IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Ethiopia rubbish landslide death toll soars to 65

    {At least 65 people were killed in a giant landslide at Ethiopia’s largest rubbish dump this weekend, officials said Monday, in a tragedy that saw entire families including children buried alive.}

    “The rescue operation is still ongoing, security personnel and rescuers are trying their level best” to locate any possible survivors, while searching for the dead, Communication Minister Negeri Lencho said.

    Police and firefighters combing a “vast area” at the dump outside Addis Ababa found bodies throughout the day, Lencho told AFP.

    The disaster on Saturday at the dump flattened dozens of homes of people living in the Koshe dump when part of the largest pile of rubbish collapsed.

    {{Largest landfall }}

    “The number of dead has reached 65,” said Dagmawit Moges, head of the city communications bureau.

    Many of the victims were squatters who scavenged for a living in the 30-hectare dump.

    “Those at the top (of the dump) were taken by this pile, because it split and people could not make (their) way out of this debris,” Lencho said, adding that most of the dead recovered are women and children.

    The landfill is the country’s largest and home to perhaps hundreds of people who collected recyclables that were trucked in from neighbourhoods around the city of around four million.

    The government tried last year to close the dump and shift it to a new location, but opposition from residents at the new site scuttled the plan.

    Residents who spoke to AFP blamed a biogas plant being constructed on top of the rubbish for causing the collapse.

    They said work by bulldozers to flatten the area around the plant contributed to the collapse.

    Lencho said the cause was still being investigated, but denied that the plant’s construction had anything to do with the collapse.

    He blamed the squatters for digging into the hillside, destabilising it and causing it to fall.

    All the shacks built on the landfill would be demolished and the residents resettled elsewhere, he said.

    {{Hundreds of squatters }}

    But Amnesty International said the government was to “fully responsible” for the disaster. “It was aware that the landfill was full to capacity but continued to use it regardless.

    It also let hundreds of people continue to live in close proximity to it,” the group’s Muthoni Wanyeki said in a statement.

    “These people, including many women and children, had no option but to live and work in such a hazardous environment because of the government’s failure to protect their right to adequate housing, and decent work.”

    Ibrahim Mohammed, a day labourer living at the landfill whose house was narrowly spared destruction, on Sunday said the disaster happened in “three minutes”.

    He estimated that more than 300 people live on the landfill.

    For more than 40 years the Koshe site has been the main garbage dump for Addis Ababa, a rapidly growing city of some four million people.

    People had built the houses about two to three years ago, said Berhanu Degefe, a rubbish collector who lives at the dump but whose home was not destroyed.

    {{Poverty }}

    “Their livelihood depends on the trash. They collect from here and they live here,” Degefe said, referring to the victims and other squatters.

    “This part, all of it went down,” he said, gesturing at a huge chunk of the hill that suddenly slid.

    Degefe said they were levelling ground for the plant, increasing pressure on the hillside and causing the collapse.

    Koshe, whose name means “dirt” in local slang, was closed last year by city authorities who asked people to move to a new dump site outside Addis Ababa.

    But the community there did not want the landfill, and so the garbage collectors moved back.

    Poverty and food insecurity are sensitive issues in Ethiopia, which was hit by a famine in 1984-85 after extreme drought.

    In recent years, the country has been one of Africa’s top-performing economies and a magnet for foreign investment, with growth in near-double digits and huge infrastructure investment.

    Still, nearly 20 million Ethiopians live below the poverty line set by the World Bank.

    Critics have hit out at the government’s economic policies saying they have a limited trickle-down effect from the elite down to the majority of the people.

    People move their belongings after dwellings built near the main landfill of Addis Ababa on the outskirts of the city were damaged in a landslide on march 12, 2017.

    Source:AFP

  • South Sudan to host 10th IGAD parliament speakers meeting

    {South Sudan will host the 10th executive council meeting of the Inter Parliamentary Union of Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IPU-IGAD) member states. }

    According to a statement from the office of the deputy speaker of the South Sudan Parliament, the council will convene in Juba from March 15, hosted by the speaker of South Sudan Transitional National Legislative Assembly Hon Anthony Lino Manaka.

