Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 3 March 2005 — Page 46

Page 46 • The Muncie Times • March 3, 2005

AFRICAN BRIEFS

Africa’s longest ser- believed to have mentation of a donors. and state companies vicing president dies fathered more than 100 Memorandum of Ross Herbert of the were "illegally occupyin Togo children, several of Understanding, signed South African Institute ing" much of the whom have become in 2002, which the of International Affairs "prime" property. LOME, To go (IRIN) influential figures in company suddenly jet- said the AU does not Since the Maasai - President Gnassingbe national life. tisoned without any have adequate machin- community invaded Eyadema of Togo, reason. ery to handle Nepad white-owned farms last Africa's longest serving GIN - A standoff and would make it less August, the land hunger head of state, died between some 500 Ethiopia couse house effective. He said those crisis in Kenya has while he was undergo- youths from the Nepad proposing its move intensified, driven by a ing medical evacuation Ugborodo community could be motivated by bitter drought, failed for treatment abroad. occupying a U.S. oil GIN - Ethiopia, "national jealousy" and harvests and intense The armed forces of terminal and Nigerian already the administra- were taking a "point- competition between the small West African armed forces came to a tive home of the less swipe" at South crop farmers and cattle country immediately head Saturday when African Union, may Africa. keepers for increasingsuspended the constitu- troops opened fire, soon house the New "South Africa takes a ly scarce resources, tion and named one of According to reports Partnership for Africa’s lot more interest in This week, heavily his sons, as head of from the region, dozens Development (Nepad), Nepad than other coun- armed security personstate. of youths were wound- following a proposal by tries and it is only fair nel evicted over 3,000 The former army ed with one possible Nepad heads of state at that they host its squatters from Mt. colonel, who seized fatality.. a meeting in Algeria offices. The AU needs Kenya Forest in Meru - power in a 1967 coup, The youths had last year. to get its own house in a piece of land they had ruled Togo with an invaded the Escravos The transfer of the order and show its called home for the last iron hand for 38 years, tank farm and oil termi- Nepad Secretariat from effectiveness first 20 years. Eyadema's death was nal belonging to South Africa to before taking more Across Kenya, groups announced on state Chevron Texaco at Ethiopia by the end of responsibility. who previously lived radio by Prime Minister Ugborodo, Warn, Delta the year was suggested The final decision together in peaceful Kofi Sama. State after a breakdown to accelerate its inte- will be taken at the AU cooperation, such as Two hours later, Gen. in negotiations between gration into African heads of state summit the Garre and Murule Zachari Nandja, the community leaders and Union structures. But in July. clans who keep thouchief of staff of the oil company manage- the plan has met with sands of camels in the armed forces, said on ment over a number of criticism by political Londless Kenyons arid wasteland that borstate television that community develop- commentators who fear target usued farms ders Somalia, are makFaure Gnassingbe, the ment and employment that the continent's ing war over the land president’s son and a issues. recovery plan will be GIN - A land hunger and the little water it junior minister in the Close to 300 troops subsumed into AU crisis in Kenya is holds, government, had been from a joint military bureaucracy. fuelling tensions In a letter last month, appointed head of state, task force on the Warn Nepad, an economic between pastoralists, Catholic bishops "The Togolese armed crisis, called Operation project of the African cattle grazers and land- Patrick Harrington and forces swear allegiance Restore Hope, had Union, is the latest in a less Kenyans who are Maurice Crowley to Faure Essozima already been deployed series of blueprints being evicted from described the situation Gnassingbe as presi- in the region. aimed at laying the government-owned as "serious trouble" and dent of the Republic of Spokesperson for the foundation for a viable lands. pleaded with the warTogo," said Nandja, Ugborodo community, path for Africa's socio- Hundreds of thou- ring communities to who was flanked by the Victor Omunu whose economic development sands of hectares "pull back from the country's other top mil- comments were report- and African economic belonging to the well- brink", itary commanders. ed in local media, con- integration. It has been to-do lie fallow and Some Kenyan politiThe move caught firmed the incident and hailed in some quarters unused, while Kenyans cians say the country's some Togolese by sur- said his people were as the "Marshal Plan" fight each other for best land still remains prise as thepresident of ready to confront for Africa. access to tiny parcels of the domain of the the National Assembly, Chevron Texaco for the Some analysts fear overworked land and descendants of English Ouattara Sambare injustice done them. that the AU, already muddy trickles that colonialists. The estate Natchaba, by law, According to him, the battling with its own were once rivers. of Lord Thomas should have become youths were not armed heavy structures, may A government-corn- Delamere, for example, acting head of state fol- and their protest was not pay the requisite missioned report last contains 26,000 lowing the death in peaceful. attention to Nepad and year by lawyer Paul hectares in the Great office of the president. Omunu said what that incorporation Ndungu alleged that Rift Valley. Eyadema had several they were asking from could scare off already Cabinet ministers, wives and was widely Chevron was the imple- wary investors and members of Parliament