African press review 21 July 2016

Why did the Burundi delegation suddenly withdraw from this week's African Union summit in the Rwandan capital, Kigali? South Sudan faces the risk of a cholera epidemic. Can Zimbabwe survive the presidency of Robert Mugabe?

The main story in regional newspaper the East African looks behind the decision which saw the Burundi delegation suddenly withdraw from this week's African Union summit in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

According to the East African, Burundi accuses the Rwandan authorities of refusing to guarantee the safety of the national delegation.

Burundian officials arrived in Kigali to attend the summit but left on 13 July, two days after the meetings preceding the Heads of State Summit had begun. No reasons were given and the matter was not discussed during the summit.

In a press briefing yesterday, Burundi’s Foreign Minister Alain Aimé Nyamitwe said that Burundi’s delegation withdrew after it was not accorded "security guarantees" and also because of the African Union’s failure to address Burundi’s complaints about Rwanda.

Bujumbura accuses the Kigali government of backing rebels fighting President Pierre  Nkurunziza, accusations which Rwanda vehemently denies.

Nkurunziza was not among the 35 African leaders who attended the summit in Rwanda.

South Sudan now faces cholera epidemic

The East African also reports that dozens of people have fallen ill with suspected cholera in South Sudan's capital, Juba. A United Nations' food warehouse was looted and destroyed, incurring 20 million euros worth of damage, according to the UN.

Cholera kills fewer than one percent of sufferers if there is proper treatment with oral rehydration salts, according to the World Health Organisation. But conditions in Juba, where fighting erupted on 7 July between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to his deputy, Riek Machar, are far from ideal, according to a warning from the International Organization for Migration which is setting up oral rehydration stations.

Is Robert Mugabe dangerous for Zimbabwe?

The editorial in South African financial paper BusinessDay is headlined "Zimbabwe’s ticking time bomb".

The article ends with a reference to President Robert Mugabe’s advanced age (he's 92) and his negative impact on the political system. BusinessDay says there is a fierce battle taking place over who will be his successor. Meanwhile, the political opposition is deeply divided.

Acts of increasing desperation have seen the Zimbabwean government impose restrictions on a whole range of products from South Africa.

The reason for this drastic action is that the country has run out of money, which also explains the decision not to pay public servants.

South Africa now has a time-bomb ticking on its northern border, says BusinessDay, with no bomb-disposal unit in sight.

Kenyan security forces accused of killings

Security agencies are killing and abducting men in north-east Kenya.

Human Rights Watch documented 34 "enforced disappearances" and 11 suspected "extrajudicial killings" over two years in Garissa, Mandera and Wajir counties as part of counterterrorism operations in Kenya's north-east.

Human Rights Watch says the cases it has documented are "just the tip of the iceberg".

The report details people taken from their homes by masked, armed men who did not identify themselves. People have been beaten in the streets before being driven away in government vehicles.

Some of the disappeared were last seen in police or military custody. None has been charged with any crime, nor are their families able to trace them.

Dam, dam, dam!

A story on the front page of the Cairo-based Egypt Independent reports that the Ethiopian Irrigation and Water Minister Motuma Mikasa has said that neither tripartite talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam nor the outcome of impact studies will stop the building of the dam.

Mikasa says it is hoped to finish construction by 2017. He added that plans are afoot to build more dams on rivers flowing from the Ethiopian highlands.

Whilst some countries in the Nile basin have expressed support for the Ethiopian construction project, begun in 2011, Egypt has spearheaded opposition to the dam, citing negative impact on downstream water flows as the main concern.

A tripartite committee from Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt was formed to discuss objections to the dam's construction and it was agreed in 2014 that environmental impact studies would be conducted.

According to the Sudan Tribune, two French firms have been retained to conduct hydraulic, economic and environmental studies on the dam but the contracts have yet to be signed.