Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category
Ethiopian and Somali government troops have captured a key stronghold of the Somali militant group al-Shabab.
Witnesses say the troops took control of Baidoa without a fight Wednesday, after al-Shabab fighters withdrew from the town.
The town, located in southwestern Somalia, was home to the country’s Transitional Federal Government until al-Shabab captured it in 2009.
Somalia’s deputy prime minister, Mohamed Mahmud Ibrahim, tells VOA Somali Service that officials and more troops will go to Baidoa to, in his words, stabilize the situation.
He also thanked Ethiopia for its help in the fight against al-Shabab.
“The people are welcoming very much the support the TFG is getting from the Ethiopian troops who are our friend,” said Ibrahim. “It has come the right time when we needed it. They do not have other interests, we have confidence on that.”
Ethiopia, Kenya and the African Union all have troops in Somalia helping the government battle the militants. Al-Shabab, which is allied with al-Qaida, has tried to topple the government since 2007 and turn Somalia into a strict Islamic state.
In New York Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council authorized the African Union to increase its force in Somalia to 17,700 troops, an increase of nearly 6,000.
The AU mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, recently pushed al-Shabab out of the capital, Mogadishu, while Ethiopian troops drove it from the central town of Beledweyne.
The militant group still controls parts of central and southern Somalia but appears to be weakening.
Ethiopian and Somali government troops began driving toward Baidoa on Sunday, and a Somali government official had predicted the town would be “liberated” by Friday prayers.
The capture comes one day before a one-day international conference on Somalia’s future in London. Somalia’s president and prime minister are due to attend, as is U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Horn of Africa country has endured two decades of chaos and conflict since the fall of its last stable government in 1991.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe turned 88 years old Tuesday with a declaration that he is healthy and has no intention of stepping down any time soon.
In an interview aired on state media Monday night, the Zimbabwean leader said he is “fit as a fiddle” and “not yet” ready to retire, adding that at his age, he can “still go some distance.”
He also said the country “must have elections,” despite the lack of a new constitution, called for in the agreement that led to Zimbabwe’s current power-sharing government.
President Mugabe has been in power since Zimbabwe achieved independence from Britain in 1980.
He won praise in the early years of his rule but is now considered a pariah in the West, where governments accuse of him of massive human rights abuses and ruining Zimbabwe’s economy.
His spokesman has denied media reports that he is being treated for prostate cancer in Singapore, where he has traveled several times in the past year.
Despite his age, Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party has renominated him for president and is pushing for polls to be held later this year.
The president was forced to share power with the longtime opposition MDC party after the disputed and violence-plagued 2008 elections.
The inclusive government has brought some stability to Zimbabwe but rights groups have expressed fear of a new round of violence at the next round of polls.
On Friday, the European Union renewed travel and financial sanctions on Mugabe and more than 100 close allies.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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As Kenya gears up for possible elections this year – and as four prominent Kenyans are to have their post-election violence cases tried before the International Criminal Court – thousands of people are still languishing in often-deplorable conditions in camps that they fled to during violence following the last elections. Backed by human rights groups, the so-called IDPs are calling for the government to re-settle or compensate them before new elections proceed.
Inside the tiny burlap-covered tent where Margaret Wairimu lives with her seven children are several secondary school textbooks donated by a well wisher. The textbooks mock her and her teenage son David, since there is no way she can afford to send him to school.
Wairimu and her children have been at Tumaini camp in the Maai Mahiu area since early 2008, after having fled violence that killed her father. She said life in the camp is hell.
“Here, there are many problems. There is no water, there is no food to cook, we do not have clothing, the basic needs for the households are not available. We are waiting for well-wishers to come here and give us food and clothes,” said Wairimu.
In late 2007 and early 2008, the country erupted into ethnic violence following the bitterly-disputed 2007 presidential poll. More than 1,000 people were killed.
Estimates of the number of people who fled such violence range from around 300,000 to more than 663,000, as reported by the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
People fled to hundreds of camps across the country. Through government or donor programs, such as Habitat for Humanity, many of them returned to their homes, were integrated into new communities, or even pooled their government payments together to purchase land as a group.
But thousands still languish in camps like the one in Tumaini, too afraid to go back to their original homes.
Keffa Magenyi is programs coordinator at the Internal Displacement Policy and Advocacy Center based in Nakuru, a group addressing the rights of victims of post-election violence.
Magenyi estimates that there are 29 camps housing more than 40,000 households, and that almost half of the displaced population, or IDPs, did not receive government assistance of any kind.
“You still find a big population of IDPs have not been catered for, have not been resettled, have not gotten justice, have still not gone back to their farms,” said Magenyi.
VOA was unable to get an interview with Minister of Special Programs Esther Murugi despite repeated attempts to do so.
Naivasha Member of Parliament John Mututho is taking party leaders and several ministers to court over the government’s failure to re-settle the IDPs.
He alleges that a network of people is siphoning off assistance meant for the IDPs with the support of people within the government.
“People are getting kickbacks. People do not want the problem to be sorted out because they gain. The president [Mwai Kibabki] has been very candid: two weeks, end of the month. But they somehow confuse him and he has to give new deadlines and extend others,” said Mututho.
He also is calling on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission not to draw up electoral boundaries for the next elections until the IDPs have been settled.