African press review 26 April 2011

Will Nigeria's state polls be peaceful? Will Ecowas and the AU help reduce out west African poverty? Should Uganda's police chief resign? Will Kenya's internally displaced find homes? And sad news from South Africa.

The Guardian in Nigeria is, understandably, dominated by today's elections for state governors. Voters in 26 of the federation's 36 states will go to the polls.

The Guardian also reports that, following the weekend launch of the Regional Poverty Reduction Strategy, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) now hopes that the entire sub-region will finally move towards attaining a seven per cent growth rate in the Gross Domestic Product of member states.

The Ecowas Commission said in Abuja that the drive would focus on education, health, access to drinking water and infrastructure.

The west African region is ranked among the poorest in the world, with more than 60 per cent of its 230 million citizens living on less than one dollar a day.

According to the same Guardian, Africa's quest to tackle its crises got a fresh boost with General Sekouba Konate assuming duty as head of the African Standby Force and head of the AU's Strategic Planning and Management Unit.

The News Agency of Nigeria said Konate took the oath of office yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Speaking shortly after his inauguration, Konate said he would work towards reducing war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Jean Ping, the AU Commission chairman, urged Konate to use his experience as the former head of Guinea’s transitional government.

The Daily Monitor in Uganda carries a report saying that the bloodshed that has been blamed on the government’s heavy-handed reaction to protests against high fuel prices and the rising cost of living yesterday prompted opposition politician Olara Otunnu to demand the resignation of the head of police.

Otunnu told a news conference on Monday that the Inspector General of Police, Major-General Kale Kayihura, should take personal responsibility for the “brutality” that has unfolded each time security forces move in to break-up the walk-to-work protests.

Hundreds have been injured since the walk-to-work protests began two weeks ago, at least five lives have been lost and scores of people are in jail. There have been calls from world governments, human rights agencies, Members of Parliament and religious leaders for a stop to the use of what the Daily Monitor calls "disproportionate and excessive force" against protesters.

In Kenya, The Daily Nation reports that the government has put on hold the resettlement of 255 families from Rongai to enable leaders to resolve controversy surrounding the plans.

North Rift deputy provincial commissioner Wilson Wanyanga held talks with leaders from the Bukusu, Sabaot and Pokot communities affected by the post-election violence. They all live adjacent to land bought for the resettlement of 255 internally displaced families from Nakuru.

The deputy commissioner has admitted that local leaders were not consulted on the purchase of the land.

There's a sad story with an RFI connection in the South African Star. Military analyst Henri Boshoff died in a car crash on Monday.

Boshoff was an expert in the field of peace missions in Africa and was, as listeners will know, a frequent contributor to our morning broadcasts.

At the time of his death he was working for the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.

Boshoff leaves behind a wife, Leonie, and son Jean. He was 54-years-old.

Boshoff, who was born in Pretoria, joined the SA Defence Force in 1986 and was involved with the operational planning of internal and external operations. His areas of expertise were terrorism, peacekeeping, support to the police and African politics.

The Star also reports that a charity has been accused of preying on albino and blind South Africans.

Several former employees have told The Star that the International Federation of People with Albinism and Blindness lured dozens of disabled South Africans from across the country with promises of lodging, stable jobs and education.

Several of the charity’s supposed beneficiaries told The Star that they were mistreated at the organisation’s headquarters in Joburg and that they were forced to lodge in a derelict building with no running water, little food and a constant stream of verbal abuse.

Initially, there were 60 lodgers in the building, but that number has dropped to 10.

The organisation continues to run an unregistered school for more than 200 children.

Chicago police have reportedly been scratching their heads as they try to discover who stole a stock of human hair from a beauty-supply company.

Police say a “very valuable” amount of hair was taken early on Sunday by burglars at the Beauty One shop.

Authorities say the culprits pried open a huge steel door that had been secured with two deadbolt locks, then swiped the hair.

No value for the hair was given, and there was no immediate explanation of why thieves would want it.

A police sergeant says he's been to a lot of robberies, but never one involving hair.