[One of the leaders of the al-Qaida-linked Somali insurgent group al-Shabab has acknowledged the group is losing ground in its fight against the Somali government.As forces of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government continue to make advances throughout the country – often with the help of African Union troops – the country’s main insurgent group, al-Shabab, appears to be weakening]

BURUNDI :

Burundi : veuves, séropositives, spoliées et rejetées

08-07-2011/syfia-grands-lacs.info

(Syfia/PMB) Après la mort de leurs maris, les veuves séropositives ont la vie dure dans les collines burundaises. Croyant que leurs jours sont comptés à cause du virus qui les ronge, leurs belles-familles s’emparent souvent de leurs biens. Heureusement, certaines se montrent plus compatissantes et les aident à vivre.

“Mon mari est mort du sida il y a déjà quelques mois. Pour moi, rien n’est plus comme avant, car je suis constamment persécutée par ma belle-famille. On m’empêche de cultiver la propriété familiale ; on m’a volé tous mes ustensiles de cuisine. Ils font ça pour m’acculer à retourner chez moi et à tout leur laisser”, confiait, en mai dernier, S. Niyonkuru de la colline Munanira, au centre-ouest du Burundi. Comme son mari était affilié à l’Institut National de la Sécurité Sociale, elle vivait de la rente de survie que lui verse chaque trimestre cet organisme. Mais ses beaux-frères viennent de la priver de l’unique ressource qui lui restait. Isolée, malade et affectée par ce harcèlement, elle ne sait plus à quel saint se vouer.

Malheureusement, de nombreuses autres veuves séropositives de cette province partagent cette infortune. Du jour au lendemain, elles se sont vues rejetées par leurs proches. Même celles qui ont mis au monde de nombreux enfants ne sont pas à l’abri. En dépit de ses six enfants, Imelde Niyonzima, par exemple, a été contrainte par ses beaux-frères à quitter la maison familiale. Elle n’exploite plus à présent qu’une infime parcelle que ses parents ont mise à sa disposition dans sa commune natale.

Dans tous les cas, fait remarquer Godeberthe Hurege, médiatrice de santé à l’hôpital de Kibumbu, en province Mwaro, les auteurs de ces maltraitances misent sur la récupération des biens de ces veuves dont les jours, croient-ils, sont comptés.

Discrimination injustifiée

Les associations de personnes vivant avec le VIH/sida et d’autres associations de la société civile unissent leurs efforts pour faire comprendre qu’une personne séropositive n’est pas vouée à une mort immédiate et qu’il faut que ces harcèlements cessent. “Même séropositive, toute personne a droit au respect de sa personne et de ses biens, explique Abel Nahayo, avocat. Et d’ailleurs, on constate que les personnes vivant avec le sida vivent encore longtemps après avoir déclaré leur maladie pour être prises en charge médicalement et qu’elles sont toujours utiles à la société.” Comme le prouvent certaines veuves atteintes du sida de longue date qui, soutenues par leurs proches, ont pu élever leurs enfants tout à fait normalement. “Cela fait près de dix ans que mon mari est mort du sida, mais cela n’a pas affecté outre mesure ma situation, car ma belle-famille m’a encouragée et bien assistée ; mes enfants ont malgré tout pu poursuivre une scolarité normale”, témoigne l’une d’elles.

Aidées et médicalement prises en charge, les veuves séropositives vivent sans doute de plus en plus longtemps. Et leurs enfants, contrairement aux idées reçues, ne sont pas toujours séropositifs, car aujourd’hui le suivi médical des femmes enceintes et séropositives permet d’éviter la transmission du virus à l’enfant.

E. Ntirumera

Départ du premier vice-président burundais pour le Sud-Soudan

Jeudi 7 juillet 2011/www.afriquinfos.com/Xinhua

BUJUMBURA (Xinhua) – Le premier vice-président burundais Thérence Sinunguruza est parti jeudi à destination du Sud-Soudan pour représenter le chef de l’Etat Pierre Nkurunziza à l’occasion des cérémonies de l’indépendance de ce nouveau pays prévues ce samedi.

“Le Sud-Soudan va avoir son indépendance. Le président Salva Kiir Mayardit a invité son homologue burundais à se joindre à lui et fêter avec joie l’évènement. Le président de la République m’a alors délégué pour aller le représenter avec un message de félicitation et d’enthousiasme sur cette étape franchie par le Sud Soudan, surtout que ce pays a déjà manifesté l’intention d’adhérer à la Communauté des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Est si les Chefs d’ Etat l’acceptent”, a déclaré Thérence Sinunkuruza avant son départ à l’aéroport international de Bujumbura.

M. Sinunguruza a également indiqué que l’adhésion du Sud-Soudan à la Communauté de l’Afrique de l’Est (EAC) devra renforcer cette dernière et se fera dans l’intérêt mutuel des peuples qui composent cette organisation sous-régionale, qui regroupe actuellement la Tanzanie, le Kenya, l’Ouganda, le Rwanda et le Burundi.

Le Président lève les inquiétudes des politiciens en exil sur leur sécurité une fois rentrés

Vendredi 8 juillet 2011 /www.afriquinfos.com/Xinhua

BUJUMBURA (Xinhua) – Le cabinet de la présidence engage une vitesse de croisière dans sa démarche d’amener les politiciens burundais en exil à regagner le pays pour qu’ils viennent donner leurs contributions dans l’édification du Burundi.

C’est ce qu’on peut comprendre dans l’interprétation qu’a faite le porte-parole du président Pierre Nkurunziza du message que ce dernier a lancé à ces politiciens.

« Dans son message (du président), il a été comme un clin d’oeil ou un ordre à tous ceux qui sont chargés de faciliter l’entrée ou la sortie des burundais sur ou de leur territoire, par exemple les chancelleries ou les représentations diplomatiques à l’extérieur du pays ou la police nationale du Burundi (la police de l’air, des frontières et des étrangers) de tout faire pour que tous les partenaires politiques qui sont à l’extérieur puissent rentrer en bonne et due forme », a indiqué Léonidas Hatungimana au cours d’un journal diffusé en synergie par 10 radios locales jeudi.

Il a tenu à préciser que c’est un message pour que chacun puisse se préparer à bien accueillir ses frères et soeurs qui sont à l’extérieur du pays. Le porte-parole du président a également indiqué qu’une garde sera mise à la disposition de l’un ou l’autre de ces politiciens qui l’aura demandée pour sa protection.

Un de ces leaders qui sont en exil avait exprimé ses inquiétudes sur la sécurité de cette classe politique une fois arrivée au pays. Pancrace Cimpaye, porte-parole du parti Sahwanya Frodebu, avait même exigé comme préalable à leur retour la libération de tous les prisonniers politiques et celle de tous les prisonniers d’opinion incarcérés après les élections générales de 2010.

Le chef d l’Etat burundais avait lancé cet appel le 1er juillet dans son discours à la nation à l’occasion de la célébration du 49ème anniversaire de l’indépendance du Burundi.

Deux leaders de l’opposition en exil réagissent à l’appel du président à rentrer au pays

Vendredi 8 juillet 2011/www.afriquinfos.com/Xinhua

BUJUMBURA (Xinhua) – Pascaline Kampayano et Pancrace Cimpaye ont réagi jeudi à l’appel que le président Pierre Nkurunziza a lancé aux leaders des partis politiques exilés pour qu’ils regagnent le pays et entament un dialogue avec son gouvernement.

Pascaline Kampayano et Pancrace Cimpaye, respectivement candidate malheureuse à l’élection présidentielle burundaise de 2010 et porte-parole du parti Sahwanya Frodebu, tous en exil, ont réagi jeudi à l’appel que le président Pierre Nkurunziza a lancé aux leaders des partis politiques exilés, pour qu’ils regagnent le pays et entament un dialogue avec son gouvernement.

Qualifiant cet appel d'”une petite évolution”, Mme Kampayano, du parti UPD Zigamibanga, a souligné que les politiciens exilés ” ne sont pas partis de leurs propres grés” et “ont des raisons qui les ont poussés à quitter le pays”.

“Quand ces raisons ne sont pas discutées, je ne vois pas comment ils peuvent revenir. La plupart de leurs membres sont emprisonnés et ceux qui osent dénoncer les dérives économiques du pays sont pourchassés à l’extérieur”, a-t-elle déclaré au cours d’ un journal diffusé en synergie de 10 radios.

Elle a indiqué que ces leaders en exil ne cherchent pas à discuter avec le gouvernement de Bujumbura pour avoir des postes, mais veulent discuter avec lui des questions qui hantent aujourd’ hui le pays comme la corruption, les assassinats, bref le problème de gouvernance.

“Vous pouvez être dans le gouvernement ou dans les institutions, ce n’est pas pour autant que les assassinats vont s’arrêter ou que ce phénomène de corruption va s’arrêter”, a relevé Mme Kampayano.

C’est presque le même son de cloche chez le porte-parole du parti Frodebu qui exige comme préalable la libération des prisonniers politiques et des prisonniers d’opinion qui croupissent dans les prisons depuis les élections générales de 2010.

“Qu’il (le président Nkurunziza) libère ces prisonniers politiques et ces prisonniers d’opinion (…) Ca sera un geste fort qui démontre qu’on veut avoir un environnement favorable pour les négociations avec l’opposition. Sinon, nous ne pouvons pas nous mettre dans la gueule du loup de rentrer et à peine arrivés à l’aéroport, on nous transfère dans les différentes prisons de Bujumbura ou de l’intérieur du pays”, a indiqué Pancrace Cimpaye.

A l’occasion de la célébration du 49ème anniversaire de l’indépendance du Burundi, le 1er juillet, le président Nkurunziza a lancé un appel à tous les leaders de l’opposition en exil de regagner le pays afin d’entamer un dialogue avec son gouvernement, mais un dialogue qui ne devrait en aucun cas remettre en cause les résultats des urnes de mai à septembre 2010.

RWANDA :

Rwanda: Dutch Court Sentences Genocide Suspect to Life

Edmund Kagire/The New Times/8 July 2011

Hague — The appeals court in The Hague, Netherlands, yesterday, sentenced a genocide suspect to life imprisonment for crimes committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tusti.

Joseph Mpambara had appealed against a 20 year jail term handed to him in 2009 when he was found guilty of torturing two Tutsi mothers and their four children to death and holding a German-Rwandan couple and their baby against their will for several hours in April 1994.

But the appeals court found him guilty of a crime for which he had been let off during the previous hearing – an attack on an Adventist church where hundreds of Tutsis were killed.

According to the Dutch media, the presiding Judge Raoul Dekkers told Mpambara that he was guilty of war crimes and upped the sentence from 20 years to life.

Rwanda welcomed the decision by the Dutch court, with official stressing that this is an indication that genocide suspects cannot escape justice.

“He was convicted to 20 years imprisonment sentence 2009 and appealed against the verdict, the Dutch prosecution had appealed against the lighter sentence too, the appeals court came here several times to hear the witnesses,” said John Bosco Siboyintore, the head of the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit (GFTU)

“Now they have come up with the life sentence, which is the highest sentence in the Netherlands. We are very pleased with this development.”

Siboyintore said that the decision was timely despite its delay though justice had finally been delivered.

“We can say justice has been done, the given sentence is proportionate with the crime committed,” he said.

The judges said there was compelling evidence that Mpambara ordered the killing of two Tutsi mothers and their children hauled out of an ambulance they were using to flee the massacres. They were bludgeoned and hacked with clubs and machetes.

He also oversaw and commanded attacks in Kibuye, in the western part of the country. The crimes committed by Mpambara, 43, became known when he applied for asylum in the Netherlands.

According to Jean de Dieu Mucyo, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), Mpambara’s case should serve as a precedent for other countries harbouring genocide suspects.

“Increasing the sentence from 20 years to life shows how seriously the court considered the charges. Mpambara is remembered to have committed horrendous crimes,” Mucyo said.

“We would actually wish that he is extradited to serve the sentence here but that is not the most important thing; what is clear is that countries indeed recognise that the genocide took place here and that its perpetrators must face the law.”

Mucyo said that while the decision is commendable, a lot more needs to be done as some European countries continue to harbour genocide suspects while even those that have arrested them, the processes to prosecute them are slow.

He said that it was important for countries – like the Netherlands – which recognise the Genocide, to enact laws which punish genocide revisionists who live on their soil.

The president of the umbrella of genocide survivors Ibuka Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu said that finally, genocide victims and survivors can now believe justice has indeed been delivered.

“It gives us hope that justice is taking its course. Of late, there have been a number of actions that indeed promise us that whoever committed atrocities during the genocide will have his day in court,” Dusingizemungu said.

“Recent developments in ICTR, different actions by states and now the decision by the Dutch court show that countries have finally woken up. The trend is positive and we urge such processes to bring suspects to justice to be fast tracked,” he added.

