By Timothy Olobulu

Narok — Kenyan betting firm SportPesa have this morning announced an extension of their partnership with English Premier League club Arsenal, a deal that will see the company become the North London club’s official betting partner in Africa.

Previously, in a deal signed in January this year, SportPesa brought Arsenal on board as the official betting partner in Kenya.

The new contract was signed in an elaborate ceremony early Friday morning in a hot air balloon hovering around the Maasai Mara National reserve.

The deal is geared towards nurturing grassroots football and supporting SportPesa’s existing sponsorship of the Kenyan Premier League. This will see local talent get exposure to advanced sporting skills as well as capacity building through interaction with Arsenal and other activities across the continent.

Kenyan football coaches benefited from the first of this partnership late May in a coaching clinic conducted in Nairobi by Arsenal’s community coaches.

The partnership with Arsenal will help the company engage with a huge number of supporters across Africa.

SportPesa will have a presence on a match day at Emirates Stadium, with local football talent that the company is looking to develop offered a number of club related benefits such as official merchandise, tickets to matches and the chance to experience the world class hospitality at Emirates Stadium.

As part of the partnership with Arsenal, additional five-day training camps will be carried out by Arsenal-trained coaching staff.

The training camps have been designed to ensure both footballers and coaches learn to incorporate the key principles of ‘playing the Arsenal way’.

Launching the partnership, SportPesa Chief Executive Officer Ronald Karauri said, “Enhancing and expanding our partnership with Arsenal gives us a wonderful opportunity to connect with more people all over Africa, through both our grassroots coaching and also promotional activities with the club and its players.”

Vinai Venkatesham, Arsenal’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: “We are delighted to announce the expansion of our association with SportPesa across Africa following a successful first year of partnership in Kenya.”

The betting firm has been expanding its wings globally, only two weeks ago having signed a contract with English premier League side Hull City as the club’s official sponsors as well as a partnership with Southampton FC which will see the company become the Saints’ official betting partner in the continent

Washington, DC — Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) President and CEO, Stephen Hayes will be honored by the Africa-America Institute with the AAI 2016 U.S. Business Leader Award at the AAI 2016 Annual Awards Gala.

Mr. Hayes was selected in recognition for his dedicated leadership and strategic contributions to the growth and strengthening of U.S.-Africa Business Relations. Under his direction, CCA’s work and initiatives have had a domino effect, transforming nascent policy and private sector engagement into greater and broader U.S. engagement with Africa. The award appropriately comes on the eve of President Barack Obama’s Second U.S.-Africa Business Forum.

“There is no greater honor than those from peers, especially when those peers are so highly regarded as is the Africa-America Institute, an organization that has been a leader in building US-Africa relations through education,” said Hayes. “I am deeply appreciative, genuinely surprised and humbled that they would bestow this honor on me. Of course it is really an honor for the Corporate Council on Africa as our contributions over the years have always been through a team effort of staff and board.”

In his 17-year tenure as president, Stephen Hayes has led CCA to become fully engaged in a wide range of economic and political issues affecting commerce between the U.S. and Africa. Mr. Hayes’ personal dedication to African growth, development and prosperity through business and investment is evident in his work, which has garnered several awards. To date, Mr. Hayes and CCA are the only individual and entity in the United States to have been awarded the two highest awards given by the U.S. Government for international economic leadership. In 2008, Mr. Hayes was awarded the Ron Brown Award for International Leadership, the highest individual award possible from the United States Department of Commerce; and in 2015, under Hayes’ leadership, the Corporate Council on Africa was presented with the President’s “E” Award for Excellence in Export Service.

The Award, presented by the United States Department of Commerce, was initiated by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. In addition to these awards, Mr. Hayes has also been honored by the Africa Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.; the Transnet Foundation, South Africa’s largest foundation chaired by Bishop Tutu; and the United Nations Development Programme. He has also been honored for his leadership by Senegal and Kenya.

The AAI 2016 Annual Awards Gala will take place on Tuesday, September 20, 2016 in New York City during the opening week of the 71st United Nations General Assembly and the Second U.S.-Africa Business Forum. The Africa-America Institute is the premier U.S.-based international organization that works to increase the capacity of African individuals and institutions through higher education initiatives, leadership development, professional workforce training, convening activities, program implementation and management.

Other accepted honorees include: AAI 2016 African Business Leader Award: Mr. Aliko Dangote, President and CEO, Dangote Group; AAI 2016 Regional Integration Award and AAI 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Award: Mr. Sunil Benimadhu, Chief Executive, Stock Exchange of Mauritius.

South African Airlines (SAA) “tried all the tricks in the book”, but the law has finally prevailed and it “serves them right”, Vernon Bricknell former owner and MD of Nationwide Airlines, told Fin24 on Wednesday.

Although he is disappointed that the South Gauteng High Court did not award the full amount Nationwide requested from SAA, Bricknell is satisfied that the national carrier “got what they rightfully deserved”.

Nationwide claimed R171.5m in damages, plus interest calculated from 2010, but the court has now ordered SAA to pay Nationwide R104.6m plus interest as damages for its uncompetitive practices. Nationwide had to stop operations in April 2008 and is currently in liquidation.

The court agreed with the Competition Tribunal that SAA’s behaviour from 2001 to 2005 was the biggest contributing factor to Nationwide’s loss in passenger volumes. The tribunal found that most of SAA’s abuse was due to certain practices relating to the travel agent sector.

Case had been going since 2001

“At least the case has been finalised now. It has been going since 2001. I was determined that the law should prevail and it has, but not to the extent we had hoped for,” said Bricknell.

“SAA had caused us so much harm and hopefully they will now stop doing what they did to every competitive airline in SA. They certainly won’t be allowed to do this in Europe, where states are not allowed to subsidise airlines.”

He believes it is time for aviation regulations in SA to be revised in this regard too.

“SAA needs a lot more than just a change of board. It must start making a profit instead of just killing their competition,” said Bricknell.

“Hopefully the result of our case and Comair’s upcoming one (will make) SAA start to behave itself. I am thankful they got what they deserved. I wonder if SAA could survive after the outcome of the upcoming Comair case. And we would probably have to wait and see if SAA pays us, I guess.”

He emphasised that it is important for SAA to “stop killing competition”.

“Even after we won our first case against SAA, they blatantly continued with with the same behaviour, but now they got a good smack,” said Bricknell. He added that, although Nationwide was awarded a great deal less in damages than it had asked for, SAA must also pay interest on that amount from 2010 when Nationwide won its case but SAA decided to continue with a dispute on the amount to be paid as damages.

“SAA has tried every trick the law allowed to delay the process, but fortunately we manged to stick it out. At least justice has been done,” said Bricknell.

“Nationwide would still have been operational if SAA had not behaved in this anti-competitive way. Nationwide had 15 years of SAA’s bad behaviour.”

Nationwide’s attorney, Lucinda Verster, who specialises in competition law at Bowman Gilfillan, told Fin24 the matter between Nationwide and SAA has a long history. Nationwide had already filed the first complaint against SAA regarding abuse of dominance in terms of the Competition Act in 2001.

Arising from that Nationwide instituted a damages claim in 2005, which was the first damages claim of this nature in SA. It was, however, settled shortly after the commencement of the trial in February 2006.

“SAA continued with its abusive practices and Nationwide filed a second complaint before the competition authorities. SAA was again found to have continued to abuse its dominant position in contravention of the Competition Act. This resulted in a second damages claim filed by Nationwide,” explained Verster.

“This matter was heard before the South Gauteng High Court in February 2016. The nature of Nationwide’s claim was the second of its kind to be brought in SA law and the third to be litigated, setting a precedent within SA competition law.”

That is why she regards the case as a landmark decision, setting a precedent for future damages claims in SA competition law. The court in the Comair case against SAA, which is based on the same grounds but involves a much longer period of time, will have reference to the Nationwide decision.

“We are not aware whether or not SAA will appeal as it has 15 days to file a notice of appeal,” said Verster.

SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali told Fin24 on Wednesday that SAA is still considering the matter, and must attach weight to both its implications and possible legal options if there are grounds to pursue such options.

By Margaret Wahito

Nairobi — NIC Bank will from Tuesday begin the process of providing access of funds to depositors at Imperial Bank Limited which is under receivership.

This follows an earlier joint agreement between the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) and NIC, to kick start the process.

Imperial Bank depositors will have access to funds of up to a maximum of Sh1.5 million.

“Depositors will be able to access their funds in any of the 33 NIC Bank branches countrywide,” NIC said on Monday.

In the mean time customers will also access through five Imperial Bank branches which will be opened for the first time since October 2015 when the bank went into receivership after huge malpractices. These include Diani, Kilifi, Malindi, Watamu and Parklands.

NIC Bank will also assume the majority of Imperial Bank Limited staff and the branches.

The move comes after the lifting of the court order to suspend the payments.

Last month shareholders of the troubled bank had accused the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) of rushing the liquidation of the bank.

The shareholders complained that the action by CBK to dispose the bank’s assets to NIC Bank as a move to bury evidence of the regulators own role in the saga.

African economies have grown substantially over the past decade, but  poverty and inequality reduction has remained less responsive to growth successes across the continent, says the 2015 edition of the African Development Bank (AfDB)’s African Development Report,  that was officially launched on 26 July 2016 at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire by the AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, represented by Kapil Kapoor, Acting Vice President, Sector Operations.  The theme of this edition is on “Growth-poverty and inequality nexus: overcoming barriers to sustainable development”.

Despite earlier periods of limited growth, African economies have grown substantially over the past decade. However, poverty and inequality reduction has remained less responsive to growth successes across the continent. How does growth affect poverty and inequality? How can Africa overcome contemporary and future sustainable development challenges? This 2015 edition of the African Development Report (ADR) offers analysis, synthesis and recommendations that are relevant to these questions. The objective of the Report is to guide policy processes by contributing to the debate analysing what has happened during recent years, what has worked well, what hasn’t worked well, and what needs to be done to address further barriers to sustainable development in Africa?

Africa’s recent economic growth has not been accompanied by a real structural transformation. As a result, millions of Africans, especially women and youth, have been left behind. The Report highlights the intermediating role of various forms of inequality that limit the transformation of Africa’s growth into prosperity for all. Unequal access to economic resources and opportunities is mirrored in the continent’s high income inequality, gender gaps in earnings and opportunities, the rural-urban divide, youth under-employment and in the limited priority given to key poverty-reducing sectors like agriculture, agro-industries, and manufacturing.

In his Forward remarks, AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina says:  “I firmly believe that development is about delivering real improvements in living conditions right across society. This analysis shows that widespread inequality is limiting both growth and poverty reduction across Africa. These income disparities have remained persistently high over decades, leaving Africa one of the world’s most unequal regions.”

Sustaining recent growth successes while making future growth more inclusive requires smart policies to diversify the sources of growth and to ensure broad-based participation across segments of society. Africa needs to adopt a new development trajectory that focuses on effective structural transformation. Workers need to move from low productivity sectors to those where both productivity and earnings are higher. Key poverty-reducing sectors, such as agriculture and manufacturing, should be targeted and accorded high priority for public and private investment. Adding value to many of Africa’s primary exports may earn the continent a competitive margin in international markets, while also meeting domestic market needs, especially with regard to food security.

