All four ex-ministers were accused of calling for the massacre of Tutsis in meetings and speeches
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Rwanda: Haunted Nation
Slow pace of justice
Kagame: Visionary or tyrant?
Paul Kagame's hold on Rwandans
Children of rape
Two former Rwandan ministers have been sentenced to 30 years in jail by the UN war crimes tribunal for involvement in Rwanda's genocide in 1994.
Former civil service minister Prosper Mugiraneza and former trade minister Justin Mugenzi were convicted of complicity to commit genocide and incitement to commit genocide.
But two other former ministers were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The judgements come nearly eight years after the trial began.
They come 12 years since the former ministers were arrested.
The tribunal, based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, was formed in late 1994 to try the alleged perpetrators of the genocide, in which nearly 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, were killed.
In this case, all four ministers were accused of calling for the massacre of Tutsis during public meetings held across Rwanda and in speeches, some of which were aired on radio.
But Judge Khalida Rachid Khan, Judge Lee Gacuiga Muthoga and Judge Emile Francis Short acquitted former health minister Casimir Bizimungu and former foreign affairs minister Jerome-Clement Bicamumpaka, citing a lack of evidence.
The trial took place from 2003 to 2008, and Judge Short issued a partially dissenting opinion, saying the two convicts deserved a reduction of five years for violation of right to trial without undue delay, the tribunal said in a news release.
Mr Bizimungu was arrested in Kenya in February 1999, while the other three were all arrested in Cameroon in April 1999, the tribunal said.
Wangari Maathai receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo – the first black African woman to do so
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Wangari Maathai's compelling life story is inextricably linked with the social and political changes that so much of Africa has been through since the idea of throwing off European colonialism began to gain traction shortly after World War II.
Her unique insight was that the lives of Kenyans – and, by extension, of people in many other developing countries – would be made better if economic and social progress went hand in hand with environmental protection.
The Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977, has planted an estimated 45 million trees around Kenya.
The straightforward environmental benefits of that would have been important enough on their own in a country whose population has grown more than 10-fold over the last century, creating huge pressure on land and water.
But what made the movement more remarkable was that it was also conceived as a source of employment in rural areas, and a way to give new skills to women who regularly came second to men in terms of power, education, nutrition and much else.
Now, she has succumbed to a battle with cancer. But if cancer was new to her, battle was definitely not; it was a way of life.
Opposing a major government-backed development in Nairobi, she was labelled a “crazy woman”; it was suggested that she should behave like a good African woman and do as she was told.
Her former husband made similar comments when suing for divorce: she was strong-willed, and could not be controlled.
This alone gives some idea of the battles Dr Maathai fought in the politically active phase of her life, which encompassed and indeed wove together the ideals of helping Kenya develop sustainably and helping Kenyan women achieve equality.
But without the progress of post-colonial reforms, it's doubtful that she would have been able to achieve a fraction of what she did; the times she lived in generated the tides she fought against, but they also provided the means with which to fight.
Dr Maathai highlighted the damage that illegal logging was doing to forests and livelihoods
Post-colonial links with the West offered Africans of great intellect but poor background the chance to study abroad, in the US and Germany.
This brought her the knowledge of biology and the PhD that both opened doors in corridors of influence and gave scientific underpinning to the environmental restoration work on which she embarked.
Another vital strand in her life was the creation of global environmental organisations, in particular the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) in 1972.
These organisations desperately needed to tap into expertise in the developing world, especially because it was in these countries that the vicious circle of environmental degradation, unsustainable population growth and poverty was at its most grinding.
With its headquarters situated in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Wangari Maathai was one of the first people from the developing world adopted into the Unep “family”, which meant global exposure and, relatively, a huge influence.
Among other things, that meant the capacity to spread the Green Belt philosophy to other countries where the ecological and economic need is even more pressing than in Kenya – notably the Congo Basin, where warring factions and deep poverty have put huge pressure on forests and the wildlife they maintain.
Eventually, this would all lead to the award in 2004 of the Nobel Peace Prize – the first time it had gone to an African woman, and arguably the first “green Nobel”.
