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/ 17 October 2007

Piracy on the rise off Somalia

Piracy off Somalia is on the rise because an Islamic group that had cracked down on pirates was ousted, an official who tracks piracy cases off Africa’s side of the Indian Ocean said. Earlier, an international watchdog reported maritime pirate attacks worldwide had shot up 14% in the first nine months of 2007.

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/ 16 October 2007

SA firm to invest in Kenya’s ‘Iron Snake’

A South African-led consortium will invest -million (R178-million) in the 106-year-old Kenya-Uganda Railway by June next year to revitalise operations on the decrepit track. The Kenyan and Ugandan governments handed over the money-losing colonial-era railway to Rift Valley Railways Consortium under a 25-year concession last year.

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/ 12 October 2007

HRW: US should halt funds for homophobic Uganda

The United States should reconsider funding anti-HIV/Aids strategies in Uganda, where recipients of such money violate the rights of homosexuals, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said. The watchdog group, in a letter to US officials on Thursday, said Ugandan officials and the media have intensified attacks on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

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/ 10 October 2007

MSF: Traditional food aid not enough for Africa

Conventional food aid is not enough to solve Africa’s malnutrition crisis, especially in nations wracked by conflict, an international health agency said on Wednesday. In a continent where thousands of young children suffer from acute malnutrition, the use of nutrient-dense ready-to-use foods needs urgent expansion, Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF) said.

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/ 6 October 2007

Somali govt tightens press restrictions

The Somali government has ordered all media organisations to register with the Information Ministry in order to operate in the country, an official said on Friday. ”They must come to my office anytime to register in order to operate. That is what the law says,” Information Minister Madobe Nurrow Mohamed said in the capital, Mogadishu.

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/ 1 October 2007

Embassies warn against violence in Kenya election

Two dozen foreign embassies in Kenya on Monday called for ”zero tolerance” on campaign violence as elections loom in the East African nation where national votes seldom pass without bloodshed. With campaigns just beginning to roll ahead of an expected December presidential poll, one rally has already been ambushed by men armed with bows-and-arrows.

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/ 29 September 2007

US warns of kidnap threat to tourists in Kenya

The United States on Friday warned that Somali Islamist militants might kidnap Western tourists on vulnerable Kenyan beaches. In a message to US nationals in Kenya, the US embassy in Nairobi said it had received information that Islamic extremists from southern Somalia may be planning kidnapping operations across the border.

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/ 28 September 2007

Ugandan troops accused of plundering trees in Sudan

Ugandan troops looted truckloads of valuable trees from south Sudan when they were pursuing Lord’s Resistance Army rebels who were hiding in the region, a research group said on Friday. The Swiss-based Small Arms Survey said the Uganda People’s Defence Forces cut teak trees in southern Sudan’s Equatoria region during Operation Iron Fist.

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/ 26 September 2007

Eritrea insists Ethiopia implement border ruling

Eritrea maintains its demand that Ethiopia implement a border ruling agreed under a pact to end their 1998 to 2000 war, a minister said on Wednesday after Ethiopia threatened to call off the peace agreement. In a letter to Eritrea’s Foreign Minister on Tuesday, Ethiopia accused Asmara of violating the deal on several fronts including coordinating ”terrorist activity”.

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/ 24 September 2007

Kenya’s ‘City in the Sun’ chokes with traffic

Once known as East Africa’s green ”City in the Sun”, Nairobi is so choked with traffic that Kenya’s architects suggest moving to a new capital and angry business leaders say the booming economy is under threat. A combination of bad drivers, ramshackle vehicles, overloaded trucks, potholed roads and corrupt traffic police make one of Africa’s biggest cities resemble the dodgems on a good day.

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/ 21 September 2007

Rains keep pouring down across Africa

Floods are continuing to ravage an arc of African countries from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, washing away homes and ruining crops, and have been reported as the worst in years in many states. Uganda is experiencing its worst floods in memory, with about 89 000 households ”severely affected”.

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/ 20 September 2007

President panics as popularity plummets

Less than a week after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki unveiled his new party and embarked on a rigorous re-election campaign, the National Security Intelligence Service has leaked a damaging report, suggesting the president is headed for a resounding defeat in six out of the country’s eight provinces in the national polls set for December.

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/ 17 September 2007

Fears mount over more floods in Africa

Fears mounted on Monday that downpours that have killed dozens in Africa, uprooted hundreds of thousands and devastated crops could continue past the end of the rainy season and hit areas that have so far escaped floods. Experts say the rising waters may hit as yet unaffected areas in the coming days.

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/ 12 September 2007

East African nations on tsunami alert

African nations neighbouring the Indian Ocean on Wednesday warned of a possible tsunami after a huge earthquake struck off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, officials said. Kenyan authorities advised residents along the coastal region to keep off the beaches and remain alert, warning that a tsunami was expected.

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/ 3 September 2007

Ethiopia rebels declare ceasefire for UN visit

Rebels in Ethiopia’s volatile east declared a unilateral ceasefire so the United Nations can investigate their claims of human rights abuses in the region. The Ogaden National Liberation Front rebels, ethnic Somalis who have been fighting the government for more than a decade, said they will only defend themselves if attacked.

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/ 31 August 2007

‘End Kenyan renditions’

Muslim faithful resolved this week to organise mass action, including street protests, beginning this Friday to compel the Kenyan government to end what they are calling extraordinary ”renditions” and holding terrorism suspects incommunicado. The decision follows the disappearance of a leading anti-rendition campaigner, Farah Mohammed Abdullahi.

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/ 31 August 2007

How to clean up the slums — cook on rubbish

Entering Nairobi’s fetid slums the senses are first assaulted by a gagging stench and the sight of rubbish everywhere, some even hanging from trees or smouldering in acrid fires. The city government does not recognise the ”informal settlements” where more than 60% of the population live, so no services are provided and no garbage collected.

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/ 27 August 2007

Uganda army says 71 soldiers killed in crash

Seventy-one Ugandan soldiers were killed and another 41 injured, many seriously, when their huge truck crashed into a concrete barrier at the side of a mountain road, a spokesperson said on Monday. ”It was a trailer and the soldiers were changing location from eastern Uganda. Apparently no one escaped unhurt,” army spokesperson Major Felix Kulayigye said.

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/ 24 August 2007

Ugandan govt accused of ‘state homophobia’

An international human rights group has accused President Yoweri Museveni’s government of promoting ”state homophobia” in Uganda and urged the repeal of a colonial-era law against sodomy. Human Rights Watch’s attack added to a fierce social debate in the East African nation, where the gay community has been increasingly vocal in demanding rights.

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/ 22 August 2007

Kenyan leader refuses to sign media law

The Kenyan president refused on Wednesday to approve legislation that has widely been condemned as an attack on independent media because it would allow Kenyan courts to compel reporters to reveal their sources. President Mwai Kibaki rejected the Bill a week after hundreds of journalists protested while wearing black gags.