Associated Press – As the U.S. military prepares to leave Iraq, the State Department is blaming the Iraqi government for arbitrary killings of civilians and other human rights abuses. The department’s annual human rights report, released Thursday, also highlighted abuses in Afghanistan, another country where American troops are battling an insurgency. Civilians suffered the most when violence in Afghanistan spiked last year, the report said. Blaming the insurgents, the report said that almost one-third of Afghanistan was plunged into armed conflict, reducing the government’s ability to protect its citizens and extend its influence. Read Article
BBC – Up to half the food aid in Somalia is diverted to corrupt contractors, local UN workers and Islamist militants, a leaked UN report says. The report, by the UN monitoring group in Somalia, is particularly critical of the UN’s own World Food Programme and recommends an independent inquiry. It says WFP contracts are awarded to a few powerful individuals who operate cartels that sell the food illegally. The report has not been made public yet, but its contents have been leaked. Read article
BBC – The governor of Nigeria’s Plateau state has accused military commanders of ignoring warnings of an attack on Sunday near the city of Jos. Hundreds died during attacks on three villages in the area between the mainly Christian south and Muslim north. The massacre is seen as revenge for a previous bout of killings in January. Read article
BBC – Half a million people will need to be moved from their homes in mountainous areas of Uganda because of the risk of mudslides, the government has said.Uganda has one of the highest population growth rates in the world but, as more people settle on the mountains, the trees have been felled to make way for agriculture – making mudslides and flooding more common. Read Article
Guardian – An Observer investigation reveals how rich countries faced by a global food shortage now farm an area double the size of the UK to guarantee supplies for their citizens. We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon be Ethiopia’s largest greenhouse. Nestling below an escarpment of the Rift Valley, the development is far from finished, but the plastic and steel structure already stretches over 20 hectares – the size of 20 football pitches. Read article
BBC – Hundreds of people, including many women and children, were killed in ethnic violence near the city of Jos in Nigeria at the weekend, officials say. They said villages had been attacked by men with machetes who came from nearby hills. Troops have now been deployed in the area and dozens of arrests are said to have been made. Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered security forces to prevent more weapons being brought into the area. Read article
BBC – At least 100 people have been reported killed in suspected religious clashes near the central Nigerian city of Jos. Witnesses said several villages just outside of the city were attacked simultaneously overnight. Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has put security forces in central Nigeria on full alert. Read Article
Al JAzeera – US special operations forces could help the Somali government with an offensive to dislodge al-Shabab fighters from the capital, Mogadishu, a US newspaper report says. Citing an unnamed US official on Saturday, the New York Times website said the offensive could begin in a few weeks. Washington believes al-Shabab has links to al-Qaeda, which has expanded its influence in Yemen across the Red Sea. Read article
BBC – The UN has begun talks with Democratic Republic of Congo on withdrawing its peacekeeping mission – the biggest UN operation in the world. UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said his officials would take a month to assess how the pullout of 20,500 personnel could be carried out. Read article
BBC – Millions of dollars in Western aid for victims of the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85 was siphoned off by rebels to buy weapons, a BBC investigation finds. Former rebel leaders told the BBC that they posed as merchants in meetings with charity workers to get aid money. They used the cash to fund attempts to overthrow the government of the time. One rebel leader estimated $95m (£63m) – from Western governments and charities including Band Aid – was channelled into the rebel fight. Read article
BBC – The military leadership in Niger has formed a new transitional government of 20 ministers, including five soldiers and five women. According to state radio, the defence, sport and environment ministries, went to three generals close to the former President, Mamadou Tandja. Read article
BBC – More than 100 people have been killed in a landslide in the mountainous eastern region of Bududa in Uganda, a minister has told the BBC.Minister for Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru has gone to the remote area to assess what help is needed. Rescuers are digging through the mud with handheld tools, looking for survivors and bodies. Up to 60 children are missing. They took shelter in a health centre which reports say was destroyed overnight. Read Article
BBC – Egypt has been strongly criticised by Human Rights Watch for trying a blogger, Ahmed Mustafa, before a military court. The 20-year-old is accused of publishing false information in a blog a year ago, alleging a case of nepotism at Egypt’s premier military academy. Egypt’s emergency law, in place since 1981, allows indefinite detention and trials of civilians in military courts. Egyptian officials have denied that the power is much used. Read Article
BBC – Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has signed a framework ceasefire deal with one of Darfur’s main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem). The power-sharing agreement in Qatar is seen as an important step towards peace, though the other main rebel group has refused to enter talks. Read article
BBC – The government of Sudan has signed a ceasefire agreement with one of the main rebel factions in Darfur.
