A Troubling Time for East Africa

As countries in East Africa continue their struggle to stand firm in the midst of hardship, it has been a troubling week.

In Zimbabwe, an automobile accident claimed the life of Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai -- who has been an opposing element to President Robert Mugabe. The couple was traveling Friday from Harare to their rural home in Buhera when a truck collided with their vehicle, killing Susan Tsvangirai. The prime minister suffered minor injuries in the wreck, which occurred along a busy two-lane highway. Tsvangirai received the most votes in a March 2008 election, but fell short of the 50 percent required to avoid a runoff. He withdrew as a candidate in the runoff, citing political violence and intimidation targeting his supporters. Negotiations between the two sides culminated in the power-sharing agreement.

Last week, judges with The Hague-based International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Darfur war. Almost immediately after the arrest warrant was issued for its president, Sudan revoked the registrations of 13 international non-profit aid organizations, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The U.N. office said that 85 non-governmental organizations are working in Darfur, but the agencies whose work has been suspended -- including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and Mercy Corps -- account for more than half the aid delivered. The United Nations also estimates that at least 1.1 million people will be left without food, 1.5 million without health care, and 1 million without drinkable water as a result of the Sudanese government's decision.

And in Kenya, two human-rights activists were shot and killed in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, on Thursday evening. U.N. investigator has called for an independent investigation to prove that Kenyan police were not involved. The shootings spurred a protest by students that led police to fatally shoot a student, police said. A U.N. investigator called the killings of the human-rights workers an assassination. "It is extremely troubling when those working to defend human rights in Kenya can be assassinated in broad daylight in the middle of Nairobi," U. N. spokesman Phillip Alston said.

Extremely troubling indeed.