Tourists flock to Lake Nakuru's flamingos – an example of environmental protection bringing revenue
I say “arguably” partly because previous prize-winning work had contained an environmental component, such as that of Paul Crutzen, Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina who deciphered the chemistry of ozone depletion.
And partly because the citation itself does not explicitly mention the word “environment”, reading: “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”.
In other words, it's not just planting trees – it's the reasons why trees are planted, it's the social side of how the tree-planting works, it's the political work that goes alongside tree-planting, and it's the vision that sees loss of forest as translating into loss of prospects for people down the track.
There is, in some parts of the world, a backlash now against these ideas.
Every couple of days an email comes into my inbox asserting that the way to help poorer countries develop is to get them to exploit their natural resources as quickly and deeply as possible with no regard for problems that may cause.
Organisations promoting this viewpoint are not, to my knowledge, based in the developing world but in the Western capitals that might make use of the fruits of such exploitation – cheaper wood, cheaper oil, cheaper metals.
It is the opposite of sustainable.
But the existence of these lobby groups can be seen as a testament to the influence that Wangari Maathai and others like her have had on global debate.
The UN initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (Redd), the linking of biodiversity to livelihoods, moves to strengthen the rule of law as a pre-requisite for environmental health, and the notion that communities should gain when the natural resources they maintain are exploited – all these in part trace their roots back to Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement.
A Facebook page for tributes is laden with short but moving comments that in a way sum up everything she was and achieved.
“If all us who loved her will plant a tree on her hon: she will smile from the windows of heaven seeing green world. I will plant one today”.
“You have been a true inspiration to those who love and care for nature”.
And perhaps the most moving of all: “You made a difference”.
SIRTE (Reuters) – Civilians fled Sirte on Friday as interim government forces pounded the coastal city in an effort to dislodge fighters loyal to ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The prolonged battle for Gaddafi's hometown, besieged from three fronts, has raised concern for civilians trapped inside the city of about 100,000 people, with each side accusing the other of endangering them.
Cars streamed out of Sirte from the early hours and into the afternoon. Shelling and tank fire continued from both sides on the eastern and western fronts, black smoke rose from the center of town and NATO planes flew overhead.
A Reuters team on the edge of Sirte heard five huge explosions just before sundown. It was not immediately clear what had caused the explosions.
Fighting was particularly heavy near a roundabout on the eastern outskirts of the city, where NTC forces have been pinned down by sniper and artillery fire for five days, Reuters journalists at the scene said.
Some fighters again fled the frontline under the fire.
“It's difficult, difficult,” said anti-Gaddafi fighter Rami Moftah. “You know, with the snipers. You can't find them. Yesterday there was no ammunition. It was finished. I swear to God. If the Gaddafi people knew that they would have come and taken Sirte from us.”
Several residents told Reuters they were leaving Sirte because they had not eaten for days.
“I am not scared. I am hungry,” said Ghazi Abdul-Wahab, a Syrian who has lived in the town for 40 years, patting his stomach.
Abdul-Wahab said he had been sleeping in the streets with his family after a NATO airstrike hit a building next to his house, making him fear his home could also be struck.
“People inside are scared about their houses. People want to protect their houses,” he said, adding that some locals may fight because they have heard the NTC wants to kill them.
“IS THIS HOW WE'RE SUPPOSED TO DIE?”
Some residents said they had paid up to $800 for the fuel to leave the city because it was in short supply. Others said pasta and flour were now changing hands for large sums of money.
Doctors at a field hospital near the eastern front line said an elderly woman died from malnutrition on Friday morning and they had seen other cases.
A man with a shrapnel wound to his left arm said the hospital in Sirte had no power and few supplies. A doctor had tried to patch up his wound by the light of a mobile phone.
“I was injured in my garden at 1 p.m. but I stayed home until the evening because of the heavy fire,” Mohammed Abudullah said at a field hospital outside the city.
Gaddafi loyalists and some civilians were blaming NATO air strikes and shelling by the forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) for killing civilians.
NATO and the NTC deny that. They and some other civilians coming out of the town say pro-Gaddafi fighters are executing people they believe to be NTC sympathizers.
“It is not the Gaddafi people and not you people,” one elderly man shouted, gesturing toward NTC fighters at a checkpoint as he left the city.
