Fighting kills at least 14 in Somalia

Fighting between Somali police and Islamist gunmen killed eight people in Mogadishu on Monday, witnesses said, raising the stakes as a new president tries to bring stability to the failed Horn of Africa state.

Clashes between hardline Islamists from the al Shabaab group and a rival militia also killed six people in the central Bay region, but officials from all factions declined to comment.

Residents said the latest battles in the capital broke out on the road linking the strategic K4 junction with the hilltop presidential palace, Villa Somalia.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Civil war, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, Somalia, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, United Nations, War, War Crimes, World

Sudan leader in Qatar for summit

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has arrived in Qatar for an Arab summit due to discuss an indictment against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He has already visited Egypt, Eritrea and Libya over the past week to drum up support from his neighbours.

Qatar has not signed the ICC charter, which obliges member states to arrest indictees on their territory, but clerics have urged Mr Bashir not to go.

Libya’s leader earlier said the ICC was a “new form of world terrorism”.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Barack Obama, Civil war, Darfur, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, South Africa, Sudan, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, United Nations, United States, War, War Crimes, World

UNSC urges Sudan rethink on aid

The United Nations Security Council has called on Sudan to reconsider its decision to expel foreign aid agencies from the troubled Darfur region.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir gave the order after an international arrest warrant was issued against him.

Correspondents say the council’s move is significant as they had previously been unable to agree on a statement.

Sudan has said the humanitarian situation is under control and its decision is irreversible.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Barack Obama, Civil war, Darfur, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, South Africa, Sudan, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, United Nations, United States, War, War Crimes, World

Mystery over Sudan air strike

A Sudanese government minister has confirmed reports of an air raid in eastern Sudan earlier this year.

The minister, Mabrook Mubarak Saleem, told an Arabic news channel that many people had been killed in the strike, said to have taken place last month.

Israeli officials have not commented publicly on reports that their planes may have been involved.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, did not confirm any raid but said Israel hit everywhere to stop terror.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Barack Obama, Civil war, Darfur, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, South Africa, Sudan, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, United Nations, United States, War, War Crimes, World

Sudan’s defiant Bashir arrives in Egypt

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has ended talks in Egypt on his second trip abroad since the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for his arrest.

Egypt is not a signatory of the ICC’s charter, which obliges member states to arrest those indicted if they enter their territory.

Mr Bashir – who made a short trip to Eritrea on Monday – is to hold talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Sudan’s leader is accused of war crimes in his country’s Darfur region.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Barack Obama, Civil war, Darfur, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, South Africa, Sudan, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, United Nations, United States, War, War Crimes, World

Aid worker killed in Sudan

A Sudanese aid worker was shot dead in front of his family on Monday night in the war-ravaged region of Darfur, according to aid officials.

Mark Simmons, Sudan country director of Fellowship for African Relief, an aid and development agency that focuses on Sudan, said the aid worker may have been killed for refusing to hand over his satellite phone.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Barack Obama, Civil war, Darfur, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, South Africa, Sudan, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, United Nations, United States, War, War Crimes, World

Sudan bombs Darfur rebels and civilians

Ache Ali has lost four children and a husband.

A Sudanese cattle herder, she rides on a donkey cart with her youngest child, a daughter, wedged between hundreds of other fleeing Sudanese, herds of bleating goats, and other livestock.

“They [the children] ran away three days ago when our village, Buhera, was bombed.” she calls out over the din, hoping for some help.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Barack Obama, Civil war, Darfur, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, South Africa, Sudan, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, United Nations, United States, War, War Crimes, World

Joseph Mpambara guilty of torture in Rwandan genocide

A court in the Netherlands has found a Rwandan Hutu, Joseph Mpambara, guilty of torture during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 but not of war crimes.

He was given 20 years in prison for, the judges said, robbing “two women and at least four children of their most valuable possession: their lives”.

He had ordered them to be pulled out of an ambulance and hacked to death.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Civil war, Congo, Genocide, Hutu, International, International Criminal Court, Rebels, Rwanda, Terror, The Terror Journal, U.N, Uganda, War, War Crimes, World

Expulsion of aid groups raises risks in Darfur

The sign outside the clinic in Otash camp reads “8-hour service daily.”

On Friday, Haider Ismael al-Amin lay in his mother’s arms, his 10-year-old body withered and weak from dehydration after a night of vomiting. But the door to the clinic was locked. After 30 minutes of waiting, his family gave up.

“The white people used to come every day,” said Hawa Hamal Mohammed, a relative of the boy. “Now the clinic is closed.”

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Barack Obama, Civil war, Darfur, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, South Africa, Sudan, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, United Nations, United States, War, War Crimes, World

Hutu rebels in Congo strike back again

A new rebel push in Congo’s wild, wild east is threatening to mar recent progress toward peace and plunge one of the world’s most war-ravaged regions into a fresh humanitarian crisis.

From Jan. 21 until late February, the Congolese Army joined neighboring Rwanda in a surprise offensive against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu militia suspected of committing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and wreaking havoc in the mineral-rich mountains of eastern Congo ever since.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Civil war, Congo, Genocide, Hutu, International, International Criminal Court, Rebels, Rwanda, Terror, The Terror Journal, U.N, Uganda, War, War Crimes, World