Month: February 2009

The West Africa Connection: how drug cartels found new routes

The Times of London
Nairobi, Kenya

O.C. was untouchable. For years the stocky man with pockmarked skin and heavy-lidded eyes had run a cocaine-trafficking network on the coastal plains of northern Guinea. Planeloads of cocaine were flown into Boke airport from neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, the country that became known as Africa’s first narco-state.

It was said that O.C.’s operation was protected by a contingent of elite Red Berets he had commandeered from his father, the late President Conte. Continue reading The West Africa Connection: how drug cartels found new routes

Kenyan troops trained by British are condemned for ‘death’ campaign

The Times of London
Nairobi, Kenya

The Kenyan Army, which receives training and support from Britain, was accused yesterday of torture and murder by a United Nations investigator.

Speaking at the end of a ten-day visit to the country Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, said that Kenyan soldiers were responsible for the deaths or disappearances of 200 people in the Mount Elgon area during a police and army operation that began in March last year. Continue reading Kenyan troops trained by British are condemned for ‘death’ campaign