Vol 55 No 1 | SOUTH SUDAN The political stakes on YouTube 10th January 2014 The political issues in dispute are substantial, as can be seen from the leading dissidents who organised a press conference on 6 December in Juba. The conference, which...
Vol 55 No 1 | SOUTH SUDAN From power struggle to uprising 19th December 2013 The clashes between rival factions in the SPLA that started in the capital on 15 December are spreading alarmingly fast The capture of Bor, about 100 kilometres north of Juba, on 18 December by troops loyal to General Peter Gatdet Yaka showed the political and military fragility of...
Vol 54 No 25 | EGYPTETHIOPIASUDANITALY Secrets of the dam builder 12th December 2013 Sudan has now thrown its weight behind the Millennium Dam, at a time when curiosity about the contractor, Salini, was already growing As Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese ministers sat down to discuss the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on 9 December, one item was notably absent from the agenda. The role...
Vol 54 No 25 | ETHIOPIAITALY Salini looks to expand 12th December 2013 Salini has merged with a Milan-based multinational construction competitor. A Salini statement said that a September Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting of Impregilo SpA, a 1.9 billion euro (US$2.6 bn.)...
Vol 54 No 25 | EGYPTETHIOPIASUDAN Shoring up regional support 12th December 2013 After a period of defiant independence, Addis Ababa has now, belatedly perhaps, built strong diplomatic support behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Before the joint meeting of the...
Vol 54 No 25 | SUDAN Saving Field Marshal Omer 12th December 2013 President Omer el Beshir promised to step down in 2015 and now he has a new deputy whom he trusts not to turn him over to the ICC Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir ‘decided to meet his fate with those he trusts most’, said a senior opposition source of the 8 December reshuffle. Some key leaders...
Vol 54 No 25 | EGYPTSUDAN Cape to Cairo, again 12th December 2013 Agrogate, an Egyptian private equity group, hopes to start work this month on a hard-top road in Sudan, the 362 kilometre Dongola-Toshke (Argeen) Highway, which will link the...
Vol 54 No 25 | KENYA Counter-terrorism force under attack 10th December 2013 Human rights activists target US and British support for Kenya’s security forces over illicit killings, torture and rendition Complaints that Kenyan anti-terrorist units are engaged in torture, rendition abroad of suspects, 'disappearances' and assassination could threaten United States and British cooperation and financial support. Critics blame...
Vol 54 No 25 | ETHIOPIAKENYA Another dam under fire 5th December 2013 The Gibe III dam on the Omo River may threaten Lake Turkana and those who depend on it A new report claims that Ethiopia’s Gibe III dam on the Omo river could lower water levels in Lake Turkana, in Kenya’s remote and arid northwest, by as...
Vol 54 No 24 | TANZANIA Concern over contract-farming 28th November 2013 Debate on how to address land conflicts and poverty in rural Tanzania is intensifying. Last year, the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition grew out of the Group of Eight meeting in May. Critics say the Alliance is more about providing access to untapped markets in Africa for global corporate giants such as Vodafone and Monsanto than helping to streamline agriculture or free smallholders from poverty. The G-8 has promised to lift 50 million of the world’s people out of ‘extreme poverty’ by 2022 and its key vehicle for boosting agricultural production is private investment Tanzania was among the first six countries to sign up to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, along with Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana and...