Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

New Military Prosecutors take oath

{The Prime Minister, Rt Hon Anastase Murekezi yesterday presided over the swearing in ceremony of 3 new military prosecutors. }

The sworn in military prosecutors include Capt Vincent Ndayisaba, Capt Christian Kayitare and Lt Claudine Muhawenimana.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Murekezi reminded the new military prosecutors the meaning of their oath. “The oath you have taken is a commitment with Rwandans and failure to honour it bears consequences”, he said.

“Rwanda Defence Force is known for discipline worldwide, let discipline and honesty be your values and guide you every day”, Rt Hon Prime Minister further advised the new military prosecutors.

He also urged them to keep on increasing their knowledge and using new technology in their work, maintaining good cooperation with their predecessors and other institutions they will be working with.

The swearing in ceremony took place at the Prime Minister’s Office in Kimihurura and was attended by Honorable Minister of Defence, Gen James Kabarebe; Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Hon Stella Ford Mugabo; Minister of State in charge of Constitutional and Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Justice, Evode Uwizeyimana and the RDF Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Patrick Nyamvumba, among other officials.

Source:Minadef

March 29, 2017
REB denies delisting Ugandan teachers from government payroll

{The Ministry of Education has explained that no foreign teacher has been removed from the government payroll as falsely circulated this morning that Ugandan teachers in Rwanda have all been sacked by the Ministry of Education. }

In an interview with IGIHE, the Director General of Rwanda Education Board (REB) Janvier Gasana has said the information false.

“We have too received such information this morning and astonished from where came the rumors because last year’s list of salaried teachers was not revised. You can’t find anyone removed from the list for being a foreigner. We don’t know the reason behind such rumors,” he said.

Gasana explained that ‘Such false news is circulated to tarnish partnership between states and their people. “That is not true. Nothing happened in connection with these rumours.You can prove it yourself if you ask Rwandan teachers.’

IGIHE has learnt that Ugandan teachers at Lycée de Kigali have refused working today morning disappointed over being dismissed. They, it was reported, felt dismayed wondering how Rwanda can sack them knowing it has good relations with Uganda.

They were comforted by the Headmaster of Lycée de Kigali where after employees from the Ministry of Education and REB visited the school and talked to the teachers who later continued with their work.

Lycée de Kigali has 16 Ugandan teachers including one who worked there for 17 years.

Last year, Rwanda had 62,650 teachers of whom 256 were Ugandans, 212 from Congo and 6 Kenyans.

IGIHE has learnt that the Ministry of Education is making a census of certified teachers which may have raised Ugandans’ worries of dismissal.

It said that teachers found with incompetent capacities after the census will be suspended regardless of their nationality.

March 28, 2017
Tropical Cyclone Debbie batters eastern Australia

{Damaging winds and flooding rains lash Queensland as Debbie becomes the worst storm to hit the state in six years.}

Tropical Cyclone Debbie has smashed into Australia’s Queensland coast, bringing damaging winds and flooding rains. The storm has left a path of destruction in its wake with trees and power lines down.

It is the most powerful storm to hit the region since Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi struck northern Queensland on February 3, 2011.

Cyclone Debbie is currently located around 200km to the southeast of Townsville. It is still a very large system with the outer-bands extending around 500km in diameter.

The storm currently has sustained winds of around 140km/hour and gusts nearer 170km/hour; equivalent to a Category 1 Atlantic hurricane. But, having made landfall, Debbie is weakening quickly.

At its peak, as Debbie crossed Hamilton Island, the winds around the centre of the storm reached 263km/h. Those winds are now easing steadily as the storm moves across Queenland’s rugged terrain.

Gusts will barely reach 80km/h by 1800GMT on Tuesday. However, as the system continues to track slowly inland, it is staggering along at around 9km/h, it will continue to dump vast amounts of rainfall.

MacKay had 109mm of rain on Monday following on from 51mm on Sunday. Meanwhile, Hamilton Island and Prosperpine had 106mm and 138mm in the 24 hours up to 0000GMT Tuesday.

As Cyclone Debbie crawls across central and southeastern parts of Queensland, it is dropping up to 200mm of rain per day in places. Some areas could see as much as 500mm to 600mm of rain by the time the system clears through.

Even Brisbane is likely to experiencing some degree of flooding late on in the week. Around a month’s worth of rain is expected there by the weekend.

Around 130mm of rain is likely over the next few days. The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Debbie should finally clear the gold coast late on Friday going into Saturday morning.

Source:Al Jazeera

March 28, 2017
Malaysia says Kim Jong-nam’s body still in Kuala Lumpur

{Body of estranged half-brother of North Korean leader has not left the country, health minister says.}

The body of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, murdered in Malaysia last month, is still in Kuala Lumpur, health minister Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said on Tuesday, after reports the remains would soon leave the country.

Kim was murdered on February 13 after two women – an Indonesian and a Vietnamese – smeared supremely toxic VX nerve agent on his face at the budget terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, according to Malaysian police.

“We have to check with the forensics department if there was any requirement to bring the body out, but as far as we are concerned there is no change in status quo,” Subramaniam told reporters.

He said the next of kin have not come forward to provide assistance on how the body is to be treated.

Media reports on Monday said the body was moved out of the hospital to a funeral parlour and was later being prepared to go on a flight to Beijing.

Malaysia’s New Straits Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that the body was expected to go from Beijing to North Korea, without disclosing its source.

Earlier this month, Interpol issued a red notice, the closest mechanism it has to an international arrest warrant, for four North Koreans wanted in connection with the death.

The death has resulted in a fierce diplomatic dispute between two countries that once had strong ties.

North Korea has questioned the Malaysian investigation into the death and refused to acknowledge that the dead man is Kim Jong-nam.

Source:Al Jazeera

March 28, 2017
Trump to sign order scrubbing Obama climate policies

{An executive order on Tuesday will seek to boost fossil fuels by unravelling Obama measures to combat climate change.}

US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to undo several Barack Obama-era climate change measures in what his government says is an effort to boost domestic energy production.

As part of the rollback, Trump will initiate a review of the Clean Power Plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The regulation, Obama’s signature effort to curb carbon emissions, has been the subject of long-running legal challenges by Republican-led states and those who profit from burning oil, coal and gas.

Trump, who has called global warming a “hoax” invented by the Chinese, has repeatedly criticised the power-plant rule and others as an attack on workers and the struggling coal industry.

The contents of the order were outlined to reporters in a sometimes tense briefing with a senior White House official, whom aides insisted speak without attribution.

The official at one point appeared to break with mainstream climate science, denying familiarity with widely publicised concerns about the potential adverse economic impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels and more extreme weather.

In addition to pulling back from the Clean Power Plan, the administration will also lift a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands.

The Obama administration had imposed a three-year moratorium on new federal coal leases in January 2016, arguing that the $1bn-a-year programme must be modernised to ensure a fair financial return to taxpayers and address climate change.

Trump accused his predecessor of waging a “war on coal” and boasted in a speech to congress that he had made “a historic effort to massively reduce job-crushing regulations,” including some that threaten “the future and livelihoods of our great coal miners.”

The order will also chip away at other regulations, including scrapping language on the “social cost” of greenhouse gases. It will initiate a review of efforts to reduce the emission of methane in oil and natural gas production, as well as a Bureau of Land Management hydraulic fracturing rule, to determine whether those reflect the president’s policy priorities.

It will also rescind Obama-era executive orders and memoranda, including one that addressed climate change and national security and one that sought to prepare the country for the impacts of climate change.

The administration is still considering whether it should withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. But the moves to be announced on Tuesday will make it more difficult for the US to achieve its goals under the agreement.

Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, alarmed environmental groups and scientists earlier this month when he said he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming.

The statement is at odds with mainstream scientific consensus and Pruitt’s own agency.

The overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed studies and climate scientists agree that the planet is warming, mostly due to man-made sources, including carbon dioxide, methane, halocarbons and nitrogen oxide.

The official who briefed reporters said the president does believe in man-made climate change.

{{The issue of jobs}}

The power-plant rule Trump is set to address in his order has been on hold since last year as a federal appeals court considers a challenge by coal-friendly states and more than 100 companies who call the plan an unconstitutional power grab.

Opponents say the plan will kill coal-mining jobs and drive up electricity costs. The Obama administration, some Democratic-led states and environmental groups countered that it will spur thousands of clean-energy jobs and help the US meet ambitious goals to reduce carbon pollution set by the international agreement signed in Paris.

Trump’s order on coal-fired power plants follows an executive order he signed last month mandating a review of an Obama-era rule aimed at protecting small streams and wetlands from development and pollution.

The order instructs the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to review a rule that redefined “waters of the United States” protected under the Clean Water Act to include smaller creeks and wetlands.

