{Tsang sentenced to 20 months in prison for corruption, becoming Hong Kong’s highest-ranking official to be jailed.}
A former leader of Hong Kong was sentenced to 20 months in prison for misconduct after failing to disclose plans to rent a luxury apartment for his retirement from a businessman applying for a broadcasting licence.
High Court Judge Andrew Chan said on Wednesday that it was a stunning downfall for Donald Tsang, 72, who served as Hong Kong’s leader, or chief executive, from 2005 to 2012.
He becomes the highest-ranking current or former official sent to prison for wrongdoing in the Asian financial hub, which prides itself on a reputation for clean governance.
“Never in my judicial career have I seen a man fallen from such a height,” Chan said as he handed down the sentence in a Hong Kong court. “However, it is not in dispute that the defendant has dedicated himself to public service for the past 40 years.”
The judge said he was going to give Tsang 30 months in jail but took off 10 months because of his good character and contribution to Hong Kong. The maximum penalty for misconduct is seven years.
Tsang showed little emotion as the sentence was read out in a packed courtroom.
Chan noted that among Tsang’s major contributions to public service, one that stood out was “his effort in overcoming” the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
Tsang, who was financial secretary at the time, led the city’s successful defence of its currency peg against speculators.
A jury found Tsang guilty last week of one count of misconduct in public office but not guilty on a second count.
It’s one of several recent cases that have shaken public confidence and raised concerns about cozy ties between Hong Kong’s leaders and wealthy tycoons.
Jurors ruled 8-1 that he committed misconduct when he failed to disclose that the penthouse in neighbouring Shenzhen in mainland China was owned by a businessman whose company was applying for a digital radio licence.
They unanimously cleared him of the second misconduct charge, which alleged he failed to reveal he had nominated for an award an interior designer working on the penthouse’s renovations.
The jury couldn’t decide on a third charge of accepting an advantage. A retrial is tentatively scheduled for September.
Outside the court, Tsang’s wife Selina said that her husband would appeal against the verdict.
“Today is a very dark day,” she told reporters. “My family and I are very disappointed and sad at the court’s decision today.
“Donald and I have been greatly troubled and felt immense pressure in the past five years. So we are very sad about today’s outcome. But we will face it with strength and courage. We will appeal.”
{Department of Homeland Security issues sweeping new rules for automatically expelling undocumented immigrants.}
The US administration has issued tough new orders to begin a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants, putting nearly all of the country’s 11 million undocumented foreigners in target for deportation.
Two memos signed by Department of Homeland (DHS) Security Secretary John Kelly on Tuesday make it easier for officials to automatically expel undocumented immigrants.
They order border patrol and immigration officers to deport as quickly as possible any undocumented immigrants they find, with only a few exceptions, principally children.
Although the priority for deportation will remain undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes, it will also include anyone who has been charged or potentially faces criminal charges.
In addition, categories of undocumented immigrants deemed as low priority by the previous Barack Obama administration, generally anyone not tied to a crime, are no longer protected.
“With extremely limited exceptions, DHS will not exempt classes or categories of removal aliens from potential enforcement,” the department said.
“All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to enforcement proceedings, up to and including removal from the United States.”
Kelly said the mass detentions of the past, requiring judicial review, have overburdened the government.
“The surge of illegal immigration at the southern border has overwhelmed federal agencies and resources and has created a significant national security vulnerability to the United States,” he said in one of the memos.
“Thousands of aliens apprehended at the border, placed in removal proceedings, and released from custody have absconded and failed to appear at their removal hearings. Immigration courts are experiencing a historic backlog of removal cases.”
{{The wall}}
Kelly ordered immediate action to begin planning and building a wall along the US southern border with Mexico.
He also ordered the hiring of another 5,000 officers for the Customs and Border Protection agency and 10,000 for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Soon after being inaugurated president on January 20, President Donald Trump ordered action to begin construction of a wall along the nearly 2,000-mile-long (3,145km) US-Mexico border, a tightening of border security, and tougher enforcement against undocumented immigrants inside the country.
The memos come ahead of meetings this week between Kelly and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico.
Besides Pena Nieto, the two American officials will meet with Mexico’s ministers of the interior, foreign affairs, finance, defence and the navy, the State Department said.
Key topics include border security, law enforcement operation and trade, according to a State Department statement.
