World Malaria Day: Race to 2015 Elimination Faces Challenges (REPORT)

A Nigerian mother with her infant: the vast majority of malaria deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa are among children under 5. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWS(HN, April 25, 2011) - The race to eliminate malaria - a preventable disease that claims the lives of almost one-million children every year - by the United Nations target of 2015 faces several challenges - despite tens of millions of dollars earmarked each year towards prevention efforts.

In a conference call hosted by the United Nations Foundation on the eve of World Malaria Day (today), experts agreed that despite well-meaning efforts of several fronts, recalcitrant governments and unpredictable world events could frustrate efforts to reduce malaria deaths to zero by 2015.

On average, malaria claims the life of an African child every 45 seconds. The vast majority of the deaths are among children under five years old.

The main item in the arsenal to fight the disease is insecticide-treat bed nets - which last as long as five years and costs about $10 (including associated costs such as training of health workers). If used properly, the nets protect sleeping children and also kill malaria-bearing mosquitoes.

Malaria eradication proponents claim that more than 75% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa are now covered by bed nets. "We are really making a difference," said sports columnist Rick Reilly.

But the on challenges the road to 2015 are many.

The recent civil war in Ivory Coast, for example, has delayed the distribution of millions of bed nets, said Ray Chambers, a philanthropist and humanitarian who was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2008 as his Special Envoy to mobilize global support for action on the disease. Chambers said the nets are stuck in warehouses in Ivory Coast and if they are stolen or destroyed it could prove difficult to raise replacement funding.

"The greatest risk is that they may disappear between now and the time they get the opportunity to distribute them," said Chambers in reference to the nets in Ivory Coast. In addition, the migration of at least 75,000 people to Liberia also makes protection of people difficult.

Experts also identified Nigeria - Africa's most populous nation with 150 million people - and the Democratic Republic of Congo - as serious trouble spots in the battle against malaria. In Nigeria, nets are not distributed as efficiently as they should and crucial social mobilization efforts need to be scaled up.

Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, said it is expected that the mobilization of community health workers and community-based organizations will improve the usage rates of bed nets. "In a lot of countries they never used to have nets..it needs explanation and a lot of work. They have a lot of nets coming but they have to catch up on the work to change the behaviour of the people."

Of the 67 million nets earmarked for Nigeria, about 27 million have been paid for but have yet to be distributed "because of different delays within the government process," said Chambers.

Chambers said the DRC has its own set of problems that prevent proper distribution, but that universal distribution is expected as soon as later this year.

He added, however, that an incredible set of partnerships has evolved to fight malaria. Aside from the UN Foundation, the collaboration includes Nothing But Nets, Roll Back Malaria, UNICEF, Rotary International, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Population Services International. "It's because of this incredible partnership that has ever been assembled in a fight against any type of major disease," said Chambers. "We have made the greatest and most rapid progress against any major disease in our lifetime."

Ugly Violence After Nigeria's Election (Opinion/Blog)

by Barnaby Phillips

I was having dinner with two Nigerian friends in Lagos, just days before the recent presidential elections. One friend comes from the north of the country, the other from the south.

"There’s an ugly truth to this election campaign, which no-one is talking about," said the northerner. 

“In the south, they won’t vote for Muhammadu Buhari simply because they don’t want to give power back to the north.  That’s all there is to it. We will vote along regional lines”, she explained.

The southerner protested, insisting that he had no time for regional prejudice. He had chosen to support Goodluck Jonathan, whom he insisted was “the best of a weak list”.

In Nigeria, your political perspective is still, above all, defined by which part of the country you’re from. In the south, many people believe that Jonathan’s victory derived from the cleanest and fairest election Nigeria has ever held. 

But try telling that to the angry mobs rampaging through Kano and Kaduna. Regardless of whether there was widespread fraud on election day, as alleged by the losing camp, and denied by the winners, (I’ll leave that assessment to the election observers and the courts), it’s hard to define the whole electoral process as a success when it has caused so much death and destruction.   

This is a large and complex country, and it is difficult to generalise. Across Nigeria, most people of different faiths and ethnicities live together in peace, and have done so for generations. 

Here in Lagos, for example, Yoruba families happily share Christian and Muslim identities without a hint of friction, in a way that puts parts of the Middle East and Europe to shame.

But it’s also true that anyone who travels around Nigeria, and is curious enough to garner opinions, will soon hear widespread prejudices about people from other regions. 

If I had an English pound, or even a Nigerian naira, for every time I’ve been told that “The northerners are all …[add your own unflattering adjectives]..”, or, “we can’t trust the southerners because they are all [ditto]” , I would be a very rich man. 

There is a sickening familiarity to what is now unfolding in the northern cities. When I lived here, I saw the same scenes in 1999 and 2000 in Kano, Kaduna, but also in southern cities like Sagamu and Aba. And, of course, those with longer memories, will remember the massacres of 1966. 

President Jonathan, to his credit, had the courage to draw that link himself, saying these “acts of mayhem are sad reminders” of “an unfortunate civil war [that] as a nation we are yet to come to terms with”.

These events are so sad because they help to unpick the fabric of Nigeria as a nation. 

Take the city of Kaduna, for example. Before the dreadful Sharia riots of 2000, different religions and ethnic groups shared neighbourhoods. But after all the violence and killing, those mixed neighbourhoods have unravelled, and Kaduna is now a city largely divided between respective Muslim and Christian halves.  

Another example; Nigeria has a compulsory youth service, the National Youth Service Corps. Established in the aftermath of the civil war, the NYSC is intended to foster a sense of nationhood. 

The theory is commendable; young people out of university are sent to different parts of the country to meet other Nigerians and gain useful work experience. 

But in this election campaign many young “Corpers”, enlisted to help in the voting process, have been targeted and attacked, and several have been killed. 

In practice, many Nigerians are now extremely nervous about their children serving in other parts of the country, and those with political or financial influence often do their best to ensure this does not happen.   

Friends in the north tell me that this week’s violence started with attacks against political leaders and traditional rulers, and later developed into ethnic and religious clashes. And it is the Nigerian elites, (of course not just in the north), who have a lot to answer for. 

For decades they have enriched themselves, whilst an ever-growing army of unemployed young people struggles to survive. Worse, some leaders have used ethnicity and religious identity when it suits them, cynically unleashing a monster they cannot control. 

President Jonathan can be under no illusions about the scale of the task before him. In parts of the south, particularly in the Niger Delta, he is seen as a messiah, who will suddenly deliver a rapid improvement in living standards. 

In parts of the north, he is viewed with suspicion, by a region that believes it has been robbed of power. 

Of course, Nigeria has a long-proven ability to pull back from the brink, and stumble on. 

But the events of the past few days show that the country is desperately in need of a new kind of leadership.

