IGIHE

Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • Fire Burns Ammunition store of Guards to South Sudan ex-VP

    {{Fire has burned down a small ammunitions store which belonged to the bodyguards of the former Vice-president of the Republic, Riek Machar Teny, at his Juba resident.}}

    On Thursday morning, the fire engulfed the one-room store near the main gate of the ex-VP’s resident, about 100 meters from the main house.

    The incident caused the ammunitions to explode which sent a wave of panic in the area of Hai Amarat where many senior government officials, including president Salva Kiir Mayardit, live.

    Electricity fault was blamed for the incident, but the resident managers said an investigation was to be carried out into the matter.

    The former Vice-president was in his compound when the incident occurred at 10am. Nobody was reported hurt.

    Machar was sacked on 23 July 2013 by president Kiir, who fell out with him on the future of leadership in 2015.

    Source: {Sudantribune}

  • Tsvangirai Drags Mugabe to Court

    {{The founding affidavit of the petition filed by MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai seeking to nullify results of the harmonised elections is a clear abuse of court process as it was not made under oath presumably to protect him from the prosecutable crime of perjury, President Robert Mugabe has said.}}

    The President yesterday filed his opposing papers to Mr Tsvangirai’s application at the Constitutional Court.

    Through his lawyer, Mr Terence Hussein of Hussein, Ranchod and Company, the President argues that the MDC-T leader wilfully filed an unsworn affidavit based on defamatory and unsubstantiated allegations designed to impugn the integrity and professionalism of innocent individuals and institutions.

    “It appears the applicant filed an unsworn statement after he must have been advised by his lawyers not to swear to falsehoods (given to him by the British ambassador in Harare (Ms Deborah Bronnert)) out of the fear that he would risk committing the prosecutable crime of perjury.’’

    As such, the President said, Mr Tsvangirai’s petition had no legal basis whatsoever and should be disregarded and dismissed in its entirety with costs.

    In terms of the law, an affidavit is evidence and all evidence must be sworn to. An applicant must take an oath before a notary public or commissioner of oaths, who must also countersign the documents.

    Although Mr Tsvangirai claimed that his submissions were made under oath, the President argues that the MDC-T leader had failed to file a sworn affidavit as required by law.

    “His entire founding affidavit is a mere statement certified by Duduzile Legal Practitioners as ‘a true copy of the original’ but there is no original copy filed with this Honourable Court which is sworn to by the applicant.

    “It is trite to mention that there is a difference of night and day between a sworn affidavit and a statement merely certified as a true copy of the original without being sworn to by the author of the statement.

    “It appears that the applicant filed an unsworn statement after he must have been advised by his lawyers not to swear to falsehoods (given to him by the British ambassador in Harare) out of the fear that he would risk committing the prosecutable crime of perjury,” submitted the President.

    The entire petition, President Mugabe argues, contains self indulgent generalisations, sweeping statements and outlandish exaggerations all of which are not made under oath.

    “I would also like to place it on record that at the time the applicant filed his petition, he in fact, had no evidence whatsoever save for an unhelpful affidavit from one Tongai Matutu who was defeated in the election and a pamphlet of scandalous and unsubstantiated assertions,” President Mugabe said.

    Section 59 of the Electoral Act permits persons who are illiterate, physically impaired or elderly to be assisted to vote upon request.

    Ms Bronnert, however, appeared on SkyNews on August 4 claiming that of the 17 000 people who allegedly voted in an unnamed constituency, 10 000 had been assisted to vote, a claim that is repeated in toto in Mr Tsvangirai’s application.

    Source: {Herald}

  • Medecins Sans Frontieres halts all operations in Somalia

    {{International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has announced it will pull out of Somalia saying the threat of deadly violence had become intolerable.}}

    The withdrawal of MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, is a blow to the government’s effort to persuade Somalis and foreign donors that security is improving and a stubborn insurgency is on the wane.

    “The closure of our activities is a direct result of extreme attacks on our staff, in an environment where armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly support, tolerate or condone the killing, assaulting and abducting of humanitarian aid workers,” Unni Karunakara, MSF’s international president, told reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday.

    Sixteen MSF staff members have been killed in Somalia since 1991 when civil war erupted, but the charity stayed on, negotiating with fighter groups and resorting to hiring armed guards, something it does not do in any other country.

    “But we have reached our limit,” Karunakara said, fighting back tears.