Who is Mpambara?

Mpambara is the brother of Obed Ruzindana, a businessman sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by the Appeal Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2001, for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Mpambara applied for asylum in the Netherlands in 1998 and was living in Hilversum at the time of his arrest in August 2006.

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) denied Mpambara an asylum application because he allegedly mounted a roadblock in his place of residence, Mugonero where people were killed on his, or his brother’s orders.

According to the IND there were strong reasons to believe that Mpambara was involved in massacres in Rwanda in 1994.

Mpambara was a member of the Interahamwe, a militia of a national state party, the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND).

He is said to have been involved in the mass murder of Tutsi refugees in a complex of the Seventh Day Adventists in Rwanda, the murder of seven passengers of an ambulance, and acts of rape.

RDC CONGO:

Echanges commerciaux Corée du Sud-RD Congo

Pana /08/07/2011

.Signature d’accords de coopération entre Kinshasa et Séoul – Le ministre des Affaires étrangères de la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, et le ministre sud-coréen des Affaires étrangères et du Commerce, Kim Sung Wan, ont signé jeudi à Kinshasa, en présence du président congolais Joseph Kabila Kabange et son homologue sud-coréen, Lee Myung-Bak, des accords de coopération dans les domaines économique et technique. Selon le communiqué conjoint lu par le ministre congolais des Affaires étrangères, ces accords s’inscrivent dans le cadre du renforcement de la coopération réelle entre les deux pays dans l’ensemble des domaines tels que l’élaboration d’un plan national de développement stratégique, la coopération pour le développement, la construction des infrastructures, la mise en valeur des ressources, le commerce et l’investissement, ainsi que l’échange culturel, en vue d’approfondir davantage les relations coréano-congolaises.

La délégation sud-coréenne, conduite par son président Lee Myung-Bak, séjourne à Kinshasa depuis ce jeudi pour une visite de travail de 48 heures, en réponse à celle que le président Joseph Kabila avait effectuée en 2010 à Séoul.

Viols en RDC : les eurodéputés appellent Kabila à mettre fin à l’impunité

Par Ursula Soares /www.rfi.fr/ jeudi 07 juillet 2011

Réunis ce jeudi 7 juillet 2011 au Parlement de Strasbourg, les eurodéputés ont souligné que le gouvernement congolais devait mettre fin à l’impunité face aux violences sexuelles qui se poursuivent dans l’est du pays. Ils ont également appelé le président Kabila à coopérer avec la Cour pénale internationale dans les enquêtes contre ces viols qui peuvent constituer des crimes de guerre et crimes contre l’humanité.

Au moins 300 femmes, 23 hommes, 55 filles et 9 garçons ont été violés, en seulement quatre jours, dans plusieurs villages du Nord-Kivu, début août 2010. Ces exactions ont été commises par des groupes armés : un groupe de rebelles hutus rwandais des Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR), un groupe de milices des Maï-Maï et des éléments du colonel Emmanuel Nsengiyumva – un colonel congolais qui a rejoint la rébellion début 2010. Outre ces viols, plusieurs maisons et commerces ont été pillés par les assaillants ; 116 civils ont été enlevés et soumis au travail forcé.

Les faits étant d’une particulière gravité, l’ONU estime qu’il y a une forte probabilité qu’il s’agisse bien de « crimes contre l’humanité et des crimes de guerre ». Par ailleurs et dans le rapport de l’ONU élaboré et publié, ce mercredi 6 juin 2011, par le Bureau conjoint des Nations unies aux Droits de l’homme (BCNUDH), il apparaît que ce sont des viols qui ont été planifiés pour terroriser et assurer le contrôle sur la population.

Dans un rapport préliminaire sur ce même sujet en septembre 2010, l’ONU avait déjà qualifié ces viols en série « d’effrayants » et avait précisé que ni l’armée congolaise, ni l’ONU en RDC (la Monusco) n’avaient pu les empêcher.

Jusqu’à ce jour, les autorités congolaises ont ouvert une enquête uniquement à l’encontre d’un des chefs des rebelles congolais Maï-Maï , le lieutenant-colonel Mayele. L’ONU se dit prête à renforcer son soutien aux forces armées congolaises par rapport à ces groupes armés mais pour l’instant l’arrestation des auteurs de ces crimes est encore très dépendante de l’évolution de la situation sécuritaire de la région.

Ce vendredi à Strasbourg, le Parlement européen a souligné qu’il incombait au gouvernement congolais d’assurer la sécurité sur son territoire et de protéger ses civils. Les eurodéputés ont également rappelé au président Kabila qu’il s’était personnellement engagé à mener une politique de tolérance zéro en matière de violences sexuelles, à poursuivre les auteurs de crimes de guerre et de crimes contre l’humanité et à coopérer avec la Cour pénale internationale.

Raül Romeva, eurodéputé espagnol du groupe des Verts, insiste sur l’impunité à laquelle le gouvernement doit mettre fin.

Le Sud-Kivu, région également très instable, où les viols sont fréquents

Soldats et rebelles congolais sont régulièrement accusés de commettre des viols et des pillages dans cette région du Sud-Kivu où sévissent plusieurs groupes armés. Récemment, à Nakiele, un village de 12 300 habitants, 248 femmes ont déclaré avoir été violées entre le 10 et le 13 juin 2011. Ces viols ont été commis par des soldats déserteurs ayant rejoint la rébellion.

Souvent en RDC le viol reste un tabou. Les femmes, victimes de viol, sont généralement rejetées par leur mari, leur famille et aussi leur communauté. Souvent et par crainte, les victimes se taisent, ce qui permet de déduire que le nombre de viols commis est bien supérieur au nombre de cas déclarés.

Comme le souligne l’eurodéputée belge Véronique De Keyser, du groupe socialiste, le viol a des conséquences considérables comme la destruction physique et psychologique des femmes mais il a aussi des conséquences pour les enfants nés à la suite de ces viols.

Véronique de Keyser, eurodéputée belge du groupe socialiste.

Préparatifs du 14ème sommet de la Francophonie

Pana /08/07/2011

Abdou Diouf salue des avancées réalisées par la RDC dans les préparatifs du 14ème sommet de la Francophonie – Le secrétaire général de l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), Abdou Diouf, s’est réjoui des avancées importantes réalisées par le gouvernement de la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) dans le cadre des préparatifs du 14ème sommet de la Francophonie prévu à Kinshasa en octobre 2012, à l’issue d’un entretien jeudi à Kinshasa avec le chef de l’Etat, Joseph Kabila Kabange.

‘Nous considérons que si la tendance est maintenue, nous allons vers un grand et beau sommet dans ce pays qui est est le plus grand Etat francophone en Afrique et le 2ème plus grand pays francophone au monde’, a-t-il déclaré.

Abdou Diouf a également salué les efforts accomplis par la RDC et ses dirigeants en faveur de la promotion et du rayonnement de la langue française et aussi des valeurs qui vont de pair avec la promotion de la langue française, à savoir les droits de l’homme, l’état de droit, la démocratie et le respect des libertés.

‘Nous sommes ici dans un pays qui illustre parfaitement ce que la Francophonie veut être, ce qu’elle est et ce qu’elle sera de plus en plus, une organisation fondée sur des normes, des valeurs et des principes qui sont respectés par tous ‘, a-t-il poursuivi.

RDC: un colonel accusé de viols se rend

AFP /08/07/2011

Un colonel de l’armée congolaise, accusé avec près de 200 soldats d’avoir commis des viols massifs en juin dans l’est de la RD Congo, s’est rendu hier avec ses hommes dans un centre de formation de l’armée congolaise, a indiqué un porte-parole de l’armée.

Le colonel Niragire Kifaru “est sorti hier (de la brousse) avec 116 militaires. Il se trouve actuellement au centre de formation de Luberizi”, à une centaine de kilomètres au nord du territoire de Fizi, au sud de la province du Sud-Kivu (est), a déclaré le lieutenant-colonel Sylvain Ekenge, porte-parole de l’armée dans la région.

RDC/Manifestation dispersée par la police: un mort mais une mort naturelle

AFP / 07 juillet 2011

KINSHASA (RDCongo) – Le porte-parole du gouvernement de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC) a reconnu jeudi la mort d’un manifestant lundi à Kinshasa lors de la dispersion par la police d’un rassemblement d’opposants, parlant cependant d’une mort naturelle.

Le gouvernement a fait vérifier par la police nationale linformation selon laquelle un jeune congolais, Serge Diyoka Lukusa, serait mort après inhalation de gaz lacrymogènes. M. Lukusa est décédé de mort naturelle (crise dasthme) selon sa famille, a déclaré Lambert Mende, également ministre de la Communication, lors d’un point de presse.

Cest un mensonge qui nhonore pas ses auteurs. Une telle tentative de récupération est tout simplement odieuse, a-t-il ajouté.

Mardi, l’opposition avait annoncé la mort de deux militants lors de la dispersion lundi par la police d’un rassemblement d’une centaine d’opposants, principalement de l’Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS), parti du chef de file de l’opposition en RDC, Etienne Tshisekedi, avant un démenti de M. Mende, affirmant que la police a gardé son calme.

Il y a eu deux morts mais, personnellement, je n’ai vu qu’un seul corps, le deuxième a été atteint par balle sur les lieux de l’événement et récupéré par la police, avait déclaré lundi à l’AFP Jacquemin Shabani, secrétaire général de l’UDPS.

La police avait tiré en l’air pour disperser une centaine d’opposants rassemblés devant le siège de la Commission électorale nationale indépendante (CENI) pour remettre un mémorandum dénonçant des irrégularités dans la révision des listes électorales en cours avant la présidentielle de novembre.

Les policiers, usant de leurs armes et de grenades lacrymogènes, s’étaient employés à les disperser.

Selon l’UDPS, la police avait procédé à une cinquantaine d’arrestations parmi les manifestants.

Mais selon le porte-parole du gouvernement seuls quelques auteurs d’actes de brigandage ont été interpellés. Six ont été libérés faute de preuves suffisantes, tandis que quatre, dont un qui se promenait totalement nu dans la rue, attendent actuellement de passer en jugement, a ajouté le ministre.

Ces incidents sont intervenus le lendemain d’un démenti de la CENI des allégations d’une ONG locale sur l’inscription sur les listes électorales de mineurs dans la province du Katanga (sud-est), la CENI affirmant qu’elles sont sans fondement.

Candidat déclaré à la présidentielle prévue fin novembre, l’opposant historique Etienne Tshisekedi, 79 ans, avait appelé au boycott des élections en 2006, les estimant entachées d’irrégularités.

Election 2011 en RDC : « Cinq chantiers » et démagogie

07/07/2011 / KongoTimes!

A quelques quatre mois de la fin de la législature, le président semble décidé à faire feu de tout bois pour charmer les “électeurs indécis”. Il se livre à des effets d’annonce qui cachent mal une opération de diversion.

Le président sortant «Joseph Kabila» a lancé mercredi 6 juillet 2011 les travaux de “réhabilitation et de modernisation” des 2ème et 3ème tronçons du boulevard Lumumba d’une longueur de 15 kilomètres. Les travaux seront exécutés par le groupement des entreprises chinoises «CREC». Coût : 188 millions $US dont 165 millions pour les travaux et 23 millions l’indemnisation des concessionnaires. Durée des travaux : 18 mois. En juillet 2009, le coût du même ouvrage d’art était estimé à 53 millions $US pour une durée de travaux de 10 mois. Le même mercredi 6 juillet 2011, «Joseph» a visité les travaux de modernisation de l’échangeur de Limete et procédé à la pose de la première pierre des travaux de réhabilitation et d’extension de l’usine de traitement d’eau de Ngaliema, située dans la concession Utexafrica. Une “vocation sociale” autant tardive que trompeuse.

Improvisation et corruption

A quatre mois de la fin de la législature commencée en décembre 2006, le président sortant «Joseph Kabila» se découvre la vocation pour le moins tardive de «bâtisseur». En présence des présidents de l’Assemblée nationale, du Sénat et du Premier ministre, il a procédé, mercredi 6 juillet, à la mise en route des travaux «de réhabilitation et de modernisation» du deuxième et du troisième tronçon de cet autre grand boulevard de la capitale congolaise. C’était dans la commune de Masina. Pour que la terre entière puisse avoir les échos de cet «évènement», les chefs des missions diplomatiques accrédités à Kinshasa y ont été conviés. A mi-parcours de l’exécution du budget de l’Etat pour l’exercice 2011, on se demande bien d’où proviendra le financement pour la réalisation de ce projet qui met en exergue l’empirisme qui règne au sommet de l’Etat congolais.

