Tag: GreatLakesNews

{ The U.N.’s top human rights official said Tuesday he is alarmed by what appears to be a “widespread pattern” of rallies in Burundi in which members of a pro-government youth militia chant a call to “impregnate” or kill opponents.}

An online video emerged this month of an incident in a rural province involving the Imbonerakure militia. It showed members singing in the local Kirundi language: “Impregnate those opponents, so that they give birth to Imbonerakure.”

Burundi’s ruling party criticized the song. The party normally supports the Imbonerakure, despite accusations of rights violations perpetrated by its members.

The U.N. human rights office cited reports of several similar incidents early this month.

“The grotesque rape chants by the young men of the Imbonerakure across several provinces in various parts of Burundi are deeply alarming — particularly because they confirm what we have been hearing from those who have fled Burundi about a campaign of fear and terror by this organized militia,” the high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said in a statement.

Zeid welcomed the governing party’s condemnation but said reports senior officials were present at other rallies are “very disturbing” and called for an acknowledgement that the rally caught on camera “was not an isolated incident.”

Burundi has been plagued by violence since President Pierre Nkurunziza successfully sought a disputed third term in 2015. Hundreds of people have been killed, and hundreds of thousands have fled the country.

Zeid said his office has received “credible reports of grave human rights violations, including the systematic use of torture by security forces and nightly raids by the Imbonerakure into the homes of people who refuse to join the ruling party.”

Source:Fox News

{Unarmed South Sudanese refugees demanding to be moved to a third country had captured 16 MONUSCO staff.}

The United Nations says 16 staff members held hostage at a UN camp in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been released unharmed.

The UN peacekeeping department said in a statement late on Tuesday that “the camp is quiet and under full control” of its peacekeepers.

Unarmed South Sudanese refugees took the staff members hostage earlier on Tuesday at the Munigi base in Congo’s North Kivu province, demanding they be sent to another East African country to avoid their forced return to South Sudan, the UN Mission in Congo said.

Negotiations had continued into the evening.

The UN peacekeeping department said: “All staff have returned safely to their homes. No casualties have been reported.”

It said the mission is investigating the incident.

The captors were among 530 people who have been living in the Munigi base, outside Goma, since fleeing South Sudan last August, UN Goma bureau head Daniel Ruiz told the Reuters news agency.

Most of them are former fighters loyal to ex-Vice President Riek Machar, who have clashed with President Salva Kiir’s forces since July 2016.

The UN estimates about three million South Sudanese have been uprooted by the violence in their country, the biggest cross-border exodus in Africa since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Ruiz said the camp occupants had been demanding to be moved to a third country for months, but no one would take them.

On Friday, eight of them agreed to be repatriated to South Sudan’s capital Juba. Others fear going back and are frustrated at being confined in the tiny camp in DRC.

“They’re [the captors] saying if the eight were transferred to South Sudan, why shouldn’t we be able to go to a third country?” Ruiz said.

Civil war broke out in South Sudan in 2013, after Kiir sacked Machar from the vice presidency.

That conflict ended in a peace pact in 2015 and Machar was reinstated early last year, but tensions between the two men lingered and finally erupted into new fighting in July.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Democratic Republic of Congo’s government says it has returned the body of a militia leader, whose death in August sparked months of fighting with the military that has left more than 400 people dead in the country’s Kasai Central province.}

The interior ministry said in a statement that the Kamwina Nsapu militia, named after its late chief, has appointed Jacques Kabeya Ntumba as its new leader.

Nsapu’s family has been asking for the late leader’s body since last year.

The government said his body was returned and buried on Saturday and the family has now declared an end to fighting, saying further violence will not be carried out by its members.

The interior ministry has called on militia members to surrender, saying more than 50 have already done so.

Source:News 24

{Two elderly Burundian farmers, a husband and his wife, have been kidnapped by unknown criminals from their farm on the territory of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the morning of this Monday, according to the police.}

Police sources says Bernard Nihende, 64, and his wife Miliyana Ndikumagenge were kidnapped around 9h30 am while they were picking watermelons.

The kidnap comes only few days after two other people were kidnapped from a bus by armed bandits in Gatumba, near the border between Burundi and the DRC.

Adolphe Ntahondereye, a priest, and Mathias Mujuriro, a traditional musician, were kidnapped on Sunday 9 April around 9 pm from a bus. Two other passengers were injured in the incident.

