The U.S. on May.21 criticised the raid of two newspapers and closure of two other radio stations saying the disruptions, no matter the justifications offered, risk having a chilling effect on the freedoms of expression and speech enshrined in the Ugandan Constitution.

“We understand Ugandan security authorities searched and disrupted operations at several of Uganda’s leading media houses in response to the May 7 publication of a letter containing controversial comments by a Ugandan general on presidential succession in Uganda,” the U.S. Mission in Kampala noted.

Police raided and closed down The RedPepper, a tabloid, Uganda’s largest independent newspaper, The Daily Monitor, and its sister radios, KFM and Dembe FM.

The security authorities claimed they were searching for a leaked letter authored by the coordinator of intelligence services General David Sejusa (Tinyefuza), in which he called for investigations into allegations that there was a ploy to assassinate those opposed to President Yoweri Museveni’s plans to have his son succeed him also referred to as the ‘Muhoozi Project’.

But instead of carrying out the search, Alex Asiimwe, the Monitor Publications Limited Managing Director said, the armed men disabled the printing press, computer servers and radio transmission equipment with the intention of  preventing the Monitor from operating broadcasting and printing its newspapers.  Indeed both Daily Monitor and Red pepper were absent on newspaper stalls as KFM and Dembe FM remained switched off.

Read related article: Uganda criticised for wildest media attack

The U.S. statement added that United States values press freedom as a key component of democratic governance. U.S Under Secretary Tara D. Sonenshine said in her May 3 op-ed on World Press Freedom Day, journalists play a vital role in open and democratic societies.

“Too many political leaders around the world wrongly equate freedom of the press with a compromise in national security,” Sonenshine noted, “In some countries, including Uganda, there is often a failure – from government and from citizens – to appreciate that a free and independent press is essential to building a transparent, well-informed, and engaged society.”

Read Sonenshine’s full statement below

World Press Freedom Day Op-ed

“Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media”

By Tara D. Sonenshine, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every May 3 to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom and to honor journalists who have lost their lives in pursuit of their profession.

But as many human rights activists and journalists and people of conscience often ruefully declare, every day should be World Press Freedom Day. That’s because – as I write this – almost 250 journalists languish in prisons worldwide.

Many more are harassed, intimidated and even murdered. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, throughout the world nearly 600 journalists have been murdered with impunity since 1992 – and last year, 2012, was the deadliest of all for journalists since they began keeping these records.

What are their purported crimes? Doing what journalists should in any free society:  reporting to all of us what is going on in their communities and in their countries.

Too many political leaders around the world wrongly equate freedom of the press with a compromise in national security. In some countries, including Uganda, there is often a failure – from government and from citizens – to appreciate that a free and independent press is essential to building a transparent, well-informed, and engaged society.

As a result, many governments exploit or create criminal libel or defamation or blasphemy laws in their favor. They misuse terrorism laws to prosecute and imprison journalists.  They pressure media outlets to shut down by causing crippling financial damage.  They buy or nationalize media outlets to suppress different viewpoints.  They filter or shut down access to the Internet. And as the statistics I cited underscore, they can do much worse.

Media freedom is the moral equivalent of oxygen.  It is how any free, healthy, vibrant and functioning society breathes, and it is essential to building civil societies.  That applies to everything we say in public squares or type on our keyboards online; everything we print in newspapers, blogs, texts or tweets. When this right is denied, aspirations choke, economies suffocate, and countries are unable to grow.

The U.S. Government supports press freedom everywhere, including Uganda, and we work to advance Internet freedom around the world as part of the universal rights of freedom of expression and the free flow of information.

It should be said that the press – including here in Uganda – has its responsibilities to improve the quality, accuracy, and fairness of its reporting.  A failure to observe the ethics and basic tenets of professional journalism will create mistrust from the public.

With a negative attitude towards journalists, they will not be inclined to speak out against harassment and abuses. Just as critically, they will lose the opportunity to get useful, accurate and timely information that can enhance their lives and futures; and democracy in Uganda will be severely compromised.

We also support the professional development of journalists, editors, and media organizations everywhere. For example, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). With funding from the U.S. Government,  is implementing an exchange programs for journalists from four African countries, including Uganda, and the United States to examine the important role the media plays in society.

I am also rightfully proud of the State Department’s Foreign Press Center reporting tours that allow for journalists from around the world to better understand the foundations that shape American foreign policy.

In fact, a Ugandan journalist is currently participating in a program specifically on the topic of press freedom. Tools gained while on these and similar programs will help journalists become stronger advocates for press freedom.

A government that has faith in its own citizens and believes in the democratic process will protect the many voices of the people. It will create, embrace and enforce laws and reforms that guarantee the basic rights and freedoms of all people including media freedom.

This is a fundamental freedom for all people, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in Uganda’s own constitution.

We urge Uganda to take greater steps to protect and defend press freedom, and to hold individuals who violate this freedom accountable.  We call on and for members of the press to make certain their comments can be trusted as fact. And we urge all political leaders and citizens to speak out for protection of journalists and to support their vital role in open societies.

This comes just days before Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, is due to visit the eastern city.

Fighting began in the early morning of Monday after the M23 rebel group, attacked Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government positions about 10km north of the mineral-rich city, a government military spokesman told the Reuters news agency.

“The fighting has been with heavy weapons. It’s still continuing although it is less intense … We’re sending reinforcements. We must protect the town of Goma at all costs,” Colonel Olivier Hamuli said.

There was no confirmation on casualty figures from the clashes, which came a week after the first troops from a new UN intervention brigade arrived in the country with a strong mandate to attack rebel groups.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende accused the M23 of trying to disrupt the deployment of a 3,000-strong U.N. Intervention Brigade charged with neutralizing armed groups in the mineral-rich region.

The first Tanzanian troops have already begun deploying in the east.

“The M23 tried to cut the road between where the brigade will be based and Goma. They want to discourage the deployment of the brigade but they have no chance: the army will respond blow for blow,” Mende told Reuters.

M23 spokesman Amani Kabasha said that the rebel group had initially responded to an attack by the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu militia based in Congo’s volatile east. It had then come under attack from government artillery.

