{{In line with dealing with climate change impacts, the District of Bugesera has started rehabilitating Cyohoha Lake for the benefit of Environment and local communities living near the lake.}}
Activities of conserving the Lake will be conducted by Bugesera District and the Burundian District of Busoni that nears Cyohoha.
The project will be funded by Global water Partnership Eastern Africa.
Safari Patrick, the Coordinator of Global water Partnership Eastern Africa, revealed that once the project successfully completed, it will help both Burundi and Rwandan communities.
Apart from being an opportunity for jobs among residents, Safari said the project will ensure the availability of water both in quantity and quality.
The Burundi Governor of Kirundo Nzigamasabo Reveriyano appreciated the activity noting that the conservation and rehabilitation of Cyohoha will help in reducing impacts of lacking water among the two District.
{{About 604 agents in charge of night patrol services commonly known as “Irondo” are being trained in Nyarugenge District.}}
The Mayor of the District Mukasonga Solange said the trainings are in line with equipping patrol skills to night watchers as a way to ensure security in the District.
Speaking as a guest of Honor yesterday during the official opening of the trainings, the Rwanda Chief of Staff Reserve Forces Gen. Fred Ibingira urged the trainees to be committed to security issues adding that nothing can be sustainable if there is no security.
He urged them to be professional with discipline in their daily activities.
Ibigira asked reserve forces to be part of peace as well as fighting against those who destabilize residents.
He said that not only wars that destabilize the peace but also those who involve in illegal activities such drug abuse, home violence and illegal brewers might be stopped.
{{In line with thanking those who have helped the Rwanda Patriotic Front during the liberation struggles, about 100 Ugandans have been given cows as recognition for their contribution to the struggle.}}
Most of them came from Ugandan District of Kisoro, Kabale, Ntungamo and Mbarara.
The Rwanda Minister of Local Government, James Musoni said that President Paul Kagame has urged that there might be recognition of people who gave their contribution in the fight against bad leadership that existed when RPF decided to liberate Rwanda.
James Musoni urged that the love that they have shown might be continuous.
Kamuzime Zadou who spoke on behalf of those who came from Gatuna, Rubaya, Kashaasa and Rugano revealed that they have helped RPF due to the fact that the objectives of the war were consistent and clear.
She added that there might be cases where they even have to sacrifice their lives.
{{About 3,281 ICT champions were trained in 28 Districts.
The training will impart teacher trainers’ skills to integrate ICTs in school curriculum.}}
The program was delivered through Training of Teacher and Student Technology Champions program and the Rwanda Education Board.
Evode Mukama, Head of Department of ICT in Education and Open, Distance and eLearning in Rwanda Education Board added that 357 education manuals were developed and 59 ICT clubs created.
Information from Rwanda Education Board say the training has equipped beneficiaries’ capacity to develop teacher trainers’ problem solving and learning by doing abilities and skills using ICTs as pedagogical skills
{{A Man identified as Frederic Mukeshimana 35 resident in Bugesera district was attacked by a crocodile while fishing in Lake Kidogo.}}
It’s said the crocodile crushed his leg and inflicted several injuries on his stomach.
He was immediately rushed to nearby hospital after being rescued by an area resident.
The incident happened December 21 in Bugesera District, Rilima Sector in Ntarama cell around 6:00 am.
Supt Benoit Nsengiyumva the police spokesperson in Eastern Region said though measures are in place to prevent the public from such animal attacks, they are urged to desist from such illegal fishing.
He further said that fishermen should join cooperatives which work better in this type of business but also advised parents to protect their children from playing around such dangerous sites.
{{A Rwandan National living in Beligium has been murdred by unknown people.}}
The murder victim has been identified as Ishimwe Willy Karimwabo 20.
He was killed Sunday morning by an unknown group that stubbed with a sharp object.
Belgian Police immediately arrived at the crime scene but no one had been arrested in connection with the crime.
Ishimwe has been living in Belgium since he was three years old.
Its reported that Belgian Police is investigating the matter and the family of the deceased has been denied access to the body till Tuesday.
{{About 186 demobilized ex-FDLR soldiers completed two-month training and are committed to integrating into Rwandan society and contribute to the country’s development.}}
Dr. Alivera Mukabaramba, the Minister of State for Community Development and Social Affairs encouraged members of the 45th stage to exploit the knowledge they have acquired from Mutobo center.
