Cotonou (Benin) The mission from the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), led by Marie Angelique Savane, arrived in Cotonou on Monday evening to assess, for the next three weeks, the efforts made by the government in the field of good governance, APA has reported.

The head of the mission, welcomed at the international airport of Cotonou by the Beninese Foreign Minister Moussa Okanla, briefed reporters on her mission in Benin.

“I have come to Benin to check if the results of the self-assessment of the independent commission of the APRM on the efforts made by Benin in the field of good governance are in line with the realities on the ground”, she declares.

“In a bid to successfully complete this mission running from 18 July to 7 August, I intend to meet all the actors involved in the process to implement this programme”, she adds.

“We will have to meet all the actors involved in the APRM process in Benin, particularly Beninese President Yayi Boni, the decentralised communities of the 77 communes of the country, cabinet members, the civil society and the media”, she indicates.

“I will hold talks with the head of state, Yayi Boni, because this is an exercise for peers in which he personally got involved as president of the republic and on behalf of Benin, to know his vision and how he plans the future of the implementation of this policy agenda once presented to his peers”, Savane told APA.

The APRM is meant to assess the efforts made in the sphere of governance at political, economic and institutional levels in order to accelerate the social and economic development and contribute to the boosting of the sub-regional and continental economic integration.

Thus, by signing, on 31 March 2004 the memorandum of understanding relating to the APRM, Benin expressed its availability to be assessed by the African Union member states.

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Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) The United Nations Security Council on Monday extended to 15 January 2008, the mandate of the UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (UNOCI) and the French ’Licorne’ force in Cote d’Ivoire, UNOCI FM radio announced here on Tuesday.

According to the “peace” radio, the 15 members of the Council unanimously approved the French-sponsored resolution extending the current UNOCI mandate, which expired last Monday.

“The Resolution 1765 insists that the Security Council will examine before 15 October, the mandate of the two operations and UNOCI numbers, in the light of the progress made in the implementation of the peace process”, ONUCI FM went on.

“The Council also decided to terminate the mandate of the UN Representative for Ivorian elections, Gerard Stoudman and assigned that mission to UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy in Cote d’Ivoire”, the same source said.

In April 2004, the UN deployed over 7,500 troops in Cote d’Ivoire, in addition to the 3,500 French soldiers of the Licorne Operation, to monitor the ceasefire signed on 18 October 2002 between the two warring factions.

Cote d’Ivoire was on 19 September 2002 split in two following a political and military crisis, the north being held by the New Forces (former rebels) and the south by the regular army.

The country now seems to have embarked on a genuine peace process, after President Laurent Gbagbo and former rebel leader, Guillaume Soro—who was appointed Prime Minister a few days later— signed in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, a political agreement on 04 March 2007.

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Windhoek (Namibia) Congolese president Denis Sassou Nguesso arrived in Namibia’s capital Windhoek, Tuesday afternoon on a two day visit meant to bolster economic ties between the two countries.

Sassou Nguesso’s sleek chartered jet touched down at Namibia’s Hosea Kutako to a colourful crowd. He was welcomed at the airport by Namibian president Hifikepunye Pohamba and most members of his cabinet.

Sassou Nguesso, who is accompanied by Congolese first lady Madam Antoinette was treated to a 21-gun salute, jovially greeted the few Congolese nationals who gathered to welcome him and was also treated to Namibia cultural dances.

The Congolese leader will hold talks with Pohamba Tuesday afternoon before signing a series of bilateral agreements.

The two presidents are expected to sign agreements on trade, maritime co-operation and education.

Pohamba was said to have signed a series of bilateral co-operation agreements when he visited Congo last October.

Sassout Nguesso is expected to travel to the coastal town of Swakopmund where he will visit a fish factory and a salt refinery.

He is also expected to address Namibia’s business sector on investment opportunities between the two countries.

Sassou Nguesso, who is visiting Namibia for the first time, will return to Brazzaville Thursday afternoon.

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Khartoum (Sudan) Sudan has agreed to meet with rebel groups that have so far have refused to join the Darfur peace talks, the United Nations mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said in a statement on Monday.

UNMIS said if the agreement holds it will be an important step in re-launching the peace process that has stalled since those key rebel factions rejected the widely unpopular Darfur peace agreement struck last year.

The agreement was reached at the international summit in Tripoli, Libya, on Sunday and Monday attended by leaders from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the European Union, neighboring and donor nations.

The rebel groups, which did not sign the Darfur peace agreement, will meet during the first week of August to prepare a unified position for talks with the Sudan government in late August or September.

\”We\’ve made a serious step forward,\” said Jan Eliasson, the UN special envoy for Sudan.

