Category: News

{{There are regional issues with challenges and opportunities, some of which will be there for some time. These issues end up being international.

They are complicated even further by international actors. This is the situation we have in the Congo.}}

Looking at it superficially, as some have, it is easy to apportion the blame; indeed, put the blame on Rwanda’s shoulders. But this problem has not been caused nor abetted by Rwanda.

In the past three to four years, no one has worked as hard as Rwanda for peace in both our country and our neighbours. The recent problem was created by the international community – our partners.

They don’t listen, nor provide the solution, they just keep creating problems. We know our problems and those of the region better than they do; we are genuine about wanting to find a solution.

They will come, run over everything and when things explode, turn around and blame it on you.

The Democratic Republic of Congo had elections. We tried to play a very positive role with the government in Congo despite its many problems.

We worked together on security challenges that have affected us for the past 18 years.

Some people are not happy about that so they come up with the idea to have certain people arrested in the Congo for justice, for accountability, which is good if only it wasn’t selective.

They came to us and said, “You know what, we want to arrest some people in Congo and we want you to help arrest these people.”

Go ahead and arrest them, why do you even come to us? They said, “No, we want you to help the government of DRC arrest so and so.”

{First Publsished in Africa Review}

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Sunday accused the British police of attempting to storm the mission last week in a bid to spirit him away to Sweden in defiance of the Vienna Convention.

He made a dramatic appearance on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London,

In his firststatement in two months, he also asked the US government to call off a “witch-hunt” against the whistleblowing website that has angered Washington by publishing secret diplomatic cables.

The 41-year-old Australian, who faces allegations of rape and sexual harassment in Sweden, fears Stockholm may extradite him to the US, where, in his view, he would face persecution and long-term imprisonment.

Speaking from within the London mission to avoid arrest by the British police, who have surrounded the building, Assange said, “The United States war on whistleblowers must end.”

“On Wednesday night after a threat was sent to this embassy and police descended on this building you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it,” Assange told hundreds of free-speech campaigners and journalists at Knightsbridge, where the embassy is located on the first floor of a block of luxury flats.

“Inside this embassy after dark I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through its internal fire escape.

If the UK did not throw away the Vienna Convention… it was because the world was watching…”

The convention protects foreign embassies and diplomats from host governments.

But, in what has been widely seen as a threat, British officials last week spoke of a 1987 law that allows them to de-recognise a diplomatic building.

Foreign minister William Hague has denied the allegation.

Assange jumped bail on June 19 to seek refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy following which Quito offered him political asylum.

AFP

{{Although the DRC military units have been known to defect to the M23 rebel group, the past weeks have seen defections of FARDC soldiers to join the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI) led by Cobra Matata.}}

In a statement released August 17, its indicated that the last two months, four groups of soldiers have joined the FRPI militia in Ituri.

Local congolese media quoted the President of the Ituri civil society who says these defections are primarily recorded in the localities of Bugoro, Marabo and Komanda.

However, its not established why FARDC soldiers are defecting to FRPI militia,”which is in the process of integration into the national army,” and asked the military authorities to accelerate this process to appease civilians who are these defections fear of rising insecurity in Ituri.

The operations officer at the General Staff in Ituri, General Dieudonné Amuli says he remains confident of progress of the integration process of Cobra Matata and his men in the Congolese army.

In February this year, Cobra Matata had expressed willingness to join the army with his men, saying “it is time to make peace.”

However, since then FRPI and three other armed groups in Ituri regrouped in a league called: Coalition of armed groups in Ituri (Cogai) led by Cobra Matata.

These militiamen also called for the creation of a military region in Ituri led by a native of this district and the departure of Colonel Fal Sikabwé, current head of the operations in the area.

At the beginning of August, the battalion commander of FARDC Major Taikondo Nonzi, defected and joined the FRPI. According to the spokesman of the militia, the officer defected with his deputy and several soldiers from his old battalion, carrying weapons and ammunition.

Confirming information, in Ituri commander, Colonel Fall Sikabue, announced that soldiers are in pursuit of the deserter.

Two months ago, nearly a hundred soldiers had joined the same militia Bogoro. These soldiers had mentioned the lack of pay and poor treatment to explain their desertion.

{{Up to 31 people including Sudan’s religious affairs were killed today morning in a plane crash in Talodi, South Kordofan, the official a news agency announced today.}}

Minister Ghazi Al-Sadiq was heading with other government officials to the troubled state to perform Eid prayer marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan when his plane went down killing him and the accompanying delegation.

There are not details about the cause of the incident but the government said the plane crashed due to harsh weather conditions in the outskirts of Talodi airport.

The Sudanese government is fighting a rebellion in the South Kordofan led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) since June 2011.

The two parties are holding talks since last July in implementation of a roadmap prepared by the African Union mediation team endorsed by UN Security Council in its resolution 2046.

Talks are expected to resume during the last week of August after the signing of a humanitarian agreement to distribute food to the affected civilians in the rebel held areas.

{{The Survival of Lions in East and South Africa are at risk following a growing demand of Lion bones for use in asian traditional medicine.}}

A lion skeleton these days fetches up to $10,000. A few hundred partial or complete lion skeletons were shipped out of the country in 2010, according to latest official figures — all completely legal.

The trade which started in 2008 has driven up exports from South Africa to the East and creating new fears of the survival of the species.

Conservationists are already angry over lion trophy hunting.

The skeletons are mostly shipped to Vietnam and Laos, feeding conservationists’ fears that the market will drive up lion poaching — just as the illegal hunting of rhinos escalates for their horns, also popular in Asian traditional remedies.

