Nelson Mandela refers to Col Gaddafi as Brother Leader

He was arrested and Nigeria handed him over to the court. He is now on trial at The Hague.

So where in Africa could Col Gaddafi find shelter?

Several members of his family have taken asylum in Algeria, while a convoy – said to include pro-Gaddafi officials – has crossed into Niger.

The NTC spokesman in London, Guma el-Gamaty, has warned Niger not to grant Col Gaddafi refugee status.

“Niger is a neighbour of Libya from the south and should be considering the future relationship with Libya,” Mr Gamaty said. “This – if confirmed – will very much antagonise any future relationship between Libya and Niger.”

Col Gaddafi has strong support among Niger's Tuareg ethnic group.

He backed their two-decade long rebellion for more political and economic rights, before brokering a peace deal between them and Niger's government in 2009.

Several thousand rebels – including their leader Rissa ag Boula – then went to Libya, either to work or to join Col Gaddafi's army.

Risk for Africa

They were among the mercenaries who fought for Col Gaddafi as he tried to repel the Nato-backed campaign to overthrow him.

Mr Boula has now returned to Niger, causing a crisis for the government.

The former rebels could either push the government to grant Col Gaddafi asylum or they could harbour him in their desert strongholds along the Libyan border – that is, if Col Gaddafi does not live up to his promise to fight to death in Libya in the hope of being lionised by future generations of Africans as a revolutionary who fought, as Mr Museveni put it, ” puppets of foreign interests”.

But the Libyan rebels were not only backed by Western powers: Arab countries – especially Qatar – played a key role in the campaign to oust Col Gaddafi.

Against this backdrop, the new Libya could build strong ties with the Arab world, shunning Africa.

This would be disastrous for Africa – not only was Col Gaddafi's Libya a key African financier, it also gave employment to hundreds of thousands of African migrants in the oil and other industries.

Denounced by the Libyan rebels as sympathisers of Col Gaddafi, they have been forced to flee, carrying the psychological scars of the conflict and battling to rebuild their lives in their home countries.

Source

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – A senior U.S. envoy, visiting Tripoli on Wednesday to show support for Libya's new leaders, said they were getting the country's many armed groups under control and would not end up dominated by Islamist factions.

Jeffrey Feltman, an assistant secretary of state who runs policy for the Middle East and North Africa, also said Washington was committed to continuing military operations with NATO as long as they were needed to protect Libyan civilians.

NATO has said it will keep bombing any Gaddafi loyalists who threaten civilians, but says it is not taking an active role in hunting ousted strongman Muammar Gaddafi, who, his spokesman said, was still in Libya organizing his forces to hit back.

In a statement following talks with the head of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil, Feltman said: “We remain encouraged by growing command and control over security and police forces.

“We understand that this is a difficult task. Libya's interim leadership is solidifying the steps and integrating militias under one civilian authority.”

Asked later about the strength of Islamist groups in the rebel coalition which overthrew Muammar Gaddafi last month, he said: “We are not concerned that one group will be able to dominate the aftermath of what has been a shared struggle.”

He also said he expected the new rulers in Tripoli to “share concerns about terrorism” with Washington. Some senior Islamists among the rebel forces have in the past been allied with enemies of the United States, though they have since welcomed cooperation with the Western military alliance.

In his statement, Feltman also said: “The United States and our international partners have an enduring commitment to supporting the Libyan people as they chart their country's future. This includes working with NATO and our coalition partners to continue operations to protect Libyan civilians until they are no longer under threat.”

GADDAFI HOLDING OUT

Feltman's visit to Tripoli, two days after the arrival of Abdel Jalil himself and only three weeks after Gaddafi was put to flight, was a very visible statement of support. He said Washington aimed to reopen a full embassy as soon as possible.

Diplomats from other Western powers who backed February's uprising have visited the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, as well as Tripoli itself in recent days, but Feltman's is the most high profile official visit from abroad.

Compared to other parts of the country, Tripoli has been relatively stable since forces of the NTC overran it on August 23. But NTC fighters backed by NATO are still trying to capture at least three towns held by Gaddafi loyalists.

Gaddafi himself has not been seen in public since June. His fugitive spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, speaking on a satellite phone, told Reuters the 69-year-old leader was still in Libya, in good spirits and gathering his forces for a fightback.

