Fade Out

State of Emergency

Lesotho has declared a state of emergency due to massive food shortages. Full announcement here.
From the SABC story:

The government of Lesotho declared a state of emergency on Monday and appealed for international assistance. Mojaki says an estimated 500 000 people are in need of aid.

Libya Returns

Libya returns to Lesotho. Story here.
You may remember that recently Lesotho kicked out the Libyan ambassador for his relations with Tom Thabane of the ABC. Archive story here.
Perhaps this signals some progress or at least a sign that the LCD is starting to get a bit stretched.

Masire Mediation Update

Looks like formal SADC resolution might be on hold for Lesotho and the contested elections:

Consequently, Sir Ketumile said he has learnt that the case will probably be heard next year, casting uncertainties on whether his mission will restart.

Sir Ketumile, who started his two-week assignment last month said his team had to separate electoral issues from general ones, involving tension between the government and the opposition party.

It also resolved it is not competent enough to interpret the countrys MMP system of parliamentary representation.

I especially love that last sentence. Where else would you hear a sentence like that? If nothing else one has to appreciate SADC stated for their honesty and WYSIWYG manner when it comes to politics. Here is the full story.

MCC --> $362.6 million to Lesotho?

...an announcement by the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), a government foreign aid agency, of huge grants for the African nations of Lesotho and Mozambique. The two grants total $869 million and would build health-care infrastructure and improve roads, water and sanitation.

However from the same Washington Post article:

But a House Appropriations subcommittee moved to chop the MCC's budget request from $3 billion to $1.8 billion, citing a large amount of unspent money from years when MCC grants were few.

Here is the official MCC press release.

The five-year $362.6 million grant to Lesotho seeks to increase water supplies for industrial and domestic use, to mitigate the devastating affects of poor maternal health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases by substantially strengthening the country’s health care infrastructure and human resources for health capacity, and to remove barriers to foreign and local private sector investment. By 2013, the Compact will benefit the majority of the population of 1.8 million due to its broad geographic scope and focus on sectors that impact most Basotho such as health and the provision of potable water.

Lesotho's Military Shifting?

Full story here:

Five men are expected to face treason charges in Lesotho after they were retained on Saturday. The Maseru High Court ordered their release, but this order was refused by police. Four of the five have military backgrounds.

I can't compare this to anything in the past (ie how the military has handled itself before) but this seems to be a case of the military saying that they will take care of things. The judicial system not withstanding.

Peace in Lesotho?

Supposedly Masire has negotiated peace in Lesotho, story here.

"When we left the issues were more or less settled and the two parties were ready to work together," he said.

Excuse me? More or less settled? You were in the country for like 30 hours and you atre content to leave with things more or less settled? Was Mosisili even back from Ghana?

Here is a story on the pan-African government conference where Mosisli said:

"Full political integration presupposes total surrender of sovereignty. To some of us, this may indeed be a tall order," noted Pakalitha Mosisili.

He then went on to say that he would probably end up living in South Africa in a few years, Mbeki willing.
So I don't know the full timeline for these two events but things seem rushed.