Composed of about 40 military personnel, the first South Sudanese contingent, transported by the Kenyan army plane, will be deployed around Goma for peacekeeping operations.
“As of this Sunday and during the coming week, we begin the deployment of our colleagues from South Sudan who will join the other colleagues already deployed on the ground,” Emmanuel Kaputa, deputy commander of the EAC regional force, declared at the Goma airport.
This deployment came a few days after the deployment of nearly 1,000 Ugandan soldiers in the territory of Rutshuru of North Kivu.
South Sudan is, therefore, the fourth country to officially join the EAC regional force aimed at ending the violence in eastern DRC, after Kenya, Burundi and Uganda.
In 2022, the EAC countries set up a regional force to intervene in eastern DRC, in particular, to stem the advance of the March 23 Movement rebel group.
The President’s candidacy was seconded by Senator Marie-Rose Mureshyankwano, who praised him as a selfless leader who has delivered positive results to the party.
Kagame’s only challenger was Abdul Karim Harerimana, who announced his candidacy but was only able to secure three votes out of 2,102 voters.
In addition to the re-election of President Kagame, on 2nd April 2023, the congress also saw the election of the party’s first-ever female Vice President, Consolee Uwimana, who was endorsed by party elder Tito Rutaremara and received 1,945 votes.
Uwimana’s election is a significant milestone for the party, as it marks the first time a woman has been elected as the party’s number two.
The congress also elected a new Secretary General, Wellars Gasamagera, who received 1,899 votes. Gasamagera replaces François Ngarambe in the role. Uwimana, on the other hand, replaces Christophe Bazivamo.
IBUKA-Canada is headquartered in Toronto, Canada’s economic capital. The newly elected leadership committee includes President Léo Kabalisa, who resides in Toronto, and is deputized by Marie Josée Gicali living in Montréal, and Eugène Nshimiyimana, who resides in Hamilton. Gustave Mukurarinda living in Ottawa-Gatineau was selected as secretary.
Kabalisa expressed his satisfaction with the establishment of IBUKA Canada after a long period of conceptualization.
“The establishment of this organization is crucial for many reasons. Here in Canada, the majority of Rwandans living here are survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi. IBUKA Canada will bring together different organizations aimed at remembering and restoring the dignity of our relatives who were killed with extreme cruelty and most of us were not able to lay them to rest decently,” he said.
IBUKA Canada aims to provide a platform for survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi, which took the lives of over 1 million victims in just 100 days, to connect with each other.
Kabalisa also expressed his gratitude for the fact that IBUKA Canada will contribute significantly to the efforts to fight against people trivializing the Genocide against the Tutsi.
He emphasized that it is also a platform for young people to gain a deeper understanding of the history of the Genocide against the Tutsi, stating that “they will be responsible for preserving history tomorrow to prevent a recurrence of what happened during the Genocide against the Tutsi.”
“We live in foreign countries, but nationals also want to know who we are and our history. The fact that the Genocide is a crime against humanity raises alarm and attracts global attention beyond the place where it happened. That is why we have the responsibility to share our history with the world, starting with the places where we live in Canada, to know the truth and prevent a recurrence of what happened,” Kabalisa added.
Kabalisa further stated that “Ibuka-Canada” complements other organizations responsible for the preservation of the history of the Genocide against the Tutsi, including Ibuka Belgique, Ibuka Suisse, Ibuka Rwanda, Ibuka Italie, Ibuka Hollande, Ibuka France, Ibuka Allemagne, Ibuka USA, Ibuka Sénégal, Ibuka Suède, and Ibuka Danemark.
This is a significant step for the future of air transport in Africa. The official signing ceremony to mark the country’s entry into the organization took place on March 30 in Kigali, paving the way for the Rwandan parliament to ratify the air navigation agency’s convention.
The agreement was signed by the president of its Committee of Ministers, Oumarou Malam Alma, and Ernest Nsabimana, the Rwandan Minister of Infrastructure.
This membership will allow Rwanda to benefit from ASECNA’s expertise, network, and technology in assisting with navigation and securing airspace.
This is also a move forward in the process of liberalizing the African sky and implementing the African Single Air Transport Market (MUTAA) by 2063, led by 18 countries, including Rwanda.
By joining ASECNA, Rwanda will become the first East African country to be part of the organization and will be able to benefit from its expertise in air navigation.
This is expected to improve the safety and efficiency of the management of Rwandan airspace, as well as facilitate trade and travel between ASECNA member countries.
