VOA Africa News

The leader of Senegal’s National Democratic Rally (RND) said it’s now the priority of opposition and civil society organizations to prevent incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade from participating in this month’s vote.

Opposition parties signed a joint statement following a meeting Sunday to oppose Wade’s candidacy after accusing him of orchestrating a constitutional coup d’état.

Dialo Diop said opposition parties unanimously agreed not to campaign unless Wade is replaced as a presidential candidate for the ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS).  Official campaigning began Sunday in the run-up to the February 26th election.

“We won’t start any campaign until the incumbent president retires or relinquishes his candidacy,” said Diop. “When the moment President Wade starts campaigning [occurs], our only common [purpose] will be to campaign against his candidacy…and we want his party to have another candidate running for president.”

But, supporters of the ruling PDS insist Wade will remain their nominee.

Analysts say the opposition demands could derail the scheduled election. Diop says the opposition’s unity against Wade underscores the need to prevent what he calls an illegal candidate.

“Our decision is [in] two steps. First, there would be no boycott of the election and the second, no postponement of the vote,” said Diop. “There would be no election with President Wade’s involvement.”

He insists the opposition protests will be peaceful.

“We are going to have several common demonstrations;  today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, until the incumbent president retires or until he is dismissed as a candidate,” continued Diop. “Because that is the only way to keep on opposing what we call a constitutional coup implemented with his council.”

Diop says some members of the ruling PDS are voicing dissent about Wade’s candidacy.

“Some of them are members of parliament, others are ministers publicly taking [a] stance to say that that they need another candidate for the so-called PDS,” said Diop. “That will be an intelligent solution to the crisis opened by this constitutional coup.”

Diop says opposition parties will continue their protests until the ruling party replaces Wade as its candidate in this month’s vote.

A recent ruling by Senegal’s Constitutional Council effectively paved the way for Wade’s bid for a third term. But, the opposition insists the ruling sharply contravenes the constitution.

Egyptian protesters have clashed with police in the capital Cairo for a fourth straight day. The protesters are demanding an accelerated presidential election and early handover of power from the ruling military council to a civilian government.

Hundreds of riot police guarding Egypt's interior ministry reportedly fired tear gas, rubber bullets and birdshot Sunday to keep stone-throwing demonstrators away from the building.  

Protests erupted after police allegedly failed to prevent a melee and stampede that killed 74 people after a football match in the city of Port Said last week.

“This is a result of a revolution which has not gone fully democratic,” said Dr. Walid Phares, an expert on the Middle East and author of "The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East.

The military council is still holding on to power and the Muslim brotherhood got a majority in parliament, he said, adding “it seems there is an understanding between the military council and the Muslim brotherhood to contain civil society and democratic forces.”

Those who began the revolution (in January last year), he noted, “….seem to be going back to the streets to demand for a quick transfer of power to the executive, and to sound a warning against excesses coming from political forces that want to establish a different type of government from a liberal democracy.”

Phares said the military council may not be willing to hand over power yet and even if they did it would not make a big difference. “If the transfer is done without guarantees for democracy, freedom and secularism, it [power] is going to move from an authoritarian military council to a Muslim brotherhood form of authoritarianism.”

He noted that mere transfer of power without constitutional guarantees may not be very successful.

The results of the parliamentary election, said Phares, are a reflection of the balance of power that existed at the time of the revolution. “Civil society forces didn’t have political parties while the Muslim brotherhood had a strong political party.”

But the situation may change, he said, “my expectation is that there is [going to] be  another democratic revolution that will rectify the trajectory of what is happening now and bring Egypt back to liberal democracy.”

Officials say at least 12 people have been killed in the cities of Cairo and Suez and 2,500 others have been hurt since protests broke out Thursday.

Some Egyptians believe remnants of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's government were behind the Port Said violence and see it as part of a plot to create chaos to reassert influence.

In another development Sunday, saboteurs attacked a gas pipeline that crosses the Sinai Peninsula, the 12th such attack in the year since Mr. Mubarak resigned. The explosion halted exports to neighboring Israel and Jordan.

Reports from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria say an oil pipeline has been attacked and left ruptured and burning.

The Nigerian militant group that goes by the acronym MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) said it carried out Saturday's attack on the Italian-owned pipeline. In an e-mail message to journalists, it promised more attacks on foreign-owned interests in the country.

The pipeline's owner, Italian firm Eni, has yet to comment on the attack. It occurred in Bayelsa state, home to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan and where a gubernatorial election is scheduled for next Saturday.

In its e-mail message, MEND labeled the attack "relatively insignificant," but "a sign of things to come." It singled out South African businesses for future attacks.

MEND has accused South African President Jacob Zuma of interference in what it called the "legitimate fight for justice in the Niger Delta." South African businesses, including the MTN telecommunications firm, have operations throughout Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

A government amnesty that was introduced in 2009 led thousands of militants in the Niger Delta to surrender their arms and joining training programs. It led to a significant reduction in attacks and allowed for an increase in oil production.

Protesters and police in Egypt clashed Sunday for a fourth straight day in Cairo. Security personnel were trying to keep protesters away from government buildings in the capital.

The protesters are calling for the ruling military council to surrender power to a civilian government.  

Officials say at least 12 people have died and 2,500 others have been wounded since violence broke out Thursday.

The violence was sparked by anger at the failure of Egyptian security forces to prevent a melee and stampede after a soccer match Wednesday in the city of Port Said that killed 74 people.  

On Saturday, police in Cairo fired tear gas and birdshot at demonstrators, who were chanting, yelling and throwing stones near the heavily guarded Interior Ministry building.  Across the street, the Tax Ministry building was in flames. Ambulances and volunteers carried the wounded away from the fighting through streets littered with debris.

