A recent report by a group of NGOs alleges that an oil consortium led by Swedish firm Lundin Petroleum may have been complicit in “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Sudan.
Sudan voted recently in the first multi-party elections since 1986.
Eugene Terreblanche, a white supremacist leader in South Africa, was murdered in his sleep on his farm outside Ventersdorp, 100 miles west of Johannesburg, following a dispute over wages with a young man and a youth in his employ.
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, in which 69 people were gunned down by the police during a peaceful protest in South Africa.
The United States’ military is working closely with its Somali counterparts in planning a major military offensive against Islamist militias, who control the bulk of the country, including almost all of the capital, Mogadishu.
The Washington-backed Transitional Federal Government of Somalia is reported to be preparing a major offensive against Islamist rebels who control the bulk of the country.
The Western media and radical press have universally declared “victory” in the recent case of Western Sahara independence activist Aminatou Haidar, who undertook a hunger strike after being denied entry to her homeland by Moroccan authorities. However the nature of this “victory” calls for further analysis.
Recent reports point to the Israeli government’s determined efforts to drive Palestinians and Israeli Arabs out of their homes in East Jerusalem.
The United Nations has denied complicity in human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo after its own report was leaked to the press.
Saudi Arabia is now openly bombing Huthi rebel positions on either side of its border with Yemen in support of the Yemeni government’s “Operation Scorched Earth.” Saudi Deputy Defence Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan said that his forces “are not going to stop the bombing until the Huthis retreat tens of kilometres inside their border.”
The ministerial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation met in Egypt last week, attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. He pledged $10 billion (£6bn) in concessional loans to Africa over the next three years. His offer was warmly welcomed by African ministers. The result has already been an exacerbation of tensions between China and the US.
Fierce fighting in the northern Yemen region of Saada between government forces and insurgents has unleashed a humanitarian crisis and threatens the stability of the country and wider region.
United States commandos from the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command launched a helicopter raid last week in Somalia, close to the border with Kenya, and killed a key Islamist suspect.
Following the July 18 presidential election in Mauritania, won by ex-General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the US and EU were expected to move quickly to normalise relations.
The Obama administration has been sending weapons to Somalia to support the Transitional Federal Government against a rebel insurgency that threatens to overwhelm the government.
Southern Sudan faces a massive humanitarian crisis in what the United Nation’s humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Lise Grande, described as a “perfect storm”.
In the past few weeks, rebels from Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have routed government forces in Mogadishu.
Somali MPs have elected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of the Djibouti-based Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), as the country’s new president.
The increased militarisation of the oil-rich region represents a major danger to the peoples of the region and the entire world. Warships from Britain, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, Russia and the US are all currently operating off the Somali coast.
NATO warships from across the globe are converging on the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia, ostensibly to tackle piracy and to escort ships through the Gulf. Russia is also sending a warship.
