IGIHE

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  • Somalia’s al-Shabab Frees Kenyan Hostages

    {{Two Kenyan hostages have been reunited with their families after being freed by militant Islamists in Somalia.}}

    Yesse Mule and Fredrick Wainana were abducted from the Kenyan town of Gerille in January 2012 by fighters of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group.

    Mr Mule told the BBC they moved to 19 different locations, and were kept chained and blindfolded in Somalia throughout their captivity.

    Kenya denied paying a ransom for the release of the government officials.

    Al-Shabab has taken numerous foreigners hostage, including the French spy Denis Allex who was executed in January after a botched French operation to rescue him.

    Mr Mule and Mr Wainana were seized some three months after Kenyan troops entered Somalia to fight al-Shabab.

    Its troops are currently part of the African Union (AU) force helping the UN-backed Somali government fend off threats by the al-Qaeda-linked group to overthrow it.

    {wirestory}

  • US Denounces Snowden’s Russian Asylum

    {{The US has labelled Russia’s decision to grant asylum to fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden as “extremely disappointing”.}}

    The White House is reconsidering a meeting scheduled for next month between President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

    The US wants Mr Snowden extradited and tried for leaking secrets.

    Mr Snowden, who left a Moscow airport transit zone for the first time since June, thanked Russia for its action.

    ‘Stab in the back’

    Mr Obama had been scheduled to meet Mr Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in early September in St Petersburg.

    However, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “We’re extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Mr Snowden expelled to the United States to face the charges against him.

    “We’re evaluating the utility of a summit in light of this and other issues.”

    Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer, an ally of Mr Obama, said Russia’s decision was a “stab in the back” and urged the president to recommend relocating the G20 summit away from Russia.

    Former Republican presidential candidate John McCain said there should be “serious repercussions”.

    Russia has consistently played down the importance of the issue and insisted relations with the US should be unaffected.

    {wirestory}

  • Tsvangirai Denounces Zimbabwe Vote

    {{Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed Zimbabwe’s election as a farce on Thursday after his rival President Robert Mugabe’s party claimed a landslide victory that would secure another five years in power for Africa’s oldest head of state.}}

    Speaking at the headquarters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a dejected Tsvangirai said Wednesday’s vote should be considered invalid because of polling day irregularities and vote-rigging by 89-year-old Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.

    “This has been a huge farce,” he told reporters. “In our view, that election is null and void.” He did not take questions, leaving it unclear whether he or his party would mount any kind of legal challenge.

    The conflicting claims from the competing camps came before Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission had issued any official results.

    There are fears that an acrimonious post-election dispute could spill over into violence, as happened after the last election in 2008, when 200 MDC supporters were killed in the wake of a first-round defeat for Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.

    Wednesday’s poll was peaceful, but the largest independent observer group said it was seriously compromised because of voter registration problems that might have disenfranchised up to a million people – a fifth of all Zimbabweans of voting age.

    Releasing unofficial results early is illegal, and police had said they would arrest anybody who did this.

    However, a senior source in Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, who asked not to be named, told Reuters less than 15 hours after the polls closed that the result was already clear.

    “We’ve taken this election. We’ve buried the MDC. We never had any doubt that we were going to win,” the source said.

    A vote tally compiled throughout the day by South Africa-based private Zimbabwean channel 1st TV indicated that ZANU-PF had swept the board in the parliamentary vote, with many of the Western-backed MDC’s top leadership losing their seats.

    The station, using tallies posted at polling stations around the country, said ZANU-PF had won 93 seats in parliament to the MDC’s 33, a massive swing from 2008. It was not confident enough to declare the remaining 84 seats.

    {agencies}

  • Moroccans to Protest Royal Pardon for Spanish Paedophile

    {{Moroccans outraged by a royal pardon for a Spanish pedophile serving a 30-year sentence for raping 11 children in the North African kingdom are planning a protest in Rabat on Friday.}}

    The convicted pedophile is among 48 jailed Spaniards who the state news agency MAP said were pardoned by King Mohamed VI on Tuesday at the request of Spain’s King Juan Carlos, who visited Morocco last month.

    Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid confirmed the pedophile is among the prisoners freed by the royal pardon and said he was expelled from Morocco on Thursday.

    “That person is banned in Morocco’s territory, he cannot return,” the minister told media.

    A source at Spain’s Foreign Ministry said Moroccan authorities had decided which prisoners would be released and that Spain was offering consular help to pardoned citizens.

    The decision prompted a frenzy of angry postings on social media in Morocco. Activists from the February 20 movement, which organized anti-government demonstrations during the Arab unrest of 2011, called for Friday’s rally in the Moroccan capital.

    “The king’s pardon is a second rape for the victims,” a woman identifying herself as Meryem El said on Twitter.

    Hamid Krayri, a lawyer for families of the victims, named the pedophile as Daniel Fino Galvan and said he had been convicted 18 months ago by criminal courts in Kenitra, near Rabat, of raping and filming children aged between 4 and 15.

    “He is a retired Spaniard who owns two flats here in Kenitra,” Krayri, who is a member of Morocco’s Human Rights Association, told Reuters.

    He said he had filed a complaint against Galvan three years ago when activists had shown him video discs containing footage of the Spaniard and his victims.

    Galvan’s lawyer, Mohamed Benjeddo, said his client had been freed on Wednesday and planned to leave for Spain the next day. The Spanish embassy declined to confirm Galvan’s release.

    The king, like other Middle Eastern rulers, often pardons prisoners on special occasions, such as Throne Day on July 30, but the decision to release the Spaniards at the request of the monarch of a former colonial power has riled many here.

    “Is this Morocco’s way to reach the long-sought target of 10 million tourists a year?” blogger Nouhad Fathi asked in a sarcastic post on her Facebook wall.

  • Big rewards beckon in Angola, but little transparency

    Hot to tap into Angola’s booming oil economy for over a decade, foreign investors are finally seeing the country open up new financial avenues.

    But will woeful transparency and corruption thwart them?

    Five-star hotel lobbies in the capital Luanda bubble with talk of deals to profit from the country’s economic success, with the government adding to the lure by announcing plans for a $5 billion sovereign wealth fund, a bourse and a Eurobond.

    Buoyed by rising crude production that is already worth $70 billion a year and praise from the world’s main lending agencies, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos wants Angola to step on to the international financial stage.

    “Angola is definitely trying to develop an international strategy,” said Alex Vines, an Angola expert at London-based think tank Chatham House. “That, however, has an impact in terms of transparency, given the demands of international markets.”

    Africa’s biggest oil producer after Nigeria, Angola has posted rapid growth since the end of a long civil war in 2002 but has been beset by criticism of its opaque finances and pervasive graft. Transparency International ranks Angola as the 19th most corrupt country in its global index of 176 countries.

    Campaign groups like Global Witness have urged the government to report how much oil revenue it receives and spends in a country where an elite has become vastly rich while over a third of around 19 million Angolans live in poverty.

    In Luanda, one of the world’s most expensive cities, the elite travels to luxury compounds in top-of-the-range SUVs while the majority live in sprawling slums, often without electricity.

    The ruling MPLA party says there has been much progress on transparency and cites praise from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. It also points to new rules in a fledgling banking sector.

    “The new rules are important, at the level of those in industrialised countries,” said Tiago Dionisio, research analyst at sub-Saharan investment bank Eaglestone. “There’s much to be done, but it’s progress.”

  • Police Arrest 3 in Nyarugenge Burglary

    {{Police in Nyarugenge District arrested three people in connection with a robbery at an electronics shop on Tuesday night.}}

    The burglary occurred at about 4am at a shop owned by one Francois Karenzi, situated in Kiyovu in the city centre where 17 laptops were stolen after thieves broke through the door.

    The suspects are currently detained at Muhima Police Station.