“We are not responding to their shelling, but what we’re hearing is not good, that (Congolese president Joseph) Kabila is sending reinforcements. He needs to calm down,” Kabasha said.

The US government announced yesterday that President Barack Obama will visit Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania in June, the BBC reports.

Mr Obama is expected to meet lawmakers as well as business and civil society leaders and youth on his trip.

The 26 June – 3 July visit will be Mr Obama’s second to sub-Saharan Africa as president. He spent less than a day in Ghana in 2009.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush both visited Africa during their second terms in office.

Mr Clinton visited six countries while Mr Bush went to five.

“The president will reinforce the importance that the United States places on our deep and growing ties with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including through expanding economic growth, investment, and trade; strengthening democratic institutions; and investing in the next generation of African leaders,” the White House said in a statement.

“The trip will underscore the president’s commitment to broadening and deepening cooperation between the United States and the people of sub-Saharan Africa to advance regional and global peace and prosperity.”

Analysts say such trips are common for US presidents after they are relieved of the pressure of domestic campaigning.

Meanwhile, a developing threat of Islamist militants in the west African country of Mali has raised the region’s profile in Washington.

First Lady Michelle Obama is due to accompany Mr Obama on his trip.

In Uganda, Police forcibly entered the offices of a semi-independent newspaper to search for evidence against an army general who questioned the president’s alleged plan to have his son succeed him, Aljazeera reports.

The Daily Monitor’s political editor, Henry Ochieng, said about 50 plainclothes police entered the paper’s premises in the capital, Kampala, on Monday.

“There are lots of plainclothes individuals inside the premises. You can come in but you can’t leave,” he said.

Alex Asiimwe, the newspaper’s managing director, said in a statement that the company was “horrified by this act”.

The raid comes amid a heated public debate about a letter sent by General David Sejusa to the Internal Security Organisation asking for a probe into reports that there were plans to assassinate officers opposed to President Yoweri Museveni’s son succeeding him.

The Daily Monitor obtained and published Sejusa’s letter, which has been dismissed by the army’s top leadership as propaganda.

Sejusa, who is currently travelling in Europe, has since written another letter in local newspapers alleging the president had planted a man in his office to spy on him for three years.

Police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba said the police secured a warrant to search the newspaper’s premises for Sejusa’s letter.

“The journalists had been told to give to the police a certain document but somehow they did not hand it in,” she said.

Jackie Asiimwe, an activist with the women lawyers organisation, FIDA, told Al Jazeera from Kampala that police stood guard outside the newspaper premises.

“They are searching the premises,” she said, adding she and her colleagues were standing outside “in solidarity”.

Daily Monitor has been on a collision course with the government which has tried to rein in private media outlets determined to expose official wrong doing.

In 2002, the paper was shut down for nearly two weeks after it published a story saying that an army helicopter had come down in northern Uganda, where rebels of the Lord’s resistance Army (LRA) were fighting the government.

In Nigeria, the military said on Monday it had re-established control in five remote areas of the northeast where Islamist insurgents had seized territory, as it pressed on with a sweeping offensive against Boko Haram militants, News24 reports.

The military has “secured the environs of New Marte, Hausari, Krenoa, Wulgo and Chikun Ngulalo after destroying all the terrorists’ camps”, a defence ministry statement said.

All of the areas in northern Borno state near the Cameroon border were considered Boko Haram strongholds.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who declared a state of emergency in Borno and two neighbouring states last week, said the insurgents had chased out local officials in some areas and removed the Nigerian flag.

Residents have previously told AFP that New Marte and Krenoa were among the areas targeted by military air strikes in the offensive launched last week.

“The troops are already interacting with locals and citizens assuring them of their safety and freedom from the activities of insurgents,” the statement further said.

Police this morning besieged the Monitor Publications Limited offices located in Namuwongo – a Kampala suburb reportedly in search the controversial letter written by the Coordinator of Intelligence Services Gen. David Sejusa aka Tinyefuza.

In the same raid, KFM radio a sister company of Monitor Publications Limited was shut down as well as Dembe FM. Uniformed and plain clothed officers searched employees at the premises and confiscated several items including smart phones.

Senior management at the company criticized the move by the police whom they say did not take the liberty to inform them prior to the operation.

The wanted letter that has sparked a lot of uproar, alleged that President Museveni was hatching a plan to have his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba succeed him as president.

Reports also indicated that a similar operation was carried out at another media house, the Red Pepper newspaper. Sources indicated that employees at the papers were asked to vacate the premises and leave their laptops behind.

With irk the government has expressed following the publication of the letter, critics said, it was a matter of time before the government took action but not many had expected the state to target media houses in such a manner.

Armed Police officers stand outside the head offices of Monitor Publications Limited

In their biggest offensive since the insurgency began in 2009, Nigerian forces are trying to chase well-armed militants out of territory they control in remote semi-deserts around Lake Chad, along the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

They are also pursuing Boko Haram in northeastern cities such as Maiduguri, Borno state, where the sect has cells. A heavy military presence patrolled Maiduguri on Sunday, with checkpoints choking what little traffic there was.

Nigeria’s defense spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade said the operation was continuing on Sunday, with patrols sent out to secure towns and villages, and that special forces had killed 14 insurgents in battles that left three Nigerian soldiers dead and seven wounded.

Nigerian forces used jets and attack helicopters to bombard militant camps in the northeast on Friday.

Some analysts fear the offensive may have rendered the already slim chance of a political solution to the conflict even slimmer, but the president’s spokesman Reuben Abati denied this. Jonathan set up a committee to work out the terms of a possible amnesty for Boko Haram members last month.

“Mr President has urged Boko Haram members to surrender their arms and embrace the amnesty option, which is still open as the committee is working on the option of dialogue for a peaceful resolution,” Abati said by telephone.

At a meeting of ministers from Nigeria and the European Union in Brussels on Thursday, the EU voiced concern that military action could be counterproductive if it was so heavy-handed that people were alienated, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said. The EU had urged the military to respect human rights, she said.

Human rights groups and the United States are also concerned about possible abuses against civilians by the army.

Phones have been largely cut to the entire northeastern region, to prevent the rebels communicating.

“The insurgents have people who look out and tip them off by phone, which opens the military up to ambushes. Without phones, raids will have the element of surprise,” a security source in Maiduguri said, adding a 24-hour curfew in some areas also aimed to limit their movements.

“It will be painful for the public without communications and movement, but it may be a price worth paying,” he said.

In Zimbabwe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai wrapped up his party’s post-election plan meeting Sunday vowing to overturn President Robert Mugabe’s controversial indigenisation drive if he wins upcoming general elections, News24 reports.

He wound up the meeting with a rally attended by thousands of supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at a sports ground in Harare’s working class suburb of Highfield.

“We will reverse indigenisation laws and create empowerment laws for the majority of the people of Zimbabwe,” said Tsvangirai.

“We cannot all share a small cake. We can’t share the existing wealth so we will have to create a bigger cake.”

Mugabe introduced the indigenisation law in 2010 which forces foreign-owned companies – including mines, banks and retailers – to cede 51% ownership to black Zimbabwean investors.

He has threatened to take over firms that fail to comply.

Tsvangirai is uneasy with the law which he says has driven away desperately needed foreign investment just as the country is recovering from a decade-long economic collapse.

He bemoaned “lack of transparency in the distribution of wealth in Zimbabwe”.

“Every Zimbabwean must be able to point out that they benefitted under this or that programme,” he said.

Tsvangirai, who is confident of winning the vote, said elections would be held before 30 October.

“There are things that need to be done…reforms we need to have before elections,” he said.

In Kenya, Daily Nation reports Cord leader Raila Odinga on Sunday said he was not ready to take up a job with the government because he is already engaged in various international assignments, which are keeping him busy.

In an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Odinga sought to put to rest the job debate, saying he had received no job offer in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government.

“I have received numerous invitations from across the world. I have accepted some and declined others. This does not indicate to you I am a person who needs a government job,” he said. “There is no offer I have seen and I do not need any job to stay relevant in this country,” he said. “For avoidance of any doubt, let me state here that I will not accept any job if offered by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government.”

Mr Odinga said his “inbox” was full with international and local assignments that will keep him on his toes in coming days.

“What I told the President is that he should resist the temptations to kill the opposition the same way successive governments have done,” he said on Saturday.

Mr Odinga said that during his talks with the President, he had asked Mr Kenyatta to nurture the culture of opposition politics by resisting attempts to poach from those constitutionally charged with the task of checking the government.

“Accepting a job in government negates the very ideals enshrined in our Constitution,” he said and dismissed reports that he was being offered a government job as “propaganda”.

Such a role would make him a peace negotiator in Africa on behalf of the government.

Mr Odinga said the role he wanted to play was that of reorganising Cord to make it a strong opposition force.

He said he was soon to leave for a conference in South Africa, before going to Australia and later to the US.

“I still hold the view that I can lead a strong Opposition from where I stand and that position has not changed,” he said.

In South Sudan, Western nations have expressed concern over the abuse and killing of civilians and the looting of property in South Sudan’s troubled Jonglei state, and called for a “political and not a military solution” to the fighting between rebels and the army, News24 reports.

“Increasingly concerned about continued violence in Jonglei,” said the signatories representing the United States, the European Union, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

They joined calls to armed groups and the army to protect civilians and property following the recent looting of international aid agencies, homes and public property in Pibor County.

“We are deeply disturbed by mounting reports of abuse of civilians, including killings, beatings, and looting and destruction of homes and humanitarian facilities,” the statement said.

“We stress that the worsening situation in Jonglei State requires a political and not a military solution, and we underscore the need for dialogue between all parties to begin at once,” it added.

Margaret Vogt, UN representative to the Central African Republic, painted a grim picture of the situation since rebels ousted President Francois Bozize on March 24.
The country has “collapsed into a state of anarchy,” Vogt told the Security Council on Wednesday.

There are “indiscriminate and often targeted killings, rampant rapes and assaults on the innocent population, flagrant recruitment of children as soldiers, looting of homes, not just of the rich but even of already struggling citizens,” she added.

“We believe that the time is right for the council to consider the imposition of individual sanctions against the architects and perpetrators of these gross violations.

“There is an urgent need to help restore stability in the CAR.

“This should be done by deploying a neutral security force that would contain the current state of anarchy.”

Vogt said that strip mining of the country’s diamond and gold reserves has “exponentially expanded” in areas controlled by Seleka.

While regional leaders set up a peace plan that was accepted by Seleka, Michel Djotodia, who named himself president after the coup, has gone against the accords, Vogt said.

“He continues to run the country by presidential decrees,” the envoy said.

The Seleka leadership “is unable or unwilling, neither to control the ranks of the militia groups nor to rein in local commanders,” she added.

Nicolas Tiangaye, CAR’s interim prime minister, repeated calls for France to send an intervention force to the country.

Tiangaye was named interim prime minister before the rebels took over and has kept a precarious hold on his post.

“We ask that France, with a clear mandate from the United Nations, intervene by proceeding by force with the disarmament of Seleka elements,” Tiangaye said.

In Nigeria, Reuters reports government has sent fighter jets to support troops fighting increasingly powerful Islamist insurgents in its northeast on Thursday, the second day of a military offensive that has divided opinion over how best to tackle the rebellion.

A Reuters reporter saw two Alpha jets land in the city of Yola, in Adamawa state, one of three over which President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, the other two being Borno and Yobe.

Jonathan has beefed up troop deployments in the northeast to counter increasingly bold and deadly attacks by Islamist group Boko Haram, which wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria and already controls territory in the northeast.

Rights groups said they feared an escalation of the conflict that could cause large civilian deaths, but Jonathan’s move enjoys public support in Nigeria, after more than three years of trying to contain the insurgency have largely failed.

Air Force spokesman Air Commodore Yusuf Anas confirmed to Reuters by telephone that “air assets”, including helicopter gunships as well as jets, had been sent in support of the extra troops being deployed for the operation.