{The United Nations has declared a famine in parts of South Sudan, the first to be announced anywhere in the world in six years. There have also been warnings of famine in north-east Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen. Why are there still famines and what can be done about it?}
{{What is happening in South Sudan?}}
UN agencies say 100,000 people are facing starvation in South Sudan and a further 1 million there are classified as being on the brink of famine. This is the most acute of the present food emergencies. It is also the most widespread nationally. Overall, says the UN, 4.9 million people – or 40% of South Sudan’s population – are “in need of urgent food, agriculture and nutrition assistance”.
“Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive,” says the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization representative in South Sudan, Serge Tissot.
The basic cause of the famine is conflict. The country has now been at war since 2013 and more than 3 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
As World Food Programme country director Joyce Luma says: “This famine is man-made.”
“The people are predominantly farmers and war has disrupted agriculture. They’ve lost their livestock, even their farming tools. For months there has been a total reliance on whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch,” says Mr Tissot.
Crop production has been severely curtailed by the conflict, even in previously stable and fertile areas, as a long-running dispute among political leaders has escalated into a violent competition for power and resources among different ethnic groups.
As crop production has fallen and livestock have died, so inflation has soared (by up to 800% year-on-year, says the UN) causing massive price rises for basic foodstuffs.
This economic collapse would not have happened without war.
{{What does the declaration of famine mean?}}
The UN considers famine a technical term, to be used sparingly. The formal famine declaration in South Sudan means people there have already started dying of hunger.
More specifically, famine can be declared only when certain measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger are met. These are:
At least 20% of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope;
Acute malnutrition rates exceed 30%; and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons.
Other factors that may be considered include large-scale displacement, widespread destitution, disease outbreaks and social collapse.
The declaration of a famine carries no binding obligations on the UN or anyone else, but does bring global attention to the problem.
Previous famines include southern Somalia in 2011, southern Sudan in 2008, Gode in the Somali region of Ethiopia in 2000, North Korea (1996), Somalia (1991-1992) and Ethiopia in 1984-1985.
The possibility of three further famine declarations in Nigeria, Somali and Yemen would be an unprecedented situation in modern times.
“We have never seen that before and with all of these crises, they are protracted situations and they require significant financing,” World Food programme director of emergencies Denise Brown told the Guardian. “The international community has got to find a way of stepping up to manage this situation until political solutions are found.”
{{What can be done in South Sudan?}}
In the immediate term, two things would be necessary to halt and reverse the famine: More humanitarian assistance and unimpeded access for humanitarian agencies to those worst affected.
UN agencies speak of handing out millions of emergency livelihood kits, intended to help people fish or grow vegetables. There has also been a programme to vaccinate sheep and goats in an attempt to stem further livestock losses.
But, says Ms Luma, “we have also warned that there is only so much that humanitarian assistance can achieve in the absence of meaningful peace and security”.
The areas where a famine has been declared are in parts of Unity State seen as sympathetic to the rebels.
Some UN officials have suggested President Salva Kiir’s government has been blocking food aid to certain areas. There have also been reports of humanitarian convoys and warehouses coming under attack or being looted, either by government or rebel forces.
Although it denies the charges, President Kiir has now promised “that all humanitarian and development organisations have unimpeded access to needy populations across the country”.
But apart from that, there has been no indication that the huge suffering of civilians will prompt South Sudan’s warring parties to stop fighting.
{{Why are there food security crises elsewhere?}}
The common theme is conflict.
Yemen, north-east Nigeria and Somalia are all places where fighting has severely disrupted stability and normal life.
In Yemen, a multi-party civil conflict has drawn in regional powers, causing widespread destruction, economic damage and loss of life.
Nigeria and Somalia have faced insurgencies by extremist Islamist groups Boko Haram and al-Shabab, respectively, leading to large-scale displacement of people, disruption of agriculture and the collapse of normal trading and market activities.
In some cases, conflict has compounded pre-existing problems.
Yemen has long-standing water shortages and successive governments have been criticised for not doing more to conserve resources and improve the country’s ability to feed itself. (Even before the conflict started, nearly 90% of Yemen’s food had to be imported, Oxfam says.)
In other cases, shorter term climatic factors may be relevant.
South Sudan and Somalia have both been affected by a months-long drought across east Africa.
{{How is it different for more stable countries?}}
In Kenya, the government has declared a national disaster because of the drought and announced a compensation scheme for those who have lost livestock.
The Kenya Red Cross has been making cash payments, distributing food vouchers and aid and helping livestock owners sell off weakening animals before they die.