Over to you, Jonathan. 

by Barnaby Phillips - originally published by Al-Jazeera on April 22, 2011 under Creative Commons Licensing 

Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan Re-elected Amidst Riots in Some Northern States (NEWS BRIEF)

A polling station in Nigeria. Courtesy: EU Observer Mission- by Josephine Kamara in Kano

(HN, April 19, 2011) - An uneasy calm has returned to some northern Nigerian states after security quelled demonstrations by irate youths, protesting the outcome of last weekend’s presidential election.

The incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, a politician from the mainly Christian south, received more than 25 per cent of the votes in at least two-thirds of the states - a requirement to avoid a run-off between him and his main challenger, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari. 

According to the Nigerian Red Cross, about 17,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in eight northern states. About 360 are being treated for injuries.

“I appeal to those involved in the riots to stop this unnecessary and avoidable conduct”, Jonathan said, “More so at this point in time when a lot of sacrifice has been made by all the citizens of this great country in ensuring the conduct of free and fair elections.”

President Jonathan has also called on "all our political leaders, especially the contestants, to appeal to their supporters to stop further violence in the interest of stability, peace and the well-being of this great country". 

Young supporters of Muhammadu Buhari, who is popular in the north, have been clashing with the police and military. They feel that the elections have been rigged in some areas of the south.

In Kano, the largest city in the north, homes displaying posters of Mr. Jonathan were set ablaze, and enraged young men roamed the streets shouting "Only Buhari!"

In Kaduna, where a 24-hour curfew has been declared, election monitors say shops were closed and people were fleeing to their homes through streets barricaded with burning tires. Youths clashed with police and the military in areas to the north and south of the city, with the security forces firing tear gas and live ammunition. 

Some eyewitnesses spoke about deaths, maiming and burning of homes, churches and mosques in Kano.

President Jonathan’s party, the PDP has won presidential elections since 1999 – that’s when Nigeria returned to civilian rule. Pre-election polls expected the PDP to win, as the opposition appeared to command support in less than 15 states.

Jonathan, 53, is the first president from the main oil-producing Niger Delta region. He occupied the post after the death of the country's elected Muslim leader, President Musa Yar’Adua.

According to the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), the final vote count for the two front-runners is 12,214,853 for Buhari and 22,495,187 for Jonathan.

The elections for Parliament, the Presidency and some state governors have been staggered over three weeks, with the latter scheduled for April 26.

With about 150-million people, the oil-producing nation of Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa.

HUM correspondent Josephine Kamara is based in Abuja

Presidential Election in Nigeria Held as Attacks on Media Increase - Watchdog Group (NEWS BRIEF)

Campaign posters in Abuja. Credit: HUMNEWS(HN. April 18, 2011) - As Presidential elections were held this weekend in Africa's most populous nation, the US-based watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders, voiced concern about a crackdown on journalists in Nigeria.

The group has recorded more than 30 attacks on media freedom so far this year, despite reforms and the promises of incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure the free flow of news during the campaign for the delayed 9 April parliamentary elections and this past weekend’s presidential election.

Nigeria has one of the poorest media freedom ratings in Africa and is 145th out of 178 countries in the 2010 Reporters Without Borders worldwide Press Freedom Index. It is a dangerous place for journalists to work.

The country does have a diverse media and a flourishing Internet scene - in fact it is one of the few African countries without laws governing the Internet -  however and the senate passed a law last month giving public access to official information as long as it does not affect national security. But threats, intimidation, physical attacks and unlawful arrests of journalists have remained at an alarming level since the beginning of this year.

For the most part, foreign journalists working in Nigeria are spared from intimidation but still are at risk, especially if they are critical of powerful state governors. Last year, a Lagos-based correspondent for the BBC World Service, Fidelis Mbah, said his wife and son received a letter threatening to kill them.

The country’s State Security Service (SSS), which was on the Reporters Without Borders worldwide list of predators of press freedom for several years until being taken off it in 2010, is still a repressive body, which targets and arrests journalists.

One recent example was the case of US-Nigerian journalist Okey Ndibe, who was arrested and interrogated at Lagos airport on 8 January this year and his passports seized for two days.

Political parties and state governors also threaten and harass the media, according to Reporters Without Borders. Journalists who criticise the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are sometimes prevented from reporting on political activities.

Ehigimetor Igbaugba, of The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), was unable to cover the senate primary elections in Auchi (in the southern state of Edo) on 8 January after being detained by PDP officials who criticised articles he had written about the party.

Intimidation of accredited journalists sharply increased when polling stations opened on 9 April for the parliamentary elections. African Independent Television cameraman Tamunoemi Kingdom and another crew member were beaten in Ozoro (Delta state) by PDP officials who objected to the filming of them harassing a man entering a polling station. The camera and the windscreen of the journalists’ vehicle was damaged. Aisha Wakaso, of This Day newspaper, and Afeyinwa Okonkwo, correspondent of NAN in Enugu state, were hounded by police who prevented them reporting on the voting.

Analysts say that Nigerian journalists are east targets by polticians, as they are poorly-paid and receive little training and support. Said one Lagos-based foreign correspondent in a 2010 blog posting: "Many senior journalists have now adopted a loose lifestyle of selling their influence to government officials and businessmen in exchange for cash and gifts without the slightest concern for any conflict of interest."

Reporters Without Borders has fought for press freedom on a daily basis since it was founded in 1985. 

- Reporters Without Borders, HUMNEWS staff

A Big Test for Nigeria (Opinion/Blog)

- by Barnaby Phillips

Voter registration point in Abuja,Nigeria PHOTO CREDIT: HUMNewsNo Nigerian president has ever been removed from office in an election. This, sadly, does not mean that Nigeria has been blessed with unusually competent or popular leaders these past 50 years.

It is more a consequence of the country's history of shaky democracy, punctuated by military coups and rigged elections.

Nigeria is now on the eve of another presidential election. History suggests that whether or not the incumbent, Goodluck Johnathan, is the best man for the job, his rivals face an uphill battle to unseat him.

Ideally, Nigerians would be making their choice in a free and fair election. Again, past experience will lead many Nigerians to conclude that is not likely.

Let's see what happens in the coming days.

It's true that last week's parliamentary vote was a big improvement on the 2003 and 2007 Nigerian election.

A cynic might say that is damning with faint praise. President Johnathan's supporters argue that it shows his commitment to a more transparent democracy.

Maybe he deserves the benefit of the doubt. But every Nigerian knows that it is the Presidential and Governorship elections which are the acid test. These are the big prizes, with big money at stake.

I have heard many Nigerians say something new in recent days; that they don't care where a candidate comes from, or whom he prays to, but only whether he (because there is barely a she in sight) is competent and honest.

If more and more people are thinking along these lines, then Nigeria's democracy, and sense of national identity are becoming stronger.

But, as ever, it has been an election campaign dominated by personality, and with little detailed analysis of policy or issues (beyond extravagant promises from all the candidates to tackle the chronic problems of unemployment, electricity shortages, environmental degradation, and crumbling infrastructure).