“It's the French planes that are hitting us night and day. They knocked the roof off our house. Is this how we're supposed to die?”
Ahmad Mohammed Yahya told Reuters street fighting was erupting in the town most nights and that pro-Gaddafi fighters were aggressively recruiting local people.
“Sometimes they offer to give you a weapon,” he said. “And sometimes they take people and force them to fight.”
The NTC is under pressure to strike a balance between a prolonged fight that would delay its efforts to govern and a quick victory which, if too bloody, could worsen regional divisions and embarrass the fledgling government and its foreign backers.
HUMANITARIAN DISASTER
Aid agencies said this week a humanitarian disaster loomed in Sirte amid rising casualties and shrinking supplies of water, electricity and food.
Libya's interim government has asked the United Nations for fuel for ambulances to evacuate its wounded fighters from Sirte, a U.N. source in Libya said on Thursday.
The U.N. is sending trucks of drinking water for the civilians crammed into vehicles on the road from Sirte, heading either toward Benghazi to the east or Misrata to the west, he added.
But fighting around the city and continuing insecurity around Bani Walid, the other loyalist hold-out, are preventing the world body from deploying aid workers inside, he said.
“There are two places we'd really like access to, Sirte and Bani Walid, because of concern on the impact of conflict on the civilian population,” the U.N. source in Tripoli, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity, told Reuters in Geneva.
The NTC says efforts to form a new interim government have been suspended until after the capture of Sirte and Bani Walid.
There has been speculation that divisions are preventing the formation of a more inclusive interim government.
More than a month after NTC fighters captured Tripoli, Gaddafi remains on the run, trying to rally resistance to those who ended his 42-year rule.
The military chief of Libya's new interim government attended a meeting on Friday between Tuareg tribesmen and local Arabs in the southwestern town of Ghadames aimed at patching up differences that have recently spilled over into violence.
The Saharan trading town close to the Algerian border drew international attention this week when an NTC official said Gaddafi was believed to be hiding nearby.
(Additional reporting by Mahdi Talat in Sirte, William MacLean in Tripoli, Ali Shuaib in Ghademes and Emad Omar in Benghazi; Writing by Barry Malone; Editing by Sophie Hares)
Guinean security forces break up an opposition demonstration
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At least three protesters were killed in the Guinean capital, Conakry, when security forces broke up an opposition demonstration.
Police used tear gas and batons against the stone-throwing protesters.
Dozens of police vehicles and paramilitary forces prevented opposition activists from reaching a stadium.
The clash took place in the run-up to parliamentary elections, due to be held in December.
Guineans voted in presidential elections last November, two years after the military seized power.
Parliamentary polls should have been held within six months but have now been fixed for 29 December by the authorities and the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).
Opposition leaders say they fear the elections will be a sham.
Leading opposition figure Cellou Dalein Diallo, who narrowly lost in last year's poll, has accused President Alpha Conde of installing a close ally as CENI head and of trying to tamper with voter rolls.
‘Panic’
A meeting on Monday between Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana and opposition leaders brought no resolution and opposition leaders said they had decided to go ahead with the march despite a ban.
This was to have been the first major demonstration since last year's election and many shops and petrol stations were closed for fear that violence could break out, said reports.
Police and paramilitary force vehicles blocked access to the September 28 stadium, where the rally was to be held, and other parts of the capital.
“There were youths on the hilltops throwing rocks. The security forces fired back with tear gas, which triggered general panic,” Souleymane Bah, a resident of the Conakry suburb of Bambeto, told Reuters news agency.
The crackdown on the protest was “regrettable”, opposition figure Sidya Toure told AFP.
The incident took place on the eve of the second anniversary of a massacre in the stadium when soldiers loyal to the government shot dead more than 150 unarmed protesters.
The former colonial power France has called for “calm and restraint”, AFP reported.
The Namibian delegation attended a service in Berlin
Namibian tribal leaders have visited Berlin to collect the skulls of 20 compatriots who died under Germany's colonial rule in the early 1900s.
German scientists took the heads to perform experiments seeking to prove the racial superiority of white Europeans over black Africans.
The skulls were uncovered three years ago in medical archive exhibits.
A ceremony was held in the German capital to return the remains as a gesture of reconciliation.
