“Last night, President Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame hosted General Muhoozi Kainerugaba and his delegation to celebrate the General’s birthday,” Rwanda’s Presidency has tweeted.
Gen Muhoozi, the son of Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Operations arrived in Rwanda for a private visit on April 23, 2023.
He arrived one day before his 49th birthday celebration, which he announced would be celebrated in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
The delegation that came with Gen Muhoozi includes Norbert Mao, the Ugandan Minister of Justice, Maj Gen (Rtd) Jim Muhwezi, the Interior Minister, and Andrew Mwenda, the Spokesperson of MK Movement among others.
Photographs posted on Twitter show President Kagame, First lady Jeannette Kagame and other attendees of the event clapping hands for Gen Muhoozi with a birthday cake in front of him.
The general’s last year’s birthday held in Kampala was attended by President Paul Kagame. He had last visited the country three years ago.
Gen Muhoozi is commended for his mediation efforts to mend Rwanda-Uganda relations that had deteriorated since 2017.
Efforts to normalize bilateral ties began to take formal shape following his two visits to Rwanda last year, a move that was followed by the reopening of borders.
According to MINEMA, carelessness is responsible for 55% of disasters, while 20% is attributed to topography. Disasters also ravaged crops on over 2000 hectares.
Disasters in Rwanda are related to the country’s topography, climate change, and human activities as indicated by the Permanent Secretary in MINEMA, Philippe Habinshuti during a talk show aired on RBA.
As he said, these disasters caused significant losses in various aspects of life, particularly in agriculture and infrastructure.
Over the past four months, disasters have left 158 people injured, destroyed 44 schools, and ravaged 12 roads.
According to Fabrice Barisanga, the Director General in Charge of Transport in the Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA); roads and bridges were the most affected infrastructures, with rain destroying 91 bridges across the country.
MINEMA urges the general public to adhere to disaster prevention measures, build structures in compliance with designated master plans, and avoid staying in places that put their lives at risk.
Statistics indicate that disasters incur Rwf200 million loss in Rwanda every year. Over the past two months, disasters have destroyed 273 houses and ravaged crops on 790 hectares in the Northern Province, while the Western Province has seen the destruction of 224 houses, with Rusizi District being the most affected.
The province also experienced floods from volcanoes that affected 276 families, with 256 in Rubavu District alone, while 14 people died of different types of disasters.
In the past three years, the Northern Province has experienced disasters 1500 times, causing the loss of 201 lives and destroying over 5000 houses and over 3000 hectares that were swept away by floods.
Disasters have also killed more than 100 cows and around 4000 small livestock.
After retrieving him from a dam in Busasamana Village of Nyakanazi Cell , Murama Sector officials have disclosed that they plan to provide counseling and mediation to the family to resolve their conflicts.
Sources have revealed that the man had attempted suicide three times before due to domestic conflicts.
On the night leading up to Monday, he had heated arguments with his wife and children before attempting to seek refuge at his second wife’s home. However, she refused to open the door for him, which prompted him to make the decision to end his life.
The executive secretary of Murama Sector, Pauline Mutuyimana has stated that they plan to approach the family to help resolve their disputes, which may have contributed to the man’s repeated suicide attempts.
She hopes that counseling and mediation will resolve misunderstandings and prevent further incidents.
The 65-year-old man is currently receiving treatment at Karama Health Center.
The situation in Sudan continues to worsen. Since the start of fighting on April 15, hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured, he said.
“The violence must stop. It risks a catastrophic conflagration within Sudan that could engulf the whole region and beyond,” he warned.
Guterres raised the alarm at the beginning of his remarks to a Security Council open debate on multilateralism.
“I strongly condemn the indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas, including health care facilities. I call on the parties to stop combat operations in densely populated areas and to allow unhindered humanitarian aid operations. Civilians must be able to access food, water and other essential supplies, and evacuate from combat zones,” said Guterres.