Here are a couple of good articles highlighting that, and the importance of regional and ethnic loyalties.

The first looks at the situation in Lagos, whilst the second draws some conclusions from the results of theparliamentary elections.

One thing is very clear; Nigeria cannot afford to mess up again. This is a country that aspires for leadership in Africa, and wants its voice to be heard across the world.But Nigeria's moral and political authority is undermined by its own weak democracy.

Let's hope this potentially great country turns over a new leaf during the next two weeks.

- by Barnaby Phillips - originally published by Al-Jazeera on April 15, 2011 under Creative Commons Licensing

Tragedy at Sea for African Migrants (News Brief)

Italian rescue workers attend to survivors from the shipwreck off Lampedusa CREDIT: Laura Bastianetto/Croce Rossa Italiana(HN, April 6, 2011) - More than 250 migrants are feared dead after a boat carrying some 300 people sank in the early hours of the morning, some 40 miles off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. 

Forty seven survivors were rescued at sea by the Italian Coast Guard and three by a local Italian fishing boat, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported this morning.

The vessel, which was laden beyond capacity, had left the Libyan coast with migrants and asylum seekers from Somalia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Chad and Sudan. Some 40 women and five children - including a two-month-old infant - were on board. Only two women survived the shipwreck.  
  
The survivors were transferred to Lampedusa. They told IOM officers who are providing them with first aid and counselling that the boat sank in rough seas. 

They say that when rescuers arrived, the boat was already sinking. Survivors managed to swim towards the approaching Coast Guard ship. Many drowned because they couldn't swim or were dragged down by desperate fellow passengers. 

The journey reportedly took two days in rough seas.

"The survivors are all in a state of shock," says IOM's Simona Moscarelli. "One man told me he had lost his one year old son. One of the two surviving women told me how she had lost her husband."

The Italian Red Cross said the migrants said they hoped for a new life in Europe; among them are tailors, masons and electricians.

The migrants have been transferred to the Loran base, a facility where the Italian authorities are sheltering migrants coming from Libya, in order not to mix them with the migrants arriving from Tunisia.

Since the beginning of February, the island of Lampedusa has been overwhelmed by the arrival of more than 20,000 migrants. The majority of them are Tunisian coming from the Tunisian port of Zarzis, Djerba and Sfax. Over the past ten days, more than 2,000 mostly African migrants and asylum seekers have landed on the island after having sailed from the Libyan coast. 

This latest incident comes as Lampedusa's ability to deal with the large number of refugees "has been stretched to the limit", according to Italian officials.

Since 2006, IOM has been providing assistance to migrants in Lampedusa as part of a project funded by the Italian Government. IOM works alongside UNCHR, Save the Children and Italian Red Cross to monitor reception assistance and to provide legal counseling to migrants who have arrived on the island.

- HUMNEWS staff, IOM

Historic Elections in Nigeria Suspended Due to Irregularities (UPDATED)

The EU is heading an election observer mission in Nigeria. CREDIT: HUMNEWSUPDATED -- (HN, April 3, 2011) - In a huge embarrassment for Africa's third largest economy and regional superpower, elections for Nigeria's House of Representatives were suspended just four hours after tens of millions of registered voters started to head for voting stations.

The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) said Saturday it has postponed the elections  for 109 seats in the Senate and 360 seats for the House of Representatives across the country to Monday, April 4th.

INEC chief Attihiru Jega said on TV that he blamed the postponement on ‘ unprecedented late arrival of results sheets’ to the country's 120,000 polling stations.

According to Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper, glitches on Saturday were caused by poor logistics, as materials arrived in many polling stations late. Voting materials reportedly failed to arrive in the capital Abuja and other regions, including Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom, Edo and Delta, Plateau and Borno states. 

Later reports attributed the delay to the late delivery of ballot papers from Europe and South Africa. It remained unclear Sunday what would be the fate of the ballot papers already used.

There are fears that the crisis could stoke more violence in an election campaign that has already reportedly claimed the lives of hundreds of people in politically-motivated communal and sectarian violence across the country of 150 million people.

Late Saturday, the Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) said it was "naturally very disappointed" and that it sympathises with the "frustration" felt by the Nigerian people.

"We also call for calm and restraint on the part of all stakeholders, so that the elections can take place in an atmosphere of peace and order," said a statement issued by the Chair of the COG, Festus Mogae.

Some Sunday newspapers in Nigeria called Saturday's failed National Assembly vote an "election fiasco" and a "national shame."

The former Chieftain of the Alliance for Democracy, Musa Umar, told The Vanguard that the postponement was surprising. "This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that an election is postponed on the day fixed for it."

Opposition groups have been quoted as saying that the postponement is a deliberate attempt by the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) to prevent defeat at the polls.

Debo Adeniran, head of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders pressure group, was quoted as calling the postponement "a national shame and a monumental waste of time and resources."

Election posters in Abuja. CREDIT: HUMNEWSWidespread disappointment was visible as ordinary Nigerians tweeted about their disbelief in the postponement. "It seems Nigerians showed up to do their civic duty in hoards but the government failed to do its part...unfortunately," said a student in Nigeria in Twitter post at 1730GMT today.

The debacle comes several weeks after a nationwide registration process had to be extended twice due to chaos involving computers and other equipment.

An election observer mission led by the European Union arrived in the country about two weeks ago to monitor the polls.

Next weekend elections for the presidency are scheduled to take place, followed by governorship elections in 36 states a week after that. Many will see this development as a major blow to Nigeria's desire to break a cycle of election fraud and violence.

- HUMNEWS staff

Update on Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 3:50PM by HUMNEWS

A HUMNEWS correspondent in Nigeria reports:

"The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the postponement of the National Assembly again from Monday, April 4,  to Saturday, April 9. INEC has announced a new schedule for the general elections.  The National Assembly, Presidential, and Gubernatorial elections will now occur on April 9, 16 and 26,respectively.  (Please note: the last date is a Tuesday, instead of a Saturday, in deference to the Easter Holiday weekend.)"

Gays in Africa: Only Protected on Paper (PERSPECTIVE)

Credit: The Red Room.orgBy Richard Pithouse

(HN, March 29, 2011) - It’s now almost three months since David Kato, a former teacher and a leading Ugandan gay rights activist, was beaten to death in Mukono Town in Uganda.

Kato was living in Johannesburg in the salad days of our new democracy and, inspired by the progress made here in recognising the legal right of gay people to an equal humanity, he became a key figure in the Ugandan movement when he returned home in 1998.

Homosexuality was first criminalised in Uganda in the 19th century under the British colonial occupation. That criminalisation of a mode of expressing love and desire that is part of all human communities across space and time was sustained and updated after independence in 1962. As the new century unfolded there were active attempts, often driven by senior politicians and clerics with the support of an increasingly rabid tabloid press, to create a popular moral panic about homosexuality.