La rénovation du boulevard Lumumba constitue un vrai poker menteur. Dès le début, les observateurs ont été unanimes à considérer cette «action» comme une opération de diversion destinée à faire croire à la population que le redressement du Congo était en route. C’est en juillet 2009 que «Kabila» donnait le premier coup de pioche des travaux dits de modernisation de cette artère dans le cadre du fameux «deal» sino-congolais. Le troc «infrastructures contre minerais». L’exécution de l’ouvrage d’art a été «adjugé» tout naturellement à la compagnie nationale chinoise de ponts et chaussées, (CNCTPC). L’appel d’offres était restreint. A l’époque, le coût a été estimé à 53 millions $US (cinquante-trois millions de dollars américains). Durée des travaux : dix mois. L’inauguration du boulevard Lumumba “relifté” devait intervenir au mois de mai 2010. En attendant, les entreprises riveraines ont payé le prix le plus cher. Elles ont été forcées de «déménager» sans préavis mettant des pères et des mères de famille au chômage. Sans indemnités. C’est le cas notamment des stations-services. Inutiles de parler des arbres centenaires qui ont été coupés pour… élargir le boulevard.

“gestion-pirate”

Dès le lendemain de la célébration du 50ème anniversaire de la proclamation de l’indépendance le 30 juin 2010, les travaux ont été interrompus. Pourquoi? «Les engins des travaux publics et les ouvriers ont disparu comme par enchantement», confiaient des Kinois. «De la 1ère à la 17ème rue, aucune présence de tracteurs, camions bennes ou autres matériels qu’on apercevait, il y a quelques jours, indiquait une dépêche de l’APA. Rien que des tas de sable, de caillasse, de moellons ainsi que la poussière soulevée lors du passage de véhicules qui montrent que le boulevard Lumumba est un chantier en réhabilitation». A l’Office des voiries et drainage (OVD), un certain optimisme de façade restait de rigueur : «Il n’y a pas arrêt des travaux, il ne s’agit que d’un recentrage des travaux». Des sources proches du dossier finirent par imputer l’arrêt des travaux à une «évaluation». En réalité, les «Chinois» avaient suspendus l’exécution de leurs obligations par simple mesure de réciprocité. En cause, l’Etat congolais avait cessé d’honorer les siennes.

Depuis le mois de mai 2009, le Premier ministre de la RD Congo ne conduit plus “la politique de la nation”. Il a été dépossédé de son rôle d’ordonnateur du compte du Trésor sur décision – inconstitutionnelle – du président de la République. Réputé falot, Adolphe Muzito – c’est de lui qu’il s’agit – n’a pas bronché. Il a préféré se taire pour préserver les avantages et les privilèges de sa fonction. C’est donc le chef de l’Etat qui gère à sa guise et dans l’opacité la plus totale les deniers publics. Là où le bat blesse est que le président de la République est politiquement irresponsable. La RD Congo est ainsi dirigée par un premier magistrat qui pose des actes de gestion sans toutefois rendre compte devant la Représentation nationale. Toutes les passations des marchés publics ont lieu à la Présidence de la République où officie le fameux «gouvernement parallèle» (dixit Vital Kamerhe) – «gouvernement perpendiculaire» surenchérira, pour sa part, Nzanga Mobutu. La rénovation du boulevard du 30 juin et l’organisation des festivités du 30 juin 2010 ont été «pilotées» au propre comme au figuré par “Joseph Kabila” et son proche entourage. «Les différents fournisseurs ont été payés par la Présidence de la République», confie un haut fonctionnaire. Question : Comment peut-on expliquer la révision à la hausse du coût des travaux sur le boulevard Lumumba qui passe de 53 millions $US (en juillet 2009) à 188 millions $US (en juillet 2011) ?

Démagogie

Le même mercredi 6 juillet 2011, le président sortant congolais est allé inspecter les travaux «d’aménagement et de modernisation» de l’échangeur de Limete. Ici aussi, c’est la firme chinoise «CREC» qui a en charge la réalisation de cette rénovation. «Les travaux de réaménagement et de modernisation de cet échangeur, permettront de valoriser un important investissement consenti vers les années 1970 et estimé, à cette époque, à 10 millions de dollars américains», a rappelé le ministre des Infrastructures et des travaux publics, Fridolin Kasweshi. Quel est le coût des travaux en cours? Quel est l’origine du financement? Mystère.

Après l’échangeur, “Kabila” a procédé à la pose de la première pierre des travaux de réhabilitation et d’extension de l’usine de traitement d’eau de Ngaliema, située dans la concession de l’Utexafrica. Durée des travaux : 11 mois. Coût : 62,9 millions $US. Il s’agit d’un don du gouvernement du japonais. On peut gager les «kabilistes» n’hésiteront guère à inclure cette action dans le fameux «Cinq chantiers» lequel ne fait plus illusion.

A quelques quatre mois de la fin de la législature, le président semble décidé à faire feu de tout bois pour charmer les “électeurs indécis”. Il se livre à des effets d’annonce qui cachent mal une opération de diversion. Tout au long de la législature finissante, «Joseph Kabila» a donné toute la mesure de son mépris pour les secteurs ayant un impact direct sur le bien-être de la population en privilégiant – pour des raisons faciles à deviner – les travaux d’infrastructures. Tout le reste n’est que démagogie!

Heineken Should Target Ethiopia, Congo for Growth, Africa Head De Man Says

By Clementine Fletcher – /www.bloomberg.com/ Jul 8, 2011

Heineken NV (HEIA), the world’s third- largest brewer by volume, needs to build its business in nations such as Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to sustain growth in Africa, according to the retiring division head.

The maker of Amstel and Star lager should target markets with relatively low beer consumption and fast-growing economies, which are supported by investment and, when necessary, global political intervention to aid stability, according to Tom de Man, who steps down from his role as president of Heineken’s Middle East and Africa unit in August. Rwanda and Burundi may also provide growth opportunities, he said.

De Man, 63, helped increase Heineken’s revenue in Africa and the Middle East to 1.98 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in 2010 from 846 million euros in 2003. The unit last year delivered an operating profit margin higher than any other region. Heineken got about 23 percent of its profit from Africa and the Middle East in 2010 compared with 33 percent from western Europe, the biggest contributor to revenue and profit. Nigeria, where Heineken first started brewing beer in 1949, is now the company’s biggest market in the region, De Man said.

“I compare most of our Africa breweries to ships,” De Man said in a telephone interview from Amsterdam. “You’re on the high seas, every now and then,” restricted by poor infrastructure and even political instability, he said.

Negative Reputation

Heineken, which competes with brewers including SABMiller Plc (SAB), Group Castel and Diageo Plc across the African continent, is already expanding in Ethiopia and said this year it will buy two state-owned breweries in the country. The company has 46 fully- or partially-owned breweries in Africa, excluding the two new purchases in Ethiopia.

Heineken has had a brewery in Kisangani in central Congo since 1957. The Dutch company brews or exports beers across all of Africa and the Middle East, with the exception of Libya, De Man said. Many African countries have a negative reputation, he said, even as their economies grow at a faster pace than the U.S. and eurozone.

“We only know the bad messages about it — civil war, genocide — but in the olden times, it was a developed area, and you see slowly and surely things are coming back,” he said.

Congo holds a third of the world’s cobalt reserves and 4 percent of all copper, and is recovering from more than a decade-and-a-half of conflict, which destabilised the country’s infrastructure and economy. Ethiopia is the world’s second- biggest recipient of foreign aid, after Afghanistan, according to the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development. The country has recorded an average economic growth rate of 11 percent over the past seven years, according to government data.

Cobalt Reserves

“It’s been a bad time in Africa, but we’re talking about the ‘90s, when there was a lot of instability,” said Gerard Rijk, an analyst at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam. “In the last five years, there’s enormous money flow moving into Africa because of all the commodities.”

Hazardous roads, insufficient energy supplies and the difficulties of getting basic machinery for breweries all add to the challenges of operating in the continent, according to De Man, who was appointed as Heineken’s managing director for sub- Saharan Africa in 2003 and has also overseen the company’s expansion into markets including China and South Korea.

Heineken now employs a group of people who specialize in importing goods to Africa, even occasionally chartering planes to fly in brewing equipment, he said.

Short-Wave Radio

De Man learned the challenges of operating in Africa with his first posting as brewery manager at Nigerian Breweries Ltd. in 1973, where he spent three years in Aba, about 60 kilometers north of Port Harcourt in Nigeria. He took his family with him, home-schooling his child, and the only means of communication was via a short-wave radio. Heineken’s expansion in Nigeria, Africa’s second-biggest beer market, is among the things he’s most proud of, and he regards the company’s growth there as a blueprint for future expansion in the region.

The company now has 12 breweries in Nigeria, where the estimated population of 155 million, according to the CIA World Factbook, is three times bigger than in South Africa, the largest beer market in the region. Nigeria also has a relatively low per-capita consumption of beer, he said.

De Man said he’ll continue as non-executive director at some of Heineken’s African units after he retires, emphasizing the importance of handing on knowledge of “the scenery” in the region to his successor, Siep Hiemstra.

He’d also like to indulge his love of travel with a trip on the Congo river, perhaps on one of Heineken’s ships carrying supplies to inland breweries, he said.

“Thinking ‘invest before the market’ has proved very successful,” De Man said. “There’s so much growth that it’s a challenge for everybody to make sure you install sufficient capacity all the time in those countries to maintain and grow your positions.”

Crash en République démocratique du Congo: Au moins 53 morts, la compagnie aérienne est sur la liste noire de l’UE

le 08/07/2011 /www.20minutes.fr/ A.-L.B. avec Reuters

CRASH AERIEN – Le bilan des victimes n’est pas encore connu…

Un avion de ligne congolais, avec 112 personnes à bord, s’est écrasé ce vendredi à l’atterrissage sur l’aéroport de Kisangani, dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC) (ex-Zaïre) a annoncé un représentant de la compagnie locale Hewa Bora contacté par Reuters.

Quarante rescapés ont été extraits de l’avion, un Boeing 727, a indiqué le porte-parole du gouvernement de RDC, citant les secours. Cinquante-trois personnes ont probablement trouvé la mort dans l’accident, a annoncé le directeur de la compagnie Hewa Bora.

Atterrissage catastrophe

«Le pilote a essayé d’atterrir, mais, apparemment, ils n’ont pas touché la piste», a déclaré à Reuters Stavros Papaioannou, PDG de Hewa Bora, joint par téléphone. «Cinquante-trois morts, c’est le chiffre dont je dispose», a-t-il dit un peu plus tard en soulignant que ce bilan était provisoire.

L’accident de Kisangani, ville portuaire et centre d’activités régional, est le dernier en date d’une série de catastrophes qui ont valu à la RDC l’un des records mondiaux de l’insécurité aérienne.

La compagnie Hewa Bora fait partie de la liste noire est sur la liste noire officielle de la communauté européenne. Connue précédemment sous les noms de Congo Airlines, Zaïre Airlines et Zaïre Express, elle a été fondée en 1994, et assure diverses liaisons passager et fret internationales et nationales, indique le site liste-noire.org.

Record d’insécurité

Toutes les compagnies aériennes de RDC sont sur cette liste noire établie par l’Union européenne. Il s’agit pour la compagnie Hewa Bora du deuxième accident grave en l’espace de trois ans. En 2008, un DC-9 d’Hewa Bora s’était écrasé sur un faubourg de la ville congolaise de Goma, faisant 44 morts.

En avril dernier, 32 personnes avaient été tuées à bord d’un avion des Nations unies qui avait manqué son atterrissage à l’aéroport de Kinshasa, la capitale. L’appareil était affrété par la compagnie Airzena Georgian Airways.

Selon le site internet d’Hewa Bora, la compagnie possède deux Boeing 727 comportant l’un et l’autre 137 sièges en classe économique et 12 en classe affaires. Ils assurent exclusivement des liaisons intérieures.

Le Boeing 727, qui fut un temps l’avion de ligne le plus vendu dans le monde, a entamé sa carrière en 1963. Le dernier modèle a été livré en 1984.

UGANDA :

Ugandan Police Warn Of Attacks On Kampala Bombing Anniversary

Jul 7, 2011/ www.nasdaq.com

KAMPALA, Uganda -(Dow Jones)- Ugandan police have warned that al-Qaeda- inspired al Shabab militants are planning attacks in Kenya and Uganda to coincide with the anniversary of the July 2010 bombings in Kampala that killed 79 people, including one American.

“We are urging the public to be vigilant. The information we have indicates that they [militants] are planning twin attacks in Kenya and Uganda,” said police spokeswoman Judith Nabakoba. Ugandan security is on high alert in the capital and along the country’s borders, she added.

