Top stories from the Development and Aid World News Service — DAWNS Digest.
Wade Concedes Run-off Election in Senegal
Senegal remains a stable democracy! Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade will not get his wish to be elected to a third term in office. According to reports, Wade is admitting defeat to opposition leader Macky Sall in Sunday’s run-off election. “Mr Sall, 50, said his victory marked a “new era” for the West African nation, speaking in front of thousands of cheering supporters in Dakar. Mr Sall promised to be a president for all Senegalese, saying that the people were the main winners in Sunday’s poll. Official results are expected within two days. Mr Wade “phoned his rival Macky Sall at 21:30 GMT to congratulate him after the first results showed him to be the winner of a presidential run-off,” the Senegalese Press Agency said on Sunday.” (BBC http://bbc.in/GTbbBe)
Syrian Army Forced Civilians to March in Front of Tanks as Human Shields
A new, horrific report from Human Rights Watch. Witnesses from the towns of al-Janoudyah, Kafr Nabl, Kafr Rouma, and Ayn Larouz in the Idlib governorate in northern Syria told Human Rights Watch that they saw the army and pro-government armed men, referred to locally as shabeeha, force people to march in front of the advancing army during the March 2012 offensive to retake control of areas that had fallen into the hands of the opposition. From the circumstances of these incidents, it was clear to the witnesses that the purpose of this was to protect the army from attack…Kafr Nabl “Abdullah,” a resident of Kafr Nabl, a town in the Jabal al-Zawiya region, told Human Rights Watch that the army forced him and several others to walk in front of their armored personnel carriers when they were conducting a search for wanted opposition activists on March 2…He said: ‘As we were going to Friday prayer, soldiers from a base near the mosque were rounding up people. They took maybe 25 people, including me. There were also eight children, aged from 10 to 15, among us. They made us march in front and around the military vehicles to some houses where they were searching for wanted opposition activists. We marched for about 600 meters. They were insulting us the whole time. They arrested several people from the houses. Then they made us march back to their base, after which they released all of us, apart from the detained activists. The whole operation lasted for about two hours.’” (HRW http://bit.ly/GPJuXn)
Latest Updates from The Coup in Mali
Check out the first 4 words of an AP story about coup-leader Amadou Sanogo: “U.S.-trained coup leader said Saturday he is in control of the country, has no fears of a countercoup and wants peace talks with the rebels whose northern rebellion was the trigger that led him to oust a democratically elected president.” (NPR http://n.pr/H6upTI)
Mali’s foreign minister and 13 others being detained by the junta that took over Mali started a hunger strike Sunday. (CBC http://bit.ly/H6uOFT)
About a thousand people, including members of youth movements and political parties, gathered Monday in central Bamako to protest against the new military junta. (Boston Globe http://bo.st/H4K1sG)
The African Union is pleading with the soldiers who lead the coup in Mali to return power to the President. (Al Jazeera http://aje.me/GQ3opZ)
Clashes between Malian rebels and a pro-government militia killed at least 10 people on Sunday, including the head of the Ganda Iso force that has sought to back the embattled army in the north. (Reuters http://bit.ly/GPIouG)