The Sudan government appeared to be siding with Burundi in its clash with the African Union (AU) over the latter’s decision to send a peacekeeping force to quell a growing wave of violence that is widely feared to develop into full blown ethnic killing.

The development follows a meeting between President Pierre Nkurunziza and the Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs Kamal al-Din Ismail, who had sought to get Burundi’s support for Sudan’s candidate in the bid for the Secretariat of the International Conference on Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).

According to the deputy spokesperson at the Burundian presidency Jean Claude Karerwa, Mr al-Din Ismail promised to support the Burundi government against any attempt to impose any decision that could ‘disrupt peace and security’ in the country because, he said, “sending troops in a country itself troop contributor is paradoxical”.

Sudan, whose President Omar Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, engaged in an almost similar dispute with the United Nations on sending peacekeepers to Darfur but eventually backed down to allow them under certain conditions.

Last week the AU decided to create a 5,000-strong peacekeeping mission that would be deployed to Burundi with a six-month renewable mandate, prompting Burundi to reject the move amid ‘breach of sovereignty’ claims.

The move by the African bloc is unique as it stated that it will send the force even against Burundi’s avowed position, a power that is derived from Article 4 of the AU charter.

Under that article, the AU has the right to intervene in a member state ‘in respect of grave circumstances, namely: war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity’.

Hundreds of people have been killed since last April when President Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term which he eventually won.

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Somalia is one of the six African countries expected to hold presidential elections next year, a top UN diplomat overseeing its transition has said.

According to media reports, the outgoing representative of United Nations Secretary General in Somalia Nicholas Kay, said the troubled Horn of Africa country has stabilised and is now ready to hold both presidential and parliamentary elections, with those elected committing to respect a four-year term.

‘Somalia is no longer a failed state but a recovering fragile country’ Mr Kay was quoted saying, adding: ‘The country in the past two-three years has come together quite significantly. It is both politically stable and developed as well’.

Somalia, alongside Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho, Zambia and South Sudan, the latter a country which gained Independence and appointed its first President Salva Kiir Mayardit in 2011, are expected to go to the polls in 2016.

However, in June this year Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had ruled out the possibility of holding a vote with public participation in 2016, citing security challenges stemming from the Islamic insurgency led by the Al Shabaab, an offshoot of Al Qaeda.

Then, opposition parties in the war-ravaged country charged that his UN-backed government was taking advantage of poor security to extend its mandate through postponement of elections.

But President Mohamud’s position seems to not to resonate well with Mr Kay, who avers that the Islamic extremist insurgents will not succeed in undermining the progress being made in Somalia.

Kay, the top UN diplomat on Somalia, also says the political leaders of the country are currently engaging in political dialogue and negotiations with each other.

“These are not armed warlords fighting each other on a clan basis,” Kay said, adding:”They are presidents of interim regional administrations who are more willing to sit and talk than use a barrel of a gun. In so, they are contributing to peace in the country, not to the fragmentation of the state as in the old days.”

Somalia has been torn by decades of conflict since the 1991 ouster of long-time dictator Siad Barre by warlords who then turned on each other. Somalia had transitional administrations from 2004 but it did not have a functioning central government until the 2012 election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

In 2012, Somali elders were tasked with naming the parliament since no election could be held, given the insecurity occasioned by Al Shabaab around the country.

Somalia’s Parliament then elected a new president but analysts criticized the system.

“Some elders allegedly nominated uneducated and objectionable individuals, some sold seats to highest bidders, and others even nominated their own family members,” the International Crisis Group said then.

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The United Kingdom could disintegrate if Britons vote to leave the European Union as it would give succour to the cause of Scottish nationalists, former Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday.

Hague, a former leader of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party and considered to be a Eurosceptic, said he would back Britain remaining in the bloc despite his own great misgivings about the EU when an in/out referendum is held before the end of 2017.

“We will have to ask, disliking so many aspects of it as we do, whether we really want to weaken it, and at the same time increase the chances, if the UK left the EU, of Scotland leaving the UK,” Hague wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Hague spoke out after Cameron met fellow European leaders in Brussels last week to try to drum up support for his reform of Britain’s relationship with the EU.

Critics in his party, which has been deeply divided over Europe for decades, say his negotiations are likely to achieve little of any substance, with former Defence Secretary Liam Fox saying on Sunday it was time to “end the pretence” that Europe would change to accommodate Britain.

