IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Arkansas carries out first execution in 12 years

    {Ledell Lee, 51, executed after US Supreme Court denies petitions to halt a series of death sentences in Arkansas.}

    Arkansas has carried out its first execution in 12 years, according to local news media reports.

    The southeastern US state executed Ledell Lee on Thursday at its Cummins Unit in Grady, which houses the state’s death chamber.

    Lee was pronounced dead four minutes before his death warrant was due to expire at midnight.

    The US Supreme Court had cleared the way earlier in the day for Arkansas to conduct the execution by removing holds on the lethal injection, just 30 minutes before the state’s death warrant expired.

    Lawyers for Lee, 51, who had maintained his innocence for years, had launched last-minute appeals to halt the execution with federal courts and the Supreme Court.

    The US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St Louis considered a last-minute request from Lee for DNA testing, and had issued a stay until 9:15pm on Thursday (01:15 GMT Friday).

    Lee was convicted and sentenced to death for beating Debra Reese to death with a tyre iron in 1993.

    Reese’s relatives were at the Cummins Unit prison and told local news media Lee deserves to die for a crime that upended their lives.

    “I pray this lawful execution helps bring closure for the Reese family,” Leslie Rutledge, the Arkansas attorney general, said just minutes after Lee’s execution.

    But advocates for Lee condemned the execution.

    “Arkansas’ decision to rush through the execution of Mr Lee just because its supply of lethal drugs are expiring at the end of the month denied him the opportunity to conduct DNA testing that could have proven his innocence,” said Nina Morrison, senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal organisation that helped represent Lee in his last appeals.

    Two more Arkansas inmates are set to die on Monday, and one on April 27. Another inmate scheduled for execution next week has received a stay.

    {{Legal wrangling}}

    The Supreme Court ruling was the latest legal twist as Arkansas seeks to carry out a series of executions before one of the drugs used in its lethal injection mix, the sedative midazolam, expires by the end of the month.

    Lawyers for the inmates argued that the state’s rush to the death chamber amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, violated the inmates’ right to counsel and their right to access the courts and counsel during the execution process.

    The Supreme Court denied the petitions. One of them was a 5-4 decision in which new Justice Neil Gorsuch sided with the four other conservative justices in denying the motion while the court’s liberals dissented.

    Earlier on Thursday, the top Arkansas court overturned a previous ruling that had blocked the use of one of the other three drugs that the state planned to use.

    Arkansas had planned to execute eight inmates in 11 days, the most of any state in as short a period since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

    Courts have halted four of those executions. The state’s plan and the legal battles have raised questions about US death chamber protocols and lethal injection drug mixes

    Back-to-back executions set for Monday were indefinitely halted.

    Previous legal challenges prevented the state from executing any prisoner since 2005.

    In the ruling on the state’s lethal injection drug, the Arkansas Supreme Court agreed with the state that it did nothing illegal in acquiring the muscle relaxant vecuronium bromide and lifted an order by a state circuit judge on Wednesday that blocked its use.

    {{‘Assembly line of killings’}}

    McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc, a pharmaceutical wholesaler, had argued that it sold Arkansas the drug for medical use, not executions, and that it would suffer harm financially and to its reputation if the executions were carried out.

    Arkansas’ protocol calls for use of midazolam to render the inmate unconscious, vecuronium bromide to stop breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

    Anti-death penalty activists have protested in Arkansas against what has been labelled “assembly line killings”.

    Midazolam has been linked to botched executions, and critics say it has proved ineffective in rendering unconsciousness prior to administration of the two lethal agents.

    The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a petition that “Arkansas wants to use an execution drug combination – with midazolam – that’s never been used before in the state and that risks making prisoners feel as if they are burning alive from the inside while paralysed”.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ‘disqualified’ from Iran elections

    {State media says clerical body disqualifies former Iranian president from running in May presidential election.}

    Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been disqualified from running in next month’s presidential election, according to state media.

    The decision on Thursday was taken by the Guardian Council, a clerical body charged with vetting candidates for the May 19 election.

    In a surprise move, Ahmadinejad registered as a candidate last week, despite previously saying he would not stand.

    Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had previously urged him not to run.

    WATCH: Iran’s 2017 election

    Ahmadinejad left office in August 2013 after two turbulent four-year terms, leaving the country divided domestically, isolated internationally and struggling economically.

    In 2009, Ahmadinejad’s re-election was followed by one the largest protests to hit the country since the Islamic Revolution three decades before.

    Ahmadinejad’s populist approach and humble roots mean that he remains a popular figure among poorer sections of society.

    The Guardian Council said it had compiled a final list of candidates earlier on Thursday and that the interior ministry would announce their names by Sunday.

    Iran's presidential election will take place on May 19

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Military court convicts Cameroon journalist

    {A military court in Cameroon has convicted Ahmed Abba, a journalist for Radio France Internationale’s Hausa service, on charges of “non-denunciation of terrorism” and “laundering of the proceeds of terrorist acts”, according to his lawyer and employer.
    }

    Abba’s lawyer, Clement Nakong, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that Abba, who has been jailed since July 2015 in relation to his reporting on the regional armed group Boko Haram, could face the death penalty on the first charge and a maximum of five years in prison on the second charge at a sentencing hearing scheduled for April 24.

    Nakong said Abba would appeal to have the conviction overturned.

    Radio France Internationale reported that the military tribunal acquitted the journalist of the charge of “apologising for acts of terrorism”.

    The CPJ called on Cameroonian authorities to release Abba without delay and not to contest the journalist’s appeal.

    “The military court’s conviction of Cameroonian radio journalist Ahmed Abba on terrorism charges that could carry the death penalty is an outrage,” Robert Mahoney, CPJ deputy executive director, said in a press release.

    “Covering terrorism as a reporter must not be equated with committing acts of terror. Each day Abba spends behind bars is a travesty of justice.”

    Abba told the CPJ through a proxy in January: “This is an unfair trial. I have never been told who I know that I did not denounce, or who are my accomplices,.

    “I could get justice in a civil court, maybe, but not in a military court. Right now I don’t know my fate.”

    {{Battle with Boko Haram}}

    A controversial anti-terrorism law in 2014 reintroduced the death penalty. Cameroon has not carried out an execution since 1997, according to Amnesty International.

    Cameroon has remained in a protracted battle with the Boko Haram since 2014 when the fighters began attacking the government.

    The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, reports that there have been no fewer than 460 attacks and scores of suicide bombings leading to at least 15,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons.

    Rights groups have criticised what they describe as an increasingly repressive climate for press freedom in Cameroon.

    In recent months, authorities have arrested journalists covering protests, suspended dozens of newspapers and broadcasters permission to operate, permanently banned three newspapers from publishing and their publishers from practicing journalism and sanctioned dozens more journalists.

    The speaker of the National Assembly in November called the use of social media “a new form of terrorism”.

    The government cut the internet to the Anglophone region in January after protests against the predominantly French-speaking government of President Paul Biya.

    {{Internet access}}

    Cameroon’s government said on Thursday that it had restored the internet access to the affected regions.

    “It seems that the conditions that preceded the suspension of the internet to that part of the national territory have much changed,” Issa Tchiroma, Cameroon’s communications minister, said in a statement.

    “The head of state therefore instructs the [communications] minister … to re-establish internet connections in the northwest and southwest regions.”

    Cameroonian forces have cracked down on protests in the English-speaking region that erupted last October, beating and arresting protesters, some of whom face the death penalty in military courts – under the same anti-terrorism law used to prosecute the journalist Ahmed Abba.

    “The anti-terror law is being used to curtail dissent and that infringes on the basic rights and freedoms in the constitution,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, of the Amnesty International, told Reuters in February.

    The unrest has exposed national divisions between the regions of Cameroon that were historically colonised by the French and the British.

    At least six protesters have been shot dead and hundreds others arrested during the rare challenge to state authority, prompting criticism from human rights groups.

    Activists had condemned the internet shutdown as a form of collective punishment.

    At the end of World War I, the League of Nations divided the former German colony of Kamerun between the allied French and British victors.

    After independence in 1960, voters from the smaller English-speaking zone opted to join Cameroon rather than neighbouring Nigeria, but they have often felt marginalised by the Francophone government in Yaounde.

    A controversial law in 2014 reintroduced the death penalty

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Cameroon’s President Paul Biya orders end to internet shutdown

    {Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has ordered the resumption of internet services in the country’s English-speaking regions, three months after they were cut off amid protests.}

    Authorities sent texts to mobile phone users before the ban, threatening jail terms for spreading false information.