    The Executive of the IPU-IGAD is chaired by Ethiopia. The executive council is the second organ after the Speakers conference (an equivalent of IGAD head of state summit).

    According to the statement, the decision to convene the 10th executive council meeting in Juba was reached during the Speakers Conference held in Kamuli, in September 2016. The meeting was preceded by an IPU-IGAD fact-finding mission to Juba on November 10, 2016, which assessed the political and security situation in the country and gave a go ahead for the meeting to take place in Juba. “The event exceptionally reiterates the satisfaction of the IGAD with the positive development witnessed in the state of South Sudan,” the statement reads in part.

    The 8th regional speakers meeting in Kamuli called on IGAD Member States to heighten their fight against forces of instability, terrorism and cross border criminal activities.

    Delegates at the meeting discussed the worrying state of security in the IGAD Member states. But as the Meeting was being held, violence and conflict played out in varying degrees in South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.

    Mr Makana, appealed for help on ending conflict from IPU-IGAD.

    “We in the TNLA, as representatives of the people, are urging IGAD parliaments to support the Transitional Government of National Unity and its efforts to restore peace and security in the country,” Makana said then.

    Speakers pose at the 9th Executive Council meeting of Inter-parliament Union of IGAD member states.

    Source:Daily Monitor

  • Uganda:Man kills ex-wife in front of children

    {Police in Kakumiro District are holding a man for allegedly killing his former wife in front of her children.}

    The incident happened on Sunday in Kadunduma village, Kitaihuka Sub-county in Kakumiro District.

    The suspect, 34, is a resident of the same area and is alleged to have killed Beatrice Nakingi, a mother of seven children.

    Narrating the ordeal to Daily Monitor, Ms Mary Nakabito, a daughter of the deceased, said their parents separated some years ago but the duo continued to meet for love affairs.

    Ms Nakabito says their mother had built her own house and got another man whom she had seven children with.

    {{How it happened}}

    According to Ms Nakabito, the suspect visited last Saturday but developed a quarrel with his ex-wife in the night.

    “As the quarrel ensued, the man (suspect) killed my mother in our presence with a hand hoe, which he hit on her head and the back several times,” Nakabito narrates.

    She revealed that her mother had always tried to chase away the suspect in vain.

    The children on seeing their mother lying dead, made an alarm which attracted neighbours.

    “Our mother cried for help as the man (suspect) dragged her outside the house. Our father is always away, we just fled the scene while wailing for help from the neighbours,” Ms Nakabito explained.

    Ms Emily Penelope, a close neighbour of the deceased, said she rushed home only to find the suspect with a blood stained hoe at the scene.

    However, the suspect tried fleeing but was rounded up by residents who beat him to pulp a few kilometers from the scene of crime. When contacted, Kakumiro District police commander, Mr Hassan Katumba Mugerwa, confirmed the incident saying the suspect escaped lynching by the mob.

    According to Mr Mugerwa, this is the fourth incident in the area where a woman is killed by their husbands or ex-husbands in domestic related disputes.

    On February 15, police arrested a man, 80, for allegedly killing his wife Teopista Nakefeero, 30, over a heated family dispute which had caused them to separate.
    Mr Mugerwa said domestic violence cases involving murder are soaring. He attributed the rise in the domestic violence cases to land and property sharing.

    “We have tried our level best but things are not changing. We have always told people to use other peaceful means in resolving family disputes than resorting to violence,’’ said Mr Mugerwa.

    He further warned residents against taking the law in their hands by killing suspects who are supposed to be tried before courts of law.

    However, Section 188 of the Penal Code Act states, “Any person who of malice aforethought causes the death of another person by an unlawful act or omission, commits murder’’.

    The punishment of murder on conviction is death sentence according to Section 189 of the same act.

    {{Domestic violence}}

    Domestic violence in Uganda is a problem as it is in many parts of Africa. It involves abuse by one person against another in a domestic context, such as in marriage or cohabitation. This is mainly caused by alcohol, poverty, land disputes and infidelity.

    Source:Daily Monitor

  • Kenya:Medics remove private practice clause

    {Public service doctors have removed a contentious clause barring them from private practice in a document filed in court yesterday.}

    The doctors version of the return-to-work formula (RTWF) struck off the clause, which reads: “All medical doctors, pharmacists and dentists shall strictly adhere to their terms of employment in regard to engaging directly or indirectly in any other gainful employment and/or private practice as a partner, employee, consultant, director, manager, agent, associate or otherwise.”

    They also want the government to be compelled by law to pay them the three months salaries and arrears since December 5 last year, when they went on strike.

    {{100-day strike }}

    There are, hence, two conflicting RTWFs drafted by the parties.

    Yesterday, their lawyer Philip Murgor explained that the clause that was expunged from the document filed in the Court of Appeal was “unconstitutional and discriminatory”.

    Argued Mr Murgor: “Even a messenger can have a side business.”

    He however said everything else in the document was agreeable to the doctors and that he hoped the government will sign the document today and end the 100-day strike.

    Appellate judges Hannah Okwengu, Martha Koome and Jamilla Mohammed had earlier given the parties a last chance to allow the doctors to sign the document.

    “In light of the urgency and because of public interest, we are ready to give mediation a chance since poor Kenyans are suffering,” they said then. “We are willing to bend backwards.”

    {{Unresolved issues }}

    Even though they pointed out that they were worried the talks had gone on for too long, the doctors pointed out that, indeed, various issues had already been resolved.

    “Doctors are not able to go back to work because the RTWF has not been agreed on,” they added.

    “Governors are ready to look at it but the (Health) ministry says it is no longer interested in negotiating.”

    The judges sternly pointed out that the real issues that forced the doctors to go on strike had not been resolved and hinted at the possibility of referring the dispute to the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

    But before then, they insisted that for the strike to be called off the RTWF must be signed by all parties despite protests by the Ministry of Health and the Attorney-General that there was no room for further negotiations.

    {{Suffering }}

    “We appeal to all parties, including the ministry, to be guided by best interest of Kenyans, who are suffering for lack of public healthcare, put differences aside, their egos too,” the judges ruled.

    They asked religious leaders to give guidance in a bid to bring a compromise and resolution to the matter, “therefore giving parties the chance to find compromise before case is mentioned today at 10.”

    Before the ruling, Ms Stella Mbitho, for the ministry and the AG, told court that the government had withdrawn its offer and even discarded its copy of the RTWF since talks had failed to yield results.

    She urged court to consider hearing the appeal by officials of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) on their jail sentence.

    She also said the government was not privy to the draft presented by the doctors’ union but, if parties agreed to have it signed, the Collective Bargaining Agreement can only be implemented through court.

    {{Signatories }}

    However, defending the document presented, terming it “not strange”, the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) appealed to the State to get involved in the matter.

    “KNHCR came into this matter to make sure that all Kenyans, regardless of their status, can access healthcare,” said Mr Suyianka Lempaa for the commission.

    In the document, key signatories are Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu and Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri for the national government; the 47 counties, through Kisii Governor James Ongwae, who chairs the Council of Governors’ Labour and Human Resource Committee; and the KMPDU.

    Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, KNCHR chair Mbogori Kagwiria, Law Society of Kenya’s John Ohaga and Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop Dr Jackson ole Sapit were to sign as witnesses.

    Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Chair Samuel Oroko (in front) and Secretary General Ouma Oluga (right) outside the Supreme Court on March 13, 2017.

    Source:Daily Nation

  • Estranged Egypt pursues Africa-focused Foreign Policy

    {After decades of estrangement, Egypt is seriously seeking to return to Africa, with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi expressing keenness to maintain closer cooperation with other countries in the continent.}

    Addressing senior media managers from various African countries at the Presidential Palace yesterday, President Sisi described serious cooperation with African countries as the cornerstone of his country’s Foreign Policy.

