Sihem Bensedrine’s explosive report into human rights abuses is written. Now those in power must be persuaded to read it
When Sihem Bensedrine, the head of Tunisia’s truth and dignity commission, tried to give a speech in parliament last year, she was drowned out.
Politicians banged on the wooden desks and yelled, some standing up to hurl accusations and gesture in her direction. As the drumbeats got louder, Bensedrine left the chamber. The MPs applauded.
Continue reading...Thousands have taken to the streets to oppose Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term
Algeria’s ailing president has sacked his campaign manager as the nation’s elite moved to consolidate its power in the face of historic mass protests.
Tension continued to rise on Sunday, with students taking to the streets as the protests entered their second week. Observers waited to see if the president, AbdelazizBouteflika, would return from medical treatment in Geneva to submit his candidacy before Sunday’s midnight deadline.
Continue reading...Spillage following blaze sparked stampede in Nembe kingdom, Bayelsa state
More than 50 people are missing after a leaking oil pipeline exploded and caused a stampede in southern Nigeria, a local official said on Saturday.
The blast early on Friday caused massive oil spillage in the Nembe kingdom in Bayelsa state, the Nembe Chiefs Council spokesman, Chief Nengi James-Eriworio, told the Associated Press.
Continue reading...Amadou Koufa appears in video three months after French armed forces minister declared him ‘neutralised’
A senior jihadist leader in Mali whom France said it had killed last November survived the attack and appears in a new propaganda video mocking French and Malian forces.
The French armed forces minister, Florence Parly, told parliament a few days after the 22 November raid that Amadou Koufa, a radical preacher and senior leader of a militant group linked to al-Qaida, was one of 35 fighters who had been “neutralised”.
Continue reading...You know a democracy is in trouble when two out of three voters don’t bother to turn up for a presidential election. In Nigeria’s just-concluded presidential poll, incumbent Muhammadu Buhari was re-elected with the backing of 15.2 million voters compared to the 11.3 million votes his main rival Atiku Abubakar, was able to amass.
Although this gave Buhari 56% of the total votes cast, in a country with a population of close to 200 million, including more than 84 million registered voters, 15.2 million votes hardly qualifies as a huge mandate. The 35% voter turnout was down from 44% in the 2015 presidential election and way down from the 54% turnout in 2011. In fact, turnout for Nigerian presidential elections has been dropping at an alarmingly consistent rate since 2003. So why are increasingly fewer Nigerians feeling the need to vote in elections that decide the most powerful political office?
Continue reading...Democracy movement Mouwatana opposes president Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term
The coordinator of protests sweeping across Algeria for the past week has called for wholesale regime change as tens of thousands are expected to take to the streets on Friday.
“What Algerians want is to get rid of not just the president, but the entire regime,” said Soufiane Djilali, who spearheads the Mouwatana (Democracy and Citizenship) movement, which organised some of the historic protests against the current ruler, Abdelaziz Bouteflika. “The president must go, the government must resign, and the fake national assembly – all these need to be dismantled,” he said.
Continue reading...Xavier Bettel says his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some countries
Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, has confronted Arab leaders over the repression of gay rights, telling them his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some of their countries.
The conference room at a summit of EU and Arab states fell silent when Bettel made his statement, according to a German TV journalist.
Continue reading...At least 25 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a train crashed at high speed into a barrier at Cairo’s main station, causing its fuel tank to explode and triggering a huge fire.
Egypt’s transport minister, Hisham Arafat, resigned hours after the prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, promised a tough response if any negligence was found. Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with chronic transport problems and poorly maintained railway lines.
Continue reading...Economic fears raised as online subscriptions plummet in months following launch of levy created to curb ‘gossip’
Millions of people in Uganda have abandoned the internet after punishing taxes were imposed on social media use and money transactions using mobile phones.
A daily levy, introduced in July to tame “idle talk” online and raise revenue, affects more than 60 online platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. To use such sites, Ugandans are expected to pay a tax of 200 Ugandan shillings (4p) a day.
Continue reading...The incumbent is declared the winner by the electoral commission but the opposition rejects outcome
Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari has been declared the winner of the country’s election after results showed that he claimed 56% of the vote.
Related: Nigeria election: ‘Mr Honesty’ tainted by failure to tackle corruption
Continue reading...Mining group agrees to walk away from Simandou project, with all legal actions ceasing
The mining group controlled by the controversial tycoon Beny Steinmetz is to walk away from a massive iron ore project in Guinea as part of an agreement that settles a long-running corruption dispute with the west African nation.
