Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{About 10,000 teachers face expulsion in a crackdown on illegal immigrants in Tanzania, private school owners said Thursday.}}

The Tanzania Association of Managers and Owners of Non-Government Schools and Colleges (Tamongsco) told reporters that the crackdown would have serious repercussions on private English medium schools.

Tamongsco secretary-general Benjamin Nkonya said most schools could not afford the $2,000 fee for a two-year work permit required for foreign teachers.

“A school with ten foreign teachers, for example, cannot afford to pay $20,000. We have appealed that the fee either be scrapped or reduced,” he said.

School owners raised the matter with President Jakaya Kikwete in Mbeya last year, and were still waiting for a response, Mr Nkonya added.

He said Tomongsco members told President Kikwete that they had no option but to hire foreign teachers to work in private English medium schools due to a shortage of local tutors.

The teacher to student ratio in Tanzania is 1:40, with a demand of 23,546 teachers. There are 13,657 teachers, which is only 58 per cent of requirements.

This has prompted private schools to employ 9,889 teachers from neighbouring Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.

Mr Nkonya also accused police and immigration officers of mistreating and humiliating foreign teachers, saying some had been handcuffed in front of their pupils and bundled into police vehicles.

“This is not only humiliating, it also had an adverse psychological effect on pupils, especially those who were sitting the Standard Seven national examination,” he said.

wirestory

{{Congolese and United Nations troops pushed back the M23 rebel group, forcing it back to the negotiating table and removing a threat to the city of Goma, the UN peacekeeping chief has said.}}

Herve Ladsous on Thursday called the military action a “very significant achievement” that inflicted casualties on the M23 and likely led the rebels to resume talks with the government in neighboring Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

“The M23 group has been pushed back towards the north to such a place that it does not any more pose the direct threat that it had posed for such a long time either on the city of Goma” or surrounding camps for displaced people and UN positions, reporters quoted him as saying.

M23, which the United Nations says has received support from neighboring Rwanda, launched an assault on Goma last month, sparking fierce battles with government forces.

Aided by UN peacekeeping troops and the new UN intervention brigade, Congolese troops pounded rebel positions and reclaimed several areas that had been occupied by the M23 until the rebels unexpectedly declared a cease-fire, saying they wanted to resume talks.

In a Security Council meeting, Ladsous said that with the resumption of talks “diplomacy has become again the order of the day.”

AFP

{{The East African Community (EAC) is to name a team to draft the Constitution for the regional political federation.}}

The team of draftsmen, according to Ambassador Emmanuel Hatega, will include experts in different relevant fields.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs and for the EAC from four of the five member states currently meeting in Kampala will commission the team.

The three-day meeting which opened on Sept 10, 2013, with Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania attending, is intended to fast track of the East African political federation.

According to the Uganda Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting is a follow up of the EAC Presidents’ summit in Mombasa, Kenya on August 28, 2013.

A statement from the Ministry said the Mombasa summit reviewed the progress on implementation of the decisions made at an earlier summit in June in Entebbe.

The June summit, according to the statement, decided on the development of the railway, petroleum products, crude oil pipeline, oil refinery and power generation and transmission.

Others issues agreed on were development of a single tourist visa, single customs territory and fast tracking political federation.

Explaining the apparent absence of Tanzania in the block meetings for integration, Hatega said none of the member states is being excluded.

According to him, the member States agreed in the treaty, that countries that feel are ready to move could do it and give time to those that had not to join them later. He said Tanzania is still sorting out some internal issues but would join the rest later.

Hatega said Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda started on the process in June and were later joined by Burundi during the August Mombasa summit.

He explained that the treaty that established the EAC stipulated for steps namely the customs union, common market, monetary union and the final stage of political federation.

Source: {Newvision}

{{Two top Islamist militants, from the US and UK, have been killed in Somalia after falling out with al-Shabab, witnesses have told reporters.}}

Omar Hammami, known as al-Amriki, and Osama al-Britani, a British citizen of Pakistani origin, are said to have died in an early-morning attack in a village south-west of the capital, Mogadishu.

They have been hiding from al-Shabab since leaving the group this year.

There have been several previous reports of al-Amriki’s death.

In March, the US State Department offered a $5m (£3.1m) reward for any information leading to the capture or conviction of al-Amriki.

One of al-Amriki’s fighters told media that they had been overpowered by the al-Shabab attack in a village near the town of Dinsor.

He said al-Shabab had taken away the bodies of the two Westerners.

Another of their allies, Khadap al-Masari, from Egypt, surrendered, the fighter said.

Local residents confirmed the deaths, as did a senior source within al-Shabab.

“There was a gun battle between al-Amriki and his men and other fighters,” Moalim Ali, a resident in Bardhere village, told reporters.

AFP

{{Deputy President William Ruto jetted back into the country on Thursday morning following the adjournment of his trial at The Hague.}}

Ruto landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 6.30am accompanied by his wife Rachel and was received by a high-level contingent of government officials.

Although the Deputy President declined to talk to the press, a statement from his office explained that he was back for the next three days to discharge his duties.

“Mr Ruto who was accompanied by his wife Rachel will continue with his State duties before returning to the Netherlands next week,” the statement read.

In his trademark cap that bears the colours of the national flag, Ruto smiled and shook hands with those lined up to meet him.

“Thank you for coming,” he could be heard saying to the welcoming committee that included Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi, Transport Principal Secretary Nduva Muli and various Senators.

Ruto returned to the country following a delay in the arrival of the first witness who will testify for the prosecution in the case against him and Journalist Joshua arap Sang at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The witness was to arrive at The Hague on Thursday forcing the Presiding Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji to adjourn the trial until next week Tuesday as Monday will be a public holiday in the Netherlands.

“It is a shame really because we were hoping to proceed today, but that is the reality we have,” he regretted.

Ruto is expected to fly back out on Monday morning in order to be present for the hearing come Tuesday morning.

His co-accused Sang, who is receiving legal aid from the ICC, remained in the Dutch-speaking country after making a passionate plea for his acquittal in his opening statement on Wednesday.

During their opening statements, both Sang and Ruto’s defence counsels cast aspersions on the credibility of the witnesses the Prosecution plans to call to the stand.

They accused the Prosecution of carrying out shoddy investigations into the crimes against humanity for which Ruto and Sang are on the hook.

“Your honours, to the best of our knowledge, even the very act of obtaining a statement from the late Mr (Samuel) Kivuitu was not done by the Prosecution,” Sang’s lawyer Katwa Kigen said in support of his argument that his client was unfairly on trial.

On Wednesday, Senior ICC Trial Attorney Anton Steynberg made it clear that the Prosecution witnesses will not be limited to 22.

“The Prosecution will present up to 22 victims and witnesses, common Kenyan people who will describe the attacks on each of these locations. I was referring to witnesses, so-called crime based witnesses, who will testify as to actual events. I was not saying that the Prosecution was now limiting its witness list to 22 people,” he clarified.

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{{The renewed Kampala peace negotiations between the M23 rebel group and Democratic Rrepublic of Congo government are expected to last not more than two weeks, according to the chief facilitator Dr. Crispus Kiyonga.}}

This is in line with the directive by the regional leaders at the end of last week’s emergency meeting called by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) regional bloc to end fighting in eastern DR Congo.

The representatives of the delegations Tuesday attended a press conference that was addressed by the chief facilitator, Dr. Kiyonga, who is also Uganda’s minister of defence. Present were François Mwamba representing the DR Congo government as well as René Abandi representing the M23.

Dr. Kiyonga also said that all parties in the conflict who include the M23, the government forces as well as the United Nations Intervention Brigade are expected to stop fighting in order to respect the ongoing dialogue in Kampala.

source: {Newvision}

{{Ministers and donor organisations will meet in Uganda this weekend to raise funds to fast-track joint infrastructure projects within the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA).}}

The high level summit is slated for September 14 and is in response to directives by President Yoweri Museveni, the current COMESA chair at the 16th heads of state and Government summit.

The main theme of the conference is “Innovative means of Infrastructure Financing.”

Museveni noted that African economies are too divided up.

He added that there is need to work on infrastructure development with railway links to Southern Sudan, DR Congo and Rwanda, as well as Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.

“The high level conference is expected to attract ministers of infrastructure, finance, energy, trade and information technology from COMESA member states,” said Uganda’s Trade Minister.

There are projects worth a combined $60.7b (sh158trillion) which are either ready for implementation or in the pipeline in the 19 COMESA countries.

Of this, $22.8b (sh59trillion) has been earmarked for rehabilitation and upgrades of the Djibouti-Lamu-Nacala railway and the Mombasa-Kampala-Kigali railway.

Pipeline and ongoing power generation projects in the region are estimated at $37b as demand grows.

There are plans to fast-track the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya, Ethiopia-Kenya, Zimbabwe-Zambia-Botswana-Namibia, South Sudan-Uganda and Eritrea-Sudan power interconnection projects among others.

Key projects include the 1,870Mw Gibe III dam and the 5,000Mw Renaissance dam in Ethiopia, the 3,500 to 4,000Mw Inga dam in DRC and 700Mw Karuma dam in Uganda.

The power interconnection projects are meant to unlock the energy markets, promote private sector investment and to remove electricity production gaps in countries within the region.

Projects worth $635m (1.7trillion) have been earmarked with respect to improving universal access to ICT, interconnection, spectrum management and monitoring.

The COMESA region has a population of over 400 million people and a combined GDP of $799 billion in 2010, making it one of the biggest African trading blocs.

Intra-COMESA trade had increased to $18.4 billion by 2011, signifying a recovery from 2009 when trade was $12.7 billion due to the global economic recession.

The region includes Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, DR Congo, Burundi, Comoros, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Djibouti, Madagascar, Mauritius, Malawi, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Seychelles and Swaziland.

source:{Newvision}