SA President Thabo Mbeki has presented a plan to Zimbabwe’s political leaders that would allow Robert Mugabe to remain as a titular head of state.
Robert Mugabe said on Friday he is only open to negotiations on an end to Zimbabwe’s political crisis if he is accepted as the country’s president.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe arrives home to a hero’s welcome after avoiding censure at an AU summit over his controversial one-man election.
The AU crossed a watershed by handing an unprecedented rebuff to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, but the move could remain largely symbolic.
President Robert Mugabe returns to Zimbabwe on Wednesday under pressure from fellow African leaders to form a national unity government.
An African Union summit on Tuesday tried to overcome divisions on how to deal with the re-election of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.
Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson told the West on Tuesday it can ”go hang a thousand times” over its criticism of the Zimbabwe president’s reelection.
The African Union demanded on Monday that Eritrea immediately withdraw its troops from a border area in dispute with Djibouti.
African leaders on Monday pushed Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to open talks with the opposition after his controversial re-election.
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.