AFRICANEWS
ClippingsNigeria Nigeria's Senate this week released 49 names awaiting its approval as members of President Olusegun Obasanjo's government, news reports said. Senate President Evans Enwerem said on 9 June the list, which Obasanjo submitted on 11 June, included seven women, former ministers, retired army officers and members of opposition parties. Beginning a long-awaited crackdown on the military, Obasanjo has retired about 150 ranking officers from the armed forces who have held political office at the state and federal levels. The government also released a list of missing money and ill-gotten property worth at least US $1 billion seized from the family of late military ruler General Sani Abacha, and close aides of his, including former security adviser Ismaila Gwarzo and ex-Finance Minister Anthony Ani. Meanwhile, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) - a minority rights group that used to be led by the late Ken Saro-Wiwa - said on 7 June it welcomed the creation by Obasanjo of a panel to probe rights abuses committed between 1994 and 1999. MOSOP said Obasanjo needed to give the panel, led by a former Supreme Court judge, "a mandate to investigate killings which occurred in Ogoni" under the Abacha administration. Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were hanged after a trial by a military tribunal on murder charges. (Source: IRIN)
Madagascar
MALI
Sudan An official from Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) acknowledged to IRIN that hundreds of mainly children had crossed from the Chukudum area, but that the figure of 150-200 per day was too high. A joint UNHCR/Uganda government mission to assess the situation in the Kotido district of northern Uganda confirmed the presence of 345 people, mostly unaccompanied children, who had crossed the post of Kawalakol.
UNHCR said the movement had started last month and the refugees had been cared for by the local authorities and Red Cross. The refugees told UNHCR they were fleeing "ongoing inter-tribal fighting"
(Source: IRIN)
Southern Africa The report, 'Labour Markets in Southern Africa', by the Oslo-based Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science, said: "This gives an unemployment rate of nearly 80 percent in the SADC countries, excluding Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Seychelles. It would be even higher if these countries were included." Meanwhile South African charities and non-governmental organisations are bracing themselves for life after the retirement later this month of their most generous patron President Nelson Mandela. President Mandela, who is set to step down and hand over to his deputy Thabo Mbeki on 16 June after the country's second all race election, has raised millions of rand for local good causes and encouraged businesses to dig deep into their pockets. Mandela has been donating US$ 24,000 a year - a third of his annual salary since 1995 to Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. His example has encouraged generous donations from wealthy individuals like Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, US actor Denzel Washington and British model Naomi Campbell. (Source: Daily Nation)
Zimbabwe It said the country currently had a total grain deficit of about 1 million mt, excluding wheat. Analysts said they did not know how the government would meet the shortfall and thus prevent public protests. "The total grain harvest of 1.7 million mt and carryover stocks estimated at about 50,000 mt, is not adequate to meet domestic human consumption requirements of 1.8 million mt, 460,000 mt for livestock feed and reconstitute the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR) of 500,000 mt," the FEWS report said. (Source: Daily Nation)
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