Zimbabwe

It has become commonplace in Zimbabwe for anyone to be tortured, jailed and sometimes murdered for disagreeing with the policies of President Robert Mugabe.

Children are usually the victims of conflicts conducted by adults around the world. Of the 12 million people in Zimbabwe suffering from the humanitarian crisis and violent political corruption, the country’s youngest citizens are being harmed the most.

Africa Action Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michael Stulman (202) 546-7961

Africa Action Releases "Africa Policy Outlook 2009"

Tuesday, January 27, 2009 (Washington, DC) – Today Africa Action released its Africa Policy Outlook for 2009.  This annual publication was released one week after the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama and as millions across the African continent celebrate the new opportunities his presidency offers.

The Outlook identifies several large-scale challenges facing the Obama Administration, including humanitarian disasters in Somalia, the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It suggests that the unilateral and militarized U.S. policy towards Africa has made African people more vulnerable over the last 7 years.

"Instead of dividing Africa up between friends and enemies, Outlook urges an inclusive and multilateral approach, designed to increase voluntary cooperation, bolster UN and hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping operations, and project long term solutions to the greatest challenge to security and stability in Africa, poverty.” said Gerald LeMelle, Executive Director of Africa Action.

The abrupt withdrawal of Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai from this Friday’s runoff presidential election essentially handed President Robert Mugabe a victory and left Zimbabwe’s future up in the air.

The awful reality of the violence against opposition leaders and supporters in Zimbabwe is made visual and very real by Sokwanele's June map of terror.

 

 

Via White African

Kubatana.net is the second Zimbabwean human rights group to use Web 2.0 technology to monitor and report on the elections and the third in Africa following the Ushahidi project on the Kenyan elections started in January. Sokwanele [Enough is Enough] created a google map for mapping election breaches using data they collected from their Zimbabwean Election Watch series.

(Crossposted from whiteafrican.com. With all eyes on Zimbabwe's election today and everyone hoping and praying for the best outcome - Sokwanele is an inspirational initiative which demonstrates how civil society can use Web 2.0 to engage at critical moments to try to ensure the best outcome. Comments on whiteafrican.com also very interesting, hinting at potential support for initiatives such as Sokwanele in the Ushahidi project which just made the finalist round in the N2Y3 Mashup Competition)

Zimbabwe goes to the elections on Saturday the 29th and there seems to be little optimism about the ultimate outcome. Sokwanele have created a number of graphics under their "Election Watch" series including this Google map showing election breaches.