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[A bishop from the Nile delta was chosen to lead the Coptic Orthodox Church on Sunday when a blindfolded altar boy picked his name from a glass chalice in a ceremony resonant with tradition but marked by anxiety over heightening tensions between Christians and Muslims across Egypt. Bishop Tawadros became the Church’s 118th pope after his name was selected from three finalists at a Mass in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo. He succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who died in March after four decades as patriarch of the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Copts make up about 10% of Egypt’s population of 82 million.] BURUNDI : RWANDA : Rwanda: Rwangombwa Gives Peers Tips to Speed Up Economic Growth By Kenneth Agutamba/Rwanda Focus (Kigali)/ 5 November 2012 Finance minister John Rwangombwa says there is no reason why most African countries, with vast assets, can't achieve higher economic growth rates that Rwanda has managed with scant resources. "If Rwanda--a small and land-locked country with few resources can achieve this growth, Africa as a whole can achieve double-digit growth if we do a few things the right way," Rwangombwa said at the sidelines of the 2012 African Economic Conference (AEC) in Kigali last week. The AEC, an annually event by the African Development Bank (AfDB), UNDP and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), discussed how Africa can achieve inclusive and sustainable development in this era of uncertainty. According to Rwangombwa, AEC could not have come at a better time when uncertainties in the global economy, turmoil in the capital markets and debt problem in the developed world pose big challenges to Africa's economic development. But he hastened to add that the current problems should be seen as an opportunity to come up with new solutions based on lessons learned from current challenges. "Africa needs economic transformation over the coming decade if it is to develop at all. We cannot continue being the continent of primary commodities," he said. Presenting a paper on the flow of funds and Africa's economic transformation, Rwangombwa warned African policymakers to continuously work to make the continent attractive to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) because the debt problem in the developed world pose big challenges to the flow of FDI into Africa. Rwangombwa, who was named finance minister of the year for Sub-Saharan Africa by Emerging Markets HSBC, advised that that too can be seen as an opportunity to look for solutions. "Policy-makers working closely with researchers and think tanks of the continent can turn these challenges into opportunities. We must present ourselves as the most profitable and secure destination of investors' funds that are scared of the problems in the Western markets. It is worrying to know that Africa attracts less than 9% of FDI. We need as much as possible to continue reducing the uncertainties about the evolution of our economies," he said. Asked whether Africa has any hope for positive growth prospects, the minister said there's absolutely no reason to worry. According to Rwangombwa, the fact that Africa's economy has been growing at an average of 5% despite the global economic crisis is an indication that the continent is on the right track. "However, we can do even better. Rwanda has been growing at an average of 8.3% over the past 10 years. I am convinced that if Rwanda, a small, land-locked country with few resources, can achieve this growth, Africa as a whole can achieve double-digit growth if we do few things the right way. We are currently elaborating our second economic development plan and are targeting 11.5 percent growth," he said. However, he emphasized that research is one of the ways this undertaking can be enhanced - and Africa, in its search for economic transformation, will increasingly need to develop understanding of key economic opportunities and challenges. "It is important to devise policies that will ensure optimal allocation and use of those funds in an economy. It is important that we also better understand the responses and reactions of funds to various shocks. This is the basis of good policy design. We would need to ascertain what should be the role of governments, private sectors, as well as what should be the priority sectors that would expedite economic development in Africa," he said. Experts reckon that Rwanda's progress and achievements over the last decade should be closely scrutinized by other African countries and an open book advisory for many countries on the continent that are immerging out of conflict and need to revive their stalled economies and liberate their citizens from poverty. AfDB president Donald Kaberuka encouraged participants to learn from Rwanda's experience. Rwanda: DRC Soldiers Enter Rwanda, Two Killed in Shoot Out By Sam K Nkurunziza/The New Times/4 November 2012 Two soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who, on