* Rwanda. Former PM goes home — 20 June: Former Rwandan Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu, is on his way home after eight years in exile in Belgium. He has been living in Belgium since 1995, a year after the genocide in Rwanda. He expected a «very sad homecoming», he said. He announced last week that he will stand in the country’s presidential election due later this year. Presidential and parliamentary elections, set for September, were announced after Rwandans voted overwhelmingly in a referendum last month to approve a draft constitution. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 20 June 2003)

* Rwanda. Twagiramungu arrivé à Kigali — Le 20 juin, le plus connu des opposants rwandais, l’ex-Premier ministre Faustin Twagiramungu est arrivé à Kigali, où il entend déposer sa candidature aux élections présidentielles annoncées. Celles-ci, ainsi que les législatives, doivent se tenir dans les six mois suivant le référendum constitutionnel du 26 mai. On attend également les lois électorales et sur les partis, pour savoir dans quelles conditions se tiendront les campagnes électorales. — Le lundi 23 juin, le Parlement a adopté la loi sur les partis qui régit la création et les activités des partis politiques. La loi interdit notamment aux organisations politiques de “s’identifier à une race, une ethnie, un clan, une région, un sexe, une religion ou tout autre élément pouvant servir de base à discrimination”. La loi électorale, préparant les scrutins présidentiel et législatif, devait être adoptée le mardi, mais le mercredi soir la discussion se prolongeait toujours au Parlement. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 25 juin 2003)

* Sénégal. Expulsion de Français — Le 19 juin, le Sénégal a annoncé que les Français en situation irrégulière seraient désormais expulsés comme les Sénégalais sans papiers en France. “Ce sera charter contre charter”, se réjouissait la presse de Dakar. Cette annonce intervient après une rencontre, le 13 juin à Paris, entre le Premier ministre Idrissa Seck et le ministre français de l’Intérieur, Nicolas Sarkozy. Dans un communiqué commun, il était prévu de “procéder, à une date qui sera précisée ultérieurement, au rapatriement de ressortissants français en situation irrégulière au Sénégal”. En mars et avril, le “rapatriement” de plus de 120 Sénégalais avait provoqué des réactions indignées au Sénégal. Une quinzaine de Français qui purgent des peines de prison pour divers délits, allant de la consommation de cannabis au meurtre, pourraient être concernés par une mesure d’expulsion. (Le Figaro, France, 21 juin 2003)

* Sierra Leone/UE. Accord de coopération — L’Union européenne et la Sierra Leone ont signé un accord de coopération d’un montant de 220 millions d’euros pour la période allant de 2003 à 2007, a-t-on appris le 25 juin de source officielle à Bruxelles. Selon un communiqué publié par la Commission européenne, l’objectif principal de cet accord est de soutenir le gouvernement sierra-léonais dans la reconstruction du pays et de l’aider dans sa stratégie de réduction de la pauvreté. (PANA, Sénégal, 25 juin 2003)

* Somalia. Radio education helps Somalis — Some 10,000 Somalis have been taught basic literacy, numeracy and life skills following a successful BBC World Service broadcast. Macallinka Raadiyaha (Radio Teacher), a BBC World Service Trust project, is an education programme designed to help people who signed up for the Somalia Distance Education Literacy Programme, or Somdel. Of the 10,908 people on Somdel, 9,000 passed their final exam. Of those, 70% were women. «The success of Somdel cannot be underestimated given that as a result of civil war, a whole generation of people have been excluded from education,» said John Tuckey, the project manager of BBC World Service Trust. He added that the success of Somdel would be of great benefit to the country. «Developing literacy, numeracy and life skills will improve their opportunities for sustainable livelihoods in a country where conflict is endemic,» he stressed. «It also demonstrates that radio is a powerful educational tool.» (BBC News, UK, 19 June 2003)

* South Africa. Whites face treason trial — 23 June: The first treason trial in South Africa since apartheid ended has got under way, with a group of alleged white supremacists accused of trying to overthrow the government. A total of 22 men thought to belong to the underground racist group «Boeremag» are accused of attacks against government targets. The prosecution argues the men’s aim was to kill off the country’s majority black population or drive them from South Africa. They are accused of the murder of Claudia Mokone who was killed in one a bomb blast in the black township of Soweto. And prosecutors say they also conspired to kill Nelson Mandela by blowing up a car transporting the former president to a public event. The group faces 42 charges, including high treason, murder, attempted murder, terrorism and the illegal possession of weapons. Six of the men have entered not guilty pleas, two are to plead at a later date while another man refused to enter a plea. But 13 of the men have decided to challenge the court’s jurisdiction. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 23 June 2003)