Hague said despite the EU’s many failings, it provided stability for fragile democracies in central Europe and it would not be in Britain’s interests for the bloc to fall apart with such volatility in the Middle East and the world economies.

He said Scottish nationalists, who strongly support staying in the EU, would use a vote for exit as grounds to hold another referendum on independence, something Scots rejected by 55-45 percent in September last year.

Hague said a second vote in such circumstances would be too close to call.

“To end up destroying the United Kingdom and gravely weakening the European Union would not be a very clever day’s work,” Hague said. “So, even as a longstanding critic of so much of that struggling organisation, I am unlikely in 2016 to vote to leave it.”

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The Burundi government is ready to hold talks with all the political players involved in the country’s crisis, a senior government official has said.
Reverien Ndikuriyo, the Burundi President’s Special Envoy made the disclosure yesterday, while meeting the East African Community (EAC) Chairman and Tanzania President John Magufuli.
Ndikuriyo, who is also the Burundi Senate Speaker, led President Pierre Nkurunzinza’s delegation to the talks held at the State House in Dar es Salaam, where the two parties held talks over the political impasse in the tiny central African country.
In a statement quoting Foreign Affairs, Regional East African and International Cooperation Minister Dr Augustine Mahiga, Burundi said it had accepted the ongoing dialogue led by the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni over the crisis.
“President Magufuli held talks with his Burundian counterpart President Nkurunziza and the latter acknowledged readiness to participate in the peaceful dialogue,” Mahiga said in a statement.
He added: “I have been tasked to issue information across all foreign affairs ministers in the region over the discussion slated to start December 28, in Uganda. Uganda will be coordinating the meeting.”
Meanwhile, during the meeting with the EAC chairman, Burundi expressed dismay over the decision by African Union to deploy peacekeeping troops in Burundi.
Mr Ndikuriyo told President Magufuli the government was optimistic the political impasse in the region can be addressed through peaceful talks.
Burundian Parliament has so far discarded the decision by the AU Security Council, saying the situation has not reached a point of no return similar to the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda.

The envoy told the president the situation was not so bad, but there is fear that the AU and European Union are under the influence of the United Nations to deploy peace keeping forces.

“Burundi has 6,000 peace keepers in Somalia, 1,000 in Central Africa. It’s their interest to bring peace and will be the last to disturb and bring conflict similar to the killings of civilians in Kimbari,” the foreign affairs minister said.
Following the discussion, President Magufuli urged Burundi to open doors for peaceful dialogue, and allowing members of the African Unity to deploy peaceful talks mission the country.
Magufuli also tasked Dr Mahiga to go to Burundi and find out why Burundians were fleeing their country. He said the tour to Burundi would be helpful in the peaceful dialogue slated for later this month in Uganda.

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The first-ever live telecast of a presidential debate under the multi-party dispensation will be held at the Serena Hotel on January 15, 2016.

The disclosure was made today while announcing the TV debate that is jointly organised by the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, the Media Council of Uganda and Civil Society with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and The Elders Forum of Uganda (TEFU).
The function was attended by among others the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda His Grace Stanley Ntagali; TEFU chairperson retired Justice James Ogoola, the Overseer of the Born Again Faith (BAF) Pastor Joseph Sserwada and Joshua Kitakule, the Secretary General of the Inter-Religious Council.
According to the organisers, the two-hour presidential debate to be held under the theme, ‘Working Together for Peace and Violence Free 2016 General Elections’, will feature all the eight candidates that were cleared by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to contest for the presidency in 2016.
‘The main goal the debate is to provide an impartial space for all the eight candidates to sell their agenda to Ugandans and commit to a peaceful free and fair election,’ a December 23 release by the organisers state, adding that a team of professional will moderate the debate.
Writing about the expectations of the debate Justice James Ogoola, the Chairperson of TEFU, noted: ‘the debate will take place at a neutral venue, over the course of two or so hours. We plan for high quality television production, moderated by a high caliber team of highly qualified media professional. The aim is to match the quality of the presentation to the quality of the event and the candidates involved.’
The candidates expected to feature on the debate include Yoweri Museveni of the National Resistance Movement (NRM); Dr Warren Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC); John Patrick Amama Mbabazi of the Go Forward team; Dr Abed Bwanika of the Peoples Development Party (PDP); Maj Gen (rtd) Benon Buta Biraro of the Farmers Party of Uganda (FPU) and Independent candidates Prof Venansius Baryamureeba, Faith Maureen Kyalya Walube and Joseph Mabirizi.
‘The candidates will get to discuss a range of national, regional and global issues and give the viewers the opportunity to make an informed decision on the polling day’ the release adds.
Under the NRM Uganda adopted the multi-party dispensation in 2005 and since then the country has held two presidential elections, in 2006 and 2011.

