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China’s Love Of Africa
THE $200 million new headquarters of the African Union – a gift from China – is another confirmation of the continent’s inability to get things done by itself. Almost 50 years after the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, OAU, the AU’s forebear, the continent could not afford the AU’s new edifice that has cast a permanent role for China in Africa.
Disgraced Libyan despot Moammar Gadhafi could be largely thanked for the new building. As AU Chairman in 2009, he was planning to move the AU’s headquarters from Addis Ababa to his native Sirte. The Ethiopians, who have been close to China, secured the AU headquarters with the offer from China, which built and furnished it.
The new African Union headquarters built and fully funded by the Chinese government at a cost of $200 million. The building hosted this year’s AU Summit in the Ethiopian capital. The towering building – Addis Ababa’s tallest – symbolizes China’s strengthening ties with Africa, a major source of foreign investment from China. AFPAddis Ababa has been Africa’s diplomatic capital since the Read more…
Medvedev Commits Russia’s Support to Africa
In a congratulatory message to the continent on Africa Day, the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, said that his country is ready to continue supporting Rwanda and other African countries in their quest for development.
In his message sent to The New Times, Medvedev said that Africa Day is important for the continent to reflect on its aspirations for freedom, unity, peace, stability and sustainable development.
“In the recent years African countries have been steadily moving on the way of fundamental transformations and modernisation. A lot has been done for acceleration of growth rate, Read more…
Nigerian vote must succeed for Africa: Ghana ex-president
(AFP)
ABUJA — Nigeria must hold a credible presidential election this weekend since failing to do so could set a disastrous example for the rest of the continent, Ghana ex-president John Kufuor said Thursday.
ex-president of Ghana John Kufuor
Kufuor, widely respected for having bowed out gracefully following his two terms in office in nearby Ghana, is heading an observer team from the African Union in Saturday’s election in the continent’s most populous nation.
“It’s very important that we should get this election right for the good of the image of Africa,” the 72-year-old told AFP in an interview.
“There are other elections pending in many parts of our continent. If things should go awry here, I am afraid to think of what may transpire elsewhere. Nigeria is too important for Africa.”
Kufuor stepped down in Ghana in 2009 after two four-year tenures in a peaceful transition after a closely fought election in which his party’s candidate lost to the opposition by less than one percent.
On what Nigeria, also Africa’s largest oil producer, could learn from Ghana’s elections, Kufuor said, “Nigeria, I believe, should serve itself well by playing by the rules… That’s all they need to do.”
Parliamentary polls held last weekend were seen as a major step forward for the country, which is seeking to break from a series of violent and deeply flawed elections.
But a first attempt to hold the polls a week before had to be postponed after personnel and materials failed to arrive in a large Read more…
World powers agree to set up contact group to map out Libya’s future
“Participants of the conference agreed to establish the Libya Contact Group,” said a statement issued by Mr Hague, who chaired Tuesday’s meeting of more than 35 countries plus the UN and Nato.
“Qatar has agreed to convene the first meeting of the group as soon as possible,” the statement said.
The group will provide “leadership and overall political direction to the international effort in close co-ordination with the UN (United Nations), AU (African Union), Arab League, OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Conference) and EU (European Union) to support Libya.”
The London conference was called to map out Libya’s future following the fighting between forces loyal to the country’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and rebels opposed to his four-decade rule.
Britain, France and the United States had launched military strikes on Libya ten days ago to Read more…
Djibouti evicts US vote group ahead of election
Djibouti’s government has kicked out an American election monitoring group less than a month before the nation’s presidential election, a vote opposition politicians are boycotting because they say the president is repressing dissent.
Djibouti is a tiny East African nation that hosts the only U.S. military base in Africa. Situated on the Gulf of Aden between Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen, the city-state is a major shipping hub in a volatile region.
The country is nominally democratic, but events leading up to the April 8 presidential election appear to show a hardline approach by President Ismail Omar Guelleh at a time when democracy movements are upending administrations.
Democracy International, a U.S. group that works on democracy and governance programs, was halfway through a two-year, $2.2 million U.S. government-funded contract when it was accused of assisting opposition politicians and barred from the country earlier this month. Read more…
‘The West is to be forgotten. We will not give them our oil’ – Gaddafi
This is just the first step in a long line for the US on not receiving any oil that is pumped from any country in the Middle East resulting in third world status. Lindsey Williams mentioned it on the Alex Jones Show almost a month ago.
http://rt.com/news/libya-oil-gaddafi-arab/
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi dismissed his Western partners in an exclusive interview to RT, saying he will give all the country’s oil contracts to Russia, China and India.
“We do not believe the West any longer, that is why we invite Russian, Chinese and Indian companies to invest in Libya’s oil and construction spheres” Gaddafi told RT in an exclusive interview about how he sees the current situation in Libya and the international reaction to events there.
“He condemned the Western powers, saying Germany was the only country with a chance of doing business with Libyan oil in the future. “We do not trust their firms – they took part in the conspiracy against us.”
The Libyan leader also added that as far as he is concerned, the Arab League has ceased to exist since it stood up against his country.
According to Gaddafi, the recent upheavals in his country were a “minor event” planned by Al Qaeda that will soon end.
Meanwile, Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim promised that Libya will honor Read more…
Between Sudan and Libya, Critics See U.S. Inconsistency
Why the rush to use force against Qaddafi when Sudan has suffered more?
Actor George Clooney helped conceive a project along with John Prendergast of the Enough Project that helps track violence in Sudan.
He went on to acknowledge that in a world full of Read more…
Gaddafi warns of bloodbath if West intervenes
TRIPOLI: Libyan strongman Moamer Gaddafi warned on Wednesday “thousands” would die if the West intervened to support the uprising against him, as rebels drove back an attack by his forces on an eastern town.
The chilling warning came as western powers dampened expectations of any early imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, amid a clamour from western states for action to prevent Kadhafi’s warplanes from attacking his own people.
The United States is a “long way” from deciding on whether to impose a no-fly zone, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as two US Navy ships steamed into position off Libya.
The 22-member Arab League appeared to offer an Arab and Read more…
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