* Afrique du Sud. Siège du Parlement panafricain? — L’Afrique du Sud a fait un pas supplémentaire dans sa tentative d’abriter le siège du Parlement panafricain, avec l’annonce, le 25 juin, de la convocation la semaine prochaine au Cap d’une réunion de parlemantaires africains pour discuter de cette question. Pretoria s’est déjà assuré du soutien de l’ensemble des pays de la Communauté de développement de l’Afrique australe (SADC). Le Parlement panafricain devrait être l’organe législatif de l’Union africaine et le garant des valeurs démocratiques. (PANA, Sénégal, 25 juin 2003)

* Tchad. Nouveau gouvernement — Le mercredi 25 juin, le Premier ministre Moussa Fadi, nommé mardi par le président Déby en remplacement de Haroun Kabadi, a formé un gouvernement de 29 membres, marqué par la nomination de douze nouveaux ministres. Ce gouvernement est doté de deux nouveaux organes, appelés “ministères d’Etat”, qui sont placés immédiatement après le chef du gouvernement. Ces deux ministères d’Etat sont confiés à des sudistes, alors que Moussa Fadi est un nordiste. La nomination d’un nordiste comme Premier ministre a été diversement accueillie par la classe politique. Elle rompt avec une pratique non écrite vieille d’un quart de siècle, selon laquelle les deux têtes de l’exécutif (président et Premier ministre) devaient incarner la diversité du pays, partagé entre un nord arabo-musulman et un sud plutôt chrétien et animiste. “Le pouvoir appartient désormais à une seule région”, estime l’opposition. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 26 juin 2003)

* Togo. Longest-serving leader sworn in — 20 June: Africa’s longest-serving president, Gnassingbe Eyadema, has been sworn in for a fresh five-year term in Togo — a country he has ruled for 36 years. He appealed in his inauguration speech for national unity, saying people of Togo had to reject «hatred, intolerance and internecine fights» for good. And President Eyadema said full development of Togo could be achieved. «Economic independence is not a utopia. It will be achieved through financial stabilisation, good governance, and transparent and rigorous management,» he said. «The fight against chaos, favouritism, squandering, and corruption in all its forms therefore remains an absolute priority.» The investiture in Lome was attended by the presidents of Benin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Senegal. Also there were Amara Essy, the interim head of the African Union; and French Co-operation Minister Pierre-Andre Wiltzer. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 20 June 2003)

* Togo. Démission du gouvernement — Le 20 juin, le président Gnassingbé Eyadéma a prêté serment à la suite de sa réélection lors de la présidentielle du 1er juin. Le Premier ministre Koffi Sama a ensuite présenté la démission de son gouvernement au président, qui l’acceptée, demandant à M. Sama d’expédier les affaires courantes, indique un décret transmis le 24 juin. Le président Eyadéma a réitéré son appel pour la formation d’un gouvernement d’union nationale. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 24 juin 2003)

* Tunisia. Cyber award for jailed journalist — 19 June: A Tunisian journalist jailed after establishing a website for opposition views has been honoured by the media advocacy group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) with their first Cyber-Freedom Prize. Zouhair Yahyaoui was arrested in a cyber cafe last June and sentenced to two years imprisonment for «spreading false news». Supporters say he has been tortured and grown weak after a number of hunger strikes. The $6, (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 19 June 2003)

* Tunisie. 200 clandestins disparus en mer — Le vendredi 20 juin, un bateau chargé d’immigrés clandestins originaires du Maghreb et d’Afrique subsaharienne a coulé au large des côtes tunisiennes, faisant 12 morts, 197 disparus et 41 rescapés, selon un premier bilan officiel. Le bateau qui était parti jeudi vraisemblablement du littoral libyen, transportait environ 250 émigrés clandestins. Il a coulé au large de la ville tunisienne de Sfax. On ignorait toujours, vendredi soir, si le naufrage était dû à la surcharge ou aux mauvaises conditions climatiques. - Le samedi, on apprenait qu’une cinquantaine de corps avaient été repêchés. Les immigrants rescapés ont affirmé que l’embarcation, fournie par des passeurs en Libye, était “surchargée et en mauvais état”. -Dimanche, tout espoir de retrouver de nouveaux survivants semblait perdu. Les recherches étaient d’ailleurs rendues difficiles en raison de l’état agité de la mer. L’agence tunisienne officielle TAP a signalé ce week-end un afflux de bateaux avec à bord des candidats à l’immigration clandestine, faisant état de deux autres tentatives d’immigration vers l’Italie impliquant 52 personnes. Les habitants de Sfax ont affirmé qu’un autre naufrage avait eu lieu récemment non loin de cette ville, avec à bord 74 clandestins dont 3 seulement avaient pu être sauvés. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 23 juin 2003)