Public vilification escalated and there were threats, calls for further state repression, censorship of gay people and organisations and a further tightening of a legal regime already so repressive that it carried a sentence of life imprisonment for certain forms of gay sex.

Of course the vilification of gay people by political elites was not unique to Uganda. In Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe’s public hostility stretched back to 1987 but reached a new level of intensity following his verbal attack on gay people at a book fair in Harare in 1996.

In Namibia Sam Nujoma began a campaign of demonization in 1995, the former Kenyan dictator Daniel arap Moi launched his first major attack in 1999 and here in South Africa Jacob Zuma made extreme homophobic comments on Heritage Day in 2006. In the same year Olusegun Obasanjo introduced a bill that aimed to further criminalise homosexuality in Nigeria.

The sobering reality is that homosexuality is illegal for men in 29 African countries and for women in 20 African countries. But while it is essential to take this reality seriously, it is equally important to put African homophobia in a global context - homosexuality is illegal in 80 countries across the world and in many countries where there is not a repressive legal regime discrimination and harassment remain rife. In 2009 Ian Banyham, a gay man in his 60s, was beaten to death by two young women in Trafalgar Square in central London. In California the right of same sex couples to marry was affirmed in June 2008 and overturned by a right wing campaign five months later.

But we do need to take the active mobilisation of homophobic sentiment by political leaders in our region seriously. The scapegoating of vulnerable minorities is a standard tactic used by political elites to deflect attention away from their own failures and compromises. And the masculinisation of politics that usually accompanies elite driven homophobia can be used to offer ordinary men some power and status amidst the wreckage of societies that offer no real hope for a decent life to most people.

The situation in Uganda is particular serious. In 2002 two women were arrested after the tabloid newspaper Red Pepper reported, hysterically, on their wedding. Their pastor had to flee the country. Four years latter the paper published a list of the names, workplaces and other information on 45 men it claimed where homosexuals. Many of these men were threatened and harassed.

In October 2009 Ugandan MP David Bahati introduced the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill which aimed to extend the criminalization of same-sex relationships and to introduce the death penalty for certain acts, to force Ugandan citizens to report any homosexual activity within 24 hours or face three years in jail, and to authorise the Ugandan state to extradite  its citizens having same-sex relationships outside the country.

In October last year the Rolling Stone , a tabloid newspaper, published names, photographs and addresses of 100 people it claimed were gay, including David Kato, along with a call for their execution. Kato and other activists took the newspaper to court and won the case in November. The newspaper was ordered to stop outing people and to pay compensation to the plaintiffs. Two months later Kato was attacked in his home by a man who smashed a hammer into his head twice and left him dead. Former Anglican Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo, excommunicated for his principled rejection of homophobia, officiated at a tense political funeral. There is, at the moment, no certainty about who killed Kato and why, but in view of the way in which gay people have been vilified in Uganda, and his courage in opposing this, activists fear the worst and have been calling for a serious and credible investigation.

Here in South Africa our Constitution and our law offer some of the best legal recognition of the equal humanity of gay people and other sexual minorities in the world. We also have a vibrant gay movement and many straight people of real stature, like Desmond Tutu, who take an active and principled position on this issue.

But we have a President who has made his contempt for gay people clear. He did, under some pressure, and without the appearance of much conviction, go through the motion of condemning the arrest of a gay couple in Malawi. But his silence on this issue in the region has more usually been eloquently damning. In the religious sphere he has sought to shift the centre of political gravity from the progressive churches that opposed apartheid to towards the right wing and openly homophobic agenda of Ray McCauly and the National Interfaith Leadership Council. And, incredibly, he dispatched the notoriously and crudely homophobic Jon Qwelane to Uganda as the South African ambassador. And of course Zuma is not the only homophobe amongst our political elite. In March last year the then Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana, stormed out of an art exhibition at Constitutional Hill claiming that photographs of black lesbian couples by Zanele Muholi were “going against nation building.”

Muholi has documented more than 50 cases of violent hates crimes against black lesbians living in townships. Half of these women were raped and some of them killed. In 2006 Zoliswa Nkonyana was stoned to death by a mob of young men in Khayetlisha for being an “out” lesbian. Sizakele Sigasa, a lesbian activist, and her partner Salome Masooa were raped, tortured, and murdered in Meadowlands, Soweto in 2007. In the same year Thokozane Qwabe was found murdered in Ezakheni, Ladysmith and Simangele Nhlapo and her two year old daughter were raped and murdered and sixteen year old Madoe Mafubedu was raped and stabbed to death in Soweto. Eudy Simelane, who played soccer for the national side, was raped and killed in KwaThema, Springs in 2008. It is this reality and not the fact that some women find love and share desire with other women that is perverse.

Muholi’s photographs aim to “create a body of meaning that is welcomed by us as a community of queer black women” and to “ensure that those who come after us have ‘eyes to see’ the beautiful black marks of our existence and resistance.” Her work is entirely within the spirit of the Constitution. Xingwana’s comments were entirely opposed to the letter and spirit of that document which, what ever its limitations, certainly does reflect some of the aspirations to have come out of the best moments of the struggles against apartheid. But as much as it reflects some of those aspirations in principle the reality is that, as Muholi argues, in practice black lesbians are “only protected on paper.”

Legal activism is important and reaching agreements with states on commitments to human rights does sometimes offer a useful yardstick against which to measure the actions of governments and to leverage pressure against them. But the professionalization of activism after apartheid has led too many of us to accept that this should be the horizon of our commitment or that activism should be the preserve of NGO professionals. 

To have any hope of meeting the challenges of our times we need an embodied and popular practice of active, direct and practical solidarity premised on an ethic of immediate equality. We also need to develop an emancipatory vision for a society that can offer a dignified life for everyone, and a strategy to make real progress towards that vision. Right now this is not something that we can vote for. It is something that we have to work for and, when necessary, fight for, where we live, work, play and pray.

Pithouse teaches politics at Rhodes University. This article first appeared on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service - SACSIS

Crisis in Ivory Coast Days Away From Violent Climax - Source (REPORT)

UN forces in Ivory Coast have been accused of doing little to prevent violence. CREDIT: Operation Broken Silence(HN, March 24, 2011) ---- The crisis in Ivory Coast is just days away from a violent climax, with sources on the ground predicting that an all-out civil war will consume the West African nation.

At Abidjan's Golf Hotel, UN forces are protecting Alassane Ouattara, who won a Nov. 28 election according to UN-certified results. One source said the hotel could be attacked by forces loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down. That would likely precipitate an all out civil war.

HUMNEWS understands that family members of Ouattara were evacuated last Sunday and move to safe havens.

Said the source: "The situation is pretty dire. It is unfortunate that so many other events have stolen the headlines from Ivory Coast."

The confirmed death toll from the conflict to 462. Another 450,000 people have fled their homes.

Armed thugs are on the increase and operating with abandon.  Last week a mortar attack on an impoverished village called Attecoube killed one person, seriously injured 18, and 4 of the seriously injured died later in hospital. The source said that as such attacks take place, UN forces stand by idly. Indeed, there are growing complaints from inside and outside the country over inaction as the toll from the crisis mounts.

“There is a UN force on the ground. I think it should, without doubt, play its role more efficiently because it has a mandate that allows it to use force if there are clashes or there is violence,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told France 2 television.

Many members of the UN force are from Bangladesh and Jordan. The source told HUMNEWS that they have been mostly ineffective. Nigeria also typically deploys many members of its military to UN missions in West Africa.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed French-trained, Togolese Major General Gnakoude Berena as the new force commander of the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI), replacing Major General Abdul Hafiz of Bangladesh.

Nigeria, the current leader of West Africa’s 15-nation ECOWAS bloc, has accused the international community of double standards for imposing a no-fly zone in Libya but doing little in Ivory Coast.

Said the source: "I ashamed to say UN forces stand by and do nothing of an atrocity within site of their HQ. They are operating under Chapter VII mission (the same authority given against Libya), yet the troops are hopeless."

Nigerian Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia has said the UN must endorse any use of force to remove Gbagbo, adding that a blockade was an option if peaceful efforts fail.

“The Ivory Coast is no longer on the brink of civil war, it has already begun”, said Louis Arbour, CEO of the International Crisis Group and former UN Commissioner for Human Rights, who called on Ecowas to take ‘decisive political and military measures.' 

- HUMNEWS staff

Women and Children Showing Up on African Relief Flights From Libya Crisis (Exclusive Report)

A Nigerian migrant worker who fled the unrest in Libya waits at the Libyan and Tunisian border crossing of Ras Jdir. CREDIT: AlertNet(HN, March 6, 2011) - Officials in African countries receiving repatriated migrants from Libya have expressed surprise at the high proportion of women and children among the masses of fit young men exiting the chaotic country.

In one relief flight late this week to the Nigerian capital of Abuja, as many as 30 percent were women and children - among them infants, said an official at from the Nigeria Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), who was greeting a new batch of arrivals at Abuja International Airport.

"I even saw a few women breastfeeding their babies," said the official who asked not to be identified.

He added: "We have even seen some women arriving on their own. They were in Libya  doing artisan work or the like."

Last week, a senior official from Ghana  said that most of the returnees arriving from Libya to Accra were "undocumented and illegal immigrants."

Asked if some of the migrants were asylum-seekers, the official shrugged his shoulders.

NEMA officials awaiting the next batch of Nigerian migrants this weekend at Abuja International Airport CREDIT: HUMNEWSThe NEMA officials echoed comments of authorities in other Sub-Saharan countries that many are arriving without passports or any sort of documentation. Exiting migrants say their documents and back pay have been retained by their employers or taken as they fled the chaos.

With travel rebounding after a prolonged recession, there are few assets available for deployment for the massive repatriation efforts. NEMA has been chartering Egypt Air aircraft but using commercial jets from as far away as Kabul, the official said.

Asked what the arriving women and children need most, the NEMA official said basic items such as milk and blankets. Upon arrival in Abuja the migrants are immediately transported to their places of origin. "As much as possible we try not to keep them here in Abuja," the official said. Those who must stay are accommodated in a UN camp near the airport.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is flying in emergencies supplies to countries bordering Libya. Initial supplies include hygiene kits, nutrition items and recreation and psycho-social relief items.

UNICEF said that while numbers of families crossing the border into Tunisia are reported as relatively low to date, it is concerned that within Libya, children and women have been severely affected by the unrest.

As HUMNEWS reported yesterday, the massive influx of migrant workers to struggling African nations is creating new strains. Nigeria, Niger, Tunisia and Egypt  - among others - are either recovering from prolonged economic downturns or from revolutions that have disrupted normal economic recovery such as tourism.

For Egypt, which had an estimated 1.5 million migrant workers in Libya, the sudden halt in remittances will place a huge strain on already vulnerable families. Even if each migrant sent $100-a--month back to their Egyptian families, that adds up to about $150m a month or $1.8bn-a-year.

The NEMA official said the country still had some ways to go before it could suspend the relief operation as there were stranded Nigerians in Tunisia as well as Egypt.

According to one published report, late last week concerned families of Nigerians still stranded in Libya, stormed the Corporate Headquarters of NEMA to express their fears over the fate of their beloved ones not yet evacuated from Tripoli.

According to a report today in Al Masry Al Youm ( الرئيسية) of Egypt, human rights advocates warn that poor, Sub-Saharan African countries may be unable to provide sufficient support to their expatriate populations and are leaning on European countries to help evacuate vulnerable migrants to safety. The newspaper says the African Union has come in for criticism for its silence on the plight of African migrant workers in Libya.

- HUMNEWS Staff

LIBYA: Mass Evacuation of Nationals From Developing Countries Underway (REPORT)

As Libya falls further into chaos, a mass evacuation of migrant workers is underway(HN, March 1, 2011) - UPDATED 1145GMT - In one of the largest humanitarian exercises of its kind in recent memory, tens of thousands of migrants are streaming towards Libya's borders and ports as humanitarian agencies and governments scramble  to evacuate them from an increasingly chaotic and dangerous environment.

More than 100,000 migrants from many nationalities have escaped into Tunisia and Egypt, with a growing number now stranded at Libya's borders with Egypt and Tunisia. There are reports that thousands are still stranded inside Libya - among them several hundred Nigerians without money or the ability to move.

The trafiic flow is so heavy that aid agencies are finding it extremely difficult to cope.

Said one field worker from the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): "Just as we stabilize thousands of new arrivals - providing food, shelter and blankets - thousands more arrive. Usually the first three days of the crisis are the worst. This seems to be getting worse by the day."

Reports coming in say thousands of Sub-Saharan Africans are holed up inside their homes in Libya without any assistance at various places including Moursouk, Sabah, Misrata, Tripoli and Benghazi, desperately searching for vehicles to escape the targeted violence they feel is coming their way.

The Philippines alone has 13,000 migrant workers stranded in Libya, of which only 2,000 have been evacuated. But, Egypt, by far, has the largest contingent at about 1.5 million.

On Sunday, Nigeria managed to fly two planes into Tripoli to evacuate stranded nationals.

There are reports of chaotic scenes at the border. CNN correspondent Ivan Watson said thousands of refugees are caught in the "no-man's land" between Tunisia and Libya. "The scene on the Libyan border is getting ugly," he Tweeted at 1141GMT.

Field staff from the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) managed to identify other Third Country Nationals (TCNs) in urgent need of assistance, at the borders - including Nepalese, Ghanaians and Nigerians who were sleeping rough in freezing temperatures.

About 12,000 non-Tunisian migrants alone crossed the Tunisian border at Ras Adjir on Sunday. The BBC reports the flow of migrants into Tunisia at an astonishing 1,000 per hour.

