IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Poachers kill two rhinos at South Africa’s Thula Thula orphanage

    {Poachers have killed two rhinos during a vicious attack on an animal orphanage in South Africa.}

    Rhinos Impi and Gugu had their horns taken after a gang of poachers took staff hostage at the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday night.

    Gugu was killed instantly but Impi survived, only to have to be put down the next morning due to his injuries.

    Staff members are understood to have been assaulted during the attack.

    South Africa saw a decline in the numbers of rhinos killed for their prized horns in the first half of 2016, down to 702 from 796 the previous year.

    However, the reduction came after several years of increases.

    “Is this another stage? That’s what we’ve been asking,” Thula Thula’s Karen Trendler told journalist Bonné de Bod in a Facebook Live video. “There has been an increasing desensitisation, there has been an escalation in the violence in the poaching and the mutilation.”

    The rhinos had been due to have their horns removed next week to protect them from ivory traders, according to local media.

    More than 700 rhinos were killed in South Africa in the first half of last year

    Source:BBC

  • UN: $4.4bn needed to prevent ‘catastrophe’ of famine

    {UN chief Antonio Guterres says more than 20 million people face starvation in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen.}

    The United Nations needs $4.4bn by the end of next month to prevent “a catastrophe” of hunger and famine in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

    More than 20 million people face starvation in the four countries and action is needed now to avert a humanitarian disaster, Guterres told a news conference at UN headquarters on Wednesday.

    “We need $4.4 billion by the end of March to avert a catastrophe,” he said.

    So far, the UN has raised just $90m.

    South Sudan on Monday declared a famine in northern Unity State while Fews Net, the famine early warning system, has said that some remote areas of northeast Nigeria are already affected by starvation since late last year.

    The four famine alerts are unprecedented in recent decades.

    There has only been one famine since 2000, in Somalia. At least 260,000 people died in that disaster – half of them children under the age of five, according to the UN World Food Program.

    The UN children’s agency UNICEF this week said almost 1.4 million children acutely malnourished in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen could die from famine in the coming months.

    Of the four famine alerts, only one – Somalia – is caused by drought, while the other three are the result of conflicts, also described as “man-made food crises”.

    “The situation is dire,” said Guterres.

    “Millions of people are barely surviving in the space between malnutrition and death, vulnerable to diseases and outbreaks, forced to kill their animals for food and eat the grain they saved for next year’s seeds.”

    The appeal for international action came as humanitarian aid groups are already struggling to meet needs in Syria and cope with the global refugee crisis.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Somali president says no quick fix for nation’s woes

    {Somalia’s new President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed sought to downplay high expectations of his new administration at his inauguration Wednesday, saying it would take decades to fix the nation’s many problems.}

    “Our government is facing so many challenges and even though I will be doing my best, I also want to make clear for the Somali public that due to limited resources regarding economy and forces of security, what we could do is going to be limited,” he said.

    The president, widely known by his nickname Farmajo, officially took office last week, but his inauguration was held Wednesday in the presence of several regional leaders.

    The ceremony took place in the highly secured airport zone to avoid an attack by the Al-Qaeda linked Shabaab group, which has threatened a “vicious war” against the new government.

    {{Decades of conflict }}

    The election of the no-nonsense Farmajo — whose brief stint as prime minister in 2010-11 is fondly remembered — sparked elation in a country desperate for an end to decades of conflict and anarchy.

    But he warned the country that there would be no quick fixes.

    “Your problems were created during twenty years of conflict and droughts. A solution will need more than another twenty years,” he said.

    Farmajo said he would focus on “the basic essential problems” but that his work would have to be carried on by future governments.

    President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, as well as delegations from Kuwait and Egypt, attended the ceremony.

    {{Millions going hungry }}

    Farmajo said that insecurity along with a cycle of droughts which have parts of Somalia at risk of famine were the main challenges facing his administration.

    The UN says about six million Somalis need humanitarian assistance, and three million are in the official “crisis” and “emergency” zone of food insecurity, which means they are suffering acute malnutrition and going long periods without meals.

    Somalia has not had an effective central government since the collapse of Siad Barre’s military regime in 1991, which led to decades of civil war and lawlessness fuelled by clan conflicts.