“The leader is in good health, in high morale … of course he is in Libya,” said Ibrahim, who declined to give his own location. “The fight is as far away from the end as the world can imagine. We are still very powerful, our army is still powerful, we have thousands upon thousands of volunteers.”

While his opponents would scoff at the idea of a successful Gaddafi comeback, they have been concerned at the difficulties they have had in taking the final bastions of his support.

BANI WALID

Interim government forces are besieging one of those last bastions, Bani Walid, 180 km (110 miles) south of Tripoli, along with Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and Sabha, deep in the southern desert.

After a week of fighting NTC forces at Bani Walid have been urging people to leave before they try to storm the town. Scores of cars packed with families left Bani Walid on Wednesday as NTC forces broadcast messages telling them to go and handed out free petrol to help them evacuate.

“There is a lot of random shooting. It is much safer for my children to leave. Gaddafi militia men do not want to negotiate,” Fathalla al-Hammali, 42, said, driving away from the town with his three young children.

Gaddafi's whereabouts are unknown. NTC officials have said he could be hiding in one of the outposts like Bani Walid, helping to rally a last stand against NATO-backed forces.

NTC field commanders said people in Bani Walid had been told in radio messages on Tuesday they had two days to leave town, though it was unclear when any deadline might finally expire.

“I think only 10 percent of the people are Gaddafi supporters. They are fanatics. And the rest are waiting to be liberated. We have given them two more days to leave the city,” NTC fighter Abumuslim Abdu said.

NIGER REFUGE

NTC leaders say that, along with taking pro-Gaddafi enclaves, capturing or killing the fugitive leader is a priority and only then can Libya be declared “liberated.”

The U.S. State Department said one of his sons, Saadi Gaddafi, who arrived in neighbouring Niger on Sunday across the Sahara desert, was being held under house arrest there.

A Niger government source said on Tuesday that Saadi had been transferred from the northern desert town of Agadez to the capital Niamey late on Tuesday: “He is in a secure place. Like the others he is here on humanitarian grounds. He is not being sought after. He is under surveillance, not imprisoned.”

However, the source added that he was not free to move: “You do not have freedom of movement when you are under surveillance,” he said.

Gaddafi and his fugitive son Saif al-Islam are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), though NTC officials have said Libyans would like to try them first.

(Reporting by Maria Golovnina near Bani Walid, Libya, Alexander Dziadosz and Joseph Logan in Tripoli, Sherine El Madany in Ras Lanuf, Emma Farge in Benghazi, Mark John and Bate Felix in Niamey and Barry Malone and Sylvia Westall in Tunis; Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source

Civil wars and militia conflicts have plagued the Republic of Congo, which is sometimes referred to as Congo-Brazzaville.

After three coup-ridden but relatively peaceful decades of independence, the former French colony experienced the first of two destructive bouts of fighting when disputed parliamentary elections in 1993 led to bloody, ethnically-based fighting between pro-government forces and the opposition.

A ceasefire and the inclusion of some opposition members in the government helped to restore peace.

Civil war

But in 1997 ethnic and political tensions exploded into a full-scale civil war, fuelled in part by the prize of the country's offshore oil wealth, which motivated many of the warlords.

The army split along ethnic lines, with most northern officers joining President Denis Sassou Nguesso's side, and most southerners backing the rebels. These were supporters of the former president, Pascal Lissouba, and his prime minister, Bernard Kolelas, who had been deposed by President Sassou Nguesso in 1997.

By the end of 1999 the rebels had lost all their key positions to the government forces, who were backed by Angolan troops. The rebels then agreed to a ceasefire.

Remnants of the civil war militias, known as Ninjas, are still active in the southern Pool region. Most of them have yet to disarm and many have turned to banditry.

Oil and diamonds

The Republic of Congo is one of sub-Saharan Africa's main oil producers, though 70 percent of the population lives in poverty. Oil is the mainstay of the economy and in recent years the country has tried to increase financial transparency in the sector.

In 2004 the country was expelled from the Kimberley Process that is supposed to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the world supply market. This followed investigations which found that the Republic of Congo could not account for the origin of large quantities of rough diamonds that it was officially exporting.

