Police was tipped by residents in the area about the gangsters who were smuggling cannabis from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
During the drug crackdown in Nengo Cell of Gisenyi Sector, Police intercepted 25kgs of cannabis after stopping traffickers who immediately ran away.
Police Spokesperson in Western Region, IP Eulade Gakwaya said that traffickers were smuggling the drugs from the neighboring country through Kivu Lake.
He said that locals informed the police that the boat loaded cannabis was heading to the shores of the lake and the force intercepted them but traffickers ran away leaving cannabis in the hands of police. The drugs were later taken to Gisenyi Police Station and the pursuit of the smugglers was initiated right away.
Gakwaya urged the residents to avoid involving in drugs because they have bad effects on people’s health.
“People should avoid drug dealership as they hamper the development of the country, they weaken thinking capacity and lead users into dangers,” he said.
He hailed people who informed the police on time, making it easier to intercept the drugs, and urged others join in the course of fighting crimes.
The Northern Province Governor, Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi made the call over the weekend as the Diaspora members and the province’s officials celebrated the New Year.
The event attracted about 50 people from Europe, Americas and Africa who have been in the country for festive holidays and others who participated in the just concluded national dialogue council (Umushyikirano).
Gatabazi presented potential opportunities to participants and urged them to invest in infrastructure.
“This province receives many tourists. I urge you to invest your money in constructing hotels, restaurants and entertainment pitches so that tourists can have all facilities close to them,” he said.
Rwandan Diaspora Coordinator, Daniel Murenzi hailed the idea and pledged their contribution in building the country.
“Being sensitised on investing locally is another advantage. It simply implies how we are valued in our country; our contribution in the country’s development is our responsibility, we promise our partnership and full commitment,” he said.
Dieudonné Ntasinzira, a Rwandan living in Belgium said that they have a big task to promote the country’s image in Diaspora communities.
“As Rwandans living abroad, we have a task of promoting our country. For us in Belgium, we have organised a five-day exhibition that will showcase Made in Rwanda products and will take place in Brussels. The exhibition will help show Rwandans and foreigners where to start from when they want to invest in the country,” he explained.
Rwandan community in Diaspora contribute in different socio-economic development activities like paying health insurance for poor families and providing them with the foundational support for development.
The International Organization for Migration has called the Mediterranean “by far the world’s deadliest border,” as more than 33,000 migrants have died at sea trying to enter Europe since 2000.
More than 3,100 migrants died making the trip in 2017, but the IOM notes the number of fatalities is likely higher due to the number of boats that sink without rescue crews knowing. Last year, more than 5,000 people died along the sea route.
“People are still dying at sea in enormous numbers, even after years of seeing this happen repeatedly,” Eugenio Ambrosi, IOM regional director for the European Union, Norway and Switzerland, said in November. “We have to ask ourselves, why is this still happening?”
The Libyan Navy said on Saturday at least 25 migrants drowned off the country’s coast after their boat capsized in international waters, the Associated Press reports.
In a separate incident, the Italian coast guard on Saturday recovered the bodies of eight migrants and rescued 84 others from a smugglers’ boat off the Libyan coast. The AP reports the migrants were in the water for hours before being saved and dozens could still be missing.
The death toll continues to rise even though the number of migrants crossing the sea has significantly decreased. The number of arrivals has sharply dropped since the European Union reached a deal with Turkey in March 2016 to close a main route along the Eastern Mediterranean into Greece.
The IOM reported on Friday that 171,635 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2017, down from 363,504 arrivals last year. The majority of those migrants arrived in Italy, followed by Greece, Spain and Cyprus.
“Rescue at sea needs to be more robust and well resourced, with a clear, life-saving mandate and better cooperation among all actors involved,” Ambrosi said. “But at the same time, the best way to save lives is to offer migrants a way around smugglers through safe and legal bridges to Europe.”
As NPR has previously reported, many of the victims have died in mass drownings after smugglers force hundreds of people into delicate dinghy-style small boats. Since the collapse of Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s government in 2011, Libya has become the main transit point for migrants seeking to reach Europe by sea.
According to Amnesty International, European governments have also been complicit in the abuse of refugees in Libyan detention centers, as they work to reduce the number of migrants arriving from the North African country.
Many North African migrants who try to reach Europe by boat are often intercepted by the Libyan coast guard and handed over to criminal gangs that traffic them. Nearly 20,000 people are detained in Libya, Amnesty says.
“European governments have [implemented] migration-control policies that, by reinforcing the capacity and commitment of Libyan authorities to stop sea crossings, are trapping thousands of women, men, and children in a country where they are systematically exposed to abuse and where they have little chance to seek and obtain protection,” according to a December report by the human rights group.