On Friday, the sound of gunfire, tear gas canisters and rocks smashing against police shields filled the air in and around Cairo's historic Tahrir Square following evening prayers.

Thousands of Egyptians also took to the streets in Alexandria and the port city of Suez.

Police have arrested 47 suspects for the football match mayhem. The military council's Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi declared three days of national mourning and vowed to find those responsible.  

Egypt's military-appointed prime minister also said the government has fired the board of Egypt's soccer federation and suspended Port Said's governor and security chiefs.

Lawmakers in Egypt's newly empowered parliament blamed police inaction for the tragedy and voted to conduct an investigation.  

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

African Union mediation to end an oil standoff between Sudan and South Sudan is expected to resume this week. Analysts say the stakes are high for the governments in Khartoum and Juba, both of which rely heavily on oil revenue to maintain themselves.

Jimmy Mulla, from the Washington-based Voices for Sudan advocacy group, is one of many analysts pessimistic about the current oil impasse. “I think as of now it is nearly impossible because the two parties are completely on different platforms," he said.

Disagreements on oil transfer fees and accusations by South Sudan that Sudan was stealing southern oil coming through its pipeline led to Juba’s recent decision to shut down oil production.

Mulla puts most of the blame on Sudan. “For the most part, I would still go back and say the government in Khartoum has not been forthcoming in terms of making sure this agreement goes forward. There are international standards, there are international agreements on oil revenues, whether it is a transit fee, all these things are in place, and these are references that have been tabled both by the government of South Sudan and also by the African Union mediating body, so it should have been easier to resolve but the lack of political will to address this issue has been a major problem," he said.

The exact terms of oil revenue sharing were not agreed to before South Sudan became independent last year, following decades of civil war.

A Washington-based international relations expert Walid Phares accuses Sudan of doing whatever it can to muddle the post-breakup phase. “Keep in mind that the northern regime did not really let go of South Sudan.  They want to try to control it.  They want to try to instigate trouble within the Southern Sudanese regions," he said.

Both countries accuse each other of backing cross-border rebellions, as the exact border and some regions remain in dispute. Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir recently said his country was closer to war with South Sudan than peace.

After the breakup, Sudan started by asking $32 in transit fees for each barrel of South Sudanese oil shipped through its pipeline and then upped the request to $36. Those two figures are more than ten times standard rates.

Analysts say the government in Khartoum has been very nervous with the loss of oil revenue as it has also been struggling with a lack of foreign currency, high inflation, civil society discontent and $38 billion in external debt.

Eric Reeves, a Sudan researcher at Smith College, believes Sudan’s government also wants to use the oil impasse as leverage to ease its debt. “Now, there have been discussions in the UK, in Germany and France that suggests it might be the case that these countries anyway are contemplating debt relief. I think that is a terrible signal to be sending Khartoum.  It only encourages them to be more intransigent, more ruthless in expropriating revenues from southern oil," he said.

Other analysts interviewed for this report said Asian countries which have been the main consumers of South Sudanese oil, especially the biggest buyer China, should try harder to help find a solution.

They warn South Sudan, which depends nearly entirely on oil revenues for state income, could easily become a failed state with escalating sectarian violence and angry unpaid soldiers if the oil shutdown persists.  

South Sudanese officials have talked about building an alternative pipeline to the Kenyan port of Lamu, but most analysts say this seems unrealistic at this point, because of cost and security issues.

The only hope they say would be for a major deal which addresses other current concerns such as ending the cross-border violence and finding long-term solutions for the remaining regions in dispute.

A combination of radio talk shows and SMS (text messaging) technology is seeking to empower Ugandan citizens to hold their public servants accountable for the country's problems.

Uganda’s lively radio shows have always tried to get people talking about the issues of the day. But now, an innovative new pairing of radio and SMS technology is allowing Ugandans to voice their opinions in a way that was never possible before.

Every Thursday, listeners of a popular radio breakfast show in Kampala are asked a question about some aspect of public life. The questions probe issues like public transportation, the state of health care, even the performance of individual politicians.

Hundreds of listeners can respond by sending in a free SMS text message to the show, and visual representations of the answers are put together as the texts start rolling in. The software that makes this possible is called Trac FM.

“For instance, if we have a question like, ‘Where is the worst street in your city?’  Then people send in the name of the street, and the presenter gets an overview on a map and on bar charts where people think is the worst road, and he discusses these issues during his talk show," said Wouter Dijkstra, a Dutchman living in Kampala who developed Trac FM.  He got the idea three years ago while researching new media in Uganda.

“During the research I went to several places to see where this interaction between government and civilians is most possible.  You see that a lot of radio feedback is used by inviting politicians or policymakers over to radio stations, and people who are allowed to phone in.  This is where I saw there was a lot of energy for dialogue," he said.

Trac FM is currently being used by two radio stations, one based in Kampala and one in northern Uganda.  The project is run as an NGO, and access to the software is free to radio stations who want it.

Dijkstra says that thanks to widespread use of both radios and mobile phones, even in villages, this method of opinion polling gives a voice to ordinary Ugandans who have no other way of speaking out. “In Uganda you do have relatively free media, but for the ordinary person they tend to not really get involved in the public debate about these kinds of issues, especially issues of service delivery. People complain, but they don’t have a channel to really reach the people who can make a change," he said.

Last week, Kampala listeners weighed in on the subject of electricity bills - a timely topic in a country where the cost of power has just spiked, and extended power cuts have recently caused riots.

Seanice Kacungira, one of the show’s hosts, says that what makes Trac FM so successful is that it is easy and free for anyone to get involved in public debate. “I think the fact that it’s free is very important, so people feel like they can always get involved and it doesn’t cost them anything, which is very important right now in tough economic times. So it helps inform our discussions, it helps us know what the pressure points are," he said.

Sometimes the answers can be surprising. Last year, listeners were asked what they thought of Dutch aid cuts to Uganda. An overwhelming 82 percent texted in to say they approved of the cuts, and that they would rather have no aid at all than aid that supports a corrupt government.

Host Seanice Kacungira says many of those who respond to Trac FM’s questions have a surprisingly low level of confidence in public officials. “Perceptions that I find interesting are the levels of disillusionment with government, with their ability to provide services. It’s a lot worse than I had initially thought," he said.

At least some of this information does make it back to the officials and institutions concerned. Kacungira says that she and her colleagues will be sharing the answers they get about electricity billing with Umeme, Uganda’s power distribution company.

Dijkstra says that even if the polls do not directly influence politicians, he still hopes that they will encourage Ugandans to be more vocal in voicing their opinions.

Dijkstra says he plans to expand to other countries, and has had interest from as far away as Tajikistan and Indonesia. With a platform adapted to work in different languages, he says, it is an idea that could work practically anywhere.

A disciplinary committee of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) has upheld the suspension of Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of the organization's youth wing.

The 30-year-old Malema has been leading a campaign to nationalize the country's mines and forcibly turn white-own land over to blacks.

In November, Malema was handed a five-year suspension for causing divisions within the ANC and bringing it into disrepute.  Though once a supporter of South African President Jacob Zuma, Malema has recently gone on the attack against the Zuma administration.

A hearing on mitigating Malema's sentence is to be held in two weeks.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

The United Nations refugee agency says it is alarmed by reports of renewed atrocities committed against internally displaced Congolese.  The UNHCR says it has reports of IDPs (internally displaced people) in camps of North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo having been killed and tortured by so-called armed elements.  

The U.N. refugee agency says armed groups have been infiltrating IDP camps in North Kivu since the last quarter of 2011.  It says this puts the civilian character of the camps at risk.  And, most worryingly, says UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards, it puts the civilians sheltering in the camps at great risk.

"Displaced Congolese are constantly threatened by various groups and militias who accuse them of collaborating with one or another armed group," said Edwards.  "On the 13th of December last year, seven displaced people were beaten to death because they had refused to take part in forced labor imposed by the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda.  UNHCR has also received reports of IDPs being lashed and other forms of torture."  

The Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) are composed of some Hutu commanders and others responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.  An estimated 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, were killed.

The FDLR has been attacking, killing, raping and pillaging villages in eastern Congo for nearly 18 years.  The group is accused of forcefully recruiting children as soldiers and taking civilians hostage, and has caused tens of thousands of terrified civilians to flee their homes.

Nearly 79,000 displaced Congolese currently are living in 31 IDP camps in North Kivu.  The UNHCR spokesman says the camps mainly affected by the recent attacks are in the Masisi territory, about 90 kilometers northwest of North Kivu's capital, Goma.

"Ongoing violence is also hindering humanitarian access to the camps and preventing aid workers from protecting and assisting the displaced," added Edwards.  "Only eight IDP camps out of 31 are accessible to humanitarian workers without military escort.  UNHCR calls on all parties to respect the civilian character of IDP camps in North Kivu.  We are appealing to provincial authorities to increase security in and around the camps."  

Edwards says only 40 police officers currently are providing security to six of the 31 camps in the province.  He says the UNHCR is trying to get MONUSCO, the U.N. peacekeeping force to provide more security in areas most in need of protection.  He says the U.N. forces are needed to ensure the safety of civilians living in the campsites.

He says many of the IDPs have no hope of going home in the near future.  He says continued insecurity and renewed fighting between armed groups and the military in their villages make it too dangerous to return.  He notes no returns were possible throughout the whole of last year.

The UNHCR reports more than 600,000 people are displaced in North Kivu.  This is more than one-third of the 1.7 million forcibly uprooted people living across the DRC.

Wealthy investors in Uganda are taking advantage of a new money-making opportunity investing in trees. Trees have become an attractive investment because of the rising cost of timber and the allure of carbon credits. The Ugandan government sees these so-called "tree banks" as a means to combat deforestation. But practice remains controversial.

These days, Uganda’s wealthy elite are less likely to put their money into property, the stock market, or even the bank. The new hot investment opportunity is trees. Vast plantations of pine and eucalyptus are sprouting across the country, planted by those looking to cash in on valuable wood and possibly carbon credits.

Trees as business

Businessmen Peter Nyeko has invested $50,000, along with two partners, in 20 hectares of eucalyptus trees just west of the capital, Kampala. He calls it his “tree bank.” Despite the work involved in clearing the land and caring for the trees, he says a tree bank is the best investment he could possibly have made.

"You could invest about $50,000 and in about 10 years you’re harvesting trees worth about $5 million," he said. "You buy a seedling for less than $5, but once that seedling grows to become a fully grown tree, it will probably cost more than $150. As long as you’re willing to wait for about 10 years for a return on your capital employed, it’s pretty amazing. It’s just like a trust fund."

This is exactly the message the Ugandan government is trying to convey to its citizens. Demand for wood is on the rise, and the deforestation rate is alarming - the country has lost nearly 40 percent of its forests over the past 20 years.

Gonza Araali of the National Forestry Authority, or NFA, says his agency provides free seedlings and technical advice to tree planters. He says the government is advocating tree planting not just for the wealthy, but for all segments of Ugandan society.

"We are also telling them it’s an investment; it’s an insurance," he said. "It’s where they can get income and be able to sustain themselves, and also pay school fees for their children."

Possible carbon credits

Systems are not yet in place in Uganda to allow tree planters to benefit from carbon credits. But investors like Nyeko are betting that they soon will be.

