(GIN) – In an official response from President Jacob Zuma to massive student protests, the proposed 10% hike in school fees has been cancelled for 2016.

It was a major victory for students after protests which began this fall caused the shutdowns of 15 universities. “We agreed that there will be a zero increase in university fees in 2016,” the President said following a meeting with student leaders.

Outside of the meeting, however, police fired stun guns and water cannons and students who tried to force their way into the premises.

The fee issue is not the only grievance felt by students who have cited racism at the previously all-white institutions, and the need for free, quality education.

On Monday, at a senate meeting of the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, students occupied the venue and cancelled the meeting.

The senate’s special meeting was supposed to deliberate on the continuing protests and to decide on the resumption of the academic program, including postponed exams and lectures.

“This university is under new management now, it is the students that are in charge … this is the struggle we will fight until we win,” said student leader Vuyani Pambo, who is also the chair of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a group led by political activist Julius Malema.

The students had earlier held their own meeting at the Senate House – which they have renamed Solomon House – to come up with a strategy for their renewed #FeesMustFall movement.

Meanwhile, another group of students demanded to be allowed to take their exams and picketed outside the Great Hall.
Lengthy meetings were held on Saturday and Sunday, with students debating how to proceed with the campaign that started at their institution two weeks ago, and spread to other campuses across South Africa.
(End)

(GIN) – The cheap gas boom has not been the best of news for African countries where oil and other raw materials have been the basis of their export economies since colonial times.

Gas and oil are not the only raw materials to suffer as economies in Asia and the west contract and investors take wait and see positions while they look for the next promising trend.

The region’s difficulties were highlighted in the latest Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), a comprehensive survey started by Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim as an independent project to promote better governance and economic development in Africa.

“We can’t pat ourselves on the back and pretend everything is hunky-dory,” declared Ibrahim, who earned billions of dollars installing some of Africa’s first mobile phone networks. “It’s not.”

“While Africans overall are certainly healthier and live in more democratic societies than 15 years ago, the 2015 IIAG shows that recent progress in other key areas on the continent has either stalled or reversed, and that some key countries seem to be faltering.”

This year’s rating of 50.1 on a 100-point scale, while up from 46.5 when the index was first issued in 2000, is down from a peak of 50.4 in 2010. Under the Ibrahim Index, 100 represents a prosperous, democratic utopia.

When times were good, short-sighted governments in Angola and Zambia, among others, put insufficient money aside for improving education, health care and roads at a time when commodity prices were high and government coffers were flush, said Nathalie Delapalme, the Ibrahim Foundation’s executive director for research and policy.

Now, with commodity prices falling, even the most well-intentioned of the continent’s governments will have a harder time lifting their citizens out of poverty, she said. “They could have been better positioned to confront the crisis that is in front of them.”

Spending cuts, such as those threatened in Kenya and other nations, have made the poorly-paid and under-housed resentful and angry.

“Many countries that most need economic takeoff aren’t getting it because their politicians don’t support widespread growth,” said Johannesburg-based economist Thabi Leoka. “We don’t have exemplary leaders to tell other leaders they should be doing well.” “The whole Africa rising story is in question,” she added.

Published annually, the IIAG provides a comprehensive assessment of every African country using 93 indicators across the following four categories: safety & rule of law, participation & human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development.
(End)

(GIN) – Nearly half a dozen suspects, including the former Minister of Petroleum Resources of Nigeria, were swept up by UK authorities in a crackdown on corruption coordinated with Nigerian President Muhammed Buhari.

According to multiple media accounts, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) obtained a court order to seize 27,000 pounds ($41,000) from the London apartment of Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former Nigerian oil minister, long linked to financial scandals.

Alison-Madueke was scheduled to appear in court on Friday, where bail was granted. That same day, her “palatial home” in the Asokoro district of Abuja was sealed in an operation led by the anti-theft Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, according to Nigerian media reports.

If found guilty of money laundering and bribery, she could face up to 14 years in jail.

Diezani Alison-Madueke served as oil minister from 2010 until May 2015 under former president Goodluck Jonathan. She was also the first woman to head OPEC as alternate president from 2014-2015.

The arrests by the NCA’s International Corruption Unit (ICU), are part of an investigation into economic crimes at the ministry. A spokesman for Nigeria’s presidency, Garba Shehu, said: “The government of Nigeria is collaborating with the UK authority in the investigations and her trial.”

The ICU is specifically empowered to trace and recover the proceeds of international corruption. In the case of Nigeria, it is claimed that between 20 and 50 billion Nigerian dollars disappeared during former president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

Former Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi highlighted the disappearance of billions of petrodollars a year ago in a 300 page report of extensive documentation, for which he was fired.

Before being stripped of his post, Sanusi described what he called “leakages” of cash from Nigeria’s oil industry. Oil accounts for around 95 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. If Nigeria continued to leak cash at the rate described in his report, the consequences for the economy would be disastrous, he said.

According to Sanusi, between $10.8 billion and $20 billion out of $67 billion worth of oil sales by the state oil company in the previous 19 months was unaccounted for.

The state oil group has denied any wrongdoing.

The crackdown comes as the U.S. government scrutinizes the former Nigerian oil minister and her associates, according to the Wall Street Journal’s reporter Drew Hinshaw. The State Department, he said, has been looking at whether she or her relatives benefited from her position and whether to ban her from entering the U.S. where she is said to have several homes.

Shehu, speaking for President Buhari, said: (The President) thinks there should be a world-wide movement to help countries such as Nigeria to get back what has been looted from them.”
(End)

(GIN) – A new satellite could soon be bringing remote parts of Africa onto the internet, according to Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

In an announcement this week, the social media giant said Facebook would be using aircraft, lasers and drones to beam internet access “down into communities from the sky.” A satellite, called AMOS-6 would be leased from the Israeli company Spacecom and shared between a French company, Eutelsat, and Facebook. Eutelsat will expand its paid broadband connections in the region for businesses and well-off individuals.

“Facebook’s mission is to connect the world and we believe that satellites will play an important role in addressing the significant barriers that exist in connecting the people of Africa,” said Chris Daniels, VP of Internet.org, in a statement.

The satellite could launch as early as next year and service would start in the second half of 2016.

The initiative is undertaken in partnership with Internet.org – a charity Facebook runs. Internet.org asks internet service providers (ISPs) to help provide “free basics” to countries where wired internet penetration is sparse or non-existent, touting the virtues of developing markets and appealing to the tech world’s charitable instincts.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced they had developed a gigantic solar-powered drone that could stay in the stratosphere for months at a time, beaming broadband internet to rural and hard-to-reach areas.

The drone, called Aquila, is the baby of Facebook’s year old Connectivity Lab. During the day it will cruise in circles at 90,000 feet, soaking up solar power. At night it will save energy by drifting down to 60,000 feet.

To get the Internet, a laser system will connect the ground and the drone. A Facebook team working on the laser technology in California, says it has achieved speeds of tens of gigabytes per second – enough to allow hundreds of thousands of people to access broadband Internet simultaneously;

Until relatively recently, internet in Kenya was largely provided by satellite through a large dish in the Rift Valley; four large submarine fiber-optic cables radically changed the way the country received the web beginning in 2009 under the acronym The East African Marine System (Teams), and now several multinational internet companies have a strong presence in the country, notably Alcatel-Lucent and Fujitsu.

(End)

(GIN) – Plans by President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to hold a national census of the population are inciting critics who say this could delay elections for years. A green light to the census plan by local lawmakers prompted a rock-throwing melee this week in the capital city. National elections are due in 2016.

On Monday, protestors objecting to the census plan were met by live rounds of ammunition and tear gas from security forces in Kinshasa, the capital city, according to witnesses. Opposition parties have been trying to block the move to enable Kabila to extend his stay in power beyond his current mandate which ends in 2016. Protests also erupted in Goma, the main city in eastern Congo.

Though the DRC Constitution demands the census, in 2006 when Kabila was elected for the first term, this Census was not taken. Neither was it taken during the 2011 election when he was re-elected for his second and last term.

Therefore, it is an open secret to everyone that this new bill requiring a census is just a plain and open ploy intended to allow Kabila to remain in power past his constitutional terms, observed Yaa-Lengi Ngemi, president of Congocoalition and an activist.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon weighed in on the growing crisis deploring the loss of lives and injuries and urged both the national security forces and demonstrators to show restraint. He reminded the DRC government that it was necessary to provide political space for the peaceful expression of opinions. “While violence is not acceptable,” he said, “the response to violent protests must also be proportionate.”

The bill to hold the census has already been approved by the lower house of Parliament and is due to be examined by the senate.

One protestor who spoke to the Reuters news agency likened the growing anti-Kabila movement to the one that swept out former President Blaise Compaore in Burkina Faso. “We think the people are getting there little by little and we will replicate Burkina,” he said.

Critics call Kabila’s move a “constitutional coup” but the government insists the census is a necessary part of the electoral process in the vast, mineral-rich country of 65 million people.

Kabila’s rivals say they fear heavy-handed police tactics, and crowds have in the past been easily dispersed. Ahead of Monday’s march, opposition leaders called on supporters to show more resistance and to fight back against police.

A witness in Matonge, a neighborhood near Parliament, said he saw police fire live rounds in the air in a bid to disperse people. Crowds later looted Chinese-owned shops in the area.