    “I said it in my inaugural speech, I have said it again and again and I am saying it now that we are returning to our African sisters and brothers to join hands in building our African countries,” said the president, citing the establishment of Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development (EAPD) as an effective move towards cemented cooperation with other African nations.

    He said the African continent is endowed with vast natural resources, which needed collective efforts to develop and exploit for the benefit of all Africans.

    The president, believing that African countries suffer from almost similar problems and face common challenges, pledged his country’s support to enable African states to attain common goals of sustainable development.

    “The colonial era has passed —we are now in different times. We therefore have to focus on achieving sustainable development through enhanced education, agriculture, health and other social services.

    “Egypt is keen to achieve all that,” he said, mentioning agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, industries and information technology as some of the critical areas his country was keenly interested to cooperate with other nations in the continent.

    Egypt’s Foreign Policy had for a long time been firmly turned eastwards due to its closeness, geographically and culturally, to the Middle-East. The country is a transcontinental state, spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula.

    It is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the South and Libya to the west.

    President Sisi said for the past two years his country had embraced ambitious programme for economic development, setting the 2030 target for comprehensive development.

    Source:Daily News

  • Officials: 2 UN Officials Kidnapped in DRC

    {Two members of the United Nations panel of experts for the Democratic Republic of Congo kidnapped on Sunday are still missing, Congolese Communications Minister Lambert Mende told VOA Monday night.}

    A statement issued earlier by the DRC government revealed that Michael Sharp, an American, and Zahida Katalin, a Swedish citizen, as well as four Congolese nationals accompanying them, “had fallen into the hands of negative forces which have not yet been identified” in the province of Kasai Central.

    “The administrative and security forces are working in concert with MONUSCO [the U.N. mission in the DRC] to secure the liberation of the kidnapped people,” the statement concluded.

    On Monday night, Mende told VOA that Congolese security forces and MONUSCO spent the day using helicopters to look for the six abducted individuals, but were unable to locate them. He confirmed the aerial search parties will start again Tuesday morning.

    “Other security forces are on foot scouring the area,” Mende said.

    VOA was unable to reach U.N. spokespeople in the DRC, but a short statement confirmed that two members of the panel of experts were missing and the U.N. is doing everything possible to locate the experts.

    For the last eight months, conflict between the DRC’s security forces and militiamen has been intensifying in the Kasai region. In August of last year, the Congolese military killed a customary chief, known as Kamwina Nsapu, who had rejected the state’s authority and instructed his supporters to drive out the security forces. A militia of his followers, also called Kamwina Nsapu, is now active in the three provinces of Kasai and Lomami Province.

    More than 400 people have been killed and 200,000 displaced by the violence, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

    The U.N. has condemned both the militia for its use of child soldiers and the government for deploying excessive force, including automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades. On March 8, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees referred to “recurrent reports of grave violations” in the four provinces and the discovery of mass graves before urging the Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry.

    It is not known at this stage whether the kidnappers are connected to the militia.

    Two MONUSCO UN soldiers stand guard in Goma's port.

    Source:Voice of America

  • Tanzania:Heavy rains leave countrywide trail of destruction, deaths

    {Heavy rains yesterday pounded in different parts of the country, killing two and destroying infrastructure, crops, houses and livestock.}

    In Dar es Salaam, rains wreaked havoc in the morning destroying roads and houses rendering them inaccessible, while in Morogoro more than 1,800 people were left homeless as rains ‘washed’ away their houses. In Kaliuwa District, Tabora Region, two children died after they were struck by lightning during heavy rains that were accompanied by thunderstorm.

    A snap survey conducted by the ‘Daily News’ witnessed flash floods in different parts of Dar es Salaam, including flooded houses and roads creating long traffic jams while in other areas people were forced to carry their clothes in plastic bags and cross flooded roads in their underpants.