While Republicans have blamed Obama-era environmental regulations for the loss of coal jobs, federal data shows that US mines have been shedding jobs for decades under presidents from both parties as a result of increasing automation and competition from cheaper natural gas.

Another factor is the plummeting cost of solar panels and wind turbines, which now can produce emissions-free electricity cheaper than burning coal.

According to an Energy Department analysis released in January, coal mining now accounts for fewer than 70,000 US jobs.

By contrast, renewable energy – including wind, solar and biofuels – now accounts for more than 650,000 US jobs.

{{Praise and condemnation}}

The Trump administration’s plans drew praise from business groups and condemnation from environmental groups.

US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J Donohue praised the president for taking “bold steps to make regulatory relief and energy security a top priority.”

“These executive actions are a welcome departure from the previous administration’s strategy of making energy more expensive through costly, job-killing regulations that choked our economy,” he said.

Former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy accused the Trump administration of wanting “us to travel back to when smokestacks damaged our health and polluted our air, instead of taking every opportunity to support clean jobs of the future.”

“This is not just dangerous; it’s embarrassing to us and our businesses on a global scale to be dismissing opportunities for new technologies, economic growth, and US leadership,” she said in a statement.

Source:Al Jazeera

March 28, 2017
Meningitis outbreak kills at least 140 in Nigeria

{An outbreak of meningitis in several states of Nigeria has killed at least 140 people, officials say.}

It has been reported over the last week in six states and has so far infected more than 1,000 people, the Abuja Centre for Disease Control says.

Meningitis causes an acute inflammation of the outer layers of the brain and spinal cord.

The current outbreak is the worst in Nigeria since 2009 when it killed at least 156 people.

The disease is spreading amidst fears it could be out of control if refugee camps, prisons and police cells become affected through crowds, the BBC’s Chris Ewokor in Abuja says.

Vaccination is an effective way of preventing against meningitis.

However, a new strain, which may have been imported from a neighbouring country is now prevalent in Nigeria and requires a different type of vaccine, Nigerian Minister of Health Isaac Adewole said.

The seasonal outbreak has been attributed to cold nights, dusty winds and dry weather, which were aggravated by traditional beliefs, poor hygiene, and overpopulation, our reporter says.

Nigeria lies on the meningitis belt, stretching from the Sahel region to the Horn of Africa, where outbreaks occur regularly.

Source:BBC

March 28, 2017
South Sudan attack ‘could hinder aid deliveries’

{Aid agencies say the “shocking” killing of six aid workers in South Sudan on Saturday is causing them to re-assess how and when they can deliver supplies.}

The victims were ambushed by unknown attackers when travelling between Juba and the town of Pibor to the northeast.

Oxfam said the attack “demonstrates how dangerous it is here” and was leading agencies to re-evaluate “what is mission-critical and what is not”.

Aid deliveries would continue but could be delayed, it said.

The latest fatal attack on humanitarian workers came a month after famine was declared in parts of Unity state in northern South Sudan.

The UN says the famine – the first to be announced anywhere in the world in six years – is man-made, resulting from a political conflict that escalated into war in 2013.

Some of the areas worst affected by food shortages are seen as sympathetic to rebel groups and critics of the government have accused it of blocking aid deliveries. South Sudanese officials deny this.

Oxfam humanitarian campaigns manager Dorothy Sang, who is in South Sudan, told the BBC it was “one of the most difficult countries to operate in right now”.

She said attacks on aid workers “unfortunately aren’t uncommon” – 12 have been killed this year alone and there have been a number of other, non-fatal attacks on aid convoys and warehouses.

She said Oxfam would continue delivering aid but was reassessing how this could be done with least risk.

Transporting aid by road was now “extremely dangerous” and agencies were considering whether they could step up transportation by air, and whether risks on the road could be reduced by aid organisations travelling in convoy.

This re-evaluation of risks could mean that aid deliveries were delayed, Ms Sang said.

“The brutal killing… has sent shockwaves through us all,” said Care International country director Fred McCray. “It is unacceptable that those trying to alleviate the suffering… are attacked for what they do.”

100,000 facing starvation

Further one million on brink of famine

4.9 million (42% of population) severely food insecure

207,000 children suffering severe acute malnutrition

Inflation as high as 800% year-on-year

The UN also warning of possible famines in north-east Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) programme director for South Sudan Monica Blagescu said: “This is the crude reality of the situation in South Sudan, where humanitarian workers put their lives at risk while providing life-saving assistance to people affected by conflict and drought.

