IGIHE

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  • South Sudan ceasefire talks open in Ethiopia

    South Sudan ceasefire talks open in Ethiopia

    {Talks to end the South Sudan conflict have opened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry says.}

    Negotiators for the government and rebel sides have been meeting mediators but have not yet held face-to-face talks, it is understood.

    Delegates began arriving in the Ethiopian capital on Wednesday but talks were delayed until the full negotiations teams had arrived.

    Meanwhile, the US is moving out some of its embassy staff from South Sudan.

    The state department announced a “further drawdown” of its embassy in Juba, and said it would no longer be providing consular services to US citizens in the country.

    It also urged citizens to leave on an evacuation flight from Juba “to the nearest safe haven country” on Friday.

    At least 1,000 people have died and more than 180,000 people have been displaced in fighting that erupted in mid-December.

    What began as a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar has taken on the overtones of an ethnic conflict, correspondents say.

    Aid workers are warning of a potential humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of people are living without shelter, clean water and sanitation

    BBC

  • DRC’s Mamadou Ndala killed in ambush

    DRC’s Mamadou Ndala killed in ambush

    {The colonel in charge of military operations against fighters in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been killed in an ambush along with three other soldiers, according to a government spokesman.}

    Lambert Mende, the spokesman, said on Thursday that Colonel Mamadou Ndala, who helped to secure the military defeat of the M23 rebel group in November, died of his injuries after a rocket attack on his vehicle near the village of Masisi in North Kivu province.

    “Colonel Mamadou Ndala has been killed.

    “Apparently it was the ADF-Nalu [Ugandan rebel force] that killed him and two of his bodyguards,” Mende told news agency AFP.

    “This is really an immense loss for the armed forces and the republic.”

    ADF-NALU has been blamed for attacks and kidnappings around the town of Beni in North Kivu, including the deaths of at least 60 civilians in two attacks last month.

    The DRC government, together with 21,000 peacekeeping troops from the UN, are attempting to subdue armed groups that are operating in the east of the country.

    Source:
    AFP

  • Rwandan Students want unlimited mandates of the President

    Rwandan Students want unlimited mandates of the President

    {Students of Rwandan universities Volunteers Organization (RVO) have proposed that the Rwandan Constitution should be revised to put in the clause of unlimited mandates of the President of the Republic instead of two terms. However Political parties differ from this position.}

    Students proposed this during a session held on December, 31, 2013 in the premises of the ULK.

    The meeting was attended by delegates from different universities in the country who issued a specific recommendation that the 2003 Constitution should be revised to allow the President of the Republic to seek unlimited mandates.

    They also proposed that citizen should not wait for the end of current seven year term to vote for their leaders noting that it should be reduce to five as it was before.

    “We, the youth are the hope of the country. We have analyzed and concluded that the 7-year term by the President of the Republic, it is too long. We find that the Constitution should be revised on this article and ad reference to the number of terms should be removed to allow citizens enjoy the benefits of their president. We find that the provision of two terms of 7 years each is problem. This clause is a handicap when President works well. He cannot leave when people still need him. The country would lose an enlightened leader “, said Jean Bosco Mutangana, National Coordinator of RVO student at ULK.

  • RDB and Solimar International to promote Tourism potential

    RDB and Solimar International to promote Tourism potential

    Rwanda Development Board, in partnership with Solimar International, a Washington DC-based tourism development and marketing firm, are in a campaign to promote Rwanda’s tourism potential.

    According to RDB, the US company brings an extensive international expertise and vast experience working in East Africa to boost the country’s top foreign exchange earner.

    The New Times reported that the 18 months campaign which is geared towards promoting Rwanda amongst the East African Community (EAC) states will focus on distinguishing the country from neighbouring destinations by informing EAC nationals, expatriates and international travellers about the country’s extensive nature and culture-based tourism attractions.

    Effective New Year’s Day, tourists visiting the East African countries of Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda use a single visa to tour areas of interest within the specified nations.

    The $100 (about Rwf67,500) visa valid for 90 days is paid at the point of entry or in foreign missions and each state will take a share of $30.

    However, the country that processes the visa entry will receive an extra $10 in administration costs.

    “This is a prime opportunity for Rwanda that comes after the launch of the East African single joint visa and the broad global recognition of Rwanda’s exceptional nature, culture, and adventure experiences in publications like National Geographic Traveller and Conde Naste Traveller,” David C. Brown, the director of marketing and communication at Solimar International, told The New Times via e-mail on Tuesday.

    Brown, who heads the campaign, said the drive will increase the flow of tourists coming to Rwanda from other EAC countries.

    “We will work with RDB and members of the regional and international tourism industry, including tour operators, travel agents, airlines, and transportation providers to better understand Rwanda’s tourism offer and how they can sell it to their clientele. We will be speaking directly to EAC tourism consumers through social and traditional media,” he said.

    The campaign is designed to be an important component of reaching the RDB’s target of a 10 per cent increase in EAC arrivals within two years, says RDB.

    During the 18-month drive, RDB and Solimar International will apply various activities to showcase Rwanda’s tourism industry to the world, including the use of maps, photos, videos, mobile apps, and an online destination specialist course that provides detailed information on travel logistics and tourism attractions.

  • Rwandan fugitive dies in SA hotel

    Rwandan fugitive dies in SA hotel

    {Patrick Karegeya, who has been living as a fugitive from Rwandan justice for the last six years following an international arrest warrant, was on January 1 found dead in Michelangelo Towers, an upmarket hotel in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton in South Africa.}

    The circumstances leading to his death remain unknown.

    The South African police said they were conducting investigations.

    “We are waiting for the findings of the investigation to know what happened,” Rwanda’s High commissioner in South Africa Vincent Karega told The New Times yesterday.

    Karegeya, who served in the Rwandan Defence Forces but later stripped of his rank of Colonel, was a fugitive of justice after a military court in January, 2011, handed him a jail term of 20 years in absentia for disturbing public order, threatening state security and criminal conspiracy, among others.

  • Ban appoints Swiss national to senior humanitarian position in Somalia

    Ban appoints Swiss national to senior humanitarian position in Somalia

    {Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Philippe Lazzarini as his Deputy Special Representative, as well as Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, in Somalia.}

    Mr. Lazzarini, a citizen of Switzerland, will serve as Deputy to Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Nicholas Kay, who heads the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM).

    The Security Council established the Mission in May to more effectively coordinate international support for Somalia’s Federal Government.

    Somalia has been torn asunder by factional fighting since 1991 but has recently made progress towards stability. In 2011, Islamist Al-Shabaab insurgents retreated from Mogadishu and last year new Government institutions emerged, as the country ended a transitional phase toward setting up a permanent, democratically-elected Government.

    The Mission’s mandate includes providing UN ‘good offices’ functions to support peace and reconciliation; assisting the Government and the existing African Union peacekeeping force, known as AMISOM, with advice on peacebuilding and State building; assisting in coordinating international support; helping build capacity in human rights and the rule of law; and monitoring and helping prevent human rights violations.

    Mr. Lazzarini, who has been the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Somalia since March 2013, will also continue to bring together the different UN agencies operating in Somalia to improve their efficiency and effectiveness at providing humanitarian and development support to the Government.

    Prior to this assignment, he held a number of senior positions in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), including as Deputy Director of the Coordination and Response Division (2011 to 2013), and in various field positions in Iraq, Angola, Somalia, and the occupied Palestinian territory.

    Before joining the UN, Mr. Lazzarini served as a delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in southern Sudan, Beirut, Amman and Gaza. He also led ICRC operations in Bosnia, Angola and Rwanda.

    UN

  • Afghanistan rejects grim U.S. intelligence forecast as baseless

    Afghanistan rejects grim U.S. intelligence forecast as baseless

    {Afghanistan on Monday rejected as baseless a U.S. intelligence forecast that the gains the United States and allies have made in the past three years will be significantly rolled back by 2017.}

    The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate also predicted that Afghanistan would fall into chaos if Washington and Kabul failed to sign a pact to keep an international military contingent there beyond 2014.

