Human rights group Amnesty International on Thursday called for an independent international investigation into last week’s massacre in western Burundi, when 158 Congolese refugees were shot, hacked, clubbed and burnt to death. The FNL (National Liberation Forces), the last rebel group fighting the government in Burundi, immediately claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack on the Gatumba refugee camp.
Representatives of civil society in Kenya have called for its inclusion in the redrafting of a policy on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the East African country. They say they were denied an opportunity to comment on the policy when it was first drafted. Private-sector lobbyists have also complained of being locked out of consultations on the initial draft of the policy.
The African Union (AU) has urged its members to urgently impose travel sanctions on leaders of Burundi’s recalcitrant rebel group that claimed responsibility for last week’s slaughter of 160 refugees in Burundi. ”The council reiterates its appeal to all member states … to impose, with immediate effect, restrictions on the movement of the leaders and members of the Palipehutu/FNL,” the AU said in a statement.
The Red Cross on Monday appealed to the international community for ,7-million to help 200 000 Kenyans facing starvation. ”We have a disaster on our hands and we need everyone’s solidarity,” Wilfred Machege, assistant minister in the Office of the President, told a press conference in Nairobi.
At least 100 Maasai tribesmen demonstrated on Friday in the Kenyan capital to demand back land ceded to British settlers under treaties signed with the colonial government in 1904 and 1911, which expire this weekend. The protesters, wearing traditional regalia, took to the streets carrying placards that poured scorn on Britain.
The political and humanitarian situation in Sudan’s western region of Darfur was again in the spotlight on Tuesday, thanks to a visit to south Sudan and Chad by United States Senate majority leader William Frist. ”What is going on there [in Darfur] is genocide,” the Republican senator from Tennessee told journalists.
Sudan’s ’empty promises’
The informal sector features prominently in many discussions about Africa’s economic health. Some say it should be encouraged. After all, it’s a lot better than having citizens turn to crime in their effort to survive. But in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where an an average of 100 000 vendors operates, some people have a different view.
Armed militias are continuing to commit atrocities against civilians in Sudan’s troubled western region of Darfur despite claims by Khartoum that the situation has improved, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday. HRW said that instead of disarming the Janjaweed militias, Khartoum has begun incorporating them into the police force.
The inauguration of Somalia’s transitional Parliament was on Thursday postponed to August 19, after disagreements over nominees from various clans once again delayed earlier plans to swear in the MPs and launch the assembly. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development had expected to launch the Parliament on July 30.
The African Union plans to transform a small force it was due to send to Sudan’s troubled Darfur region into a 2Â 000-strong peacekeeping mission, an AU official said on Wednesday. The pan-African body was already planning to send about 300 troops to Darfur to protect its observers and monitors in the country.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119827">Thousands march on UN in Sudan</a>
Kenya’s press on Tuesday angrily demanded the sacking of the country’s foreign affairs minister over his weekend announcement that seven hostages held in Iraq had been released, which it said turned out to be a ”cruel hoax”. Chirau Ali claimed the hostages had been released and were safe in the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad.
The construction of the first railway line in Kenya was a feast for ”Tsavo’s man-eaters” as the lions in the area were named. The hungry beasts tore about 130 workers to pieces. Nearly 100 years later, a German company is tackling the reconstruction of the old route, which is to be extended to southern Sudan.
A magistrate on Friday dismissed a ”confession” from prosecution evidence in the trial of three Kenyans charged with plotting terror attacks in the country, a defence lawyer said. Salmin Mohammed Khamis, Mohammed Kubwa Seif and Said Saggar Ahmed are accused of plotting the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, when 213 people died.
The African Union has said it may transform its protection force into a ”fully-fledged peacekeeping mission” in Sudan’s Darfur region to force the government-backed Janjaweed militia to lay down its arms in line with a ceasefire deal. The pan-African body is already planning to send some 300 troops to Darfur by the end of July to protect its team of observers and monitors overseeing the implementation of a shaky ceasefire deal.
Hundreds of farmers near Mount Kenya blocked a major highway for three hours this week, protesting against an invasion of their farms by elephants, a news report said on Wednesday. The farmers said the authorities had done nothing to help them get rid of four elephants that had terrorised their fields for weeks.
