African Media Coverage

July 1-15, 2009

Angola: Angola Press
Sudan's truckers undaunted by bandits
Published: July 8, 2009

They risk being robbed or kidnapped, but Sudan's truckers still deliver food aid to thousands displaced by conflict in Darfur, where banditry is often overshadowed by the fighting between army and rebels. 

"We were delivering food to those displaced and were heading back when armed men blocked the road and stole our truck at gunpoint," said Salim Keydum, a trucker from Kordofan in central Sudan who does the Darfur route. 

Last year, he was leading a convoy heading from Nyala to El-Fasher, one of Darfur's most dangerous routes, when an armed group stopped his convoy in the town of Manawashi and took him and others hostage for two months. 

"We spent five days in one place and the rest of the two months in another place.

 Read the article here.

Uganda: Daily Monitor
The invisible war in Southern Sudan
Published: July 12, 2009

Sometime in October last year, the President of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, flew to Rumbek to officiate in the graduation of some 800 or so new military police personnel.

Among the graduates were gray-haired men and women. In the process, Kiir held a talk back with the cadets. From the questions he raised, it became apparent to those within an ear-shot that the Commander-in-Chief did not approve of the direction the military was taking. For instance, Kiir wondered to know how many of them could read and write. A few hands shot up.

Then, he told the recruits that the future war, if any, would be unlike the old war. The future war, he said, would be a smart one, fought by smart people. It would be brains over brawn. The Sudan has been at war for nearly five decades since an uprising in 1955 that spawned the Anyanya rebellion.

Read the article here.

Kenya: The East African
The more Bashir runs, the tighter ICC’s noose will get around him
Published: July 13, 2009

Ever since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant of arrest for President Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese leader has been remarkably — nay, impressively — defiant. Bashir, who is wanted to stand trial for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, has taken to travelling, it would seem, even more than before he was put on the ICC wanted list.

The African Union, a club that has some leaders who are responsible for more murders than Bashir is being blamed for, has rallied to his defence and resolved not to co-operate with the ICC.

Bashir is no fool, though. I suspect he no longer sleeps with both eyes closed.

Though he is flying around, he has been careful to stick mostly to dictatorships and countries that have not signed up to the ICC.

In Africa Botswana, one of the continent’s more democratic nations, is Bashir’s leading critic.

Bashir is not about to stop in Gaborone even for a refuelling stop on his way from Zimbabwe.

And, don’t expect that any of these days he will show up in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, because he can easily be grabbed and whisked off to The Hague.

Read the article here.