"In the next few years, we might finally be able to trade carbon credits linked to trees that have been growing. That would open up another revenue stream as well, making it sometimes even more profitable to keep the trees rather than cutting them. It’s part of my rationale," said Nyeko.

Not everyone is convinced that tree banks are beneficial for Uganda as a whole. The most popular trees to plant are fast-growing varieties like eucalyptus and pine - imported trees that threaten native species.

On the other hand, Araali of the NFA explains that fast-growing trees can also protect native forests.

"People are able to get timber out of them, and the rate at which they would have gone to the natural forest to cut [trees] reduces," he said. "They also help in conservation in one way or another, which people are not seeing."

Environmental concerns

But as Abby Onencan of the Entebbe-based Nile Basin Discourse points out, there are other environmental concerns as well, some of which could have regional implications.

"A lot has been said about the eucalyptus. There are some breeds which are really bad, they really cause a lot of destruction and should not be planted near the water," said Onencan. "If we plant trees around the Nile that take up the water, then the water might never reach Egypt. What one country does affects largely another country, so we need to be really careful about what we do."

Social consequences

Some say the tree plantations also come with a social cost. Last year the British NGO Oxfam published a report accusing a British-based tree planting company of kicking local people off land in Uganda in order to plant. The company later closed their operations in the country on a wave of bad publicity.

Uganda’s Minister for the Environment, Flavia Munaaba, admits that allocating large tracts of land to tree plantations can create problems.

"We are losing forest cover very rapidly. However, when it comes to guidance on reforestation, the tendency is to allocate land to big investors, at the exclusion of the common people. That is the problem, in the sense that there is resentment," said Munaaba.

Responsible planting

But Onencan says there are ways in which the trees, if sensitively managed, can benefit the local population.

"I think you can actually empower the communities to be part of the whole program in such a way that they are the ones planting the trees, they are the ones determining the tree that they want to plant, and they get actually a percentage of the benefit. So you involve them fully so they can own that project," he said.

Nyeko is convinced that by the time he eventually harvests his trees, they will have benefited both the environment and Ugandan society. His eucalyptus will be useful, he says, to a growing population hungry for timber.

"The more people that get involved now, the better, because the population is rising, demand is shooting up, and we just don’t have enough timber growing to sustain our demand for timber. There is a benefit in it for the whole country at large," he said.

In any case, the NFA reports that more and more people are asking for planting advice, so tree banking will most likely become even more popular in the years to come.

Have you ever wondered what’s being served in the kitchens of some of the world’s most prestigious people? Ever wanted to have dinner with a president?  Well South Africans may not be breaking bread with Nelson Mandela these days, but they now have the secrets of his favorite recipes.  His personal chef, Xoliswa Ndoyiya, has published a cookbook of meals she serves to the former president, his family and guests. 

“Now I am saying yes, there is a secret.  It is love," Ndoyiya explained. "I cook food with love.”

After two decades of being asked by members of the extended Mandela family and guests to Mandela’s home about her secret for preparing such delicious meals, Xoliswa or Xoli Ndoyiya has finally revealed it at the launch of her cookbook.

The title of the book, Ukutya Kwasekhaya - the isiXhosa phrase for home cooking - comes from her brief job interview  with Mandela in 1992, when he told her he had heard she was a good cook but wanted to know if she also cooked traditional food well.

“When Tata [Nelson Mandela] [asked] me, am I going to cook because he heard that I am a good cook, and I said yes, I am and I will cook for you Tata. I thought I was still going for another interview, but then it was just, you got the job, there and then,” Ndoyiya said.

isiXhosa is the language of the Xhosa people of the Eastern Cape Province, the home of both Mandela and Ndoyiya.  Ukutya Kwasekhaya is filled with recipes of typical South African food, such as boerewors, a spicy sausage; soup made from butternuts, an indigenous South Africa squash; and ginger beer, a non-alcoholic spicy, refreshing drink.

Also included are recipes for Jewish foods such as chicken liver spread and potatoe latkes; Italian pastas and Spanish paella.  And there are a number of Ndoyiya’s own creations, such as soy baked lamb chops, orange turkey, creamy chicken with Italian herbs, and peanut butter and spinach soup.

But the book is dominated by traditional Xhosa food such as amarhewu, a fermented maize drink; ulusi or tripe; umsilo wenkomo or oxtail stew; tshakalaka, a spicy relish; and, umfino, which is maize meal porridge with spinach.

Soon after she began to work for Mandela, he asked Ndoyiya if, in addition to being his chef, would she be willing to also undertake the day-to-day care of his grandchildren, whom he wanted to bring to live with him.  He told her he wanted to be able to spend lots of time with them, because he was in jail when his own children were growing up.  In a letter from Mandela and his wife, Graca Machel, read by Mandela’s granddaughter Ndileka Mandela - the couple spoke of the close ties that had grown between the family and their chef.

“Xoli, our home is warm and welcoming because you have always been there," Ndileka said. "With a smile you treat our children as your sisters, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren with the love of a mother.  You welcome and serve all of our guests with distinction.”

Hlangenani Mandela, the elder statesman’s great grandson, told Ndoyiya the Mandela family is appreciative of the personal sacrifices she made to cook for the family and to take care of them.

“In short I would like to say thank you for the very many sacrifices you have given to our family, staying away from your children.  And I stand here looking across at my bigger brothers, your sons, that you’ve shared stories and how you would like to be around them and with them, instead you spent that time with us and the family.  So a very heartfelt thank you from me. I am sure I speak on behalf of the family in saying that we love and thank you very much. Siyabulela [isiXhosa: thank you for improving our lives] mama,” Hlangenani said.

