AFRICANEWS

WAR AND PEACE

ALGERIA April 24, 1997: Islamic extremists hacked to death 42 villagers with axes and swords in Algeria just one day after nearly 100 were butchered in a stunning upsurge of violence that exposed the impotence of security forces.

ANGOLA Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos dissolved his cabinet on April 9, 1997 as one of the final steps to forming a new power-sharing government. The country was scheduled to get a government of national unity. Meanwhile the deputies of the Unita ex-rebel movement took up their seats in Angola's parliament on April 9, 1997 nearly five years after their election paving way for the long awaited government of national unity. On May 3, 1997 Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos advised Zairean rebel leader Mr. Laurent Kabila to push ahead with his offensive in order to negotiate from a position of strength.

BURUNDI On April 21, 1997 a spokesman of Burundis President Buyoya indicated that his government had been allowed by leaders of the Great Lakes region to enter into bilateral negotiations with its neighbours on lifting sanctions on fuel and other items.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Tension rose in Bangui as former mutinees set up barricades in the southwest of the city on May 3, 1997 after three of their comrades were found dead after being arrested by security forces.

ERITREA President Issais Afeworki confirmed on April 24, 1997 that Eritrean troops were fighting alongside rebels in Sudan claiming that the destruction of the regime in Khartoum was a priority of Asmara.

ETHIOPIA Eleven people were injured in explosions in a bar in Dire-Dawa on April 26, 1997. The blast was the fourth such attack on Ethiopia in two weeks.

KENYA On April 12, 1997 President Moi ordered that 700 Kikuyu families evicted from their farms at Chapakundi, Olenguruone during the 1992-93 ethnic clashes be given alternative settlement in the Elburgon area. This would be coupled with the resettlement of several other Kalenjin families displaced during the clashes. Opposition leaders on May 3, 1997 led a multitude of citizens in an outright defiance of a government ban on a meeting planned to address constitutional reforms. A confrontation between the police and the crowds ensued resulting in injuries.

NIGERIA Five people died on April 19, 1997 in the midwestern Nigerian town of Warri where there had been running clashes between militant youth of feuding tribes. The latest killing took place as a consequence to the burning down of the village of Ugbuwagbwe. The killings brought to 50 the number of deaths since renewed hostilities of April 12, 1997.

SOMALIA Fighting between two Somali clans in the middle of Shaabelle region north of Mogadishu left at least nine people dead and 12 others wounded reports indicated on April 21, 1997. At least 17 militiamen and civilians were killed and 26 others wounded during heavy factional fighting which erupted in the Somali capital overnight, medical sources and witnesses reported on April 28, 1997.

SOUTH AFRICA On April 23, 1997 former Defense Minister General Magnus Malan volunteered to testify before South Africa's Truth Commission becoming one of the most senior apartheid-era security chiefs to do so.

SUDAN On April 10, 1997 Sudanese President Omar El Bashir said that he would sign a peace deal with four rebel factions in the south of the country later in the month. He said this would happen immediately after the Islamic festival of Kurban Bairam. Rebels in Southern Sudan destroyed a base belonging to an insurgency fighting, the Ugandan Defence Minister, Mbabazi indicated on April 12, 1997. The Sudan News Agency reported on April 20, 1997 that former US President Jimmy Carter would meet Sudanese leaders and rebel representatives ahead of the scheduled signing of a peace agreement. Southern Sudanese faction leaders who signed a peace deal with Khartoum on April 23, 1997 appealed to main rebel leader Colonel John Garang to join them in the agreement intended to end one of Africa's longest wars. Sudanese newspapers reported on April 29, 1997 that government forces had recaptured a town from Eritrean forces and more than 20 villages from southern rebels.

TANZANIA On April 28, 1997 it was reported that tension was high on Burundi's border with Tanzania with Burundi claiming that Hutu rebels were operating from bases across the frontier. They further claimed that Tanzania could become a second Zaire given the amassing of troops along the border raising a spectre of war.

UGANDA On April 20, 1997 it was reported that the Ugandan military stepped up its fight against the northern based rebels of the Lords Resistance Army and killed more than 30 of its fighters in one week. On April 23, 1997 it was reported that Ugandan authorities had charged 746 captured rebels of the West Nile Bank Front with treason.

ZAIRE Zaire's embattled President Mobutu Sese Seko agreed to talks with rebels threatening to overrun the capital Kinshasa, the last strong-hold of his army, it was reported on April 19, 1997. In doing so he hoped to find a dignified way out of power. On April 20, 1997 Zaire rebels agreed to release 46 Lebanese nationals held as hostages under a deal organised by Beirut's embassies in Zaire and South Africa. There were 5,000 registered Lebanese nationals in the troubled Central African country. On his arrival in Zaire on April 28, US envoy Bill Richardson declared that the US wanted to see a negotiated settlement in the Central African nations seven-month-old civil war.

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