But chaotic scenes accompanied the speeches, particularly an address by German Deputy Foreign Minister Cornelia Pieper.
A handful of demonstrators shouted “reparations”, “apology” and “genocide”.
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Analysis
Richard Hamilton BBC News
In the 1880s, Germany acquired present-day Namibia, calling it German South-West Africa. In 1904 the Herero, the largest of about 200 ethnic groups, rose up against colonial rule killing more than a 120 civilians.
The German response was ruthless. Gen Lothar von Trotha signed a notorious extermination order against the Herero, defeated them in battle and drove them into the desert, where most died of thirst. Of an estimated 65,000 Herero, only 15,000 survived. It is thought about 10,000 Nama people also died.
In 1985, a UN report classified the events as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South-West Africa, and therefore the earliest attempted genocide in the 20th Century. In 2004, Germany's ambassador to Namibia expressed regret for what happened.
Germany has consistently refused to pay reparations to its former colony, arguing that it has given much development aid to Namibia. But Namibians at the ceremony said the aid had not reached them.
Earlier, Ueriuka Festus Tjikuua, a member of the Namibian delegation, told reporters: “We have come first and foremost to receive the mortal human remains of our forefathers and mothers and to return them to the land of their ancestors.”
The skulls belong to 20 people who died after an uprising against their German colonial rulers more than 100 years ago.
They were among hundreds who starved to death after being rounded up in camps.
Some of the dead had their heads removed and of these, about 300 were taken to Germany, arriving between 1909 and 1914.
The skulls gathered dust in German archives until three years ago when a German reporter uncovered them at the Medical History Museum of the Charite hospital in Berlin, and at Freiburg University in the south-west.
German researchers believe the skulls belong to 11 people from the Nama ethnic group and nine from the Herero.
They were four women, 15 men and a boy.
‘Nazi forerunner’
Mr Tjikuua said the mission intended to “extend a hand of friendship” to Germans.
Namibians, he said, wished to encourage a dialogue “with the full participation and involvement of the representatives of the descendants of those that suffered heavily under dreadful and atrocious German colonial rule”.
The conflict dates back nearly a century
Charite spokeswoman Claudia Peter said the purported research on the skulls performed by German scientists had been rooted in perverse racial theories that later planted the seeds for the Nazis' genocidal ideology.
“They thought that they could prove that certain peoples were worth less than they were,” she told AFP news agency.
“What these anthropologists did to these people was wrong and their descendants are still suffering for it.”
An armed rebellion in 2002 split the nation in two. Since then, peace deals have alternated with renewed violence as the country has slowly edged its way towards a political resolution of the conflict.
For more than three decades after independence under the leadership of its first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Ivory Coast was conspicuous for its religious and ethnic harmony and its well-developed economy.
All this ended when the late Robert Guei led a coup which toppled Felix Houphouet-Boigny's successor, Henri Bedie, in 1999.
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Mr Bedie fled, but not before planting the seeds of ethnic discord by trying to stir up xenophobia against Muslim northerners, including his main rival, Alassane Ouattara.
This theme was also adopted by Mr Guei, who had Alassane Ouattara banned from the presidential election in 2000 because of his foreign parentage, and by the only serious contender allowed to run against Mr Guei, Laurent Gbagbo.
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At a glance
Politics: Civil war in 2002 split country between rebel-held north and government-controlled south; 2007 power-sharing deal brought peace; 2010 presidential poll led to stalemate
Economy: Ivory Coast is world's leading cocoa producer; UN sanctions imposed in 2004 include an arms embargo and a ban on diamond exports
When Mr Gbagbo replaced Robert Guei after he was deposed in a popular uprising in 2000, violence replaced xenophobia. Scores of Mr Ouattara's supporters were killed after their leader called for new elections.
In September 2002 a troop mutiny escalated into a full-scale rebellion, voicing the ongoing discontent of northern Muslims who felt they were being discriminated against in Ivorian politics. Thousands were killed in the conflict.
Although most of the fighting ended in 2004, Ivory Coast remained tense and divided. French and UN peacekeepers patrolled the buffer zone which separated the north, held by rebels known as the New Forces, and the government-controlled south.
