Sudan: UN - 2000 Blue Nile Refugees Flee to South Sudan

Blue Nile — At least 2,000 people fled their homes in Blue Nile to South Sudan last week, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports. The refugees walked for eight days from Baldogo village, 34km south of Bau town, Bau locality, to the Albonj area.

OCHA suggests people fled their homes out of fear over the possibility of attacks by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in the area. This information, however, has not been verified independently as there are no humanitarian organisations operating in the area, the reports add.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some 231,000 Sudanese refugees from South Kordofan and Blue Nile have sought shelter in camps in South Sudan and Ethiopia since June 2011. This includes over 198,000 refugees in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan and a further 33,000 refugees (mainly from Blue Nile) in camps in the Assosa region of Ethiopia.

On 15 November, the semi-official Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) news website reported that the office of Sudan's Commissioner for Refugees is arranging a visit to camps in Ethiopia hosting Sudanese refugees. The commissioner told SMC that an agreement will be signed between the Sudan and Ethiopian Commissioners for Refugees for the repatriation of Sudanese refugees from Ethiopia.

Nigeria: Gunmen Kill 12, Set Houses Ablaze

A group of armed men has ambushed and killed not less than twelve people in Sandiya village of Damboa local government area of Borno State. They also set ablaze many houses after displacing many out of the community.

Damboa is about 85 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the state capital, which had witnessed deadly attacks by the Boko Haram sect through road attacks and other deadly strategies. Though, the military has killed hundreds of the terrorists in their various camps along the off shores of the Sambisa Game Forests in an offensive raid, even as many of the terrorists also escaped the several attacks and regrouped again.

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered from a reliable source that the gunmen were alleged to be on a revenge mission as it was reported that some people in the village have exposed the modus operandi of the suspected Boko Haram members who fled military raid along the Sambisa Forests but were later captured by the security operatives.

This development, according to the source, did not go down well with the terrorists who mobilised and arrived Sandiya village in the midnight on that fateful day and started opening fire on residents while setting ablaze some residential houses.

He stated that the gunmen numbering about 30, fully armed, came in three Hilux vehicles and on motorcycles, stormed the village and started chanting Allahu Akbar (God is Great), before opening gun fire on the helpless and unarmed residents. This led to the killing of about 12 of them, while several others sustained various degrees of injury from gunshots.

Confirming the incident to LEADERSHIP Sunday, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr Tanko Lawal said, "The story is true, hoodlums invaded the community and killed 12 people, burnt houses, steal vehicles and motorcycles".

Mali votes in parliamentary elections amid high security

There has been a resurgence in violence in Mali since the presidential election (above) took place in August

Mali has been voting amid high security in parliamentary elections, the second nationwide poll since a French military intervention against Islamist militants in the north earlier this year.

Mali held a peaceful presidential election in August, but since then there has been a surge in violence.

On Thursday, the northern city of Gao came under rocket attack.

Extra French troops have been deployed to Kidal, where two French journalists were killed earlier this month.

A total of 6.5 million people are registered to take part in the first round of elections to choose a parliament.

Voting began at 08:00 GMT in the West African nation and ended at 18:00.

'Too dangerous'

The United Nations force, Minusma, has delivered election materials.

Regional and international election observers said before the vote that everything was in place for a credible parliamentary election and that they expected to have access to 90% of Mali's polling stations.

But in the far northern towns of Kidal and Tessalit, only the party of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita features on ballot papers, says the BBC's Alex Duval Smith in the capital, Bamako.

Opposition candidates say it has been too dangerous to campaign there.

Three weeks ago two French journalists, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, were killed in Kidal, in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The resurgence in violence since the presidential election in August suggests Islamists and Tuareg secessionists still have the upper hand in pockets of the country, says Alex Duval Smith.

France still has more than 3,000 troops in Mali, where there is also a force of United Nations peacekeepers.

Mali's crisis began early in 2012 when secessionist Tuareg rebels, acting in alliance with Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda, swept across the north of the country, forcing 500,000 people to flee their homes.

In March 2012, President Amadou Toumani Toure was ousted in a coup, ostensibly staged by junior officers in protest at the army's lack of resources to fight the rebels.

The rebels then intensified their campaign and controlled two thirds of Mali by January 2013 when France sent 4,500 troops to oust them.

The government of Mali and separatist rebels signed a peace agreement in June, paving the way for presidential and parliamentary elections.

