Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

Louvre attack: Egyptian man, 29, believed to be assailant

{French authorities say they believe the man who tried to attack the Louvre museum in the capital Paris on Friday was a 29-year-old Egyptian man.}

Prosecutor Francois Molins said he is thought to have travelled to Paris from Dubai on a tourist visa last month.

Police are trying to establish if the man acted alone or under instructions, he added.

The machete-wielding attacker was critically injured after he was shot by French soldiers in a bid to stop him.

One of the soldiers received minor injuries when the man tried to enter the museum.

At the time of the incident, hundreds of visitors were inside the Louvre, which is home to numerous celebrated art works, including the Mona Lisa.

President Francois Hollande praised the soldiers’ actions, saying “this operation prevented an attack whose terrorist nature leaves little doubt”.

He told reporters at an EU summit in Malta on Friday that he expected the suspect to be questioned “when it is possible to do so”.

Prosecutor Molins said the Egyptian man had no identity papers but mobile phone data showed he had arrived in Paris on 26 January after acquiring a one-month tourist visa in Dubai.

However, he cautioned, the authorities have not yet formally established the suspect’s identity.

Egyptian security sources though say they have identified him, Reuters news agency reports.

He was believed to have been staying in the capital’s 8th district (arrondissement) which was searched in a police raid earlier on Friday.

There, he bought two machetes from a shop selling guns.

According to the prosecutor, the attacker, armed with the machetes, approached four soldiers guarding the entrance to crowded shops beneath the Louvre just before 10:00 local time (09:00 GMT).

When the soldiers challenged him, he attacked two of them while shouting in Arabic “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”). One of them shot him at least three times, hitting him in the stomach.

“The attacker fell to the ground, seriously wounded. He has been taken to hospital and is fighting for his life,” the prosecutor said.

He was carrying a rucksack which contained paint spray cans – but no explosives.

The guards on patrol outside the museum were just some of the thousands of troops lining the streets as part of the stepped-up response to a series of attacks in France since 2015.

Though still hugely popular, the Louvre has suffered a drop in visitor numbers amid fears of a militant attack.

A series of assaults by gunmen and suicide bombers claimed by so-called Islamic State killed 130 people in November 2015.

In January of the same year, 17 people were killed in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and linked shootings.

Last July, 86 people were killed when a lorry ploughed through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice.

Security has become a theme of the French presidential election in April, which sees far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist independent Emmanuel Macron leading the polls.

February 3, 2017
Gambia’s President Barrow scraps Jammeh’s four-day week

{The Gambia’s new president has scrapped the four-day week introduced by his predecessor Yahya Jammeh.}

In a statement Adama Barrow said that public sector employees would now have to work a half-day on Fridays too.

Four years ago, Mr Jammeh had said the country’s mainly Muslim population should use Fridays to pray, socialise and tend to fields.

However, under the new rules, the working week is actually officially shorter by three-and-a-half hours.

Official working hours are now 08:00 to 16:00 from Monday to Thursday and 08:00 to 12:30 on Friday – making 36-and-a-half hours a week.

Previously public sector employees were meant to work 40 hours a week, from 08:00 to 18:00, Monday to Thursday.

BBC Africa’s Umaru Fofana says the four-day week had its critics, but under the former government, publicly expressing criticism of official policy could lead to severe punishment.

“Now we have rejoined the civilised world,” Allieu Ceesay, a trader in Serekunda, The Gambia’s largest town, told our correspondent by phone.

The new directive comes less than two weeks since Mr Jammeh went into exile in Equatorial Guinea – and within a week of President Barrow’s return from Senegal to assume power.

Mr Jammeh had initially accepted defeat in elections in December, but then tried to have the results annulled.

Mr Barrow went to Senegal for his safety as the regional bloc Ecowas intervened to end the crisis.

Regional troops were deployed to The Gambia when Mr Jammeh’s term of office officially ended last month and his exit was negotiated by West African leaders.

February 3, 2017
EU leaders ink deal to stem refugee flow from Libya

{Aids groups warn against curbing irregular migration before providing safe passage to those fleeing war and persecution.}

European Union leaders have agreed on a controversial plan to help stem the flow of African migrants from Libya this spring.

