Africa

Ghanaians don't really need watches as most meetings start 45 minutes late.

The presidential result was not a surprise but there have been some big shocks in the parliamentary vote.

Farah Khaleck has a rare and incurable condition which causes the hardening and tightening of her skin.

Family pressure did not stop Cameroonian artist Ajarb Bernard Ategwa from finding success.

The Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday that he “strongly condemns the deadly terrorist attacks” that took place in the Somali capital Mogadishu late on Thursday local time, which reportedly killed more than 20 people, with scores injured.

Why tens of thousands of people are protesting against the ailing 81-year-old president.

An agreement by Libya’s Prime Minister and a key rival military leader to improve political stability across the country through new general elections, has been welcomed by the UN Secretary-General.

The land is sandy, dry and scorched by the searing sun of the African Sahel, but that has not stopped the planting of some 50,000 trees at a camp for Nigerian refugees in the far north-east corner of Cameroon.

Worsening security in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo marked by attacks on Ebola clinics have made it a “given” that the deadly virus will spread further, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

An exhibition seeks to commemorate colonial soldiers who lost their lives in World War One.

A selection of photographs from around the African continent over the past week.

A teacher holds up a drawing of an adolescent girl who has just been caught unawares by her first menstruation cycle, while at school. She’s addressing neat rows of young women sitting in class, in the town of Bol, in Chad.

A large fire blazing in Mount Kenya is blamed on farmers clearing an area to plant marijuana.

A mystery man who reports news from one of the most repressive countries in the world gives his first interview.

Photographer Annie Risemberg documents the French bread bakeries that are ubiquitous in Bamako, Mali.

The day seven blind trekkers reached the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Why women in Sudan have taken anti-government demonstrations to heart by using Facebook to expose abuse.

How Louis Houenoude went from being a barber shop sign painter in Benin to having an exhibition in Finland.

February 11, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Sudan's president on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, said Foreign Minister El-Dirdeiry Ahmed in a statement released on Monday.

The meeting of al-Bashir with Guterres was reported by the official news agency SUNA saying it took place at the Sheraton Hotel in Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the 32nd Ordinary Summit of the African Union.

The UN deputy spokesperson did not mention it in his daily briefing. Farhan Haq just pointed to Guterres participation in the African summit and his speech about bilateral relation between the two organisations.

According to SUNA, the meeting discussed Sudan's initiatives to achieve peace and stability in South Sudan and the Central African Republics.

"The Secretary-General of the United Nations considered (these initiatives) a shining point in Africa and an exceptional effort that deserved commendation and appreciation".

Speaking to the official agency, Dirdeiry said Guterres reiterated the support of the United Nations for the Sudanese efforts and pledged to support the implementation process of an agreement for peace and reconciliation in the CAR negotiated in Khartoum recently.

Also, the UN chief assured that they will exert their efforts to secure the necessary support for the implementation of the peace agreement in South Sudan.

This is the second meeting between al-Bashir and Guterres on the sidelines of the African Union meetings. They met for the first time on 28 January 2018.

At the time, Haq told reporters that operational necessities allow the UN chief to meet with the ICC-wanted president "from time to time" on issues such as the joint peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and the UN peacekeeping mission in the disputed Abyei region (UNISFA).

Al-Bashir is accused by the International Criminal Court of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

(ST)

February 12, 2019 (NAIROBI) - Rights groups Monday have called on Kenya and South Sudan to investigate into the enforced disappearance of two South Sudanese activists in Nairobi more than two years ago.

Dong Samuel Luak, a prominent South Sudanese lawyer and human rights activist, and Aggrey Idri, a member of the SPLM-IO were kidnapped in the Kenyan capital on January 23 and 24, 2017, respectively.

Despite multiple reports about their arrest by the Kenyan police forces country and deportation to Juba, authorities in the two neighbouring denied any collusion in their disappearance.

On January 17, 2019, a Kenyan High Court ended its 24-month oversight of the police investigation and advised the families to pursue alternative administrative remedies such as filing a complaint with the Internal Police Oversight Authority.

In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the two countries to ensure "effective, transparent, and impartial investigations" into their disappearance, stressing such a decision may lead to a denial of justice.

“The families of Dong Samuel Luak and Aggrey Ezbon Idri have waited patiently for the truth for two years, their lives in limbo,” said Jehanne Henry, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“But this decision which lets Kenyan police off the hook risks sending this case into oblivion and denying the families justice,” Henry further said.

Kenyan police had already shown no enthusiasm to probe the two cases, triggering the filing of a case before Kenyan justice requesting that the police be ordered to produce Luak and Idri in court.

But the Kenyan judge rejected the claim saying he could not establish that they were in custody and that the police can investigate the matter.

However, as the police investigation stalled, their families sought a judicial order to the police to investigate the disappearance. But the police in February 2018, pledged only to keep the case open.

The joint statement underscored that the decision ends any judicial oversight into the police action on the case.

“How long will this charade go on as the families of Luak and Idri continue to languish in agony over their loved ones?” said Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International last year said they "had seen both men in National Security Service (NSS) detention in Juba, South Sudan, on January 25 and 26, 2017".

Recently, James Dak the former spokesperson of the SPLM-IO leader confirmed that he had been illegally deported to Juba as a result of close cooperation between the security organs in Nairobi and Juba.

The two rights groups said the South Sudanese government unwillingness to investigate the disappearance of the two activists "is an abdication of its binding legal obligations, demonstrates total disregard for the men's fundamental rights, and exacerbates their families' concerns".

(ST)