“Those in a position of power must step up to their responsibilities and stop such heinous incidents from happening again.”

In many cases of assaults on aid agencies, it is not known who the attackers are. There are many armed groups in South Sudan, engaged in a battle for power and resources.

South Sudanese rebels have blamed government forces for the killings on Saturday.
A spokesman for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – In Opposition, which is led by former Vice-President Riek Machar, condemned the attack and called for an investigation.

“The area where this barbaric incident took place is under the control of [the] Juba regime and its militias,” the spokesman, Paul Gabriel Lam, was reported by the Paris-based Sudan Tribune as saying.

The government has said it is too early to say who was behind the attack and it would be “counterproductive” to assign blame “at this stage”.

{{‘No guns’}}

Grieving families went to the morgue in Juba on Monday to collect the bodies of their relatives.

“This is very painful for all of us,” Levis Kori, whose 30-year-old brother John Riti was killed in the attack, told AP new agency.

“They were humanitarians there to do good. They’re not soldiers, they have no guns.”
The attack comes at a critical time for aid agencies in South Sudan, which are trying to pre-position stocks in key areas before the expected arrival of the rains in the coming weeks.

The rainy season makes access much harder for aid agencies and brings greater risk that malnourished people, already vulnerable to illness, will catch water-borne diseases.

The DEC has warned that “a toxic mix of drought and violent conflict” means South Sudan is now the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.

It says 6,000 people a day – equating to four people a minute – were forced to flee to neighbouring Uganda last month.

There are now more refugees fleeing to Uganda than across the Mediterranean, the DEC says.

Source:BBC

March 28, 2017
Burundi students on strike despite fears of reprisals from authorities

{Despite fears of a crackdown by the authorities on dissenting voices, students in Burundi are on strike over the government’s decision to abolish scholarships.}

Up until recently, the Great Lakes nation’s students had always benefited from bursaries, attributed without conditions. But as the country’s socio-economic crisis entered its 20th month, effectively squeezing budgets at a time of a very sharp increase in the number of students, the government last month changed the way in which scholarships are attributed.

In February, President Pierre Nkurunziza signed a decree that transforms the scholarship into a loan that each student undertakes to repay once his or her studies are completed and tightens conditions of granting.

In response to the changes, students from the country’s public universities announced on Friday (24 March) they were embarking on a power struggle to pressure the government into abrogating the new legislation.

Three thousand students from the Ecole normale supérieure du Burundi were the first ones to go on an unlimited strike on Friday morning, according to RFI.

More than 11,000 students from the Université du Burundi are now expected to join their compatriots in the struggle, after 170 student representatives gave Nkurunziza an ultimatum. In a letter, they have given the head of state until 4 April to repeal the decree, and have threatened the students will “suspend all participation in academic activities” would he refuse to do so, RFI reported.

The students’ announcement arrived like a bombshell, given the rampant fear in the country.

The president of the Université du Burundi is quoted as saying he was outraged at his students’ action, and warned their representatives about the “consequences” of their letter. The government no longer tolerates strikes and there are reports trade unionists have been imprisoned.

After a failed coup led by a disloyal faction within the army’s high command, the government intensified its bloody crackdown on dissidents and most of those arrested or disappeared are young men and women accused of participating in or supporting the opposition, or armed groups.

Between 18 and 25 March, NGO SOS Torture Burundi has reported at least six arbitrary arrests and cases of torture. This includes the “illegal detention” of a member of opposition MSD party, Félix Ndayizigiye from Gihanga, province Bubanza, who was released on 20 March after six days in prison.

As a result of ongoing tension, dozens of students have gone into hiding, but they have vowed to carry on their movement, with one quoted as saying: “We are ready to make the sacrifice, we will continue our struggle until we win”. According to the students’ representatives, the decree could “eliminate students from modest families from higher education”.

Burundi was taken from the world’s third-poorest country to the poorest after its economy shrank by 7.4% in 2015 and the GDP levelled at $315.20 dollars per inhabitant, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Source:International Business Times

March 28, 2017
S.African anti-apartheid icon Ahmed Kathrada dies aged 87

{Celebrated South African anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, a Robben Island prisoner and one of Nelson Mandela’s closest colleagues in the struggle against white rule, died early Tuesday aged 87.}

Kathrada was among those tried and jailed alongside Mandela in the Rivonia trial in 1964, which drew worldwide attention to the brutalities of the apartheid regime.

He died in hospital in Johannesburg after a short illness following brain surgery, his charity foundation said.

