Pirates off Somalia's coast have hijacked a cargo ship headed for Mogadishu, the third attack since January. Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Mombasa-based Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP), said the UAE-registered freighter was seized and taken to Hobyo, a well-known pirate base about 400 kilometers northeast of Mogadishu. The vessel, carrying cargo for Somali traders, had originated in Dubai. Piracy continues unabated off Somalia, even as a degree of stability has come to Mogadishu in recent weeks. (Xinhua, IOL, May 10)

Transitional government security forces in Somalia have begun seizing and burning women's face veils in Mogadishu in an attempt to stop insurgents disguising themselves in order to carry out attacks. When the city was under the control of the Islamic Courts Union in the second half of 2006, women were ordered to cover their heads; now they are being ordered not to. Police spokesman Ali Nur told Reuters: "Every policeman and government soldier has orders to confiscate veils from veiled women." (AlJazeera, May 9)

From Amnesty International, May 8:

Arms transfers to Sudan fuel serious human rights violations
Arms, ammunition and related equipment are still being transferred to Darfur in the west of Sudan for military operations. Extremely serious violations and abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law are being committed by the Sudanese government, the government-backed Janjawid militias and armed opposition groups in these operations.

Celebrations were held May 5 at the Gereida displaced persons camp in Darfur, to mark the one-year anniversary of the signing of the "Darfur Peace Agreement" (DPA). Significantly, the camp is controlled by the Minni Menawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), the only rebel group to sign the DPA. The faction's leadership had much to celebrate. Menawi was made an adviser to Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and moved into a plush Khartoum residence next door to the British Embassy. At the time of the signing last year, diplomats were also celebrating. The UK's international development secretary Hilary Benn heralded the deal as a "very significant agreement which means that the process of bringing peace to Darfur can now begin." But instead, the security situation across Darfur has worsened and the conflict has broadened.

Sudan and Chad are to co-operate with the African Union (AU) and UN in an effort to stabilize the troubled Darfur region. As part of the agreement signed in Saudi Arabia, a joint border force is to be created and observers assigned to the region, while both parties have also pledged not to aid one another's dissident movements. [BBC, May 4]

Receiving virtually no international coverage, this past weekend saw an outburst of ethnic violence in Madagascar, with homes and shops of the Indo-Pakistani immigrant community looted in the southwest coastal town of Toliara. A serious escalation is reported April 30 in the Madagascar Tribune—a grisly killing and ritual desecration at a mosque in Ankatso, near the capital Antananarivo. The body of the 20-year-old student was found in the mosque on the morning of April 29, the day after the Toliara violence. His blood had apprently been intentionally spilled around the mosque's interior, and the Koran was torn. The Tribune writes that following this development, and the slaying of a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden in Madagascar earlier this year, the island nation "risks being placed on the black-list of Muslim extremists."

It has received no international coverage, but a BBC Monitoring translation of an April 28 report from the Madagascar Tribune indicates as explosion of ethnic violence in the African island nation over the weekend. What began as a street protest by the political opposition (called to oppose austerity measures, according to a brief item on the BBC World Service) escalated when "uncontrolled" elements started harassing the crowd, calling them "foreigners." Ire seems to have been focused on members of "the Indo-Pakistani community" and "Merinas" (defined by BBC Monitoring as the "largest ethnic community of Malay origin"). Homes and businesses belonging to people who hail from the highlands (around Antananarivo) or "karanas" (Indo-Pakistanis) were looted. Police apparently used bullets and teargas, resulting in at least 12 casualties. The report was unclear on whether there were any deaths, but several were hospitalized. "It all reminds me of the events of 6 March 1986," an eyewitness reached by telephone said, referring to the "anti-karana pogrom of the 1980s."

We agree that there is something utterly perverse about the fact that the Darfur genocide is now entering its fifth year, as the world stands by and watches. And of course the vast majority of those participating in the Global Day for Darfur actions are well-intentioned. But a part of what makes the situation perverse is the increasingly surreal spectacle of celebrity and "Holocaust Industry" (TM Norman Finkelstein) exploitation of the genocide. That Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocuast memorial, can moralize about Darfur while remaining silent about the oppression of the Palestinians far closer to home only confirms our cynicism. From Haaretz, April 30: