Bodies recovered from Nakumatt ruins

Rescue workers at the Nakumatt Downtown store went back to work on Saturday morning after retrieving 25 bodies from the skeleton building on Friday.

Several Kenya Red Cross Society workers donned protective gear and searched through the debris of the supermarket, which was brought down by a massive fire that burned through Wednesday and Thursday.

By today (Saturday), the ruins were still smouldering.

The missing persons tent set up by the Kenya Red Cross was empty as most people who had reported their relatives and loved ones missing, had converged at the City Mortuary to try and identify the charred remains that were taken there late Friday.

More on this story from Capital FM >>

Deaths feared in Nakumatt inferno

Dozens are feared dead after a fierce fire destroyed a popular supermarket in Nairobi’s central business district. However, there has been no official confirmation on dead or missing persons.

The Nakumatt Downtown flames captured as they began on the afternoon of Wednesday 28th January, 2008.

Crowds at the scene and relatives of the missing are convinced that people were trapped in the fire. The downtown supermarket had two levels of shopping floor usually packed with people.

The fire began and spread rapidly. A survivor told Kenyan radio that she barely squeezed out of the narrow supermarket doors before hearing a loud explosion inside, followed by thick smoke.

Thick smoke coming out of the Nakumatt Downtown building in Nairobi.

So intense was the fire that smoke is still billowing out of the ruins almost 30 hours after the fire began on Wednesday afternoon. Meanwhile, Kenyan authorities have been criticized for being ill-prepared to deal with disaster.

Fire engines from the Nairobi City Council, Kenya Airforce, Kenya Airports Authority and private firms all ran out of water. Fire hydrants in the Kenyan capital long fell into disuse and fire trucks had to get water from Nyayo Stadium and Ngara. Both locations are 3 km away from the disaster along streets clogged with traffic.

The fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault. Eyewitnesses say a Kenya Power and Lighting transformer malfunctioned just behind Nakumatt Downtown moments before an explosion. Power fluctuations are common in Kenya and have caused great damage but never on the scale witnessed at this moment.

Considering that the building is still on fire, it is highly unlikely that bodies could have survived the heat and will pose serious challenges during identification.

Breaking News: Nakumatt Downtown in flames

A fierce fire is currently gutting down the Nakumatt Downtown supermarket, one of Nairobi’s largest.

According to Capital FM, at least seven workers of the store in the centre of Nairobi have suffered serious burns. The inferno forced the evacuation of workers from the Alibhai Shariff Building, the Nation Centre and other surrounding buildings as it threatened to get out of control.

The blaze has destroyed the megastore, as Nairobi City Council firefighters ran out of water. Reinforcements from private fire fighting firms, and the Kenya Airforce are at the scene but also running out of water.

The cause of the fire has not been established. The store, at the junction of Kenyatta Avenue and Kimathi Street, is one of Kenya’s busiest.

Onlookers are wondering how a fire could have grown to such devastation without detection.

Why Michuki rules failed

The Michuki rules failed not only because they cannot be sustainably enforced but because the tough measures were driven by factors other than road safety.

Public service vehicles on a Kenyan highway

Motoring analysts and traffic police officers say John Michuki never really meant to cut down road accidents in the country.

Instead, the Michuki rules were intended to bring down established bus operators and replace them with a monopoly whose ownership is linked to powerful figures close to President Mwai Kibaki.

At least twenty national bus companies collapsed within two years of the implementation of Michuki rules on 1st February 2004. The financial strain of the arbitrary decree was more than any business could bear. Companies that were servicing loans were forced to divert hundreds of millions of shillings into seat belts and speed governors.

Kenya Bus Services (KBS), which had plied Kenyan roads from 1934, struggled for a year under Michuki rules but finally died. In its place, Citi Hoppa became the new Nairobi bus company but it lacks the technical and managerial capacity of the old Kenya Bus. Citi Hoppa is associated with President Kibaki’s parliamentary Chief Whip, George Thuo.

Unlike KBS which went to every corner of Nairobi, Citi Hoppa prefers operating on a few routes with good roads mostly around Kenyatta Hospital, Ngummo and Kawangware. Far away suburbs such as Dandora and Kayole whose roads are in poor state are largely ignored. After KBS collapsed, rickety matatus rushed to fill the vacuum with negative effects on road safety. With more matatus on the road, criminal gangs have become stronger through extortion rackets. Kayole area is now effectively governed by such gangs.

What exactly were the Michuki rules?

After the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) won the 2002 polls, one of its pledges was to make Kenyan roads safer. The annual death rate from traffic accidents was in excess of 3,000. The transport minister at the time, John Michuki – a key Kibaki ally – proposed the tough measures in his first year of office.

Michuki decreed that all commercial vehicles fit speed governors set at 80 kilometres per hour. On city streets, the speed limit was enforced at 50 kilometres per hour. Seat belts were to be fitted for all seats in buses and matatus.

Standing passengers in city buses were banned. Meanwhile, the passenger capacity of matatus or minivans was reduced from 18 passengers to 13. In addition, crews of buses and matatus had to be vetted by police and receive a Certificate of Good Conduct before employment. Michuki made it mandatory for bus and matatu crews to be in uniform and to have their pictures posted in the vehicle.

Effects of Michuki’s rules

KBS was most affected by the ban on standing passengers. During its 70 year operation, KBS was licensed to carry standing passengers within the capital city. The company’s buses could carry over 100 people a time. After Michuki’s edict, KBS could only carry 48 passengers per bus. The move was a disaster in addition to the unplanned costs of seatbelts and speed governors.

KBS buses were low speed, city transport carriers that, even without a speed governor, could not surpass 80 kph. Since the company was already adhering to decades-old city bylaws, KBS management pleaded for an exemption. Michuki rudely dismissed them saying that competition from Citi Hoppa would be, “healthy.”

After Michuki’s rules were effected in February 2004, there was an immediate reduction in road accidents. Kenyans were convinced a new era of road safety was in place. However, the reduction in road accidents was merely cosmetic as explained by a motoring analyst:

“The Michuki rules reduced the number of vehicles on the road while reducing the number of passengers in each vehicle,” explains the motor consultant. Fares doubled as transporters raised money to conform to the rules. “The immediate increase in fares forced people to cut down on travelling, meaning that each passenger was exposed to a lower risk.”

“After February 2004, there were fewer public service vehicles, each vehicle carrying fewer passengers, and each passenger travelling less often. Therefore, even if the percentage rate of accidents remained the same, the actual figures would be lower.”

“Let’s say, for example, that 5 percent of all vehicles will be involved in an accident. 5 percent of 20,000 vehicles will give a lower accident figure than 5 percent of 50,000 vehicles. That is what happened” says the consultant.

Eventually, the high fares in public transport attracted massive investment, what Michuki called “healthy competition.” There was a rapid increase in the numbers of new public transport vehicles, to the extent that the government ran out of registration plates. Intense competition forced operators to reduce prices. By 2006, public transport fares were down to pre-2004 levels. Passengers began travelling more often.

The economic boom of 2006 and the hawking of low interest loans by commercial banks resulted in more Kenyans buying private cars. With more cars, matatus and trucks on the road, and each passenger travelling more frequently, the actual road accident figures began rising.

Motoring analysts blame road accidents on a poor driving culture, badly designed and neglected roads and poor enforcement of existing traffic laws. Kenyan police are notorious for demanding bribes only to turn against the same motoring public by conducting “crackdowns” whose only achievement is inconvenience to travellers.

Last Christmas, the Kenyan Police conducted an ill-planned crackdown on Christmas Eve that paralysed public transport. Needless to say, the sight of stranded families on the roadside did not do much to improve the government’s image.

Israeli atrocities in Gaza: 1,300 dead in three weeks

Israel says that its recent military operations in Gaza were meant to stop Palestinian militants from firing Kassam rockets into southern Israeli settlements.

Dead Palestinian children in a Gaza mortuary.

According to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), Palestinians have launched hundreds of rockets in the past eight years. Hardest hit is the town of Sderot, whose homes and shops now resemble bunkers due to concrete reinforcements built over the years.

The right of Israel to self-defence is not in doubt. However, by any measure, the deaths of 1,300 Palestinians in the Gaza strip within three weeks is totally out of proportion to the less than 20 Israelis who died in the operation. The inordinately large number of civilian casualties has irredeemably tarnished Israel’s reputation worldwide.

As horrific as the Hamas rockets had been, the violence in Gaza was much worse. The F-16s, Apache helicopters and tanks that moved into Gaza from the north were firing into the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and the refugee town of Jebalya. The explosions were terrifying. Eventually, tens of thousands of houses inside the Gaza Strip were destroyed by air strikes and artillery.

A home destroyed by Israeli fire.

The deaths of mostly women and children was worsened by the use of controversial tactics by the Israeli military. Already, new information has emerged about the bombing of the United Nations school where 45 civilians were killed. Israel has now retracted its initial claim that the school was being used by Hamas to fire rockets into Israel. The military is admitting that instead it was a bomb that missed its target. The U.N. is drawing up a report on this to submit as possible evidence of a war crime.

There is evidence that white phosphorous has been used in Gaza, contrary to Geneva Conventions regarding fighting in civilian areas. It is also suspected that Israel has used radioactive uranium weapons in Gaza, putting at risk both Palestinians and its own IDF soldiers.

Amnesty International’s fact-finding team found still-burning wedges of phosphorous from Israeli tank shells around buildings in Gaza City. These were similar to the ones that destroyed tons of humanitarian aid in the attack on the UN Relief and Works Agency Headquarters. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, the Israeli army insists that it “does not use white phosphorus.”

Evidence of phosphorous used in Gaza by Israeli military

Explosions of white phosphorous inflict hideous wounds consisting of many tiny holes, often invisible to X-rays. When phosphorous comes into contact with human skin, it burns so intensely that many victims require amputation because of the extensive injury. Palestinian doctors have reported seeing smoke coming out of the wounds several days later.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed that its researchers had seen multiple air-bursts of white phosphorus over Gaza city. “I’ve been on the border for the last few days watching the Israeli artillery firing white phosphorus shells into refugee camps,” Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at HRW told France TV channel 24.

This is not the first time Israel has been accused of using phosphorus bombs in crowded civilian areas in Gaza. Several years ago, doctors in Gaza reported seeing strange wounds on those injured during attacks by Israeli drones, which constantly monitor Gaza from the air.

Though fighting has ended, drones still fly over Gaza, promising more attacks. Many residents who live near the border fear that if they are spotted carrying anything – even a stick, the drones overhead will spot them and mistake them for someone carrying a rocket and they will be attacked.

The stature of Arab governments in the region has fallen in the eyes of ordinary people. Arab leaders were so complacent that Israeli Airforce jets violated Egyptian airspace in order to bomb the Gaza Strip, with little protest from President Hosni Mubarak.

Israeli F-16 fighter jets in action over Gaza.

Meanwhile, some high profile US military analysts have taken Israel to task for its behavior in its war on the Gaza Strip. Not for all those people they killed, but rather for all those people they left alive.

“I think you were too restrained and could have gone deeper into Gaza,” retired Lt-Gen Thomas McInerney, a military analyst for Fox News noted. McInerney also chided Israel’s leadership, saying they are “too sensitive about world opinion.”

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CREDITS: Anti-war.com, The Palestine Chronicle, Lawahez Jabari – NBC News Producer, The Electronic Intifada, Inter Press Service,  Petros Evdokas.

Photos by Shareef Sarhan. Click here for more his Gaza photos on Flickr.
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Israel uses chemical weapons against Palestinians

Phosphorus is an explosive chemical weapon which, like napalm, is banned by the Geneva Convention. Phosphorous burns fiercely, and can not be extinguished by water. The burns on people are so severe that they can go all the way down to the bone. Sometimes there’s not even a skeleton left.

Chemical weapons dropped by Israeli airforce in Gaza. Picture by Indymedia

These weapons destroy by fire every plant, animal and human being they encounter, usually allowing stone and concrete buildings, minefields, barbed wire and fortifications to remain intact. Essentially, phosphorus weapons are used to burn away everything alive or organic, leaving only inert and dead matter in their wake.

Evidence is emerging from photos and eyewitness accounts that Israel used chemical weapons against civilians in the recent military operation in Gaza. The world is also waking up to shocking revelations of Israel’s use of vicious substances against Palestinian civilians for several years now.

The Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons prohibit the use of phosphorous against civilian populations, or against military forces co-located with civilians.

Palestinian doctors have described in detail the viciousness of chemical weapons during previous Israeli military operations:

The bodies of dead Palestinian victims which reach the Al-Shifa Hospital disintegrate and crumble into liquid. The organs of the victims are totally burnt and carry small pieces of metal which cannot even be seen under the X-ray. Also, a white powder covers the internal organs of the victim’s bodies.

The doctors said when they try to open the injuries, they do not see the splinters which had inflicted the wounds, and could not identify the damaged area even after opening the bodies. The doctors said that the injuries must be inflicted by an unknown weapon as they had not seen injuries like that before. These are serious injuries which leave the victims shredded and covered with burns. Even in cases when the doctors medicate them successfully, the victims die after a couple of days for unknown reasons.

Israel has denied using phosphorous against Palestinians. It remains to be seen what the Israeli Defence Forces will say with mounting evidence of war crimes in Gaza.

Impending disaster at Likoni Ferry

Frequent breakdown of ferries at the Likoni Channel in raising fears of a major disaster in the making as hundreds of thousands of people put their lives at risk with each crossing.

Passengers and vehicles in one of the Likoni ferries. Picture by the Nairobi Chronicle.

In the past six months, the fleet of dilapidated ferries that link Mombasa Island to the southern mainland of Likoni has broken down with alarming frequency. A ferry will stall in the middle of the Kilindini Channel and passengers get stranded for hours before a rescue vessel is sent.

What makes the situation dangerous is that the ferries are often overloaded with people and vehicles and panic could easily tilt a ferry leading to its sinking.

This is exactly what happened on 27th April 1994, when the Mtongwe ferry capsized not far from Likoni and killed 272 of the 400 people on board. Fearful passengers had rushed to one side of the ferry leading to the disaster. Afterwards, it was reported that the legal capacity of the vessel was 300.

The Mombasa economy is in danger of slowing down due to the constant breakdowns. When ferries stall, motorists and travellers on both the island and mainland sides must wait several hours for whatever fault to be rectified. With Likoni being the only link between Mombasa Airport and the tourist hotels of Tiwi and Diani, hoteliers say that they are incurring heavy losses as visitors opt for more accessible locations such as the North coast.

Just last week, a tourist hotel at Tiwi in the South Coast was burnt to ashes because fire fighting engines were delayed at the ferry crossing.

Regional traffic has been adversely hampered by problems with the ferry since the Likoni route is a major link between Mombasa Island and the Tanzanian towns of Tanga, Lunga Lunga and Dar es Salaam.

On its part, the Kenya Ferry Services says it has ordered two new vessels due for delivery in June this year. Mombasa residents are however used to these kind of promises, and are taking the announcement with a pinch of salt. They will only believe it when the ferries finally appear on the horizon east of Mombasa.

The Likoni Channel suffers strong currents from the Indian Ocean. It is feared that a stalled ferry could be carried by powerful waves and dashed onto the rocks with disastrous consequences. Passengers are expressing fear that the aging ferries will one day collide with one of the many cargo ships entering or leaving Kilindini Harbour. Should such an accident involve an oil tanker, there could be a huge explosion at worst or a massive oil spill at the least.

There is currently no viable road transport alternative between Mombasa and the southern mainland. The land route through Kinango is reportedly so bad that motorists would rather wait several hours for the ferry to resume service.

In the past, the Kenyan government has promised to construct a road linking Mombasa’s Moi International Airport with hotels in Likoni, Tiwi, Diani and Shimba Hills but nothing has happened so far. The proposed road will totally be on the mainland, unlike the current situation where travelers from the airport first cross to Mombasa Island via Makupa Causeway then proceed to the Likoni Ferry to reach South Coast hotels. Since the 1980s, the government has also proposed building either a bridge or an undersea tunnel across Likoni but nothing has been done.

This spate of broken promises is the reason why coast people feel that Kenya’s powerful central government is neglecting them. Federalism, or Majimbo, is very popular because Coast people believe they will direct infrastructure development accordingly.

To rub salt water to injury, the Kenyan leadership has announced a 231 billion Kenya Shillings (US$3 billion) plan to build a new port at Lamu, a remote archipelago located close to the border with Somalia. Lamu lacks roads, a railway and an electricity grid. Incidentally, political leaders from Lamu say they were never consulted on the plans.

From the days when the East African coast was ruled by Arab sultans, Lamu and Mombasa have been rivals. The decision by President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to relocate the port to Lamu has not gone down well in Mombasa.