After repeated delays, elections aimed at ending the conflict were finally held in October 2010. But the vote ushered in more unrest when the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to concede victory to the internationally recognised winner, Alassane Ouattara.
The ensuing four-month stand-off was only ended when Mr Ouattara's forces overran the south of the country, finally capturing Mr Gbagbo and declaring him deposed.
U.S. Army Africa commander meets South African military leaders
By Rick Scavetta, U.S. Army Africa
VICENZA, Italy – Shortly after Maj. Gen. William B. Garrett III’s aircraft touched down at Johannesburg’s Tambo International Airport, he was shaking hands with Brig. Gen. Chris Gildenhuys, commanding general of the South African Army Armour Formation. The two officers last met in Monterey, Calif., during a July 2009 bi-lateral conference sponsored by the U.S. military.
In a sign of U.S. Army Africa’s growing relationship with South Africa, it was now South Africa’s turn to host the commander of U.S. Army Africa.
“Organizations don’t collaborate, people do,” Garrett said. “This visit is an invaluable opportunity to strengthen the relationship between our Army and the South African Army.”
On March 7th, Garrett flew to South Africa for a weeklong tour, marking his first visit to that country. In the days to follow, Gildenhuys escorted Garrett to meet South Africa’s senior army leaders and tour South Africa’s key military installations near Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Cape Town.
In Pretoria, Garrett stopped at the U.S. Embassy to meet with U.S. Ambassador Donald H. Gips and the Deputy Chief of Mission, Ambassador Helen La Lime. Then, at South Africa’s army headquarters, Garrett spoke with Lt. Gen. Solly Zacharia Shoke, chief of the South Africa’s army, about transformation efforts underway in South Africa’s army. Garrett shared recent accomplishments of U.S. Army Africa soldiers and civilians, who work with the land forces of many African nations to strengthen mutual security capacity and capabilities.
At South Africa’s Joint Operations Headquarters, Garrett met with Rear Admiral Phillip Schoultz, Director General for Joint Operations and Acting Chief for Joint Operations who discussed his nation’s peacekeeping efforts. Afterward, Garrett met with officers at the South African Army College. While visiting the 43rd South African Brigade headquarters, Garrett met with Brig. Gen. Lawrence Smith and observed preparation for training under the U.S. State Department-led African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance program. Then, Garrett stopped at South Africa’s army engineer formation headquarters for a series of information briefings.
“We have a lot to learn from the South African Army,” Garrett said. “We will use that knowledge to update the U.S. Army’s training and doctrine while enhancing interoperability between our forces.”
The next day, Garrett flew from Waterkloof Air Force Base on Pretoria’s outskirts to Bloemspruit Air Force Base near Bloemfontein. He toured South Africa’s armor school and visited the 44th Parachute Regiment. From Bloemfontein, Garrett flew to Ysterplaat Air Force Based near Cape Town to learn more about South Africa’s reserve forces at Fort Ikapa , followed by a visit to South Africa’s joint tactical headquarters at Western Cape.
U.S. Army Africa has already seen how senior leader engagements can quickly develop into beneficial training opportunities.
In March 2009, Command Sgt. Maj. Earl Rice – then U.S. Army Africa’s senior enlisted leader – visited South Africa’s Special Forces headquarters, a visit conducted with representatives from the U.S. Army Ranger Training Brigade. Within a few weeks, U.S. soldiers got a taste of hardcore South African special forces training. Three Army NCOs underwent a grueling three-week survival course in the South African bush, learning valuable lessons on adapting to the harsh environment, maintaining endurance and overcoming nearly insurmountable challenges—tools they carried back to their units.
Meanwhile, U.S. Army Africa is increasing its capacity building efforts in Africa through a continuing series of senior leader engagements, part of the command’s strategy to expand cooperative relationships and develop enduring partnerships across the continent. Senior leader engagements are a traditional tool used by Army leaders to enhance capacity building efforts.
Leaders use these engagements to gain better regional understanding and insights while encouraging follow-on initiatives such as military-to-military familiarization events and combined exercises and training opportunities.
In July 2009, Garrett was among several U.S. Department of Defense leaders who sat down with South African Ministry of Defense officers during the 11th annual U.S.-RSA Defense Committee meeting in Monterey. While at the bi-lateral conference, military leaders discussed policy, familiarization events, military support to combating HIV/AIDS, plus education and training opportunities for military members.
Several military-to-military familiarization events in 2010 are already being planned, in coordination with U.S. military officers at the U.S. Embassy in South Africa. These events include officer and NCO professional development activities, a leader exchange program, and various engagement activities including military medicine, military police, facilities management and helicopter operations.
The New York National Guard leads cooperative military efforts with South Africa under the State Partnership Program. Upcoming SPP engagements include events involving senior enlisted leaders, military police and chaplains.
“This visit will strengthen the relationship with our South African colleagues,” Garrett said. “Our task now is to expand this relationship into an enduring partnership between the U.S. Army and the South African Army.”
PHOTOS by Capt. Thomas Laney, U.S. Army Africa
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
SIRTE (Reuters) – Civilians fled Sirte on Friday as interim government forces pounded the coastal city in an effort to dislodge fighters loyal to ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The prolonged battle for Gaddafi's hometown, besieged from three fronts, has raised mounting concern for civilians trapped inside the city of about 100,000 people, with each side accusing the other of endangering them.
Cars streamed out of Sirte from the early hours. Shelling and tank fire continued from both sides on the eastern and western fronts, black smoke rose from the center of town and NATO planes flew overhead.
“There are no shops for food, everything is closed,” a resident who gave his name only as Mohammed told Reuters on Friday. “There is no medicine, we have a shortage of everything.”
Doctors at a field hospital near the eastern front line said an elderly woman died from malnutrition on Friday morning and they had seen other cases.
Some families leaving from the west told Reuters they had not eaten for two days.
A man with a shrapnel wound to his left arm said the hospital in Sirte had no power and few supplies. A doctor had tried to patch up his wound by the light of a mobile phone.
“I was injured in my garden at one p.m. but I stayed home until the evening because of the heavy fire,” Mohammed Abudullah said at a field hospital outside the city.
Gaddafi loyalists and some civilians blaming NATO air strikes and shelling by the forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) for killing civilians.
NATO and the NTC deny that. They and some other civilians coming out of the town say pro-Gaddafi fighters are executing people they believe to be NTC sympathizers.
“It is not the Gaddafi people and not you people,” one elderly man shouted, gesturing toward NTC fighters at a checkpoint as he left the city.
“It's the French planes that are hitting us night and day. They knocked the roof off our house. Is this how we're supposed to die?”
Ahmad Mohammed Yahya told Reuters street fighting was erupting in the town most nights and that pro-Gaddafi fighters were aggressively recruiting local people.
“Sometimes they offer to give you a weapon,” he said. “And sometimes they take people and force them to fight.”
HUMANITARIAN DISASTER
The NTC is under pressure to strike a balance between a prolonged fight that would delay its efforts to govern and a quick victory which, if too bloody, could worsen regional divisions and embarrass the fledgling government and its foreign backers.
Aid agencies said this week that a humanitarian disaster loomed in Sirte amid rising casualties and shrinking supplies of water, electricity and food.
Libya's interim government has asked the United Nations for fuel for ambulances to evacuate its wounded fighters from Sirte, a U.N. source in Libya said on Thursday.
The U.N. is sending trucks of drinking water for the civilians crammed into vehicles on the road from Sirte, heading either toward Benghazi to the east or Misrata to the west, he added.
But fighting around the city and continuing insecurity around Bani Walid, the other loyalist hold-out, are preventing the world body from deploying aid workers inside, he said.
“There are two places we'd really like access to, Sirte and Bani Walid, because of concern on the impact of conflict on the civilian population,” the U.N. source in Tripoli, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity, told Reuters in Geneva.
The NTC says efforts to form a new interim government have been suspended until after the capture of Sirte and Bani Walid.
“There are no negotiations at the moment to form a transitional government after the NTC decided to keep the current formation to facilitate the (country's) affairs until the land is liberated,” Libya's de facto Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said in Tripoli on Thursday
“There are two fronts, Sirte and Bani Walid. I hope those two areas would be liberated soon so that we can start forming a new interim government,” he said, ruling out any role for himself in a future government.
