Central Africa: Rwanda Arrests DRC Rebel Nkunda

Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was arrested in Rwanda late Thursday night, Rwandan and Congolese authorities announced on Friday.Radio Okapi, the Congolese radio station operated by the United Nations and the Fondation Hirondelle, reported that Rwandan and Congolese military leaders had disclosed the news. In the same announcement, they called on Nkunda’s followers to join the process under way to integrate former rebels into the Congolese army, FARDC.

East Africa: EAC Ministers Discuss Fuel Crisis

Kigali — Ministers in charge of East African Affairs have discussed the ongoing fuel crisis in the region as a way of finding a solution to the problem that has affected the region despite the general decrease of its price on the global market.Speaking to The New Times, yesterday, the Minister for the East African Community, Monique Mukaruriza, said that she had discussed with her counterparts on how fuel trucks can be facilitated through those countries.

Rwanda: FDLR Rebels Arrested in Western Province

Nyamasheke — Police authorities in Kagano Sector, Nyamasheke District in the Western Province are holding ten people alleged to belong to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).Nyamasheke District Police Commander (DPC) Superintendent Wilson Ntaganda confirmed the arrests saying they were made by police and army authorities in separate operations made over the weekend.The culprits include Sarafina Uwamahoro, 25, Daniel Simbizi alias Coffi, , ganuwera Itangishaka, 20, and Fabien Ndungutse and six others whose names were not yet known by press time.

Rwanda: Arrest of Top Officer Re-Launches Investigation Into Attack Against Habyarimana’s Plane

The French investigation into attack against former  President of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana, which was coming to an end, took a new turn with the arrest in Germany of Rose Kabuye, Head of protocol of President Paul Kagame, the latter threatening to prosecute French politicians and soldiers accused by Kigali of having taken part in the genocide.Mrs Kabuye, 47, former Major of RPA, belongs to the nine Rwandans which the French anti-terrorist Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere issued arrest warrants against in November 2006. The French magistrate accuses them of having organized, on order of Kagame, the assassination on 6 April 1994 of Habyarimana, which the accused have always denied.

Shortlist for Africa’s best player out

The Confederation of Africa Football has unveiled the shortlists for the Glo-CAF Awards 2008. CAF Director of Communications, Sulemana Habuba also announced innovations in the event with the aim of making it prestigious. The Media and Technical Committees nominated the shortlists for the two awards.The innovation Habuba said had led to the creation of the Glo-CAF Best Player on the Continent and the Glo-CAF Best Player across the World, according to cafonline.

Museveni: Africa can solve food crisis

Africa has sufficient agricultural potential to become a food basket for the whole world, President Museveni of Uganda said. He said the continent could solve the current food crisis if the relevant production interventions are undertaken during the launch of the P4P at the United Nations.Purchase 4 Progress (P4P) is an initiative of the World Food Programme (WFP) which aims at transforming the way WFP purchases food in developing countries by giving priority to small scale farmers to sell their surplus produce to WFP at competitive prices while giving the food to those who have little or no food at all.According to a press release from the state house in Uganda, the programme which will initially target 21 countries, Uganda inclusive, aims at helping farmers to earn reasonable income and predictable market for their produce. It will initially target 350,000 households over a period of 5 years.The WFP is supported by the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffet Foundation.President Museveni launched the programme jointly with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, Rwandese President Paul Kagame and the WFP Executive Director Mrs. Josette Sheeran.President Museveni said that 67% of the farmers in Sub-Sahara Africa have been practicing subsistence agriculture and not fully utilizing the region’s agricultural potential. He said that with the current food shortage in the world, it was time for African farmers to engage in commercialized agriculture and produce food beyond their subsistence needs. He, however, noted that interventions in terms of irrigation, the use of fertilizers and other forms of modern agricultural practices need to be emphasized to enable the region produce optimally.Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete welcomed the programme saying that it would help unlock the potential of farmers in rural Africa since they will be assured of the market for their produce. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda lauded WFP for its support to his country. He said that the organization has responded to the feeding needs of over 54,000 people in Rwanda. He also hailed their support through the School Feeding Programme and welcomed the Purchase 4 Progress Programme saying it was an appropriate intervention.Ms. Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of WFP, said that in addition to purchasing their produce, WFP would facilitate farmers with modern farm inputs, equip them with modern agricultural skills to boost the quality and quantity of their output.Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Howard Buffet said they were committed to helping farmers in the developing world to better their incomes because they constitute a large part of the poorest of the poor in the world. They said that they committed their organizations to supporting Purchase 4 Progress Programme because its objectives are in line with the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