Ndoyiya says she has wanted to write a cookbook for years, and is thrilled it has finally come to fruition.

Aid agencies are again warning of another food crisis in Africa's Sahel region.  The consequences of last year’s scant rains and exceptionally poor harvest are now being harvested in northern Senegal.  The Red Cross says more than 800,000 people in seven regions are at risk of severe food insecurity and it doesn’t have enough funds to address the situation.

Cheikh Seye Dienj, the Red Cross coordinator in St. Louis, says surveys and interviews with some 800 families in villages across three regions - St. Louis, Dagama and Podor -  show the situation is heading towards the crisis point.

Human toll

Dienj says the wells have dried up and people don't have enough water for their fruits and vegetables.  He says families are now selling their belongings to survive.

On the approach to the village of Ndoye Diagne, 17 kilometers outside the northern town of St. Louis, bright green patches of cabbages and onions can been seen growing amid the otherwise arid landscape.  These vegetables are the only crops hardy enough to grow in the dry conditions.

When asked if they have enough to feed their children, the women weeding these tiny vegetable patches and drawing water from the few wells that remain, laugh and shake their heads.

Mamadou Diagne, the Red Cross representative in this village of 36 families, says the problems are compounded because villagers are being priced out of the market by cheap, imported onions.  When imported onions are sold at market, the price of local onions falls from 40 cents per kilo to 15 cents per kilo.

He says there are even some of us who have sold off our animals to make some money and get seeds and materials, and aid agencies have given us grain and a few seeds.   

But Diagne says the villagers are getting by for now.

"We go to the market and we sell our animals, he says, so that we can buy a little bit of oil, sugar, rice, that kind of thing, and manage the situation.  It is all we can do," said Diagne. "We need food - and we need to reconstruct our wells so that we can grow vegetables again."

The Red Cross says is does not have enough funds to reconstruct all the wells, which each cost around $100 to build.

No government help

Meanwhile the Senegalese government - preoccupied with the controversial presidential elections later this month - appears not to be focused on the situation.

Villagers say they have received no government help and many people in the country are not aware of the crisis brewing in the north.

Amadou Fall Canar Diop, from the government’s Civil Protection Unit, says the government is preparing a plan and will react soon.

In the village of Kalasan, 13 kilometers from St. Louis, villager and Red Cross representative Arona Gueye is the father and grandfather of 10 children.

He says the price for rice alone has gone up 50 percent, and villagers are now forced to borrow sugar, rice, tea and other basic products to feed their families.

"Absolutely nothing of last year’s harvest remains," says Gueye.  "It’s all gone.  We will get loans to survive.  He says local merchants will lend them things like sugar and rice and they will somehow repay them after this year’s harvest."

Some villagers are leaving for the cities to try to make cash, while others sell wood and charcoal to survive.

The United Nations in January warned that the international community should not wait until people are starving to act.  The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, said cash is needed in the short term, but donors must ensure that food reserves are pre-positioned in risk prone regions.

Countries affected by the looming food crisis, besides Senegal, are Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Uganda has signed two oil production agreements with an Anglo –Irish firm, Tullow oil. The agreements allow the company to finalize a long-delayed $2.9 billion asset sale to France’sTotal and China’s China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC).

As a result of this signing, according to a Uganda government official, Tullow will finalize arrangements with CNOOC and Total for completion of a ‘farm-down,’ which will partly divest its assets in Uganda to the two oil companies as agreed.

The government says that Tallow has met all the government’s demands, including agreeing to an oil refinery being built in Uganda, and a potential for a pipeline to export crude oil if more deposits are discovered.

The agreements have been signed amid protests from members of parliament who last year passed a resolution stopping the signing of oil contracts without relevant oil laws in place. In October last year, Parliament gave government 30 days to table these laws, but so far none has been brought before parliament.

“I am shocked and surprised,” said Theodore Ssekikubo, member of parliament for Lwemiyaga County. “This is a matter that parliament will have to consider.”

He said Parliament still has options and will decide, in due course, what action to take.
The options, he said, are Parliament looking at the legality of this matter or deciding to resort to the courts of law. “Certainly this [action by government] goes against the spirit of the parliamentary resolution. It is a challenge to the Parliament of Uganda; it’s a challenge to the people of Uganda.”

Ssekikubo also questioned the legality of Tallow’s interests in Uganda’s oil, saying the memorandum of understanding the oil company signed with government is illegal, and should not have been a basis for entering into new contracts. “What they claim to have acquired is not theirs in the first place.”

He said many members of Parliament are determined to defend the interests of the people of Uganda. “There is no way you can justify the signing of these agreements before resolving the issues raised by Parliament.”

Even Tallow Oil, he added, knows its claim of ownership is being challenged in court. “I think the whole transaction is under suspicious circumstances.”

There are five running Production Sharing Agreements, the most important being the $2.9 billion transaction in which Tullow is to bring on board Total and CNOOC to jointly undertake production, transportation and distribution activities.

Last year Parliament was recalled from recess to debate these (hitherto) secretive oil deals. During the debate, Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa and Internal Affairs [former Energy] Minister Hillary Onek were named as allegedly having taken bribes from oil companies.

Violence spreading across Egypt's cities Friday killed at least three people in growing fallout from a deadly soccer riot.

Anger over the inability of security forces to prevent Wednesday's soccer stampede that left 74 dead in Port Said has evolved into demonstrations calling for the ruling military council to surrender power to a civilian government.  

The sound of gunfire, tear gas cannisters and rocks smashing against police shields filled the air in and around Cairo's historic Tahrir Square following Friday prayers.  One doctor treating protesters near the square told the Associated Press that his field hospital has been overwhelmed by the injured.