Eliasson and African Union representative Salim Ahmed Salim have devised a blueprint to whittle down competing peace proposals in order to have the government and the rebel factions discuss a single plan for peace in Darfur.

At issue is the four-year conflict between rebels and the government that international experts say has resulted in more than 200,000 deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people.

The Sudan government is accused of arming Arab militias, known as janjaweed, to attack civilians and rival tribes to crush the uprising.

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Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The Ethiopian office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday embarked on relocating some 500 Somali refugees who have been living in the Kebribeyah area, near the Somali border in eastern Ethiopia since their arrival in the country.

According to the UNHCR, the refugees are being relocated to a recently re-opened UNHCR camp at Teferi Ber, located some 600 kilometres east of the capital.

“The refugees are part of a group of 4,000 Somali refugees who have recently been granted refugee status by UNHCR and the Ethiopian government’s Authority for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA). An estimated 7,000 Somalis, who also claim to have fled fighting and insecurity in Somalia, are waiting to be screened at other sites in eastern Ethiopia,” a UNHCR statement said.

The refugee camp at Teferi Ber, according to the UNHCR, was used by the UNHCR in the 1990s to host some 49,000 mainly Somali refugees who had fled fighting in their country.

The camp was officially closed in 2001 after all the refugees returned, mainly to the self -declared Republic of Somaliland.

“After arriving at Teferi Ber, the new refugees will spend three days in a reception centre where they will be allocated plots of land and given building materials to construct their own homes. They will also be given food as well as tarpaulins, blankets, sleeping mats, kitchen sets, jerry cans, kerosene stoves, and soap. The refugee authority has also established a temporary health centre until permanent structures can be built,” the UNHCR statement added.

The Somali region of Ethiopia now hosts more than 20,300 due to the recent arrival of more refugees in the area.

During the early 1990s, the region hosted more than 600,000 refugees in eight camps, and a majority of them went home between 1997 and 2005.

Now, Kebribeyah is the only camp to host Somali refugees in the area. However, as a result of the recent upsurge in clashes in Mogadishu, the Somali capital between the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, backed by Ethiopian troops and Islamic insurgents, thousands of Somalis have fled their homes, with a majority of them crossing to Kenya and Ethiopia.

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Lome (Togo) Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé on Monday urged voters to register massively and cast their ballots during the upcoming parliamentary polls.

The voter registration will run from 16 July-17 August 2007 but the date for the election is yet to be announced.

For the first time, Togo will use computer equipment in the operation. Some 2, 685 computer kits have been borrowed from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Each kit comprises lap tops, scanners, cine cameras, printers as well as electric generators.

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Douala (Cameroon) The Cameroonian national assembly speaker, Djibril Cavaye Yeguie, expressed his readiness to run for an 8th consecutive mandate at the parliament during the legislative polls slated for 22 July 2007, APA has learnt.

As a member of the political bureau of the ruling Democratic Rally of Cameroonian People (RDPC), the MP for Mayo Sava located in the country’s extreme north, has been a member of the national assembly since 1972.

Yeguie, who records landmark longevity in the Cameroonian political scene, said “he devotes passion to the duties of an MP”.

After assuming different positions in the same parliament, Yeguie has been its speaker since 1992.

From that date forward, he was always re-elected unopposed, since his political party holds the majority in parliament.

This practising Muslim, 60 years old, is married to four wives and father to 15 children. He was at first a fervent Catholic christened Maurice before he converted to Islam after Cameroon’s independence in 1960. He trained as a physical and sports education teacher.

The ongoing speaker canvasses his compatriots in a bid, he said, to “help President Paul Biya honour his electoral pledge of major changes to the Cameroonian people during the 2004 presidential polls”.

“As long as the militants of my party trust me, and the voters elect me MP, I cannot but accept,” he said.

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Kampala (Uganda) Uganda government is in its final stages of resettling the mother of the Lord\’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony in her ancestral home town.

According to government representative in Gulu in northern Uganda, Col. Walter Ochora the government is moving Nora Akiteng, 84, from the central region where she has been taking refugee to her ancestral home in northern Uganda.

The move comes as a result of a request from Nora.

President Yoweri Museveni responded to her request by tasking Ochora to identify a house which could be rented for her.

Ochora said on Tuesday that he has secured a four-bed roomed house which will be rented out to Nora.

He said that the tenancy agreement is yet to be concluded.

Ochora said the government would continue renting the house for as long as it takes the Nora to move back to her ancestral home village in Achet, about 30 kilometers east of Gulu town in northern Uganda.

Last year, the government chartered a plane to fly Nora to Ngaramba to see her son for the first time in 17 years.

The flight was seen as a confidence-building strategy to enable Kony\’s mother convince her son to commit himself to peace talks.

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