The proposed revision of the Constitution of Rwanda, which was originally enacted in 2003 and revised in 2015, suggests conducting the election of Deputies on the same day as the Presidential election.
The objective of this proposed change is to streamline the election process and reduce the time and cost associated with organising separate elections.
The proposal will now undergo analysis by the Conference of Chairpersons, which includes the Bureau of Standing Committees and the Bureau of the Lower House, before it is put to a vote by the plenary sitting.
The synchronisation of both presidential and parliamentary elections is common in many countries globally where the term of office of the President and that of lawmakers are equal.
The draft revision seeks to amend article 75 of the Constitution, which talks about the composition of the Chamber of Deputies and the election of its members. It proposes that the election of 53 Deputies be done on the same day as the election of the President of the Republic.
To ensure that synchronisation of the election of Deputies with the election of the President due in 2024 does not result in a lack of legislature, the Constitution is supplemented with a new transitional provision.
This provides that current Deputies in office at the time this revised Constitution comes into force will continue to serve until the day of the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies due to elections.
The next election of deputies in Rwanda was due in August 2023, while that of the President of the Republic is due in 2024.
After successfully selling the app to Crucial Compliance, a major player in the gambling industry, Bradford turned his attention to helping young entrepreneurs succeed in business. He has already made a significant impact in the UK and is now working with budding entrepreneurs in Rwanda, located in East Africa.
As a recipient of the Queen’s Young Leaders Award, a Commonwealth award recognizing young people’s leadership and community contributions, Bradford attended a Commonwealth meeting last year in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
There, he met with an old friend, Emmanuel Nshimiyimana who introduced him to the Rwanda Opportunities Organization, which supports young people from rural communities in areas such as literacy, writing, entrepreneurship, and ICT.
Impressed by Rwanda’s people and opportunities, Bradford made the decision to expand his philanthropic efforts to the country. He found that the public’s outdated view of Rwanda did not match its current reality. Rwanda is developing into a tech hub with coding academies, business incubators, and various projects.
Bradford is currently involved in multiple initiatives, including counseling for gambling addiction and hackathons with industry companies.
He has observed that gambling addiction is prevalent in Rwanda, particularly among young people in rural communities.
To address this issue, he plans to start offering counseling in Rwanda in the next few months using a digital platform as a therapy tool.
“We are looking to roll it out as a therapy tool that will provide digital counseling to people who might have a problem,” he said. In addition, Bradford’s team is running hackathons with industry companies to help them better understand and address gambling addiction.
Besides, he is a consulting producer for a new movie that features an A-list star and focuses on autism, a subject close to Bradford’s heart.
This was announced during the international conference on “Re-shaping Education for Sustainable Development” which was organized by the UR- College of Education (UR-CE) through its Leaders in Teaching (LIT) Initiative Project, in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation (MCF) and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
The conference which concluded on March 30th, 2023, brought together researchers, scholars, educators, policymakers, and postgraduate students from different countries to discuss the future of education and how it can be adjusted to meet the needs of the labor market.
According to Prof. Wenceslas Nzabalirwa, LIT Project Academic Lead and Lecturer at the University of Rwanda, education should be centered on technology and labor market-oriented courses. He emphasized the need for teachers to take advantage of technology to revolutionize the education sector in this digital era.
He further stated that the UR is encouraging students, particularly girls, to develop a passion for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to tap into the opportunities available and bridge the existing gap.
Christina Jerome Shuna, a researcher and lecturer representing Dodoma College of Education in Tanzania, stated that the conference plays a significant role as it serves as a platform to share best practices.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Rwanda, Dr. Didas Kayihura Muganga emphasized the importance of collaboration among participants from different countries to ensure the provision of quality education to students at early stages.
He stressed the need to invest in education, beginning from nursery education to prepare future academicians.
The conference was attended by participants from more than 15 countries.
Organized by the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) and the Istituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria Onlus (ICU), with support from the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Rwanda’s participation in this prestigious event aims to create long-term commercial ties, by piquing the interest of coffee lovers in the Netherlands and raising the brand’s awareness on the global market.
According to Rwanda’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Olivier Nduhungirehe, the festival is an excellent event for coffee enthusiasts, significant industry leaders, and many other participants to enjoy the uniqueness of Rwanda’s specialty coffee.
“It is also an excellent opportunity for the country to increase the awareness of the coffee brand [Rwanda Coffee – A Second Sunrise] and to attract more buyers,” he added.
Rwanda is represented by eight Rwandan coffees at the Rwanda Coffee stand (G45), including Baho Coffee, Kanya Coffee, Kivu Belt Coffee, Mountain Coffee, Mubuga Coffee, Nova Coffee, Rwashoscco, and Sake Coffee.
Rwanda’s coffee brand has demonstrated potential for widespread recognition and stood out among other specialty coffee origins in the last three editions of the festival.
Speaking to IGIHE on the first day of the festival, Amb. Nduhungirehe emphasized the importance of the Netherlands as an important market for coffee, as it is the fifth consumer of coffee in the world.
He also noted that the Dutch people drink around four cups of coffee per day, around eight kilograms of coffee a year, and are the third exporter of roasted coffee in the world after Italy and Germany. Besides, they buy green coffee from different countries, including Rwanda.
“They are the seventh buyers of green coffee and where they roast and export to other countries. The partnership is important, and Rwanda is here to showcase our specialty coffee, which is very unique and very well appreciated,” he added.
Laetitia Mukandahiro, representing the ICU at the festival, expressed gratitude to the Government of Rwanda for their support to coffee producers through the embassy in the Netherlands, which enabled them to participate.
Emmanuel Niyomugabo, the Coffee Washing Station Manager at Rwanda Mountain Coffee, expressed his delight in being part of the festival, as it provides them with an opportunity to showcase their products to consumers and enhance their coffee brand’s visibility in the market.
Rwanda’s participation in the Amsterdam Coffee Festival is part of ICU’s Coffee Value Chain Development project, which aims to improve the quality and quantity of coffee produced by smallholder farmers, strengthen coffee processing companies and cooperatives to build more sustainable businesses, facilitate access to finance, and increase visibility on the international market.
The project is working with more than 12,000 smallholder farmers and 20 coffee washing stations across 12 districts of Rwanda.
As Amb. Nduhungirehe revealed, Rwanda exported 466.3 metric tonnes of coffee worth US$2,330,008 from January to December 2022, and the country hopes to increase these figures in the coming years.
The request for repatriation reflects Belgium’s acknowledgement of its colonial past and the violence that characterized it. Belgian scientists have admitted that these remains were collected in a context of violence and oppression, mainly by the military, and should be considered as human remains, not as objects of collection.
Most of these human remains were collected between the late 19th century and the early 1960s, during the colonial period when Belgium colonized the Congo region. The “Home” group hopes that the restitution of these human remains will contribute to healing and reconciliation between countries and within communities, and will put an end to a practice that has been considered morally reprehensible for a long time.
The report emphasizes that the repatriation of these remains must be done with the utmost care and respect for local cultures and traditions. The “Home” group comprises human rights experts, representatives of civil society groups, and members of the scientific community. It was created in 2017 to examine issues of justice and reconciliation related to Belgium’s colonial legacy.
The request for repatriation is an important step towards recognition and reconciliation for crimes committed during the colonial period.
Fees and commissions also saw a 20 percent increase year-on-year, attributed to the proper execution of revenue-generating strategic initiatives and digital transactions’ continued growth. Foreign exchange activities revenue also increased by 25 percent due to the increase in volume.
Despite the increase in operating expenses to Rwf25.6 billion from Rwf20.7 billion, I&M Bank’s loan book grew by 4 percent, closing at Rwf231.7 billion, while customers and other financial institutions’ deposits closed at Rwf357.4 billion. The bank’s NPL ratio was well managed at 4.2 percent, resulting in a loan-to-deposit ratio of 63.2 percent.
I&M Bank CEO Robin Bairstow attributed the bank’s success to the I&M Group’s ability to manage various economic challenges while leveraging digital capabilities to provide exceptional customer experiences. He emphasized the bank’s dedication to being a dependable and trusted financial partner for growth while navigating macroeconomic headwinds with resilience and soundness.
I&M Bank’s good performance also earned it the Gender Equality Seal and the Best Bank in Rwanda award for the second year in a row by Capital Finance International (CFI). The bank plans to continue investing in technology to enhance its customer experience and improve operational efficiency.
Based on the financial performance, the board recommended the payment of Rwf1.84 dividends per share, a 55 percent increase compared to the previous year.
The bank’s commitment to creating long-term value for all stakeholders, including customers, shareholders, and the broader community, continues to be a top priority.
