Africa

Ghanaian pair of Lumor Agbenyenu and Baba Iddrisu lasted 90 minutes on Saturday afternoon as they helped RCD Mallorca to cruise past Eibar with a 2-1 win in the Spanish La Liga. In what was a Match Week 27 fixture played at the Ipurua Municipal Stadium, the two Black Stars players were called into action to help their club fight for 3 ma ...

German-born Ghanaian international Kevin-Prince Boateng excelled on his birthday on Friday night while in action for Besiktas as he helped the side post a 2-1 win over Ankarag uuml;c uuml;. The forward who turned 33 on March 6, 2020, was called into action to help his club fight for 3 points against the team rsquo;s Match Week 25 opponen ...

Finally, the day has come for the celebrity couple, Medikal and Fella Makafui finally come together as husband and wife. The speculations and doubts have finally been cleared as photos and videos from the traditional marriage of the couple just hit online. From the pictures and videos seen, all is clear for the traditional marriage to tak ...

This year 39;s independence day celebration held at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi on Friday March 6 was a rich display of the Ashante culture. The Kente cloth dominated and indeed, Kumasi gave global meaning to the cloth as a fabric for important events as hundreds of people turned up in rich colourful kente clothes to witness the ...

All over the world, women are breaking barriers and constantly showing that when given the needed support and equal opportunity, they can make the world a better place. In Ghana, it is heartwarming to know that by merit, many women have risen to lead key institutions like: the Judicial Service, National Commission of Civic Education, Elector ...

President Emmanuel Macron on Friday urged the French to limit visits to elderly people who are most vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus. To date, there has been 613 cases in France with 10 deaths. Macron, who shook up his agenda this week to focus on efforts to contain ...

The wait is over and the doubts have been cleared, Medikal and Fella Makafui are set to tie the knot on Saturday 7th March 2020. Fella Makafui had her bridal shower today and her social media accounts have been buzzing. In one of the videos, she rsquo;s seen having a good time with her girls during her bridal shower. We hope it rsquo;s ...

March 7, 2020 (LONDON) – The United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) Thursday released the first-ever alert warning against money laundering by corrupt South Sudanese officials in the British territory.

"The NCA is issuing this alert to companies based in the United Kingdom (UK) about the possibility that some South Sudanese senior foreign public officials (..) who may be engaged in corruption and human rights abuses in South Sudan, and those who enable such activities, may use the UK financial system to move or hide proceeds of corruption or purchase real estate and other assets in the UK," read the statement.

The law enforcement agency called for the collaboration of the UK companies, particularly financial institutions, real estate agencies, accountants, lawyers, notaries, and others to identify suspicious activities by corrupt South Sudanese.

"This report focuses on corrupt South Sudanese senior foreign political figures or PEPs who engage in human rights abuses or violations, and their financial enablers," said the report.

On 6 September 2017, the U.S. Treasury Department alerted the financial institutions about the possibility that certain South Sudanese senior political figures may try to use the U.S. financial system to move or hide proceeds of public corruption.

The U.S. investigation group, The Sentry, released a report in September 2019 to denounce international partners who work with corrupt South Sudanese officials to clean their looted money through the international banking system.

George Clooney and John Prendergast, the co-founders of The Sentry, welcomed the alert of the UK's lead law enforcement agency on South Sudan.

"The UK should be strongly commended for joining the United States in serious efforts to counter the criminal exploitation of the global financial system at the expense of millions of suffering, abused, and displaced people in South Sudan," said Clooney.

"Today, peace in South Sudan is possible, but only if the nations of the world recognize their responsibility to counter the greed-fueled networks that profit from massive suffering and human rights abuse,” added Prendergast.

(ST)

March 7, 2020 (JUBA) - Thomas Cirilo the head of the National Salvation Front (NAS) has cautioned South Sudanese that the formation of the transitional government will not bring peace in the country.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Cirilo Swaka, the ex-SPLA deputy chief of general staff for training (youtube photo)

On Thursday Cirilo issued a statement to mark the third anniversary of NAS establishment on 6 March 2017.