    {aljazeera}

  • Tanzania in Sickle Cell Dilema

    {{The world has celebrated the Sickle Cell Day in a bid to bring public awareness on the disease and ensure people take precautions against it.}}

    Tanzania was named as the fourth country (worldwide) for having many sickle cell patients after Nigeria, India and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the highest number of sickle cell disease cases per year (of up to 11,000).

    According to the sickle cell clinical coordinator at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Dr Deogratius Soka, apart from the increasing number of patients, there is little awareness being created on the problem.

    “We started with 800 patients back in 2004, but currently we have about 4,000 of them who attend our clinic. This has brought more challenges in terms of finance, human resources and space,” said Dr Soka.

    NMG

  • Kenyan Charged for Recruiting Fighters for Syria Islamist Force

    {{A Kenyan man pleaded not guilty in a US court on Tuesday to charges that he sought to recruit fighters in Kenya to join an Islamist rebel group in Syria.}}

    Mohamed Hussein Said, described as a 25-year-old resident of Nairobi and Mombasa, has been indicted on 15 counts involving a conspiracy to send militants to fight alongside the al-Qa’ida-affiliated al-Nusrah Front in Syria.

    Said and his alleged co-conspirator, US citizen and Saudi resident Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed, are also accused of seeking to wire thousands of dollars to al-Shabaab insurgents in Somalia.

    One of Said’s recruits — identified by US prosecutors only as “S.M.” — is said to be the perpetrator of a grenade attack on a bar in Nairobi.

    The indictment states that Said and Mohammed communicated via the internet with a third figure whom they believed to be a fellow conspirator but who was actually an FBI informant.

    NMG

  • EALA set to Hold Special Sitting in Arusha

    {{The East African Assembly (EALA) is set to hold its special sitting in Arusha Tanzania to discuss issues related to millennium development goals (MDGS) and Habitat. }}

    Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete is expected to officiate at the opening of the sitting which starts August 19, next week.

    Kikwete is expected to address EALA during a special sitting on Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) that also marks the silver jubilee of the global parliamentarians on habitat on August 30 prior the actual plenary sittings.

    According to EALA speaker, Margaret Zziwa who also doubles up as the president global parliamentarians on habitant Africa chapter, the clock to achieve the set Millenium Development Goals MDGs is ticking fast with the 2015 deadline looming.

    “One appreciates that there are intricacies in realising the MDGs; are we doing enough to enable the globe realise shelter for all by 2015. I think we can do more,” said Zziwa in a statement by EALA secretariat.

    Zziwa remarked that some governments had left the role entirely to local governments with little or no tools to meager resources and inadequate human capacity to handle the challenge.

    Commenting on the Arusha EALA sitting, Zziwa said the meeting would discuss matters of legislative business.

    She said they are expected to receive and debate reports of the committee of EALA, consider the EAC disaster risk reduction and management bill 2013 and the EAC public holidays bill among other businesses.

    EAC

  • GMOs can help Kenya alleviate hunger – expert

    {{A scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture has renewed the bid to push for Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) in Kenya saying they are safe for consumption.}}

    Zhulieta Willbrand on Tuesday said the foods do not cause any harm if properly handled.
    She insists that it is the improper management of the foods when they are being processed that makes them dangerous.

    “The products have been around for a while and consumed for a while and there has not been a legitimate case of humans or animals affected as a result of consuming the modified foods,” said Willbrand.

    Debate surrounding GMOs took centre stage last year with concerns emerging that it causes infertility and cancer.

    Speaking to Capital FM News, Willbrand said Kenya has the capability to do research on the benefits of the foods before they make conclusions.

    “Kenya has the human capacity to not only regulate but also develop modes of conducting researches to ascertain the safety of the foods before disbursing them for consumption,” added Willbrand.

    She added that the GMO foods are a cheaper means of feeding Kenyans especially in the school feeding programmes.

    In her recommendations, she explained that the Ministry of Agriculture needs to streamline the sector.

    “Regulations need to be formulated so as to ensure that technology is used in an appropriate way. Another area to be regarded is to build capacity in institutions such as the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) as they have the capacity to do sufficient research,” explained Willbrand.

    The adoption of the GMO technology has been dogged by controversy over safety concerns, the latest being triggered by a recent French scientific research.

    In September 2012 a report dubbed Seralini Report was published to show the effects of GMO foods.

    It was based on results of a series of experiments that involved feeding rats GMO corn and the rodents developed signs and symptoms associated to cancer.

    After the report was published, the paper was refuted by many food standard agencies as lacking in scientific procedures.

    As a result of this, Russia and Kenya opted to put a ban on GMO foods however after a few weeks of researchRussia lifted the ban.

