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/ 11 January 2007

US: Somalia strike misses top al-Qaeda suspects

A United States air strike in Somalia missed its main target of three top al-Qaeda suspects but killed up to 10 of their allies, a senior American official said on Thursday. A US warplane on Monday attacked a village in southern Somalia in an attempt to destroy an al-Qaeda cell accused of bombing two US embassies and an Israeli-owned hotel in East Africa.

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/ 11 January 2007

Kenya detains wives of Somalia al-Qaeda suspects

Kenyan police on Thursday interrogated two al-Qaeda suspects’ wives caught fleeing Somalia, as mystery remained over whether their husbands survived a United States air strike. The US on Monday hit a village in southern Somalia in an attempt to take out an al-Qaeda cell accused of bombing two US embassies and an Israeli-owned hotel.

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/ 9 January 2007

Rift Valley Fever kills dozens in Kenya

Rift Valley Fever, a highly contagious virus, has killed 74 people in Kenya and infected hundreds more after spreading from the north-eastern region to the coast, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The fever, which is spread through mosquito bites or movement of contaminated animals, causes flu-like symptoms and can lead to death through bleeding.

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/ 4 January 2007

US: Pursuing Somali Islamists our right

The United States has a right to pursue Somalia’s Islamists, which it believes have ties to international terror networks, the US embassy in Kenya said on Thursday. On Wednesday, the US State Department said the country is working with other countries in the region to ensure that Islamists linked to terrorism are not able to flee the country.

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/ 4 January 2007

US helps Ethiopia in Somalia

Ethiopian helicopters, helped by United States intelligence, nearly hit Somali Islamist leaders after they fled their last stronghold, officials said on Thursday. Kenyan police said, meanwhile, that a Kenyan military helicopter was ”extensively damaged” after it came under sustained ground fire while patrolling the border with Somalia, hours after the border was closed.

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/ 3 January 2007

Kenya deports Somalia refugees

Authorities were on Wednesday deporting dozens of Somali refugees who had fled to Kenya from violence in lawless Somalia as Nairobi tightened security on the frontier. A day after Ethiopian helicopters missed their Islamist targets, instead bombing positions in Kenya, police escorted the refugees across the border into Somalia from a registration centre in Liboi.

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/ 18 December 2006

Three killed after rally in Kenya turns violent

Three people have died in Kenya after clashes between police and residents of one of Africa’s largest slums on Sunday. Police were deployed to the sprawling Kibera slum, which houses an estimated 800 000 people, after a political rally became unruly, with opposing sides pelting each other with stones and some forcing a passing train to grind to a halt.

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/ 14 December 2006

African leaders launch Great Lakes summit

African leaders met in Kenya on Thursday to discuss security, governance and economic development in the continent’s troubled Great Lakes region. The impoverished and volatile area, which includes Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Democratic of Congo, has been mired in violence since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, which triggered a string of wars and counter-wars.

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/ 13 December 2006

Somali PM says Islamists preparing attack on govt

Somali Islamist forces backed by 4 000 foreign fighters are moving into position for an attack on the interim government’s base, Somalia’s prime minister said on Wednesday. ”I don’t think that they are ready for dialogue, for peace and stability to prevail in Somalia. In that case, war may become inevitable,” Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said.

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/ 11 December 2006

Kenya’s graft woes set to dog the new year

As 2006 comes to a close, concerns over Kenya’s track record in tackling corruption are deepening in the East African nation. Authorities have consistently said they are committed to the fight against graft, but civil society organisations argue that various developments indicate a lack of political will to root out corruption.

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/ 8 December 2006

President’s generous pay rise angers Kenyans

The Kenyan Parliament’s decision to raise President Mwai Kibaki’s salary by 186% has outraged many in the East African nation where more than half the population lives on less than a day. Parliament voted this week to raise Kibaki’s monthly salary to nearly  000 a month, plus allowances of  600, officials said.

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/ 5 December 2006

Looking below the surface for tomorrow’s energy

The 12th session of the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change came to an end in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, recently with little mention of cleaner sources of energy. This was troubling, given the huge potential for such energy sources in Africa — and the fact that a third of the world’s population currently has no access to electricity.