If the plans become reality, Mombasa port will lose business as the main entry point for Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

President Obama’s impact on Kenya

Mired in corruption, ethnic warfare and inept government, Kenyans are hoping that Obama will find time from his soon-to-be busy schedule as United States President to help alleviate suffering in his ancestral country.

Barack Obama

However, this may not happen – at least not in the manner that most expect. And it is not only because of the cliché that Obama is first and foremost President of the American people.

Obama is likely to keep away from Kenyan politicians using the proverbial 10 foot pole. Kenyan leaders stink to high heaven what with hands washed in blood and clothes stained from the vomit of gluttonous feeding. Obama will not want to associate with a political clique that could easily cost him a second term of office.

Despite all the excitement of an Obama presidency, his detractors within the Democratic party and from the Republican side, are keenly waiting for Obama to get involved with Kenyan politicians so that they can associate him with the evils in Kenya. Obama knows this, hence his reluctance to speak out on any aspect of the ongoings in Kenya.

Kenyans have become so numbed to political theatrics that we don’t realize most of our leaders’ behaviour would be illegal elsewhere. Incitement to war, theft, grabbing of national resources and nepotism are crimes that will land you in jail many times over in the United States. Obama is well aware that the American people will never forgive him if he is linked to Kenyan scandals.

Americans will not understand how a responsible official can refuse to resign after losing billions of shillings, or after losing food meant for hungry Kenyans. Americans will not be swayed by those justifying the killings of over 1,000 Kenyans in last year’s post election violence.

This is the idealistic kind of politics that has created icons like Obama. American statehood does not strive on exploiting differences among people but seeks to create a humane, democratic and equal society. Certainly, the United States is far from achieving these ideals but every American leader attempts to take his/her people closer to this collectively visualized ideal.

Americans will not tolerate a leader who sacrifices these sacred ideals under any circumstances. This is the reason why Obama won by a landslide because Republicans were sacrificing core American values in the War on Terror that is mainly remarkable for Bush administration deceptive tricks.

As long as Kenyans retain the current breed of leaders, there is no chance of Obama engaging in constructive engagement with us. Doing so will be risking his entire life’s work.

Perhaps, Obama will increase his involvement with Kenya during his second term of office as he will not be seeking re-election. For now, though, Kenyans must find a home-grown solution to their leadership crisis.

Leaders into death and darkness

Kenyan leaders will plunge the country into untold civil strife unless a domestic or international intervention stops this reckless, insensitive and incompetent behavior.

The people of Kenya are reeling in shock at a heartless political class that steals maize meant for 10 million hungry Kenyans. The Prime Minister’s family and other members of parliament have been implicated in the food looting spree.

Unprecedented corruption has resulted in the emptying of millions of barrels of oil from the national pipeline by characters with top-level connections. The architect, Yagnesh Devani, fled the country long before the details came to light.

The ruling elite have created for themselves a 42 member cabinet, with each minister having 3 assistants. Diplomatic positions are being dished out to childhood buddies, mistresses and political losers. Jobs in government departments are awarded to relatives whose incompetence is to blame for massive corruption, shortages and breakdown of infrastructure.

In the years before independence, the British Governor Sir Evelyn Baring said that an African-led government would, “take Kenya into death and darkness.” From the happenings of today, we can say for certain that the British were right.

Kenya is collapsing and unless the international community takes action, or unless there is a domestic uprising, Kenya will soon become a failed state. This is something that we at the Nairobi Chronicle are not afraid of saying. The situation in Kenya is extremely bad and the only reason the country is still together is because of the legendary patience of its people.

Kenyan leaders are mired in corruption up to their necks. President Kibaki and his allies have been linked to phony companies that win government tenders worth billions of dollars. The Kenyan cabinet is a collection of ethnic warlords, corporate fraudsters, con-artists and sex predators. There are rumours that some high ranking politicians are addicted to alcohol and narcotics, further explaining their warped thinking.

Tribal politics have made Kenyans to regard people from other ethnic groups as enemies. Politicians incite ethnic animosity over such issues as jobs, land and development projects. The truth is that most Kenyans live a similar lifestyle of poverty and hunger. But the politicians are hypocrites who cause ethnic bloodshed while wining and dining together.