Apart from the need to prioritise certain sectors, other policy recommendations emanating from this Report point to the need to address income inequality, to close gender gaps, to bridge rural-urban disparities and to promote youth employment. These are consistent with the African Development Bank Group’s Ten Year Strategy (2013-2022) for spurring inclusive and increasingly green growth with its Regional Member Countries. More recently, the Bank Group’s high five priority areas focus the Bank’s actions to reach the poor much more effectively. Prioritizing the Hi5s is a clear response of the Bank to the continent major challenges.  By ensuring Africa’s growth is both sustainable and inclusive, the Bank will continue to convene support for the continent’s efforts to improve the quality of life for all Africans.

By Crusoe Osagie

Crusoe Osagietakes a look at the new agricultural policy announced by the Minister of Agriculture and wonders why farmers have to pay government to protect them

Finally, it is official. Nigeria, the largest black nation on earth and the biggest economy in Africa has slid into recession.

This basically means that the economy is in a period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, this is essentially indicated by a fall in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in two successive quarters.

At the rate at which the country is going however, more danger may lurk, with the possibility of the economy drifting into depression with all the attendant socio-economic discomfort.

When a nation suffers the nature of predicament, which Nigeria’s economy currently faces, one area to watch closely to prevent the condition from degenerating is food security.

With foreign exchange flow into the country declining rapidly and businesses scrambling for the limited dollar in circulation, hunger and starvation will be the inevitable consequence if Nigeria’s 160 million people would have to depend on imported food.

According to statistics from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the country currently imports about 50 per cent of the rice consumed locally.

The Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, noted: “We still import 70 per cent of the wheat, about 5 million eggs per day from South Africa and some other countries. Fish worth $600 million is imported per annum, the number is reducing because local fish production is increasing. We still import a lot of tomato paste.

“We import honey to the tune of about $100 million per annum, we still import cookies and biscuits and even toothpick but all these did not happen in one day. The idea is to reduce these imports. We import a lot of milk.”

With the figures given by the minister, it is obvious that a lot remains to be done in the nation’s agricultural sector to bring the country and its citizens closer to food security and gives farmers an even more important role in the nation’s economy.

Recognising that farmers and agricultural enterprises should be the first priority of this government, it is therefore a no-brainer that huge support should flow to the green sector but comments and policy from the federal government seem to suggest the exact opposite.

A good example of the government’s insensitivity to the plight of farmers, the very people that hold the nation’s last line of defence, is the announcement of a new agricultural policy, which may likely mandate farmers to pay government extra levies for their protection and the security of their farms.

After the announcement of this mind-boggling policy, many Nigerians have asked if it has become part of the responsibility of tax-paying Nigerians to defend and protect themselves.

New Policy

Ogbe said he had already held a meeting with the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, saying that government was considering various measures to protect farmers probably at the cost of the farmers themselves.

The minister said kidnapping would not stop but that government was determined to protect investors.

He said:‎ “I had a meeting with the Minister of Interior, we were looking at security situation in agriculture. Sometime last year, some gunmen went to ‎Olu Falae’s farm, a Nigerian in status, in age and ranking and took him away and marched him around, forced him to trek ten kilometres, even carried him on their backs.

“Many more farmers are coming in, including foreign investors and they stand the risk of being subjected to this kind of humiliation.

“So, we are talking with Ministry of Interior that we have to put measures in place. These things are happening in other countries too, where the civil defence corps may have to train a special department to protect huge investors and investment in their farms for a fee, because kidnapping will not stop.

“From the security point of view, we have to take measures ‎to make sure that people who invest are protected.

“In other countries of the world you may have noticed that people live on their farms, you hardly see a farmer who lives in the city, he lives on the farm with his family, you cannot do that here. They will come and take you, your wife and children in the name of kidnapping, we have to stop it and we have to use the legitimate instrument of state to do it legitimately because the farmer has no right to buy an AK47 to protect himself.”

Self-sufficiency

He also announced that the government has taken a bold step to achieve its plan to reduce Nigeria dependency on oil, as the Federal Executive Council, has approved the ‎Agriculture Promotion Policy (2016-2009).

Ogbe said the policy outlined all that needed to be done to achieve self-sufficiency in agriculture.