One protester was killed near the Interior Ministry, which has been a flashpoint for demonstrations. Two more protesters died in clashes in Suez, where thousands took to the streets. The French news agency said another 30 were wounded.

Thousands of Egyptians also took to the streets in Alexandria.

The Health Ministry says almost 400 people have been injured in clashes with police in recent days, most overcome by tear gas.  But protesters say security forces have increasingly turned to more deadly means, using live ammunition to repel their demonstrations.

Police have arrested 47 suspects for the soccer match mayhem.  And the military council's Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi declared three days of national mourning and vowed to find the culprits.  

Egypt's military-appointed prime minister also said the government has fired the board of Egypt's soccer federation and suspended Port Said's governor and security chiefs.

Lawmakers in Egypt's newly empowered parliament blamed police inaction for the tragedy and voted to conduct an investigation.  

Western media quote survivors of the riot as describing how police negligence had facilitated Wednesday night's bloody events.  Fans reported that security officers stood by as supporters of the winning home team, Al-Masry, attacked those of the top Cairo club, Al-Ahly, stabbing them and throwing them off bleachers.  Panicked fans rushed for the exits but were crushed against locked gates.

Sepp Blatter, the head of world soccer's governing body, FIFA, sent a letter to Egypt's soccer federation demanding a full explanation of the disaster and calling it a "black day for football."  Egypt's soccer league has been suspended indefinitely

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

The United Nations has announced the famine in southern Somalia is officially over, but warns that millions of people are still in crisis. The head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told reporters in Nairobi Friday the next 100 days will be crucial.

FAO's new Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva delivered what he called “good news” following his trip this week to southern Somalia.

“We just received the new data from [the] Food Security and Nutritional Analysis Unit in Somalia and we can say no more [is] any region in Somalia under famine conditions," da Silva said.

The FAO director says long-awaited rains, an improved harvest and the enormous humanitarian response to the famine during the past six months helped lower the famine classification. Still, the United Nations cautions that hunger in Somalia and other regions of the Horn of Africa remains a serious threat.

The FAO and the Famine Early Warning Network says more than 2 million people in Somalia - or 31% of the population - are still in need of emergency humanitarian assistance.

Da Silva warns that without a continued humanitarian intervention during the next 100 days, conditions could again deteriorate.

“If we do not keep support, especially those three months that we have in drought season until the rainy season in April, those people will not survive," da Silva said. "We will have famine back.”

The FAO says it is supporting Somali farmers through seed distributions as well as a cash-for-work program that aims to sustain local markets.  Following a good harvest in the recent rainy season, refugees have started slowly returning to southern Somalia. The U.N. Refugee Agency says more than 7,500 people left refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya in January.

Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from southern Somalia last year due to an intense cycle of draught and unrelenting insecurity in the region.  The United Nations says tens of thousands have died since the famine was first declared in July.

The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders works in many of the world’s hot spots, including Somalia, Afghanistan and the Palestinian Territories. However, humanitarian assistance often depends on delicate negotiations and a lot of compromise.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, has published a new book entitled Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed – The MSF Experience.

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In recent years, medical and humanitarian workers have been increasingly put in harm’s way. So much so, many questioned whether “humanitarian space” – the safe zone where aid could be given – was shrinking.

Negotiation inevitable

“We got ourselves 5 workers killed in Afghanistan in 2004. We got 3 workers killed in Somalia, expulsion in Niger and in Sudan. And all those incidents were tended to be seen as consequences of the blurring of the lines between humanitarian action and political and military intervention. And there was that overwhelming feeling that it was getting more and more difficult to work,” said Michael Neuman, director of the MSF research center in Paris and co-author of the book.

He said if medical treatment is to be administered in conflict areas, for example, negotiation is inevitable.

“What we argue in the book is that there is no such thing as an abstract humanitarian space, but that there is huge responsibility from the aid actors themselves to defend and conquer their own space of work through negotiations, through compromises, through power struggle with authorities intersecting with civil society groups, international organizations, governments. And that is what we wanted to explore in this book,” said Neuman.

Negotiations center on a search for common ground.

“You shouldn’t believe in yourself as the bearer of some absolute moral virtue. We have interests, the authorities have interests. And so we have to find common interests between those different parties and groups,” he said.

Piece of the action

Everyone involved in the negotiations wants to benefit from an MSF presence.

“When trying to set up a surgical project in Mogadishu in 2007, we have to gather around this table, virtual table, the warlords, their enemies, their archenemies, the Islamic insurrection, the clan leaders, so that they can all get a piece of it,” he said.

For example, militias may realize their fighters or families can receive medical care at the MSF clinic. Clan leaders may look upon the clinic as giving prestige to their area.

Neuman co-wrote the chapter on Somalia titled Everything is Open to Negotiation.

“If you have expectations of doing anything, of conducting any work in Somalia where there is no government, virtually no health care system, you’ve got to enter into negotiations in every aspect of your work. You have to negotiate renting cars. You have to negotiate how you recruit staff. You have to negotiate the payment of taxes to the interim government or to the rebellion. You have to negotiate the type of activities you’re going to put in place,” he said.

Do no harm?

The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, called the father of Western medicine, wrote “there were two special objects in view with regard to disease – to do good or to do no harm.” MSF came face to face with that in the Libyan city of Misrata.

Neuman said, “The teams faced a terrible reality when they realized that they were basically treating patients between torture sessions. Patients would be brought to them after they’d been tortured by the police and MSF would help the authorities to put them back on their feet. And after a few days they would be sent back to the detention centers to be tortured again. And of course that’s where you start to believe that your work is meaningless. And in that case the decision was to suspend the project.”

He added, “you fight for what you believe in to the maximum, but know that you may not achieve it all.”

