Tag: GreatLakesNews

{An armed attack on the Twanziga gold mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Tuesday has resulted in four casualties.}

Among the dead are three policemen that were guarding the mine and one of the robbers, according to a statement on Banro Corp’s (TSX:BAA) website.

The incident occurred early Tuesday morning and involved an attempt by the seven-member raiding party to break through the gate. Police fired on the robbers, ending the assault. A security guard was also injured during the altercation. No items were stolen and the mine continues to operate normally, Banro said. The attempted break-in was recorded on security cameras and has been reported to authorities. An investigation is underway.

The open-pit mine, which started commercial production in 2012, is one of four gold mines operated by Banro in the DRC. It was expected to produce 110-120,000 ounces in 2016.

According to Reuters the mine has been “plagued by illegal miners squatting on the site and by armed groups, some of the dozens of militias that remain active despite the official end to a regional conflict in 2003.”

Banro’s stock, listed on the Toronto main board, lost 2.27% today to close at 21.5 cents a share.

Source:Mining

{The government has been able to put the recent avian flu outbreak under control, State Minister for Agriculture, Vincent Ssempijja has said.}

“I would like to reiterate that bird flu outbreak has been controlled and together with stakeholders, the government is ensuring trade in poultry and poultry products will resume,” Ssempiija said. He added that no migratory bird deaths have been reported in the last three weeks. Ssempijja made the remarks while addressing journalists’ in Entebbe after a meeting with his South Sudanese counterpart Hon. James Duku who is the neighbouring country’s minister of livestock and fisheries.

Sempijja further said that the country’s poultry industry (breeders, commercial layer and broiler producers) is safe, with the farmers practicing bio safety measures. He also stated that their location is a safe distance from the outbreak and as such they are not affected by the outbreak which is still only confirmed in the migratory birds.

He further dismissed any allegations of human contraction of the virus: “The serotype of the virus which was observed three weeks ago was the avian influenza Type A- Serotype H5N8 which is highly pathogenic in birds and not humans, thus no humans were affected so the population is informed that there will be no vaccination against bird flu.”

South Sudan becomes the second country after Kenya to send a taskforce to Uganda in it’s effort to curb the avian flu outbreak which has seen some neighbouring countries close off their borders to Uganda’s poultry products.

While addressing the media, Minister Duku after a tour of some of the affected areas and commercial poultry farms and markets commended the Ugandan team for the preventive measures that they had put in place.

“After we got news of the bird flu outbreak in Uganda we were very alarmed that we would be affected next, so we came here for a fact-finding mission because we must take a decision basing on facts but yesterday I was taken to Bukakata landing site and other poultry commercial areas; the measures they put in place were very assuring,” he said.

Duku further assured the Ugandan business community of continued trade between the two neighbours. “We had never closed off the border to Ugandan products, not even poultry and with the findings and recommendations that I have got from both the technical team and minister that I will go back home with, I don’t think there will be any reason to close off our mutual borders,” he said.

Source:Daily Monitor

{President John Magufuli yesterday suspended acting Secretary of the Planning Commission, Treasury, Frolence Mwanri over questionable payment approval for the second phase of Julius Nyerere International Airport’s (JNIA) Terminal III construction. Ms Mwanri was suspended after Dr Magufuli made an impromptu tour of the construction site and ordered the relevant state organs to investigate the project.}

The president was vividly irked by the amount spent in the second phase construction, saying the amount does not match the value of the building. He queried, “Why did you, government experts, accept such huge costs, is this building real worthy 560bn/-?”

He directed the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications Prof Makame Mbarawa to form a team of local engineers who are well versed with the government focus, saying he wanted a big percentage of money paid out to the project to remain in the country.

“I will be the main consultant of this project…I have directed the minister to provide me with daily reports on the projects but I also want him to form the team of patriotic engineers who know what we want to do, so that more money remain in the country,” he explained.

President Magufuli assured members of the public that the works at the ongoing construction at Terminal III of JNIA will resume today. “I decided to visit the site without telling anyone.

If I had informed them they would have lied to me that work is going on. I know that there are Tanzanians working here and that is very good because I promised to generate employment opportunities,” he told the cheering workers.

Dr Magufuli stressed that he had issued directive to the contractor and consultant to resume work this morning, adding that he has also directed the minister of works to provide him with daily updates of the project. He explained that the project Contractors and Consultants had claims that the government will settle soon.

“There were also some fake claims but those I will deal with myself. But you must report back to work tomorrow morning (today) and they have promised me that work will resume as usual,” he stressed.

