Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir has urged the finance ministers and central banks governors of the African bloc to declare the economic independence of the continent, saying that Africa has huge natural and human resources which qualify it to emerge as a new economic power.}}

Bashir, who was speaking at the opening session of the African bloc meetings of Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors on Wednesday in Khartoum, called for attracting foreign investments and offering grants and loans to achieve sustainable development.

“Sudan’s doors are wide open for foreign investments in all sectors, specifically agriculture and infrastructure”, he said

The Sudanese leader also pointed to the importance of allocating adequate resources for job creation and woman development.

Bashir noted that Africans suffers from poverty, hunger and lack of funding for infrastructure which hinders development and therefore necessitates cooperation among African countries to work within the International monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to remove all obstacles.

He added that Sudan looks forward to seeing tangible results which could help achieve the desired economic growth, pointing to the importance of human resource development.

The meeting, which lasts for two days, discusses economic and development issues of the African continent and dealing with the IMF and the WB on how to help these countries to fight poverty and achieve development and economic growth.

Sudan’s Minister of Finance and National Economy who is also the Chairman of African Central Bank governors, Ali Mahmood Abdel-Rasool has described the meeting “as opportunity for Sudan to present its economic policies and contributions in Africa”.

Abdel-Rasool was quoted by state media as saying that that the conference will review major issues concerning energy, infrastructures and agriculture, noting that Sudan is an agricultural country and in need of infrastructure in that sector .

He disclosed that Sudan is now implementing a joint project with the WB in the fields of agriculture and energy pointing out that Sudan has good experience in building of dams and power generation.

{wirestory}

{{A Kenyan man who had been charged with killing a Ghanaian housemate and eating his heart and brains has pleaded guilty in a US court.}}

Alexander Kinyua, 22, told a Harford County judge in Maryland Monday that he killed his friend with an axe and ate his heart.

But in his ruling, judge Stephen Waldron found the defendant not criminally responsible for the act due to what he termed as mental illness.

The ruling means that Kinyua, who prior to the bizarre incident was a Mechanical Engineering student at Morgan State University, will now be committed to a mental health facility indefinitely.

He was quickly whisked away to the state’s maximum-security psychiatric hospital after the ruling.

The court heard that on May 25 last year, Kinyua killed Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie with an axe while he slept.

He also dismembered the body, consumed the heart, hid the head and hands in the home and placed the remaining body parts in a trash bin in a nearby church parking lot.

{{GRUESOME FIND}}

The gruesome find was made by Kinyua’s father, who called a Harford County detective and told him that he had come across two metal tins containing human body parts covered by a blanket in the basement laundry room, the court heard.

“The tins contained the head and two hands of the housemate who lived in Joppatowne, Maryland, and had been reported missing. Police found the rest of the victim’s remains in a dumpster,” said Harford County State’s Attorney Joseph Cassilly.

On Monday, prosecutors made a grisly description of how the murder was committed saying they discovered a charred serving dish in which Kujoe dismembered hands and other body parts were placed.

Before the ruling, Percess Veronica Mattison, a longtime family friend of the slain Ghanaian told the judge that the murder had devastated the victim’s family.

{{IRREPLACEABLE LOSS}}

“We all could see him soaring to great heights in the world. This was not to be,” Ms Mattison said.

“He was slaughtered in the most brutal, inhumane fashion by Alexander Kinyua. This is an irreplaceable loss accompanied by much pain.”

She disagreed with the psychiatrist’s findings that Kinyua was of unsound mind when he committed the crime.

“Someone acting with such care to conceal evidence, and demonstrating the capacity to cover his tracks so competently does not appear to be experiencing a mental deficiency,” Ms Mattison said.

“Alexander did not impulsively commit the crime, he prepared Kujoe for consumption,” she said.

But Kinyua spoke softly as he responded to questions from the judge. He said that the medications he has been taking were helping him.

A psychiatric assessment determined that Kinyua was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, which is a mental condition.

{NMG}

{{South African police conducting a nationwide sweep arrested six men suspected of producing and distributing child pornography as part of a global crime ring, a spokesman said Wednesday.}}

“We’ve arrested six people from five different provinces in South Africa,” said police spokesman Solomon Makgale.

A primary school headmaster and two teachers count among the suspects, aged between 43 and 63, arrested last Thursday as part of an investigation following a tip-off from Interpol.

The country’s most senior investigators seized 672 DVDs, 22 memory sticks, eight laptops, 39 external hard drives, and 25 books in raids on 15 properties.

“The initial charge was possession, but we suspect that they’re involved in manufacturing, import and export as well as mass-distribution,” Makgale told media.

“The indications are there. They had cameras. They had these external hard drives,” he added.

“One of the people we arrested is involved in the export-import business.”

The images show children “suffering extreme forms of violence”, South Africa’s The Times reported.

Investigators say the group has links with Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Western Europe and Australasia.

Meanwhile, the prestigious private school based in the northeastern city Nelspruit immediately dismissed the principal.

“The agreement follows his arrest for allegedly being in possession of child pornography,” the school is quoted as saying in The Times.

Interpol contacted national authorities after discovering the addresses of hundreds of alleged paedophiles across the globe on seized computers, according to the newspaper.

