2005 in Africa

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International organisations

African Union

Several decisions were made during the summit:

Kofi Annan, secretary general of the UN has sought to strengthen the partnership between the UN and the African Union for Africa to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. He declared that "Africa isn't on schedule to reach the Millennium Development Goals. But it will be able to reach these goals if the world partnership, promised a long time ago, does come together completely".

Contents

The question of how to represent Africa in the best possible way in the UN Security Council was delayed, following a disagreement among the member countries of the African Union. This was referred to a committee composed of 15 countries to assemble in Swaziland from February 2005.

The mandate of the current chairman, Olusegun Obasanjo, president of Nigeria, was prolonged from July 2005 to January 2006. Next summits will be held in Libya in July 2005 and in Sudan in January 2006.

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC)

The summit also touched the situation in Togo and welcomed a delegation, led by Kokou Tozoun, minister of foreign affairs. A statement was made, inviting "the international community to encourage the Togo authorities to do its utmost to establish a swift and peaceful return of the peace process in the country". Omar Bongo Ondimba, present chairman of the Cemac, yielded his chair to Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea.

West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA)

Tandja Mamadou, president of Niger returned to the chair of the UEMOA following the summit of the organisation in Niamey (Niger) on 30 March 2005. Different heads of state participated in the summit: Abdoulaye Wade (Senegal), Mathieu Kérékou (Benin), Blaise Compaoré (Burkina Faso), Amadou Toumani Touré (Mali), Henrique Rosa (Guinea-Bissau) and Tandja Mamadou (Niger). Togo was represented by Koffi Sama, prime minister, and Côte d'Ivoire by Théodore Mel Eg, minister for regional integration and the African Union. In a final communiqué, the UEMOA congratulated itself for "the results on price stability in the Union, following a better provisioning of the food markets" and "welcomed the actions intended to preserve the value of the common currency", the CFA franc.

Other organisations

Conflict and civil war

Côte d'Ivoire

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Sudan

South-Sudan

A final agreement of peace in South-Sudan was signed on 9 January 2005 in Nairobi between the Sudanese vice-president Ali Osman Taha and John Garang, leader of the southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), putting a term to the longest conflict in Africa (21 years), that killed 1,5 million. During a 6-year period, this agreement envisages broad autonomy for the south of Sudan which will have its own government and an autonomous army. At the end of this period, a self-determination referendum will be organized. The income resulting from oil will be shared in equal share between the south and north. In addition, the government will have 70% of the positions in the central administration against 30% for the southern rebels. Lastly, the Sharia (Islamic law) will be into force only in the north of the country, with Muslim majority. It will not be applied in the south, having a Christian and animist majority. On 10 January, thousands of Sudanese expressed their joy in the streets of Khartoum. The National Liberation Council of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) ratified unanimously on 24 January the peace agreement in Rumbek.

  • The Security Council of the UN unanimously adopted Resolution 1590 on 24 March presented by the United States which envisages the sending of a United Nations Mission in Sudan (Unmis) made up of 10 000 soldiers and 715 civil police officers in order to "support the implementation of the peace agreement" in South-Sudan, signed in January 2005 by the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) of John Garang. This mission has an initial mandate of 6 months.
  • At the donor conference which took place 11 and 12 April in Oslo (Norway), the financial sponsors promised to give 4,5 billion dollars for the reconstruction of Sudan, devastated by 21 years of civil war.
  • John Garang, leader of the former rebels in South-Sudan became vice-president of Sudan on 9 July in accordance with the peace agreement of January 2005.
  • After the death of John Garang on 30 July 2005, he was replaced by Salva Kiir Mayardit on 11 August 2005.

