AFRICANEWS
CLIPPINGSEthiopiaA meeting of the National Salvation council (NSC), grouping 26 Somali factions, agreed on January 7 that warlord Hussein Muhamed Aideed should withdraw his militiamen from the southern Somali town of Baidoa before a reconciliation conference there on February 5 this year. The NSC, which does not include Aideed's faction, met here for three days to review a peace agreement signed by 43 factions including most of those in the NSC - in Cairo last December 22. The Cairo meeting resulted in a decision to hold a conference in Baidoa from February 15 to set a federal state and a three-year transitional government, ending seven years of civil war.AngolaAngola's former rebel movement UNITA has ordered a halt to the work of non-governmental organisations at its jungle stronghold in south-eastern Jamba, AFP quoted sources close to the movement as saying last December 30. UNITA took the step after the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said the area around Jamba was mined, and charged that UNITA was impeding the work on humanitarian organisations.(source: IRIN).BurundiAn outbreak of malaria in Burundi caused overcrowding in Bujumbura's hospitals and medical services were stretched, Burundi radio reported on December 29, 1997. It quoted the director of the Prince Louis Rwagasore clinic, Dr Tharcisse Nzeyimana, as saying the disease coincided with the rainy season which began last October. Meanwhile, the director of Burundi's pharmaceutical company ONAPHA denied spreading rumours of a shortage of anti-malarial drugs. Nestor Ntibateganya said the company had adequate quantities of chloroquine and quinine, but admitted fansidar was in short supply. The current outbreak of malaria had increased consumption three-fold, he added, (source:IRIN).Congo-BrazzavilleCongolese leader Denis Sassou Nguesso promised that leaders of the ousted regime of Pascal Lissouba would be put on trail for causing 15,000 deaths in five years. In a radio broadcast, monitored in Kinshasa by AFP, Sassou Nguesso said: "Our compatriots implicated in the division of the nation and citizen who endangered the constitution of the state do not deserve the pardon of the people." (Source: IRIN).LiberiaGuinea's ambassador to Liberia denied a newspaper report that his government had expelled former Liberian faction leader Alhaji Kromah from Guinea, independent Star Radio reported on January 4. But Ambassador Ibrahim Sheriff Haidara said the government was trying to encourage Kromah to return home. A Liberia analyst told IRIN on January 5 that Liberia's President Charles Taylor is keen to have Kromah back in Liberia. According to the source, Taylor recently appointed Kromah to head the Liberian National Reconciliation Commission to persuade him to return. " Taylor is very worried Kromah may be looking for opportunities to secure his own power base outside the country. If he can bring him into the government, he may bee able to reduce this threat or at least keep a close eye on his nearest rival, " the source said, (source: IRIN).Democratic Republic of CongoPresident Laurent-Desire Kabila reshuffled his cabinet on January 3 this year, bringing in former Katanga governor Gaetan Kakudji as Minister of state for Internal Affairs. Interior Minister Mwenze Kongolo was moved to the Justice portfolio. Pierre-Victor Mpoyo becomes minister of state for economic and petrol. The two state minister posts did not exist in the previous government. Justice minister Celestine Lwangi was appointed International Co-operation minister. Finance minister Mawampanga Mwananga becomes Agriculture minister, and Tala Ngai comes into the cabinet as the new finance minister. Other changes include Agriculture minister Paul Bandoma who takes the Commerce portfolio and International Co-operation minister Thomas Kanza who becomes Labour and Social Security minister. The new cabinet includes three new faces , but no minister was dismissed. DRC radio pointed out the reshuffled team contains two ministers of state, 21 ministers and six(6) deputy ministers, (source: IRIN).EthiopiaA meeting of the National Salvation council (NSC), grouping 26 Somali factions, agreed on January 7 that warlord Hussein Muhamed Aideed should withdraw his militiamen from the southern Somali town of Baidoa before a reconciliation conference there on February 5 this year. The NSC, which does not include Aideed's faction, met here for three days to review a peace agreement signed by 43 factions including most of those in the NSC - in Cairo last December 22. The Cairo meeting resulted in a decision to hold a conference in Baidoa from February 15 to set a federal state and a three-year transitional government, ending seven years of civil war.LiberiaGuinea's ambassador to Liberia denied a newspaper report that his government had expelled former Liberian faction leader Alhaji Kromah from Guinea, independent Star Radio reported on January 4. But Ambassador Ibrahim Sheriff Haidara said the government was trying to encourage