This kind of ameliorative action is much less possible or likely in countries riven by war.
UN assistant secretary general Justin Forsyth told the BBC: “Nobody should be dying of starvation in 2017. There is enough food in the world, we have enough capability in terms of the humanitarian community.
“In South Sudan, [the UN children’s agency] Unicef has 620 feeding centres for severely malnourished children, so the places where children are dying are places we can’t get to, or get to only occasionally. If there was access, we could save all of these children’s lives.”
The US-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies says 19 African countries are facing crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Of these, 10 are experiencing civil conflict. Eight of these are autocracies and the source of 82% of the 18.5 million Africans who are internally displaced or refugees, the ACSS says.
{The bodies of 87 African migrants have washed ashore in the Libyan city of Zawiya, in the latest drowning tragedy to hit the region.}
It is believed they were trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
Migrant deaths have risen to record levels along this smuggling route in recent months.
A torn rubber boat was found nearby, and it is feared more bodies may surface as such vessels usually carry up to 120 people.
Some of those who died are believed to be children.
A spokesman for the Libyan Red Crescent – the country’s Red Cross – said the bodies were retrieved by its workers.
Mohammed al-Misrati said local authorities would take the bodies to a cemetery for unidentified people in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
The Red Crescent posted photographs on its Twitter account showing dozens of body bags along the shore.
The UN’s migration agency, the International Organisation for Migration, said the boat that sank had left Libya on Saturday with 110 people on board.
At least 5,000 people drowned last year while trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.
Libyan coast guard spokesman Ayoub Gassim said over 500 migrants were rescued at sea on Friday and Saturday near the city of Sabratha, to the west of Zawiya.
The boats were between five and seven miles (8-11km) from the coast of Libya.
Mr Gassim said the smugglers were now using larger rubber boats in order to pack more migrants in, some carrying up to 180 people.
The boats are weak, and loading them so heavily dramatically raises the risk of sinking.
“We are seeing the new boats, which are not equipped with anything, but they carry more people,” he said.
“This is going to be even more disastrous to the migrants.”
{Nigerian community in South Africa calls for protection after reports of renewed ‘xenophobic’ violence in Pretoria West.}
Members of Nigeria’s community in South Africa have raised concerns over renewed anti-immigrant violence, appealing to authorities to intervene before the situation gets out of control.
Nigeria’s presidency on Monday called the South African government to step in to stop what it said were “xenophobic attacks” following recent reports of violence against Nigerians and other nationals in the capital, Pretoria.
The Nigerian Union South Africa (NUSA) on Tuesday confirmed that Nigerian homes and businesses in Pretoria West had been attacked in several late-night incidents in recent days.
“Homes and shops of Nigerians were targeted and looted in the events of past few days,” Emeka Ezinteje Collins, national public relations officer of NUSA, told Al Jazeera, citing at least 10 such attacks.
He added: “Our people and other foreigners are apparently living in fear of the unknown as the hoodlums have promised” more attacks from Friday, when a group called the “Mamelodi concerned residents” is reportedly planning to hold a march against foreign nationals.
NUSA also said that some of its members had received threatening phone calls asking for payment to protect their houses and businesses.
“We have also received reports from our members of receiving threatening anonymous calls requesting that money be paid to avert destruction of their properties,” Collins said.
“We implore the South African and Nigerian authorities to intervene early and save the situation before it spills out of hand.”
‘Angry residents’
South African police said on Tuesday at least 20 shops possibly belonging to immigrants were looted in Pretoria overnight, but they could not confirm if the attacks had deliberately targeted foreigners.
“There are allegations that these shops belong to foreign nationals,” police spokeswoman Brigadier Mathapelo Peters told the Reuters news agency.
“It is alleged that the community members are saying that these shops were used for drug dealing, but that is unconfirmed. We will only be able to start a formal investigation once the shop owners come forward.”
Anti-immigrant violence has flared sporadically in South Africa against a background of near-record unemployment, with foreigners being accused of taking jobs from locals and getting involved in crime.
“We are sick and tired of foreigners who are coming to sell drugs and kill our people, we can’t let the community go down like this,” an unemployed man in his mid-twenties, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
The attacks in Pretoria West come a few weeks after residents in Rosetenville, a suburb in Johannesburg, reportedly torched properties belonging to Nigerians and other foreigners which allegedly were being used for drug dealing and human trafficking.