At a summit in Malta, the bloc’s leaders on Friday decided to give 200m euro ($215m) to Libya’s fragile government to step up efforts to stop migrant boats in the country’s territorial waters.

Under the plan, the EU will also provide support for the setting up of “safe” refugee camps in Libya and the voluntary repatriation for refugees willing to return to their countries of origin.

It will also boost training and equipment to Libya’s struggling coastguard and get more involved with neighbouring nations, including Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, to contain the flows.

EU launches $2bn emergency fund to tackle refugee crisis
Aid groups, however, accused the EU, whose leaders are under popular pressure to be seen to be controlling immigration, of abandoning humanitarian values and misrepresenting conditions in Libya, where the UN-backed government of Fayez Seraj has only a shaky and partial hold on the country.

“Libya is not a safe place and blocking people in the country or returning them to Libya makes a mockery of the EU’s so-called fundamental values of human dignity and rule of law,” said Medecins Sans Frontieres, which works in camps there.

Others warned the deal could result in women and children being returned to inhumane conditions and left vulnerable to rape, beatings and forced labour as well as forcible repatriation to uncertain fates in their home countries.

“Sending children back to a country many have described as a living hell is not a solution,” said Ester Asin of British charity Save the Children, ahead of the approval of the widely-trailed new EU strategy.

Yves Pascouau, director of migration and mobility policies at the European Policy Centre, told Al Jazeera, that talk of “stemming” refugee flows and breaking the business models of people smugglers was futile.

“We all know that if we really want to break this business model, we also need to provide legal ways to enter the EU, which [do not exist] today,” he said.

“There is only one focus [at the EU level] and that’s the security-oriented dimension; the idea that we’re going to stop arrivals from Turkey first and then from Libya.”

The chaos in Libya has thwarted any hope of a quick fix in the way that a controversial EU deal with Turkey a year ago led to a virtual halt to a migrant route to Germany via Greece along which a million asylum-seekers travelled in 2015.

The agreement on Friday came a day after Seraj signed a deal with Italy, which offered 200 million euros ($215 million) of its own. Rome fears new arrivals this spring, following a record 181,000 irregular immigrants last year, would put pressure on services and risk a popular backlash – especially since its EU neighbours are no longer letting most migrants travel north out of Italy.

Many EU governments are sceptical that the latest measures can have much effect on migration. One senior diplomat called it a “long shot”. Several said the declaration was intended partly to appease Italian demands that the EU be seen to be acting.

{{Deportation plans}}

In the longer run, analysts says European leaders are placing hopes in using their aid muscle in Africa to reduce incentives for people to leave, while giving African governments reasons to take back citizens who fail to win asylum in Europe.

Deporting more of those who reach Italy is part of a wider plan to send signals to Africans not to risk the Sahara and Mediterranean in the vain hope of a better life.

At Agadez in Niger, numbers gathering to cross the Sahara have plunged in recent months, which some EU officials think may indicate that strategy of deterrence is working. However, people smugglers may just have altered routes.

British Prime Minister Theresa May attended despite her plan to start negotiations by next month to take the UK out of the EU – a reminder, British officials said, that she wanted to keep cooperating with European neighbours after Brexit.

May also had a chance to brief peers on her visit last week to US President Donald Trump, whose backing for Brexit, doubts on free trade, barring of refugees and warmth toward Russia have all raised alarm in Europe.

Some European leaders disapprove of May’s rush to embrace Trump, although some, notably in the east, have endorsed his tough line against Muslim immigration.

French President Francois Hollande said European governments should stick together, not seek special favours from Washington.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “Europe has its fate in its own hands … The clearer we are about how we define our role in the world, the better we can also take care of our Transatlantic relations.”

The European leaders will turn their attention after May leaves later in the day to how to shore up popular support for the EU. They will hash out ideas for a declaration on the bloc’s future when they mark its 60th anniversary in Rome in March.

February 3, 2017
Angola’s dos Santos confirms plan to step down

{President says he will not run in August vote after decades in power, but will retain control of powerful ruling party.}

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Africa’s second-longest serving leader, has confirmed he will not run in this year’s presidential election, calling an end to 38 years as head of state, but he will retain control of the powerful ruling party.