Saturday, allegedly entered Rwanda illegally on a spy mission, were killed in a shoot out with Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF). One of the deceased was identified as Corporal Mbanza Numba Bisogolo. His slain colleague could not be readily identified because he was immediately whisked away during the gun battle. Mbanza's body was last evening handed over to the DRC Government in Rusura village, Busasamana sector in Rubavu district. The body was received and identified by DRC's head of 8th Regional Command, Col Everest Somo Kakule. Kakule declined to speak to the press after receiving the body. Defence Attachés from Uganda and France were on site to witness the handover of the body. Mbanza's identification documents and recovered ammunition (including one sub machine gun, 173 rounds of ammunition and six complete magazines) were retained by officials from the Joint Verification Mechanism (JVM). Col Gabriel Ntirandekura, the team leader of the JVM said that a thorough investigation about the incidence would be conducted and a full report compiled. Available information shows that Mbanza was a member of the 69th Battalion mainly comprised of military intelligence personnel. According to reliable sources, at about 12:00 p.m., on Saturday, a contingent of between 70 and 100 soldiers, including Mbanza, illegally crossed and opened fire on Rwandan military observers about 400metres into the Rwandan territory. During an interview, RDF Spokesperson Brig Gen Joseph Nzabamwita said RDF soldiers acted in self defence. "We were alerted by residents and our soldiers fought back when they started shooting at us," he said. Nzabamwita said that one RDF soldier was injured in the process and is currently admitted at Kanombe Military Hospital. RDC CONGO : UGANDA : East Africa: Uganda Holds Somalia Hostage in High-Stakes Diplomacy By Simon Allison/Daily Maverick/5 November 2012 analysis Anxious to cover up its illicit involvement in neighbouring DRC’s on-going rebellion, Uganda has played its trump card: threatening to pull its troops from Somalia and derail that country’s slight but fragile progress. It’s fair to say that the Ugandan government was not particularly happy with the contents of a United Nations report that unequivocally implicated it in the ongoing rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report, compiled by a “group of experts” appointed to look into the issue, found that Uganda was assisting the M23 rebel movement “in the form of direct troop reinforcements in DRC territory, weapons deliveries, technical assistance, joint planning, political advice and facilitation of external relations”. It was a damning conclusion, and caused diplomatic shockwaves throughout the region; with Rwanda also blamed for assisting the rebels, the conflict in North Kivu started to look less like a rebellion and more like a regional war. Uganda denied wrongdoing in no uncertain terms, and Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi castigated what he described as a baseless, unfair and malicious report; one that was compiled without following due process and with minimal input from concerned stakeholders. This was two weeks ago. Since then, the Ugandan government has got even angrier, until on Saturday it decided to play its trump card. Fine, they said; if the international community insists on propagating these baseless accusations about Uganda, then they shouldn’t expect Ugandan troops to keep on keeping the fragile peace in a country where the international community fears to tread: Somalia. Since 2007, Ugandan soldiers have been the backbone of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom). At any one time since then, there have been at least 5,000 Ugandans on the ground in Somalia, and the number is often higher. Given the unwillingness of other countries to contribute troops (with the exception of Burundi initially, and now Djibouti, Kenya and Sierra Leone), it is no exaggeration to say it was the Ugandan military that kept Somalia’s unstable transitional government in some semblance of power for so long, providing the foundation for the recent assault on Al-Shabaab that severely damaged the Islamist militant group. Even in the wake of the recent successes, Somalia is a dangerous country, and its capital, Mogadishu, particularly so. With no real security forces of its own to rely on, the Somali government continues to be propped up by Amisom, which is still disproportionately reliant on Ugandan soldiers, which account for a full third of its troop contingent in Somalia. Take the Ugandans away, and it is likely that the entire fragile edifice will come crumbling down. But that is what Uganda wants to do, according to Security Minister Wilson Mukasa. “We are tired of being maligned even after sacrifices have been made to ensure that our friends, our neighbours are okay. The ‘thank you’ we get is that you are now aiding this, you are this and that, so we are tired,” he told reporters in Kampala.

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