Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{Kenyan based multinational Davis & Shirtliff has opened three new branches in Kenya and Tanzania. This brings its branches across the region to 31, as demand for its water and energy products expands.}}

“With our new branches we are able to reach more customers and pro actively engage and participate in local markets,” said Alec Davis, CEO Davis & Shirtliff Group.

Davis & Shirtliff has a wide range of equipment that includes water pumps for domestic and commercial use, solar panels, batteries and related accessories as well as generators, water treatment and pool equipment.

The water solutions market is also projected to grow at a rate of 10 percent per annum on the back of a fast growing population and demand for better services from our water services providers.

“For both solar and water products the fast growth is from both consumers who are connected to water and electricity supply, especially those involved in development projects, as well as those in remote areas that are currently unserviced,” said David Gatende, Deputy CEO Davis & Shirtliff Group.

The two Kenyan branches are in Karen and Meru a growing regional centre at the foot of Mount Kenya. A third branch is in the Kariakoo downtown area in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

“We want to develop business in these areas and our strategy is to bring our services closer to them,” said Davis. The three new branches are fully stocked with the full range of Davis and Shirtliff water and energy equipment and staffed by trained and experienced engineers.

Davis and Shirtliff is a Kenyan multinational established in Kenya in 1946 and is the leading supplier of water related and alternative energy equipment in East Africa. It operates through a network of Kenyan branches and regional subsidiaries in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Rwanda with presence in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi and DRC.

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{{Dozens of suspected al-Qaeda fighters have captured a Yemeni army base in the southeast of the Arabian peninsula country, a military official said.}}

The armed group had taken some military personnel hostage on Monday at the base in the port city of al-Mukalla, killing at least three soldiers and wounding six others.

“Some of the attackers managed to infiltrate into the base,” the official said.

“They caused confusion because soldiers at the base thought they were being attacked by members of the Central Security apparatus.”

The rebels, who were dressed in special forces uniforms and drew up in four military vehicles, stormed the seaside base taking many more soldiers hostage, the official said.

The commander of the army’s second military region, General Muhsen Hasan, was in the building at the time of the attack, and is thought to have been captured.

Army reinforcements have been deployed to the area and have engaged the rebels, the official said, warning that the suspected al-Qaeda fighters would “pay a heavy price” for the attack.

Mukalla is capital of Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramawt and a major port city.

It is the second major assault on the Yemeni army in 10 days blamed on al-Qaeda in 10 days.

Mukalla is capital of Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramawt and a major port city.

On September 20, suspected al-Qaeda fighters killed at least 56 soldiers and police in coordinated dawn attacks in Shabwa province further west.

That was the deadliest day for the Yemeni security forces since the army recaptured a string of southern towns from the jihadists in a major offensive last year.

Washington regards al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the global jihadist network’s most dangerous affiliate and has stepped up its drone strikes against the group in recent weeks.

{Agencies}

{{The Kenyan Red Cross has said the number of missing in the Westgate shopping centre attack has gone down to 39 from an earlier figure of 61.}}

Fourteen of the missing have been found alive and seven bodies were in the morgue, it said.

The government has said 67 people were killed after al-Shabab militants stormed the Westgate centre in the capital, Nairobi, on 21 September.

MPs have started a probe into alleged intelligence failings over the attack.

The Red Cross says some relatives were not updating them when they found people who had been reported as missing.

A Red Cross tracing manager told media”some were reports from people who could not get through to their relatives on the phone and thought they might have been at the mall”.

The organisation has been calling those who reported people missing for updates.

wirestory

{{Last week’s terror attack in Nairobi and unending anarchy in Somalia may put on hold the Horn of Africa country’s application to join the East African Community (EAC), analysts say.}}

Early this month the EAC Council of Ministers, which is the policy organ of the Community, gave a go-ahead to talks on the admission of Somalia, but things may get complicated with the deadly attack at a mall in Kenya’s capital.

“Somalia’s application to join the community will now be complicated,” hinted an outraged official of EAC who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not the official spokesperson of the regional body.

Efforts to reach out senior officials of EAC to comment on the issue were not successful although the secretary general, Dr Richard Sezibera, condemned the attack in a statement to the media early this week.

The strife-torn Somalia applied to join the bloc early last year through an official letter which was submitted on February 28 to the then EAC Heads of State Summit Chair, President Mwai Kibaki.

However, during the last Ordinary Summit of the regional leaders in Nairobi on November 30 last year, it was insisted that the country’s application to join EAC involve “wider consultations” given the security concerns there.

In considering the bid, the EA leaders were cognizant of transitional nature of governance in the Horn of Africa country which is under the Transitional Federal Government but still battling Al-Shabaab militants who claimed to have attacked the Nairobi mall.

During the latest EAC Council of Ministers meeting in Arusha, the ministers cautiously approved the verification programme for Somalia’s application to join the bloc. The programme was to kick off in December this year and extend to August next year.