The UN chief said he was in constant contact with the parties to the conflict and has called on them to de-escalate tensions and to return to the negotiating table.
The United Nations will continue its efforts with partners to secure a permanent halt to the fighting as soon as possible, he added.
“Working with humanitarian organizations on the ground, we are reconfiguring our presence in Sudan to enable us to continue supporting the Sudanese people. Let me be clear: the United Nations is not leaving Sudan. Our commitment is to the Sudanese people, in support of their wishes for a peaceful and secure future. We stand with them at this terrible time,” said Guterres.
He said he has authorized the temporary relocation both inside and outside Sudan of some UN personnel and of their families.
The world body has about 4,000 staff in Sudan, 800 of them are international.
Guterres called on all Security Council members to exert maximum leverage with the parties to end the violence in Sudan, restore order and return to the path of democratic transition.
“We must all do everything within our power to pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss,” he said.
Violent clashes broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces on April 15 in the capital city of Khartoum and other places, dampening hopes for a return to civilian rule.
The series of colored images were released at the launch event of the Space Day of China held in Hefei, capital city of east China’s Anhui Province.
Processed in accordance with mapping standards with a spatial resolution of 76 meters, the images include the orthographic projection of the eastern and western hemispheres of Mars, the Robinson projection of Mars, and the Mercator projection plus an azimuthal projection of the planet.
According to the CNSA, these images are based on 14,757 image data acquired by a remote-sensing camera on the Tianwen-1 orbiter over eight months from November 2021 to July 2022.
China’s Tianwen-1 mission, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched on July 23, 2020 and entered the orbit of Mars after 202 days of flight.
The lander, carrying the rover Zhurong, touched down on May 15, 2021 in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Zhurong drove down from its landing platform to the Martian surface on May 22, starting its exploration of the red planet.
“The global images of Mars will provide a better quality base map for Mars exploration and scientific research,” said Zhang Rongqiao, the chief designer of China’s first Mars exploration mission.
“It is an important contribution that Tianwen-1 has made to human deep space exploration,” he added.
Zhang noted that starting from May 1 this year, the scientific data of Tianwen-1 will be open to the world.
The research team has also identified a large number of geographical entities near the landing site from high-resolution images of Mars. The International Astronomical Union has named, according to relevant rules, 22 of the geographical entities after the historical and cultural villages and towns in China with a population of less than 100,000.
“The scientific exploration data obtained by the Tianwen-1 mission will make a contribution to human’s in-depth knowledge of Mars,” the CNSA said.
According to the CNSA, the Tianwen-1 orbiter had achieved global remote sensing detection on Mars by June 29, 2022. So far, it has been operating for more than 1,000 days in good condition and continuing to accumulate remote sensing raw data. The rover Zhurong, currently in dormancy, traveled 1,921 meters on the red planet.
The group of youth, all men, are particularly behind violent theft on April 10, along Sonatubes-Rwandex road in Kicukiro District where they allegedly assaulted a man, stolen his phone and money.
Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Sylvestre Twajamahoro, the Police spokesperson for the City of Kigali said Monday, April 24, that four of the suspects were arrested in Kigali while the fifth member was tracked to Mukarange in Gicumbi District where he was hiding.
“The five delinquents arrested separately, belong to the same racket connected to series of theft and other criminal activities since 2021, including the most known recent one of April 10, when they attacked a pedestrian at about 01a.m, assaulted him, stolen his money and smartphone,” CIP Twajamahoro said.
The victim working in a bar at Sonatubes, was that night returning home from work.
That night, CIP Twajamahoro said, the same group pelted stones at a vehicle as the driver came out to rescue the man whom they were assaulting.
It is the same driver that first reported the violent theft that night, although the group had already fled when the Police arrived shortly after.
“Police in partnership with the public managed to identify and apprehend one member of the group, who named all his accomplices,” said CIP Twajamahoro.