Last year, US officials met with Kabila and warned they would not support nor accept changes in the DRC constitution for him to stay on as president of the DRC. France, England and the EU have told him the same thing.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, Etienne Tshisekedi, opposition leader, urged the Congolese people to force a “dying regime” from power.

Tension over the election law comes as Congo’s army and United Nations peacekeepers are preparing to attack Rwandan Hutu rebels that have been at the heart of nearly two decades of conflict in the eastern border zones.

(GIN) – While the President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, marched in a Paris rally to support the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, anger was rising at home among the country’s majority Muslim population over cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad.

Over the weekend, anger exploded on the streets when about 1,000 young men turned on the institutions of the Catholic community, burning 45 churches. Ten people were reported killed in the melee.

Security forces in the capital, Niamey, used tear gas on Sunday against a banned demonstration. Violence was also reported in Zinder, the country’s second largest city, as churches burned and Christian homes and a French cultural center were looted by mobs.

“The French flag was burned,” said Adily Toro, a national police spokesman, adding that 189 people, including two minors, were arrested by police.

Demonstrators also pillaged and burned numerous premises, including five hotels and 36 bars.

The French news agency, AFP, reported that a Muslim elder, Yaou Sonna, urged people to stop attacking Christians. “Don’t forget that Islam is against violence,” he said on state television. “I urge men and women, boys and girls, to calm down.”

The cartoons, defended as an exercise in freedom of speech, also set off riots in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Algeria, and Gaza.

French President Francois Hollande refused to reconsider his support of the magazine, saying people did not understand France’s commitment to freedom of speech, even in the case of the controversial cartoons of Muhammad.

However, a growing movement of journalists and others are refusing to join the “I am Charlie Hebdo” supporters. One of them was New York Times opinion page writer David Brooks.

“Let’s face it,” Brooks wrote in a recent column. “If they had tried to publish their satirical newspaper on any American university campus over the last two decades it wouldn’t have lasted 30 seconds. Student and faculty groups would have accused them of hate speech. The administration would have cut financing and shut them down.”

Brooks criticized the crowds that jumped to the defense of the cartoonists for their controversial attacks on the Muslim prophet. A lot of them would be a lot less tolerant toward those who offend their own views at home, he said.

He continued: “The University of Illinois fired a professor who taught the Roman Catholic view on homosexuality. The University of Kansas suspended a professor for writing a harsh tweet against the National Rifle Association, Vanderbilt University derecognized a Christian group that insisted that it be led by Christians.

“So this might be a teachable moment. As we are mortified by the slaughter of those writers and editors in Paris, it’s a good time to come up with a less hypocritical approach to our own controversial figures, provocateurs and satirists.”

Income inequality, one of the issues that so troubled the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is again front and center in today’s news.

A new report on the topic has come up with figures that even caught the financial community by surprise.

For example: members of the “world’s richest” club earn half-a-million dollars per minute, the report found… Seven out of ten people live in countries where the gap between the rich and poor is worse than thirty years ago.”

Wall Street barons – “predominantly white, male and greying” – include Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett, whose account increased 9% between 2013 and 2014 to $58.2 billion. He’s at the top, followed by Bloomberg LP founder Michael Bloomberg, worth $33 billion — a 22% gain on the previous year. Carl Icahn is third with a tally of $24.5 billion, up 23%.

It would take Microsoft founder Bill Gates 218 years to spend all its wealth, the researchers observed.

Prepared by Oxfam International, a UK-based development organization, the report goes on: “Today there are 16 billionaires in sub-Saharan Africa, alongside the 358 million people living in extreme poverty… Every year, 100 million people are pushed into poverty because of the rising cost of health care.

“If this trend continues, of an increasing wealth share to the richest, the top 1% will have more wealth than the remaining 99% of the people in just two years,” said Oxfam.

When Dr. King marched on Washington for jobs and freedom, the federal minimum wage was $1.25 an hour. In today’s dollars, that guaranteed base wage would be $9.54 an hour.

But the federal minimum wage today is just $7.25 an hour.

In other words, low-wage workers are more than $2 behind where they were when Dr. King declared: “We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we’ve come to cash this check—a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

Ugandan* activist Winnie Byanyima, who heads Oxfam, wrote on her blog: “Extreme economic inequality is out of control and getting worse. “From Ghana to Germany, South Africa to Spain, the gap between rich and poor is rapidly increasing.”

“Across rich and poor countries alike, this inequality is fuelling conflict, corroding democracies, and damaging growth itself. Left unchecked, economic inequality will set back the fight against poverty and threaten global stability.”

“Such stark inequality is not inevitable,” wrote Oxfam on its web page. Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minn. concurred. “Workers are falling behind,” he said. “Income inequality threatens our democracy as Jim Crow segregation did in 1963.”

President Obama’s upcoming State of the Union address Tuesday is also expected to be dominated by the issue of income inequality.

(GIN) – Financing is being arranged for a multi-million dollar ‘smart city’ in Diamniado, Senegal, by the African Development Bank. Similar investments are taking place in the Ivory Coast and other West African states.

The smart city, located on a 25 hectare site, will have broadband infrastructure, smart buildings, data centers and an ICT training facility. The flagship project is designed to make Senegal a tech center for West Africa and to attract investment. Similar hubs are under consideration for Diass, Sebikotane, St. Louis and Ziguinchor.

The Diamniadio Technology Park will be located about 30 kms from the capital Dakar. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2016 and last for five years.

Gabon, an oil-rich Central African nation is planning a Cyber-city in the island of Mandji. And a “digital village” is already under development in the coast city of Grand Bassam in the Ivory Coast. With a pricetag of about $56 million, it should be completed in 30 months’ time, government officials said.

The digital infrastructure will include four fibre optic networks worth over $120 million, adding to an existing network of about 2,000 kms.

Other cyber cities around the continent can be found in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

(GIN) – The northern Nigerian town of Baga was devastated over the weekend by a surprise raid conducted by Boko Haram insurgents apparently aimed at a major military base constructed there.

Amnesty International estimates the death toll could be as high as 2,000, though some witnesses cite lower tolls in the hundreds.

Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, a military spokesman, said Monday the evidence available so far indicates a death toll of no more than 150, including insurgents killed in combat with troops.

The military said 14 soldiers were killed and 30 were wounded in the Baga attack, but that “law, order and normalcy” would soon be restored to the area.

Nigeria has often been accused of underestimating casualty figures to downplay the threat of Boko Haram.

It is the second major assault on Baga which was earlier caught in the crosshairs between the Nigerian military and insurgents. Soldiers ransacked the town in April 2013 after Boko Haram militants attacked a military patrol, killing a soldier and wounding 5 others.

Community leaders told Human Rights Watch at that time that soldiers began burning down their homes in retaliation, shooting people as they fled. They counted 2,000 burned homes and 183 bodies. Satellite images of the town analyzed by HRW corroborated these accounts and identified 2,275 destroyed buildings, the vast majority residences, with another 125 severely damaged.

The Nigerian government dismissed the evidence, claiming only 30 homes were destroyed.

“The Nigerian military has a duty to protect itself and the population from Boko Haram attacks, but the evidence indicates that it engaged more in destruction than in protection,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“The glaring discrepancies between the facts on the ground and statements by senior military officials raise concerns that they tried to cover up military abuses.”

Ignatius Kaigama, Catholic Archbishop of Jos, in central Nigeria, accused the West of ignoring the threat posed by Boko Haram.

Putting down Boko Haram required international support and unity of the type shown after last week’s militant attacks in France, he said. “We need that spirit to be spread around… Not just when [an attack] happens in Europe, but when it happens in Nigeria, in Niger, in Cameroon.”

His remarks came after some 23 people were killed over the weekend by two teenage girls who blew themselves up at a marketplace in northeastern Nigeria.

Elsewhere in the country, ethnic tensions were stirred up in a Sunday service lead by the prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Samuel Uche. At an event attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate President, and top military brass, the cleric accused the Fulanis and Kanuris of attempting to bring Boko Haram to power.

Archbishop Uche called for the arrest and prosecution of the leaders of opposition over their threats to form a parallel government if presidential elections next month are rigged. Pres. Jonathan has also called for the disqualification of the opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

Presidential elections are scheduled for Feb. 14.

(GIN) – A bid to oust Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh was quickly routed with the arrests of a handful of insurgents in The Gambia and the U.S.

The attack took place just before New Year’s Day when the President was on a private visit to Dubai.

Two U.S. permanent residents were detained on U.S. soil. They face charges of “conspiring to carry out the violent overthrow of a foreign government – a violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act,” said Eric Holder, US attorney general in a statement.

Those arrested were Papa Faal, a US-Gambian dual national, and Cherno Njie, a US resident. Faal, 46, faces a court appearance in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while Njie, 57, will be brought before a judge in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Maryland.

“The group’s plan for the coup was purportedly to restore democracy to The Gambia and to improve the lives of its people,” Justice Dept. investigators allege in the complaint unsealed this week.

“They hoped they would be able to take over the country without having to kill any Gambians. They also expected to be joined by up to 160 members of the local Gambian military who supposedly agreed to participate in the coup.”

Njie, described by investigators as a Texas-based developer, was the main financier of the scheme.

