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Published 29th May 2009

Vol 50 No 11

Nigeria

The fight gets more serious

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures
Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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President Umaru Yar'Adua's government is letting the military take the initiative in the Delta at the expense of a political solution

The latest government offensive in the Niger Delta is the heaviest for several years, with 3,000 troops, two warships, 14 boats and at least four helicopter gunships moving into Gbaramatu Kingdom, an Ijaw region in the Western Delta near Chevron's Escravos oil facility. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta responded by destroying five of Chevron's nearby pipelines. MEND has a diffuse but well-armed network of fighters, with up to five training bases hidden in the creeks and a well-run system of weapon caches. Gang leaders who sign up to MEND keep their own camps and bases.

National, not regional

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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The military crackdown in the Niger Delta upsets the awkward balance between federal and state politics

In the two years since it was elected, the National Assembly has approved just five bills, including two budget appropriations covering members' salaries.Yet representatives of constituencies outside the...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

The planning for United States President Barack Obama’s 10-11 July visit to Ghana underlines a more considered approach to Africa policy in Washington. Obama was determined to make an early visit to Africa to launch his new approach, despite the economic priorities. More investment and trade will be targeted at states Washington sees as successful, such as Ghana, with more robust diplomatic engagement for those states mired in conflict. We hear that an invitation to Obama from Nigeria’s Forei...
The planning for United States President Barack Obama’s 10-11 July visit to Ghana underlines a more considered approach to Africa policy in Washington. Obama was determined to make an early visit to Africa to launch his new approach, despite the economic priorities. More investment and trade will be targeted at states Washington sees as successful, such as Ghana, with more robust diplomatic engagement for those states mired in conflict. We hear that an invitation to Obama from Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe was politely filed in Washington, but there was no debate about an early trip there. Last week, Obama listed several oil and gas suppliers, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria, on which the US wants to reduce its dependency. The appointment as Assistant Secretary of State for Africa of Johnnie Carson, who has served as Ambassador in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, has quickly given a focus to US diplomatic efforts. Within days of his confirmation, Carson flew to Nairobi to air concerns about the constitutional reform process and to offer mediation. Carson and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have spoken out on the need for faster progress from the power-sharing regime in Zimbabwe, but suggested a more flexible attitude to financial assistance. The new National Security Council Advisor on Africa, Michelle Gavin, argues for more attention to the causes rather than just the symptoms of environmental, demographic and food security problems.
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The telephone test

The trades unions' legal challenge to the listing of the multibillion dollar Vodacom cellular phone group on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange tested President Jacob Zuma's political nerves. But...

A double win for Bingu

The overwhelming election victory for the President and his party revive troubling memories of Kamuzu Banda's system

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The China choice

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Target Mogadishu

An alliance between Al Shabaab and the Hizbul Islam militias looks determined to seize the capital but their arms suppliers face UN sanctions

More than 200 people have been killed and over 50,000 people chased from their homes in this month's offensive by insurgents against President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's regime...

A filial succession

A crafty old spendthrift nears his end, seeming to have the succession as well as the budget well under control

If President Omar Bongo Ondimba had a dollar for every time his demise was announced over the last 20 years, he would be even richer than he already...

A public quarrel

Disagreements within the top echelons of ZANU-PF used to be a state secret, now rival factions are briefing reporters about the meltdown

Since the power-sharing government began work in February, the Politburo of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front has leaked like a sieve with graphic details of...

The elections are coming, but don't hold your breath

With much hope and little evidence, optimistic Ivorians say that events are moving relentlessly towards some sort of political normalisation in Côte d’Ivoire – for the first time since the foiled coup against President Laurent Gbagbo in September 2002. That split the country in two: the South ruled by Gbagbo’s Front Populaire Ivoirien and the north ruled by the rebel Forces Nouvelles, which had set up its own ‘comzones’ to run the region. Now both sides are edging towards political and military integration.

At long last, a date has been set for the overdue election. On 17 May in Ouagadougou, President Laurent Koudou Gbagbo promised that 29 November was 'sure', but...

The cement boom

In both Angola and Congo-Kinshasa, public works produce surprising profits for well-connected cement producers, but an oil-fired building boom requires a lot of cement. Angola's Minister of Public...

Pointers

Who's counting?

When Southern Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit said this month that he was 'unhappy and unsatisfied' with the census results, he was pointing to the next major clash...

Akwaaba Obama

The 10-11 July visit to Accra of the first African-American President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama,is a massive public relations coup for President John Evans...

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

The death of Tajudeen Abdul Raheem in a car crash on the way to Nairobi airport in the early hours of Africa Day, 25 May, deprives the continent...

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