AU Summit: African leaders accuse ICC of bias
The African Union has accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) of targeting Africans on the basis of race as it called for an end to prosecution of Kenya's President and his Deputy over crimes against humanity. Speaking at the close of a two-day summit of the 54-member bloc which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Union, Hailemariam Desalegn, the AU chairman and Prime Minister of Ethiopia, said that African leaders had come to a consensus that the ICC process conducted in Africa was flawed.
Many African leaders, as well as the AU, have said that the ICC unfairly targeted Africans, while ignoring war crimes suspects in other parts of the world. An AU resolution urged the ICC to stop upcoming trials of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto, who have been charged with crimes against humanity for their alleged roles in orchestrating deadly violence after 2007 elections that left more than 1,000 people dead.
However, the ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said that the Hague-based court would not react to the resolution stating that the ICC was not targeting Africa as a continent and that four out of eight situations under investigation in Africa were referred to the court by the countries themselves. 34 African nations have ratified the ICC's founding statute.
MALI: Mali sets date for presidential election
Mali will hold a presidential election on July 28, according to a draft law adopted by the cabinet as the nation struggles to move on from war and an 18-month political crisis. Mali's government announced the elections date, in a communiqué that set out the dates for the campaign and run-off elections.
Acting President Dioncounda Traore has said that neither he nor his ministers will contest in the polls, which will go to a second round on August 11 if required. This will be the first elections since the coup that ousted Mali's democratically elected President in March 2012 just months before he was due to step down at the end of his final term in office. The coup created an opening that allowed groups allied to the al-Qaeda to seize the northern part of Mali.
France, which sent more than 4,000 troops to Mali in January to try and free the north, has been pushing for quick elections hoping to restore the country's constitutional rule. It is looking to hand over security to the Malian government and to a soon-to-be created United Nations peacekeeping force, which will number about 6,300 troops.
UGANDA: Ugandan Police shut down papers over 'plot'
Police Officers raided the premises of one of Uganda's leading independent newspapers on May 20, turned off two associated FM radio stations housed in the same compound, and ordered journalists away from their workstations.
Police say they raided the newspapers to retrieve a letter and press releases written by a senior intelligence chief, General David Sejusa. The classified letter, leaked to the Daily Monitor earlier this month, raised concerns about an alleged plot to assassinate senior government and military officials who are opposed to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for 27 years, and his plans to hand over power to his son when he retires.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: DRC rebels announce 'temporary' ceasefire
Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo declared a temporary ceasefire, during a visit by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and World Bank Chief Jim Yong Kim in the country's volatile east. The decision came after three days of fighting between rebels and government forces in the country’s eastern province of North-Kivu that left at least 19 people dead.
According to Amani Kabasha, a rebel spokesman, the rebels had declared the ceasefire in order not to disturb Ban's visit to Goma, the capital of the mineral-rich North-Kivu. The UN chief, who arrived in Goma on Thursday 23 May 2013, pledged that UN troops will be in place within "one or two months" to battle armed rebels in the region. Ban and Kim met Joseph Kabila, DRC President, and the country's Prime Minister, Augustin Matata Ponyo. The DRC government has accused the rebel movement, known as M23, of trying to derail a ceasefire that has been holding for six months.
The rebels take their name from a peace agreement they signed with the government on March 23, 2009 but which has since collapsed. Eastern DRC has been unstable since the overthrow of Mobutu Seseko in 1997, with rival militias and rebel groups vying for the control of the region's mineral wealth. Kabila came to power in 2001 following the assassination of his father who captured power from Seseko, after waging an armed rebellion that was allegedly aided by neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda.
ZIMBABWE: President Mugabe signs new Constitution
President Robert Mugabe has signed Zimbabwe's new constitution into law, clearing the path to crucial elections later this year. A beaming Mugabe - flanked by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, his main political rival, and Deputy President Joice Mujuru - signed multiple copies of the Charter on Wednesday 23 May 2013, at State House in the capital, Harare, to cheers and applause from aides.
Approved overwhelmingly in a referendum in March this year, the constitution clips the powers of the president, limits presidential tenure to two five-year terms and scraps the position of the Prime Minister. However, it does not apply retroactively meaning the 89-year-old Mugabe could technically extend his three decades in office by another 10 years. A new Constitution is one of the pre-conditions for elections to pick a successor to the shaky compromise government formed by Mugabe and Tsvangirai four years ago.
SOMALIA: Somaliland waits for worldwide recognition
The Horn of Africa has been ravaged by war and famine for decades, and now one of Somalia's regions, hopes to become an independent state. Citizens and leaders in the autonomous region of Somalia say they are historically and politically a separate country. According to Ahmed Mahamoud Silanyo, the region’s President, Somaliland would like to retain its independence, despite Somalia's calls to be united with region.
Somaliland sits on the Gulf of Aden and is officially regarded as an autonomous region of Somalia. The two were, however, separate until 1960. During the civil war in the 1980s, 40,000 people from Somaliland were killed, and nearly half a million fled. The region then declared independence in 1991. Since then, it has held four peaceful elections.
The UN and the African Union have both rejected calls to recognize Somaliland. Elsewhere in southern Somalia's Jubaland, a former warlord assumed the Presidency of the region on Wednesday 22 May 2013. Ahmed Madobe was elected Jubaland's President by a conference of about 500 elders and local leaders. Jubaland lies in the far south of Somalia and borders both Kenya and Ethiopia, and control is split between multiple forces including clan militia, the al-Shabab, Kenyan and Ethiopian soldiers. Jubaland joins other semi-autonomous regions of the fractured Horn of Africa nation, including Puntland in the northeast, which wants autonomy within a federation of states, and Somaliland in the northwest.