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  • South Sudan: Gen. Kiir urges Abyei Citizens to Return Home

    South Sudan: Gen. Kiir urges Abyei Citizens to Return Home

    {{South Sudanese president Salva Kiir Mayardit has urged the citizens of the contested region of Abyei to return home in preparation for a referendum vote, despite Khartoum’s rejection of the African Union-backed proposal.}}

    Kiir made the remarks while delivering a speech dedicated to the current flood crisis that hit six of 10 South Sudan states and displaced thousands of people since heavy rains begun in August.

    “We tell the people of Abyei to return home early so that they [can] participate in the referendum”, said Kiir in a statement broadcast by the state-owned South Sudan Television (SSTV) on Thursday.

    He said his administration continued to urge the international community to exert pressure on Sudan to accept the conduct of the referendum as the only viable solution to resolve the dispute over the area.

    “The citizens of Abyei can return to their homes so that they are physically present to participate in all [of] the process, especially voter registration when it is started. They should return now as we are exerting efforts to push Khartoum to accept the conduct”, he said.

    Kiir maintains that conditions attached by Khartoum as a prerequisite to the conduct of the referendum were unacceptable.

    “They (government of Sudan) have accepted the conduct of the referendum but attach certain things which we do not accept. They want joint institutions which is not the priority. We want a referendum commission to be established first because this is what will resolve the dispute”, he said.

    Khartoum, which refuses the referendum without the participation of the Sudanese Misseriya nomads, demands to establish a joint administration and a legislative council first. It further says committed to the vote to determine the fate of the disputed area but call for negotiations that can achieve a lasting solution.

    The organisation of the referendum in October was proposed last year by the head of the African Union panel for Sudan and South Sudan, Thabo Mbeki.

    The former South African president during short visits to the two capitals last week, held talks with presidents Omer Al-Bashir and Salva Kiir after their summit in Khartoum. He hailed their positive esprit and determination to implement the signed agreements but remained silent over Abyei.

    Sudantribune

  • UNEP Ranks Africa Lowest in Clean Energy

    UNEP Ranks Africa Lowest in Clean Energy

    {{With an already significant impact of climate change like floods, drought and erratic rainfall, one would expect the Africa to be at the forefront of producing energy efficient and clean energy technologies but the continent is yet to come up with technologies that are climate friendly.}}

    According to a May 2013 United nations Environment Programme (Unep) study ‘Patents and clean energy technologies in Africa’ the continent has the least level of technology development with less than one per cent of all patent applications relating to Clean Energy Technologies coming from Africa.

    South Africa tops the list of Africa’s leading inventor countries with 82.4 per cent of the applications filed in Africa, followed by Egypt with 2.8 per cent. Kenya and Burundi are the only East African countries that feature on the list with 1.2 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively.

  • Tanzania to Deport 10,000 Foreign teachers

    Tanzania to Deport 10,000 Foreign teachers

    {{About 10,000 teachers face expulsion in a crackdown on illegal immigrants in Tanzania, private school owners said Thursday.}}

    The Tanzania Association of Managers and Owners of Non-Government Schools and Colleges (Tamongsco) told reporters that the crackdown would have serious repercussions on private English medium schools.

    Tamongsco secretary-general Benjamin Nkonya said most schools could not afford the $2,000 fee for a two-year work permit required for foreign teachers.

    “A school with ten foreign teachers, for example, cannot afford to pay $20,000. We have appealed that the fee either be scrapped or reduced,” he said.

    School owners raised the matter with President Jakaya Kikwete in Mbeya last year, and were still waiting for a response, Mr Nkonya added.

    He said Tomongsco members told President Kikwete that they had no option but to hire foreign teachers to work in private English medium schools due to a shortage of local tutors.

    The teacher to student ratio in Tanzania is 1:40, with a demand of 23,546 teachers. There are 13,657 teachers, which is only 58 per cent of requirements.

