The United States has issued a drought alert for Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, warning that conditions in parts of the Horn of Africa countries threaten starvation, water shortages and diseases. The alert was issued on Wednesday in Washington by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
British Airways (BA) has severed ties with ailing Kenyan carrier Regional Air which this month was forced to suspend all flights for six days over a cash-flow crisis. Under the 2001 franchise agreement, Regional Air had been using BA’s flag and flight numbers to its destinations in East and Southern Africa which include Khartoum, Asmara, Djibouti, Johannesburg, Lilongwe, Lusaka and Harare.
A Kenyan lawmaker known for linguistic improvisation was briefly detained by authorities this week for allegedly composing a song that mocks President Mwai Kibaki and his wife, police said on Thursday. MP Reuben Ndolo was arrested and questioned on Wednesday in Kenya’s Eastern Province.
Last week’s call by the United Nations Population Fund to governments to increase spending on reproductive health may prove to be hard for Kenya to implement. Kenya has no budgetary allocation for reproductive health. Concerns are mounting that without state commitment to provide family planning in Kenya, maternal mortality may continue to rise.
Ethnic clashes, blamed on competition for increasingly scarce water and grazing, are sweeping northern Kenya, as drought and famine intensify in the neglected region. Since the beginning of the year, more than 100 people have been killed in renewed violence perpetrated under the cover of long-simmering ethnic animosities, and fueled by the myriad conflicts which surround northern Kenya.
The mandate of the peacekeepers patrolling a buffer zone between the warring parties in Côte d’Ivoire has been extended for one month by the United Nations Security Council. The short extension, approved late on Monday, will allow the UN and France to monitor progress at peace talks between the government and the rebels.
Amnesty International (AI), the British-based human rights watchdog, has accused Kenyan authorities of violating the rights of terror suspects in the East African country — and called for an immediate end to these alleged abuses. "We do not support terrorism. However, measures to prevent terrorism can only be effective if they also guarantee and protect human rights," said a researcher on Kenyan issues for AI.
The crisis over the relocation from exile of Somalia’s transitional government deepened on Wednesday as powerful warlords said they will move to impeach President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. Warlords controlling the capital of Mogadishu said they will introduce a no-confidence motion against Yusuf in Parliament and seek his removal.
Somalia’s transitional government-in-exile met in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday in a bid to bridge deep divisions over plans to relocate to the war-shattered nation that are now in chaos, officials said. But with inter-clan tensions still running high, there was no indication that Tuesday’s meeting would yield any immediate consensus, the officials said.
Somalia’s transitional leaders met in Nairobi on Friday in a bid to restore order to a heated parliamentary debate over a controversial peacekeeping mission to their anarchic country that degenerated into a bloody brawl. A spokesperson said President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had called for political dialogue and harmony.
The United Nations believes that more than 180 000 people may have died in the troubled Darfur region in western Sudan. According to the UN’s top emergency coordination official, Jan Egeland, the number refers to people who have died of malnutrition and disease, and does not cover those who have been killed in the conflict.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee) until 15 September 2005, and called on both countries to refrain from any threat of use of force against each other.
Thousands of elephants in Central Africa are killed each year to cater to world consumer demand for ivory, much of which passes through the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, wildlife trade expert Edmond Martin said on Monday in Nairobi. Martin said Khartoum now holds one of the world’s largest markets for illegal ivory.
At least 20 magistrates on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast went on strike on Monday to demand a 1 000% pay hike as the Kenyan justice ministry warned that court officers not reporting for duty will be fired. ”The strike is historic,” said Justus Munyithya, chairperson of the coastal branch of the Law Society of Kenya.
Action by Churches Together appealed this week for more than ,2-million to fund projects aimed at alleviating food and water shortages in Eritrea, caused by four years of drought. Scarce rainfall has resulted in another poor harvest, and food reserves have been depleted and the coping mechanisms of the population are stretched to the limit, said a statement.
As the citizens of the Central African Republic go to the polls to choose a new president and parliament this weekend, experts differ on whether it is a step toward true democracy. The landlocked nation has had a violent and troubled past. Since independence from colonial master France in 1960, it has been continuously rocked by political instability.