Kathrada spent 26 years and three months in prison, 18 of which were on Robben Island, the notorious jail off the coast of Cape Town.

After the end of apartheid, he served from 1994 to 1999 as parliamentary counsellor to President Mandela in the first African National Congress (ANC) government.

Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu described Kathrada as “a man of remarkable gentleness, modesty and steadfastness,” hailing him a moral leader of the anti-apartheid movement.

“These were people of the highest integrity and moral fibre who, through their humility and humanity, inspired our collective self-worth -– and the world’s confidence in us,” Tutu said in a statement.

{{- ‘A great patriot’ -}}

Kathrada’s activism against white-minority apartheid rule started at the age of 17, when he was one of 2,000 “passive resisters” arrested in 1946 for defying laws that discriminated against Indian South Africans.

The ANC party was banned in 1960, and two years later Kathrada was placed under “house arrest”.

Soon afterwards, he went underground to continue the struggle as a member of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK).

In July 1963, the police swooped on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a Johannesburg suburb, where Kathrada and other senior activists had been meeting in secret.

At the famous Rivonia trial, eight of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour on Robben Island.

His fellow prisoners included Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Denis Goldberg.

“The nation has lost a titan, an outstanding leader and a great patriot,” the ANC said in a tribute to Kathrada on Tuesday.

“His life is a lesson in humility, tolerance, resilience and a steadfast commitment to principle.

“Uncle Kathy, despite disagreement with the ANC leadership from time to time, never abandoned nor turned his back on the ANC.”

The Nelson Mandela Foundation lauded him as “the embodiment of promise” during the apartheid years, saying Kathrada was “a comrade, associate and close friend of Nelson Mandela’s through seven decades.”

{{- Key negotiator -}}

Released from prison in 1989, the softly-spoken Kathrada belonged to the golden generation of freedom fighters untainted by later corruption scandals.

In jail, he had been a teacher for fellow prisoners and a strategic thinker who formed part of the ANC delegation in the negotiations that finally ended apartheid.

Derek Hanekom, a fellow veteran activist and now a government minister, said he had lost a “revolutionary mentor and dear friend”.

“Comrade Kathy was a gentle, humane and humble soul. He was a determined revolutionary who gave his entire life to the liberation struggle in our country,” Hanekom said.

Fellow Robben Island prisoner Laloo “Isu” Chiba said Kathrada was a figurehead to anti-apartheid colleagues.

“He has been my strength in prison, my guide in political life and my pillar of strength in the most difficult moments of my life,” Chiba, 89, said in a statement issued by the Ahmad Kathrada Foundation.

Kathrada will be buried according to Muslim religious rights on Wednesday, the foundation said.

He choose not to pursue a political career, but remained an activist and was critical of the current ANC government under President Jacob Zuma.

He was survived by his wife, Barbara Hogan, also an ANC stalwart.

“This is great loss to the ANC, the broader liberation movement and South Africa as a whole,” said Neeshan Balton, head of Kathrada Foundation.

“‘Kathy’ was an inspiration to millions in different parts of the world.”

Source:AFP

March 28, 2017
Uganda:Two sheikhs arrested over armed robberies

{Police in Malaba and Busia border towns have arrested two sheikhs on suspicion of coordinating a spate of robberies.}

Bukedi Region police spokesperson Sowali Kamulya confirmed the arrests, which he said were carried out by the police’s Flying Squad.

He said the suspects were arrested on Sunday during the ongoing crackdown on armed robbers in the two border towns.
Kamulya said the two sheikhs were arrested following intelligence information that they were playing a leading role in the series of robberies that have hit Busia and Malaba border towns recently.

He said the intelligence information showed that the two sheikhs also had counterparts, with whom they are dealing with, across the border in Kenya.
Two bullets were reportedly recovered during the arrest of one of the sheikhs.

Kamulya said the Flying Squad operation followed increasing incidences of related crimes since last year. Police in the two districts of Tororo and Busia have registered 82 robbery cases and the majority were committed in the two border towns.

“The arrest of the suspects will lead us to trace the rest of the gang who are still at large. However, we suspect that the number is big and well coordinated’’ Mr Kamulya said.

He said most of the robberies involved theft of motorcycles, motor-vehicles and cash. Many of the victims were killed during the robberies as they attempted to protect their property.

He said between January last year to February this year, Tororo District recorded 72 theft cases while Busia District recorded 54.

Source:Daily Monitor

March 28, 2017