Advertisement

Africa at a glance

Wednesday May 01 2019
conde

Guinea President Alpha Condé (second right) with President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo (L), Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (center) and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa (R) when they had lunch together on the sidelines of the 11th Extraordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Africa Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on November 17, 2018. Clashes have erupted in Guinea over President Conte's bid for a third term in office against a constitution limit of two terms.

By AFRICAREVIEW.COM
By AGENCIES

  • Clashes over possible Guinea president third term

Supporters and opponents of a third presidential term for Guinea's Alpha Conde clashed Tuesday, with several hurt and others arrested, witnesses said.

Conde, 81, became the first freely-elected president in Guinea's history in 2010 and was re-elected five years later.

Although Guinea has a two-term ceiling, he has repeatedly questioned the relevance of presidential term limits and has been criticised for the use of deadly force to crush protests.

  • Zimbabwe begins exhuming victims of Mugabe-era massacre

A Zimbabwean organisation, Ukuthula Trust, has started exhuming the remains of victims of a government massacre during former president Robert Mugabe's rule, which claimed some 20,000 lives.

Advertisement

Mugabe's regime deployed a North Korean-trained crack military unit to fight alleged dissidents in parts of the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the 1980s, according to rights groups.

The targets were mainly from the Ndebele ethnic group, perceived as backing a rival to Mugabe, who is from the majority Shona group.

Mugabe did not publicly apologise for the crackdown codenamed Gukurahundi (which means "the rain that washes away the chaff" in Shona) except calling the killings "a moment of madness."

The bodies are being exhumed for a decent burial as part of a healing process promised by the government whose head President Emmerson Mnangagwa was state security minister at the time of the killings..

  • UN experts say 'highly probable' missing S.Sudan critics killed

It is "highly probable" that two prominent critics of the South Sudanese government who went missing in 2017 were executed by security agents, according to a United Nations report released Tuesday.

Prominent lawyer and activist Dong Samuel Luak and opposition member Aggrey Idri were kidnapped from Nairobi in January 2017, just days after a court blocked their deportation to South Sudan.

Both the governments of South Sudan and Kenya have consistently denied knowledge of the men's whereabouts.

The panel of experts said it had received 'first- hand' evidence the two men were kidnapped by South Sudan's Internal Security Bureau.

They were then transported in a commercial plane back to Juba where they were taken to the feared state security headquarters known as "Blue House" and later to a detention center in Luri, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of Juba.

  • Bad weather hampers aid delivery to Mozambique cyclone survivors

Bad weather is hampering efforts by rescuers to deliver desperately-needed food and medicine to thousands of survivors marooned on a Mozambican island five days after Cyclone Kenneth.

World Food Programme (WFP) said its helicopters could not take off on Tuesday because of strong rain and wind to bring aid to Ibo, an island of some 13,000 people just off the Mozambican coast.

"They (residents of Ibo) have not been reached (by WFP) since the cyclone," the UN body's Deborah Nguyen told AFP in Pemba. About 7,000 people are in need of food aid on the island.

  • Egypt football fans outraged at African Cup ticket prices

The African Cup of Nations' organising committee pledged on Tuesday to review ticket price after a backlash from Egyptian football fans and superstar player Mohamed Salah over high prices.

Tickets for the summer tournament, which will take place in Egypt, start at 100 pounds (about $6) for the cheapest admission and graduate up to 500 pounds ($30) for games not involving the host nation.

But Egypt's games will be priced higher - at 200 pounds ($12) for the cheapest ticket, and 600 pounds ($36) for the most expensive.

Hany Abou Rida, chairman of the local organising committee, said Tuesday a pricing review would be "aimed primarily at general admission ticket prices for the national team games".

  • South Africa lashes out at UN over Western Sahara

South Africa on Tuesday chastised the UN Security Council after it adopted a resolution on Western Sahara that it said was unbalanced and ignored African concerns.

The US-drafted resolution extending the observer mission, MINURSO, in Western Sahara was adopted by a vote of 13 in favor in the 15-member council. South Africa abstained along with Russia.

South African Ambassador Jerry Matjila told the council his government had considered opposing the measure that renewed the MINURSO mission until October 31 and called for negotiations on ending the conflict to resume.

South Africa is a supporter of the Polisario Front, the movement seeking a referendum on independence from Morocco for the north African territory.

The African Union recognizes the self-declared Sahrawi Arab republic, which claims authority over Western Sahara, but Morocco is also an AU member.

  • Uganda police clash with supporters of pop star opposition MP

Ugandan police fired teargas and rubber bullets at scores of demonstrators who took to the streets Tuesday to protest the arrest of anti-government pop star turned MP Bobi Wine.

Crowds of people held rallies in several suburbs of Kampala a day after the latest arrest of the politician, according to an AFP reporter.