The al Shabab militants claimed responsibility for the attacks on football fans, who were watching the televised World Cup final at a bar and an Ethiopian restaurant, popular with foreigners. The militants said the attacks were in response to Uganda’s decision to send troops to Somalia under the African Union peacekeeping mission, to protect Somalia’s transitional government. Uganda and Burundi have at least 9,000 troops in Somalia.

In December, militants attacked a Uganda-bound bus in Nairobi, killing at least one and leaving more than a dozen injured. Intelligence officials say Kenyan security is also on high alert following information that Bilal el Berjawi, a top al Shabab commander, could have sneaked into Kenya for treatment after being wounded in a U.S. air strike in Somalia Sunday.

-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires

Uganda’s Shilling Has Biggest Weekly Decline in Two Years

By Fred Ojambo /www.bloomberg.com/- Jul 8, 2011

Uganda’s shilling had its biggest weekly drop in two years against the dollar as oil exporters increased demand for the U.S. currency amid an electricity shortage in the East African nation.

The currency of the continent’s second-biggest coffee producer depreciated 1 percent to 2,620 per dollar by 10:21 a.m. in Kampala, the capital, taking its decline this week to 3.4 percent, the biggest five-day decrease since the week through July 10, 2009.

“We really have demand from the energy sector as guys want to come out with measures amid the power blackout,” Ahmed Kalule, a currency trader at Bank of Africa Uganda Ltd., said in a phone interview. “There is high corporate demand, but retail customers are not willing to buy.”

Independent generators who sell power to the state-run Uganda Electricity Transmission Co. cut supplies to the national grid on July 4 because they are owed money by the government, Eriasi Kiyimba, the agency’s chief executive, said on July 5. Uganda, which is reliant on thermal generators for about 47 percent of its electricity, has an energy shortfall of as much as 120 megawatts during periods of peak demand, he said.

Uganda’s currency has weakened 12 percent against the dollar so far this year as inflation surged to a 17-year high. The shilling is the world’s third-worst performing currency, after Suriname’s dollar and the Maldives rufiyaa, according to Bloomberg data.

Uganda Business News: Businesses in Kampala normalize

First published: 20110708 /www.ugpulse.com

Ultimate Media

The traders in Kampala have today opened their businesses normally after a two-day sit-down strike on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

All shops are open on all streets of Kampala and people conducting businesses as if there was no paralysis in the last two days.

The traders closed businesses in protest of the depreciating Ugandan shilling against the US Dollar. A US dollar cost about 2,735 shillings last week prompting the traders to blame the government for failure to intervene to save the situation.

The traders were also protesting against high taxes and government’s licensing of foreign investors who trade in petty businesses.

The strike was organized by the Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) which has asked the traders to become calm after the Minister of Trade, Amelia Kyambadde holding a series of meetings with the association’s management.

SOUTH AFRICA:

Malema Mine Call Spooks Investors, Stokes South Africa’s Racial Tensions

By Mike Cohen – /www.bloomberg.com/Jul 8, 2011

Julius Malema, the youth leader of South Africa’s ruling party, is rattling investors and stoking racial tension with his declaration of war on “white monopoly capital” and calls for government seizure of mines and banks.

Malema’s views resonate among the 50 percent of young black South Africans who are unemployed and whose living conditions have improved little in the 17 years since the end of apartheid. While the African National Congress has distanced itself from Malema’s proposals, it has done little to call him to order.

It is getting harder to dismiss Malema as a sideshow in South African politics, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports in its July 11 issue. Business Leadership South Africa, an association of the heads of 87 of the largest companies operating in the country, and the Chamber of Mines warned last month that nationalization would be catastrophic for the economy. Both groups, whose members include Anglo American Plc (AGL) and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG), usually lobby behind closed doors.

“Large swathes of the South African population don’t know that this is very much a tried-and-tested route to disaster,” Michael Spicer, the chief executive of Johannesburg-based Business Leadership, said in a June 28 interview. There is “a cost in growth forgone, in investment foregone and employment foregone. That’s an absolute observed reality.”

Power Broker

Malema, who helped President Jacob Zuma gain control of the ANC in 2007 and won a second term as the youth league’s leader unopposed at a conference last month, is flexing his political muscle as lobbying intensifies ahead of ANC elections next year. While Zuma, 69, has said he is available to serve a second term as party president, Malema is warning the league will ditch leaders who don’t heed its call for a “radical policy shift.”

Malema, 30, declined a request for an interview.

“Foreign investors in South Africa ought to take these events seriously,” Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, Africa analyst at DaMina Advisors LLP in New York, said in e-mailed comments on June 23. “Zuma is in the end likely to forge a halfway compromise between the government’s current, relatively orthodox policy positions and the more radical proposals proffered by the ANC youth league.”

Zuma has pledged to create 5 million jobs by 2020 and slash the jobless rate to 15 percent from 25 percent, while reining in state spending and courting foreign investment.

‘Populist Policy’

“We would be very alert to the risk of nationalization,” Karl Leinberger, chief investment officer of Cape Town-based Coronation Fund Managers Ltd., which manages 231 billion rand ($35 billion), said in a June 27 interview. “We have very high levels of unemployment and poverty and when that is the background there will always be political risk, risk of populist policy, which will be damaging to business.”

The ANC, which won 66 percent of the vote in the country’s last national elections in 2009, last year commissioned an independent study on the viability of nationalization and plans to debate its findings next year.

“One of the things that people are beginning to learn about South Africa is how well we are able to engage in robust debates on very sensitive matters, but come out with an outcome at the end of the day that spells stability,” Deputy Finance Minister Nhalnhla Nene told reporters in Cape Town on June 29.

Meanwhile, the government has established a state mining company, African Exploration Mining and Finance Corp., which plans to extract minerals such as coal and uranium. It is also setting up a state bank that will compete with lenders such as Standard Bank Group Ltd. and Nedbank Group Ltd. (NED)

Debate Risks

Mining accounts for about 8.8 percent of South Africa’s gross domestic product. The country has the world’s largest reserves of platinum, chrome ore and manganese. Citigroup Inc. has valued its total mineral resources at $2.5 trillion.

“The risk associated with future investment in South African mining has increased considerably as seen from the outside world” because of the nationalization debate, David Brown, chief executive officer of Johannesburg-based Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMP), the world’s second-biggest platinum producer, said on June 28.

Shares of London-based Anglo American, the largest investor in South African mining, have gained 32 percent in London over the past year, while those of Rio Tinto Plc, the world’s second- biggest mining company, have surged 49 percent. Anglo’s South African assets include a 40 percent stake in the world’s top manganese producer and 80 percent of the world’s biggest platinum producer, while Rio’s only major South African asset is a 50 percent stake in a heavy minerals plant and a copper mine.

Long Term

“Many of South Africa’s mining companies have operations which have 30- to 50-year lives,” Roger Baxter, chief economist at the Johannesburg-based Chamber of Mines, said in a June 28 interview. “Companies are going to be more reluctant to invest if there is any threat of expropriation.”

Similar concerns were voiced by Sim Tshabalala, chief executive of Standard Bank’s South African unit. “If the nationalization debate grinds on for many more months, there will be fewer new businesses, fewer new jobs, more poverty and less development for decades to come,” he wrote in Johannesburg’s Business Day on July 7.

‘Real Enemy’

Such arguments hold little sway with Malema, whose upbringing by his domestic-worker mother in a shanty town in the northern province of Limpopo and background as a student leader equipped him to tap into popular discontent.

“The real enemy is white-monopoly capital,” Malema, who is driven around in a Range Rover, told more than 5,000 cheering delegates at a youth league conference in Johannesburg on June 20. “They are the ones we are fighting against. In whose hands is this wealth? In whites’.”

Malema may unravel Nelson Mandela’s legacy of a non-racial and inclusive society, said Helen Zille, head of the country’s main opposition party. Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail for plotting the overthrow of apartheid, won a Nobel Peace prize for leading South Africa from the brink of civil war to its first democratic elections in 1994 by advocating racial reconciliation. He served as president from 1994 until 1999.

Malema’s “aim is to obliterate the historical compact we achieved in the mid-1990s,” Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance, said in a June 29 opinion piece in Business Day. “He has, singlehandedly, positioned the ANC as a racial, nationalist party, exclusive, uncompromising, insatiable in its lust for power.”

‘Racial Schism’

Whites account for about 9.2 percent of South Africa’s 50 million people, government data shows. About 45 percent of the market capitalization of the Johannesburg stock exchange and 55 percent of the country’s land is owned by white South Africans, according to the Institute for Race Relations.

“Malema is driving a real racial schism in the country,” Frans Cronje, deputy chief executive officer of the Johannesburg-based institute, said in a June 28 interview. “It doesn’t take a majority of black South Africans in order to drag the country into a racial mess. It takes a few characters like Malema with the tacit consent of the ANC.”

Monaco royal newlyweds throw lavish S.Africa party

By Joshua Howat Berger (AFP) /07072011

UMHLANGA, South Africa — Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco threw a swank party Thursday for members of the International Olympic Committee and assorted glitterati at a five-star hotel in South Africa.

The newlyweds, who are in Charlene’s home country for a meeting of the IOC, held a dinner reception for nearly 500 guests at the Oyster Box, a seaside luxury hotel in the Indian Ocean resort town of Umhlanga.

The couple made a brief appearance on the red carpet in front of the hotel, obliging the crowd of photographers, journalists and several dozen royal-watchers with a quick kiss on the lips.

They spent about a minute posing for the cameras — Albert dressed in a black suit and red tie, Charlene in a black sleeveless gown with a diamond-shaped pattern that appeared inspired by African design — then headed back inside to the invitation-only event.

“We’re just so thrilled,” said Joanne Hayes, public relations chief for the hotel.

The Oyster Box has spent weeks preparing for the event, which follows on the couple’s wedding at the weekend in Albert’s tiny Mediterranean principality.

Guests arrived to drumming and dancing by a group of young Zulu men dressed in traditional animal-skin garb, and were also serenaded by a local choir.

Dressed mostly in evening gowns and suits, they queued on the red carpet to pass through a security checkpoint at the entrance to the hotel, which was decked out in the red and white of the Monaco flag.

Hayes said the menu would include a dish created in Charlene’s honour.

“We’ve created a special dish called Oysters Charlene. It’s created by our executive chef, Kevin Joseph,” she told AFP.

“Basically it’s oysters baked with creamed spinach, curried lentils and asparagus.”

The guest list, which ran to nearly 500 people, included IOC President Jacques Rogge, South African Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula, former Miss South Africa Jo-Ann Strauss and an assortment of business magnates, local notables and heavy hitters in the sporting world.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who had lunch with the couple Wednesday, had planned to attend but was detained on other business in the northern province of Limpopo, his office said.

Two of Zuma’s four wives did however show up for the party, which began at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT).

The newlyweds’ South African tour has been part honeymoon and part business trip.

Albert, a member of the IOC, took part in Wednesday’s election of the 2018 Winter Olympics host city, which saw Pyeongchang, South Korea beat out Munich, Germany and Annecy, France.

On Friday, Charlene will be welcomed by South African anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu at his HIV foundation in Cape Town.

She will be a co-patron of a collective of 10 charities known as The Giving Organisation Trust, carrying out her first duties as patron with visits to two charities that focus on children and HIV-AIDS and a project working to preserve the region’s unique fynbos vegetation in the winelands.

The focus of the trust’s charities range from children to health and animal protection.

Hi-tech backing for South Africa’s SKA bid

8 July 2011 / www.southafrica.info

South Africa’s Centre for High Performance Computing is upgrading its capacity in computational power in support of the country’s bid to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

This follows the recent agreement between Intel South Africa Corporation and the SKA South Africa Project to partner in evaluating the highest Intel technologies in processing the enormous data rates produced by radio telescopes.

South Africa, allied with eight other African countries, is competing against Australia (allied with New Zealand) to host the €1.5-billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA), an instrument 50-100 times more sensitive and 10 000 times faster than any radio imaging telescope yet built.

The international science funding agencies and governments involved in the international SKA consortium are due to announce the winning bidder in 2012, with construction likely to start in 2016 and take place in phases over several years, with completion by about 2022.

Supercomputing centre for scientists

The Centre for High Performance Computing, which falls under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has been established over the last few years as a supercomputing centre serving South Africa’s scientists.

Backed by the Department of Science and Technology, the state-of-the-art facility is supported by the latest in data centre power and network infrastructure, and operates a number of supercomputers with different architectures.

These include a Blue Gene/P machine, a Sun Hybrid cluster and SMP systems, and a GPU-based cluster.

The centre also supports a number of research labs on its premises, notably the ACE Lab, which is developing new computing hardware and software. The centre is also spearheading an initiative to establish a very large data storage capability for the country’s scientists.