    Kenya has been challenged to lift the ban on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for the country to achieve its potential in food production.

    CapitalFM

  • Poachers Shoot Dead Rhino in Nairobi Park

    {{In Kenya, gunmen have shot dead a white rhino in Nairobi’s national park, a brazen raid in one of the best guarded sites in Kenya, wildlife officials said Tuesday.}}

    Amid a surge of rhino and elephant killings across the country, the shooting of the rhino in the heavily guarded Nairobi national park – the headquarters of the government’s Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)- illustrates how easily poachers are decimating the country’s large animals.

    Poachers, who killed the rhino late Friday, hacked out the horn from its head and escaped, said KWS spokesman Paul Udoto.

    “It is the first such poaching incident in the park in the last six years,” Udoto said, adding it brings the total number of rhino killed this year to 35, already more than the 29 killed in Kenya in the whole of 2012.

    Nairobi’s national park, which lies just seven kilometres (four miles) from the tower blocks of the bustling centre, is described by KWS as “a unique ecosystem by being the only protected area in the world close to a capital city”.

    It is a major rhino sanctuary, and its previously believed secure environment – fenced in for much of its 117 kilometres squared (45 miles squared) – was seen as ideal for breeding and restocking other parks.

    Poaching has risen sharply in Africa in recent years. Besides targeting rhinos, whole herds of elephants have been massacred for their ivory.

    The lucrative Asian black market for rhino horn has driven a boom in poaching across Africa.

    Asian consumers falsely believe the horns, the same composition as fingernails, have powerful healing properties.

    A series of large shipments of ivory has been seized in recent months, including two separate containers in Kenya’s port of Mombasa in July, one with three tonnes and another of almost 1.5 tonnes of elephant ivory.

    Source: {Capitalfm}

  • DRC: Katanga Province Threatens to Secede

    {{After a well-known warlord escaped from prison in Katanga, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s most stable province has been terrorised for the last year by a group demanding independence for the mineral-rich region.}}

    In Katanga, it is common to hear people complain that they are not benefiting from their region’s immense copper and cobalt resources, so it was no surprise that many young people initially responded to the separatists’ call.

    It is also an issue on which the southern province has infamous form.

    Less than a week after Congo’s independence in June 1960, it announced it was seceding, sparking a conflict fuelled by Cold War rivalries.

    Secessionist leader and businessman Moise Tshombe was backed by Belgium, the ex-colonial power, and the UK and US, which all had mining interests in Katanga and baulked at the idea of a Congo led by a government allied to the Soviet Union.

    Within four months Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba had been overthrown. He was later assassinated, while Mr Tshombe eventually bowed to UN pressure and superior firepower. Katanga was reintegrated in 1963.

    Cold War politics may no longer be an issue for the Swahili-speaking province almost the size of France, but the alienation from the rest of DR Congo its many residents feel still is.

    However, the current separatists – the Mai Mai Kata Katanga movement – are not using tactics that will win the hearts and minds of the civilian population.

    “They tied my mum to a tree and stuck an arrow through her rib cage,” 18-year-old Antoinette said, recalling the secessionists’ attack on her village of Montofita in which some houses were burnt and she and her mother were kidnapped.

    “They cut off her breasts. I saw it all. Then each of the two men raped me. My neighbours were burned alive.”

    Antoinette has found refuge in the small dusty town of Pweto on the border with Zambia where some 60,000 other Katanga villagers have gathered.

    The UN refugee agency estimates that more than 1,700 displaced women were raped before fleeing.

    In total nearly 400,000 people now live in camps for displaced persons – a huge number, often overshadowed by the even more numerous people forced from their homes by other conflicts in DR Congo.

    “Maybe the population could have supported the Kata Katanga’s cause, but they didn’t give us a chance: they don’t behave like a liberation movement. They burn villages and kill people,” said Priscille, a Pweto resident.

    There are several groups of Mai Mai, the term for armed community groups, in Katanga.

    {{Village recruitment}}

    The Kata Katanga, which in Swahili means “secede Katanga”, is the newest and was formed after Gedeon Kyungu Mutanga escaped from prison in September 2011.

    Before he was imprisoned in 2006, he had been head of a militia which fought alongside the Congolese forces against pro-Rwandan rebel groups in the 1990s.

    After the end of that conflict, he allegedly continued to receive discreet support from someone in the military.

    Following his escape, such links are thought to have continued – with top decisions and financing coming from a Katangan living abroad.

    A man who recently fled a rebel base with two wives and eight children explained the group’s recruitment process.

    “Gedeon came to our village in August 2012,” he said.