{{Source:NPR}}
Through his twitter handle, Kagame encouraged participants in the exercise saying that they should make it sustainable for health benefits.
“Happy to see how car-free day is successful and continuing to attract thousands not only in Kigali but across the country,” he said.
“Congratulations to everyone who participates in car free day. We should make it sustainable/long term. The health and other benefits are enormous!” reads his tweet.
While participating in the sports last month, Kagame called for increase of hours for the programme to help contribute in promoting healthy life among Rwandans.
Based on Kagame’s call, the City of Kigali Mayor Pascal Nyamulinda announced, while participating in ‘car free day’ yesterday, that they have increased days of the activity from one to two days monthly.
He said the mass sports will take place at the first and third weekends of every month.
“I can assure you that it will occur twice a month as was requested by the Head of State when he was visiting us,” he said.
Car Free Day programme was launched in 2016 and was aimed at sensitizing city dwellers on sports culture and preventing non-communicable diseases.
According to the magazine, Kagame won as an African whose activities, policies and actions have contributed to ‘creating jobs and wealth creation; promotion, defense and delivering of democratic values; and the promotion of Africa’s image globally.
The African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Awards committee was unveiling the winners for different categories in the just concluded polls.
The winners who will be decorated on the 24th February 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa, were unveiled by the Publisher of the Magazine Dr. Ken Giami, at the UK Head Office of the group, after the awards committee working with the editorial team concluded the collation of both online and offline votes and submissions from over one million subscribers and followership base of the publication.
According to the magazine, the total online votes cast by Africans from all around the world jumped to 288,958 from 85,000 the previous year and offline submissions increased by over 400%.
In addition to the winners, a special commendation citation shall be presented to the most distinguished runners up which includes Linah Mohohlo, Governor, Bank of Botwana; Fred Swaniker, Founder, African Leadership Academy, South Africa & African Leadership University, Mauritius; and Tony Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Holdings Nigeria.
The Publisher of the Magazine, Ken Giami, reiterated the group’s position that all nominees in the various categories are all winners, given their individual contributions to the continent’s development.
In his words, “to be chosen out of the over 1.2 billion people on the continent, speaks volumes.” He further stated that “the nominees have elevated and redefined benchmarks of service to the humanity on the continent. They are all true lovers of Africa, contributing passionately, sometimes imperfectly, but all determined to impacting society, making Africa a better place for its people.”
The African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year which is in its 6th run, is an annual award reserved for distinguished Africans, who are considered to have blazed the trail in the year under review.
A shortlist of nominees are selected from results gathered via a call for nomination – traditionally promoted via a paid online and offline campaigns across the continent, Europe, and the Americas. The call for nomination is the first step in a multi-phased process.
Remarkably this year, the selection committee considered, among others, three key themes – Africans whose activities, policies and actions have contributed to ‘creating jobs and wealth creation; promotion, defense and delivering of democratic values; and the promotion of Africa’s image globally’; in arriving at their decisions.
The efforts are geared towards strengthening the philosophy of community policing.
The security meeting held Friday was chaired by the mayor of Gicumbi, Juvenal Mudaheranwa and attended by the District Police Commander, Supt. Gaston Karagire as well as grassroots leaders.
Although the meeting observed that there is overall safety and security in Gicumbi, it also observed that there are still loopholes that are utilised by criminals like drug dealers to roam and conduct their unlawful acts, which should be closed.
Mayor Mudaheranwa urged sector and cell executive secretaries to go down to the people and sensitize them on community policing to fight violence against women, girls and children and illicit drugs, among others, which are still common in the district.
“We need to build on the existing strong partnership between the people, local leaders and security organs, strengthen the spirit of real time information sharing to make community policing an effective tool for sustainable security,” the mayor said.
The DPC, Supt. Karagire, also reiterated the need to work in unison to curb lawlessness, such as drug abuse which is largely responsible for some criminal tendencies.
The DPC further asked the business community including saving and credit cooperatives schemes (SACCOs) to install security gadgets such as CCTV cameras to facilitate investigations in times of theft or break-in.
The District Police Commander of Nyagatare, Chief Supt. Johnson Sesonga, confirmed that Bigirimana was arrested on Saturday after he tried to seduce the officer with Rwf72, 000 to have his impounded motorcycle released.
“Bigirimana’s motorcycle was impounded two months ago in Rwempasha Sector; it was at the time intercepted being used to traffic 16 cartons of Zebra Waragi,” Chief Supt. Sesonga said.
