Under the constitution adopted last year, Kenya was due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on August 14 2012, the first polls since a disputed vote in 2007 after which more than 1,220 people were killed and 350,000 displaced. The post-election violence is being investigated by the International Criminal Court.

The government wants to delay the 2012 vote by four months, citing logistical problems, a move which helped prompt the electoral commission to petition the Supreme Court to make a binding ruling on the date.

Instead the Supreme Court ordered the High Court to urgently determine the case, since it has a primary role on hearing constitutional matters.

“We decline to give our advisory opinion on the next general election,” Chief Justice Willy Mutunga said.

The High Court should sit on a daily basis starting this Friday until the matter is resolved, Mutunga ordered.

An opinion poll last month showed 53 percent of Kenyans want an August election and 38 percent a December one.

Analysts hailed the ruling, saying it was a step in the process of rebuilding the credibility of the country’s legal system and restoring confidence in the courts, which have in the past been used to hand down unpopular political decisions.

“It is a first class ruling, the jurisdiction over such matters is vested in the High Court,” said former legislator and prominent lawyer Paul Muite.

“It also means if a petitioner is not satisfied with the High Court’s decision, he can go to the Court of Appeal and if still unhappy there is the Supreme Court. But if the Supreme Court had ruled, then there would have been nowhere else to go.”

Legislators are expected start debating the government’s proposed vote delay in early 2012.

Reuters.

Aucune source officielle au sein des forces de sécurité camerounaises n’a confirmé la nouvelle de la prise d’otage d’hier matin. Au juste a-t-on appris que « l’on est obligé de gérer la situation avec beaucoup de prudence ». L’officiel militaire qui insiste sur les « précautions » à prendre affirme que la célébration du cinquantenaire de l’indépendance du Cameroun qui se célèbre en ce moment ne doit pas être émaillée d’informations alarmistes. Reste que des moyens militaires ont été mobilisés pour « sinon mettre la main sur les assaillants, du moins sécuriser la côte ». La chasse aux pirates aurait été lancée à partir de la porte 4, dans la zone de mouillage, là même ou l’attaque a été perpétrée.

Qui a donc perpétré l’attaque d’hier ? Aucun des groupes ayant par le passé revendiqué des actes de piraterie dans le golfe de Guinée n’a reconnu avoir frappé en haute mer. Des chefs des Bakassi Freedom Fighters contactés par des correspondants de la presse étrangère ont indiqué qu’ils ne détenaient aucun otage. Pour l’instant, la piste des pirates nigérians est tout de même privilégiée par la plupart des responsables de la sécurité qui enquêtent sur la question.

In Le Jour.

« Le Japon participe à la lutte contre la piraterie dans le golfe d’Aden et 90 % de nos exportations empruntent cette route maritime. Plusieurs de nos bateaux ont été attaqués par des pirates, nous avons donc décidé de nous installer à Djibouti pour plusieurs raisons. D’autres armées étrangères : américaine, française sont déjà présentes à Djibouti et ses infrastructures portuaires et aéroportuaires sont excellentes », explique le capitaine de vaisseau Keizo Kitagawa.

Le Japon déploie au large de la Somalie, deux destroyers et plusieurs avions de patrouille. L’armée japonaise aura en permanence 150 personnes à Djibouti, le long d’une des voies maritimes les plus fréquentées au monde.

Le Japon paiera un loyer à Djibouti pour les 12 hectares alloués. La construction de la base sera terminée au début 2011, pour un montant de 40 millions de dollars. Le Japon a choisi Djibouti après des repérages au Yémen, à Oman et au Kenya.

RFI.

Il est vrai que si Madagascar est la cinquième plus grande île du monde, elle manque singulièrement de moyens. Six petites vedettes, un patrouilleur et moins de 350 hommes, voilà les ressources de la marine militaire malgache. C’est peu pour surveiller et protéger des milliers de kilomètres de côtes et surtout une zone économique exclusive de plus d’un million de kilomètres carrés.

Le capitaine Zahar espère ainsi que l’attaque contre ce chimiquier va faire prendre conscience aux autorités de l’importance de la marine militaire. Il y a quelques années, celle-ci avait carrément senti sa légitimité menacée par un projet de création de garde-côtes qui aurait encore plus limité son champ d’action.

RFI.

Le partage de la rançon du Maran Centaurus aurait mis le feu aux poudres. Il faut dire que la somme a de quoi aiguiser les appétits. D’après plusieurs sources, ce serait l’une des plus grosses jamais versées aux pirates : entre 5 ,5 et 7 millions de dollars.

