Weekly anb11144.txt #7

[anb-bia <anb-bia@village.uunet.be>]

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 14-11-2002      PART #4/7

* Ethiopia. Drought stimulates outbreaks of violence  -  At least 20 women 
have been shot dead in northeastern Ethiopia, humanitarian sources have 
said. The women, all ethnic Afars, were killed as they were on their way 
home from a market, the sources confirmed.The shooting, which took place in 
late October, is believed to be part of increasing tensions in the Afar 
Regional State sparked by a severe drought affecting many parts of the 
country. In a separate incident, at least 11 ethnic Ittus have been killed 
in a shoot-out in Fentale, Oromiya Regional State, also hit by the 
drought.Fierce clashes have occurred in Afar, particularly in Zone Five, 
between ethnic Afars and Issas competing for scare water resources. The 
zone is currently off-limits to UN staff. Skirmishes between Afars and 
Issas have been gradually escalating over the years with the Afars accusing 
the Issas of persistently encroaching on their territory from the 
southeast. "If the [current] conditions continue, tensions will only 
increase," one source told IRIN. "Depending on the drought and the rains, 
if you can't move freely it's going to heat up. There is a drought and 
there is a lot of fighting." The recent clashes, which took place near the 
Somali Regional State, are believed to be revenge attacks by Issas after 
Afars raided them for cattle earlier this year.   (IRIN, Kenya, 8 November 
2002)

* Ethiopia. PM warns of massive famine  -  11 November: Ethiopian Prime 
Minister Meles Zenawi has warned that his country faces a famine worse than 
that of 1984 which killed nearly one million people and sparked a big 
international relief effort. He said that some six million people already 
needed food aid and the number facing starvation could rise to 15 million 
early in the new year if international donors did not come to the country's 
aid. The Ethiopian Government was already barely able to keep its people 
alive let alone supply adequate food, he said, and could not afford to buy 
in extra stocks itself. Bob Geldof, the driving force behind the 1984 
relief effort Live Aid, said the new crisis suggested that famine relief 
programmes of recent decades were "untenable". Mr Meles said it was "like 
living through a recurring nightmare". If the 1984 famine was a nightmare, 
then this will be too ghastly to contemplate," he said. He predicted that 
the number of people who could be hit as a result of the new drought might 
be three times the number affected during the earlier famine. Mr Meles said 
he feared that people in developed countries might be lulled into thinking 
that the drought was a manageable problem because there were no pictures on 
TV screens of skeletal figures as there were in the 1980s. Ethiopia still 
lacked the facilities to conserve rainwater, Mr Meles added.   (ANB-BIA, 
Belgium, 11 November 2002)

* Ethiopie. Menace de famine  -  Une énorme famine menace de frapper 
l'Ethiopie dans les mois qui viennent, si la communauté internationale 
n'apporte pas une aide d'urgence, a déclaré le 11 novembre le président 
Meles Zenawi. A la suite de la sécheresse persistante, 6 millions 
d'Ethiopiens ont déjà besoin d'aide alimentaire. En janvier, leur nombre 
atteindra les 15 millions, a affirmé M. Zenawi. "Nous ne pouvons pas nous 
en sortir seuls", a-t-il déclaré. Il estime que le nombre de personnes 
menacées est deux à trois fois plus important que lors de la grande famine 
de 1984. La Croix-Rouge a lancé un appel, considérant avoir besoin de 11 
millions d'euros afin de faire face à la catastrophe 
humanitaire.   (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 12 novembre 2002)

* Ethiopie. Projet d'adduction d'eau  -  Le Fonds africain de développement 
(AFD) a accordé un prêt de 26,3 millions de dollars à l'Ethiopie pour 
financer un projet d'adduction d'eau et d'assainissement dans la région du 
Harar (est), ont annoncé les autorités éthiopiennes le 12 novembre. 
L'accord a été signé le 8 novembre à Abidjan, au siège de la Banque 
africaine de développement (BAD), dont l'AFD est un des organes.   (Le 
Figaro, France, 13 novembre 2002)