Corruption: Africa’s movers and shakers

Corruption has significantly improved in Nigeria and Mauritius over the last year, according to the Transparency International`s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The southern African country ranked 41 out of 180 countries with a score of 5.5 out of 10. Nigeria (2.7) jumped from 180 to 121.The CPI measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on different expert and business surveys. The 2008 CPI scores 180 countries (the same number as the 2007 CPI) on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly clean).According to the report released on Tuesday in Berlin, Botswana leads the league table of top 10 least corrupt African countries at the 36th position with a score of 5.8. Mauritius closely followed then Cape Verde at 47th spot with a mark of 5.1. Africa’s fourth went to South Africa at the 54th slot with a score of 4.9, Seychelles gained 55th and bagged 4.8 and then Namibia landed at the 61st position after scoring 4.5.Others are Tunisia (62) with a score of 4.4, Ghana ranked 67 and scored 3.9, Swaziland (72) and attained 3.6 followed by Burkina Faso at 80th position after it obtained a mark of 3.5.However, Somalia (180), Sudan (173), Chad (173), Guinea (173) topped the top 10 corrupt countries on the continent scoring 1.6 each but Somalia which managed only 1.0. Equatorial Guinea (171) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (171) followed them with a score of 1.7 each. On top of them was ailing Zimbabwe, which is lying at the 166th position and scored 1.8. The remaining medals for the other three corrupt countries went to Gambia (158), Angola (158) and Guinea-Bissau (158) after all three scored 1.9 each.On the global scene, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden share the highest score at 9.3, followed immediately by Singapore at 9.2. Bringing up the rear is Somalia at 1.0, slightly trailing Iraq and Myanmar at 1.3 and Haiti at 1.4, according to TI website. The global anti-corruption watchdog said while score changes in the Index are not rapid, statistically significant changes are evident in certain countries from the high to the low end of the CPI. Looking at source surveys included in both the 2007 and 2008 Index, significant declines can be seen in the scores of Bulgaria, Burundi, Maldives, Norway and the United Kingdom. Similarly, statistically significant improvements over the last year can be identified in Albania, Cyprus, Georgia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, South Korea, Tonga and Turkey.

Fast internet for Africa in 2010

Cheap and high-speed web access via satellite will be provided to millions of people in Africa and other emerging markets by 2010. Google and Europe’s biggest bank HSBC partnering with cable operator Liberty Global would provide the services. Three billion people are to benefit from the project.A group called O3b Networks – stands for the “other 3 billion” people who do not have access to the internet – are helping to roll out the project. Reuters reports say the project will provide high-speed backhaul for telecoms’ operators and Internet providers, which can then sell services to businesses and consumers.South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel hailed the project at a conference in Germany on Monday. “The information gap is very real and clearly whatever we can do to close it must be encouraged,” Manuel told a news conference in Berlin on the U.N.-backed Millennium development goals.”Any initiative that can leapfrog over traditional means of getting information to people must be encouraged. Information is power and it supports democracy and it supports decision-making.”O3b networks said in a statement the satellites would be constructed by Thales Alenia Space and should be operational by the end of 2010. The company’s founder, Greg Wyler, told Reuters coverage would reach from Spain to South Africa, include most of South America, large parts of Asia and all South Pacific Islands. The project intends to offer fibre performance over satellite to parts of the world where it is not commercially viable or practical to deploy a fibre network.Because its satellites orbit earth at lower altitudes than those used to beam TV signals to homes, they work better for Internet access where latency — the amount of time it takes for bits of information to travel from source to destination — is an issue, Wyler said.The project is expected to cost $650 million until the launch, he said. Initial equity of $65 million has been raised, but the final mix of debt and equity has not been set. In some parts of the world, the company will compete with fibre-optic cables currently under construction — for instance, over a dozen cables have been announced connecting Africa to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

M-Net Face of Africa

Malawian girls are too short in height to feature in one of Africa`s top talent search shows according to media reports. The scouting session for the M-Net Face of Africa began on Wednesday but the contestants did not meet the specified minimum height of 1.72 metres and a maximum hip measurement of 96cm.The judges for the sessions said they were looking for an X factor which most of the contestants in Malawi did not have. “The X factor is something you cannot describe but we know it when we see it,” said judge Andiswa Manxiwa.By 12pm on Wednesday, about 50 girls had auditioned in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe but less than five had made it into the next round, a local newspaper Daily Times reported.After the sessions, 24 finalists will be selected to participate in a Model Boot camp which is to be held in Zanzibar, Tanzania where the top 10 will then be selected. The finalists will then head into this year’s glittering Face of Africa finale set to be screened live on DStv in over 40 countries across Africa. It will take place on November 29.Face of Africa is a pan-African talent search showcasing Africa’s beauty and style. The winner of the contest is expected to walk home with US$ 50,000 in cash. Apart from the cash, the winner is also expected to land herself a modeling contract with Oluchi’s O Model Africa Agency.Some of the countries participating include Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana and Malawi.

Rwanda: Ruling RPF assured of victory

A week after campaigns for the parliamentary elections slated for later this month took off, the coalition led by the ruling party, Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) is optimistic to win.Having launched the campaign in a colourful ceremony ,RPF Chairman President Paul Kagame said that chievements recorded by the party so far should be proof enough to show the commitment by the country’s leaders to develop the country and so win another term in office.He cited such milestones as women’s emancipation, education for all Rwandan citizens, equitable justice and universal health access.“We have not met all the pledges we made in the 2003 manifesto but all of them will be met by 2010,” President Kagame told the rally at the launch of the campaigns.President Kagame is currently serving his first seven-year term after being elected to the highest office of the land in 2003. The second multi-party presidential elections will be held in 2010.Rwanda’s parliament consists of the chamber of deputies and the Senate. The September 15 election will see 53 Members of Parliament, the Deputies, being voted in. Others to be elected to the 80-member chamber include 24 female members elected by provincial councils, two by the National Youth Council and one by the Federation of the Associations of the Disabled.The National Electoral Commission (NEC) last week identified two officially recognised opposition political parties that have already presented candidates for the polls. While the Social Democratic Party (PSD) has presented a list of 64 candidates, the Liberal Party (PL) has submitted 62 candidates.The RPF has a list of 80 candidates out of whom 14 are drawn from five other minority political parties. According to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) the campaigns would take 20 days until September 13.