    “We did not see him with our eyes; he hid in a hut to talk to us.

    “He told us that if we joined the Kata Katanga, we would have a better life. He told us that if Katanga became independent, it would put an end to the harassment by the soldiers, and would give us access to the resources that belong to us.

    “Katanga is very rich, but we don’t benefit at all. He told us that would change.”

    The largest cobalt deposits in the world are in Katanga – and the province is the second biggest African provider of copper.

    While thousands of people walk for days on dusty roads to escape armed groups, other brand-new roads are used to transport millions of dollars’ worth of minerals out of the country.

    Lorries full of cobalt and copper can be seen every day lining up for kilometres on end at the Zambian border.

    According to Congolese law, the government has to transfer 40 per cent of the taxes paid by companies based in Katanga back to the province, but local human rights organisations say the tax money has had no visible impact.

    The skyline of Lubumbashi is dominated by its slag heap, but outside the provincial capital, schools, hospitals and asphalt roads – besides those heading to the border – are rare sights.

    Lucien, a school teacher from Kabisa now in Pweto, said a dozen men joined up with the separatists from his village.

    “I was targeted by the armed groups because I am educated, I tell people the truth, and so I deterred young men from joining armed groups,” he said.

    “I told them it would bring them only misery.”

    According to local authorities in Pweto, hundreds of Mai Mai fighters have deserted the movement since the beginning of the year, exhausted and demoralised.

    “We will never achieve independence. We are poorer than before, many of us died,” one former fighter said.

    {{Flag raised}}

    Yet in March, more than 200 Kata Katanga fighters, lightly armed, covered with magic charms and waving flags of the independent State of Katanga, entered Lubumbashi.

    They raised their flag in the town’s central square before surrendering to UN peacekeepers after a battle in which 23 people died.

    Since then, the Mai Mai has threatened to enter the city again.

    “We are afraid, the last time they entered many people were killed by stray bullets. It’s almost like a rebellion,” one Lubumbashi resident said.

    The villagers who fled to Pweto said soldiers from the UN or Congolese army were nowhere to be seen when they came under attack.

    The UN refugee agency UNHCR has called on the UN peacekeeping mission, Monusco, to increase its presence in the region to protect civilians.

    Monusco did send an unspecified number of Egyptian special forces to Lubumbashi in June, to reinforce the 450-strong brigade already in Katanga.

    The UN says the situation in Katanga is “very concerning” but the province of North Kivu, where some 6,000 peacekeepers are stationed, remains the priority of the mission at the moment.

    It is not clear how many government soldiers are deployed in Katanga and the government says it has no intention of sending reinforcements.

    “For me there is no rebellion,” said Congolese Prime Minister Matata Ponyo, adding that people had a democratic space to express their views and the government would attempt to control such movements.

    According to the UNHCR, government soldiers are responsible for a large portion of the cases of sexual violence registered among the displaced people.

    The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it is struggling to assist even half of those displaced by the unrest as it does not have the funds.

    “Katanga is still seen as a ‘rich’ province,” explains Anne Nardini, head of the WFP programme in Lubumbashi.

    One resident of Lubumbashi summed up the general feeling of many people in Katanga.

    “Independence could be a good thing for Katanga, but it depends primarily on how it is achieved,” he said.

    “If this is for the people, yes, but to serve the interests of a small group, no thank you.”

    -BBC

  • Kenya &Tanzania in Joint Geothermal Power Production

    {{Kenya has revealed plans to partner with Tanzania for production of geothermal power in an attempt to increase energy production in the East African region.}}

    A delegation of senior government officials and members of Tanzania’s parliamentary committee on energy and mining recently discussed geothermal energy developments in Kenya with the aim of understanding capacity building, licensing and how to attract investors for the partnership.

    Tanzania, which has the longest rift stretch in eastern Africa, has about 52 identified sites with geothermal potential of 650MW that have not been fully exploited.

    Tanzania’s parliamentary committee chairman of energy and mining Victor Mwambalaswa noted that geothermal power production in Kenya has been successful in the past four years and added that the same could be replicated in Tanzania to help in faster development of the resource.

    Mwambalaswa said, “During our discussions, we have been impressed by what Kenya has done in the past four years and we have discussed what is going to suit both partners.”

    Tanzania’s commissioner for energy and petroleum affairs Hosea Mbise said the exploited energy in Tanzania is about 600MW, which has been low considering that the demand of the resource was about 900MW.

    To kick off the project, the African Development Bank will sponsor a few experts from Tanzania to train on geothermal science.

    Source: {Africanreview}