Africa: Kimberley Process Meeting Fails to Redefine 'Blood Diamonds'

Johannesburg — At a four-day meeting in Johannesburg, Kimberley Process delegates called for stiffer penalties for those dealing in blood diamonds. However, they failed to come up with a broader definition of the term.

Delegates from 81 countries which belong to the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) met for four days in Johannesburg to discuss proposals designed to give them more power to act against the sellers and and recipients of so-called 'blood diamonds.'

The KPCS was founded in South Africa in 2003 and put in place a mechanism aimed at stemming the flow of rough diamonds used by rebel movements to finance conflicts.

For outgoing KPCS chairman Ambassador Welile Nhlapho, the plenary meeting was a resounding success.

Delegates agreed to maintain the ban on diamond sales on the Central African Republic until the country proves its ability to prevent their usage in fuelling conflicts.

The meeting also mandated the KPCS to assist Ivory Coast in complying with its rules.

"We are happy about the outcomes and the proceedings of this conference," Ambassador Nhlapho said. "I think people came here with the serious intention of finding solutions to the problems that we have identified as weaknesses. We have put in place measures to strengthen our own internal controls and also to see how we can assist some of the countries where diamonds are still implicated."

Earlier Ambassador Nhlapo congratulated the European Union for its decision to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe after the disputed elections of 31 July 2013 that were won by incumbent president Robert Mugabe. "We hope that those who continue to maintain such sanctions will also be able to lift them because the lifting of these sanctions would assist Zimbabwe to bring back stability and prosperity," he said.

New definition still needed

Civil society representative Shamiso Mtisi said the meeting had provided a good platform for concerns to be raised. However, he expressed disappointment that the KPCS had not come up with a new definition of conflict or blood diamonds. He said this was necessary "to capture the abuses that are ongoing in communities and these are abuses committed by state entities, by the police, the military and also private security guards."

So far 'blood diamonds' has been used to refer only to the stones used by rebel groups in conflict zones to finance their campaigns.

Critical words also came from Siphamandla Zondi, Director of the of the Institute for Global Dialogue, a Pretoria-based international relations think tank. He challenged KPCS to start acting more and talking less. "Diamonds are still moving around and they are still causing problems, they still perpetuate fraud, they perpetuate conflict, perpetuate dictatorship and all of those issues I think should come on board," Zondi said.

South Africa now hands on the chair of the KPCS to China with effect from 1 January 2014.

AFRICA’S DILEMNA: Are we in the recycling phase of Africa’s demise?

From 1441 to 1888, a period 450 years, more than 29 million black Africans were terrorized and kidnapped from their virgin homelands and transported across the different oceans as slaves in a carefully planned operation. It was meticulous, discreet and handled by players who knew what would exactly follow. Though the exact number of victims will never be known, the degree of savage cruelty endured, and the consequences the barbaric trade left for Africa will never go away. Unfortunately today Africans themselves have forgotten the human plunder and mass atrocities against black Africans.

 

 As seen from this photo, these are child slaves. These teenagers are barely 18 years indicative of the child genocide

The owners of transatlantic ships made a fortune. Slavery created and then relied on a large support network of shipping services, ports, and finance and insurance companies. New industries were created, processing the raw materials harvested or extracted by slaves in the Americas. Along the west coast of Africa, from the Cameroons in the south to Senegal in the north, Invaders built ‘Doors Of No Return’ at Goree Island (Senegal), Bagamoyo and Zanzibar (Tanzania), Island of Mozambique, and hundreds others around Africa’s coast. These forts were no different from abattoirs for butchering Africans.

Africans were often treated like beasts during the crossing. Because a small crew had to control so many, cruel measures such as iron muzzles and whippings were used to control slaves. Over the centuries, at least three million persons died in the Atlantic crossing alone. This meant that the living were often chained to the dead until the corpses were thrown overboard. And then suddenly as the Africans got to understand the scale by looking at the petit materials exchanged for their children, the slave traders needed a new source of income.

 

The cruelty of the torture is all vivid for all to see. This slave identified as Gordon endured beatings beyond human comprehension from the state of Mississippi

By 1870, just about 10% of the continent was under direct European control, with Algeria held by France, the Cape Colony and Natal (both in today’s liberated South Africa) by Britain, and Angola by Portugal. And yet by 1900, European nations had added almost 10 million square miles of Africa – one-fifth of the land mass of the globe – to their overseas colonial possessions. Invaders ruled more than 90% of the African continent.