Faal told the FBI he had served in the U.S. Army and Air Force and decided to join the coup because he thought elections were rigged and he was concerned over the “plight of the Gambian people,” according to the affidavit.

The group carried M4 semi-automatic rifles, night-vision goggles, body armor and other equipment. Njie, from Texas, was expected to serve as the next leader.

“Although numerous conspirators on the assault teams were killed or injured during the failed attempt to take control of the government building, Faal was able to flee the scene and he ultimately returned to the US. Njie also returned to the US,” Monday’s statement reads in part.

Both men have been charged with one count each of conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act and conspiracy to possess a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The Neutrality Act carries a maximum sentence of three years and prohibits US citizens from knowingly taking part in “any military or naval expedition against the territory of any foreign prince or state, district or people with whom the United States is at peace.”

Jammeh himself came to power in a coup in 1994, from his position as a 29-year-old junior officer. He has ruled undemocratically, with foreign observers condemning all four of the elections held in Gambia during his 20-year reign.

During the last vote, in 2011, Gambia’s West African neighbors refused to send monitors, citing “an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation.”

(GIN) – Solidarity between South Africa and Zimbabwe seems frayed, if not torn, as deportations are threatened for thousands of Zimbabwean nationals eking out a living in the more prosperous country to the south.

Officials say more than 200,000 Zimbabweans have applied for the document. The deadline expired on December 31.

“In any country, a foreign national who lacks a permit faces deportation,” said Mayihlome Tshwete, Dept. of Home Affairs spokesman, but denied reports that as many as 40,000 would be expelled from the country.

“Deportation of these people would not address challenges of illegal migrants in South Africa,” said Zimbabwe Diaspora Forum spokesperson, Trust Ndlovu.

“Most have established families with children of South African citizenship and deporting them will be tantamount to abuse of children’s rights, among others.”

Zimbabwean Exiles Forum spokesman Gabriel Shumba said the blanket mass deportation of people is contrary to the spirit of human rights that’s enshrined in the constitution of South Africa.

“We stand ready to challenge any blanket deportation without taking into account the merits of each individual application.

Meanwhile, the Methodist Church in central Johannesburg closed its doors to refugees by the end of December, it was reported late last month.

The church has been a home for refugees since the xenophobia attacks that occurred in the country a few years ago.

Bishop Paul Verryn said they were trying to find alternative accommodation for the 500 people living there.

“We are energetically looking for alternative accommodation. The leadership of the circuit says the church building should be used solely for the purposes of worship.

” The refugees say they will fight their eviction as they had nowhere to go and were unemployed.

Estimates are that there are between two and three million Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa.

(GIN) – Spending cuts, pushed by an international lender, “weakened health care systems in the West African region”, leaving the countries “under-funded, insufficiently staffed and poorly prepared.”

In a report published this month in the journal Lancet Global Health, UK-based researchers blamed policies of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) that hobbled the development of an effective healthcare system in the three affected West African nations. The number of people who have died from Ebola has crossed the 7,500 mark, with over 19,000 infected.

“Even though the IMF provided financial support to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the lending comes with strings attached — so-called “conditionalities” — that require recipient governments to adopt policies that prioritize short-term economic objectives over investment in health and education,” said the report’s lead author Alexander Kentikelenis.

By reviewing IMF policies from 1990 to 2014, the researchers from Cambridge, Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, identified three factors that weakened healthcare systems. These were IMF’s requirement for economic reforms, caps on public-sector wages and the decentralization of health care providers.

Wage caps limit the capacity of these nations to hire and adequately pay key healthcare workers such as doctors and nurses, the researchers said. These caps are linked to the “brain drain” of health workers in countries that need them most.

The IMF push to decentralize healthcare systems makes it difficult to mobilize coordinated responses to outbreaks of deadly diseases such as Ebola, the researchers said.

“All these effects are cumulative, contributing to the lack of preparedness of health systems to cope with infectious disease outbreaks and other emergencies,” Kentikelenis said. “The IMF’s widely proclaimed concern about social issues has had little effect on health systems in low-income countries.”

An IMF spokesman denied the claims, calling them “completely untrue.”

In a letter to the Lancet, an IMF deputy director insisted that health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, including the three Ebola-hit countries “improved significantly” over the past decade or so, including improvements in mortality rates.

The deputy, Sanjeev Gupta, acknowledged that health care systems were fragile in the three Ebola-hit countries. “The IMF recognized the urgency of the situation—and moved quickly to help, making available an additional $130 million to the three countries to fight Ebola.”

The money was approved in September of this year. The Ebola outbreak started in Guinea by end-2013 and intensified sharply from July.

The IMF, which lends money to financially-strapped countries, came under strong criticism this year from African nations led by Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Ikweala.

The Minister cited the underrepresentation of African nations on the IMF board (2 seats for 45 African countries), and an almost insignificant number of Africans in high decision making bodies and among staff.

“We welcome efforts to address diversity,” she wrote. “However further progress is needed.” w/pix of health care worker and colleague

(GIN) – Tunisians, the first people to launch an “Arab Spring” revolution that ousted a despot, returned to power a member of the ousted regime. They cast ballots on Sunday in the nation’s first free presidential poll – and the outcome surprised many.

Veteran politician Beji Caid Essebsi of the secular Call for Tunisia (“Nidaa Tounes”) party received 55% of the vote in Sunday’s run-off. His opponent, Moncef Marzouki, managed to win only 44% of the vote. Marzouki, 67, a former exile, has conceded defeat and congratulated Essebsi on Facebook.

The 88 year old Essebsi served under the one-party rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who fled the country in January 2011 after 23 years of dictatorial rule.

“I dedicate my victory to the martyrs of Tunisia,” Essebsi said on a TV interview. “I thank Marzouki, and now we should work together without excluding anyone.”

The vote seemed to send a message that moderate-minded Tunisians did not want a religious regime along the lines of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The Ennahda party, an Islamist group which held power briefly on the abdication of Pres. Ben Ali, was disappointed with the election results but congratulated Essebsi on his victory and pledged to work with him.

Soon after polls closed on Sunday night, jubilant supporters took to the streets of the capital in celebration, chanting “Beji President!”

But in the southern city of Hamma, police fired teargas to disperse hundreds of youths who burned tires and blocked streets to demonstrate against Essebsi.

Voting was largely pronounced free and fair with a turnout rate of 60.11 percent, less than the nearly 70 percent in the previous round and legislative elections in October.

So far, Tunisia has managed to exemplify how democracy works if one compares it to Egypt, Libya or Syria, writes a reporter with Al Jazeera news. “So while there are concerns, there is still some hope.”

It is the first time Tunisians have been able to vote freely for their president since independence from France in 1956.

(GIN) – The list of war crimes being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is growing smaller.

Earlier this month, the case against President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya was dismissed after witnesses became unavailable to testify and the government rejected the court’s jurisdiction over the charges.

This week, Fatou Bensouda, International Criminal Court prosecutor, suspended investigations into alleged war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur. She criticized the UN Security Council for inaction over the conflict-hit region.

Her comments came amid a Ugandan-led campaign for African countries to pull out of The Hague-based ICC, following the collapse of the case against President Kenyatta.

“I am left with no choice but to hibernate investigative activities in Darfur as I shift resources to other urgent cases,” Bensouda told the Security Council last Friday.

The UN body failed to push for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged crimes committed in Darfur, she said.

Without action from the top UN body, the cases against Bashir and three other indicted suspects would remain deadlocked and there would be “little or nothing to report to you for the foreseeable future.”

Claiming victory over the ICC, the Sudanese president responded: “They wanted us to kneel before the International Criminal Court but the ICC raised its hands and admitted that it had failed.”

“The Sudanese people have defeated the ICC and have refused to hand over any Sudanese to the colonialist courts.”

With two cases dropped in the last month, the ICC has turned its attention to the wife of the former president of the Ivory Coast. Simone Gbagbo “allegedly bears individual criminal responsibility, as indirect co-perpetrator, for four counts of crimes against humanity: murder, rape, persecution and “other criminal acts” during post-election violence between Dec. 2010 and Apr. 2011.

The ICC warrant issued last year alleges that as a member of the president’s inner circle, his wife was an “indirect co-perpetrator.” She attended meetings where plans were discussed and carried out to persecute (Alassane) Ouattara supporters, according to the warrant.

Mrs. Gbagbo is currently in the Ivory Coast which refuses to surrender her to the international court, saying it can handle the case in-country. Her husband, former president Laurent Gbagbo, is in ICC custody awaiting trial over similar charges.

(GIN) – Falling oil prices are happy news for American car owners but disastrous news for Africa which was recently celebrating an “oil boom” around the continent.

Some energy consultants see falling prices as a political maneuver by the West designed to bring rebellious countries to their knees. Saudi Arabia also had a bone to pick with Iran.

Soon there was a glut of cheap oil, pushing down prices in Iran, Russia and Venezuela. But the “collateral damage” of these price manipulations have been the people of Nigeria, Angola, Ghana and Uganda whose economies are heavily oil-dependent.

Examples of the pain abound. In Angola, government is budgeting major spending cuts on HIV/AIDS programs. According to Bloomberg news wire, Angola will set aside $11 million to fight HIV next year, compared to $16 million in 2014 and $22 million in 2013.

Angola’s government relies on oil for more than three quarters of revenue.

