African Union

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudan and its southern rival slid toward a ruinous war Thursday, with fighting continuing along their contested border and Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir threatening to teach the world's newest country "a final lesson by force. " A protracted war between Sudan and South Sudan, which separated peacefully in July, would almost certainly have a devastating civilian toll and seriously damage the oil sector on which both economies depend. But diplomacy has gotten nowhere, and civilians on both sides were urging their governments not to back down.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - It has come to this: The Sudanese government is sending out text messages to the population begging for donations to help the cash-strapped military. "Please help support the army," the messages plead. "If you want to contribute 10 Sudanese pounds, send number 10, and if you want to contribute 50 pounds, send the number 50. " This would not appear to an optimum moment to get into a war with its newest neighbor, South Sudan. But pride on both sides of their disputed border is undermining hope of peace, analysts warn, with neither side willing to reach a deal on the oil both depend on. South Sudan independence in July has cost Sudan three-quarters of its oil revenue, paralyzing the nation's economy.

The African Union urged the International Criminal Court on Friday to suspend its indictment of Sudan's president on genocide charges, saying it could jeopardize any peace process in Darfur. The court's chief prosecutor has accused President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir of committing genocide and crimes against humanity in a campaign against tribes in Darfur involving killings, rape and deportation.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudan and its southern rival slid toward a ruinous war Thursday, with fighting continuing along their contested border and Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir threatening to teach the world's newest country "a final lesson by force. " A protracted war between Sudan and South Sudan, which separated peacefully in July, would almost certainly have a devastating civilian toll and seriously damage the oil sector on which both economies depend. But diplomacy has gotten nowhere, and civilians on both sides were urging their governments not to back down.

The African Union on Friday dismissed claims by Somali insurgents that they had killed dozens of alliance soldiers in Mogadishu, contending that Shabab had dressed the corpses of its own dead in AU uniforms as a propaganda stunt. The Islamist militia, which is linked to Al Qaeda, displayed dozens of bodies — along with Bibles and wooden crosses that purportedly belonged to the dead — on the outskirts of the war-torn Somali capital Thursday, claiming to have killed about 70 peacekeepers.

The African Union suspended Guinea from the bloc and threatened further sanctions unless young soldiers who seized power last week restore constitutional rule. That seemed unlikely in the immediate future, however, as many in Guinea appeared to welcome the bloodless coup that followed the Dec. 22 death of longtime dictator Lansana Conte.

The African Union will suspend Mauritania until democracy is restored in the West African nation where soldiers overthrew the president this week, AU chair Tanzania said. Tanzanian Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe said Mauritania had signed several AU conventions banning illegal changes of government, including one last month. Soldiers led by the presidential guard overthrew Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the country's first democratically elected president, on Wednesday after he tried to sack senior officers.

In swift retaliation for the U.S. killing this week of a suspected Al Qaeda fugitive in Somalia, insurgents attacked the main African Union peacekeeping base in Mogadishu with twin truck bombs Thursday, killing at least nine people, including four AU soldiers. Suicide bombers attempted to infiltrate the heavily guarded seaside base by impersonating U.N. personnel, AU officials said. Among the wounded were unidentified senior Somali government officials, who were visiting the base, and the newly arrived African Union force commander, Ugandan Maj. Gen. Nathan Mugisha, who suffered minor injuries, AU and government officials said.

The African Union suspended Mauritania after army officers seized power in an apparently bloodless coup. The 53-nation African Union firmly denounced the coup and demanded the "restoration of constitutional order." The United Nations, former colonial power France and the United States have all condemned Wednesday's takeover. The U.S. has been training Mauritania's troops to fight Islamic militants thought to be operating in the Sahara desert.

African leaders agreed to extend their military mission in Darfur after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan failed to persuade Sudan to allow in international peacekeepers. But Annan said he expected a United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed eventually. Annan met Sudanese leader Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir on the fringes of an African Union summit in Gambia.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Sudan and South Sudan teetered dangerously on the edge of war Thursday after South Sudan refused to withdraw its troops from a disputed border area despite calls to do so by the United Nations and African Union. Sudan, furious about South Sudan's seizure a day earlier of its most important oil field in the town of Heglig, bombed a bridge outside the South Sudan oil town of Bentiu, killing one civilian and wounding four, officials said. The fighting between the two nations was the worst since South Sudan seceded from the north in July after a January 2011 independence referendum.

The African Union on Friday dismissed claims by Somali insurgents that they had killed dozens of alliance soldiers in Mogadishu, contending that Shabab had dressed the corpses of its own dead in AU uniforms as a propaganda stunt. The Islamist militia, which is linked to Al Qaeda, displayed dozens of bodies — along with Bibles and wooden crosses that purportedly belonged to the dead — on the outskirts of the war-torn Somali capital Thursday, claiming to have killed about 70 peacekeepers.

Most of Africa's heads of state failed to turn up Thursday for the first African Union donor conference in Ethiopia to raise money for the Horn of Africa famine, leaving activists disappointed with the pledges. Of the African Union's 54 member nations, only the heads of Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea and Djibouti participated in the conference in Addis Ababa, along with the head of the transitional government in Somalia, the country hit hardest by the famine. Critics accused African leaders of failing to make good on their rhetoric about finding African solutions for African problems.

Moammar Kadafi faces stepped-up bombardments and the threat of strikes by attack helicopters but seems determined to maintain his grip on power, in part by rallying a diminished roster of allies to counter his regime's isolation. South African President Jacob Zuma was expected to arrive in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, on Monday in search of a resolution for the 3-month-old conflict, although there is no indication that Kadafi is willing to relinquish power as demanded by rebels, Western governments and even longtime allies Russia and Turkey.

South African President Jacob Zuma said Sunday that Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi had accepted a "road map" for ending the conflict that pits his forces against rebels determined to end his four-decade rule. Zuma, who according to news reports led a delegation of African Union leaders in a meeting with Kadafi at his compound in Tripoli, did not disclose details of the cease-fire proposal. He also didn't specify whether Kadafi himself or his adjutants had accepted the African Union plan.

Libyan rebels delivered an emphatic "no" to an African Union proposal for an end to fighting in their country, insisting that Moammar Kadafi must step down from power as part of any diplomatic solution. The opposition council's announcement after closed-door talks with an African Union delegation in Benghazi quashed hopes for an early end to the nearly 2-month-old conflict between Kadafi's forces and opposition fighters based in eastern Libya. South African President Jacob Zuma said late Sunday after meeting with Kadafi in Tripoli, the capital, that the Libyan leader had endorsed the African Union's road map for peace.

Sudan gave African Union troops a one-week ultimatum to accept a deal blocking a proposed U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur or leave the war-torn region, a step that would probably worsen the humanitarian disaster there. The deadline escalates the Khartoum regime's standoff with the United Nations over Darfur to a crisis point, pitting Sudanese determination to resist possible war crimes investigations against a U.N. push to take on a new, tough peacekeeping mission.

The African Union on Saturday accused Sudanese government forces of attacking civilians in the country's Darfur region and committing acts of "calculated and wanton destruction" that have killed at least 44 people and displaced thousands over two weeks.

After decades of war, ruin and dashed aspirations, southern Sudan moved a step closer to independence Monday as thousands registered to vote in a referendum that early next year could split Africa's largest country in two. The voter registration drive, marred by delays and political wrangling, began at about 2,700 centers around Sudan. The bulk of the turnout was in the semiautonomous south, dominated by animists and Christians, which on Jan. 9 is expected to secede from the mostly Muslim government in the north controlled by President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir.

Dressed in camouflage and hunkering among his soldiers, Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed appeared on the front lines Thursday in an offensive against Islamic militants in his country's shattered capital of Mogadishu, witnesses and government officials said. Fierce firefights rumbled across the city on the 50th anniversary of Somali independence, a landmark spoiled by years of civil war, a refugee crisis and the rise of an Al Qaeda-linked Islamic group that controls all but a few of Mogadishu's streets.