Dos Santos, aged 74, said in March last year he would not run in elections due in August 2017 but opponents remained suspicious given he had reneged on similar pledges during in the past.

The ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) approved 62-year-old Defence Minister Joao Lourenco as its presidential candidate at a meeting on December 2, dos Santos said in a televised speech on Friday.

Dos Santos will remain president of the MPLA, retaining sweeping powers that include choosing parliamentary candidates and appointing top posts in the army and police.

Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa, said dos Santos will remain as an influential figure.

“He will stay on as the leader of the governing party, which is expected to win the election. That means he has an enormous amount of say not only on who his anointed successor – who is a close ally of his – will be,” but also on other key government officials, she said.

Dos Santos has held tight control of Angola, where he has overseen an oil-backed economic boom and the reconstruction of infrastructure devastated by a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.

“The real news is dos Santos hanging on,” Gary van Staden, political analyst at NKC African Economics, told the Reuters news agency.

“He is going to stay in a very powerful position in the party, which means he is going to stay in control and the president will defer to him.”

Dos Santos dynasty

Despite its oil wealth, most of Angola’s 22 million people live in poverty.

The country is in sub-Saharan Africa’s third largest economy but a collapse in oil prices has triggered a full-scale national economic crisis since 2013.

Critics accuse dos Santos of mismanaging Angola’s oil wealth, and making an elite, mainly his family and political allies, vastly rich in a country ranked amongst the world’s most corrupt.

His daughter, Isabel dos Santos was appointed last year as head of the state oil company Sonangol, while his son, Jose Filomeno, is chairman of Angola’s sovereign wealth fund.

“He’s pursuing a legacy plan with family members retaining control of key financial institutions,” Darias Jonker, Africa Director at Eurasia Group, told Reuters.

“We see signs that he plans to retain some power behind the throne.”

The MPLA won parliamentary majorities in the three elections since the end of the war.

Lourenco, a former soldier and deputy president of the MPLA, is also a veteran of the indepedence struggle, Lourenco studied history in the Soviet Union from 1978 to 1982 before starting a long career in politics.

“Lourenço has proven himself as competent technocrat without major scandals in his past and he’s probably the best selection the party could have made,” Jonker said.

February 3, 2017
M23 leader escapes from UPDF base

{The army yesterday said the military chief of the Congolese rebels of M23 has disappeared from his secret base in Kampala where he had been guarded by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).}

Brig Richard Karemire, the army spokesperson told Daily Monitor that Brig Sultan Makenga disappeared on January 14.

“We don’t have him. He went missing,” Brig Karemire said.

However he did not explain how the rebel leader who had been under UPDF guard escaped from them.

He said the UPDF guards were meant to protect him from harm, but not “denying him freedom of movement”.

This explanation is surprising as it does not answer how the UPDF was protecting Makenga from harm if they could not account for his movements to the extent that he even disappeared without the knowledge of those guarding him.

The Congolese army on Tuesday said an armed group suspected to be M23 had entered DR Congo and captured four crew members of a crashed military helicopter in the eastern part of the country.

The M23 rebels have been living in Bihanga army barracks in Ibanda District after suffering defeat by the Congolese and UN troops in 2013.

However their leader Makenga was relocated to a secret place in Kampala where he had been under UPDF control until January 14 when he escaped from the “protection ring.”

General Leon Mushale, the Congolese operational commander in North Kivu Province, told journalists in Goma on Tuesday that the crew members had been handed over to Makenga who is said to have escaped from Uganda back to DR Congo.

The return of the former M23 combatants may see resurgence of fighting in the eastern DR Congo which had displaced thousands of people.

Congolese opposition politicians have accused the government of exaggerating the revival of M23 rebel group in order to deflect attention from President Joseph Kabila, who remains in power after his official tenure elapsed.

Sources say there is a rift within M23 and one group has gone to DR Congo.

{{Statement}}

Two weeks ago, Uganda government issued a statement, saying that M23 rebels who had been cantoned at Bihanga Military Training School had been quietly escaping.

