Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir will travel to Juba on Monday to meet with his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir for talks on the ongoing conflict in the country, state media reported on Sunday.}

“President Bashir will go tomorrow to Juba to meet (President) Salva Kiir and discuss the crisis in the South,” an SMS sent by state radio to the media said.

Sudan’s First Vice President Bakri Hassan Salih has affirmed his country’s full support of mediation efforts by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development seeking an end to the fighting in South Sudan.

“We discussed the coordination between Sudan, China and Igad member states to bring peace and stability in the Republic of South Sudan,” Mr Salih said in a joint statement with the Special Representative of the Chinese government for African affairs Zhong Jianhua released on Sunday.

“Sudan is ready to boost the Igad initiative and support the continuity of the political efforts to find a peaceful solution to the dispute in South Sudan,” he added.

Mr Zhong said in a statement following the meeting with Mr Salih in Khartoum that China supports Igad’s efforts to negotiate a ceasefire.

“Sudan and China share identical views towards supporting the Igad efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the dispute in South Sudan,” he said.

Daily Nation

{Children in the Central African Republic have become deliberate targets of armed gangs, aid workers have said.}

An official with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirmed to Al Jazeera on Saturday that “more children are being targeted and killed” as concerns over civilian casualties escalate in violence that has not ceased since a coup in March 2013.

The latest remarks follow a UNICEF statement on December 30 that described attacks against children as having “sunk to a new low”, including cases of beheading and mutilation.

“Attacks against children have sunk to a vicious new low, with at least two children beheaded, and one of them mutilated, in the violence that has gripped the capital…,” the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in their December 30 statement.

Ombretta Pasotti, who coordinates work by the Italian NGO Emergency at the paediatric hospital in Bangui, confirmed to the AFP news agency on Saturday: “Before now, children were collateral victims, but today some of them are targeted directly.”

“Some children are victims of stray bullets and shell fragments… Some were wounded ‘by chance’, but here we also have children who were shot because they are Muslims,” Pasotti said.

UNICEF said it had verified 16 killings of children since December 5, while 60 more youths were wounded in clashes that broke out between Muslim former rebels and fighters from the Christian majority.

UNICEF appealed to sectarian fighters to “halt grave violations against children”, to release those in their ranks and to avoid attacks on health and education workers.

In just three weeks, some 370,000 people have been displaced to dozens of makeshift camps in an upheaval affecting almost half of Bangui’s population, relief workers said.

About 100,000 residents have fled to a tent city at the airport, where African and French troops are based.

The landlocked nation of 4.6 million people has endured a succession of coups, rebellions and mutinies since independence from France in 1960, but the latest strife is the first to take on a dangerous religious dimension, after
rebels of the mainly Muslim Seleka coalition seized power in March last year.

Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

{The daily average revenue collection of about sh3.6m that Uganda used to realize through the Elegu border in Amuru district is now cut to about sh1.5m due to the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.}

Before the fighting across the border, between 200 and 500 trucks plied the Gulu-Elegu-Nimule-Juba road, but ever since the conflict was sparked off, that flow has reduced to less than 20 trucks daily.

Over 1,000 people have been reported killed in the fighting.

The fighting started when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup in the world’s newest nation.

Despite Kiir earlier saying he would not agree to any power-sharing agreement with Machar, the two warring parties are set for direct ceasefire talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Many countries, including Uganda, Kenya and the US have pulled their nationals out of the oil-rich nation.

Hundreds of South Sudanese nationals have fled their country and have sought refuge in neighbouring Uganda, Sudan and other countries.

The head of customs at Elegu border, Paul Walukyesi explains that the before the security situation worsened in Juba, Uganda earned revenue from the trucks’ movements through roll tolls and other local exports.

“Elegu is our major exit immigration station to South Sudan. It handles majorly transit goods from Uganda and abroad. It also handles local exports, where at least over 200 trucks pass through the station on a daily basis,” he says.

Ugandan traders export foodstuffs and agricultural products like maize flour, sweet potatoes, cabbages and onions, and many more everyday through the Elegu border point.

The customs official said before the conflict erupted, about 50 vehicles or trucks were commuting daily to export fresh farm products in Juba.

But now the fighting has significantly affected that movement.

“A few Ugandan traders used to benefit from Supermatch cigarettes. The only unfortunate thing is that the cigarettes are smuggled into Uganda because they are in a small-scale,” said Walukyesi.

Meanwhile, the current situation at Elegu has made the border market very expensive to both the locals and travelers.

New Vision

{Talks to end the South Sudan conflict have opened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry says.}

Negotiators for the government and rebel sides have been meeting mediators but have not yet held face-to-face talks, it is understood.

Delegates began arriving in the Ethiopian capital on Wednesday but talks were delayed until the full negotiations teams had arrived.

Meanwhile, the US is moving out some of its embassy staff from South Sudan.

The state department announced a “further drawdown” of its embassy in Juba, and said it would no longer be providing consular services to US citizens in the country.

It also urged citizens to leave on an evacuation flight from Juba “to the nearest safe haven country” on Friday.

At least 1,000 people have died and more than 180,000 people have been displaced in fighting that erupted in mid-December.

What began as a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar has taken on the overtones of an ethnic conflict, correspondents say.

Aid workers are warning of a potential humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of people are living without shelter, clean water and sanitation

BBC

{The colonel in charge of military operations against fighters in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been killed in an ambush along with three other soldiers, according to a government spokesman.}

Lambert Mende, the spokesman, said on Thursday that Colonel Mamadou Ndala, who helped to secure the military defeat of the M23 rebel group in November, died of his injuries after a rocket attack on his vehicle near the village of Masisi in North Kivu province.

“Colonel Mamadou Ndala has been killed.

“Apparently it was the ADF-Nalu [Ugandan rebel force] that killed him and two of his bodyguards,” Mende told news agency AFP.

“This is really an immense loss for the armed forces and the republic.”

ADF-NALU has been blamed for attacks and kidnappings around the town of Beni in North Kivu, including the deaths of at least 60 civilians in two attacks last month.

The DRC government, together with 21,000 peacekeeping troops from the UN, are attempting to subdue armed groups that are operating in the east of the country.

Source:
AFP

{Joseph Mukungubila Mutombo was questioning – and embellishing – his identity long before he shot into the international spotlight on Monday, when intruders disrupted a live TV show, proclaiming to be followers of “Gideon Mukungubila”.}

“Gideon” is just one of several monikers associated with the former soldier-turned Congolese presidential candidate-turned-televangelist-turned-prophet.

These include “the prophet of the eternal” or “Paul Joseph Mukungubila” or sometimes simply, “prophet Mukungubila”.

The self-proclaimed prophet’s Monday morning rise to fame was captured live on Congolese state broadcaster RTNC, when a group of men stormed onto the set of “Le Panier,” or “The Breadbasket” show.

Amid scenes of utter confusion, Le Panier’s two presenters were taken hostage as men armed with machetes and sticks shouted orders in the local Lingala language, mobile phones rang, and at one stage, a vuvuzela incongruously appeared on the set. Then the state TV service was abruptly cut.

But before the transmission stopped, a voice off-camera proclaimed in Lingala, “Gideon Mukungubila has come to free you from the slavery of the Rwandan”. Congo’s President Joseph Kabila is often derisively referred to as “the Rwandan” by his opponents – a term that underscores the deep animosity among many Congolese citizens against their country’s tiny, eastern neighbour’s meddling in their insecure, but resource-rich homeland.

As the international community struggled to assess the situation in the troubled African nation, news organisations across the world were scrambling for information about the mysterious “prophet” who appeared to be at the centre of the Congo’s latest crisis.

A rebirth timed to enhance a messianic, nationalist appeal

Questions about the identity and intent of Mukungubila have been circulating ever since the former soldier embraced his new persona as a man of God.

“Who is Paul Mukungubila: God or Christ?” read an undated communiqué issued by his “Ministry of Restoration from Black Africa”. The answer provided by the statement was rambling and disconcerting: “Paul Mukungubila is the prophet of God, by whom the creator is speaking to us on this world today on this last stage Christ ministry after the saint land had been profaned by unbelievers.” [sic]

An enigmatic figure, Mukungubila’s date of birth is listed as December 26, 1947, in an English language statement by his ministry. In a French language video posted on his official website, Mukungubila’s spiritual date of birth is said to be 1959 – a year before Congolese independence – in a “rebirth” obviously timed to enhance his messianic and nationalistic appeal.

