CRAI is a campaign dedicated to ending statelessness and the arbitrary denial of citizenship in Africa.

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BEYOND THE APOLOGIES

Shocking images of the black-on-black violence and xenophobic attacks recently witnessed in South Africa, especially against Nigerians and other African immigrants have played out on TV screens around the world. CHIDI ANSELM ODINKALU says these attacks should inspire the governments of countries whose nationals were affected, like Nigeria's, to take steps to ensure proper accountability for the ill-treatment of Africans on the continent and create uniform standards of dignified treatment for Africans.

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African Group Announces Independent Investigation into Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa, Says South African Government Failed in its Responsibility

Nairobi/Johannesburg/Abuja, 2 June 2008: In a statement issued today, the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI), a pan-African non-governmental coalition, announced that it will be deploying a high-level fact-finding mission to South Africa and the neighboring countries in June 2008 to investigate xenophobic attacks on foreigners and facilitate redress for the victims.

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What East Africa must do to advance

(October 4, 2007) On August 31, 2007, a symposium on regional integration and citizenship was organised by the Rwanda Centre for Strategic Studies in Kigali, Rwanda. Former East African Community Secretary General, Col. Nuwe Amanya Mushega delivered the following paper at the event:

Although the topic covers the Great Lakes Region, I have preferred to narrow it to the East African Community region for three reasons.

First, the term Great Lakes Region is so amorphous that it needs a study in its own right. At the first summit of the heads of state in Dar-es-Salaam, their excellencies had divergent views on what the Great Lakes Region should constitute. I remember one head of state arguing that since his country had boarders on one of the lakes, should he just qualify? Another head of state argued that since a lot of lakes had been dug and created in his country, he should qualify. Others argued that it covers any country that was directly or indirectly affected by problems of the region; like Angola, Central African Republic,Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Congo, and Sudan, etc.

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Ghana's golden jubilee: Africa's citizenship

By Tajudeen Abdulraheem, Dismas Nkunda, & Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

(March 7, 2007) ON January 24, 1980, Nigeria's President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari expelled to Chad the Majority Leader of the Opposition-controlled state legislature of the North-Eastern State of Borno, Alhaji Shugaba Abdulrahman Darman, alleging that he was Chadian not Nigerian. He wasn't. In 1995, Zambia's septuagenarian founding President, Kenneth Kaunda was stripped of his citizenship by his successor. In the same year, Cote d'Ivoire's former Prime Minister, Alassane Ouattara, was similarly stripped of his Ivoirien citizenship. In 2001, Tanzania threw out its leading journalist and media proprietor, Jenerali Ulimwengu. At the end of 2006, it was the turn of the publisher of the only existing independent newspaper in Zimbabwe, Trevor Ncube to be rendered stateless by his country.

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