20 April 2008
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced in Ghana that he is to raise the Zimbabwe crisis with African leaders during his current visit to West Africa.
Arriving in Accra on Saturday for the 12th UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Ban said the situations in Cote d'Ivoire, Darfur and Kenya would also be on his agenda with regional leaders. From Ghana he is scheduled to travel to Liberia, Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire.
Ban's announcement on Zimbabwe was made after both he and his predecessor, Kofi Annan, publicly questioned the adequacy of the response of African leaders to the country's post-election impasse.
Ban told a meeting of the UN Security Council and the African Union last week that "the international community continues to watch and wait for decisive action. The credibility of the democratic process in Africa could be at stake here."
Annan reportedly said during a visit to Nairobi, where he mediated in Kenya's election crisis: "The question which has been posed is: where are the Africans? Where are their leaders and the countries in the region, what are they doing? It is a rather dangerous situation. It's a serious crisis with impact beyond Zimbabwe."
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
It is not true that AU and SADC are just seated doing nothing. It is also due to the parties involved. In case of Kenya, African diplomates have done a wonderful job. Is it done yet! No... There are no easy answers or quick fixes to the path toward democracy. Elections will have flaws, it is the ability of those countries to fix them. Even the USA has had problems with the way they select their presidents..It is not an easy matter. The UN body is ineffective in helping countries about elections. Regional body are still the best. Do not… [Read Full Text]
Phiri's comments are unfortunate coming from a fellow African - regrettably this is the attitude that so many Africans have: people must die - a lot must die like what happened in Rwanda, Kenya, Darfur for the situation to be described a'Crisis'. Recent comments attributed to Thabo Mbeki bear testimony to such disregard for human life. No-one must die for their democratic right to be heard! We fought the whites during the liberation struggle to regain our collective destiny. Why should we wait for the western world to declare disaster areas in our own backyard? If AU and SADCC are… [Read Full Text]
Maga, 50 died in troubled Somalia yesterday,1000 died in Kenya recently and hundreds are being killed in Sudan every week. How many have been killed in Zimbabwe? Dont believe all you read - outside forces are so desperate to change the government in Zimbabwe that they fabricate all sort of stories to apply pressure. As far as violence is concerned Zimbabwe is nowhere close to some West and East African countries. Lies,lies,lies.
It rather dismaying to see ineptitude and indifference defended blindly by intellectualism and naivity. I live in Zimbabwe, went to vote on march 29, saw the results outside the polling booths, suffered and still suffer the anxiety of waiting for the presidential results.
The world watches giving excuses yet people who voted for the opposition are being systematically hunted, beaten and killed. I am a city dweller and i am afraid to go to the rural areas, even in the city of Harare heavy armed police and soildiers patrol our streets and shopping mails. There are hideous crimes being committed… [Read Full Text]
After reading through the letter by Phiri, I'm quite astonished from the way some African brothers view the crisis in Zimbabwe,i however shall restrain myself from anger. Fellow African comrades and all those who are following the events as they unfold in Zimbabwe will predict and predict correctly that there surely will be a rise in the number of corpses due to political violince in Zimbabwe sooner than the next Africa Day celebrations.The question to ask to my comrades like Phiri is how many of such dead people do you want to see before you define the Zimbabwe scenerio… [Read Full Text]
Most African heads of state admire Mugabes courage to stand up to the West.They wish they they could have such courage.The majority of them are DICTATORS and thus cannot challange their spokesperson.For this reason Zimbabweans like most Africans are at the mercy of their dictators.STAND AND DIE FOR YOUR RIGHTS.
Ooh, please do. Why don't you all stand up and die for your rights? At least then Africa's major problem would be solved and we can finally have all your land and resources. Mwahaha.
See all comments (12).
As an African whose country has just risen again from a flawed elections(Kenya)it pains me to see the AU and SADC sitting numb when the people of Zimbabwe are suffering. The AU and african Leaders must speak with one voice to solve the Zimbabwean political dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.Time has come for the people of that country to be given their democratic rights.