* Uganda. Uganda calls for EU help to counter rebels — Uganda’s president has requested European Union help in containing an offensive by Rwandan-backed rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The conflict threatens to pitch the country back into full-scale war and lead to direct confrontation between Uganda and Rwanda. President Yoweri Museveni urged EU ambassadors at a meeting in Kampala to request an expansion of the emergency French-led peacekeeping force, which began deployment in Congo earlier this month. The now 700-strong European Union force has a limited United Nations Security Council mandate to secure the airport and halt mass killings in the north-eastern town of Bunia. In recent months the neighbouring countries, once allies in the five-year war for control of the Congo government, have again come close to direct confrontation as they exchanged accusations of backing rebel movements aimed at overthrowing their respective governments. Western diplomatic sources said Mr Museveni had described as «unacceptable to Uganda» advances by Rwandan-backed rebels towards the strategic town of Beni. Should the advance continue, Mr Museveni implied, Uganda would be forced to intervene in the Congo to protect its borders. Beni is controlled by a combination of Congolese government forces and a militia loosely allied to Uganda. The Ugandan government fears that should the Rwandan-backed rebels capture the town, they would link up with another allied militia further north, giving Rwanda control through proxies of much of the resource-rich north-east of Congo. Rwanda, for its part, alleges that the Congolese government is using the airstrip in Beni to pour troops and weapons into the area in defiance of peace accords aimed at ending the war. (...) Mr Museveni’s plea for an expansion of the EU’s role comes during an escalation of the conflict in his own country. In recent days Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have attacked areas in the east of Uganda, where they have not been seen since the start of the brutal 17-year conflict. Ugandan intelligence sources said the risk for Uganda now is of a second and even third front opening up against Mr Museveni’s government. (Financial Times, UK, 25 June 2003)

* Uganda. Schoolchildren kidnapped by rebels — 23 June: Religious leaders in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu have spent the night out in the open with thousands of children, who leave their homes every evening for fear of abduction by rebels. For the last 17 years the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels have been abducting children, whom they turn into rebel soldiers. The United Nations says that in the last year over 5,000 children have been abducted by the rebels. The religious leaders have now appealed to the UN Security Council to address the issue of conflict in northern Uganda. Speaking shortly after leaving the bus station where the religious leaders had stayed the night with the children, the Archbishop of Gulu called for the rights of the children of northern Uganda to be protected. Archbishop John Baptist Odama, who slept on plastic bags and a reed mat, described the conditions the children sleep in as pathetic and appealed for a peaceful end to the conflict. Fearing abduction by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels, thousands of children walk into the urban centres of northern Uganda every night. 24 June: A mass abduction has taken place at a girls’ school in north-eastern Uganda, blamed on the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Parents and the Roman Catholic authorities who run the school say they fear the number of girls taken could be up to 100. An army spokesman said helicopters were being used in a search and rescue operation which had so far yielded no results. The abduction comes amid an intensified campaign by the LRA which has been waging a 17-year-long campaign in northern Uganda. The latest raid, on the Rwara Girls Secondary School, 50 kilometres from the town of Soroti, happened overnight. 25 June: Ugandan soldiers are searching for the abducted schoolgirls. Some girls have managed to escape the night-time attack. Eleven of them have been found hiding nearby and have been rescued, but between 40 and 80 are still thought to be missing. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 25 June 2003)

