News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Activists, media taunt Egyptian president

Posted: 12 May 2016 09:11 AM PDT

Egyptians activists used social media to protest the arrest of a satirical street group whose video-clips mock Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

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Cairo - Egyptian activists took to social media on Thursday to support an online campaign demanding the release of four detained members of a satirical street group whose selfie-style video clips mocked the country's general-turned-president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The activists posted phone-wielding selfies on Facebook, entitled “does a mobile phone camera rattle you?” and directed at el-Sissi.

The campaign comes after police on Monday arrested four members of the group Awlad el-Shawarea, or “Street children.” A fifth member was arrested over the weekend but was later released on bail. The performers are facing several charges, including inciting terror attacks and street protests as well as insulting state institutions.

Recent clips by the group were entitled “el-Sissi, my president, made things worse,” and “leave” - a chant that was popular during the 2011 uprising that forced autocrat Hosni Mubarak to step down. There were also ones mocking the president's habit of ending speeches with “Long live Egypt!” and his recent reference to advice by his late mother to “never to covet what belongs to others.”

Beside activists, famous Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef - often described as the Jon Stewart of Egypt - took part in the online campaign. Youssef's show was taken off the air when freedoms significantly diminished after then-military-chief el-Sissi ousted Egypt's first freely elected leader, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi, in July 2013.

“If you truly are not scared of anyone, let them go free,” Youssef posted, referring to the performers and alluding to el-Sissi's recent repeated assertions that no one scares him.

Egyptian actor Amr Waked, who played the rich Arab chieftain in the widely acclaimed 2012 movie “Salmon Fishing in The Yemen” also took part in the campaign.

El-Sissi took office in June 2014, nearly a year after Morsi's ouster. He has since overseen the arrest of thousands of Morsi's supporters as well as scores of pro-democracy activists who fueled the 2011 uprising.

Under his rule, many freedoms won as a result of the uprising have been eroded while a personality cult around el-Sissi has emerged. But the president has been devoting most of his time trying to revive the economy, initiating a series of ambitious infrastructure projects, while also battling a tenuous Islamic militant insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Egyptian leader has recently faced a wave of protests over his announcement last month that his government intended to surrender control over two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. The protests were met with one of the biggest rounds of arrests in the last two years.

AP

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Tight security for Senegalese jazz fest

Posted: 12 May 2016 02:55 AM PDT

Security measures are placed for the annual Saint-Louis Jazz festival due to the threat of regional Islamist violence.

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Saint-Louis - A Senegalese jazz festival initially cancelled because of regional Islamist violence opened on Wednesday to the delight of fans, but under tight security and with a headline act pulling out at the last minute.

This year's edition of Senegal's Saint-Louis Jazz festival was saved after extra security measures were agreed upon by officials and organisers last week, and will run as expected until May 16, 2016.

But police checkpoints and hundreds of uniformed officers were in place across the northern city on Wednesday, reflecting a nervousness among authorities and citizens that was absent from last year's event, since when several Islamist attacks have rocked Senegal's neighbours.

A vibrant billing of local and international artists were lined up to play, including Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, US jazz fusion bassist Marcus Miller and Senegal's own Cheikh Lo.

But late Wednesday organisers announced that Miller, who had been a major attraction, as well as the Moroccan collective Bob Maghrib would not be travelling to the event.

Festival spokesman Alex Tendeng cited “the security context and funding issues” for the cancellations without providing further details.

The festival has in previous years attracted stars such as US gospel singer Liz McComb and Brazilian icon Gilberto Gil.

“Everything has been done to ensure a great festival with a considerable security presence,” regional governor Alioune Aidara Niang told AFP hours before venues opened their doors.”

One police officer told AFP they were also patrolling nearby maritime and river borders with Mauritania.

Hundreds of people gathered for a first evening, which featured a performance by the young Senegalese singer-songwriter Sarro, but the number of visitors to the town seemed down on previous years, an AFP journalist said.

Senegal has until now avoided the kind of deadly attacks mounted by Al-Qaeda-linked groups that have claimed dozens of lives in Burkina Faso, Mali and most recently Ivory Coast.

Security has been beefed up at hotels, supermarkets and public buildings across the west African nation in response.

Mariama Traore, prefect for the region, had previously cited “the prevailing security environment, the vulnerability of the municipality of Saint-Louis and the refusal of the organisers to engage in the security efforts”, for the event's suspension.

Senegal's president Macky Sall announced last month that he would boost manpower and equipment for military and civil defence forces in the face of increasingly bold attacks by jihadists in neighbouring countries.

Alboury Ndiaye, a hotelier from Saint-Louis, told AFP the festival was expected to raise around four billion CFA francs ($7 million) for the local economy.

AFP

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Ex-coup leader Comoros new president

Posted: 12 May 2016 02:47 AM PDT

Former coup leader Azali Assoumani has been elected president of Comoros, according to official provisional results.

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Moroni - Former coup leader Azali Assoumani was elected president of Comoros on Thursday, according to official provisional results, after an earlier poll had to be partially re-run due to violence and “irregularities”.

Colonel Assoumani beat Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi to lead the east African archipelago nation in April, but a court ordered that 13 polling stations should vote again after accusations of ballot stuffing, broken boxes and interruptions in voting.

He won again by 2 271 votes to 1 308, the electoral commission said, increasing the lead he took last month.

Two percent of the electorate needed to vote again Wednesday, with hundreds of people waiting in line during the day as armed security forces stood guard to ensure polling was smooth.

“We did not vote last time but today the military are protecting me and my blind husband,” Boueni Aboudou told AFP.

The army deployed 200 soldiers in Anjouan, one of three main Comoros islands, according to the country's Chief of Staff Youssouf Idjihadi.

In Mramani in the south, where voting had to be discontinued last month after a crush of voters, as many as 100 armed soldiers stood guard outside five polling stations located in a school, according to an AFP journalist.

Polls closed at 15:00 GMT and voting passed off without any major incidents, according to an AFP journalist.

The colonel's inauguration is scheduled for May 26, 2016.

Assoumani took 40.98 percent of the nationwide vote in April, just ahead of Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi, the ruling party's presidential candidate, who picked up 39.87 percent.

Soilihi, who is known as Mamadou, said he rejected the earlier result.

Assoumani first came to power in 1999 after ousting acting president Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde in a coup.

He then won the presidential election three years later, stepping down when his term ended in 2006.

“I expect concrete benefits for my vote: a decent price for cloves, work for my children and food at affordable prices,” said Idrissa Ahmada, a farmer and father of nine before polls closed.

The three islands that make up the Comoros -- Anjouan, Grande-Comore and Moheli -- have a total population of just under 800 000 people, nearly all of whom are Sunni Muslims.

The fourth island of Mayotte voted against independence and is still governed by France.

Comoros' electoral system was established in 2001 after about 20 coups or attempted takeovers, four of which were successful, in the years following independence from France in 1975.

Assoumani is set to take over from outgoing President Ikililou Dhoinine, who completed his five-year term in office.

Comoros exports vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang perfume essence, but poverty is widespread.

AFP

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