Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{Somali authorities are looking for gunmen armed with pistols that gunned down the country’s deputy Attorney General, Ahmed Malim Sheikh Nur.}}

Sheikh Nur is the most senior official killed in the capital since a new government took office last year.

The killing in the Yakshid district of north Mogadishu was confirmed by Mohamed Hassan, the country’s deputy prosecutor.

“The deceased was attacked soon after he left Ramadan Mosque,” said Mr Hassan, who said that the killers then fled the scene.

“He died on the spot while a companion was wounded.”

Abdullahi Mohamed Musse, the country’s Attorney General, told the media Friday that the deceased was his college-mate, having graduated together from the Somali National University in 1980.

Eyewitnesses said the killing was carried out by three men.

Security officials have been combing the scene of the crime for clues as to the perpetrators.

{NMG}

{{The most senior religious leaders in South Sudan have asked president Salva Kiir, to clarify to them the delegated powers he withdrew from the vice president, Riek Machar, as rumors of a looming crisis in the presidency continues.}}

The surprise move announced in a formal decree by Kiir thus month has created tension and uncertainty at the centre of the south-ruling party (SPLM) government, which officials tried to dispel today after a stunned reaction among the South Sudanese public.

The Catholic Church archbishop Paulino Lukudu said they wanted to get clarifications from the president and the vice president over the decree withdrawing unspecified executive powers from Machar.

“We have been hearing that the president and the vice-president are in war, are in trouble, are in difficulties, in disagreements. This of course disturbs all of us as citizens,” lamented the top Catholic priest in the capital.

In July 2007, Kiir issued a circular delegating “additional powers” to the vice president, Machar, putting him in charge of the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the former north Sudan; overseeing the conduct of the referendum by the people of South Sudan; supervising the presidential advisors; and monitoring the activities of the independent commissions, among others.

{ST}

{{Maritime police in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland seized five Iranian ships and detained 78 Iranians in a rare crackdown on illegal fishing in Somalia.}}

Somalia has long complained about illegal fishing off its shores but its coastline, the longest in Africa, is infested with pirates and has been left defenseless against foreign fishing fleets after two decades of civil war.

Puntland was the epicenter of the Somali piracy boom but the use of armed guards on ships and a concerted crackdown by international navies has seen the number of successful pirate attacks fall, with no successful hijackings since last June, according to the United Nations.

The Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF), which was trained at inception by an obscure South African private security group Saracen International, had been tasked with fighting piracy but its remit extends to combating illegal fishing and other illicit activities around Puntland’s coast.

Puntland government said 12 armed Somalia militia, recruited by the Iranians, also were taken into custody when the PMPF boarded the five ships in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday.

{wirestory}

{{Britain opened an embassy on Thursday in a set of four metal cabins at Mogadishu airport.}}

It was the first such move by a Western power since Somalia began to emerge from more than two decades of conflict.

Turkey and Iran are among others vying for influence in the Horn of Africa country, with growing commercial ties and diplomatic missions already up and running.

“It is a symbol of our confidence and belief in the future of Somalia,” said British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who flew in on an unannounced visit to watch the Union Jack flag hoisted above the cabins, generator and satellite dish within the airport perimeter fence.

“This is a sign of where Somalia is now heading to,” said Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

“Somalia is going back to the international arena,” he added, expressing hope that other Western states would follow suit.

The country is enjoying a delicate recovery but remains heavily dependent on others for its security.

An African Union military offensive has driven weakened al Shabaab insurgents from bases in Mogadishu and other cities, and piracy in the strategic sea lanes off Somalia is at an all-time low, thanks largely to a heavy foreign naval presence.

{agencies}

{{Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has appointment Ms Rachel Omamo as the country’s Defence Secretary.}}

President Kenyatta was making additional appointments to his Cabinet, whose first four candidates were announced on Monday

The names will be submitted to parliament for vetting before taking up office.

Ms Omamo is a lawyer and has served as Kenya’s ambassador to France previously.

