Africa

Moroccan human rights activist and peace advocate Zakaria El Hamel was appointed Ambassador for Peace by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) and the Inter religious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP).
The Ambassadors for Peace is a global network of leaders from religion, politics and civil society working cooperatively for the sake of world peace.

A Rwandan inquiry has concluded that radical Hutus were responsible for the death of President Juvénal Habyarimana in an airplane crash in 1994. The assassination triggered a genocide that killed around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. After hearing over 500 witnesses, the commission that conducted the probe says the President was shot down by soldiers within his own army.

A Western Saharan human rights activist is in the third week of a hunger strike after being deported against her will by Moroccan authorities occupying her homeland. Aminatou Haidar, known as the “Sahrawi Gandhi,” is at the airport on the Canary Islands and is demanding that she be allowed to return to home. Morocco has occupied most of Western Sahara since 1975.

The Region of the Casamance has activated itself for peace and nonviolence: on November the 14th, 15th and 16th different humanists associations have realized a lot of initiatives in the towns of Oussouye and Bignona, involving the local institutions and the population, and the 22nd the World March for the Peace and Nonviolence has reached Ziguinchor, chief town of the Region

The World March for Peace and Nonviolence was welcomed to Rabat by Siba, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by Dermolini, the Secretary General for Youth. The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Popular Movement, a party which includes many former members of the resistance who chose peace as the only method for conflict resolution.

In a historical ceremony, a Peace Torch was passed from the Liberian delegation of the World March for Peace and Non Violence, to the delegation of the same World March of Sierra Leone on the Mano River Union Bridge, the border between the two countries, were participants gathered on both sides to allow this important gesture.

A novel idea favouring children has become a reality now that the Namibian Ministry of the Interior and Immigration has established an office in the maternity wing of Windhoek’s main public hospital. This initiative, supported by UNICEF, is designed to ensure that every child born in the hospital receives a birth certificate.

The new sponsor of the World March in Benin, Martin Assogba, President of the Association Against Racism, Ethnocentrism, and Regionalism , declared: “In the same way that we fought against slavery, we are now fighting for an end to war and for the abolition of nuclear weapons”. Mr Assogba equally stated that he will be at the head of the huge Caravan on the 26th December 2009.

The spokesman for the World March in France, Alain Ducq, went to Abidjan to adjudicate the March’s mission during a conference at an Ivorian university and television station where he invited the President of the Republic, Laurent Gbagbo, to support the *Charter for a World Without Violence*, drafted by Nobel Peace Laureates.

On October 19th, 20th, and 21st, humanist workers from the COHUB association (Cercle des Ouvriers Humanistes) in Benin participated in the 2009 Civil Society Days (JOSC), where they won the Achievement Prize for their presentation and campaign implemented within the framework of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence.