Africa

Satirist Ikenna Azuike takes a look at the African news this week.

The Libyan forces are preparing for what they hope to be the last attack against Islamic State group in the city of Sirte.

South African state prosecutors fail in their bid to challenge the six-year sentence for murder handed down to Oscar Pistorius.

The opposition in Gabon is presenting a more united front against President Bongo, raising expectations that Saturday's vote may be closer than in the past.

A selection of the best photos from across Africa this week.

The BBC looks at the future of Ethiopian silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa after his daring anti-government protest at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

At least seven people are killed in a bomb and gun attack on a beach restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

August 25, 2016 (JUBA)- South Sudanese government has announced the presence of armed opposition leader and ex-first vice president, Riek Machar, in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, but said it would not affect the relations between the two countries because Sudanese authorities were acting out of humanitarian ground.

Machar speaks on a mobile phone after an interview with Reuters in Kenya's capital Nairobi July 8, 2015

Presidential advisor on security affairs, Tut Kew Gatluak, told reporters on Wednesday after briefing President Salva Kiir on a visit to the Sudanese capital, Juba, with the new first vice president, Taban Deng Gai, that the government has been informed of the presence of Machar in Khartoum.

Gatluak, flanked by the minister in the office of the president Mayiik Ayii Deng, who spoke before him and oil minister, Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, said the government has received reports of the presence of Machar in Khartoum by the Sudanese authorities without objection.

“Yes, we have received reports of the presence of Riek Machar in Khartoum. We have been informed about and we know he is there on humanitarian ground. This will not affect our relations. We understand”, said Gatluak in a statement broadcast by South Sudan broadcasting corporation.

The Deputy Minister of Information, Akol Paul Kordit, also announced the same government owned broadcaster that first vice president Taban Deng Gai was informed of the ex-FVP's presence in Khartoum.

He added that the government calls upon Riek to denounce violence and disassociate himself ‘from all the activities that are likely to undermine the implementation of the peace agreement.' Kordit said ‘peace is a collective responsibility for unity government and the IGAD member states.

The official revealed that IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) member countries as well as neigbouring African countries in the region and the entire region have been asked to not give Machar any conducive environment that he would use to undermine the stability of South Sudan and the implementation of the peace agreement.

The armed opposition leader and ex-FVP Riek Machar arrived in Khartoum for medical treatment on 'humanitarian grounds', according to Sudan's Minister of Information, Ahmed Bilal Osman.

In a statement by the Sudan News Agency, Osman announced that Sudan had recently received Riek Machar ''for he needs for urgent medical attention for purely humanitarian reasons.''

The statement adds that Riek's condition is now stable, and he will stay in the country under full medical supervision until he leaves the country for a destination of his choice to complete his medical treatment. South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth claimed in a separate interview that Riek was suffering from a chest infection.

He did not elaborate on his claims. Machar's arrival to Khartoum comes after the United Nations announced last week that he and 10 others were airlifted from South Sudan- Congo border for their safety.

(ST)

The United Nations envoy for Liberia today stressed the need for long-term, robust engagement by stakeholders, particularly the Security Council, towards a sustainable peace in the West African country.

August 25, 2016 (JUBA)- South Sudan has claimed it reached a consensus with the US and the region to be given a time, during which it would expedite the implementation of the peace agreement while discussions about the deployment of a regional protection force in the country continues.

South Sudan's information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, speaks to reporters in Jonglei state capital Bor on 25 December 2014 (ST)

Information and broadcasting Minister Michael Makuei Lueth, who led the government delegation to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where the US secretary of state had visited recently, announced that the outcome of the recent meeting between a delegation from Juba and the US Secretary of State approved the deployment of the force approved by the UN Security Council after conclusion of discussions.

The government, according to Minister Lueth, who speaks on its behalf, has been given conditions to expedite the implementation process and cease hostilities.

“We would be given time provided that we moved very fast, provided that we silence the guns, provided that we talked to the IDPs so that they move out of the displacement camps so that they go back to their respective homes, and then we continue to negotiate with the region on the idea of the protection force,” said Lueth. He said regional protection force will not be deployed immediately as expected.

“They are not coming soon and we are to negotiate, because there is no way an intervention force or a foreign force can enter any nation without the consent of that country.

But Lueth claimed the forces will not be deployed immediately to the country as expected, US secretary of John Kerry said the deployment of a protection force will guarantee safety of the civilians and enable investors to return to the country.

The US secretary of state confirmed that 4,000 troops from the region would complement efforts of the unity government by providing security to civilians in Juba.

(ST)

August 25, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - A new report by the United States-based Enough Project said the severe economic crisis has become the greatest vulnerability for the Sudanese regime and allowed the US government to spearhead efforts to support an inclusive peace deal in the country.

Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir (AFP Photo/Ashraf Shazly)

The report “Khartoum's Economic Achilles ' heel : The intersection of war, profit, and greed”, explains how the economic crisis in Sudan was exacerbated by the sanctions imposed on the country since 1997.

“This economic vulnerability has caused sanctions relief to replace debt relief as the regime's primary preoccupation, giving the U.S. government powerful leverage to support an inclusive peace deal in Sudan that leads to a transition to democracy” said the report

It adds that the understanding of the economic weaknesses of the government would make policymakers better deal with the Sudanese officials who according to the report “orchestrate large-scale atrocity crimes and theft in Sudan”.

“In a situation where grand corruption and mismanagement of mineral resources are among the key drivers of deadly conflicts in Sudan, understanding the Sudanese regime's economic vulnerabilities in greater detail can equip policymakers to better tailor their financial pressure measures to target top Sudanese leaders and their enablers” the report read.

The report mentions how the regime and its supporters dominated the Sudanese economy since they came to power in 1989, saying the country's public corporations and private sector were undercut.

“The regime and its supporters began to dominate and extract wealth for themselves from the economy's key strategic and high-value sectors, including the oil, transportation, communications, and construction industries” it said

“The regime privatized state corporations, giving over the control of these corporations to regime-affiliated businesses and charities—on a non-competitive basis and for low prices. The regime-affiliated economic networks of hundreds of commercial companies, which dominate what might otherwise be a productive and independent private sector, constitute what many Sudanese people call a “gray economy” the report added

The report explains that the Sudanese government became highly vulnerable as a result of the economic practices created and sustained by the regime itself.

“State-enshrined grand corruption, combined with economic mismanagement and short-sighted, opportunistic over- spending of finite public money on unproductive pursuits, have left the regime heavily indebted” read the report

It also explains how the economic sanctions imposed on Iran have affected the Sudanese economy and the government officials.

“Tighter enforcement of sanctions on Iran has prompted global financial institutions to de-risk and stop doing business with risky clients, including Sudan” read the report

According to the report, the Sudanese economic crisis gives Washington and the international community a good opportunity to develop a new strategy aiming at pressing the regime to engage in a comprehensive national process that allows peaceful transition to democracy.

“In particular, the financial pressure that Sudanese leaders feel now can be tightened and eased by U.S. policymakers in strategic ways as part of a system of coercion and incentives that is one part of a broader enhanced comprehensive U.S. strategy with Sudan” the report said

The Enough Project, an atrocity prevention policy group, says it seeks to build leverage for peace and justice in Africa by helping to create real consequences for the perpetrators and facilitators of genocide and other mass atrocities.

The organization says it aims to “counter rights-abusing armed groups and violent kleptocratic regimes that are fuelled by grand corruption, transnational crime and terror, and the pillaging and trafficking of minerals, ivory, diamonds, and other natural resources.”

It has been conducting field researches in conflict zones, developing and advocating for policy recommendations and support social movements in affected countries as well as mobilize public campaigns.

(ST)

Kenyan athletes express anger after being stranded in a Rio shanty town where gunshots could be heard, after the closure of the Olympic village.

The United Nations Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, has expressed concern at inflammatory statements concerning the genocide in Rwanda that were made by a senior official of the ruling party in Burundi and cautioned that such statements could constitute incitement to violence.

Years of violence by Boko Haram in Africa’s Lake Chad basin, which includes Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, have led to a worsening humanitarian crisis that has displaced 1.4 million children and left at least one million still trapped in hard-to-reach areas, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a report released today.

A teller at Somalia's central bank is on the run after allegedly stealing $530,000, exchanging the notes for fakes, the bank's governor says.

(Johannesburg) – Armed men linked to Mozambique’s main opposition party, the Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO), have raided at least two hospitals and two health clinics over the past month. The attacks on the medical facilities, which involved looting medicine and supplies and destroying medical equipment, threaten access to health care for tens of thousands of people in remote areas of the country.

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Damaged medicine cabinet in Morrumbala District Hospital after the raid by RENAMO gunmen on August 12, 2016. 

© 2016 Nova Radio Paz - Quelimane

“RENAMO’s attacks on hospitals and health clinics are threatening the health of thousands people in Mozambique,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “RENAMO’s leadership needs to call off these attacks on health facilities immediately.”

In the most recent attack, on August 12, 2016, about a dozen gunmen who identified themselves as RENAMO entered the town of Morrumbala, in the central province of Zambezia, at about 4 a.m., several witnesses and local authorities told Human Rights Watch. The men first raided a police station, freeing about 23 men detained there, and then looted the local district hospital.

