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This Day in African History: 14 April

A chronicle of events in African history on this day

By Alistair Boddy-Evans, About.com

1943, 14 April - World War II: North Africa
The German Fifth Panzer Army under General Gustav von Vaerst (Rommel departed on 9 March) begins to evacuate from Tunis.

1960, 14 April
In the new Republic of Cameroon hundreds of people are reported killed in rebel attacks.

1961, 14 April
Seven hundred political prisoners are released in Algeria on the orders of the French president, General Charles de Gaulle.

1971, 14 April
Riots break out in the Liberian capital Monrovia over the price of rice.

1986, 14 April
Desmond Tutu is selected to be the archbishop of Cape Town and head of the Anglican Church in South Africa.

1990, 14 April
Nelson Mandela admits that dissident guerrillas were tortured by the ANC, but that those responsible had already been punished.

During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings, witnesses came gforward to document their treatment by the ANC at the Morris Seabelo Rehabilitation Centre (otherwise known as Quatro camp) an ANC detention centre in Angola.

One such witness told the Commission he was "detained for over four years in Quatro camp and subjected to various forms of torture". The witness was "one of the 'Soweto generation' who left South Africa in 1976 to join the ANC. He spent the following twelve years in Angola [and] became an MK Commander."

The same witness told the TRC that his torture included "being given electric shocks, being suffocated with gas masks, hit with broom sticks all over his body, hit with a coffee tree branch on the buttocks continuously for a whole day, … forced to chop down a tree full of bees and to climb a tree full of wasps; forced to undress and lie on the ground among ants, and forced to pull a water tank." The TRC was also told how food deprivation lead to the death of two of his colleagues.

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