“This state has been under the control of gunmen for so long, it’s been long overdue,” said Audu John, a trader in Jimeta market.

But another man, Ahmed Usman, feared civilians would become targets for killings or torture by a military notorious for abuses. His family was evacuating as soon as possible, he said.

“The federal government has come to terms with the bleak reality that what we are facing is … terrorism in its most horrific form,” said an editorial in The Punch daily paper on Thursday. “Nigeria is teetering on the precipice of disintegration … It is time to act decisively.”

But the United States expressed concern about a worsening “cycle of violence” on Wednesday, a view echoed by human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Thursday.

In Kenya, lead International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said Wednesday the court will “explore other options” if Kenya fails to fully cooperate on the post-election violence cases, the Daily Nation reports.

Ms Bensouda, who spoke in Geneva, Switzerland after giving a lecture to students at the University of Geneva, said ICC maintains expectations that Kenya will cooperate with the prosecution on the cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta, his deputy William Ruto and former radio presenter Joshua arap Sang.

“We have been very clear since this started that we want full cooperation,” she said.

Ms Bensouda said the ICC judges will consider other options in case Kenya fails to cooperate.

“That is a matter the Chamber will look into and explore other options,” she said.

“I have been very clear all the time about this matter. I have stated that what we want is the full and unwavering cooperation of the Kenyan Government.

“In the event that this doesn’t happen, we will have no option but to bring the matter to the attention of the Chamber for direction,” she said in an interview with Kenyan journalists in Geneva.

Earlier, in her lecture to the Geneva University students, she said the Kenyan situation will be treated like any other case of international crime.

“It is all about seeking justice,” she said.

On Tuesday, Human Rights Officer at the World Organisation Against Torture Andrea Meraz said witness protection is key in ensuring justice.

At the Committee Against Torture session at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Kenyan delegation responded to questions on measures put in place to protect witnesses locally.

Rhodah Ongoma from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said the Witness Protection Agency is up and running and that it has a large number of witnesses protected under the program.

She said agency is supported by the Treasury and is at liberty to seek additional funding from other sources.

Ms Ongoma said staff have been trained and sensitised on human rights requirements in the protection of witnesses.

Margaret Vogt also told the council that a neutral security force should be deployed to “contain the current state of anarchy” in the mineral-rich state, where the Seleka rebels seized power on March 24, toppling President Francois Bozize.

“The abuses and violations committed by Seleka combatants and other armed elements … are a source of grave concern for the protection of civilians,” she said. “The time is ripe for the council to consider the imposition of individual sanctions against the architects and perpetrators of gross violations.”

Rebel leader Michel Djotodia, a former civil servant, has been named interim president by the parliament and charged with leading the chronically unstable country to elections within 18 months.

Vogt said security had disintegrated and that the Central African Republic “has collapsed into a state of anarchy and total disregard for international law, as elements of Seleka turn their vengeance against the population.”

“Indiscriminate and often targeted killings, rampant rapes and assault on the innocent population, flagrant recruitment of children as soldiers, looting of homes, not just of the rich but even of already struggling citizens,” she said.

Vogt said more than 49,000 refugees had been registered in neighboring countries since December, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Cameroon and Republic of Congo, while more than 200,000 people had been displaced within the country.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expanded on the suggestion of a neutral security force in a report on the Central African Republic, which was the subject of Wednesday’s Security Council meeting.

In Mali, international donors have pledged more than $4.22bn to help Mali recover after a conflict with al-Qaeda-linked fighters, Aljazeera reports.

The sum exceeds the goals of Mali which had asked donors for $2.57bn for this year and next.

The donors’ conference, held on Wednesday in Brussels, was organised by French President Francois Hollande, along with Barroso and Dioncounda Traore, Mali’s interim president.

International delegations from 103 countries were expected to attend, including ten heads of state and government.

Officials in Mali have come up with a $5.58bn multifaceted plan for what EU officials are calling “a total relaunch of the country”.

The plan includes rebuilding government institutions and the military, staging elections in July, holding dialogues with rebels in the north, rebuilding roads and schools, reviving the moribund economy so that people get paid for working, and more.

“We need water, health, justice, jobs, fairness,” said Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traore.

Mr Hollande said: “Mali is on the road to recovery.”

“It is recovering its territorial integrity, is actively preparing for the presidential elections in July and, with the international donor conference in Brussels, is making progress in its development.”

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the money would help the West African state become “stable, democratic and prosperous”.

Mr Barroso said the aid would benefit Europe as well as Africa.

“The support of the international community is essential to establish a Mali that is stable, democratic and prosperous,” he added. “But the principal actors in this transition are the Malians themselves and their government.”

He said the EU welcomed the Transition Roadmap, aimed at establishing a full return to democracy and stability in the country, and the Plan for the Sustainable Recovery of Mali, which Malian officials presented at the conference on Wednesday.

Traore said after their meeting, the country’s presidential vote would take place on July 28, after months of speculation about the date.

Traore also said that neither he nor any member of the transitional government would be a candidate for the presidency.

“I won’t be a candidate in the presidential elections, the prime minister won’t be candidate, the members of the government won’t be candidates because our concern is that we cannot be both judges and the party,” he said.

“And we want to give every opportunity to the people of Mali to have transparent open elections, honest, credible elections.”

A field of about a dozen candidates is expected to take part in the election, which faces significant logistical and security challenges.

In Nigeria, the BBC reports government has sent a “massive deployment of men and resources” to combat Islamist militants in three north-eastern states.

A statement said the drive was aimed at “asserting the nation’s territorial integrity” and “enhancing security”.

On Tuesday President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states after a series of deadly attacks by militants.

Fighters from the Boko Haram group are blamed for most of the violence.

The group, which has its roots in north-eastern Nigeria, is linked to bloodshed in which some 2,000 people have died since 2010.

Boko Haram has seized control of parts of the north-east over the past three years, and much of the violence has been confined to that region.

The militants have forged closer links with al-Qaeda-linked militants in the Sahara region and have access to increasingly sophisticated weaponry. They are believed to move back and forth across frontiers, particularly the Cameroon border, say analysts.