IMF debt relief to the country was delayed in 2006 following allegations of corruption.

Source

TRIPOLI, Libya – Airlines are readying their return to Libya, ports largely shuttered during the fighting are receiving cargos and foreign oil companies that had fled the country’s civil war are making tentative steps back.

And waiting eagerly on the doorstep are businessmen looking to get in on what they believe could be a bonanza for investment — an oil-rich nation with large tourism and construction potential that went largely untapped under an eccentric and often closed 42-year-long regime. Slowly, Libya is reopening its doors after seven months of fighting, even as former rebels still hunt for ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

“Definitely, Libya is an El Dorado,” said Husni Bey, one of Libya’s biggest entrepreneurs. “It has great resources that really allow it to turn around in no time.”

The optimism is tempered by the challenges the country faces in overcoming decades of underdevelopment and corruption that helped fuel the uprising against Gadhafi.

In the immediate term, the nascent government has to jump-start the economy even as it tries to establish its authority in a country that remains unstable.

Libya’s economy largely ground to a halt when the brutal regime crackdown on a popular uprising was met by international sanctions and opened up a civil war. An embargo by air, land and sea — exempting humanitarian supplies and food — froze most trade. Inventories ran low. Hundreds of thousands of foreign workers fled, abandoning construction sites, bakeries and oil fields.

For the Libyan public, improvement is coming gradually. Food and fuel prices are dropping nearer to prewar levels and waits at gas stations now last hours instead of days.

Links to the outside world are reopening, though NATO is still only granting case-by-case exceptions to its air embargo.

Royal Jordanian resumes daily flights to Benghazi on Thursday, with an aim for flights to the capital Tripoli later this month. Turkish Airlines plans to start before the end of the month. Already, Libya’s national carrier offers three daily flights between Tripoli and Benghazi, the country’s second largest city.

Hadi Elayeb, whose Horizons Travel Agency made bookings for 17 airlines before the war, said most intend to come back, including Air Malta, which contacted him and said they hope to resume flights soon. He hasn’t booked a flight since March 1, but hopes to be back in business by October.

Beyond that, Elayeb — like many — dreams of a boom.

“It’s going to be fantastic,” he said. “Libya, in good hands, will be even better than Hong Kong.”

The reasons many see a gold mine are clear. With a small population of only 6 million, Libya raked in $40 billion last year from oil and gas exports. Long-term possibilities are many, including tourism in a country that boasts pristine Roman ruins and hundreds of miles of undeveloped beaches just across the Mediterranean from Europe.

Gadhafi opened up the country somewhat in the 2000s, but the arcane political system, unpredictable business and visa rules and other restrictions kept much business away.

“Now Libya is a very easy place to work. There’s lots of money and it has huge investment needs,” said Ahmed Maiteeg, who owns three hotels and was involved in a major construction project.

He said he’s already been contacted by about a dozen European companies about partnerships.

Local business leaders are making plans. Bey wants to build a 36,000 square meter (387,500 square foot) mall, and Maiteeg envisages a 35 million euro ($49 million), 50-bed, heart hospital employing Libyan doctors currently working in the U.S.

That earlier Gadhafi opening, however, provides a lesson in investment gone wrong.

Foreign firms — particularly international oil majors — streamed into Libya after decade-old sanctions against Gadhafi were lifted in 2003.

Luxury hotels arose, shopping malls and hypermarkets opened. New German and Japanese cars sped along paved highways and trendy coffee shops brewed espressos and blended coffee drinks. Oil exports filled coffers, with Libya’s foreign reserves climbing past $100 billion and the country enjoying no real foreign debt.

But the prosperity was a veneer enjoyed by those closest to Gadhafi. Private sector growth was stunted and industry remained firmly in the hands of Gadhafi, his immediate family and his supporters.

The wider population saw little benefit, facing shortages of affordable housing, substandard education and little opportunity in the private sector — all problems that still exist.

With Gadhafi gone, oil companies are putting tentative feet forward. Foreign firms were the backbone of Libya’s pre-war production of about 1.6 million barrels a day. Experts say it could take about a year or more to get back to that level.

Output has begun at one of the eastern fields, the acting prime minister said this week.