The deal with the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) includes a framework for further talks, and the cancellation of death sentences for 100 fighters. Read article
CNN – Niger’s constitution has been suspended, a Niger military official announced Thursday night on the nation’s three television channels. The order, read by Col. Goukoye Abdul Karimou, was attributed to the Superior Council for the Restoration of Democracy, which also suspended all institutions and called on the nation for calm and on the international community for support, said Ousman Tudou, a journalist for Radio Afini. Read article
RSF – Reporters Without Borders condemns the Zimbabwean authorities’ repeated harassment and intimidation of The Zimbabwean, a privately-owned newspaper that is edited in Britain and printed in South Africa. In the latest instance, criminal charges of “publishing falsehoods” have been brought against the directors of Adquest, the company that distributes it inside Zimbabwe. No date has yet been set for their trial. “This is all the more disturbing as the national unity government formed a year ago said it intended to guarantee press freedom.” Read article
New Scientist – WITH smartphones taking the world by storm, a phone that can only send and receive voice calls and text messages may seem like a relic from a bygone age. Yet in East Africa, simple phones like these are changing the face of the economy, thanks to the “mobile money” services that are spreading across the region. Using the text-messaging capability built into the GSM system used by most cellphone networks, these services allow people without a bank account or credit card to use their phone as an electronic wallet that can be used to store, send or receive cash. Read Article
Ed – Yet another tiny step along the path to a cash-less society. But before you smile at man’s inventiveness just consider the civil liberties implications of your entire financial dealings, and therefore your ability to fulfil the most basic needs such as buying food, all just one mouse click away from deletion or from theft through fraud.
BBC – The killing of opposition supporters in Guinea last year was a crime against humanity, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has said. The deputy prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, made the statement in Guinea after a preliminary investigation into the deaths in the capital, Conakry. Read article
BBC – A coup has taken place in Niger and the president has been captured after a gun battle in the capital, Niamey.
In a television announcement, a spokesman for the plotters said Niger’s constitution had been suspended and all state institutions dissolved. Read article
Deutsche Welle – Uganda’s draft Anti-Homosexuality Bill sparked international condemnation last October and prompted threats to cut aid to Uganda. The latest reports from the country indicate the bill could now be softened. As it is in 36 other African countries, homosexuality is illegal in Uganda under laws dating back to British colonialism, and punishable by up to 14 years in jail. But last October, Member of Parliament David Bahati went one step further when he tabled the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which outlines some of the harshest anti-gay regulations in the world. Read article
Telegraph – The European Union has renewed sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and key regime figures in Zimbabwe for another year. The move was a clear sign of the West’s disappointment in the coalition with the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The unity government was formed a year ago, but its workings have been stymied by disputes between the two parties, with the MDC accusing Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party of obstructionism and bad faith. Read article
BBC – Ivory Coast’s President Laurent Gbagbo has dissolved the government and electoral commission, casting doubt on when long-delayed elections will occur. Read article
CNN – The African Union has elected a new president, ending a bid by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to stay on as president of the organization for another year. Leaders from 53 African countries chose Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika as the organization’s new leader during an annual summit Sunday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Read article
The Times – The sticker on the door of Agnes Ntali’s wooden shack in Soweto is faded and torn, but the peeling mark of the Department of Housing is still clearly visible. “It’s been there more than ten years. I forget how long exactly it has been now,” said the 55-year-old widow, who shares the two-roomed hut with three grandchildren. The sticker is supposed to mean that the occupant is to be rehoused and the corrugated-roofed shack, which has no electricity or running water, demolished. “That’s a joke that is. Whenever a house is available I am jumped — I’m not ANC or connected or anything like that,” she told The Times. Read article
