IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Migrant crisis: ‘Nearly 100 missing after Libya boat sinks’

    {At least 97 African migrants, including women and children, are missing after their boat sank off the Libyan coast, a coastguard spokesman has said.}

    A total of 23 male survivors were rescued while clinging to a floating device, Ayoub Kassem added.

    Rescue operations are continuing, but the chances of finding more survivors are slim, reports say.

    Libya is a major transit point for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
    At least 590 of them have died or have gone missing along the Libyan coast so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

    Survivors reported that 15 women and five children were among those missing when the latest boat sank less than 10km (6 miles) off the coast of the capital, Tripoli.

    “What happened is that the base of the boat got wrecked and the boat had sunk,” Mr Kassem was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

    Survivors said the inflatable boat had set off with about 120 people on board, most from Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Nearly 25,000 migrants have arrived in Europe since the beginning of the year, taking a perilous journey across the Mediterranean.

    Their exit from Libya is made easier but more dangerous by the disbandment of Libya’s security forces in the aftermath of the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

    Some militias act as unofficial coastguards but are often accused of profiteering from people smuggling.

    A 12-year-old survivor from Ivory Coast – now being accommodated at the Maitiga detention centre in the Libyan capital Tripoli – told the BBC’s Rana Jawad that “the boat broke and my mother died”.

    A BBC producer at the detention centre said survivors had been given blankets and water.

    Another survivor, Mohamed Amine from Mali, told the BBC: “We were at sea in the boat for three days… we were rescued after it capsized.”

    Mohamed Amine is among the survivors who have been taken to a detention centre

    Source:BBC

  • Nigeria’s EFCC ‘finds $43m in Lagos flat’

    {More than $43m (£34m) has been seized from a flat in Nigeria’s main city, Lagos, the anti-corruption agency says.}

    Officials raided the flat after a tip-off about a “haggard-looking” woman in “dirty clothes” taking bags in and out of it, the agency added.

    The money was believed to be from unlawful activity, but no arrests have as yet been made, the agency added.

    This is the latest in a series of raids which uncovered bundles of cash in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy.

    In March, the agency said it had found “crispy” banknotes worth $155,000 (£130,000) at the airport in northern Kaduna city.

    Apart from US notes worth $43.4m, investigators found nearly £27,800 and some 23m naira ($75,000) at the four-bedroom flat in Lagos’s affluent Ikoyi area, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said in a statement.

    The “neatly arranged” cash was stashed in “sealed wrappers” in wardrobes and cabinets in the seventh-floor flat, the EFCC added.

    Guards told investigators that no-one lived in the flat, but a source reported that a “woman usually appeared on different occasions with Ghana Must Go bags”, the EFCC said.

    “She comes looking haggard, with dirty clothes but her skin didn’t quite match her outward appearance, perhaps a disguise,” it quoted a source as saying.

    The money was neatly arranged and hidden in wardrobes, investigators say

    Source:BBC

  • African supermodel Maria Borges on cover of Elle magazine

    {Supermodel Maria Borges has tweeted that she is honoured to be the first African woman to feature on the cover of the American version of Elle magazine this century.}

    In an interview with Elle, the Angolan emphasised the importance of diversity in the fashion industry.

    She said the industry was for everyone, regardless of race.

    The previous African woman to appear on the magazine’s front cover was Sudanese model Alek Wek in 1997.

    “It’s an honour to be on the cover of the American Elle, feeling beautiful and rocking my afro!” she said on Instagram.

    {{‘All about inspiration’}}

    Borges also won acclaim in 2015, when as a Victoria’s Secret lingerie model she became the first black woman to display her natural hair “in its Afro state” without being made up, Buzzfeed reported.

    She said that hoped her latest success on the front page of the May US edition of Elle would inspire other women from Africa to follow her example.

    “When I was growing up, I never saw someone like me, and now the other girls can see someone like them. It’s all about inspiration.”

    Ms Borges features as one of six swimsuit models in the magazine, appearing alongside Candice Huffine – one of the first plus-size women to be on the front page of one of the magazine’s special sections.

    In a meteoric rise Ms Borges became the face of L’Oreal Paris in February. She issued a statement at the time pointing out “that a girl who started from the bottom can be an international beauty symbol and be living proof that our dreams are valid”.

    She has been modelling since 2010 and has also appeared for Chanel, Balmain, and Givenchy.

    Maria Borges has tweeted of her delight at appearing on the Elle front cover

    Source:BBC

  • Museveni warns against giving relief food

    {President Museveni has warned that spending money on relief food might force government to halt key government infrastructure projects.}

    Mr Museveni, who was addressing a rally at Bugadde Primary School in Kamuli District, said government should buy food only if there is no alternative.

    “Relief food can be handed to you if there is no other way. This is because in order to buy food, we need to postpone a number of projects. So, when you eat food, you are eating a road. When you are eating, you will be eating kilometers of roads and wires of electricity,” Mr Museveni said.

    He indirectly took a swipe at the former presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye, and senior party officials who were last week blocked by police from distributing relief food in Teso sub-region. “Be careful about some politicians. They want to please you but in a dangerous way. Giving relief food must be done in a careful way,” the President added.

    Hunger
    Due to prolonged drought in different parts of the country, hunger has hit Isingiro District and areas in Teso and Karamoja sub-regions.

    Last year, government said at least 1.3 million people in various parts of the country needed food aid urgently after a dry spell destroyed harvests.

    Mr Museveni made the remarks in Busoga sub-region while campaigning for the ruling NRM candidate in the Kamuli by-election held on Wednesday. During his time there, the President also launched a nationwide pesticide spraying campaign against the devastating armyworm that has attacked maize gardens in 53 districts.

    Mr Museveni also toured and inspected a number of homesteads benefiting from the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), an army led agricultural campaign to support farmers engage in commercial agricultural activities to boost their household incomes.
    In Kyityerera village, Mayuge District, the President inspected the late William Nkoko’s farm where zero grazing, poultry, coffee and orange production takes place.

    Source:Daily Monitor

  • Kenya ranks third as tourist destination in sub-Sahara Africa

    {Kenya is now the third highest ranked sub-Saharan African country in terms of its travel and tourism competitiveness, according to a World Economic Forum report.}

    The report says that Kenya has moved ahead of Namibia into third position in the ranking, which includes factors such as the business environment, safety and security, health and ICT readiness.

    However, Uganda is the most improved country in sub-Saharan Africa in the survey, moving up eight places to 106, 26 slots behind Kenya in 80th place.

    Despite falling two places, Kenya remains one of Africa’s competitive tourist economies, but with no African countries in the world’s top 50, much still needs to be done to improve matters the report says.

    The report says that despite sustained economic growth, travel and tourism “remains mostly untapped.”

    {{Travel costs }}

    It adds that the biggest problems for travellers remain air connectivity, transport infrastructure and travel costs as well as visa policies and infrastructure.

    Twenty of the 30 sub-Saharan countries covered by the report apply ticket taxes and airport charges above the world average

    Significant concerns have been raised about the loss of some critical animal species, including large numbers of elephants across the continent, and the report says deforestation and habitat loss are becoming “problematic” in some countries.

    Ten African countries have lost at least 7 per cent of their forests compared with the situation in 2000.

    {{Natural tourism }}

    “While tourism in the region is mainly driven by natural tourism, there is significant room for improvement in protecting, valuing and communicating cultural richness,” the report concludes.

    The aim of the report, which covers 136 economies this year, is to provide a comprehensive strategic tool for measuring the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the travel and tourism sector

    The World Economic Forum has, for the past 11 years, engaged leaders in travel and tourism to carry out an in-depth analysis of the travel and tourism competitiveness of 136 economies across the world.

    The travel and tourism competitiveness index measures “the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the travel and tourism sector, which in turn, contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country”.

    Tourists enjoy a game drive in the Maasai Mara National Reserve.

    Source:Daily Nation

  • Tanzanian ‘spies’ get six-month suspended sentence

    {Eight Tanzanians were at last brought back home yesterday from Malawi where a court slapped them a six-month suspended sentence over trespass.}

    Information from the Tanzanian High Commission in Malawi said the Tanzanians who had been detained in a Malawi prison accused of trespassing at a uranium mine, were transported yesterday from Mzuzu in Malawi to the two countries’ Songwe/Kasumulu border.