In another case, the newly-blessed oil state of Ghana borrowed heavily – about $500 million from the IMF – on the back of anticipated profits to fund fuel subsides and salaries. This hasn’t helped Ghana’s currency, the cedi, which depreciated by about 40 percent to the dollar in the first three quarters of this year.

“We are woefully short,” Sydney Casely-Hayford, a financial consultant and former adviser to Ghana’s treasury, told Dow Jones.

Ugandan officials say they fear lower oil prices could deter companies from following through on plans to invest up to $15 billion to develop the country’s oil fields.

It’s the same for Mozambique which saw a $5 billion investment to develop natural-gas fields look a lot less attractive now.

Dow Jones Business wire wrote: “The continent’s biggest economies have staked their futures on robust prices for oil and gas… The London-based Capital Economics research firm says falling commodity prices will cut growth across sub-Saharan Africa by one percentage point next year, to around 4%, the slowest rate since the late 1990s.

“It’s bad for all of Africa,” said Jack Allen, an economist at the firm.

Africa’s largest economy Nigeria is another case in point. The oil crude producer has grown 7% a year for the past decade. As retail and telecommunications companies have taken off, the oil industry has shrunk to a more balanced 14% of economic activity.

But Nigeria’s government revenue hasn’t evolved with its economy. Oil still fuels more than 70% of the budget, leaving public institutions dependent on the ebb and flow of global energy prices.

As Brent crude prices fell below $70 a barrel this month, Nigeria’s naira currency plummeted to record lows.

Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says the drop in oil prices could drag economic growth down by a percentage point to 5.3% in 2015.

Falling prices for oil and other commodities are hurting African economies in other ways, too, notes Don Jones business writers.

The country’s currency, the rand, has dropped to a six-year low as investors retreat from the slowing economy.

Persistent weakness in the rand undermines any lift from cheap oil, said Nico Bezuidenhout of South African Airways.

“You’ve got the break on the fuel price,” he said. “But the currency has gone to the dogs.”

(GIN) – It may not be clear who is running Somalia these days but energy companies appear to know who to call as they conduct onshore and offshore seismic surveys which could make the Horn of Africa an oil giant within six years.

Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Chevron are all activating plans to drill in Somalia, according to area news reports. London-based Soma Oil and Gas, backed by Russian billionaire Alexander Djaparidze, is encouraged by the results of exploration. Details could be published as soon as the year’s end.

“The government has recognized they need to stimulate exploration. They need to stimulate the creation of a hydrocarbon regime because they are in a prospective area,” said Bob Sheppard, chief executive of Soma Oil and Gas.

The initiative, however, appears to defy a continent-wide environmental movement to “keep the oil in the soil” in order to reduce carbon emissions and control global warming. Nigerian environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey came up with the phrase which reads in its entirety: “Leave the oil in the soil, the coal in the hole and the tar sands in the land.”

In addition to environmental opposition, security remains an obstacle for foreign investors. Somalia says with the help of troops from the African Union, it is making progress against the Islamist insurgents al-Shabab.

Still, attacks continue in the region, with ones in the capital, Mogadishu, the south-central town of Baidoa and north-eastern Kenya, near the Somali border, in the last week alone.

Last week’s terrorist attacks in Baidoa left numerous casualties including several local politicians and journalists and alarmed the top United Nations official in Somalia, Nicholas Kay, who called for political unity following the ouster of the Prime Minister, Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed.

“The use of such indiscriminate tactics against the Somali people demonstrates a shocking disregard for the most basic principles of humanity,” Kay said. “Those responsible need to be brought to justice swiftly.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists has described Somalia as one of the top 10 countries where crimes against journalists go unpunished. In addition, media workers risk not just death on a daily basis but also arbitrary arrests.

Also shadowing the potential oil rush is a territorial dispute with Kenya over the offshore border between the two nations. Kenya has also issued exploration licenses to drill in the region as have the autonomous regions of Puntland and Somaliland.

Somalia has filed a formal claim for a bigger chunk of the continental shelf and urged the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to ignore applications made by Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen.

(GIN) – A misguided effort to quietly hike up the paychecks of Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika and his VP roundly backfired, forcing them to cancel the generous gift to themselves “until a more appropriate time.”

“The Head of State and his deputy have suspended their new salaries,” a government spokesman told the Nyasa Times in a phone interview. Instead, he said, they will prioritize the improvement of living standards of civil servants and Malawians in general.

The new pay package was seen as bad taste at a time when the country was facing economic turmoil and belt tightening following foreign aid flight. In fact, almost every public service sector is facing labor unrest. In addition to higher pay, the two top leaders would have received free gas coupons and a rent allowance.

Meanwhile, from court room staff on strike for the past five months to primary school teachers boycotting classes to obtain salaries not paid for the past six months, labor militancy appears to be on the rise. Last week, supporting staff of the University of Malawi launched a sit in to demand a 45% salary hike.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau is also seeing a job action over wages while the Bureau chief says the office has been underfunded for investigations into the Cashgate scandal that brought down former president Joyce Banda.

“We’re not asking for anything out of this world,” one worker observed. “Our employers have failed to enforce the contract.”

“Our national Cake is not equally shared,” said opposition leader James Nyondo. “Our politicians are doing things that favor them.

Amidst the walkouts and slowdowns, huge pay raises recently sailed through parliament for ministers and lawmakers, doubling salaries from $1,150 to $3,000 monthly – or 168 percent plus fuel and housing allowances. Deputy Ministers’ salaries were doubled as were those of the 193 lawmakers who comprise the Malawi parliament. They also receive 1,000 litres per month in fuel allowance.

Ironically, in August the President rejected a salary hike for ministers calling them “unethical. “ “His Excellency President Mutharika finds it to be unethical to raise salaries when the cost of living is not only high for them but for every Malawian,” declared the leader’s press secretary. “He appeals to ministers to be good leaders and lead by example and forego the salary review being proposed.”

(GIN) – In the bad old days, natural resources were bartered away with trinkets and a few suitcases filled with cash.

The West African nation of Guinea, under a new president, is now trying to clean up the mess left by the previous regime by cancelling lucrative mining contracts allegedly bought in exchange for a diamond necklace, houses in Jacksonville, Florida, $5.3 million in cold cash, two Toyota Land Cruisers, an ice cream cooler, grills and some display cases for a catering business.

The gifts, lavished on the family of Guinea’s former head of state, Lansana Conté, were seized last week by the U.S. Justice Department as part of a federal investigation into the corrupt practices of some multinationals still attempting to cart away Africa’s natural resources through lavish bribes and money laundering.

President Conte’s fourth wife, Mamadie Toure, who received much of the largess, is a cooperating witness in the current federal case.

According to Madame Toure, in exchange for getting her president husband to transfer contracts from one mining company to another, the money tap was turned full on.

Because some of the alleged bribery took place on U.S. soil, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 was invoked. It prohibits the payment of bribes to win business, or when the conduct involves U.S. soil or the U.S. banking system.

Rights to iron ore deposits in Guinea’s Simandou mountain range – have been a long sought-after prize by foreign multinationals. It’s been called the “jewel in the crown” of West Africa’s vast natural resources.

Shortly before his death in 2008, President Conté signed over multi-billion-dollar mining rights at Simandou to BSG Resources, owned by family trusts of the Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz. He canceled existing contracts with an Anglo-Australian firm prompting cries of outrage by that firm.

Neither Steinmetz nor his company BSGR are named in the current probe. But the possibility of such prompted Steinmetz Trust to hire former Senator and vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman and former FBI head Louis Freeh to run an internal probe of the bribery allegations, a source told Bloomberg news.

Meanwhile, BSGR was stripped of the Simandou concessions in April this year when a Guinean government committee reviewing all mining contracts signed with the previous government, said it had established “with sufficient certainty the existence of ‘corrupt practices’ surrounding the granting of mining rights.”

Global Witness, a UK-based group which campaigns “to stop elites getting away with looting entire states, from armed factions militarizing the natural resource business, and for an end to the exploitation of our environment that is destroying lives, habitats and ecosystems,” has posted an extensive report on the bribe probe.

While billions in profits are seen for mining operators, benefits for ordinary Guinean could be small. Bauxite mining at the Sangaredi Mine in western Guinea, for example, has led to a collapse in local wildlife populations, dwindling forests, unemployment and landlessness

(GIN) – A formerly classified report regarding allegations of voter fraud in Zimbabwe has raised uncomfortable questions for former President Thabo Mbeki about what he knew of problems with the last election of President Robert Mugabe, and when did he know it?.

An editorial in the widely-read local Mail & Guardian was blunt. “(Thabo) Mbeki chose to ignore the opinion of Judge Sisi Khampepe and Judge Dikgang Moseneke” whose report was released after a six year fight and multimillion-rand court battle under three presidents.

The judges found out what many suspected, the paper said. “The 2002 Zimbabwe election was not free and fair.”

In their 27-page report, the judges said the three-day voting process, excluding delays in two urban areas, met legislative requirements and was free of violence and/or apparent ballot tampering.

But they weighed this against pre-election intimidation and the deaths of 107 mainly opposition members and lengthy legal battles to change laws in favor of Zanu-PF, largely around citizenship. Polling stations were reduced in urban areas, they noted, where the opposition Movement for Democratic Change had its largest support base.

“The Khampepe report underscores Mbeki’s betrayal of our Constitution’s values,” the paper claimed in its lead editorial. “By trying to play God, he undermined the democratic will of Zimbabweans and helped to entrench a pattern of electoral violence and intimidation in subsequent polls.”

Mbeki responded with a strong denial of the charges.

“The self-righteous, misguided and insulting opinion of the Mail & Guardian is based on the disturbing failure by the newspaper to convey the truth about the basis of the decisions of the then South African government elections,” he wrote.

He confirmed that “various negative developments relating to the elections,” were observed by the South African Parliamentary Observer Mission (SAPOM) but they remained “a credible expression of the will of the people”.

The judges’ report – an advisory for the president – was classified “not to conceal from the public the content of such advice (but) to ensure that the quality of this advice is not compromised by fear or incentive that it might get into the public domain,” Mbeki said.

“We owe and will make no apology to anybody whatsoever both about resisting the publication of the Khampepe report. The vacuous pontifications of the M&G in this regard are nothing more than that.”

The editorial writers maintained their stance. “Our view is that the report raises questions about Mbeki’s credibility as a peace broker. He continues to be regarded as one of Africa’s elder statesmen and is currently the African Union mediator in Sudan.”

Reached for comment, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai noted that South Africa’s endorsement of the polls carried extra weight – it was the decisive vote.

Mbeki was concerned not with democracy in Zimbabwe but only with stability, he said. “And if stability meant [President Robert] Mugabe remains in power, even by illegitimate means, then so be it.”

(GIN) – Presidential polls in Namibia have incumbent prime minister Hage Geigob of the ruling SWAPO party leading with 84 percent of the roughly 10 percent of votes officially released so far but the new electronic polling gizmos are leaving some Namibians skeptical.

Some 1.2 million people are expected to cast their votes electronically in the country’s fifth election since independence. It will be the first use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) on the African continent.

Voters will select presidential and parliamentary candidates directly on the EVMs – slabs of green and white plastic with the names and images of candidates and their party affiliation – that make a loud beep after each vote.

The voting modules will not be connected externally to any sources to prevent tampering, and the commission hopes electronic voting will reduce lines and speed up counting.

But according to local media reports, results have been trickling in at a snail’s pace at the election centre in the capital Windhoek, worrying the ruling party.

“The Swapo Party has become aware of many voters who were turned away from polling stations across the country while expecting to cast their votes,” Swapo information secretary Helmut Angula said in a statement.

“This is a worrying and disturbing situation. This could also affect the credibility of the elections.

“Swapo therefore demands that the electoral commission explain this situation and also assure the nation that this will not have a negative impact on the entire elections.”

Problems with hand held scanners verifying voter cards and fingerprints of voters caused huge delays and long lines at polls seen deep into the night on Friday, South Africa’s News24 reported.

The Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) president McHenry Venaani, 37, and Hidipo Hamutenya, 75, of Rally for Democracy (RDP) and Progress are competing for second and third positions respectively.

Some 3,400 India-made EVMs were purchased at a cost of Namibian $10 million ($948,000) from Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) of Bangalore.

Other African countries like Ghana, South Sudan, Nigeria and Kenya have shown interest in the purchase of the EVMs, but “everything will depend on the success of these machines in the Namibian presidential polls,” said K.N. Bhar, secretary, Election Commission.

South African observers have already called the polls “free and fair” despite a litany of problems such as delays in the opening of some polling stations due to election officials “lack of clarity” on use of the new devices, operator errors, and consistent breakdown of the voter verification devices in some cases, noted International Relations Minister Maite Emily Nkoana-Mashabane, who heads the region’s observer mission.

She was interrupted by heckling from the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) party, formerly the Swapo youth wing, who contradicted her “free and fair” judgment.

Youth wing spokesman Job Amupanda was suspended from Swapo after he moved on to a vacant lot in one of Windhoek’s upscale suburbs as a protest over the allocation of plots to well-off individuals at discounted prices by the Windhoek city council.

Citing “affirmative land repositioning”, he also mobilized large numbers of landless people to apply to the council for plots.

Last week, hundreds of people gathered at the council’s offices to submit 14,000 applications for land. The municipality was given a July 2015 deadline to respond.

Meanwhile, there were few believers in the democratic voting process on the News24 comments section. They ranged from “All elections in Africa are corrupt” to “You should see how George Bush won!”

(GIN) – Aid agencies that use the iconic ‘moon suits’ – the odd-looking full-body outfits used in battling Ebola – are running dangerously low as the protective garb is being snapped up by institutions in the U.S.

World Vision, a Christian charity, was reportedly looking to send the hazmat suits to Sierra Leone when they found the items were out of stock. “There’s been some sleepless nights,” Jennifer Mounsey, director of Corporate Engagement, told the Wall St Journal. “We’re all sweating bullets.”

African needs are competing with U.S. hospitals and government agencies which are stockpiling some of the scant supply made by companies such as the Lakeland Industries in Ronkonkoma, NY, that manufacture the chemical suits, boot covers, face masks, hoods that comprise the Personal Protective Equipment or PPEs.

Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ordered $2.7 million in PPEs for its Strategic National Stockpile. According to the CDC, American hospitals and firefighters also need PPEs on hand in case a potential Ebola suspect wanders into an emergency room or dials 911.

Aid groups on the front lines of West Africa’s Ebola virus outbreak say the shortage of protective suits is one more source of stress. These groups already face flight cancellations and travel bans that make it harder to get doctors to the field.

Meanwhile, of the countries that promised money to fight Ebola, little has been delivered: 7 percent of China’s $122 million pledge, 17 percent of the $265 million promised by the EU, and 43 percent of the United States’ $572 million, according to a new website that tracks contributions worldwide.

While the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN, and the World Bank have data on the dollar figures associated with each pledge, little was known how much of those resources have actually made it to the ground in West Africa.

That’s what inspired the nonprofit ONE.org to create the Ebola Response Tracker, which can be found on its website.

The tracker focuses on three specific forms of support: financing, health-care personnel, and in-kind contributions. This “deeper dive” into individual country’s commitments, ONE hopes, will persuade leaders to put their money where their mouth is.

Even private institutions, which most likely have less bureaucratic hurdles to deal with, have been slow to pull the trigger. The Silicon Valley Community Fund has thus far sent 0 percent of the 25 million pledged. At the Google/Larry Page Family Foundation, it’s the identical equation.

Erin Hohlfelder, global health policy director at ONE, says the tracker shows the importance in transparency. “It’s one thing to make a great pledge and commit to doing that,” says Hohlfelder. “

“But in the meantime, every day that goes by without these resources is a missed opportunity.” While progress has been made in the months since those pledges, there is much work still to be done.

According to October estimates from the World Bank, the epidemic could cost the West African countries affected upward of $32 billion in the next 24 months.

(GIN) – With only three months to presidential elections, Nigeria is witnessing public feuding between the incumbent party of Pres. Goodluck Jonathan and members of the opposition.

In a contentious confrontation last week, police fired tear gas to prevent the House of Representatives from meeting. A lockout was announced but the parliamentarians scaled the iron fences around the building to get inside. Photos widely published showed the distinguished representatives hauling themselves over the high gates.

The lawmakers had been scheduled to discuss Jonathan’s request to extend the state of emergency in the country’s northeast, where the armed group Boko Haram operates.

The request was rejected with angry MPs shouting that the state of emergency has scored few if any victories against the terrorist group.

Later in the week, security forces carried out a raid on the Lagos offices of the opposition All Progressives Congress party, destroying more than a dozen party computers and documents.

Nigeria’s State Security Service claimed it was investigating an alleged duplication of voters’ cards for next year’s elections.

APC spokesman Lai Mohammed compared the invasion to the Watergate scandal leading to the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1974.

If the government suspected any illegal activities, he said, it should have obtained a court order to search the premises.

Olisa Metuh, national publicity secretary of the ruling party, brushed off the accusations. The APC is crying wolf, he said, because it has no winnable message for the people of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, a report by the International Crisis Group, warned that Nigeria was “sliding dangerously towards violence before, during and after the February 2015 elections. “

“The electoral environment is highly destabilised by insecurity, particularly in the North East,” the report said. “Preparations for the elections suffer from a deficient legal framework and lack of confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission and the security agencies.”

“Boko Haram’s insurgency makes these elections particularly fraught, but it is only a microcosm of the country’s deepening political, religious and ethnic divides”, said Nnamdi Obasi, Nigeria Senior Analyst. “With only three months to the polls, a sense of urgency is more than ever imperative, particularly on the part of the government and the election-management and security agencies”.

“As Africa’s most populous country and largest economy, Nigeria would pose a very real security threat if it were destabilised by election violence”, says EJ Hogendoorn, Africa Program Deputy Director. “Salvaging the situation requires concerted efforts by all national actors and international partners”.

(GIN) – Much-needed research and development for agriculture is under-funded and understaffed throughout the continent, threatening food security for African people, according to a new study by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

“Addressing these R&D challenges will be critical to enhancing future agricultural productivity,” said Gert-Jan Stads, one of the authors of the report entitled: “Taking Stock of National Agricultural R&D Capacity in Africa South of the Sahara.”

The report was produced by the Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) program me led by IFPRI and will be presented at the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in Johannesburg during a three-day conference currently underway.