He said: “The document is titled ‘The Green Alternative’ and it outlines virtually everything we need to do, every policy we need to undertake to achieve self sufficiency in agriculture and also to become major exporter of agriculture products.

One is the roadmap for agricultural operations in the next three years, whi‎ch we presented to council . Is a detailed document, it outlines our policies and our objectives in trying to see agriculture as the next biggest alternative in our drive to diversify the economy of this country.

“We are working hard on the staples to satisfy local production and we are fully aware that there is a major concern in the country for food self-sufficiency in the country and that there is crisis in many families as a result of serious shortage of food.

“But we are working hard ‎and thank God that ours has not become as bad as one South American country, which was also a major oil producing country, by that I mean Venezuela which situation is definitely a 100 times worse than ours.

“But the point is that where we are going we believe that in a short while, another year and half in the maximum we should be reasonably self-sufficient in grains like rice, maize, beans, we may not achieve everything in wheat but we will be very close to our targets. Other things are also there in the roadmap. That is what council endorsed this afternoon.‎”

“The council also appealed to other state governments that can afford to take over federal roads to lessen the burden on federal government, to enable them repair and maintain road as quick as possible, so that they don’t go into total deterioration.‎”

Speaking further on the ‎the crisis between herdsmen and farmers, the agric minister said a pilot programme was being planned in the Federal Capital Territory to stop cows being moved around.

He said: “We have got very good seeds of grass which we are going to start planting. Eventually and in the next one year, I hope we shall move‎ most of our cows into ranches and reserves depending on different terminologies people want to hear.

“Some people don’t want to hear about grazing reserves and government has no intension of forcing anyone to surrender one inch of land.

“Some states are willing, we shall develop these things in their domain, cows, will move in there, they will be given best grass for cattle. Most of these grasses contain 18 per cent protein and amino acid, so the cows can feed well, have the good water to drink and give us the best milk and beef.”

By Dawit Endeshaw

The total area of farmland implicated in the latest warnings equates to approximately three-quarters of the size of Addis Abeba

Seven commercial farm developers, who occupy a total of 37,500ha of land in three regions, have received warning letters for leaving the land unutilised for so long. The area of farmland is almost equivalent to three quarters of Addis Abeba city or three times the size of Bole district.

During the early weeks of July 2016, the Agricultural Land Investment Administration Agency wrote a final warning letter to one of the developers and first warnings to the remaining five. This comes after a four and six-year wait, respectively, for the developers to show significant produce from their estates. The investors who leased the land, which ranges from 500ha up to 10,000ha in the SNNP, Gambella and Benishangul-Gumuz regions, have failed to bear fruit. In this respect, the total land leased in SNNPR takes the lion’s share.

Among the seven companies, five including the Omo Valley Farm Corporation Plc, Gutit Farm Development Plc, Ayka Addis, Dasani Farm, Teame Farm and Dasench Farm, are located in the southern region of the country – specifically across Omo. These farms occupied a total land area of 35,500ha. From these farms, Ayka received a final warning, while the rest only the first warning.

Ayka Addis, the textile giant owned by Turkish investors, leased 10,000ha of land from the region two years ago. The company leased the land in a joint venture with a local investor to source cotton material for its textile plants. As per the contract, the company was expected to develop 4,000ha of the land.

However, there is nothing there, said Daniel Zebene, communication director of the Agency.

“The problem emerged after a disagreement with our clients from Europe,” Wondem Getahun, advisor for Ayka, told Fortune. “There was a report compiled by news agencies that suggested that people had lost their land because of Ayka’s contract with the region, which was intended to erode Ayka’s reputation.”

Wondem went on to explain that after this, the client put a precondition of not buying Ayka’s products if the cotton came from that particular land.

“Following this, we ceased our activity on this farm,” he said.

Just this year, the Southern region administration moved the mandate of overseeing farm land for investment from its Investment Commission to a specific department under the Agriculture Bureau. A couple of months ago, the officials of the region discussed with the investors. During the discussions, problems revolving around such investments were highlighted. The investors were implicated in using the land for other purposes, as well as the impact this had on the environment.

