CAR rebels seize two more towns on march to capital

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.

By News Wires (text)

 

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.
"The rebels took two towns near Bambari," a town already under the control of the Seleka rebel coalition, Territorial Administration Minister Josue Binoua told AFP.
"This shows their intent to wage war even during negotiations," he said.
There was no immediate reaction from the rebels themselves to the claim.

Rebels 12km from Damara as S. Africa sends troops The Central African Republic’s Minister of Territorial Administration said Sunday that rebel forces are 12km from Damara, considered the last hurdle before the capital Bangui, which is 75km to the south. “They are walking around, completing shooting exercises, traumatising the residents,” he said. “They have been there a week…The government is concerned about such proximity.” Meanwhile, South Africa announced Sunday that it is sending 400 army troops to help in the battle against the rebel insurgency and “to bring about peace and stability in the

Nelson Mandela leaves hospital

South Africa's beloved former president Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital after three weeks of treatment for a lung infection and gallstones. The anti-Apartheid hero will continue to receive treatment at home.

By FRANCE 24 (video)
News Wires (text)

 

South Africa's anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela was discharged from hospital on Wednesday after almost three weeks being treated for a lung infection but will continue to receive medical care at home, the presidency said.
The much-loved 94-year-old had been admitted to a hospital in the capital Pretoria on December 8, the latest health scare for South Africa's first black president.
"Former president Nelson Mandela was discharged from hospital this evening," said a statement from President Jacob Zuma's office.
"He will undergo home-based high care at his Houghton (Johannesburg) home until he fully recovers."
He had been flown to Pretoria from his rural home in Qunu in the south of the country for treatment for a recurring lung infection. Doctors then discovered t

Africa

DR Congo rebels threaten to ditch peace talks

M23 rebellion leaders demand DRC government sign ceasefire as pre-condition for second round of negotiations in Uganda.

Congolese rebels have threatened to walk away from this week's peace talks to end their nine-month revolt unless the government signs an official ceasefire, a demand Kinshasa dismissed as unnecessary.
The rebel March 23 Movement, preparing for talks on Friday in Kampala, capital of regional mediator Uganda, said government troops had reinforced positions in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and warned it would resist an offensive.
"If Kinshasa continues to refuse to sign a ceasefire, M23 is going to ask its delegation to return to DRC. We will wait and when they say 'we're ready to sign [a ceasefire]' we'll go back," Jean-Marie Runiga, head of the rebels' political wing, told reporters in Bunagana, a border town under rebel control.
The first attempt at peace talks to end the nine-month rebellion in Congo's volatile east failed last month amid threats and accusations. A government spokesman dismissed the rebel demand.
Ceasefire rejected

AU chief, Bozize to meet as rebels advance on Bangui

© AFP

African Union chief Thomas Bani Yayi is due to hold talks with Central Africa Republic’s embattled president, François Bozize, after rebels on Saturday seized the town of Sibut, around 150 kilometres from the country’s capital Bangui.

By FRANCE 24 (video)
News Wires (text)

 

Rebels in the Central African Republic who have advanced towards the capital Bangui warned Sunday they could enter the city even as the head of the African Union prepared to launch peace negotiations.
AU chief Thomas Boni Yayi, president of Benin, is expected

CAR rebels halt advance, agree to peace talks

© AFP

Rebels in the Central African Republic on Wednesday said that they had halted their advance on the capital Bangui and had agreed to join peace talks, after their onslaught had them within striking distance of embattled President François Bozize.

By News Wires (text)

 

Rebels in Central African Republic said they had halted their advance on the capital on Wednesday and agreed to start peace talks, averting a clash with regionally backed troops in the mineral-rich nation.
The Seleka rebels had pushed within striking distance of Bangui after a three-week onslaught and threatened to oust President Francois Bozize, accusing him of reneging on a previous peace deal and cracking down on dissidents.
Their announcement on Wednesday only gave the leader a limited reprieve as the fighters told Reuters they might insist on his removal in the negotiations.

CAR president sacks defence minister, army chief Central African Republic President François Bozize has sacked his son Jean Francis Bozize as defence minister and also sacked the army chief of staff, a decree read over state radio said on Wednesday. Bozize earlier had criticised the army for failing to halt a rebel advance that had pushed back government soldiers to within 75 km (45 miles) of the capital Bangui. (REUTERS)

Post-election tension shakes African beacon of stability

Political leaders as well as election observers in Ghana have called for calm after the top opposition party threatened to contest the results of the recent presidential poll. Are Ghanaians likely to listen?

International and regional election observers say Ghana’s recently conducted presidential poll appeared transparent, which saw incumbent John Mahama beating his rival by a slim majority, with a local monitoring group on Monday urging respect for the results.

Yet tensions have been rising in the Ghanaian capital of Accra since Sunday, when the country’s electoral commission declared Mahama the winner with 50.7% - just enough to avoid a run-off with his chief rival Nana Akufo-Addo, who got 47.7% of the vote.
Hundreds of Akufo-Addo supporters demonstrated outside the electoral commission offices, compelling security forces to use tear gas to disperse the crowd.

New hope for Somalia, says scholar MP

Somali professor on his country's future

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• In September, Somalia established its first stable central government in decades.
• Professor Ahmed Ismail Samatar says the new president is facing "heavy challenges"
• Samatar is a professor at Macalester College in Minnesota, U.S.
• He ran for president in the recent Somali elections and is now a member of parliament

(CNN) -- War-torn Somalia moved a step closer to stability this September after picking its first president elected on home soil in decades.