God and patriotism appear to be Mukungubila’s twin populist themes in a vast, weak nation that has been open to manipulation by smaller, stronger neighbouring states since the 1997 ouster of longtime Congolese autocrat Mobutu Sese Seko.

Mobutu was ousted by Laurent Kabila – the current president’s father – with the help of Rwandan-backed troops. Relations between Congo and Rwanda have been strained, with the two countries twice going to war.

Congolese-Rwandan relations nosedived again this year, when the UN accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of supporting M23 rebels – comprised of mostly ethnic Tutsis, like Rwanda’s leaders – in eastern Congo.

In November, Congolese soldiers backed by UN troops finally defeated the M23 and earlier this month, the Congolese government signed a peace deal with the rebel leadership in Kenya.

A long-shot presidential candidate

Mukungubila, who hails from the southeastern Katanga province, has vocally opposed the peace negotiations.

In an open letter released on December 5, Mukungubila criticised what he called Kabila’s soft stance on the M23 rebels. “Imagine negotiating and signing an agreement with a defeated M23 that no longer exists while emphasising integration – it’s simply unacceptable. These are people who massacred, who murdered Congolese people, and we know very well that they are Rwandans,” said the statement.

“Gideon Mukungubila is known in Kinshasa as a prophet of God who has always condemned and launched verbal attacks against the government,” explained Adam Shemisi, a Congolese journalist, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “He denounces everyone in power. We wonder how he was able to mobilise this militia that managed to take journalists hostage. ”

The televangelist’s opposition to Kabila took an overtly political form when he ran for president in the 2006 Congolese election.

But as an independent in a race with 33 registered candidates, Mukungubila was not considered a frontrunner.

“He ran for president in 2006, which does not mean he was a serious contender for the presidency,” said US journalist Philip Gourevitch in an interview with FRANCE 24’s sister station, RFI. “He’s not somebody who has left a visible track as a national figure until his name popped up [on Monday] to the great surprise of everybody.”

Mukungubila admits followers involvement

Even in a country that’s no stranger to insecurity, Monday’s incident in the heart of the capital, which killed around 40 people, caught observers off-guard. By noon, a Congolese army spokesman said there had been clashes between security forces and gunmen in the Katanga provincial capital of Lubumbashi and the death toll had mounted to more than 70.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende advised caution over reports holding Mukungubila or his supporters responsible for the attacks.

“The attackers presented themselves as supporters of Mukungubila. We are checking because this could be an attempt to fool us,” said Mende.

But in a phone interview with FRANCE 24 later Monday, Mukungubila confirmed that some of his followers were among the attackers. He insisted, however, that the incidents were a spontaneous reaction to attacks against his congregants over the weekend.

“I think that using the word ‘assailant’ is going too far. I was the one who was attacked. Seeing that, my brothers…were upset. It wasn’t just in Kinshasa that they attacked. They took the airport. In [the central Congolese city of] Kissangani, they entered the town,” said Mukungubila.

From prophet to trouble-maker

Monday’s incidents came a day after Gen. John Numbi, the country’s top cop, was suspended and replaced by Gen. Charles Bisengimana, an ethnic Tutsi, sparking criticism in some Congolese circles over the perceived over-representation of Tutsis in senior security positions. Local media reports referred to the new police chief as a “Rwandophone” in a country where anti-Rwanda sentiment runs high.

In a statement published on Facebook, officials at the Ministry of Restoration from Black Africa said the latest unrest started on Sunday evening in Lubumbashi, when “children” distributing leaflets of Mukungubila’s message that Congo could not be ruled by “a foreigner” were arrested.

The arrests were followed by attacks against top Ministry of Restoration from Black Africa supporters, the statement added, which in turn fuelled Monday’s attacks.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 on Monday evening, Mukungubila, the “prophet of god”, suggested that the latest events might see his eventful life take yet another turn.

“It will continue like that,” Mukungubila told FRANCE 24. “It’s not normal. We are going to show what we are capable of.”