At the offices of Mellitah Oil & Gas, a partnership between state-run National Oil Corp. and Italy’s Eni North Africa, human resources manager Ramadan Gushti is contacting more than 240 foreign employees to return. Many of its 4,000 Libyan workers are already back on the job, and Gushti expects production to resume in a month.

The company produced more than a third of Libya’s oil output and delivered natural gas directly to Italy via pipeline.

Traffic is resuming at Tripoli’s port, where under the wartime embargo only shipments of food, medicine and humanitarian supplies were allowed. The Overseas Shipping Co. said it expects two container ships from Malta this week, carrying spare parts for cars, furniture and personal effects.

To lure back investors, the National Transitional Council — Libya’s new, Western-backed government — promised to honor international contracts.

But it is leaving the drafting of a new economic policy largely to the next, elected government, said Wafik al-Shater, an economic adviser to the NTC.

For now, “it’s a priority for the government to kickstart the economy as soon as possible so people can get back to work,” he said.

Shopping in the open-air market next to Tripoli’s central square, history teacher Zahrah Dabbah said she’s now paying 3.5 dinars for a kilogram of chicken — about $1.13 a pound — half the wartime price.

A few of the gold traders in Tripoli’s historic market have opened their shop doors. But they are keeping their wares locked up and the display cases empty, leery of weapons that flooded the streets since the uprising began.

With expectations that Gadhafi-era nepotism is over, some Libyan business leaders are calling for review of contracts signed under the old regime.

But that could backfire, warned Said Hirsh, the London-based Mideast economist with Capital Economics.

“Whatever happened during Gadhafi’s time, corruption and bribery, the foreign investors should not be penalized,” he said. “Otherwise, that will probably send the wrong signal.”

Source

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

Revamp for Kenya's railways

Situated on the equator on Africa's east coast, Kenya has been described as “the cradle of humanity”.

In the Great Rift Valley palaeontologists have discovered some of the earliest evidence of man's ancestors.

In the present day, Kenya's ethnic diversity has produced a vibrant culture but is also a source of conflict.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

After independence from Britain in 1963, politics was dominated by the charismatic Jomo Kenyatta. He was succeeded in 1978 by Daniel arap Moi, who remained in power for 24 years. The ruling Kenya African National Union, Kanu, was the only legal political party for much of the 1980s.

Violent unrest – and international pressure – led to the restoration of multi-party politics in the early 1990s. But it was to be another decade before opposition candidate Mwai Kibaki ended nearly 40 years of Kanu rule with his landslide victory in 2002's general election.

Continue reading the main story

At a glance

Politics: Presidential elections in 2007 led to widespread unrest, denting the country's reputation for stability. A power-sharing government was eventually formed. A referendum on a new constitution in August 2010 produced a resounding “yes” vote

Economy: The economy has been recovering over recent years

International: Kenya has mediated in conflicts in Somalia and Sudan

Despite President Kibaki's pledge to tackle corruption, some donors estimated that up to $1bn had been lost to graft between 2002 and 2005.

Other pressing challenges include high unemployment, crime and poverty; most Kenyans live below the poverty level of $1 a day. Droughts frequently put millions of people at risk.

Kenya has been a leading light in the Somali and Sudanese peace processes.

With its scenic beauty and abundant wildlife, Kenya is one of Africa's major safari destinations.

The lucrative tourist industry has bounced back following the slump that followed bomb attacks in Nairobi in 1998 and Mombasa in 2002. And in 2006 tourism was the country's best hard currency earner, ahead of horticulture and tea.

Source

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

Life in Congo's rainforest

Haunted by Congo rape dilemma

A vast country with immense economic resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) has been at the centre of what could be termed Africa's world war. This has left it in the grip of a humanitarian crisis. The five-year conflict pitted government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.

Despite a peace deal and the formation of a transitional government in 2003, people in the east of the country remain in terror of marauding militia and the army.

The war claimed an estimated three million lives, either as a direct result of fighting or because of disease and malnutrition. It has been called possibly the worst emergency to unfold in Africa in recent decades.

The war had an economic as well as a political side. Fighting was fuelled by the country's vast mineral wealth, with all sides taking advantage of the anarchy to plunder natural resources.