Two more names nominees are yet to be named

{{CABINET SECRETARIES NOMINEE LIST}}

1. Fred Matiangi (Information, Communication and Technology (ICT)

2. Henry K. Rotich (The National Treasury)

3. James Wainaina Macharia (Health)

4. Amina Mohamed (Foreign Affairs)

5. Adan Mohammed (Industrialisation)

6. Ann Waiguru (Devolution and Planning)

7. Davis Chirchir (Energy and Petroleum)

8. Raychelle Omamo (Defence)

9. Eng. Michael Kamau (Transport and Infrastructure)

10. Phyllis Chepkosgey (East African affairs, Commerce and Tourism)

11. Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi (Education)

12. Felix Kosgey (Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries)

13. Prof. Judy Wakhungu (Environment Water and Natural Resources)

14. Dr. Hassan Wario (Sports, Culture and Arts)

15. Najib Balala (Mining)

16. Charity Ngilu (Lands, Housing and Urban Development).

{NMG}

{{The World Bank has suspended budget support to Uganda citing the government’s financial indiscipline as seen in numerous scandals, especially in the Office of the Prime Minister.}}

The donor community said it is completely pulling out of budget support.

Donors had in March sounded unconvinced, doubting the extent of reforms on the “High level government financial management reform action plan matrix,” requesting the country’s finance Minister to provide more depth on the detail of reform executed since the numerous Aid scandals.

The World Bank is the largest multilateral lender extending almost half of the entire budget support funding given to Uganda by donors, which is close to 30%.

However, analysts say the pulling out by World Bank presents new opportunities for the Uganda if well utilized.

“Yes when you give budget support you also have a say in policy, so the World Bank will lose that,” said an analyst who now advises that the country can focus on what it considers relevant to its growth and not following the path of outsiders who have little knowledge of the country’s priorities.

“It is good news. The donor community have been telling the Government to find other ways of funding but it seems they were relaxed because they were always sure of the 30% funding,” said the analyst.

However, analysts also warn that little will be achieved if the leaking holes that swallow government resources through corruption are not plugged.

{{The election decision rendered by the Supreme Court is damaging to its credibility, a Kenyan activist and a US scholar declared at a forum held in Washington on Tuesday.}}

Maina Kiai, head of a civil society organisation in Nairobi, and Joel Barkan, a US think tank expert on African governance issues, both suggested that the court should have ordered a runoff between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.

The two commentators agreed that while Mr Kenyatta clearly won a larger share of the vote than Mr Odinga did on March 4, there was reason to suspect that Mr Kenyatta’s actual tally did not exceed 50%.

The court made a political decision” in its ruling that a runoff was not required, Prof Barkan said. Calling its unanimous opinion “very shallow,” Mr Barkan said “the court itself was the big loser” and had “essentially undermined its own authority, going forward.”

Mr Kiai used similar language in criticising the court’s performance, characterising its election ruling as “one of the most shallow judgments I have ever seen.”

“As civil society,” Mr Kiai added in his remarks at the National Endowment for Democracy, “we’re not challenging the results — we’re challenging the process. It’s important to set the bar higher for future elections.”

There is “no way we can change the fact that Uhuru Kenyatta is president of Kenya,” Mr Kiai said.

But he pointed to what he said were many small-scale manipulations of voting results that, taken together, enabled Mr Kenyatta’s reported tally to exceed the 50% threshold.

Prof Barkan did not offer as firm a conclusion in his assessment of the election results.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know whether they won 50 percent plus one,” he said in regard to Mr Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto. “My own sense is they did not, but they did win a plurality.

I don’t think the vote was stolen, but the election was a highly incompetent one.”

Mr Kiai added that the focus should now be on how Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto respond in the coming months to the cases brought against them in The Hague.

“The ICC is the only game in town in terms of accountability,” Mr Kiai said.

Prof Barkan offered a different view, saying, “The ICC did itself a disservice” in its handling of the Kenyatta/Ruto cases.

He cited lengthy delays in the court’s process, suggesting that former Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo did not serve the court well.

In considering where advocates of democracy in Kenya should place their attention, Prof Barkan said, “I wouldn’t focus so much on the ICC case. I would focus on whether Uhuru will stick to the very admirable markers he laid out in his inauguration speech.”

