The News Review:

- Senegal’s black arts festival in December 2010: report
- Senegal records big fall in clandestine migrants bound for Europe
- NG organizes seminar on governance in Senegal
- Guinea on alert for ‘attack plot’
- Senegal Calls for Guinea to Honor Electoral Promises
- Senegal wants United States of Africa in place by 2017

Senegal’s black arts festival in December 2010: report
AFP
Speaking on the sidelines of a symposium on the United States of Africa Wade said Monday that the third FESMAN (Festival mondial des arts negres) will be held “in December 2010 that’s to say a year and a few months from now. “The first festival took place in Dakar in 1966 largely at the intiative of Leopold Sedar Senghor Senegal’s poet president and champion of black Africa’s cultural heritage. Lagos in Nigeria hosted the second in 1977. Senegal’s government officially postponed the third FESMAN which is to be held as a joint artistic and cultural venture with Brazil on July 21 because of organisational delays.

Senegal records big fall in clandestine migrants bound for Europe
AFP
The number arrested by Frontex fell from 2743 in 2007 to 494 in 2008. Since the beginning of the year only 33 people have been apprehended and none since January 10. In total “we took 4481 people in for questioning between September 6 2006 and January 10 2009″ said Lieutenant Colonel Alioune Ndiaye the Frontex spokesman in Senegal. Ndiaye said the drop in the number of arrests was because of fewer departures.

NG organizes seminar on governance in Senegal
Le Mali en ligne
PANA reports that the theme of the conference is ?Governance in Senegal: stakes and challenges?. Participants are discussing the politics and economy of the country as well as a programme of action SIWA intends to introduce to benefit the citizens from 2010 to 2011. n politics participants will examine the experiences of the past and suggest the way forward for a democratic dispensation involving the people. Topics for discussion also include “succession policy as enshrined in the country’s constitution central and local governments human rights and judiciary reforms the fight against corruption budget and the role of civil society in governance.

Guinea on alert for ‘attack plot’
BBC News
The West African state said armed men were gathering on the borders with Guinea-Bissau and Senegal to the north and Liberia to the south. An announcement on state-run national radio said drugs cartels were believed to be behind the plans. Guinea is a key transit point for drugs en route from the Americas to Europe. When the junta led by Captain Moussa Camara seized power some seven months ago it made the fight against drugs one of its key priorities. Several leading suspects have been arrested and are awaiting trial but the regime must have made powerful enemies in the process correspondents say.

Senegal Calls for Guinea to Honor Electoral Promises
Voice of America
(File)Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade is calling for Guinea’s military ruler to keep his promise to hold elections later this year. When Army Captain Moussa Camara took power in Conakry seven months ago he telephoned Senegalese President Wade and asked him to be the international spokesman for his coup. With the United States and European Union condemning the military take-over President Wade said Captain Camara was an honest young man filling a dangerous vacuum following the death of long-time leader Lansana Conte. Wade said the ruling military council deserved international support because it was promising to hold free and fair elections.

Senegal wants United States of Africa in place by 2017
Le Mali en ligne
Speaking on the second day of the symposium on the United States of Africa Gadio said that the issue had long been settled by the African Union (AU). The Senegalese minister said going by the unserious approach to the matter by some African countries the 2017 target date could be doubtful. He said Senegal was interested only in an outright proclamation of the United State of Africa instead of the “round-about approach of turning the AU into an inter-governmental organization with a commission serving as a secretariat”. Gadio warned that the unserious approach by some countries was pulling Africa down while countries like Brazil India and China had made tremendous strides. He wondered why those opposing the creation of the United States f Africa would continue to have their way in continental meetings. Gadio said that the AU had made progress since its creation in 1963 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia as the rganisation of African Unity and therefore had come of age to transform into a United States of Africa. He recalled that in previous AU summits the meeting featured stormy debates on the matter which threatened to break up a number of times pitting participants who supported the idea and those opposing it.
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