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...
Vol 54 No 24 | KENYA Carter’s quiet doubts 28th November 2013 Eight-and-a-half months after Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission declared Uhuru Kenyatta winner of the March 2013 presidential poll, a key electoral observer, the Carter Centre, has released...
Vol 54 No 24 | UGANDA Kampala ousts mayor 28th November 2013 A thorn in President Yoweri Museveni’s side was removed when Kampala City Council voted to depose the Lord Mayor, Ssalongo Erias Lukwago, of the opposition Democratic Party on...
Vol 54 No 23 | TANZANIA Rocky road to gas economy 14th November 2013 Political rows and bad laws are undermining the prospects for the billion dollar gas industry His excitement was not misplaced: ‘We are now full throttle ahead to the gas economy,’ said Energy and Minerals Minister Sospeter Muhongo. He was speaking at the launch...