“Homes and shops of Nigerians were targeted and looted in the events of past few days,” Emeka Ezinteje Collins, national public relations officer of NUSA, told Al Jazeera, citing at least 10 such attacks.
He added: “Our people and other foreigners are apparently living in fear of the unknown as the hoodlums have promised” more attacks from Friday, when a group called the “Mamelodi concerned residents” is reportedly planning to hold a march against foreign nationals.
NUSA also said that some of its members had received threatening phone calls asking for payment to protect their houses and businesses.
“We have also received reports from our members of receiving threatening anonymous calls requesting that money be paid to avert destruction of their properties,” Collins said.
“We implore the South African and Nigerian authorities to intervene early and save the situation before it spills out of hand.”
{{‘Angry residents’}}
South African police said on Tuesday at least 20 shops possibly belonging to immigrants were looted in Pretoria overnight, but they could not confirm if the attacks had deliberately targeted foreigners.
“There are allegations that these shops belong to foreign nationals,” police spokeswoman Brigadier Mathapelo Peters told the Reuters news agency.
“It is alleged that the community members are saying that these shops were used for drug dealing, but that is unconfirmed. We will only be able to start a formal investigation once the shop owners come forward.”
Anti-immigrant violence has flared sporadically in South Africa against a background of near-record unemployment, with foreigners being accused of taking jobs from locals and getting involved in crime.
“We are sick and tired of foreigners who are coming to sell drugs and kill our people, we can’t let the community go down like this,” an unemployed man in his mid-twenties, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
The attacks in Pretoria West come a few weeks after residents in Rosetenville, a suburb in Johannesburg, reportedly torched properties belonging to Nigerians and other foreigners which allegedly were being used for drug dealing and human trafficking.
“The Rosetenville unrest is replicating in Pretoria West,” the African Diaspora Forum said in a statement last week.
“Those who are living in the area are advised to be careful. Cars and houses are set alight by angry residents claiming to get rid of drugs and prostitution. No one has been arrested after two houses were set alight, various homes raided by Pretoria West community members.”
{{‘Dire consequences’}}
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Nigerian president’s adviser on foreign affairs and the diaspora, said on Monday the South African government must take “decisive and definitive measures to protect Nigerians and other African nationals” within its borders.
She also called on the African Union to weigh in on the violence, adding: “Further attacks without any reprimand may have dire consequences”.
Dabiri-Erewa said there was a need for the continental body to “intervene urgently”, claiming that in the last two years “about 116” Nigerians had been killed, including 20 last year.
“This is unacceptable to the people and government of Nigeria.”
There was no independent verification of the claimed number of deaths.
According to NUSA, there are about 800,000 Nigerians in South Africa, many of them living in Johannesburg.
The community was hit badly by the wave of xenophobic violence that hit the country in April 2015, but South African police said only seven Nigerians died.
An independent watchdog has said 640 people died from police brutality or in custody in South Africa.
In April 2015, Nigeria recalled its top diplomat in South Africa to discuss the anti-immigrant attacks that sent hundreds of foreigners fleeing to safety camps, as authorities sent in soldiers to quell unrest in Johannesburg and Durban.
{A number of killings have taken place recently in the DR Congo (DRC), including one allegedly perpetrated by military personnel. Nick Elebe says that it is necessary to have a real response to real issues.}
A video surfaced on social media recently purportedly showing members of the Congolese army opening fire and killing unarmed civilians in the central Kasai region.
Government officials have rejected international calls to investigate the video. In an unrelated incident in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 25 Hutus were killed by a rival ethnic group over the weekend.
Nick Elebe is the Democratic Republic of Congo country manager at the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa based in DRC and he told DW that the government needs to address these killings directly.
DW: The government initially dismissed the video as fake but later referred to “excesses” and said that two soldiers, including an officer, were already facing military justice. What do you make of this rather confused response by the government?
Nick Elebe: The video of the shooting has been done by someone taking part in the operation but there simply is no way to authenticate this video. I also listened to the spokesperson of the government try to explain that the video was a montage done by an opponent, which I don’t think is the right way to go. The important thing for now is to have a real investigation into what exactly happened in Kasai.
What can you tell us about the killing of Hutu civilians reported over the weekend in the east of the DRC. Has ethnic tensions in the region been getting worse recently?