Blame it all on the Arabs!

 

The rebellious slaves were give a different form of punishment like this aboard a slave ship during the Atlantic

One of the chief justifications for this so-called ‘scramble for Africa’ was a fake desire to stamp out slavery. The Invaders and Americans, the sole beneficiaries of the barbaric abuse of Africans, had to find somebody to blame. In May 1873 at Ilala in central Africa, celebrated colonial mastermind David Livingstone opened the blame phase by claiming slave trade had to be stopped because the Arabs inhumanely treated Africans. Livingstone even had a better formula of how to “liberate” Africa using the ‘three Cs’: commerce, Christianity and civilization. It is from this chemistry of “Cs” that Africa has ended up inhuman economic ghost it is today.

In a New York Times Op-Ed (22^nd April 2010), author Henry Louis Gates Jr wrote: “While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers … there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa.”

The slave trader’s descendants are telling us ‘we had nothing to do with your demise’, blame it on yourselves. Why do Africans have to accept this state of affairs? Why do Africans in the first place teach this kind of twisted history to their descendants? If the “slave-trading kingdoms” as author Henry Louis Gates Jr calls them, were to blame, then why were Kings like Kabalega of Buganda banished? Why were tens of thousands of Mau Mau Kenyans slaughtered? Here is why; the next phase of the European orchestrated genocide was in the making; colonialism!

In Uganda, the 1900 Buganda agreement stated that the British laws imposed on Uganda would not be applicable over Buganda “in so far as they may in any particular conflict with the terms of this Agreement in which case the terms of this Agreement will constitute a special exception”. The Baganda were blinded to believe that their Kingdom was superior to all the others, and above all, Uganda. The strategy had worked!

By 1960 Buganda had outlived its usefulness. Six years later, Kabaka Mutesa II was deposed as Kabaka, and deported out of Uganda by the Northerners headed by Milton Obote. The north was the new poster boy as they had the guns because they were the army. The Kabaka died a lonely death in 1969 at a flat in London. Obote would also later learn that he was only a pawn on a much bigger chess board. At a Commonwealth summit in Singapore held from January 14 to 22, 1971, British Prime Minister Edward Heath stated that “those who are condemning the British sale of arms to South Africa, some of them will not go back to their countries.” The British had clearly orchestrated the coup against Obote and replaced with Idi Amin, one of the most barbaric criminals who they viewed as “someone we could do business with”.

In Algeria, nearly 2million Algerian Muslim Arabs were tortured and massacred as they fought to kick out their colonial master France who pumped Algerian oil out of their country like it was a gas station in Paris. Independence leaders were assassinated and more controllable brands were installed, only to also be thrown out in similar fashion. The same script took place across all Africa.

Moving further afield, the same anti-people forces silenced the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. It really isn’t that surprising a thing to expect the power-givers and takers to kill someone who threatened their authority and had the power to organize millions to protest it. Tens of millions joined his campaign against poverty wages and ruthless working conditions. Dr King fought against unending wars. It is his power to organize protests that threatened UNCLE SAM’s interests as they were profiting from the wars. When the human cargo was loaded onto the ships, the slave traders took off the ballast they’d brought from England. The pebbles are still scattered all over the shores of Bunce Island, in Sierra Leone.

Vultures fighting for Rotting Congo

Today, the immediate exploitation of “success” against the M23, by combined force of all sorts of armies, has been to voice concern against the disarmament of the FDLR by the neo-colonialist. The little-known « Kanyarwanda war » was the first public display of anti-Tutsi sentiment in post-independence Zaire. It lasted from 1963 to 1966 and resulted in large-scale massacres orchestrated by the politicians installed in Kinshasa. The war focus was the newly created “provincette” of North Kivu, one of the three entities that once formed Kivu province.

The crisis in east DR Congo has suddenly taken a different turn as M23 group is defeated militarily. One wonders whose victory this is – Congo’s army (FARDC), Rwandan rebels FDLR, the United Nations or just one of those battles won by the colonialist governors eager for another slice from part of rotting Africa. To have a better understanding of what happened in east DRC in the past 20 months, we should not lose sight of 1994 when the pitched battles of the interahamwe genocide militia were explained as criminals carrying out isolated mass killings. It was not until the genocide against Tutsis had been stopped that the world understood the scale. The genocide ideology was designed and nurtured by the same neo-colonialists particularly the French and Belgians until its unsuccessful conclusion.

