Briefly

SOUTH AFRICA

Spain, assassins seek former Rwandan general

JOHANNESBURG | Spain is seeking the extradition on genocide charges of a former Rwandan general who has been targeted in two assassination plots while in exile in South Africa, authorities said Wednesday.

Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa has been in South Africa since reportedly falling out with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Gen. Nyamwasa’s wife said Mr. Kagame was behind the shooting of her husband in Johannesburg in June that left him hospitalized with a bullet wound in the stomach. Rwanda’s government denies involvement.

State prosecutor Malose Samuel Monene said there was a second plot to kill Gen. Nyamwasa while he was in the hospital. Ten suspects have been arrested in the shooting and the second purported plot. One of the suspects planned to strangle Gen. Nyamwasa with string in the hospital but the attack was never carried out, the Star newspaper reported.

KENYA

Bombing suspects handed over to Uganda

NAIROBI | A Kenyan rights group and Muslim leaders criticized the government Wednesday for handing over its citizens to Uganda for trial over the July 11 suicide attacks without due extradition process.

Thirteen Kenyans are among 34 people charged in Uganda over the bombings that killed 76 people at two Kampala bar-restaurants packed with soccer fans watching the World Cup final.

Eight of them were arrested in Kenya and transferred to neighboring Uganda to face trial.

Somalia’s al Qaeda-inspired al-Shabab rebels claimed responsibility for the attack.

“It is not that we mind that people are investigating the bombings. Obviously, they need to determine who was responsible for all those deaths,” said Kenyan Human Rights Commission director Muthoni Wanyeki.

“There is a legal extradition process that you can very easily obtain but that was not obtained,” Ms. Wanyeki told reporters.

Muslim leaders also criticized the extraditions after a Muslim rights activist was arrested and charged over the attacks when he traveled to Kampala last week.

“We stand here stating that these security organs are testing the patience of Muslims to the extreme. They are deliberately provoking Kenyans and Muslims into a state of desperation, anguish and anger,” they said in a statement.

SOMALIA

U.N. envoy: Feuds ’crippled’ government

NAIROBI, Kenya | The U.N. special envoy for Somalia said Wednesday that simmering feuds had “crippled” the country’s government and appealed for unity a day after Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke quit.

Mr. Sharmarke stepped down Tuesday after a protracted wrangle with President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed that prompted the U.N. envoy, representatives from the African Union and a subregional bloc to call for consensus.

The diplomat, Augustine Mahiga, said Mr. Sharmarke’s exit “is yet another manifestation of the serious disputes” that have rattled the Horn of Africa country’s transitional institutions.

“The international community and the Somali people are looking to their leaders for unity, not recurrent political crises, and there should be no excuses for stalling the peace process in Somalia. The Somali leadership must remain united and focused on its work,” Mr. Mahiga said.

Mr. Sharmarke resigned after weeks of intense attacks by hard-line al-Shabab rebels bent on toppling the government, hanging by a lifeline in Mogadishu provided by a 7,200-strong African Union force.

IVORY COAST

Former rebels get severance pay

KORHOGO | Former rebels in northern Ivory Coast have received their long-overdue severance pay, easing worries that the demobilization process would not be completed.

Disarmament is a precondition to holding a presidential election that has been delayed since 2005. Completing the process has been a priority since an Oct. 31 election date was set.

In the northern city of Korhogo, 1,500 former soldiers each received the equivalent of $204 on Wednesday to help them start new lives after having served eight years in a rebellion.

In June, the New Forces rebels agreed to provide 5,000 soldiers for the new unified national army, and to disarm and demobilize the rest. The payments were delayed when the government refused to provide funding.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports