Monday News Brief: MN or Bust?

In Zimbabwe, Bobby Mugabe and his ZANU-PF continue to intimidate the opposition MDC party and its supporters ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off election, adding “arrest top party officials” and “ban all campaign rallies” to their stellar repertoire of campaign tactics—which already includes setting up torture camps and blocking food aid as key strategies.

A small measure of progress was made in Sudan over the weekend, with President Omar al-Bashir and southern leader Salva Kiir agreeing to an interim government and international arbitration process over the disputed Abyei region. Over 50,000 people fled the region recently after renewed fighting between the government and southern forces threatened to re-ignite civil war.

A report by the ENOUGH Project raises concerns for renewed violence in Northern Uganda, as it documents how rebel leader Joseph Kony used the relative calm of the peace negotiation process to rearm his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Ugandan and other regional governments are considering (preparing for?) military action against the threat of a new offensive by the LRA.

Quick items: A UN team is currently in the DRC to address the on-going challenges to peace in the region. Further clashes between Islamic militants and Ethiopian and Somali troops have civilians caught in the crossfire in Mogadishu. The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission will hold hearings for its diaspora in Minnesota this week. And finally, a New York Times editorial on politics and hunger, following last week’s UN food summit in Rome.