Till now, no information on the whereabouts of the four hostages. Neither is there any information about the reason of their kidnapping or the identity of the kidnappers so far.

Pierre Nkurikiye, the Spokesman for the Burundi National Police, says no link can be established, so far, between the two criminal events. He says the police are “still conducting investigations into the reasons and the culprits of the incidents”.

Source:Iwacu

{ARU, Democratic Republic of Congo: 52 children from the Kamuina Nsapu militia have been handed over to officials of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) on Saturday by the authorities in DRC’s Kananga town, in Kasai central province.}

32 of the children aged 14-17 were arrested during battles between Kamuina Nsapu militiamen and police, while the other 20 handed themselves over to police.

According to Kasai central security officer, Lt. Paul Masala, the children confessed that they did not willingly join the militia group.

”Most of them said that they were forced into the militia after being abducted from their villages. They said that they were later trained and taught how to kill without mercy,” Masala told Anadolu Agency.

He said the children promised that they would no longer resort to joining any militia group.

He said that the chief guest at the handover ceremony, Minister for Interior Ramazani Shadari called on the other members of the militia to surrender. He warned that all those who will not surrender soon will face the wrath of police and army.

He emphasized that officials from MONUSCO and UNICEF said the children were going to be referred to a reintegration center.

Kasai region has in the past few months been hit by clashes between police and Kamuina Nsapu militiamen in which over 400 people have reportedly been killed.

UN mission in DRC recently said it discovered 23 mass graves in that area. Two UN workers were also kidnapped last month and killed with four Congolese men they were traveling with.

ARU, Democratic Republic of Congo: 52 children from the Kamuina Nsapu militia have been handed over to officials of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) on Saturday by the authorities in DRC’s Kananga town, in Kasai central province.

32 of the children aged 14-17 were arrested during battles between Kamuina Nsapu militiamen and police, while the other 20 handed themselves over to police.

According to Kasai central security officer, Lt. Paul Masala, the children confessed that they did not willingly join the militia group.

”Most of them said that they were forced into the militia after being abducted from their villages. They said that they were later trained and taught how to kill without mercy,” Masala told Anadolu Agency.

He said the children promised that they would no longer resort to joining any militia group.

He said that the chief guest at the handover ceremony, Minister for Interior Ramazani Shadari called on the other members of the militia to surrender. He warned that all those who will not surrender soon will face the wrath of police and army.

He emphasized that officials from MONUSCO and UNICEF said the children were going to be referred to a reintegration center.

Kasai region has in the past few months been hit by clashes between police and Kamuina Nsapu militiamen in which over 400 people have reportedly been killed.

UN mission in DRC recently said it discovered 23 mass graves in that area. Two UN workers were also kidnapped last month and killed with four Congolese men they were traveling with.

Source:

Widespread poverty has prevented the Burundians from celebrating Easter Sunday in style, the most important holiday on the Christian calendar that marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Most people met in shops and marketplaces in the east African country’s capital Bujumbura said their limited budget has ruled out buying meat and refreshments — food items that people buy on special occasions such as Easter.

“Life has become too hard. It is difficult to get money because there is no business. Before, we could buy some kilograms of meat and celebrate. But now we just go to pray, and if we get potatoes, we thank God. That’s all,” Clovis Nizigiyimana, a cell-phone airtime seller said.

Sellers of food items also said that fewer clients bought food items like meat because it is expensive.

“A kilogram of boneless meat is 8,500 Burundi francs (5 U.S. dollars). We used to have clients at special days like Easter, Christmas or New Year, but this time very few are coming to buy meat,” said Francois Niyibigira, who sells meat at Bujumbura Grocery Store.

Philippe Baragunzwa, a secondary school teacher said that he is unable to celebrate Easter because he has used up his entire monthly salary.

“There is no special meal or drinks planned for Easter. We are going to eat what we usually take. We will eat rice and beans. There’s no money. The political and economic situation Burundi is facing these days is bad,” he said.

Leonie Niyonzima, an accountant working for a private company said that he will not celebrate as he has to pay hospital fees for his family members.

Over 80 percent of Burundians are Christians while some 20 percent are Muslims.

Burundi has been facing a political and economic crisis following the controversial third term bid of President Pierre Nkurunziza in April 2015.