February 3, 2017
Experts blame meagre funds allocation for sorry state of schools

{The sorry state of public schools across the country can be revealed today.

A survey conducted by the Saturday Nation presents a picture of decay, disuse and neglect in the schools.}

Pupils learn under difficult conditions while teachers struggle to create order where chaos reigns.

From Busia in the west to Kilifi at the Coast and Mandera in the North, the picture of infrastructure in public schools is shocking.

In a week long survey, we established a pervading sense of decay.

In many areas it is a case of absence of infrastructure as children sit on the floor, or stones and logs.

Open sewers, dumpsites in schools, crumbling ceilings, cracked walls and potholed floors, characterise the conditions under which many children in public schools learn.

In one case at Muthurwa Primary School in Nairobi, used nylon bags, diapers and other refuse litter a section of the playground while at Roysambu Primary School in Nairobi, street children are self-styled guards.

Puddles of a mixture of urine and water are what welcome one to a neighbouring school further down the road.

In Witu Division of Lamu County, pupils in five public primary schools learn while sitting on the floor and some on rocks.

{{NO ACTION TAKEN}}

For Kakathe, Maisha Masha, Maleli, Katsaka Kairu and Moa primary schools, pupils sit on the floor and place books on their laps when they are writing. They have no desks.

Kakathe Primary School Headteacher Juma Bakari said: “Our pupils learn in mud-walled classrooms. There are no desks and stationery; the pupils sit on the floor.”

He added: “The classrooms are few and many pupils learn under trees. At times teachers combine two or more classes and teach them in one classroom. That’s confusing and also draining for the teachers.”

At the Roysambu School in Nairobi, a stinky canal drains sewage into the school compound.

An official at the school said the waste water is discharged from several neighbouring buildings.

The Nation team saw a series of pipes directed into the canal leading into the school compound.

It was lunch time and pupils sat on smelly mounds of soil under the trees as they ate their lunch in the horrifying sight.

Discarded medicines, broken glass, razors and other dangerous elements are strewn all over the compound.

“When it is raining, the sewage covers almost half of the playground,” explained an official who refused to give his name for fear of reprisal from bosses at the Nairobi County Government.

She said many officials including those from National Environment Management Authority (Nema) and an engineer from the county government had visited the school and pledged action, but nothing had been done.

At Mathare North Primary School, a mixture of pungent smell assails the nostrils.

The school is surrounded by a dumpsite on one side, while it is fenced in by a major drainage tunnel, where the pupils stop over to play after classes.

At the school, in a detached toilet, girls elbow each other to drink from a tap.

This particular toilet is cleaner than the blocks we visited, but they are an eyesore.

{{FLOODING}}

There is no water to flush the toilets in most of the schools.

And though some of the schools have made effort to put water tanks, such cases are few and far apart.

At Muthurwa Primary School, the foul mixture oozes out into the compound below where pupils play happily.

In these public schools children are trying to learn while breathing in dusty crowded classroom.

The water in the swimming pools at two schools we visited that have the facility is green.

It is blooming with algae and is unsafe to swim in and may be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects.

Although vacated, a pupil at Muthaiga Primary confessed that though they had not gone swimming this week, the bigger boys especially in Standard Seven and Eight sneak in through the fence and swim in the water.

At Kimathi Primary School, a pool attendant told us mischievously the pool water is green “because of the rain from the other day”.

Security in some of the schools like Muthurwa and Mathare North has been left to chance.

The schools do not have proper fences so they are unsecure and pose serious threats to children’s safety.

When we visited Muthurwa Primary School, the compound was flooded due to poor drainage.

Getting to the classrooms and headteacher’s office was a nightmare.

Sometimes, we were told, the flooding is worse, destroying books, desks and the classroom floors.

In a school where five pupils share one book, losing them to floods amounts to adding salt to injury.

{{NOISY ENVIRONMENT}}

The school is situated between the busy Jogoo Road, Gikomba market and Majengo slums.
Lack of a perimeter wall has led to thugs breaking in and stealing books and school items. Students also sell books to hawkers right at the gate.

At night, street families move in. They sleep in the school compound and during school holidays, they live there permanently.