Wednesday’s Ministry of Defence statement said the army, police and other security agencies had begun operations to “rid the nation’s border territories of terrorist bases and activities”.

The declared aim that it will assert the nation’s territorial integrity comes a day after the president said the state no longer controlled the entire territory of Nigeria, a somewhat embarrassing admission, says the BBC’s Will Ross in Lagos.

The operation will focus on enhancing security of governmental structures after the president said attacks on government buildings and killings of officials and other civilians amounted to a declaration of war.

In Uganda, government threatened on Wednesday to penalise media for coverage of a purported plot to stifle allegations that President Yoweri Museveni is grooming his son for power, News24 reports.

Speculation is growing that Museveni, in office since 1986, is lining up his son Kainerugaba Muhoozi to succeed him, a move that would likely test loyalties in Uganda’s ruling elite.

Last week, a newspaper published a private letter by General David Sejusa calling for an investigation into claims of a plot “to assassinate people who disagree with this so-called family project of holding onto power in perpetuity”.

The letter by Sejusa, one of Uganda’s most senior officers and long regarded as close to Museveni, has sparked public debate on the sensitive and rarely aired question of whether Museveni, 68, will step down at the end of his term in 2016.

Godfrey Mutabazi, executive director of the state media regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), said newspapers and radio stations had given the letter “undue” attention.

“Why give Sejusa headline after headline? … On airwaves you hear nothing else except Sejusa,” Mutabazi told Reuters.

“No, this obsessive coverage is not proper. They’re alarming the public, causing insecurity and destabilising the country and we can’t allow that … We’ll penalise this behaviour.”

Mutabazi did not specify what penalties the UCC would impose. Ugandan journalists say such warnings often herald harassment by security agencies.

Don Wanyama, managing editor of the Daily Monitor, which published the letter, told Reuters that police detectives had interrogated him and two reporters for over six hours on Tuesday.

He said the police had demanded that the journalists hand over an original copy of Sejusa’s letter and also disclose how they had obtained it. They refused and were threatened with charges, but were later released.

In a televised statement on Tuesday, the president said, “I hereby declare a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.”

The military will take “all necessary action” to “put an end to the impunity of insurgents and terrorists” in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe, he said.

Mr Jonathan also ordered more troops to be sent to the north-eastern states.

Militants from Boko Haram have been blamed for most of the violence, which has left 2,000 people dead since 2010.

He made a similar move in January 2012 following a spate of Boko Haram attacks, but in that case the decree only applied to specific local government areas in four states.

In seeking to impose the measure across a whole state, Jonathan must first secure the approval of Nigerian legislators, which he pledged to do.

The enhanced powers that come with the measure are unclear.

When former president Olusegun Obasanjo invoked the measure twice in 2004 and 2006, he removed democratically elected governors and installed appointed administrators to manage the states, both former military officers.

Jonathan vowed that he would not employ that measure.

“The governors and other political office holders in the affected states will continue to discharge their constitutional responsibilities,” he said.

Nigeria – a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people – is also affected by a spate of conflicts over land, religion and oil.

In the latest violence, 53 people were killed and 13 villages burnt in central Nigeria’s Benue state on Tuesday.

The conflict, which started last week, is said to have been caused by a dispute over land ownership between cattle herders and farmers.

The European Union is expected to pledge close to 520m euros (£442m; $673m) to help rebuild Mali at a conference of international donors in Brussels on Wednesday, the News24 reports.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the money would help the West African state become “stable, democratic and prosperous”.

The conference is the first since France sent troops to oust Islamist rebels from northern Mali in January.

Mali’s government has a 4.3bn-euro plan for “a total relaunch of the country”.

It includes rebuilding government institutions and the military, repairing damaged infrastructure, organising presidential elections, holding dialogue with rebel groups in the north, and stimulating the economy.

After meeting the European Commission chief in Brussels on Tuesday, Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traore said he hoped about 2bn euros would be raised at the donors’ conference.

“I think that’s a good start,” he told a news conference. “Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, in a week or in a month, it is clear that the international community, the European Union, will inject a lot more than that.”

Marietou Diaby of Oxfam said that since the crisis erupted last year, international attention had focused mainly on security and counterterrorism, an approach that must be widened.

“Donors must learn the lessons from crises such as Afghanistan and Somalia that a narrow approach to winning a military conflict is never enough to achieve sustainable long-term peace and security,” Diaby said.

“Donors need to help build the foundations for genuine prosperity in Mali; otherwise, they’ll have left the job half done,” Diaby said.

In Kenya demonstrators released a litter of pigs and poured blood on the pavement outside the gates of parliament in Nairobi to protest a proposed law that would raise wages for parliamentarians, Aljazeera reports.

Police and parliament officials chased the pigs after using tear gas, batons and water cannons to disperse the nearly 250 protesters who marched through downtown Nairobi Tuesday and sat down at the entrance to parliament.

The names of specific MPs has been written on the bodies of some of the pigs, which were rounded up and loaded them onto a lorry.

At least 10 people were arrested.

“We will not allow members of parliament to increase their salaries at will,” Okiya Omtatah, one of the protest organisers shouted.

“They are greedy just like the pigs we have brought here,” Omtatah added.

Mithika Linturi, a parliamentarian supporting a proposed bill, said the protesters had little regard for the law and that “there are proper channels to air their grievances”.

“Kenya is not a banana republic. This premise should be respected,” Linturi told reporters as he made his way into parliament, adding that parliamentarians had “a right to their opinions, even if they do not please everyone.”

The proposed bill would disband the commission that regulates MP’s salaries and thus lead to a pay rise for the law makers.

Kenyan parliamentarians are already some of the best paid on the continent, although their tax-free monthly salary of some $13,000 in the previous parliament has been cut to around $7,000.

The wages were cut after recommendations by the salaries commission, the body MPs now wish to close.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo government is naming a town after Patrice Lumumba, the country’s first prime minister whose assassination more than 50 years ago made him a liberation symbol worldwide, News24 reports.

The new city in central DRC, named Lumumbaville, will be made of several existing communities in the Kassai-Oriental province and will be more than 1 500km from the capital.