I think the ongoing situation in Beni, Butenbo, in North Kivu is a long story. And again, there is no investigation being taken by the Congolese authorities. There is a lot ofd talk about the situation over there and about the responsibilities that are shared between the different actors. But there is no initiative to all hold those who committed this accountable.
{{What impact will this violence have on efforts to set up a transitional regime in the DRC?}}
I think this is one of the reasons why it is important now to have real response to real problems. Maybe your question should be “what will be the impact of all this violence on the electoral process itself.” And clearly, this violence will have an impact. One of these impacts might be on the capacity of voters to go and register, because the voter role to register is ongoing. Number two will be, what will be the role of these militias on trying to influence voters.
{A former vice president of Burundi who fled the country after criticizing the ruling party has returned to the country after accusing some of her colleagues in the opposition of being “destructive.”}
Alice Nzomukunda, who was one of President Pierre Nkurunziza’s deputies between 2005 and 2006, returned to Burundi Monday with two other members of the opposition bloc CNARED, which has been involved in on-off peace talks with the government.
Nzomukunda resigned her post in September 2006, accusing the ruling party of corruption and rights abuses.
Her return is seen as a victory for the embattled government, which faces accusations of rights abuses since Nkurunziza sought a third term in April 2015.
Hundreds of people have died in the violence and more than 300,000 Burundians are sheltering in neighboring countries.
{A cross-section of leaders and ordinary Ugandans yesterday welcomed reports of planned talks between President Museveni and ex-presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye, calling the development a manifestation of political maturity.}
Whereas Information Minister Frank Tumwebaze said he was not aware of the dialogue initiative, which has been a highly controlled process over the months, the President of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party on whose ticket Dr Besigye stood for president last year; was more measured.
“Since 2011 we (FDC), among other opposition parties and civil society organisations (CSOs), set four pre-conditions that would have to be met before we engaged in any dialogue with the government,” Maj Gen Muntu Mugisha noted, without giving specifics, adding: “The same pre-conditions have been our basis for any dialogue (post 2016 elections) in all interactions between us and all actors who have approached us on the issue of dialogue. I am not aware that those preconditions have been fulfilled. Without their fulfillment I do not see any dialogue (taking place).”.”
“As far as we (as government) are concerned, we have no comment,” minister Tumwebaze said, calling the reports a “Daily Monitor story”.
This newspaper, based on conversations with sources close to both President Museveni and Dr Besigye over the last three months, yesterday broke the story that the principals have agreed on a foreign mediator, a neutral venue and broad agenda for imminent talks.
The dialogue could start with a one-on-one meeting between the duo as early as next month, according to individuals briefed on the matter. The historic development is expected to be announced soon by the foreign mediator and the talks are expected to last six months and will involve the government on the one hand, political parties, religious leaders and civil society on the other hand.
The parties have spent the last several months behind the scenes discussing its modalities in a highly controlled process involving the Prime Minister’s office on the one side and a technical committee of FDC party on the other hand.
The legal framework to ensure implementation is still being thrashed out.
In an interview with this newspaper for yesterday’s story, Dr Besigye neither denied nor confirmed the talks, saying that the conditions he set for any such undertaking, as far as he knew, had not been met.
Those terms include a mutually-agreed foreign mediator, treatment of the parties as equals, a clear mechanism of implementation of agreed terms, and
He, however, added: “There are a myriad of people undertaking initiatives about talks and none of them has, to the best of my knowledge, [materialised] yet. At an appropriate time, if there’s anything significant, it will be communicated to you.”
A source close to the presidency, in a strikingly similar response, told this newspaper that: “The government is committed to dialogue. There are many initiatives going on, if one of them succeeds, the government will go with that.”
Individuals familiar with the ongoing preparations, technically referred to as “talk about talks”, are cautiously optimistic because the consensus by the President and Dr Besigye on a mediator and, in principle the agenda, is considered an unprecedented progress which in theory places them closer to actual dialogue.
The news about arrangement for the talks has received nationwide backing and across the political divide, except that some supporters of the initiative want the agenda to be expanded and participants to include more interest groups.
“DP has been the biggest promoter of dialogue. It is good for people to talk even when they disagree, they should talk,” the Democratic Party (DP) president-general Norbert Mao said.
Such dialogue, he said, should be on “national issues such as corruption, free and fair election, rule of law and should not be about resolving Luweero Triangle disputes”.
Uganda Peoples Congress leader Joseph Bossa said the it should not be bilateral talks only between Mr Museveni and Dr Besigye and respective parties NRM and FDC but representative of the country’s diversity.
“Uganda is bigger than the two and what we want is a structured dialogue, means of implementation, a mediator and agreed agenda,” he said, adding: “The key issue in the dialogue should be ensuring a free and fair election that will quarantee peaceful transition, which is good for Mr Museveni and the country.”
The push for clarity on Uganda’s political direction, a campaign involving political parties and civil society actors, has gained urgency due to concerns about transition from President Museveni to the next leader since the incumbent, under the current constitutional arrangement, would, on account of age, be ineligible to seek re-election when his tenure lapses in 2021.
“It’s good that Besigye and Museveni have accepted to come together and talk in front of a mediator. I welcome and endorse it because it was the move of the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda that advised the two to dialogue so that their tensions are cleared off,” said Gulu Archbishop John Baptist Odama who chairs the Uganda Episcopal Conference.
The prelate said he will pray for the success of the planned talks which, if it happens, will provide the political heavy-weights a face-to-face to tackle head-on Uganda’s intractable political problems. President Museveni and Dr Besigye have, since falling out in 1999, only publicly met twice during the Pope’s visit in November 2015 and again during a presidential debate for the February 2016 election.
If there is an opportunity to solve political standoff through dialogue to avoid bloodshed, said Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) Dr Arthur Bainomugisha, it is welcome “but whether it will succeed or not, time will tell”.
He said: “Uganda has many legal, political and constitutional reforms which I think is very critical that dialogue can help solve. Uganda has many precedents in resolving conflicts. We had many processes that resulted into peaceful ending of rebellions and many people [former rebels, political opponents who] are now in government.”
There are some sceptics, among them Ambassador Harold Acemah, the former deputy Head of Uganda’s Mission in Brussels, who said President Museveni cannot be trusted.
His reservations notwithstanding, Ambassador Acemah said “this should be an open dialogue where religious, political and civil society organisations should not be left out to discuss key issues of poverty, security and corruption in the country”.
The career diplomat is not alone. Mr Hebert Nakabugu, a resident of the eastern Jinja town, said he doubts that President Museveni and Dr Besigye can sit together and genuinely discuss the national development issues because “each one knows the other`s weakness; that will lead the country into big challenges”.
FDC assistant secretary-general Harold Kaija told journalists at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi, a Kampala suburb, that there were no talks in the works.
Attempts by different actors to get President Museveni and Dr Besigye, a four-time challenger, to the negotiating table, following some false starts over the years, began soon after the February 2016 elections when several emissaries went to Dr Besigye’s home. He was also visited by a retired judge in his prison cell in Luzira with a message of dialogue.
The three-pronged efforts that have culminated into the latest development involved religious leaders and elders, Women’s Situation Room that monitored last year’s elections and some NRM leaders.
All these efforts have converged and seem close to bearing fruit. Uganda’s new Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, is one of those involved in the shuttle diplomacy.
“I didn’t know about the planned talks; I have only read it in papers. But this is a good idea for the future of our country,” said Mr Stanley Katembeya, the FDC party chairman in Mbarara District.
His NRM counterpart Jomo Mugabi said: “It is a very good development. Besigye and Museveni are not enemies of this country; everyone says they want to see a better Uganda.”
{South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir vowed Tuesday that government would ensure aid could reach areas hit by famine after three years of war that has restricted access for humanitarian workers.}
The world’s youngest nation on Monday declared famine in parts of the northern Greater Unity state where 100,000 people were facing starvation and another one million were on the brink of famine. A total of nearly five million are going hungry.
Aid groups have slammed a “man-made” famine caused by ongoing fighting in the country where civil war has forced people to flee, disrupted agriculture, sent prices soaring, and seen aid agencies blocked from accessing some of the worst-hit areas.
“It underscores the complete failure by government, opposition forces, and international actors to end the cycle of abuse,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement Tuesday.
In an address to parliament, Kiir said government “will ensure that all humanitarian and development organisations have unimpeded access to needy populations across the country”.
{{Food aid }}
A UN aid official working in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity, welcomed the commitment — which has been made in the past — while saying it was “more important that access be granted on the ground.”
Kiir’s commitment could give leverage in negotiations on the ground, she said, as gaining access to hungry communities often meant tricky talks with an array of actors in the crisis.
Some regions are only accessible through air drops of humanitarian aid — which the UN official said costs seven times more than sending aid by road or barge.
