African Union observers on Monday condemned Zimbabwe’s one-man election as undemocratic, intensifying pressure on Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe arrived on Monday at an African Union summit in Egypt where he will confront his critics.
Zambia’s President Levy Mwanawasa was rushed to hospital in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday after a health emergency.
Pressure is mounting on African leaders gathering this weekend at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, to repudiate President Robert Mugabe publicly.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says the African Union, backed by the United Nations, should lead a transitional process in the country.
Nigeria has a battalion of about 800 soldiers ready to deploy to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping force and could send more if needed.
Zimbabwe’s Morgan Tsvangirai, who has pulled out of a presidential run-off election because of violence, sought refuge overnight in the Dutch embassy.
The African Union (AU) on Monday joined a chorus of concern and dismay over the withdrawal of Zimbabwe’s opposition from a presidential run-off.
Zimbabwe’s crisis will now move to the UN Security Council, as the international community mulls fresh sanctions against Robert Mugabe’s government.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has argued against a government of national unity in Zimbabwe, saying it will allow Mugabe to stay in power.
The current climate in Zimbabwe was ”not at all” the proper one for an election, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
Civil and human rights groups predicted more chaos after Zimbabwe’s presidential run-off takes place, saying on Tuesday they do not believe President Robert Mugabe will step down if he loses. However, it is ”critical” for the election to go ahead so a winner can emerge, said Gorden Moyo, from Bulawayo Agenda.
The United Nations Security Council meets the key players in the Somalia conflict on Monday to try to persuade the disparate factions to cooperate and restore order to the desperately poor and lawless Horn of Africa country. Somalia has been without a central government since the toppling of a dictator in 1991.
On a beach in Bosaso, north-east Somalia, near the tip of the Horn of Africa, dozens of Somali and Ethiopian refugees perch on rocks or squat in the sand, peering across the Gulf of Aden to the promised land. They are waiting for boats to carry them to Yemen and away from a life of miserable poverty, persecution and a war in Somalia.
A month before a presidential election run-off, Zimbabwe’s opposition said on Tuesday conditions were not conducive for a free and fair poll, but still expressed confidence it would oust Robert Mugabe. "As of yesterday [Monday], at least 50 of our supporters had been killed in violent attacks." the Movement for Democratic Change said.
The death toll from a fierce clash sparked by an Islamist insurgent attack on a Ugandan base in Mogadishu rose to 18 on Tuesday, witnesses and officials said. Late on Monday, a large group of insurgents attacked a major base in the Somali capital housing a Ugandan contingent of African Union peacekeepers.
A Darfur rebel group threatened on Monday to launch new attacks on Khartoum and central Sudan, amid fears that the region’s peace process was unravelling. The threat from the Sudan Liberation Movement’s Unity faction came weeks after Darfur insurgents the Justice and Equality Movement raided Sudan’s capital.
There is ”no solution but war” to solve Somalia’s problems, and Somali Islamists must re-arm and fight, a long-time hard-line Islamist leader linked to al-Qaeda said on Monday. In a rare interview, Sheikh Hassan Abdullah Hersi al-Turki urged the United Nations not to send soldiers to shore up an African Union peacekeeping force.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is to send a beefed-up observer mission for Zimbabwe’s run-off election next month to ensure "greater transparency", Angola’s Foreign Minister was quoted as saying on Monday. Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been lobbying the 14-nation SADC to send more observers.
With his rival back in the country, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe fought for his political survival on Sunday as he kicked off his election campaign. Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai arrived home on Saturday after a six-week absence vowing to end the three decade rule of post-independence leader Mugabe in a run-off election scheduled for June 27.
The African Union on Friday urged Sudan and former rebels in the south of the country to exercise restraint and seek a political settlement after clashes left at least 22 soldiers dead in a flashpoint region. "The Commission of the African Union is greatly concerned over the renewed hostilities between the parties," the AU said in a statement.
At least 43 Nigerian soldiers who had just returned from a peacekeeping mission in Darfur have been killed in a road accident in the north of Nigeria, a military spokesperson said on Thursday. The soldiers, including an army captain, were in a convoy of seven vehicles in north-eastern Yobe state on Wednesday when one of them collided with an oncoming petrol tanker.
Zimbabwe is on a path of renewal. On March 29 the baby was conceived. The birth pains and the labour might be arduous, but we are absolutely certain that the baby will be delivered. To anticipate the future we need to understand our past. The Zimbabwe crisis is inextricably linked to the nature of the post-colonial state.
There is a growing danger of a coup by military hardliners in Zimbabwe to prevent opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai from toppling President Robert Mugabe, a leading think tank said on Wednesday. The International Crisis Group called for African mediation leading to a national unity government led by Tsvangirai as the best way to resolve the crisis.
A leading human rights group accused the international community on Monday of not doing enough to deter Sudan from new attacks in Darfur, where it cited a return to ”scorched-earth” policies. Human Rights Watch said the United Nations Security Council should impose sanctions on Sudanese officials behind attacks on civilians in Darfur in February.
About a hundred members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and other organisations picketed the gates of Parliament in Cape Town on Saturday morning to protest against rising food prices and call for freedom in Zimbabwe. The event was to have been a march through the city.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi has accused Europe of deliberately provoking the drowning of illegal African migrants as they try to reach Europe by sea, the official Jana news agency reported on Friday. ”Dozens [of migrants] die and hundreds drown or are drowned deliberately,” the official Libyan news agency quoted Gadaffi as saying.
Zimbabwe’s government is to invite the opposition to form cross-party teams to probe acts of political violence in the aftermath of the country’s March elections, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Wednesday. It is the first time such an idea has been floated by the ruling party, which has been accused of orchestrating a campaign of terror.
An unprecedented Darfur rebel attack on Khartoum is a turning point that could persuade Sudan’s rulers to negotiate seriously with their foes or push Africa’s biggest country towards disintegration. Sudan-watchers believe the key is international involvement and say much more pressure is needed on both rebels and the government.
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Tuesday that four more of its members had been killed by supporters of President Robert Mugabe in nearly a month of post-election violence that is being investigated by South African officials.
Djibouti has accused Eritrea of violating its border in a worsening dispute over the Horn of Africa neighbours’ shared frontier. Djibouti says Eritrean soldiers entered its territory last month to dig trenches and build other defences. Eritrea has made no official comment.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday expressed alarm at reports of rising violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe and said he was consulting with African leaders on how to help resolve the country’s election crisis. "I am deeply concerned at reports of rising levels of violence and intimidation" in Zimbabwe, he told reporters.