Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan sought yesterday to quickly shore up his peace effort in Kenya as weeks of explosive violence showed no sign of abating, with scores killed over the weekend.
Annan met representatives of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga at a Nairobi hotel after the sides on Friday agreed to a "roadmap" for negotiations to end the crisis over flawed elections in December.
"The dialogue has resumed and both sides have reiterated their determination to end the crisis, giving priority to ending the fighting," a foreign ministry official said.
PHOTO: AFP
Annan's mediation effort has been seen as the nation's best hope of ending violence that has left more than 1,000 people dead and between 250,000 and 300,000 displaced in once stable Kenya.
Police said 74 people died over three days last weekend during fighting in the volatile west, this time pitting ethnic Kisiis and Kalenjins. About 20 Kalenjins died in clashes with police after attacking a police station.
Members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe suffered heavily in the first wave of violence at the hands of Odinga's Luo tribe and other ethnic groups, but have since carried out numerous revenge attacks.
Western Kenya remained tense as police vowed to take on roaming bands of armed youths who on Friday attacked a local police station and stole weapons.
Hundreds of ethnic Kikuyus, Kenya's dominant tribe, fled a small village outside Molo township in western Kenya over the weekend, saying they had been threatened by rival Kalenjins.
"The Kalenjins came on Friday night and started burning houses," 14-year-old Evans Njoroge said.
Annan has set a deadline of seven to 15 days to resolve all outstanding issues from the Dec. 27 election that Odinga claims was rigged and international observers have said was flawed.
Meanwhile, South African business tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa, chosen by Annan to head long-term mediation efforts in Kenya, pulled out yesterday because of reservations expressed by the Kenyan government.
"Kofi Annan reluctantly accepts the withdrawal of Cyril Ramaphosa from the role of chief mediator. Withdrawal is a result of reservations expressed by the government," a UN official said.
Kenyan officials have said that Ramaphosa, the chief negotiator for South Africa's African National Congress in talks that produced a peaceful end to apartheid in 1994, has business links to Kenyan opposition leader Odinga.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS