Africa, oh Africa

A followup to my post on the Christian rioting in southern Nigeria:

Christian youths burned the corpses of Muslims on Thursday on the streets of Onitsha in southeastern Nigeria, the city worst hit by religious riots that have killed at least 146 people across the country in five days.

Christian mobs, seeking revenge for the killings of Christians in the north, attacked Muslims with machetes, set fire to them, destroyed their houses and torched mosques in two days of violence in Onitsha, where 93 people died.

"We are very happy that this thing is happening so that the north will learn their lesson," said Anthony Umai, a motorcycle taxi rider, standing close to where Christian youths had piled up the corpses of 10 Muslims and were burning them.

Dozens more corpses had been thrown into the back of pick-up trucks by security services overnight, residents said.

Also, a followup to my recent post on Congo:

Thousands of civilians have taken refuge on floating islands in the lakes of Congo's Katanga province to escape rape and murder by government and militia fighters, a top U.N. humanitarian official said on Thursday.

Some 120,000 people have fled their homes in the remote Mitwaba area, where hundreds of women have been raped during fighting between the army and former pro-government militiamen that U.N. peacekeepers are unable to control, he added.

Congo is staggering toward elections, due later this year, but fighting continues in Katanga and elsewhere in the lawless east, where minerals are plentiful and gunmen continue to roam, nearly three years after the war was officially declared over.

Neighboring Uganda has seen its own share of violence, especially in the north. That region has seen sexual violence as well. However, today, Uganda is holding elections.

Long lines formed early at polling stations across Uganda on Thursday as voters waited to cast their ballots in the country's first multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections in 26 years.

Election officials said voting generally started off well despite some delays in the capital, Kampala, the eastern town of Jinja and several other places.

Security was tight following the deployment of 12,000 police and army personnel across the country. Cases of voters whose names could not be found on the register were also reported, while heavy rains disrupted early voting in parts of northern and eastern regions.
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Campaigning ended on a tense note on Tuesday, after weeks of political activity marked by several violent clashes between security personnel and supporters of the main opposition candidate, Kizza Besigye.

On Monday, security forces fired tear gas and water cannon at Besigye's supporters in Kampala, as the city hosted several presidential candidates including President Yoweri Museveni, who is seeking another five-year term after 20 years in power.

The desire for change runs high in some quarters, particularly in the capital and the war-ravaged north, but observers say Besigye faces an uphill struggle to unseat the ex-guerrilla chief who seized power in a 1986 coup. A victory for Museveni, 62, would make him one of Africa's longest-serving presidents.