MeerKAT radio telescope

SKA South Africa is currently building the KAT-7/MeerKAT radio telescope, a SKA precursor, in the rapidly developing Karoo Astronomy Reserve.

“It is no accident that the MeerKAT engineering offices and control centre, and the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC), are situated only a few kilometers from each other and are currently being linked together into the new South African Research Network (SANReN), providing superfast computer networks for research,” SKA South Africa said in a recent statement.

“Now that the MeerKAT team has the KAT-7 telescope operational in the Karoo, and a 10 Gbps (in the first phase) data link coming online in July from the Karoo into the CHPC, these two initiatives will link up to process the large data volumes in novel ways which may open up new scientific areas of investigation.

“For example, a joint pilot project to capture and process a large amount of telescope ‘voltage data’ is planned for later this year.”

Intel, SKA South Africa partnership

Further supporting these kinds of efforts, Intel South Africa and SKA South Africa recently agreed to partner in evaluating the highest Intel technologies in processing the enormous data rates produced by radio telescopes.

“The parties entered into an agreement to make these technologies available to the SKA SA and put forth a joint engineering effort to further test and optimize them,” SKA South Africa said.

“This collaboration in applying cutting-edge technology to raw data capture and online stream processing pushes the envelope of what is possible today in scientific instruments, and puts South African scientists and engineers at the forefront of the field.

“The completion of the Center of Competence within the CHPC, that aims at providing a platform to transfer the technology developed for SKA, such as the ROACH (reconfigurable open architecture computing hardware) board, for adoption by the broader scientific community outside astronomy, is just one of the strengths of South Africa’s ability to deliver on major projects.”

SAinfo reporter

TANZANIA:

Tanzania’s Shilling Gains, Heads for 1st Weekly Advance in 14

July 08, 2011/By Ana Monteiro/ Bloomberg

July 8 (Bloomberg) — Tanzania’s shilling strengthened against the dollar and headed for the first weekly gain in 14.

The currency of East Africa’s second-biggest economy appreciated for a fourth day, adding 0.2 percent to 1,599.5 per dollar at 11:41 a.m. in Dar es Salaam. The increase extended the currency’s rally this week to 1.3 percent, the first advance since the five days through April 1.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ana Monteiro at amonteiro4@bloomberg.net

A Tanzanian Lodge Was Just Named The Best Hotel In The World

Julie Zeveloff /www.businessinsider.com/ Jul. 7, 2011

Travel + Leisure just declared Singita Grumeti Reserves in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park to be the best hotel in the world.

It received a score of 98.44 out of 100 on a list based on reader surveys.

The hotel, which is made up of two lodges and a tent camp, offers unparalleled luxury in the thick of the wild.

It is located on the migratory route traversed annually by more than a million wildebeest, providing guests with incredible photo opportunities from their bedroom windows.

Despite its remote location, Singita’s guests are treated to five-star service and accommodations.

Rooms in the tents and villas start at around $1,095 per person per night; rates include daily game drives, food, and drink.

Pinda to launch $800m oil exploration vessel

By Correspondent / SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN/8th July 2011

Says govt won`t incur any costs when it begins work in September

Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has said that the government will not incur any costs when Poisedon, a marine vessel being built in South Korea for oil and gas exploration along the Tanzanian coast, begins work.

He made the remarks here yesterday after inspecting the ship at Geoje Port in Seoul.

Pinda, who is expected to inaugurate the vessel today, said experts from Petrobas Company of Brazil are already busy conducting research to identify two areas where the vessel will drill oil and gas in Tanzania.

The stage reached so far is a good sign that the investment in Tanzania is possible, the Prime Minister said, promising that the government would do whatever is possible to enhance security when the experts start work to forestall any danger posed by pirates.

Briefing the PM on the assembling of the vessel, Petrobas Tanzania Limited executive director Samuel Miranda said they expect the vessel to work on the country’s coastline for a total of 20 months.

He said they have already spotted two areas on Mafia Island and in Mtwara Region where the vessel will work.

Commenting on the need to improve infrastructure, Miranda said so far they have invested USD11m and by December this year the company will have provided USD14m for the development of Mtwara Port.

He said the firm has started conducting training for 50 youths in Mtwara Region, adding that those performing well would work on the vessel.

“This ship will be based in Mtwara and we expect to start work in early September… we started with special training on oil exploration for 50 youths on July 1, this year,” explained Miranda.

“The training is being conducted in partnership with the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), Tanzania’s Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA), Petrobas and a Brazilian institution (CENAI), which operates like VETA in Tanzania,” he noted.

The Brazilian firm has meanwhile entered into a contract with four Tanzanian engineers who have undergone short-term training in oil exploration in Brazil and will later study in the UK.

David Gray, project manager for the UK-based firm Ocean Rig, which is supervising the building of the vessel, told the PM that the ship, 242 metres long and 52 wide, will cost USD800m.

“This is the fourth vessel to be built by the Korean firm for Petrobas. Two ships were taken to Brazil, while the third, Mykonos, will also go to Brazil. The fourth one, Poseidon, will go to Tanzania…it will have the capacity of accommodating 217 beds, health services unit and recreational facilities,” he said.

Energy and Mineral minister William Ngeleja, who is in the PM’s delegation, said ongoing investments in the southern part of Tanzania augur well for the growth of the country’s economy, particularly for Lindi and Mtwara regions.

“What we need is to see employment opportunities increase for the people in these regions. There would be employment on the land and in water as well as jobs for service providers in hotels and the investors’ residences,” he said.

He said hospitality industry operators would be among the beneficiaries of this huge investment.

Challenging leaders in the two regions to be prepared to supervise town planning, Ngeleja said: “They must set aside industrial, residential and recreational areas so that there will be no chaotic planning in the near future.”

“Congestion must not be allowed to happen if the leaders are prepared because they are aware of the huge investment that is going to take place in the regions,” he added.

The minister said Mtwara Port would be developed thanks to various forthcoming economic activities, including electricity production from gas, the construction of fertiliser and cement factories and the petrochemicals commonly used in such factories. “There is ample opportunity for exportation owing to production of liquefied natural gas. This is expected to improve the economic development of the regions substantially,” he noted.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

KENYA:

Kenya’s Shilling Slips to one-Week Low on Dollar Demand for Corn Imports

By Johnstone Ole Turana /www.bloomberg.com/- Jul 8, 2011

Kenya’s shilling depreciated to the lowest in more than a week against the dollar as companies bought the U.S. currency on speculation the shilling will weaken further as the country increases corn imports.

The currency of East Africa’s biggest economy slipped as much as 0.6 percent to 90.20 per dollar and traded 0.5 percent down at 90.10 per dollar by 11:55 a.m. in Nairobi, the capital, extending its drop this week to 1.6 percent. A close at this level will be the weakest since June 28.

“The shilling is under pressure as businesses seek to accumulate dollars on anticipation of further weakening in the coming days driven by importers buying,” Jeremiah Kendagor head of trading at Nairobi-based Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd., said in a phone interview today. “We expect it to trade within the 89.70 to 90.35 per dollar in the coming days.”

Kenya’s government received a shipment of 8,000 metric tons of corn, the nation’s staple food, on July 6 to help ease shortages in the drought-affected country, Diamond Lalji, chairman of the Cereal Millers Association, said yesterday. Another shipment is expected next week, with plans to import 54,000 tons from Zambia and Malawi this year, Lalji said.

The shilling depreciated to the weakest in 17 years against the dollar on June 22, raising the cost of imports. Kenya is feeling the effects of rising global commodity prices as a drought forces the country to import more food than it exports. Corn prices have increased 50 percent over the past 12 months.

BAT Kenya sees volume slowdown, eyes South Sudan

Fri Jul 8, 2011 / By Beatrice Gachenge / Reuters

NAIROBI, July 8 (Reuters) – British American Tobacco Kenya expects a slowdown in volume growth in the second half of the year with a rise in excise duty and plans to enter South Sudan to lift growth, its head said on Friday.

BAT Kenya posted a 14.2 percent rise in pretax profit for the first six months of the year to 1.6 billion shillings ($17.83 million) from 1.4 billion shillings, buoyed by higher sales.

Gary Fagan area director for BAT East and Central Africa, said the firm planned to enter South Sudan — due to declare independence on Saturday — in the second half of this year.

“The potential is huge … but obviously there are a lot of practices that are being embedded in that market that we are going to spend time working (on) with the authorities in South Sudan,” Fagan told Reuters after an investor briefing.

“We would like to find a way to work with somebody in South Sudan who has a distribution network set up; it’s far too early to look at acquisitions.”

Kenya, East Africa’s leading economy, changed its taxation model for cigarettes and now has a 35 percent excise duty on the retail price per pack, or 24 shillings, whichever is higher, on all cigarette brands.

Previously, the excise duty varied according to price.

“We have rectified their (some brands) pricing, so in effect … in certain cases there will (be an) impact on the consumer,” Fagan told the investor briefing.

“We cannot expect to maintain the 20 percent volume growth with the price movement that is now aligned to the excise regime.”

BAT, which exports to Horn of Africa, Zambia, Madagascar, and Tanzania, among others, also saw an increase in excise duty in Uganda and Malawi, but expects duties to hold in Mauritius this year.

A weak local shilling boosted the firm’s export earnings, but rising inflation and drought prevailing in the region posed a challenge, BAT said. ($1=89.75 Kenyan Shilling) (Reporting by Beatrice Gachenge; Editing by George Obulutsa)

Kenya congratulates South Sudan on independence

Written By:PPS, /www.kbc.co.ke/ Fri, Jul 08, 2011

President Mwai Kibaki on Friday sent a congratulatory and best wishes message to the Government and people of the Republic of South Sudan as they prepare to celebrate the declaration of their independence Friday.

President Kibaki similarly congratulated the Government of the Sudan for remaining committed to the peace process for the benefit of the entire Sudan and Sudanese people.

He said Kenya is proud to have served as an honest broker of the CPA and salute all those behind its successful implementation.

“Tomorrow will mark the birth of a new nation, the Republic of South Sudan. Indeed the declaration of independence of South Sudan is an important and significant step in the search for durable peace and stability for the people of the Sudan as a whole,” President Kibaki said.

In this regard, President Kibaki declared that Kenya recognizes the Republic of South Sudan as a fully sovereign State, saying Kenyans look forward to working closely with the new Republic to further enhance the existing cordial relations.

The President noted that the independence of South Sudan is unique as it is the culmination of a peaceful albeit protracted process of direct negotiations between the North and the South, mediated by Kenya on behalf of IGAD.

Said the President: “It was indeed a process wholly owned by the people of the Sudan and the region.”

Bilateral relations

President Kibaki added that the independence of South Sudan comes as a result of the free expression of the will of the people of Southern Sudan through a referendum as provided in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

“Tomorrow, 9th July 2011, six years since the signing of the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Nairobi, and seven months after the successful conclusion of the South Sudan referendum that led to the separation of the latter from the North, the world will witness a truly momentous occasion, not only for South Sudan but for the entire Horn of Africa sub-region,” the President said.

The Head of State, at the same time, urged both the North and South Sudan to take advantage of the age-old links they have developed as one entity to nurture close bilateral relations even as they assume separate sovereign identities.

“This will no doubt contribute immensely to consolidating stability in the region,” President Kibaki said.

He wished the leadership and people of both the Republic of South Sudan and the Republic of the Sudan prosperity and stability in the years ahead, saying both nations can bank on Kenya’s support and solidarity in the common goal to enhance peace, security and development.

Kenyan Inflation Seen at 8%-9% by End of the Year, IMF Says

By Franz Wild – /www.bloomberg.com/ Jul 8, 2011

Raising interest rates may help Kenya’s central bank combat increased fuel and food costs and bring inflation down to 8 percent to 9 percent by the end of the year, the International Monetary Fund said.

An increase in tourism and rising private sector investment are likely to buoy economic growth, which is expected to reach 5.7 percent for the 2012 fiscal year, the IMF said in a statement on its website yesterday.

“Strong growth continues in 2011, with the exception of the agricultural sector, expected to decelerate significantly as a result of weather disturbances in the first months of the year,” the Washington-based lender said. “However, recent inflationary pressures and insufficient rains present downside risks that will need to be promptly addressed.”

Failure to tighten monetary policy could keep the inflation rate above 12 percent this year, it said.

The Central Bank of Kenya on June 29 raised its overnight lending rate to banks to 8 percent. The inflation rate in East Africa’s largest economy climbed for the eighth consecutive month in June, reaching 14.5 percent, as food and fuel prices increased, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said June 29.

The shilling has declined 10 percent against the dollar this year, making it Africa’s second-worst performing currency, after neighboring Uganda’s, according to Bloomberg data.

ANGOLA:

Inflation falls consistently in Angola

Macauhub/8 April

Luanda, Angola, 8 April – Angola’s rate of inflation has been falling consistently taking into account the stability of its national currency against foreign benchmark currencies, said the governor of the Bank of Angola (BNA).

At the end of a visit to the city to assess the progress of banking in the region and work to restore the regional BNA delegation, governor José de Lima Massano noted that the central bank had been making efforts for Angola’s currency to continue rising in value, as a result of macroeconomic stability.

Massano said that monetary policy would continue to be managed in order to maintain balance, thus allowing the main macroeconomic indicators to remain stable, so that activities can continue and citizens can continue to make investments and savings with a feeling of security.

He added that the Bank of Angola was carrying out a financial education campaign to provide information about the banking business, and to bring citizens closer to retail banks so that savings can be deposited at banks and allow for financing of viable projects.

The governor, cited by Angolan news agency Angop, said that work on the Malanje delegation of the BNA was in its final stages.

The Malanje regional delegation of the BNA also controls the provinces of Kwanza Norte, Moxico, Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul. (macauhub)

AU/AFRICA:

Rebel Leader Says al-Shabab Losing Ground in Somalia

Michael Onyiego / www.voanews.com/July 07, 2011

Nairobi, Kenya

One of the leaders of the al-Qaida-linked Somali insurgent group al-Shabab has acknowledged the group is losing ground in its fight against the Somali government.

As forces of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government continue to make advances throughout the country – often with the help of African Union troops – the country’s main insurgent group, al-Shabab, appears to be weakening.

Advances

Speaking on a radio station that is friendly to the Islamist insurgents, Shabab commander Ahmed Abdi Godane admitted the group had experienced significant losses, including the deaths of several senior officials and commanders, in recent fighting.

The TFG has made significant advances in its effort to oust al-Shabab since the insurgents’ “Ramadan offensive” launched in September of last year. Government and AU troops managed to repel the insurgent onslaught and reclaim parts of the war-torn capital, Mogadishu.

Since January of this year, the government also has begun to chip away at insurgent strongholds in the Gedo region along the borders of Ethiopia and Kenya. Recently, TFG forces launched an offensive to take Mogadishu’s Bakara market, seen as the main insurgent stronghold in the city.

Government troops have closed in on the market – an important part of Somalia’s economy – though analysts expect a difficult fight to extract the insurgents from the labyrinth of stalls and shops that are heavily occupied by civilians.

Spies

The rebel commander also expressed concern over spies he believed had infiltrated al-Shabab, weakening it from within by sowing discord among the movement’s leaders. Godane said the group was working out ways to eliminate the spies from Shabab’s ranks.

The past month has seen other victories against the Islamist group, including the killing of Fazul Mohammed, who many pegged as al-Qaida’s chief in East Africa and the mastermind of the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Somali government has strong backing in its fight against al Shabab. In Mogadishu, TFG troops are supported by an 8,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force known as AMISOM. The force has led most of the fighting in past years, but recently has allowed government troops to shoulder more of the burden.

AU, US support

The TFG also is receiving the support of the U.S. military, which recently launched drone attacks from its Special Operations Command Unit in Yemen. The strikes targeted and killed at least one Shabab operative in Kismayo on Somalia’s southern coast.

The recent successes have raised hope the government can re-establish security and stability in Somalia, which has not had a stable central government in 20 years.

Africa: South Sudan – Juba Gears Up for Independence Day

8 July 2011/RNW/Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Southern Sudanese in the country-in-waiting’s capital Juba are sprucing up streets, confiscating black market guns and trying to impose order on frenetic traffic, all to make sure that the long-awaited independence day will go smoothly on Saturday.

US: ‘UN should stay in volatile parts of Sudan’

UN peacekeepers should be able to stay in the volatile areas of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile after South Sudan secedes from the north, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice,said on Thursday, days before the United Nations’ mission is set to end.

“It’s vital that the United Nations be allowed to maintain a full peacekeeping presence in these areas for an additional period of time,” Rice said.

A new mission, UNMISS, is expected to be created in South Sudan for up to 7,000 UN peacekeepers and an additional 900 civilian police.

For many southerners, the split from the country’s north represents a moment of long-awaited triumph and fresh optimism after decades of brutal civil war. It also brings a raft of challenges as the new government in the south tries to enforce its writ across a territory roughly the size of France wracked by internal rebellions and awash with guns.

Meanwhile, the capital Juba, a rickety boomtown, prepares to receive scores of foreign dignitaries. Men and women with straw brushes are sweeping leaves and dust from the streets and men in paint-stained jumpsuits are whitewashing walls. Celebratory banners hang across the city. A red digital display in a nearby roundabout is counting down the seconds to independence. ‘Free at last’, one message on the display flashed.

North and South Sudan have warred over ideology, religion, ethnicity and oil for all but a few years since the country’s independence. An estimated two million people – most of them southerners – died in the conflict. A 2005 peace deal that brought an end to the war promised southerners the chance to vote for independence. About 98 percent chose to split when the referendum was held in January.

Region in turmoil

South Sudan, with at least seven internal rebel militias according to a UN count, will begin life as an independent country in a region known for political turmoil that can erupt in terrible bloodshed. Neighbouring Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a devastating war in the late 1990s after Eritrea split away. Kenya exploded in violence after a disputed election in late 2007.

Suicide bombings ripped through Uganda’s capital during the 2010 football World Cup. The militant group that claimed responsibility is based in Somalia, a country that has not had an effective central government for about two decades. Analysts and aid workers say independence might encourage renegade militias in the new Republic of South Sudan to step up their challenge to a government the rebels say is corrupt and autocratic.

Interior Minister Gier Chouang Aloung, acknowledging security worries, told reporters that “enemies of the South” would not be allowed to spoil the celebrations. Security forces were continuing a sweep-up of illegal guns and were registering people trying to buy new firearms, he said.

First class citizens

Hundreds of thousands of southerners have already returned home ahead of independence, and many more are streaming back. A flight from Khartoum last week was full of southerners carting bulging suitcases wrapped up with tape.

They were greeted in Juba by a one-room terminal crammed with passengers jostling to collect their bags. Arrival times of flights were jotted on a white marker board on the wall. Down the main road to town, pickup trucks packed with men flew South Sudan’s new flag and bullhorns blasted the new national anthem. ‘We have chosen to be first class citizens’, one banner read.

Abu Dhabi hosts Africa meeting on renewable energy

By MICHAEL CASEY/ Associated Press /www.forbes.com/07.08.11,

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The head of a new international agency has called for boosting investment in renewable energy in Africa to meet growing demands while helping the continent fight climate change.

Adnan Amin told African ministers on Friday that the key to ramping up renewable energy deployment was for countries to develop regulatory framework needed to convince institutional investors it’s safe to put their money into wind, solar and other renewable technologies.

Amin, the director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency, spoke at the opening of a two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi.

African is a potentially lucrative market for renewables since many countries need new energy sources to fuel their growing economies.

African solution

From the Newspaper/www.dawn.com/2011/07/08

ALTHOUGH Libyan rebels, backed by Nato, continue to clash with Muammar Qadhafi`s forces in parts of the North African country, the situation has, for all practical purposes, reached a stalemate. Thousands, including civilians, have been killed thus far on both sides since anti-regime demonstrations, inspired by the `Arab Spring`, broke out in February. Col Qadhafi has struck back with a vengeance, and the result has been a bitter civil war that threatens the unity of Libya. In such a bleak scenario, a South Africa-led African Union peace initiative seems to be the best option to end hostilities. The AU does not support the Nato-led military campaign targeting Col Qadhafi`s forces, and South African President Jacob Zuma has recently stepped up efforts to broker a peace deal. There are some indications — according to foreign diplomats — that Col Qadhafi may be willing to step down, a development that should placate the Libyan opposition. The South African foreign minister told a press conference in Pretoria on Wednesday that the Libyan dictator “does not want to stand in the way of a settlement”. She also said that the African Union should be given the “political space” to deal with the crisis, observing that the continental body is “central to any solution in Libya”.

We believe an African solution to an African problem is a far better alternative to reliance on military muscle. The colonel trusts South Africa as post-apartheid both countries have enjoyed cordial relations, unlike the Libyan strongman`s stormy relationships with the West and much of the Arab world. He should commit to a time frame so that an exit strategy can be formulated. If there is indeed a negotiated settlement, Nato should respect the outcome. Overall, the AU has been quite active in trying to resolve Africa`s myriad crises, much more so than, say, the Arab League has been in trying to untangle the Arab world`s conflicts. In this, as in all other situations, a negotiated settlement should be preferred to force and the African Union should be allowed to bring Libya`s belligerents to the table to help resolve the crisis.

Drought Wreaks Havoc in Horn of Africa

By IBTimes Staff Reporter /Jul 08, 2011

The worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, according to a United Nations report.

More than 10 million people are now affected in drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and the situation is deteriorating day by day, said Elisabeth Byrs, the spokeswoman of the UN office.

This acute drought is a result of two consecutive poor rainy seasons. It’s been one of the driest years since 1950/51 in many pastoral zones of Africa.

Food prices have risen substantially in the region, pushing many moderately poor households over the edge of misery. Child malnutrition is witnessed in many parts, resulting in high mortality rate among children though the report could not gather exact figures, reports Reuters.

Drought and food crisis are driving many Somalis away from their homeland, almost 20,000 reaching Kenya in just two weeks, stated the U.N. refuge agency UNHCR.

The United Nations has humanatrian appeal sent out for more funds. A U.N. map of food security in the eastern Horn of Africa shows large swathes of central Kenya and Somalia in the “emergency” category, one phase before what the U.N. classifies as catastrophe/famine — the fifth and worst category.

There is no likelihood of improvement in the situation until 2012, says the UN report.

Are diamonds forever?

By Farirai Machivenyika and Tichaona Zindoga /www.southerntimesafrica.com/ 08-07-2011

Harare – There is a lot of discontent with the manner in which the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme has been regulating the global diamond industry.

The KP – a voluntary organization bringing together diamond producers, industrialists and civil society – was established in 2002 to stem the flow of blood diamonds; gems used to finance rebel wars against legitimate governments.

The grouping functioned well for several years but has suddenly found itself split because of a very small country: Zimbabwe.

An attempt to bar Zimbabwe from trading in stones from its Marange diamond fields has caused a lot of acrimony and there now exists the real possibility that this could forever change the dynamics of the global industry.

The KP wields a very big stick: it controls about 90 percent of world trade in diamonds and anyone selling outside its parameters does so at a significant loss.

At the same time, Zimbabwe is said to have the potential to supply around 20 percent of rough industrial diamond needs; which means it can upset the market and change pricing modalities if it decides to sell outside the KP.

India, which is set to overtake Belgium as the world’s diamond capital, has more or less threatened to buy Zimbabwe’s diamonds whether or not the KP likes it.

China and Russia too are edging towards a similar position.

Observers say two things can happen.

Firstly, Zimbabwe could cause the price of diamonds to plunge on the international market or it could lead the way in the establishment of a new industry regulatory framework in which the producers have more say than the processers (as is currently the case with the KP).

A huge drop in prices would make the industry less attractive for big investors and, though the prospects of this happening are slim, permanently hurt the sector – thereby giving the lie to the claim that ‘diamonds are forever’. It is a scenario that no one would want.

However, the continued insistence by the US and its allies on barring Zimbabwe from selling its diamonds from Marange has negatively impacted on the KP’s credibility.

The US and Canada last week contradicted the KP chairperson Mathieu Yamba of the DRC, who said their meeting in Kinshasa had resolved to allow Zimbabwe to sell its diamonds.

In a statement through its Embassy in Harare, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said: ‘The United States is deeply disappointed with the Kinshasa Intercessional as it related to Zimbabwe.

‘The United States has been a strong supporter of the Kimberly Process in the past and desires to find a way forward for the Kimberley Process that includes Zimbabwe and preserves the credibility of the process.

‘The United States believes that progress with respect to exports from the Marange area of Zimbabwe can occur solely through a mechanism agreed to by consensus among KP participants.’

Opposition to Zimbabwe’s diamonds is based on allegations of state-sponsored human rights abuses and there have been attempts to redefine ‘blood diamonds’ so as to have the country’s stones characterized as such.

Zimbabwe’s Mines Minister Obert Mpofu believes the KP is rendering itself defunct through politicization of the diamond industry.

He said at the recent Kinshasa meeting: ‘In most of the instances that Zimbabwe has been discussed what has emerged clearly is that we have been made to chase the tails of other participants in pursuit of consensus.

‘The failure in the past to garner consensus has not been precipitated by the absence of the ingredients to achieve consensus, but by sheer bad faith, lack of goodwill and the over adherence to hostile foreign policies on Zimbabwe.

‘We have been monitored and certified compliant; why should we continue with the monitor? What is there to monitor on a compliant mine?’

