({{Reuters}}) – At least 70 Ethiopians drowned when a boat used by smugglers to transport illegal migrants to Yemen sank in the Red Sea in rough weather, security authorities in the western part of the country said on Sunday.
Human traffickers often use unseaworthy boats to smuggle African migrants to Yemen, seen as a gateway to wealthier parts of the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Oman, and the West.
Security authorities in Taiz province said the small boat sank on Saturday due to high winds and rough seas off the country’s al-Makha port.
They said the boat was carrying 70 people, all of them Ethiopians.
Tens of thousands of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and beyond crowd into often unsafe boats each year and many drown.
In March, at least 42 illegal African migrants drowned in the Arabian Sea off the southern coast of Yemen.
{Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday accused his vice president of plotting with the United States Embassy to remove him.}
In a massive tent in an open field in the capital Harare, Mugabe told about 12,000 members of the ruling Zanu-PF party that his spies had followed Vice President Joice Mujuru to the U.S. embassy, where he said she held secret meetings to plan his assassination.
The three-day party conference also formalized First Lady Grace Mugabe’s position as leader of the Zanu-PF women’s league.
The party conference re-elected the 90-year-old Mugabe to another five-year term as party president and authorized him to personally choose his vice president and other top party posts.
“I am open to competition, but not when it involves taking me out the Kabila way,” said Mugabe, referring to the former leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated by one of his bodyguards in 2001.
Mujuru, once a freedom fighter in Mugabe’s guerrilla army known by the nom de guerre “Spill Blood” in the local Shona language, is now a political outcast accused of conspiring with witches and foreign agents to remove the president.
“I met Joice when she was a young kid in the war,” he said. “I strengthened her and even pushed her to get an education until she got a doctorate.”
Mujuru, who became a member of cabinet at the age of 25 when Mugabe was elected president in 1980, was removed as the party’s vice president during the conference.
Mugabe said his wife, Grace Mugabe, pushed him to appoint Mujuru as vice president in 2004.
Mugabe said he plans to announce Mujuru’s successor later this week and assured a cheering crowd that the vice president and her allies, including spokesman Rugare Gumbo, who was also suspended, will not be considered.
“There will be disappointments,” he said.
A front-runner is Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who suffered the same treatment as Mujuru a decade ago but is back in favor.
Mujuru remains vice president of Zimbabwe. She did not attend the party congress.
{An overnight attack by suspected Ugandan rebels in the area of Beni in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has left 14 people dead, authorities said Sunday.}
The attack in the village of Oicha in North Kivu province was confirmed by a military spokesman and a local official.
More than 200 people have been killed in a series of massacres in Beni and the surrounding area blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces and National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU).
Town chief Jean-Baptiste Kamabu, reached by telephone from the North Kivu capital Goma, said the assailants wielded machetes and axes.
He said two people were wounded and another two were abducted.
Celestin Ngeleka, spokesman of a military operation against armed groups in the region, confirmed the death toll of 14, which he said could rise.
Soldiers are still searching the area and could “find other cadavers”, he said.
{With increased incidents of breakdown of law and order in the country, a new research done by animal psychologists shows pregnant wild animals, especially apes, have continued to express displeasure with the state of affairs by migrating to give birth in neighbouring countries.
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The experts argue that the animals fear for their lives due to lawlessness and perhaps a bad influence on their newborns.
This is to ensure they are safe and brought up in a civilized society that respects the rule of law. Some of the things that have pissed off wildlife include incidents of Homo sapiens with a holier-than-thou attitude taking on their Neanderthal alter egos.
“The cases of women being stripped and MCAs fighting every now and then has greatly distressed our wildlife and the adult animals don’t want their offspring, who are at an impressionable age, to be exposed to these primitive behaviours,” explained the Government’s Chief Animal Psychologist.
“That’s why they are sending them across the borders to protect their innocence and ensure the crude and primitive local behaviours don’t rub off on them!” From the statistics already collected animal migration experts have noted that the gorillas of Kenya are mostly sending their young ones to relatives in Uganda and Rwanda and even as far as DRC.