“Suddenly, and very recently, there are a great number of people from Laos who have a big interest for trophy hunting. And that had never happened in the whole history of Laos!” said Mr Pieter Kat from conservation NGO LionAid.

Around 500 lions are hunted legally every year in South Africa, most of them from commercial lion breeding farms which also supply zoos all over the world.

Until recently hunters paid $20,000 (16,000 euros) just for a trophy to hang above the fireplace, and the carcass was thrown to the dogs.

But their crushed bones have become popular as substitute for the bones of tigers in love potions or “tiger wine”. Trade in tiger parts is banned under international law as the animal is a threatened species.

Now Asian hunters buy lion trophy hunting permits to get at the bones.”They prefer hunting lionesses, whose $4,000 price tag is more affordable than the males,” Kat said.

Most swear it’s about the trophy, which means safari operators and breeders can easily dispose of the carcass at the same time and make an extra buck.

{{More than Three hundred Rwandan nationals living in Belgium have today noon taken to the streets to protest against what they termed as racist and xenophobic attacks by Congolese nationals. }}

Rwandans both in DRC and Belgium have been attacked by congolese nationals in the past weeks.

Twagirimana Emmanuel the leader of Rwandan Diaspora in Belgium told IGIHE via telephone, ” We are protesting to show that we reject attacks from congolese nationals. We cannot live like this. This must stop immidiately”.

Twagiramana told IGIHE that Eight Rwandans have since been attacked most of whom were admited to hospitals with severe injuries.

However,the Belgium government has since deported 18 congolese national in connection with the attacks against Rwandan community in Belgium.

The Rwandan protestors demanded the Belgium government to accord the security to deter any further attacks by Congolese nationals.

Attacks against Rwandans started in 2011 during presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC).

{{Unconfirmed reports indicate that Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who has not appeared in public for several weeks is reportedly in Addis Ababa.}}

Zenawi has been suffering from unspecified illness and is back in town after receiving successful medical treatment in undisclosed hospital in Europe, according to government sources cited by Sudan Tribune.

He has been out of the public view since last June. Government officials, who yet refused to officially disclose details of his illness said he is currently on good shape taking sick-leave on recommendations of his Doctors and will soon be in official duty.

Last week, Zenawi’s close ally, Information Minster, Bereket Simon, told the Australian based Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) radio station that the Ethiopian premier is recovering fast and will be back in office sooner than the Ethiopian New Year of 2005 which will turn-in on the coming September 11.

Following his disappearance, a number of news outlet reported he was suffering of a brain tumor, a claim the Ethiopian government dismissed while few other opposition websites circulated that 57-year-old Zenawi had died.

Zenawi supporters in Addis Ababa expect that the Ethiopian leader will reappear and address the public on the day of the Ethiopian New Year.

According to AU officials, Zenawi has – from his sick bed – been supporting the Africa Union mediating panel during the latest round of Khartoum-Juba negotiating talks that saw a break-through in reaching deal on oil transit fees between the two former rival neighboring countries.

The Ethiopian government and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in person have been exerting maximum efforts in pushing and encouraging the two parties to narrow their differences and peacefully resolve their dispute.

{{Tanzanian airspace might not be safe following reports of a non functional radar at Julius Nyerere International Airport.}}

Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) confirmed the Radar has not been working for two weeks, reported The Citizen saying that the system broke down on August 3, forcing air traffic controllers to provide air traffic management services without using radar.

TCAA Director General Fadhili Manongi said they had asked Britain’s BAE Systems to supply the equipment whose failure caused the equipment to stop working.

The same publication quoted a source that said the radar experienced power supply failure since August 3, rendering it useless and cautioned that if the situation continued for long, major airlines will stop flying to JNIA for safety reasons.

The sources said air traffic controllers at the airport had for the past two weeks been using procedural control, which is a method of providing air traffic control services without the use of radar.

They said the method was unpopular with most pilots, who are used to radar and the Global Positioning System (GPS).

“With radar, an air traffic controller can see all planes flying in our airspace on the screen. Without this facility, air traffic controllers are reduced to relying on guesswork, which is very dangerous,” a source said.

Major airlines that fly to and from JNIA include British Airways, Qatar Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Swiss International Airlines, Emirates, South African Airways and Ethiopian Airlines.

{{A man is under Police custody at Ruli Police station in Gakenke District in connection with the death of his father.

Innocent Munyemana 28, allegedly murdered his father identified as Evariste Habufite 55, on August 16.}}

The murder resulted from a dispute between the two after Habufite refused to pay his son enough money which they had earned jointly after finishing the house they had been contracted to build in the area.

Munyemana admited to Police claiming he killed his father deliberately because he had refused to give him his share of the money they had worked for together.

“It’s unbearable that family wrangles lead to deaths, even when they can be avoided,” Police Spokesperson, Superintendent Theos Badege, said.

If convicted, Munyemana is likely to be sentenced to life in prison.

{{Five People have sustained serious injuries and rushed to Kabgayi hospital for urgent medical attention following an accident involving a commuter taxi that crashed into a UNHCR truck.}}

Either other people sustained minor injuries. The accident is said to have been a result of overspeeding while overtaking.

The accident happened along Muhanga-Ngororero highway between Mata and Karimira stretch in Muhanga district.

IGIHE arrived at the scene moments after the accident had occured.

The Truck driver only identified as Mohamed said, “I was driving uphill from Gitarama connecting to Ngororero. When i reached at the junction , i saw a commuter taxi overtaking a Coaster Bus (belonging to International Company). Immidiately the commuter taxi crashed into the truck i was driving. I tried to avoid the commuter taxi but it was too late.”