Vol 49 No 14 | KENYA A slightly cracked coalition 4th July 2008 The power-sharing government is shaken by scandals and tales of mass murder but nobody sees an alternative Three months after the painful formation of a grand coalition government (AC Vol 49 No 11), there is talk of a 'grand opposition'. Two developments encourage this. ...
Vol 49 No 14 | SUDANUGANDA Kony causes trouble again 4th July 2008 The rebel chief Kony's refusal to make peace causes trouble between Uganda and South Sudan On 30 June, Southern Sudan's Vice-President Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon ordered the Ugandan People's Defence Forces out of the country, accusing the UPDF of kidnapping and killing a...
Vol 49 No 14 | UGANDACONGO-KINSHASA The competition heats up 4th July 2008 As oil exploration continues apace on Lake Albert, Uganda and Congo threaten to make business difficult for foreign companies Companies drilling on the Ugandan side of Lake Albert, which straddles the border with Congo-Kinshasa, had a rude shock in mid-June when President Yoweri Museveni announced that Uganda...
Vol 49 No 13 | TANZANIA Graft at the top 20th June 2008 Soon after his December 2005 inauguration, President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete replied to critics who said he was too soft to run a country bogged down in corruption: ‘I...
Vol 49 No 13 | DJIBOUTIERITREA Shooting war in Djibouti 20th June 2008 The border battle at the mouth of the Red Sea looks more like Eritrean aggression Fighting has begun around Ras Doumeira, the area of Djibouti seized by Eritrean troops in April (AC Vol 49 No 11). Both sides had built up their forces,...
Vol 49 No 13 | SOMALIA Somali ceasefire signed 20th June 2008 The Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia Chairman, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has agreed to a ceasefire, but harder-line militants have rejected it and called for his expulsion...
Vol 49 No 12 | SUDAN The cracks spread 6th June 2008 Rifts in the Unity Government become public but the Northern opposition again fails to seize its chance The political aftershock of the attacks on Omdurman and Abyei is spreading. Most dramatically, Southern President Salva Kiir Mayardit has condemned the government in which his Sudan People’s...
Vol 49 No 11 | SUDAN Battle of Omdurman 23rd May 2008 The Darfur rebel attack on the capital exposes the weaknesses of the Islamist National Congress regime The attack on the capital by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on 10 May opened a new chapter in the stories of Darfur and of Sudan's Islamist...
Vol 49 No 11 | SUDAN Who is JEM? 23rd May 2008 The Justice and Equality (initially Justice and Equity) Movement was founded in late 2002, after government-backed militias intensified their attacks in Darfur; it became operational by late 2003....
Vol 49 No 11 | SUDAN Abyei devastated 23rd May 2008 Heavy fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and the SPLA points to more conflict ahead There had been no shortage of warnings about Abyei, the area on the North-South border where Khartoum has refused to implement a boundary ruling under the Comprehensive Peace...