Continue reading the main story

At a glance

DR Congo is struggling to recover from Africa's ''world war'' in which millions died between 1998 and 2003

Former rebels joined a power-sharing government

Eastern regions are still plagued by army and militia violence

DR Congo hosts the UN's largest peacekeeping mission

The history of DR Congo has been one of civil war and corruption. After independence in 1960, the country immediately faced an army mutiny and an attempt at secession by its mineral-rich province of Katanga.

A year later, its prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, was seized and killed by troops loyal to army chief Joseph Mobutu.

In 1965 Mobutu seized power, later renaming the country Zaire and himself Mobutu Sese Seko. He turned Zaire into a springboard for operations against Soviet-backed Angola and thereby ensured US backing. But he also made Zaire synonymous with corruption.

After the Cold War, Zaire ceased to be of interest to the US. Thus, when in 1997 neighbouring Rwanda invaded it to flush out extremist Hutu militias, it gave a boost to the anti-Mobutu rebels, who quickly captured the capital, Kinshasa, installed Laurent Kabila as president and renamed the country DR Congo.

Nonetheless, DR Congo's troubles continued. A rift between Mr Kabila and his former allies sparked a new rebellion, backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe took Kabila's side, turning the country into a vast battleground.

Continue reading the main story

DR Congo's conflicts

Enyele rebels in Equateur: Decades-old conflict over fishing rights has evolved into ethnic tussle for economic and political power in north-west. Some 200,000 refugees have fled violence since 2009

Ugandan rebels in north-east: Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels remain active here and in neighbouring countries, raping and killing

Rwandan rebels in the Kivus: Hutu and Tutsi rebel militia operate in North and South Kivu

Ituri rebels near oil finds: North-eastern province has quietened down after heavy fighting, encouraging oil firms to tap reserves in Lake Albert on Ugandan border. But several militia persist in area

Coup attempts and sporadic violence heralded renewed fighting in the eastern part of the country in 2008. Rwandan Hutu militias clashed with government forces in April, displacing thousands of civilians.

Another militia under rebel General Laurent Nkunda had signed a peace deal with the government in January, but clashes broke out again in August. Gen Nkunda's forces advanced on government bases and the provincial capital Goma in the autumn, causing civilians and troops to flee while UN peacekeepers tried to hold the line alongside the remaining government forces.

In an attempt to bring the situation under control, the government in January 2009 invited in troops from Rwanda to help mount a joint operation against the Rwandan rebel Hutu militias active in eastern DR Congo.

Rwanda arrested the Hutu militias' main rival, Gen Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi hitherto seen as its main ally in the area.

However, during 2009 eastern areas remained beset by violence.

Source

NORTH GATE OF BANI WALID, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan fighters handed out free petrol to help hundreds of civilians flee a desert town held by Muammar Gaddafi's forces ahead of an onslaught aimed at capturing one of the ousted ruler's last bastions.

Complaining of hardship and intimidation, residents of Bani Walid headed to nearby towns or started the 180 km (112-mile) journey north toward Tripoli on Tuesday in cars packed with children and possessions.

Forces of the new ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) that overran Tripoli on August 23 have met unexpectedly stout resistance in five days of fighting for Bani Walid, a sun-baked town set in rocky hills and valleys.

Along with Gaddafi's hometown Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and Sabha in the southern desert, Bani Walid is one of the last strongholds of old regime fighters.

Their dogged resistance has complicated NTC efforts to normalize life in the oil-rich North African state and the United Nations has voiced fears about the plight of civilians marooned inside besieged pro-Gaddafi towns, particularly Sirte.

Gaddafi's whereabouts are unknown. NTC officials have said he could be hiding in one of the outposts like Bani Walid, helping to rally a last stand against NATO-backed forces.

Residents escaping Bani Walid on Monday and Tuesday reported days of intense street-to-street fighting. They began to slip out after Gaddafi forces abandoned some checkpoints on the outskirts.

“It's too dangerous to go outside. Militia men are hiding around the city and (pro-Gaddafi) green flags are everywhere,” 25-year-old resident Abdulbaset Mohamed Mohamed said, driving toward Tripoli.

NTC field commanders said people in Bani Walid had been told via broadcast radio messages they had two days to leave town before it came under full-blown attack.

