“Les soldats sont entrés samedi dans le pays, par bateau, avec de nombreuses armes,” a indiqué à l’AFP un responsable militaire, Emmanuel Mcheri. “Ils ont affirmé qu’ils poursuivaient des rebelles qui se trouvaient à Kigoma pour traitement médical”.

La région de Kigoma, où les soldats sont interrogés, se trouve dans l’ouest de la Tanzanie. Elle est séparée de la RDC par le lac Tanganyika.

Selon le responsable militaire tanzanien, les soldats sont entrés en Tanzanie “sans suivre les procédures”, munis de mitrailleuses, grenades, pistolets et de nombreuses cartouches.

Ils sont actuellement interrogés et “resteront en détention jusqu’à ce que nous ayons plus d’informations et reçu des instructions d’en haut”, a-t-il poursuivi.

Jeune Afrique

Last month, Energy and Minerals Minister William Ngeleja said in a presentation to parliament that the government was seeking loans from China to finance construction of the pipeline from Mtwara to Dar es Salaam.

The Guardian on Sunday newspaper reported $300 million of the loan will be used to construct processing plants at Mnazi Bay, and that Finance Minister Mustafa Mkulo and Ngeleja were expected to fly to Beijing next week to sign the loan agreement.

“This is a must project for the future of this country … we have secured financing from the Chinese and the agreement will be signed next week,” Ngeleja was quoted saying.

“Some people have been misleading the public by saying the Chinese own this project, but the truth is it’s government owned … The Chinese are financiers and the project will boost gas supply as well as reducing or ending the power supply problem in the country.”

Tanzania’s chronic energy shortages have resulted in rolling power outages, undermining economic growth in the country.

The Tanzanian government said it plans to shift its focus to investment in thermal plants fuelled by natural gas and coal in attempts at weaning itself off weather-dependent hydropower, which accounts for 55 percent of the country’s energy sources. (Reuters)

It will  finance the construction of an electricity transport line to the northern region and also to Kenya and Zambia. The project would involve the installation of 225 kilometers of 4000kv line between Iringa and Dodoma, a 217 kilometers of 400kv line between Dodoma and Singida, a 225 kilometers of 400kv line between Singida and Shinyanga, and another extension for the Iringa, Dodoma, Singida and Shinyanga sub-stations.
The loan will help Tanzania produce more power to promote tourism, commerce and mining activities in the northern regions, the state-run daily said. Dodoma, situated in central Tanzania, is the administrative capital of Tanzania, and the capital of the Dodoma region. The daily didn’t provide the specific terms of the agreement. Japan has recently stepped up its investments in east Africa.  The project is part of a 700 billion shillings ($147 million) investment program in the African country’s energy sector, co-financed by the African Development Bank, International Development Bank, and the European Development Bank.
 ”This project will not only increase energy supply in the northern regions, but will also help promote trade and co-operation in east and central Africa by supplying the surplus energy to Kenya and Zambia,” Tanzania permanent secretary of Finance and Economic Affairs Ramadhani Khijja was quoted as saying.

For the second day, police used teargas and water cannon against protesters angry at the delay in some results and the credibility of others in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam and some parts of the country, east Africa’s second biggest economy.

Earlier, the defeated candidate in the presidential contest on Tanzania’s semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar said the vote was unfair but accepted a position in a coalition government to avoid the bloodshed that has marred the last two ballots.

Tanzania has enjoyed relative stability in an often unsettled region and has managed to hold three successive multi-party presidential elections since 1995, after more than three decades of one-party rule.

The election is seen as a test for the ruling party’s dominance in Tanzania, which has been struggling with poverty and underdevelopment. Government critics say poverty remains widespread among the majority of the population of 40 million.

Results from the 239 constituencies in east Africa’s second largest economy have been trickling in more slowly than expected, leading to a second day of clashes between opposition supporters and riot police in some parts of the country.

“We are concerned by any delays in the announcement of the results as this creates both uncertainty and suspicion among the electorate and we have concerns about the transparency of the aggregation process,” said chief European Union observer David Martin.

Trading on Tanzania’s currency market was subdued on Tuesday, with the shilling stable against the dollar, waiting for direction once the new government comes in, traders said.

Early confirmed figures gave incumbent President Jakaya Kikwete of the ruling party’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), who is seeking a second and final term, the advantage, but some political analysts expected the margin of victory to be tight.

The CCM’s campaign manager Abdulrahman Kinana said his party would likely lose 51 assembly seats but win the overall vote.

“We acknowledge that the National Electoral Commission has the mandate to announce election results, but we can confirm that CCM are on course to comfortably winning the presidential and parliamentary elections,” he told reporters in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

OPPOSITION MAKING GAINS

The Chadema party, whose presidential candidate Willibrod Slaa campaigned hard on an anti-corruption platform, appeared to be making the most gains.

“These results are giving the impression right from the beginning that the CCM presidential candidate is leading. I think CCM has preached to itself the idea that it will win with a large margin. This might cause trouble later on,” said political analyst Azaveli Lwaitama.

The EU observer group praised the peaceful conduct of the ballots but said the trappings of office had given Kikwete greater campaign visibility than his opponents.

Final presidential results are due out by Friday at the latest, the National Electoral Commission said.

Confirmed results from 53 of the 239 constituencies showed the CCM had 33 seats in the assembly but several ruling party candidates, including four cabinet ministers, were voted out.

Reuters.

Seif Sharif Hamad said his fourth consecutive election defeat was down to failings in the voting system but called on his supporters to act with restraint and to pack up their makeshift camps outside tallying centres.

“The results we are having today are a culmination of glaring flaws in our electoral system,” said Hamad, of the Civic United Front (CUF), who becomes a largely ceremonial first vice president, said in a speech late on Monday.

“Zanzibar needs to heal.”

Ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) candidate Ali Mohamed Shein won by fewer than 4,000 votes.

In the parliamentary election, which ran alongside the presidential ballot, Kikwete’s CCM picked up 43 seats from the 70 constituencies counted, state television said. The leading opposition party, Chadema, had won 13 seats and the CUF 11 seats.

Zanzibar’s constitution was amended earlier this year to force rival parties to share power by forming a coalition government to avert more bloodshed.

“The Government of National Unity will help in this, but I urge president elect Dr. Shein to refrain from taking bad advice from people surrounding him, and he should understand that all Zanzibaris are equal and all have a stake in the government.”

Shein won after polling 179,809 votes, or 50.1 percent, while Hamad garnered 176,338 votes, Zanzibar’s Electoral Commission said.

Five other parties took part in the vote, the fourth since multi-party politics were re-introduced in Zanzibar in 1992.

“I want to lead a true government of national unity and I will work closely with the opposition to achieve this,” president-elect Shein said.

Reuters.

Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said on Thursday easing restrictions involved the commercial export of maize grain and flour.

“The government has temporarily lifted the ban on the export of maize grain and flour … due to good harvests and success in the implementation of the government’s Agriculture First strategy,” said a statement issued by the PM’s office.

Tanzania suspended food exports in January 2009 to stabilise domestic prices following drought and a rise in food prices on the world market.

The east African country’s year-on-year inflation rate rose to 6.6 percent in August from 6.3 percent in July.

Inflation rates in east Africa often depend on weather because food carries significant weight in consumer price baskets. The region relies heavily on rain-fed agriculture and drought in the past few years has hit its economy badly.

Pinda said Tanzania had a surplus of 1.4 million tonnes of food.

“We have 12.8 million tonnes of food, including 7.7 million tonnes of grain. This represents 112 percent of the nation’s total food requirement,” the prime minister was quoted as saying.

He said the government had instructed the state-run strategic grain reserve to buy 200,000 tonnes of surplus food harvest from farmers.

Neighbouring Kenya, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are among the main importers of food from Tanzania.

Pinda said government investment in fertiliser supply and other subsidies to farmers were starting to pay off. The country plans to modernise the agriculture sector so that the majority peasant farmers replace the hand-held hoe with tractors.

Tanzania has been struggling to feed its estimated population of 40.7 million, and the government has to frequently appeal for food aid from donors to meet local production deficits.

Reuters.

RFI arrive sur un marché déjà saturé. A la BBC, qui a créé son antenne en swahili il y a un demi-siècle sont venus s’ajouter la Voix de l’Amérique, la Voix de l’Allemagne, la Voix de Chine et plus récemment celle du Japon. « Le fait que de nombreuses radios internationales émettent en kiswahili, prouve que les auditeurs aiment ça. Et je tiens à souligner que Radio France Internationale en kiswahili sera la meilleure de toutes », soutient avec sérieux Victor Robert Wile, le rédacteur en chef de cette antenne en kiswahili.

Dans les rues et sur les plages de Dar es Salaam, si les habitants accueillent avec plaisir l’arrivée de cette nouvelle radio internationale, c’est qu’ils ne sont jusqu’à présent totalement satisfaits d’aucune. « Chacune de ces radios nous donnent les informations qui leurs conviennent », remarque Omar Michel, qui partage son temps entre un travail de veilleur dans un hôtel et ses études de journalisme. « Les gens regardent surtout Al Jazeera ici, car c’est le premier média qui nous apporte des informations réellement diversifiées. Si RFI nous donne quelque chose d’approchant en swahili, ce sera une bonne chose », ajoute-t-il.