A nurse who was there said that the men opened fire at the building. “I was in the emergency room when they fired gunshots through the windows,” he said. “We were hiding beneath chairs, beds…anything we could find.”

The nurse and two Zambezia-based reporters who arrived at the hospital just after the attack said that the gunmen had looted medicine from the facility’s main pharmacy.

On July 30, a group of armed men who identified themselves as RENAMO entered the village of Mopeia, in Zambezia province, at about 3 a.m., two local residents said.

The armed men first raided the house of a local official of the governing FRELIMO party, who is the chief nurse at the local Centro 8 de Março health clinic. When they did not find him, they went to the clinic. A doctor who visited the clinic the following day said the gunmen burned patients’ medical records and stole vaccines, syringes, and medicines. The clinic stores essential medicines, including antiretroviral medicines for HIV/AIDS patients, for a population of over 8,000 people, he said.

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Bullet hole in the window of Morrumbala District Hospital after the raid by RENAMO gunmen on August 12, 2016. 

© 2016 Nova Radio Paz - Quelimane

The armed men then went to Mopeia’s main hospital, about eight kilometers from the clinic. A nurse at the hospital said that she saw about 15 men in dark green uniforms enter the main ward in the early morning, most of them armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles. They entered the ward where patients were sleeping, threatened patients and medical staff, ordering them to leave the hospital, and carried away medicines, serum bags, bed sheets, and mosquito nets. The nurse said none of the patients or medical staff were hurt.

Together, Mopeia district hospital and Mopeia village clinic serve over 100,000 people, local health authorities said.

On July 31, about a dozen armed men who identified themselves as RENAMO raided the village of Maiaca, Maúa district, in the northern province of Niassa. The administrator of Maúa, Joao Manguinje, told Human Rights Watch that the gunmen attacked the local health clinic and the police station. They took five kits of HIV tests, four boxes of syringes, and over 600 vials of penicillin, he said.

Manguinje also alleged that on July 24, RENAMO gunmen had raided the health clinic in the nearby village of Muapula, where they stole, among other things, five obstetric kits, over 200 tetanus vaccines, and over 300 vials of penicillin. Human Rights Watch was not able to verify this attack.
 

I was in the emergency room when they fired gunshots through the windows. We were hiding beneath chairs, beds…anything we could find. A nurse who witnessed the hospital looting.

Mozambican authorities say that RENAMO gunmen have carried out similar attacks on health clinics over the past month in Sofala, Manica, and Tete provinces, in central Mozambique, but Human Rights Watch was not able to verify those reports.

The RENAMO party, which has offices in the capital, Maputo, has neither confirmed nor denied carrying out the attacks. However, the party leader, Afonso Dhalkama, who is believed to be hiding in the Gorongosa bush, in the central province of Sofala, told the Mozambican private television station, STV, on August 5 that he had given orders to attack some areas of Zambezia province. He did not specify the targets or mention medical facilities.

Dhlakama said the attacks were a “military strategy” aimed at dispersing government soldiers who are surrounding RENAMO positions in Gorongosa bush, about 200 kilometers south of the villages that were attacked. Several districts of Tete, Zambezia, Manica, Sofala, and Niassa provinces have had recent armed clashes between government forces and Renamo fighters.

“RENAMO’s raids on medical facilities seem part of a repugnant strategy to damage health facilities and loot medicines,” Bekele said. “What they are succeeding in doing is to deny crucial health services to Mozambicans who need them.”

Background Information
After the 1992 peace agreement that ended Mozambique’s 16-year civil war, RENAMO leader Afonso Dhlakama was allowed to keep a 300-man private armed guard. Successive failures to integrate other RENAMO fighters into the national army and civilian life have encouraged former fighters to join the private guards and to camp in old RENAMO training grounds. RENAMO, a political party that currently holds 89 seats in parliament, is now believed to have an armed force of more than double what it was permitted.

Over the past four years, tension has increased between RENAMO and the governing party, FRELIMO, including an increase in armed attacks by RENAMO and counterattacks by the government. The parties signed a new peace agreement in 2014, but RENAMO says the government has failed to integrate RENAMO fighters into the national army and police in accordance with the agreement. The government says RENAMO has refused to hand over a list of its militia to be integrated into the security forces because it wants to use them as leverage for political negotiations. FRELIMO won elections in October 2014, but RENAMO says it wants to govern the six provinces in which it claims it received more votes.

