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TONY COX, host:

This is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Tony Cox.

It's time now for our weekly Africa Update. The top news today is the inauguration of Nigeria's new president. It marks the first peaceful handover of power from one elected leader to another in the country's 47-year history since independence.

President Bush announces that Washington is imposing fresh sanctions on targeted individuals and companies in Sudan linked to the violence in Darfur.

And the International Criminal Court in The Hague is investigating alleged crimes, including sexual violence, committed in the Central African Republic.

Let's catch up on all of these stories now with NPR's Africa correspondent Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, who is back at base in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. Ofeibea, how are you?

OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON: Greetings from Dakar.

COX: Well, the new president of Nigeria has been officially sworn in. In principle, this marks the landmark first transfer of power from one civilian leader to another in Africa's most populous nation. But there are questions over the democratic legitimacy of the new leader. We'll talk about that in a moment.

But first let's hear how he took the oath of office.

President UMARU MUSA YAR'ADUA (Nigeria): That I would be faithful

Unidentified Man: And bear true allegiance.

President YAR'ADUA: And bear true allegiance.

Unidentified Man: To the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

President YAR'ADUA: To the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

COX: Ofeibea, maybe we should begin with this. Let's get the correct pronunciation of the name of Nigeria's new president, because it doesn't sound like it looks, does it?

QUIST-ARCTON: Are you ready?

COX: Yeah.

QUIST-ARCTON: Umaru Musa. That bit is easy. Umaru Musa - and then the last name, Yar'Adua. Now, it's spelt with a Y - Y-A-R apostrophe A-D-U-A. But it's pronounced almost without the Y. You swallow it. So, Umaru Musa Yar'Ardua. Got it?

COX: Got it. But what we don't have, and what a lot of people perhaps don't understand, Ofeibea, and I'd like for you to explain, is why his four-year presidency started off on such a sour note?

QUIST-ARCTON: That was because of disputed presidential elections last month in Nigeria. And there were allegations of massive vote rigging not only by ordinary voters, Nigerians, but also by local and international observer groups. They said that there was ballot stuffing, there were ballots that had been thumb-printed even before they got to the polling centers, and all sorts of vote rigging, vote fraud. And apparently not only on the government side but also on the side of opposition parties. But it's the opposition that is challenging the presidential results and the opposition that is saying Umaru Musa Yar'dua was not democratically elected, that it was a selection and not an election.

COX: Now, Nigeria is a regional giant. It's home to Africa's largest population, 140 million people. It's also the continent's number one oil exporter. In fact, people here in the states, when we fill up at the gas station next time, that oil could be Nigerian fuel. So Nigeria supplies the U.S. with a fifth of all of its crude oil imports. What are the major challenges facing the new government?

QUIST-ARCTON: Although Nigeria actually pumps this bony crude, bony light - and apparently, it is very good because it's easy to refine - ordinary Nigerians have problems themselves getting gas at the gas station. I mean there has been a fuel price hike and there has been a strike. All sorts of things are facing this new government. Perhaps the trickiest thing that Umaru Musa Yar'dua has to deal with is turbulence in the Niger Delta.

Now, this is the oil-producing region of Nigeria and for almost the past year and a half militants have been active with a sabotage campaign of Nigeria's oil industry. And it says it's going to force out foreign oil companies because it and the government are, as they say, robbing the region of their oil wells. Although the crude oil is being pumped in their backyard, they fear that local people are not benefiting. That there's unemployment, underdevelopment, poverty, and yet look at the billions of oil dollars that Nigeria is making. So those are the sorts of problems that the new president faces.

And then also basic things, like Nigeria, although it has all these oil and gas reserve, have chronic power shortages. No proper working, reliable electricity supply, not enough running water, no runner water in many areas, apart from unemployment and things like political thuggery.

I mean, for most of its 47 years, Nigeria has been under military rule. This was meant to be a new era, but many Nigerians say we're fed up. Look, we went out to vote and look how this country is being governed, or misgoverned.