"The National Salvation Front would like to caution the people of South Sudan on this historic day that the recent political development in the country is not the dawn of peace in South Sudan. I urge you to be vigilant and not to allow yourselves to be deceived," he said in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune.

The opposition leader who rejected the revitalized peace agreement of 12 September 2018 described what is taking place in Juba nowadays as a distribution of positions among the political elite in "total disregard" to the aspirations of the people.

"The R-TGONU cannot address state failures and effect reforms when it is the main beneficiary of these failures," he stressed.

He further pointed out that a sustainable peace can only be effective when the root causes of the conflict are addressed in an credible and inclusive process.

A genuine peace requires to address "the issues of governance, security sector establishment, ethnic domination, justice and accountability, management of the people's resources, and land issues among others," he said.

NAS and its allied holdout groups in the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) have engaged peace talks with the government in a process mediated this time by the religious community of Sant'Egidio.

The government and SSOMA signed the Declaration on the Peace Process in South Sudan on 12 January 2020; and Rome Resolution on Monitoring and Verification of CoHA 2017 on 13th February 2020.

The parties are expected to resume talks after the formation of the revitalized transitional government of national unity.

(ST)

March 7, 2020 (JUBA) - The SPLM-IO on Thursday said they have gotten several important ministries in the national unity government including defence, oil and federal affairs, while the SSOA expressed dissatisfaction over the power-sharing.

Citing an SPLM-IO spokesman the Chinese news agency Xinhua said President Salva Kiir and his First Vice-President Riek Machar have finally agreed on Thursday to share the important ministerial positions ahead of the formation of the government next week.

"We agreed that SPLM-IO should take defence, petroleum, mining, federal affairs, peacebuilding, water resources and irrigation, energy and dams, health, and gender and social welfare ministries," said Manawa Peter Gatkuoth, deputy spokesman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO).

SPLM-IO officials said last week they were seeking for a genuine partnership enabling them to work together with the SPLM-IG of President Kiir and the other peace signatories to implement the revitalized peace agreement.

After obtaining the defence and federal affairs ministries, the SPLM-IO can play a pivotal role in the reunification of the government and opposition forces. In the same vein, the federal affairs will allow the former main opposition group to speed up discussions on the number of states and their boundaries.

Gatkuoth further said they want to ensure that at least one of the three areas established recently be headed by an SPLM-IO official.

"We are also discussing with the president the issue of the three administrative areas. At least one administrative area should go to the SPLM-IO," he said.

SSOA ANGRED

For its part, the South Sudan Opposition Alliance rejected the three ministries allocated to the coalition and warned they may not participate in the national unity government.

An SSOA official told Sudan Tribune under the cover of anonymity that they have been surprised when they learnt that they have obtained the ministries of public service and higher education instead of the peace and labour ministries

He added that also the position of the deputy information minister was substituted by the deputy interior minister.

The only unchanged position is the ministry of agriculture.

"Those changes happened without consultation with the SSOA Leadership," he said.

"The SSOA does accept and would not be part of the R-TGONU unless these issues are discussed and settled before the formation of the R-TGONU," he stressed.

The parties are scheduled to meet on Saturday to discuss the matter.

(ST)

Babacar Sarr is on the run from rape accusations in Norway.

By UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

Gender inequality is the overwhelming injustice of our age and the biggest human rights challenge we face. But gender equality offers solutions to some of the most intractable problems of our age.

Everywhere, women are worse off than men – simply because they are women. The reality for women from minorities, older women, those with disabilities and women migrants and refugees is even worse.

While we have seen enormous progress on women's rights over recent decades, from the abolition of discriminatory laws to increased numbers of girls in school, we now face a powerful pushback. Legal protections against rape and domestic abuse are being diluted in some countries while policies that penalize women, from austerity to coercive reproduction, are being introduced in others. Women's sexual and reproductive rights are under threat from all sides.

All this is because gender equality is fundamentally a question of power. Centuries of discrimination and deep-rooted patriarchy have created a yawning gender power gap in our economies, our political systems and our corporations. The evidence is everywhere.

