Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{In Kenya, Security has been tightened in Mombasa and its suburbs following intelligence reports of impending terror attacks.}}

Police reports show that terrorists are planning to hit key targets with systematic attacks which will cripple rescue efforts.

“Corroborative reports point towards an imminent terrorist attack in the coast, especially within Mombasa city,” the police report seen by Capital FM News titled ‘Imminent Terrorist Attacks within the Coast’ region states.

Police said they have established that the threats are a continuation of attacks thwarted in December 2011 when key terror suspects Fuad Abubakar Manswab and John Jermaine Grant were arrested.

“Fuad who is out on bond intimated four weeks ago that there would be major simultaneous attacks in Mombasa, the magnitude of which would cripple any rescue efforts,” the confidential intelligence report reads in part.

Vigilance House has not commented about the intelligence report, although our sources have told us that it has been shared widely amongst most senior officers there.

Police are particularly worried because Fuad is still at large, despite an appeal by Police Spokesman Eric Kiraithe two weeks ago for him to present himself to the nearest police station.

“He has ignored the same and continues planning the attacks,” the police say.

According to police, there are two [terror] groups operating in Mombasa planning the attacks.

One of the teams, the reports states, is named F1 and has been responsible for throwing grenades and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in various targets in the coast.

Police believe this particular team is led by a Kenyan only identified as Maalim Khalid and has eight members namely, Tua Ibrahim Jibril aka Tafa, Tua, Zarqawi who was arrested and sent to jail in connection with armed robberies in the coast and Hassan Omondi Owiti aka Budalangi aka Budapest who escaped an October 16 security raid.

{{Burundian rebels of the National Liberation Forces (FNL) have reportedly burnt down 300 homes in ten villages in the highlands of Uvira in South Kivu.}}

According to the head group Bijombo, Dete Amisi, which delivers information, during the attack, 7 people were killed, including 5 women.

The same source indicates that Burundian rebels raided in broad daylight in the village of Masango.

They were protesting against the capture last week of their elements by a popular local vigilante group.

The attackers are said to have emerged from the forests and Mushule Itombwe.

Local residents said the rebels set fire to the houses, household goods and utensils.

They then took four cows before retiring to Ruhuha, another village on the chain Mitumba.

Nearly 3000 residents are said to have fled the area to other villages including Mukara more secure, and Katanga Bikinga.

Congolese army, FARDC commander of the 1111th Regiment has deployed his troops in Rubarati.

{{The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) has been voted the best national human rights institution on the entire African continent.}}

A similar award was given to the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights for being the best Nongovernmental organization on the continent that offered an outstanding contribution toward rights work.

The ceremony for awarding Uganda was conducted during the 25th anniversary of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights held in Cote D’Ivoire’s Yamoussoukro city two weeks ago.

The function was presided over by his Excellency Alassane Outtara, the president of the republic of Cote D’Ivoire.

At a dinner to celebrate the award at Imperial Royale Hotel on Thursday, the UNHCR boss Meddie Kaggwa, said this is the first time such an award had been given by the African Human Rights Commission for commendable performance.

{{ The East African Community (EAC) is beefing up its Early Warning Unit and mediation capacity in an effort to improve regional peace and security mechanisms; a top official of the bloc has informed.}}

The community’s Deputy Secretary General charged with Political Federation affairs, Dr Julius Tangus Rotich, said this was prompted by greater attention in the follow up of issues related and gains achieved in the promotion of democracy, good governance, the rule of law as well as protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

He said this while opening a three-day quarterly technical meeting between the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities held in Arusha recently. The conference discussed operationalisation of Africa’s early warning systems.

“Your meeting is taking place amid increased new peace and security challenges in the EAC region. Terrorism, human and illicit drugs trafficking, ethnic and inter-communal violence, religious tensions, piracy and money laundering are rising to alarming levels.

The effects of climate change with its negative impacts on food security and resource scarcity have their own toll in this grim picture.

Your combined work with other stakeholders is expected to help curtail the negative effects of these vices,” he told the conference.

These challenges, he said, were exacerbated by consolidation of the Customs Union to turn the region into a single customs territory and the implementation of the Common Market Protocol to ensure free movement of people, labour, services and capital as well as protection of cross-border investment.

However, security challenges were not a preserve of East Africa alone. “The continent has, in the past two years, seen some of the worst peace and security challenges, mostly is the so-called “Arab Spring,” said Dr Rotich.

“The ramifications and spill over of these crises, combined with the effects of the international economic crisis, are aggravating new peace and security concerns on the continent.”

The situation, he said, had necessitated harmonisation and co-ordination, as required in the Memorandum of Understanding on co-operation in the area of peace and security between the AU, the Regional Economic Communities and the Co-ordinating Mechanisms of the Regional Standby Brigades of eastern and northern Africa.

Regular meetings are therefore held to review progress toward the operationalisation of the early warning systems and to share and exchange information as well as knowledge, lessons learned and best practices.

The meetings also provide a forum to develop co-ordinated strategies, to train together, enhance mutual capacities with a view to promote and maintain peace, security and stability on the continent.

The overall aim of all these efforts is to help anticipate and prevent conflicts within and among the member states of the African Union, informed Dr Rotich.

This is the second time the EAC hosts the conference, the first time being in April 2009.

{{An independent United Nations human rights expert today called on the incoming Government and the international community to seize the chance to build a better future for the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.}}

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was selected as President on Monday, marking the culmination of a series of landmark steps to bring an end to the country’s eight-year political transition.

Those other steps, over recent weeks, included the adoption of Somalia’s provisional constitution, the establishment of the New Federal Parliament and the appointment of that body’s Speaker.

“This is a great victory for the long-suffering Somali people,” said the UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Shamsul Bari.

He added, “I am overjoyed to learn that Somalia’s parliamentarians have in a free, fair, transparent and orderly manner elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to serve as the country’s next President, putting in the meantime an end to a long transition period.”

Mr. Bari called on the forthcoming Government and the international community to “seize the opportunity to build a new Somalia where, among other things, the rule of law and the respect of human rights for all Somalis would be the milestones.”

He underscored that the new authorities can only win over the minds and hearts of the people by changing the way the country has been managed over the years without any rule of law and authority to turn to.

“They have a great momentum to reverse the situation by establishing in the minds of the people that the Government is accountable for their welfare, is aware of their human rights and basic needs and is keen to return human dignity back to them,” he said.

He also called for the development of a plan to provide the people with a clear picture of how the new authorities seek to improve the human rights situation in the country, adding that the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission under the provisional constitution would be “another important step forward.”

Mr. Bari, who undertook his ninth field visit to Kenya and Somalia from 3 to 7 September, called on the international community, including the United Nations, to muster significant financial and technical resources in a collective effort to help build a new Somalia.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back, in an unpaid capacity, on specific human rights themes.