And access is not as simple as permission: aid agencies have to be sure if they give out food aid to a community they won’t be attacked by an armed group and have their rations stolen right afterwards.
“There are many types of impediments,” said the official.
South Sudan was engulfed by civil war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his rival and former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup against him.
{{Price of inaction }}
The HRW statement launched a withering attack on the leaders of South Sudan as well as the international community, saying both sides in the conflict “have shrugged off international pressure, and spared themselves from any meaningful consequences.”
This despite documented cases of large-scale killings, recruitment of child soldiers, rape and torture.
“The people of South Sudan were abandoned by their leaders a long time ago. The UN Security Council and regional organisations have failed civilians. Today’s famine is the price of inaction,” read the statement.
The European Commission on Tuesday announced an emergency aid package worth EUR82 million ($86 million) for “the most urgent needs in the country” and to help neighbouring countries cope with a massive influx of refugees.
This article appeared in the January 2017 issue of Forbes Woman Africa
Rwanda, striving for gender equality, serves as an example of how a nation could be built by communities. In an exclusive interview with FORBES Woman Africa, the country’s First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, tells us how the 15-year-old Imbuto Foundation has been taking Rwanda and its people forward.
{{When does a country become synonymous with its community?}}
Just visit Rwanda on the last Saturday of any month, and you will see it here, in this hilly East African country, where the masses – from ministers to farmers, shopkeepers to entrepreneurs – rub shoulders to become one harmonious, homogeneous entity; laying roads, digging the earth, planting trees, and cleaning gutters and drains; holding broom, shovel and spade.
The only thing that counts is the richness of the earth, the fresh mountain air and a united mission to keep the streets green and immaculately clean as a contribution to nation-building and improving the living conditions of the country’s 11.5 million citizens.
It’s on one such Saturday that FORBES Woman Africa is invited to travel upcountry to Rwanda’s verdant Rulindo district, past Kigali’s bustling traffic and up the winding roads when the city’s modest skyscrapers appear no match for the country’s magnificent hills.
It’s the day the country observes Umuganda, a home-grown initiative that requires people from all walks of life – villagers and city-folks – to congregate for community work, once a month, from 7 to 11 in the morning.
Today, most of the action is in this northern province, where schoolgirls in blinding yellow and pink uniforms, rural women in colorful African dresses, and men in gum boots, form neat lines to take their turn planting saplings in the fertile earth.
Today, they are also awaiting a special visitor who will dig the earth with them under the hot mid-morning sun.
The earth is an apt way to introduce the Imbuto Foundation—the word ‘Imbuto’ meaning ‘seed’ or ‘fruit’ in Kinyarwanda, Rwanda’s local language. And the special guest is none other than the foundation’s President, Jeannette Kagame, the nation’s much-loved First Lady, wife to the country’s dynamic President, Paul Kagame.
There is collective silence and adulation when she arrives, wearing denim pants and shirt and a yellow cap, getting to work right away with a shovel. A stone’s throw away, in a classroom, young girls aged 10 to 12 are seated in a circle on straw mats, ready to welcome her.
They call this ‘the circle of friendship’, and around them are their mentors, young women themselves, aged 18 to 25.
Today is also the launch of the third year of Imbuto Foundation’s successful 12+ program in the area.
The program, in line with the national plan under the Ministry of Health, has achieved significant milestones, reaching 52,000 girls nationally over the last two years. Such milestones are significant as Imbuto celebrated its 15th year in 2016.
The girls are taught about savings, discipline and confidence, in tandem with Imbuto’s motto to ‘engage, educate and empower’. The younger girls are also taught about sexual health; ground-breaking by itself, as sex is still a taboo topic in the communities, and the girls are equipped with the knowledge about their bodies early, before they transition to adolescence.
In the classroom, the girls pass around a ‘speaking ball’ to each other, taking turns to voice their opinions in Kinyarwanda. They speak with supreme confidence – unfaltering even in the presence of the First Lady – drawing their hands on the charts in front of them, promising to never break their circle of friendship. Her Excellency listens to them keenly, before they pass the ball to her, and she politely introduces herself.
Her next stop is further down the dirt road, for a community gathering after Umuganda, where she is expected to speak to the thousands gathered on the hills, patiently waiting under cheerful umbrellas for a glimpse of their First Lady.
