Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Africa, courtesy of AfricaPundit.
TOP TOPICS
- Is George W. Bush's foreign policy winning friends in Africa? Hard to say, but French influence on the continent may be waning.
- Head Heeb notes a new free trade agreement for Central Africa, one of the least integrated (and most war-torn) regions on the continent.
- Abiola reminds us that counting the number of people in Africa with AIDS is far from straight-forward.
War on Terror update
* The buildup of US forces in East Africa is continuing, particularly in Kenya. Unfortunately, identifying the enemy may prove difficult.
* It's been low-key, but the US military is also increasingly active in West Africa; daudi notes that military personnel are being sent to Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad.
* Is Nigeria seeking WMD? I'm not sure, but you can decide for youself. Just keep scrolling down.
* The International Criminal Court has announced that they will begin investigating crimes committed by the LRA rebel movement in northern Uganda. There's no indication that this announcement will decrease the frequency of rebel attacks and kidnappings, but it's a thoughtful gesture nonetheless.
Zimbabwe
* The BBC reports that yet another privately-owned farm is being targeted for confiscation by Mugabe's government. Thanks, of course, to exactly this type of abuse of power, there's yet more evidence of Zimbabwe's economic collapse.
* Meanwhile, Mugabe's police thugs have (for the time being) vacated the offices of the Daily News under yet another court order.
* An "anti-corruption" crackdown within the ZANU-PF party this month looks like a crude attempt by Mugabe to cut down some potential rivals...but is it really a sign of Mugabe's increasing vulnerability?
* Finally, daudi reports that resistance to tyranny finds a voice through Radio Free Zimbabwe.
Sudan
* The peace negotiations in Sudan continue to progress, despite taking a break for the Muslim Hajj. This month, the two sides completed a new wealth sharing pact
* But as peace seems more likely in the south, war in the west has escalated. The Sudanese government has stepped up attacks on civilians in the Darfur region, including bombing across the border into neighboring Chad.
Peacekeeping update
A quick tour of peacekeeping deployments througout the continent...
* AfricaBlog reacts to yet another massacre in Congo, apparently committed by the Lendu tribal militia.
* A UN/World Bank report says that $500 million dollars is needed to rebuild Liberia. My reaction: Only $500 million? What a bargain!
* And in Ivory Coast, the on-again off-again power sharing government is off again, as the recently returned rebel ministers have another row with President Gbagbo.
Potpourri
* Abiola is blogging about African art! Keep scrolling down for pictures.
* AfricaBlog speculates on a proposed tunnel from Spain to Morrocco.
* Ever wonder who writes all of those Nigerian scam emails? Well, here he is!
* Finally, if you haven't looked in a while, be sure to check out Blog Africa for links to more than 80 Africa-related weblogs.
Free trade among african countries to this point has been meaningless. African countries, with a few exceptions (South Africa and the surrounding countries) don't trade with each other in any significant way. They trade with the USA, the EU and a bit with Asia. Trade is raw materials and agricultural produce for finished products. Other African countries don't produce the finished priducts, so there is nothing to trade. There was a similar problem with the free trade agreement between Argentina and Brazil.
What needs to happen is free trade between the US and Africa. The US is a much larger potential trade partner than the entire continent of Africa.