Government-backed Arab militiamen chained and burned alive civilians in a raid on a market in Sudan’s Darfur region in violation of a ceasefire signed in April, African Union (AU) monitors said Wednesday. ”The attackers looted the market and killed civilians, in some cases chaining them and burning them alive,” said a report released by AU ceasefire observers in the region.
Sudan to face ‘genocide’ inquiry
Poverty has often played the leading role in driving Kenyans to look for employment in the Middle East. But last week’s kidnapping of three Kenyans by Iraqi militants is set to change all that, if the government has its way. The government of President Mwai Kibaki has urged Kenyans working in the Middle East to return home, but that will mean an increase in the number of people looking for jobs.
Kenya on Saturday pleaded again with kidnappers to release three of its nationals held hostage in Iraq, saying it cannot meet the abductors’ new demands. ”We are now requesting that the kidnappers release the Kenyan hostages because their employer has promised to pull out of Iraq,” said government spokesperson Alfred Mutua.
Relatives and Muslim leaders appealed to Iraqi militants on Thursday to release three Kenyan truck drivers they took hostage, saying the men are good Muslims who went to Iraq to earn a living for their families. A militant group calling itself The Holders of the Black Banners announced on Wednesday it has taken the men hostage.
Amid growing corruption allegations against the Kenyan government, the European Union has postponed a decision on whether to give Kenya new grants, EU and Kenyan officials said on Wednesday. The EU delayed its decision because it wants clarification on some issues, Cabinet secretary Francis Muthaura said, without elaborating.
Hundreds of thousands of Eritrean children are living in extreme poverty due to prolonged drought, the aftermath of border conflict with neighbouring Ethiopia and its impact on the country’s economy, according the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). An estimated 425 000 children under 14 years of age are affected.
President Mwai Kibaki has declared a national disaster in drought-stricken parts of Kenya, calling for nearly -million in emergency aid from abroad to feed about 3,3-million Kenyans facing food shortages. The country will need an estimated 156Â 000 tons of food aid in the next six months, Kibaki said on Tuesday.
The dragging stalemate in the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea has led the United Nations to voice its concern saying that the impasse poses a security threat to the Horn of Africa. More than 100Â 000 lives were lost before fighting ended almost four years ago.
Britain on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on corruption in Kenya, saying that ”a gigantic looting spree” is hampering development and placing risks on continued donor support. Corruption allegedly accounts for ”about 8%” of the East African country’s gross domestic product.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says that peace talks for southern Sudan may be compromised if mediators continue to turn a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis raging in the western region of Darfur, where more than a million people have been displaced by fighting.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday appealed for food aid, saying many parts of his country are experiencing food shortages because of inadequate rainfall, his office said. Kibaki insisted that his government will ensure that food aid reaches those affected.
Thursday July 1 should have been the day that Kenya woke up to a new Constitution that set the country on a path of improved governance and development. But yet again, the government has failed to deliver this document. President Mwai Kibaki first promised that a new Constitution would be in hand by the end of his first 100 days in office.
A decade after the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, maternal mortality continues to plague Africa. Delegates to a meeting held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, recently heard that of the 585 000 deaths caused every year by obstetric complications, many occur in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Kenyan government is to start offering free medical services to poor patients at small public hospitals across the country from next month, health officials said on Monday. ”Effective July 1, patients will not be required to pay for diagnosis and treatment, at public health centres and dispensaries only,” said James Nyikal, the national director of medical services.
”The toll on children is most worrying,” says James Elder, communications officer for the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), about the situation in Darfur, western Sudan. He noted that; ”There are high levels of malnutrition, especially among children. Many of them have died of malnutrition, but it is difficult to get the number of those dead due to the lack of monitoring logistics.”
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A meeting of more than 187 church leaders from across Africa has highlighted the role of female clergy in fighting the Aids pandemic that has swept the continent. The four-day gathering, which ended on Friday, was organised by the All Africa Conference of Churches to explore ways of stepping up efforts to curb the spread of HIV.
A society free of female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision, appeared distant this week after a group of women’s rights activists accused medical personnel of carrying out the practice. The activists made the allegation in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday, after a meeting of former circumcisers organised by Equality Now.