Category Archives: Africa

Suspects in murder of ex-Rwandan spy chief ‘directly linked to Kigali’ – inquest

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Lawyer for Patrick Karegeya’s family says South African police failures point to abuse of process


The family of the murdered former Rwandan intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya celebrated on Thursday after a South African magistrate said the identities of four suspects were known and police said they were “directly linked” to Rwanda’s government.

At the end of a 20-minute inquest in Johannesburg, the magistrate Mashiane Mathopa said there was a prima facie case to answer and he was sending the matter to South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Karegeya was found strangled in a Johannesburg hotel room in January 2014.

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Tunisia holds UN Libya arms trafficking expert in jail

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UN says arrest and detention of Moncef Kartas violates diplomatic immunity

A UN-appointed expert on breaches of the Libyan arms embargo has been arrested and kept in a Tunisian jail for nearly a month.

Moncef Kartas, a Tunisian-German dual national, was arrested on 26 March. He is one of six UN experts appointed to investigate breaches of the UN-imposed embargo on arms to Libya first introduced in 2011. The UN says his detention is a violation of his diplomatic immunity.

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Sudan: former president Omar al-Bashir moved to prison

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Ousted leader is being held in solitary confinement in the notorious Kobar prison

Deposed ex-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been moved to Khartoum’s grim high-security Kobar prison from the presidential residence, family sources said on Wednesday, as military rulers announced steps to crack down on corruption.

Bashir, 75, had been detained under heavy guard in the presidential residence inside the compound that also houses the defence ministry, before being transferred to Kobar prison late on Tuesday, the sources said. He was being held in solitary confinement at Kobar, a prison source said.

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Nearly 180 dead and 800 injured in Haftar’s assaults on Tripoli

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Libya’s government denounces attacks as barbaric and says evidence will be passed to ICC

Nearly 180 people have died as a result of General Khalifa Haftar’s assault on Tripoli, with at least four civilians killed in aerial bombardment on the Libyan capital overnight.

More than 800 have been wounded since the warlord who controls the east of the country began his attempt to seize the city from the UN-recognised government of national accord nearly a fortnight ago.

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Sudan’s military rulers sack more top officials after pressure from protesters

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Prosecutor general fired in latest concession by transitional council

Military rulers in Sudan have sacked a further slew of senior officials after pressure from protesters.

The move is the latest concession by the army-led transitional council, which took power last week following the fall of Omar al-Bashir after 30 years in power, and has since faced fierce pressure to rapidly give way to a civilian government.

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Egyptian parliament vote could keep Sisi in power until 2030

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MPs back longer presidential term of six years, while public opposition is suppressed

The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, moved a step closer to extending his rule after lawmakers approved sweeping constitutional amendments that could enable him to remain in power until 2030.

The proposed changes lengthen presidential terms to six years instead of four, including Sisi’s current mandate. They also increase his control over the judiciary and confirm the military’s role in politics.

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Egypt referendum: No one believes this vote will be fair but we won’t be silenced

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President Sisi is playing cat and mouse with us, shutting down our websites and blocking our social media but we won’t give in

As the world watches the peaceful revolution that is changing Sudan in awe and amazement, it is clear that in Egypt, Sudan’s neighbour to the north, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi is getting nervous. On the same day as the protests in Khartoum reached a head, several of us who oppose Sisi’s autocratic rule launched an online petition to declare any result from Tuesday’s referendum on proposed constitutional amendments “void”.

Among the amendments Sisi is trying to force on the Egyptian people is a provision that could allow him to remain in power until 2030. The amendments would also increase the control of the military, which would be given powers to police the political sphere in Egypt. They would also give Sisi control over the appointment of judges and the public prosecutor.

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Fighting in Libya will create huge number of refugees, PM warns

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Fayez al-Sarraj says Khalifa Haftar’s attack on Tripoli ‘will spread its cancer through Mediterranean’

Hundreds of thousands of refugees could flee the fighting caused by Khalifa Haftar’s attempt to seize the Libyan capital, Tripoli, the prime minister of the country’s UN-recognised government has warned.

The warnings by Fayez al-Sarraj – who also claimed Haftar had betrayed the people of Libya – echo those given privately to the Italian government by its intelligence services, and are clearly designed to alert EU states to the possible consequences for European migration of a prolonged civil war in the country.

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‘We’re excluded from the table’: Somali UN staff say they struggle in ‘two-tier’ aid sector

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International organisations accused of ignoring local people’s knowledge and expertise and promoting foreigners to top jobs

When Sahra Koshin first returned to Somalia from the Netherlands in 2008, she was full of hope and courage.

Eager to use her expertise in gender development to rebuild her wartorn country, she immediately started work with one of the many UN agencies in Mogadishu.

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Fear and despair engulf refugees in Libya’s ‘market of human beings’

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Long the target of reported abuses, refugees in Libya now claim they are being recruited by militias – a potential war crime

On the roofs of the highest buildings in Tajoura, a military complex and migrant detention centre in southern Tripoli, snipers are taking position.

“Tonight nobody will sleep because of fear,” said a refugee locked up there. “We can hear the sound of guns and explosion of bombs very close to the detention centre.”

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Sudan protesters say they blocked attempt to break up sit-in

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Demonstrators say they formed a ring around sit-in zone to stop troops clearing the area

Sudanese protesters have moved to block an apparent attempt to break up their sit-in outside the defence ministry in Khartoum, where demonstrators have been pushing for a quick transition to civilian rule after Omar al-Bashir was ousted as president, a witness has said.