    This has prompted private schools to employ 9,889 teachers from neighbouring Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.

    Mr Nkonya also accused police and immigration officers of mistreating and humiliating foreign teachers, saying some had been handcuffed in front of their pupils and bundled into police vehicles.

    “This is not only humiliating, it also had an adverse psychological effect on pupils, especially those who were sitting the Standard Seven national examination,” he said.

    wirestory

  • Kenyan couple reconcile despite murder plot

    Kenyan couple reconcile despite murder plot

    {{A Kenyan woman has been spared jail for hiring hitmen kill her husband after the couple promised a magistrate that they had patched up their differences, reports said on Friday.}}

    Businesswoman Faith Wairimu Maina walked to freedom after her husband, John Muthee, said he had forgiven her for trying to have him shot in the head and dumped in a ditch.

    “I want to forgive her for the sake of our children and family,” reports quoted Muthee as telling a Nairobi magistrate.

    “She is my wife and the mother of my children,” he told the court.

    The woman was nabbed when she handed Sh40,000 ($450) to undercover policemen as a down payment on the job.

    Reports said the woman wanted him shot in the head three times, and had promised to pay a further Sh160,000 upon the recovery of her husband’s bloodstained clothes and his bank card pin numbers.

    Detectives said it was her second and possibly third attempt at having her allegedly unfaithful husband eliminated and that an earlier contract flopped when the would-be assassins got cold feet and ran off with the deposit.

    But the woman’s lawyer, John Swaka, said the couple had agreed to patch things up.

    “The court allows for such negotiations in litigation,” he was quoted as saying.

    “They have sincerely buried the hatchet.”

  • Rwanda Writes to ICC to Exempt Ruto From Attending Hearing

    Rwanda Writes to ICC to Exempt Ruto From Attending Hearing

    {{Rwanda and four African countries have written to the International Criminal Court to exempt Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto from attending all hearings of his case in The Hague.}}

    Attorney General and Justice Minister Johnston Busingye said granting Mr Ruto his request would bolster the effectiveness of the court “by demonstrating that the court’s framework can accommodate a flexible and pragmatic approach…in proceedings by those occupying high office within the court.”

    Rwanda, which is yet to ratify the Rome Statute, argues that the submission will help the ICC clarify how people who hold high office will be treated while facing trial.

    Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Eritrea want the court to allow Mr Ruto room to execute his constitutional duties.

    They also want to contest the interpretation of Article 63 of the Rome Statute, which disposes that ‘the accused shall be present during the trial.’

    “The court has so far received requests from five African countries asking for leave to submit amicus curiae filings…the filings, if authorised, will present their views on the correct interpretation of the Rome Statute article 63,” the court’s spokesman, Mr Fadi El Abdallah, said Thursday.

    The hearing of cases facing Mr Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Sang started on Tuesday, but was adjourned on Wednesday until next Tuesday after ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her witnesses were not ready.

    Mr Sang and Mr Ruto face charges of murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population and persecution over the 2007/8 post-election violence that left 1,133 people dead and displaced 650,000 others.

    {{Suspended Ruling}}

    The applications follow Ms Bensouda’s appeal against the Trial Chamber V(a) decision granting Mr Ruto leave to be away during the trial — except for specified hearings.

    The prosecutor argued that justice for the victims required the accused to be present in court throughout the trial.

    The court then suspended the ruling pending the appeal.

    “For the time being, Mr Ruto is requested to be present at all the hearings in his trial before Trial Chamber V (a), pending a final determination of the Appeals Chamber on the appeal against the excusal decision,” Mr Abdallah said.

    Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania want the ICC to strike a balance between its jurisdiction and the responsibilities of those who occupy high office.

