The president of Ivory Coast has said that the former leader Laurent Gbagbo and his right-hand man Charles Ble Goude are free to return to the country after they were definitively acquitted of crimes against humanity.
Alassane Ouattara was speaking a week after the International Criminal Court upheld Mr Gbagbo's acquittal in a case that focused on post-election violence a decade ago.
More than 3,000 people were killed in the brief civil war that followed the disputed 2010 vote.
Mr Gbagbo refused to step down despite losing.
He is to be allowed the advantages and allowances available to all former leaders in the Ivory Coast.
The president of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi has ruled out foreign military intervention to deal with the growing jihadist conflict in the north of the country.
He called for the strengthening of the country’s defence and security forces.
Last month’s attack by Islamist militants on the town of Palma focused international attention on a three year old conflict that has displaced nearly 750,000 people.
President Nyusi said the jihadists had been chased out of the town but said victory could not be declared because the country was fighting terrorism.
The government of Mozambique has in the past recruited mercenaries from Russia and South Africa.
Six Southern African presidents will hold emergency talks on the crisis in Mozambique on Thursday.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has said the meeting in the country’s capital, Maputo,will deliberate on measures to address terrorism.
The presidents of Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe are expected to attend.
Dozens of civilians were killed and at least 11,000 displaced after militants invaded Palma on 24 March.
SADC’s chairperson, President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana, said the attacks were an affront to the peace and security of Mozambique, the region and the international community.
The Mozambique's military has said that Palma is now completely safe and local media report that residents are gradually returning.
One dam. Three countries. A big headache.
Ethiopia couldn’t be more proud of it, but the Grand Renaissance Dam has proven controversial.
The dam is being built on the Blue Nile River and, when complete, will be Africa's biggest hydroelectric power plant.
Problem is: both Egypt and Sudan fear the dam will limit their access to water.
“The Nile is the source of 90 to 95 per cent of the water usage in Egypt,” says Rehab Abd Almohsen, a science writer in in Egypt.
“Every drop of water from the Nile is very important because it’s the only source of fresh water that we have.”
Ethiopia, on the other hand, says the project is vital to its development.
“[Ethiopia has] one of the fastest growing economies in the last decade,” says the BBC’s Kalkidan Yibeltal in Addis Ababa. “And it wants this project to provide electricity to this growing economy.”
Negotiations between all three countries are going nowhere: the latest round of talks ended on Tuesday with no progress made.
So, how did we get there? And how can the deadlock ever be broken?
Find out in Wednesday’s edition of Africa Daily.
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source BBC
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