On the other hand, the carnivores and the herbivores such as wildebeests and elephants, have been relocating their brood to the Serengeti.
{{More civilised }}
And in what is likely to put Kenyans to shame, animal psychologists and animal behavioural experts dropped yet another bombshell. They allege that despite years of human beings claiming they are more civilised than the wildlife, even going as far as labelling anyone behaving primitively a beast, wild animals are now waking up to the reality and beginning to question the status quo.
“Our animals don’t understand why matatu crew who play near pornographic music videos in their public service vehicles would get the hypocritical audacity to even claim a woman is indecently dressed. They also don’t understand why men who have all these years undressed women with their eyes and in their minds, now want to do it with their hands!” added the Chief Animal Psychologist.
“All these things are reprehensible and our wildlife think this is not an environment that is fit to bring up their brood… they want better!” No one knows how long this will last, but experts believe that as long as the moral standards in the country continue to deteriorate and lawlessness engulfs the entire country then the sending of offspring by animals to neighbouring countries will continue.
{{Suicide attempts}}
This will pose a great threat to the tourism industry because Kenya is now being left with only the old animals who have little or no sex life left in them while the young ones who will soon be in a position to reproduce are leaving. “Unless something is done urgently, the animal population in the country can only decline,” said an animal migration expert who has termed the phenomena ‘womb drain’. Animal psychologists also add that due to the high stress levels in the animal kingdom occasioned by misbehaving humans, several suicide attempts in the various game reserves and national parks have been reported. “This includes wildebeests, antelopes and other herbivores trying to drink water in crocodile infested rivers; vultures devouring un-inspected carcasses… contrary to urban myths that this is a normal occurrence with our wildlife, these are actually suicide attempts!” the Government’s Chief Animal Psychologist asserted. “And we either restore law and order or provide them with psychiatric care.”
KIGALI, Rwanda – Rwanda became the fourth country in the region to go live on the East African Payments System (EAPS) which the government believes is going to ease and speed up doing business for Rwandans in the region.
This system comes as a means of reducing dependence on hard currencies and the cost associated with foreign exchange transaction,” the Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) John Rwangombwa (picture below) said last week during a press briefing in Kigali.
“It is aimed at increasing efficiency and facilitate cross border transaction that is essential for boosting intra-regional trade among East African Countries,” Rwangombwa said.
EAPS is a Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) in the region and a multicurrency system in which payments are carried out using any currency of the EAC partner states. It is part of the EAC Payment modernization efforts spearheaded by EAC Central Bank Governors to enhance cross border payments across the EAC region.
Rwangombwa said this is going to reduce on exchange losses involved in transactions plus it is an easy way of payment since it involves use of SWIFT infrastructure.
“This is aimed at speeding up doing business in the EAC region,” Rwangombwa said.
He called on the public to make use of this cross border payment system to be able to benefit from the immense attributes including safety and efficiency to boost regional trade and intra-regional payments
During the same meeting, the Governor announced issuance of two new different notes of the 2000 and 5000 denominations which will be done as soon as the presidential decree is officially gazetted.
This followed Cabinet’s approval of the November 12, 2014 which approved the presidential order to issue the new banknotes.
“These are actually not new noted since we just changed few features on them and they will be working hand in hand with the existing ones,” Rwangombwa said.
He explained the reason behind the new issuance saying this is a routine replenishment of the stock of banknotes by BNR.
“The security features on the new banknotes will be strengthened to reduce counterfeits, but the designs of the two banknotes will remain unchanged,” Rwangombwa said.
“The new notes will not have the French language on them but are very user friendly for everyone,” Rwangombwa said.
Rwanda last made new banknotes in 1995.
Rwanda plans to have an inflation that will not exceed 3% by end this year with a forecast of next year that will not be very far from the same level, which is because of what is happening on the global economy.
The country expects inflation to continue to be below 5%.
We all know the three fellows that once served in government and are now in self-imposed exile. These fellows have made it their preoccupation to throw tantrums at the leadership of this country and in particular President Paul Kagame.
As a matter of fact when you read what they churn out, the conclusion is one—personal attacks directed at the name of the President as opposed to any ideological difference or a substantive alternative political program.
To sum up their accusations, they chorus a lack of democracy and absence of human rights. In other words they say the President is a dictator and intolerant.
Hiding under the cover of ‘lack of democracy or human right’ is the simplest path for any disgruntled politician. The two accusations are a convenient and easy narrative that captures the attention of the usually ill-informed western world.
It even gets more complicated for the Rwandan case. Usually African governments are accused of corruption and incompetence in delivery of services to the people. Rwanda is the opposite. Therefore the only avenue that remains for the so-called opposition is to manufacture a narrative along the lines of freedoms.
But there’s a serious contradiction here. How does a dictator or enemy of freedoms be the same person championing free education for children, universal access to health care, universal access to ICTs, initiate programs that uplift millions from poverty – and above all agrees to the principle of power sharing in the constitution? Which dictator in this world has ever allowed sharing power?
The second accusation is not far from the above. They say President Kagame is intolerant and hates advice. But going by the revelations of these three characters and looking at their track record, then the only thing you conclude of what they want us to believe.
One has openly confessed that he opposed the war in Congo in 1998 when he was the army Chief of Staff. Never mind that despite his alleged ‘opposition’ the man he describes as ‘cruel’, or a person who doesn’t take in ‘advice’ awarded him with a promotion not only in Army ranks but made him the custodian of state secrets.
Moving beyond these promotions, you would wonder what sort of General opposes his CIC’s orders? Doesn’t that speak volumes about the character and formation of such a General? The US former General in Iraq who was fired for speaking ill about his CIC offers good lessons on the doctrine that defines the Army.
The other absconded from his duties as a Principle Private Secretary to the President. He decided to go on holiday in South Africa. When his wallet run dry he pleaded to return. The man he describes as ‘inhumane’ was kind enough to bring this prodigal son on board reinstated him in the same position. I have never seen any AWOL who is lucky enough to find his position intact even after a year of absconding. Here, I will blame the principle for being too kind.
The third served as a Secretary General of the ruling party. He claims to have openly opposed many ‘intolerant’ policies of his party chairman, when he served in this position. But despite his alleged ‘opposition,’ his party chairman that he describes as “a person who hates advice” was kind enough to give him the Chief advisor of his office by appointing him Director of Cabinet.
Which ‘intolerant’ creature in this world would want a person who has opposed his policies to become his right hand blue-eyed lieutenant?
Therefore, going by the record of what these individuals have been saying and particularly the attempt to paint themselves as clean fellows who are victims of their long-held principles, the conclusion you draw is a lack of honesty.
They contradict themselves and only serve to vindicate the President because a person who is “intolerant or hates advice” cannot be the same person who has the heart to promote and retain individuals with a dissenting view on his ideas.
To shout and shout– day-in-day out ‘Paul Kagame,’ like we saw in the infamous BBC documentary is not what will win the hearts and minds of Rwandans.
Unlike 20 years ago, the Rwandans of today have tasted the fruits of good governance. The ones of today have a clear understanding of what empty politicking breeds. You either have a clear transformational agenda or you simply become irrelevant.
{President Kagame today hosted the Rwanda National Cycling team to a reception at Serena Hotel, to congratulate them for winning this year’s Tour du Rwanda, a continental cycling championship held annually in Rwanda.}
In his address, President Kagame congratulated the winner, Valens Ndayisenga and the entire team, the team coach, the Ministry of Sports and the Rwanda Cycling Federation (FERWACY) making the country proud:
“The triumph of the Karisimbi team is a reflection of the Rwandan spirit; sacrifice, teamwork, resilience and discipline. Discipline makes everything sustainable because without it, you cannot expect to keep winning. Instead, you keep experiencing decline.”
