Pirates have released a United Nations-chartered cargo ship and an Indian vessel they captured in the unpatrolled waters off the coast of Somalia, a maritime official said on Saturday. Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers’ Assistance Programme said the hijackers freed the MV Rozen and MV Nimatullah on Friday.
Somali pirates are demanding 000 for the return of an Indian-flagged merchant ship and its crew, officials said on Thursday. The pirates, armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, seized the MV Nimatullah and its 14-member crew off the coast of Mogadishu early on Monday.
A cargo ship escaped seizure at Somalia’s main port in the restive capital, Mogadishu, three days after pirates captured another vessel in the same harbour, a maritime official said on Wednesday. Gunmen in speed boats opened fire at the MV Nishan, a United Arab Emirates-registered vessel, late on Tuesday.
CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaeda militants in the Horn of Africa have been interrogating terrorism suspects from 19 countries held at secret prisons in Ethiopia, which is notorious for torture and abuse, according to an investigation by the Associated Press. Some of the detainees were swept up by Ethiopian troops that drove a radical Islamist government out of neighbouring Somalia late last year.
Refugees who have fled Mogadishu by the tens of thousands are suffering atrocious conditions, with some living under trees and paying extortionate prices for shelter or even shade, the United Nations said. Nearly 100 000 Somalis have left Mogadishu since February amid a growing insurgency.
Kenya invited expressions of interest on Wednesday from companies seeking to buy a 26% stake in Telkom Kenya, a state-owned landline company, as a strategic partner. The government said it also intended to sell off a further 34% of Telkom in an initial public offering once the strategic partner was on board.
Biofuel and renewable energy sources may hold the key to Africa’s energy crisis. Without intervention, this crisis is set to grow — among others, in Southern African cities such as Lusaka in Zambia, Harare in Zimbabwe, Gaborone in Botswana and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
About 13 Kenyans die of tuberculosis every hour and there is little immediate prospect of improvement, the head of a leading national health organisation said on Saturday which is World Tuberculosis Day. About 117Â 00 cases were diagnosed by 2006, but that was possibly only half of total infections in Kenya,
Kenya’s capital, Nairobi , takes its name from a Masai word meaning "place of cool waters". In parts of the city, however, this term is less descriptive than ironic — as demand for water is outstripping supply. The challenge of stretching water supplies ever further is coming to the fore on Thursday as countries around the globe mark World Water Day.
Virgin Atlantic said on Monday it will begin offering daily flights to Nairobi from London Heathrow in June. Virgin chairperson Richard Branson told reporters in Nairobi the airline expected to carry about 100Â 000 passengers to Kenya in the first year. ”If it is successful we hope to go up to two planes a day,” he said.
Rights activists in Kenya have intensified their campaign against a proposed anti-terrorism law — this after a travel advisory issued by the United States warned of possible terrorist attacks in the East African country during the upcoming World Cross-Country Championships.
As the world marks International Women’s Day on Thursday, under the theme of Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls, activists in Kenya claim there is much to do in ensuring that abusers are punished. They worry about the low rate of convictions in rape and abuse cases.
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/ 27 February 2007
With general elections scheduled to take place in Kenya this December, activists in the East African country are looking to constitutional reform to ensure that more women fill decision-making posts in the government. Eighteen of Kenya’s 222 legislators are women. While this is the highest number yet, it still amounts to less than 10% of the total.
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/ 25 February 2007
Once hailed as a ”City in the Sun”, the Kenyan capital is increasingly depicted as reeling under violent crime where crooks with weapons — some only toys but frighteningly realistic — roam with impunity. Police statements in early February said at least 50 civilians and security officials were killed in the space of a month.
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/ 23 February 2007
The issue of lesbian and gay Africans’ human rights again came to the fore recently as Anglican Church leaders met in Tanzania amid the continuing row over the consecration of a gay United States bishop in 2003. An ultimatum was sent from the conference in Dar es Salaam to US bishops to make a commitment that same-sex unions would not be blessed.
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/ 21 February 2007
A day after the United Nations endorsed an African Union peacekeeping force for Somalia, and almost two months after the ouster of the Islamists from Mogadishu, analysts on Wednesday warned of spiralling chaos. At least 12 died and thousands fled the coastal capital, Mogadishu, this week after fierce fighting.
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/ 19 February 2007
Growing demand for clean fuels distilled from plants will likely revolutionise agriculture in both rich and poor countries, a United States agriculture official said on Monday. Michael Yost said African and US farmers both stood to profit from the growing demand for grains that can be converted to ethanol or biodiesel.
