Jim Giles

The Guardian

Amid all the stories about the extraordinary investments that China is making in Africa, the shooting earlier this month in Abu Hamad seemed a minor incident. Security forces fired on a group of protestors, scuffles broke out and a car was set alight. No one was hurt. Only the English-language Sudan Tribune noted the events.

The protestors came from the Manasir people. Abu Hamad, which sits on the banks of the Nile north of Khartoum, is their land. It is also close to the site of one of China's ugliest projects in Africa. The seven-kilometre wall of the Merowe dam will be 65 metres tall when it is complete, high enough to create a reservoir that will stretch over 170 kilometres upstream. The homes of many Manasir will be lost.

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Posted by pichu at February 20, 2007 11:10 AM