Africa News Update
Africa News Update offers news, background and feature articles from African sources twice weekly. The newsletter is free of charge and is edited by the Norwegian Council for Africa. Some of the articles may be shortened.
Rwanda: Government takes the fight to the UN
Kigali (Rwanda) - After months of attempting to placate western governments intent on pinning the blame for the DRC chaos on Rwanda, the tide it seems, is about to turn. The Government of Rwanda is set to pursue legal action against a United Nations-appointed Group of Experts that has accused Rwanda of fermenting dissent and political chaos in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Read >
Thursday, 18 October 2012
News of Rwanda (Rwanda), by Gahiji Innocent*
Mali: Islamists lure back northerners
Bamako (Mali) - Hundreds of displaced northerners in southern Mali are risking life under Sharia law to return home, lured by the prospect of jobs, free water and electricity, and in some parts, relatively cheaper food, Malians in the north and south told IRIN. Read >
Thursday, 18 October 2012
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
South Africa: Fracking, gas and its future in the energy matrix
Johannesburg (South Africa) - South Africa may contain the world’s fifth largest reserves of shale gas. Yet there remain critical questions that have neither been raised nor addressed regarding the exploitation of this and other regional gas reserves. The fact is that the full implications of this potentially game-changing proportion of energy supply have not yet been properly examined or analysed. We need to carefully consider how to integrate them into our national and regional energy mix. Read >
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Southern African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS), by Glenn Ashton*
Kenya: Crusading magazine fights grand corruption
Nairobi (Kenya) - A historic court battle is looming that will hopefully clarify for Kenyans the meaning and scope of the fundamental freedoms of expression, the media and access to information as guaranteed in the new constitution and how these rights relate to the fight against corruption. Read >
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Pambazuka News, by Henry Makori
Africa: Claims for Security Council seats still in limbo
New York (USA) - After 20 long years of negotiations on a proposed expansion of the Security Council, African countries continue to be left out in the cold – even as African leaders complain that the international community has failed to respond to their demands for two permanent seats in the most powerful body at the United Nations. Read >
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Inter Press Service (IPS), by Thalif Deen
Africa: An ode to the glorious European Union on its ascension to Nobelity (opinion)
Your Excellencies, the European Union, we salute you! We bring, from the awed continent of Africa, presents. Gold, myrrh, and frankincense, we pray thee, accept. Since your rise to the Peace NOBELity, your glory in our eyes has tripled sevenfold. Read >
Thursday, 18 October 2012
African Arguments, by Bright Simons
Africa: New ICC prosecutor woos the court of public opinion (analysis)
Johannesburg (South Africa) - The biased, racist, imperialist International Criminal Court has a serious image problem in Africa. New chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was in town to explain that critical Africans have got it all wrong. She has a point – and, as an African women herself, the credibility to make it. Read >
Monday, 15 October 2012
Daily Maverick (South Africa), by Simon Allison
South Africa: No Mo Ibrahim Prize for good governance in Africa 2012
Johannesburg (South Africa) - "It is not individual leaders who will take our continent forward it will be an overall leadership directive driven by Africa's people," South African board member of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Jay Naidoo told the Mail & Guardian after the foundation's prize for good governance in Africa produced no winner for 2012. Read >
Monday, 15 October 2012
Mail and Guardian (South Africa)
Africa: Mo Ibrahim warns of 'more Tahrir Squares'
Standards of governance have declined significantly in Madagascar in the past five years, while those in Liberia and Sierra Leone have improved significantly, according to Africa's principal index measuring the quality of the continent's governments. Read >
Monday, 15 October 2012
AllAfrica.com