Author: Sam K. Nkurunziza

The World Travel Awards honor outstanding organizations across various tourism sectors, including hotels, national parks, and conservation areas. This year’s awards ceremony will be held in Bahrain on December 9, 2025.

Akagera National Park is competing in the category of “Africa’s Leading National Park,” which highlights parks known for their iconic and powerful wildlife. Its competitors include Kruger National Park (South Africa), Chobe National Park (Botswana), Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe), Nyerere National Park (Tanzania), and Serengeti National Park (also in Tanzania).

To win the award, Akagera must receive the highest number of votes cast via the official World Travel Awards website. Voting closes on May 4, 2025.

Spanning 1,120 square kilometers, Akagera is home to over 11,000 animals, according to a survey conducted in August 2023. These include the “Big Five” species, namely; lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and buffaloes.

According to the park’s management, several factors contribute to Akagera’s popularity among visitors including the presence of the Big Five, its easy accessibility from Kigali due to improved infrastructure, discounted rates for Rwandans who visit as groups, high security, and a range of accommodation options, from budget lodges to luxury stays.

In 2023, the park recorded 54,141 visitors, including 26,047 Rwandans, 23,560 international tourists, and 4,534 foreign residents living in Rwanda.

80% of our economy is a “boda boda” economy which means we live in a hands to mouth economy. People leave their homes when they actually don’t know whether they will earn something,” Mawejje, 30 said.

Describing his as a “boda boda” manifesto, he said the current setup of the country can only be referred to as a boda boda economy that he said pretends to grow steadily but “gets stuck somewhere because everyone is in debts.”

“People are desperate to an extent of thinking that if they spend hours in betting clubs maybe God will do miracles. Government has reduced its valued tax payers to beggars where everyone thinks in someone’s pocket,” Mawejje said.

He decried that youths who are vital in the development of any country are flying out for greener pasture leaving a generation that is not productive, and those who stay behind spend most of their times in discussing the “Premier League”

“We don’t have medicines in hospitals, police and military officers sleep in dilapidated units, roads are in a poor state and civil servants are paid pea nuts, not because Uganda is poor but because there are those who think they can eat anything that exists,” he observed.

Mawejje said he aims to introduce a seven-point program that he said will liberate the country.

“I want to tackle unemployment among youths, improve the health and education sectors, reduce the number of districts, constituencies, ministries, departments and agencies, put in place constitutional reforms to give voting rights to diaspora and prisoners and also clip the president’s powers,” he said.

They are accused of involvement in the abduction last year of Amir Boukhors, 41, a critic of Algeria’s government with a large audience on social media, who was reportedly granted asylum in France in 2023.

Barrot urged Algeria to “abandon” the expulsions and said France was ready to “respond immediately” if they went ahead.

“I am asking Algerian authorities to abandon these expulsion measures… if the decision to send back our officials is maintained, we will have no other choice but to respond immediately,” he said.

He claimed that the expulsions were a response to the indictment of three Algerian nationals in Paris, including the consular official, on charges including abduction, arbitrary detention and illegal confinement and participating in a terrorist organization.

Algeria’s foreign ministry said it had summoned French ambassador Stephane Romatet in response to “express its strong protest” and called for the official’s immediate release, according to the official Algerian news agency.

Boukhors, also known as Amir DZ who has lived in France since 2016, was abducted in April 2024 in the southern suburbs of Paris and released the following day, according to his lawyer Eric Plouvier.

Plouvier told the media that Boukhors had been “the subject of two serious attacks, one in 2022 and another on the evening of April 29 2024”.

French media reported that he was forced into a car with a flashing light by “fake police officers”, then released the next day without explanation.

Algeria has issued nine international arrest warrants against him, accusing him of fraud and links to terrorist organizations. He denies the allegations. In 2022, the French courts refused his extradition.

The case is the latest in a growing number of incidents to have exacerbated a rift between France and Algeria. They include the arrest and imprisonment in Algeria of French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal, who was accused of undermining Algeria’s territorial integrity.

Algeria recalled its ambassador from Paris last year after France backed Morocco’s claim to the disputed territory of Western Sahara. The 12 French officials asked to leave on Monday include some members of the French interior ministry.

It added that the individual “was arrested in public and then taken into custody without notification through the diplomatic channels.”