Darfur

  • The African Union decided to deploy a peacekeeping force in Darfur. The force should in the long term be made up of 3.320 men.
  • On 26 January an air raid took place on a village in Darfour, killing a hundred people. Adam Thiam, spokesman of the African Union declared that it was "the most serious attack performed these last months. It is more than a very serious violation of the cease-fire because it is not an isolated act". The acts of violence multiply these last weeks, a few days from the summit of the African Union which will be devoted in particular to the situation in Darfur.
  • Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the UN, invited the United Nations on 1 February to take urgent action to put an end to the massacres in the area of Darfur in the south of Sudan. In a report, submitted the day before, UNO accuses the Sudanese government and the Arab militia to have committed in Darfur "serious violations" of the international law, equivalent to "war crimes" or "crimes against humanity", referring to the generalized practice of torture, rape, murder and plundering of civilians.
  • On 13 February 2005, Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations called upon NATO and the European Union "to seriously study what they can undertake concretely to help to put an end to" the tragedy that is the war in Darfur, causing during the last two years the death of several tens of thousands and the displacement of 1,6 million.
  • In a conference at the Agence France-Presse (AFP) on 14 March 2005, Jan Egeland, United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, stated that the conflict in Darfour killed at least 180 000 during the last 18 months, an average of 10 000 deaths per month. These figures count people dying because of deprivations and diseases.
  • The United Nations Security Council adopted on 29 March 2005 by 12 votes for and three abstentions (Algeria, China and Russia) a resolution presented by the United States installing sanctions (freezing of assets and prohibition of moving abroad) for those recognized guilty of having committed atrocities or threatening the peace process. A commission consisting in representatives of the 15 Member States of the Security Council will be charged to nominate these persons. The resolution also extends the embargo on arms and forbids the government to carry out offensive military flights over Darfur. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs esteems that this resolution, that it judges "unbalanced and inappropriate", does not take in account the "government efforts to deal with the questions related with politics, safety and the humanitarian situation in Darfur".
  • The United Nations Security Council adopted on 30 March 2005 by 11 votes for and 4 abstentions (Algeria, Brazil, China and the United States) a resolution allowing to bring the authors of exactions (murder, rapes or plunderings) in Darfour before the International Criminal Court (ICC). The United States, opposed to the International Criminal Court stated that these nationals cannot be judged there. Thus, the resolution provides that "the citizens, responsible now or in the past, or the personnel of a State non-party to the Treaty of Rome on the International Criminal Court, will be subjected to the exclusive jurisdiction of this State for any act supposedly related to operations in Sudan".
  • The Peace and Security Council of the African Union approved on 28 April the reinforcement of its peacekeeping force in Darfur. Its manpower will pass from 2200 to 7700 men.

Political crisis in Togo

On 5 February 2005, president Gnassingbé Eyadéma died after having led Togo for 38 years. According to the constitution, the chairman of the National Assembly should have been acting president until new presidential elections, to be held in 60 days. The army however decided to bring to power a son of the late president, Faure Gnassingbé Eyadéma. To endorse the decision of the army, the parliament urgently modified the constitution. The African Union, the ECOWAS, the UN, the European Union condemned what they called a "coup d'etat" and demanded the re-establishment of the constitutional order. In spite of a ban on public demonstrations issued by the government, the principal opposition parties demanded free and pluralist elections and appealed each day for peaceful demonstrations, which gathered several hundreds to a few thousand people. These were dispersed by the police, using teargas. On 25 February Faure Gnassingbé Eyadéma renounced from the position of president of the Republic, and announced to be standing as a candidate to the presidential elections, to be held on 24 April 2005. Abass Bonfoh, vice-president of the National Assembly became acting president.

Four candidates presented themselves at the election of 24 April: Faure Gnassingbé Eyadéma, supported by the Rassemblement du peuple togolais (RPT), Emmanuel Bob Akitani, candidate for the coalition of the radical opposition, Harry Olympio, candidate for the Rassemblement pour le soutien à la démocratie et au développement (RSDD, moderate opposition) and Nicolas Lawson, a businessman who withdrew his candidature on 22 April. The campaign was held in a climate of violence. The opposition denounced the conditions in which they had to prepare, and request a postponement of the election. Two days before the poll, François Boko, Minister for the Interior of the temporary government, requested the postponement of the scrutiny. In a press conference, he denounced "a suicidal electoral process". He was then forced to resign.

The election took place on 24 April. It is marked by much violence, resulting in dozens of deaths. The results were proclaimed on 26 April: Faure Gnassingbé, wins the election with 60.22% of the votes, before Emmanuel Bob Akitani with 38.19% and Harry Olympio with 0.55%. After the announcement, there was an outbreak of demonstrations in several cities of the country, denouncing the massive fraud. Clashes between demonstrators and the police occurred, involving hundreds of victims, died or wounded. Thousands of Togolese took refuge in Benin. ECOWAS, the European Union and France recognized the victory of Faure Gnassingbé Eyadema and called for the installation of a government of national unity. This was rejected by the radical opposition, that requested the cancellation of the elections because of the massive fraud.

On 8 June, Edem Kodjo, president of the Convergence patriotique panafricaine (CPP, moderate opposition), is appointed Prime Minister.

Elections

Environment

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Vaccination

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Other health aspects

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Demography

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By country

Culture

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Cotton

Debt

See also

Notes

  1. Africa Live Concert
  2. "Roll Back Malaria Global Partners' Forum V". Archived from the original on 12 July 2010. Retrieved 14 July 2009.

This text was translated from the original French-language article.

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