{NMG}

{{Sudan and South Sudan agreed on Tuesday to open 10 crossings along their joint border to boost travel and trade after a thaw in relations between two sides that had come close to war.}}

Highlighting the volatile situation along the 2,000-km (1,200-mile) boundary, Sudan’s army and rebels fought a battle in a state bordering South Sudan.

Sudan closed the border after South Sudan’s secession in 2011 – hitting traders and communities on both sides.

Almost a year after the split, border skirmishes brought both countries close to full-blown war over unresolved disputes about oil, territory and other issues.

But the African neighbors agreed last month to resume cross-border oil flows, following talks brokered by the African Union.

Both sides said they would open 10 road, rail and Nile river crossing, eight of them immediately, in fresh AU talks in Ethiopia on Tuesday.

One crossing will link South Sudan’s Unity state with Heglig, home to an oilfield vital to Sudan’s economy which South Sudan’s army briefly occupied last year.

Sudan’s army and a rebel group said on Tuesday they had fought in southern Darfur, a region bordering South Sudan, the scene of a decade-long insurgency by non-Arab tribes.

Army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid told media his forces had killed several rebels, among them three commanders, and destroyed 15 of their cars during a five-hour battle.

A number of soldiers were also killed, he said.

A spokesman for a faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army said it had beaten the army and killed more than 70 soldiers.

Events in Darfur are hard to verify due to severe travel restrictions for foreign journalists.

Sudan has in the past accused South Sudan of backing rebels in Darfur and two border states, claims denied by Juba.

Landlocked South Sudan shut down its 350,000 barrel-per-day crude output in January last year in a row over how much it should pay to send the oil through Sudan to the Red Sea.

The agreement to resume oil flows gave a lifeline to both countries’ struggling economies which rely on foreign currency from oil sales and pipeline fees to import food and fuel.

Sudan expects the first oil cargo from South Sudan to arrive next week, state media said on Monday.

South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in July 2011 under a 2005 peace deal which ended one of Africa’s longest civil wars.

The two remain at loggerheads over control of disputed territories such as the border region of Abyei.

{reuters}

{{Ethiopia will withdraw its troops from Somalia soon, its prime minister said on Tuesday, voicing frustration with the Mogadishu government and African Union peacekeeping forces that are also battling Islamist militants there.}}

After waging an ill-fated war in Somalia in 2006-2009, Ethiopia in 2011 once again rolled troops into Somalia to fight al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab, opening a third front alongside Kenyan troops and an African Union mission.

At the time Ethiopia pledged to stay in the war-ravaged country until Somali government could ratify a new constitution and its ragtag military was able to fend off the Islamist threat on its own.

However, last month Ethiopian troops unexpectedly withdrew from Hudur, the capital of Bakool province near the Ethiopian border, enabling al Shabaab to retake the dusty town.

Hailemariam Desalegn, who replaced Ethiopia’s long-serving Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in September, stopped short of announcing a full withdrawal but voiced concern with the pace of progress in Somalia, recovering from two decades of civil war.

“It has taken them (African peacekeepers and Somalia) a year already and they repeatedly assure us each month but fail to deliver so we pulled out,” said Hailemariam, referring to pledges by African Union’s Amisom force to replace Ethiopian troops.

“The main issue now is to accelerate our complete withdrawal towards our border. This is what we are fulfilling,” he told Ethiopia’s parliament.

Hailemariam said Addis Ababa was paying for its military mission in Somalia from its own coffers and Western diplomats say financial issues are one of the main reasons behind Ethiopia’s discontent, along with strained relations with Mogadishu and Amisom.

African countries which sent troops into Somalia under the Amisom banner are compensated by the African Union but Ethiopian troops do not operate within that framework.

Al Shabaab has been greatly weakened since late September when Kenyan troops forced it to withdraw from the port of Kismayu, its last major urban stronghold.

But analysts say they doubt Ethiopia is set for a full withdrawal and Hailemariam suggested Ethiopia could continue its fight against al Shabaab, but in other parts of Somalia.

“Somalia is one of Ethiopia’s main security interest zones, so I don’t think they would change policy drastically,” said one Nairobi-based Western diplomat.

“It’s in Ethiopia’s own interest that Somalia stays in tact and that gains achieved are not lost once again.”

{wirestory}