According to the President of the Rwanda Demobilization and Reintegration (RDRC), Jean Sayinzoga, “In 1960, Inyenzi did not hate Rwanda. The Inkontanyi also in 1990. You also ex-FDLR, as you get demobilized in your community, give your contribution to develop your country.”
Demobilized former rebel Maj. Ndayizeye Fulgence , expressed his gratitude to the Rwandan authorities that offered them care and facilitated them to repatriate.
He appreciated the training program which focused on patriotism, the role of the army and police, citizens and religious leaders in the national life, political parties, the ideology of genocide, NGOs, and cooperative grouping together, creating and managing a business.
Maj. Ndayizeye urged his colleagues to put into practice the training received from the Centre.
“This is a database that will serve as a reference to help develop the common homeland,” he said.
{{Rwanda Development Board (RDB) through its Kitabi College of Conservation and Environmental Management (KCCEM) on Friday graduated 15 students with diploma in wildlife management.}}
Graduates who were selected among six national parks from Burundi and Rwanda, underwent a two-year training in conservation and environment management.
Three of them were from Burundi’s Kibila National Park.
At the ceremony, Rica Rwigamba, the Head of Tourism and Conservation at RDB said, the new graduates will contribute to sustainable management of Environment and wild life conservation.
Rica noted that the knowledge they have received within the last two years is extensive and more than just the certificate they received.
She added that in partnership with the government of Rwanda, RDB will continue to strengthen the capacity of KCCEM.
Currently, RDB and the College are in talks with the Rwanda Ministry of Education so that diplomas from KCCEM are recognized as any other diplomas offered by colleges operating in the country.
Richard Nasasira, the acting Principal of KCCEM said that graduates have been equipped with necessary technical skills that the sector of Conservation needs for its development.
“We are sure our graduates today will perform better due to the fact that they have been equipped with necessary skills that will allow them to fulfill their duties,” said Nasasira.
Denise Umugwaneza, former Akagera tourist guide and the only Girl that graduated among the 15 graduates in the department of wildlife conservation said that girls and women are still reluctant in joining conservation and guide activities.
“A Lot of women are not interested and some time they lack self confidence or traditional barriers where women think that the job of guide is for men which is not true.” Umugwaneza observed.
“I encourage women to join this profession because they can gain more,” umugwaneza urged.
Photo: {SPLA-N soldiers train in the Nuba Mountians, South Kordofan in April 2012.The Sudanese government argues it is fighting a rebellion led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement}
{{For more than a year the Sudanese government has been bombing and spreading terror in the country’s South Kordofan state, surgically cleansing the land of the Nuba people.}}
The government of Sudan argues it is fighting a rebellion led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement that engineered the secession of South Sudan.
Khartoum still struggles to stomach the victory of the Southerners, brought about partly by the large number of Nuba fighters who — after decades of marginalization and political exclusion — joined forces with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
Accordingly, Khartoum treats the Nuba people as the enemy within — a foe whose independent spirit has never been tamed.
The cost: half a million people have been displaced or severely affected by the conflict, according to the U.N.’s Humanitarian Affairs office.
The most recent rash of bombings is the second time in 20 years that the Nuba people have been targets of the same Khartoum leaders — President Omar al-Bashir and Governor Ahmed Haroun.
Both men are internationally indicted war criminals, although both deny the charges.
Haroun engineered attacks against the Nuba in the 90s, refined his deadly tactics in Darfur in 2004, and is now back pursuing his murderous agenda against the Nuba with even greater efficiency.
I traveled to Sudan bear witness, as a journalist and a Rwandan, to a people under siege, at the war-torn border between the two Sudans, one of the most isolated regions on earth.
Smuggled into the Nuba Mountains, an area closed to the world, I filmed local activists documenting the attacks being perpetrated by the Khartoum regime.
Despite being bombed several times a day since June 2011, the activists remain nonviolent.
Armed with cameras and the hope for a better tomorrow, they relentlessly scour their homeland collecting the testimonies, pictures and evidence to build up a case against their aggressors: their government.
Our team traveled to a number of villages up to 20 km from the front line. During my time in the region I experienced bombings as regimented as prison meals.
We were attacked an average of three times a day. We were filming as the scale of atrocities unfolded with excruciating precision: the bombs falling, the people hiding in caves for safety, the destruction of villages, the casualties.