    Nyarugenge Police said investigations are still on to unearth all those involved in this break-in.

    Finger prints were collected from the scene of crime, which will also facilitate investigations, police added.

  • 485,867 SIMCards Deactivated

    {{Over 485,867 simcards have been deactivated. Their owners cannot make and recieve calls.}}

    On 31st July at midnight all unregistered simcards were disconnected.

    However, some unregistered simcards are allegedly active and that their owners are able to make and recieve calls.

    The Rwanda Utility and Regulatory Agency RURA told IGIHE that over 6,596, 005 simcards representing 92,6% were registered.

    According to RURA communication official Jean Baptist Mutabazi, said, 70,905 subscribers on the TIGO telecom network didnt register their Simcards. 361,123 MTN subscribers didnt register and 53,839 Airtel Subscribers didnt register their simcards.

  • Snowden Wins Political Asylum in Russia for a Year

    {{US National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden’s application for political asylum has been approved, and he has left a Moscow airport, Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told media.}}

    Snowden has legal status in Russia for one year, Kucherena said, but the attorney would not disclose his location, citing security reasons.

    “We would like to thank the Russian people and all those others who have helped to protect Mr. Snowden. We have won the battle — now the war,” WikiLeaks tweeted when the news hit.

    In another tweet, the group said, “Edward Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia for a year and has now left Moscow airport under the care of WikiLeaks’ Sarah Harrison.”

    And another tweet: “FLASH: We can now confirm that Edward Snowden’s welfare has been continuously monitored by WikiLeaks staff since his presence in Hong Kong.”

  • Rwanda Ranked 3rd in Africa in Statistical Capacity

    {{Rwanda has been ranked third in Africa after Egypt and Mauritius in World Bank’s statistical capacity indicator after scoring an overall 77 points out of 100.}}

    Statistical Capacity Indicator provides an overview of the statistical capacity of 140 developing countries.

    It is based on a diagnostic framework developed with a view to assessing the capacity of statistical systems.

    The framework consists of three assessment areas which are: methodology; data sources; and periodicity and timeliness. Rwanda scored 60 points in Methodology, 80 in data sources and 90 in periodicity and timelines.

    The success is attributed to achievements registered by the National institute of statistics of Rwanda (NISR) since 2009 with the 5 year national strategy for developing statistics.

    These include improved surveys delivery and more professional management as evidences by integrated Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV), National Census and quarterly and annual GROSS Domestic Product (GDP).

    Statistical methodology measures a country’s ability to adhere to internationally recommended standards and methods. This aspect is captured by assessing guidelines and procedures used to compile macroeconomic statistics, and social data reporting and estimation practices.

    Source data, reflects whether a country conducts data collection activities in line with internationally recommended periodicity, and whether data from administrative systems are available and reliable for statistical estimation purposes.

    Periodicity and timeliness, looks at the availability and periodicity of key socioeconomic indicators, of which nine are Millennium Development Goals indicators.

    This dimension measures the extent to which data are made accessible to users through transformation of source data into timely statistical outputs.

  • Govt to Send Team to Malawi over Repartriation of Rwandan Refugees

    {{Officials from Ministry of Disaster Preparedness and Refugee Affairs are expected in Malawi for talks on repatriation of Rwandan refugees still holedup there.}}

    Rwanda Intends to use the platform to explain to Malawi the process of voluntary repatriation, which the former insist is facilitated by UN refugee agency.

    The Malawian government would require about Frw980 million to repatriate the 500 refugees.

    “It’s the UNHCR that facilitates transportation of the refugees, not the Malawian government. However, we intend to visit the country and explain all the issues related to the repatriation of refugees,” Antoine Ruvebana, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs, said yesterday.

    Ruvebana said they have been to all other countries hosting Rwandan refugees and only Malawi was remaining, adding that it will help to clarify to Malawi about the matter.

    The Malawian Home Affairs minister, Uladi Mussa, was quoted recently as saying that his country was constrained by resources to carry out the exercise.