AU to Overrule ICC Indictment of Al-Bashir

Published on 9th September 2008

The African Union Peace and Security Council will discuss efforts to counter the indictment of Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir by the prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at a meeting in New York at the end of this month. During the meeting, which is scheduled to be held on September 22, the Sudanese foreign minister is expected to expose the position of his government from the accusation filed by the ICC prosecutor against Bashir.

On July 14, Moreno-Ocampo charged Bashir with masterminding a campaign of genocide in Darfur, western Sudan, and asked the court for the warrant. The Hague-based court has yet to issue a decision. Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir’s arrest.

S. Africa Plans to Stop Blackouts

A massive investment in new energy in South Africa is needed to prevent more power cuts, according to the Public Enterprises Minister, Alec Erwin. He said that new power stations must be built, some of them nuclear. An investment of at least 1 trillion rand (£72bn) is needed to secure a reliable electricity supply.

An above-average demand for electricity and a lack of investment has led to an energy shortage in the country. He acknowledged that the recent supply problems and blackouts had become familiar challenges in South Africa. However, he said the energy crisis was a global problem, with many countries struggling to attract investment for renewable energy and a global shortage of power-generating infrastructure.

The building programme in South Africa will take over eighteen years to complete, with two new power stations due to open in 2012 and 2013. The programme aims to add 40,000 MEW to South Africa's generating capacity, with half coming from nuclear power.

Nigeria to Establish U.S. $100 Million Dollars Refinery

The Nigerian government is to build a $100 million dollars refinery with the capacity to refine 20,000 barrels per day to ensure regular supply of petroleum products in Abia State and its environs. The refinery, which is expected to come on stream within 24 months of the commencement of work on the project, is expected to be sited in the oil-producing region of the state.

Speaking during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Governor Theodore Ahamefula Orji noted that while the state was desirous of entering into partnership with private organisation for development, the state would no longer enter into partnership with companies whose background and level of seriousness cannot be guaranteed.

AG Declares New Rules on Comesa Sugar Illegal

 Kenya’s Attorney- General Amos Wako has declared new rules by Agriculture Minister William Ruto’s on Comesa sugar illegal. He warned that a government proposal to introduce new import rules could provoke a major trade war in an export market that is Kenya’s biggest. Mr. Wako, who is the government’s chief legal advisor, says the Minister’s plan to gazette new rules for the sugar market could invite restrictive measures against Kenya’s exports in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) with local producers as the main losers.  Trade experts say that although Mr. Ruto can introduce new rules to manage the Comesa imports, his attempts to apply the new rules under a trading regime that is already in force is being seen as an attempt to erect mid-course non tariff barriers to trade in sugar. This year, Kenya is expected to import 220,000 tones of duty-free sugar from Comesa and upscale to 260,000 tonnes next year. Mr. Wako’s position is a big win for importers who are opposed to Mr. Ruto’s attempts to stamp his authority over trade in sugar.

Kenyan Farmers To Benefit from New EU Import Rules

Kenya’s main horticulture export market, the European Union, has unveiled new rules on pesticide residue levels in agricultural food products, raising fresh hopes of increased trade between the two blocs. The European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Consumers said its old rules on pesticides were complex and confusing to importers and traders alike, owing to the numerous and conflicting conformity lists presented by individual member states of the bloc month.

Dr Chagema Kedera, the managing director at Kenya Plant Health Inspection Services (Kephis), a section of the press that they had received the new rules and a stake-holders meeting would be held tomorrow to evaluate their implications.


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