,17
1HE GUARDIAN,Saturday, May 28, 201i
Africa Food Scarcity, As Sudan Crisis Escalates A TOP US.offidal wa rned of a .tlhumamtanan C[lSIS In Sudan yesterday over the north's invasion of a disputed territory as southern towns taking in tens o f thousands of Oeeing vi llagers were running short of food, fuel and shelter. County Comm issione r Dominic Deng said yesterday that up to 40,000 people have arrived in Tura lei,a town to the south of the disputed region of Abyei. He said at reast 80,000 people have ned Abye i, a zo ne about the size of Connecticut which northern Sudan invaded last weekend. In a vis it to Turalei yesterday,
the top US. official in Southern Sudan, Barrie Walkie)! said "we
~hv~~f~i'ta~~t~~s.~~d~~~ north is blockading border crossi ng points, preventing food and fuel from getting to the south. Militias are attacking southe rn forces, and the northern army displaced tens of thousands of people by invadingAbyei, he said. lise Grande, the UN.'s top humanitarian official in Southern Sudan, said there are not enough stocks in the area to supply all the fleeing families with food and shelter. The fuel shortage is greatly ham·
r.ering relief efforts, she said. It's double the number of people we were planning for; she said. Both northern and Soutllern Sudan stake a claim to Abyei, a ferti le grassland near several oil fields. fighting between north and south broke out last week, a nd northern troops moved in with force. Soutnern Sudan's president says the south wi ll not respond militarily and risk a resum ptio n of the cou ntry's civil war. More than 2 million people were killed during war, wh ich ended w ith a peace deal in 2005.
'niOUSANDS of Egyptians .1 packed Cairo's Tahrir Square
~:II~d~aYs~;o:dh;~v~{~~~~~.e;~ push for faster reforms and a ' speedy tria l fo r ousted President Hosni Muba rak and his former aides. Reuters reported that Activists com plain of de lays in putting Mubarak, his family and memo bers of his ousted regime on trial and that the army has not restored orde r quickly enough to the country of 80 million. Egyptians are also demanding an end to endemic graft, one oT the main grievances that drove thousands of protesters onto the streets in the uprising that began on January 25. "After some 1,000 martyrs ... people do not see any change," said Mustafa Ali Mensnawi, a 38· year-old accountant, who was helping marshal crowds flood· ing into the square. "Tlie only change we see is that the Mubarak metro station has been changed to the Martyrs station," he said. In a move seen as aimed at appeas ing protesters, authorities on Tuesday ordered Mubarak to sta nd tria l on charges of graft and "pre-medi. tated killing" of protesters during the uprising that ousted
Egyptians Demand Deeper And Faster Reforms him on February II. If convicted, Mubarak could face the death penalty. He has been detained at a hospital in the tourist Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh si nce April when he was reported to have suffered heart problems during an initial questioni ng. Hundreds staged a protest in front of the hospital calling for his departure. They said his presence was driving [Qurists away, according to state TY. The ruling military council withdrew tlie army from ne,a r the protests in Cairo and has ordered security forces to stay away. Tahrir Square was decked with Egyptian flags and placards demanding that officials who worked under Mubarak and squandered state funds be investigated. "We want to dissolve all local councils that are famous for being th e most and worst corrupt institutions during Mubarak's regime," said
Mohammed Adel, of the April 6 Youth group. "We also ask that all political
powers get invo lved in the drafting of important political laws," Ade l added. Thousands of Egyptia ns also took to the streets in the Mediterranean City of Alexand ria and in t he Suez Canal's cities of Suez a nd Ismailia. Smaller protests also took place in northern Sinai and in the city of Port Said on the Suez Canal However, some Egyptians expressed opposition to the protests, saying military ru lers needed time to sort things out A few hundred gathered in Cairo's aI-Hussein area to express support for EgYp't's
military rufers, chancing: . For
the sake of our cou nny, we want to be ru led by the army." Some political parties, includ· ing Egypt's powerful Muslim Brotherhood, said no protests we re needed and warned they could lead to confrontations between the army and demon-
strators. The abse nce of the Brotherhood angered so me protesters, some of whom chanted: "Where is the Brotherhood?"
U@versrtYOfLOmeShUtOVetStudents'ruots .,~
-
.......... ; .
}
-'...'-
{If--
Tanzania's President Jakaya Mrisho Klkwete (l) speaks with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a summit in New Delhi recently. India said on yesterday it would give Tanzania $180 million to upgrade water supplies in the East African nation, and the 2 countries agreed 10 remove tax hurdles and boost bilateral trade. PHOTO: REUTERS ,.
'"r)GO'S government has .1 ordered tlle indefinite closure of the country's largest universirydaysafter students started nots demanding bette r conditions and food. Policem en and paramilitary guards patrolled the University of Lome campus
yesterday. The university's vice chancellor says the ram· paging protests bega n Wednesday a nd escalated Thursday on the campus in the capir.tl of the tiny West African nation. Koffi Ahadzi Nono n says studen ts dam· aged university property and
11:' ,
tried to force others to join their protests at the Unlvers,· ty of some 12,000 students. AP reported that the stu· dents we re upset about their food and about the mtroduc, tion of a new cUITIculum fo r which they said they were not prepared. .
