Africa News Roundup: Hunger in Niger, the UN and Abyei, Amnesty for Malian Coup Makers, and More

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Save the Children tells the BBC that in Niger, “the food crisis has now reached a ‘tipping point’ where the weakest children are beginning to die.”

As tensions between Sudan and South Sudan continue, the United Nations Security Council has “called for an agreement between Sudan and South Sudan on the status of the disputed, oil-rich border region of Abyei and extended the U.N. security force’s mission there by six months.”

VOA gives a close-up look at South Sudanese soldiers (from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army or SPLA) near the border.

The Malian parliament grants amnesty to the leaders of a March 22 coup, “part of an agreement signed by the putschists and west African bloc ECOWAS on April 6 to restore constitutional order in the country.” The interim civilian government has also “raised the combined sales tax on gold by 2 percentage points to 8 percent, a move aimed at bringing it in line with peers in the West Africa region.” Meanwhile, ECOWAS (which stands for the Economic Community of West African States) is beginning a dialogue with “all factions” among the rebels in northern Mali.

Speaking of talks, VOA reports that the Nigerian government may re-attempt a dialogue with Boko Haram, the Northern rebel movement, possibly through the intermediary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, a group of Northern leaders (“arewa” means north in Hausa). A previous dialogue effort failed when the mediator withdrew.

Ethiopia has begun trial proceedings against eleven people accused of conspiring to overthrow the government and of having links to Al Qaida and Somalia’s Al Shabab.

In Somaliland, “a military court…has sentenced 17 people to death for attacking a military base over a land dispute.”

And last but not least, the BBC’s Mary Harper posted a photo of her “trip in the golden Bentley owned by a Somali in Dubai,” promising more on the story today.

What else is going on?

6 thoughts on “Africa News Roundup: Hunger in Niger, the UN and Abyei, Amnesty for Malian Coup Makers, and More”

  3. You and Carmen were all over me about Ayo Oritsejafor’s “warning”. Now that Buhari has said something even more incendiary, you are quiet.

    Reply ↓

      • I look forward to that. Also remember that not all Northern politicians are Muslim. There are Christian politicians too.

        You might not be familiar with names like Jonah Jang (the Plateau State governor), but what people like him say or do is very important.

      • Interesting read, Northerner on Buhari:

        “Many in the South do not understand why we cling desperately to Buhari; they simply view us as being ethnic/religious chauvinists. The truth of the matter is that the General remains our only hope and the only reason populist politics breathes in the region. If we sacrifice him, we will be committing suicide. Now many in the South rightly harbour one form of Anti-Northernism or another ; this idea that for the most part of Her history, Nigeria was ruled by an oligarchy that is predominantly northern who enrich themselves while throwing millions into poverty. But what our southern brothers and sisters rarely recognize is that we share exactly the same sentiment here in the North; the so-mentioned ruling class live among us, come from our region and yet we are the most backward region. This is why we embraced Buhari who remained an outsider, more like an outcast, among the ruling class. In fact he remains the greatest threat to the northern oligarchy so much hated in the South. The masses in the South should know that their Anti-Northernism is much closer to Buharism than they imagine. That applies also to us in the North as well.”

        http://www.facebook.com/groups/282335325178974/

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