ABUJA

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday met a group of white farmers whose farms were seized by the Zimbabwean government and promised to help them overcome their initial financial and infrastructural problems in their new country. Obasanjo visited the farmers on their leased land on Friday.

The African Union (AU) was on Monday pushing for progress to be made in ongoing talks to bring peace to western Sudan’s Darfur region as tension eased over Chad’s co-mediation role, an AU spokesperson said. The civil war in Darfur has drawn global attention to what has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

A three-storey building, still under construction, collapsed in Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta on Thursday, killing three workers and a food vendor. The tragedy occurred in the early hours of Thursday as the workers were preparing to resume the day’s work, police spokesperson Thelma Fiberesua said in Port Harcourt.

In the latest corruption scandal to rock Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo has cancelled the sale of 207 government houses at knockdown prices after discovering that close relatives of his wife and several cabinet ministers were to have been among the beneficiaries of this controversial deal.

The former head of Nigeria’s police force, who quit suddenly amid allegations of corruption in January, has been arrested by the country’s financial crimes watchdog and may appear in court soon, his lawyer and government officials said on Wednesday.

A meeting on Thursday between Togo’s new military-installed leader, Faure Gnassingbe, with his fiercest critic of his accession to power, the chairperson of the African Union, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, has ended, officials said. The Economic Community of West African States has threatened Togo with sanctions.

The influential chairperson of Nigeria’s ruling party has submitted his resignation under pressure from President Olusegun Obasanjo, after warning the head of state that his government is becoming unpopular and might be toppled in a coup. A newspaper quoted Audu Ogbeh as saying: "I am not in any contest for power with the president."

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur’s main rebel movements have been suspended until January, according to a joint statement from the parties released on Tuesday. "The parties undertake to return to Abuja for the next round of the talks on a date … to be confirmed by the AU," it said.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=177030">Aid group pulls out of Darfur</a>

Sudanese government forces on Saturday engaged in a fresh battle with rebel forces in southern Darfur, ignoring an ultimatum from the African Union to halt an offensive, an AU spokesperson said. Rebel negotiators have been insisting that they will not sit down with the government while its two-week-old offensive continues.

Rebel leaders on Thursday accused the Sudanese government of pursuing an offensive in the western region of Darfur despite an earlier promise to rein in its troops in order to revive stalled peace talks. The rebels said they will not return to African Union-sponsored negotiations until Khartoum calls off its alleged attack.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=176727">Sudan agrees to stop Darfur offensive</a>

The Sudanese government has agreed to stop a military offensive in Darfur province in a move that could prompt the two main rebel groups to end their boycott of African Union-sponsored peace talks, the chief AU mediator said on Wednesday. The rebel groups on Monday walked out of the latest bid in Abuja to resolve the Darfur conflict.

African Union mediators worked on Tuesday to break a Sudan rebel boycott of Darfur peace talks, meeting separately with the warring parties at talks thrown into chaos by rebel allegations of a new government offensive. The rebels announced a boycott of peace talks on Monday, alleging a government offensive and saying a return to talks isn’t possible until the government promises to cease attacks.

A Nigerian court on Thursday declared a planned general strike over fuel prices illegal, dramatically raising tensions less than a week before the nationwide protest is due to begin. ”We are not bothered by the court order. They cannot stop us. No court order can stop us,” said the national mobilisation officer of the Nigerian Labour Congress.

A coalition of trade unions and pro-democracy groups issued Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo with an ultimatum on Tuesday, warning him to cut fuel prices this week or face a renewed nationwide general strike. Obasanjo has defended the price increases as a necessary evil as Nigeria embarks on an ambitious series of economic reforms.

A second day of peace talks on the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region broke off early when rebels refused face-to-face talks with the government until the African Union meets separately with both sides to draft an agenda. Delegates said the African Union-brokered talks in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, would resume on Wednesday.

Africa’s top Anglican bishops on Monday announced plans for a network of theological colleges to promote traditional beliefs after clashing with some Western churches over what one termed the ”abomination” of homosexuality. About 300 Anglican bishops from across Africa are gathering in the Nigerian city of Lagos.

Sudanese government envoys and the leaders of a rebellion in the western province of Darfur opened formal peace negotiations on Monday at an African Union-sponsored conference in Abuja. AU special envoy Hamid Algabid welcomed the delegates to the conference venue in the Nigerian capital before the start of closed-door talks.

Nigeria angrily rejected the results and methodology of the world’s best-known corruption study on Wednesday after being named the third most corrupt of the 145 countries surveyed. Nigeria has been anchored at or around the bottom of Transparency International’s annual corruption index since it was first published.

The nationwide strike that began in Nigeria on Monday over increased fuel prices was suspended on Friday. The suspension marks the end of the first stage of the strike, planned to be held in stages until the government reverses the September increase in prices of petroleum products.

Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo called a meeting with unions and fuel distributors on Monday on the first day of a general strike called over rising petrol prices, officials and labour leaders said. But the main leader of the strike told reporters at his headquarters that his way to the talks was blocked by police.