AFRICANEWS

TANZANIA

On July 14 a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) aid official reported that a total of 6,000 refugees who fled the former Zaire for Tanzania's Kigoma region have been repatriated voluntarily.

The bulk of the refugees were unregistered with the UNHCR and were living in villages along the East shore of Lake Tanganyika.

ALGERIA

A bomb exploded on July 14 in the market at Baraki, just outside Algiers, killing upto 21 people injuring 40 others. No immediate claim of responsibility was reported. According to El Watan daily, around 20 muslim rebels attacked Fetha village, near Ksar el Boukari, Southeast Algiers.

On July 15, Algeria freed radical Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) chief Abassi Madani, a military prosecutor said.
Mr Madani, who is FIS President was arrested along with his hardline deputy Ali Belhadji in June 1991 and sentenced the next year to 12 years jail by a military court for threatening Algeria's security.

 

SIERRA LEONE

Relative calm returned to Free town after heavy fighting on 14th July took at least four lives and wounded dozens according to reports by Reuters.

Heavy weapons and mortar fire bombarded the town of Jui, about 19 Km East of the seaside capital.

Seven weeks of sporadic fighting has pitted the Nigerian led peace keeping mission against soldiers of the military regime that recently ousted the president.

Talks between the ruling Junta in Freetown and four west African foreign ministers, aimed at restoring democracy in Sierra-Leone, adjourned after four hours late on July 29.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) represented by foreign ministers of Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Nigeria are determined to reverse the May 25 coup that brought the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council to Power and ousted the elected President, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

BURUNDI

The exiled chairman of PRP, Mr Mathias Hitimana, said on July 27 from Brussels by telephone, that the Burundi military government had ignored pleas to let Ngendakumana and jailed chairman of the Youth Association for the Minorities (SOJEM), Mr Benoit Rufyikiri.

The President of Global Actions for Parliamentarians (PGA), Mr Moses K. Katjiuongua, also appealed to the Burundi government to allow Mr Ngendakumana to attend the Arusha peace talks to be chaired by Mr Nyerere.

The Burundian army said on August 4, that more than 30 Hutu rebels were killed in a fighting that erupted the week before South of the Capital Bujumbura. Four civilians were killed in an anti-tank mine explosion, army spokesman Colonel Isaie Nibizi told AFP.

LESOTHO

Lesotho's ruling party, the Basotholand Congress Party (BCP), on July 25, elected a new leader on its annual conference according to SAPA news agency.

Mr Molapo Qhobela was elected to head the party in the place of Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhele who has established his own party.

The court ordered the BCP to hold a conference within three and a half months to elect a new leader.

MALI

Malian President Alpha Oumar Konore on August 6 initiated a series of consultations with representatives from vaarious politica and socio-professional organisations. An official government communique said. "It is now imperative that we continue exploring all avenues likely to foster consensus among political and social stakeholders so that public life can regain its serenity and vitality: in this way, the citizens' confidence in our democratic and republican values be further enhanced," the president said.

UGANDA

Ugandan authorities are investigating a shoot-out last friday, July 18, at the Kasese Police Station in Western Uganda, between the government and the Allied Democratic Force (ADF), Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi said.

He said that the intermittent attacks by the ADF, are now targeted at the villagers for food and medical centres for drugs and other medical supplies.

SENEGAL

Tension between the government and the Movement of Casamance Democratic Forces (MFDC) seemed to be easing, with the MFDC showing a willingness to find a definite solution to the war which has been ongoing since 1982. According to Africa No 1, the separatists demonstrated a greater willingness to negotiate following the rmoval of the leader of the movement's hardliners, Nkurumah Sane, from the negotiation process. According to some sources, the northern front of the MFDC led by sidi Badji, heir apparent to the leader Father Diamacoune, is determined to bring peace to the areas under its control.

SUDAN

FA Sudanese pro-government militia killed 69 members of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) rebel movement in fighting for the Southern town of Ayod, the militia claimed on July 20.

The South Sudan Defence Force (SSDF), a former rebel grouping which in April signed a peace agreement with Khartoum, killed 69 SPLA troops and wounded 71 others.

KENIA

Sudanese president Omar El-Bashir on August 12 said the Khartoum peace Agreement had been trnsformed into a constitutional decree. He said his government was committed to pursuing peace between the north and the southern Sudanese. The Khartoum Peace Agreement was passed in Nairobi After a two-day summit attended by five heads of states early June this year. The Sudanese leader was told the press during a one-hour stop-over in Nairobi.

CONGO

African heads of state and government officials gathered in Kinshasha on July 20, ahead of a summit designed as a show of support for Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) of President Laurent Kabila. The presidents of eight countries - Central African Republic, Eritrea, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe arrived by the day's morning.

COMORO

Comoro's President Mohamed Taki freed three leaders of the riots by Angry followers secessionist movement after on Anjoun Comoro's radio reported on August 3, island, this year.

The respected 75 year old religious leader Foundi Abdallah lieutenants, Mr Charikane Ibrahim and two of his Ahmed and Mr Toibib, were detained last July 29 and Ali set free late July 2.

KENYA

The Kenya police have detained more than 350 Rwandese Hutu's in a crack down launched after a visit to Nairobi by Rwandan strongman General paul Kagame, a Rwandese source told AFP.

The roundup followed the arrests of seven Rwandese and a Belgian sought by International Criminal Tribunal for rwanda based in Arusha, Tanzania and which is charged with trying those responsible for the 1994 genocide.