The ministry claimed the move was “not a coincidence as it happens in a very specific context with the aim of stymying the process of relaunching bilateral relations”.

Tentative steps have been made to repair relations between the two nations with a phone call between French President Emmanuel Macron and President Abdelmadjid Tebboun taking place in March.

“The two presidents had a long, frank and friendly exchange on the state of bilateral relations and the tensions that have built up in recent months,” a joint statement read.

Following an official visit to Algeria on 6 April where he met with Tebboun, Barrot said he hoped for a “new phase” in relations.

The event brought together media professionals, government officials, and genocide survivors in a solemn ceremony to honor their fallen colleagues and reflect on the media’s role, both harmful and healing, during one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history.

Cleophas Barore, Director General of RBA, spoke of the devastating impact the Genocide had on the media sector. He emphasized that many journalists were killed not for violating professional ethics, but simply because they were Tutsi.

“Many journalists were killed not because they had broken professional or ethical rules but simply because they were Tutsi. Even if they had, the punishment was not death,” Barore said.

He underscored that laws governing journalistic conduct do not prescribe the death penalty for ethical breaches, stressing that professional accountability must never be confused with persecution.

Senator Emmanuel Havugimana also addressed attendees, reflecting on the dangerous role some media outlets played in fueling division and inciting violence before and during the Genocide. He issued a firm reminder that Rwanda has since drawn a line in the sand. “We will not allow this country to burn again because of the media,” he stated.

Peacemaker Mbungiramihigo, a media policy analyst at the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), gave a personal testimony on the hostile environment that Tutsi journalists endured prior to the Genocide. He revealed that many were unfairly branded as traitors by their own colleagues.

“Tutsi journalists were regarded by their colleagues as accomplices of the Inkotanyi before the Genocide,” Mbungiramihigo shared.

A survivor himself, Mbungiramihigo found refuge at Hôtel des Mille Collines during the Genocide. In the aftermath, he went on to contribute to the rebuilding of Rwanda’s media by working at Radio Muhabura and later at Radio Rwanda.

Scovia Mutesi, the Executive Secretary of the Rwanda Media Commission (RMC), emphasized that journalists must prioritize integrity and conscience over academic qualifications when fulfilling their duties.

She called on media professionals to remain grounded in ethical principles and resist being swayed by financial gain or other influences that could compromise their role.

“What should guide a journalist is not just the degree they hold, but the conscience they carry. We must refuse to be used for purposes that tarnish our country’s image. Our responsibility is to inform, not to mislead,” Mutesi said.

As Rwanda commemorates 31 years since the Genocide against the Tutsi, the media fraternity continues to honor its own, those whose voices were silenced not for what they said, but for who they were. Their memory remains a call to uphold truth, unity, and responsibility in journalism.

The Bulgarian mystic, whose real name was Vangeliya Pandeva Gushterova, died at the age of 84 in 1996 having become famous for her clairvoyance.

Blind since early childhood, she claimed to have gained her powers during a terrible storm, and managed to predict 9/11, the death of Princess Diana, and global warming events such as mass flooding.

Also known as the ‘Nostradamus of the Balkans’, Baba Vanga is believed to have had such accurate visions that 85% of them have been shown to be correct. And since her death, more of her predictions have come true, including 2025 being the year of shattering earthquakes.

She sadly proved correct. As well as Myanmar and Thailand, the Oceania nation Tonga was also struck by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1, prompting a tsunami warning for the Pacific Island country.

Myanmar’s leadership declared a week of national mourning following the devastation, while the UN issued an urgent appeal for £6.2 billion to support the nation through the worsening humanitarian crisis.

While Baba’s earthquake prediction was eerily correct, her other future foresights are also worrying. She further warned of “cruel wars” and a global “apocalypse” for next year.

One of the events she described was a conflict on mainland Europe, adding that she believed a new war would break out in 2025 between two countries, with the ramifications rippling out across the world.

Interestingly, Baba Vanga’s warnings for next year also line up with another famous fortune teller, Nostradamus. The pair may have been separated by several centuries, with Nostradamus dying in 1566, but it seems they both agreed on certain events for 2025.

A number of predictions made by the 16th century prophet, real name Michel de Nostredame, in his book “Les Prophéties” have come true in the years since it was released.