    President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman dismissed the U.S. forecast, reported by the Washington Post on the weekend, and suggested there was an ulterior motive for it.

    “We strongly reject that as baseless as they have in the past been proved inaccurate,” Faizi told Reuters.

    Relations between Afghanistan and the United States have grown seriously strained recently by Karzai’s refusal to sign the security pact that would permit some U.S. forces to stay.

    U.S. officials have said that unless a deal is reached to keep perhaps 8,000 U.S. troops, the Taliban might stage a major comeback and al Qaeda could regain safe havens.

    The pact must also be signed for the United States and its allies to provide billions more dollars in aid.

    Without a deal, the United States could pull out all troops, the so-called zero option, leaving Afghan forces to battle the Taliban on their own.

    The United States has set a Tuesday deadline for Afghanistan to sign the pact but the White House has said it is prepared to let the deadline slip until early January.

    The U.S. intelligence estimate predicted setbacks even if some U.S. troops remained. But some U.S. officials felt the forecast was overly pessimistic, the Washington Post said.

    LAND FOR PEACE?

    Faizi suggested the leaking of the gloomy U.S. intelligence report was part of bid to press Karzai into granting the Taliban control of some areas as part of a peace moves.

    “If it’s a design to hand over parts of Afghanistan to the Taliban, we will never allow that and it will never succeed,” Faizi said. “The Taliban can only come back through a political process.”

    Efforts over the past couple of years to bring the Taliban into peace talks have come to nothing. The insurgents, fighting to expel foreign forces and set up an Islamist state, denounce Karzai as a U.S. “puppet”.

    Karzai recently said certain foreigners had been asking him to give up control of some areas to get peace talks going.

    “Foreigners told us recently to hand over or give away some areas to the Taliban, and from where a peace process could begin,” Karzai told reporters at a briefing last week.

    He did not identify the foreigners.

    Karzai also denied having reached agreement with the United States on the wording of contentious clauses in the U.S. security pact. But he added that the “zero-option” was an empty threat.

    “The U.S. won’t go and I have realized that,” he said.

    “Look at all those buildings and bases they have built in Bagram, Helmand and their embassy compound,” Karzai said, referring to a big air base north of Kabul and a violence-plagued southern province.

    Reuters

  • Who is Congo’s Mukungubila: ‘Prophet’ or coup mastermind?

    Who is Congo’s Mukungubila: ‘Prophet’ or coup mastermind?

    {Joseph Mukungubila Mutombo was questioning – and embellishing – his identity long before he shot into the international spotlight on Monday, when intruders disrupted a live TV show, proclaiming to be followers of “Gideon Mukungubila”.}

    “Gideon” is just one of several monikers associated with the former soldier-turned Congolese presidential candidate-turned-televangelist-turned-prophet.

    These include “the prophet of the eternal” or “Paul Joseph Mukungubila” or sometimes simply, “prophet Mukungubila”.

    The self-proclaimed prophet’s Monday morning rise to fame was captured live on Congolese state broadcaster RTNC, when a group of men stormed onto the set of “Le Panier,” or “The Breadbasket” show.

    Amid scenes of utter confusion, Le Panier’s two presenters were taken hostage as men armed with machetes and sticks shouted orders in the local Lingala language, mobile phones rang, and at one stage, a vuvuzela incongruously appeared on the set. Then the state TV service was abruptly cut.

    But before the transmission stopped, a voice off-camera proclaimed in Lingala, “Gideon Mukungubila has come to free you from the slavery of the Rwandan”. Congo’s President Joseph Kabila is often derisively referred to as “the Rwandan” by his opponents – a term that underscores the deep animosity among many Congolese citizens against their country’s tiny, eastern neighbour’s meddling in their insecure, but resource-rich homeland.

    As the international community struggled to assess the situation in the troubled African nation, news organisations across the world were scrambling for information about the mysterious “prophet” who appeared to be at the centre of the Congo’s latest crisis.

    A rebirth timed to enhance a messianic, nationalist appeal

    Questions about the identity and intent of Mukungubila have been circulating ever since the former soldier embraced his new persona as a man of God.