Under the programme a verification committee composed of three experts from each of the five partner states — Tanzania Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda — would be established to undertake the exercise.

They will be joined by three experts from the EAC Secretariat. Each partner state was requested to submit the names of its officials who will participate in the verification process by October 31 this year.

If all went well, the exercise would be undertaken from next December and appropriate reports presented to the concerned EAC bodies for consideration between March and August next year.

The ministerial meeting urged the Mogadishu authorities to provide “appropriate security and protocol” to facilitate the team while undertaking the verification exercise in Somalia which is still prone to rebel attacks.

But with increasing attacks by Al-Shabaab in recent months and the bloody Westgate siege claimed by Somalia-based militants, a cloud of uncertainty could hang over the country’s application to join EAC.

“Terrorism cannot be justified by any reason and any reason to justify it is unacceptable” said Dr Sezibera in a terse statement on Monday.

He said EAC was ready to give any support deemed necessary to the Kenyan people in the wake of the horrific attack.

An Arusha-based businessman has proposed a multi-national anti-terror force from the region that would be deployed to fight the terror gangs now threatening the East African region.

Flags at the EAC headquarters in Arusha flew half-mast for three days until yesterday in solidarity with Kenya which started a three-day mourning of people killed during the four-day siege at the Westgate supermarket.

The employees of the community were preparing to donate money and other items which would be delivered to the victims of the suicide bombing which has sent shockwaves throughout the region.

The East African Business Council, an apex body of private sector associations in the region, has also expressed its profound shock and disbelief on the tragedy.

“We condemn this act of terrorism as cowardly and perpetrated by evil. Terrorism cannot be justified by any reason,” said the executive secretary of the council Mr Andrew Luzze. in a message to the Kenyan government.

EABC further stands in solidarity with the President and the People of the Republic of Kenya as the security forces work around the clock to contain the situation.

“We kindly request members of the Business Community to offer any possible support they can provide to support the victims and the security personnel currently the mall to ensure that calm is restored and the attack is neutralized. We wish to thank members who have already offered their support to the victims and the support groups.”, the message of condolence added.

Thecitizen

{{Somalia’s al Shabaab militia, which carried out a deadly attack on Nairobi’s Westgate mall, is partly funded by the poaching trade, wildlife activists said Thursday.}}

“Over the last 18 months, we’ve been investigating the involvement of al Shabaab in trafficking ivory through Kenya,” Andrea Crosta, executive director of the Elephant Action League told Agence France-Presse.

The trade “could be supplying up to 40 percent of the funds needed to keep them in business,” Crosta said, though she specified that al Shabaab are not involved in the actual killing of elephants or rhinos.

The Islamist group has been the centre of attention after claiming responsibility for a four-day siege at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi which left scores people dead by the time it ended Tuesday.

The Elephant Action League added that there has been evidence of ties between the poaching trade and militant groups like Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army or Darfur’s Janjaweed, cited in a UN report published in May.

Activists hope that emphasizing the links between groups that commit violence and the illicit trade may encourage governments to crack down on the practice.

“We’re asking the international community to start considering all the ivory (and rhino horn) trade’s stakeholders, ivory consumers, ivory shops and even governments, de-facto accessories to manslaughter, human exploitation and even terrorism,” Crosta said.

Illegal ivory trade driven by Asia and Middle East

According to sources within al Shabaab, one to three tons of ivory pass through the ports in southern Somalia every month, sold for an estimated $200 per kilo.

Al Shabaab’s ability to profit off the trade was undermined when it lost control of southern ports in Kismayo and Merca, but the group still controls other hubs.

The illegal ivory trade, worth roughly between $7 billion and $10 billion (5.37 and 7.67 billion euros) a year, is mostly driven by demand in Asia (particularly China and Thailand) and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhino horns are used in traditional medicine and to make ornaments.

Ivory trade has been banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1990.

But animal rights groups estimate that poachers in Africa kill between 25,000 and 35,000 elephants annually.

wirestory

{{Lubambe Copper Mine Limited has invested US$456mn in plant infrastructure including a concentrator, laboratory and new tailings disposal facility}}

The mining firm expects to produce 45,000 metric tonnes of contained copper by 2015 and is set to employ 1,500 people.

According to a press statement issued by the Zambia-based company, the concentrator has incorporated crushing, milling, flotation and filtration technologies.

“The design is 2.5 million metric tonnes per annum at an average mill grade 2.3% copper, yielding the 45,000 metric tonnes of contained copper in concentrate to be sold to smelters in Zambia,” read the statement.

Lubambe Copper Mine is a 50-50 venture between African Rainbow Minerals of South Africa (ARM) and Vale of Brazil.

The joint venture holds an 80% share, while the remaining 20 per cent is held by the state-owned ZCCM-Investments Holdings Plc.

Located within the greater Konkola area in Chililabombwe, Lubambe Mine consists of a large-scale mining licence covering an area of approximately 240 sq km.