[sunnykerr]

Video shows bodies of 7 foreign hostages killed in Nigeria KANO, Nigeria -- A video posted online appears to show the corpses of some of the seven foreign hostages abducted by Islamic extremists in northern Nigeria and later killed, a gruesome warning of the growing dangers in the region. The video, viewed by The Associated Press on Monday, matched still images released earlier by the Islamic extremist group Ansaru when it claimed the killings. The face of one of the corpses in the video also resembled that of one of the hostages already named by authorities. European diplomats said Sunday that the hostages had been killed. On Monday, Nigerian Interior Minister Abba Moro told the BBC's Hausa language radio service that those nations said that it was "likely" that their citizens had died in the attack. "We hope they're alive," Moro said. Moro did not respond to requests for comment Monday from the AP. Nigerian officials often speak to the BBC Hausa service, as it is viewed as one of the dominant independent news sources in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. In the video, a gunman stands in sand, holding a rifle near what appears to be dead bodies. A later shot in the video shows three male corpses, one of whom appears to have been killed by a gunshot wound to the head from a high-powered weapon. The video has no sound. An accompanying caption for the video in Arabic calls it: "The killing of seven Christian hostages in Nigeria." Another description includes the statement Ansaru released Saturday claiming that it killed the hostages, signed by a man with the nom de guerre Abu Usamatal Ansary. Ansaru fighters kidnapped the foreigners Feb. 16 from a camp for the construction company Setraco at Jama'are, a town 200 kilometres north of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state. In the attack, gunmen first assaulted a local prison and burned police trucks, authorities said. Then the attackers blew up a back fence at the construction company's compound and took over, killing a guard in the process, witnesses and police said. Those kidnapped included four Lebanese and one citizen each from the United Kingdom, Greece and Italy. Local officials in Nigeria initially identified one of the hostages as a Filipino, something the Philippines government later denied. The gunmen appeared to be organized and knew who they wanted to target, leaving the Nigerian household staff at the residence unharmed, while quickly abducting the foreigners, a witness said. In an online statement Saturday in which it claimed the killings, Ansaru said it killed the hostages in part because of reports in the Nigerian press of the arrival of British military aircraft to Bauchi. However, the local news articles cited by Ansaru reported that the airplanes were spotted at the international airport in Abuja, the nation's central capital 290 kilometres southwest. The British Defence Ministry said Sunday the planes it flew to Abuja ferried Nigerian troops and equipment to Bamako, Mali. Nigerian soldiers have been sent to Mali to help French forces and Malian troops battle Islamic extremists there. The British military said it also transported Ghanaian soldiers to Mali the same way. Ansaru had said it believed the planes were part of a Nigerian and British rescue mission for the abducted hostages. The news of the killing of the hostages comes as the nation's security forces remain unable to stop the guerrilla campaign of bombings, shootings and kidnappings across the country's north. The majority of those attacks have been blamed on Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group that grew out of the remains of a sect that sparked a riot and a security crackdown in Nigeria in 2009 in which about 700 people were killed. Boko Haram has hit international targets before, including an August 2011 car bombing of the United Nations office in Abuja that killed 25 people and wounded more than 100. An online video also purportedly claims that Boko Haram is currently holding hostage a family of seven French tourists who were abducted from neighbouring Cameroon in late February. The group is blamed for killing at least 792 people last year alone, according to an AP count. Ansaru, which analysts believe split from Boko Haram in January 2012, seems to be focusing much more on Western targets. Analysts say it has closer links to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and cares more about international issues, as opposed to Boko Haram's largely local grievances. But much remains unknown about Ansaru, which has communicated through short, sometimes muddled online statements. The hostage killings appear to be the worst in decades targeting foreigners working in Nigeria, an oil-rich nation that's a major crude supplier to the United States. Most kidnappings in the country's southern oil delta see foreigners released after companies pay ransoms. The latest kidnappings in Nigeria's north, however, have seen the hostages killed either by their captors or in military raids to free them, suggesting a new level of danger for expatriate workers there.