The conference marks the launch of the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa, which identifies a suite of issues and options for increasing and deepening the contributions of science to agriculture in Africa.

“It is critical that African countries invest more in agricultural research to ensure that they can feed their populations,” said Nienke Beintema, head of ASTI and one of the authors of the report.

“Underinvestment, inadequate human resource capacity, poor research infrastructure, and a lack of coherent policies continue to constrain the quantity and quality of research outputs in many countries.”

Other findings in the report include the problem of high researcher turnover across Africa due to low salary levels and poor conditions of service; the approaching retirements of a very large share of senior researchers, the gross underrepresentation of female scientists in agriculture R&D, donor dependence and funding volatility.

From 2000-2011, the researchers found, the region’s public agricultural research capacity showed an increase of 50 percent to an estimated 14,500 full-time researchers (FTEs).

Put in context, however, just three countries—Nigeria (2,688 FTEs), Ethiopia (1,877 FTEs), and Kenya (1,151 FTEs)—employed more than one-third of those researchers in 2011. Moreover, just two countries—Nigeria and Ethiopia—were responsible for most of sub-Saharan Africa’s capacity growth during this period.

Thirty eight countries included in ASTI’s analysis employed far fewer researchers – 10 employed fewer than 100 FTEs each, and growth across countries was primarily driven by the recruitment of less qualified staff. In addition, a number of Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal) recorded rapid decreases in researcher numbers between 2008 and 2011.

On the subject of funding, the report pointed out that in most countries, the bulk of government funding is allocated to salaries, so the costs of operating actual research programs and of developing and maintaining R&D infrastructure and equipment are highly dependent on donor contributions.

This being the case, donors and development banks can have a disproportionate influence on critical decision-making processes, potentially skewing the research agenda toward short-term goals that may not necessarily be aligned with national and (sub)regional priorities.

The report cited recent policy responses from specific countries to their human resource challenges.

In Burundi, a 2009 law improving faculty salary levels prompted most of the Burundian nationals who had sought better paying positions in Rwanda to return to the National University of Burundi.

Eritrea had one of the youngest and least-qualified pools of agricultural researchers in Africa, so the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and Hamelmalo Agricultural College collaborated to develop a PhD program at HAC, and the government has increased its support to make this possible.

In Uganda, collaboration between the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and Makerere University has been even more extensive; the two organizations are working together to strengthen human resource capacity, develop and implement research projects, and share and build on their knowledge bases.

Governments in Guinea, Madagascar, and Sudan have raised the official retirement age for public agricultural researchers, which gives the institutes extra time for senior staff to train and mentor their junior colleagues.

Finally, in Rwanda, the government of President Paul Kagame is supporting the development of a number of MSc and PhD programs in agricultural sciences at the University of Rwanda, which was recently established through the merger of the countries public universities.

(GIN) – Three weeks after a people’s revolt in Burkina Faso, which sent President Blaise Campaore fleeing into exile, dreams of a civilian-led transition to free elections were dimmed this week as the military held on to powerful posts in a new Cabinet.

Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida will be both prime minister and defense minister. Four other ministries, Interior and Territorial Administration, Sports, Environment, and Mines, will also be headed by military men.
Interim civilian President Michel Kafando will also serve as foreign minister.

Meanwhile, renewed efforts were announced this week to verify the burial place of Burkina’s slain revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara.
According to the Sankara family, the body was not buried as claimed by the ousted president, but dumped in a mass grave.

Identification of Captain Sankara’s body and nearly a dozen of his comrades had been the subject of dispute with the ousted leader since Sankara’s assassination in October 1987.

In the aftermath of Sankara’s murder, Compaoré made it appear like the revolutionary leader’s body received an official burial in a grave painted in national colors in the main cemetery in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Now, Interim President Michel Kafando has pledged to verify the actual burial place and identify the body.

Benewende Sankara, the lawyer of the Sankaras said: “This is what we have long been denied and by this decision, I can only but say that the new leadership has restored confidence and hope of greater things to come in this country.”

Hopes have also been raised that an investigation of the murder of investigative journalist Norbert Zongo in 1998 will be carried out.

At the time of his death, Zongo was working on a story about how the driver of the ex-president’s younger brother was tortured and killed in 1998 for allegedly stealing money from his employer.

All efforts by Zongo’s family and their lawyers to seek accountability for his killing were thwarted until the case reached the heights of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights.

In a landmark ruling, the Court decided that Burkina Faso engaged in a cover-up and violated a provision of the Economic Community of West African States which requires it not only to protect freedom of expression, but also the vocation of journalism.

A protest this week against the former prosecutor, Adama Sagnon, for enabling the case to be dismissed in 2006, produced his resignation from the interim administration.

“We wanted to show our refusal to endorse the appointment of Judge Adama Sagnon who is implicated in the Norbert Zongo case,” said Rasmane Ouedraogo, a Burkinabe musician who participated in the protests.

(GIN) – Leaders of Kenya’s Catholic Church are attempting to derail a vaccination campaign that would protect 2.5 women from a life-threatening nerve disease.

Calling it a stealth birth control campaign, clerics have been telling parishioners to refuse the shot that would immunize women against tetanus – popularly known as lockjaw. It would also reduce the number of babies who
die of neonatal tetanus.

Some 550 Kenyan babies died of the disease in 2013 and according to UNICEF, 8,000 babies worldwide died of neonatal tetanus in 2010.

Tetanus is a serious bacterial disease that affects the nervous system, leading to painful muscle contractions, particularly of the jaw and neck muscles. Tetanus can interfere with breathing and be life-threatening.

Cases of tetanus are rare in the United States where vaccinations are given widely. The incidence of tetanus is much higher in less developed countries. Around a million cases occur worldwide each year.

Treatment focuses on managing complications until the effects of the tetanus toxin resolve.

But a statement, signed by all 27 Kenyan bishops, attacked the campaign sponsored by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, calling it “a disguised population control program.”

John Cardinal Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi, urged women in the country to keep away from the vaccine. Certain ‘powers’ with a hidden agenda were behind the vaccine campaign, he warned.

According to the religious leaders, the proposed vaccine is laced with Beta-HCG hormone which, they claimed, causes infertility and multiple miscarriages in women.

But a doctor that tested the vaccine said the church had misinterpreted the results in two tests conducted in March and October.

James Elder, UNICEF’s communications officer for East Africa, explained that the aim of the vaccination campaign was to prevent neonatal tetanus in newborns who bear the highest burden of tetanus disease. These children live
in parts of the country with limited access to health facilities – most births occur at home in non-sterile conditions.

“Children born at home are at risk of tetanus through the cut umbilical cord. Their mothers are also at risk of infection with tetanus during childbirth.

“Vaccinating girls and women of child bearing age (15 to 49 years) protects the women even under unhygienic conditions. They pass this protection to the unborn child in the womb.”

The Kenyan clerics’ claims are supported by the Virginia-based Population Research Institute (PRI), which also opposes tetanus shots they describe as “mass sterilization agents that, with the stick of a needle sterilize women
for years, or a lifetime.”

The group also lobbies against family planning funding and succeeded in cutting $34 to $40 million per year for seven years from the U.N. Population Fund.

(GIN) – Political and military leaders in the West African nation of Burkina Faso have settled on a former foreign minister, Michel Kafando, to oversee a year-long transition to elections. The country has been without a leader since the former president was ousted by the citizens.

Blaise Compaore was overthrown on Oct 31. He escaped to neighbouring Ivory Coast after tens of thousands of citizens, angered over his attempt to add extra years to his 27 year rule, rallied in the streets. Compaore first
seized power in a coup in 1987 and went on to win four disputed elections.

Kafando, 72, was ambassador of Burkina Faso at the United Nations and also served as president of the Security Council. His candidacy was proposed by the army.

Paul Ouedraogo, the archbishop of the southern Bobo-Dioulasso diocese, was considered for the post but ruled himself out. “I don’t anticipate it. The cleric doesn’t engage in this kind of power,” he said in a press interview.

It’s not clear whether Kafando will satisfy the population which was considered “low income” by the World Bank. Unmet needs include schools, running water, housing and jobs.

A popular socialist president, Thomas Sankara, gave the country the name Burkina Faso for “land of honest men.” He led the country from 1983 until 1987 until he was murdered and replaced by the ousted president.

At the time of his assassination Sankara was just 37 and had ruled for only four years. But his policies and his vision are still cherished both by some locals who were around when he was in power and, significantly, by many young people who were born since his death.

Burkina Faso has significant reserves of gold, but processing cotton is the economic mainstay for many Burkinabes.

African Union chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma praised the people of Burkina Faso “for their political maturity and sense of responsibility” and called for “a smooth transition under the direction of civil authorities”.

(GIN) – “I am a Liberian, not a virus.” That’s the loud and clear message of a campaign launched online by a group of Liberian women who refuse to be shamed by thoughtless outbreaks of rejection and cruelty that link African people with the epidemic that has taken thousands of lives.

“If I am Liberian, that doesn’t mean that I have Ebola,” Carolyn Woahloe, a registered nurse, told the Los Angeles Times. “This is not a Liberian problem. This is a world problem.”

Misinformation about the virus has sparked fears around the country and around the world, prompting some national leaders to deny visas to West Africans despite medical guarantees that this was unnecessary and unsafe. As with the AIDS virus in the early days, Africans have been singled out for slurs and rejection even when they present no threat at all.