Twenty years on, the FDLR genocide militias have exploited unwarranted sympathy that has been publicized by the very colonialist forces whose primary investment is to use them as political and military mercenaries against a small African nation of Rwanda. As has been the agenda over the past 20 years, the immediate benefit will be another attempt to re-ignite the unfinished genocide.

At the 1971 UN General Assembly as the seeds of genocide ideology were sowing, Rwanda President Gregoire Kayibanda delivered this message: “The Hutu and Tutsis are two nations in a single state… Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy, which are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, feelings as if they were dwellers of different zones or inhabitants of different planets”.

Ironically, the closest aide of the same President Kayibanda, his wife, was a so called “Tutsi”. She had prepared his briefcase carrying the writing pad in which the same message condemning her was stored. Despite the openly genocide statement, nobody raised a finger, and Kayibanda’s godfathers shook their heads in approval. Their plan was going as designed!

The same colonialists created an occupation army with 22,000 men in uniform and costing $1.4 billion a year, the world’s biggest and most expensive peacekeeping operation. When FDLR trounced on villagers, nobody said anything, but when Tutsis rise up against abuses targeted at them, the same MONUSCO, suddenly has exploding love for “civilians”! What else can this state of affairs be described other than pure double standards at best?

Africa’s unsung heroes  

In Zaire, the powers-be eliminated Patrice Lumumba in January 1961 because he wanted total independence of his country. The lives of African liberators Rwagasole of Burundi, Abdel Nasser of Egypt and John Muhima Kale of Uganda were decimated by the same forces that remain determined to keep Africa a victim of colonial horror.

According the Daily Monitor article of Dec. 2nd 2012, from Egypy Kale went to the UN General Assembly and submitted a petition for the UN Trusteeship to prepare Rwanda-Burundi for independence. Kale successfully defended the Rwanda-Burundi independence petition on November 17, 1958 and December 5, 1958, to start the independence programme. Kale was banned by the Belgians from ever stepping in Rwanda. He told the UN that Rwanda had no political borders and its people historically moved to and from within the region. That the Rwanda problem was political borders imposition and rearing Rwandans as labourers for Belgians in Congo. Kale died in a plane crash on August 17, 1960 at Kiev, Ukraine, on his way to Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. UNCLE SAM’s weapon of colonialism refused him a platform. His anti-colonial campaigns linked him close to other Pan Africanists like former Egypt’s President Abdul Nasser Jamal.

 

John Kalekezi at his Uganda National Congress office in Cairo Egypt

The Kenyan Mau Mau independence movement was eviscerated like rats. At the peak of their struggle, in April 1952, on Sir Evelyn Baring orders, 200,000 Kenyans were round up into 150 concentration camps littered around Kenya. The routine was severe beatings and assaults in systemized violence which had been approved at the highest levels of the British Government. In the course of interrogations guards would hang detainees upside down and insert sand and water into their anuses. And when the victims of these heinous sought redress in London court recently, all we could see was a media stampede to sanitise Britain.

Why does the world choose to be shamelessly selective in defining and condemning the minimum norms of human rights? How can we allow the colonialists to take us back to the dark days of African patriots whose demise facilitated unhindered proliferation of undemocratic forces and freelance spread of genocide ideology in the region? Why do these adventurists want to remind us of the barbaric acts of slave trade whose museum in Freetown is a display of what was left from their industrial dividends?

The neo-colonialists have occupied sovereign nations in the name of promoting democracy, but when people of Kenya elect their leaders, the goal posts are moved. The so called democracy is undermined with push for prosecution at the International Criminal Court. When will legitimate vote of a people count? Why should they vote, and then suddenly, the vote doesn’t count! There is no doubt the ICC was designed to target Africa and remains the most demeaning neo-colonialist instrument.

 

One of the 150 concentration camps to which Mau Mau freedom fighters were banished

Genocidal forces are now the victims!

The fundamental reason for the poverty and underdevelopment of Africa – and of almost all “third world” countries – is neo-colonialism. The agents of the system will do everything possible to hide their guilt because they don’t want the young generations to learn and know the history. It is the same agents that have kept a lid over the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda, a creation of the French establishment, by financing the genocide negationist lobby.