Zebra waragi is one of the different contrabands packed in plastic bags and banned in Rwanda.
“Bigirimana is also the same suspect, who was riding the impounded motorcycle at the time, but managed to flee after spotting police officers, abandoning the motorcycle,” he added.
The 45-year-old suspect, a resident in Kabirizi Village, Mbale Cell in Karangazi Sector, admitted to the two alleged crimes of trafficking contrabands and attempting to bribe the officer to release his motorcycle.
Meanwhile, Chief Supt. Sesonga warned that operations are continuous to arrest drug dealers.
“Attempting to bribe officers will be an added serious criminal offence,” he warned.
Bribery is defined under section D of article 633 of the penal code, as giving or agreeing to give a gift in cash or any other illegal benefit, for the provision of a service or an act in unlawful way, or to reward the provider of the service or act rendered by a recipient or an intermediary.
Penalties for anyone convicted of corruption range between two and seven years and a fine of up to ten times the value of illegal benefit demanded as stipulated under articles 634 to 651 of the Rwanda penal code.
In the elections last month, the candidate Rwemalika run alone as incumbent Vincent de Gaulle Nzamwita had pulled out at the last minute of the elections.
After the withdrawal of Nzamwita, Rwemalika failed to secure majority votes.
Rwemalika got 13 out of 52 votes while FERWAFA election code requires a minimum of 27 votes to win. Election results revealed 39 votes were invalid.
The Electoral Committee’s president Adolphe Kalisa announced that Rwemalika did not secure enough votes and according to Article 28 of Electoral Code, the Executive Committee will continue to work until the next FERWAFA Elective General Assembly is held.
After talking to her lawyers, Rwemalika said that invalid votes would not have been considered, according to article 24 of electoral code.
She says they had to consider 13 valid votes and announce her as FERWAFA presidency winner.
Speaking to IGIHE on Saturday, Rwemalika said that she did not want to appeal the decision immediately because she wanted to consult with her lawyers.
She has submitted her appeal to the International Governing Body of Football (FIFA) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
“We have seen that the decision was taken contrary to the law but we hadn’t to appeal immediately as we had some days to prepare our appeal dossier. We are optimistic that we will be given justice,” she said.
She said that she is not ready to give up until she sees changes in the association.
The elections took place in the presence of FIFA observer, Constant Omari Selemani who is also the Democratic Republic of Congo’s football administrator and a member of the FIFA Council
Laws state that the Appeal Committee would sit within three days and decide on the appeal.
The act was named after his newly launched album ‘Intashyo.’
During Intashyo Album launching concert recently, Mbonyi and his ‘Israel Mbonyi Foundation’ shared with revelers the story of how Eustache Mucyo’s family was living in bad conditions. Mbonyi decided to uplift the family with the money from the concert.
Speaking to IGIHE while starting the house renovation activities on Saturday, Mbonyi said the activity is part of his Intashyo wide project.
“When I was working on the album after which the project was named, I thought about disadvantaged people and committed to give them greetings (Intashyo) with a message of comfort,” he said.
Mbonyi said Mucyo family’s house renovation will cost Rwf5 million and take one month.
Mbonyi said his foundation targets to embark on other activities including paying school fees for children from poor families and hygiene sensitisation campaign in rural areas, among others.
According to Reuters, Israel said on Wednesday it would pay thousands of African migrants living illegally in the country to go home or to “third countries” and threatened them with jail if they are caught after the end of March.
Rights groups including Hotline for Refugees and Migrants have said Uganda and Rwanda had agreed to take in migrants from Israel in the past.
However, both Rwanda and Uganda rejected the deal saying that it is fake news.
Speaking to IGIHE on Saturday, Nduhungirehe said that Rwanda has no agreement with Israel to receive any asylum seeker.
He said that the two governments did not sign the deal but speculations were developed by media which said the news was confirmed by Israel’s politicians.
“No agreements have been there, they base on 2014 talks which were not validated. We have not signed any agreements,” he said.
He said that no talks between Rwanda and Israel that are taking place but affirmed that ongoing talks are those to receive migrants from Libya.
According to Reuters, Uganda’s Foreign Minister Henry Okello Oryem also rejected the news.
“There is no written agreement or any form of agreement between the government of Uganda and Israeli government to accept refugees from Israel,” Oryem said.
“Any suggestion to the contrary was “fake news … absolute rubbish,” he added.
The majority of migrants in Israel came from Eritrea and Sudan and many say they fled war and persecution as well as economic hardship but Israel treats them as economic migrants.