There has been speculation that divisions are preventing the formation of a more inclusive interim government.
More than a month after NTC fighters captured Tripoli, Gaddafi remains on the run, trying to rally resistance to those who ended his 42-year rule.
(Additional reporting by William MacLean in Tripoli and Emad Omar in Benghazi; Writing by Barry Malone; editing by Andrew Roche)
Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
Years of fighting between rival warlords and an inability to deal with famine and disease have led to the deaths of up to one million people.
Comprised of a former British protectorate and an Italian colony, Somalia was created in 1960 when the two territories merged. Since then its development has been slow. Relations with neighbours have been soured by its territorial claims on Somali-inhabited areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
In 1970 Mr Barre proclaimed a socialist state, paving the way for close relations with the USSR. In 1977, with the help of Soviet arms, Somalia attempted to seize the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, but was defeated thanks to Soviet and Cuban backing for Ethiopia, which had turned Marxist.
In 1991 President Barre was overthrown by opposing clans. But they failed to agree on a replacement and plunged the country into lawlessness and clan warfare.
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At a glance
Scene of Africa's worst humanitarian crisis: aid agencies warn that millions face starvation
No effective government since 1991
Islamist militia and UN-backed transitional government compete for control of country
The self-proclaimed state of Somaliland and the region of Puntland run their own affairs
In 2000 clan elders and other senior figures appointed Abdulkassim Salat Hassan president at a conference in Djibouti. A transitional government was set up, with the aim of reconciling warring militias.
But as its mandate drew to a close, the administration had made little progress in uniting the country.
In 2004, after protracted talks in Kenya, the main warlords and politicians signed a deal to set up a new parliament, which later appointed a president.
The fledgling administration, the 14th attempt to establish a government since 1991, has faced a formidable task in bringing reconciliation to a country divided into clan fiefdoms.
Islamist insurgency
Its authority was further compromised in 2006 by the rise of Islamists who gained control of much of the south, including the capital, after their militias kicked out the warlords who had ruled the roost for 15 years.
With the backing of Ethiopian troops, forces loyal to the interim administration seized control from the Islamists at the end of 2006.
Islamist insurgents – including the Al-Shabab group, which later declared allegiance to al-Qaeda – fought back against the government and Ethiopian forces, regaining control of most of southern Somalia by late 2008.
Ethiopia pulled its troops out in January 2009. Soon after, Al-Shabab fighters took control of Baidoa, formerly a key stronghold of the transitional government.
Life continues amid the ruins of Mogadishu
Somalia's parliament met in neighbouring Djibouti in late January and swore in 149 new members from the main opposition movement, the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.
The parliament also extended the mandate of the transitional federal government for another two years, and installed moderate Islamist Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad as the new president.
However, the government's military position weakened further, and in May 2009 Islamist insurgents launched an attack on Mogadishu, prompting President Ahmad to appeal for help from abroad.
Al-Shabab appears to have consolidated its position as the most powerful insurgent group by driving its main rival, Hizbul Islam, out of the southern port city of Kismayo in October 2009. Since then they have openly declared their alliance with al-Qaeda and have been steadily moving forces up towards Mogadishu.
Piracy
The long-standing absence of authority in the country has led to Somali pirates becoming a major threat to international shipping in the area, and has prompted Nato to take the lead in an anti-piracy operation.
In 2011, the plight of the Somali people was exacerbated by the worst drought in six decades, which left millions of people on the verge of starvation and caused tens of thousands to flee to Kenya and Ethiopia in search of food.
After the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991, the north-west part of Somalia unilaterally declared itself the independent Republic of Somaliland. The territory, whose independence is not recognised by international bodies, has enjoyed relative stability.
All four ex-ministers were accused of calling for the massacre of Tutsis in meetings and speeches
Wangari Maathai receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo – the first black African woman to do so
Dr Maathai highlighted the damage that illegal logging was doing to forests and livelihoods
Tourists flock to Lake Nakuru's flamingos – an example of environmental protection bringing revenue
Guinean security forces break up an opposition demonstration
The Namibian delegation attended a service in Berlin
The conflict dates back nearly a century
Life continues amid the ruins of Mogadishu