    The Shabaab was forced out of the capital by African Union troops in 2011 but the jihadists still control parts of the countryside and carry out attacks against government, military and civilian targets, seemingly at will, in Mogadishu and regional towns.

    {{Regain respect }}

    “With my leadership, I promise Somalia will regain its respect and integrity,” Farmajo said.

    He said the long list of things that needed to be accomplished included “completion of the reconciliation among Somali clans, improving law and order and the justice system (and) regaining of the confidence by the Somali public to their government.”

    He said he would focus on rebuilding an army capable of serving a country whose security is still largely assured by 20,000 regional troops with the African Union’s AMISOM peacekeeping force, which plans to withdraw in 2018.

    In a sign of the challenges facing Farmajo’s administration, a car bomb at a busy market on Sunday killed 39 people.

    {{900 killed last year }}

    The president has offered a $100,000 reward for information on who carried out the attack, attributed to Al-Shabaab, or on potential strikes.

    “Al-Shabaab killed about 900 innocent Somalis, most of them children, women and elderly, during attacks and blasts last year … I am telling you that killing a number of people and destroying property will not deter Somalis,” Farmajo said.

    In his speech he reached out to youths who are fighting alongside extremists, suggesting the government would offer them alternatives to a life of violence.

    “Somalia is united today and we are telling the misguided Somali youngsters to abstain from detonating themselves into their people and not to destroy the property of their country.”

    “We are ready to welcome those misguided youths with open hands and to provide them with incentives to start up their business,” he said.

    Somalia's new President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed looks on during its inauguration at the Mogadishu airport on February 22, 2017.

    Source:AFP

  • EAC pushes to promote free, fair elections

    {The East African Community (EAC) has reminded election monitoring bodies and media organisations in partner states to use its treaty in line with their respective countries’ legal frameworks when managing and covering elections to maintain free and fair polls.}

    The regional bloc has principles for election observation and evaluation based on among others, its treaty. The principles are based on international standards, Union Charter on Human Peoples’ Rights and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.

    The regional body made the statement during a three-day capacity building workshop for election monitoring bodies and other stakeholders to assess fairness of the political space and campaign playing field through media monitoring.

    Funded by the European Union (EU), the workshop is expected to equip stakeholders with full knowledge and skill in using media to get a firsthand and at glance assessment information in regard to political space and campaign playing field fairness.

    “Use the treaty as reference in the course of making the elections free and fair in the region,” EAC’s Deputy Secretary General (Political Federation), Mr Charles Njoroge, said yesterday.

    He pointed out that the media plays an indispensable role in the proper functioning of a democracy, and within an electoral context, the media is expected to play a transparency “watchdog” role.

    “If the media’s role is vital in the normal course of events, exceptional periods such as elections can put its impartiality and objectivity to harsh test,” he argued.

    Mr Gerard Guedegbe, media training expert based in Benin, emphasized that during the elections the media has the duty to play as watchdog to assess activities of the electoral bodies.

    He also touched on the party manifestos, noting that media ought to educate the public on the content of those documents during campaign through giving the candidates a platform to debate.

    Contributing to the discussion, Director of Political, Defence and Security Department, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Mr Stephen Mbundi, commented that in order to achieve sustainable way of improving the elections management and coverage the electoral bodies Adhere to national health policy, should partner with the media.

    Source:Daily News

  • ICC’s President Judge visits Uganda

    {The president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) justice Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi is set to jet into the country for a historic visit to Northern Uganda that was affected by Joseph Kony’s rebellion.}

    According to a statement released by the office of the ICC field outreach, justice Gurmendi’s visit is aimed at having first-hand experience of the activities of the victims affected by the two-decade war.

    Ms Fernandez is expected to arrive in the country tomorrow (Thursday) at the invitation of the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV). She is expected to stay in the country for one week.

    Mr Jimmy Otim, the Assistant outreach filed coordinator of ICC further explained that justice Gurmendi’s visit will create an opportunity to generate awareness and support of the Rome Statute Act.

    The ICC president is expected to visit war victims at Lukodi village in Bungatira Sub County, Gulu District, where 54 locals were massacred allegedly under the command of former Lord’s Resistance Army rebel commander Dominic Ongwen in May 2004.

    Mr Ongwen is currently at ICC detention centre in The Netherlands facing 70 counts of charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity he allegedly committed in northern Uganda during the insurgency.

    Ms Fernandez will be accompanied by delegation of the Trust Fund for Victims who include Mr Motoo Noguchi, Chair of the Board of Directors, and Ms Mama Koite Doumbia, Member of the Board of Directors.

    Her visit to Northern Uganda comes barely two months after the Registrar of the same court; Mr Herman Von Hebel had also visited Northern Uganda.

    He among others visited Lukodi massacre site in Gulu where several civilians were killed by LRA rebels in internally displaced camp.

    The president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) justice Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi is set to jet into the country for a historic visit

    Source:Daily Monitor

  • Kenya:Four young men killed and bodies dumped in Kikuyu

    {Four young men have been found strangled and dumped in vehicle in a garage at Gitaru in Kikuyu, Kiambu County.}

    Police say the vehicle, which was parked at the garage on Wednesday morning, spent the whole day there without mechanics inspecting its cargo.

    The man who parked it left and Kikuyu police chief Joseph Ongaya said they were hunting for him.

    Also wanted is the owner of the vehicle, whose identity police are likely to get from the Kenya Revenue Authority.

    Mr Ongaya on Thursday told the Nation that the bodies had head injuries that they suspected were caused by blunt objects.

    The corpses did not have any identity documents and have been taken to the City Mortuary in Nairobi.

    Source:Daily Nation

  • DRC investigating alleged army massacre video

    {Kinshasa – The Democratic Republic of Congo said on Wednesday it was investigating “facts brought to the public’s attention” after a video purportedly showing government troops massacring civilians prompted outrage.}

    The seven minutes of footage that emerged over the weekend shows a group of uniformed men opening fire, then walking among at least 20 bodies, apparently in the violence-wracked central Kasai region.

    Past calls to probe the incident were rejected by the government but a statement issued by Kinshasa signalled a change of tack.

    “After the broadcast on social networks of this atrocious video caused gossip in past days… a commission of military judges has been sent to verify the facts,” the statement said.

    The aim is to “shed light after the declarations of international opinion about the persistent allegations of serious violations of human rights attributed to elements of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s armed forces” it added.

    The alleged incident occurred during an operation in a village called Mwanza Lomba in Kasai, according to the government, which said the commission had already made arrests.

    Anyone with information about the alleged crimes committed has been urged to come forward.

    The United States and France on Monday urged Kinshasa’s government to open an inquiry, with a US State Department spokesperson condemning the “heinous abuses” seen in the video.

    The Kasai region has been plagued by violence since mid-August when government forces killed a tribal chief and militia leader, Kamwina Nsapu, who had rebelled against the central government.

    At least 200 people have been killed since then, leading the UN mission in the country to pledge at least 100 peacekeepers for the region.

    The authenticity of the Kasai video has not been proven.

    It appears to have been shot with a mobile phone by a member of an eight-man squad of troops who speak Lingala (the army’s official language) and Swahili (the language of the eastern DRC).

    Two other videos emerged on Monday, supposedly taken in the same region, also purportedly showing abuses by DRC forces.

    Source:AFP

  • Attempts to bribe police officers lands four aspiring drivers in custody

    {Four aspiring drivers in Nyagatare District ended up in police custody after they attempted to bribe officers to credit them on the list of successful candidates, apparently after failing the driving tests.}

    Police said Phillipe Ndikumana, Isaac Nzirorera and John Bicamumpaka were apprehended separately on Tuesday while attempting to give money to officers who were supervising the process.

    They were all arrested at the same site where driver’s license tests were being conducted.

    The fourth suspect identified as Mohamed Mpfuyisoni was arrested at Gahanga Police station later where he had followed the officers and attempted to seduce them with Rwf20, 000 to award him category B permit.

    Chief Inspect of Police (CIP), the spokesperson for traffic and road safety department, said: “All the suspects were arrested red-handed. Nzirorera was giving a bribe of Rwf50, 000 to award him category C; Bicamubicika, who was looking for category A (motorcycle) offered a bribe of Rwf200, 000; while Ndikumana, who was also looking for category A was offering a bribe of Rwf147, 000.”

    He cautioned aspiring drivers and the public in general against any attempt to acquire traffic related services illegally, warning of “arrest and prosecution” of anyone who will be caught in such criminal tendencies.