The on-going construction of Terminal III at the JNIA, which is expected to facilitate 3.5 million annual passengers, includes construction of parking lots, access roads, platforms and a taxiway. The new terminal is designed for the anticipated growth of international air traffic, leaving the existing international Terminal two to cater for domestic flights. Meanwhile, President Magufuli yesterday received credentials from six envoys who will be representing their countries in Dar es Salaam.

The envoys and their countries in brackets are Mr Mohamed Ben Mansour Al Malek (United Arab Emirates), Mr Abdelilah Benryane (Morocco), Mr Benson Keith Chali (Zambia), Mr Lucas Domingo Hernandez Polledo (Cuba), Mousa Farhang (Iran) and Mr Gervais Abayeho (Burundi).

He told Ambassador Al Malek that Saudi Arabia had been cooperating with Tanzania in various projects of infrastructure and asked him to convey his message to King of Saudi Arabia.

Dr Magufuli also expressed his happiness following Cuba’s decision to build pharmaceutical industries in the country, with a view of reducing drug imports. Moroccan Ambassador Benryane told the President that his country had embarked on a process to implement the promise by Moroccan King Mohammed VI to construct a modern stadium in Dodoma.

Source:Daily News

{The Director of Tanzania Game Trackers, Michael Allard, and nine other suspects working for the hunting establishment have been arrested here for allegedly staying and working in the country without the necessary permits.}

The establishment, abbreviated as TGT, is a hunting concession operating at Ngaramtoni ya Chini section of Arumeru District, Arusha Region, while Allard is said to be a French national, whose stay here has raised many questions.

The Arusha Regional Labour Officer, Mr Yusuph Nzugille, has confirmed the arrest of nine foreigners, naming some as Hendrikus Van der Goot from Netherlands, Cliff Durell Hunter, hailing from South Africa, Nana Grosse Woodley from Germany, Nicolas Care Theresa Hartmann from Germany.

It has been reported that the suspects had illegally forged relevant residential and working permits that enabled them to stay, live and conduct their daily operations in Tanzania since 2015. The Labour Department here has in recent days been combing the entire area, flushing out aliens.

Others who fell in the same trap include Priya Shah from the United Kingdom, Chinnadurai Vellaichamy from India and Wesley Khamasi Guyavi from Kenya.

Their illegal stay in Tanzania, according to officials here, has caused the country to lose millions. According to Mr Nzugille, his department was prompted to take action in line with new regulations that stipulate that all working permits should be issued by the Commission for Labour under the Ministry of Labour while the Immigration Department is left to deal with residential permits only. “We had initially arrested 13 suspects but after conducting investigations, four others were released.

The remaining nine needs to be investigated further,” said the senior labour official. Reports here have it that a certain official at the Immigration Office here must have assisted the suspects in acquiring permits believed to have been forged.

The advocate representing the accused, Mr Wilfred Mawalla, said his clients were innocent because they had no way of knowing that the documents were not genuine as they had been prepared by a government official.

The Deputy Commissioner for Immigration in Arusha Region, Mr Vitalis Mlay, said his office was aware of the situation but pointed out that a special task force has been fitted from the headquarters in Dar-salaam to investigate the case as well as the suspected Immigration officer alleged to have helped the nine foreigners acquire those documents.

Source:Daily News

{(ANSA) – Rome, February 7 – Three children from the Congo who have been adopted by Italian families and are already in Italy may have been taken from their biological families in exchange for money, according to a statement on Tuesday by Silvia Della Monica, vice president of the government’s Commission on International Adoptions (CAI). Della Monica said judicial authorities have been notified.}

“If the children were taken from their families and the organisations knew about it, there are precise responsibilities to determine,” she said.

A final group of 18 out of a total of 66 children from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) arrived in Italy for adoption last June.

The adoptive parents, who had been protesting delays in the process, were not told of their arrival until the last pieces of red tape were removed.

DRC authorities authorized the 66 adopted children to join their Italian parents at the end of March.

Another 14 adopted children were authorized to leave the African country a year ago, in mid-February.

Then Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, now premier, hailed the June arrivals and said he hoped for speedy clearance so that the children can join their adoptive families soon.

In November 2015, the DRC approved the adoptions by foreign families, including Italians, of 69 children after a two-year wait.

In May 2014, an Italian Air Force jet carrying 31 Congolese children adopted by families in Italy arrived from the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, marking the happy conclusion to a protracted ordeal.

For eight months, 24 Italian couples had been unable to bring their adopted children home from the DRC despite completing the adoption process, due to lack of final clearance by Congolese authorities.

