Mauritania: AU demands Abdallahi’s release

The Africa Union is demanding the release of ousted Mauritanian President Abdallah from house arrest. Today marks the deadline of the African Union (AU) ultimatum to the military junta that ousted former Mauritania President, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, on August 6th this year.The African Union last week issued an ultimatum to Mauritanian’s generals to release Abdallahi from house arrest and reinstate his government. August 6th coup took place following a decision by former president to sack some senior military chiefs in that country.The head of the coup d’état General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz has already dismissed the AU demand describing it as ‘unconstructive’. Gen. Abdelaziz has appointed a transitional government to stay in power for 14months before a new election will be held next year, according to media report. It is not clear which action the AU will take but experts have ruled out any possibility of military intervention. Rafiq Hajat, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Interaction in Malawi said the AU can apply sanction and diplomatic pressure through donors but not military action because of lack of resources. “The ultimate decision is not with the AU, it’s not with America, it’s not with the EU, it is with the people of Mauritania and what they desire,” Hajat told BBC.Meanwhile, the police in Mauritania have used teargas canisters to disperse protestors on Sunday in support of former president Abdallahi.

Global financial crisis to hurt Kenya

The global financial crisis will hit Kenya’s economy badly, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said on Monday. He rejected previous assertions that African states would emerge largely unscathed from the chaos. “This will impact very negatively on the Kenyan economy in the short and medium term,” he added.Emerging markets, which benefited greatly from the boom in commodities demand and surging global expansion in the last three years, have started to tremble in recent days and Odinga said the consequences would be severe in Africa.”They say that when America sneezes, Europe catches a cold, Asia develops pneumonia and Africa’s tuberculosis gets worse. This is what we are beginning to see,” he said.Kenyan Central Bank Governor, Njuguna Ndung’u, said last month that East Africa’s largest economy was rebounding from a post-election crisis at the start of the year and repeated a revised 2008 growth forecast of between 4.5 and 6.0 percent, Reuters News Agency reported.Ndung’u said at the time that the financial crisis had not severely hit emerging markets because exposure was indirect, but Odinga said the gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts would now have to be cut, though he did not give any figures.”I think our GDP will be hit very adversely. I will get the forecasts from our central bank when I return home, but it is going to have a very negative impact on our GDP,” he added.He insisted that his government would issue a debut Eurobond worth about $500 million in the 2008/09 financial year despite the market turmoil and despite a call from the International Monetary Fund to reconsider the timing of such a move.”We want to do it in this financial year, but we might not do it in 2008. We might wait until next year,” Odinga said.

Floods hit Northern Cameroon, Chad

Over 70,000 people have been hit by floods in the northwestern Cameroon and southern Chad. Disaster workers with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) predict a longer and wetter rain season than normal. Thousands of people have remained homeless in Chad and Cameroon since the floods.More than 8,000 families in Logone Occidentale, Mayo Kebbi and Moyen Chari in southern Chad, and 5,000 families in and around Cameroon’s northwestern town of Garoua, 60 km west of the Chad border have been redered homeless, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC).Meanwhile, the IFRC has launched an emergency appeal to help 14,000 victims across the two countries.The Regional Disaster Management Officer for Cameroon-based IFRC, Mamadou Saliou Diallo said “Most people were left homeless and are still living with relatives, while a small minority is starting now to rebuild their homes.”However, reports say the water level has not stopped rising and is climbing higher and higher in the city. Flooding has exposed residents to respiratory infections, malaria and diarrhoea diseases, including cholera.With blocked roads and destroyed bridges in and around Garoua in northwest Cameroon, the biggest fear for flood victims there is the lack of drinking water, reports say.In Cameroon, 80 percent of the agricultural land around Garoua was destroyed, wiping out crops.