    On Wednesday this week, Mzuzu Chief Resident Magistrate Texious Masoamphambe sentenced the eight to one-month imprisonment on criminal trespass and three months imprisonment for conducting reconnaissance.

    But, Chief Resident Magistrate Masoamphambe suspended the sentences ‘for six months’ rescuing the Tanzanians from the jail term.

    “The Tanzanians are not to commit any crime in the stated period of suspended sentence,” said Masoamphambe in his ruling. The magistrate said the Tanzanians had shown remorse after conviction and have been in custody since they were arrested on December 20, last year, around Kayuni Village at Karonga in Malawi.

    They include WalasaMwasangu (30), Binto Materinus (32), AshuraYasiri (63), Christian Msoli (38), Layinali Kumba (47), Maliyu Mkobe, Gilbert Mahumdi (32) and Martin Jodomusole (25).

    The court in Malawi further directed the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security to issue removal directives to return the convicts in Tanzania.

    The government of Tanzania had been pursuing diplomatic procedures with its Malawian counterpart to secure the release of the team from remand custody in the country over criminal trespass charges.

    Source:Daily News

  • DRC explores power imports from S.Africa

    {The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Chamber of Commerce said this week that they are looking at South Africa for power imports to help its struggling mining sector.}

    With low dam levels affecting reliable power supply, output in the continent’s top copper producer is dwindling, reports Engineering News.

    According to media, should the rain remain at bay, it “could cause a 50% drop in output in the country’s main hydroelectric plants during the May to September dry season.”

    Examining feasibility of power imports

    Delegates from Congo’s public power utility and chamber of commerce will table ideas for imports from South African state-owned power utility Eskom today and tomorrow, according to Eric Monga, president of Congo’s chamber of commerce in the southeastern mining region. Read more…

    Engineering News added that the power export would include interconnections through grids in Zimbabwe and Zambia, which will naturally push up costs.

    “It’s clearly more expensive . . . but the economic interest is so great that we are obliged to go hear them out,” Monga told Reuters.

    {{Mining sector}}

    According to Engineering News, the central African country’s copper-mining Katanga region does not receive sufficient supply for its daily operations therefore operators have to rely on expensive imports from Zambia.

    “Monga said each mining company would be free to eventually negotiate with Eskom for the power it requires. Major operators in Congo include Glencore, Ivanhoe Mines and Randgold,” Engineering news reported.

    {{Financial support}}

    Last year, the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced its approval of $11 million awarded to the DRC to help improve access to electricity coverage in the country.

    The funds are aimed at supporting a project to extend affordable electricity coverage within the country and also to the neighbouring countries in the Nile Equatorial Lakes region in the short term, the AfDB said at the time.

    According to the Bank, national electricity access rates across the Nile Equatorial Lake region are low, ranging between 2 and 17%, and only 4% in the DRC.

    The AfDB highlighted that the country’s North Kivu and South Kivu regions, areas in which the DRC component of the larger Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Programme (NELSAP) is active, have a combined unmet electricity demand of 115MW and are subjected to rampant interruptions in supply.

    To counteract the power cuts, diesel generators drive the majority of the country’s private power production.

    Source:ESI Africa

  • Burundi government evicts settlers without compensation to find new shelter

    {Residents evicted by the Government say they are going to live in the street following the destruction of their homes on Tuesday before they were given any kind of compensation that would allow them get new shelters.}

    The evacuation concerned 23 houses built in on the north-east outskirts of Bujumbura the capital near the location of the presidential palace under construction in Gasenyi area.

    “We are being unjustly treated because we have not received any compensation”, said one woman in extreme emotion. She hopes, however, the President will have pity on their children that are being forced to drop out and wander in the street.

    The residents, who own the land they lived on, had for long lived in worry about compensation since the measure to evacuate them was taken. But the officials unconvincingly reassured them they would deal with their case properly.

    The Governor of Bujumbura, Nadine Gacuti, alongside officials of the ministries of Environment and Public Works who were present to supervise the demolition on Tuesday, promised compensation, again. “The government will not be unable to find new plots for only 23 households”, said the Governor.

