Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Suspected Al-Shabaab militants have attacked a Kenyan military camp in Kulbiyow, Somalia.}

The KDF base was attacked on Friday morning and the number of casualties remains unconfirmed.

“We are under massive attack and there is massive exchange of fire,” Military Spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Njuguna told Nation.co.ke

Although the military spokesman didn’t offer finer details on the exchange, he said the Kenyan troops have been pinned down.

Al-Shabaab, in Twitter posts, claimed it had killed dozens of Kenyan soldiers but the Nation could independently verify the allegations.

The militant group has an elaborate propaganda machinery, complete with a spokesman, that fights to advance it war against the Mogadishu administration and its allies, including Kenya.

{Reports of deforestation endangering chimpanzees at Gombe National Park have alarmed the government, which has promised to probe the allegations.}

The Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Tourism and Natural Resources, Major General Gaudence Milanzi, said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the government will accord the matter the appropriate weight it deserves.

The ministry quickly responded yesterday to the new report by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with the impact of deforestation around the park. NASA collaborated with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to capture the images with the Landsat satellite in efforts to help in the conservation of chimpanzees, which are described as endangered species.

The report, published on the ‘Mail Online’ newspaper of the United Kingdom, says that increased pressure on the land due to population explosion and poverty has led to the forest clearance for agriculture, logging and charcoal production. There are some 345,000 or fewer chimps in the wild, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifying them as critically endangered species.

“We, in the ministry, need to work on these reports … claims that chimpanzees at the park are at risk should be looked into critically,” Major General Milanzi noted with concern.

He said it was fortunate that either the natural resources minister or his deputy will be heading to the area this weekend to award Dr Jane Goodall, a famous British primatologist who has been tirelessly protecting the chimpanzee at the park since early 1970s.

He argued, however, that generally deforestation was not a new challenge and the government has been fighting against it in many parts of the country. Chimpanzees in the region used to live in an uninterrupted belt of forests and woodlands from Lake Tanganyika westward through Uganda and the Congo Basin to western Africa.

The report says it was in the early 1970s, 10 or so years after Dr Goodall first arrived in the region and began conserving chimpanzees that forest began to be cut down. Today the belt per se has gone because it’s being divided into increasingly small fragments,’ said Dr Jane Goodall (82), who is still involved in conservation efforts at her namesake institute. But NASA, the USGS and the Jane Goodall Institute have collaborated in an effort to conserve the chimps and the forest.

“When deforestation happens, important ecological functions and services are lost – impacting both chimps and people. The chimpanzees lose feeding and nesting grounds and it is very difficult for the territorial animals to shift their home range to another location,” said Dr Lilian Pintea, the Vice-President of Conservation science for the Jane Goodall Institute

Dr Pintea said: “When we first got our landsat satellite images from ‘72 and ‘99, we made a natural color composite of Gombe and the area outside Gombe and put them side-by-side and realised that lots of deforestation happened. Added, she: “You can see it, the villages lost maybe 90 to 80 per cent of the forest cover. And they will tell stories about how the hills were covered in forest. But then when you show them a picture, it’s very shocking to everybody, realising what has been lost.”

{In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations says it recorded a significant increase in the number of human rights violations committed over the past year, and that state security forces were the main perpetrators.}

The spike in violations has been recorded by the U.N. Joint Human Rights Office in its newly-released report for the Congo for 2016. The director of the human rights office, Jose Maria Aranaz, says there was marked deterioration.

“We are particularly worried about the dramatic increase in human rights violations documented in the territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our office has documented 5,190 human rights violations, which represents a 30 percent increase compared to 2015, which was already a year of increase compared to 2014,” Aranaz said.

DRC government spokesman Lambert Mende told VOA the figures sound “exaggerated” but declined further comment as he said he has not seen the report.

The U.N. says Congolese security forces committed most of the documented violations, while the rest were attributed to armed groups active in the east of the country.

“It is a matter of particular concern the fact that state agents are responsible for the majority of these abuses,” said Aranaz. “They committed 64 percent of the violations and left behind 480 victims of extrajudicial killings and summary executions. The main perpetrator of human rights abuses in the country is the national police, followed by the army and the national intelligence services.”