In February 2016, Human Rights Watch documented abuses committed by government forces in Tete province, where RENAMO enjoys support among the population, including alleged summary executions and sexual violence. At least 6,000 people fled the area for neighboring Malawi. The Malawi office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that most of these people have now returned home, following assurances of safety by the Mozambican government.

In May, Mozambican and international media reported the discovery of several unidentified bodies near Gorongoza, between the provinces of Manica and Sofala. Human Rights Watch called on the Mozambican authorities to investigate the gravesite thoroughly, to identify the victims, and to hold perpetrators to account. The government says it launched an investigation in June, but it has not yet announced any findings.

 

It is exactly one month since 37-year-old journalist Jean Bigirimana vanished after leaving his home in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, for Bugarama, a town about 40 kilometers away. There are unconfirmed reports that he was arrested there by members of the intelligence services, but his whereabouts remain unknown.

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Jean Bigirimana. 

© 2016 Iwacu

As the days passed without news, Jean’s young family, friends, and colleagues at Iwacu newspaper began wondering if he might be dead. The cruel nature of such cases means there’s no certainty about the victim’s fate, and no possibility of closure.

It wasn’t until Jean’s colleagues at Iwacu launched a campaign that the government ended its silence. Three days after he vanished, police spokesperson Pierre Nkurikiye flatly denied that the security forces had arrested Jean. A week later, the president’s communications advisor, Willy Nyamitwe, tweeted that the government was investigating and was deeply concerned. He implied the opposition might be responsible, and said he feared the worst.

Then, on August 5, a dead body was found in the Mubarazi river, in Muramvya – the province he’d been heading to when he vanished. There was speculation that it might be Jean’s. An intrepid team of Iwacu journalists went to the scene to investigate. Police, judicial, and intelligence officials joined them, but found nothing. On August 7, the journalists returned alone, and discovered a dead body in an inaccessible part of the river. Two days later, a second corpse was found in the river, while media reported that a third was discovered in neighboring Gitega province.

 

The two bodies were eventually fished out of the Mubarazi river but were badly decomposed. One had been decapitated, the other weighed down with stones. At the morgue, Jean’s wife was so overwhelmed that she was only able to look at the corpses’ hands and feet, and guessed that neither of them was Jean. The authorities made no further attempt to identify the victims or establish how they died. There were no autopsies, no DNA tests. Police simply announced that Jean was not among the two dead, and last week local officials buried the bodies.

Is that the end of the story? No. Jean’s family has the right to an investigation to determine what happened, and, if a crime took place, to see those responsible prosecuted – as do the families of the two victims, whoever they are. The Burundian authorities should launch thorough, independent investigations, if necessary calling on outside medical or scientific expertise.

Jean Bigirimana is not the only person to have been abducted or disappeared in Burundi in the past year. Let us not forget the human rights activist Marie-Claudette Kwizera, from the Burundian group Ligue Iteka, who was taken away by a vehicle thought to belong to the intelligence services last December, nor the scores of other Burundians who have disappeared or gone missing, or been found dead, with barely any reaction by the government.

All the families have a right to full, independent, and speedy investigations into what happened to their relatives. It is high time the authorities ensure this happens. 

August 24, 2016 (LEER) -As fighting intensifies south of Unity state, there is massive displacement of civilians as about 2,000 have reportedly left their homes in the last one week following clashes between the armed opposition forces and government soldiers.

The map of Unity state

James Yaoch Bideng, the spokesperson of armed opposition, told Sudan Tribune government forces attacked their position in villages of Leer and Koch counties.

He said humanitarian agencies on the ground especially south of Unity state were overwhelmed after renewed fighting displaced thousands of people.

“Majority of the population remained in the bush with hundreds of people fleeing every day into the United Nations protection of civilians camp in Bentiu town and others more risk walking to the neighborhood of Payinjiar county for safety,” he said.

Last week, the armed opposition forces clashed with pro-government soldiers in the northern part of Leer, the capital of Southern Liech, one of South Sudan's new states.

Bideng further said most of the people that are trapped in the conflicts went and hid and currently live in swamps and highland areas which have no access to aid agencies.

Koch, Leer and Mayiandit counties remained some of the most insecure territories in the southern part of the oil-rich Unity state since violence erupted in South Sudan in 2013.

The armed opposition official urged international organisations and the United Nations agencies to rescue the civilians on the ground that still lack humanitarian responses.

(ST)

August 24, 2016 (JUBA) – A group of armed and unarmed political parties opposed to South Sudan President Salva Kiir's government have resolved to overthrow what they described as the "totalitarian regime” along with supporters, mainly from the Dinka tribe.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir (Photo: AP/Sayyid Azim)

The resolution emerged at the end of a consultative meeting attended by former agriculture minister, Lam Akol and ex-education minister Peter Adwok Nyaba in Nairobi from 18-20 August on the theme “Towards National Democratic Revolution.”