Somalia’s new environment minister asked the United Nations on Wednesday to investigate possible hazardous waste that was washed ashore by last year’s tsunami. The waste may be causing illnesses among local people. The minister said strange objects washed ashore all along his country’s coastline when the tsunami struck on December 26 last year.
Talks to boost chances for the conclusion of a global trade pact in 2006 turned to the thorny issue of agriculture in Ukunda, Kenya, on Friday with a landmark World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling against United States cotton subsidies weighing heavily in discussions.
Toxic waste washed on to Somalia’s coastline by last December’s tsumani have spawned diseases bearing symptoms of radioactive exposure in villagers along the shorelines of the shattered African nation, the United Nations Environment Programme said on Friday.
Togo’s electoral commission has set April 24 as the date for presidential elections, news reports said on Friday. The way for elections was cleared when Faure Gnassingbe stepped down as president last weekend after heavy international pressure.
Trade ministers from 33 countries on Thursday began crafting a ”rough” plan to conclude talks to liberalise global commerce further by 2006, paying particular attention to the interests of poorer countries, officials said. ”We want the Doha round [of trade talks] to be completed successfully next year,” Kenyan Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi said.
Police in Kenya arrested 53 anti-globalisation demonstrators on Thursday, keeping them from reaching the venue of a meeting of trade ministers from 30 countries discussing further efforts to liberalise global commerce, officials said on Thursday. The meeting will discuss a framework accord on future trade rules.
An Australian tourist has been killed by a hippopotamus at a popular resort in central Kenya, police said on Tuesday. Simon Kiragu, the regional police chief, identified the victim as 50-year-old Vicky Elizabeth Bartlett. She was with a group of 12 tourists at Lake Naivasha on Monday night when the hippo attacked, Kiragu said.
No image available
/ 26 February 2005
Plans by Kenyan MPs to award themselves a R111 000 bonus have outraged a country already reeling from a string of corruption allegations. A parliamentary committee has recommended that each of the 222 MPs should receive 1,5-million Kenyan shillings when the Parliament ends in 2007. The committee has also recommended new constituency offices.
No image available
/ 25 February 2005
Concern is mounting over Ethiopia’s flagship ”safety net” policy set up to end dependency on aid for five million people, the United Nations said. Paul Herbert, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the needy have still not received any food or cash under the scheme.
No image available
/ 24 February 2005
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council is to meet to consider further sanctions against the government of Togo, where the military installed Faure Gnassingbe as president to replace his late father. His accession has been deemed a power grab by much of the international community, further isolating the West African state.
No image available
/ 24 February 2005
Somalia’s exiled president and prime minister left Kenya on Thursday on their first visits home since taking the helm of the country’s transitional government last year, officials said. President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi left the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in separate planes.
No image available
/ 23 February 2005
Somali Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi has postponed a planned fact-finding trip to Somalia this week due to transport hitches, the lawless country’s exiled transitional government said on Wednesday. Gedi had been due to embark on Wednesday on his first trip to Somalia since becoming premier last year.
No image available
/ 23 February 2005
Toxic waste has washed up on Somalia’s shores almost two months after the devastating tsunami that struck countries bordering the Indian Ocean, according to a study by the United Nations Environment Programme presented on Tuesday in Nairobi.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
”Well, he’s damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t,” says leading Kenyan lawyer Albert Mumma of the dilemma that may shortly face President Mwai Kibaki: whether to prosecute former head of state Daniel arap Moi in connection with the Goldenberg scandal. For the past two years, a commission has probed the dealings of the company at the heart of this corruption scam.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
Somalia’s government-in-exile has begun its return to its volatile country by sending teams to the southern part of the country, the prime minister said on Thursday. Government officials had said they would start relocating on Monday — but such promises have been made and broken before.
No image available
/ 16 February 2005
Kenyan police on Wednesday fired tear gas to break up a crowd of several hundred protesting market vendors who had blockaded a government building in central Nairobi, witnesses said. At least two dozen police in riot gear launched tear gas into the demonstrators.