according to
the study.

Civilians are also tortured and killed while their villages are razed
to ethnically cleanse areas, which are then repopulated with Arabic-
speaking people, including nomads from Chad, Niger, Mali and Cameroon,
it says.


Most of the abductees are women and girls, but there is new evidence
in Darfur of kidnappers targeting men and boys for forced agricultural
labour, says the report.

The abducted women and girls, meanwhile, are raped and forced to marry
their captors as well as carry out household chores and sometimes
cultivate crops, according to the study.

'Regular beatings'

The report includes the testimony of children forced to become
domestic workers.


One boy said he had suffered regular beatings from his Janjaweed
abductors.

"They were treating me and the other boys very badly, they kept
telling us that we are not human beings and we are here to serve them,
I also worked on their farms," he said.

A woman said she was kidnapped from a refugee camp and her captors
"used us like their wives in the night and during the day we worked
all the time.

"The men they abducted with us were used to look after their
livestock. We worked all day, all week with no rest."

Sudan's government has always denied the existence of slavery in the
country, although Khartoum has previously admitted abductions occurred
in the north-south civil war of 1983-2005, when up to 14,000 people
were kidnapped.


But a senior Sudanese politician who did not wanted to be named said
kidnappings had also occurred more recently in Darfur.

"The army captured many children and women hiding in the bush outside
burnt villages," he told the report's authors.

"They were transported by plane to Khartoum at night and divided up
among soldiers as domestic workers and, in some cases, wives."

Call to action

The report urged Sudan's government to disband the Janjaweed and other
militia and to fully co-operate with the United Nations and the
African Union.

Dismas Nkunda, co-chair of the Darfur Consortium, said: "Urgent action
is clearly required to prevent further abductions and associated human
rights violations, and to release and assist those who are still being
held."

The study also calls for the mandate of the joint United Nations-
African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur (Unamid) to be beefed up so
it can use force to protect civilians.

The Darfur Consortium also wants Khartoum to prosecute all those
responsible for abductions and ban them from holding public office. It
notes that no-one has ever been arrested over the wave of kidnappings.


Story from BBC NEWS:
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Sudan statues show ancient script

Three ancient statues, engraved with a little-understood sub-Saharan
language, have been unearthed in Sudan.

The ram statues symbolise the god Amun, and include the first
discovery of a complete royal dedication in Meroitic script, only
found before in fragments.

It is the oldest written sub-Saharan language and dates from the Meroe
period of 300BC to AD450.

Archaeologist Vincent Rondot said it was "an important discovery", but
the inscriptions were hard to interpret.

The statues were discovered three weeks ago at el-Hassa, a site close
to Sudan's 50-odd Meroe pyramids, about 200 km (120 miles) north of
the capital Khartoum.

Mr Rondot said: "It is one of the last antique languages that we still
don't understand.

"We can read it. We have no problem pronouncing the letters. But we
can't understand it, apart from a few long words and the names of
people."

Experts are working on deciphering the inscriptions, using previously
found fragments.

"It is absolutely essential to understand it... We only need to read
the last words remaining on the inscription," Mr Rondot, was quoted as
saying by news agency AFP.

The dig, funded by the French foreign ministry, is also providing more
information on the reign of a little-known king, Amanakhareqerem,
mentioned in the inscriptions on the rams.

"Before we started the dig we only had four documents in his name. We
don't even know where he was buried," he said.

"We are beginning to understand the importance of that king," he said,
according to Reuters news agency.


Story from BBC NEWS:
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Kenya climb Fifa world rankings

Kenya are the biggest African movers in the latest Fifa world rankings
table, jumping 17 places to 68th.
The Harambee Stars have benefited from a good run in 2010 World Cup
and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, winning through to the final
stage which begins in March.

Cameroon remain the highest placed African side, in 14th place
overall, whileEgypt jump five places to 16th.

Nigeria move into the world top 20, up three places to 19th,
benefiting from an unbeaten run so far in World and Nations Cup
qualifying.

Ghana are up one place to 25th, Ivory Coast drop one to 29th, while
Morocco ,Mali and Tunisia all feature within the top 50.

Senegal move one spot to 50th place, despite missing out on qualifying
for both the Nations Cup and World Cup.

Fifa's "Best Movers of 2008" top ten list features five African sides.

Burkina Faso moved a massive 51 places in 2008 to finish 62nd in the
world.

Egypt, Sierra Leone , Gabon and Kenya also feature on the list, after
seeing their rankings rise over the past 12 months.


Story from BBC SPORT:
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Somali pirates launch new attacks

Four more vessels have been attacked by armed bandits off Somalia, as
the UN Security Council said foreign forces could pursue the pirates
on land.

Maritime officials say a Chinese ship's crew held off one group of
attackers until a naval patrol arrived.

But an Indonesian tugboat, Turkish cargo ship and a private yacht were
successfully boarded and are thought to remain in pirates' hands.

The attacks persist despite increased US, European and Indian naval
patrols.

The BBC's Peter Greste in Nairobi says the latest attacks appear to be
a calculated jab at UN attempts to clamp down on piracy.

He says there have been 42 successful hijackings in the area this
year.

Fourteen foreign ships and their crew of over 200 are still being
held, our correspondent adds.

'All necessary measures'

On Tuesday the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution
allowing foreign military forces to pursue pirates on land in Somalia.


Permission will be needed from the transitional Somali government for
any incursions. Countries already have powers to enter Somali waters
to pursue pirates.

China told the meeting in New York it was considering sending a naval
force into the region.

The US-drafted resolution was the fourth approved by the Security
Council since June to combat piracy in the region.

It gives authority for one year for countries to use "all necessary
measures" by land or air to stop anyone using Somali territory for
piracy.

Indonesia was among critics of the plan as it feared the precedent it
could set for chasing pirates on land, but it voted in favour.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the problem of piracy off
the coast of Somalia cannot be solved by the use of force alone.

"We should not forget that piracy and armed robbery at sea in this
region are just the tip of the iceberg of the problems Somalia is
facing today," he told Russian television.

"We stand for active efforts to stabilise social, economic and
political situation in Somalia which will make it possible to
undermine the material base of piracy."

On Wednesday, Chinese sailors backed up by a coalition warship and
helicopters foiled a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden, a maritime
watchdog said.

The pirates boarded the ship but crew members locked themselves in
their cabins to prevent the bandits entering and called for help, said
the International Maritime Bureau. The attackers reportedly fled.

Three other vessels were seized on Tuesday.

Pirates seized a Malaysian tugboat owned by French oil firm Total on
its way home through the Gulf of Aden from the Middle East.

A Turkish cargo ship, MV Bosphorus Prodigy, owned by Isko Marine
Company, was also captured. And a private yacht was seized.

Story from BBC NEWS:
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You can sometimes count every orange on a tree but never all the trees
in a single orange. -A.K. Ramanujan, poet (1929-1993)
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