In Egypt, the election commission has delayed the announcement of presidential results scheduled for Thursday, as tension spiked over who will succeed ailing ousted president Hosni Mubarak after moves by the ruling military to extend powers, RNW and the BBC reported.
“Egypt’s election commission, headed by Judge Faruq Sultan has decided to delay the announcement of the presidential election run-off,” the official MENA news agency said late on Wednesday, without giving a new date.
The run-off, which took place on June 16 and 17 pitted Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi against Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, with both candidates claiming victory.
The election commission said it was looking into appeals from lawyers of both candidates into alleged campaign violations and disputed vote counting.
The commission said it would “continue examining the appeals… which will require more time before the final results are announced.”
Thousands of opposition supporters gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demonstrate against the delay in announcing the poll result and also against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) – the military council that has led the country since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year.
In DR congo, Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda warned on Wednesday that the presence of Rwandan fighters in an anti-government mutiny could unleash new hostilities between the neighbors RNW reported.
Tshibanda said in a letter to the UN Security Council that evidence of Rwandan involvement meant the crisis in the east of the country was “evolving dangerously toward a rupture of the peace” between the neighbors.
Tshibanda said the 15-nation Security Council must “remind Rwanda of its international obligations and demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of armed forces members hiding in the ranks of the rebellion.”
The DR Congo government has stepped up complaints in recent weeks about the Rwanda link to the mutineers who have followed Bosco Ntaganda, a renegade general who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.
“It appears that Rwandan territory was used to prepare and perpetrate a conspiracy which, having started as a simple mutiny is evolving dangerously toward a rupture of the peace between two countries of the Great Lakes region, threatening progress made since 2009,” the minister said in the letter.
In Uganda, CNN reports that the government on Wednesday said it will ban at least 38 nongovernmental agencies it says are promoting gay rights and recruiting children into homosexuality.
“We have investigated them thoroughly and we have found their sponsors,” said Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo. “We will ask them to step aside and stop pretending to work in human rights.”
“Some NGOs, under the pretext of providing social services, are receiving funds to promote homosexuality,” he said.
The organizations both international and local will lose their registrations and no longer be able to operate in Uganda.
Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, as it is in many African countries, and legislation is pending in parliament that could bring even harsher penalties for gays.
At one point the bill included life imprisonment and even the death penalty. That provision was dropped, under intense pressure from donor countries, but several Ugandan politicians still plan to push it through parliament.
In Nigeria soldiers and police are reported to be patrolling empty streets in two Nigerian cities after three days of violence left at least 101 people dead, with some residents still unable to return home.
The violence between Sunday and Tuesday in Kaduna and Damaturu in Nigeria’s north has led to round-the-clock curfews in both areas and raised fears of further reprisal attacks.
Some in the northeastern city of Damaturu have been stranded and unable to access food since Monday when a shootout between suspected Boko Haram fighters and soldiers led authorities to impose a ban on movements.
The gun battles, which killed at least 40 people, have stopped but the curfew remains in place, said Patrick Egbuniwe, police commissioner of Yobe state, where Damaturu is the capital.
“So far we have four dead policemen, two soldiers and 34 insurgents,” he said.
National police spokesman Frank Mba said he was “confident the curfew would be relaxed soon,” insisting that the police have enough men in Kaduna “to manage any eventuality”.
Burned vehicles and destroyed shops were visible around Kaduna city on Tuesday, according to an AFP reporter who toured the city with the military.
Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday condemned those “spilling the blood of innocent people”.
“I hope all parts of society will collaborate in not taking the road of reprisals,” Benedict said during a weekly general audience.
