While events in the countries that make up Africa will be overshadowed by yet another year of political turmoil and bloodletting in the Middle East, the continent had more than its fair share of crises in 2004. Perhaps the worst of these was the Darfur tragedy - that still continues - in Sudan. Grievances in western Sudan against Khartoum gave rise to hostilities in 2003 when Darfur rebels began to attack government installations. But the world woke up to the ensuing atrocities perpetrated on the Darfur population by the government-backed Arab Janjaweed militia only in 2004.
The year saw the UN and Sudan sign a communique that among other things called on Khartoum to allow humanitarian access to the affected areas and to rein in the Janjaweed. This was followed by a UN resolution in July seeking to impose sanctions on Sudan if it did not comply with the provisions of the communique. Yet another resolution, on similar lines, followed in September. While the United States issued threats to Khartoum, which claimed that it had no hold over the militias, a humanitarian tragedy continued to unfold in Darfur.
More than 1.5 million people were displaced as the militia killed - the fatality count is 70,000 - raped and plundered. Many died from hunger and disease in this primarily ethnic conflict. In spite of the threat of UN sanctions, the government continued to harass the displaced population. While, in a more recent development, Khartoum said that it was suspending military operations in the affected areas with immediate effect, it remains to be seen whether the Sudanese government will keep its pledge, as it has so far consistently flouted its promises to the international community.
What makes the tragedy even more poignant is its timing. In January and May 2004, the government signed agreements on power- and wealth-sharing with the southern rebels, ending more than two decades of civil war. Chad, which signed a peace deal with its own rebels (although hard-line groups rejected this) and made changes to its constitution during the year, too, remained affected by the movement of hundreds of thousands of Darfur refugees fleeing the Janjaweed and even clashed with the militia.
Further west, all was not well in oil-rich Nigeria that witnessed bloody gang rivalry in Port Harcourt in which hundreds died. A state of emergency was called in the central part of the country, where a number of ethnic groups reside, when violence erupted between Muslims and Christians. Once again, the death toll was considerable.
Nigeria saw an alarming rise in polio cases in its northern Muslim-dominated states that had imposed a ban (later revoked) on the administration of the polio vaccine, as there were fears of its deliberate contamination by the US. This adversely affected the UN drive to inoculate 63 million children in 10 African countries against the polio virus, and the debilitating disease staged a comeback in some of the countries where it had previously been eradicated.
UN peace contingents, with personnel ranging from countries as far away as Pakistan, were deployed in Ivory Coast, a small country on the shores of the South Atlantic Ocean, and split along ethnic and religious lines. The troops were there to oversee the implementation of a 2003 ceasefire agreement between the rebels and the government. The northerners, consisting largely of Muslims, accuse the government of President Laurent Gbagbo of exercising discriminatory policies against them.
While there were attempts to remove some of these when parliament passed key reforms in December 2004, the country saw much violence during the year, ignited by the killing of several protesters during an anti-government rally in March. A UN report enumerated widespread instances of executions and torture. Tension continued although the protagonists inked yet another agreement in neighbouring Ghana, defining the timetable for peace moves. The French, the erstwhile colonizers of the country, found themselves caught in the fray when nine of their soldiers stationed in the state were killed in an attack by the Ivorian air force.
Retaliating swiftly, the French destroyed the small force, a move which resulted in mob violence against the international, mainly French, community, many members of which subsequently fled the country. In contrast to the Ivory Coast, it was heartening to see democracy strengthened in Ghana where the popular President John Kufuor won a second term in December.
Moving north along the coastline, and bypassing several smaller countries, including Morocco that was hit by an earthquake that killed over 500 people, one approaches Algeria that until some years ago, had been in the news for the bloody violence perpetrated by Islamic militants in which thousands had died. Last April, the people's satisfaction with the improved security situation manifested itself in a resounding electoral victory for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The president won more than 80 per cent of the vote. Situated next to Algeria is Tunisia that held polls in October and played host to a delayed and controversial Arab League summit meeting, while to the south is the country of Niger that also held a presidential election.
However, among the northern African countries, it was Libya that was in the international limelight as it strove to make amends for its past disastrous relations with the West. Libya ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in January. This move was followed in March by the visit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Tripoli where he met the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi, and that of US Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East William Burns. Libya also agreed to allow IAEA personnel for inspection of nuclear facilities. It demonstrated a will to play a more active role in world peace and sent to the US, weaponry and the remnants of its nuclear programme.
In April, Col. Qadhafi visited the European Union headquarters in Brussels, where he held high-level talks with EU leaders. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visited Libya in August and President Jacques Chirac of France in November. Libya also promised to compensate victims and relatives of victims for the bombing of a passenger plane in 1989 and of a Berlin nightclub in 1986. However, this hand of friendship was not extended to many other countries, and a New York Times report (denied strongly by Tripoli) in June alleged that Libya had plans to kill the Saudi crown prince.
For Egypt, the year started in a rather unfortunate manner when an Egyptian airliner bound for France crashed near Sharm Al Shaikh killing 148 people. Terrorism was ruled out and the crash attributed to a technical fault. Egypt continued with its crackdown on Islamic militants and arrested 54 members of the Muslim Brotherhood in May. In October, 30 people were killed when Israeli tourists were attacked in Sinai. Egypt played host to several heads of state, royalty and others when it held the official funeral of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who died in November.
As opposed to Egypt, the year in Somalia on the Horn of Africa started off on a positive note as a peace deal was signed in Kenya (where environmentalist Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize) between the country's warring factions following days of intense negotiations. In compliance with the agreement's provisions, members of a transitional legislature formally assumed their posts in August and went on to elect a president, even though an upsurge in violence between ethnic groups had been witnessed earlier on. However, the year ended on a tragic note when about 100 Somali fishermen died in the aftermath of the devastating tsunami waves that hit Asia.
It is no surprise that in a strongly tribal setup, the unimaginative carving up of Africa by its former colonial masters should have a negative fallout on inter-state relations to this day. This was more than amply demonstrated in the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The latter has accused DR Congo of harbouring Hutu militias involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and issued a threat, later withdrawn to invade the country as it lamented the failure of a UN disarmament plan. Like many other African countries, the central government in DR Congo is weak, as indicated by an abortive coup attempt last March and the rioting, that erupted when Rwanda-backed renegade soldiers took temporary control of the eastern town of Bukava in June. While a five-year civil conflict that killed three million is officially over, ordinary people in DR Congo continue to pay a heavy price for the instability in the continent's third largest country. According to one report, as many as 1,000 die in the country of disease and hunger everyday.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's restricted political outlook was in full display as the noose round the media was tightened. The government also expelled a UN team in the country to assess the annual food harvest, as reports said that the state did not want the considerable shortage of food to be made public. The administration announced plans to nationalize farmland, and in September, Mr Mugabe said that the government would take over half the shareholdings of mining companies in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's detention in March of 64 mercenaries aboard a plane from South Africa led to a political scandal involving Mark Thatcher (the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher) who has been suspected of financing a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.
Meanwhile, April elections in South Africa ensured a thumping victory for incumbent Thabo Mbeki, and a couple of months later, Nelson Mandela announced his formal retirement from a life of busy schedules, even though he had given up politics in 1999. It was election year for South Africa's neighbours as well, including Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique.
AIDS continued to take its toll on the people of Sub-Saharan Africa, and although the only 10 per cent of the world population is concentrated in the region, the latter contains two-thirds of all those globally who have been infected by the Aids virus. It will be a while before Sub-Saharan Africa is able to embark on a route away from war, poverty and disease.
While events in the countries that make up Africa will be overshadowed by yet another year of political turmoil and bloodletting in the Middle East, the continent had more than its fair share of crises in 2004. Perhaps the worst of these was the Darfur tragedy - that still continues - in Sudan. Grievances in western Sudan against Khartoum gave rise to hostilities in 2003 when Darfur rebels began to attack government installations. But the world woke up to the ensuing atrocities perpetrated on the Darfur population by the government-backed Arab Janjaweed militia only in 2004.