* Gabon. Elections locales le 29 décembre  -  Les élections locales, qui 
renouvelleront les conseillers municipaux et départementaux, auront lieu le 
29 décembre prochain, a annoncé le 12 novembre un communiqué du 
gouvernement gabonais. La campagne électorale se déroulera du 14 au 28 
décembre. Par ailleurs, le chef de l'Etat, M. Omar Bongo, a demandé aux 
partis politiques de mettre des femmes à des positions éligibles sur leurs 
listes électorales. Il a formulé le même souhait en faveur des jeunes, pour 
lesquels il a souhaité "une représentation juste et équitable". D'autre 
part, M. Bongo veut mettre un frein au cumul des mandats. Dorénavant les 
fonctions de maire, de maire adjoint, de président ou vice-président de 
conseil seront incompatibles avec celles de membres du gouvernement et avec 
le mandat de député ou de sénateur, a-t-il fait savoir.   (D'après PANA, 
Sénégal, 13 novembre 2002)

* Ghana. Drug dealing hits yam exports  -  Ghana's lucrative yam export 
business is under attack from the illegal smuggling of cocaine, according 
to local press reports. The concerns were voiced by the president of the 
Ghana Root Crops and Tuber Exporters Union at a press conference in Accra 
on 6 November. The union claims that drug traffickers are using the cargoes 
of yams destined for the United Kingdom and the United States to conceal 
narcotics. The cargoes of yams are then stripped of the valuable drugs, 
while the vegetables are often given away or sold for next to nothing. Kofi 
Asiedu, president of the tuber exporters union, says this is flooding the 
marketplace and destroying prices. "Ghana loses more than half the 
potential foreign exchange earnings from the yam export trade," Mr Asiedu 
is reported to have said. Ghana produces more than five million tonnes of 
yam a year, and should reap at least $20m from exports. But the real figure 
is thought to be significantly less than this. The union is now calling for 
a national policy to tackle the problem and save the jobs of farmers and 
traders across the country.   (BBC News, UK, 8 November 2002)

* Ghana. Two held for Dagbon chief's murder  -  13 November: The 
authorities in Ghana have arrested two people in connection with the 
beheading of a prominent northern chief earlier this year. The chief or 
"Lion" of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani was killed in gruesome fashion with 
about 40 others in the town of Yendi in March, in a chieftaincy dispute 
between two royal clans. The incident led to the resignation of some 
prominent people in government and still threatens the peace and security 
of the northern region of Ghana. The police re-arrested Yidana Sugri and 
Iddrisu Jahanfo, for their alleged role in the murder of the Dagbon king. A 
security source said the two men were arrested on 8 November in Yendi by 
police officers from the capital, Accra. They were flown to Accra that same 
day. Yidana Sugri was first arrested in April by the security agencies but 
the office of the attorney general ordered that he should be released. The 
Wuako commission -- which was set up by the government to investigate the 
crisis -- also ordered the arrest and prosecution of Iddrisu Jahanfo for 
his alleged complicity in the murder of the king, but again the attorney 
general ordered the court to stop his prosecution. He was subsequently 
released because the commission was thought to have acted prematurely and 
improperly in asking for the prosecution. The re-arrest of the two 
suspects, which was obviously done rather quietly, sends signals that the 
government has started to act on the report of the commission.   (ANB-BIA, 
Belgium, 13 November 2002)

* Equatorial Guinea. Africa's oil star strives to shine  -  13 November: 
The tiny West African nation of Equatorial Guinea, home to just 500,000 
people, is Africa's economic star. With a staggering gross domestic product 
of about 65% last year, it boasts the fastest growing economy in Africa -- 
and probably in the world. Previously almost unheard of by corporate 
America, it has become the fourth largest destination for US investments in 
sub-Saharan Africa, trailing only South Africa, Nigeria and Angola. The 
reason for its sudden rise to fame is the oil reserves which remained 
largely untapped until the mid-1990s. Oil production has increased more 
than tenfold since 1996, and output is expected to rise to a daily average 
of more than 200,000 barrels this year.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 13 November 2002)

* Kenya. Children's deadly find  -  6 November: A group of Kenyan 
schoolchildren has discovered an arms cache while playing during their 
break in the central town of Isiolo. The Daily Nation newspaper says that 
Isiolo is a bandit-prone district and illegal guns are regularly smuggled 
from Ethiopia. Local police chief Williams Manya says he children found a 
G3 gun buried near the school fence. "They took it to the headmaster, who 
called me," he said. Six more weapons were uncovered, including AK-47 and 
M-13 machine-guns. Mr Manya denies that Isiolo was awash with guns smuggled 
across the border. He says that no arrests have been made in connection 
with the arms cache. The guns had been lying near the school, wrapped in 
clothes and plastic, for about a week, the local police chief said. Mr 
Manya says he could tell that the earth had been disturbed recently because 
it had been raining.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 6 November 2002)