Kromah to return home. A Liberia analyst told IRIN on January 5 that Liberia's President Charles Taylor is keen to have Kromah back in Liberia. According to the source, Taylor recently appointed Kromah to head the Liberian National Reconciliation Commission to persuade him to return. " Taylor is very worried Kromah may be looking for opportunities to secure his own power base outside the country. If he can bring him into the government, he may bee able to reduce this threat or at least keep a close eye on his nearest rival, " the source said, (source: IRIN).MaliThe government closed all state and private schools in Mali on January 8 after student demonstrations for higher grants, Malian radio reported. Earlier in the week, students set fire to the headquarters of the ruling party at Markala, 320 km north of Bamako, AFP reported. On January 7 security forces also used tear gas to disperse demonstrators and dismantle barricades in the capital, Bamako, and other major towns across the country. Official sources said the closure was "in the face of sharply escalating tensions" at schools and universities. Sources in Bamako told AFP on January 7 that at least two student union leaders had been arrested. The student boycott compounds Mali's long-running political crisis sparked by the cancellation of legislative elections in April and an opposition election boycott last year.NigerAuthorities in Niger released two prominent opposition politicians arrested January 2 in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, media sources reported. The two, Bazoum Mohammed and Issoufou Assoumane, were detained after they gave interviews to foreign radio stations denouncing the coup allegations as a ploy to incriminate opposition figures. Eight other opposition politicians also arrested and were still in detention. They included a former civilian prime minister, Hama Amadou. Mainassara seized power in a military coup in 1996, ending Niger's brief period of civilian rule.SudanSome 80,000 people have lost their sight due to a new outbreak of river blindness in Sudan, AFP reported a Sudanese health official as saying. The agency said Leila Abulfutuh was quoted in the 'Al Rai Al Akher' newspaper on last December 21 as saying that 95 percent of Raga town's 400,000 inhabitants had contracted the disease and some 20 percent, around 80,000 people, were already blind. Raga is situated on a river of the same name in Bahr Al Ghazal, some 75 km from Sudan's border with Central Africa Republic. Abulfuuh said the Sudanese health ministry and WHO were co-operating to fight the disease. Meanwhile President Omar Hassan el -Bashir, in an address to mark January 1 this year independence day celebrations denounced US sanctions against his country. State television quoted him as saying Sudan "rejects the behaviour of sanctions and isolation" practised by the United States which imposed economic sanctions on the Sudan in last November for its alleged support of terrorism and human rights abuses. (source: IRIN)South -AfricaA decision on whether to persecute apartheid-era President P.W. Botha for failing to turn-up to testify at South-Africa's Truth Commission would not be made until next week, a justice official said on January 2. Regional attorney-general Frank Kahn "won't be making a decision on persecution until next week", the official told Reuters. Charges against Botha was laid by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu on last December 19 when he defied a subpoena to testify to the Commission on activities of the Security Council he headed in the 1980s.Uganda/KenyaAccording to a DHA-Geneva report, flooding in Uganda has left an estimated 100 people dead and a further 151,000 displaced. Many others are critically injured and thousands of acres of food and cash crops have been washed away. The Uganda government has appealed for funds to purchase seeds of fast early maturing crops and the necessary farm tools. In neighbouring Kenya, an estimated 300,000 people have been displaced or affected by floods in northern, eastern and coastal parts of the country. The report said excessive rainfall had resulted in stunted crops such as maize and beans and difficulty in harvesting mature crops, (source: IRIN).ZambiaZambia's former President, Kenneth Kaunda, who was on January 2 under house arrest over a foiled coup plot has been allowed only two visitors a week, including family members, his son Wezi said. The Statesman was arrested a week ago and jailed in a maximum security prison, but he was freed on January 2 this year by President Frederick Chiluba and put under house arrest at his house Lusaka home on strike conditions. But on January 7, Kaunda dismissed it and promised to continue his political activities. | CONTENTS | AFRICANEWS HOMEPAGE |
Contents can be freely reproduced with acknowledgements. The by-line should read: author/AFRICANEWS. Send a copy of the reproduced article to AFRICANEWS.
AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 8034, Nairobi, Kenya
|