África (Continuación)

MundoÁfrica,

Islamic experts assure me there is no prohibition of warfare during Ramadan. On the contrary, many of Islam's great conquests occurred during this holy month, including the first clash between Muslims and infidels, which occurred in 624 when Muhammad led his troops to victory in the battle of Badr. War for the furtherance of Islam and against non-believers is considered ethically acceptable by scholars, even during the month of fasting and prayer.

But this is not the situation in Libya. David Cameron, the foreign secretary, William Hague, and Nicolas Sarkozy are not the prophet Muhammad and his companions. Even if Nato's intervention in Libya were entirely without self-interest (and not about oil and lucrative commercial opportunities) Islamic clerics concur that it is absolutely prohibited for Muslims to seek the help of non-believers against fellow Muslims.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfricaMundoOriente Próximo, ,

«No ¡o habéis muerto para nada», declaró el presidente francés Nicolas Sarkozy, el 19 de julio, ante los ataúdes de siete soldados, víctimas de un atentado en Afganistán. Por tanto, se planteaba la pregunta: como esos hombres no han muerto para nada, ¿para qué han muerto, exactamente?

Nicolas Sarkozy mencionó la Gloria, el Honor y los ideales democráticos, sin precisar demasiado los detalles. Después de diez años de combates en Afganistán, ¿debemos seguir creyendo que se trata de una guerra de la OTAN contra el terrorismo? Lo que ahora preocupa a las tribus afganas son sobre todo sus intereses locales. Los talibanes son pastunes conservadores en pugna con otros pastunes un poco menos conservadores y los pastunes en su conjunto se enfrentan a todas las demás tribus.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Yet again, famine stalks the Horn of Africa. More than ten million people are fighting for survival, mainly pastoralist communities in the hyper-arid regions of Somalia, Ethiopia, and northern Kenya. Every day brings news of more deaths and massive inflows of starving people into refugee camps in Kenya, across the border from Somalia.

The immediate cause of this disaster is clear: the rains have failed for two years running in the dry regions of East Africa. These are places where water is so scarce year after year that crop production is marginal at best. Millions of households, with tens of millions of nomadic or semi-nomadic people, tend camels, sheep, goats, and other livestock, which they move large distances to reach rain-fed pasturelands.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica, ,

If the past is anything to go by, TVs the world over will show heart-wrenching pictures of malnourished Somali babies with distended kwashiorkor bellies; of flies feeding on their eyes; of mouths sucking at milkless breasts. Environmental experts will pontificate on the recurrent droughts in Somalia. Aid organizations will canvass the world’s rich to find the funds to feed the starving. Governments will make promises they won’t keep. What has been a tributary of refugees leaving Somalia and entering neighboring Kenya will become a flood. This will be channeled into refu­gee camps, which will overflow with rivers of human misery.

A couple of years ago, I was visiting my good friend Abdullahi Mohamed Shirwa, a respected civil society leader based in Mogadishu.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Across the Middle East and North Africa, superficial political calm has been shattered by convulsions of rage. Idealistic young protesters have toppled some of the most ruthless and well-resourced political strongmen on the planet. In sub-Saharan Africa, many are asking: will the Arab Spring spread south?

Thus far, the authoritarian leaders who dominate the continent have withstood protests, stubbornly maintaining that tribalism will save them. They and their loyal supporters insist that African societies are so fragmented along ethnic, sectarian and regional lines that it would be impossible today to whip up the perfect Tahrir Square storm; instead, they believe, an outcome like Libya’s civil war or the messy departure of Yemen’s president is more likely.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica, ,

Across the Horn of Africa, people are starving. A catastrophic combination of conflict, high food prices and drought has left more than 11 million people in desperate need. The United Nations has been sounding the alert for months. We have resisted using the "F-word" — famine — but on Wednesday, we officially recognized the fast-evolving reality. There is famine in parts of Somalia. And it is spreading.

