Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{Kenya Detectives pursuing the cause of the Wednesday fire that destroyed the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport international arrivals section will release a preliminary report today.}}

officials said they are compiling a report on what they think caused the fire and that it would be handed over to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

“The experts who are leading the probe will hand over their preliminary report to indicate the source and cause of the fire,” said a senior informed official, adding that they so far think the fire was the result of either accident or arson.

This was after Kenya Power officials ruled out electrical faults as the cause of the fire, saying all their circuits were intact.

Uhuru also announced the fire was not the result of terrorism as he ordered the restructuring of the security command at the airport to come under one commander.

Stern warning

“We can now confirm there was no element of a terror incident in this fire. There is no evidence of an explosion or an improvised explosive device. This was a simple fire gone bad,” he said on Friday. He also warned that anyone found culpable would be dealt with.

FBI detectives who joined the probe said there was no form of terrorism. Two US military fire experts are assisting local investigators, and the US is also providing immigration equipment to help restore regular international service.

Police are also viewing CCTV footage of events before and after the first fire was reported.

{{United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Uganda has received a contribution of US$2.6 million from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO) to support newly-arrived refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). }}

This latest contribution from the European Commission will help WFP assist Congolese refugees who have arrived in Uganda since January 2012, including more than 18,000 people currently sheltering at Bubukwanga Transit Centre in Bundibugyo district.

“ECHO’s generosity will enable WFP to feed an estimated 50,000 people for about three months,” said WFP’s acting Representative in Uganda, Michael Dunford.

“It has come at just the right time for us, as the flow of refugees over the border is stretching our ability to provide adequate nutrition to the newcomers who are often in desperate need,” Dunford added.

“Europeans stand in solidarity with the Congolese who have been uprooted from their homes due to ongoing violence in their country,” said Roberto Ridolfi, head of the European Union Delegation in Uganda.

Ridolfi said the ECHO funding would be used to help the most vulnerable families who have fled their homes with few possessions and are in need of life-saving food assistance.

WFP provides food that is cooked for the refugees while they are at the transit centres, and then provides monthly family rations when they are relocated into settlements.

WFP currently assists more than 180,000 refugees through three transit centres and eight settlements in southwest and northwest Uganda. Most of these people arrived from the DRC in the last five years, but the country also hosts refugees from South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia.

Refugees who have been in Uganda for several years may have established alternative sources of income, including small trade, casual labour and cultivation of land allocated to them by the Government of Uganda.

However, new arrivals usually require WFP’s full support for up to three years, during which they may be unable to supplement the assistance they receive from WFP, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other partners.

NV

{{Floods in Sudan have killed at least 15 people in the past two weeks and left almost 100,000 more homeless, officials said.}}

More than 20,000 houses have been destroyed or badly damaged after heavy rains pounded suburbs of the capital Khartoum.

Thousands of people have also been displaced in a north Ugandan border town of Elegu after floods washed away their homes. Uganda shares a border with South Sudan, which is Sudan’s neighbour to the south.

The floods struck after a nearby river overflowed its banks following hours of torrential rains.

Elegu is a vibrant border town with businesses from local bars to lodges, and markets with cross-border trade between Uganda and South Sudan.

Moses Okello, who owned rental houses in the town, said they had been destroyed with nothing to salvage.

“There is no way now. We are stuck. We have nowhere to start,” he said.

Sarah Ninsiima, another victim whose bar and lodges got submerged, said she had no roof over her head and wondered what she would do next.

“That day I wanted to go to another place, we were told this place usually floods during rainy season. I heard people screaming that the floods were coming, only to realize the water was knee high and it was on the beds,” said Ninsiima.

The floods have heightened fears of a cholera outbreak as locals say all the pit latrines were washed away and people have to use bushes as toilets.

The Ugandan Red Cross has so far delivered a few essentials like blankets and food, but many people remain homeless.

Weather experts say more rains are expected until October.

agencies

{{The Kenyan government is set to build a new temporary terminal with a capacity of 2.5 million passengers.}}

President Uhuru Kenyatta who visited the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Friday evening said the new terminal will be ready in coming weeks.

“We also intend to do a full refurbishment of Terminals 1, 2 and 3 once our new temporary terminal is ready,” he revealed.

The president said that Terminal 4 that is currently under construction will come on stream earlier than the projected March 4 2014.

“Passengers are coming in and going out, as it ought to be. They are not as comfortable as we’d like them to be, but we are working on that,” he said.

To enhance passenger comfort, the President offered the use of the Presidential pavilion to boost operations of the airport.

He said that Airport capacity is up to about 70 per cent while safety and security have significantly been enhanced.

The President spoke JKIA after inspecting progress made towards returning the airport to normal operations.

The airport resumed operations to all traffic at midnight Thursday.

He said the cost of loss experienced during the incident has not been quantified.
The government has also overhauled national disaster services, creating one coordinating agency to take charge during such incidences.

“We have received massive support, including financial, security equipment and others, from lending institutions and friendly governments to get this important regional hub back to full operations, and we are grateful to them,” he said.

{{Democratic Republic of Congo will start talks next week aimed at easing a political standoff in the capital and ending remote rebellions, with the leader of neighbouring Congo Republic taking some form of mediating role.}}

DRC’s last major war ended a decade ago, but localised rebellions, as well as rampant corruption, have hamstrung efforts to rebuild the vast former Belgian colony, a target for billions of dollars of foreign investment.