    The downpour which lasted for more than five hours caused flashfloods in areas such as Mwenge, Mikocheni, Mbezi Beach, Sinza Tandale, Mwananyamala, Jangwani and Kinyerezi areas forcing hundreds out of their homes. In Morogoro, floods caused by rains that have been pounding the region since March 2, this year, have rendered 1,892 people homeless after some of the houses were swept away and others flooded with water in four wards of Sali, Ruaha, Cholombola and Euga in Ulanga District. The floods also destroyed six bridges linking the wards in the region.

    In a briefing report during an emergency meeting of the disaster management team in the district, the Executive Director of the Committee, Yusuf Semgurka, said the rains that started early this month destroyed property, road infrastructure and livestock.

    While inspecting the damage caused by the rains, the Chairperson of the Disaster Management Committee who is also the Ulanga District Commissioner (DC), Jacob Kasembe, called for patience from the public as the government works to restore affected services.

    Early this month, Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) Director General, Dr Agness Kijazi, warned on the possibility of flash floods during this rainy season where rains are expected in most parts of the country.

    The TMA chief said there will be ‘enough’ rains in the country before urging farmers to seize the opportunity and increase crop yield. But, she also warned the disaster management unit and respective authorities to be on high alert over possibilities of flash floods.

    During TMA’s weather outlook, Dr Kijazi said areas that normally receive both short and long rains which include the Lake Victoria Basin; Kagera, Mara, Mwanza, Geita, Simiyu and Shinyanga will receive average to above average rains.

    The Northern Coast: Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Tanga regions, the isles of Unguja and Pemba and the Northeastern highlands of Kilimanjaro, Manyara and Arusha will receive average and below average rains.

    Dr Kijazi explained that the November to April rains, in regions that have one rainfall season a year such as Western, Southern and Central regions, Southwestern highlands and Southern Coast areas, will continue to receive rains that will be average in most areas and above average in Njombe, Songwe, Ruvuma, Mtwara, Lindi and Mahenge in Southern Morogoro.

    Source:Daily News

  • Police seize six sacks of cannabis in Kicukiro

    {Separate police operations in Kigarama Sector, Kicukiro District on Monday seized six sacks of cannabis from two suspected women.}

    Police spokesperson for the City of Kigali, Supt. Emmanuel Hitayezu said that five sacks weighing about 86 kilogrammes were recovered from the house of one Gloriose Mukansanga, 47, the lead suspect who is still in hiding, located in Zuba Village of Nyarurama Cell in Kigarama Sector.

    Another sack weighing about 30 kilogrammes was also recovered from the house of the suspect – Jacqueline Uwamahoro, 33, also in Zuba, Nyarurama Cell.

    “Early morning on Monday, we received reliable information from residents in Kigarama about two women they suspected to be trafficking and supplying narcotic drugs in the area. Officers were dispatched at the two homes, where they recovered the drugs, although the suspects escaped and we are still searching for them,” said Supt. Hitayezu.

    According to the spokesperson, the two women were on the list of people suspected to be involved in the criminal business.

    “In partnership with the people, community policing committees, youth volunteers, Irondo committees and local leaders, we have been able to map out most prone places in Kigali and suspected suppliers. We have already arrested some of them but we are still searching for others. This is part of the ultimate goal of Rwanda National Police to break the chain of supply,” Supt. Hitayezu explained.

    Fighting drug abuse is one of the key priorities of RNP partly to prevent other crimes such as gender based violence, child abuse and theft, which are said to be committed by people under the influence of drugs.

    Source:Police

  • Zika virus also may have harmful heart effects, research shows in first report in adults

    {Zika also may have serious effects on the heart, new research shows in the first study to report cardiovascular complications related to this virus, according to data being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 66th Annual Scientific Session.}

    In a study at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Caracas, Venezuela, of nine adult patients with Zika and no previous history of cardiovascular disease, all but one developed a heart rhythm problem and two-thirds had evidence of heart failure.