Political newcomer Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, an academic and activist who has also worked for the United Nations and other organizations, was sworn in the capital Mogadishu after defeating incumbent president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. The milestone vote was hailed by the international community as a sign of improving security in a nation plunged into chaos after years of vicious civil hostilities.

Central African Republic rebels seize Ndele from army

Rebel forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) have captured the key northern town of Ndele following a surprise attack, an army source has told the BBC.

The rebels said they had also seized two smaller towns, Sam Ouandja and Ouadda, but this could not be confirmed.
Ndele is on a major route linking the CAR to Sudan, Cameroon and Chad.
The CAR has had a series of rebellions and coups since independence in 1975.
It is rich in mineral resources, including gold and diamonds, but its population is extremely poor.

Nelson Mandela suffering from lung infection

South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela has a recurring lung infection and is responding to medical treatment, officials revealed on Tuesday. The 94-year-old has been in a Pretoria hospital since Saturday.

South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela is suffering from a recurring lung infection and is responding to medical treatments, the nation’s presidency sa
 id Tuesday.
The ailing Mandela, 94, has been hospitalized since Saturday for medical tests at 1 Military Hospital near South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.
The announcement ended speculation about what was troubling the ailing anti-apartheid icon. Government officials had declined repeatedly to say what caused the nation’s military, responsible for Mandela’s care, to hospitalize the leader over the last few days. That caused growing concern in South Africa, a nation of 50 million people that largely reveres Mandela for being the nation’s first democratically elected president who sought to bring the country together after centuries of racial division.
The tests Mandela underwent at the hospital detected the lung infection, said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj in a statement.

Congo's M23 rebels complete Goma pullout

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s M23 rebels completed their retreat from the regional capital of Goma on Saturday, after defying two earlier ultimatums to leave the city.

Hundreds of rebel fighters, singing and brandishing weapons, pulled out of Congo's eastern border city of Goma on Saturday, raising hopes for negotiations to end the insurgency.
The withdrawal of the M23 rebel movement from Goma on Lake Kivu, a strategic hub in Democratic Republic of Congo's war-scarred east, was agreed in a deal brokered by presidents of the Great Lakes states under Uganda's leadership a week ago.
Kieran Dwyer, spokesman for the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York, said the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, or MONUSCO, confirmed the pullout was completed.
"The M23 has today withdrawn from Goma city in eastern DR Congo," he said in a statement. "MONUSCO mobilized 17 rapid reaction units in the city throughout the day to monitor the M23 withdrawal which took place in a largely orderly manner."
"MONUSCO troops secured key installations including the Central Bank, Governor's House and communications infrastructure at Goma Hill," Dwyer said.
Goma's fall on Nov. 20 to the Tutsi-led M23 insurgent group, which routed U.N.-backed government forces, triggered a diplomatic scramble to prevent a wider escalation of the eight-month-old rebellion in the conflict-prone region.
The rebels had said they would fight to topple Congo's president, Joseph Kabila, and march on the capital, Kinshasa, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) to the west. U.N. experts accuse Rwanda and Uganda of supporting the revolt, a charge both strongly deny.
In the centre of Goma, blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeeper

Rwanda 'wanted new DR Congo rebel front'

Ex-rebel Bestfriend Ndozi said their orders were to 'demoralise the government'

DR Congo Seeks Democracy

• Rebel city
• Why Goma matters
• UN under fire
• Q&A: DR Congo's M23 rebels

Rwandan support for rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo may be more widespread than previously believed, the BBC has found.

Kigali has already rejected UN accusations that it is backing the M23 rebel group which recently captured the strategic eastern city of Goma.
Two ex-rebel fighters told the BBC they were offered money from Rwanda to set up a new front further south.

Accused Kenyan presidential candidates mull alliance

Two candidates for the Kenyan presidential elections, who have been charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court are in talks over a possible alliance ahead of the vote next March, it was reported on Tuesday.

Two key Kenyan presidential hopefuls, both charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, are in negotiations for an alliance ahead of a presidential election in March 2013.
            
Talks between Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and ex-minister William Ruto are "going on", said Kenyatta's director of communications Munyori Buku, backpedalling on an earlier statement that a formal deal had been struck.
            
He clawed back an earlier statement claiming the two politicians had already "agreed on an alliance whose goals will be national unity, prosperity for all Kenyans (and) reconciliation."
            
Details of any deal will be unveiled at a rally on Sunday, he added.
            

DR Congo rebels 'take control' of key city Goma

The Congolese rebel group M23 marched into the strategic eastern city of Goma on Tuesday, declaring the city is "in our hands". Earlier, M23 captured Goma's airport after days of intense fighting with government troops. 

Congo’s M23 rebels took control of the eastern city of Goma after days of clashes with UN-backed Congolese soldiers, a spokesman for the rebel group said on Tuesday.

A Reuters witness saw scores of heavily armed rebels walking through the city unchallenged as UN peacekeepers watched and small groups of residents greeted them.

“The town of Goma fell at 11:33 local time; despite the attack helicopters, despite the heavy weapons, the FARDC (Congo army) has let the town fall into our hands,” M23 spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said by telephone.

Congo M23 rebels set demands for withdrawal

The leader of the Congolese M23 rebel group set conditions Tuesday for withdrawal of his troops from the key eastern Congolese cities of Goma and Sake, hours after a deadline for the pullout expired.

The political leader of the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Tuesday the group would only withdraw from Goma if the government meets its demands, despite earlier announcing that it would pull out of the key eastern city.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference in a hotel in Goma Tuesday, M23 political chief Jean-Marie Runiga said the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must dissolve the country’s election commission before a withdrawal could be considered.
Runiga’s demands included the opening of national negotiations with Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and a call to ensure the freedom of movement of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi.