African press review 13 February 2014

Boko Haram and political sackings in Nigeria, clashes in South Africa are among the stories in today's papers ...

In Nigeria, the Punch daily newspaper reports that Boko Haram gunmen on Tuesday attacked Konduga town in Borno State, killing at least 53 people. They also abducted 25 teenage girls and set fire to dozens of houses in the town.

Konduga is a town along Maiduguri-Bama Road and is about 40 kilometres from the state capital, Maiduguri.

The gunmen attacked the only hospital in the town, abducted the medical doctor and carted away drugs and medical equipment.

They also destroyed the town’s central mosque, the palace of the district head, the market and the Abba Ashigar School of Business and Administrative Studies.

Residents claim that over 100 people were killed during the attack, adding that many corpses were still in the bush surrounding the community.

Also in the Nigerian papers this morning, news that, less than 48 hours after ordering his Chief of Staff, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, to resign, President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday sacked four ministers from the Federal Executive Council.

The four are the Aviation Minister, the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, the Minister for Police Affairs, and the Minister of State for Finance.

The Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, has been under pressure since the purchase last year of two bulletproof BMW cars on her behalf by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. Apart from the amount spent on the cars, which was found to be grossly above the market value, Nigerians queried the propriety of the purchase by an organisation that was finding it difficult to finance the training of personnel responsible for aviation safety.

The President of the Nigerian Aviation Roundtable is quoted as saying "Whether it is a sacking or resignation is immaterial. The important thing is that she is off the back of the ministry. During her tenure, I would say the aviation industry was moved 60 years backwards."

Officially, the four are stepping down to pursue personal projects.

In Kenya, the battle between the presidency and the International Criminal Court shows no signs of a ceasefire.

The main story in the Standard is headlined "Uhuru, Ruto battle with ICC over witnesses who took off."

The small print explains that one of the witnesses that ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda wants compelled to testify against Deputy President William Ruto disappeared from his hotel room as ICC officials were helping him to apply for a visa to go to the court in The Hague.

In September last year, officials from the Prosecutor’s office met the witness in a Nairobi hotel to help him secure a Dutch visa. The witness vanished without trace the following day. Bensouda alleges in her submission that the witness was offered a 17 thousand euro bribe to withdraw his testimony.

The revelation is contained in Bensouda’s application to the judges to compel the witness and six others to appear before them to testify against Ruto, who is accused of complicity in the violence which followed Kenya's 2007 presidential election.

The Kenyan Attorney General says Nairobi cannot force witnesses to testify. He believes the application by Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to force their attendance is unconstitutional.

The main story in sister paper the Daily Nation reports that Antonio Guterres, the head of the UN's refugee agency said on Wednesday he had witnessed "a humanitarian catastrophe of unspeakable proportions" during his visit to the Central African Republic.

Guteres said the country's new government is incapable of effectively protecting its citizens.

His statement clashed awkwardly with a speech on Wednesday by the CAR's new transitional president, Catherine Samba Panza, who vowed war against the predominantly Christian militia whose recent attacks have led to a mass exodus of Muslims.

The humanitarian situation in the CAR has deteriorated since a coup in March last year led by the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels plunged the country into chaos.

In South Africa, an opinion piece in the financial paper BusinessDay, says yesterday's march by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) on the African National Congress headquarters was widely expected to descend into chaos, and it did.

However, instead of supporters of the DA and ANC facing off against each other, newspapers and news channels show scenes of police clashing with ANC supporters.

The DA called yesterday's march as part of a campaign against what it calls the ANC’s "bogus" job-creation promises, which began soon after the ANC launched its election manifesto last month. The DA has described President Jacob Zuma’s pledge to provide 6 million job opportunities, if re-elected, as an empty electioneering promise.

Some ANC supporters yesterday met the DA marchers with bricks and hostile chants. ANC marshals struggled to bring them to order and calm prevailed only after police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets, and arrested some of the ANC supporters.

Says BusinessDay, yesterday's violence could play into the DA’s hands, enabling it to paint the ruling party as a confrontational organisation that is unwilling to engage on issues with its political opponents.