Le butin devait être livré dimanche 17 janvier aux preneurs d’otages contre la libération du navire. Mais peu avant l’échange, un groupe rival quitte la côte somalienne et tente de prendre d’assaut le Maran Centaurus pour court-circuiter l’opération.

Une troisième bande de pirates, alliée aux preneurs d’otages, intervient, tue deux assaillants et met les autres en fuite.

Avec une dizaine d’heures de retard, la rançon est finalement livrée sur le bateau aux preneurs d’otages.

D’après l’organisation Ecoterra, basée dans la corne de l’Afrique, les bandits se rendent ensuite à terre, dans leur repaire d’Harardéré. Ils mettent l’argent dans une maison placée sous surveillance armée.

Et c’est à ce moment qu’un second affrontement éclate pour le contrôle du butin. Les auteurs de la prise d’otages sont de nouveau attaqués par des rivaux.

Selon plusieurs témoins, les combats menés à l’arme lourde dans les rues du village, ont fait au moins un mort et plusieurs blessés.

Rfi.

The Asian Glory was seized about 600 miles east of the Somali coast before it joined a convoy heading for the Gulf of Aden, ministry spokesman Dragovest Goranov said.

Somali pirates have made tens of millions of dollars from seizing ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, linking Europe to Asia, and are also hunting far into the Indian Ocean to evade foreign navies sent to protect commercial shipping.

The European Union’s counter-piracy force, EU Navfor and the British Foreign Office confirmed that the British-flagged Asian Glory had been seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean on Friday.

Navfor spokesman Commander John Harbour said the ship was well outside Navfor’s area of operation when seized.

It has 25 crew members — eight Bulgarian, 10 Ukrainian, five Indian, two Romanian, he said.

Harbour said the ship had been seized by pirates but he could not confirm they were Somalis. He did not know where the ship was heading.

An official at the Bulgarian office of the British company Zodiac, which manages the 45,000 tonne ship, said it was travelling from Singapore to Saudi Arabia.

“One of the sailors managed to call the British management company and say the ship was hijacked, but that the crew were in good health and were not injured,” Prodan Radanov said.

On Wednesday, Somali pirates hijacked a Singapore-flagged chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden.

Another British-flagged ship, the chemical tanker St James Park, which was seized on Monday in the Gulf of Aden, had arrived off the pirate stronghold of Hobyo, Harbour said.

The ship has a crew of 26, including three from the Philippines, three Russians, one Georgian, two Romanians, five Bulgarians, two Ukrainians, one Polish, six Indians and three Turks.

On Dec 28, another cargo ship were also seized, underlining the risk to shipping on some of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes. The pirates hold more than 10 vessels.

Reuters.

“We have received $4 million and released the ship and its 21 crew late yesterday,” pirate Mohamed told Reuters. “The crew were happy and clapping when our friends got down from the ship.”

The European Union naval force (EU Navfor) patrolling the shipping lanes off Somalia confirmed the release of the 24,637-tonne vessel, captured as it was sailing to the Kenyan port of Mombasa from Singapore.

EU Navfor said in a statement that the Canadian warship HMCS Fredericton was now providing medical and logistical assistance to the Kota Wajar.

Somali pirates have made tens of millions of dollars from hijacking ships and holding them until a ransom is paid.

According to Ecoterra International, a group that monitors shipping off Somalia, at least 10 foreign vessels and 228 seafarers are still being held by pirates.

Reuters.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged on Saturday in the United States with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day with almost 300 people on board.

“His father, having become concerned about his disappearance and stoppage of communication while schooling abroad, reported the matter to Nigerian security agencies about two months ago and to some foreign security agencies about a month and a half ago,” the Mutallab family said in a statement.

“The disappearance and cessation of communication which got his mother and father concerned … are completely out of character and a very recent development,” said the family statement, which was sent to Nigerian media.

The media had quoted family members as saying his father had been uncomfortable with his son’s “extreme religious views” and had reported him to the U.S. embassy in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and to security agencies.

Abdulmutallab began his journey to Detroit in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial centre, where he boarded a KLM flight to Amsterdam before going through transit at Schiphol airport.

The son of a respected former banker, he is from a privileged background in Africa’s most populous country, most of whose estimated 140 million people live on less than $2 a day.

Investigators in the United States are trying to confirm his claims that he has connections to al Qaeda.

CUT FAMILIY TIES

Abdulmutallab was educated at the British School in Lome, Togo, a boarding school mostly for expatriates and students from West Africa, before studying engineering at University College London, where he was enrolled until June 2008.