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/ 1 December 2006

East African floods cause destruction, claim lives

The death toll from catastrophic floods that have hit East Africa has risen to more than 250, aid workers said on Friday as rains continued to pound the impoverished region. Floods have hit Kenya, Somalia, Rwanda and Ethiopia, with tens of thousands of people forced to flee their homes, aid agencies said. Disease from poor sanitation is also taking its toll.

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/ 1 December 2006

Stigma remains hurdle in Kenya’s fight against Aids

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/291293/aidsday06.gif" align=left>Awareness campaigns have succeeded in reducing Kenya’s HIV/Aids prevalence rate to 6% in 2006 from 10% in the late 1990s, according to a United Nations report. But HIV-positive Kenyans, like Akinyi, are often stigmatised by strangers and family alike who remain ignorant about the transmission and symptoms of the disease.

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/ 29 November 2006

Kenyan president pledges to help flood victims

Facing mounting pressure to declare a national disaster, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki pledged to help hundreds of thousands of people affected by floods as the death toll hit 51, officials said on Wednesday. Kibaki said the "government is assisting communities affected by floods occasioned by the ongoing rains", his office reported in a statement.

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/ 27 November 2006

Somali PM vows to take Mogadishu from Islamists

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi vowed on Monday that his government, backed by Ethiopia, would take Mogadishu from powerful Islamists now controlling the city, fuelling war fears. With forces loyal to his weak administration and Ethiopian soldiers reinforcing the government seat of Baidoa, Gedi said he had an obligation to act.

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/ 27 November 2006

Kenya’s first land policy perhaps not the best

Historical injustices that have resulted in landlessness among Kenyans have been the focus of recent public discussions on a land policy — the first to be drawn up in the East African country. Previously, Kenya has had no clearly defined laws on how to manage land, leading to a breakdown in land administration. Disparities in land ownership, tenure insecurity and squatting have occurred, often resulting in conflict.

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/ 24 November 2006

‘What is the WSF? Something that will bring me medicine?’

In just two months’ time the World Social Forum (WSF) will get under way in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, marking the first instance in which Africa is acting as sole host of the event. With the East African country also home to Kibera — sometimes referred to as Africa’s largest slum — it could be argued that there is no more appropriate venue for the 2007 WSF.

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/ 20 November 2006

Somalia is ‘epicentre of jihadism’

Somalia has replaced Sudan as the ”epicentre of jihadism” in East Africa since the rise of a powerful Islamist movement, according to an author who has just finished a book on the Horn of Africa nation. ”The most potent expression of jihadism in the region has occurred in stateless Somalia,” says Gregory Alonso Pirio.

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/ 20 November 2006

Doubts cast over Somali support for Hizbullah

A United Nations report that claims 720 fighters from Somalia’s Islamic courts fought alongside Hizbullah during the recent war with Israel has been questioned by experts. The report, compiled by the Monitoring Group on Somalia and to be presented to the UN Security Council on Friday, also alleges that Iran sought to purchase uranium from the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia in exchange for weapons.

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/ 17 November 2006

UN climate talks down to the wire

Environment ministers ground their way towards the end of a 12-day climate summit on Friday, squabbling over a blueprint for negotiating the next round of carbon pollution curbs under the United Nations’s Kyoto Protocol. The talks gathered members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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/ 16 November 2006

On brink of war, Somalia faces severe flooding

Unusually heavy seasonal rains are threatening Somalia with its worst floods in 50 years while the impoverished Horn of Africa country teeters on the brink of all-out war. As forces loyal to the government and the Islamist movement gird for full-scale conflict that many fear could engulf the wider region, about 50 000 Somalis have been displaced by devastating and deadly floods.

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/ 15 November 2006

Kenya appeals for help as floods wreak havoc

Kenya on Wednesday appealed for aid to help hundreds of thousands of people hit by devastating and deadly floods across the country, triggered by unusually heavy seasonal rains. As rains continued to pound north and coastal Kenya, authorities made a national appeal for almost -million to help about 300 000 people who are affected by the floods, which have so far killed 23 people.