    Communications and the economy were badly affected by the shutdown, with some companies forced to relocate.

    Anglophone Cameroonians make up about 20% of the country’s 23 million people

    Workers in Cameroon’s tech hub, known as Silicon Mountain, had to relocate to areas where the internet was still available.

    Anglophone Cameroonians in the North-West and South-West regions had been protesting over the imposition of French in their schools and courts.

    Blocking the internet for such a long period will have added to the Anglophones’ sense of economic, social and political marginalisation, BBC World Service Africa editor Mary Harper reports.

    Source:BBC

  • Zimbabwe DNA tests ‘prove hunter was killed by a crocodile’

    {DNA tests on the carcass of a crocodile shot in Zimbabwe have confirmed that it contains the remains of a missing South African hunter, an investigator has told the BBC.}

    Scott Van Zyl was killed last week on the banks of the Limpopo river, said Sakkie Louwrens, director of a South-African crime-fighting NGO.

    He said Mr Van Zyl disappeared during a hunting safari last week.

    His death is the latest in a series of fatal crocodile attacks in Zimbabwe.

    Mr Louwrens told the BBC that Mr Van Zyl had gone on a hunting trip on the Zimbabwe-South Africa border with a local tracker and a pack of dogs.

    He said the pair left their vehicle and went in different directions in search of crocodiles.

    A search and rescue operation was launched after Mr Van Zyl’s dogs returned to their camp without him.

    The hunter’s footprints were traced to river bank alongside his discarded rucksack. He was married, had two children and took foreign clients on hunting trips.

    Mr Louwrens said staff from the Heritage Protection Group – an organisation which he heads and helps police fight crime in South Africa – informally helped the Zimbabwean authorities conduct the search.

    “Permission was given for three Nile crocodiles in the area to be shot, and one of them contained Mr Van Zyl’s remains,” he said. “Subsequent DNA tests have proved the remains to be those of Mr Van Zyl.”

    At least four fatal attacks by crocodiles have been reported in Zimbabwe this year.

    One conservation group meanwhile has condemned the circumstances of his “senseless” death.

    “[He] shouldn’t have been hunting in the first place. Animals in the wild… are wild! They are living, thinking beings with instincts for survival,” a statement by One {{Green Planet}} said.

    {{Nile Crocodiles}}

    Predators of Africa’s rivers and lakes, they lurk almost totally submerged in the water as they lie in wait for passing prey which is then dragged into the water and drowned

    Renowned for their long powerful jaws, few creatures escape from their clutches – not even large buffalo and wildebeest

    Their large bodies and long tails hide quick reflexes and fast bursts of speed

    They are extremely attentive and protective parents, with a surprisingly delicate touch – their nests and young hatchlings are highly vulnerable to predators

    Nile crocodiles lurk almost totally submerged in the water as they lie in wait for passing prey
    The Nile crocodile is on of Africa's most feared predators

    Source:BBC

  • Egypt ‘500kg woman’ loses half her weight after India surgery

    {An Indian hospital treating an Egyptian woman, believed to have been the world’s heaviest woman, says she has lost 250kg (550lbs) after surgery.}

    Eman Abd El Aty’s family said she originally weighed 500kg – and was unable to leave her home for 25 years.

    Ms Abd El Aty underwent bariatric surgery at Mumbai’s Saifee hospital two months ago.

    The hospital said she could now fit into a wheelchair and sit up for longer periods of time.

    The surgery was performed by a team of doctors led by bariatric surgeon Dr Muffazal Lakdawala.

    The hospital has released new pictures of Ms Abd El Aty following weight reduction surgery.

    Bariatric surgery, also known as weight loss surgery, is used as a last resort to treat people who are dangerously obese (having a body mass index of 40 or above, or 35 with other obesity-related health conditions).

    Dr Lakdawala said in a statement that Ms Abd El Aty continued to “rapidly” lose weight, but added that a stroke she had suffered as a child meant that she was still paralysed on one side of her body and continued to suffer convulsions. She also has difficulty speaking and swallowing.

    The statement added that the hospital was now waiting for her to lose enough weight for her to be able to fit inside a CT scan machine to ascertain the cause of her stroke.

    Dr Lakdawala said the next stage of her treatment involved putting her on a trial drug for obesity after six months. The hospital is currently attempting to procure the drug from a US based pharmaceutical company.