This is a wake-up call we cannot ignore. Every day I hear the harrowing reports from our U.N. teams on the ground. Somali refugees, their cattle and goats dead from thirst, walking for weeks to find help in Kenya and Ethiopia.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Arot Katikov is the opposite of a thriving western baby. Looking much younger than he is, the boy can't stop crying and vomiting, and he has diarrhoea. On arrival at Lodwar district hospital he is discovered to be suffering from malnutrition and one of its complications, tuberculosis. When Setina, aged 10 months, turns up at the same place, she faints with hunger. Her mother, Ngiupe, grabbed Setina and her brother and ran from their farm near the Ugandan border when Pokot raiders came and stole their cattle and killed their neighbours. Setina's three-year-old brother died on the way to the hospital, and she is now lying in her mother's arms, too weak to lift her head, her eyes glazing over as her mother rocks her to sleep or oblivion.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

La escasez y el encarecimiento de los alimentos en el norte de África y en Oriente Próximo están agravando el hambre en el África subsahariana, donde han desembarcado los países árabes más ricos comprando tierras, a bajo precio, con el objetivo de cultivar lo necesario para dar de comer a sus propias poblaciones.

La hambruna devasta el cuerno del continente negro. Etiopía, uno de los países más hambrientos del mundo y donde más de trece millones de personas necesitan ayuda alimentaria internacional, ofrece paradójicamente tres millones de hectáreas de su tierra más fértil a ricos países árabes como Arabia Saudí, los Emiratos Árabes, Kuwait o Bahréin y a sus fondos de inversión.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Six months ago, after weeks of protests, the Tunisian people gathered in front of the Interior Ministry to demand that their longtime president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, leave the country. He fled for Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14.

But the country’s future remains uncertain. Giant sit-ins by opposition groups plagued the interim government that replaced Mr. Ben Ali. As in the French Revolution, they came armed with “Lists of Grievances.” The standoff ended when an interim prime minister, Béji Caïd Essebsi, an old hand in Tunisian politics, took office at the end of February. He managed the trick of both placating the impatient and not alarming those who want nothing to change.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Los autócratas de Oriente Medio por costumbre advierten a su pueblo que habrá ríos de sangre, ocupación occidental, pobreza, caos y Al Qaeda si sus regímenes son derrocados. Esas amenazas se pudieron oír en Túnez, Egipto, Yemen, Bahrain, Siria y -al estilo de una comedia negra- en Libia. Pero en toda la región está arraigada la idea de que los costos de erradicar las autocracias, por más altos que puedan ser, son bajos en comparación con el daño infligido por los gobernantes en curso. En resumidas cuentas, la libertad justifica el precio.

En Libia, cuatro escenarios pueden afectar negativamente las perspectivas de democratización: guerra civil/tribal, régimen militar, "quedar atascado en una transición" y división.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Almost daily over the past four months we were told that Col. Moammar Gadhafi was about ready to throw in the towel and give up.

Libya, after all, is not a distant Afghanistan or Iraq with a population of about 30 million. Yet this tiny police state of fewer than 7 million people, conveniently located on the Mediterranean Sea opposite nearby Europe, continues to thwart the three great powers of the NATO alliance and thousands of "Arab Spring" rebels.

In March, President Obama ordered the use of American bombers and cruise missiles to join with the French and British to finish off the tottering Gadhafi regime.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Since February, the Danish sailor Jan Quist Johansen, his wife, Birgit, and their three children, Rune, Hjalte and Naja, have been held hostage by Somali pirates. After a failed rescue attempt in March, the family has been treated brutally and many now claim that if the ransom is not paid immediately, they risk execution - just as two American couples, Jean and Scott Adams, and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, were executed by pirates earlier this year when ransoms were not paid in time.

The human cost of refusing to pay is high. Sadly, however, the human cost of paying is even higher.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Date symbolique de la révolution française de 1789, le 14 juillet coïncide cette année avec les six mois de la révolution tunisienne. Le temps n'est pas encore au bilan de cette expérience unique. S'il revient d'abord aux historiens de souligner la pertinence et les limites de toute analogie avec la "révolution mère", il est légitime de s'interroger sur le sens, la nature et la portée des faits auxquels nous avons assisté.

Les réticences à parler de "révolution tunisienne" témoignent de la sacralité qui continue d'entourer un mot visiblement figé dans un temps et un espace déterminés. Dans la mesure où la "révolution" appartient à l'histoire contemporaine de l'Occident, ce terme est-il idoine pour qualifier une "chose tunisienne" qui s'inscrit dans un autre espace-temps ?…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

It isn’t news anymore when an Arab ruler facing mass protests pledges sweeping reforms. But Morocco’s July 1 constitutional referendum may be the most significant development in the Arab world all summer. For the first time since the Arab Spring began, a population broadly embraced its leader’s reforms and scaled back antigovernment demonstrations. In the weeks before the referendum, over 100,000 people had taken to the streets; after the vote only about 10,000 did.