President Kagame pledged his support to the team so that it can achieve more, by building on what they already have:
“You deserve support because you have earned it. We will ensure that you are not lacking in anything that you need to perform better. We will avail the tools you need and leave the rest to you to realise your potentials.”
The Minister of Sports and Culture, Joseph Habineza said the original idea came from President Kagame, who suggested to him that Rwandans should stop concentrating on the mainstream sports disciplines and venture into others like cycling.
{The President of the African Development Bank Group, Donald Kaberuka, received the Forbes Africa Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday, December 4 during the magazine’s 4th Annual Person of the Year Awards ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya}.
In a statement delivered on his behalf by Gabriel Negatu, Director of the AfDB’s East Africa Regional Resource Centre, Kaberuka expressed his appreciation for the award, which he dedicated to the 2,000 Bank staff, whom he said, “it is my privilege to lead.
“Anything I have achieved in my ten year stint at the helm of this great Bank has been achieved with their unfailing support, skill and dedication.”
Kaberuka saluted the leaders present at the evening’s awards, and called on them and others to carry the torch: “As I look back on my time in the service of Africa at the African Development Bank. I know we are winning, but we have not won yet.
“Leadership will take us to the goal, and I salute the many of you tonight who are leaders. Your followers constitute the youngest and most dynamic population in the world. Africa has shown that it is a place of immense opportunity for its young people.”
Nigerian business man Aliko Dangote received the Forbes Africa Person of the Year Award for 2014. Kaberuka, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, South African advocate Thuli Madonsela and Arunma Oteh, Director-General of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission, were among the high-profile nominees.
Kaberuka’s tenure as AfDB President comes to an end with the election of a new Bank President in May 2015.
{Officiating Mining Day, the Minister of Environment & Natural Resources Dr. Vincent Biruta said, “Over the last decade, Rwanda has experienced remarkable growth in the mining sector, with export earnings growing to US $226 million in 2013, up from US $40 million in 2006. Mining has now become the largest export earner and the second largest foreign exchange earner in the country.”}
Since 2007, mining has transformed from a publicly run sector into a private industry. There are now more than 500 licensed mining companies and cooperatives carrying out prospection, exploration or mining at more than 648 sites across Rwanda. Many of these sites are managed on a small-scale basis and their capacity is being upgraded through training and partnerships.
“Professional mining is safe mining. Our industry can only grow at the rate we want if we continue to prioritise the safety of miners. In addition, we are encouraging investment in technology and making loan facilities available for potential investors,” said Evode Imena, Minister of State in Charge of Mining.
“Currently there are investments in geological works for gold and gemstones which is in addition to the country’s three key minerals, cassiterite, wolfram and coltan,“ he added.
Rwanda’s mining sector employs at least 34,000 people and the target is to increase this number to 60,000 by 2017/2018 with at least 30% of workers being female. The vision for the mining sector is to ensure the optimal and sustainable utilisation of mineral resources.
The mining sector is among the priority industries in Rwanda, contributing to poverty elimination, economic growth, rural employment and the country’s goal of becoming a middle-income country by the year 2020.
{Burundi’s parliament on Monday elected the eleven members of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), but the opposition refused to take part in the vote. The TRC is to cast light on ethnic massacres that have scarred the country ever since independence.}
“We boycotted the vote to protest against the creation of a TRC based only on what the ruling CNDD-FDD party wants,” said parliamentary opposition leader Charles Nditije in an interview with AFP.
The CND-FDD of President Pierre Nkurunziza is mainly Hutu. “Normally, it takes two to reconcile,” added Nditije, saying that truth and reconciliation cannot take place without justice.
The Burundian opposition and civil society criticize the TRC law for omitting the judicial element and stressing forgiveness, or for having included political personalities.
Parliamentary speaker Pie Ntavyohanyuma nevertheless hailed the “historic” vote, according to AFP.