The region is now getting ready to conduct a further study to identify the specific status of commercial farms.

“We have just started to collect data about the farm,” an official from the region told Fortune.

An Indian company called Verdanta Harvests Plc located in the Gambela Region, who have received a first warning from the company, leased 3,000ha of land six years ago. From this plot, however, the company has only managed to develop 143ha of land, with 158ha of land prepared for farming.

There were times when the company got into conflict over how it was managing the environment.

“We have tried to sort out the problem,” said Daniel. “The company’s focus on tea plantation was also accused of leading to the deforestation of a protected forest area.”

The last company to face a first warning was the Yomed Farm Development. The company leased 1,000ha of land from Beinshagul-Gumuz two years ago. Yet out of the expected 333ha, which has to be developed, none has so far materialised.

Again, it was reported three years ago when the farm was attacked by locals over resettlement issues. Following the warning, Verdanta has already appealed to the Agency.

The latest measure by the Agency came in another fierce action taken earlier this year, which resulted in termination of the lease contract of the developers. Back then, the Agency had taken measures on 18 farms. Yet the Agency has also temporarily suspended its mandate of transferring land for commercial farms. This firm decision was also followed by the launch of a study by a high level committee.

“Our study is still in process,” said Daniel. “I am sure the findings will help us to decide how the country should go ahead as far as commercial farms are concerned.”

By Aggrey Mutambo

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday tore into critics questioning the rationale of building the standard gauge railway and other infrastructure projects, telling them the construction will go on “regardless of what everybody says.”

At an infrastructure summit held in Nairobi, the President defended the massive investments in the projects which have also caused the country to incur huge debts, saying they are necessary to boost the economy.

“Infrastructure is a necessity if our economy is to grow and if we are to achieve the prosperity we desire as a people and as a nation. We cannot run away from it,” he told an audience at State House.

The spark had been touched off by a member of the audience who had posed a question to Transport and Infrastructure CS James Macharia on whether it was economically viable to borrow Sh327 billion to construct a railway when it would have been cheaper to renovate the current one.

The question was inspired by a recent article in the Economist magazine which questioned the economic returns in such a venture.

In response, Mr Macharia had argued the new railway will be useful as it will reduce the volume of cargo transported on Kenyan roads, reduce congestion and ease movement of goods.

But the question had also irked President Kenyatta who said he had heard it numerous times.

ASIAN TIGERS

The President cited the case of the Asian Tigers; a group of countries like South Korea and Singapore, in the Far East who rose from poverty to wealth.

“I just want to pose a question to those who challenge us when as a country or as a continent [we] are investing in infrastructure. Where are they today? Where are those nations today? They are probably among the fastest growing, most prosperous nations in the world.

“They ignored the World Bank, they ignored the IMF. Today they actually have their own banking institution, a development bank growing their economies,” Mr Kenyatta said.

The Infrastructure Summit is the President’s idea to meet stakeholders and get their views on matters of roads, ports, railways, airports and related issues ranging from tenders, budgetary allocations to payments.

STANDARD GAUGE RAILWAY

Kenya had to borrow Sh327 from China to construct the standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Nairobi and extended to Naivasha.

But the Economist, citing World Bank officials, said the investment was more indebting than beneficial to Kenya’s future generations.

President Kenyatta disagreed, saying the magazine had published the view of institutions with no Kenyan or African interests at heart.

“We know what we need, we know what we must do and we are no longer going to be the dumping ground for products while our people have no jobs, while our people are suffering in poverty.

“We are going to move to the next level regardless of what the Economist says, regardless of everybody says. We are going to the next level.”

“The challenge we have is to ensure that we invest appropriately, to ensure that we invest without corruption, to ensure that we utilise the resources in that sector in the best possible manner. It is not whether we should do it or not, because to do it we shall. And we encourage other countries in the region… all these corridors will be interlinked,” President Kenyatta said.

