Africa

Over 200 people, Africans fleeing Libya by boat, drowned on Wednesday before reaching safety in Italy. It is just one of many tragedies resulting from North Africa’s refugee crisis, one of the world’s worst, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. Many of the refugees who were fleeing Libya in fact came from Somalia, Eritrea and Ivory Coast.

The South African government demanded that outgoing Cote d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, recognized by the UN as the winner of the November elections.

South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane asked Gbagbo to step down for peace in Cote d’Ivoire, said South African Journal Business Report.

Intentional or not, as there are no documents to support this hypothesis, the attack on Libya has served as a diversion to hamper a possible “second wave” of popular revolts in the Arab world. These are the thoughts of the political analyst Immanuel Wallerstein in Znet, published on 2 April by Rebelión and we circulate it because it is a different – and possible – view.

The White House-massaged media spin portrays President Barack Obama’s decision to go to war in Libya as a triumph for a triumvirate of liberals — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Ambassador Susan Rice, and Obama adviser Samantha Power — who have well-established records of advocating the use of U.S. military force for “humanitarian” purposes.

The world team of the humanist organism Convergence of Cultures denounces the growing violence that the non-resolved post-electoral crisis is causing in Ivory Coast, and demands a non-violent solution that lets the country overcome the social fracture. There have been many victims of indiscriminate violence, among them the humanists Lacina, Drissa and Moumouni.

According to information received by European Humanists Peter Noordendorp and Benoit Mangin, the situation in Ivory Coast has become increasingly violent: at least three Humanist non-violent activists are amongst those who have been killed. Ceremonies of Well-being (from Silo’s Message) for those involved in the non-violent struggle will be held throughout Europe and beyond.

Cote d’Ivoire faces a humanitarian tragedy, with aid access becoming increasingly difficult, hospitals and schools closing, law and order collapsing and casualties mounting, France’s representative to the United Nations said on Friday.
The crisis has displaced up to a million people, according to the UN refugee agency. Some 90,000 people have fled to neighboring Liberia.

Reports of civilian casualties are mounting in Libya amidst ongoing U.S.-led air strikes and the Gaddafi regime’s assault on three rebel-held towns. At least 16 civilians were reportedly killed after forces loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi resumed an attack on the coastal city of Misurata, shelling an area around the city’s main hospital.

To avoid misunderstandings: Gaddafi is a brutal, cynical, corrupt dictator, who obviously considers Libya as his personal property. His sons were forged in the same furnace. And yet, to try to justify, as many do, especially the French government of Sarkozy, the international military mission against the Libyan regime as a matter of morality and values, is simply hypocritical.

The U.S. and allied air strikes on Libya have entered their fourth day as part of an international effort to enforce a no-fly zone. An U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jet has crashed after apparent mechanical failure in northeast Libya. Libyan rebels rescued the pilot after he ejected from the warplane, which came down near the eastern city of Benghazi.