Government spokesperson Lambert Mende said on Tuesday that Lumumbaville will “honour the memory of a great Congolese statesman”.

Lumumba was elected prime minister when Belgium granted independence to the country in 1960 after almost a century of colonial rule.

The responsibility for Lumumba’s 1961 death remains a mystery. Lumumba’s son, Laurent, welcomed the creation of a town in his father’s honour but called on the government to conclusively determine who assassinated him.

In South Africa Reuters reports workers at platinum producer Lonmin’s South African shafts continued a wildcat strike for a second day on Wednesday, raising concerns that the bitter turf war between rival unions could escalate into anarchy and violence.

Production at all Lonmin’s 13 shafts was halted on Tuesday as protesters demanded the closure of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) offices at Lonmin, which said last week that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) now represented over 70 percent of its workforce.

“At all the shafts at Marikana, nobody reported for night shift and nobody reported for day shift this morning,” said Gideon du Plessis, Deputy General Secretary of smaller union Solidarity.

Lonmin has increased security at the mines following reports of intimidation and have urged all employees to return to work.

The platinum belt towns of Rustenburg and Marikana, which saw violent strikes at Lonmin and other producers last year, are a flashpoint of labor strife, with tensions running high over looming job cuts and wage talks.

On Tuesday Lonmin’s share price slid over 7 percent and the rand hit 3-week lows as investors worried about a repeat of 2012′s turmoil, which hammered platinum and gold production and triggered credit downgrades for Africa’s largest economy.

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has secured a license to continue operations as a Retirement Benefits Scheme, in accordance with the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority Act of 2011.

Receiving the license on May 13 in Kampala, the Fund’s Managing Director Richard Byarugaba said that securing of the license is further testimony that the Fund is prepared to operate in a competitive environment when the sector if fully liberalized.

The license was officially handed over by the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) Board of Directors Chairman, Andrew Kasirye at URBRA offices in the centre of Kampala city.

“This is another milestone that confirms that we are ready and we are primed to maintain our position as market leaders in the sector,” Byarugaba said, adding it is reaffirmation to our members that we are indeed ahead of potential competition.

He said the Fund will comply with all provisions of the URBRA.

Andrew Kasirye, the URBRA Board Chairman said that they are working with NSSF to ensure that the Fund transitions smoothly into the new environment as per the URBRA Act.

The Act separates functions of a Scheme, Fund Management, Administration and Custodianship. This means that NSSF, which currently performs all functions, has to reorganize itself to perform one of the functions.

“As a regulator, we are pleased that NSSF has already started reorganizing itself to lawfully operate in an environment that the law creates and as a regulator, we will continuously work with the Fund,” Kasirye said.

Kasirye said they have received over 160 applications from companies interested in the sector and have approved over 10 so far.

In apparently unrelated incidents on Tuesday, two Nigerian soldiers were killed farther northeast, in the city of Bama in Borno state, during coordinated attacks on multiple targets by more than 100 Boko Haram militants armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weapons mounted on vehicles, said Joint Task Force spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa.

On Wednesday, President Goodluck Jonathan said that dozens of people had been killed in Tuesday’s attack, according to a statement from his adviser, Reuben Abati.

Abati, speaking Wednesday, said, “President Jonathan believes that the continuation of such callous and wanton attacks on innocent Nigerians, government facilities and security formations flies in the face of ongoing efforts to establish a workable framework for dialogue and the peaceful resolution of security challenges in northern Nigeria.”

He added that the government’s consideration of dialogue with the militants “should not be seen as a weakening of its resolve and determination to use all the forces at its disposal to crush all brazen affronts to the powers and sovereignty of the Nigerian nation.”

They were on their way to arrest the leader of the outlawed Ombatse “cult” when gunmen opened fire, a state spokesman told the BBC.

Sani Musa Mairiga said they were forcing local villagers to swear an oath of allegiance to the group.

Nasarawa police chief Abayomi Akeremale said about 60 police officers came under attack on Tuesday.

“We decided to send our men to the area to arrest members of Ombatse, including their priest,” he told the AFP news agency.

“[They] have been going to churches and mosques initiating people into their cult by forcefully administering an allegiance oath to unwilling people.”

The police were attacked near the shrine to the traditional deity of the Eggon people, in the village of Alakyo, near the state capital, Lafia.

In Kenya, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday that Kenya had made “unfounded and incorrect” claims in urging it to end the cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, the Daily nation reports.

Fatou Bensouda described Kenya’s appeal to the UN Security Council last week as “a backdoor attempt to politicise the judicial processes” of the ICC.

Noting that she has not received a copy of the May 2 letter sent to the council by Kenyan UN Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Ms Bensouda said she was speaking in response to earlier comments made to the council by Rwanda’s ambassador.

The Rwandan envoy, Eugene-Richard Gasana, had said during Wednesday’s council meeting that Kenya’s letter makes “a compelling case against the methods of work of the office of the prosecutor on the Kenyan cases”.

Ambassador Gasana accused the ICC of being “selective in its methods of investigating and prosecuting perpetrators of serious international crimes as it has failed to prosecute similar crimes committed in other parts of the world with impunity”.

Ms Bensouda said in her response that the ICC “has always and will always continue to respect the sovereign equality of all states.”

She added that “the ICC will not shy away from investigating individuals for any alleged crimes irrespective of their status”.

Ms Bensouda said she reserved the right to respond in detail to Kenya’s letter to the council, which has not been officially released.

In Somalia, a senior U.N. official has said as many as 3,000 African Union peacekeepers have been killed in Somalia in recent years in an attempt to end an Islamist insurgency and bring stability to the Horn of Africa nation, Reuters reports.

“I want to pay tribute to the countries and to their soldiers who paid such an enormously heavy price,” U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told reporters.

“You would be shocked to learn that maybe it is up to 3,000 AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) soldiers that have been killed during these years that AMISOM has been there,” he said.

The 17,700 strong African Union force began deploying to Somalia in 2007. It includes troops from Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Djibouti.

“Uganda, Burundi have paid a tremendous price,” he added. “The Kenyan troops are, of course, also a large part of AMISOM.”

By way of comparison, 3,096 U.N. peacekeepers have died since 1948, according to the website of the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

African Union peacekeepers have been largely responsible for pushing al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab out of the capital Mogadishu and other urban centers in the past two years, but the group is still able to launch major attacks, including a suicide bombing on Sunday that killed at least eight people.

Eliasson said on the sidelines of a donor conference in London earlier this week that sought pledges to rebuild Somalia that the United Nations has given strong backing to the country’s new leadership.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a U.N. report released Wednesday accuses military troops of raping at least 97 women and 33 girls, some as young as six, in the country’s volatile east after they fled from advancing M23 rebels in late November, Reuters reports.

The majority of the rapes by the Congolese army (FARDC) occurred in the eastern town of Minova during a two-day period, and most cases documented by U.N. Joint Human Rights Office followed the same pattern, the report said.

“FARDC soldiers entered houses, usually in groups of three to six and, after threatening the inhabitants, looted whatever they could find,” the Joint Human Rights Office, which is part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, wrote in its report on abuses in eastern Congo between November 15 and December 2.

“One or two of the soldiers would leave with the looted goods and at least one would stand guard as the remaining FARDC soldiers raped women and girls in the house,” the report, based on more than 350 testimonies, said. “Most victims were raped by more than one soldier.”

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters the authorities were determined to punish the culprits.

“Military reforms are underway and we’ve also taken very severe action against those who were involved, either directly or indirectly,” he said, speaking from the capital Kinshasa.

Twelve senior officers, including the commanders and deputy commanders of the 41st and 391st battalions, have been suspended over the Minova incidents and “were to be put at the disposal of military justice authorities,” the U.N. paper added.

The U.N. report also documented widespread looting, at least 11 arbitrary executions and 59 cases of sexual violence carried out by rebels during the M23 occupation of Goma and Sake

“The victims, mostly wives of FARDC soldiers who had fled during the M23 advance, were raped,” the report said.

M23 began taking parts of eastern Congo early last year, accusing the government of failing to honor a 2009 peace deal. That deal ended a previous rebellion and led to the rebels’ integration into the army, but they have since deserted.

In Eritrea, Amnesty Interntional says thousands of political prisoners are being held by Eritrea in “unimaginably atrocious conditions”, and not one has ever been charged with any crime.

The rights group says at least 10,000 people have been jailed for political reasons since President Isaias Afewerki came to power 20 years ago.

It says torture is widespread in a network of detention centres.

Eritrea has so far not responded to Amnesty’s new report.

Some of those imprisoned are journalists or critics of the government, Amnesty says. Others have practised an unregistered religion, or tried to flee the country or avoid conscription into the army.

In most cases, prisoners’ families are not informed of their whereabouts, and often never hear from their relative again.

“The government has systematically used arbitrary arrest and detention without charge to crush all opposition, to silence all dissent, and to punish anyone who refuses to comply with the repressive restrictions it places on people’s lives,” said Claire Beston, Amnesty’s Eritrea researcher.

“Twenty years on from the euphoric celebrations of independence, Eritrea is one of the most repressive, secretive and inaccessible countries in the world.”

The facilities used as detention centres include underground cells or shipping containers, Amnesty says.

The group says some prisoners are left for days in what is known as the helicopter position – lying face down with their hands and feet bound together.

It says it has received many reports of deaths in detention resulting from torture, the bad conditions or suicide.

A former detainee held in a detention centre in Barentu told Amnesty:

“The room was about 2.5m by 3m [8 by 10 feet] and we were 33 people. It is very, very hot. The door is closed, the ceiling is low, about 2m. The temperature was about 50C.

“A boy, about 17 years old, was about to die. We were not permitted to speak, but we banged the door. They [the guards] told us they would kill all of us if we did not stop shouting. We couldn’t do anything to help him.”

In Libya, Aljazeera reports the country’s political crisis has deepened as armed groups surrounding two ministries in the capital said they had formed an alliance to present an expanded list of six demands that included the resignation of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.

The armed groups initially demanded that parliament pass the “political isolation law” banning senior officials, who held a senior position under late Muammar Gaddafi, from office, and members had hoped the vote would be enough to dislodge the gunmen from their positions at the government ministries.

Instead, the groups have settled in and expanded their list of demands, which they presented to Reuters news agency on a printed notice late on Wednesday.

The additional demands included Zeidan’s resignation, the freezing of a recently released state budget and the right to form a committee to take charge of the Foreign Ministry.

In a separate development, a rival coalition that said it supported the government warned those stationed at the ministries it was prepared to use force to dislodge them.

“If you do not respond to our demands, we will form a common national force from all the cities of Libya to handle this situation,” the group said on Wednesday.

Its members included federalists in eastern Cyrenaica and leaders of former rebel groups in a number of towns including Benghazi in the east.

Zeidan, for his part, promised the government would stick to plans to bar anyone who held a senior position under Gaddafi and said some ministers would have to be replaced under legislation passed on Sunday.

Zeidan defended the armed groups, saying they had a right to express their views as they saw fit.

“We don’t have militias in Libya, we have revolutionaries,” he told a news conference.

In Kenya, government officials are calling for the termination of crimes against humanity charges facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto at the International Criminal Court, Daily Nation reports.

Former radio journalist Joshua Sang is the other Kenyan set to stand trial.

In a strongly worded statement to the United Nations Security Council through Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN Macharia Kamau, the government asked the UN to present its petition to ICC during a meeting with The Hague court prosecutor held on Tuesday.

“What this delegation is asking for is not deferral. What this delegation is asking for is the immediate termination of the case at the Hague without much further ado,” the petition says in part.

The petition questioned the jurisdiction, partiality and competence of the ICC, expressing the government’s reservations over the manner in which the cases facing the three have been handled.

Kenya argues that the proceedings against President Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and Mr Sang are misplaced in light of the prevailing circumstances and lack of cogent evidence to back the charges.