Every day, we experienced hunger, fear, abandonment, exhaustion and unspeakable harshness, like the Nuba people do. At a moment’s notice, we jumped in and out of foxholes and crawled in caves like they do to survive.
Cramped, hot and terrified, we have seen and smelled the death of children, pregnant women and the elderly; the destruction of villages, crops, schools, water pumps, mosques, churches and hospitals.
In the making of “Erasing the Nuba” we were bombed 19 times and lived to tell the story of resilience of a people harassed daily by landmines and rockets, in a region transformed into ghost towns, craters and ruins.
A lingering smell of death and growing despair ushered us out of the Nuba Mountains. Almost 63,000 Nuba have fled to the Yida refugee camp in South Sudan.
There I saw a people left to fend for themselves, a people that know they have no friends, yet determined to face their destiny with the only thing they have left: dignity.
In Yida, I attended a WFP-sponsored food distribution and saw how a 3kg ration of USAID-produced sorghum was distributed for each family to eat until the uncertain next round of food supply.
In Yida, a mother begged me to take home with me her three-month-old baby, whom she had delivered squatted down under a tree on a rainy afternoon.
I sat with Yida’s oldest resident, a 101-year-old man who journeyed on donkey back for eight days to be reunited with one of his sons.
The poor man was so disoriented that he had stopped eating and talking for days at a time. His family feared that leaving him alone might drive him to commit suicide.
In Yida I watched children sitting on the branches of a tree to follow a mathematics class as the open-air “classroom” was packed.
It struck me to see how one adult volunteer could teach a class of children, without the use of a blackboard and chalk.
There is no such thing as pens or notebooks for the thousands of children in need of an education at Yida.
Dreams for domestic reconciliation exhausted after two decades, the Nuba are holding onto the belief that “the hearts of the international community” woven into the fabric of our shared humanity “will hear their cries.”
They say they have been sacrificed at the altar of peace agreements between North and South Sudan and they feel cheated by the world’s inaction.
“Erasing the Nuba” has captured the spirit of the Nuba people of Sudan, a minority bowed but not broken — not by the daily hellish rain of bombs and rockets, nor by the world’s complicit silence.
But for how much longer can they prevail — hostages of Khartoum and us, the international community? A group of people and their way of life is being destroyed.
Why are the Nuba, the heirs of a civilization that once stretched from Cairo to Lake Victoria, asked to shake hands with Haroun, and his murderous gang of “Butchers of Khartoum”?
Would one have asked European nations to make peace with Hitler?
They have been forced to crawl in caves like beasts, survive on leaves and berries only to be told of a “Sudan Fatigue.”
Unlike Assad in Syria — bad as he is — only one current head of state in the world is indicted officially by a due legal process: al-Bashir. Yet many in the world are advocating the removal of Assad.
Mountains of grudges and greed fuel this conflict, where humanitarian assistance is used as a pawn on the chessboard of peace negotiations.
Beneath the surface, jumbles of players — local and foreign — are waging a merciless war against each other for the political, economic and military control of the two Sudans.
There can be no peace, no security, no stability, no settlement to this conflict as long as the blood of the Nuba children, women, men and communities will be spilled.
My family falling victim to the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and a commitment to uphold the vow made by those touched by genocide the world over to “never forget,” inspired me to bring their story to light.
“Erasing the Nuba” is my testimony, as a Rwandan and a journalist, to ensure these people are never referred to in the past tense.
Author:
{Yoletta Nyange is a Rwandan-born journalist who speaks five languages and has lived and worked across several countries including in Venezuela, Tunisia and Sudan.
Her debut documentary “Erasing the Nuba” is about the plight of the Nuba people in Sudan.}
{{The AfDB President, Donald Kaberuka recently noted that although African economies are currently experiencing growth, “We should be wary of simplistic extrapolations; instead we should plan today on how to manage in a highly uncertain global environment”. }}
He called upon African economies to tap into global trade and capital markets to fight poverty.
Dr. kaberuka was providing his assessment of the global economy and Africa’s development.
He was guest speaker at the Meeting of the Board of Governors of PTA Bank in Lusaka, Zambia on 19 December, 2012.
On poverty reduction, Dr. Kaberuka said that “every nation on planet earth was poor at some point… What made the difference was tapping into global trade and capital markets…That is the way to go”.
PTA is the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank.
