Sweden joined the Netherlands this week in suspending new aid payments to Rwanda after a UN report accused the central African country of supporting guerillas in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. President Paul Kagame responded: “The people of Rwanda… Read moreRwanda aid suspended over Congo war
The Indian navy announced Dec. 13 it had captured 23 Somali and Yemeni pirates while coming to the defense of an Ethiopian-flagged merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking before a Bahrain conference… Read moreSomali coast pirate wars escalate
Islamist al-Shabaab insurgents seized two districts in central Somalia without violence Dec. 7, including the stronghold of a Sufi group that traditionally abjures violence. Residents in Galgadud region reported that fighters aboard armed trucks peacefully entered the provincial capital Dhusamareb…. Read moreSomalia: insurgency spreads, Sufis appeal for peace
Thousands of people from an informal settlement 20 kilometers south of Khartoum are now living in makeshift shelters after their homes were razed by Sudan’s government. Local officials said 4,000 homes were destroyed under a plan to reorganize the “Mandela”… Read moreSudan: “Mandela” refugee settlement destroyed by regime
A federal jury in San Francisco Dec. 1 cleared Chevron Corp. of responsibility in the 1998 shooting of Nigerian villagers by military forces during a protest at an offshore oil platform. Survivors of the incident, under the name “Concerned Ilaje… Read moreChevron acquitted in Nigeria human rights case
The army is patrolling the streets of Jos, in central Nigeria, after four days of violence between Muslims and Christians left hundreds dead. A Muslim charity says it has collected more than 300 bodies that had been brought to local… Read moreNigeria: hundreds dead in sectarian clashes
Somali pirates who hijacked a Saudi supertanker moved the vessel from its location at the port city of Harardhere, in the autonomous Puntland region, after Islamist militias threatened to attack them and rescue the ship. Both the exiled Islamic Courts… Read moreSomalia: Islamists to attack Puntland pirate bases?
British naval forces killed two Somali pirates in a dhow who they said were attempting to hijack a Danish cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden, the Defense Ministry in London said on Nov. 12. British sailors found a third… Read moreBritish navy kill two Somali pirates in Gulf of Aden
Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who became a world symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle, died Nov. 10 after performing at an anti-Mafia concert in southern Italy. The 76-year-old singer died after being brought to the hospital at Castelvolturno at… Read moreMiriam Makeba, “Mama Africa,” dies at anti-Mafia concert in Italy
Berlin’s ambassador to Rwanda was given 24 hours to leave the country Nov. 11 in response to the Nov. 9 arrest of a Rwandan presidential aide in Germany in connection with the 1994 assassination of then-president Juvenal Habyarima that touched… Read moreRwanda expels German ambassador after presidential aide arrested
Anwar Tambe writes from Kenya for SkyNews, Nov. 5: It is scarcely believable, but it is true. A Luo can become President—of the United States of America, if not Kenya. I must admit I had a lump in my throat… Read moreObama wins: Kenya believe it?
For all the grim announcements of a “humanitarian disaster” sparked by the current re-eruption of the Congo war, there is an alarming paucity of clear reportage on who exactly is responsible for what violence. Most western media accounts are heavy… Read moreHidden hand of US behind Congo crisis?