In Texas, for example, Liberians living in the Dallas area where the first Ebola death was recorded were taunted with “Go back to Liberia.” Students from Rwanda were ordered to stay away from a New Jersey school where they were enrolled.

An Oregon high school canceled a planned visit by 18 African students – all from countries untouched by Ebola – citing a “fluid” situation on the continent.

In response, Shoana Clarke Solomon, a Liberian photographer and TV host, created a hashtag “#IamaLiberianNotaVirus,” (I am a Liberian, Not a Virus) that quickly went viral.

“We are Liberians, Sierra Leoneans, Guineans and Nigerians. We live in a region that has been devastated by a deadly disease, but we are not all infected,” she said.

“It is wrong to stereotype and stigmatize an entire people. Remember we are human beings.”

Her message was echoed by singing sensation Angelique Kidjo from the West African nation of Benin who found a jeering comment posted on her Facebook page when she announced her concert this week at Carnegie Hall honoring the late South African singer Miriam Makeba, known widely as Mama Africa.

They wrote: “Instead of mama africa it should be mama ebola” and “I wonder if she is bringing any Ebloa [sic] with her?”

“Overnight it seems that all the naïve and evil preconceptions about Africa have surfaced again.” Kidjo wrote on the op-ed page of The New York Times. “Ebola has brought back the fears and fantasies of Africa as the Heart of Darkness and the fear-mongering about the disease threatens to reverse decades of progress for Africa’s image.”

“Stigma is bound to happen,” added Clarke Solomon, “especially when people don’t take the time to learn the facts.”

Still, she said, “I am also grateful for the media. It’s bringing much-needed attention to Liberia and other countries that need help with ending this epidemic. Without press coverage, this situation would be far … worse.”

(GIN) – In a burst of pent-up anger, a youth-led movement overpowered the unpopular regime of Blaise Compaore of the West African nation of Burkina Faso, dashing hopes by the “President for Life” to extend his 27 year rule by another term and forcing his resignation.

Hundreds of thousands of protestors, many from Le Balai Citoyen (the Citizen’s Broom), a grassroots movement, filled the streets as news of an attempted power grab by Compaore, a close ally of Washington and France, filtered out over the weekend.

Compaore was believed to be engineering an amendment to the constitution so that he could run for elections again next year.

The demonstrators included hundreds of women carrying broomsticks, spatulas, and pestles.

“We came out with our spatulas to give a warning to a man hell-bent on destroying our country,” said Juliette Congo of the Movement of People for Progress.

Actions by some protestors, including setting fire to the parliament building and the looting of Compaore’s brother’s home, prompted troops to move into the Place de la Nation in the capital Ouagadougou and take over the national television headquarters in a show of force.

They announced that a transition government would be formed by “broad consensus”. In the meantime, they named Lt Col Isaac Zida, previously second in command of the presidential guard, as the new interim boss.

African Union official Simeon Oyono Esono, called the military takeover “a blow against democracy”. The AU has given a two-week deadline to return power to a civilian transitional government.

The symbolism of the broom dates back to the administration of former president Thomas Sankara who initiated regular street-cleaning exercises in which citizens would pick up brooms and clean their neighborhoods.

The powerful metaphor for self-sufficiency was the inspiration for Le Balai Citoyen.

Compaore, who has now fled to Ivory Coast, first seized power in a coup in 1987, and thereafter won four disputed elections.

Zida’s appointment marks the seventh time that a military officer had taken over as head of state in Burkina Faso since it won independence from France in 1960.

Meanwhile, Washington declined to cut military ties to the country saying it was not ready to determine whether the takeover by the army amounted to a coup.

(GIN) – With media stoking fears of a spreading Ebola crisis, medical professionals and other experts have been taking pains to keep cool heads above the super-heated news frenzy.

They forced a retreat this week to plans by Governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie of New York and New Jersey, who threatened to quarantine all arrivals from the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in tents for 21 days.

A quarantined doctor with no symptoms held at the Newark, NJ airport was released after she threatened to sue the state.

Speaking today on the DemocracyNow news show, the director of the noted Earth Institute, Jeffrey Sachs, discussed his recent article “We Don’t Need an Ebola Czar.”

“President Obama should be backing up his real Ebola leader, Tom Frieden, the head of the Centers for Disease Control, rather than appointing somebody who obviously lacks the necessary knowledge and experience to head an Ebola effort.

“This was politics,” he charged, adding that Obama’s hand appeared to be forced by what he called “a disgraceful show in Congress, when congressmen who had been cutting the CDC budget for years, then went after Frieden who is one of the world’s most experienced leaders in public health.”

“Rather than asking: ‘What can we do for you, Dr Frieden, to help ensure a quality U.S. effort?’ they started making accusations,” he said.

Sachs commented on a report from Jubilee USA, an alliance of faith based and social justice groups – to the effect that Guinea now spends more repaying foreign debt that it spends on public health. Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, said the group, spend together nearly $200 million a year on debt.

In 2010, they group observed, the U.S. passed a law supporting debt relief for Haiti after the earthquake. What about doing the same thing for these countries?

Sachs recalled his own frustrated efforts to raise funds for community health workers in Liberia, before the Ebola epidemic had started.

“The answer from all of the international agencies is, “There’s no money here, and Liberia is not much of a priority. Come back in the next funding cycle.”

Questions were posed to Nancy Kass, professor of bioethics and public health at Johns Hopkins University.

“Clearly, we need people on the ground,” she said, especially people providing direct care in the treatment centers to sick patients. She expressed dismay that the 3,000 volunteers promised by the Dept of Defense had not yet arrived.

On the contrary, she noted, the Democratic Republic of Congo recently sent 1,000 healthcare workers to Liberia. “Obviously, Congo has experience with Ebola from past outbreaks, and they were willing to send healthcare workers there.”

Meanwhile, a new commander has taken over the US military mission to fight Ebola in West Africa, the Pentagon announced. The troops, who arrived in Liberia 38 days ago, have put up two new laboratories and a 25-bed hospital which should be operational in the capital Monrovia by November.

(GIN) – North African Tunisians whose rebellion sparked the so-called Arab Spring in 2011, turned out in force to elect a secular party – Nidaa Tounes – over the incumbent Islamist Ennahda party in preliminary results released on Sunday.

It was the country’s first election since the “Dignity Revolution” and was marked with a strong turnout of over 60 percent.

Voters abandoned Ennahda for failing to resolve abuses of the former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who ruled Tunisia for more than 20 years.

Among these were high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, a lack of freedom of speech and poor living conditions.

The suicide of a vegetable vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, after he was slapped and fined by a police officer, is said to have set off the unrest that led to Ben Ali’s flight out of the country.
A trial of the ex-president, in absentia, found him guilty of the crimes of inciting violence and murder. He faces life sentences in Tunisia if he returns.

In this past weekend’s voting, Nidaa Tounes took 83 seats, with the Islamist Ennahda trailing with 68.

Ahmed Gaaloul, a member of the Ennadha party’s shura (consultative) council, said history showed that the first governments to lead countries after revolutions often had a difficult time.

“People’s expectations are higher after a revolution. Governing is not an easy task in those conditions,” Gaaloul told Al Jazeera.

“Our vision is that if the opposition is elected, we’ll have to govern within a coalition. It’s in the benefit of the country to include all the political players.”

Despite outbreaks of police violence – as seen in the rap music videos of Armada Bizerta in their version of The Sound of Da Police – and a difficult economic situation, Tunisia’s progress on human rights is still far ahead of most of its fellow Arab countries.

Abdel Basset Hassan, director of the Arab Institute for Human Rights in Tunis, said in a press interview: “Human rights are being institutionalized to a strong degree… They are being integrated into the daily social life of poor and working class Tunisians, far more so than in Morocco or Egypt.”

The country’s first free presidential elections are scheduled for Nov. 27.

(GIN) – Can you test a promising new Ebola drug by giving it to one sample infected group and giving a deactivated placebo to another?

That’s the issue dividing medical experts at a World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting this week in Geneva.

“Is that even ethical? Will workers amid an epidemic be willing to consider getting a placebo? Which villages won’t get the active vaccine?

“Will the bad roads and overwhelmed medical systems even allow for such a study?” – were among the questions posed in a recent Wall Street Journal article.

A rigorous vaccine study that would cover anywhere from 5,000 to 30,000 subjects would be challenging to say the least in the three affected West African countries.

The issue has moved to the front burner since a drug developed in the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center has been proven to block Ebola.

“(We) have generated, for the first time, “durable protection against a lethal Ebola virus challenge,” the NIH scientists reported in the journal Nature Medicine.

But the next step – a clinical study in the region – presents daunting hurdles. The vaccine needs to be kept at the temperature of dry ice.

That means a minus 80-degree centigrade freezer in a part of the world with a spotty power system, notes WSJ reporter Thomas M. Burtos.

Reaching treatment centers from congested Monrovia to the rural countryside could take days. Finally, health care workers might object to taking part in a test if only half of them are getting the actual drug as opposed to the placebo.

Meanwhile, in an unusual turn from its frequently negative Cuba reporting, the New York Times this week sang high praises for the “impressive role” of Cuba in sending close to 500 medical professionals to Sierra Leone.

“Cuba stands to play the most robust role among the nations seeking to contain the virus,” wrote the paper of record in its leading editorial. “While the United States and several other wealthy countries have been happy to pledge funds, only Cuba and a few nongovernmental organizations are offering what is most needed: medical professionals in the field.”

Calling it “a shame” that Washington is diplomatically estranged from Havana, the editorial adds that “the schism has life-or-death consequences.

”It was an urgent reminder, they wrote, of the need “to move swiftly to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba… as the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.”

(GIN) – Almost forgotten in the panic sparked by a new Ebola infection – this time of the Dallas nurse apparently suited up properly to care for the Liberian patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, in isolation – some media houses are asking the question: “Where is the nation’s Surgeon General?”

Although primarily a ceremonial post, the Surgeon General has the power of a bully pulpit and could provide much needed reassurance that plans are coming together to stop the further spread of the virus and counteract rumor.

“Americans need to know that someone with authority is drawing information from disparate agencies tracking and countering Ebola within our borders,” wrote Jerry Lanson, professor of journalism at Emerson College.

But a candidate proposed by US President Barack Obama has been sidelined by the Republican Congress because the nominee, Dr. Vivek Murthy, apparently offended the powerful gun lobby by supporting an assault weapons ban and writing that “Guns are a health care issue.”

Kentucky Sen. Ran Paul retorted: “As a physician, I am deeply concerned that Murthy has advocated that doctors ask patients, including minors, details about gun ownership in the home… Dr. Murthy has disqualified himself from being Surgeon General because of his intent to launch an attack on Americans’ right to own a firearm under the guise of a public health and safety campaign.”

But an op-ed by News One Now host Roland Martin countered: “Murthy has no business sitting around waiting to be confirmed. The Obama administration should be raising holy hell, demanding that a pre-eminent doctor get his vote on the Senate floor.”

Two MSNBC producers weighed in with a joint editorial: “Thanks to NRA power and Senate cowardice, we are left with no surgeon general during a time when we not only have Ebola arriving on our shores but are also dealing with the mysterious Enterovirus, which is contributing to the deaths of children in the U.S.”

Meanwhile, a top U.S. health official has riled some health care experts and nurses by blaming a “protocol breach” for the new virus infection on a Dallas nurse.

Hospital staff, said the experts, need better coaching on treating an Ebola patient, making sure they have the right safety equipment and know how to use it properly to prevent infection.”

“You don’t scapegoat and blame when you have a disease outbreak,” said Bonnie Castillo, a disaster relief expert at National Nurses United. “We have a system failure. That is what we have to correct.”

More than 4,000 people have died in the worst Ebola outbreak on record that began in West Africa in March.

(GIN) – After failing to win further delays in a hearing of serious charges against him, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced he would temporarily step down as president of Kenya and face the court.

Five charges of crimes against humanity are linked to Kenyatta’s alleged involvement in funding and directing aspects of the violence that killed 1,300 people in the weeks following disputed 2007 elections.

Gangs allegedly under his direction carried out rape and murder including the incineration of dozens of Kenyans who sought shelter in a church. Some victims were hacked to death and four were beheaded. More than 600,000 people were left homeless.

Prosecutors say Kenyatta met members of the Mungiki, a secretive Kikuyu gang, in order to organize retaliatory attacks in the Rift Valley towns of Nakuru and Naivasha, in response to the initial attacks on the Kikuyu community in the region.

Members of the Kikuyu ethnic group of Kenyatta and Kibaki were led to turn against other communities, butchering people using machetes, bows and arrows. He denied the accusation at a preliminary hearing at the ICC last September.

The case, set to begin Oct. 8, is before the International Criminal Court (ICC), based at The Hague, Netherlands. Deputy president William Ruto will fill the seat although he faces similar charges in a separate but linked case at the ICC. His trial has already begun.

With witnesses now backing out and requested documents being withheld by Kenyan officials, the case could collapse, say some experts. This would be a blow to a court that has handed down just two guilty verdicts, both to little known Congolese warlords, and one acquittal since inception in 2003.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, wanted for genocide, still travels to countries, particularly in Africa, that have ignored a warrant for his arrest, even when they are court signatories.

Kenyatta, in a speech to the nation, echoed complaints heard across the continent that the court is biased and persecutes Africans.

“My accusers both domestic and foreign have painted a nefarious image of most African leaders as embodiments of corruption and impunity,” he said, repeating his previous denials of the charges by saying his “conscience is clear”.

George Kegoro, head of the Kenyan chapter of the International Commission of Jurists, praised the president for following the rule of law. If Kenyatta had refused to go, he risked an international arrest warrant and international condemnation or economic sanctions against Kenya.

“The tragedy is,” wrote ‘ID1647404’ on the Guardian website, “that Kenyans really deserve to be able to vote for someone who presents them with ideology and policy choices, rather than just more exhortations that it is their tribe’s ‘turn to eat’…

(GIN) – Farmers, indigenous peoples and other social justice groups will be taking to the streets this week in 10 cities, calling for an end to ruinous business-driven development plans for poor countries around the world.

According to the “Our Land Our Business” campaign, millions of people are being thrown off their land because large corporations have been given special rights.

Showing their disapproval, participants will stage “creative resistance” outside the World Bank’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. and in other cities from Oct. 10 to 11.

Over 200 organisations from over 100 countries have signed on to the group’s Our Land Our Business statement, the group said. Other cities planning actions include Nairobi, Lagos, Mexico City, Delhi, Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Dhaka, Brussels, and London.

“The World Bank’s Doing Business ranking gives points to countries when they act in favor of the ‘ease of doing business.’ This consists of smoothing the way for corporations’ activity by, for instance, cutting administrative procedures, lowering corporate taxes, removing environmental and social regulations, or lowering trade barriers,” according to the event organizers.

“The ranking system also encourages land reforms that tend to make land just a marketable commodity, easily accessible to wealthy corporations. In the process, they neglect human rights, the protection of workers, and the sustainable use of natural resources.”

Among the planned DC activities is a panel discussion on Agricultural Development with panelists Ruth Nyambura from the African Biodiversity Network, Kenya; Okok Ojulu from Anywaa Survival Organization, Ethiopia; and Ibrahim Sidibe from National Rural Youth Federation & National Coordination of Peasant Organisations, Mali.

“Working for the World Bank’s Social Fund in Gambella, I protested the widespread coercion and forced relocation of people,” recalled Ojulu.

“Today I live in political exile in Kenya. I am protesting the World Bank on Oct. 10 because I know firsthand how their policies negatively impact communities.”

To coincide with the #WorldVsBank mobilization, the Oakland Institute, a leading think tank on land issues, is releasing a new study “Unfolding Truth: Dismantling the World Bank’s Myths on Agriculture and Development.”

In addition, the Institute will also release six new country fact sheets that examine reforms promoted by the World Bank in Kenya, Uganda, DRC, Laos, Cambodia, and Uruguay. “

In each country, the Bank’s policies served as a catalyst for massive land grabs, dispossession, and forced eviction of countless small-scale farmers,” they wrote.

For further information about the event , visit http://ourlandourbusiness.org

(GIN) – Leaked documents seen by the Guardian newspaper of London reveal that the World Bank ignored an inspection report that detailed violations of the Bank’s own policies, permitting the burning of homes and forcible eviction of approximately 1,000 Sengwer people from their ancestral lands in Kenya’s Embobut forest.

The forced evictions were described as “cultural genocide” by horrified rights groups around the world. They were also condemned by the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination.

An online petition by the group Avaaz.org called on the bank to end the evictions.

“As citizens from around the globe, we call on you to use your leverage over the Kenyan Forest Service and the Kenyan government to urgently halt the forceful and illegal evictions of the Sengwer people from Embobut Forest,” the petition stated.

“These evictions violate Kenya’s Constitution, are illegal under international law, and are an abuse of the community’s human rights.”

Evictions of forest dwellers began as part of a World Bank plan to “preserve” natural Kenyan forests as an offset to dirty industrial projects in western countries – a plan known as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation).

Kenya has already received over $600 million from the World Bank to protect the forests, using the Kenyan Forest Service to clear out so-called “squatters” who could be cutting down trees or burning coal.

Factories in Europe and the U.S., on the other hand, are allowed to continue polluting the land and air as long as these African forestlands could be preserved.

When first alerted to the Sengwer’s plight, the Bank president said he was “alarmed” by reports of the evictions. “The World Bank is not involved in the reported evictions, nor has the Bank financed or supported these actions. Nevertheless, we are not bystanders”, he said.

According to the UK-based Forest Peoples Programme, an internal report confirmed safeguard violations but the Bank’s management response, seen by the Guardian, denied many of the findings… proposing instead more training for forest service staff, and a meeting to examine what can be learnt.

“The Sengwer People have always preserved the ecosystems in their ancestral land by practicing by living sustainably and are now facing complete annihilation under the guise of ‘conservation’ under REDD, wrote Nnimmo Bassey and Anabela Lemos of the No REDD in Africa Network.

“The World Bank is both admitting its complicity in the forced relocation of the Sengwer People as well as offering to collude with the Kenyan government to cover-up cultural genocide,” they wrote.

“Claims of being able to restore and improve the living standards of evicted people such as the Sengwer are crude, paternalistic, colonial in nature and above all smack of sheer arrogance on the World Bank’s part.”