Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

Rwandan diaspora in China pay Mutuelle de santé for 400 Gasabo residents

{Rwandans living in the city of Guangzhou in China have paid Mutuelle de santé for 400 vulnerable residents of Rutunga sector in Gasabo district. }

The support worth Rwf 1.2 million was handed to beneficiaries yesterday.

The representative of Rwandans diaspora in China, Ntwari Aime Alexandre has told IGIHE that they are committed to supporting the vulnerable, enabling them access health services.

“We have subscribed for medical insurance for the vulnerable to facilitate them access health care services,” he said.

Ntwali unveiled plan to engage in more charitable activities of building houses for vulnerable residents among other support to 1994 genocide survivors.

Mukajero Rosalie, a mother of seven children lauded the support which left her overcoming worries of getting Mutuelle de santé over financial issues.

The vice mayor for economic affairs in Gasabo district, Raymond Mberabahizi commended the support as part of the many home grown solutions among Rwandans.

February 16, 2017
Rusizi rainstorms kill one, ravage 26 houses

{An old woman identified as Nyirarubona Feleciteaged 83 is reported to have died during yesterday’s rainstorm in Gombaniro village, Nyirarubona cell of Bugarama sector in Rusizi district. }

It has also left 10 houses completely destroyed and ravaged 16 others.

The executive secretary of Bugarama sector, Rukazambuga Gilbert has told IGIHE that the strong winds left calamities though it was not raining heavily.

“It is true that the old man Nyirarubona has passed away after violent winds destroyed her house as it rained. Ten houses have been completely destroyed while 16 others had minor damages. Another wounded resident has been taken at a health center,” he said.

Rukazambuga explained that the old woman’s body has been taken at Gihundwe hospital while affected residents whose houses were demolished are accommodated by neighbors.

Rusizi district official in charge of disaster response management,Nziranziza Martin said they are taking stock of the damage and affected families to provide basic support within two days in collaboration with partners.

February 16, 2017
Murekezi will not be extradited to Rwanda: Malawi court dismisses removal case

Magistrate Patrick Chirwa has dismissed the case on the grounds that Rwanda is not one of the designated countries that are mentioned in the Extradiction act of Malawi laws.

This comes after court last week asked both the defence and State to submit their views on the issue.

In its submissions state lawyer Steven Kayira told the court that the removal of a person includes those countries in Commonwealth like Rwanda and that the act intended not to include its treaty agreement between countries but arrangement between Commonwealth law and that Section 3 of the extradiction act gives power to the minister to enter into special agreement on extra-diction.

Kayuni told the court that genocide is also an extraditable offence under the extradiction act which include murder as an offence that one can be extradited for and he described genocide as killing that falls under the murder.

In their submissions the defence team led by Wapona Kita told the court that the case at hand is being tried using the Extradiction act of Malawi and by virtue of the issuing of Authority to proceed by the Home affairs minister as stipulated in the act, the case can’t continue using the Commonwealth treaty if Rwanda is not one of the countries in agreement with Malawi under the act.

Kita argued that even in 1998 when the act was being revisited genocide had already took place in Rwanda, Malawi government still didn’t include genocide and Rwanda part of the act.

He told the court that the law is basic and it’s a wakeup call to a state, ministers to go and visit the powers and make provisions with Rwanda.

In his ruling today, SRM Patrick Chirwa agreed with the state that genocide falls under the murder and that it is indeed an extraditable offence according to the extradiction act of Malawi.

His worship Patrick Chirwa however, agreed with Kita’s argument that the Rwanda is not a designated country for extradition under the Extradition Act and dismissed the case .

He then set Murekezi free but said he will still be in custody for another case of ACB which he is answering.

In an interview with Nyasa Times, State lawyer Kayuni while agreeing with the ruling he said they will likely come back to the court with the matter if the Malawi government enters into the agreement with Rwanda and gazzeted in the Extradition Act.

Defence lawyer Kita expressed satisfaction with the ruling saying it is well reasoned and grounded in law.

Source:Nyasa Times

February 16, 2017
Trump: Two-state solution not only way to achieve peace

{In a major policy shift, US president says he would back a single-state solution, after meeting Israeli PM Netanyahu.}

President Donald Trump has dropped Washington’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, backing away from a long-held position of the US and the international community in the Middle East.

In a joint press conference on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said he would back a single-state solution if the two sides agreed to it.

“Looking at two-state or one-state, I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one both parties like. I can live with either one,” Trump told reporters after meeting Netanyahu in Washington.

“The United States will encourage a peace and really a great peace deal … We will be working on it very, very diligently. But it is the parties themselves who must directly negotiate such an agreement,” Trump said.

A two-state solution – the idea of Israel and Palestine living side-by-side and at peace – has been the bedrock of US and international diplomacy for the past two decades.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from the White House, said Trump’s comments marked “a very dramatic development” in the search for peace in the Middle East.

“Now, for the first time upending long-standing US policy, Trump says he is not wedded to a two-state solution, and that’s a fundamental change – basically ripping up the long-standing roadmap.

“It’s going against UN Security Council resolutions; it’s going against the agreed position of the international community.”

Netanyahu said that he wanted to focus on “substance” and not “labels,” when asked about his support for a two-state solution.

“There are two prerequisites for peace. First, the Palestinians must recognise the Jewish state … Second, in any peace agreement, Israel must retain the overriding security control over the entire area west of the Jordan River,” he said.

Trump also said that Washington was working to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“I would like to see that happen. We are looking at it very very strongly. We are looking at it with great care. Let’s see what happens.”

“I’d like to see you pull back on settlements for a little bit,” Trump told Netanyahu on the illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.

Earlier on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned that there was “no alternative” to a two-state solution to the conflict, after a White House official said peace did not necessarily have to entail Palestinian statehood a day before.

“There is no alternative solution for the situation between the Palestinians and Israelis, other than the solution of establishing two states and we should do all that can be done to maintain this,” Guterres said during a visit to Cairo on Wednesday.

Palestinian officials also issued their warnings to the US against abandoning a two-state solution.

“If the Trump administration rejects this policy it would be destroying the chances for peace and undermining American interests, standing and credibility abroad,” Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), said in response to the US official’s remarks.

“Accommodating the most extreme and irresponsible elements in Israel and in the White House is no way to make responsible foreign policy,” she said in a statement.

The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, with the capital in East Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

Netanyahu committed, with conditions, to the two-state goal in a speech in 2009 and has broadly reiterated the aim since. But he has also spoken of a “state minus” option, suggesting he could offer the Palestinians deep-seated autonomy and the trappings of statehood without full sovereignty.

“Many commentators who follow the events in the region would say there’s some doubt to whether Netanyahu ever fully believed to a two-state solution,” Al Jazeera’s Bays said.

“Netanyahu has made clear that the Israelis have to have total control over security in the area … What the Israelis perhaps are pushing for is the status quo in a permanent form, so Palestinians having some autonomy in their various villages and areas under Israeli control.

“Most Palestinian and Arab commentators would describe that as occupation, and quite possible as apartheid.”

Source:Al Jazeera

February 16, 2017
Deadly suicide car bombing rocks Baghdad’s Sadr City

{Powerful blast kills at least nine people and wounds dozens in crowded street of mainly Shia suburb of Iraqi capital.}

A suicide bomber detonated a pick-up truck packed with explosives in northern Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least nine people, according to Iraqi officials.

Thirty more were wounded in the powerful blast in the Habibiya area, near Sadr City, a Shia-majority neighbourhood in the Iraqi capital.

The explosion targeted a crowded street full of garages and used car dealers.

The attack came a day after a car bomb explosion in southern Baghdad killed at least four people.

The Iraqi capital was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings during the first days of 2017 but relatively few explosions had been reported since.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s blast, but nearly all suicide attacks are claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group.

On January 2, ISIL, which often targets crowded areas to maximise casualties, claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed 39 people in a busy market in Sadr City.

ISIL is defending Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq, against a massive, four-month-old operation by an alliance of forces.

Source:Al Jazeera

February 16, 2017
DACA recipient Daniel Ramirez sues US over his arrest

{Mexican immigrant, protected from deportation under programme established in 2012, sues government after being arrested.}

A Mexican immigrant is suing the US government after being arrested, even though he has special status protecting him from deportation.

Daniel Ramirez, who has no criminal record, was arrested in his father’s home in Seattle on Friday. His lawyers say the arrest violates his constitutional rights to live and work in the US without the fear of arrest and deportation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) arrived at the home to arrest Ramirez’s father, but also took him into custody, even though he has a work permit under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, court documents said.

The DACA programme was established in 2012 to protect children, who were brought into the US without documents, from deportation. It allows recipients, sometimes called “the dreamers”, to attend school and work.

Ramirez’s lawyers say this could be the first time under US President Donald Trump that a person covered by DACA has been taken into immigration custody.

ICE spokeswoman Rose Richeson said in a statement that Ramirez, 23, had told agents he was a gang member and was taken into custody for being a “risk to public safety”.

In response, one of Ramirez’s lawyers said that his client “unequivocally denies being in a gang”.

“While in custody, he was repeatedly pressured by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to falsely admit affiliation,” Mark Rosenbaum said.

Trump, a Republican who took office on January 20, has promised a crackdown on the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, most of whom come from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

US immigration authorities arrested at least 680 people across the country last week, and a move against DACA recipients like Ramirez would represent a significant broadening of immigration enforcement under Trump.

In an interview with ABC News last month, Trump said that his administration was devising a policy on how to deal with people covered by DACA, without indicating any concrete plans.

“They are here illegally. They shouldn’t be very worried. I do have a big heart. We’re going to take care of everybody. We’re going to have a very strong border,” Trump said at the time.

