LUOFU, Congo (AP) — Witnesses say Congolese soldiers are fighting militiamen deep in rebel-held territory.
The Mai Mai militiamen are normally pro-government appear to be taking advantage of the army’s retreat to steal soldiers’ weapons.
The soldiers are fleeing — along with thousands of civilians — from a steady rebel advance.
The fighting was happening early Tuesday around Kanyabayonga, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of the regional capital, Goma. The violence suggests ever-deepening fissures within Congo’s fractured army.
Clashes between fighters loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda on one side and the army and its allied spear-wielding militias on the other exploded in August and has displaced at least 250,000 people.
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics will plant corn in Madagascar, a company official said on Tuesday, with a long-term aim to replace more than half the corn it currently imports from mostly the United States.
The move to develop an area of Madagascar larger than Qatar follows a smaller deal in July to plant corn in Indonesia and reflects the region’s latest push to lock in cropland abroad.
Soaring food prices earlier this year and a shortage of farm land at home has prompted several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia and South Korea to seek agricultural assets abroad to grow crops.
Daewoo Logistics has secured rights in Madagascar to develop 1.3 million hectares. It plans to plant 1 million hectares in the western part of the country with corn and 300,000 hectares in the east will be dedicated to oil palm planting, said Shin Dong-hyun, who is in charge of the project for the company.
“We plan to start planting corn on 2,000 hectares next year and aim to produce around 5 tonnes of corn per hectare the following year,” he said.
According to the plan, Daewoo will produce 10,000 tonnes of corn in 2010, which will be worth $2 million at current import prices of U.S. corn to South Korea of around $200 per tonne.
Daewoo — which plans to directly manage its plantations and use labour from South Africa — would develop the cropland over 15 years and may produce around 5 million tonnes of corn annually, more than half of South Korea’s annual corn needs and 5 percent of the global corn trade.
The U.S. is the biggest corn exporter supplying some 60 percent to the world markets.
PART OF A TREND
The move by Daewoo Logistics follows similar deals by other countries short of arable land.
Saudi Arabia’s Savola Group, the world’s largest producer of branded edible oil, wants to buy minority shares in agribusiness firms in Sudan, Egypt and Ukraine while Malaysia’s biggest palm planter is looking to develop plantations in Africa.
Kuwait has leased rice fields in Cambodia and plans to import food from the Asian country which has plenty of land ideal for growing food crops.
South Korea is the world’s third-largest corn importer and relies heavily on imports to meet its corn requirements.
“We plan to improve productivity to produce 10 tonnes of corn per hectare but it will take quite a long time to reach that level,” Shin said.
Corn, which is mainly used in making feed for animals and poultry, has lost half of its value since peaking in June when floods threatened crops in the top growing U.S. Midwest region.
But analysts expect the prices to bounce back in 2009 as farmers cut production due to lower prices and growing use of corn in making ethanol.
Daewoo is talking to potential investor partners such as South Korea’s biggest feedmaker Nonghyup Feed, with which it agreed in July to jointly develop a 20,000 hectare corn farm in Kalimantan in Indonesia starting in 2009.
But if the negotiations fail, Daewoo plans to tap overseas partners such as China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Imports and Exports Corp (COFCO) and Thailand’s CP Group, Shin said.
International operator beats competition from players including Zain and Orascom; sees potential for synergies in Africa.
Millicom International Cellular announced Monday that it has won a licence to offer nationwide mobile services in Rwanda.
The company revealed that it beat competition from three rival bidders for the $60 million, three-year concession, that will give it the right to operate as Rwanda’s third national mobile provider.
The licence will be held via a newly-created joint venture company, in which Millicom will hold an 87.5% stake. The remainder will be owned by locally-based Marathon Corporation.
“[Rwanda has] great potential for mobile telephony,” said Millicom president and CEO Marc Beuls.
“It is a very densely populated country with an extremely low mobile penetration, which will enable us to build out a network quickly and economically, and its strategic position between our operations in Tanzania and DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) offers potential operational synergies,” he explained.
Indeed, according to Millicom, Rwanda has a population of 10 million sharing a landmass of 26,000 square kilometres. The company claims mobile penetration stands at just 9%, although existing player MTN reported a subscriber base of 988,000 at the end of September, or close to 10% of the population.
In addition to MTN, Millicom will compete with incumbent operator Rwandatel, which is believed to have significantly fewer customers.