As well as the “M23” rebellion near the border with Rwanda in the east, and one in the in the Katangan copper belt in the south, political tensions have simmered in the capital Kinshasa, in the west, since President Joseph Kabila’s 2011 re-election in a vote the opposition says was riddled by fraud.

Now, the political opposition will take part in talks with the government, rebel groups and civil society, after Congo Republic’s president, Denis Sassou Nguesso, agreed to “accompany” the process, although his role and the scope of the discussions are yet to be clarified.

“We came to meet the president to tell him that we will start our dialogue next week,” Kengo Wa Dondo, president of DRC’s senate, told reporters late on Thursday after meeting Nguesso in Congo Republic’s capital, Brazzaville.

A spokesman for the president confirmed he had accepted the role, the exact nature of which will be clarified in further meetings in Kinshasa.

“He is available 24 hours a day. What more can you say?” Wa Dondo said.

The two nation’s capitals are separated only by the Congo River but Nguesso’s involvement comes after years of strained relations with Kabila.

Problems stemmed mainly from accusations by Kinshasa that Brazzaville was harbouring alleged coup plotters accused of trying to topple Kabila’s government.

A visit by Kabila to his counterpart last month to discuss regional politics, including the M23 rebellion, appears to have laid the foundations for Nguesso’s involvement.

agencies

{{South Sudanese staff member of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been killed and another wounded in an attack by armed men on their vehicle outside the country’s capital, Juba, the medical charity said.}}

MSF said the shooting occurred on Monday on a main road outside Juba in an attack on a vehicle bearing the organization’s name.

“These types of incidents directly impact on the ability of aid workers to provide much needed, life-saving medical assistance,” MSF said in a statement.

The victim, whom MSF identified only as Joseph, died two days later from his injuries.

One of the world’s poorest nations, South Sudan is in the grip of a slow-burning humanitarian crisis caused by years of underdevelopment, conflict and natural disaster, aid agencies say.

Police spokesman James Monday Enoka said police officers were deployed along all major roads around Juba, but were not always able to deter attackers.

{reuters}

{{The Sudanese foreign ministry summoned the Charge d’affaires (CDA) at the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Khartoum to request a formal explanation on why Riyadh blocked a plane carrying president Omer Hassan al-Bashir last Sunday who was on his way to Iran to attend the inauguration ceremony of president-elect Hassan Rouhani.}}

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said earlier this week that the chartered plane, flown by a foreign crew, which Bashir was boarding, had no prior permission to fly through Saudi airspace and claimed that they were not told about the presence of the Sudanese president until the aircraft was already headed back to Khartoum airport.

GACA further emphasized that rules and procedures require the Sudanese government to request a diplomatic permission 48 hours before the flight and coordinate with Riyadh as such.

But Sudan’s Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) responded saying that they communicated the details of the flight to the control tower at Jeddah airport few hours prior to the plane’s departure and mentioned that they were told that the aircraft is carrying a Top Very Important Person (Top-VIP) without specifically naming Bashir.

Following the airport’s refusal to authorize passage of the plane, the pilot made a last ditch attempt and told air traffic controllers that Bashir is one of the passengers on the flight. According to SCAA, the Saudis stood by their position forcing the plane to turn back home.

GACA noted that the plane is registered abroad and has blanket permission to land at any Saudi airport only if its registered owner is onboard adding that it cannot be leased or used for commercial purposes.

Sudan countered this argument by saying that the plane is owned by Midrock Aviation company which is based in Jeddah.

An online Linkedin profile of the pilot named Pervez Iqbal mentioned by Sudan show that he has been working since 2007 at Midroc Aviation which is registered in Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia’s CDA in Khartoum Saeed al-Ghamdi told the pro-government Ashorooq TV that he was called by the Arab Bureau at the Sudanese foreign ministry to receive a formal query from the government on the incident.

He downplayed the significance of what happened calling it “simple” that would not impact bilateral relations and reiterated that a permit was required to clear the flight.

Today the GACA released a fresh statement affirming that they were not told about Bashir’s presence as Sudan alleged and underscored that communicating information about the flight does not constitute approval.

The criticized the SCAA for not following the rules and protocols saying it “should have known better”.

On Sunday, Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi as saying that flight permissions for Bashir’s plane had been obtained in advance but offered no details.

A similar situation occurred in June 2011 when Turkmenistan and Tajikistan refused to grant permission to Bashir’s plane in order to reach China where he was to start a state visit. As a result he was forced to return to Tehran where he was attending a summit there and decide on a new route to reach Beijing.

Observers speculated that Sudan’s growing ties with Iran could have irked the Saudis prompting them to block Bashir’s flight.

Sudan twice allowed Iranian warships to dock in Port Sudan last year, drawing concern by the United States and its allies in the Gulf.

In an editorial last November titled “The fall of masks between Iran and Sudan”, the Saudi pro-government Al-Riyadh newspaper blasted Khartoum over allowing entry to the Iranian warships, saying there is no “logical justification” for a relationship between the two countries.

Bashir has generally seen his travel difficulties mount in the wake of the two warrants issued by the Hague-based International Criminal Court in 2009 and 2010 for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

He was forced to cancel many appearances since then for fear of arrest.

Saudi Arabia, however, was one country Bashir frequently visited after his indictment as Riyadh is not party to the ICC statute.

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