French officers directly commanded the pitched battles against the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) which was single-handedly struggling to stop the genocide. Instead of condemning and silencing the interahamwe guns which were slaughtering children, the interahamwe supporters were commanding the genocide militia to counter the RPA advance! So the French were fighting to save the killers and destroy the dead! The French and Belgians have never hidden their antipathy to the RPF. The French allowed thousands of known genocidaires, to transit the Zone Turquoise, escaping the tightening noose of the RPA.

The killers reinvented themselves as leaders of refugee camps, supported by international aid agencies, under UNHCR auspices. International obligations under the humanitarian law and the Genocide Convention were subjugated to a general desire to save lives. The guilty were fed alongside the thousands of children whose images haunted Western television viewers. The administrative structures that had facilitated the massacres of Tutsis in Rwanda were reproduced in the camps.

A similar explanation is being advanced in an effort to sanitise the FDLR. Their neo-colonial supporters are explaining their existence as a force that has evolved and currently comprises people who were born after the genocide.

In the next episode of this text, I will pinpoint in detail the economic plunder of Africa is taking place from DR Congo, Kenya, and Gabon to Chad, Mali, and down to Angola. As the continent is swept clean of any resources, the poor Africans are left to the dogs. I will ask why King Leopold policy of chopping off the hands of hundreds of thousands of Congolese for rubber is being silenced.

by Dr Igban K. Adetunji 

Source: Qatar Chronicle

Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home: South African papers defy photo ban

South African newspapers have published images of President Jacob Zuma's residence, defying a government warning that this would break security laws.

Mr Zuma's Nkandla residence is at the centre of a row after it emerged that the government had used $20m (£12m) of taxpayers' money to refurbish it.

Cabinet ministers on Thursday said anyone who published images or footage of the estate would face arrest.

A group of South African editors described the warning as "absurd".

The Times newspaper has the headline "So, arrest us", above a picture of the luxury thatched-roof compound.

The chalets and refurbishments at Nkandla are said to have cost $20m (£12m)

The Star newspaper has a photo of the homestead with a big red cross over it and the caption: "Look away! What ministers don't want you to see".

The upgrades to Mr Zuma's private residence include a helipad and an underground bunker, which the government says are needed for security reasons.

The contract is being investigated by South Africa's public protector, or anti-corruption watchdog, Thuli Madonsela, amid allegations that costs were inflated, and that the renovations went far beyond what the rules allow for a politician's private home.

Earlier this month, security ministers went to court to try to block Ms Madonsela from publishing her report.

State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele on Thursday warned newspapers:

"No-one, including those in the media, is allowed to take images and publicise images even pointing where the possible security features are," he said.

"It is not done anywhere. We have not seen the images of the White House showing where the security features are. It is not done in any democracy."

Awkward for ANC

Following the publication of the photos, the government has issued a statement, saying that newspapers are within their rights to publish photos of the estate but "zooming into safety and security features... is a challenge as it compromises national security".

The newspaper editors say the public paid for the upgrades and have a right to see how their money was spent.

The warning has created public outrage, with many expressing their dissatisfaction on Twitter and also posting pictures of the home.

The main opposition has lambasted the upgrade and called for investigations into why so much was spent and whether Mr Zuma was aware of the cost burden to the state.

The Democratic Alliance has always insisted that the upgrade was not only morally wrong and unjustifiable given the country's social needs, but that it is also possibly illegal.

Other opposition parties have called it an abuse of state funds.

They also want to know why Mr Zuma's home was classified as a place of national security, despite being a private residence.

BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding says the issue is an awkward one for the governing African National Congress (ANC), with elections approaching next year.

He says it also touches on deeper concerns about the undermining of South Africa's young, but vital, democratic institutions.

Zimbabwe warns foreign firms of January 2014 arrest

Hairdressing is now reserved for indigenous Zimbabweans

The owners of foreign firms operating in certain sectors in Zimbabwe after 1 January 2014 will be arrested, a senior official has warned.

Economic Empowerment Secretary George Magosvongwe issued the warning in parliament, state media reports.

"Indigenisation" of the economy was one of President Robert Mugabe's main campaign themes in the March election.

Farming, hairdressing and baking are among the sectors now reserved for "indigenous", or black, Zimbabweans.

"1 January is a month to come and we are putting in place measures for enforcement in the event that they do not comply," the state-owned Herald newspaper quotes Mr Magosvongwe as saying.

He said that Zimbabweans were being identified to take over businesses to prevent shortages of goods.

