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Published 10th September 1999

Vol 40 No 18


Congo-Kinshasa

Complex war, ambitious peace

The Lusaka accord is the best chance yet to tackle the roots of Central Africa's interlocking wars if it wins Western backing

In Lusaka, African diplomats and army commanders have produced a fair and far-reaching plan to end the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (AC Vol 40 No 14). It may have no better than a 50 per cent chance of success, probably less if Europe and the United States fail to give it serious financial and diplomatic support. Yet it is the most credible attempt so far to break the cycle of violence that erupted in Congo's eastern Kivu province, following the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Whatever its fate on the ground, the Lusaka accord is likely to survive as a template for peacemaking in Africa's most complex war.


Friends fall out

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The 2-year alliance between Museveni and Kagame is in trouble over Congo strategy

In the late 1970s, the old Front Patriotique Rwandais (then exiled in Uganda and Tanzania) had joined forces with Museveni's National Resistance Movement to help oust two Ugandan...


Nervous tension

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Rising violence forces Buyoya to rethink tactics at the Arusha peace talks

There has also been bitter fighting in Bujumbura itself, where about 60 people died on 28 August including, according to the army, 20 of the Hutu rebels who...


Chinja maitiro!

Trades unions are mounting their toughest challenge to ZANU-PF since Independence

Zimbabwe's trades unionists cannot expect the landslide that their colleagues in Zambia's Movement for Multi-Party Democracy scored against President Kenneth Kaunda in 1991. Although bad, conditions in Zimbabwe...


Choppy waters

General Eyadéma makes plans to go – after another four years

The pact commits General Gnassingbé Eyadéma to holding fresh parliamentary elections next year and then stepping down in 2003 (which he was scheduled to do anyway). Opposition parties...



Pointers

Moi's no-shuffle

Only the desks were reshuffled in President Daniel arap Moi's 6 September cabinet changes, billed as a move to cut costs and boost efficiency. The World Bank and...


Muddy votes

Politicians are scurrying to prepare for the country's second multi-party general elections: President Joaquim Chissano confirmed on 31 August that polling would take place on 3-4 December (probably...