Whatever the true level of market penetration, Millicom sees great potential for growth, given the increasing levels of investment in ICT and wider infrastructure in the country.
Also in the running for the licence were Kuwaiti operator Zain, Orascom Telecom’s Telecel Globe, and privately-owned Sudanese company Larrycom for Investment, according to Rwanda Development Gateway.
Congo’s bishops have warned that violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has all the hallmarks of a “silent genocide”. They fear it could destabilise the whole region if action is not taken.
The bishops said that the widespread massacres, targeted killings of the young and systematic rapes are taking place “under the impassive eyes of those who have received a mandate to keep the peace and protect the population”.
A force of 17,000 UN troops in Congo (MONUC) has been unable to prevent an upsurge in violence over the past three months. An increase in troop numbers is currently under discussion.
Caritas and many actors have asked that Monuc be given a clear mandate allowing use of force against those who commit violence in violation of peace agreements.
Some 250,000 people have fled the unrest in North Kivu province since August this year.
Congo’s bishops have condemned the laxness with which the international community has treated the violence in Congo, saying it must show more commitment to upholding international law and to increasing humanitarian aid.
“Our own governments have shown themselves powerless in the face of the extent of the situation,” said the bishops.
The bishops have demanded an instant cessation of hostilities and guaranteed security for people wanting to return home. They have also urged the protection of legitimate institutions which were established by free and fair elections in 2006.
Reflecting on the root of the current problem, they said that the hunger for Congo’s resources is part of the cause. The have urged the Congolese people not to give in to efforts to carve up their territory.
“The Congolese Government must put all its efforts into re-estabilishing peace,” said the bishops.
On Thursday, the bishops made an emergency trip to Goma and Butembo-Beni diocese to express their solidarity with people caught up in the violence.
The bishops have said that the Church is with the people of Congo and will help guide them on the path of reconciliation and peace.
Caritas has launched an emergency appeal to help provide people in eastern Congo with items such as food, blankets, hygiene products and cooking equipment.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – The Rezidor Hotel Group said Friday in Brussels it would take on the management of the Radisson Hotel Maputo, Mozambique, which is due to open in the second quarter of 2010.
The future Radission Hotel Maputo, which is owned by Mozambican company Fénix Projectos e Investimentos, next to the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Centre, will have 150 rooms as well as restaurants, a gym, swimming pool, three retail stores and conference and business meeting facilities.
In a statement, Kurt Ritter, chairman of the Rezidor Hotel Group, said that, with this contract, his group was adding another country to its portfolio and was now present in 54 nations.
The Rezidor Hotel Group operates with the brands Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts, Regent Hotels & Resorts, Park Inn and Country Inns & Suites in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
KHARTOUM – Sudanese police detained around 70 journalists, herding them into a truck after they protested against draconian censorship outside parliament on Monday, witnesses and reporters said.
Scores of journalists rallied outside parliament condemning the censorship which flouts the freedom of expression supposed to be enshrined in the country’s interim constitution following the end of a north-south civil war.
A member of parliament came to talk to the reporters. After he went back into the building, police came and ordered all the remaining journalists into at least one waiting truck, said journalists.
They were driven to a police station in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum just across the Nile river, shortly after midday (0900 GMT).
“We are about 70 journalists now in custody in Omdurman police station, near the passport department,” Murtada el-Ghali, the editor in chief of the daily newspaper Ajras Al-Hurriya, told a foreign news agency.
“We are in one room. We are sitting on the floor. They took our names. I am the only editor in chief, but there are editing managers, high-ranking journalists, and 27 girls among us,” he added.
“We were treated in a very harsh way. They made us sit on the seats in the lorry. We were more than 70, there was not enough room and they were hitting the outside of the lorry with sticks,” he added before the phone went dead.
Two witnesses put the number of arrested journalists at 60 to 65. Another two reporters said initially that 100 had been driven away.
Police were not immediately reachable for comment.
Sudanese journalists this month stepped up protests against government censorship and the arrests of colleagues, staging a hunger strike on November 4 in a demonstration spearheaded by staff at the Ajras Al-Hurriya newspaper.
Sudan’s interim constitution, which is supposed to guide the country through a six-year phased implementation of a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended two decades of civil war, upholds freedom of the press and expression.
But laws guaranteeing press freedom have not been passed and security officials inspect the editions of every newspaper nightly.
Editors who resist censorship risk their publications being banned outright or confiscated from distribution offices.