The government in Kinshasa in September that year suspended permissions on all international adoptions citing suspected irregularities, but admitted that none of the procedures in question concerned Italy.

Source:Ansa

{President Yoweri Museveni has condemned rape in the strongest terms possible suggesting that rapists deserve to be killed.}

Mr Museveni made the remarks during celebrations to mark 36th Tarehe Sita Anniversary at Boma Grounds, Apac District, on Monday.

“A rapist is a killer and he deserves to be killed,” he said.

“The reason UPDF has succeeded among other is discipline. The UDPF respects the population. When you kill a person, we kill you. You (soldiers) rape a woman, we shall shoot you.”

He argued that rapists are responsible for the transmission of deadly communicable diseases to their innocent victims.

However, article 22 of the constitution says “no person shall be deprived of life intentionally except in execution of a sentence passed by a court of competent jurisdiction in respect a criminal offence under the laws of Uganda and the conviction and sentence have been confirmed by the highest appellate court.”

Uganda’s penal code provides for 15 capital offences: nine separate offences grouped under the collective heading “treason” and offences against the state, rape, defilement, murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping. Death is a mandatory punishment for six of the treasonous offences and a discretionary sentence for the remaining felonies at the same go.

The theme of this year’s celebrations was: “The people and their security forces: celebrating a patriotic partnership that guarantees security for national development.”

Tarehe Sita, a Kiswahili phrase literarily meaning the 6th date in a month, refers to the 6th of February in the Ugandan context. It is the day that marks the birth of the National Resistance Army (NRA) which metamorphosed into the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) as it is known today. On that day in 1981, twenty seven (27) armed and a few other unarmed patriots attacked Kabamba Barracks which marked the start of the struggle by the population against misrule that Ugandans had witnessed, characterised by dictatorship; unconstitutional governance; and state repression and violation of human rights.

The attack was a clarion call to the population for a popular and protracted struggle in the country that later culminated in the march of NRA and its political wing the National Resistance Movement, onto Kampala, capturing state power on January 26, 1986.

The President noted that peace in Uganda was not easy to achieve because of the previous problems the country had encountered. However, today there is peace in the whole of Uganda. This has been the work of the UPDF and the work of the people of Uganda.

“When we celebrate army day, we don’t celebrate NRA day only, all the previous armies of Uganda merged to form UPDF. That is how we are able to bring all the good elements from the old armies to form one national army. Therefore that word kuc (peace) is number one that I would like to remind you,” Mr Museveni said.

He further informed other senior armies from the neighboring states: Kenya, Burundi and South Sudan that attended the celebration that UPDF has succeeded to bring peace in Uganda and to execute many tasks because of ideology.

“We don’t believe in sectarianism of religion, we don’t believe in sectarianism of tribe, we don’t look down upon women, we don’t neglect the youth that is why our kadogos were sent back to school to study; we value the contribution of everybody,” he explained.

Mr Museveni also thanked the people of Lango for leading the fight for Independence.
“They (the Lango tribal group) helped us to fight Kony (leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army) and Lakwena and to disarm the cattle rustlers in Karamoja,” he said, urging the people to join hands in the fight against “one big battle” – the fight to chase household poverty.”

Defence state minister Col (Rtd) Charles Okello Engola Macodwogo, also the NRM MP for Oyam North in Oyam District, reassured the President that the people of Lango will continue supporting the NRM government.

He added that during the army week to mark Tarehe Sita, the UPDF treated more than 18,000 people with different ailments in the eight districts that make up Lango: Amolatar, Oyam, Apac, Lira, Otuke, Kole, Dokolo and Alebtong.

“We donated textbooks to at least one school in every district in the region and we have renovated classrooms and health facilities,” the Defence state minister said.
During the celebration, several gallant Ugandan sons and daughters were awarded medals.

{At the Kulbiyow military camp in Somalia that was attacked by Al-Shabaab terrorists two week ago, one thing sticks out: a huge crater formed by a powerful car bomb explosion.}

The blast marked the start of a fierce gun battle that continued for two hours before the attackers retreated and fled.

When the Nation visited the camp on Monday, only a handful of charred motor vehicle parts remained at the scene of the explosion, about 600 metres from the centre of the camp.

Most of the soldiers who fought in that battle were at the camp.

Twenty-one of their colleagues died while 44 others sustained injuries and were airlifted to Nairobi for treatment.

There is a new officer in charge, Major George Osano, who was deployed to replace Major Denis Girenge, who is being treated at Defence Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi.

Pointing at the crater, Maj Osano explained: “This is the place where one of the VBIEDs (vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices) exploded. It’s our men who destroyed it before it could reach the camp.