Source: {AFP}

{{Kenya is seeking to draw in more tourists from China and reduce the country’s reliance on traditional source markets in Europe.}}

President Uhuru Kenyatta is promoting Kenya as a tourist destination during the ongoing state visit to China where hundreds of millions have joined the middle class following decades of steady economic growth.

It remains to be seen whether Kenya can meet the ambitious target of booking at least 1.3 million Chinese visitors per year, with tourists from the Asian country currently standing at less than 8,000.

Economic growth has seen more Chinese citizens travel around the world for leisure and shopping but their visits to Kenya are restricted to business.

Europe continues to be the key source of holidaymakers coming to Kenya, accounting for three in five of the visitors to Kenya last year, according to the Economic Survey 2013.

{Businessdaily}

Uganda has today started the construction of a modern road linking the East african country to South Sudan.

President Yoweri Museveni (Wednesday) presides over the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Atiak-Nimule road from Uganda to South Sudan.

The construction work will be undertaken by the China Railway Wuju (Group) Corporation.

“Travel between Kampala and Bibia at the border with South Sudan is still a nightmare with unacceptably long journey times. With the upgrading of this road, we hope to solve this problem and this will enhance the trade between Uganda and Southern Sudan,” said Uganda’s transport Minister, Abraham Byandaala.

{{Over 600 congolese refugees have crossed into Burundi following the recent fighting between Congolese government forces and rebels in Eastern DRCongo.}}

Red Cross in Burundi says, they are doing everything possible to help the refugees by providing food and shelter including other basic needs.

Refugees told RedCross that they fled heavy fighting between FARDC forces and Mai Mai militia in the troubled DRC’s Eastern province.

Burundi hosts over 40,000 congolese refugees mostly children and women.
On arrival, refugees are said to be sheltered in Commune Buganda in Cyibitoki province.

{{The Nigerian government was deliberating on actions to be taken regarding the Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir during his visit to Abuja last month where he attended a health summit organized by the African Union (AU), according to formal filing by Abuja released today.}}

Nigeria at the time defended receiving Bashir who is subject to two arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and genocide committed in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

As a member of the Hague-based court, Nigeria was theoretically obligated to apprehend the Sudanese leader during his stay.

But officials in Abuja said that they are adhering to AU resolutions directing member states not to execute the warrants against Bashir.

Later Nigerian newspapers quoted unnamed officials who said that they were caught by surprise as the invitation to Bashir was made by the AU and not by Abuja.
Those officials stressed had they known in advance they would have made efforts to keep him away.

The visit drew the ire of rights groups inside and outside Nigeria who argued that Nigeria was in breach of its international obligations under the Rome Statute.

The Nigeria Coalition on the International Criminal Court (NCICC) filed a motion during Bashir’s short stay with the federal high court in Abuja seeking a domestic arrest warrant for him.

Observers and AU officials believe this prompted the Sudanese president to abruptly leave Abuja less than 24 hours after arriving and without attending the main event of the summit which he was scheduled to address.

Sudanese diplomats gave different explanations for Bashir’s sudden departure with some saying he had other engagements back home and others saying that leaders do not usually attend the entire events of conferences they are invited to.

Diplomats at the conference said, that during the afternoon session, when Bashir was scheduled to speak, he was called to the podium but could not be found confirming the unexpected nature of his absence even by the organizers of the conference and the host nation.

The Nigeria-based Guardian newspaper quoted AU officials last month as saying that Bashir “hurriedly left the VIP room amidst heavy security while the main conference was going on at the main hall” and apparently headed to the airport.

In a filingmade with ICC judges made public today, the Nigerian government suggested that prior to Bashir’s sudden exit it was in the process of initiating arrest procedures against him.

“President Al-Bashir made a brief appearance at the opening of the AU summit and without delivering any statement, left the country” said the letter signed by Nigeria’s Justice minister Mohammed Bello Adoke who is also the country’s Attorney General.

“The sudden departure of President Al-Bashir prior to the official end of the AU summit occurred at a time that officials of relevant bodies and agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria were considering the necessary steps to be taken in respect of his visit in line with Nigeria’s international obligations” it read in part.

It is not clear if Bashir was tipped off on the thinking of the Nigerian government thus pushing him to rush home.

The Nigerian official stressed his country’s “firm commitment” to the ICC and “readiness for continued cooperation” with the court “to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community”.

Adoke noted Nigeria’s decision to arrest and send back Liberia ex-president Charles Taylor to stand trial in the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).

{sudantribune}

{{Reports from Tanzania indicate that four officials suspected of aiding drug traffickers to smuggle 150Kgs of drugs through the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) had their contracts officially terminated yesterday.}}

They were immediately taken into custody at the airport police station for questioning over the trafficking of crystal methamphetamine by two Tanzanian women who were arrested in South Africa last month.

The women were arrested at the O R Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, after authorities discovered 150kg of illicit drugs worth Sh7 billion in their luggage.

JNIA director Moses Malaki, confirmed to local media yesterday that the officials were given dismissal letters yesterday.

“We are also in the process of forming a team to investigate the matter. The officials will have to appear before the team for questioning,” Mr Malaki noted.

The team, which will probe drug trafficking through JNIA, will work for 14 days and will table its findings to law enforcement organs for action.

{NMG}