Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

Libya unity govt slams creation of rival ‘national guard’

{Libya’s UN-backed unity government on Sunday slammed the creation by armed groups of a national guard rival to its own Presidential Guard in the capital Tripoli.}

The Government of National Accord (GNA) said it considered the creation of the Libyan National Guard to be “an attempt to form a parallel body to the Presidential Guard” it has formed.

“These groups and those supporting it are considered to be outlaws,” the GNA said in a statement.

“And they will be treated as such by the security and judiciary bodies.”

The GNA warned that the formation of a rival guard was an attempt “to lead the capital into bloody armed conflict.” On Thursday, armed groups mostly from the western city of Misrata, announced the creation of the Libyan National Guard” to continue the fight against Daesh, as well as to secure state institutions and diplomatic missions.

But they did not say whether or not it would support the GNA, which has struggled to assert its authority across Libya since taking office in the capital last year.

Local sources have said militias in the Libyan National Guard include backers of Khalifa Ghweil, leader of a self-proclaimed “Government of National Salvation” which has refused to recognize the GNA.

A GNA source has said most of the groups involved in the Libyan National Guard had participated in a seven-month battle to retake the city of Sirte from Daesh last year.

Misrata’s militias, which control much of western Libya, led the battle to retake the former Daesh bastion but say the GNA stopped backing them after Sirte fell in December.

On Friday, the US said it had noted with “serious concern reports that numerous tactical vehicles from an organization claiming to be the Libyan National Guard have entered Tripoli.”

Libya has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 toppling of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with rival militias and administrations vying for control of the oil-rich country.
A rival authority based in the country’s far east has also refused to recognize the GNA since it started working in Tripoli in March last year.

February 13, 2017
Thousands evacuated in California as dam might collapse

{Government issues emergency over “imminent” collapse of Oroville Dam’s spillway as thousands flee from their homes.}

At least 130,000 people living below the tallest dam in the United States have been asked to evacuate as a spillway appeared in danger of imminent collapse.

The California Department of Water Resources said on Facebook at about 00:30 GMT on Monday that the spillway of California’s Oroville Dam was “predicted to fail within the next hour”.

While it was still standing nearly three hours later, the Water Resources department said crews would use helicopters to drop rocks to fill a gouge in the spillway.

Authorities were also releasing water to lower the lake’s level.

Officials said the cities of Oroville, Gridley, Live Oak, Marysville, Wheat land, Yuba City, Plumas Lake, and Olivehurst were all under evacuation orders.

Aerial video shows strain on California’s Oroville Dam’s backup spillway hours before thousands ordered to evacuate.

Meanwhile, the Butte County sheriff said in a statement posted on social media: “Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered, This is NOT A Drill.”

Doug Carlson, a spokesman for the Department of Water Resources, said water levels on Friday were over 273 metres, less than 2 metres from the top.

Evacuation centers were set up at a fairgrounds in Chico, California, about 20 miles northwest of Oroville, but roads leading out of the area were jammed as residents sought to drive out of the flood zone.

The dam, which serves mainly for water supply, hydroelectricity generation and flood control, activated its emergency spillway after weeks of heavy rain caused the reservoir to rise above its capacity.

At 230 metres high, the structure, built between 1962 and 1968, is the tallest dam in the US, besting the famed Hoover Dam by more than 12 metres.

Source:Al Jazeera

February 13, 2017
Erdogan: Turkish army will press on to ISIL-held Raqqa

{President Erdogan says Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria aims to cleanse a 5,000sq km ‘safe zone’.}

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the final goal of a Turkish incursion into northern Syria is to clear a 5,000sq-km “safe zone”, vowing to press on towards ISIL’s self-declared capital in the country, Raqqa.

Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies had entered the centre of the ISIL bastion Al Bab, Erdogan said on Sunday, adding that its capture was just a “matter of time”.

“After Al Bab is about to be over, the period following that will be Manbij and Raqqa,” Erdogan told journalists before his departure on an official visit to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“We shared our thoughts with the new US administration and CIA and we will follow the developments in line with our stance,” he added.

“The ultimate goal is to establish a safe zone by cleansing a 4,000 to 5,000sq km area from the terrorists.”

ISIL, which stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and is also known as ISIS, captured Raqqa in northern Syria in March 2013.

Erdogan said ISIL fighters had begun deserting Al Bab, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish troops have yet to enter the town’s centre.