The French seer is said to have accurately predicted the rise of Adolf Hitler, the shooting of President John F Kennedy, the start of the Covid pandemic, and even 2022’s cost of living crisis.

Nostradamus used the alignment of the stars to make his predictions for the future, and looking at 2025 from 500 years ago, he warned that ‘those from the lands of Europe’ would become embroiled in ‘cruel wars’ at some point.

Troublingly, he added that the UK would be involved, while he also pointed out that, “The ancient plague will be worse than enemies.”

The five-day tour to the neighboring countries, lasting from Monday to Friday, will be Xi’s first trip abroad this year.

The visits will come days after the Chinese leader called for building a community with a shared future amongst China’s neighboring countries at a recent central conference on neighborhood work.

“Neighboring countries are China’s priority in its diplomacy, and China and Southeast Asian countries are good neighbors, good friends and good partners with a shared future,” said Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

From Monday to Tuesday, Xi will travel to Vietnam for a fourth state visit as general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Xi last visited Vietnam in December 2023, where both sides agreed to build a China-Vietnam community with a shared future of strategic importance. Economic ties have strengthened, with China remaining Vietnam’s largest trading partner since 2004, and Vietnam being China’s largest ASEAN trade partner since 2016.

Bilateral trade reached US$260.65 billion in 2024, a 13.5 percent year-on-year increase, while Chinese direct investment in Vietnam surpassed 2.5 billion US dollars the same year.

Xi’s upcoming visit to Malaysia follows his last state visit there in 2013, after which ties were elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years, with bilateral trade hitting US$212.04 billion in 2024, a record high. Malaysia’s tropical fruits, including durian, mangosteen, and jackfruit, have become increasingly popular on the Chinese market.

In Cambodia, Xi’s last visit was in 2016. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet visited China in September 2023 on his first official trip, reinforcing the countries’ “ironclad friendship.”

China and Cambodia have advanced cooperation under the “Diamond Hexagon” framework, particularly through the industrial development corridor and fish, rice corridor initiatives.

China remains Cambodia’s largest foreign investor and trading partner. The China-Cambodia free trade agreement, effective since January 1, 2022, was Cambodia’s first bilateral FTA. Bilateral trade reached US$15.1 billion in 2024, a 23.8 percent increase from the previous year.

Strategic or symbolic visits?

Amid rising tensions in China–U.S. trade relations, many observers argue President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visits to the three countries represent a carefully calculated diplomatic and economic maneuver.

By reinforcing ties with Southeast Asian neighbors, China is diversifying its economic partnerships and reducing reliance on Western markets.

China on Friday announced a dramatic increase in tariffs on U.S. goods, from 84% to 125%, in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this week to raise U.S. duties on Chinese imports to a staggering 145%.

The tit-for-tat exchange marks a major escalation in the ongoing trade war, raising fears of deeper disruption to global supply chains and markets.

In a strongly worded statement, China’s Ministry of Finance blasted the U.S. tariff hike as “unilateral bullying and coercion,” accusing Washington of violating international trade norms and disregarding basic economic principles.

The President’s visits symbolize Beijing’s broader effort to solidify its role as the region’s economic anchor, deepen trade under mechanisms like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and push forward strategic infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road initiative.

At the same time, China is positioning itself as a reliable partner in contrast to the U.S. led Indo-Pacific economic strategies, emphasizing mutual benefit and shared development.

It is fair to say that through appeals to camaraderie, win-win cooperation, and “ironclad” friendship, China is advancing a soft power narrative centered on solidarity and shared futures.

This aligns with Beijing’s growing efforts to lead a stronger Global South bloc, offering itself as a credible alternative to western-led governance structures and economic models.

Burundi’s economy has been in a prolonged crisis, with officials repeatedly citing a shortage of U.S. dollars as the main reason behind the fuel scarcity, as petroleum products are imported using foreign currency.

On April 10, 2025, Ndirakobuca appeared before Parliament to present how the government had implemented the 2024/2025 national budget. Among the many issues raised by MPs was the persistent fuel crisis and other problems affecting the nation.

Before diving into explanations, Ndirakobuca said, “First, allow me to apologize. But before I do, let me thank all of you who asked these important questions.”

He emphasized that as Prime Minister, his role is to coordinate and prepare government actions, not to speak on behalf of individual ministers.

