Africa

Famous Senegalese singer Youssou N’dour has decided to quit music for politics and to run for next month elections. The musician’s widespread popularity will make him a significant force in Senegalese politics, but his political ambitions are currently unclear.

Libya is heading into the New Year with new leaders and hopes. But it turns out, as the immediate post-revolutionary excitement fades, the different factions of the former rebels are turning on each other in what may become a competition for power.

Nairobi – South Sudan -the world’s newest country– now faces the danger of a wide-spreading “inter-ethnic” war after increasing armed clashes between two major tribes that took around one thousand lives so far.

Somaliland officials are abducting and refouling Oromo, Ogaden and Eritrean asylum seekers. This is against international law as it pertains to refugees. Dr Trevor Trueman has co-ordinated a report on this matter which turns around the incident that took place late December 2011 where twenty refugees from Ethiopia were detained by Somaliland security forces.

Rome – Damaged crops combined with conflict and insecurity are threatening to leave some 2.5 million people in South Sudan – the world’s newest country – in critical conditions unless food assistance is provided immediately, the UN warns.

The first “Ambassador of Peace” art exhibition in this region was held December 25, 2011. The exhibition was designed in line with The Peace Pals International programme was developed in recent times to encourage youths, aged 5 to 16, to become peacemakers dedicated to living in the spirit of the words, “May Peace Prevail on Earth”

Reporters Without Borders expresses its deepest sympathy to the family
and colleagues of the journalist Abdisalan Sheikh Hassan, shot dead
yesterday by a man in military uniform in the Hamar Jajab district of
Mogadishu.

Cairo – Morocco’s legislative elections, that took place a year early following constitutional changes as part of the kingdom’s response to the Arab Spring, resulted in a triumphant victory for the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD). It gained 107 of 395 seats, just over 27%, making it by far the largest party in parliament.

The Kimberly Process (KP) Certification Scheme applies to rough diamonds, with stakeholding firms and countries producing certificates that allowing processed rough diamonds to freely enter the retail market regardless that revenue from that added-value processing funds State’s war crimes and human rights abuses against local populations.

Geneva – Hundreds of refugees in southern Ethiopia have been relocated from an overcrowded transit centre to a new camp, the fifth one in the area for Somalis fleeing conflict and drought in their homeland.