Yesterday, the IOM managed to evacuate 900 Egyptian migrants from Tunisia to Egypt through five charter flights. Earlier today, a group of 1,450 Egyptians left overcrowded facilities at Ras Adjir on their way to the sea port of Sfax, where they will board an IOM-chartered vessel that will take them to Alexandria in Egypt.

The Organization is also evacuating a group of 361 Bangladeshi migrants and 174 Malians from Tunisia with more planned for today.

IOM is working with the Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare for the arrival of a group of some 2,000 Bangladeshi nationals who remain stranded on the Libyan side of the border. Reports say the Bangladeshis are exhausted and are in urgent need of food, water and shelter.

"With thousands of migrants still awaiting authorization to enter Tunisia, there is an urgent need to decongest the border area which lacks adequate facilities to host large numbers of people," says Marc Petzold, IOM's Chief of Mission in Tunisia. 

Tunisian citizens who had been living in Libya returned to Tunisia at the Ras Jedir border crossing on Wednesday. Other foreigners were heading for Egypt (NYT)A sea evacuation of about 2,000 Egyptian migrants from the port at Djerba has also been planned but bad weather has so far hampered efforts. IOM expects this operation to get underway in the coming days as the weather improves.

In addition, IOM is looking to evacuate thousands of Egyptians stranded in the Libyan port city of Benghazi by sea to Alexandria in Egypt.

"IOM urgently needs donors to fund its initial appeal for US$11 million launched last week as soon as possible. We are using our reserves to provide immediate assistance, so desperately needed by the many tens of thousands of migrants who have already fled and many, many more still inside Libya desperately calling us for help," says IOM Director General William Lacy Swing.

"We urge all parties in Libya to refrain from targeting migrants who have for decades contributed to the growth and well-being of Libyan economy and to let those who wish to leave, to do so safely and in dignity."

With the large outflows putting enormous strain on the local infrastructure, in Tunisia in particular, it is imperative to be able to evacuate the migrants as soon as possible, IOM says.

IOM is establishing two transit centres for 800 migrants at Ras Adjir to help ease the pressure on another centre currently being managed by the Tunisian Red Crescent.

With very low temperatures at night and strong desert winds, shelter as well as water and sanitation assistance is critical, aid agencies say.

An IOM team found a group of about 600 Vietnamese migrants without papers at the border point trying to find some element of shelter from the elements but in the end forced to sleep in the open. The Organization is making arrangements to evacuate this group of migrants shortly. Although the Vietnamese migrants told IOM another 1,000 of their compatriots were on their way, at least 5,000 Vietnamese of an estimated 10,500 in Libya are still stuck inside the country.

In Egypt, where close to 22,000 Egyptian migrants alone are at a reception and processing centre at the border at Salum and another 7,000 migrants stranded in a compound in no-man's land between the two countries without papers or food or water, the situation is also difficult.
 
IOM, with teams working on the border at Salum and at Marsa Matroh further inland, has begun registration of the non-Egyptian migrants in no-mans land in order to organize their evacuation.

The majority of the migrants there are Bangladeshi nationals with a first group of over 450 due to depart in the next few days.

In coordination with the Egyptian authorities, IOM is also providing the migrants with humanitarian assistance including blankets, food and water.

Meanwhile, nearly 800 Nigerien migrants have been taken to Agadez in northern Niger from IOM's reception and transit centre in Dirkou. Another 432 Nigeriens have arrived today and will be transferred to Agadez as soon as possible.

With the capacity of the centre fully stretched, IOM is currently working with local authorities and the Nigerien Red Cross to increase it in order to accommodate the new arrivals. Tents will be set up on an adjacent plot of land. However, there is an urgent need for food, water and sanitation assistance.

This will become even more essential as Nigerian authorities in this northern part of the country have told IOM that there are more than 30 trucks carrying more than 2,000 Nigeriens and other Africans on board on Niger's border with Libya. They are expected in Dirkou within the next 24 hours.

The migrants being taken to Agadez have told IOM that they have escaped from Tripoli, Misrata and Sabah.

IOM is regularly receiving calls and messages from migrants and refugees inside Libya in a desperate situation.

The Organization is calling for migrants and refugees in Libya not to be targeted and for the safe passage for all those seeking to leave the country.

"We would urge migrants still in Libya fearing violence against them to stay put for the moment if they are in a safe place and out of sight," says IOM's Director of Operations, Mohammed Abdiker.

--- HUMNEWS staff, IOM

Developing Nations Feel Powerless as Danger to Their Nationals Escalates in Libya (Report)

African migrants often use Libya as a transit point for destinations in Europe. They are among the thousands of Africans stranded in chaotic Libya. CREDIT: Human Rights Watch(HN, February 27, 2011) UPDATED 1100GMT--- As the increasingly isolated Colonel Gaddafi threatens to crackdown on dissent "to the last bullet," tens of thousands of expatriates from developing countries - mostly sub-Sahara Africa - remain stranded in Libya as their governments scramble to implement evacuation plans.

In recent hours and days, the situation has been exacerbated with a rapidly-deteriorating security situation. Some evacuees landing back in the UK last night described the violence as a "living hell," and some African migrants say they have faced open hostility in Libya because many people associate them with brutal mercenaries hired by the Qaddafi regime.

Libya is also a major transit point for sub-Saharan Africans fleeing to Europe (see map below).

One international observer describes the situation for African migrant workers as utterly dire.

"I tell you, these people, because of their scheme, they will be slaughtered in Libya. There is so much anger there against those mercenaries, which suddenly sprung up. I think it is urgent to do something about it now, otherwise, a genocide against anyone who has black skin and who doesn't speak perfect Arabic," Saad Jabbar, Deputy Director, North Africa Center at Cambridge University, told NPR.

Indeed, one Turkish evacuee told western journalists that he personally saw the bodies of as many as 80 Sudanese and Chadian nationals working for his oil company. "They cut them dead with pruning shears and axes, attacking them, saying you're providing troops for Gadhafi. The Sudanese, the Chadians were massacred. We saw it ourselves," said the unidentified oil worker.

Options even for wealthy nations with expatriates in Libya are limited. The international airport in Tripoli is reported to be in a state of chaos and, according to published reports, the British Foreign Office was forced to pay airport operators astronomical fees for aircraft and passenger handling.

Tens of thousands of sub-Saharan Africans are employed in Libya's oil industry and in other sectors. Countries with large number of migrant workers in the country include: Nigeria, Chad, Ghana, Egypt, Sudan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Ukraine and Vietnam.

The chaotic scene at Tripoli Airport CREDIT: CTVEgypt alone has more than one million migrant workers in Libya. With its proximity next to the country, it's been able to receive many evacuees by land and then transport them by bus to Cairo and other inland points. Egypt is also benefiting from relatively good relations with Tripoli as well as plenty of spare aircraft owned by Egypt Air that have been grounded by the sharp downturn of business and tourist travel to Egypt.

