Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{A video has emerged that allegedly shows Egyptian soldiers shooting dead unarmed detainees in the northern Sinai region, where the military is carrying out an anti-terror offensive.}

The footage, which is unverified, appears to show military officers rearranging the scene to make it seem as if a gun battle had taken place.

Soldiers are shown apparently placing weapons beside the dead bodies.

A pro-government news site has said that the 2016 video is a fabrication.

So far there has been no comment from the Egyptian military, which has previously released footage – apparently from the same incident late last year – saying it had eliminated a “dangerous terrorist cell” after a heavy exchange of gunfire.

Human rights group Amnesty International said it had analysed the footage. It showed “cold blooded killings”, which it said should be urgently investigated by the Egyptian authorities.

The footage, which emerged on Thursday, was apparently filmed with a mobile phone and has been broadcast on Mekameleen TV, a station that supports the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

It appears to show two detainees being shot at point-blank range by Egyptian soldiers.
One man is already on the ground when he is shot four times. Later, a rifle has appeared by his side.

A younger man, who appears to be unarmed, is blindfolded and briefly interrogated before apparently being shot dead.

Egypt’s army has, for years, been carrying out an offensive against Islamist militants in the northern Sinai peninsula, where an affiliate of so-called Islamic State (IS) is active.

However, Najia Bounaim, Amnesty International’s campaigns director for North Africa, said there had also been a “disturbing pattern” of apparent extrajudicial executions in the area.

The organisation is also calling for an investigation into the deaths of six men, who were allegedly killed in police custody in North Sinai in January.

Earlier this month, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi ordered military deployments across Egypt after dozens of people were killed in two blasts targeting Coptic Christians on Palm Sunday.

IS said it was behind the explosions.

Last month, 10 Egyptian soldiers were killed by two roadside bomb blasts during a raid against jihadist militants in the Sinai peninsula, according to military officials.

In February, five soldiers were reportedly killed by a roadside bomb in north Sinai.

President Sisi ordered military and police chiefs “to completely eradicate terrorism in northern Sinai and defeat any attempts to target civilians or to undermine the unity of the national fabric” in response to February’s killings.

Source:BBC

{At least 19 children have been killed in a minibus crash near the South African capital, Pretoria, emergency services and officials say.}

The children died after the vehicle burst into flames following a collision with a truck just north of the capital.

There were understood to be both primary and secondary school-aged children on board.

Panyaza Lesufi, the official responsible for education in Gauteng province, said it was a “dark day”.

The minibus collided with a truck on the single carriageway R25, between Verena in Mpumalanga and Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng, having left from Mahlenga High.

The emergency services rescued seven children before the bus burst into flames.

“It is believed the driver of minibus underestimated the speed of the truck and collided with him whilst turning,” the Gauteng Education Department said in a statement.

Police later said the bus driver was also killed in the accident, while the driver of the truck survived.

Pictures show the minibus on its side, entirely burnt out.

In a statement, emergency medical service ER24 described arriving at the scene, where firefighters were tackling the flames. A number of children had already been pulled out by “members of the community”, the statement said.

“Once the flames had been extinguished, paramedics found that approximately 13 children [were] lying trapped inside the vehicle. Unfortunately, nothing could be done for the children and they were declared dead on the scene,” the statement added.

There seems to be no end in sight to South Africa’s road carnage.

This latest tragedy comes hot on the heels of a 50% increase of road deaths from last year’s Easter period.

Authorities keep doing the same thing but expecting a different result.

In a country with one of the most advanced road networks on the African continent, clearly the problem lies elsewhere.

Drivers’ behavioural patterns need to be changed through a combination of education and stricter law enforcement regime amongst other factors.

The transport minister once said “we cannot have a policeman at every intersection. We are not a police state”.

{{Could that approach be the problem perhaps?}}

Hopefully this latest tragedy will shock South Africans, both in and outside government, into action which will ultimately bring an end to these unnecessary deaths.

The African National Congress (ANC) later said that it was “gravely saddened” by the deaths of the school pupils following the “heart-breaking accident” on Friday.
“It is a sad day for South Africa,” the statement said, adding that the ANC “extends its deepest condolences to the bereaved families”.

ER24 and the Gauteng Education Department had earlier reported that a total of 20 people had been killed, with the education department adding that two of the dead were adults.