    Ms Abd El Aty’s family says she weighed 5kg (11lb) at birth and was diagnosed with elephantiasis, a condition in which body parts swell due to a parasitic infection.

    By the time she was 11, her weight had risen sharply and she suffered a stroke which left her bedridden.

    She is cared for by her mother and sister.

    Ms Abd El Aty’s weight loss means she may no longer be the heaviest woman alive.

    The Guinness world records says the heaviest woman living is Pauline Potter in the US, who weighed 293.6 kg (643 lbs) when measured in July 2012.

    Bariatric surgery, also known as weight loss surgery, is used as a last resort to treat people who are dangerously obese and carrying an excessive amount of body fat.

    {{The two most common types of weight loss surgery are:}}

    {{Gastric band}}, where a band is used to reduce the size of the stomach so a smaller amount of food is required to make someone feel full

    {{Gastric bypass}}, where the digestive system is re-routed past most of the stomach so less food is digested to make someone feel full

    Eman Abd El Aty now weighs 250kg, half of what she was believed to weigh when she arrived in Mumbai

    Source:BBC

  • More mass graves unearthed in DRC

    {United Nations investigators have confirmed the existence of at least 17 further mass graves in a Democratic Republic of the Congo region that is a scene of clashes between soldiers and a local militia.}

    This brings to 40 the number of mass graves documented in the Kasai region.

    Staff from the UN Joint Human Rights Office and UN Police have confirmed the presence of the additional graves.

    Fifteen of the mass graves are in a cemetery in the town of Tshimbulu and two in the locality of Tshienk.

    The UN team gathered information soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) had reportedly dug the graves, after clashing with presumed elements of the Kamuina Nsapu militia late in March.

    At least 74 people, including 30 children, were reported to have been killed by soldiers.

    Soldiers were also reported to have shot dead at least 40 people, including 11 children and 12 women, in the Nganza commune of Kananga.

    The majority of the victims were said to have been killed in their homes as soldiers went door to door looking for militia members.

    UN investigators also received reports that at least two women and three girls had been raped by FARDC soldiers during the same operation.

    Defence and security forces were alleged to have arrested and detained 27 people, including ten boys and a 15-year-old girl.

    “The discovery of yet more mass graves and the reports of continued violations and abuses highlight the horror that has been unfolding in the Kasais over the last nine months,” said UN commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

    DRC is beset by tensions following President Kabila clinging to power at the expiry of his term late 2016. Militia in Kasai are opposed to his stay in power.

    Source:All Africa

  • Burundi: Human Rights situation two years after crisis

    {“About 720 people were killed, over 80 others tortured since Burundi has plunged into the current situation in April 2015,” says Jean Baptiste Baribonekeza, Chairman of the National Commission for the Human Rights-CNDIH. He also says that between 700 and 800 people have been arbitrarily arrested in different areas of the country. “Thanks to our intervention, some of them have been released”, he says.}

    The chairman of CNDIH says the human rights situation deteriorated at the beginning of 2015 but has improved day after day. “Considering the situation between 2015 and 2016, there has been some improvement in 2017”, he says.

    Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, Chairman of the Association defending the Human Rights and the detainees’ rights-APRODH, says his associations estimated the death toll of 2000 Burundians, imprisonment of 8000 people, flight of thousands of Burundians to other countries , torture of hundreds of people including women who have been sexually abused before their children and the disappearance of hundreds of people. “All this was caused by Pierre Nkurunziza when he violated the Arusha Agreement and Burundi Constitution”, he says.

    The same view is shared by Léonce Ngendakumana, Deputy Chairman of Sahwanya Frodebu party. “The violation of the Arusha Agreement and Burundi Constitution caused many killings, tortures, sanctions against Burundi government, corruption, economic embezzlement, and the deterioration of the education system,” he says.

    Ngendakumana says Burundi has moved into recession since 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a controversial term in office. Ngendakumana says the government and its allies must engage in an inclusive dialogue with the opposition to restore democracy in Burundi. “The only option to end the crisis is the inclusive dialogue”, he says.

    Jean De Dieu Mutabazi, chairman of RADEDU party says Burundi was in trouble for three years but the situation has improved day after day. “The efforts by the troublemakers and opposition to destabilize the country have been undermined year after year. Today, the security situation is good”, he says.

