REFILE-UPDATE 2-Uganda January inflation falls but no rate cut seen

KAMPALA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Uganda's inflation edged down in January as food and transport prices fell but the modest decline and persistent core inflation meant policymakers meeting next week were seen as unlikely to cut interest rates.
The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) said on Thursday that year-on-year inflation had eased to 4.9 percent in January from a revised 5.3 percent a month earlier.
The core rate of inflation - which excludes food crops, fuel, electricity and metered water, and is targeted by the central bank - rose to 5.6 percent from 4.6 percent in December.
Analysts said the small decline in prices was unlikely to prompt the central bank to resume monetary easing after leaving the policy rate unchanged at 12 percent this month, in part to support a weak currency.
Uganda's central bank held interest rates on Jan. 3, as it treads a path between managing inflation and supporting an economic upturn it said was likely to bring more cuts borrowing costs in the coming year.

Kenya election: a bewildering dance of candidates and coalitions

Everyone is strapped in and the Kenyan election roller coaster has begun. A cacophony of electioneering propaganda is being blasted out through every medium. The political godfathers are flying around the country firing up their supporters, screwing down the vote, constituency by constituency and promising heaven after the 4 March poll. Kenya is poised at the top of a ride that could fling the country violently off the rails and send it to hell – as it did after the 2007 election. Or it could take the country elegantly into a dynamic new era, a transformation that would make it one of the most democratic countries in the world. John Githongo, a civil society activist, says: "the new world is being born but the old order has not yet died".
Since the last disastrous election a new constitution has come into force which has divided Kenya into 47 new counties. Each will have its own governor and parliament which will decide how its budget is spent. But devolution goes even further than that. The County Governments Act stresses democratic participation at every stage of decision making: mass communication and consultation on development plans, civic education programmes, debates at every level from the village to the country parliament, the right of the public to demand – and get – full information about plans and policies and the right to petition the courts. The overarching ideology is that the people will decide.

The problem is that this idealistic and finely constructed constitution is managed by politicians who are largely tribal godfathers. Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kikuyu leader, is the son of the founding president, Jomo Kenyatta. Raila Odinga, the prime minister, is a Luo chief and the son of Oginga Odinga, Jomo Kenyatta's greatest rival and critic. While the constitution prescribes democracy, transparency, good governance and idealism, this election is all about personal and tribal loyalties. However, no single ethnic-based party can win outright, so via a protracted and bewildering dance the parties have formed coalitions to secure victory. There are also a bewildering number of parties on the ballot papers but almost all are part of alliances representing, or fronts for, the main candidates and parties.

The registration of party candidates at the grass roots this week was all but wrecked in many key areas by chaos and violence; most of it organised and paid for, both within and between some of the leading parties. Under the law, if the process is flawed, the party headquarters decides who the candidate will be. This ensures that the part bosses keep control of the lists and locally popular candidates are kept out.

UN 'plans to fight rebels in DRC'

The UN wants to set up an intervention force to fight rebels fuelling conflict in DR Congo, says a UN official.

Meanwhile, eight African presidents are set to sign a UN-brokered accord aimed at bringing stability to the region.
As many as 800,000 people have been displaced since the M23 rebel group took up arms against the Kinshasa government last May.

It accuses President Joseph Kabila of failing to honour an earlier peace deal to integrate rebels into the army.

The M23 rebels say they want to improve living conditions for the people of eastern DR Congo, but the UN says they are supported by Rwanda, which has been heavily involved in its eastern neighbour since those responsible for the country's genocide fled there en masse in 1994.
Stability plan
The UN official said the plan for a 2,500-strong intervention force was at an advanced stage, although it has yet to be approved by the Security Council.
The troops would be added to Monusco, the UN's existing DRC peacekeeping mission, mandated to protect civilians.

In 2012 Angola posts lowest rate of inflation since the end of the civil war

In 2012 Angola posted a rate of inflation of 9.02 percent, the “lowest” since the end of the civil war in 2002 the National Bank of Angola (BNA) said in a statement issued in Luanda.