The names behind the maize theft and oil siphoning scandals reflect the breadth and width of Kenya. Politicians from the Luo, Kalenjin, Luhya, Kikuyu, Arab and Asian communities have no problem scheming together while ordinary Kenyans hack each other to death simply for belonging to a rival tribe.

Kenyans have become so tribalized that when 1,000 Kikuyu youths are arbitrarily killed by the police, other ethnic groups dismiss it as a Kikuyu problem. When the Kenya Army killed thousands of men in Mount Elgon while raping their widows, little noise was heard from elsewhere in the country. When Muslim men are abducted from coastal villages and sent to Guantanamo Bay only to be released for lack of evidence, Kenya keeps quiet because it is a Muslim problem. The truth is that when the rights of one community are violated, the rights of everybody else are under threat.

Greed for power and wealth by Kenyan leaders will certainly destroy this country. Campaigns for the 2007 election began soon after President Mwai Kibaki was sworn into his first term of office on December 30th, 2002. Campaigns for the 2012 General Elections are already well under way. Permanent electioneering has pushed the development agenda out of sight, the needs of the people have been completely ignored.

Water, electricity and fuel shortages are the order of the day and contribute to a declining economy. Crime is on the increase as security forces concentrate their energies in protecting the ruling classes from the anger of their own people. Every cabinet minister, assistant minister and all members of parliament have a permanent police guard. Every public space in Nairobi is manned by squads of riot police in a bid to disperse public gatherings.

Since the signing of the National Peace and Reconciliation Accord that formed the Grand Coalition between Kibaki and Raila last year, the international community assumed that life in Kenya is back to normal. The United Nations, the African Union and the United States were instrumental in creating this government. However, they should know that the Grand Coalition is worsening the plight of Kenyans rather than making things better. Violence is likely to resume with worse intensity.

Kenya today is in similar circumstances as Russia in 1917, China after World War 1, Cuba in 1959 or France in 1790. The people are sick of the cruel ways of the leaders. The people yearn for somebody or something to liberate them from a lifetime of hunger, poverty and rape.

For now, a uniting figure such as Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong or Nelson Mandela is yet to emerge but it is just a matter of time. The impending social, economic and political tsunami that will sweep Kenya will either make it stronger or destroy it forever.

Who Supplied the Missiles to the LRA?

By Scott A Morgan

Around Christmas Day the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels (LRA) used an anti-aircraft missile to shoot down a Ugandan aircraft.

The question now becomes: how did the LRA get their hands on these weapons? There are two possible answers. First of all is that these are leftovers from US aid to the Mobutu regime that ruled Congo for 32 years until 1997. Its possible that they still remain but they more than likely were used during the Congolese wars of the late 1990s.

The most logical answer is that the weapons were provided by Sudan. For a long time, Sudanese intelligence supported the LRA by providing arms and logistical support. This was a tactic used to keep prying eyes from seeing what has been occurring in Darfur.

For people struggling to survive in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Uganda the events of the last month is a microcosm of the last couple of decades.

The area is rife with militia activity. Some of the lowlights include the use of rape as a tactic of punishment and children being forcibly recruited to take an active role in fighting. In extreme cases people get murdered in church. Sadly it seems that such are a daily occurrence.

But there are differences as well. The United Nations has seen it fit to send peacekeepers to the strife-ridden Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In contrast, the long suffering Acholi tribe in northern Uganda has had to fend for itself against a ruthless militia and a Government that has proven to be just as ruthless.

At the end of November, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – which just happens to be the main insurgent group active in Uganda – walked away from Peace Talks that were taking place in Southern Sudan. Depending on who you talk, to the reason for the talks breaking down are due to a threat against the life of the leader of the LRA or the fact that they have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

When LRA walked away from the peace talks in November, they were warned that they risked being attacked. In a bold move the rebels called what they perceived to be a bluff. It was a serious tactical error in judgement. Within a fortnight the militaries of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan launched an attack designed to bring the LRA back to the table.

So there were a series of strikes and reprisals. The main base of the LRA was attacked and reportedly leveled by an air strike by the Ugandan Air Force. The LRA went on a rampage attacking villages and killing 500 people.

The possession of anti-aircraft missiles by the LRA is potentially troubling. If it is proven that Sudan provided these missiles then tensions will once again rise in the region.

And that is not what the African Great Lakes need right now.