A family friend said Abdulmutallab had subsequently made two trips to Yemen for short Arabic and Islamic courses. Nigerian media have said he moved to Egypt and then Dubai, where he cut family ties, after leaving London.

Residents in his family’s home town say they believe he was radicalised while studying abroad.

Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili said on Sunday he had been living outside Nigeria for some time and “sneaked” into the country on December 24, the eve of the attack, before leaving again the same day.

Abdulmutallab bought his Lagos-Amsterdam-Detroit ticket on December 16 at the KLM office in Accra, Ghana, according to Harold Demuren, the head of Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority.

The United States asked airports and airlines around the world to tighten security after the foiled attack, which raised questions about how Abdulmutallab had been able to get explosive materials on to the plane despite higher security worldwide since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, in which several aircraft were hijacked.

Demuren said Abdulmutallab went through normal security checks when he began his journey in Lagos and had a multiple-entry U.S. visa issued in London. He also passed through security in transit at Schiphol airport.

The U.S. government created a record of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last month in the intelligence community’s central repository of information on known and suspected international terrorists, but there was not enough negative data to put him on a “no-fly” list, a U.S. official has said.

Abdulmutallab was refused a visa to enter Britain in May 2009 when he tried to apply for a course at a bogus college, Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper said.

Reuters.

The De Xin Hai and its 25 crew were carrying about 76,000 tonnes of coal from South Africa to the Indian port of Mundra when it was seized by gunmen in the Indian Ocean some 700 miles east of the Horn of Africa.

Sea gangs from Somalia have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms by hijacking vessels using the shipping lanes there and in the strategic Gulf of Aden that links Europe to Asia.

Patrols in the area by warships from several nations only appear to have forced the pirates to hunt further from shore.

“A helicopter dropped the ransom money onto the ship. We have received $4 million,” Hassan, one of the pirates on the De Xin Hai, told Reuters by telephone to cheers in the background.

“We hope to disembark in a few hours. The crew is safe and — although they will not have their freedom for a few more days — they are all happy now.”

The October 19 hijacking of the De Xin Hai, which is owned by Qingdao Ocean Shipping, a unit of China Ocean Shipping or COSCO, was the first known seizure of a coal ship by Somali pirates.

Indian coal traders warned at the time that this might encourage the gangs to seize other coal ships, since these dry bulk vessels are smaller and have relatively small crews.

Experts say a higher risk of pirate attacks could disrupt an expected increase in the volume of South African coal heading to India after a boom in Indian demand over the last two years.

China sent three warships to Somali waters late last year with great fanfare after a ship carrying oil to China was attacked by pirates. But Chinese warships, like those from other countries, provide protection mainly in the narrow and dangerous Gulf of Aden, not in the much larger Indian Ocean.

In late October and again in November, the pirates on board the De Xin Hai threatened to execute its 25 mostly young sailors if the Chinese military tried to rescue them.

Reuters.

Il devait comparaître dans la journée de dimanche devant un juge. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, issu d’une famille nigériane connue, était passé par des écoles prestigieuses où il s’était fait remarqué pour ses vues religieuses extrémistes.

Le jeune Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab est le dernier des 16 enfants d’une riche famille nigériane originaire de l’Etat de Katsina dans le nord du pays.

Avant de prendre sa retraite il y a deux semaines à peine, son père Umaru Mutallab, 70 ans, était à la tête de la première banque du pays, la First Bank of Nigeria. Il a également dirigé un autre grand établissement nigérian, la United Bank of Africa jusqu’en 1988, ainsi que la première banque islamique du Nigeria, la Jaiz International. Il siège d’ailleurs toujours au conseil d’administration de plusieurs grandes entreprises du pays. Dans les années 70, Umaru Mutallab a même été ministre au sein des gouvernements militaires.

Son fils, Umar Farouk, 23 ans aujourd’hui, est allé au lycée au Togo, à la British International School de Lomé. Selon des medias nigérians, il se serait déjà alors fait remarqué par des prêches réguliers auprès de ses camarades. En 2005, il part pour le Royaume-Uni. Pendant trois ans, il suit des études d’ingénieur au prestigieux University College of London.

Après son séjour londonien, le jeune homme souhaite poursuivre ses études au Caire. Mais son père préfère l’envoyer à Dubaï. Et quelques semaines après son arrivée aux émirats, Umar Farouk aurait prévenu sa famille de son départ pour le Yémen.

Connaissant les penchants religieux radicaux de son fils, Umaru Mutallab décide alors d’alerter les autorités américaines qui placent le jeune homme sur une liste de personnes à surveiller, mais sans lui interdire l’entrée aux Etats-Unis.

RFI.