    On Monday, Tanzania’s Attorney General Fredrick Mwita said exempting the Deputy President from some of the hearings would enhance cooperation between the court and state parties.

    additional reporting: NMG

  • Fifa rejects Congo Appeal over Ineligible Player

    Fifa rejects Congo Appeal over Ineligible Player

    {{Fifa says it will not be taking any action on a complaint from the Congo Football Federation over Mahamane Cisse’s eligibility to play for Niger.}}

    Cisse, who played for Mali at under-20 level, scored for Niger in their 2-2 draw with Congo on Saturday in a 2014 World Cup qualifier.

    The draw denied Congo a place in Africa’s 2014 World Cup play-offs, with Burkina Faso advancing instead.

    “We were not in a position to proceed with the complaint,” Fifa said.

    The Congo FA had asked Fifa to look at whether Cisse qualified to play for Niger.

    “The player was born in Mali, he’s lived for many years in Mali and we know that he played for the Mali under-20 team at the recent African championships in Algeria,” the Congo federation’s media spokesman Emmanuel Kaba told BBC Sport earlier.

    But Fifa confirmed that it had approved Cisse’s switch of national allegiance.

    “The Single Judge of the Players’ Status Committee passed a decision, by means of which the request for a change of association submitted by the Niger FA regarding the player in question was accepted.”

    Had Fifa ruled in favour of Congo it would have meant they would have been awarded a 3-0 victory and so win Group E and qualify for the play-offs ahead of Burkina Faso.

    agencies

  • Shell considers payouts for Nigeria spills

    Shell considers payouts for Nigeria spills

    {{Officials of Royal Dutch Shell have held talks in Nigeria’s southern city of Port Harcourt with representatives for the Bodo community on compensation and clean-up five years after major oil spills devastated parts of the Niger Delta.}}

    The two oil spills that started in 2008 led to the largest loss of a mangrove habitat ever caused by a spill, affecting about 30,000 people in the Niger Delta area since then, according to London-based law firm Leigh Day.

    “These people, since 2008 they are living on a creek of oil. You step out of the front door you see oil, breathe in oil and toxic fumes,” said lawyer Daniel Leader of Leigh Day, a law firm that is representing about 15,000 people from the community that filed a lawsuit in 2012.

    Although Royal Dutch Shell has admitted responsibility for the two spills, the impact has been disputed and will be the main focus of negotiations in Port Harcourt.

    {{Compensation dispute}}

    Royal Dutch Shell said a joint investigation team estimated 4,100 barrels were lost in the two spills. That estimate is based on the initial investigations by representatives from the company and the local community, Jonathan French, the company’s spokesman, told The Associated Press news agency.

    “Having said all that, it doesn’t matter how much was spilled because the compensation will be based on the financial loss that people have suffered because of the spill in the lagoon,” he said.

    “And that is a matter of dispute between us and the claimant.”

    Leigh Day said that 15,000 fishermen and 31,000 inhabitants of 35 villages were affected in and around the Bodo lagoon and its associated waterways.

    The law firm says independent experts estimate between 500,000 and 600,000 barrels were spilled, devastating the environment that sits amid 90 square kilometres of mangroves, swamps and channels.

    But Shell says such estimates are high.

    Shell spokesman French said the company did not have access to the area to clean it up, and that not all oil spilled was a result of the company’s operations.

    Shell blames most of the spills in the region on attacks by armed groups or thieves tapping into pipelines to steal crude oil, which ends up on the black market.

    Nigeria, one of the top crude oil suppliers to the United States, requires companies to promptly clean up oil spills but the policy is not enforced.

    Both parties have said they hope to reach an agreement by the end of the week.

    Neither side would discuss possible settlement figures. Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that the company is thought to be offering about $20 million in compensation while the villagers seek $200 million.

    Local communities remain largely hostile to Shell and other oil firms because of environmental damage. Some environmentalists say as much as 550 million gallons of oil have been poured into the delta during Shell’s roughly 50 years of production in Nigeria.