The MSF book states, “Sometimes just holding the line for one’s values as best as one can, making the compromises that one must…is no small victory.”

A coalition of human rights groups Thursday has appealed to the Obama administration to lead a cross-border aid operation into South Sudan to deliver much-needed food and medicine to the people of war-torn South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Jennifer Christian, a Sudan policy analyst at the Enough Project, said the coalition is also calling on Washington to continue diplomatic efforts to open aid access to the region.

“First and foremost, it urges the U.S. government to continue to engage the government of Sudan in trying to get [it to] allow international humanitarian aid workers and aid assistance into South Kordofan and Blue Nile.  Second, and most importantly, the letter urges the U.S. government to consider taking steps now to initiate a cross-border humanitarian aid operation without the consent of Khartoum,” she said.

Christian admits that any such cross-border operation might be considered by Khartoum as hostile.

“Of course, entering another country without the government of that country’s permission is fraught with complications, and the letter recognizes those complications, and urges the United States government to take those complications and the issues implicated by a non-consensual, cross-border aid operation into account in planning any such operation,” Christian said.

She said the rights groups recognize these complications and that’s why they are urging Washington to continue diplomatic efforts aim at opening the aid access but coupled with considering delivering aid to the region without Khartoum’s permission.

The groups, which sent the letter to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, include the Enough Project, AmericanJewish World Service, United to End Genocide, Jewish World Watch, InvestorsAgainst Genocide, Stop Genocide Now, and Act For Sudan.

Christian said the humanitarian situation in Kordofan and Blue Nile states is dire.

“The Famine Early Warning Systems Network has said that the situation, in particular in South Kordofan, will reach a crisis level by March, which is one step short of an all-out famine in South Kordofan.  We have every reason to believe and the United Nations, and others have indicated as well in statements, that a similar situation exists in Blue Nile.  So, in short, the situation in both states is extremely dire,” Christian said.

An Egyptian scholar said Egyptians are outraged over Wednesday’s stadium violence that left at least 74 people dead and hundreds injured following a soccer match in the northern city of Port Said.

Said Sadek, a professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo, said a majority of the people blame the military administration and security agencies for failing to prevent the violence.

“When this happened, there is this conspiracy that the police are taking revenge against the ultras [fanatical sports fans].  It was like a war.  Why did this happen and why was security lax?”  asked Sadek.  “The demonstrations and activities on social networks put the blame on the police and the army.”

Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters have demonstrated in Tahrir Square, while others marched to the nearby Interior Ministry where riot police fired tear gas to keep them away.

Egypt's military-appointed Prime Minister, Kamal al-Ganzuri, said the government fired the board of Egypt's soccer federation and suspended Port Said's governor and security chiefs in response to the disaster, one of the deadliest in the history of the sport.  He announced the actions at an emergency parliament session.

Many groups, including members of parliament who held an emergency meeting, have demanded an investigation into Wednesday’s stadium violence.  The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the world authority soccer organization, also underscored the need for an investigation into violence at the stadium.

But, Sadek says it is unlikely to have an unbiased inquiry into the stadium tragedy.

“We don’t have any independent investigative team…so, you will see a cover up.  Most of the regimes in the Middle East, like in Egypt, are police intelligence states and they are very fit [able] in covering up evidence and covering their tracks,” continued Sadek.  “That’s why there is a lot of suspicion about what is happening.  For example, the trial of [Mr.] Mubarak; some consider that a mockery, a charade just to appease the public.”

Analysts say the ultras played a pivotal role in the Arab Spring that forced longtime President Hosni Mubarak to step down.  Sadek said many Egyptians are suspicious the failure of security forces to prevent the violence was an act of vengeance following the recent pro-democracy uprising that forced Mubarak to step down.

“We have seen in the state-run media that all those who took part in the revolution are being punished and discredited,” said Sadek. “The lack of transitional justice in the country is creating tension.  People are becoming irritably violent.  They just feel nothing is happening and that, despite the revolution, the forces of conservation and anti-revolution are gaining the upper hand, and they want to suppress the people.”

The African Union is looking for fresh leadership after this week's contest for the AU Commission chairmanship ended without a winner.

The normally secretive African Union held a surprisingly open election this week for the job of the continent's top diplomat. But in a bizarre turn of events, both candidates were defeated.

The incumbent AU commission chief, Jean Ping of Gabon, eliminated the South African challenger Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, narrowly outpointing her in three rounds of balloting by the 53 eligible member states.

But in a fourth round in which Ping's name was the only one on the ballot, 21 countries abstained, leaving him short of the required two-thirds majority. It was effectively a vote of no confidence.

The summit leaders then decided Ping and the entire commission should stay on until June, when another election would be held.

The unprecedented failure has raised speculation about the future AU leadership.  The names of several prominent African personalities have been mentioned as possible successors to Ping. But the question remains whether the two failed candidates should be allowed to run again.  

Desiree Assogbavi, head of the AU liaison office of the non-governmental organization Oxfam, says a fresh face is needed who can heal the deep divisions revealed by the last election.

"We all know how this election happened, with a bloc against another bloc, and this is very unfortunate and shows a huge disagreement on the issue of leadership at the Union," said Assogbavi. "This puts the Union [on a path] to drop the existing rules of procedure and let a political decision take over. The [current] rules have serious gap because there was a blockage for sure."

Chief AU legal counsel Ben Kioko tells VOA the rules governing the election are unclear.  He says a committee representing all five African regions and the failed candidates will meet in March to decide who is eligible.

AU diplomatic sources with close ties to South Africa suggest Dlamini-Zuma may not be interested in running again, and that other candidates may be fielded. Sources close to Ping, however, say he is intent on winning re-election, and is writing a letter to member states arguing that he still enjoys the confidence of the majority.

