Category Archives: Libya

Libya & S. Africa: Plane from South Africa crashes at Libya’s Tripoli airport, killing 105 people

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From: Theus Owicho

A plane has crashed at Libya’s Tripoli airport, killing 105 people, but there are reports a child has survived the disaster.

The accident happened as the Afriqiyah Airways plane, which had flown from Johannesburg in South Africa, tried to land in the Libyan capital.

A Libyan security official said 94 passengers and 11 crew were among the dead.

“All passengers and crew members on board were killed,” he said.

Another report claimed an eight-year-old Dutch child had survived the crash.

The cause of the crash remains unclear.

South Africa’s foreign ministry has confirmed a plane went missing while travelling from Johannesburg to Libya.

“All we know is that a plane went missing en route from Johannesburg to Tripoli,” said foreign ministry spokesman Nomfanelo Kota.

“At this stage we cannot confirm whether the plane crashed.

“We are talking to civil authorities from South Africa and Tripoli,” she added.

Afriqiyah Airways, which runs a fleet of Airbus planes, was founded in April 2001 and at first fully owned by the Libyan state.

The company’s capital was later divided into shares to be managed by the Libya-Africa Investment Portfolio.

Gadhafi-Museveni clash at the next AU meeting in Kampala is inevitable

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GADHAFI MUSEVENI ROW OVER CULTURAL LEADERS AND TRADITIONAL RULERS AND THE PROPOSED UNITED STATES OF AFRICA LIKELY TO INTENSIFY AS AU MEETING IN KAMPALA .

News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

The love-hate relationship between Presidents Maumor El-Gadhafi and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is blossoming once again with Kampala-which hosts the upcoming Africa Union Summit warning Libyan strongman not to invite cultural leaders and traditional African rulers at the next meeting.

At the forthcoming AU meeting scheduled for July, a hot debate is expected to centre on how the AU Commission will become an authority with executive powers and act independently.

President Gadhafi, also known as the “King of Kings”, has been mobilizing cultural leaders and traditional rulers to campaign for his vision of an immediate African government, a position Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has openly rejected.

President Museveni is known to be a strong proponent of a “gradual consolidation of regional economic communities into a continental government”.

Uganda’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa was quoted this week as saying, “We shall not accept Gadhafi to bring traditional rulers and cultural leaders to the AU Summit. They can play their cultural role but should desist from participating in national and international politics”.

There are now widespread fears in Kampala that President Gadhafi could bring his cultural allies to drum up support, especially since he invited about 100 cultural leaders from around Africa to attend the Toro King Oyo Nyimba’s coronation ceremony in Uganda last weekend.

Gadshafi wants the immediate formation of the United States of Africa, and since the findings for establishment of an AU Authority with wider mandate, compared with the present Commission, will be tabled at the forthcoming AU Summit, different camps are expected to voice their stand on the matter.

“We have not changed our position on how the African Union government should be formed. It should take a progressive step,” Kutesa told the EASTAFRICAN last week.

He added; “Kampala still believes its position for the gradual formation of the African Union government is the best approach and does not want any doubt cast on it.”

At the forthcoming AU Summit, findings of a team of legal experts will be tabled to guide the transformation of the Commission into an Authority, giving the body executive powers to make decisions.

About 3,000 delegates are expected at the 15th Ordinary Session of the Heads of State and Government that runs from July 19 to 27 in Kampala. The theme of the Summit is “Material, Infant and Child Health and Development in Africa”, but the Summit will also discuss peace and security, infrastructure, energy, Agriculture and food security.

Under the new arrangement, governments will still retrain their sovereignty although a president and vice president will head the Authority, and the Commission will have secretaries charged with portfolios.

A week ago, the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, Remitane Lamamra, said while in Tripoli, Libya, that the transformation of the AU into Commission would be a turning point in driving the process of political integration and economic development in Africa. From other quarters, sources say, the Gadhafi blue print is meeting stiff opposition from moderate African states, especially those in the Anglophone countries.

Many argue that the time is not ripe for such undertakings. This is also the same position with the proposed Federation of East and Central African states under the auspice of the East African Community. The proponents of the federation have been told to go slow over the issue.

Lamamra disclosed that consultants had prepared 11 motions to be amended, supplemented or elaborated on to guide the Authority.

“Presently, the Commission is more of a co-coordinating mechanism. We are creating an institution with a mandate, which will move us towards the goal of the union government”, said Rosette Nyirinkindi, the head of the AU department.

Insiders say, this is not the first time the Kampala regime feel uncomfortable with President Gadhafi’s hobnobbing around with cultural leaders to influence African affairs.

In 2009 the Ugandan government blocked a meeting of 200 kings, princes,sultans,sheikhs and traditional leaders that had been sponsored by the Libyan government to be held in Kampala.

In February 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, presidents Gadhafi and Museveni openly clashed over the direction of the formation of a single government for all African states should take.

In November the same year, at the UN General Assembly Summit held in New York on climate change, the two leaders agreed to exclude cultural leaders from politics.

Last year, President Museveni accused the Libyan President of trying to destabilize his government using cultural leaders, because the former had at the 2007 AU Summit in Accra, Ghana refused to support Gadhafi in his bid to become the first president of a United States of Africa.

Early this year, without consultation with the governments, Gadhafi secretly invited cultural leaders to Tripoli where they were lavishly entertained, given tokens of handouts in cash, materials such as motor vehicles, tractors and money. They include those from Kenya and other countries in the continent invited at a different times. And two weeks ago, Gadhafi sent his representative during the installation of the new King of Wanga in Western Province of Kenya, a dormant tribal kingdom, which ceased to exist about 36 six years ago, when the last Monarch Nabongo died. Gadhafi sent his representative with gifts of Television sets, laptops and cash.

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leooderaomolo@yahyoo.com

Col Muamor El-Gadhafi may have secretly bought Ugandan Oil fields through a Colonial compensation treaty with Italy.

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UGANDAN GOVERNMENT HAS DENIED THAT LIBYAN STRONGMAN COL MUAMOR GADHAFI IS AFTER ITS OIL FIELDS, AS REPORTED BY ITALIAN PRESS.

Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu CITY

UGANDAN government has strongly refuted and rejected suggestions that Libyan strongman Col Muamor El-Gadhafi is secretly eying Uganda’s oil fields.

“The government of Uganda does not accept the view that Gadhafi is after Uganda’s oil”, said a statement issued by the Minister or State for Foreign Affairs, Sam Kutesa.

“In any case, Libya has more oil than Uganda will ever find. We therefore do not think that Libya is targeting Uganda’s oil”, the statement went on.

Minister Kutesa was reacting to a SUNDAY VISION leading article entitled, “Is Gadhafi after Uganda’s oil?”

“Any misunderstanding the article may have caused between the two countries is unfortunate and we disassociate ourselves from it,” the Minister’s statement further explained.

Citing the Italian media reports, the SUNDAY VISION article said Libya on three occasions had announced its interests to buy up to 10 per cent shares in Elni, the Italian company that wants to take over Heritage’s stakes in Uganda’s oil fields. That would make Libya the second biggest shareholder in the company, after the Italian state giant oil firm, which has 30 per cent stake.

Libya state owned company, Tamoil  had earlier won contract to built Kampala oil terminal and the extension of the Eldoret-Kampala oil pipeline.

Earlier reports had indicated that Libyan Gadhafi planed to buy up to 10 per cent shares in Elni, the Italian oil giant company that, on Friday last week, signed a deal with the UK based Heritage, to take over the oil field in Uganda.

That would make Libya the second biggest shareholders of the company after the Italian biggest oil firm, signed sale and purchase agreement to sell its interests to Elni for usd.1.5 billion, formalizing a preliminary agreement made on November 23.

Gadhafi, the report continued, first mentioned it in August 2008, after the signing of a “friendship treaty”, under which Italy would pay compensation for its misdeeds, during its colonial rule of Libya.

“It {the treaty} allows for something that, in different times, would have been absolutely impossible, such as a foreign state that enters with a take of 5 to 10 per cent in your national oil company, which is what we would want to do”, Gadhafi was quoted in the Italian newspaper La Republica as having said this.

Gadhafi’s interest in  Elni was confirmed in December last year by the Libyan ambassador to Italy, Hafed Gaddur.

“Libya would be interested in buying up to 10 per cent of Italian oil giant Elni as one of a number of investments it is considering in Italy”, he told the newspaper.

Describing the investment in Elni as financial, Gadhafi said Libya would look to getting a seat on the board of the company.

And in May, Libyan Energy Minister, Shokri Ghamen, reiterated his country’s interest in acquiring up to 10 per cent of Elni, as well as a stake in Italy’s electricity company, Enel, the world’s largest energy provider.

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leooderaomolo@yahoo.com