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Continued from page 89 Albert Yaloke Mokpeme said over national radio on
Thursday.
A group of farmers launched the case in 2008, alleg-
He told the AFP news agency the state of emergen-
ing widespread pollution.
cy would also allow authorities “to make arrests
Shell says the leaks were the result of "sabotage". without going through national prosecutors”.
In a statement on Friday, Royal Dutch Shell said it Touadera was declared the winner of the polls by
was "disappointed" with the verdict. the constitutional court on Monday, despite a very
low turnout mainly due to insecurity in a country
The ruling can be appealed against.
caught up in a civil war for eight years.
The judgment could have implications beyond Nige-
On January 13, the rebels launched two simultane-
ria, in terms of corporate responsibility and the duty
ous attacks on Bangui but were rebuffed by MINUS-
of care multinationals have to the people in the plac-
CA, the UN mission in the CAR.
es where they operate, reports the BBC's Anna Holli-
gan from The Hague. “Since that thwarted offensive, there haven’t been
any other attacks, just incidents linked to the cur-
While the oil spills in this case happened from 2004
few,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Abdoulaziz Fall, a MI-
to 2007, pollution from leaking pipelines continues
NUSCA spokesman.
to be a major issue in the Niger Delta.
On Thursday, the UN envoy to CAR said the country
The court said Shell had not proven "beyond reason-
able doubt" that saboteurs were responsible for the
leaks affecting the villages of Goi and Oruma, rather
than poor maintenance.
"This makes Shell Nigeria responsible for the dam-
age caused by the leaks" in these areas, it said. It
added that the amount of compensation would be
"determined at a later stage".

CAR announces state of emergency after
armed attacks (Aljazeera)
The Central African Republic (CAR) has announced a
15-day state of emergency after armed groups tried
to block the capital, Bangui, in a bid to topple newly
re-elected President Faustin Archange Touadera. “is at serious risk of a security and peacebuilding
setback”.
Rebels controlling about two-thirds of the perennial-
ly volatile nation launched an offensive a week be- A substantial increase in the number of peacekeep-
fore presidential elections on December 27, trying to ers would give the mission greater mobility on the
blockade Bangui and carrying out several attacks on ground, Mankeur Ndiaye Ndiaye said in an address
key national highways. to the UN Security Council.

In war-weary CAR, humanitarian crisis deepens amid Ndiaye also pushed for “a few months” extension to
fresh violence the reinforcement by 300 Rwandan soldiers second-
ed since December from the peace mission in South
“The state of emergency has been proclaimed
Sudan.
across the national territory for 15 days, starting
from midnight (2300 GMT),” presidential spokesman The reinforcement was planned for two months.

94 “ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር ” ድንቅ መጽሔት - የካቲት 2013