“We need a perimeter wall, those hawkers outside the gate should be removed and that place cleared. And since the school is located at a somewhat low level, when it rains all the water from Muthurwa come here. They should work on the drainage,” said Mrs Jane Mwaura, the headteacher.

She added that when something is happening in the market, they can hear all of it.

During campaign periods like now, the distractions are too much.

In the other side of the city, Kibera slums, we visited Kibera Junior School, which has no field for games.

The neighbouring Olympic Primary School has 4,035 pupils with almost all classrooms catering for 100 pupils each.

Mrs Nyakundi Josephine, the deputy headteacher, said the school is congested. It needs more classes, more furniture and a computer lab.

“We also need more teachers to handle the large numbers; currently, we have only 42. We also need more toilets,” she said.

Confronted with this picture on Friday, Education PS, Dr Belio Kipsang, said the government has a continuous fund for improvement of primary and secondary schools.

Last year, he said, the ministry allocated Sh700 million for school infrastructure and expected that should have helped schools to put up decent classrooms and ablution blocks.

The sorry situation of schools in Nairobi was aptly captured in a report of a taskforce on the improvement of performance of public primary schools in the city, which had been set by Governor Evans Kidero.

{{SCARCITY OF MONEY}}

It was presented to Dr Kidero in July 2014, but when a Saturday Nation team visited the schools this week, the situation was more or less the same.

It means, the recommendations of the taskforce have not been implemented.

The taskforce report attributes this sorry state of affairs to the cancellation of capital funding to schools that started in late 1980s.

Also, the report faults the then City Council for failing to allocate resources to schools despite collective revenues from residents.

“The schools were designed according to required standards.

“However, things went wrong from the late 1980s when not only did development of new schools stall, but maintaining of existing ones also stopped.

“The schools quickly degenerated into a state of disrepair and decrepitude that continues to this today,” reads part of the report.

Education experts decried the meagre allocations for school repairs, maintenance and improvements under the Free Primary Education programme, currently set at Sh127 per child, which they say is inadequate to maintain school infrastructure.

It also not lost that part of the billions of shillings channelled to the grassroots through constituency fund that should have been used to rehabilitate and expand schools has not been used for that purpose.

Mr Wesaya Maina, the country director at Discovery Alliance, an education NGO, said the sorry state of the public school infrastructure is also an indictment of the Ministry of Education Quality Assurance and Standards Division, which he said had all but collapsed.

“While we can argue over the availability or otherwise of infrastructure funds, there is clearly no reason why schools are not inspected regularly,” said Mr Maina.

February 3, 2017
RNP, local artists partner in crime prevention

{Rwanda National Police (RNP) and local artists organized under their forum – Anti-crime Ambassadors – have signed a memorandum of understanding to partner in various activities aimed at promoting public safety and support government development programmes.}

The agreement was signed yesterday between Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Celestin Twahirwa, commissioner for Community Policing in RNP, and Ally Hussein Muganga, the coordinator of the forum.

The signing event held at the RNP General Headquarters in Kacyiru was presided over by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Emmanuel K. Gasana.

Present was also Fred Mufuruki, the Director General of Territorial Administration and Governance in the Ministry of Local Government, and heads of various RNP departments, among others.

The anti-crime ambassadors’ forum with Member of Parliament Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi as its patron includes musicians, comedians, producers, journalists, movie actors and gospel artists, among others.

Under the formalized partnership, both parties committed to work together in various policing fields including crime prevention, raising awareness against drug-related crimes, human trafficking, radicalization, gender based violence and child abuse.

Other areas of partnership include promoting community policing initiatives of real time information on ant criminal activities, neighbourhood watch, environmental protection; protection and promotion of the rights of vulnerable groups, and active involvement in government development programmes.

IGP Gasana noted that Rwanda’s safety and security reels on such proactive partnership, which empowers every Rwandans and eases flow of information as a basis for quick response and crime prevention.

“Every generation has a mission… let’s do away with generation gaps which leads to wasted generation that falls prey or engages in abusing drugs, human trafficking,” IGP Gasana said.

