Eritrea, Somalia mend ties

Comoros holds referendum

NAIROBI, July 30, (Agencies): Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has hailed the ending of an “epoch of conflict” in the Horn of Africa during a visit by his Somalian counterpart to mend ties after years of animosity.

Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s three-day visit to Asmara coincides with a fast-track peace process between Eritrea and Ethiopia — part of dizzying change in a region burdened by war, proxy conflicts, isolation and iron-fisted rule.

At a state banquet on Sunday, Afwerki hailed the historic ties between Somalia and Eritrea, and bemoaned the gloomy post-Cold War history of the Horn of Africa.

He said the region had been destroyed by “ethnic and clan cleavages” and “external pillage and internal thievery” in the speech which also lashed out at the “micromanagement of anarchy” by the United Nations and NGOs.

“Under these bleak realities, interventionist and expansionist regional agendas in the name of religion, cultural intoxication under various extremist ideologies, terrorism, piracy, human trafficking, as well as trade in weapons and narcotics became the new normal,” he said, according to a speech posted on the information ministry’s website.

Afwerki

Comoros holds referendum:

Comoros holds a referendum on Monday to extend presidential term limits and end a system of rotating power among the archipelago’s three main islands, moves the opposition calls a power grab by President Azali Assoumani.

A yes vote would allow Assoumani to run for two more five year terms starting with an early election next year, rather than being required to step down when his present term ends in 2021.

Assoumani has campaigned for a “Yes” vote and has argued that the new constitution would uphold “the principle of the continuity of the state for future leaders”.

The secretary general of the opposition Union for the Development of the Comoros, Youssouf Boina, has denounced the referendum as illegal and described it as a “coup de force of the president”.

The constitution now requires the presidency to be rotated every five years among candidates from the country’s three main islands, an arrangement intended to promote stability and power-sharing in a country that has had more than 20 coups or coup attempts since it declared independence from France in 1975.

Zimbabwe goes to poll:

Zimbabweans cast their ballots Monday in the country’s first election since authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe was ousted last year, with concerns over fraud and the likelihood of a disputed result clouding voting day.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former ally in the ruling ZANUPF party, faces opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) in a historic vote for the southern African nation.

Long lines formed from early morning outside polling stations in the capital Harare.

US confirms drones in Niger:

The United States started arming drones in the West African nation of Niger earlier this year, according to the US Africa Command.

“In coordination with the Government of Niger, US Africa Command has armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft already in Niger to improve our combined ability to respond to threats and other security issues in the region.

Armed ISR aircraft began flying in early 2018,” Samantha Reho, spokeswoman for US Africa Command, told The Associated Press.

Boko Haram kills 11 troops:

Boko Haram fighters killed 11 troops and seized weapons in a raid on a military post in the latest such attack in northeast Nigeria, residents and a military source said on Sunday.

Gunmen in five trucks and on motorcycles stormed the checkpoint in Bunari village near the garrison town of Monguno in Borno state late Friday, leading to a fierce battle.