• Tanzania: Genocide Suspect faces extradition
  
• Horn leaders discuss tensions
  
• Djibouti frees opposition lawyer
  
• Envoys seek Ethiopia-Eritrea peace deal
  
• New famine threat in Ethiopia
  
• Ugandan Government claims successes against rebels
  
• Ugandan police detain bomb suspect
  
• Uganda denies rift over Congo war
  

Tanzania: Genocide Suspect faces extradition

Tanzania agreed on Monday to process a Rwandan extradition request for Bernard Ntuyahaga, a key suspect in the 1994 genocide.

Bernard Ntuyahaga is wanted on a number of charges related to the 1994 genocide

The Tanzanian director of prosecutions said the government had agreed to an official request from Rwanda and it was now up to the chief justice to approve the application, Tanzanian radio reported.

He gave no indication of when a decision would be taken.

Mr Ntuyahaga, a former officer in the Rwandan army, is also wanted in Belgium to answer charges of involvement in the killing of 10 Belgian soldiers who were guarding the then Rwandan Prime Minister, Agathe Uwingiyilimana, when the genocide started.

Mr Ntuyahaga is wanted in Rwanda for the murder of Uwingiyilimana.

He was freed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, based in Arusha, northern Tanzania, in March this year, after charges of murder were dropped against him in a bungled attempt to transfer his case to the Belgian authorities.

Horn leaders discuss tensions

The swearing-in of Djibouti's new president, Ismael Omar Guelleh, provided an opportunity for regional leaders to discuss tensions in the Horn of Africa at the weekend.

Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir: Discussing regional problems

Speaking on Sudanese TV after talks with Mr Guelleh, Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir described his country's ties with Djibouti as "well-developed and excellent".

"We also had an opportunity to meet the leaders attending the inauguration, principally our brother, Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister," Mr Bashir said.

"We had an opportunity to sit with him for a long time and to discuss the problems in the region, the fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the problems of Somalia, in addition to bilateral relations and efforts to normalize them," he told the TV.

In September 1995 the Ethiopian authorities adopted sanctions against Sudan, including a suspension of flights between the two countries and a reduction in Sudanese diplomatic representation in Addis Ababa.

It was a response to Khartoum's refusal to extradite to Ethiopia three men allegedly involved in an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Husni Mubarak in June 1995.

The men were later extradited to Ethiopia and sentenced to death.

Sudan has also sought to mend its fences with neighbouring Eritrea recently. Mr Bashir and Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki signed a pact in Qatar on 2 May, ending a four-year break in relations.

The accord banned the use of each state's territory for hostile activities against the other.

Asmara has hosted the main Sudanese opposition coalition, the National Democratic Alliance, since 1996.

Djibouti frees opposition lawyer

Djibouti's new president, Ismael Omar Gelleh, on Monday ordered the release of opposition lawyer Mohammed Aref, who was three months into a two-year prison term.

Radio France Internationale reported that Mr Aref, sentenced on 15 February for "attempted fraud and abuse of confidence," and some 50 other prisoners walked free on Tuesday morning.

He was said to have thanked his supporters and called for further releases.

"Mr Aref feels his arrest was in fact blatant manipulation aimed at removing him from the presidential election campaign, as rumours had been circulating at the time that the opposition parties had him earmarked as their presidential candidate," the radio said.

Envoys seek Ethiopia-Eritrea peace deal

UN special envoy Mohamed Sahnoun held further talks in Asmara on Saturday with an Eritrean delegation led by Foreign Minister Haile Woldetensae as part of his shuttle diplomacy aimed at ending the Eritrean-Ethiopian border conflict, Eritrean radio reported.

On Monday, the Burkinabe Foreign Minister, Youssouf Ouedraogo, arrived in Asmara to deliver a message to Isayas from the current OAU chairman, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso.

Ugandan and Rwandan envoys also arrived in Asmara on Monday, Eritrean radio reported. Last month a Ugandan envoy who visited Eritrea said Uganda and Rwanda were ready to help find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

New famine threat in Ethiopia

Threats that the spectre of famine could return

The authorities in North Welo in north-eastern Ethiopia have appealed for emergency food aid after a crop failure due to drought, Ethiopian radio reported on Tuesday.

The North Welo Zone Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Committee, in Amhara regional state, said over 460,000 people in the area needed emergency aid.

The radio quoted one official as saying farmers had fled their villages due to the famine, which had also triggered epidemics.

The official said Ginda, Bugna and Dantadawint were among the places worst hit. He said some 5,760 tonnes of food a month was needed.

Earlier this month Ethiopian TV reported that the EU had donated 30,000 tonnes of relief grain for displaced Ethiopians from Eritrea and others hit by drought.

The EU said the grain would be distributed throughout May.

Ugandan Government claims successes against rebels

Ugandan security forces claimed a series of successes against rebel groups in the past week.

At least 34 Allied Democratic Forces rebels were killed, and another five captured, in a joint security operation in the Ruwenzori mountains in the west of the country, the Ugandan newspaper The New Vision reported on Tuesday.

Quoting a security source, it said a force composed jointly of troops, local defence units and civilians conducting a "mop-up exercise" in Bundibugyo district had also destroyed seven rebel camps and seized ammunition and a number of weapons, most of them AK-47 assault rifles.

Ugandan radio reported on Monday that President Yoweri Museveni had inspected a large cache of weapons and ammunition captured earlier in the year from Lord's Resistance Army rebels in the north.

Hundreds of shells and grenades, three anti-aircraft guns, several hundred anti-personnel mines, over 100 submachine guns, four bazookas and hundreds of rifles were reported to have been seized.

The army recovered a similar haul at the end of last week, according to an earlier report in The New Vision.

In a separate development, the commander of the rebel Uganda People's Freedom Movement, Simon Peter Otebe, was arrested in western Kenya and taken to Uganda under heavy guard.

Otebe is alleged to have masterminded an attack on Sironko in eastern Uganda in which a policeman was killed, The New Vision said.

Ugandan police detain bomb suspect

Ugandan police have detained a man suspected of carrying out bombings in the capital Kampala.

A spokesman said the suspect was arrested "carrying a bomb-like object" in the central Owino market, Ugandan radio reported on Sunday.

A bomb in the market last Thursday caused injuries and a stampede in the city centre but killed no-one, while a second the following morning in Natete market west of the centre killed one, the radio said.

Police offered a reward of three million shillings (about $2,000 US) for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

President Museveni, visiting the bombing sites, expressed sympathy with the victims and said the criminals responsible would be caught and brought to trial.

The latest casualties bring to 16 the total killed in bomb blasts in the capital since the New Year, according to the Ugandan newspaper, The Monitor.

Uganda denies rift over Congo war

The Ugandan Government hit out at reports alleging differences with Rwanda over military operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A Foreign Ministry statement expressed concern at "misleading reports" in two Ugandan newspapers, The New Vision and The Monitor, which said recent talks hosted by Tanzania had been an attempt to resolve a rift between the two countries over their military campaign in DR Congo.

"It was not, as the two papers alleged, an effort by Tanzania to reconcile Rwanda and Uganda, which enjoy cordial bilateral relations," the statement said.

The meeting had been a follow-up to talks between Museveni and DRCongo President Laurent Kabila, and had been called to brief neighbouring countries and find a way to boost the DR Congo peace process, the statement said.

The New Vision reported last Friday that a split had developed in the main rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy, with Uganda backing one faction and Rwanda another.

Quoting Ugandan security sources, the paper said the Ugandan army was training thousands of Congolese rebels ahead of a planned pullout.