    “It’s hard to believe those people even if they represent the Government”, said Emmanuel Bizimana, a resident who was affected by the measure. “We are going to live in the street while waiting for the promised plots”, he added.

    The Governor told the residents to shelter at the office of Mutimbuzi commune while waiting for their problem to be resolved.

    The demolition was secured by the police.

    According to the law, compensation precedes evacuation.

    Source:Iwacu

  • 5 ways you know your are consuming excess sugar

    {Excess sugar in the body is dangerous and harmful to your health. The commonest way of knowing the sugar level in your system is by visiting a doctor for proper check up, but other than that, the following signs can also suggest that your sugar level is high.}

    {{You suffer too much ACNE }}

    There’s a relationship between high sugar levels in the body and acne. The higher the amount of sugar you take into your system, the more likely it is that you’ll have acne attacks.

    {{Cavities }}

    Cavities are more often than not, a glaring sign of a sweet tooth. Cavities are painful, but avoidable too. Brush very well after each meal to keep your teeth clean, and keep cavities away.

    {{High blood pressure }}

    You may not have known this, but there’s a serious link between high blood pressure and excess sugar. Regular consumption of a high sugar diet can push your blood pressure to abnormal levels. To be safe, it’s important you cut down on the sugar.

    {{Weight gain }}

    Foods that are high in sugar never really leave you filled (which makes you eat more) and do not compensate for total energy, that is, they do not displace other foods, so they add to your total calorie intake, which means weight gain.

    {{It messes with your taste buds }}

    Eating a lot of sugar can mess with your taste buds over time. The more you consume, the more it increases your taste buds’ tolerance for sugar, and as a result, you’ll need to eat even more and more sugar to satisfy craving. This is not a good thing, and you must cut down to restore your taste buds to its normal state.

    In all, try as much as you can to cut down on your sugar intake, it’s dangerous and unhealthy, and can be fatal.

    Source:Elcrema

  • Kwibuka23: Youth Volunteers commit to fighting Genocide ideology

    {As part of the activities to mark the 23rd commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda Youth Volunteers in Community Policing (RYVCP) have pledged to put much effort in fighting against Genocide ideology through enhanced sensitization campaigns.}

    The commitment comes as an addition to RYVCP’s dedication to ensuring public welfare, safety and sustaining what the country has achieved so far.

    In an interview with the Executive Secretary of RYVCP, Placide Bizimana, he said: “We, the youth, are the foundation of our country’s future, so it is important that we get involved in everything and drive the agenda.”

    “This is why we have committed to fighting genocide ideology through enhancing sensitization campaigns, cooperate with different institutions particularly security organs in advancing national values as well as detecting and reporting cases of Genocide Ideology,” said Bizimana.

    He further pointed out that RYVCP, which currently has over 100, 000 members nationwide, has been involved in social protection programmes through proving support to the vulnerable groups including genocide survivors as well as partnering with the country’s leadership and security organs in advancing public welfare.

    The youth organization has been actively involved in constructing and renovating houses for the poor, environmental protection, awareness campaigns against crimes especially those that are said to be of high impact like illicit drugs, corruption, genocide ideology, gender based violence and child abuse, among others.

    Jean Bosco Mutangana, who is in charge of trainings in RYVCP said: “We strive for patriotism… that’s why we must stand up against anything or anyone that reminisce our bad history.”

    “In our voluntary work, we feel it’s our responsibility to partner with the government in peace building; we can’t achieve that when there are some elements of genocide ideology; that’s why we chose to join the fight against the vice and make it one of our priorities,” said Mutangana.

    “Having the mentality of genocide ideology at this time when the country is rapidly advancing… is something we have committed ourselves to uproot. This negative ideology can be an obstacle to development and a source to social relations to poverty.”

    “Our visionary leadership has showed us the road to sustainable peace, security and development, which we should guard jealously, and that includes fighting negative ideologies and criminality in general,” Mutangana said.

    RYVCP currently targets to have about a million members before this year ends; they are mainly involved advancing national values among their peers, supporting communities through different social protection programmes and crime prevention awareness programmes in schools and communities.

    The organisation that currently include secondary and university students and those who have so far graduated, was created in 2013 by the youth whose ambition also included fighting and preventing crimes in partnership with police and local authorities.

    Source:Police