France 24

{The African Union has threatened targeted sanctions against those inciting the violence in South Sudan and hampering international efforts to negotiate an end to the two-week outburst of fighting that risks drawing in the wider region.}

At a meeting in Gambia in West Africa, the AU said late on Monday it was dismayed by the bloodletting that has already killed more than a thousand people in the world’s youngest country.

“(Council) expresses its intention to take appropriate measures, including targeted sanctions, against all those who incite violence, including along ethnic lines, continue hostilities (and) undermine the envisaged inclusive dialogue,” the AU’s Peace and Security Council said.

On Tuesday South Sudanese troops fought rebels believed to be loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar in the flashpoint town of Bor.

“We are fighting the rebels now,” Mayor of Bor Nhial Majak Nhial told Reuters news agency.

South Sudan’s neighbours have given the warring factions until the end of Tuesday to lay down their arms and begin negotiations – but so far there has been no sign of the hostilities ending.

The violence erupted on December 15 when fighting broke out among a group of soldiers in the capital, Juba, but quickly spread to more than half the country.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Monday east African nations had agreed to move in and defeat rebel leader Riek Machar if he rejected a government ceasefire offer.

There was no immediate confirmation of the pact from other nations.

Even so, Museveni’s words demonstrated the scale of regional worry over the fighting, often along ethnic lines between Machar’s Nuer group and President Salva Kiir’s Dinka, that has spread to South Sudan’s oil fields, forcing a cut in output.

Source:
Reuters

{The Democratic Republic of Congo’s army has repulsed an attack by an “unknown terrorist group” on the state TV headquarters, the government says.}

At least three of the attackers were killed and a number of them were arrested, Information Minister Lambert Mende told the BBC.

Gunfire was also heard at the international airport and at a military base in the capital, Kinshasa.

He did not confirm these attacks, but said the city was returning to normal.
‘Shooting everywhere’

Mr Mende said the attackers at the state TV and radio headquarters were armed with weapons such as knives, and there was “no chance of them even to maintain their positions, even for a single hour”.

“People were frightened when security personnel were firing against these attackers,” the minister told the BBC’s Focus on Africa radio programme.

He said he had visited the RTNC headquarters and the situation was under control.

Mr Mende said he understood that two staff members who were being forced to read a statement on TV were safe.

Reuters news agency said the statement appeared to be a political message against President Joseph Kabila’s government.

“Gideon Mukungubila has come to free you from the slavery of the Rwandan,” said the message, according to Reuters.
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The embassy has also received reports that there are police and military checkpoints and barricades in many places”
US embassy statement

In 1997, Rwandan-backed troops ousted DR Congo’s long-serving ruler Mobutu Sese Seko and installed Laurent Kabila – the father of incumbent leader Joseph Kabila – as president.

According to Reuters news agency, Gideon is the nickname used for religious leader Paul Joseph Mukungubila by his followers. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2006.

Mr Mende said the government had not yet established the reason for the attack.

President Joseph Kabila, who won his second term in office two years ago, was touring the Katanga province and was not under any threat, he added.

The armed youths stormed the studio around 08:40 local time (07:40 GMT) during a live magazine programme, shouting slogans – one of which in French said “for the liberation of Congo”.

In a separate incident, a taxi driver told AFP that he had heard about “six or seven shots” from heavy weapons fired at the Tshatshi military camp. The shots were heard between 09:00 and 09:30 local time.

After RTNC went off air, a customs official at Ndjili airport told Reuters: “Shooting has started here. They are shooting everywhere. We are all hiding.”

Kinshasa RTNC TV has now resumed normal programming – at 09:20 local time signals were restored and at 10:00 the station carried a news bulletin in French which did not mention the incident.

The US embassy in Kinshasa has advised all US citizens not to travel around the city until further notice

{The head of the Congolese President Joseph Kabila, appointed Saturday, December 28 new police officials. Charles Bisengimana is the new Commissioner General of the National Police. }

Bisengimana was acting in this position since 2010 following the suspension of General John Numbi, implicated in the murder of Chebeya and Bazana.

General Bisengimana will be particularly supported by General Raus Chalwe new Head of Administration and Public Safety.