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Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential aspirant Dr Warren Kizza Besigye has lashed out at the Monitor newspaper for publishing a poll showing that candidate Museveni was leading.

According to the poll results carried in the Daily Monitor newspaper of December 18, 2015, candidate Museveni commands a 59.9 per cent lead, something Dr Besigye, who was rated at 20 per cent, vehemently disputes.

‘That poll, to my knowledge, is rubbish’, Dr Besigye said adding: “Museveni is a hopeless minority at the moment in terms of popular support. The Aga Khan is burying his paper,’ he wrote adding: “Managing the media’ through doctored polls will not solve Museveni’s unpopularity problem this time.”

He further said that the poll results are ‘made up’ and that those carrying out polls are being escorted by government officials.

This is the second time in less than a year that the Daily Monitor has come under fire from the opposition over polls indicating that Mr Museveni was the leading candidate for the 2016 elections.

Early this year global market research firm Ipsos carried out a poll commissioned by The Daily Monitor and results showed that if elections were held then candidate Museveni would emerge winner with 57 per cent of the vote, prompting vitriol from the opposition.

However, Daily Monitor management contends with the poll results. The paper through its Nairobi parent company, Nation Media Group sourced Infotrak to conduct the research.

President Museveni who also the poll revealed that would win with 60 per cent,   yesterday rejected results of the same  opinion poll. Museveni instead says  he will win with 80 per cent as contrary to the  60 per cent if elections had been held between December 6-9.

Infotrak, conducted the research between  December 6-9 and found that out of 1,500 voters sampled, 59.9 per cent indicated they would back Mr Museveni’s bid for a fifth term-with the FDC flag bearer, Dr Kizza Besigye coming second with 20.9 per cent support.

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Presidential aspirant John Patrick Amama Mbabazi has castigated the arrest of his supporters and said that his political outfit will vouch for their release.

Mr Mbabazi’s remarks come in the wake of the violent clashes that pitted his supporters against those of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) in Ntungamo last week.

Following the clashes, President Museveni weighed in on the matter, saying government would arrest Mr Mbabazi’s supporters, the alleged masterminds of the chaos.

“Thugs attacked NRM supporters. They are being rounded up because they attacked Ugandans and they will pay very dearly. I am a free person and you come and attack me like that idiot whom I saw [on TV] beating people with clubs. He will regret. We shall smash all that little nonsense which some people who don’t see far thought would help them,”Mr Museveni said at a press conference in Mbale yesterday.

This prompted Mr Mbabazi to say the Go Forward team would follow the law to have those arrested, released.

‘We will follow the law as always (to get out people out). We will apply for Habeas Corpus,’ he said.

Taking a swipe at President Museveni over the arrests he added: “It’s only the court’s of law that can declare anyone criminal. No one else. Who are you to declare anyone criminal?”

On the arrests, Mr Mbabazi said that police chief Gen Kale Kayihura was acting on orders of his boss, Mr Museveni.

“Those who are blaming Kayihura don’t know how things work. Kayihura wouldn’t do anything unless ordered by M7,” he wrote before castigating the use of force.

‘Using force has never worked anywhere in the history of mankind. It doesn’t last,” he was quoted as saying.

He also accused the police of selectively applying the law.

“Have you heard any of those who wanted to burn my car or who threw stones at my car being arrested”? Mr Mbabazi asked.

Efforts to contact police spokesman Fred Enanga over Mr Mbabazi’s remarks were futile by press time.

Meanwhile, Mr Mbabazi said he has ‘gone back to the drawing board to see how to manage a campaign full of violence and abuse of state authority’ and also urged the Electoral Commission to guide the electoral process.

‘The EC ought to assert itself to manage this election otherwise we will take them as having failed’ he said, adding: “I don’t think the Electoral Commission has done enough,” he said.

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