    The United Nations has recommended that the oil industry and Nigeria’s government set up a fund, with an initial injection of $1 billion, to begin what could be a 30-year clean-up and restoration project in the oil-stained region.

    wirestory

  • State support urged for SA shooting survivors

    State support urged for SA shooting survivors

    {{Hundreds of demonstrators have marched on South African government buildings in Pretoria to protest at a lack of state funding for survivors of shootings at the Marikana mine, where 44 people died last year.}}

    The demonstrators, including members of victims’ families and opposition parties, marched on Thursday because they want the government to pay legal fees for about 270 injured or arrested miners appearing at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry.

    The body was appointed by President Jacob Zuma to investigate the police killing of 34 striking miners on August 16, 2012, at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana.

    In the run-up to these deaths, at least 10 other people, including two police officers, were killed.

    The mine workers are facing a “David and Goliath battle” against the state, the police force and Lonmin, according to Trevor Ngwane, a 53-year-old spokesperson for the Marikana Support Campaign.

    “It’s very important to show the general public we are unhappy with the government,” Ngwane said, speaking from Pretoria.

    “It’s a tragedy, a shame, and a disgrace really,” he said.

    “It’s totally demoralising that the government of liberation could do something to the people like this.”

    Last August, Jeff Redabe, the justice minister, said funding the legal team for the mine workers was unnecessary.

    The approximately 270 injured or arrested miners and their lawyer, Dali Mpofu, withdrew from the commission in protest, and submitted an application to postpone the proceedings.

    Last Monday, the commission’s chairman, retired Judge Ian Farlam, ruled the hearings will continue, arguing that the absence of the miners will not prejudice the proceedings.

    Erik de Ridder, a 24-year-old spokesman for Citizens for Marikana, said inequality in the commission continues to hurt the cash-strapped workers, who also must pay for the two-hour journey from Rustenburg, where they live, to the commission in Pretoria.

    “The way it’s been operated has been detrimental to the community,” he said.

    “Because of this issue’s massive importance – socially, economically, politically – it definitely needs to come to a conclusion, so that the country can move on,” Ridder said.

    Source: agencies

  • UN: Defeat Forced M23 into Talks with Congo

    UN: Defeat Forced M23 into Talks with Congo

    {{Congolese and United Nations troops pushed back the M23 rebel group, forcing it back to the negotiating table and removing a threat to the city of Goma, the UN peacekeeping chief has said.}}

    Herve Ladsous on Thursday called the military action a “very significant achievement” that inflicted casualties on the M23 and likely led the rebels to resume talks with the government in neighboring Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

    “The M23 group has been pushed back towards the north to such a place that it does not any more pose the direct threat that it had posed for such a long time either on the city of Goma” or surrounding camps for displaced people and UN positions, reporters quoted him as saying.

    M23, which the United Nations says has received support from neighboring Rwanda, launched an assault on Goma last month, sparking fierce battles with government forces.

    Aided by UN peacekeeping troops and the new UN intervention brigade, Congolese troops pounded rebel positions and reclaimed several areas that had been occupied by the M23 until the rebels unexpectedly declared a cease-fire, saying they wanted to resume talks.

    In a Security Council meeting, Ladsous said that with the resumption of talks “diplomacy has become again the order of the day.”

    AFP

  • Egypt extends state of emergency for two months

    Egypt extends state of emergency for two months

    Egypt is extending its state of emergency for a further two months.

    The president’s office said the decision had been taken because of the security situation.

    The current state of emergency was introduced in August after hundreds died following the clearing of protest camps set up in support of the ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi.

    A separate decision will be made on the night-time curfew which is in effect in parts of the country.

    The violence which rocked the Arab world’s most populous country last month has largely subsided, but a failed assassination attempt on the interior minister has recently reinforced government concerns.

    Egyptians lived under a state of emergency – which gives extra powers to the security services – for more than three decades, until President Mubarak was forced from power two years ago.

    Mr Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president, was ousted by the army in July following widespread protests against his rule. A military-backed government has now taken charge.

    wirestory