In a statement, the Uganda police said there was a minor incident "where undisciplined youths tried to demonstrate" but that the situation had been brought under control.

Local television stations showed images of fires being lit in the middle of major roads, causing traffic jams around the Ugandan capital.

  • Ghana becomes second country to launch vital malaria vaccine

Ghana on Tuesday rolled out the world's only proven malaria vaccine for infants as part of a landmark campaign against the deadly mosquito-borne disease, one week after Malawi became the first country to do so.

Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, mainly in Africa, and it is hoped a vaccine will bring down the toll.

The vaccines will be given to children between the ages of six months and two years, in a project run by Ghana's health ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The vaccine, known by its lab initials RTS, was found in scientific trials to be safe and effective at preventing about four in ten cases of malaria in infants; the best ever recorded.

To achieve this level of partial protection, four successive doses must be administered on a strict timetable -- a challenge for rural Africa.

The vaccine is also to be rolled out in Kenya and if passed will be a complementary tool to other measures like treated bed nets and sprays.

  • Rwanda arrests rebel leader over deadly attacks

The Rwandan government said Tuesday it had arrested a rebel leader alleged to be behind a spate of deadly attacks in a forested area near Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Callixte Nsabimana is accused of forming "an irregular armed group, complicity in committing terrorist acts... taking persons hostage, murder, and looting," a government statement said.

Nsabimana is the spokesman for the National Liberation Front (FLN), an armed group which has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Nyungwe, a region popular among tourists coming to see endangered mountain gorillas.

The FLN is affiliated with the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) -- a rebel group based in the DRC which carries out cross-border attacks on Rwandan forces.

Media reports also say Burundi handed over 7 Rwandan rebel to Rwanda through the International Conference on Great Lakes, Monusco and SADC delegation in Burundi.

  • Sudan protesters call mass rally as tensions rise

Sudanese protesters on Tuesday called for a mass rally, insisting the army is not serious about handing power to civilians nearly three weeks after it toppled autocratic president Omar al-Bashir.

The call came as tensions mounted over the make-up of a new joint civilian-military council to run Sudan, with demonstrators reinforcing their barricades outside the army headquarters in the capital.

The two sides have been at odds over their representation in the council supposed to replace the military body that took power after Bashir's ouster on April 11.

The military has been pushing for a 10-member council including seven military representatives and three civilians, with its man at the helm.

  • Algeria army chief rebuffs protesters, vows to uphold constitution

Algeria's army chief dug in Tuesday against protesters' demands that transitional institutions be established outside the country's constitutional framework, following president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's enforced resignation earlier this month.

General Ahmed Gaid Salah said any change to the constitution would be a prerogative of the next president. Protesters are demanding the departure of Bensalah and Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui, alongside other figures they see as a continuation of the old guard.

They also demand that transitional bodies be set up ahead of any election, arguing that existing institutions -- and personalities -- are too tarnished by corruption to guarantee a legitimate vote.

  • Egypt sentences Muslim Brotherhood tycoon to life in jail

An Egyptian court Tuesday sentenced Muslim Brotherhood business tycoon Hassan Malek to life in prison on terrorism charges and for "harming the national economy", a court official said.

He said the state security court handed down the same sentence to his son, Hamza Malek, a large retail chain owner, Abdul Rahman al-Seoudi, and to four others.

Three defendants were sentenced to 10 years in jail and 14 others were acquitted. Tuesday's rulings can be appealed.

Malek was an informal advisor to Egypt's Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, and built his fortune through a chain of computer, electronics and furniture stores.

  • Boko Haram kill 14 loggers in northeast Nigeria: Sources

Boko Haram jihadists have killed 14 loggers as they collected firewood in northeast Nigeria, residents and anti-Boko Haram militia have told AFP.

The bodies of the men were found at Duwabayi village near the garrison town of Monguno in Borno state late Tuesday by other loggers.

Duwabayi village was deserted last year after residents fled into camps in Monguno due to Boko Haram attacks.

Boko Haram's decade-long conflict has killed more than 27,000 people and displaced 1.8 million others in the northeast.

The violence has spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military response to fight the radical Islamist group.

  • Kidnapped Nigerian govt official and daughter freed: police

A Nigerian government official and his daughter kidnaped by gunmen on the main highway from the capital Abuja were freed a day later, police said Tuesday.

Mohammed Mahmoud Abubakar, chairman of Nigeria's Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) which works to improve the quality of school teaching, was seized Monday afternoon along with his daughter.

Gunmen ambushed their car and killed their driver. Two other people in a different car were injured in the attack.

A man was arrested and an AK-47 automatic rifle seized, but no further details of the release were given.

There have been several recent attacks on the busy 189-kilometre (117-mile) highway between Abuja and Kaduna.

Advertisement