So can the KP emerge intact?

Rob Bates of Jewelers’ Circular Keystone, the industry’s trade publication, believes: ‘Of course, the KP has survived a lot of near-death experiences, but at some point its luck, and everyone’s goodwill, is going to run out. We may be witnessing that right now.

‘Eventually, one hopes, a new mechanism may sprout up to supplant the KP.

But it’s hard to imagine any new system having anything close to the KP’s global scope and power.’

He concludes despairingly: ‘It’s going to take a lot of hard work to get the KP out of this mess.’

In another opinion he said it ‘can be a little lonely being a supporter of the Kimberley Process’.

Ian Smillie, formerly of Partnership Africa Canada and author of the forthcoming ‘Blood on the Stone’ also believes the organization is on its deathbed.

He was recently quoted saying the KP collapse is ‘very near in a real sense, even if it limps along in pretend-mode for another five years’.

The big question now remains whether there indeed can be an alternative to KP, at least for Zimbabwe.

The chairman of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation Goodwills Masimirembwa, however, expressed hope that the KP would not collapse.

In an interview with The Southern Times he said: ‘Zimbabwe should not find alternative markets because it has the support of all progressive forces in the KP…

‘In fact there is a clear move to defy America by these countries because diamonds from Zimbabwe create jobs in many countries and if Zimbabwe’s gems are barred these jobs are lost.’

But if the KP does implode, Masimirembwa concedes that it would benefit the producers more than it would hurt them.

Harare-based economic analyst Takunda Mugaga believes producers can do without the KP. ‘The KP is not a market,’ he noted sharply. ‘The market is there and will not be defined by that body.’

He said just as a country does cease to be a nation because it does not belong to the United Nations, operating outside the KP would not take away that country’s resource.

‘At the end of the day they will be losers,’ he said of America and its allies.

Economist Eric Bloch is on record saying Zimbabwe would be forced to sell the diamonds for a song.

‘Zimbabwe won’t get fair value because those who buy outside the KP, virtually illegally, will only buy if they buy at low prices.

The diamonds will be disposed of at heavily discounted prices.’

Lobbyist the Affirmitve Action Group is also of the view that the KP’s credibility is totally shot and producers are better off with a new regulatory framework.

‘It is time that frank questions be asked about the relevance of this process to the Zimbabwean people if the end result is loss of control of their own resources,’ AAG chief executive Davison Gomo said.

‘It is time that Africans realize that the US is not ready to be a friend and there is no need for us to embrace them, and not just in context of the KP.’

Namibia: the next oil frontier

By Felix Njini /www.southerntimesafrica.com/ 08-07-2011

Windhoek – Geologists have long said that Namibia’s Atlantic shelf shares the same geological formations as that of Brazil and this could mean the Southern African country has huge oil potential.

Oil finds in Brazil have long raised hopes for similar finds across the Atlantic.

Huge oil finds in Angola, which has offshore geological formations analogous to Namibia’s, have also bolstered the belief that the country could become a petroleum producer and exploratory drilling has already found substantial crude reserves.

Namibia’s Mines and Energy Minister Isak Katali told Parliament this past week that drillers had found an estimated 11.2 billion barrels of crude off the Atlantic coast.

Enigma Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of London-listed Chariot Oil & Gas found four billion barrels of oil in Southern Block 2714A. Enigma has been drilling in Block 2714A, in which it has an even shareholding with Brazilian oil and gas major, Petrobas.

Chariot Oil & Gas has also identified 11 prospects along the southern block.

Katali said: ‘Target reservoirs range in depth from 2 550 metres to 3 000 metres and most likely reserves, in the event of success, are estimated to be greater than four billion barrels. ‘Enigma expects to find oil (rather than gas) and would develop a discovery through FPSO floatation production, storage and off-loading vessel on a fast track basis with first production planned for 2015/16.’

Enigma has also isolated five prospects in northern blocks 1811A and B, and has contracted Senergy GB Ltd to design a well to test in the Tapir area.

Target reservoirs range in depth between 3 900m to 4 800m and reserves are estimated to around 500 million barrels.

HRT Oil & Gas, a Brazilian oil and exploration firm, plans to invest US$300 million in further drilling and is also after liquid hydrocarbons.

Liquid hydrocarbons are a mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as fuel in heating appliances and vehicles.

Their uses have grown over the years as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant, replacing chlorofluorocarbons in an effort to cut down on ozone-depleting emissions.

HRT has so far identified a potential 5.2 billion barrels of hydrocarbon resources and the company plans to sink more drilling rigs offshore Namibia, Katali said.

Geological and geophysical studies conducted by HRT have demonstrated the existence of at least two active petroleum systems that can favour commercial tapping of liquid hydrocarbons.

‘This finding could turn offshore Namibia into a greater producer of oil and gas in a short period of time,’ an upbeat Katali said.

Arcadia Expro Namibia and London-listed Tower Resources, which are exploring for oil between the Walvis and Namibe basins (known as the Prospect Delta), have also disclosed that the area could contain up to two billion barrels of oil.

The area holds significant upside potential, Katali said.

The Namibian oil finds place Namibia close to Angola, which is Africa’s second largest oil producer after Nigeria.

Angola holds around 13 billion barrels of oil.

International oil companies have concluded that Namibia is hugely under-explored.

Lack of data has hampered exploration efforts but available information enables location of drillable targets, the government has said.

The only known major gas discovery is the Kudu deep water offshore gas field which is being developed by London-listed Tullow Oil Plc.

Kudu has proven gas reserves of 1.3 trillion cubic feet but could hold as upwards of 9 trillion cubic feet.

‘There is now a great chance of success as the more data the country has the greater its chance of accurate drilling and consequently the opportunities for discovery are increasing tremendously.

‘We also expect to see the return of international majors back to Namibia which will further improve the image of the country as a new petroleum exploration destination,’ Katali said.

Le Soudan a officiellement reconnu le Sud Soudan

2011-07-08 / xinhua

Le gouvernement soudanais a officiellement annoncé vendredi qu’il reconnaissait le Sud-Soudan comme Etat indépendant souverain, à partir de samedi, en se basant sur les frontières du 1er janvier 1956.

“La République du Soudan a annoncé la reconnaissance de l’établissement de la République du Sud-Soudan en tant qu’Etat indépendant souverain, à partir du 9 juillet 2011, selon les frontières du 1er janvier 1956 et selon les frontières des deux parties établies lors de la signature de l’Accord de paix (CPA) le 9 janvier 2005”, a déclaré la présidence soudanaise dans un communiqué lu par le ministre soudanais des Affaires présidentielles, Bakri Hassan Salih, vendredi à Khartoum.

Le Sud-Soudan sera déclaré officiellement indépendant samedi suite aux résultats du référendum sur l’autodétermination du Sud- Soudan.

Israël bloque les militants internationaux pro-palestiniens

Le Point.fr / le 08/07/2011

Sans briser son isolement, Israël a remporté ses épreuves de force maritime et aérienne avec les militants qui voulaient se rendre à Gaza.

La flottille d’aide pour Gaza est bloquée en Grèce depuis une semaine sous pression d’Israël et des centaines de militants de la cause palestinienne, placés sur une liste noire israélienne, n’ont pu prendre l’avion pour l’aéroport de Tel-Aviv où ils comptaient manifester avant de se rendre en Cisjordanie.

L’interception des bateaux à distance a épargné aux commandos de la marine israélienne une délicate intervention en mer, un peu plus d’un an après leur assaut meurtrier controversé le 31 mai 2010 sur le navire turc Mavi Marmara venu forcer le blocus de Gaza. La police déployée en force a pu éviter le casse-tête d’incidents à l’arrivée de manifestants à l’aéroport Ben-Gourion, Israël ayant dissuadé les compagnies aériennes de les transporter à partir de l’Europe.

Un succès pour la diplomatie israélienne

Le porte-parole du ministère israélien des Affaires étrangères Yigal Palmor s’est félicité qu’un “grand nombre de pays aient pris position contre l’aventure de la flottille et la tentative de semer le désordre sur l’aéroport”. “La position d’Israël a été comprise : la flottille navale n’était ni honnête, ni nécessaire”, a-t-il estimé. Il a relevé en particulier “la position de la Grèce, de la Turquie, et du Quartet pour le Proche-Orient (États-Unis, Russie, Union européenne, ONU) qui a demandé “à tous les gouvernements concernés” d’user de leur influence pour décourager le départ de la flottille.

Les organisateurs de ces opérations “ont créé, eux-mêmes, les conditions de leur échec en ne cachant pas leur intention de vouloir la confrontation”, a ajouté Palmor. “C’est un succès indéniable pour la diplomatie israélienne, mais il ne faut pas en exagérer la portée”, note le chercheur Eytan Gilboa, qui s’attend à ce qu’Israël se retrouve isolé à l’ONU en septembre si les ” Palestiniens persistent à chercher une reconnaissance de leur État, malgré l’opposition des États-Unis”.

Une victoire à la Pyrrhus

Concernant l’échec de la flottille pour Gaza, ce professeur de l’université Bar-Ilan, près de Tel-Aviv, l’explique par le fait qu’Israël “a coupé l’herbe sous le pied de ses détracteurs” en allégeant le blocus du territoire palestinien, à la suite de la mort de neuf Turcs à bord du Mavi Marmara. Mais pour le politologue Yaron Ezrahi, “Israël a remporté une victoire à la Pyrrhus. En empêchant des civils étrangers de manifester ou d’approcher de Gaza, Israël apparaît encore plus comme un État antidémocratique, prisonnier d’une mentalité de ghetto armé, de forteresse assiégée”. Paradoxalement, l’action des autorités israéliennes renforce “la délégitimation qu’Israël veut combattre dans le monde”, estime ce professeur de sciences politiques de l’université hébraïque de Jérusalem. “Le véritable succès du gouvernement est d’ordre intérieur. Il a réussi à calmer les craintes paranoïaques d’une population prête à voir dans la venue de manifestants par la voie des airs, dont une rescapée de la Shoah et d’autres juifs, une menace comparable à des tirs de roquettes contre Israël”, ironise-t-il.

Des groupes internationaux pro-palestiniens avaient annoncé sur Internet leur intention d’affluer à l’aéroport Ben-Gourion vendredi pour aller dans les territoires palestiniens, dont Israël contrôle tous les accès, à l’exception de la frontière entre la bande de Gaza et l’Égypte. Près de 600 militants – dont 300 Français et des délégations de Belgique, d’Allemagne, de Grande-Bretagne, des États-Unis et d’Italie – devaient participer à cette opération Bienvenue en Palestine à l’invitation de 15 associations palestiniennes, selon les organisateurs.

Egypte: Les manifestants de retour sur la place Tahrir

le 08/07/2011/www.20minutes.fr

RÉVOLUTION – Ils demandent une accélération des réformes démocratiques…

Un vent de révolte souffle de nouveau place Tahrir. Des dizaines de milliers d’Egyptiens s’y sont rassemblés ce vendredi pour réclamer une accélération des réformes démocratiques et des procédures judiciaires contre les caciques de l’ancien régime accusés de meurtres et de corruption.

La place Tahrir, au Caire, a été l’épicentre de la contestation populaire qui a abouti le 11 février à la chute du président Hosni Moubarak après trente ans de pouvoir.

Protestation dans tout le pays

La majorité des mouvements politiques égyptiens, notamment celui des Frères musulmans, le plus organisé, se sont associés à cette journée de protestation organisée dans tout le pays. A Suez et à Alexandrie, des manifestations ont également rassemblé des centaines de personnes.

Mercredi dernier, des centaines de personnes ont attaqué des bâtiments officiels à Suez, après la décision d’un tribunal de rejeter un appel contre la libération sous caution de dix policiers accusés d’avoir tué des manifestants l’hiver dernier.

Procès des anciens du régime retardés

Beaucoup de militants qui ont participé à la «révolution du Nil» reprochent au Conseil suprême des forces armées, qui dirige le pays depuis la chute d’Hosni Moubarak, de retarder les procès des représentants du régime déchu et la mise en oeuvre des réformes.

«A bas le maréchal!», scandaient certains manifestants place Tahrir à l’adresse du maréchal Mohamed Hussein Tantaoui, pendant vingt ans ministre de la Défense de Moubarak et aujourd’hui chef du Conseil suprême des forces armées.

Atmosphère festive

«Nous voulons que tout change. L’ancien régime a tout corrompu. Il faut changer de gouvernement, à commencer par le maréchal qui fait partie intégrante de l’ancien régime», a déclaré Ehab Mohamed Mahmoud, 36 ans.