Though Egypt is also trying to figure out how to repatriate 10,000 Egyptians who have crossed over Libya's western border with Tunisia. A BBC correspondent on the border reported Sunday that at least 20,000 refugees from Libya are stranded at the border, and suggested they could be stuck for days - perhaps even weeks, raising the possibility of a humanitarian crisis.

World superpowers India and China have 18,000 and 30,000 workers respectively in Libya, and Beijing has also come in for criticism for a slow response. (Though in the past few hours, Chinese state media has been reporting that 3,000 stranded Chinese nationals have been moved from Benghazi to Crete via two chartered Greek ferries).

One of the countries in the worst situation is Nigeria - the regional power in West Africa which admits it is virtually powerless to extricate at least 2,000 Nigerians from Libya. The two countries have had strained relations for the last decade, with Tripoli having closed its embassy in Abuja several years ago.

On Wednesday Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the immediate evacuation of Nigerians stranded in the troubled country. However the Gaddafi regime has so far refused to grant landing rights to Nigerian aircraft. Libya still controls its own airspace, so if any government wants to land in the country then permission must be sought from Libyan officials.

The Jonathan Administration came under intense pressure earlier this month when it ignored the pleas of thousands of Nigerians stranded for days at Cairo International Airport amid chaos in that city. Faced with a similar situation in Libya, officials in Abuja even considered asking stranded Nigerians to cross the border into neighbouring Niger or Egypt - but that plan was shelved when it became clear the evacuees would be exposed to fighting and that moving them from border areas would be a logistical nightmare.

As the days drag on, a fuelled aircraft has been waiting for clearance in Nigeria since Thursday - with a large team of immigration officials, foreign affairs and medical personnel. A spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Yushau Shuaib, said Nigeria will keep on trying for clearance.

Ukraine says its has about 2,500 of its nationals in Libya. (Among them are at least five Ukrainian "nurses" are reported to be working for Gaddafi - including his personal nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska (Галина Колотницкая), who has decided to abandon the eccentric leader and return to Kyiv, according to Segodnya (Сегодня) newspaper in Ukraine).

Nepal has asked the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to help repatriate about 600 of their nationals who had been working in the Libyan town of Derna and who are now waiting to cross at Salum border crossing. It also reports that 900 of their nationals currently stranded in Tripoli and Benghazi would need assistance if the situation deteriorates further. 

In Tripoli, about 350 Sri Lankans are taking shelter at the Sri Lankan Embassy with several hundred other Sri Lankans spread around the country, the IOM says. Meanwhile, about 750 Bangladeshis out of an estimated population of 50,000 are also now heading for the Egyptian border and who will also need food, water and shelter assistance upon arrival.

Vietnamese authorities have told IOM that there are about 10,500 of their nationals in Libya. Although they say some have left, most are still in the country, many without travel documents which were probably kept by their employers.

"The situation for migrants inside Libya is extremely difficult and we are deeply concerned about their plight," says IOM Director General William Lacy Swing. 

This week, the IOM voiced concern about the large number of migrant workers from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia stuck in Libya.

Large numbers of Sub-Saharan irregular migrants in Libya work informally in the service sector or as manual labour. Poorly paid and in irregular work, it is unlikely they have the resources to rent vehicles to get to border areas and reach safety, IOM says.

"Of the tens of thousands of Sub-Saharan Africans and South Asians working in Libya, only a handful have managed to reach the border so far. This is probably because they do not have the resources to pay for transport," says Laurence Hart, IOM's Chief of Mission for Libya.

"We are very concerned for all those migrants who may wish to leave, but cannot. Many countries without the adequate resources to evacuate their nationals are now asking IOM for help.  We are therefore urgently appealing to donors for funding to allow us to intervene," he adds.

- From HUMNEWS Africa Bureau

“We’re Changing the Order of the Alphabet” (Report)

(HN, February 14, 2011, Las Vegas) – This was how Sebastian Kopulande, Chief Executive Officer of the Zambian International Trade and Investment Centre opened the historic first ever Africa-USA Business Executives Conference tonight in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The conference runs February 14^th-15^th.

For the first time, the city of Las Vegas, has welcomed hundreds of African business executives from countries such as Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia for two days of meetings with their counterparts from the US, for the first-annual Africa - USA Business Executives Convention and Expo.

The conference is designed to explore and create relationships and alliances between business leaders of both continents, allowing them to meet investment partners in a dynamic and vibrant environment of panels and exhibits for the purpose of forming sustainable and capacity-building agribusiness partnerships locally, regionally and internationally.

Why Africa?  

“Many global commentators agree that this is the `African Century’.  For investors, this means an understanding of the available opportunities as well as offering the chance to develop meaningful relationships among those doing business together,” says Ted Alemayhu, Executive Chairman of the event.  

Five areas have been identified as being the most attractive for growth, namely agriculture, banking and finance, energy, telecommunications and aviation, travel and tourism. All will be featured at this year’s meeting.  

Realizing the need to go beyond discussing issues, ideas and strategies for increasing  livelihoods in Africa, the organizers say they are taking bold steps to not only learn how to “fish for our own food but to create partnerships to sell the fish”. 

(Chisokone Market, Kitwe. CREDIT Wikipedia)One of the most prominent delegations at the conference are the Zambians.

Zambia is one of the most highly urbanized countries in sub-Saharan Africa with 44% of the population concentrated in a few urban areas, the largest city being the capital Lusaka with more than 1 million people. Unemployment and underemployment are serious problems, while most rural Zambians are subsistence farmers. Yet, in 2010 The World Bank named Zambia as one of the worlds fastest economically reforming countries.

The Zambian economy has historically been based on the copper mining industry, yet attendees here say they are interested in talking about issues such as solar power, farming (agriculture) and financial services.     

Over the past 30 years the infrastructure in Zambia has been crumbling and the government is seeking not only new investment from the likes of Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Societe Generale - who are all here too - but also from the entrepreneurial Diaspora Zambian community here in the US to help make their homeland a star in the African growth landscape.

This element is so important in fact that the central Zambian government has set up a special office as a representative from the President’s office to the Diaspora community, and given the community a full time staff member.  

The country has sent 54 people from Zambia to the first of its kind gathering. More than 50 other people who now live in other countries around the world - such as Belgium, the UK and Canada, and the US - have also come to see how they can be a part of `making Z the first letter of the alphabet’ as Angel Mondoloka, Chief Operating Officer of the Zambian International Trade and Investment Centre, says.

(Nkana Copper Mine. CREDIT Wikipedia)“We are lucky that the previous President Levy Mwanawasa began intensive business reforms in our country before his death (in 2008),” said Mondoloka. “This is our future and we are going to make it happen with smart investment, and entrepreneurship”.   