The UK-based war monitor, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said Turkish forces had advanced into Al Bab from the west in recent days, and now controlled around 10 percent of the town and all of its western suburbs.

The Turkish army launched a campaign inside Syria on August 24, codenamed Euphrates Shield, to clean its border from ISIL fighters and stop the advance of Kurdish militia, seen by Turkey as a “terrorist” hostile force.

Erdogan said Turkish forces had no intention of staying in Syria once the area had been cleared of both ISIL and Kurdish YPG fighters.

The Turkish-backed opposition forces advancing from the north are racing to seize Al Bab, ISIL’s last stronghold in the northern province of Aleppo. before Syrian government forces reach the town from the south.

The Turkish-backed forces are still a long way from Raqqa, which is largely surrounded by US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces.

Last week, the Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces launched a new phase in its Raqqa offensive, aiming to capture towns and villages east of the city. The US-led coalition has targeted several bridges across the Euphrates River in support of the operation.

“The potential for further conflict is clear to see, unless some sort of solution has been agreed between Turkey, the US, Russia and the Kurds,” Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Gaziantep, on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border, said.

Simmons said a border buffer zone, safe areas and no-fly zones had all been proposed by Turkey in the past, but rejected by the administration of ex-US President Barack Obama.

“Now, have things changed? Has US President Donald Trump agreed to something? It isn’t clear at this stage, but Erdogan is insisting that he suggested cities being built in this safe area and refugees coming back from Turkey to be settled in them,” Simmons said.

The clashes in Al Bab have proved the toughest so far for Turkey’s army, with soldier fatalities increasing.

One Turkish soldier was killed and three others wounded in clashes with fighters on Sunday, the private Dogan news agency reported, citing military sources.

The latest casualty raised the number of Turkish troops killed in the Syria offensive to 67.

The three injured troops were evacuated from Al Bab and taken to hospitals in Turkey’s Kilis and Gaziantep provinces near the Syrian border, Dogan reported.

Source:Al Jazeera

February 13, 2017
Mexico: Massive anti-Trump rallies staged across nation

{Marches get under way in some 20 cities across country to protest US President Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric.}

Mexicans have held massive protests against US President Donald Trump, hitting back at his anti-Mexican rhetoric and vows to make Mexico pay for a “big, beautiful” border wall between the two countries.

Marches got under way on Sunday in some 20 cities across the country, including the capital, Mexico City, where thousands of people flooded a central avenue dressed in white and waving the red, white and green of the Mexican flag.

Al Jazeera’s John Holman, reporting from Mexico City, said this was the first mass protest against Trump in the country.

“It really marks the point in which the promises of his campaign – building a border wall that he expects Mexico to pay for, import tariffs of Mexican goods heading to the US and mass deportation of Mexican migrants – are starting to look like they could be a reality under President Donald Trump,” he said.

“That’s really what the people here have gathered to denounce,” Holman said.

When asked why she had decided to take part in the march, a protester told Al Jazeera: “Putting it in words, there’s this hate that he seems to have for us, when we’ve never done anything to the United States.”

Dozens of universities, business associations and civic organisations backed the protest.

“It is time we citizens combine forces and unite our voices to show our indignation and rejection of President Trump, while contributing to the search for concrete solutions,” said the coalition behind the marches.

US-Mexican relations have plunged to their lowest point in decades since Trump took office on January 20.

Trump, who launched his presidential campaign calling Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists”, has infuriated the US’ southern neighbour.

He also announced plans to stop illegal immigration by building a wall on the border and make Mexico pay for it.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled a January 31 trip to Washington over Trump’s insistence that Mexico pay for the wall.

Trump has also wrought havoc on the Mexican economy with his threats to terminate the country’s trade relationship with the US, blaming Mexico for the loss of jobs in the country.

The Mexican peso has taken a beating nearly every time Trump insisted on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), attacked carmakers and other companies that manufacture in Mexico, or vowed to slap steep tariffs on Mexican-made goods.

‘Mexico united will never be defeated’: Mexicans call for unity against Trump. No one’s been able to unite Mexico this way @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/cMp7iznDrD

Mexico sends 80 percent of its exports to the US, nearly $300bn in goods in 2015.

The confrontation has stoked patriotic pride in Mexico, where US companies like Starbucks, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are the targets of boycott campaigns and many people have taken to putting the Mexican flag in their profile pictures on social media.