    “Offering an illegitimate driver’s permits is like committing suicide and granting permission to unqualified drivers to kill people on roads, which we can’t afford and ready to fight” he said.

    Last week, two other aspiring drivers were arrested in Kigali and Nyanza District over a similar offence.

    Drivers and aspiring drivers are among the majority group that have been arrested in connection with trying to bribe police officers.

    Source:Police

  • Unlocking the heart-protective benefits of soy

    {A product of digesting a micronutrient found in soy may hold the key to why some people seem to derive a heart-protective benefit from eating soy foods, while others do not, a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health-led study discovered.}

    Japanese men who are able to produce equol — a substance made by some types of “good” gut bacteria when they metabolize isoflavones (micronutrients found in dietary soy) — have lower levels of a risk factor for heart disease than their counterparts who cannot produce it, according to the research published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

    “Scientists have known for some time that isoflavones protect against the buildup of plaque in arteries, known as atherosclerosis, in monkeys, and are associated with lower rates of heart disease in people in Asian countries,” said senior author Akira Sekikawa, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of epidemiology at Pitt Public Health. “We were surprised when a large trial of isoflavones in the U.S. didn’t show the beneficial effects among people with atherosclerosis in Western countries. Now, we think we know why.”

    All monkeys can produce equol, as can 50 to 60 percent of people in Asian countries. However, only 20 to 30 percent of people in Western countries can.

    Sekikawa and his colleagues, who include scientists in Japan, recruited 272 Japanese men aged 40 to 49 and performed blood tests to find out if they were producing equol. After adjusting for other heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and obesity, the team found that the equol-producers had 90-percent lower odds of coronary artery calcification, a predictor of heart disease, than the equol non-producers.

    The daily intake of dietary isoflavones — found in traditional soy foods such as tofu, miso and soymilk — is 25 to 50 milligrams in China and Japan, while it is less than 2 milligrams in Western countries. Equol is available as a supplement — bypassing the need for gut bacteria to produce it — though no clinical trials have been performed to determine a safe dosage for heart protective effects, or if it even does provide such protection.

    “I do not recommend that people start taking equol to improve their heart health or for any other reason unless advised by their doctor,” said Sekikawa. “Much more study is needed.”

    Sekikawa and his team are pursuing funding for a much larger observational study to expand on their findings and eventually a randomized clinical trial to examine the effect of taking equol on various medical conditions and diseases.

    “Our discovery about equol may have applications far beyond heart disease,” said Sekikawa. “We know that isoflavones may be associated with protecting against many other medical conditions, including osteoporosis, dementia, menopausal hot flashes, and prostate and breast cancers. Equol may have an even stronger effect on these diseases.”

    Studies estimate that East Asian countries have more than double the proportion of people able to produce equal than Western countries.

    Source:Science Daily

  • Experts recommend counter-radicalization measures against extremism

    {The two-day meeting on counter-terrorism ended on February 22 in Kigali with regional experts recommending that member countries of the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (EAPCCO) deploys much emphasis in deradicalisation activities.}

    States, they resolved, should engage community leaders, civil society and faith-based organizations in particular, experts and other counter terrorism stakeholders in raising awareness and other activities against violent extremism.

    Other resolutions include states to encourage and support Training of Trainers (ToT) courses; utilization of the counter-terror training manual and standard operating procedures to enhance the capacity of law enforcement officers; fast-track the establishment and capacitating bomb data centres; and develop clear mechanisms to share terrorism related information.

    The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) in charge of Operations, Dan Munyuza, while officiating at the closing of the workshop said: “One of the most serious challenges in the war against terrorism is to know when, where and with what means terrorists are likely to attack.”

    “Field training and command post exercises aimed at conducting rehearsals and perfecting drills to respond or fight terror attacks are one of the most viable strategies we have to implement as a region,” the DIGP said.

    He observed that the threat of terrorism in the region in presently real; and the future is uncertain if there are no effective preparations and adequate security systems, sharing of intelligence on terror networks.

    The 3rd regional counter terrorism brought together experts from 10 EAPCCO countries, international agencies and supporting countries, under the theme: “sustaining regional cooperation to combat counter-terrorism and violent extremism.”

    Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) in charge of Operations, Dan Munyuza speaks during the meeting.

    Source:Police