Yearbook 2008 Zimbabwe. During the year, Zimbabwe plunged ever deeper into a swamp of economic, political and social crisis. Even among the country’s neighbors, who for a long time loyally kept President Robert Mugabe back, demands for a regime change were raised. According to Digopaul, Zimbabwe entered 2008 with inflation of over 8,000 percent. In…
Category: Africa
Zambia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Zambia. The government announced in May that bank accounts, real estate and other assets at a estimated value equivalent to at least SEK 350 million were seized from senior officials who were members of the former President Frederick Chiluba’s circle. The confiscated assets would be used to build new hospitals. Ex-President Chiluba has…
Western Sahara 2008
Yearbook 2008 Western Sahara. Representatives of the Western Sahara Independence Movement Polisario as well as for Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania met for talks in January and March outside New York. The goal was to reach a solution to the question of Morocco’s occupation of V., but no progress was achieved. The United Nations Security Council…
Uganda 2008
Yearbook 2008 Uganda. The year began hopefully with an end in view of the long-standing rebel war in the north. In February, the government and the rebel movement signed the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on a permanent ceasefire. After almost two years of negotiations, there was now only a settlement of disarmament, demobilization and reconciliation…
Tunisia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Tunisia. Thirty people were sentenced on December 30, 2007, for involvement in a firefight between militant Islamists and security forces in the city of Soliman in January 2007. Two of them were sentenced to death, the others to prison for between five years and life. The Independent Tunisian Human Rights Association (LTDH) argued…
Togo 2008
Yearbook 2008 Togo. The government that took office at the end of 2007 after the general election resigned in September. The reason for the departure was that the government fulfilled its mission of consolidating the nation, laying the foundations for growth and development, improving access to basic community services and confirming Togo’s place in the…
Tanzania 2008
Tanzania is the oldest residential area of mankind. Mary and Louis Leakey discovered the skull of a 1.75 million-year-old human fossil in the Oldupai Gorge, which turned out to belong to the Southwestern Monkey. In the 7th century, Islam and Swahili-language culture came to the coast and islands with Arab merchants. When the race for…
Sudan 2008
Yearbook 2008 Sudan. The new United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), jointly led by the UN and the African Union (AU), began stationing in the troubled Darfur region in January. After some resistance, the Sudanese government gave the peace force full freedom of movement in the area but continued to oppose non-African troops. Sweden and…
South Africa 2008
Yearbook 2008 South Africa. National Police Chief Jackie Selebi was suspended from office in January after prosecutors announced that they intended to bring charges against him for corruption. He was accused of receiving money from a murderous businessman. He immediately left the assignment as head of Interpol. One of South Africa’s most experienced judges, Tamil-murdered…
Somalia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Somalia. One result of Somalia’s collapse as a state was the sharply increased piracy activity along the country’s coast during the year. By mid-December, over a hundred vessels of various kinds had been attacked and some 40 of them were hijacked, including a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks to Kenya and a Saudi-owned…