All the five graduated from Nyamagabe rehabilitation center in January this year.
There are reports that a mother to one of the suspects was aware of his criminal acts but shielding him. Her second son is also detained over theft.
“It is so unfortunate that some parents shield their children and worse still seem to be happy with the criminal activities they engage in,” CIP Twajamahoro said.
Prince Rubera, the driver who called the Police, said that as he was driving home that night, he witnessed a group of men that was assaulting a man.
“I stopped and tried to rescue the man but the group, which was armed with stones also attacked me, they started pelting stones at my vehicle and vandalized one of my car glasses. As they were attacking me, the man managed to escape from them, so I drove off to the nearest Police officers, who were on patrol along Sonatubes-Rwandex road where I reported the incident,” Rubera narrated.
CIP Twajamahoro said that the Police has strengthened its operations particularly against theft and that many others have been arrested in different parts of Kigali.
“We urge the public to always be quick to share information on such criminal acts, enhance community policing and neighborhood watch in particular.”
Article 168 of the law determining offences and penalties in general in Rwanda, provides an imprisonment of between five and seven years and a fine of between Frw3 million and Frw5 million for any person convicted violent theft.
During a conversation attended by spokespersons for the President and State of Burundi, Bangiricenge disclosed that Bunyoni is being prosecuted for “threatening national security, national economy and office abuse.”
When asked about Bunyoni’s place of detention and rights to visit him, Bangiricenge stated that he is being held at the SNR and his family ‘will be allowed to visit him soon’.
Bunyoni was arrested on April 21, 2023, in Nyamuzi, in the Mubone zone of Kabezi commune, Bujumbura province, where he was hiding.
The General Prosecutor’s Office confirmed his arrest in a press release on Sunday, April 23, and stated that the evidence gathered during a recent search at his residence would be examined to determine the next steps in the case, in accordance with the penal code.
These protests, which were initially held on Monday and Thursday in the capital city of Nairobi, were suspended in April.
Odinga has accused President William Ruto of rigging the August presidential election and failing to manage the country’s high inflation rate.
According to media reports, Odinga warned that the protests will resume if no progress is made through ongoing discussions with the government to revise the electoral code.
The situation has sparked fears of ethnic violence, and the international community and religious leaders are urging for calm.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid has further stated that the incident “underscores the need to exercise utmost caution” to preserve the safety of Egyptian citizens and diplomats in Sudan.
He noted that the number of Egyptian citizens in Sudan exceeds 10,000, which requires a tight, safe and orderly planning process to ensure their safe evacuation from the conflict-ridden country.
EgyptAir has suspended its flights to and from Khartoum International Airport since the beginning of the fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on April 15.
The clashes have left over 400 people dead and about 3,500 others injured, according to the country’s health ministry.
The shooting commenced on 15 April 2023, after days of tension arising from the redeployment of members of the RSF across the country, which the army perceived as a threat.
While there were initial expectations of talks to resolve the conflict, they never materialized.
The party responsible for the first shot remains uncertain, but the violence quickly escalated in various regions of the nation.
On Sunday 22rd April 2023, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed that citizens from European and other countries were being evacuated from Sudan to Djibouti.
“Sudan is in the grip of violent clashes. The first plane repatriating our compatriots, European nationals, and nationals from other countries has just landed in Djibouti. I commend the mobilization of our armed forces and the agents of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs,” he tweeted.
French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has disclosed that 388 citizens have been evacuated under this operation that continued in the morning of Monday 24th April 2023.
French Ambassador to Rwanda, Antoine Anfré has via Twitter handle confirmed that the evacuees include a few Rwandans.
“Among the non-European citizens evacuated from Khartoum by the French operation there are a few Rwandan citizens [this embassy doesn’t know yet the precise number].This is what’s called solidarity!” he tweeted.
On Sunday, the United States of America and the United Kingdom also revealed that they were evacuating their citizens from Khartoum.