Development of Simandou – one of the world’s biggest iron deposits, containing billions of tonnes of high-grade ore – has been hindered by years of legal wrangling as well as the enormous cost of the required infrastructure, estimated at more than $20bn (£15bn).
Continue reading...A report laying bare the abominations associated with conflict in the world’s youngest state will shock the most hardened observer
There are wars that seem to slip under the wire almost unnoticed – where human rights abuses are rife and you would expect them to command far greater global attention.
Last week’s UN report into South Sudan is a case in point. An almost endless litany of human rights abuses, its 200-plus pages make for the most dismal reading, a portrait of the world’s youngest state as one of the latest additions to the category of failed state.
Continue reading...Thousands of Nigerian women could be expelled or left homeless as Salvini decree abolishes protective measures
Princess stares out of the window of a welcome centre an hour outside Rome, watching the sky turn red. She clutches her three-month-old child tightly. The baby is all she has left after Nigeria stole her freedom, and Italy her hope.
Princess, 31, born among the muddy streets and shacks of Benin City, left everything to come to Italy in 2008. Now she is one of the thousands of women trafficked into the country who could soon find themselves on the streets, or deported back to Nigeria, under a decree that cements the populist government’s hardline immigration stance.
Continue reading...Days after Egypt executed men who said they were tortured into confessions of killing the country’s former top prosecutor, Europe’s heads of state are enjoying the hospitality of its president. The resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is hosting the inaugural summit of the European Union and the Arab League. Donald Tusk, president of the European council, is co-chairing with Abdel Fatah al-Sisi; Britain’s Theresa May is among the guests.
If the event itself is a first, the approach is familiar. As Mr Sisi entrenches his rule, presiding over what Human Rights Watch calls Egypt’s worst human rights crisis in decades, European countries murmur about their “quiet diplomacy” on such issues. Then they carry on building ties and providing the air of international legitimacy that he needs given his grim record since seizing power in 2013’s coup. Mr Sisi’s recent spate of executions is instructive: he must have felt confident there would be no repercussions for putting people to death so close to the summit – despite their blatantly unfair trials.
Continue reading...Asking about the importance of cocoa in Ivory Coast feels a little like making enquiries about the value of grapes in Burgundy. When I put the question to N’Zi Kanga Rémi, who has for the last 18 years beengovernor of the rural department of Adzopé, north-east of the sprawling port city of Abidjan, he leaned forward in his chair and fixed me with an amused stare.
His booming voice went up a decibel to fill the administrative offices on whose walls his own portrait alternated with that of his nation’s president. “It doesn’t make sense to ask an Ivorian what cocoa means to him!” he said. “It means everything! It’s his first source of income! My education was funded by cocoa! Our houses are built with cocoa! The foundations of our roads, our schools, our hospitals is cocoa! Our government runs on cocoa! All our policy focuses on sustaining cocoa!”
Continue reading...Reports of attacks and gunfire in some areas as voters go to polls to elect president
Nigeria’s long-awaited presidential election went ahead on Saturday, marred by heavy gunfire in the north-east, killings in the south and reports of technology failures and vote buying across the country.
Some voters arrived at polling stations at 3am to ensure their ballot was counted in an election dominated by the current president, Muhammadu Buhari, and a former vice-president Atiku Abubakar.
Continue reading...Clashes between police and protesters break out as Omar al-Bashir announces measures
Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, has appointed a new prime minister, but left the country’s current defence, foreign and justice ministers in place following a declaration of a one-year state of emergency.
Just hours after announcing that he would dissolve the country’s central and state governments, Bashir appointed new state governors who were all from the military, according to a presidency statement.
Continue reading...Nigerians are hoping vote will go ahead following delay over unspecified ‘challenges’
Nigerians are preparing to go to the polls again, hoping the presidential election will go ahead on Saturday morning after last weekend’s 11th-hour postponement.
The incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, and his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, resumed campaigning this week after the announcement by the independent national electoral commission (INEC) at 3am last Saturday, five hours before polling stations were due to open, that the vote was being pushed back.
Continue reading...The city has has endured much through the years, but as cartoonist Tayo Fatunla grew up saying: ‘Eko oni baje’ or ‘Lagos cannot be destroyed’
Continue reading...Decision prompts anger as high court asks for more time to consider evidence
Judges in Kenya have postponed a long-awaited landmark ruling that could have led to sex between men or between women decriminalised.
The attempt by LGBT campaigners to have colonial era legislation struck out has been closely watched by activists across Africa.
Continue reading...