The conference is serving as a matchmaker between small and medium sized businesses in Africa, US counterparts, and investment firms.  Participants were asked to submit proposals before the convention began so they could be matched with the most appropriate contacts.

Patrick Kolata, who had travelled from Lusaka, wanted to create a solar power business and has been matched with a solar panel manufacturer. He said, “We have had to learn as Africans to be resourceful, now we want to be cutting edge entrepreneurs. Solar power will be a big industry for us in our future.”

He finished by saying, “We’re ready!”

The formal panels and business expo begin later today.

--HUMNEWS staff

Could The Spirit of Tahrir Square Infect Cameroon, West Africa? (Report)

(HN, February 12, 2011) - Cameroonian Presidential candidate and women's rights activist Kah Walla has warned incumbent President Paul Biya that the wave of passion for democratic change that has swept through Tunisia and Egypt could travel as far as West Africa - especially Cameroon, where presidential elections are due in October.

Cameroonian presidential candidate Kah Walla

In a letter to Biya sent to HUMNEWS, Kah Walla writes: "Mr. President, I am certain you are observing with great interest along with the rest of us Cameroonians, the wind of change that is gaining incredible momentum throughout Africa and in the Middle East. It is an incredible season for people who have been oppressed for decades and who have decided to take their destiny into their own hands. They are not only winning battles, but are actually coming out victorious in the struggles for independence, freedom and human dignity which they have been waging against their leaders.

"It is a very bad season for presidents who have been in power for over 20 years, maintaining their power through dubious, ritualistic elections, which have credibility neither with their own people nor with the global community."

In Cameroon the president is elected by plurality vote to serve a seven-year term. However opposition leaders say the election commission has "colossal weaknesses" and lacks the credibility to manage free and fair elections in Cameroon."

Biya came to power in the oil-producing nation in 1982. Like Nigeria, Cameroon's prospects for development were initially promising, with oil and pipeline projects generating revenue. But Biya changed the constitution in 2008, allowing him to run for president for a third time this year. Protests erupted and the opposition termed the change "a constitutional coup".

The parallels between Egypt and Cameroon are striking: both have had a president in power for about three decades, enjoy significant oil wealth, have huge populations of young people, suffer from massive unemployment and widespread corruption. Like the ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Biya is in is close to 80-years-old (he turns 78 tomorrow). It therefore comes as little surprise that Kah Walla is putting Biya on notice in the sternly-worded letter.

She says it is impossible for Cameroonians not to take notice of the popular stand against rigged elections in Egypt.

"Cameroonians are not only sitting on the edges of their seats observing this, but we are communing with these people in mind and spirit. We understand them in our very core, we admire the steps they have taken to control their own destinies, we are humbled by the courage they are showing in daring to invent their own futures, we are collecting information, analyzing it and drawing lessons from their victories."

Citing the tumultuous events in Tunisia, Kah Walla said: "We have learned from the Tunisians, that unlike us in 1992, it is necessary to maintain the pressure until the ultimate goal is attained. We have learned from the Tunisians, that unlike us in 1992, it is necessary to maintain the pressure until the ultimate goal is attained."

There are more than 15 elections across Africa this year. Many of these countries share similar traits with other countries in North Africa that have witnessed unrest - a high percentage of under 30-year-olds, high joblessness, sky-rocketing food prices and rampant corruption. In April, Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, will see Presidential elections that have already been tainted by a troublesome voter registration process.

Richard Moncrieff, West Africa Project Director for International Crisis Group, has said Cameroon's future is blighted by the threat of conflict. "The threat really comes from the frustration of the population, both for economic reasons – high unemployment, widespread poverty – and also for political reasons."

He added: "The very poor governance, the widespread corruption, the politicization of the justice system, the politicization of the electoral system is in fact a danger for the country and could eventually lead to conflict."

In her letter, Kah Walla, emboldened by what she has seen in North Africa, appeared to be issuing an ultimatum: "A world is collapsing, the world of dictators. The wind of change which is blowing, will only gather steam and momentum as the months go by and as we hurtle towards September/October 2011. Cameroonians are determined in this year to take their destiny into their own hands...We will willingly do this through a structured transition, through an election...on condition. On condition that the minimum requirements for a free and fair election are met. On condition that the political will for a democratic transition is unambiguously demonstrated. On condition that no one, absolutely no one, stops us in any way shape or form, impedes us from exercising our free will and our voters’ rights as Cameroonian citizens."

At 45, Kah Walla is an internationally management consultant and entrepreneur. She was recognized in 2008 by the World Bank as one of seven women entrepreneurs in Africa. In 2009 she spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative summit in New York.

- HUMNEWS staff

Amid Chaos Nigeria Voter Registration Extended (Updated Feb 6 1500GMT)

HN, February 6, 2011 - Nigerian officials late Saturday ordered a two-day extension to the largest-ever voter registration drive in Africa amid widespread choas that left many citizens unable to get documented.

The order of the last minute "mop-up" registration came as tempers flared at voter registration points across the country of 150-million people as thousands of voters were trying to obtain voter registration cards for April elections.

A voter registration point in Abuja. The technology used has caused widespread problems. HUMNEWS

As the deadline for voter registration ended at 1700 local time (1700GMT) Saturday, hundreds of people were angrily pushing towards the booths in two locations in the capital, a HUMNEWS correspondent on the scene said. Similar scenes of chaos were reported elsewhere in Nigeria - Africa's most populous nation.

"I've been waiting here since early this morning and still dont have my card," said Geoffrey, an Abuja resident in his 20s.

George, a small business owner, said it took at least 20 minutes per person for processing - which includes finger printing, a head shot photograph, verification of identification and printing and lamination.

As darkness began to fall at 1800 local time there was no way that officials could clear the backlog at the two points visited by HUMNEWS.

The two-day mo-up registration will occur only in certain states and only in certyain parts of the Federal Capital Territory.

The voter registration exercise - the largest-ever in Africa - was initially scheduled for a two week period. Despite assuarnces from the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) - which is overseeing the process - a second extension still may not be sufficient to document million of unregistered eligible voters.

Soon after the nationwide registration process got underway in January, widespread problems began to emerge with the more than 120,000 computers and peripherals purchased. Registrars also complained of a lack of crucial materials, a lack of electricity and late salaries.

Security was tight at registration points HUMNEWSEarlier in the week, Project 2011 Swift Count - and independent monitoring group, called upon the INEC to improve its logistical and organizational capabilities. Another group said that in spite of the one week extension, the registration exercise is still being undermined by non-functioning direct data capturing machines and shortages of essential materials.

As of Thursday, INEC said it has registered 54.9 million of an estimated 70 million potential voters. The average daily registration count has fluctuated recently between 3.2 million to 4.3 million-a-day. When all is said and done the entire registration exercise will have cost Nigerian taxpayers almost N100-billion.

Elections for presidential, senate and local races will be held April 7.

From a HUMNEWS correspondent in Abuja