Africa

Rwanda's defence minister is effectively commanding a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo, UN experts say.

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's parliament ratified a border and oil deal with Sudan on Tuesday intended to settle issues that brought the countries close to resuming their two-decade civil war and allow the South to revive its vital crude oil exports.

International support for a military intervention in Mali is gathering momentum quicker than the Harmattan wind blows across the Sahel. In a matter of days, the powers that be (the ones that have the authority and resources to turn intervention talk into boots on the ground) have all come out in favour of getting involved sooner rather than later. Bullish talk from the United States, France, the European Union and, crucially, the United Nations Security Council suggests Mali should get ready for an influx of foreign soldiers.

October 15, 2012 (JUBA) – A large crowd of civil right activists and residents of South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal state on Monday staged a peaceful procession in Juba, waving placards and banners demanding the “immediate removal” of the 14 mile area from the Safe Demilitarized Buffer Zone (SDBZ) and from the next round of talks, as they see it as an encroachment upon their land.

(Reuters) - Gunmen attacked power stations and security facilities in and around Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan in coordinated overnight raids that ended early on Monday, the defense minister said.

(Reuters) - Sudanese security forces burned and looted a village in the Nuba mountains of South Kordofan state in May and filmed the attack, a monitoring group said on Tuesday, providing satellite images, cell phone video and witness accounts to back its claims.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Efforts to implement a peace deal between Sudan's government and a Darfur rebel group face "huge challenges" while violence is rising in parts of the western region, the acting head of the regional peacekeeping force said on Monday.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Insurgents shelled the main city of Sudan's oil-producing South Kordofan state near the border with South Sudan on Monday, both sides said, their first assault on the government stronghold since last year.

October 8, 2012 (KHARTOUM) — Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Monday indicated Sudan’s preference for a political agreement over the disputed Abyei’s area, stressing that a referendum might bring war between the two sides.

Abidjan - A new report from UN experts accuses exiled allies of Ivory Coast's former president of trying to recruit Islamist rebels who took control of the northern half of neighbouring Mali in a campaign to destabilise the volatile West African region, a UN diplomat and a Western official familiar with the document said on Monday.