African Media Coverage

February 16-28, 2010

Featured articles:

South Africa- Business Day
Sudan signs accord with Darfur rebels
22 February 2010

Sudan and Darfur’s most powerful rebel group will tomorrow ratify an agreement reached after an easing of tension between Sudan and Chad.

The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said on Saturday that the framework agreement reached in the Chadian capital N’Djamena last week was not a final peace deal but set out the terms for negotiations that could still fail if it saw signs of bad faith from Khartoum.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said it would “heal” the war in the western region. He said he would cancel death sentences handed out to JEM prisoners and free 30% of them immediately — more than 100 men were sentenced to death by hanging after being found guilty of taking part in a JEM attack on Khartoum in 2008.

He told state television: “Today we signed an agreement between the government and JEM in N’Djamena, and in N’Djamena we heal the war in Darfur.”

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Kenya- The East African Standard
Darfur peacekeepers get helicopters after long wait
17 February 2010

International peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region received their first five military helicopters on Tuesday, ending a more than two-year wait for air support in a strife-torn territory the size of Spain.

Military commanders and activists have repeatedly called on Western powers to provide tactical helicopters for the joint U.N./African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force since it arrived in Sudan's rebellious West in January 2008.

Senior U.N. officials said they struggled to find any of the vital aircraft because so many helicopters had already gone to other conflict zones, including Afghanistan.

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Kenya- The East African Standard
Protest at funeral of "tortured" Darfur student
16 February 2010

Armed riot police surrounded hundreds of protesters at the funeral of a Darfuri student who colleagues said was tortured and killed by Sudanese authorities in a case that has sparked tensions ahead of elections.

Sudanese security services have denied any involvement in the death of Mohamed Musa, 23, who fellow students told Reuters was abducted in Khartoum on Wednesday and later found dead.

More than 1,000 Darfuris, students and politicians, including at least two presidential candidates, gathered at the funeral in the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman on Monday morning chanting and waving banners, said Reuters witnesses.

Scores of armed riot police and security officers surrounded the family home while relatives sat inside with the body.

"I have lost my son ... I want justice from the government, justice for my son," Musa's father Musa Abdullah Bahar al Din told Reuters, breaking down in tears.

Read the article here.