COX: Let's turn our attention to the Sudan, where big developments are taking place. President Bush has announced that the U.S. will impose tough new sanctions against Sudan to punish those who are deemed to be fueling continuing violence in the Darfur region. Why has Washington, Ofeibea, taken that action now?

QUIST-ARCTON: I think Washington is tired of waiting. The U.S. feels that it has given President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the leader of Sudan, long enough to come around. They feel that he is stalling, that he is probably one of the main obstacles to peace and the end to violence in Darfur.

And I'll tell you what the main reason is, the U.S. is one of those that really backs U.N. peacekeepers being sent to Darfur. And up till now, Sudan has resisted. But the 7,000 African Union peacekeepers who are currently trying to keep the peace, or trying to at least stop the fighting, are totally overwhelmed. They're under-resourced, they don't have big enough numbers, and they're not able to do the job. They're not able to protect locals, civilians; they're not able to protect the humanitarian workers. And people say the Sudanese government - and Washington is saying - that the Sudanese government is really an obstacle to peace.

Listen to what President Bush had to say about the sanctions, or proposed sanctions.

President George W. BUSH: The dire security situation on the ground in Darfur has not changed. And so today at my instruction the United States is taking the steps I announced in April. We're targeting sanctions against individuals responsible for violence. These sanctions will isolate these persons by cutting them off from the U.S. financial system, barring them from doing business with any American citizen or company, and calling the world's attention to their crimes.

COX: Ofeibea, while all of this is taking place, across Darfur's border to the south sits the Central African Republic. And indeed, the Darfur conflict has spilled into neighboring CAR and Chad as well. Now, the CAR is not a country that gets much media coverage here in the United States. Why is it in the news now?

QUIST-ARCTON: Well, apart from the spill over from Darfur. And of course 200,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict, and it has spilled over, as we said, into Chad and the Central African Republic. Now the International Criminal Court, which was established to try people suspected of war crimes and genocide - and it's doing just that in Darfur - it says it's going to look at alleged crimes committed in the Central African Republic itself.

Now, the ICC was established, what, five years ago? And it says it wants to investigate especially widespread reports of sexual violence in the CAR. Now, this dates back to the civil war in the country, and that pitted Central African rebels against the government. It was another of those bitter African conflicts, but not one that got that much media attention, although the atrocities committed in the CAR seem to be just as shocking as those reported in other parts of Africa.

I mean, listen to this woman. She's called Odin(ph). She set up an organization which is helping HIV-positive rape survivors and those living with AIDS. And she spoke about her fervent wish to see justice done to these perpetrators of what she says are crimes that has just gone absolutely unpunished. She wants the International Criminal Court to crackdown on them.

ODIN: (Through translator) We are stigmatized by everyone. Even at the market people point at you and say, look at her, she is HIV-positive. She was raped. We're not free. We can't just go out and about normally. Even the children don't respect their mother who've lost their homes, who've become people who are alone and abandoned. The issue of justice is more important than all aspects of the program.

COX: Let me ask you as we bring this to a close for this week, Ofeibea, just briefly. Do you have the sense that people there - that the court has credibility with the people?

QUIST-ARCTON: I don't know whether the average person in the Central African Republic, or in Darfur, or in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or in Uganda. And these countries are all being investigated, some people for war crimes. I'm not sure whether the average citizen has any idea what the International Criminal Court is about. But if they feel that the injustices done to them over the wars by government soldiers, by rival militias, by rebels, by all sorts of marauding folk, if they feel that they might get some justice at the end of the day, then I think they'll say, ICC, International Criminal Court, whoever you are, wherever you are, in the Hague, in the Netherlands, then God bless you. Because if that means justice for us and something to stop these people acting like this against normal ordinary women and citizens in the future, then that's got to be a good thing.

COX: Ofeibea, thank you. You've been very busy this week.

QUIST-ARCTON: Always a busy week in Africa, and I hope in the future we'll have some more positive stories to share with NEWS & NOTES listeners. Ciao.

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