MS Risk Blog

Ivory Coast Incumbent Wins Presidential Election

Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara has won the weekend’s presidential election, the elections commission announced on Wednesday.

According to President of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) Youssouf Bakayoko, Ouattara won a total of 2,118,229 votes, or 83.66 percent of ballots, adding that Sunday’s vote had a turnout of 54.63 percent. Results have indicated that Ouattara won the most votes in all but one of the 31 regions as well as in the largest city, Abidjan, and the capital, Yamoussoukro. Furthermore, he won all but sixteen votes in his home constituency of Kong, which is located in Ivory Coast’s north, where more than 14,000 voters cast their ballots.

Of the six candidates who were seeking to unseat Ouattara, his closest challenger was Pascal Affi N’Guessan, head of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). He won 9.29 percent of the votes in Sunday’s election. The results announced by the CEI must now be validated by the constitutional court. Late on Tuesday, before the results were announced, Ouattara stated, “I would like to congratulate all Ivorian’s for their maturity and exemplary behaviour…Ivory Coast is resolutely committed to the path of stability and the reinforcement of democracy.” Sunday’s election has been judged to be peaceful and transparent by observers, which will likely reassure the county’s investors.

Six People Kidnapped and Killed in CAR

A government spokesman disclosed on Tuesday that three hostages seized in the CAR this week were killed and three more seized later by another group were also killed.

Sources have indicated that three officials from the mostly Muslim Seleka alliance were attacked on Monday as they were driving through a neighborhood controlled by the rival milita. Later that same day, three young Christians working in a Muslim enclave of the capital Bangui, known as PK5, were abducted in an apparent act of revenge. Security minister and government spokesman Dominique Said Panguindji has since indicated that all six hostages have been killed.

Political sources in the CAR have reported that the assassination of the Seleka members is surprising as they belonged to a moderate faction known as the Union for Peace in Central Africa (UPC), which is mostly composed of ethnic Peuhls. The missing men included the UPC’s spokesman, Ahmat Nejad, and its secretary general, Ahssan Bouba. The abductions come just days after anti-balaka militiamen briefly seized a senior figure in the transitional government outside of Bangui.

The incidents risks derailing talks that are aimed at restoring order in the country. The Seleka members had been participating in the talks, which were convened by interim President Catherine Samba Panza. Tensions have been running high in the capital since late September, when a Muslim man was killed – an incident that set off a new explosion of reprisal attacks. On Tuesday, hundreds of youths erected barricades made of lead pipes and wooden planks in the second district of Bangui in order to protest the Christian men’s abduction. They were later dispersed by security forces.

Congolese President Wins Referendum

Results have shown that more than 92% of voters in the country’s controversial referendum have approved constitutional changes to allow President Denis Sassou Nguesso to run for a third term in office.

According to figures read out by the electoral commission on radio on Tuesday, turnout in the referendum, which was held on Sunday, was 72 percent. The electoral commission further disclosed that more than 1.2 million people voted in favor of the change, while nearly 102,000 rejected it.

The opposition had boycotted the poll, with a senior opposition leader stating on Monday that the poll should be annulled due to low voter turnout. Clement Mierassa has disclosed that “from what we could see on the day of the vote, the announcement that turnout was more than 72% is extremely scandalous.”

President Sassou Nguesso, 71, is one of Africa’s longest serving rulers. He first came to power in 1979, ruling until 1992 when he lost the elections. He returned as president in 1997, after a brief civil war, and has since won two elections. He is now coming to the end of his second seven-year term. Under the current constitution, the president has been unable to seek re-election because he is over the age of 70 and has already served two terms. The presidential election is due to take place in 2016. In September, tens of thousands of people took part in a peaceful demonstration against the referendum. Last week, four people were killed and dozens left inured when security forces dispersed angry protesters in the capital, Brazzaville, as well as in the economic hub of Pointe-Noire.

Africa’s Longest-Serving Leaders:

• 36 Years – Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Equatorial Guinea) took power in a coup in August 1979.
• 36 Years – Jose Eduardo dos Santos (Angola) took over after the death of the country’s first president in September 1979.
• 35 Years – Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe) won the country’s independence elections in April 1980.
• 32 Years – Paul Biya (Cameroon) took over after the resignation of the country’s first president in November 1982.
• 31 Years – Denis Sassou Nguesso (Republic of Congo) was installed by the military in October 1979. He was out of power from August 1992 until October 1997.
• 29 Years – Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) became president after his rebel group took power in January 1986.

Boko Haram Militants Seize Control of Town in Cameroon

According to security and regional sources, Boko Haram militants on Friday seized control of a town in the far north of Cameroon, which lies on the border with Nigeria.

A security source confirmed Friday that the militants “…now control Kerawa.” The information was also confirmed by another source close to the regional authorities, who indicated that an unspecified number of civilians had been killed in the assault. Local officials reported Friday that Cameroonian soldiers fought Boko Haram militants who raided a village in the Far North region, just a day after a similar attack in the area. According to one local official, “since yesterday, Boko Haram members raided the Kerawa village…They slit the throats of between three and seven people yesterday and killed others.”

Kerawa, which has 50,000 inhabitants, is located in the Kolofata district, which has been regularly targeted by Boko Haram militants. There is a military camp inside the town, which was last hit by a double suicide bombing on 3 September, which claimed at least thirty lives.

Police Seize Dozens of Kilos of Drugs in Australia

Federal authorities have seized 73 kilograms of drugs and arrested three Malaysian nationals trying to smuggle their illicit cargo through Melbourne Airport. After arriving yesterday at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport on a flight from Kuala Lumpur, the three men attempted to pass through customs but were intercepted by members of the Australian Border Force (ABF). Their luggage was examined and a total of 55 kilograms of methamphetamine and 18 kilograms of heroin were found. According to ABF Acting Commissioner Michael Outram, the haul was one of the largest that had ever been seized at an Australian airport. “This seizure represents one of the largest seizures in Australian history through an Australian international airport, which proves law enforcement agencies are working harder than ever to keep drugs out of our community,” he said.

So far, two of the men have been charged with the importation of a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs and attempting to possess a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs. The third member of the group will be charged at a later date.

In recent years, there has been an observable tendency on the part of Australian drug users to favour amphetamine type substances (ATS) over alternative narcotics. While a large proportion of these illicit substances were once manufactured domestically, in large part because of the ready availability of precursor chemicals, the tightening of relevant law enforcement mechanisms has reduced this practice. Now, criminal groups are increasingly obliged to source precursor chemicals and drugs offshore. As a result of this, there are noticeably more narcotic and precursor chemical seizures at the border. In the 2013-14 reporting period alone, the number of ATS detections at the border increased to 2 367, the highest number on record. Interestingly, international mail accounted for the majority of ATS detections in Australia during this period while sea cargo accounted for the greatest proportion of detections by weight.

According to a recent report published by the Australian Crime Commission, China is the primary embarkation point for ATS (excluding MDMA), followed by Mexico, Hong Kong and the United States. Serious and organised criminal groups are believed at the centre of this thriving drug market.