At least 43 Nigerian soldiers who had just returned from a peacekeeping mission in Darfur have been killed in a road accident in the north of Nigeria, a military spokesperson said on Thursday. The soldiers, including an army captain, were in a convoy of seven vehicles in north-eastern Yobe state on Wednesday when one of them collided with an oncoming petrol tanker.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon flew to Burma on Thursday to press the ruling generals to allow a full-blown international aid effort for 2,4-million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis. The government’s official toll is 77 738 people killed and 55 917 missing, and it also estimates the damage to the economy at -billion.
The senior leader of Somalia’s Islamist opposition vowed on Wednesday to expel United States-backed Ethiopian troops by force and create an Islamic republic in the war-torn country. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who led Somalia’s Islamic Courts movement, said Mogadishu’s Western-backed Transitional Federal Government was run by ”traitors”.
President Robert Mugabe accused Zimbabwe’s opposition of embarking on ”an evil crusade” as he stepped up claims on Wednesday that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is to blame for mounting violence. ”The MDC opposition, formed at the behest of Britain, is on an evil crusade of dividing our people,” Mugabe said.
Twenty-one Sudanese army soldiers have been killed in fierce fighting with southern forces in the contested oil-rich town of Abyei, army sources said on Wednesday. The army accused the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, from semi-autonomous South Sudan, of attacking its positions in the town on Tuesday.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon headed to south-east Asia on Wednesday on a mission to secure more help for cyclone victims in Burma, whose military rulers have finally granted an aid agency the use of helicopters to deliver supplies. The UN says up to 2,4-million people are struggling to survive.
This year’s poor rains have nearly killed Bizunesh. The rangy three-year-old weighs less than 4kg. Her long limbs, weak and folded like a praying mantis, cannot carry even her slight weight. She cannot speak. She doesn’t want to eat. Health officials say she is permanently stunted.
There is a growing danger of a coup by military hardliners in Zimbabwe to prevent opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai from toppling President Robert Mugabe, a leading think tank said on Wednesday. The International Crisis Group called for African mediation leading to a national unity government led by Tsvangirai as the best way to resolve the crisis.
In the current scandal of the attempt to ship tons of arms and ammunition to Zimbabwe it is the Chinese who have spoken the most sense. China’s foreign ministry said the country’s shipment of mortar grenades, rockets and bullets was ”perfectly normal trade”.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Tuesday appealed to governments to do more to save Africa from disease. ”We cannot lose Africa,” Tutu told the 193-nation World Health Assembly. ”The cradle of humankind” is threatened by ”disease, conflict and destruction”.
A severe drought in Ethiopia threatens up to six million children, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) warned on Tuesday. "Up to six million children under five years of age are living in impoverished, drought-prone districts and require continuation of urgent preventative health and nutrition interventions," Unicef said in a statement.
Top Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministry officials met on Tuesday to review their four-year-old peace process that has stalled since domestic political turmoil erupted in Pakistan last year. It is the first contact India has had with leaders of a new Pakistani civilian government.
Nigeria has become the world piracy ”hot spot”, with its prized oil industry a particular target, and the raiders have exposed flaws in the country’s security. Despite the massive revenues earned from oil, officials concede Nigeria is ill-equipped to combat pirates who ply the seas with speed boats, modern machine guns and radios.
Fighting resumed on Tuesday in Abyei, the flashpoint oil-rich border area between north and south Sudan whose status remains contested three years after the end of civil war, aid workers said. ”It began early this morning and now it seems like the fighting has stopped,” Kouider Zerrouk, the deputy spokesperson for the United Nations mission in Sudan, said.
Burma’s neighbours appeared to have reached a compromise with the regime on Monday that would finally allow significant amounts of international aid to reach the survivors of the deadly cyclone, more than two weeks after it struck. An Asian-led task force will be formed to help funnel relief into the isolated country.
A leading human rights group accused the international community on Monday of not doing enough to deter Sudan from new attacks in Darfur, where it cited a return to ”scorched-earth” policies. Human Rights Watch said the United Nations Security Council should impose sanctions on Sudanese officials behind attacks on civilians in Darfur in February.
The United Nations food agency warned on Monday that war-torn Somalia could plunge into an acute humanitarian crisis if the unrest, drought, soaring prices and weak currency escalate. ”The humanitarian situation in Somalia is deteriorating quickly due to soaring food prices, a significantly devalued Somali shilling and worsening drought,” the agency said.
Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebels have abducted at least 100 children from neighbouring countries to use as sex slaves and porters, an international human rights group said on Monday. Peace talks between Uganda and the rebels appeared to stall last month when LRA leader Joseph Kony failed to appear at a signing ceremony.
Opposition parties on Monday lambasted the government for its handling of xenophobic violence in parts of the country, and even called for the army to be deployed. Mobs roaming through poor townships around Johannesburg have killed and beaten up immigrants over the past week, with Zimbabweans and others reporting purges by armed locals.
Aid was trickling in on Sunday to an estimated 2,5-million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta as more foreign envoys tried to get the junta to admit large-scale international relief. The junta’s official toll from the disaster stands at 77 738 dead and 55 917 missing.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai will not return to Zimbabwe on Saturday, fearing an assassination attempt, an MDC spokesperson said. Tsvangirai had been expected to return home on Saturday ahead of a run-off election scheduled for June 27.
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was to return home on Saturday bidding to deliver a knockout blow to weakened President Robert Mugabe in a run-off election scheduled for June 27. Mugabe acknowledged on Friday that he had suffered an electoral disaster in losing a first-round poll against Tsvangirai on March 29.
Burma’s ruling military junta took diplomats on a tour of the storm-ravaged Irrawaddy delta on Saturday as its toll of dead and missing soared above 133 000 people, making Cyclone Nargis one of the most devastating ever to hit Asia. An estimated 2,5-million people are clinging to survival in the delta.
Burma said on Friday that more than 133 000 people were dead or missing in the cyclone disaster, nearly doubling the toll from the worst disaster in the country’s history, which hit two weeks ago. State television said 77 738 were dead and 55 917 missing — with 19 359 people injured — according to the latest figures.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai vowed on Friday to lift his country out of the ”darkness” under President Robert Mugabe and voiced confidence he will win a run-off presidential poll. The comments came shortly after his party said Tsvangirai would go home on Saturday after more than a month away following disputed elections.
The Somali government and the main political opposition issued a rare joint statement on Friday calling on all sides to allow humanitarian access to the country’s war-torn population. The declaration was distributed by the office of United Nations envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who is mediating talks between the rivals.
The lesson was coming to an end, the last for this class of 15-year-olds before their annual exams in a few days’ time. The girls are keen students and answered correctly nearly all of the questions put to them by their teacher, Nahida al-Katib, even though the subject this time was the intricate grammar of classical, Qu’ranic Arabic
Torrential tropical downpours lashed Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta on Friday, deepening the misery of an estimated 2,5-million destitute survivors of Cyclone Nargis and further hampering aid efforts. Burma state television raised its official death toll on Thursday to 43 328. Independent experts say the figures are probably far higher.
The United Nations’s Department of Social and Economic Affairs predicts that world economic growth will fall steeply to 1,8% this year and 2,1% next year, down from 3,8% in 2007, according to a report entitled <i>World Economic Situation and Prospects 2008</i>.
Food prices should stay high for the next two to three seasons but should eventually ease as stocks are replenished, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday. Senior officials from the United Nations agency said corn prices would be supported this year by lower US plantings and by increased demand for ethanol.
Thousands of civilians fled clashes between Sudan’s former north-south civil war foes in the oil-rich central town of Abyei on Thursday. The clashes, sparked by a local dispute, highlight the tension in an area claimed by both Khartoum and South Sudan. More than three years after a 2005 peace deal, they have not agreed on borders or a local government for the region.
Zimbabwe’s opposition reacted furiously on Thursday to the prospect of a run-off poll being delayed until the end of July, accusing authorities of flouting the law to help President Robert Mugabe cling to power. The Movement for Democratic Change feared the delay would be used to intensify a campaign of violence and intimidation.