Protesters said they had joined hands and formed a ring around the sit-in area after troops had gathered on three sides and tractors were preparing to remove stone and metal barricades.

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Sisi could rule Egypt until 2030 under constitutional changes

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MPs to vote on granting president control over judiciary and boosting military power

Egypt’s parliament is to vote on a bill of sweeping constitutional changes this week that would increase President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s power and allow him to rule until 2030.

MPs are expected to overwhelmingly confirm the bill on Tuesday, triggering a referendum. The proposed reforms, which were moved swiftly through committee hearings and parliamentary debates, would grant Sisi control over the judiciary, increase the military’s political power and extend presidential terms to six years.

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South African police seize 167 rhino horns after tipoff

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Two suspects arrested in sting operation in North West province

South African police have seized 167 rhino horns believed to have been destined for Asia.

Two suspects were arrested in the sting operation in the North West province on Saturday, which followed a tipoff. Police said it was one of the biggest hauls of rhino horns in the country.

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Libya crisis: Egypt’s Sisi backs Haftar assault on Tripoli

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Warlord also understood to have private support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan warlord bombarding Tripoli in an attempt to oust the country’s UN-recognised government, has won unequivocal support from the Egyptian leader, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, his closest political ally.

“The president affirmed Egypt’s support in efforts to fight terrorism and extremist militias to achieve security and stability for Libyan citizens throughout the country,” Sisi’s office said on Sunday.

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As Ebola kills in Africa, in the west lies over vaccines beguile the complacent | Mark Honigsbaum

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The epidemic in the DRC has been impossible to contain because of the spread of anti-vax myths

With the possible exception of quinine, for centuries the only treatment for malaria, and antibiotics, vaccines have saved more lives than any other intervention in medical history. Yet, from New York’s Brooklyn to Camden in north London to Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, vaccines are in retreat, shunned by populations who seemingly have little sense of the risks they are running with their own or other people’s lives.

Why this should be so is one of the conundrums of our age. Is it all the fault of social media and anti-vax propaganda that has taken root on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? Or has society grown complacent about the risks that infectious diseases posed to previous generations, when it was common for children to be paralysed by polio or rendered deaf or brain-damaged by measles?

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Rape and abuse: the price of a job in Spain’s strawberry industry?

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Ten Moroccan women say Spanish authorities have ignored claims they were trafficked, assaulted and exploited

Last April, Samira Ahmad* kissed her baby goodbye and boarded a bus, leaving her home in Morocco for the strawberry fields of southern Spain.In her bag was her Spanish visa and a contract that promised €40 a day plus food and accommodation. In the three months she’d be away, she hoped the pain of being separated from her family would be softened by the money she’d be sending back to them – a fortune compared to what she’d be able to earn at home.

A year on, and Ahmad’s life is in ruins. She is destitute, divorced and for the past 10 months has been living in hiding, surviving on handouts with nine other Moroccan women who – like her – claim they faced human trafficking, sexual assault and exploitation on the farm where they were hired to work. She says her biggest mistake – other than coming to Spain – was going to the authorities.

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North Africa faces a test: revolutions rarely end happily

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Sudan and Algeria have ousted unpopular leaders. But can these countries resist the trend towards authoritarian rule?

Pete Townshend may not appear, at first glance, to be connected to the tumultuous events in Sudan. But it was the Who’s lead guitarist who famously celebrated popular insurrection in the 1971 hit, Won’t Get Fooled Again, whose lyrics he wrote. Here’s how a bit of it goes: “I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution/ Take a bow for the new revolution... Then I’ll get on my knees and pray/ We don’t get fooled again.”

After inducing the army to oust Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s unpopular president, well-organised opponents of the military regime, evidently no fools, are not trusting solely to prayer. On Friday, they forced the resignation of the coup leader, Awad Ibn Auf. Now they wait, camped on the streets, to see if his replacement – another general, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – can satisfy their insistence on civilian-led government.

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Cyclone Idai caused $2bn of damage and affected millions, says World Bank

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Global lender says the cyclone affected about 3 million people, damaging infrastructure and livelihoods

A strong cyclone that cut a deadly swath through Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe last month is expected to cost the three countries more than $2bn, the World Bank has said.

Early estimates pointed to Cyclone Idai costing $2bn “for the infrastructure and livelihood impacts,” the World Bank said in a statement after a meeting in Washington on Thursday.

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Protesters celebrate as Sudan’s spy chief quits

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Salih Ghosh, who led protests crackdown, resigns a day after interim leader stepped down

The protest movement in Sudan has won a series of fresh victories, with the country’s powerful military moving to replace the controversial transitional leader and spy chief following street rallies demanding officials linked to the former regime stand down.

Salih Ghosh, who led a sweeping crackdown against demonstrators over recent months, resigned on Saturday, a communique from the new military-led transitional council said.

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‘No more old men in uniform’: on the ground with Sudan’s protesters

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Public defiance crosses religious divides as protesters in Khartoum sustain united call for military to relinquish power

In front of the military headquarters in Khartoum, where protesters have refused to leave following the ousting of president Omar al-Bashir, came an extraordinary show of support.

In stifling heat, a group of Coptic Christians – a minority and persecuted group in Sudan – set up shelters to allow their fellow Muslim protesters to pray away from the glare of the Friday morning sun, and without leaving the spot they’ve occupied since Saturday.

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