“Carry the pride of moving towards sustainable security and development. You, therefore, equally have a big mission in the country’s transformation. Your respective talents are powerful tools in shaping focused generations,” he added.

“It is security and development that we all stand for to guide, unite, prevent, carry the light of dignity, patriotism, and love unity with an ultimate goal of building law abiding citizens free from crimes.”

Thomas Buyombo, known by stage name as Tom Close, the spokesperson for the anti-crime ambassadors’ forum, said that the idea to engage in such partnership is informed by the good leadership of inclusiveness under President Paul Kagame.

“Each profession and talent can make massive change if put to good and constructive use. We will, therefore use our respective talents in music, comedy, as presenters on radios and TV, as producers and movie actors, to voice for safety and development,” Tom Close said.

Community policing and cooperation both locally and across borders, is one of the priorities of RNP to fight and prevent crimes, among others.

February 3, 2017
Electronic cigarettes are not harmless, study shows

{A study published in JAMA Cardiology has added to growing evidence that electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are not harmless.}

“Studies like this give further confirmation that e-cigarettes are not harmless,” said European Society of Cardiology cardiovascular prevention spokesperson Professor Joep Perk.

“If I was a minister of health I would put my efforts into public anti-smoking campaigns especially directed towards the younger generation, and not promote e-cigarettes as an alternative to smoking,” he continued. “There are studies also showing that people that start with e-cigarettes have a tendency to become persistent tobacco cigarette smokers as well.”

The 2016 European guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention flagged up the need for further research on the long-term effects of e-cigarettes.

The current study included 23 habitual e-cigarette users (used most days for at least one year) and 19 non-users between the ages of 21 and 45 years. It found that habitual e-cigarette users were more likely than non-users to have increased cardiac sympathetic activity (increased adrenaline levels in the heart) and increased oxidative stress — known mechanisms by which tobacco cigarettes increase cardiovascular risk.

The authors said the findings “have critical implications for the long-term cardiac risks associated with habitual e-cigarette use” and “mandate a re-examination of aerosolized nicotine and its metabolites.” They added that causality could not be confirmed on the basis of this single, small study, and that further research into the potential adverse cardiovascular health effects of e-cigarettes is warranted.

“Nicotine stimulates the central nervous system, so it’s not at all surprising that people continuously taking nicotine get this sympathetic stimulation,” said Professor Perk. “This then might lead to irregular heartbeat and raised blood pressure, and probably has long-term deleterious effects on the blood vessel walls.”

“It is too large a step to say that these negative effects are proof that people are going to die early because they used e-cigarettes,” he continued. “To prove this you have to put people on e-cigarettes for 10 to 15 years and see how many die early — a study that will not be done for ethical reasons. The weakness of all studies in this field is that they are observational and small, and they look at indicators of vascular wall damage rather than incidence of cardiovascular disease or death.”

Professor Perk said that, even after this study, e-cigarettes could still be used to help people stop smoking tobacco cigarettes, but they should be used with caution and other methods should preferably be tried first.

He said: “E-cigarettes are one of the tools we have in nicotine replacement therapy but as clinicians we should be cautious of putting people on large amounts of central nervous system stimulant drugs. Other smoking cessation schemes, such as chewing gum or patches, always include the decision to taper off use and eventually stop. This is not in general the case with e-cigarettes, which tend to be seen as a replacement and not a weaning off nicotine addiction. In fact they prolong the addiction.”

“This is an area where we need more knowledge,” continued Professor Perk. “The more data we collect, the more it seems that nicotine replacement strategies that taper off and ultimately end nicotine use are the way to go.”

“At the end of the day the best thing is simply to prevent people ever getting into the vicinity of nicotine,” he concluded.

February 3, 2017
Commercial motorcyclists in Rusizi told to report rogue

{Commercial motorcyclists operating in Rusizi District under their union – UCMR – have been asked to report members, who violate traffic rules and regulations, and engage in various criminal activities.}

The call was made by the Western Province Governor Alphonse Munyentwari during a meeting with about 800 motorcyclists, held on February 2 in Kamembe Sector.

The meeting was also attended by the Western Region Police Commander (RPC), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Emmanuel Karasi.