Women are still excluded from the top table, from governments to corporate boards to prestigious award ceremonies. Women leaders and public figures face harassment, threats and abuse online and off. The gender pay gap is just a symptom of the gender power gap.
Even the supposedly neutral data that informs decision-making from urban planning to drug testing is often based on a “default male”; men are seen as standard while women are an exception.

Women and girls also contend with centuries of misogyny and the erasure of their achievements. They are ridiculed as hysterical or hormonal; they are routinely judged on their looks; they are subjected to endless myths and taboos about their natural bodily functions; they are confronted by everyday sexism, mansplaining and victim-blaming.

This profoundly affects us all and is a barrier to solving many of the challenges and threats we face.

Take inequality. Women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. The latest research by the World Economic Forum says it will take 257 years to close this gap. Meanwhile, women and girls do some 12 billion hours of unpaid care work every day that simply does not figure in economic decision-making. If we are to achieve fair globalization that works for everyone, we need to base our policies on statistics that take account of women's true contributions.

Digital technology is another case in point. The lack of gender balance in the universities, start-ups and Silicon Valleys of our world is deeply worrying. These tech hubs are shaping the societies and economies of the future; we cannot allow them to entrench and exacerbate male dominance.

Or take the wars that are ravaging our world. There is a straight line between violence against women, civil oppression and conflict. How a society treats the female half of its population is a significant indicator of how it will treat others. Even in peaceful societies, many women are in deadly danger in their own homes.

There is even a gender gap in our response to the climate crisis. Initiatives to reduce and recycle are overwhelmingly marketed at women, while men are more likely to put their faith in untested technological fixes. And women economists and parliamentarians are more likely than men to support pro-environmental policies.

Finally, political representation is the clearest evidence of the gender power gap. Women are outnumbered by an average of 3 to 1 in parliaments around the world, but their presence is strongly correlated with innovation and investment in health and education. It is no coincidence that the governments that are redefining economic success to include wellbeing and sustainability are led by women.

This is why one of my first priorities at the United Nations was to bring more women into our leadership. We have now achieved gender parity at the senior level, two years ahead of schedule, and we have a roadmap for parity at all levels in the years to come.

Our world is in trouble, and gender equality is an essential part of the answer. Man-made problems have human-led solutions. Gender equality is a means of redefining and transforming power that will yield benefits for all.

The 21st century must be the century of women's equality in peace negotiations and trade talks; in board rooms and classrooms; at the G20 and the United Nations.

It is time to stop trying to change women and to start changing the systems that prevent them from achieving their potential.

Kenya accused its neighbour of staging an "unwarranted attack" on its territory.

Urgent resources are needed to support countries in southern Africa and the Great Lakes region which are hosting more than 900,000 refugees and asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and partners said in a $621 million appeal launched on Friday. 

All is set for the 5th Edition of Ghana rsquo;s biggest staple food event, 39;The Kenkey Festival. 39; The event which has been running annually for the past 4 years has seen it grow in numbers and entertainment as thousands of Kenkey lovers grace the event each year. Last year rsquo;s edition was one that left an imprint in ...

March 6, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Attorney General recommended a new culture for the security forces to end the brutal crackdown against peaceful protesters, said the office of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok.

On 22 February Hamdok formed a committee chaired by the General Attorney Taj Elsir Alhiber to investigate violent crackdown on a demonstration, the day before, calling to reintegrate pro-democracy military officers sacked recently by the army.

The office of the prime minister issued a statement saying that the committee handed over its report and made a number of recommendations regarding the organization of peaceful demonstrations which is "a legitimate right" granted by the Constitutional Document.

The report includes also additional recommendations that ensure that what happened under the former regime would not be repeated, said the statement.

"We expect a new culture among the police fitting with the (regime) change on how to deal with the peaceful demonstrations which now are legitimate right after had being illegal under the former regime."

“Also, we expect this report to be meticulously studied by all relevant authorities to clearly confirm the rights (to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression) and enforce these recommendations so that what happened will not occur again in the Sudanese street.”