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/ 12 February 2007
A 79-year-old American missionary and her daughter, the wife of a United States diplomat, are cut down by automatic gunfire on the edge of town. A top Kenyan HIV scientist and two other people, one on crutches, are killed when teenage gunmen indiscriminately spray vehicles on a highway with AK-47 fire. Baghdad? Mogadishu? No, Nairobi, capital of East Africa’s richest economy.
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/ 9 February 2007
It’s the de rigueur stop off for caring foreign dignitaries. It reached a worldwide audience as a backdrop to the British blockbuster The Constant Gardener. Any journalist wanting a quick Africa poverty story can find it there in half an hour. And now at least one travel agency offers tours round Kenya’s Kibera slum, one of Africa’s largest.
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/ 6 February 2007
Escalating clashes over fertile land in Kenya’s Mount Elgon region have killed 60 people and forced tens of thousands more from their homes since December, the Kenya Red Cross said on Tuesday. Land is an explosive issue in the East African nation, where for decades top politicians grabbed public land for political patronage.
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/ 6 February 2007
The head of the World Trade Organisation said on Tuesday he sensed fresh determination to conclude the Doha round of talks, but added he would wait for ”substance” before calling ministers together. The WTO negotiations were halted in July after major powers failed to break a long-running deadlock.
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/ 5 February 2007
The world’s poor, who are the least responsible for global warming, will suffer the most from climate change, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told environment ministers from around the world on Monday. ”The degradation of the global environment continues unabated … and the effects of climate change are being felt across the globe,” Ban said in a statement.
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/ 1 February 2007
Top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed — seen by many as a key to reconciliation in post-war Somalia — has left the custody of Kenyan intelligence and was reported by a website to be heading to Yemen. ”It’s true that I’m heading to Yemen,” he was quoted as saying on the website of the London-based ONKOD news agency run by a Somali journalist.
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/ 22 January 2007
A senior leader in Somalia’s Islamist movement wanted by the country’s transitional government has surrendered to authorities in neighbouring Kenya, a Kenyan official and diplomatic sources said on Monday. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed presented himself to Kenyan officials at the border on the weekend and is being held in an undisclosed location, they said.
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/ 22 January 2007
Anti-globalisation activists marched on Saturday through Africa’s largest slum, calling for an end to conflict and a new war on poverty at the start of a major protest against global capitalism. Nearly 5 000 delegates attending the World Social Forum trekked from Kibera, the slum featured in the 2005 film The Constant Gardner.
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/ 21 January 2007
Organisers of the 2010 Soccer World Cup must not exploit high levels of unemployment in South Africa and build stadiums on the cheap, the biggest international union federation said on Sunday. Ten stadiums in nine different cities are due to either be built or substantially revamped at least a year ahead of the tournament.
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/ 21 January 2007
African governments’ failure to deliver on a 2001 vow to spend 15% of budgets on health has cost the continent 40-million lives, activists including Nobel winners Desmond Tutu and Wangari Maathai said on Sunday. ”The governments are to blame of course, but nothing has been done about it because ordinary people have not demanded it,” Maathai said in a call to action.
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/ 19 January 2007
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Friday urged the African Anglican church to concentrate on the continent’s grim problems rather than on the row over gay clergy, and said persecuting gay people is akin to racism. The debate over the role of homosexuals in the church threatens to split the world’s 77-million Anglicans.
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/ 19 January 2007
An annual meeting of social activists worldwide made no tangible achievements since it began in 2001, but has highlighted the importance of social issues, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Friday. The seventh World Social Forum (WSF) begins in Nairobi on Saturday.
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/ 19 January 2007
African rights champions like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and environmentalist Wangari Maathai will join thousands of fellow campaigners when the continent hosts a global anti-capitalist jamboree this weekend. Organisers predict more than 80 000 people will descend on Nairobi to campaign over trade, poverty, war and the environment.
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/ 18 January 2007
Their uniforms said police but their actions said firefighters. The four officers sauntered to the centre of the buzzing crowd and did all that was left to do: stamp out the flames roasting yet another victim of mob justice in Kenya.
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/ 16 January 2007
With just days to go before the seventh World Social Forum (WSF) kicks off in Nairobi, it is all systems go among the organisers, who are preparing to welcome thousands of delegates to the Kenyan capital for the January 20 to 25 gathering. The yearly forum will provide a platform for groups and individuals who oppose the current system of globalisation.