.... ,:'?F?
,~,""",!:,.,.,..,.~~"
World
~7~·~···--:-
.rr::~~:~._.'::.~J...Z.:::.~:" ~:.::~'~".':1,..~~.~-""-=",:~~~"""=_IS!I~--~~~~~=::::;;~~!:;,;;:::;~~~~~!:~~~~:::;~~~~~~~::::=~:0.
Warm Welcome For Obama In Europe AS
President Barpck Obama
Iljets across Europe. he is highlighting the characteris· tics of his presidency his supporters adore and his detrac· tors criticize: sweeping speech· es before e namored crowds and policy sessions that emphasize deliberate discus·
sion over concrete results. AP reported thatthe fouf<oun·
try, six-<iay tour h~s produced
pfenty of endunng 'mages, from Obama Imocking back a pint of Guinness in a tiny Iris h village and drawing tens of thousands for remarks in cent ral Dublin, to hob n obbing with Britain's roya l fam ily at Buckingham Palace. But there have been few memorable pol· icy breakthroughs. Even at the G-8 summit in France, Obama and world lead· ers agreed on a path toward finanCia lly supporti ng nedgling democratic movements in Egypt and Tunisia, but stopped sliort of backing a specific monetary package. The G-8 did say it would aim to provide $40 billion in funding, though offi· cials did not provide a breakdown of where the money would come from or when. That's not to say Obama's trip .....won·t be considered a success. . the kind of soft diplomacy the president has engaged in ca n go a lonll way in currying favor from alhes when their support is needed on tough issues. And
the Wh ite House doesn't have to look far down the line for opportu nities to cash in on that SU))port, w ith the first phase of the US. withdrawal from Afgha nistan set to begin in Ju ly, and the US. and its NATO allies locked in a bombingcampaign in Libya that has no end in sight The White House also hopes images of the president being greeted by chee ring crowds
and American·nag waving Europeans could give Obama a boost on the domestic front, where Republican contenders are lining up to run fo r his job. One of tIiose GOP hopefuls, for· mer Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, alread,Y has taken a dig at Obama s popularity here, taking to Twitter to say he "sorry to interrupt t he Europea n pub crawl," but could Obama o utline his Medicare plan7
~::z:::r.:.==::::s;::~~",==.'!'!!~=~~:-:=~~~=~
'Air France Jet Crashed Nose-Up After Four-Minute Ordeal' TVLaJ'S wresded with the con·
e trois of an Air France airliner
for more than four minu tes before it plunged into the Atlantic with its nose up, killing all 228 people on board, French investigators said yesterday. The 2009 emergency began witll a stall warning two and a half hours into tne Rio-Paris flight and ni ne minutes after the captain had left the' cockpit for a routine rest period. The Airbus A330 let climbed to 38,000 feet and then began a dramatic three a nd a half minute descent, rolling from left to right, with the youngest of three pilots handing control
~~~~l~~~~g"fo~~\h;"~s~lot The timeline was described in a note by France's BEA crash
investigation authority, which said it was too early to give the causes of tl,e crash ahead of a fuller report in the summer. 'These are so far just observa· tions, not an understanding of the events," BEA director JeanPaul Troadec told reporters. n,e captain returned after "several attempts" to call him back to the cockpit but was not at the controls in the final moments, accord ing to infor· ' mation g leaned from black boxes. By the time the 58-year-old returned, just over a minute into the emergency; the aircraft was plunging at 10,000 feet a minute with its nose pointing up 15 degrees and at too high an angle compared to the onrushing air to provide lift
Thousands of anti-govemment protesters returned to the streets of Sanaa yesterday to call for the resignation of Yemeni
PrcsidcnI. Ali Abdullah Saleh.
PHOTO: AFP
Fighting Worsens In Yemen '\IEMENI tribesmen said they I wrested a military com· pound from elite trOops loyal to Presldent Ali Abdullah Saleh outside the capital Sanaa on Yesterday as increased fighting threatened to tip the coun try into dvil war. Tribal leader Sheildl Hamid Asim told Reuters his fighters ki lled the base's military commander and a separate tribal source said the Yemeni air force dropped bombs to prevent the mbesmen from seiz· lng an anns cache at the site. Further bombing sorties by the air force could be heard near Sanaa during the course
of the day. If confirmed, the Republican Guard's loss of a military compound to tribes· men with machi ne guns and rocket·prope lled , grenades would be an em barrassing set· back for Saleh, whose security fo rces have been drawn into pitched street fighting in the capital this week that has killed nearly 100 people. Tribes outside the capital said they were also fighting government troops at two other mili· tary sites. In Sanaa, tens of thousands of people gathered for what they said would be a "friday of Peaceful Revolution" against Saleh, releasing white
doves and carryi ng the coffi ns of about 30 people killed In clashes this week. A few kilom eters (miles) away, government loyalists held thei r own rally, waving Yemeni nags
~~ai~:~r~h~;~hpe~7~s~i!
state for nearly 33 years. "By God,you won't leave!" some red banners read. There are worries that Yemen, already on the brink of fi nan· dal ruin, could become a fai led state that would undermine regio nal security and pose a serious risk to its neighbor Saudi Arabi a, the world's biggest oil exporter.
'