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Bush Returning To Turbulent Africa

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By JENNIFER LOVEN, The Associated Press

Published: February 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - President Bush will find violent conflicts threatening nearly every corner of Africa when he begins a six-day visit Saturday. The continent's turmoil and trouble, however, are not expected to be Topic A for the president.

Fighting disease and poverty and promoting growth, development and security will be Bush's main themes as he travels with his wife, Laura, to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia.

It will be Bush's second trip to Africa. When he last visited, in 2003, he focused mainly on showcasing democratic advances and his administration's commitment to tackling AIDS.

In Congo, five years of fighting that came to be called Africa's world war appeared to have ended after claiming, it is now estimated, more than 5 million lives - more than any war since World War II. But the peace was fragile and the country in ruins.

In Sudan, a 21-year civil war between the Muslim-dominated government in the north and the mostly Christian and animist south was grinding on despite some strides toward peace. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian rule was impoverishing the population and causing deadly unrest. Talk of a brutal civil war in Liberia, led then by dictator Charles Taylor, intruded the most on Bush's travels.

Of all those nations, the president goes back to Africa now with only Liberia emerged - though not healed - from its strife. There also are a host of new problems.

Of particular concern is Kenya, once viewed as one of Africa's most stable countries but now possibly on the brink of disaster. Disputed elections in December ignited fighting between supporters of the government and main opposition party that is fueled by fierce ethnic tensions.

The 2005 peace accord that ended Sudan's north-south conflict is feared to be in danger of collapsing, while the western Darfur region has seen five years of atrocities that Bush calls genocide.

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