    “Who is Paul Mukungubila: God or Christ?” read an undated communiqué issued by his “Ministry of Restoration from Black Africa”. The answer provided by the statement was rambling and disconcerting: “Paul Mukungubila is the prophet of God, by whom the creator is speaking to us on this world today on this last stage Christ ministry after the saint land had been profaned by unbelievers.” [sic]

    An enigmatic figure, Mukungubila’s date of birth is listed as December 26, 1947, in an English language statement by his ministry. In a French language video posted on his official website, Mukungubila’s spiritual date of birth is said to be 1959 – a year before Congolese independence – in a “rebirth” obviously timed to enhance his messianic and nationalistic appeal.

    God and patriotism appear to be Mukungubila’s twin populist themes in a vast, weak nation that has been open to manipulation by smaller, stronger neighbouring states since the 1997 ouster of longtime Congolese autocrat Mobutu Sese Seko.

    Mobutu was ousted by Laurent Kabila – the current president’s father – with the help of Rwandan-backed troops. Relations between Congo and Rwanda have been strained, with the two countries twice going to war.

    Congolese-Rwandan relations nosedived again this year, when the UN accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of supporting M23 rebels – comprised of mostly ethnic Tutsis, like Rwanda’s leaders – in eastern Congo.

    In November, Congolese soldiers backed by UN troops finally defeated the M23 and earlier this month, the Congolese government signed a peace deal with the rebel leadership in Kenya.

    A long-shot presidential candidate

    Mukungubila, who hails from the southeastern Katanga province, has vocally opposed the peace negotiations.

    In an open letter released on December 5, Mukungubila criticised what he called Kabila’s soft stance on the M23 rebels. “Imagine negotiating and signing an agreement with a defeated M23 that no longer exists while emphasising integration – it’s simply unacceptable. These are people who massacred, who murdered Congolese people, and we know very well that they are Rwandans,” said the statement.

    “Gideon Mukungubila is known in Kinshasa as a prophet of God who has always condemned and launched verbal attacks against the government,” explained Adam Shemisi, a Congolese journalist, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “He denounces everyone in power. We wonder how he was able to mobilise this militia that managed to take journalists hostage. ”

    The televangelist’s opposition to Kabila took an overtly political form when he ran for president in the 2006 Congolese election.

    But as an independent in a race with 33 registered candidates, Mukungubila was not considered a frontrunner.

    “He ran for president in 2006, which does not mean he was a serious contender for the presidency,” said US journalist Philip Gourevitch in an interview with FRANCE 24’s sister station, RFI. “He’s not somebody who has left a visible track as a national figure until his name popped up [on Monday] to the great surprise of everybody.”

    Mukungubila admits followers involvement

    Even in a country that’s no stranger to insecurity, Monday’s incident in the heart of the capital, which killed around 40 people, caught observers off-guard. By noon, a Congolese army spokesman said there had been clashes between security forces and gunmen in the Katanga provincial capital of Lubumbashi and the death toll had mounted to more than 70.

    Speaking to reporters on Monday, Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende advised caution over reports holding Mukungubila or his supporters responsible for the attacks.

    “The attackers presented themselves as supporters of Mukungubila. We are checking because this could be an attempt to fool us,” said Mende.

    But in a phone interview with FRANCE 24 later Monday, Mukungubila confirmed that some of his followers were among the attackers. He insisted, however, that the incidents were a spontaneous reaction to attacks against his congregants over the weekend.

    “I think that using the word ‘assailant’ is going too far. I was the one who was attacked. Seeing that, my brothers…were upset. It wasn’t just in Kinshasa that they attacked. They took the airport. In [the central Congolese city of] Kissangani, they entered the town,” said Mukungubila.

    From prophet to trouble-maker

    Monday’s incidents came a day after Gen. John Numbi, the country’s top cop, was suspended and replaced by Gen. Charles Bisengimana, an ethnic Tutsi, sparking criticism in some Congolese circles over the perceived over-representation of Tutsis in senior security positions. Local media reports referred to the new police chief as a “Rwandophone” in a country where anti-Rwanda sentiment runs high.