Le rassemblement se déroulait toutefois dans une atmosphère festive. On voyait de nombreux enfants le visage peint aux couleurs du drapeau égyptien, rouge-blanc-noir. «Les jours passent et l’inquiétude croît chez tous ceux qui aiment la nation car rien n’est fait contre la corruption», a déclaré dans un communiqué la Coalition des jeunes de la révolution, exigeant que tous les policiers ayant participé à la répression l’hiver dernier soient chassés, de même que les responsables actuels qui ont trahi leurs promesses.

UN/AFRICA:

UN: Central African Republic Facing Serious Challenges

Larry Freund /www.voanews.com/July 07, 2011

New York

….The senior United Nations diplomat for the Central African Republic said Thursday that the country has made some gains during the past two years but that it continues to face serious challenges.

Margaret Vogt, the United Nations Special Representative for the Central African Republic, told the U.N. Security Council that the country has accomplished much, including the establishment of several governance institutions and the enlargement of freedom of the press. The overall security situation, she said, remains calm but unstable, especially outside the country’s capital, Bangui.

“Despite these advances, the Central African Republic still faces serious challenges. It is afflicted with extreme poverty, weak national institutions, corruption, a high rate of violent crime perpetrated by armed movements and brigands, human rights violations and impunity,” Vogt said.

Vogt, who was appointed to her U.N. post in May, said the Central African Republic is at the crossroads of what she called “critical conflict zones, impacted by insecurity” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. She said the country also suffers from cross border criminal elements roaming the Sahel region. A political collapse in the Central African Republic, she warned, would have a “cataclysmic impact” throughout the region.

The representative of the Central African Republic, Charles Armel Doubane, described what he said has been a series of encouraging events since elections in his country earlier this year. He told the Security Council that those developments are clear signs of a return to peace, security and stability. The Central African Republic, he said, is not a hopeless case.

“With its albeit limited means, working tirelessly, it is fighting to continue to stand tall. It is fighting to build the rule of law. This state, lastly, is fighting daily to remain a good father of its family, its population, which only aspires to live and prosper in peace,” Doubane said.

Following a closed-door meeting, the Security Council issued a statement urging all parties in the Central African Republic to work toward national reconciliation and noted its concern for the security situation in the north and east of the country.

US/AFRICA :

Pirate suspect takes plea deal in yacht case

By Brock Vergakis/The Associated Press/ July 7, 2011

A Yemeni man pleaded guilty to piracy on Thursday for his role in the hijacking of a yacht off the coast of Africa that left two Seattleites and two other Americans dead, taking a plea deal that he had rejected only weeks earlier.

A Yemeni man pleaded guilty to piracy on Thursday for his role in the hijacking of a yacht off the coast of Africa that left two Seattleites and two other Americans dead, taking a plea deal that he had rejected only weeks earlier.

Mounir Ali is now the 11th man to plead guilty in the February hijacking of the yacht Quest, although prosecutors don’t believe any of those men fired the fatal shots aboard the sailing vessel.

The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam, of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay, of Seattle, were shot to death several days after being taken hostage several hundred miles south of Oman.

They were the first U.S. citizens killed in a wave of pirate attacks that have plagued the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in recent years, despite an international flotilla of warships that patrol the area. Other pirates in the case have said they boarded the yacht while it sat still in the water and the Americans were sleeping.

Four U.S. warships were shadowing the Quest and negotiations were under way when shots were fired aboard the sailing vessel.

Court documents have identified three Somalis, currently in U.S. custody, as the triggermen. They each still face piracy, kidnapping and weapons charges, and prosecutors have said additional charges are likely in the future.

Ali faces life in prison at sentencing in October, although that could later be reduced as part of a plea agreement that requires him to help prosecutors in this case and possibly others.

“Mounir Ali admitted today that his greed for ransom money ultimately led to the coldblooded murder of the four U.S. hostages. This latest guilty plea again shows that modern piracy is far different than the romantic portrayal in summertime movies. Pirates who attack U.S. citizens on the high seas will face justice in a U.S. courtroom,” U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement.

Ali had previously rejected the plea deal because he said he was forced to join the Somalis after the boat he was on was hijacked. His attorney, Jim Theuer, said he advised Ali he likely wouldn’t prevail at trial.

Theuer said even though Ali may have been under duress when he was initially captured, it would be difficult to prove he was still under duress when he boarded the American boat. Each of the 10 Somali men who pleaded guilty said in court documents that Ali willingly decided to join them for a share of the ransom profits.

Theuer said he believes that anyone who didn’t take the plea deal could face capital charges in the future. Under the deal, weapons and kidnapping charges eventually will be dismissed.

In all, 19 men boarded the American boat. Four of them died on board. One person was released by authorities because he is a juvenile.

Only four other men are charged in the case: the three identified as the shooters and a land-based negotiator who the U.S. says is the highest-ranking pirate it has ever captured.

The negotiator, Mohammad Saaili Shibin, never set foot aboard the Quest. Court documents say he researched the Americans online to determine how much of a ransom to seek for them.

On June 21, a federal judge in Norfolk, Va., denied a request from Shibin to have $1,600 in cash returned to him for humanitarian needs, saying he failed to prove he was lawfully in possession of the money.

Somalia at risk of famine, says US

2011-07-08/ AFP/ www.news24.com

Washington – The US government has warned that a drought in the Horn of Africa is likely to worsen by the end of the year, putting parts of war-ravaged Somalia at risk of famine.

“Our experts… expect the perilous situation in the Horn of Africa to worsen through the end of the year,” Nancy Lindborg, a senior official at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said Thursday.

“Given limited labour opportunities, the dwindling food stocks, and sky-high cereal prices, many households cannot put food on the table right now,” she said at a House of Representatives commission hearing.

Lindborg said an initial assessment found that this year’s harvest will be a “failure” in the southern Lower Shabelle region and “well below normal” in the neighbouring region of Bay.

She said in a normal season the two regions account for 71% of the total cereal production of southern Somalia.

“As unfortunate as it may be, we do expect the situation in Somalia to continue to decline,” Lindborg said.

“Famine conditions are possible in the worst affected areas depending on the evolution of food prices, conflict, and humanitarian response,” she added.

She added that the United States would continue to work with the international community to explore ways of providing aid to Somalia and to people fleeing the country, which has been mired in war for two decades.

The United States said on Wednesday it is ready to test the word of Somali Islamist insurgents, who control much of the country and have appealed for foreign aid in the face of the drought.

For two years the Shabaab insurgents, affiliated with al-Qaeda, have curbed foreign aid groups from working in the region.

The United Nations last week warned that 10 million people in the Horn of Africa – which includes Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea – faced the worst drought in 60 years.

A poor rainy season and rising food prices have also led to severe food shortages in Kenya and Uganda.

EU/AFRICA:

Irish rhino horn racket uncovered by Europol

7 July 2011 /www.bbc.co.uk

Europol says it has uncovered an Irish organised crime group illegally trading rhino horn worth tens of thousands of euros as far afield as China.

The EU’s police agency said it had gathered intelligence and evidence against the group, which was “known to use intimidation and violence”.

The agency said it was working with Irish police and had drawn up an action plan to tackle the illegal trade.

More than 200 of the endangered animals were killed in South Africa last year.

There is a high demand for rhino horn, which is a prized ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine and is also used for decoration and to produce luxury goods.

Depending on the size and quality, a horn can be worth between 25,000 (£22,000; $36,000) and 200,000 euros, according to Europol.

‘Significant players’

“Significant players within this area of crime have been identified as an Irish and ethnically Irish organised criminal group,” the agency said on Thursday.

To obtain the horns, the group targeted antique dealers, auction houses, art galleries, museums, private collections and zoos, “resorting to theft and aggravated burglary where necessary”.

International auction houses had been “exploited” in the UK, France, USA and China, Europol said.

The same group was also involved in other serious crime across the EU such as drug-trafficking, organised robbery, distribution of counterfeit products and money-laundering.

Its activities had also been monitored in North and Latin America, South Africa, China and Australia.

Europol and Irish police recommended launching dedicated investigations in each country involved and alerting potential targets “of possible visits to defraud or attack them for their specimens”.

INDIA/AFRICA:

India keen on ties with South Sudan

www.livemint.com/Elizabeth Roche, elizabeth.r@livemint.com /Fri, Jul 8 2011

India has drawn out an elaborate blueprint for engaging oil and resource-rich South Sudan, Africa’s newest country that will come into existence over the weekend, foreign ministry officials said on Thursday.

Vice-president Hamid Ansari will represent the world’s largest democracy at the birth of the new nation on Saturday.

Foreign ministry officials said India and South Sudan have been reaching out to each other since earlier, with Pricilla Kuch, minister of state in the office of South Sudan President, visiting New Delhi in April.

In June, New Delhi sent minister of state for external affairs E. Ahamed to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to “concretize a road map for intensifying cooperation,” said Sanjay Singh, secretary (east), in the ministry of external affairs.

“India was one of the first Asian countries to open a consulate in Juba in 2007. We look forward to continued growth and diversification of our relations with South Sudan as it charts its independent destiny,” Singh said.

Rajeev Shahare, joint secretary in the external affairs ministry in charge of West Asia and North Africa, said India had substantial interests in South Sudan, which has triggered international interest—not least because the new country will be inheriting most of the united Sudan’s oil fields.

Oil accounted for about 98% of the south’s total revenue in 2010. About three-quarters of Sudan’s roughly 500,000 barrels per day of oil output comes from the south, and India is keen for closer cooperation in this sector. “The future farming out of oil blocks” was discussed, Shahare said. “We are looking forward to that.” In keeping with its larger strategy of partnering with Africa in its development, India will send experts to the newly formed nation to assist in rural development, agriculture, education and health. “We do have a definite road map on how we can develop ties with South Sudan,” Shahare said.

“This broad-based plan is the right thing to start with; it’s a good beginning,” said Rajiv Bhatia, former Indian high commissioner to South Africa and Kenya, but he added that India will “still have to contend with competition from China in expanding its presence in the country.”

A measure of the influence the world’s second largest economy wields in the yet-to-be-born South Sudan, is illustrated by the fact that the head of the Chinese delegation is slated to speak at the inauguration on Saturday along with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and a select few dignitaries.

According to reports, China has promised substantial aid and investments in South Sudan—a strategy it has adopted throughout the continent that includes building big-ticket infrastructure projects like roads and dams. In return, it has closed deals worth billions of dollars for minerals and raw materials needed to power its economic growth.

Born out of a referendum in January when 99% of the mainly Christian south voted for independence from the Muslim and Arab majority in the north, South Sudan will formally declare itself the world’s 193rd country and Africa’s 54th on Saturday.

The new country is being carved out of roughly one-third of Sudan and will be about the size of France with some eight million people.

Reuters contributed to this copy.

India calls for cooperation with Africa in solar energy

8 Jul, 2011/IST,ET Bureau /economictimes.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: India has offered to expand and strengthen its cooperation with the African countries in the field of Renewable Energy.

“India is already assisting African countries for electrification of villages through solar energy and aims to set up 40 solar charging stations and 40 biomass gasifiers,” said Dr Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy. He was speaking at the IRENA-Africa High Level Consultative Forum meeting in Abu Dhabi on Accelerating Renewable Energy Uptake for Africa’s Sustainable Development

“India has established many institutes which have tailor-made training programmes in various areas of renewable Energy and the country is ready to share its experience, knowledge and technology in the field of renewable energy with the African countries”, he added.

In the recently concluded 2nd Africa-India Forum Summit held at Addis Ababa, Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh had announced an offer of 5 billion US dollars for the next three years under lines of credit and 700 million US dollars as assistance to help Africa achieve its development goals. As part of these efforts, Dr. Abdullah announced over 250 training positions on Rural Electrification, Small Hydropower, Solar Energy and Wind energy for African learners and professionals.

He also outlined India’s success in providing energy access through decentralized energy sources and explained how small stand alone solar and biomass based systems are being used to provide energy to some of the farthest and remotest corners of India.

UPDATE 1-Tata to start work on S.Africa assembly unit

Fri Jul 8, 2011 / Reuters

JOHANNESBURG 8 July (Reuters) – India’s Tata Motors (TAMO.BO: Quote) will start work on a small truck assembly unit in the South African capital, Pretoria, later this month, a company official said on Friday.

“The planning of the assembly plant in South Africa has been in the planning for a while and we are at a point that this has now come to fruition,” spokesman Debasis Ray said.

More details would follow at a formal launch on July 22, he said.

India’s biggest vehicle maker said a year ago it was planning to set up an assembly unit for small and medium-sized trucks in South Africa, with an initial annual capacity of 3,000-4,000 units. [ID:nSGE65O05K] (Reporting by Yumna Mohamed; Editing by Ed Cropley)

EN BREF, CE 08 Juillet 2011 … AGNEWS/DAM,NY, 08/07/2011