EU Soldiers Accused of Torturing Congolese Civilians

A group of Swedish soldiers have alleged that they witnessed French soldiers torture Congolese civilians during operations in the area in 2003. Five years ago, the European Union sent some 1,500 soldiers to DR Congo as part of a UN mission to take action against the bandits marauding the north-eastern part of the country. The troops were there to protect the ...

A Picture of Hell (Zimbabwe)

Via the LAT: Grim tales from ZimbabweLife here is full of Catch-22 dilemmas that would strain credulity if they were fiction: It costs more to go to work than you can possibly earn, for example. There is no economy to speak of, either, just the black market, where even the government gets its dollars. And hospitals, like the one ...

Sudan Pardons Teddy Bear Teacher

Gillian Gibbons, who was facing the death penalty for allowing school kids to name a teddy bear Mohammed, has been pardoned by Sudan's president after the intervention of the British government. A British woman jailed in Sudan for insulting religion was to be released on Monday after being granted a presidential pardon for insulting religion by naming a teddy bear ...

Darfur Mission Desperate for Helicopters, Trucks

The latest UN effort to bring peace to Darfur could fail before it starts for want of some trucks and helicopters. The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission to Darfur may fail unless countries can provide helicopters and lorries, a top UN official says. Foot-dragging by Sudan over the make-up of the force could also threaten the mission, he warns. The 26,000-strong ...

South African Nuclear Plant Attacked

Apparently, one of South Africa's nuclear plant has recently been the victim of an attempt to breach its security. On the same night last week that four robbers shot an emergency officer at Pelindaba, West of Pretoria, another attempt was made to bypass the nuclear site’s security. The site’s outer security perimeter was breached in both incidents, SA Nuclear Energy Corporation ...

Africa Command to be Based in Germany

Noah Shachtman is somewhat surprised to learn that the U.S. military's new unified Africa Command will not be based, as its name suggests, in Africa but rather in Stuttgart, Germany. The U.S. military’s newest command, Africa Command, could have only a small minority of its people actually working on the continent. Theresa Whelan, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for African ...

Sudan Ready to Declare Cease-Fire

Sudan is on the verge of yet another cease-fire. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir said Friday his government is ready to implement a cease-fire with rebel forces at the start of peace talks over the conflict in Darfur, scheduled for next month in Libya. It was the first time al-Bashir — in Italy to meet with the Pope and Italy's leaders — ...

Bono the Jerk

At the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference Bono displayed behaviors that could be considered not only rude but elitist and possibly even racist, depending on how you look at it. But the second, more interesting theme--echoed by every speaker--is that traditional aid and charity, whether distributed by nation-states or nongovernmental bodies, have failed. Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan journalist and social ...

Price Caps Crippling Zimbabwe Economy

Zimbabwe's already shaky economy is going into a tailspin after Robert Mugabe ordered price caps. Robert G. Mugabe has ruled over this battered nation, his every wish endorsed by Parliament and enforced by the police and soldiers, for more than 27 years. It appears, however, that not even an unchallenged autocrat can repeal the laws of supply and demand. One month ...

Another U.N. Peacekeeper Rape Scandal

The U.N. has suffered yet another rape scandal, this time involving Moroccan soldiers and Ivory Coast girls. "It means they don't participate in our operations," said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI). "Those who are found guilty will be sent back home." The world body said the measure was in addition to a decision to confine ...

Africa AIDS Ignorance

Dan Drezner and Preeti Aroon decry the woeful state of understanding of AIDS in Africa. Among the more astonishing examples is the president of Gambia's claim to be able to personally cure the disease (along with asthma and diabetes) and the South African vice president -- the former head of the country's AIDS program, no less -- telling his ...

Failed States Index 2007

Foreign Policy has published the latest edition of The Failed States Index 2007. It is not a cause for celebration: Few encouraging signs emerged in 2006 to suggest the world is on a path to greater peace and stability. The year began with violent protests that erupted from Indonesia to Nigeria over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet ...

Guerrillas Derail Darfur Support Mission

The UN peacekeepers in Darfur are having many of the same difficulties currently being encountered by Coalition forces in Iraq. Christian Science Monitor staff writer Scott Baldauf explains: Deteriorating security conditions in Darfur – a vast region of Sudan that is equal in size to France – are endangering the largest humanitarian aid operation in the world. Today, aid convoys have become ...

Fighting in Somalia

Via BBC: Heavy Somali fighting amid crisisMore than 200,000 people have fled their homes since Ethiopian troops helped the government oust an Islamist group from Mogadishu in December, the UN says. [...] However, President Abdullahi Yusuf told the BBC that the situation was slowly improving, blaming the latest violence on the Islamists. "Our aim is to protect the public and the government ...

Darfur Genocide Mapped with Google Earth

Here's a fascinating project using modern mapping tools: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has joined with Google in an unprecedented online mapping initiative. Crisis in Darfur enables more than 200 million Google Earth users worldwide to visualize and better understand the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur, Sudan. The Museum has assembled content—photographs, data, and eyewitness testimony—from a number of sources ...