AFRICANEWS
War And Peace
EthiopiaEthiopia has accepted a peace plan drawn up by the organization of African unity to resolve its border conflict wit Eritrea ,this is according to it'sforeign minister Seyoum Mesfin.The plan which was presented to Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders at the OAU summit in Ouagadougou on November 7. It was drawn up by the current OAU chairman and president of Burkina Faso Blaise Compaore with his counterparts from Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe and Djibout,i Hassan Gouled Aptidon. They refused in the Burkina Faso capital to disclose details of the proposal which was based on an earlier US-Rwanda plan that called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, an agreement by Ethiopia and Eritrea to delineate the frontier through negotiations, and withdrawal of both sides troops from the border. The summit failed to achieve a cease-fire and convince Eritrea to withdraw troops from the territory along Ethiopia's border, OAU secretary-general Salim Ahmed Salim admitted to journalists on November 9. Nor was there any agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea whose leaders attended separate session of closed door talks but didn't meet face to face, to pull back military units dug along their border. In another development foreign ministers of Sudan and Eritrea began talks in Dohar in Qatar on November 10 in response to the Qatari initiative to iron out differences between the two African countries. Sudan accuses Eritrea of supporting the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army(SPLA) which has waged a 15-year fight for more autonomy in the mainly Christian south from the Moslem Arab north. Eritrea has denied the charges. "We are doing our best to appease the situation because both Sudan and Eritrea are our friends and brothers," said Qatar's foreign minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jabr al-Thani as he led Sudan's Mustafa Osman Ismail and Eritrea's Haile Wolden into a closed door meeting. The meeting followed a message sent last month by Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to the Sudanese leader Omar al- Bashir and president Isaiah's Afwerowki of Eritrea. "We hope we can do something to clear the air," the Qatari foreign minister added. but both sides refusedto say whether they had any specific proposal to discuss.(Source: Daily Nation).
KenyaTheKenyan northern frontier district of Wajir is in a state of panic following a massacre of about 142 people by militiamen believed to be of the Oromo Liberation Front from the neighbouring Ethiopia. But leaders in the country have claimed that the number of the dead could possibly be about 300.On Sunday October 25, about 500 raiders commonly as the `Oromo bandits' swept along the Wajir-Marsabit district border killing and stealing in villages at Bundada, Gerari,Tuli and Muduma. Religious leaders have accusedthegovernment of failing to use their intelligence machinery effectively. FatherFrancis Jabendo of the Catholic mission was quoted in the media having said the government had refused to act even after being alerted of the intention of a raid four months earlier. According to reports from the district, the militiamen used poisonous bombs which inflammmatorily charred the bodies of the victims. The militiamen were said to have kidnappedabout fifty two villagers most of who were teenage girls. An estimated 17,500 cattle were also stolen and driven towards the Ethiopian border. By Monday theNovember 2, hundreds of people were still unaccounted for. The actual number of the dead has not been established . The provincial administration ordered for a physical count of the buried bodies to establish the actual number of the dead. But the muslim community in Kenya objected to the exhuming of the bodies on the basis that it was against the teachings of Islam. Muslim pastoralists who move from one point to another of water and grass predominantly occupy this northern region. Local leaders also here had also refused to allow for the exhuming of the buried bodies. Sources in Wajir accused the Boran , a prominent tribe here of assisting the Oromo militiamen to massacre Degodias one of the local sub clans. The killers were said to have rounded up Degodia men ,women and children at watering points and killed them indiscriminately. The Oromo Liberation Front has been fighting the Ethiopian government from the Kenyan border. But the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi said the massacre had nothing to do with their country. This frontier district has since the `shifta' war just after independence experienced frequent armed attacks. But the severity of the Sunday 25 attack can only be compared to the Wagalla attack where the government in February 1984 in a normal security operation killed a number believed to be about 300.(Source: AANA)
NamibiaEight years after gaining independence, the Namibia government has started to feel the pinch of an armed rebellion from its northern region. Reports of the presence of an armed rebellion against the government of President Sam Nujoma have surfaced at a time when Namibia is actively involved in suppressing another armed rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Source from Namibia indicate that the government military intelligence was indeed actively involved in investigating the allegations of the presence of rebel bases in the northern region. Allegations were however confirmed when armed militiamen allegedly led by a former Namibian politician-activist General Miongocrossed over through the Namibia Botswana border. (Source: AANA)
SudanThe government of Sudan agreed to extend a cease-fire for humanitarian purposes in Bahr al-Ghazal and western Upper Nile regions for three months.The cease-fire will help Operation Lifeline Sudan continue relief efforts.Flooding is also taking a heavy toll in northeast Sudan where hundreds of thousands are affected by displacement, lack of shelter, poor food-security conditions and risk or water-borne diseases as large areas remaining under stagnating standing water.Also, in western Sudan, 63 nomads were swept away by torrential rain and floods on October 12.Massive rains in parts of Sodari province in North Kordofan flooded the Wad Sulayman valley.(Source: AANA)
UgandaUganda's Anglican Prelate, the most Rev. Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo, and bishop Cyprian Bamwoze of the much troubled Busoga Diocese, have reconciled their differences.Bamwoze had, three years ago defied the Uganda House of Bishops order that he go into early retirement.Bishop Bamwoza, who declared his change of heart on October 27 after a one hour meeting with the Archbishop, said he was also taking steps to reconcile with the entire House of Bishops of Uganda and the factions that opposed him in Busoga Diocese during his nearly twenty year tenure as bishop of Busoga. He announced last month that he was retiring on December 31. (Source: AANA)
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