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I was gonna say that it makes sense for Boko Haram to "retaliate" in light of all the attention that al-Qaeda has been getting lately in Mali, but it appears that Ansaru is much closer to al-Qaeda than Boko Haram, so I'm wrong in that regard.

I think the last paragraph of the article contains the crucial bit. It is dangerous for foreigners in Nigeria at the moment. Life-and-death kind of dangerous.

If the claims made here are to believed, namely that the hostages were slaughtered because of the misunderstanding over the presence of British airplanes in the nation's capital, than Ansaru isn't just dangerous, it's also stupid. Or at least it's willing to look stupid to justify acts of violence that are as massive as they are arbitrary. And that's a dangerous cocktail.

[sunnykerr]

IMF recognises Somalia government after 22-year break The International Monetary Fund has recognised the government of Somalia after a break in relations of 22 years. The move could enable the IMF to provide technical support and policy advice to the impoverished country in the Horn of Africa. However, the IMF will not lend money to Somalia until it clears a $352m (£230m) debt it owes to the organisation. Somalia has been slowly rebuilding itself following two decades of civil conflict. "The International Monetary Fund today recognised the federal government of Somalia, headed by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, paving the way for the resumption of relations after a 22-year interval," the IMF said in a statement. "The decision is consistent with broad international support and recognition of the Federal Government." Although Somalia has been an IMF member since August 1962, the years of civil war meant there was no government with which the fund could deal. International donors have slowly been re-engaging with the Mogadishu government since President Mohamud's election last year. It was the first vote of its kind in the country since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The US officially recognised Somalia in January, acknowledging the new government's progress towards political stability and attempts to end the insurgency by Islamist militants al-Shabab. Although Washington never formally cut diplomatic ties with Somalia, the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident - in which 18 US servicemen died after militia fighters shot down two US military helicopters - marked the country's descent into anarchy.

Source

Well, that's a good sign, I think.

Of course, I suppose whether it actually is a good sign hinges a lot on the circumstances surrounding President Mohamud's election, about which I know nothing at all, I'm afraid.

[sunnykerr]

Kofi Annan: Africa plundered by secret mining deals Tax avoidance, secret mining deals and financial transfers are depriving Africa of the benefits of its resources boom, ex-UN chief Kofi Annan has said. Firms that shift profits to lower tax jurisdictions cost Africa $38bn (£25bn) a year, says a report produced by a panel he heads. "Africa loses twice as much money through these loopholes as it gets from donors," Mr Annan told the BBC. It was like taking food off the tables of the poor, he said. The Africa Progress Report is released every May - produced by a panel of 10 prominent figures, including former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Graca Machel, the wife of South African ex-President Nelson Mandela. 'Highly opaque' African countries needed to improve governance and the world's richest nations should help introduce global rules on transparency and taxation, Mr Annan said. The report gave the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example, where between 2010 and 2012 five under-priced mining concessions were sold in "highly opaque and secretive deals". This cost the country, which the charity Save the Children said earlier this week was the world's worst place to be a mother, $1.3bn in revenues. This figure was equivalent to double DR Congo's health and education budgets combined, the report said. DR Congo's mining minister disputed the findings, saying the country had "lost nothing". "These assets were ceded in total transparency," Martin Kabwelulu told Reuters news agency. The report added that many mineral-rich countries needed "urgently to review the design of their tax regimes", which were designed to attract foreign investment when commodity prices were low. It quotes a review in Zambia which found that between 2005 and 2009, 500,000 copper mine workers were paying a higher rate of tax than major multinational mining firms. Africa loses more through what it calls "illicit outflows" than it gets in aid and foreign direct investment, it explains. "We are not getting the revenues we deserve often because of either corrupt practices, transfer pricing, tax evasion and all sorts of activities that deprive us of our due," Mr Annan told the BBC's Newsday programme. "Transparency is a powerful tool," he said, adding that the report was urging African leaders to put "accountability centre stage". Mr Annan said African governments needed to insist that local companies became involved in mining deals and manage them in "such a way that it also creates employment". "This Africa cannot do alone. The tax evasion, avoidance, secret bank accounts are problems for the world… so we all need to work together particularly the G8, as they meet next month, to work to ensure we have a multilateral solution to this crisis," he said. For richer nations "if a company avoids tax or transfers the money to offshore account what they lose is revenues", Mr Annan said. "Here on our continent, it affects the life of women and children - in effect in some situations it is like taking food off the table for the poor."

