Somalia: Six People Killed At the Presidential Palace in Mogadishu
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
January 12, 2007Posted to the web January 12, 2007
Aweys Osman YusufMogadishu
Heavy gunfire exchange took place at the presidential palace, Villa Somalia, in the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Friday morning.
Witnesses told Shabelle that they could see bullets hitting the concrete wall of the palace.
Somali president Abdulahi Yusuf has been staying in Villa Somalia for the four days since he arrived the capital for the first time after he was elected as president in late 2004.
Reliable sources have confirmed to Shabelle that six militias were killed, while three others were wounded in the fight.
The sources said armed militias guarding one of the Somali warlords meeting with the president at the Villa, and the government soldiers on guard of the area clashed after they argued over moving the militias' battlewagon parked before the main entrance of the presidential palace.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701120238.html
Somalia: Warlords Concur to Surrender Their Arms to the Government
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
January 12, 2007Posted to the web January 12, 2007
Aweys Osman YusufMogadishu
Senior Somali government leaders, including President Yusuf, have had a meeting with number of Somalia's warlords at presidential palace, Villa Somalia, in the capital Mogadishu.
Among the warlords were Mohammed Qanyare Afrah, Muse Sudi Yalahow, Abdi Qeybded, Omar Finish and Abdi Nor Siad.
During the meeting, militias loyal to Mohammed Qanyare and the government soldiers guarding the Villa skirmished after they quarreled over where to park a pick-up truck mounted with anti-aircraft gun that belonged to the militias.
At least six of the militias were reportedly killed in the fight, but the government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari said two persons were killed.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701120254.html
Somalia: Gun Battle in the Capital Wounds a Government Soldier
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
January 12, 2007Posted to the web January 12, 2007
Aweys Osman YusufMogadishu
Gunmen in the Somali capital Mogadishu attacked a hotel dubbed Ambassador where number of government officials was lodging. The attack happened on Thursday evening as the gunmen riding in a car threw grenades at the hotel.
The government forces guarding the hotel were quick to respond brush firing the attackers. The exchange of fire lasted at least 15 minutes, witnesses reported. One government soldier was wounded in the skirmishes.
Government soldiers launched weapons search operations on 10 January around KM4 Street in the center of the capital city after their military compound in the area was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades several times in the past. They seized more AK 47 rifles and explosives from the houses around KM4 St.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701120239.html
Somalia: Children, Women Most Affected By Fighting
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
January 12, 2007Posted to the web January 12, 2007
Nairobi
Scores of women and children have been separated from their families or wounded in fighting between Somali government forces and remnants of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), sources said.
A source in southern Somalia, close to the area where air strikes have hit suspected UIC bases, told IRIN on Friday that some civilians, including women and children, "have been killed and others wounded".
There are reports of many children between the ages of five and 15 from the village of Hayo (10 km from the area where the air strikes have been taking place), he added. "We have no way of knowing how many dead or wounded are out there in the bush," another source said. "We cannot get to them and neither can the nomadic communities, for fear of being killed themselves."
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701120313.html
Africa: More Nations Use DDT to Cut Malaria Death Toll
SciDev.Net (London)
January 12, 2007Posted to the web January 12, 2007
Charles MkokaLilongwe
The once-banned insecticide DDT is being reconsidered by many countries in Africa as a means to combat malaria.
But concerns remain that use of the chemical will damage agricultural trade with Europe.
Scientists, researchers and environmentalists meet in Malawi today (12 January) to discuss the risks and benefits of DDT, according to Storn Kabuluzi, manager of the National Malaria Control Programme in Malawi. DDT is one of the most affordable ways to fight malaria.
In September, the World Health Organisation issued guidelines stating that DDT -- implicated in extensive long-term environmental damage -- could be used under restricted conditions, such as indoor spraying.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701120713.html
Nigeria: Bird Flu Re-Emerges, Culling Underway
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
January 12, 2007Posted to the web January 12, 2007
Abuja
Nigerian veterinary teams were killing thousands of birds in two northern Nigerian states on Friday to halt the spread of fresh cases of the deadly H5N1 virus.
Nigeria was the first West African country to register bird flu when the disease jumped from Asia to Africa last year. Government veterinary teams slaughtered more than 900,000 birds in 2005, according to Nigeria's Agriculture Ministry. But sporadic outbreaks continued, with the last case reported in September in a suburb of Nigeria's largest city Lagos.
Junaid Maina, Nigeria's national director of livestock, said new cases of the virus were confirmed this week in northwestern Sokoto and nearby in Katsina state, 800 kilometres northeast of Abuja. "Our teams are out there now culling birds," Maina said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701120674.html
Uganda: Rebel Delegation Quits Talks, Seeks 'Neutral' Venue
January 12, 2007Posted to the web January 12, 2007
Nairobi
The Lord's Resistance Army has 'disengaged' from peace negotiations with the Ugandan government and will not continue the process until a neutral host country is found, a spokesman for the rebel group said on Friday.
"In the circumstances and due to security considerations, [the] LRA delegation are not going back to Juba but would prefer that the talks resume in a neutral venue, preferably Kenya, South Africa or other neutral country," Obonyo Olweny, the LRA spokesman, told a news conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
The talks have been going on in the southern Sudan capital of Juba since July 2006. Olweny said the rebels' decision followed recent comments by Sudanese President Omar El Bashir and South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit that the LRA was no longer welcome in southern Sudan.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701120602.html
Guinea: Civil Society Crystallising Around Unions
January 11, 2007Posted to the web January 12, 2007
Conakry
Guineans in the capital Conakry have already shuttered their shops and stayed home twice in the past year for citywide strikes, but a third, more ambitious indefinite national strike underway this week is proving a strength and unity among Guinea's civil society not seen since independence.
"There's really a growing solidarity among the movement now, it's becoming more like a social movement and the strength of civil society is really showing itself," Elisabeth Cote, Guinea representative of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) said on Thursday, the second day of the strike.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701120303.html
Côte d'Ivoire: UN's Côte d'Ivoire Mission Extended With New Mandate to Cooperate On Liberian Border
UN News Service (New York)
January 10, 2007Posted to the web January 11, 2007
New York
The Security Council today extended through June the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and French forces supporting it while authorizing them to cooperate with blue helmets in Liberia in preventing arms from crossing the border.
By a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council adjusted the tasks carried out by the mission, which has been deployed in Côte d'Ivoire since April 2004 helping the parties to implement a peace agreement signed in January 2003 ending their north-south civil war. The country has been divided between the rebel-held north and government-controlled south since 2002.
Under today's resolution, UNOCI will coordinate closely with the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in carrying out a voluntary repatriation and resettlement programme for foreign ex-combatants. This is part of UNOCI's efforts to bolster the Ivorian Government in its bid to disarm former fighters, which the Council said should be carried out "with special attention to the specific needs of women and children."
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701110003.html
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