Caring about Africa

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I heard it, too. It was truly disturbing. But I really think that it is just a matter of time before Mugabe and his cadre are swept away by the tide.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A complicated power-sharing arrangement has been agreed to in Zimbabwe between Mugabe, main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change and Arthur Mutambarathe head of a third party that broke off rom the MDC. It appears that Mugabe will continue to be head of state, and continue to control the army, while Tsvangirai will become Prime Minister and control finance, the police and the intelligence services. But while the agreement has been signed, details are continuing to be worked out, and it remains to be seem whether these bitter enemies will be able to successfully work together.

At least it's a start.

Zimbabwe rivals sign power-sharing deal

[eborr]

I hope so, what was more important than the signing was the open, public disdain,of Zanu PF, pretty much unchecked by the police this time.


What Mugabe and his cronies also realise is that Mbeckies time in South Africa is over, Zuma, currently the most likely successor has publically disavowed Mugabe , which is unsurising as he is a Zulu.

The deal on the table is Mugabe last best chance. What he realistically can expect is immunity from prosecution, and for his wife to continue state funded shoping trips.

Lut us hope that Morgan is not corrupted by power, the man has paid his dues and he deserves support and gratitude - that does not mean that he is the best person to succeed

[Túrin Turambar]

Inflation in Zimbabwe has passed 231 million percent. This must be going for some sort of all-time record.

[yovargas]

I would think that those numbers would've stopped meaning anything ages ago as I can't imagine anybody uses their money anymore.

[River]

I still don't understand why it's being allowed to continue. What is Mugabe gaining from this?

[Túrin Turambar]

As you probably know by now (even though the U.S. elections are dominating news headlines) there has been a renewed bout of fighting in the long-suffering Democratic Republic of the Congo. As far as I can gather from the news stories, the Tutsi-aligned National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has driven Government forces back several miles in the province of Kivu, and order among Government troops has collapsed. The rebels are about twelve miles from the provincial capital of Goma. This article briefly discusses the current turn of events.

To be honest, I’m hard-pressed to think of a country in worse shape than the DRC. Only a decade ago it was embroiled in a war that killed five million. Even though it’s now notionally at peace, 45,000 people continue to die every month in the eastern provinces from ongoing fighting and starvation, and close to a million Congolese are still refugees.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Lord M, thank you for posting this. The Congo always seems to be the great forgotten story, and yet it is among the greatest tragedies of all time, with no real end in sight.

[Túrin Turambar]

As a side note, I think that Somalia probably edges out the DRC in the basket-case country department. Anyone else see the story about the 13-year-old girl who reported that three men had raped her and was subsequently stoned to death in Kismayo statium in front of 1,000 spectators?

[River]

I see Somalia as a general argument against anarchy. Beyond that, I ran out of words a long time ago.

Same for the Congo. I don't know what needs to be, can be done, internally or externally, to stop and prevent these tragedies.

[Túrin Turambar]

Meanwhile, back in the Congo, the U.N. has moved decisively to bring aid to the thousands of refugees - by handing out tokens that will be redeemable for food at some later date .

[MithLuin]

Is this an effort to make sure the food actually gets to the people who need it? Or a sign that no one was really prepared to deal with this crisis?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Almost three months later, and I literally still can't believe that this happened. A horrible atrocity in the midst of a place and a people that I care deeply about.

Guinea: damning report on opposition bloodbath

I'm curious to know whether people have heard about this, and if they are as horrified by it as I am. Obviously not on as personal a level (for those who don't know, I have travelled five times to Guinea and have many friends there and from there), but how could anyone not be moved by such an incredible blatant abuse of power.

[Túrin Turambar]

I hadn’t heard of it. I suppose that the unfortunate thing is that it’s all too common for that part of the world, and so hasn’t attracted that much notice. Rape and the killing of civilians by Government troops in the Congo is still extremely common, for example, and happens over a very large scale.

I suppose that, for violent events in sub-Saharan Africa to reach world attention, they either need to be on a large scale (the ongoing wars in the Congo and Uganda), involve a western power (say, the Battle over the Chadian capital of N’Djamena in 2008 which involved the French Army) or involve some sort of major political upheaval.

That said, thanks for bringing it up. I had no idea what the political situation in Guinea was.

[Primula Baggins]

I did hear about it at the time (pesky liberal media covering news), and it is horrifying.

But by the standards of American mainstream media (It only or mostly happened to brown people = It's boring), it's far less arresting than Project Runway.

You might accuse me of being knee-jerk liberal about this, I suspect, but I maintain that it's true. It was true about Katrina; it's true here.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't listen to or watch much mainstream media, so it's interesting to me to hear that they haven't mentioned this much at all. There has been quite a bit of talk about it on NPR. I know that Hillary Clinton put out a fairly major statement about the brazen use of public raping to intimidate people, so one would think that it would be something that the media would have covered. I've heard about a lot of terrible things, but gang-raping woman right in the middle of a public demonstration in the national stadium, and then dragging them off and holding them captive for days and weeks of continuous sexual abuse is one of the most brazen abuses of power I've ever heard of (quite beyond the calculated murder of demonstrators).

[Primula Baggins]

It is unfortunately used in many places.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It is, I know. This was just a bit more brazen and out in the open than usual.

[Inanna]

What's the tipping point? I mean, historically, what's the point at which UN decides to get involved?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, the UN is involved in Guinea. As the video that I posted indicated, the UN panel investigating the incident was submitted the same day as the Human Rights Watch report.

UN Secretary-General Receives Report on Guinea Protesters' Killing

It remains to be seen what, if anything, the UN will actually do.