* Ouganda. Rapt de lycéennes — Dans la nuit du 23 au 24 juin, au moins une centaine de lycéennes ont été enlevées à Rwara (nord-est, à 40 km de Soroti) par des rebelles de l’Armée de résistance du Seigneur (LRA). “Ils ont attaqué le lycée pour filles de Rwara. Nos hélicoptères essayent de les localiser pour les secourir”, a indiqué un commandant de l’armée ougandaise. Selon l’agence Misna, après l’attaque du lycée, les rebelles ont encore pillé les villages des environs et enlevé une centaine d’autres personnes, surtout des jeunes et des femmes. Par la suite, ils ont essayé de pénétrer dans Soroti, mais ont été repoussés par les forces gouvernementales. Celles-ci semblent de moins en moins en mesure de contrer les attaques de la LRA. — 25 juin. La quasi-totalité des lycéennes ont retrouvé la liberté. Six adolescentes sont toujours portées manquantes, ont indiqué les autorités de Soroti. Aucun détail n’a filtré sur la manière dont l’armée a libéré les captives. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 26 juin 2003)

* Zambie. Immigrés illégaux expulsés — La Zambie a libéré de prison, puis expulsé 82 immigrés illégaux originaires du Congo-RDC, de la Tanzanie, du Malawi et du Zimbabwe, a annoncé le 23 juin le porte-parole des services d’immigration. Il a révélé que 236 autres clandestins étaient encore détenus, précisant que des dispositions ont été prises pour les renvoyer dans leur pays d’origine. Ces mesures tendent à décongestionner les prisons du pays. Ainsi, le commissaire chargé de d’administration des prisons zambiennes a récemment déploré le surpeuplement de la prison centrale de Lusaka, qui accueille plus de 1.000 détenus alors que sa capacité est de 300 pensionnaires. (PANA, Sénégal, 23 juin 2003)

* Zambia. Zambians pay price of costly drugs — 24 June: Zambia has one of the highest rates of TB in the world. There are about 65,000 patients a year, and out of them about 70 per cent also have HIV or Aids, making diagnosis and treatment complicated. The government has responded by introducing a policy of free TB drugs, but not anti-retrovirals. Health minister Brian Chituwo says that Zambia’s past chronic shortages of TB drugs have now been resolved. He says that there are sufficient stocks in the country to last until December and that every hospital and health centre is supplied with the dosage of TB drugs they require, when they require them. However, the minister admits that a black market in drugs does exist in Zambia and is a problem. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 24 June 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai freed on bail — 20 June: Morgan Tsvangirai, who is facing treason charges, has been granted bail and released from custody. He was whisked away by supporters to his home in the suburbs of Harare. The prosecution had opposed bail, which was set at ZIM$10m ($13,000 at the official exchange rate). «This is an occupational hazard but it has consolidated our determination,» Mr Tsvangirai said outside the court. He was detained a fortnight ago after a week of mass protests intended to topple President Robert Mugabe. The judge warned him that he must not «incite his supporters to remove the government through violence», or he would violate his bail conditions and risk being returned to jail. Mr Tsvangirai had already been charged with two counts of treason over an alleged plot to assassinate Mr Mugabe, and had been on trial on those charges since February. He denies treason, which carries the death penalty. The opposition leader says he called this month’s protests to try to force the president to negotiate as the country falls into economic and political chaos. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 20 June 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai libéré — Le 20 juin, la Haute Cour de justice du Zimbabwe a autorisé la remise en liberté sous caution du chef de l’opposition Morgan Tsvangirai, arrêté le 6 juin et inculpé de “trahison” pour avoir appelé à “renverser” le régime. La caution a été fixée à environ 11.000 euros. Sa libération est toutefois soumise à de strictes conditions. Il lui est notamment interdit de “faire des déclarations appelant au renversement du gouvernement ou du chef de l’Etat par la violence”. - Le 21 juin, au lendemain de sa libération, M. Tsvangirai a affirmé qu’il ne renoncerait pas à sa campagne antigouvernementale. (ANB-BIA, de sources diverses, 21 juin 2003)

* Zimbabwe. Powell urges pressure on Zimbabwe — 24 June: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has renewed a call on Zimbabwe’s neighbours to put pressure on President Robert Mugabe to respect the rule of law. «If leaders on the continent do not do more to convince President Robert Mugabe... to enter into a dialogue with the political opposition, he and his cronies will drag Zimbabwe down until there is nothing left to ruin,» he wrote in the New York Times newspaper. Mr Powell said the US was taking action to help the Zimbabweans to resist tyranny, but added that such efforts were unlikely to succeed quickly without greater engagement by Zimbabwe’s neighbours. His comments come as President George W Bush prepares to make a visit to a number of African countries, during which he is due to spend three days in South Africa. (ANB-BIA, Belgium, 24 June 2003)