Source:Xinhua

{Easter Sunday service at Munyange AIPCA in Othaya, Nyeri County, was prematurely suspended after worshippers turned violent in an ongoing leadership dispute.}

What was supposed to be a colourful celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ turned into a chaotic fist and shouting match as riot police forcibly ejected churchgoers who had turned the place of worship into a battleground.

In a surprising turn of events, blows flew, women pulled at each others’ hair and old men were wrestled to the ground as the fight for the church by rival factions turned ugly.

Children stood at a distance as they watched the church’s embattled Archdeacon Elijah Mwai hurl unprintable insults at his flock, accusing some members of threatening to kill him.

Some members are said to have urinated inside the church.

“How can someone be so disrespectful to God that they urinate inside His house?” an elderly woman was heard wondering.

{{Police lock church}}

Police had to lock the church as the two factions fought over leadership positions.

Members of one faction had arrived as early as 6am and locked themselves inside the church and started their worship services, barring the rival group from accessing the premises.

This, the Nation learnt, was in revenge after they were locked out by their rivals during the Good Friday service.

This, according to police, was not the first time the church service was disrupted over similar squabbles.

The wrangles started in 2016 and were sparked by the creation of a committee that controls church’s business and the appointment of the church’s archdeacon.

The committee is headed by Stephen Kurenja but is facing opposition over alleged misappropriation of church money and fraudulent appointment of a parish archdeacon.

{{Challenged appointment }}

Some church members challenged the appointment of Archdeacon Elijah Mwai, saying he had bribed his way to the parish post.

The matter was initially resolved by retired Archbishop Amos Kabuthu, who formed a new committee.

However, the decision was challenged in court and an order was issued in March this year overruling it.

According to Mr Kurenja, the wrangles are fuelled by an unnamed outside people who want to control church money.

“This is no ordinary war. There are people outside the church who are inciting church members to revolt and cause disorder,” said Mr Kurenja.

He claimed that retired Archbishop Kabuthu did not have any mandate to appoint a committee as he no longer held office.

“He is retired. He cannot make such decisions,” said Mr Kurenja.

In the order issued by Nyeri Resident Judge Jarius Ngaah, the church has been directed to resolve the wrangles in the next two months.

Source:Daily Nation

{President Museveni has attributed the growing poverty in the country on the “dilemma of production” with less people engaging in productive work and others working less or remaining seated to eat.}

He observed that with more than 68 per cent of Ugandan households still practicing subsistence farming and more Ugandans looking on while the others work, “it is a recipe for disaster and the national vision cannot be clearly achieved”.
“I have come to tell you about laziness, there are more people who do not want to work, others are doing all they should be doing. When we started this campaign for Bona Bagaigahare (prosperity for all), we called it the name because we wanted all to work,” he stressed.

“Some people thought prosperity was about stealing, it’s about working, commercial farming as opposed to subsistence farming, we want all people to work not a few while others look on.” he said.

President Museveni was speaking at St Mathew Cathedral Kyamate in Ntungamo District where he attended Easter Sunday service.
“If you are not generating income when everything revolves around money, how do you think you will survive?” he asked.

A recent study on inequality in the country by a charity organisation, Oxfam indicated that the gap between the rich and the poor has continued to widen at an alarming rate.

Accompanied by wife, also Education minister Janet Museveni and former UN envoy and Minister in Tanzania, Ms Anna Tibeijuka, the President said production by all must be emphasised if the true prosperity is to be realized.

He however blamed technocrats and politicians for failing development and investment in the country through demanding bribes to issue licenses.

He warned that the clump down on such people will continue.
“I have been talking about corruption but people never listen, now those who never listen, they will be like the man who ate his own eye. You can’t kill our country and we let you go, corruption stops work. Now we have started on them. People come into the country they want to set up a factory, but some people want them to give a bribe before they process them a license, that must stop.” President Museveni said.

The President ordered for the eviction of the people who are occupying the Ntungamo wetland and are planting there Eucalyptus trees. The President said such people are drying up water reservoirs for the Rwizi and Kagyera rivers that have their water sources in the six wetlands in Ntungamo District, which will consequently affect the general water system in the region.

He said Lubowa hospital and Mulago hospital are currently making important strides pledging also to support South Ankole hospital to reach their dream of having such specialized treatments done there.

Speaking at the service First lady Ms. Museveni reemphasized the need to have parked lunch for children going to schools, accusing parents for neglecting children to the government and to God.

Source:Daily Monitor