The statement did not go into the findings of the report but mentioned the committee interrogated the commander of operations and the Khartoum state police director and all the officers who were at the site of the events on that day, as well as all the demonstrators who were injured.

At least 57 people were wounded when the police used tear gas and batons to disperse the demonstration. Also, 12 police officers were wounded by stones thrown by the protesters.

(ST)

March 6, 2020 (JUBA) — South Korea has postponed the rotation of its peacekeepers deployed in South Sudan within the UN Mission in the country (UNMISS) due to growing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in these countries.

According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, about 300 troops had been scheduled to travel to South Sudan to replace a contingent of the Hanbit Unit.

The rotation takes place every eight months.

"The deployment will be postponed for about two weeks as of now, although it's subject to change," said a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer according to the news agency.

As of Friday, South Korea reported 6,593 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. In the military, over 34 people have tested positive, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

In a related development, Sudan Tribune was not able to verify a letter seen by its journalists sent on 3 March by Gabriel Jok Riak Makol, chief of general staff of South Sudan People's Defense to the UNMISS force commander.

“I write to inform your esteemed office to put on hold the rotation of UNMISS forces from China, South Korea, India, Nepal and Cambodia until further notice,” reads the letter.

International health officials fear the spread of the coronavirus disease causes ravages in the continent due to the lack of adequate means to face this outbreak.

The World Health Organization (WHO) pledged to support African countries to strengthening their capacities to treat patients and improve infection, prevention and control in health facilities.

(ST)

A bus crash in Guinea results in the deaths of nine players from second division side Etoile de Guinee.

March 6, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan finance minister said the country's failure to pay a bill of wheat prompted his government to strike a deal with a private company to export gold and to use its income to ensure the country's basic commodities.

Ibrahim al-Badawi held a press conference on Thursday to explain the very difficult economic situation the country is facing particularly after the failure of the government efforts to address the lack of hard currency and curb the rampant inflation.

Sudan needs $302 million every month to purchase wheat ($ 45m) fuel $212m) and medicines ($45m) with some variations, according to al-Badawi.

"In the second week of December 2019, wheat stocks reached a critical stage, and the Bank of Sudan was unable to provide foreign currency to pay the costs of 50,000 tons of wheat," he further said.

This emergency forced them to borrow the needed $28 million from the little-known Al-Fakher Company for Advanced Business (ACAB), which in return was repaid in local currency and allowed to export gold to the international market.

The minister denied that he gave the ACAB the monopole of gold exportation, saying he decided to open gold exportation to the private sector after being controlled by the central bank as of 1 January 2020.

At the time, the government said it took this decision to end gold smuggling and to attract foreign currency.

The minister denied wrongdoing stressed he acted under the Government Contracting and Procurement Law which authorizes the Minister of Finance to contract with companies in exceptional circumstances.

Al-Badawi was accused of allowing the company to export five tons of gold with NIL VALUE, meaning that the company has no obligation to deposit its income in its banking account in Sudan or pay a value-added tax to the government.

Minister al-Badawi has been criticized for biting on probable Sudan's removal of the terror list and the support of international financial institutions which will take several years before to be effective.

During his press conference which was attended also by traders, the minister was sharply criticized and some went even to request his resignation.

The date of the press conference coincided with a meeting for the two executive bodies - Sovereign Council and the government - with Forces For Freedom and Change (FFC) to discuss the economic situation in the country.

Crisis Management Committee

Following the meeting, Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok announced the formation of a higher mechanism for managing the economic crisis.

The crisis management mechanism will be tasked with providing basic commodities including fuel, wheat and medicine, said Hamdok.

Also, the mechanism will review the income and outgo policy of the government, he added and provide the needed support for the agriculture sector.

The prime minister did not announce the composition of the crisis committee but the formation of this body suggests that al-Badawi will have to work its members.

Several FFC forces during the past months called to focus on the development of the national resource and stop waiting for uncertain international support depending on the U.S. administration which focuses more on its internal interests and the presidential election in November 2020.

Washington said ending sanctions on Sudan is a complicated process involving the Congress and related to several laws and not only the terror list.

(ST)

Which claims about the coronavirus are gaining the most traction in Africa?