African Media Coverage

September 1-15, 2009

Kenya: The East African
Be Tough on Al-Bashir, Activists Tell Obama
Published: 14 September 2009

Many East Africa-focused ac-tivists in the United States are expressing dismay over the Obama administration’s emerging policy toward Sudan. They say the US is taking too soft a line with the government in Khartoum on two fronts: the Darfur region and Southern Sudan.

Revising their positive views of the president’s intentions, the campaigners warn that President Barack Obama is breaking his promises of strong US action to halt what he had described as genocide in Darfur.

Advocates of a tougher US policy also fault the Obama administration for talking with the Sudan government about possible modifications to a 2005 accord that ended a ruinous 20-year civil war in the south of the country.

Read the article here.

AllAfrica.com
Complicating the Vote for Women
Published: 12 September 2009

In April 2010, the people of South Sudan will vote in a milestone general election, and for the first time, South Sudanese women will be able to participate.

Since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, which ended the 21 years of civil war in the south, elaborate and ambitious plans have been made for elections, which the people will excitedly take part in next year.

Before Sudan went to war in 1983, women were not allowed to vie for political office or to vote. Next April, they will be asked to cast their ballots in a contest in which 25 per cent of seats have been reserved for women.

The excitement is also tempered, however, by concerns over the major obstacles women face in exercising their democratic rights.

Read the article here.

Angola: The Angola Press
Europe, UK, Press Sudan to Return Seized Aid
Published: 8 September 2009

Britain and the European Commission have urged Sudan to return hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of assets they funded that were seized by Khartoum during a mass expulsion of humanitarian agencies.

Sudan said Tuesday it had acted within regulations when it took the assets from ousted groups, and said it now had the right to re-distribute the seized funding to other humanitarian programs as it saw fit.

Sudan expelled 13 foreign aid groups and closed three local organizations in March, after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir to face charges of masterminding atrocities in Darfur.

Read the article here.