“This is a huge loss and we’re deeply pained by the tragic news,” the education department tweeted.

South Africa has some of the deadliest roads in the world. According to the country’s Road Traffic Management Corporation, there were 13,673 deaths in the 12 months from October 2015 – which equates to more than 37 people dying every day.

Source:BBC

{Aya Hijazi, who spent nearly three years in an Egyptian prison, invited to the White House after returning to the US.}

President Donald Trump has welcomed back to the United States Aya Hijazi, an Egyptian American charity worker released from jail in Egypt.

She was released from jail on Tuesday after nearly three years of detention on human trafficking charges widely dismissed as bogus by human rights groups.

“We are very happy to have Aya back home and it’s a great honour to have her in the Oval Office, with her brother,” Trump said, declining to answer questions about her case.

Hijazi was accompanied by her brother, Basel, as she met Trump in the Oval Office.

She was acquitted by a Cairo court on Sunday along with seven others who had worked with street children.

Hijazi, 30, and her Egyptian husband established the Belady foundation to aid street children in 2013, but were arrested in 2014.

She had been in custody for 33 months in violation of Egyptian law, which states that the maximum period for pretrial detention is 24 months.

READ MORE: Trump urged to mention Egypt prisoners as he meets Sisi

US officials had raised Hijazi’s case with Egypt soon after Trump took office on January 20, aides said.

Trump said he struck “no deal” for her release, but that he had raised the issue as he hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the White House at the beginning of this month.

“He was here, I said I really would appreciate it if you could look into this and let her out,” Trump told The Associated Press. “I asked the government to let her out.”

He made no public mention of her case at the time, and activists criticised the administration for glossing over Egypt’s poor human rights record while focusing on trade and military cooperation.

Pressed on how Trump managed to gain her release when President Barack Obama had not, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he would leave it to others “to look at the different strategies to see why the president was successful” and Obama was not.

Since toppling President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013, Sisi’s government has cracked down on the opposition, killing hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and jailing thousands. Liberal and secular activists have also been arrested.

Source:Al Jazeera

{A painting by a South African artist showing President Jacob Zuma raping the late Nelson Mandela has caused outrage in the country, with the ruling party Friday describing it as “grotesque”.}

The piece by controversial artist Ayanda Mabulu shows Zuma seated on a red chair, penetrating a crying Mandela.

Both men have their legs wide apart, exposing their genitals.

The African National Congress and the Nelson Mandela Foundation have condemned the colourful artwork titled: “The economy of rape”.

“Whilst we respect Mabulu’s freedom of expression, we find his work grotesque, inflammatory and of bad taste,” the ANC said in a statement.

“We view his work as crossing the bounds of rationality to degradation, exploiting the craft of creative art for nefarious ends.”

The party urged the people to ignore the painting.

Mabulu has previously done a number of controversial paintings showing Zuma’s genitals, much to the public outrage.

The foundation of the late anti-apartheid icon also rejected the piece as “distasteful”.

It said while it respects the artist’s right to freedom of expression, it found the painting “distasteful”.

{{‘REFLECTS REALITY’}}

The artist has defended his work saying it reflects the current state of affairs in the country under Zuma’s leadership, who is accused of raping the democratic values of the country.

“The message in the painting is simple and clear: the country and everything we fought for before 1994 and post 1994, is constantly and continuously being raped by this rapist president of ours,” he told a local radio station.

Zuma has in the past weeks come under intense criticism following his shock cabinet reshuffle last month which provoked a political and economic backlash.

He has resisted calls for him to resign, including a wave of protests by opposition parties last week.

The artwork also sent social media abuzz, with people expressing shock and dismay at the use of Mandela’s image in a such a crude manner.

“Ayanda Mabulu is disrespecting our nation, what freedom of expression portrayed there, lesson must be taught,” said @Nathi.

“Ayanda Mabulu is abusing his freedom of expression, he is using it in an immoral way. His art to has failed dismally.” said @MarvinMahange.

Zuma is often the subject of artists and cartoonist paint brushes who usually depict him in a naked state.

In 2010, a painting by Cape Town-based artist Brett Murray depicting Zuma with exposed genitals was defaced and later removed from a Johannesburg gallery after sparking a huge outcry.

Source:AFP