Mali's rebels declare independence

Mali's Tuareg rebels declared independence Friday in the north, splitting the coup-wracked country in two, as warnings rang out of a looming humanitarian disaster in what was a democratic bastion in west Africa.

However, France said the declaration of an independent homeland had no standing if not recognised by other African states amid international alarm over Mali's swift collapse in the two weeks since a coup in the capital Bamako.

A democratic success since its last coup 21 years ago, Mali is now roughly divided into a rebel-controlled north and junta-controlled south and a group of radical Islamists have exploited the chaos to swoop in and install sharia law.

Humanitarian groups have warned the country is on the brink of catastrophe as hundreds of thousands of people flee the unrest and rebels loot food and medicine supplies across an arid region already facing food shortages.

A Tuareg rebel group early Friday declared the independence of their desert homeland which they call Azawad, which has been the subject of several rebellions in the northern triangle of the bow-tie shaped nation.

The latest has been fuelled by a haemorrhaging of weapons from Libya following Muammar Gaddafi's downfall.

"We solemnly proclaim the independence of Azawad as from today," Mossa Ag Attaher, a spokesman for Mali's National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), said on France 24 television, confirming a statement on the group's website.

He said the MNLA, which captured northern Mali with Islamist groups over the past two weeks following a coup in the capital, would respect "the borders with other states" and would halt all military operations.

French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said Friday: "A unilateral declaration of independence that was not recognised by African states would have no meaning."

After decades of fighting for independence analysts warn it will not be easy to dislodge the Tuareg from the north now that they have staked their claim. And not all northerners will accept their claim of independence.

West Africa expert Paul Melly of London-based Chatham House said Mali cannot be considered "definitively partitioned."

"Much of the population of the north, particularly towns like Gao and Timbuktu and the farming villages of the Niger valley, is made up of sub-Saharan Africa ethnic groups such as the Songhai and the Peul, who consider themselves to be Malian and have no interest in an independent Tuareg state." However, despite the triumph by the MNLA their hold on the desert looked tenuous.

Ansar Dine, their Islamist comrades-turned-rebels set about imposing Islamic sharia law and kidnapped seven Algerian diplomats in the northeast.

Algeria's foreign ministry said an unidentified group had attacked its consulate in the town of Gao and kidnapped the consul and six staff members.

Amnesty International warned that north Mali was on the brink of a "major humanitarian disaster" while Oxfam and World Vision said crippling sanctions against the junta could have devastating consequences.

"All the food and medicine stored by major aid agencies has been looted and most of the aid workers have fled," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty International's researcher on west Africa.

"The population is at imminent risk of severe food and medical shortages that could lead to many casualties especially among women and children who are less able to fend for themselves."

More than 200,000 people have fled since the rebellion began in mid-January.

Angry at government's handling of the insurgency a group of low-ranking soldiers lead by Captain Amadou Sanogo on March 22

ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure just weeks before he was due to step down after an election.

ECOWAS army chiefs on Thursday drew up a "mandate" for a 2,000-strong force that could be sent into a section of Mali the size of France that is now in Tuareg separatist and Islamist hands.

However, an ECOWAS official said after a 12-hour meeting in the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan that the military plan still needed approval from regional heads of state.

In Bamako on Thursday, regional mediator Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole said an announcement in "the right direction" was expected from coup leader Sanogo and that sanctions could be lifted soon.

Witnesses on the ground and observers say that the real new masters of Mali's northern desert are not the Tuareg nomads but the Ansar Dine led by Iyad Ag Ghaly, which has connections with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Ansar Dine, "Defenders of Faith" in Arabic, has ordered women to wear headscarves and threatened to cut off the hands of thieves in the ancient city of Timbuktu, once the jewel in Mali's tourism industry.

The UN Security Council this week called for an immediate ceasefire but proposed no firm action as the two-week-old junta floundered.

Source: IOL

BREAKING: Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika is dead!

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika dies after doctors could not resuscitate him when he suffered a cardiac arrest yesterday.

The 78-year-old President was taken to the Kamuzu Central Hospital in the capital this morning after he reportedly collapsed.

There are reports of confusion in Lilongwe as aides loyal to Mutharika delay announcement of death scheming to preclude Vice President Banda from taking over.

Vice President Joyce Banda who had been expelled from Mutharika's party and formed her own would by law become president in event of any vacancy.

Recall that Mutharika was first elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2009 for a 5-year term. He is survived by wife, Callista & four children.

N47.1billion fraud: Court frees former Intercontinental Bank boss, Erastus Akingbola

The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed the criminal charges brought against a former Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank, Erastus Akingbola, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, over alleged stealing of N47.1 billion belonging to his bank.

Although details of the judgment are still sketchy, we learnt Justice Charles Achibong threw out the case Monday for lack of diligent prosecution by the EFCC.

Mr. Akingbola was charged to court for a number of offences, including granting of unsecured loans worth several millions of naira and abuse of office.

The anti-graft body had last August alleged bias against Justice Achibong in his handling of the trial of Mr. Akingbola, and accordingly forwarded a petition to the National Judicial Commission (NJC) on the matter.

EFCC counsel, Godwin Obla (SAN), acting on the Commission's letter to the NJC, filed a motion in the court, asking the judge to stop hearing of the case.

But the judge declined to withdraw from the case, saying he would continue to preside over the matter in the absence of contrary directive from a higher authority. He said the case would proceed in his court until the hearing and determination of motion by the Commission.

Courtesy Premium Times

PENGASSAN declares three-day warning strike from April 16

PETROLEUM and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has declared a three-day nationwide warning strike from April 16, to protest perceived unfair labour practices, anti-union activities and general insecurity of members at work places and at home.

In a notice to government over the planned industrial action, the umbrella body for senior employees in the nation's oil and gas sector listed not less than 16 grievances affecting members in the industry which it had reported to appropriate government agencies and departments to no avail.

PENGASSAN in a petition to the Federal Government through the Minister of Labour and Productivity, threatened that all activities in the downstream and upstream sector would be shut during the three days warning strike  preparatory to an indefinite action should government fail to address its grievances after the warning strike.

PENGASSAN in the petition by its General Secretary, Mr Bayo Olowoshile, named the association's grievances to include "unjustifiable mass disengagement and migration of workers to contract staffing and casuals in the downstream oil and gas products marketing and distribution sectors, it said that most of the downstream companies  had totally disengaged members inherited upon privatisation.

The statement said: "Unfair labour practices and anti-union activities of companies in Onne Free Trade Zone; failure to engage PENGASSAN on issues in the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, before final passage; police authority's failure to provide PENGASSAN the reports of its findings on the killings of our two members of NPDC suspected to have been killed by unknown assailants at a police check-point and government insensitivity in the handling of Fuel Subsidy Removal Re-investment Programme, thereby forestalling the anticipated stimulation of investment and business growth."

According to the petition "we write to notify the Minister of Labour and Productivity on the frustration and displeasure of our members in general and the association in particular over the alarming rate of unfair labour practices, anti-union activities and the unsavory approach of the relevant Ministries Department and Agencies in appropriately attending to the reported issues.

Arising from the above, we hereby notify you of a 3-day nationwide warning strike that would necessitate total withdrawal of all our members from work locations with effect from Monday, April 16, 2012."

"PENGASSAN, despite being unappreciated, undermined and chastised persistently tried to maintain relative calm in the hope that Government is fully committed, focused and utmost working in the manner that will either caution, discourage or prevent the high rate of jobs losses, unfair labour practices, anti-union activities and misadministration of national content laws to the detriment of our nationals and employment situation in the industry.

PENGASSAN has now resolved to embark on mass campaign and advocacy to bring the attention of the Nigeria public to the issues in the Nigeria Oil & Gas which point very glooming picture for the entire nation."

Fire breaks out in National Assembly

Fire broke out Thursday afternoon on the second floor of the National Assembly annex building.

The fire started in the Legal and Accounts Departments of the National Assembly Service Commission.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the FCT Fire Service deployed two fire engines to bring the fire under control before it could spread to other offices.

Panic-stricken staffers, who had vacated the building, gathered some distance away to discuss the incident.

The Director of FCT Fire Service, Sani Saidu, who confirmed the incident, told journalists that the fire incident was as a result of power fluctuation.

He said the situation had been brought under control and no damage was done

"It was caused by electrical fault as a result of power fluctuation. It was brought under control.

"No damage was done.''

NAN reports that there was a similar fire incident at the National Assembly Annex last year on the ground floor which was also said to have been caused by an electrical fault. The National Assembly is currently on a one week recess.

Courtesy NAN

Breaking News: PDP Convention: President Jonathan suffers political disgrace

The North-East zone of the PDP rejects the President's choice of national chairman.

President Goodluck Jonathan was served a huge dose of political humiliation today as governors from the North-East Political zone conspired to reject his anointed candidate for the national chairmanship of the governing Peoples Democratic Party.

At the PDP zonal congress in Bauchi, which ended a while ago, Mr. Jonathan's candidate for the position, Bamanga Tukur was defeated by a far younger and less popular Musa Babayo, who was the immediate acting national secretary of the party.

Mr. Babayo scored 14 delegate votes to Mr. Tukur's two.

via premiumtimes

Security Task Force's helicopter crashes in Jos

The helicopter belonging to the Special Task Force, the multiagency team in charge of security in Plateau State has crashed in Jos, the state capital.

Multiple sources say the helicopter crashed on a house around Rukuba road behind Jos satellite market.

 A police deputy inspector general of police, John Haruna, his orderly and the pilot.

The incident occurred at approximately 12:15pm on Wednesday. Eye witnesses say the low-flying chopper plane crashed in the vicinity of  a satellite market and a Government Secondary School along Rukuba Road in the Kabong area of Jos. This latest crash adds to the growing number of aircraft accidents in Nigeria due to continued use of faulty and poorly maintained equipment.

Casualty figure is yet to be ascertained but we learnt that the pilot and four officers on board did not survive the crash.

The National Emergency Agency has confirmed the incident and has promised to provide details later.