“I think only 10 percent of the people are Gaddafi supporters. They are fanatics. And the rest are waiting to be liberated. We have given them two more days to leave the city,” NTC fighter Abumuslim Abdu told Reuters.

The country's new rulers have hesitated to employ heavy-handed tactics to seize Bani Walid, which is home to the Warfalla tribe, Libya's largest.

SECURITY AND LEGITIMACY

Libya's interim rulers have said that, along with taking control of pro-Gaddafi enclaves, capturing or killing the fugitive leader is a priority and only then could Libya be declared “liberated.”

The U.S. State Department said one of his sons, Saadi Gaddafi, who arrived in neighboring Niger on Sunday on one of four convoys of senior Gaddafi loyalists to have crossed the southern Sahara desert frontier, was being held there.

“Our understanding is, like the others, he's being detained in a state guest house,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington on Tuesday.

“It's essentially a house arrest in this government facility, is our understanding,” she said, adding that Niger was working with Libya's interim rulers on the issue. Niger said on Monday it was keeping Saadi Gaddafi under surveillance but had not detained him.

In Tripoli, officials trying to restore security said they needed to integrate the fighters who toppled Gaddafi into the police force to ensure the revolution's legitimacy.

Osama Abu Ras, a member of the Supreme Security Committee for Tripoli, told Reuters that Gaddafi's forces remained capable of firing missiles and the capital may be a potential target for such attacks.

“We have a very strong (military) front now in our favor but there is a threat of some missiles, including Grad missiles, and rockets. This could be a real threat,” he said.

While Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), have remained elusive, three Gaddafi officials were reported to be in NTC custody.

Abdel Hafid Zlitni, a former Central Bank governor and finance minister, was captured in Zawiyah, 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, NTC sources said on Tuesday.

They also said Mohammed Zwei, parliament speaker and former ambassador to Britain had been captured in the past week. Senior military officer Mustapha Kharroubi was also now under the NTC's watch, witnesses said.

Kharroubi is a veteran Gaddafi official and one of the few remaining officers who participated in Gaddafi's 1969 coup. It is believed he handed himself over to NTC officials late last month but this could not immediately be confirmed.

Two of Gaddafi's sons and his only biological daughter have made their way to Algeria. One son is reported to have died in the war and three others, including Saif, are still on the run.

(Additional reporting by William Maclean, Hisham el-Dani and Alexander Dziadosz in Tripoli, Sherine El Madany in Ras Lanuf, Emma Farge in Benghazi and Barry Malone in Tunis; writing by Sylvia Westall; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Source

Civil wars and militia conflicts have plagued the Republic of Congo, which is sometimes referred to as Congo-Brazzaville.

After three coup-ridden but relatively peaceful decades of independence, the former French colony experienced the first of two destructive bouts of fighting when disputed parliamentary elections in 1993 led to bloody, ethnically-based fighting between pro-government forces and the opposition.

A ceasefire and the inclusion of some opposition members in the government helped to restore peace.

Civil war

But in 1997 ethnic and political tensions exploded into a full-scale civil war, fuelled in part by the prize of the country's offshore oil wealth, which motivated many of the warlords.

The army split along ethnic lines, with most northern officers joining President Denis Sassou Nguesso's side, and most southerners backing the rebels. These were supporters of the former president, Pascal Lissouba, and his prime minister, Bernard Kolelas, who had been deposed by President Sassou Nguesso in 1997.

By the end of 1999 the rebels had lost all their key positions to the government forces, who were backed by Angolan troops. The rebels then agreed to a ceasefire.

Remnants of the civil war militias, known as Ninjas, are still active in the southern Pool region. Most of them have yet to disarm and many have turned to banditry.

Oil and diamonds

The Republic of Congo is one of sub-Saharan Africa's main oil producers, though 70 percent of the population lives in poverty. Oil is the mainstay of the economy and in recent years the country has tried to increase financial transparency in the sector.

In 2004 the country was expelled from the Kimberley Process that is supposed to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the world supply market. This followed investigations which found that the Republic of Congo could not account for the origin of large quantities of rough diamonds that it was officially exporting.

IMF debt relief to the country was delayed in 2006 following allegations of corruption.

Source