Africa

Sweeping preventative measures seem to be curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the Great Lakes region of Africa, but the economic impact of the global pandemic threatens hard-won gains made along the long road back to peace and stability, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the region said on Wednesday.

The UN’s human rights chief has been weighing in on recent killings committed by State authorities, or by rogue members of State military forces, emphasizing that all Governments must strictly abide by international law and hold those who serve, accountable for any violations.

With Djibouti’s health system under enormous strain from the COVID-19 pandemic, young migrants in the country are using 3D-printers to make face shields, and ease the shortfall inside medical facilities in the Horn of Africa country.

With only two northern white rhinos left in the world - both female - extinction seems a certainty.

Nigerian Victor Olaiya, who died last month, was a musical pioneer and mentor to the Afrobeat legend.

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 ...