“This big depression shows that the explosion force was downwards because it was hit by a mortar, from above.”

Remnants of the mortar bomb that did the damage are visible on the ground.

“The intention was to drive through and get right into the camp so that when it explodes, there is maximum damage.

“After that, fighters with guns would storm in and face the least resistance,” said Maj Osano.

He explained that the impact of the explosion sent shockwaves to a radius of 200 metres.

On the other side of the vast land, about 800 metres from the centre of the camp, are many spots of blood-drenched ground.

Standing on one spot, Maj Osano explained: “This is where the battle was won. It has been many days, but as you can see, many of their attackers were felled here. You can see how far it is from the camp.”

He added: “We took them out from far away. We are not in the business of gauging how many were killed, all we do is win the war. They could not go past this place and so they decided to leave.”

{{Changing tactics }}

Maj Osano also said: “Most of the attackers are youngsters who have been conscripted by force. We have studied their tactics and so we have also changed [ours] to beat them.

“And we shall keep going on because we know they have discovered VBIEDs will no longer work.”

The camp is dotted with bags filled with sand erected around dugouts that are manned by heavily armed soldiers.

The bags are riddled with bullets that were not able to penetrate through.

The ground is also littered with spent cartridges, the other only sign of the battle nearly two weeks ago.

The bunkers are the defence positions and that is also where the soldiers sleep and keep watch.

This is the area Al-Shabaab militants had planned to reach as they converged on the camp from different directions.

Then there is the outer ring — a big area of land cleared of all bushes and trees so that any invaders are clearly visible from the defence positions.

The perimeter of the outer ring is secured with mounds of earth about three meters high.

This is the area where most of the attackers retreated and further ahead, where the explosions occurred.

At another corner are drums of fuel for armoured personnel carriers and trucks and also used for powering generators.

The camp is manned by the C Company of the 15 Kenya Rifles Battalion from Mariakani.

Source:Daily Nation

{Defense and security organs were yesterday told to embrace the government championed industrial economy, through setting up of factories to add value to locally produced raw materials.}

“Why should we import uniforms for members of the armed forces and yet we produce cotton in large quantities? Even if it means producing garments from locally available sisal, let it be so,” President John Magufuli ordered in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

He said it was high time the security organs embarked on manufacturing of goods for the domestic market to avoid turning Tanzania into a “dumping ground” for cheap imports.“You could as well give specifications of your garments to textile industries to produce the uniforms, domestically.

Other countries in Africa are doing the same and they even produce their equipment, why not us,” he queried. Dr Magufuli was confident as well that the security organs could produce dynamites required by the forces rather than relying on imports.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces issued the order at the swearing-in of the newly appointed Tanzania People’s Defence Force (TPDF) Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) General Venance Mabeyo and Chief of Staff Lieutenant General James Mwakibolwa.

At the event, Inspector General of Police (IGP) also swore in the new Director of Criminal Investigations Commissioner of Police (CP) Boaz Mikomwanga. Dr Magufuli instructed the newly confirmed Commissioner General of Prisons to ensure prisoners, particularly those serving long sentences, work and produce for the nation through participation in infrastructure projects.

President Magufuli on the other hand explained that the firstphase construction of the 300-kilometre Central Railway line to standard gauge will be implemented using local funds.

It will be undertaken in 30 months from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro. “I am quite sure that prisoners can be used to crash stones and take part in other tasks in the project. A total of two trillion will be used for the project to be undertaken by Turkish and Portuguese contractors.

“The current train travels at an average of 30 kilometres per hour but the envisaged standard gauge railway (SGR) train will have a speed of between 160 and 180 kilometres per hour,” he explained.

According to President Magufuli, the SGR in Tanzania will have the capacity to carry 38 tonnes per axle compared to 25 tonnes in other East African nations. He revealed as well that the tender for construction of the second phase of the SGR covering Morogoro to Dodoma will be floated in April, this year.

At the occasion, Dr Magufuli urged the new Tanzanian envoy to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Ambassador Paul Mella to attract more cargo from the landlocked country to pass through the port of Dar es Salaam.

President Magufuli also challenged the Ambassador Shelukindo, who has been posted to Paris, France, to woo investors from the European country.

Speaking after the swearingin ceremony, the former CDF, General Davis Mwamunyange said he was happy to have served in TPDF, rising from a junior army officer to the highest position.

“The army has won esteem from the public and we did a good job in peace keeping missions in DRC, Lebanon and Darfur,” the soft-spoken army general recalled.

Source:Daily News