    It is known that Zika can cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect in babies born to women infected with the virus, and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological condition that can lead to muscle weakness and, in severe cases, paralysis.

    “We know that other mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue fever and chikungunya virus, can affect the heart, so we thought we might see the same with Zika. But we were surprised by the severity, even in this small number of patients,” says Karina Gonzalez Carta, M.D., cardiologist and research fellow at Mayo Clinic and the study’s lead author.

    The patients (six were female, and mean age was 47) were seen at the Department of Tropical Medicine in Venezuela within two weeks of having Zika-type symptoms. They reported symptoms of heart problems, most commonly palpitations followed by shortness of breath and fatigue. Only one patient had any previous cardiovascular problems (high blood pressure), and tests confirmed that all of the patients had active Zika infection. Patients underwent an initial electrocardiogram (EKG), a test that shows the electrical activity of the heart, and in eight of the patients, the EKG suggested heartbeat rate or rhythm concerns. These findings prompted a full cardiovascular workup using an echocardiogram, (24-hour) Holter monitor and a cardiac MRI study.

    Serious arrhythmias were detected in eight patients: three cases of atrial fibrillation, two cases of nonsustained atrial tachycardia and two cases of ventricular arrhythmias. Heart failure was present in six cases. Of these, five patients had heart failure with low ejection fraction, when the heart muscle doesn’t pump blood as well as it should, and one had heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, when the heart becomes stiff and cannot relax or fill properly.

    The patients have been followed since July 2016, and none of their cardiac issues have resolved, but symptoms have improved following treatment for heart failure or atrial fibrillation, Dr. Carta says.

    “Following this research, we want patients who are suffering from Zika symptoms also to be aware of the cardiac symptoms because they might not connect the two,” Dr. Carta says. “The same is true for physicians because they might be focused on the Zika symptoms but not thinking about cardiac concerns.”

    Dr. Carta will present the study, “Myocarditis, Heart Failure and Arrhythmias in Patients With Zika,” on Saturday, March 18, at 3:45 p.m. ET.

    This study will be published simultaneously online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology at the time of presentation.

    Co-authors are: Iván Mendoza, M.D.; Igor Morr, M.D.; Francesca Misticchio, M.D.; Yolimar Meza, M.D.; Vicente Finizola, M.D.; Gerardo Chazzin, M.D.; Juan Marques, M.D.; all of Institute of Tropical Medicine in Caracas, Venezuela; Iván Mendoza Britto, M.D., Jackson Medical Group, Miami; and Thomas Allison, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic.

    In a study of nine adult patients with Zika and no previous history of cardiovascular disease, all but one developed a heart rhythm problem and two-thirds had evidence of heart failure.

    Source:Science Daily

  • Handball League: Police stretches unbeaten run

    {Police Handball Club stretched their unbeaten run with a double win over Ecole Secondaire Kigoma and ES Urumuri, over the weekend.}

    The 42-33 win over Kigoma of Ruhango and 54-18 triumph against Karongi-based Urumuri tightened the law enforcers on the grip with 24 maximum points after eight games played so far, as they search for their four successive league glory.

    Club captain netted 18 goals in both matches to guide Police to 60 matches unbeaten since 2014 league season.

    The five-time record league champions won the 2014, 2015 and 2016 league cups unbeaten, and according to the head coach, Assistant Inspector of Police (AIP) Antoine Ntabanganyimana, “there is no turning back.”

    “When you have strong back up of the institution, good and determined players, you can only hope for nothing less than a win; we believe we can this season repeat our performance like it was in the last three seasons,” said AIP Ntabanganyimana.

    Currently, ES Kigoma seats second on the log with 20 points, one ahead of third-placed APR, but who still have a game-in-hand.

    Police’s next two matches before the end of the first round will be against College de Gisenyi to be played on March 18, and GS Rambura of Nyabihu to be played on March 29.

    Jean Nepo Niyishaka's attempt during the match against ES Urumuri.

    Source:Police