Source:Al Jazeera

February 13, 2017
Tens of thousands defy cold to protest for 13th day

{At least 60,000 gather in Bucharest to call for the government’s resignation for trying to curb anti-corruption fight.}

Tens of thousands of Romanians have braved freezing temperatures to protest for a 13th consecutive day, demanding the resignation of the government for trying to curb the fight against corruption.

At least 60,000 people on Sunday gathered in Victory Square in the capital, Bucharest, according to local media estimations.

Shouting “resign, resign”, the protesters also formed a huge human Romanian flag in front of the government building, defying temperatures as low as -7 degrees Celsius.

There were also protests in the cities of Cluj, Sibiu, Iasi, and Timisoara, as well as a counter-demonstration in Bucharest outside the presidential palace.

{{Public anger}}

The mass protests started last month when the centre-left government passed an emergency decree that would have watered down laws that punish official corruption.

Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu withdrew the decree after the biggest street protests since communism ended in 1989.

The emergency decree decriminalised criminal punishments for conflict of interest, work negligence and abuse of power cases in which the financial damage is valued at less than $48,000.

Justice Minister Florin Lordache resigned last week over widespread public anger.

Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from the demonstration in Victory Square, said: “It is quite a big protest, against the expectations of many people who were fearing that the cold weather, and the fact that the government had rescinded this decree that really sparked all this popular anger, would have made many people stay at home.”

Source:Al Jazeera

February 13, 2017
Swiss voters accept new citizenship rules

{Voters decide to make it easier for third-generation immigrants to become citizens, according to official results.}

Swiss voters have approved a measure to make it easier for third-generation immigrants to become citizens, in a defeat for right-wing nationalists who carried out an anti-Islam campaign in the run-up to the vote.

According to final official results, the “Yes” camp claimed 60 percent support and a victory in 19 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, meeting the two criteria needed for a win.

The government, as well as most politicians and political parties, supported the proposal that would allow the grandchildren of immigrants to skip several steps in the lengthy process.

However, the far-right nationalist Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which controls the highest number of seats in the National Council, campaigned for “No” putting the issues of Islam and national identity at the centre of the debate.

Reacting to the defeat, Jean-Luc Addor, SVP member of parliament, said his side was “alone against everyone in this campaign”.

“The problem of Islam, I’m afraid, it will catch up with us in a few years,” he told RTS television.

Nearly 60 percent of the eligible third-generation immigrants are Italians, followed by those with origins in the Balkans and Turkish nationals.

{{Poster controversy}}

As a part of the “No” campaign, a widely distributed poster showed a woman with shadowed eyes staring out from a black face veil with a tagline urging voters to reject “uncontrolled citizenship”.

The SVP is not officially responsible for the poster.

It was commissioned by the Committee Against Facilitated Citizenship, which has several SVP members, including some in leadership positions.

The co-chairperson of that committee and an SVP politician, Jean-Luc Addor, urged people to vote “No” on grounds that in the coming years most third-generation immigrants will not be of European origin.

“In one or two generations, who will these third-generation foreigners be?” he wrote in an opinion piece on the SVP website.

“They will be born of the Arab Spring, they will be from sub-Saharan Africa, the Horn of Africa, Syria or Afghanistan,” said Addor, who has defended the niqab poster.

Critics of the inflammatory campaign image have denounced it as a brazen appeal to those worried about more Muslims becoming Swiss.

The SVP in 2009 successfully persuaded Swiss voters to approve a ban on new mosque minaret construction, while religiously charged messages have been a part of multiple referendums on immigration since.

Source:Al Jazeera

February 13, 2017
Pro-Buhari rallies to hold in four cities

{A coalition of pro-Buhari organisations on the platform of “Citizens Support for Good Governance in Nigeria” is mobilising for a week-long mass rallies in four cities in support of President Muhammadu Buhari.}

The rallies, which are expected to hold between tomorrow and Friday in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna and Kano, are tagged: “I Support President Buhari”.

The convener, Comrade Moses Abdullahi, in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said the rallies are in response to the anti-Buhari rallies, which took place in Lagos and Abuja last week.

The statement added: “As a people, we witnessed the systemic looting and raping of our collective resources and consciousness by a few, with far-reaching psychological damages, which has rendered us bitter, bruised, battered and hopeless.

“Nigeria today is a nation undergoing rebirth, a people seeking a new path to higher attainment, a diverse community, where a new awakening of self-discovery can bring about a better economy for us all.”

“We have a leader, who we know is different. We know he will not steal our resources. We know he will not sleep until things are made right for us and our children. We know he means well. What then must we do to help get it right faster?

“We must support President Muhammadu Buhari because with him, it can only get better. Our economy today is in chaos not because of him, but because of the lies and deceit of 16 years he inherited. PMB is not out for quick fix measures, he is out to make sure the foundation of this change is well-laid such that even in the next 100 years, we will never suffer what we have gone through before today. The pains and agony of today are temporary.

“If we rally round PMB and support him, we will ensure the enemies of our progress and agents of corruption (who only want thing to continue like before) will be shamed and exposed.”

Source:The Nation

February 13, 2017
Industry players urged to tap into rich DRC

{Players in the agricultural implements, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and engineering services sectors should tap into the rich Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) market to boost their sales in the face of a contracting economy, the country’s export promotions body has said.}

Many companies in Zimbabwe are reeling from severe effects of the prevailing liquidity crunch and failing to break even.

However, ZimTrade said there was huge opportunity for companies in the country to boost their sales by tapping into the DRC market.

The body conducted a market survey in the DRC last year in October and identified opportunities for Zimbabwean businesses in the agricultural implements and inputs, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and engineering services sectors.

To help local companies access the market, ZimTrade said it will disseminate findings on the DRC market survey on February 23 to 24, 2017 in Harare and Bulawayo, respectively.

The market survey gathered information on possible export products and services to consider specifically for the Lubumbashi market in the DRC, it said.

“In addition, the survey established other market related intelligence, which will enhance opportunities for Zimbabwean products and services to penetrate the Lubumbashi market,” ZimTrade said.

“There is, therefore, huge potential for Zimbabwe to tap into this lucrative market and subsequently increase its export market”.

Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the DRC, serves as a key commercial and national industrial centre, as well as the mining capital of the DRC. Lubumbashi’s proximity to Zimbabwe makes it easier and cheaper for local businesses to export goods and transport them either via air or road, the body noted.

In 2015, DRC’s import bill stood at $5,7 billion, with Zimbabwe contributing only $3,7 million (0,06%). Trade map revealed that 99,8% of Zimbabwe’s exports to the DRC consisted mainly of mineral oils and fuels, with the remaining going towards fish and crustaceans, hence the need to diversify the export product range.

China, the largest supplier, accounts for 25% of the total import bill, while South Africa is the second largest exporter, with a 16% market share.

Between 2010 and 2015, the DRC recorded an annual average economic growth rate of 7,7%, which exceeds the sub-Saharan Africa average.

According to the World Bank report released in April 2016, the DRC economy is expected to continue growing at an estimated rate of 8%, owing to increased investment and growth in the extractive industries, as well as the contributions of public works and the tertiary sector.

Source:News Day

February 13, 2017
…Deal in drugs at your own peril, Magufuli warns

{Tanzanians arrested, prosecuted, imprisoned or condemned to death outside the country over drug dealings should never expect assistance from the government, President John Magufuli warned yesterday.}

“They deserve the sentences and my government will not in any way try to get them out… the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Co-operation and our envoys abroad should not deal with such people,” Dr Magufuli directed in Dar es Salaam.

He added; “If there are Tanzanians with life or capital sentences in foreign countries, they should be left to serve their sentences, the government will not in any way negotiate for their release.

” Dr Magufuli was speaking at the State House shortly after swearing-in the Commissioner General of Drug Control and Enforcement Authority (DCEA) Rogers Sianga, Commissioner General of the Immigration Department Anna Makakala and three ambassadors.

The envoys include John Sokoine and Grace Mgavano who have been posted to Belgium and Uganda respectively as well as Omar Yussuf Mzee who has been assigned to Algeria.

“I am not fond of mincing words, criminals should be left to pay for their deeds…I appeal to the international community to support us in this war,” he remarked, hinting that currently there are over 1,000 Tanzanians languishing in prisons outside the country, charged with drug-related cases.

Last week, a 41-year old Tanzanian lady Pamela David Kiritta was among two people who were arrested in India with four kilogrammes of ‘fine quality Colombian cocaine,’ with a street value of 500,000 US dollars (about 11bn/-).

She was arrested by India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) alongside a Zambian, Thelma Mkandawire (38) at a hotel in Mahipalpur. Reports further indicate that the NCB officials are still searching for a South African to whom the women were supposed to deliver the consignment.

Officials in India said the Tanzanian suspect told interrogators that she had been staying at an apartment in Vasant Kunj since January this year and was working on behalf of the South African.

She is said to have visited India nine times since 2006 as well countries like South Africa, Ecuador and Kenya. NCB officials say the Tanzanian woman was a conduit between the carrier and suppliers in New Delhi. She kept the cocaine in Delhi and supplied it as per the demand from local consumers.

Meanwhile, President Magufuli tasked the newly swornin Commissioner General of the Immigration Department, Dr Makakala, to overhaul the department to get rid of what he described as ‘rot’ within the sensitive institution.

The president ordered an immediate stoppage on the issuance of travelling documents to foreigners and at the same time ensuring that the department generates revenues to the state coffers.

President Magufuli referred to the Bohra community religious congregation in Dar es Salaam that attracted some 32,000 delegates from all over the world last year but revenues collected from the visitors have not been disclosed so far.

Source:Daily News

February 13, 2017
Uganda:NDA to crack down on traders operating as pharmacists

{The National Drug Authority (NDA) has threatened to close down pharmacies across the country, that are mainly operated by traders without full time pharmacists, to ensure safe and effective medication use. }

In his acceptance speech at the 6th NDA board inaugural ceremony, Dr Medard Bitekyerezo, the newly appointed NDA chairman, outlined professionalism in the drug industry, as one of the five important aspects that he hopes to put more emphasis on.
‘Promotion of licensing of competent pharmacies that are regularly physically supervised by qualified pharmacists but not mere traders,” DR Bitekyerezo told the newly appointed board members.

He added that: “Because traders have money, they have decided to use qualified pharmacists’ certificates to run their pharmacies without the pharmacists regularly and physically supervising the pharmacies.”

The other aspects, he said he would promote the importation of highly efficacious drugs, Strengthening NDA capacity to detect and minimize counterfeit drugs, vigilance in drug inspection and addressing the challenge of tick resistance in the veterinary section.

In close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Dr Bitekyerezo also promised to lobby the first tracking enactment of National Food and Medicine Authority Bill 2017 into law.

The former Mbarara Municipality Member of Parliament and chair of the health committee in the 9th parliament, takes over the mantle from Dr. Sam Zaramba who has been the authority board chairman.

Although NDA is mandated to inspect the quality of both Human and veterinary drugs imported into the country, the public has on many occasions complained about the fake drugs.

In October last year, the agency recalled six types of drugs and vaccines from the market after investigations indicated that they were not safe for public use.

The Health Minister, Dr Ruth Aceng who officiated the ceremony, pledged that the National Food and Medicine Authority Bill 2017 will by June this year have been put into law so as to regulate counterfeit drugs.

{{The 6th 19 member board includes;}}

1. Dr. Bitekyerezo K. Medard – Chairman
2. Brig. (Dr) Ambrose K. Musinguzi – Chief of Medical Services, Ministry of Defense
3. Mr. Agaba Raymond – Commissioner Internal Trade, Min. of Trade, Industry & Cooperatives

4. Dr. Mbabali Muhammad – Uganda Dental Association
5. Dr. Sekagya Yahaya Hills – Uganda Herbalists
6. Dr. Pakoyo Kamba Fadhiru – School of Pharmacy
7. Dr. Namaala Hanifa Sengendo – Public Representative
8. Mr. Kimbowa Sembatya Yusuf – Public Representative
9. Dr. Christine Ondoa – Uganda AIDS Commission
10. Dr. Bildard Baguma – Joint Medical Store
11. Dr. Sylvia Baluka Angubua – Uganda Veterinary Association
12. Dr. Edward Kasirye Bainda – Uganda Medical Association
13. Mr. Kamabare Moses – National Medical Stores
14. Dr. Baterana B. Byarugaba – Mulago National Referral Hospital
15. Prof. Anthony Kabanza Mbonye – Director General Health Services, Ministry of Health
16. Mr. Morris Seru – Commissioner Health Services (Pharmacy) Ministry of Health
17. Dr. Grace Nambatya Kyeyune – Natural Chemotherapeutic Research Laboratory
18. Ms. Grace Akullo – Criminal Investigation Department
19. Dr. Rose Ademun Okurut – Commissioner of Veterinary Services, MAAIF

Source:Daily Monitor

February 13, 2017