“The original claims might have been false and or manufactured. It has since come to light that the evidence could be tainted and or procured through inducement and or corrupt measures,” Mr Kamau said in a the confidential letter to Mr Menan Kodjo, the President of the UN Security Council.

Mr Kamau’s letter comes hot on the heels of a similar attack by his deputy Koki Muli Grignon, who last month questioned the courts performance at the UN General Assembly.

Ms Grignon stated that continued intervention by the ICC would jeopardise peace, stability and efforts at communal reconciliation in Kenya.

In Uganda, a spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency says hundreds of Congolese are fleeing into the country to avoid being forcibly conscripted into the ranks of the rebel group M23, News24 reports.

Lucy Beck of UNHCR said on Wednesday that more than 250 Congolese villagers crossed into Uganda on Tuesday alone, joining at least 1 000 more who fled in recent days.

She said the situation is “uncertain”, with the agency stocking up on supplies in anticipation of more arrivals.

M23, the most prominent rebel group in eastern DRC, has been talking up its readiness to defend itself against an offensive brigade of the UN peacekeepers set to be deployed there. According to Beck, the refugees are “fleeing M23 preparations”.

Peace talks between the rebels and the Congolese government have hit a dead end.

Around 200 heavily armed members of Boko Haram arrived in buses and pick-up trucks and carried out the coordinated strike on Tuesday, first hitting the army barracks and the police station before breaking into the town’s prison, military spokesman Sagir Musa told the Reuters news agency.

Musa said 22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four civilians were killed, while 13 of the group’s own members died, in what was one of the rebel’s most deadly single strikes since a 2009 uprising.

“Some of the gunmen attacked the military barracks but they were repelled. Ten of them were killed and two were arrested,” he told AFP news agency.

President Goodluck Jonathan has set up a committee to agree the terms of an amnesty for the rebels but Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, has so far rejected the idea.

Police and public buildings – reportedly including a magistrate’s court – were razed to the ground.

“The call to prayer was just being said at about 05:00 when the Boko Haram started shooting from all directions and we ran for our lives,” a witness, Amina Usman, told Reuters.

Boko Haram, as it is popularly known, has its roots in this region of Nigeria. It is fighting to overthrow the government and set up an Islamic state.

Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says Somalia has entered a new era that will herald the end of more than two decades of conflict, the BBC reports.

He was speaking at a major international conference in London to help Somalia rebuild itself.

The UK and other donors pledged some $130m (£84m) in aid for Somalia.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said huge progress was being made in curbing piracy and tackling an Islamist insurgency in Somalia.

Somalia is widely regarded as a failed state, hit by numerous conflicts since the overthrow of long-serving ruler Siad Barre in 1991.

The United Nations (UN) estimates that nearly 260,000 people died during a famine in the East African state from 2010 to 2012.

“The Somalia conference in London aims to capitalise on the significant progress made over the past year and to agree coordinated international support for the government of Somalia’s plans to build political stability by improving security, police, justice and public financial management systems,” Britain’s Foreign Office said.

Somalia has been battered by conflict since 1991, but a new United Nations-backed government took power in September, ending more than a decade of transitional rule.

Britain’s Cameron said despite the progress made by the Somali government since then, big challenges remained.

“Tragic and despicable” recent attacks on Mogadishu are a reminder of “how much work we still have to do,” he said.

“The message at the second London summit will be clear: We will not allow Somalia to fall back. The Somali people are seizing the opportunity to forge a new future and we will support them every step of the way.

“Together I hope we can all get behind a long-term security plan that helps Somalia build up its army, its police and its judiciary; one that ends the Shabab’s reign of terror forever.

“I hope we can work towards getting Somalia the vital finance it needs to deal with its debts.

“I also hope we can improve transparency and accountability so people know where resources are going.

“We also need to continue the process of rebuilding the Somali state in an inclusive way.”

Mr Cameron also held talks with Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is attending the conference – his first visit to a Western country since his election in March.

Mr Cameron defended meeting Mr Kenyatta, saying he was co-operating with the ICC and Kenya was playing a vital role, along with other regional states, to beat back al-Shabab in Somalia.

In Sudan, Reuters reports South Sudan’s first oil export shipment since January 2012 has reached Sudan, in the latest sign of a thaw between the longtime foes.

The African neighbors agreed in March to resume cross-border oil flows, ending a row over pipeline fees that prompted landlocked South Sudan to shut down its entire production of 350,000 barrels a day in January 2012.

Sudanese Oil Minister Awad al-Jaz told SUNA the first oil from the South had arrived at Heglig, an oilfield controlled by Sudan along the disputed border.

In Heglig, which was damaged during weeks of skirmishes between the two armies in April 2012, water will be removed from the oil before it be will be piped to Port Sudan on the Red Sea to be loaded on to vessels.

South Sudan has resumed production of oil at the small Thar Jath oilfield in Unity State across the border from Heglig.

On Sunday, the government also turned on wells again at the Palouge field, the country’s largest, in Upper Nile state in the northeast.

The return of production is going slower than planned. South Sudan hopes within a month to pump up to 180,000 barrels per day in Palouge where Dar Blend, a heavy sour crude, is produced.

South Sudan expects to start getting paid in June as the first exports will be lifted in Port Sudan only by May 20, according to its oil ministry.

In Libya, defence Minister Mohammed al-Barghati resigned on Tuesday, but rescinded his decision several hours later at the request of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, News24 reports.

“The chief of the government asked the defence minister to rescind [his decision] and the minister said he understands, given the circumstances the country is going through, that he should continue in office,” a statement said.

Mohammed al-Barghathi earlier said he had decided to step down in the wake of the recent sieges by armed groups of the justice and foreign ministries.

Addressing a news conference in Tripoli on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Barghathi cited the sieges as the reason for offering his resignation.

“I will never be able to accept that politics [can] be practiced by the power of weapons,” he was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.

“This is an assault against the democracy I have sworn to protect.”

However, Mr Zeidan’s office later issued a statement saying: “The cabinet would like to clarify that the resignation was not officially presented to the prime minister.

“The prime minister has asked the defence minister to renounce it and [he] has confirmed that he will continue his work and expressed his understanding of the present circumstances in the country.”