Un coup de jeune aux antennes internationales

Pour RFI, dont l’antenne en anglais n’est jamais parvenue à s’imposer en Afrique, la nouvelle antenne en kiswahili, qui va travailler avec de nombreux correspondants, devrait lui permettre de s’adresser à une population qui jusqu’à présent ne l’écoutait pas. « Il y a trois ans nous avons lancé le haoussa à partir du Nigeria. C’est une très forte réussite. On veut aujourd’hui aller vers les auditeurs africains dans leurs langues. C’est la meilleure manière de leur parler, c’est la meilleure manière de s’adresser à eux, en surfant bien sur notre forte crédibilité, sur l’image de référence qu’a notre marque en français », explique Geneviève Goetzinger, directrice déléguée de RFI, à l’issu de l’ouverture de l’antenne.

David Coffey, mise également sur l’effet « nouvelle antenne » pour s’attaquer aux principaux concurrents. « Les gens, ici, me disent que la BBC est devenue un peu fade, un peu vieille… Nous allons donc essayer de donner un coup de jeune aux antennes internationales de la région », dit-il dans un sourire.

Cette nouvelle antenne en kiswahili de RFI ne sera pas seulement diffusée dans des pays anglophones, où ses auditeurs seront totalement nouveaux, mais aussi dans ceux où elle est déjà très écoutée, comme à Madagascar, aux Comores, et en République démocratique du Congo. Dans la région, seul le Rwanda ne bénéficiera pas pour l’instant de ce nouveau service : Kigali ne veut pas l’entendre avant que Paul Kagamé, qui a pris le pouvoir par les armes en 1994, ait été réélu le mois prochain.

RFI.

Le Pont de l’unité sur le Rovuma a été inauguré mercredi par le président mozambicain Armando Guebuza et son homologue tanzanien Jakaya Kikwete. La traversée n’était jusque-là possible que par ferry ou pirogue.

Le pont de 720 m de long a été financé à part égale par chacun des deux pays pour un total de 28 millions d’euros.

Le Mozambique a entrepris de reconstruire son infrastructure détruite par des décennies d’une guerre civile qui s’est achevée en 1992 et en a fait l’un des pays les plus pauvres du monde.

Beaucoup reste à réaliser, la route qui doit mener en Tanzanie par le nouveau pont est encore du coté mozambicain une piste de terre inondée à chaque saison des pluies.

RFI.

The sharia law-compliant savings and current accounts are aimed at attracting customers deterred by conventional banking which conflicted with their faith, said Terry Moodley, head of personal and business banking at Standard Bank.

“We have targeted these two countries initially. They have large customer base groups that would find sharia banking attractive. We are aware that 40 percent of Africa’s people are Muslims,” he told Reuters late on Tuesday.

Islamic finance caters for customers who want to avoid earning interest, which is viewed as usury under Islamic law. Islam also prohibits speculation and investment in non sharia-compliant industries.

Just about half of Tanzanians are Muslims, Moodley said.

About 80 percent of Tanzanians live in rural areas and 95 percent of that group remains without formal banking services, according to the finance ministry.

Moodley said the bank hoped to launch Sharia-compliant loan products in a few month’s time, once it had pooled enough funds from its savings product.

“If we require funding at the time that we wish to launch the lending products, and we don’t have sufficient liabilities from deposits that have come through Sharia itself, then we would look for alternative sources of sharia-compliant funding,” he said.

The bank’s Islamic banking window was, however, not planning to participate in government paper auctions yet.

Islamic banking operates on a small scale in a few sub-Saharan countries, such as Kenya, South Africa, Botswana and Nigeria. Industry participants say Malawi, Uganda and Zambia would be next. Each have minority Muslim populations.

Reuters.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake’s epicentre was 84 miles (135 km) south of the town of Mbeya, at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km).

“At 0223 in the morning, there was an earthquake but up to this point, we have no reports of any damages or injuries,” said the regional police commander of Mbeya, Advocate Nyombi.

A magnitude 6 quake is capable of causing severe damage.

A series of tremors shook Malawi earlier this month and a 5.2-magnitude quake killed a one-year old child and injured two other people on December 8.

That quake’s epicentre was 110 miles (175 km) north of Mzuzu, Malawi’s third largest city, and 75 miles (125 km) southeast of Mbeya.

Reuters.