Restriction of political rights

The report draws special attention to the restriction of political rights which Aranaz said quadrupled in the past year amid opposition to delayed elections.

On New Year’s eve, President Joseph Kabila’s ruling alliance and most of the opposition signed an agreement. If implemented, this deal paves the way both for delayed elections to take place in late 2017 as well as a delayed departure for Kabila, whose second and final term expired last month.

Aranaz says it is crucial to ensure political freedoms during this precarious transition.

“There is also a specific part in the political agreement signed on 31 December which refers to confidence-building measures. This refers basically to the opening of democratic space, the release of political prisoners or prisoners of opinion,” Aranaz said.

Aranaz added that his office has also been pushing for other rights.

“We have been advocating that these confidence-building measures go beyond the political prisoners’ element and include lifting the ban on demonstrations for the opposition, stopping the instrumentalization of the judiciary, bringing the perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice, allowing media professionals to conduct their activities in a healthy environment and without threats, and for the police to refrain from using lethal weapons in crowd control,” Aranaz said.

Earlier this week, Congolese authorities ejected a Human Rights Watch researcher from the country for the second time.

{The revenge attack follows the release of one, David Livingstone Lakony who was arrested early this month in connection to the death of five family members who were burnt to death.}

At least 70 huts are reported to have been torched and hundreds of people displaced following a clan revenge attack in Koch Goma sub county, Nwoya District last evening.

The revenge attack follows the release of one, David Livingstone Lakony who was arrested early this month in connection to the death of five family members who were burnt to death in Kal A village in Koch Goma Sub County.

Lakony, a prominent business man in Gulu District was arrested along with four other suspects and had been remanded to Gulu Central Prison after being charged with five counts of murder in relation to the January 5 incident.

Police preliminary investigation indicated that the suspect could have had a land wrangle with the deceased.

However, Lakony was yesterday granted bail by the Gulu Resident High Court Justice Vincent Okwanga.

Consequently, relatives of the deceased who hail from Kal Acheng clan stormed court protesting his release. Moments later, they went on rampage attacked the clan members of Ponok and Amar Adwonga where the suspect is said to belong.

Mr John Bosco Okullu the Koch Goma sub county Chairperson confirmed the incident to Daily Monitor in a telephone interview.

“There is a lot of chaos right now in my area. More than 70 huts have been torched over the release of the suspect, we believe many huts are going to be torched because they are so rowdy,” Mr Okullu said.

He said although police fire brigade and antiriot Police personnel had been deployed to quell the situation, their numbers could not match the rowdy crowd.

He said no death or cases of injury had been reported yet.

{The government said yesterday it was capitalising on several road construction projects, some finished, to give the city of Dar es Salaam a complete facelift.}

Minister of State in the President’s Office in charge of Regional Administration and Local Government, Mr George Simbachawene and the Minister for Works, Transport and Communication, Professor Makame Mbarawa, expressed optimism yesterday as they outlined the number of projects, some under implementation.

The two were speaking at the official inauguration of the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (DART) infrastructure and transport services for Phase One in the city. Prof Mbarawa told the gathering that Phase Two of the project, which would involve constructing the DART infrastructure from Gerezani at Kariakoo to Mbagala, would start soon as final touches are being made to acquire the contractor for the work.

He further said several road construction projects are ongoing, for instance, the expansion of the Morocco- Mwenge Road and the interchange sections at the junctions of Ubungo and Morocco, among others that will add to the planned ‘flyovers’.

The construction of the Tazara flyover is currently undertaken at high pace, with expectations for its completion next year. The six-lane expressway from Dar es Salaam to Chalinze was also a significant project that the government is looking forward to start its implementation. President John Magufuli noted that the government had set aside about 38bn/- this financial year to construct the city’s road infrastructure.

“The construction of the interchange section at Ubungo should start soon to give the BRT system a real meaning of the Rapid Transit as opposed to the current situation whereby traffic police officers are deployed to direct vehicles at the junction,” he said.

Mr Simbachawene noted that with the completion of the DART project Phase One, pupils and students in the city are now relieved from mistreatment in the hands of commuter buses, daladala, as they can now travel comfortably.

Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner (RC), Paul Makonda, who has for long been campaigning for a ‘new Dar es Salaam’, said the Bus Rapid Transit in the city has so far managed to cut down time commuters were using to travel to and from the city centre.

For example, he noted, from Kimara to Kivukoni one used to spend between three and four hours on the road, but now it took them only 30 to 40 minutes to do so. He was also hopeful that the city was going to have a new face, citing the ongoing construction of feeder roads such as the one from Mbezi to Kinyerezi and Gongo la Mboto.

{Burundi began Monday releasing a quarter of its jail population under a mass presidential pardon, but prisoners’ rights groups voiced concern they were just making room for more political inmates.}

A first group of 300 were released from the Mpimba central prison in Bujumbura, but authorities aim to free some 2,500 of the total, which stood at 10,051 last month.

The releases, which included 58 activists arrested in a police crackdown on demonstrators in April 2014, were aimed at “relieving prisons to allow those remaining to live in acceptable conditions,” said Justice Minister Aimee Laurentine Kanyana.

Burundi began Monday releasing a quarter of its jail population under a mass presidential pardon, but prisoners’ rights groups voiced concern they were just making room for more political inmates.

A first group of 300 were released from the Mpimba central prison in Bujumbura, but authorities aim to free some 2,500 of the total, which stood at 10,051 last month.

The releases, which included 58 activists arrested in a police crackdown on demonstrators in April 2014, were aimed at “relieving prisons to allow those remaining to live in acceptable conditions,” said Justice Minister Aimee Laurentine Kanyana.

“Every time political prisoners are released it’s a good thing,” Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa of the Aprodeh prisoners’ defence group told AFP.

“But we are calling above all for the release of over 4,000 political detainees since the start of the crisis in Burundi,” added Mbonimpa, who lives in exile in Belgium.

But he said the pardon by President Pierre Nkurunziza was also aimed at “making space for the victims of numerous arbitrary arrests which add to the repression which Burundi suffers”.

Burundi has always denied holding political prisoners.

The African country has been in the throes of a serious, sometimes deadly political crisis since April 2015 when Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a third term which opponents said was unconstitutional.

He went on to win an election in July that was boycotted by the opposition and criticised by outside observers.

The violence in Burundi has so far killed at least 500 people and driven more than 300,000 to leave the country.

Burundi has also moved to quit the International Criminal Court which was investigating the country, and cut ties with the UN’s main human rights body after a damning September report detailed atrocities and warned of “genocide”.

{In 2015 Uganda was ranked 131 out of 167 countries and in the latest report has risen to 151 out of 176 countries ranked.
}

Uganda has improved in rankings among the most corrupt countries in the world according to the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. In 2015 Uganda was ranked 131 out of 167 countries and in the latest report has risen to 151 out of 176 countries ranked.

Somalia, South Sudan, North Korea and Syria are perceived to be the most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International’s latest annual review that draws on a mix of business and government sources for its rankings.

Somalia has held the undesirable title as the world’s most corrupt country for the past 10 years, with a score of 10 on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016, which ranks countries’ public sector from zero to 100.

Countries with a lower score are deemed to be more corrupt, and are generally characterized by impunity for corruption, poor governance and weak institutions, the report said.

Second from the bottom is South Sudan, a relatively new country which only gained its independence from Sudan six years ago, with a score of 11. The third most corrupt country is North Korea, followed by Syria, a war-torn country which is presently seeing a massive outflow of refugees.

Countries in the Middle East suffered the worst declines on the corruption index, led by Qatar which fell 10 scores from the previous year due to scandals such as FIFA’s decision to host the World Cup 2022 in Qatar amid reports of migrant workers abuse, Transparency International said.

{{The top 10 ranked nations perceived to be the least corrupt are: }}

• Denmark
• New Zealand
• Finland
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Norway
• Singapore
• Netherlands
• Canada
• Germany

{{And the most corrupt countries as ranked on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 are: }}

• Somalia
• South Sudan
• North Korea
• Syria
• Yemen
• Sudan
• Libya
• Afghanistan
• Guinea-Bissau
• Venezuela