* Kenya. Mau Mau Kenyans threaten court action  -  9 November: Kenyans who 
fought in the Mau Mau rebellion against colonial rule in the 1950s say they 
are preparing to take the British Government to court for alleged human 
rights abuses. More than 13,000 Africans were killed in the fighting -- 
including Mau Mau guerrillas, troops and civilians -- and about 100 
Europeans. Now a welfare group with more than half-a-million members, the 
Mau Mau Trust, claims many veterans were tortured and illegally detained by 
the British. The Mau Mau Trust claims that many of its fighters were 
regularly beaten and tortured by British forces throughout their fight for 
independence. Some were alleged to have been battered with rifle butts, 
stabbed with broken bottles and forced to do slave labour. This treatment 
is said to have left many mentally scarred and unable to walk again. Last 
year, the Mau Mau Trust tried to take legal action in Kenya, but failed to 
win the Kenyan Government's backing. Now, they have hired English lawyer 
Martin Day, who recently won compensation for British prisoners of war 
detained by the Japanese, as well as for some Jews who were forced to work 
for the Nazis. Mr Day predicts that victory in the British courts could win 
many thousands of Mau Mau veterans six-figure sums in compensation. Should 
they fail, the trust's chairman is threatening to campaign for a boycott of 
all British products in Kenya.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 9 November 2002)

* Kenya. Les évêques et les élections  -  L'Eglise catholique du Kenya est 
préoccupée par les élections générales qui se dérouleront le 27 décembre 
prochain. Le 9 novembre, une prière publique a été conduite par les évêques 
dans la basilique de la Sainte Famille à Nairobi. La veille, à l'issue 
d'une réunion de la Conférence épiscopale, les évêques ont publié une 
lettre pastorale mettant en garde les politiciens contre d'éventuels 
troubles au cours des élections, condamnant toute forme de contrainte. Dans 
leur message, les évêques ont affirmé que l'Eglise n'a pas l'intention de 
se désintéresser des questions politiques, car elles influent sur les 
nécessités socio-économiques et spirituelles de la population. Ils ont 
souligné que l'Eglise promeut le respect des droits de l'homme et désire 
recomposer le tissu social lacéré par la violence. L'épiscopat désire donc 
l'organisation d'élections libres, correctes et sans effusion de sang, dans 
l'intérêt de tous les citoyens.   (Misna, Italie, 11 novembre 2002)

* Kenya. New blow for ruling party  -  12 November: Kenya's ruling party 
Kanu has suffered another blow in the run-up to the December general 
elections after another minister announced he was quitting the government 
and the party. The resignation of Joseph Nyagah, a minister in the office 
of the president, comes several weeks after the issue of President Moi's 
successor split the party down the middle and led to the resignation and 
defection of key Kanu and government officials to the main opposition 
alliance. The National Rainbow Coalition has come up with a sole candidate 
--former Vice President Mwai Kibaki -- while Kanu has nominated Uhuru 
Kenyatta, Mr Moi's preferred candidate and the son of Kenya's first 
president.   (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 12 November 2002)

* Kenya. La KANU se désagrège  -  La KANU (Union nationale africaine du 
Kenya), parti au pouvoir, se désagrège. Après la défection, il y a quelques 
semaines, de ministres et de membres de première importance, un autre 
ministre a abandonné le gouvernement ce 13 novembre. M. Joseph Nyagah, 
ministre d'Etat délégué à la présidence, a démissionné de l'exécutif et du 
parti. Le choix du chef de l'Etat d'indiquer son successeur en la personne 
de Uhuru Kenyatta est au centre de la querelle qui divise la KANU. Un large 
groupe de dissidents a formé la grande Coalition nationale de l'arc-en-ciel 
(ANC), dont le candidat unique sera Mwai Kibaki, ex-vice-président. Ce 
cartel a, pour la première fois, les cartes en main pour saper la KANU, au 
pouvoir depuis près de 40 ans.   (Misna, Italie, 13 novembre 2002)

Weekly News - anb1114.txt - #4/7