The document, which followed the monthly meeting of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, said that in December 2012 the monthly rate of inflation was 0.99 percent and that the categories of “food and non-alcoholic beverages,” “miscellaneous goods and services,” and “clothing and footwear,” saw the greatest price variations.

“Credit to the economy rose by 1.12 percent in December continuing with the trend that had been seen in the previous months,” the statement said.
The average rate of exchange for the kwanza against the US dollar was 95.826 at the end of December and in 2012 there was a “slight depreciation” of 0.57 percent that the BNA said was evidence of the “stability” of Angola’s currency.
In relation to the decisions made by the Monetary Policy Committee, the statement noted the drop in the base interest rate, known as the BNA Rate, which fell from 10.25 percent to 10 percent per year.

New South Africa mine massacre video pressures police

(Reuters) - A new cellphone video of the police shooting of 34 miners in South Africa in August has piled more pressure on the security forces, showing officers bragging about the killings and undermining claims they fired in self defense.
Reuters television footage of some of the killings at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine showed a dozen striking miners being cut down in a hail of police gunfire.
The images of the bloodiest security incident since apartheid shocked the world and severely dented the reputation of Nelson Mandela's "Rainbow Nation" and the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which faces an election next year.
However, the majority of miners died in and around a small cluster of rocks - known as a 'koppie' in Afrikaans - about 400 meters (yards) away and out of sight of reporters and television cameras.

It is here that multiple witness reports have spoken of police officers gunning down miners as they surrendered or shooting them in the back as they fled.

The cellphone footage from the koppie, aired on Britain's Channel 4 television late on Monday, shows a police officer lying on the ground behind a rock with his pistol drawn.
The images were shot by his colleague, also lying in the grass, with the barrel of his sidearm regularly moving into the frame.

 

The first officer indicates that a miner is on the move in front of them. A voice can then be heard shouting: "Wait, don't shoot him, don't shoot him."
Gunfire is then heard, and the video cuts to the body of a man in jeans lying in the grass.
Moments later, another officer off-camera can be heard boasting about killing the man. "That motherfucker". I shot him at least 10 times," the officer says.

In Swaziland, child marriage still a grey area

The relief felt by health officials and activists several months ago at the apparent outlawing of child marriages now appears to have been premature, with Swaziland’s traditional leadership recently declaring that such unions are acceptable under customary law.
“I have not received any instructions that [‘kwendzisa’] [the custom of a man marrying an underage girl] should be abolished,” Velebantfu Mtetwa, the country’s top traditional leader, told the Swazi press. As governor of Ludzidzini royal village, where the traditional seat of government is located, Mtetwa is known as Swaziland’s traditional prime minister.
Little attention was paid to the country’s traditional leadership last year when the powerful royal counsellors to King Mswati III said they would review the Child Protection and Welfare Act of 2012 and, if need be, raise objections.
Instead, attention was focused on Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku’s declaration that any man found to contravene the act by marrying a girl under the age of 18 faced arrest and prosecution. The marriages would be annulled and the former husband could be fined R10,000 (US$1,100). A man guilty of raping a girl faces a R20,000 (US$2,200) fine and prison term of up to 20 years. King Mswati, a strict traditionalist, approved the law in September 2012.

Mozambique: Living On the Roof, Waiting for Rescue

The scenario is bleak and chaotic. Hundreds of people are spending nights along the road without shelter, clothing and food in Guija district, one of the most affected by floods in southern Mozambique.
Hunger, misery and sadness are not words strong enough to describe the scenario. You can see the loss of dignity and the pain of exposure to nature's elements and the obvious worry of being exposed to diseases.
Although the flooding is subsiding in some areas, it is still too early for anyone to return home. Many people are still marooned roofs waiting to be rescued.
Children crying are heard everywhere, and the cause of their misery is called hunger.

"I don't have anything to give them," says Flora Chauque, a mother of six. The youngest one is just one 18 months old. Her possessions are now just two pots, a gallon to fetch water, and two bed sheets used to cover her children during the night.