Analyst Mehari Taddele Maru of the Institute for Security Studies in Addis Ababa says Ping faces an uphill struggle after having his legitimacy challenged.

"Jean Ping didn't get the vote of confidence that he should have enjoyed so that he would lead the AU Commission," said Mehari. "So that is a serious problem. There is a diminished legitimacy even if the mandate is still there."

Mehari says Chairman Ping and the rest of the commission will have little more than caretaker status for the next six months. Oxfam's Desiree Assogbavi says the organization's ability to handle crises is likely to suffer as its leaders busy themselves with re-election campaigns.

"A continental body needs planning to do the job, especially when the continent is facing tremendous challenges; peace and security issues, trade issues, and we don't believe this is a very good use of the time of the AU and the resources of the African citizen," he said.

Assogbavi said one of the positive outcomes of the AU leadership contest was the “surprisingly high standard of democracy” on display.  Pointing to Africa's mixed record of electoral fraud and violence, he said if countries observed the same standards at home, the continent would be well on its way to stable democracy.

Egypt has begun three days of mourning for the victims of the worst soccer violence in the nation's history. 

The people of Port Said are reeling after the spasm of violence tore through this coastal town. At least 74 people were killed when fans rioted and many are blaming the military government for failing to maintain security.

Few could believe their local football fans, rowdy as they have been in the past, would ever do anything this deadly. Many saw a sinister hand behind the rioting.



Currency trader Ahmad Hosni believes it was planned by the army and the police. Standing outside closed shops on a largely deserted street, he asks “how many matches have taken place and nothing like this happened?  They want to mess up the country.”

Nearby, driver Mamdouh Hassan questions how fans managed to get weapons into the stadium in the first place. He says no one was searched, and they brought in batons and knives. Hassan believes “something else” is behind the violence.

Protesters, some carrying batons themselves Thursday, converged on the town's main government building. They too blamed the army, the police and “the old regime” of deliberately allowing the violence to get out of control.  

Video of the match, watched by millions live and millions more in constant repeats, show police standing still as fans surged onto the field.



Like their counterparts in Cairo where protests were gaining strength, people in Port Said hurled accusations of deliberate negligence by officials to make a case for continued military rule. They sought - and got - the local governor's resignation.

Parliament joined human rights groups in demanding an investigation. The government also announced it has suspended the heads of Port Said's security and police investigations.  

But for some, the government's conduct remains suspect. Port Said lawyer Ahmed, who gave just his first name, says he is particularly appalled the violence came after the military council pointedly kept the nation's emergency laws in place for cases of “thuggery.”

“So why you say that you're going to keep emergency case for something like [this] if you're not intending to do it," Ahmed asked.  "So why just keep it?  I don't know this is between the ministry of the interior and the ministry of the army [defense]."

Some also see the diehard fans being used as pawns.  The “ultras” as they are known, have long tangled with police and during the revolution one year ago sided with the protesters.

The events of the intervening year, culminating in the soccer riot, have left many in despair.  Salah el Banna is among the doctors at Port Said General Hospital who have been treating the injured.  

He says before the revolution, the police used to intervene, establishing cordons and proper security at the entrances.  He argues that those same standards must still be applied.

But the irony is not lost on several observers of the unrest; in the last few months they note, police have not hesitated to intervene when the gatherings are against the government.

In a visit to Somalia's capital of Mogadishu Thursday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague promised to step up the fight against terrorism and piracy. Hague is the first British foreign secretary to visit the war-ravaged city in two decades. 

Secretary Hague's visit comes during a time of relative peace and security in Mogadishu, since African Union (AMISOM) troops and forces of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) pushed al-Shabab out of the capital last month.

Hague announced that Britain has appointed its first ambassador to Somalia in more than two decades. Matt Baugh will serve as London's new senior envoy to Somalia and will be based in Kenya until security conditions allow an embassy to be built in Mogadishu.

Hague said the British government is well-prepared to do more to stabilize Somalia and to create more legitimacy and accountability in the political institutions.

“With the further expansion of the AMISOM forces, of which we hope will be agreed at the United Nation, for countries to work effectively together to counter terrorism and piracy, and to highlight the need for effective humanitarian and development aid in the future," he said. "Again so that this country can succeed in a way that it has not been possible over the last two decades.”  

In less than three weeks, the British government will host an international conference on Somalia in London, chaired by British Prime Minister David Cameron. More than 40 countries and international organizations are expected to attend the conference to address Somalia’s future.

Adjoa Anyimadu, the assistant Africa Program researcher for Chatham House, a foreign policy institute in London, said Hague is sending a message on behalf of the international community that they have an interest in peace in Somalia and they are willing to talk to Somali people about finding a solution.

“There is more feeling in the international community to spear a united approach to help Somalia solve its problems," she said. "Especially within the last year, when famine affected large part of Somalia, a lot of high-level officials from all over the world have taken real interest in what is going on there and are trying to come together to help Somalia find a solution, particularly as the TFG mandate expires in August.”

She also said there is an understanding within the international community that Somalia's political problems cannot be solved without involving Somalis in the discussion.

Secretary Hague says there is a future for Somalia and its people and the conference will be an important moment in the Somalia's history.

The country has not had a functioning central government since President Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. 

Despite recent victories over militant group al-Shabab, the transitional government asserts little authority outside Mogadishu, enabling pirates to operate on the country's coastline, while al-Shabab continues to control areas of central and southern Somalia.

Hopes for a turnaround have been hampered by infighting in the government. The country has gone through several prime ministers in the last few years, and lawmakers recently exchanged punches in parliament because of a dispute over the speaker.