    In a statement published on Facebook, officials at the Ministry of Restoration from Black Africa said the latest unrest started on Sunday evening in Lubumbashi, when “children” distributing leaflets of Mukungubila’s message that Congo could not be ruled by “a foreigner” were arrested.

    The arrests were followed by attacks against top Ministry of Restoration from Black Africa supporters, the statement added, which in turn fuelled Monday’s attacks.

    Speaking to FRANCE 24 on Monday evening, Mukungubila, the “prophet of god”, suggested that the latest events might see his eventful life take yet another turn.

    “It will continue like that,” Mukungubila told FRANCE 24. “It’s not normal. We are going to show what we are capable of.”

    France 24

  • Rwanda: Mukakibibi Saidat still alive in the field of Journalism

    Rwanda: Mukakibibi Saidat still alive in the field of Journalism

    {Hearing the name “Saidat Mukakibibi,” one remembers some words she uttered to journalists during her release from jail.}

    It was on 25 June 2013 when Saidat Mukakibibi left the Central Prison of Kigali.

    Mukakibi imprisoned as journalist and left prison as a journalist

    Speaking to journalists who were armed with sound recorders, Microphones, cameras, Notebooks, etc, Saidat said “I was imprisoned as a journalist and I left as a Journalist”

    Five months later, she founded a bimonthly ‘Mont Jali News.”

    This Rwandan Female Journalist told this site that the editorial line of her Newspaper focuses on rural development, field visit in order to find out what is going on among rural communities, and how citizens understand issues that affect their lives, etc.

    In the first issue that appeared on December 9th, there are somehow hard critical accents as these ones “Hutus in penitence seat” literary translated:”Abahutu mu ntebe ya penetensiya” where Hutus apologize for the sins that were committed in their ethnic names.

    Another title in her Newspapers appears to be “Gen. Rwarakabije should be forced to resign …

    The second issue of the journal has a revealing title of the editorial line of the newspaper that ‘Victoire Ingabire starts Calvary’, ‘what the message Mandela carries to Rwandan Heroes?

    Commenting on the name of her Newspaper, Mukakibibi explains that ‘Mont Jali News” is a news papers which stands on a summit of the mountain like the Jali Mountain where everyone can hear the loud sound which voiced from that mountain.

    She said the Newspaper was founded to give a voice to every Rwandan to freely express him/herself by sharing constructive ideas which also support Unity of Rwandans rather than encouraging disunity among them.

  • African Union threatens S Sudan sanctions

    African Union threatens S Sudan sanctions

    {The African Union has threatened targeted sanctions against those inciting the violence in South Sudan and hampering international efforts to negotiate an end to the two-week outburst of fighting that risks drawing in the wider region.}

    At a meeting in Gambia in West Africa, the AU said late on Monday it was dismayed by the bloodletting that has already killed more than a thousand people in the world’s youngest country.

    “(Council) expresses its intention to take appropriate measures, including targeted sanctions, against all those who incite violence, including along ethnic lines, continue hostilities (and) undermine the envisaged inclusive dialogue,” the AU’s Peace and Security Council said.

    On Tuesday South Sudanese troops fought rebels believed to be loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar in the flashpoint town of Bor.

    “We are fighting the rebels now,” Mayor of Bor Nhial Majak Nhial told Reuters news agency.

    South Sudan’s neighbours have given the warring factions until the end of Tuesday to lay down their arms and begin negotiations – but so far there has been no sign of the hostilities ending.

    The violence erupted on December 15 when fighting broke out among a group of soldiers in the capital, Juba, but quickly spread to more than half the country.

    Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Monday east African nations had agreed to move in and defeat rebel leader Riek Machar if he rejected a government ceasefire offer.

    There was no immediate confirmation of the pact from other nations.

    Even so, Museveni’s words demonstrated the scale of regional worry over the fighting, often along ethnic lines between Machar’s Nuer group and President Salva Kiir’s Dinka, that has spread to South Sudan’s oil fields, forcing a cut in output.

    Source:
    Reuters