Greeted with music, ribbons and flowers, there is rapturous applause from the crowd when she arrives. The cool country breeze complements the convivial mood. The district mayor speaks about how the previous phases of the 12+ program have influenced the girls to open bank accounts, start kitchen gardens, and importantly, stay in school.
A 10-year-old girl, Amina Merci Dieu, steps up to the podium to speak about how she built a vegetable garden, sold the vegetables she planted and persuaded her parents to open a savings account. She speaks without fear, walking up to hug the First Lady when she is done.
I am seated next to Assumpta Ingabire, Director General in charge of Local Government Inspection, who was formerly with Imbuto.
“Our First Lady is such an inspiring role model. You can share your problems with her and she always sees things in a positive way,” she says, smiling.
“Imbuto does not work in a vacuum; it works in line with national priorities, working with communities. Without our communities, things would have taken forever [to rebuild],” says Sandrine Umutoni, Acting Director General of Imbuto Foundation.
It’s a pertinent point, as the country has had to reconcile and persevere to rebuild itself after the horrific genocide against the Tutsi that killed a million of its people in 1994. The only way it could turn around was by involving its communities.
Imbuto was initially launched as Protection And Care of Families against HIV/AIDS (PACFA) working to help families and genocide survivors with AIDS. It changed its name to Imbuto at the end of 2007, incorporating a holistic model for individual development, focusing mainly on educational projects.
One of Imbuto’s flagship programs is a girls’ education campaign called Best Performing Girls (BPG).
“The girls who graduate from high school get training in IT, and also get laptops, which the First Lady hands out every year in March,” says Umutoni.
“They call her ‘mother’,” she adds. “In Kinyarwanda, when they call a person that, it means the person has accompanied you through difficult challenges, guiding you, counseling you, and providing support at specific moments in your life.”
Imbuto also organizes a Youth Forum Series every year. In addition, the foundation works with 22 cooperatives across 13 districts, introducing women to income-generating vocations. With the money, they pay school fees and medical insurance and enter new entrepreneurial activities.
The week that FORBES Woman Africa is in Kigali to follow the First Lady’s activities is when the King of Morocco is also visiting, to sign an memorandum of understanding with Rwanda on specific health and education projects. The Princess of Jordan, Sarah Zeid, is also visiting.
As part of her packed schedule, the First Lady also attends a meeting with members of the 20-year-old Unity Club that she heads. The club brings together current and former members of cabinet and their spouses to promote unity and reconciliation in Rwanda.
The meeting with the Unity Club members takes place at Imbuto’s temporary office in the President’s office complex in Kacyiru – their office on the same grounds is being renovated – a stunning manicured setting with frangipani trees, hibiscus flowers, ferns and foliage.
The First Lady is dressed in a smart beige and black suit and sits at the head of the mahogany table in the meeting room. She listens patiently and intently, speaking softly in Kinyarwanda as the ladies consult the files in front of them. She offers solutions and better approaches for some of the issues raised. It’s an in-depth discussion that goes on for over two hours, the seriousness interspersed at times with jokes by the First Lady, displaying an effortless sense of humor.
One of the ladies at the meeting is Radegonde Ndejuru, the First Lady’s advisor, who has been with Imbuto for 10 years now.
“We have a family spirit at Imbuto,” says Ndejuru. “Her Excellency is always so respectful. Her text messages to everyone starts with ‘good morning’ or ‘good evening’. We put passion in everything we do as that is the way she does it. She also has a phenomenal memory and shows great attention to detail… I always ask her: ‘do you sleep enough?’ She is here in the morning, reads a lot and what I admire is she always follows through projects.”
In March 2016, at the 5th Kigali International Conference Declaration General Assembly in Algeria, the First Lady was presented an award along with United Nations’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in recognition of their contribution to women’s empowerment and their fight against gender-based violence.
Rwanda is a global model for gender equality. The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2016 ranks Rwanda fifth globally for closing the gender gap in various spheres. The country has the highest representation (64%) of women in Parliament.
As part of gender mainstreaming, there is a Gender Monitoring Bureau in every institution in Rwanda, as the country works towards achieving a middle income status by 2020.
The First Lady works with a team of young, spirited, hard-working women, who exemplify the qualities of their leader. It is clear they have a great admiration for her work.
Before we settle for the interview, Mrs. Kagame, as she is also called, begins by asking how I am, with a disarming smile. And that aptly sets the tone for the rest of the conversation. It’s easy to see how this mother of four has won the hearts of Rwandans.
