KENYA

The situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains as unstable as ever as vote counting continues following landmark elections two weeks ago, with incumbent president Joseph Kabila leading with 53% of the votes counted by Tuesday.

All-rounder Mashrafee Mortaza was the star for Bangladesh as they beat Kenya by two wickets on Sunday to win the one-day series 2-0. Having taken 3-53 in the Kenyan innings, the stylish left-hander returned to hit the winning runs that helped Bangladesh hold off a resurgent Kenyan side buoyed by a tight pace-bowling attack.

An unbeaten partnership of 74 between debutant Forhad Reza and Mohammad Ashraful steered Bangladesh to an emphatic six-wicket win over Kenya in the first one-day international at the Gymkhana club in Nairobi on Saturday. Reza, who ended the match with an unbeaten 34 proved the perfect foil for the experienced right-hander Ashraful as they steadied the Bangladesh innings after a shaky start.

Somalia’s political stand-off may erupt into a region-wide conflict involving al-Qaeda unless its fragile government can bring Islamists into its ranks, a think-tank said on Friday. Foreign states, particularly Ethiopia and Eritrea, must stop supporting the rival factions or risk inflaming the situation, the International Crisis Group said in a report.

About 150 Ethiopian troops, including a senior commander, have deserted the country’s army and escaped to Addis Ababa’s arch-foe nation Eritrea, officials said on Thursday. They said the desertions, which still remained unexplained, were the first to hit the Ethiopian military, but Asmara attributed them to a growing disenchantment with the ruling party.

Africa is mulling setting up a 24-hour television news channel that would portray the continent in positive perspective on the global platform and promote a development agenda, officials said on Wednesday. They said the channel, which will resemble pan-Arabic television al-Jazeera, could be in place by next year.

News outlets across Africa are coming under increasing pressure that restricts their abilities and need defence and support to ensure viability and relevance, media officials said on Tuesday. They were speaking in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, at a pan-African conference on the press.

Eritrea on Friday denied charges it is backing Islamists in Somalia to fight a proxy war with arch-rival Ethiopia, which has sent troops to support the weak Somali government. In a ”working paper” Eritrea rejected as ”groundless” claims it is supplying arms to the Islamists, who have seized Mogadishu and are expanding control in the south of the nation.

Opposition parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have denounced parliamentary elections held on Sunday as ”fraudulent” while international observers have given the polls a cautious thumbs-up, according to news reports on Tuesday.

Eritrea on Thursday called for the speedy withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia, where they have been deployed to protect the country’s fledgling government, warning that their continued stay risked provoking a regional conflict. On a government website, Asmara also urged Addis Ababa to heed calls by the country’s Islamic courts to leave the shattered nation.

Ethiopian troops are in Somalia but in smaller numbers than the thousands some have estimated, the United Nations envoy to the Horn of Africa nation said on Wednesday. ”I got the impression that some Ethiopians are in Somalia,” Francois Fall told the media after his one-day trip to Somalia on Tuesday.

Southern Sudanese leader Salva Kiir expressed optimism on Monday that peace talks his government is mediating between Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels will succeed despite a rocky start. At the same time, he warned that failure will likely lead to fighting between the LRA and his forces in autonomous south Sudan.

The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monuc) says harassment and arbitary arrests have disrupted the election campaign as the troubled Central African country edges closer to its first multiparty polls in 45 years on July 30.

The one-day international series between Kenya and Bangladesh originally set for Nairobi later this month has been postponed by a further three weeks due to lack of sponsors, cricket officials said on Monday. Cricket Kenya (CK) chief executive Tom Tikolo said they required about 13-million shillings ( 000 dollars) to host the Bangladeshi side.

Kenyan police said on Wednesday they were searching for two men suspected of beating to death a fan of Brazil’s World Cup team after the reigning football champion’s weekend loss to France. The 21-year-old Brazil fan died after being savagely attacked by the France-supporting suspects who allegedly chided and ridiculed the victim.

Authorities in Kenya said on Tuesday they had smashed a massive fraud ring that was bilking the country’s famed national parks and wildlife reserves of millions of dollars in entrance fees each year. At least 75 people, including employees of the Kenya Wildlife Service, tour guides and operators have been arrested, they said.

The United Nations Environmental Programme warned on Tuesday that Africa will slip further into poverty if its governments fail to adopt eco-friendly policies to sustain and exploit its natural wealth. It said the continent’s fast-degrading environment faces fresh strains from genetically modified organisms, invasive species and a switch in chemical manufacturing.

Delegations from Somalia’s transitional government and the rival Islamic alliance were due to travel to Sudan on Wednesday to participate in Arab League-led mediation efforts, officials said. Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, the current chairperson of the Arab League, said on Tuesday he would try to bring the two factions to the negotiating table.

East African ministers on Tuesday sought ways of ending a devastating conflict in Somalia as Kenya pushed regional states to impose wider travel sanctions on warlords blamed for igniting the latest round of fighting in the capital, Mogadishu. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development also called for support for a powerless transitional government.

Somali leaders met with regional government ministers on Tuesday to try to find a way to empower Somalia’s United Nations-backed government, which watched from the sidelines as a fundamentalist Islamic militia battled warlords and seized its capital.

Six people were killed when a young Kenyan ran amok with a Kalashnikov rifle, the Daily Nation newspaper reported on Friday. The 18-year-old shot wildly round him, killing five people, including three children. When an angry mob failed to catch him, they killed his brother in his place, beheading him with a machete.

A member of a United States-backed secular alliance of warlords fighting for power in Somalia was kicked out of Kenya on Wednesday after police found him staying at a luxury hotel in Nairobi, authorities said. Abdul Rashid Hussein Shiry was taken to the airport for a flight back to neighbouring Somalia.

The success of Islamic extremists fighting for control of Somalia’s capital could prove a setback in the United States war on terrorism, with the defeat of a counterterrorism alliance providing hope for militants elsewhere in the region. The US has not carried out any direct action in Somalia since the deaths of 18 servicemen on a humanitarian mission in a 1993 battle in Mogadishu.

A cholera outbreak has killed at least 424 people and sickened 14 000 since January in southern Sudan, and officials are concerned the disease could spread to other countries, the World Health Organisation said on Friday. The outbreak has hit seven states in southern Sudan, the Geneva-based United Nations organisation said.