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I think these findings are very sobering, but shouldn't come as a tremendous shock to anyone who's followed even marginally African affairs in the last decade or so.

What we've seen has been a continuation of imperial practices, only with local elites deriving profit as opposed to far off countries.

It is completely gross, but I really don't know what can be done. The model's shifted and to demand modifications would be tantamout to the exact sort of interference one would be trying to correct.

Still, one hopes things will change sooner rather than later. It's all well and good for the people at the top to line their own pockets, but the proportional poverty should lead the masses to demand their just do.

And, just as I'm saying that, I'm reminded of the recent events in Mali and Algeria. Who knows what it looks like when the masses demand their due. It can't always be very pretty.

[sunnykerr]

Dozens feared trapped in Rwanda building collapse About 100 people are feared trapped in a collapsed four-storey building in north-eastern Rwanda, the government says. "The tentative information we have indicates that debris fell on about 100 people," Rwandan minister Seraphine Mukantabana told AFP. Rwandan police say three people have been confirmed dead and 21 people have been taken to hospital. Construction workers are believed to be among those trapped in the building. The four-storey building in Nyagatare, 60 miles northeast of the capital Kigali, was under construction when it came down. As the building is located by the roadside, people who were on the street may also be trapped, Rwandan Minister of Disaster Management Seraphine Mukantabana says. The number of people working in the building is unknown, ministry official Frederic Ntawukuriryayo told the BBC. Police and the army have secured the site and are carrying out an intensive rescue operation, according to a police statement. There will be an investigation into the cause of the collapse, it adds.

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I don't think people on the street would have much of a chance to survive if they were caught in the collapse.

A four-storey building falls on you.... chances of survival seem slim enough as it is, I don't see how someone who would have received nothing but debris straight on their head would survive.

But I'm really, really ready for these building collapses to stop now. It's horrendous, it seems like there's one a month at least and, with the one in Bangladesh, that's two in as many weeks now.

[sunnykerr]

World Bank pledges $1bn for DR Congo and neighbours The World Bank has unveiled a $1bn (£660m) aid package to help the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighbours, as fighting continues near the eastern city of Goma. The money is to be used for health, education, cross-border trade and hydroelectricity projects, it said. The announcement comes as World Bank head Jim Yong Kim and UN chief Ban Ki-moon start a tour of the region. One person was killed when a mortar landed in Goma, a UN spokesman said. Government and M23 rebel forces have been involved in heavy fighting near Goma since Monday, killing 19 people. The clashes are the first since the M23 pulled out of the city last year under diplomatic pressure. The UN says it will speed up efforts to deploy a 3,000-strong intervention force to eastern DR Congo to end the latest conflict. 'Shells and rockets' Some 800,000 people have fled their homes since the M23 launched its rebellion last May. The World Bank aid package is to support a peace deal signed in February between DR Congo and its neighbours, some of whom are accused of backing the rebels. "This funding will help revitalize economic development, create jobs, and improve the lives of people who have suffered for far too long," Mr Kim in a statement. The largest tranche of the aid - $340m - will go towards an 80-megawatt hydroelectric project in Rusumo Falls, providing electricity to Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania. Despite its vast mineral wealth, decades of conflict and mismanagement mean most Congolese remain stuck in poverty.

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Man, I hope this works. Because, from where I stand, the region's been in one conflict after another for the better part of two decades now.

And that has to stop.