    Source:Iwacu

  • Four Ugandans abducted on Lake Albert

    {Hoima- Four Ugandan fishermen have been abducted by suspected Congolese soldiers on Lake Albert in western Uganda, security officials have confirmed.}

    According to the Hoima Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Isaac Kawoya, the fishermen were abducted by an armed group on Wednesday at about 2 am.

    Eyewitnesses told security officials that the fishermen had just cast their nets by the time they were attacked by unidentified armed people who claimed to be Congolese soldiers.

    Mr Kawoya said the fishermen were abducted near Kaiso Landing Site after being accused of fishing in DRC waters.

    He said the captives are being held at Jo Landing Site in Ituri Province in Eastern DRC.

    Fights, accusations and abductions are common on Lake Albert where DRC authorities repeatedly accuse Ugandan fishermen of fishing in their territory.

    Ironically, there is no clear marked boundary between Uganda and DRC in the lake that links the borders of the two countries.

    Those abducted are Fula, Jakisa,Kadogo and Merisa, according to Buseruka Sub-county councilor, Mr Godfrey Komakech.

    Mr Komakeck has been permitted by the Hoima District Security Committee to lead a team of local leaders that has gone to DRC to negotiate the release of the fishermen.

    “We have given him a covering letter to engage authorities in DRC where our fishermen are being held,” Mr Kawoya said.

    The abductors reportedly confiscated five engine boats and fishing nets which the fishermen were using.

    {{Background}}

    In May 2016, a suspected Congolese armed group attacked Ugandan policemen who were on patrol on Lake Albert and killed three of them.

    On October 22, 2012, a group of about 20 men carrying guns stormed Nkondo Landing Site where they allegedly confiscated mobile phones and fish from Ugandan fishermen in the area.

    In August 2007, a Canadian Heritage Oil engineer, Carl Nefdt was shot dead allegedly by Congolese government forces, when a Heritage exploration barge had allegedly crossed into DRC waters.

    Heritage, which also had an oil licence on the DRC side of the lake but no permission to begin work, was accused by Kinshasa of using its Uganda operations to conduct seismic surveys in DRC.

    In 2007, Uganda and DRC bickered over the ownership of Rukwanzi Island; the disputed border between the countries runs through an area believed to have billions of barrels of crude oil.

    In May 2013, three Ugandan fisheries enforcement officials and two policemen were abducted by a group of armed Congolese operatives on Lake Albert.

    Uganda and Congolese officials in February,2013 met in Hoima to discuss the rising tensions and insecurity on the boarder of the two countries.

    The Congolese delegation was led by the Ituri Resident District Commissioner Mr Avo Eka while the Ugandan team was headed by the then Hoima Resident District Commissioner , Ms Jeane Kaliba.

    The leaders of Ituri District and Hoima District signed a joint communiqué after a meeting which resolved to conduct joint operations by fisheries and security officials from the two countries to prevent clashes and disagreements between the two countries during operations to crack down illegal fishing gears.

    On November 10th,2012, there was a heavy exchange of gunfire in the Lake Albert waters between a Ugandan security team and an armed group believed to be from DRC. The group accused Ugandan fisheries officials of harassing Congolese fishermen.

    A boat carrying fishermen and passengers on Lake Albert. Abductions on the lake are rampant.

    Source:Daily Monitor

  • At least 7 football fans electrocuted watching TV in Nigeria

    {At least seven football fans were killed and 11 injured when an electric cable fell on a building where they were watching a Europa League match, Nigerian police said Friday.}

    The incident happened in the southern port city of Calabar on Thursday during a quarter-final between Manchester United and Anderlecht being shown on satellite television, the police said.

    “We received a report of the incident around 10:00 pm and on getting there were able to recover the bodies of seven people who had been electrocuted when a high tension cable fell on them,” Cross River state police spokeswoman Irene Ugbo told AFP.

    “Eleven other fans who were injured were rushed to the hospital, with one in a critical condition,” she said.

    Local media said up to 30 fans were feared dead in the incident.

    Ugbo ruled out any foul play in the tragedy.

    Manchester United's English striker Marcus Rashford shoots to score their second goal during their Uefa Europa League quarter-final second leg match against Anderlecht at Old Trafford on April 20, 2017.

    Source:AFP