Rallies were planned in response to Ramirez’s detainment by grassroots movements, such as United We Dream and One America, asking for his immediate release.

Source:Al Jazeera

February 16, 2017
Two journalists killed during Facebook Live broadcast

{Attackers burst into the studio and shot the presenter mid-broadcast, a shooting that was also caught on Facebook live.}

Police in the Dominican Republic have arrested three men after two radio journalists were shot dead during a Facebook Live broadcast, according to officials.

The shooting took place on Tuesday in San Pedro de Macoris, east of the capital Santo Domingo.

The attackers burst into the 103.5 FM studio and shot dead presenter Luis Manuel Medina as he was reading the news on air.

Gunfire and a woman’s voice shouting, “Shots, shots!” can be heard on a Facebook live video streamed by one of the journalists there at the time.

Moments earlier, the station’s director Leonidas Martinez was killed in his office, witnesses at the radio station told local media.

“Two people have died and one has been injured,” national police spokesman William Alcantara told reporters. He identified the wounded person as the station’s secretary.

No charges have yet been filed against the arrested men.

According to media rights watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, journalists who tackle corruption and drug trafficking in the Dominican Republic often fall victim to attacks.

Source:Al Jazeera

February 16, 2017
Juma Mohammed Abdullah al-Kaabi dies after Afghan blast

{Ambassador Al-Kaabi was critically wounded in Kandahar attack that also killed five Emirati aid workers.}

The ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Afghanistan died on Wednesday of wounds sustained in a bomb attack in Kandahar last month that also killed five Emirati aid workers, the UAE’s foreign ministry announced.

“With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn the martyr of the nation and his duty, the righteous son Juma Mohammed Abdullah al-Kaabi, who gave his pure soul for the sake of humanity,” the ministry said in a statement quoted by official news agency WAM.

The diplomats were expected to open a number of UAE-backed projects as part of an aid programme in Afghanistan.

The Taliban denied carrying out the bombing, saying the attack was a result of “internal local rivalry”.

Source:Reuters

February 16, 2017
Ethiopian Olympic protest runner Feyisa Lilesa reunited with family

{Ethiopian runner Feyisa Lilesa, famous for his protest at the Rio Olympics, has been reunited with his family for the first time since going into exile.}

He crossed his wrists over his head as he took silver in the marathon in a gesture against the Ethiopian government’s treatment of Oromo people.

Afterwards he refused to go home, saying his life might be in danger.

Now in the US, it is the first time he has seen his wife and two young children for at least six months.

He told the Associated Press news agency that the decision to leave his family behind had been a necessary risk.

“Putting them potentially in harm’s way was a good lesson for a lot of people that you need to sacrifice in order for you to win some concessions and change your situation,” he said.

“In that sense, it inspires people to fight for their rights and resist the government in Ethiopia.”

In September the athlete left Brazil for the US, where he is staying on a special skills visa.

His family arrived with visas as well, AP reports.

Mr Feyisa became the first Ethiopian to finish in the top two of a men’s Olympics marathon since 2000, claiming silver behind Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge.

After his political protest, Ethiopian officials denied he was in danger, saying he would be welcomed home from Rio as a hero.

At the time, Mr Feyisa said he had relatives who were in prison and if they talked about democratic rights they would be killed.

He is from Oromia, home to most of Ethiopia’s 35 million Oromo people, the country’s largest ethnic group.

A wave of anti-government protests began in the region in November 2015 with people complaining about social and political marginalisation.

During the protests and police crackdowns, they used the symbol of crossing their arms above their heads to mark their defiance.

In October, a six-month state of emergency was imposed in Ethiopia to deal with the unprecedented anti-government unrest.

Source:BBC

February 16, 2017
DR Congo election: ‘We cannot afford $1.8bn cost’, says minister

{The Democratic Republic of Congo will not be able to afford an agreed presidential election this year, the government says.}

Budget Minister Pierre Kangudia said the cost of organising the poll, which was said to be $1.8bn (£1.5bn), was too expensive.

Last year the government and the opposition agreed that new elections would be held by the end of 2017.

President Joseph Kabila’s final mandate ran out in November 2016.

Mr Kabila’s opponents have accused him of repeatedly delaying the poll in order to remain in power.

The plan to hold an election before the end of 2017 initially reduced tension between the government and the opposition,

The electoral commission said last November that it needed at least until July 2017 to register more than 30 million voters in a country similar in size to Western Europe, but with one of the worst transport and communication networks in the world.

Earlier this month, the death of veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi led to concerns about the country’s future.

Elections in DR Congo are often controversial. Last year, protests against moves to delay the presidential poll resulted in at least 50 deaths.

DR Congo has never had a smooth transfer of power since independence more than 55 years ago.

Mr Kabila took power in 2001 following the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila. He has won two elections and the constitution bars him from running for a third term.

Source:BBC

February 16, 2017