“The political situation in South Sudan underlying the current civil war is a contradiction, as well as a struggle, between narrow ethnic sectarianism represented by President Salva Kiir and Jieng [Dinka] Council of Elders (JCE) on the one hand and South Sudan nationalism on the other hand,” partly reads a seven-page dossier from the group.

“The parties to the Consultative Meeting have to cooperate and coordinate efforts in all spheres of the struggle to overthrow the totalitarian regime in Juba,” it added.

While, Nyaba represented the armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO) loyal to former first vice president Riek Machar, Akol represented National Democratic Movement (NDM) which he formed after resigning from non-violent Democratic Change party last month.

The other politicians who attended the meeting were Clement Juma Mbugoniwia from the People's Revolutionary Movement/Army (PRM/A), Juma Zackaria Deng of Western Bahr El Ghazal Group (WBG Group), Fr Joseph Otto (Eeastern Equatoria Group), Justin Joseph Marona, Pasquale Clement Batali and Dominic Akwai Henry Bahgo.

Describing the meeting's resolution as a “blueprint” towards removing “totalitarian regime in Juba,” the politicians insisted that the peace agreement signed by President Kiir and the armed opposition leader in August last year should remain on course.

“We insist that the resuscitation of ARCISS [Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan] must be contingent on […] the Regional Protection Force under the banner of the UN should be deployed to take charge of the security all over South Sudan to create an environment conducive for free political discourse on the future of the country,” further noted the document.

They group appealed to the people of South Sudan to join them in liberating the country.

“We appeal to our people to lend it their full support and call upon the other political organizations and groups that could not take part in this dialogue to join us in future discussions. We must unify our ranks to save our country from imminent collapse,” stressed the group's paper.

In the document, however, the opposition parties outlined the major economic, political and social reforms that will be taken once President Kiir's government was overthrown.

It still remains unclear as to how the opposition politicians intend to achieve these goals

(ST)

August 24, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour on Wednesday discussed with the United States Secretary of State John Kerry bilateral relations between the two countries and recent developments in Sudan and the region.

John Kerry (R) shakes hands with the Sudan's FM Ibrahim Ghandour as they pose for photos at the Palace Hotel in New York, October 2, 2015. (Photo Reuters/Stephanie Keith)

The meeting, which took place in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, comes two days after the American top diplomat met with the five foreign ministers from the regional bloc IGAD to discuss the situation in South Sudan.

In a press release extended to Sudan Tribune on Wednesday, Sudan's Foreign Ministry said Ghandour briefed Kerry on the progress of the national dialogue process, pointing to the participation of the political, societal and armed forces in order to reach national consensus that achieves security and stability in the country.

It added the meeting also discussed the outcome of the recent peace talks between the government and the opposition Sudan Call forces in Addis Ababa, pointing to the obstacles that hampered talks on Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

A six-day round of talks from 9 to 14 August between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) on the Two Areas had stalled over humanitarian access.

Also, the Sudanese government, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-MM) led by Minni Minnawi failed to sign a cessation of hostilities in Darfur after the parties disagreed on how to determine the sites of the rebel fighters.

According to the press release, Ghandour stressed his government is determined to resume negotiations to reach a cessation of hostilities that paves the road to complete the national dialogue and achieve stability and national consensus.

It pointed that Kerry expressed his country's keenness and support for the national dialogue, mentioning the importance of Sudan's role in addressing regional issues.

On Tuesday, Sudan's Presidential Assistant and head of government negotiating team for the Two Areas talks Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid briefed the acting U.S chargé de Affairs in Khartoum Ambassador Stephen Koutsis on the outcome of the recent round of peace talks

Following the meeting, the U.S diplomat said he discussed with Hamid the bilateral relations, the situation in the Two Areas and Darfur. Also, he reiterated his government readiness to back the African Union-led efforts to achieve peace in Sudan.

“U.S government is ready to help the parties to reach peace agreement,” he said.

It is noteworthy that the US Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Donald Booth has led the international efforts to convince the opposition to sign the Roadmap Agreement and engage in the peace talks with the government.

Washington imposed economic and trade sanctions on Sudan in 1997 in response to its alleged connection to terror networks and human rights abuses. In 2007 it strengthened the embargo, citing abuses in Darfur which it labelled as "genocide".

Also, Sudan has been on the US list of countries supporting terrorism since 1993, for allegedly providing support and safe haven for terrorist groups.

(ST)