"The only food I could take with me was only 12 kilos of maize flour," Flora says. "Unfortunately, we finished it today and if we don't have support, I don't know what I will give to the children," she added with wet eyes.
Flora is also concerned about her children's exposure to mosquito bites: "Just look at my Esmenia. She is full of bubbles on her face as result of mosquito bites. If we could have at least tents, dishes, buckets and mosquito nets, the situation would be minimized until we are able to go home."

Zimbabwe heads for elections with a sense of impending doom

The forthcoming elections are likely to be mired in violence as Mugabe and Zanu-PF have blocked any democratic reforms

For millions of Zimbabweans, the new year is less a symbol of hope than of dread. Elections are supposed to take place in 2013, and judging from past experience, they augur nothing more than violence, torture and death, accompanied by economic meltdown and political chaos.
As Human Rights Watch notes in its new report, Race Against Time: The need for legal and institutional reforms ahead of Zimbabwe's elections, the former ruling party, the Zanu-PF, has so far blocked important reforms that could pave the way for peaceful, free and fair elections. The UK government and the EU should, when they meet next month to review targeted sanctions against the president, Robert Mugabe, and his inner circle, press for proper reforms ahead of internationally monitored elections before talking about a shift in policy toward Zimbabwe.

During a visit to Zimbabwe in November, I got a vivid sense of impending doom. People told me of their feelings of deja vu: another cycle of electoral violence was approaching, but little had changed on the ground. Instead of focusing on pulling themselves out of poverty and on rebuilding lives shattered by the 2008 wave of political repression, they were bracing themselves for further chaos.

This is not paranoia. The 2008 general elections were riddled with extreme violence by the security forces and supporters of Zanu-PF. Security forces and supporters killed over 200 people and beat, tortured and displaced thousands more. I spoke to scores of battered victims who told of how the police failed to protect them or ensure justice. It was a period of terror, when the state machinery was unleashed on ordinary Zimbabweans and little has changed since then, despite the formation of a unity government between Zanu-PF, led by Mugabe, and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

Malian army attacks Islamist rebels in the north

Groups linked to al-Qaida come under fire as observers predict the government will try to regain control

Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine near Timbuktu, in rebel-held northern Mali. Observers believe the government's attacks on rebel forces may be the start of a war to try to regain the north. Photograph: Romaric Ollo Hien/AFP/Getty Images

Islamist rebels in northern Mali are coming under heavy fire from the Malian army, in what some observers say could be the beginning of a war to bring the country back under government control.

Al-Qaida-linked Islamist groups, which have controlled the entire desert in the north of Mali since April last year, were attacked by rocket and artillery fire, sources told the Guardian, after they attempted to advance towards the government-held south.

8 January 2013 Last updated at 09:32 ET

Senegal man dies in Dakar fire protest

 

President Macky Sall took power after elections last year

A Senegalese man has died after setting himself on fire on Monday outside the official residence of President Macky Sall in the capital, Dakar.

Cheikh Mbaye, 32, apparently said that life was better under ex-President Abdoulaye Wade, local media report.

8 January 2013 Last updated at 05:17 ET

Mali army 'fire as Islamists advance'

 

Islamist rebels have been in control of northern Mali since April

Malian soldiers have fired on Islamist fighters in the centre of the country, military sources say.

Details remain sketchy but some sources say the Islamists, who last year seized a vast area of the north, have advanced towards Mopti - the last town under government control.

Congo rebels declare ceasefire

January 8 2013 at 06:35pm
By Elias Biryabarema          

---

AFP

This file photo taken on December 1, 2012 shows M23 rebels sitting in the back of a truck as they wait to withdraw from the city of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kampala - Congolese rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire on Tuesday ahead of a second round of peace talks with the government, boosting hopes for a negotiated end to their nine-month-old revolt.

The M23 insurgents had already agreed to pull out of Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern city of Goma last month - but a first round of negotiations that followed that withdrawal fell apart amid threats and accusations.

8 January 2013 Last updated at 14:05 ET

DR Congo's M23 rebels declare unilateral ceasefire

 

M23 made rapid gains in eastern DR Congo last year

DR Congo Seeks Democracy

M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have declared a unilateral ceasefire ahead of a second round of peace talks with the government.

