African press review 7 December 2011

Why is Eritrea angry with the UN Security Council? Why are Kenyan doctors angry with the government? Has Uganda paid millions to Burundi for services rendered to President Yoweri Museveni's side in the 1980s war? Are US special forces operating in the CAR? And why may France get angry with South Africa?

The Daily Nation in Kenya reports that Eritrea has reacted with fury to the decision by the United Nations Security Council to sanction Asmara's support for Islamist fighters in Somalia.

The Security Council on Monday passed the resolution with 13 votes in favour and two abstentions from China and Russia to expand sanctions originally imposed two years ago.

The resolution, which was watered down at the insistence of Russia and China, now requires foreign companies involved in mining in Eritrea to exercise “vigilance” to ensure that funds from the sector are not used to destabilise the region.

The original draft circulated by Gabon sought to ban investment in Eritrea’s mining industry and outlaw imports of its minerals. It also sought to block payment of a tax Eritrea charges on remittances from its nationals abroad.

Eritrea is furious at what it calls “US instigated sanctions” and has warned that the resolution will exacerbate conflict and instability in the Horn of Africa.

Kenya's striking doctors on Tuesday rejected a government offer to increase their allowances by 400 euros per month.

The doctors' union said it had not been consulted about the deal announced by the medical services assistant minister and urged its members to continue the boycott.

As the strike entered its second day, hospitals in Western, Nyanza, Rift Valley and Central provinces referred emergency cases to private health facilities.

The boycott was called by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union after pay negotiations with the government collapsed. The doctors are demanding a 300 per cent pay increase.

Medical services assistant minister Kambi Kazungu said the government could not meet the union’s demands allegedly because all resources had been channelled to the military operation against al Shebab fighters in Somalia.

According to the Daily Monitor in Uganda, parliament was told yesterday that President Yoweri Museveni had ordered senior officials in the ministry of finance to pay more than 11 million euros to Burundi. The claims are now being investigated by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.

That committee was told that that Burundi supplied material to Museveni’s National Resistance Army rebels during the bush war between 1981 and1986. After the war that support was converted into a national debt.

The committee chairman said that money given to Museveni’s rebels was a private matter and they did not have any legal mandate to commit the country. The National Resistance Army was a treasonous organisation according to the government of Uganda at that time.

The Kampala Monitor also reports that dozens of US Special Forces have established a frontline base in Obo, south-eastern Central African Republic, to help regional armies in a final push to remove Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and his fighters from the battlefield.

Revelations about the United States' military deployment in the frontier region with Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, emerged as a senior Ugandan military officer said Kony is now hiding in CAR.

President Obama, under pressure from domestic campaigners and lobbyists, and in line with the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act 2009, in October ordered the deployment of about 100 US Special Forces troops to capture or kill Kony and his senior commanders.

In South Africa, BusinessDay reports that the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, is campaigning in Africa to have Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma appointed as the next African Union Commissioner. This according to a senior government official in Pretoria.

According to BusinessDay, this endorsement will boost South Africa’s campaign to have Dlamini-Zuma replace Jean Ping. But it is likely to infuriate France, which favours Ping for a second five-year term.

Lady Ashton agreed to assist South Africa to convince the AU’s heads of state, especially in west Africa, to have Ping withdraw his candidature, paving the way for Dlamini-Zuma to be elected uncontested.

In return for Ping’s withdrawal, the EU is reportedly going to ensure he is rewarded with a suitable senior position at the United Nations.