Nigeria's Bayelsa state government said Feb. 9 it will speed up the release of money to help hundreds of thousands of villagers affected by a Chevron off-shore oil spill in January. The affected areas are Kolo Ama I and II, Akasa, Sanagana, Fish Town, Fropa, Ekeni, Ezetu and Lobia—all in Bayelsa state, and with a combined population of some 500,000. Bukola Saraki, chairman of the Senate committee on environment and ecology, said his committee had convened several meetings with senior Chevron Nigeria officials, the Nigerian National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, and the Nigerian Department of Petroleum Resources to plan an initial impact assessment of the contamination and begin clean-up operations. "We will also ensure that Chevron takes appropriate steps to contain the spill, remediate the impacted area and if there has been any loss as a result, ensure that adequate compensation is paid to the immediate community," Saraki said.

Arms sales from China and Russia are fuelling serious human rights violations in Darfur, Amnesty International said Feb. 8. A new briefing, "Sudan: No end to Violence in Darfur," documents how China, Russia, and Belarus continue to supply weapons and munitions to Sudan despite compelling evidence that the arms will be used against civilians in Darfur. Exports include supplying significant quantities of ammunition, helicopter gunships, attack aircrafts, air-to-ground rockets and armored vehicles. Although the war has largely disappeared from global headlines, an estimated 70,000 people were displaced from eastern Darfur in 2011, in a renewed wave of ethnically targeted attacks against the Zaghawa community by Sudanese government forces and militias. Amnesty said that arms supplied to the government of Sudan are used in Darfur both directly by the Sudan Armed Forces; and government-backed militia including the Popular Defense Force. (AI, Feb. 8)

The Sudanese military said Jan. 30 that it had "liberated" 14 of the 29 Chinese road workers abducted by guerillas in in an attack on an encampment in the oil-rich border state of South Kordofan. But Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted embassy officials in Khartoum as saying all the workers were still missing. There is also dispute as to the nature of the attack in which the workers were taken. A spokesman from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) rebels told the AFP news agency that the workers were captured together with nine Sudanese soldiers when fighters attacked a military convoy. Wang Zhiping, a senior executive of the Power Construction Corporation that employed the workers, told Xinhua the rebels had attacked the workers at their camp. Together, more than 70 road workers, Chinese and Sudanese, were taken. The Chinese firm is building a road into a remote area of the state, despite charges by human rights groups that the Sudanese government is using such infrastructure to rush in troops to crush a growing insurrection.

South Sudan, at an impasse in talks with Khartoum over terms for use of the pipeline linking the two countries, has ordered oil companies to shut down oil production within two weeks. Landlocked South Sudan's President Salva Kiir accuses Sudan of having stolen $815 million worth of the south’s oil. Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir can no longer tolerate South Sudan exporting its oil for free while the two governments are at odds. Sudan has publicly proposed $36 per barrel, while South Sudan has listed figures under $1 per barrel. Efforts to mediate by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, current chair of the African Union, have been fruitless. When South Sudan seceded last year, it took with it about 75% of Khartoum's 500,000 barrels per day of oil production. The shutdown could lead to a tightening of the world’s oil supply and cause prices to rise. (Sudan Tribune via AllAfrica, Jan. 27; AP, Jan. 23)

Riot police cordoned off streets in Dakar on Jan. 28 after a night of violent protests that erupted after the Constitutional Council cleared octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade to seek a third term and opposition leaders vowed to force him from power. As the decision was announced, youths set fire to tires and threw stones at riot police, who responded with tear gas. At least one police officer was reported killed. Reports from the central town of Kaolack said the local headquarters of Wade's Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) was burned down. Riots were also reported in Thies and Mbour, outside Dakar. "Abdoulaye Wade has declared war on the people," said Amath Dansakho, leader of the leftist Party of Independence and Labor (PIT) and a member of the M23 opposition coalition. "The decision that we have just made will prove to Wade that this is a country of free people. We will render the country ungovernable." Wade responded by telling his opponents to stop their "displays of petulance" and "temper tantrums."

The Ethiopian government under its "villagization" program is forcibly relocating approximately 70,000 indigenous residents from the western Gambella region to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland, healthcare, and educational facilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report Jan. 16. State security forces have repeatedly threatened, assaulted, and arbitrarily arrested villagers who resist the transfers. "The Ethiopian government’s villagization program is not improving access to services for Gambella's indigenous people, but is instead undermining their livelihoods and food security," said Jan Egeland of Human Rights Watch. "The government should suspend the program until it can ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place and that people have been properly consulted and compensated for the loss of their land."

After a week of "Occupation" protests paralyzed the country's cities, Nigeria's government slashed fuel prices on Jan. 15. Fuel prices had jumped to $3.50 a gallon after President Goodluck Jonathan lifted subsidies, sparking the protest wave. But Jonathan said he will reduce the price only to about $2.75 a gallon—not the $1.70 Nigerians had been paying before the government eliminated subsidies on Jan. 1. Popular leaders say they will maintain their protests, and talks between the government and labor unions have failed to reach an accord. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has not withdrawn its threat to shut down oil production in the country. Tens of thousands took to the streets in cities across the country for five consecutive days last week, and three were killed in clashes with police in Kano City.

The Oromo Support Group reports that authorities in the de facto state of Somaliland are forcibly repatriating asylum-seekers from oppressed ethnic groups to Ethiopia, where they face persecution. Last week, Somaliland deported more than 20 Ethiopian nationals, handing them over to Ethiopian forces at the border town of Wachale—in violation of the international principle of "non-refoulement." Many more have been "refouled" in recent weeks—principally members of the Oromo and Ogadeni peoples. While political asylum applies only to those who can prove a well-grounded fear of persecution, non-refoulement is a generic ban on repatriation of refugees into war zones or disaster areas. (Press Enza, Dec. 29)