According to the Herald the "reserved sectors of the economy" include: Retail and wholesale business, hairdressers, beauty salons, bakers, employment agencies, agriculture, transport, estate agencies and advertising agencies.

It said that foreign-owned restaurants which did not serve local food would not be affected.

Owners of businesses without indigenisation compliance certificates face a fine or imprisonment if they are still operating, the Herald reports.

It says these certificates are only given to local people.

The BBC's Brian Hungwe in Harare says that there has been growing concern in Zimbabwe over an influx of traders from Nigeria and China who sell all sorts of goods in local markets, undercutting local retailers.

Mr Mugabe says his policies are needed because under colonial rule, many economic sectors were reserved for white people.

His critics say that his seizure of most of the country's white-owned land has ruined what used to be one of Africa's most developed economies.

Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan taken ill in London

President Jonathan was in London when he became ill

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has been taken ill and given medical treatment while overseas, but his condition is not said to be serious.

The president was in London for a business meeting, but could not attend.

"The Presidency wishes to assure all Nigerians that President Jonathan's condition is nothing serious," his aide Reuben Abati said in a statement.

He said the medical attention sought by the 56-year-old president was "only precautionary".

Mr Jonathan has been president since 2010, when his predecessor died in office and he was promoted from vice-president.

In recent days he was forced to delay presenting the annual budget to the national assembly indefinitely due to disagreements between the executive and legislators.

Mr Jonathan is also facing serious divisions within his own party, as rival factions jockey for power ahead of the 2015 presidential poll.

He is also battling an Islamist uprising in the north of Nigeria which has killed thousands.

Joseph Kony: US doubts LRA rebel leader's surrender

Kony is one of the world's most infamous fugitives

US officials have cast doubt on reports that Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony is negotiating his surrender in the Central African Republic.

CAR's president has said Kony, who is wanted for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Court, has been in talks with his government.

A US State Department official told the BBC that some rebels had been in contact but Kony was not among them.

The US has offered up to $5m (£3.3m) for leads resulting in his arrest.

Kony founded the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda more than 20 years ago, and his fighters are notorious for abducting children to serve as sex slaves and child soldiers.

The US official also noted that Kony had previously used "any and every pretext to rest, regroup, and rearm, ultimately returning to kidnapping, killing, displacing and otherwise abusing civilian populations".

The LRA was forced out of Uganda in 2005 and since then has wreaked havoc in CAR, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kony was on the verge of signing a peace deal in 2008 but insisted that the ICC first drop its arrest warrant, which it refused to do.

On Wednesday, a CAR government spokesman told the BBC that Kony was in the country but wanted his security to be guaranteed before giving himself up.

According to the AFP news agency, CAR leader Michel Djotodia, said: "Joseph Kony wants to come out of the bush. We are negotiating with him."

But the state department official said the US was aware that CAR authorities had "been in contact for several months with a small LRA group in CAR that has expressed interest in surrendering".

"At this time, we have little reason to believe that Joseph Kony is part of this group," he said.

BBC Africa security correspondent Moses Rono says this is not the first time that a breakthrough has been reported with the LRA.

But he says that Kony is now a shadow of his former self, reportedly in fading health, having lost many fighters and operating in a volatile region, with armed gangs keen to earn the $5m reward.

The African Union's special envoy on the LRA, Francisco Madeira, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday he had seen reports that Kony was suffering from a "serious, uncharacterised illness".

In April the Ugandan army suspended a search for Kony in CAR, blaming "hostility" from the government formed when Mr Djotodia's rebel forces seized power there.

Some 3,000 African troops, backed by 100 US special forces, have been hunting him and his fighters across the region.

Mr Madeira said the military pressure had kept Kony and the LRA "on the run".

Kony claims the LRA's mission is to install a government in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.

But he is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of rape, mutilation and murder of civilians, as well as forcibly recruiting children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves.

Egyptian troops die in Sinai bomb attack

The BBC's Orla Guerin: "The military has cut communications to el-Arish"

Eleven Egyptian military personnel have been killed and dozens more wounded in a car bomb attack near the North Sinai city of el-Arish.

Al-Masri al-Youm newspaper said a convoy of buses carrying infantry soldiers was hit by a roadside bomb as it moved through the Kharouba area.

Attacks on security forces in the Sinai have increased since Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was ousted in July.

No group has yet admitted carrying out Wednesday's bombing.

The peninsula has grown increasingly unstable in recent years, triggered by the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

His overthrow in February 2011 left the northern Sinai vulnerable to groups of jihadists, some with links to the Gaza Strip.

In September security forces launched an offensive against Islamist militants in the Sinai, but have suffered a spate of deadly bombings. In recent months some 100 members of the security forces have been killed.

Wednesday's attack, which took place at around 07:45 local time (05:45 GMT) on the road from Rafah to el-Arish, is thought to be the bloodiest against the military since Mr Morsi was deposed.

All 11 who died and the 37 reported injured were serving military personnel.

The attack is said to have targeted Egypt's Second Field Army, which has been deployed in Sinai and has been involved in an operation to destroy tunnels along Egypt's border with Gaza.

The soldiers were on their way back to Cairo on leave, reports said. Some of the most seriously wounded victims were being airlifted to hospital in the capital.

Communications with the area were cut as military helicopters circled over the area, searching for the attackers, BBC Cairo correspondent Orla Guerin reports.

'Black terrorism'

Interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi condemned the attack and said the government was looking at "all the alternatives to deal with the ongoing terrorist incidents".

Egypt's military spokesman expressed his condolences and said the armed forces would continue to fight "black terrorism".

A local source said the bombing was in revenge for the army offensive which had destroyed militant hideouts and arms caches in Sinai.

Meanwhile, a Sinai-based jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda has admitted killing a high-ranking member of Egypt's National Security Agency outside his home in eastern Cairo this week.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis said it had shot dead Col Mohammed Mabruk, who had been due to testify against ex-President Morsi.

The colonel was believed to have helped uncover a network of Muslim Brotherhood members that had tried to help leaders of the movement flee the country after Mr Morsi was ousted. The former president is part of the Brotherhood.

In a separate incident in Cairo on Wednesday, at least three people were hurt in an attack on a police checkpoint. An explosive device was thrown and shots were fired at the checkpoint, reports said. It was not clear who was behind the incident.

The army deposed Mohammed Morsi on 3 July after days of mass protests and a military ultimatum to resolve the political crisis that had evolved between his Islamist supporters and opponents.

Mr Morsi and thousands of Brotherhood leaders and members have since been arrested. Hundreds of Morsi supporters died when two protest camps were violently broken up by the military in August.

Kenya police accused of counter-terror abuses

The report focuses on alleged abuses in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa

Kenyan counter-terrorism officers have been accused of carrying out extra-judicial killings and other abuses in a report by US and Kenyan rights groups.

The Open Society Justice Initiative and Kenya's Muslims for Human Rights said the police often tortured detainees.

Their report said arbitrary arrests and disappearances were also widespread, especially in Mombasa, a city with a large Muslim population.

Officials have not responded, but they have denied similar claims in the past.

The US and UK governments support Kenya's anti-terror police with training and equipment.

The report said such assistance should be suspended to any unit where there was credible evidence that the police had committed human rights violations.

The BBC's Africa security correspondent Moses Rono says that would be a difficult decision to take as Kenya's counter-terrorism efforts are key to stemming spreading Islamist militancy in East Africa.

The September attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Kenya's, capital, Nairobi, in which 67 were killed has added pressure on the authorities to act or be seen to be trying to stop terror attacks, he says.

The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab said it was behind the four-day siege.

'Difficult business'

In the report titled We're Tired of Taking You to the Court researchers spoke to more than 40 people over the last year.

They found that the Anti-Terror Police Unit (APTU) tortured detainees to get them to admit links to terrorism, and arbitrary detentions and disappearances were widespread.

The report called for official investigations to be carried out into the disappearances and killings of at least 20 individuals suspected of terrorism-related activities.

These included the recent assassinations in Mombasa of two Muslim clerics alleged to have links to al-Shabab.

Kenya's security forces have previously denied allegations that they were behind the killings.

A man who survived the drive-by shooting of a Muslim cleric in October

According to the report one officer told a detainee at a police station: "We're tired of taking you to the court. Next time we'll finish you off in the field."

The report quoted a lawyer telling a court hearing: "My clients have complained to me that investigators used a pair of pliers to squeeze their private parts."

Such tactics violate human rights and are counterproductive to counter-terrorism efforts, the report said.

The investigation focused primarily on abuses committed in Mombasa in 2012 and 2013, but the report says "the ATPU's broader pattern of rights violations extends back years earlier".

It pointed to illegal renditions to Somalia and Ethiopia in 2007 and at least nine suspects who were rendered to Uganda in 2010 following the World Cup bombings in Kampala.

An anti-terror police officer told the BBC that counter-terrorism was a difficult business and it was not easy to find evidence to link suspects to terrorism.

He said witnesses were often unwilling to testify, some suspects were killed in shootouts, and others fled the country to avoid prosecution.

Egypt unrest: Rival groups mark anniversary of clashes

Egyptian anti-military protesters are rallying on the anniversary of the violence

Opponents and supporters of Egypt's military-backed administration have clashed on the second anniversary of bloody anti-government protests.

Police fired tear gas at anti-army demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Earlier a memorial there was vandalised just hours after it was unveiled.

More than 40 died in November 2011 as protesters and security forces fought.

The protests were against a military council that had taken over after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

The so-called Mohammed Mahmoud battle broke out on 19 November 2011 as protesters rallied against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf).

The violence flared after the security forces dispersed a sit-in organised by families of those killed or injured in the uprising in January and February 2011.

Many demonstrators were shot by the security forces and hundreds were injured.

The Scaf handed over power in 2012 to Mohammed Morsi, a veteran Muslim Brotherhood leader who won Egypt's first democratic presidential election.

Mr Morsi was ousted by the military in July this year following protests against his rule. His supporters say he was deposed in a military coup.

Slogans

Hundreds of Egyptians gathered on Monday evening in Tahrir Square, where the government has built a monument to commemorate those killed in Egypt's uprising.

But by Tuesday morning protesters chanting anti-military slogans had sprayed the memorial with red graffiti, denouncing both the government and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Supporters of the government waved posters of General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

Protesters sang and played drums in Mohammed Mahmoud Street, while in Tahrir Square others chanted for "freedom".

Supporters of army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has promised free and fair elections, also gathered in Tahrir Square.

The rival groups were seen throwing rocks and other items at each other.

Egyptian television also showed Brotherhood supporters gathering elsewhere in Cairo to call for Mr Morsi's reinstatement.

In a televised statement on Sunday, Egypt's interior ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif said police would protect the planned rallies on Tuesday, but warned that authorities would deal harshly with anyone who turned to violence, according to the Associated Press.

"The interior ministry offers its condolences to all the martyrs of the revolution whose pure blood was shed to water the tree of national struggle," Mr Latif was quoted as saying.

South Africa mall roof collapse traps dozens

The BBC's Nick Ericsson says early reports suggest the back wall gave way

Two people have died and about 40 are feared trapped after a roof collapsed at the construction site of a South African shopping mall, paramedics say.

Rescue teams are working in the dark to find those beneath the rubble at the site in Tongaat, north of Durban.

Crisis Medical, an emergency service provider in Durban, told BBC Focus on Africa that about 30 people had been taken to hospitals in the area.

Officials said those trapped were construction workers.

"It was a mall building still under construction; most of those still trapped inside the building were construction workers," police spokeswoman Mandy Govender told the AFP news agency.

Sniffer dogs

"Rescue operations are becoming extremely difficult in the dark," Neil Powell, operations director for Crisis Medical, told the BBC World Service radio programme Focus on Africa.

"So far there are two deaths, 30 have already been transported [to hospitals] and there's still 40 trapped," he said.

Police on the scene have different figures, saying that one person has died, 29 are injured and at least 50 are still trapped.

Mr Powell said the workers were trapped in a large amount of rubble and scaffolding.

The deputy mayor of the eThekwini municipality was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that authorities had obtained an injunction a month ago to halt construction at the site.

Chris Botha, from the private ambulance company Netcare 911, said it was too early to know the cause of the collapsed roof, which is about the size of rugby field.

"It is going to be a long operation. It will take time to get to everyone," he told the BBC.

The accident happened around 16:30 local time (14:30 GMT), he told the AFP news agency.

About 100 rescue workers are at the scene, where hydraulic equipment is being used to break through the concrete blocks.

Sniffer dogs are also searching for more casualties, Mr Botha said.

Tongaat is a small town about 40km (25 miles) north of Durban surrounded by sugar farms and has a large South African Asian population.

According to Netcare 911, the shopping mall construction site is in the city centre, near a hospital and a railway.

Nearby transport routes to Tongaat had been affected as the main road through the town has been shut to traffic and trains have been stopped, Mr Powell said.

Those trapped are believed to be construction workers

Workers are trapped amidst scaffolding and rubble

So far about 30 people have been taken to hospital