By Steve Omondi

The Kenyan delegation at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro has remained non-committal even as Team Kenya grapples with a fresh doping scandal.The scandal is likely to jeopardize the country's participation in the Games.

Top National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) officials have remained tight-lipped on the ejection of athletics team manager Major (rtd) Michael Rotich following allegations that he offered to protect cheating athletes in exchange for money.

Reports in British paper, Sunday Times, and German broadcaster ARD claim that Rotich was recorded on camera negotiating for payment with undercover British journalists posing as coaches.

Journalist, Hajo Seppelt, of German TV ARD also posted a tweet on Saturday quoting Athletics Kenya (AK) spokesman Evans Bosire on the decision to recall Rotich.

But while all the top Nock officials here in Rio have remained unavailable for comments, the media liason officer, Peter Angwenyi has said the issue is being looked into.

"The timing of this story is suspect, but the issue is being handled carefully with Team Kenya at heart," Angwenyi said on Sunday.

Angwenyi also said that Rotich has not expressly lost his position in the team.

"Major Rotich will be back as the team manager. Kenya remains focused on the Games," he said without further elaboration.

These allegations implicating Kenya are the latest that the team is facing.

Last month, the German TV aired a secretly recorded film showing some athletes admitting their involvement in doping.

By C.Y. Kwanue and David A. Yates

An overnight shooting which engulfed Sasstown Community on Sunday was as though a large scale fighting had erupted between military actors from opposing sides, according to residents.

The sounds of guns were so sporadic that residents in the area fled their homes under the cover of darkness, shortly before midnight on Sunday, August 7.

By daybreak the following morning, the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) had dispatched a squad of counterinsurgency unit to the 'troubled spot' and coordinated joint security operations with Liberia National Police officers who were earlier deployed to the area.

It was reported that a late-night insurgency involving an unidentified helicopter had entered Liberian territory, prompting a manhunt for those who reportedly carried out the shooting along the Monrovia/Bomi highway in Western Liberia.

Based on the reports, Defense Minister Brownie J. Samukai, Jr. told the Daily Observer that the country's joint security forces were in firm control of that, and any, situation.

"There is no need to panic because the reported shooting incident was being investigated by the joint security forces," Minister Samukai assured the public.

He described the report of 'sporadic shooting' and the landing of an unknown helicopter on Liberian soil as "scheme of wildcat campaign of speculation, which has no grain of truth to instill fear in the minds of anybody due to the fact that we are on top of every security situation."

He, however, explained that a male villager and his two children had earlier discovered an unspecified quantity of spent-shells, which he claimed might have been left in the bush by fighters of the country's warring factions during the 14 years of civil war.

In Sasstown, Meanwhile, Daily Observer reporter, who visited Sasstown yesterday upon hearing the report, said calm was restored to the community immediately after the security forces arrived.

"They arrived in their numbers and went in search of the shooter, but returned and said there was nothing serious and that we should go about our normal activities," Boima Perry, a resident said of the security forces.

Mr. Perry said on Sunday night, residents did not see any strange movement of people in town prior to the shooting incident.

Surprisingly, he said by 9:00 p.m., while residents were preparing to go to bed, a "very large gun sound" took over the entire town, but we did not know which way the sound came from, and also who carried it out and for what reason.

"Right now, we don't know who shot the gun, therefore, we are afraid of the next course of action," he said.

The incident took place about 9:00 p.m. Sunday night, according to eyewitnesses.

Up to press time last night, the security forces did not make any arrests, but did confirm there was shooting in the town. The Defense Ministry said that several shots were fired from a pistol, which was later found in a nearby bush. No further explanation was given.

But an eyewitness told this newspaper in the town that an unidentified gunman carried out the shooting, but that was only in the air.

Some of the residents also denied ever hearing of any shooting in the town as their kinsmen had claimed.

Our investigation continues.