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{{Journalists and media owners across Africa have honoured a jailed Ethiopian journalist, Woubshet Taye.}}

In a statement extended to media on Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Woubshet Taye was honoured during the African Journalist Awards 2013.

The journalists’ wife and son received the award on his behalf at a ceremony held on Saturday in Cape Town, South Africa.

Comprising a panel of 10 independent judges, the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards was launched in 1995 and has since been held yearly honouring journalists in recognition of their contribution to a free press in Africa despite the risks they face.

Woubshet, deputy editor of the Awramba Times, was detained in June 2011 on terror charges.

He is currently serving 14 year jail term after he was found guilty in January 2012 under Ethiopia’s controversial anti-terrorism law.

Following his arrest the paper’s editor fled into exile and the privately run paper was banned from publishing.

Similarly, prominent Journalists Reeyot Alemu and Eskinder Nega are serving a 5 and 18 year jail terms respectively on terrorism related charges.

“Journalists like Woubshet Taye and his colleagues Reeyot Alemu and Eskinder Nega should be out of prison and working to build the prosperity and the freedom of a new Ethiopia” explained judges at the journalism award adding ‘‘ This award is in recognition of Wubshet’s work and in solidarity with his condition”

According to CPJ sources, Woubshet’s application for a presidential pardon was rejected in September.

After receiving the Award, his wife, Berhane Tesfaye, said “her husband was grateful for the solidarity and received the award in the name of all journalists who are oppressed”.

{startribune}

{{South Sudanese government unexpectedly issued strong administrative instructions, suspending all announcements and mobilisation campaigns in support of the Abyei referendum, according to senior officials.}}

The directive, issued late on October 15, affects state-owned South Sudan Television and Radio but cites no specific reasons for the cessation of communications about the plebiscite, which was scheduled to take place this month.

“The management of the South Sudan Television and Radio has received directives from a higher authority to immediately suspend all announcements and mobilisation campaigns in support of Abyei referendum. We were told to implement them (administrative orders) with immediate effective. There was no mention of any reason”, a senior official at South Sudan Television told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday.

Abyei was originally due to hold a vote to decide its future in January 2011 at the same time that South Sudan opted to secede from Sudan. The oil-producing region is claimed by both countries.

However the referendum has been delayed because the two parties failed to define who are Abyei residents that can participate in the crucial vote on the fate of the disputed territory.

Khartoum says the Misseriya nomads who pass some six months in the area are residents and have to vote while officials in Juba say only the Ngok Dinka can vote.

Last year, the African mediation or the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) proposed that only the Ngok Dinka participate in a referendum that can take place in October 2013.

The panel said that its proposal comes in line with the rule of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2009 providing that Abyei belongs to the nine chiefdoms of the Ngok Dinka.

The elite of the Ngok Dinka and several civil society groups from the disputed area campaigned recently to unilaterally hold the referendum as provided in the AUHIP proposal.

The South Sudanese government backed the move and directed to support the return of Abyei people to their homeland to take part in the vote.

In a joint meeting held in New York on 27 September, The African Union and United Nations said concerned by the “deteriorating political environment in the Abyei area and the risk that unilateral actions by Misseriya and Ngok Dinka communities lead to security incidents costly in human lives”.

They further called on the two sides to form Abyei interim administration and to ” he Abyei Area Referendum Commission and refrain from undertaking unilateral actions and encourages implementation of such commitments.”

sudantribune

{{More than 30,000 Ugandans face deportation from the United Kingdom (UK) after failing to resolve their asylum and immigration requests, a report by the Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons (UK Parliament) has revealed.}}

The report said the current backlog of 500,000 unresolved immigration and asylum cases will not be cleared for another 37 years at the current rate of progress. This condemns Ugandans to more anguish as they wait for their cases to be resolved. Uganda accounts for 30,000 of those cases.

However, the Uganda High Commission in the UK blames the Home Office for failing to expeditiously dispose of cases of Ugandans seeking asylum there.

Speaking at an event to mark Independence celebrations in the UK at the weekend, Mr Innocent Quinoscars Opio, the Second Secretary and In charge of Consular Services at the Uganda High Commission in UK, accused the Home Office of “incompetence” in handling immigration cases.

“We have always raised our concerns and engaged the UK Home Office both formally and informally about their incompetence in dealing with immigration matters especially those concerning Ugandans and other immigrants,” Mr Opio said.

He cited cases of Ugandans on whose behalf the UK Home Office has applied for temporary travel documents from the Uganda High Commission in UK, to facilitate their deportation back to Uganda. He said most of them are victims of unfair and poor handling of immigration cases.

“We also don’t always bow down to pressure especially when they send us applications to expel Ugandans from the UK who are victims of unfair and poor handling of immigration cases,” he added, explaining that this stance was a sign of Uganda’s independence from Britain.

wirestory

{{Piracy attacks off the Somali coast have dropped significantly over the past 18-months, the latest count by the International Maritime Bureau reveals.}}

In its most recent bulletin seen by The Standard, the bureau shows that piracy attacks and hijackings dropped from 32 ships and 736 hostages held in January 2011 to 1 ship (FV Naham) and 50 hostages (from 11 nations) being held of late.

And the drop in piracy appears to have spurred shipping between the port of Mombasa and Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, one of Mombasa’s most modern freight firms, Focus Container Freight Station (CFS), has announced the commencement of direct shipment of cargo to Mogadishu from the port of Mombasa effective October 30.

In a paid up advertisement, the firm stated that it had partnered with Banadir Gate and Universal Navigation PTE Ltd to begin trans-shipment of cargo directly from Mombasa port to Mogadishu.

“This is an effort to reduce excessive road transport costs, CFS-related costs and increase transport efficiency. The vessels will load containers and loose cargo from Mombasa and thus minimise storage and other transport related inefficiencies,” Focus CFS said in the advertisement on Tuesday.

The drop in piracy attacks is attributed to the presence of international naval forces and the increased use of self protection measures and private armed security teams by the maritime industry.

Somalis themselves have also become less tolerant of pirates living in their midst and the negative impact they have had on their country.

European Union (EU) Naval Force Liaison Officer in charge of Kenya and Tanzania, Commander Francois Maressxaux, said an estimated USD330 million was paid out as ransom between 2009 and 2013.

“The successful cooperation and coordination that has built up over the past four-years between the international naval forces and the maritime industry has made it difficult for pirates to get out to sea undetected, and when they have their efforts have been thwarted by naval forces or well-equipped merchant ships,” he said.

In May last year, the EU Naval Force carried out an operation dubbed the ‘pirate logistics dump’, destroying a number of skiffs and pirate equipment, thereby destroying any build up of pirate supplies on Somalia beaches and the interest of their investors.

{standardmedia}

{{The Kenya High Court has dismissed a case filed by a Non-Governmental Organisation seeking to bar President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto from attending his trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).}}

The case was filed by the National Conservative Forum which had argued that Kenyatta and Ruto’s absence was likely to cause imbalance of power in the country, if both were left to travel to The Hague for their crimes against humanity trials.

On Thursday, Justice Mumbi Ngugi ruled that the reasons given by the NGO were “purely speculative”.

The judge also declined to declare that the Rome Statute is inconsistent with the Constitution as argued by the NGO.

“There is no evidence to this effect, and this court has no jurisdiction to do so,” the Judge said, and added that the powers to declare the Rome Statute inconsistent rest with the Legislature.

A Bill to remove Kenya from the Rome Statute is set to be tabled in the National Assembly after MPs adopted a Motion that paved way for the Bill.

A bid by Kenya to rally other African countries for a mass walk out from the statute flopped during last week’s African Union summit where a resolution was reached for Kenya to ask for a deferral of the cases facing its two top leaders.

Ruto on Tuesday announced that Kenya has already filed a deferral request and is awaiting its response.

The AU has advised the Kenyan leaders against attending their ICC trial pending the AU request, but Ruto says he will continue attending the trial while awaiting the resolution.

Uhuru and Ruto argue that they need time to fulfil their constitutional mandate as elected leaders.

{capitalFM}