“Many questions were asked, including those about fuel. But I don’t think the Prime Minister is solely in charge of fuel. I don’t believe there is a particular issue he is more responsible for than others. This is a concern for all Burundians, and as such, it is also a concern for the Prime Minister,” he said.

Last year, President Évariste Ndayishimiye had announced that a ship carrying fuel was en route to Burundi, suggesting that a solution was imminent. When asked about this ship, Ndirakobuca admitted he had no information.

“If you come and ask the Prime Minister, ‘Do we have any news about the ship, whether it’s here or there?’ I think that would be hard for him to answer, he’s not tracking fuel ships or measuring quantities. I believe the minister in charge of that sector has the experts.”

Ndirakobuca also commented on the public expectation that he should always apologize, saying Burundians sometimes take advantage of humility.

“Don’t think that I like apologizing just because I do it often. Burundians are difficult, when they see someone kneeling in humility, some want to push it further and say, ‘Let’s make him kneel again, let him go on apologizing.’ Thank you, and I hope you accept my apologies.”

Gélase Daniel Ndabirabe, the President of Burundi’s National Assembly, criticized MPs for questioning the Prime Minister about fuel, arguing that fuel is actually available in the country.

“If, as they often claim, there are no foreign currencies in the country, then where do those many fuel-guzzling trucks that fill the roads get their fuel from? Why don’t you ask them? Even now, go out and see, vehicles are everywhere, trucks are moving. Fuel is stocked in people’s homes.”

Ndabirabe added that while the Central Bank may lack foreign currency reserves, individuals are holding it privately.

“It’s not that there’s no foreign currency in the country, it’s just not in the central bank, it’s in people’s pockets. And those who keep crying ‘shortage’ are trying to mislead the government.”

It is a book that recounts her history in 1994, a time during which Nishimwe’s family sought refuge in a Muslim neighborhood, where on April 15, 1994, her father and aunt were killed.

The situation continued to worsen as a week later, three of her siblings, including Bon-Fils Abimana, who was 16 months old, Pascal Muvara, who was seven, and Philbert Nkusi, who was nine, were also killed.

After the massacre of her family members, her grandmother, the grandfather and an uncle were also killed, leaving this young girl with no hope of survival.

She sought refuge in various places, trying to see if daybreak would come, but the killers found her, raped her, and infected her with the HIV virus.

Later, she managed to escape with her mother, Marie-Jeanne, and her sibling, Jeanette Ingabire. Considering the horror Nishimwe went through, it is hard to imagine how she could find healing, but astonishingly, she did heal and began to help others who were suffering.

Nishimwe, who lives in New York in the United States, in a conversation with Lisa Keefauver on the MSW Podcast, said that healing from these wounds took her a long time.

“It is by the grace of God and meeting the right people. Being in the right place, being able to meet amazing people who could understand me and give that space to me,” she said.

She said that her mother also supported her, regardless of what others thought. “My mother helped me, we were still going through a lot of trauma. But she helped me to be able to live with that trauma. I learned from her how to live with trauma. At that time, I was a young child, I had a lot within me.”

Nishimwe says that the problem many people have is that they cannot articulate how to speak about the bad times they went through, noting that she was able to move beyond that limitation to become one of those who took the lead in knowing how to talk about her wounds.

When she began her journey of confronting and healing her wounds, Nishimwe says, she first had to understand that she needed to feel the wounds of everyone and put herself in their place.

“That is why I can have a compassionate heart, being able to understand the wounds of another person they went through. If I hadn’t met those people who cared about me, I wouldn’t be here. For me, I thank everyone who helped me when I had no words to express how I felt,” she said

Nishimwe also noted that when she published her book in 2012, many people could not understand how she spoke about everything that happened to her, but her mother continued to be there for her and encouraged her.

She also mentioned that when she started taking antiretroviral treatment for HIV, it was initially challenging because it reminded her of what she had gone through, but later she was able to comprehend.

“It was a problem, but now it is no longer an issue for me. I see it as taking vitamins because how I changed my mindset and how I see myself helped me articulate what I have,” she noted.

Asked what she wishes her friends would talk to her about Nishimwe responded, “It is for them to ask how I am or how I feel because it allows a person to express their emotions, especially when they are with someone they can relate with.”