The rebels told a news conference in the Ugandan capital Kampala that they hoped the government would follow suit.

An attempt last month to negotiate an end to the nine-month rebellion in the east of the country failed.

HIV/AIDS deaths decrease in sub-Saharan Africa

Published on January 7, 2013 by Ted Purlain

HIV

A recent study shows a decline in the number of HIV cases and AIDS-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS reported a sharp drop in the number of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths in the region from 2004 to 2011. HIV deaths declined by 25 percent and AIDS deaths fell 32 percent.

UN peacekeeping mission dismisses rumours related to armed group in eastern DR Congo

2 January 2013 – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today dismissed several rumours related to the presence of an armed group in the country’s east.

In a news release, the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) stated that it had sent a fact-checking team to the areas of Mpati, Nyange and Bibwe, located in the Masisi territory in the eastern province of North Kivu, to look into claims that up to 4,000 fighters belonging to the armed group known as the Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), were there, amongst other rumours.

Made up primarily of ethnic Hutu fighters linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the FDLR has been active since late 1994, mainly in the eastern DRC.

Operating between 21-24 December last year, the evaluation team was composed of members of MONUSCO’s brigade in North Kivu, as well as staff dealing with disarmament, demobilization, repatriation and reintegration issues.

At the end of the fact-checking mission, the team was able to declare that several rumours were baseless. These included the one that claimed that 4,000 FDLR fighters and their families had arrived in the location of Kazibake; another which asserted the presence of two white helicopters without UN signage in the area between Nyange and Lwama on 13 December; a rumour which claimed that a new FDLR commander named ‘Bakota’ had arrived in Kivuye; and a rumour that weapons and munitions were being supplied to the FDLR.

However, according to MONUSCO, the team did confirm the presence of FDLR forces in several places and villages in the Bashali and Mpati areas. It noted that these fighters had been in these locations since April 2012, as part of their efforts to avoid the advance of another armed group, the Mai Mai Rahiya Mutomboki.

The fact-checking team also confirmed that the FDLR and other groups are present in the Bibwe-Kitso-Nyange area, leading to concerns over the protection of the civilian population there as these groups are said to be demanding illegal taxes and making the agricultural production cycle more difficult.

MONUSCO has urged national and local authorities to take appropriate measures to help these civilians. Its peacekeepers have previously conducted joint operations with the DRC national army to limit the impact of such armed groups, including the FDLR.

According to the peacekeeping mission’s estimates, there are no more than a few hundred FDLR fighters present in the region.

MONUSCO has 6,700 and 4,000 troops in the provinces of North and South Kivu, respectively. North Kivu alone is four times the size of Belgium.

M23 rebels threaten to quit DR Congo talks over ceasefire

Continue reading the main story

The M23 rebel group has threatened to pull out of peace talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo government unless President Joseph Kabila signs a ceasefire agreement.

Talks are due to start in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Friday.

A Congo government spokesman told the Reuters news agency it rejected a rebel demand he described as "pointless".

A first attempt to negotiate an end to the nine-month rebellion in the east of the country failed last month.

As many as 800,000 people have been displaced since the rebels took up arms against the Kinshasa government last May, accusing it of failing to honour an earlier peace deal to integrate rebels into the army.

UN Security Council sanctions DR Congo rebels

AFP - The United Nations Security Council has placed sanctions on M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and their alleged Rwandan allies the FDLR, diplomats said Monday.
The move freezes the assets of entities or individuals linked to the groups and bars them from travel.

Congoles M23 rebels (L) pass a truck of police officers as they withdraw on December 1, 2012 from the city of Goma. The United Nations Security Council has placed sanctions on M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and their alleged Rwandan allies the FDLR, diplomats said Monday
.

---

CAR rebels seize two more towns on march to capital

By News Wires the 05/01/2013 - 13:39

Rebel forces in the Central African Republic seized control of two more towns overnight near Bambari, minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation Josue Binoua said Saturday, as the rebels continue to advance on the capital, Bangui.

Rebels in the Central African Republic captured two more towns overnight Saturday, just days before talks were due to open in an effort to resolve the crisis in the impoverished country.