A sizable majority of Moroccans approved the new Constitution, which calls for King Mohammed VI to cede half his power to a prime minister appointed from the parliament’s majority party and ensures the rights of women and non-Arabs, including the country’s large Berber population.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Dans une résolution du 1er juillet 2011, l'Union africaine (UA) "décide que les Etats membres ne coopéreront pas à l'exécution du mandat d'arrêt" contre Kadhafi et demande au Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU d'"annuler le processus de la CPI [Cour pénale internationale] sur la Libye". Ce faisant, elle poursuit une politique entamée exactement deux ans plus tôt en réaction au mandat d'arrêt émis contre le président soudanais. Plusieurs Etats africains parties au Statut de Rome avaient alors accueilli Omar Al-Bashir au lieu de l'arrêter (Tchad, Kenya, Djibouti).

Comment comprendre ce camouflet fait à la justice pénale internationale ?…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Depuis le discours du roi du 9 mars, qui a lancé le projet de réforme de la constitution, notre pays s'est transformé en un théâtre ardent, en pleine effervescence. Poussés par les promesses d'ouverture et de liberté, les acteurs aux différents profils remontent sur scène, réajustent leurs costumes, et leurs propositions fusent de toutes parts en guise de participation à ce revirement extraordinaire.

Les jeunes et les progressistes s'y sont mis et ont vécu ces nouvelles décisions comme un réel "droit au retour" à la liberté. Quant aux conservateurs, fortement déstabilisés, ils sortent enfin de leurs cavernes politiques pour scander, par réflexe pavlovien, leurs mêmes vieilles litanies.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Les parlementaires, qui, pour la première fois, le 12 juillet, sont appelés à se prononcer sur la guerre en Libye feraient bien de pleinement mesurer le sens exact de leur suffrage. La gauche devrait y réfléchir doublement si elle veut éviter d'avoir à se déjuger par la suite. Car il ne s'agit pas d'entériner le bien-fondé de l'engagement de nos armées pour protéger Benghazi et les populations insurgées, mais d'autoriser la prolongation d'une intervention militaire dans des circonstances où les chances de l'emporter rapidement contre le régime de Kadhafi se sont dissipées.

Ce vote est d'abord l'occasion de dire combien la réforme constitutionnelle de 2008 qui soumet aux députés et sénateurs l'approbation des opérations militaires de notre pays est une cote mal taillée.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

This weekend, in Juba, South Sudan, Africa’s 54th nation was born. Millions of people are celebrating a new national identity and new national promise. Like on our own July Independence Day 235 years ago, there is reason to hope for a better future — if the people and leaders of both Sudan and South Sudan commit themselves to the hard work ahead.

This day was far from inevitable. For more than two decades, Sudan has been riven by intense fighting over land and resources. Just a year ago, talks between the Sudanese government in the north and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the south had stalled.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

A los tres meses de haberse desencadenado, continúa la guerra en Libia. La OTAN, que ha tomado el mando de la misma, acaba de concederse tres meses suplementarios para conducirla a la victoria. El país sigue inmerso en una guerra civil, con los "leales" enfrentados a los "insurgentes". Al estar mejor armados que los insurgentes, los leales aprovechan esa ventaja para masacrarlos, pero esa asimetría se reproduce luego entre las fuerzas de la OTAN y los leales: los cañones de los unos aplastan a los fusiles de los otros, lo mismo que los misiles de los unos aniquilan sin problemas a los cañones de los otros.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Il y aura bientôt un an et demi, comme résultat d'une analyse de plusieurs mois et de rencontres avec de très nombreux observateurs et acteurs des interminables conflits soudanais, nous remettions à la Commission des affaires étrangères de l'Assemblée nationale le rapport d'information qu'elle nous avait commandé sur la situation au Soudan.

Si la tonalité pessimiste qui courait au long de notre propos nous a paru un temps exagérée, compte tenu de la manière dont les élections générales d'avril 2010 et le référendum de janvier 2011, surtout, se sont finalement déroulés, à la surprise et à la satisfaction de la communauté internationale, force est aujourd'hui de constater que nous n'étions sans doute malheureusement pas loin de la vérité.…  Seguir leyendo »