CONGO REPUBLIC’S LEADER SET FOR RE-ELECTION

Congo Republic’s President Denis Sassou-Nguesso is all but guaranteed to be re-elected for another seven years in an election on Sunday that the opposition wants delayed but the government will push through. Although expectations are low, analysts say a peaceful poll in a nation where elections have previously led to armed conflict could encourage investors [...]

U.N CHIEF ACCUSES SOMALI REBELS OF WAR CRIME

The United Nations human rights chief said on Friday that Islamist insurgents in Somalia had executed civilians and set off bombs in residential areas, violations which she said may amount to war crimes. Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, cited credible reports that rebels had also set up tribunals which have handed down [...]

LIBERIAN TRUTH COMMISSION RECIEVES DEATH THREAT

Members of Liberia’s truth commission have received phone death threats since recommending President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf be barred from office. The BBC’s Jonathan Paye-Layleh says some of them have gone into hiding and turned off their mobile telephones.
In a report, the commission recommended a 30-year ban for senior politicians for their role in the civil war. [...]

RHINO HUNTING TO REACH 15 YEAR HIGH

Rhino poaching around the world is set to reach a 15-year high, conservation groups have warned. They say demand for the threatened animals’ horns is being driven by the traditional medicine trade in Asia. The groups estimated that the number of rhinos being killed in southern Africa had risen four-fold in recent years. The findings [...]

AFRICAN AMERICANS USE DNA TO TRACE AFRICAN ORIGIN

To get a sense of the pain many black Americans feel about their broken connection to Africa, just listen to the cries of joy when the divide was bridged by blacks who used DNA to trace their roots to a specific country: “My life has been turned upside down,” said Veronica Henry of Las Vegas, [...]

GHANA GIVING AFRICA A NEW FACE: BONO

When Barack Obama arrives in Ghana on Friday for his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president, it will be the new face of America meeting “the new face of Africa,” says Irish rocker and anti-poverty activist Bono. In a New York Times column on Friday hours before Obama arrives in Ghana, Bono wrote that [...]

AFRICAN LEADERS ASK G8 TO FULFIL PROMISES

Africa took centre stage at the Group of Eight summit on Friday, with wealthy nations eager to reassure critics they will honour past aid pledges and approve a new $15 billion agriculture programme. After two days of talks focused on the economic crisis, trade and global warming, the final day of the G8 gathering in [...]

NIGERIAN MILITANT LEADER HENRY OKAH ‘TO BE FREED’

Nigeria is to release militant leader Henry Okah because he has accepted a government amnesty offer, the presidential spokesman says. But spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi said details of the release still needed to be worked out. Henry Okah is a leader of the Mend militant group in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
The government recently offered an [...]

AFRICAN LEADERS SURE OF OBAMA’S SUPPORT FOR FOOD SUPPLIES

U.S. President Barack Obama will bring a welcome new focus on strengthening African food production in his policy towards the continent, Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade said on Friday. Wade has championed efforts to increase agriculture in his West African country, heavily dependent on food imports.
Both he and Obama were in Italy for the G8 summit, [...]