“Always remember that for you to effectively run your business is because the country is safe. You operate effectively without a hitch, so don’t be a threat to other people’s theft, either while on road or transporting illegal goods and criminals,” the Governor told the motorcyclists.

Motorcyclists are said to be some of the accomplices in transporting especially drug dealers and smugglers.

The RPC noted that the motorcyclists’ inappropriate behavior on roads continues to cause accidents and loss of lives, which is intolerable.

“One way to abide by traffic rules is to ensure that motorcyclists carry one passenger at a time, own a driver’s license, insurance, wear a helmet and a reflector jacket; avoid speeding, bad maneuvers and riding while under the influence of alcohol,” ACP Karasi said.

“In case one suspects either a colleague or a passenger of being involved in a crime, they should report to the Police immediately because ensuring safety and security is everybody’s responsibility…Your work is valuable to Rwandans and must be protected against criminality of any kind. Don’t let criminals masquerade or use motorcyclists. You should cooperate with Police to identify and arrest such individuals,” he added.

“It is important to work together for common interests in advancing a sustainably secure Rwanda. Through community policing, we can together more effectively and efficiently identify and restrain crimes such as drug abuse, and avert the fear of crime,” he said.

The head of UCMR, John Hagenimana thanked Police for reaching out to them saying that; “We have a unique working relations with police but from this meeting, we recommit to take this partnership further.”

“We, as commercial motorcyclists, have to play a primary role in crime prevention but we can only achieve that through partnership with all security agencies.”

He added that motorists make contacts with lots of people during their daily business and hence get access to a lot of information.

“Most criminals especially drug traffickers use motorcycles to transport illicit commodities including narcotic drugs. We must be more vigilant at all times and ensure that whenever we encounter such people, we immediately inform the police,” said Hagenimana

February 3, 2017
Modern parenting may hinder brain development, research suggests

{Social practices and cultural beliefs of modern life are preventing healthy brain and emotional development in children, according to an interdisciplinary body of research presented recently at a symposium at the University of Notre Dame.}

“Life outcomes for American youth are worsening, especially in comparison to 50 years ago,” says Darcia Narvaez, Notre Dame professor of psychology who specializes in moral development in children and how early life experiences can influence brain development.

“Ill-advised practices and beliefs have become commonplace in our culture, such as the use of infant formula, the isolation of infants in their own rooms or the belief that responding too quickly to a fussing baby will ‘spoil’ it,” Narvaez says.

This new research links certain early, nurturing parenting practices — the kind common in foraging hunter-gatherer societies — to specific, healthy emotional outcomes in adulthood, and has many experts rethinking some of our modern, cultural child-rearing “norms.”

“Breast-feeding infants, responsiveness to crying, almost constant touch and having multiple adult caregivers are some of the nurturing ancestral parenting practices that are shown to positively impact the developing brain, which not only shapes personality, but also helps physical health and moral development,” says Narvaez.

Studies show that responding to a baby’s needs (not letting a baby “cry it out”) has been shown to influence the development of conscience; positive touch affects stress reactivity, impulse control and empathy; free play in nature influences social capacities and aggression; and a set of supportive caregivers (beyond the mother alone) predicts IQ and ego resilience as well as empathy.

The United States has been on a downward trajectory on all of these care characteristics, according to Narvaez. Instead of being held, infants spend much more time in carriers, car seats and strollers than they did in the past. Only about 15 percent of mothers are breast-feeding at all by 12 months, extended families are broken up and free play allowed by parents has decreased dramatically since 1970.

Whether the corollary to these modern practices or the result of other forces, an epidemic of anxiety and depression among all age groups, including young children; rising rates of aggressive behavior and delinquency in young children; and decreasing empathy, the backbone of compassionate, moral behavior, among college students, are shown in research.

According to Narvaez, however, other relatives and teachers also can have a beneficial impact when a child feels safe in their presence. Also, early deficits can be made up later, she says.

“The right brain, which governs much of our self-regulation, creativity and empathy, can grow throughout life. The right brain grows though full-body experience like rough-and-tumble play, dancing or freelance artistic creation. So at any point, a parent can take up a creative activity with a child and they can grow together.”

February 3, 2017