News Africa Extended |
- Mugabe wil lead from the grave, says Grace
- Thousands stage pro-Mugabe march in Zim
- Nigerian governor declares ‘war’ against herdsmen
- Foreign companies to search for black boxes
- Congolese teacher ‘murdered’ in India
- Liberia’s top politician Sherman arrested
- Foreign powers to blame for refugee exodus
- Kenya troops ‘kill 21’ al-Shabaab fighters
- Over half of Malawi’s population ‘need food aid’
- Take our special #AfricaDay quiz
- #EgyptAir: Body parts 'point to blast on plane'
- ‘5 600 migrants rescued in just two days’
- #AfricaDay: UN chief upbeat
| Mugabe wil lead from the grave, says Grace Posted: 25 May 2016 11:12 AM PDT First Lady Grace Mugabe told Zanu PF supporters that President Robert Mugabe was chosen by God and would continue to lead Zimbabwe, even from his grave. |||Harare – Zimbabwe First Lady, Grace Mugabe, on Wednesday said President Robert Mugabe was irreplaceable and would continue to lead the Southern African country even from his grave. Grace was addressing thousands of Zanu PF supporters gathered in Harare for the much touted one million man march in support of Mugabe’s candidature in the 2018 presidential elections. Read: Thousands stage pro-Mugabe march in Zim “You were chosen and put aside because you are special. When sanctions started, we faced difficulties, but because of your consistence and principled, people know you stand for the truth and stand for Zimbabweans and Africans. As women’s league, we support you for 2018, we want to be life president, you are irreplaceable, will make you our leader even in your grave at the heroes acre,” she said. The controversial first lady said everyone at the Robert Mugabe Square, where the marchers gathered to be addressed by the nonagenarian leader, including journalists covering the event, had come because they supported Zanu PF. Grace said Mugabe had been chosen by God because he was a principled leader who was loyal and loved the people of Zimbabwe and Africa at large. “ Everyone here loves Zanu PF, whether one has a camera or is writing. We, as the women’s league are happy with your leadership because you are raising not only the Zimbabwean flag, but the African flag and you were chosen by God because you are faithful to God, he chose you before you were born,” she said. Grace, who referred to President Mugabe as Sekuru Mugabe, said the success of the march was a sign of unity among the Zanu PF youths and their eagerness to learn from the liberation war hero. She said she was aware of the youths’ grievances but said progress was being impeded by the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by its detractors. African News Agency This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Thousands stage pro-Mugabe march in Zim Posted: 25 May 2016 06:46 AM PDT Several thousand Zimbabweans joined a march through Harare in support of President Robert Mugabe. |||Harare - Several thousand Zimbabweans joined a march through Harare in support of veteran President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday after the main opposition party staged its own rally last month. The marchers, many of whom were transported to the capital by bus, sang songs praising Mugabe and wore t-shirts displaying his image as they gathered at a central square to hear him address the crowds. “We are happy that we are marching for our president to prevent the opposition from distracting the country's leader,” Taremedzwa Chikara, 56, a housewife and supporter of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, told AFP. “Our president has the people at heart and we support that a lot.” Learnmore Muzarabani, 28, a farmer, said he was marching to show his loyalty to Mugabe over controversial land reforms to resettle landless blacks and government policies that force foreign firms to cede majority stakes to locals. “We are here because we love our president. He has done a lot for us. He gave us land and now we are supporting his indigenisation programme,” Muzarabani said. Zanu-PF supporters, many of them young and waving small national flags, arrived in Harare from across the country by bus, train and truck to attend what organisers had dubbed a “million-man” march. “Comrade Mugabe is not sick, people lie,” supporters sang in one song defending the 92-year-old president, who has been the subject of regular stories about his alleged ill health or even death. “Forward with president Mugabe,” others chanted, as they carried placards carrying messages such as “Youths march in solidarity with the visionary and iconic leadership of President Robert Mugabe.” Police in anti-riot gear surrounded the speech venue, searching people while heavy security patrols were on the streets of Harare in vehicles and on horseback. Last month, thousands of supporters of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party attended the biggest public protest in nearly a decade calling on Mugabe to step down. Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, has vowed to stand again as president in elections due in 2018. His decades in office have been marked by economic decline, repression of dissent, vote-rigging and mass unemployment and emigration. The Zanu-PF party has been divided between rival factions jostling to succeed Mugabe, who has avoided naming a successor. Despite signs of ageing, he still appears regularly in public walking unaided and gives long speeches that often blame the west for Zimbabwe's troubles. AFP This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Nigerian governor declares ‘war’ against herdsmen Posted: 25 May 2016 06:43 AM PDT Governor Ayo Fayose declared “war” against nomadic herdsmen, after another deadly attack in an escalating conflict killed two people. |||A Nigerian state governor has declared “war” against nomadic herdsmen, after another deadly attack in an escalating conflict killed two people. “The killing of our people must stop,” Ayo Fayose, governor of the southwestern state of Ekiti said on Monday during a visit to the community affected. “We must take all action to stop it. They have killed two. This Ekiti war must be fought with the totality of our spirit, strength.” Fayose called on the crowd to “bring down” any cow grazing unnecessarily in any part of the state and local communities to “terminate the lives” of herdsmen that attacks them. The governor's comments go way beyond any of his counterparts also affected by the Fulani conflict, which has seen a spate of attacks this year against farmers in central and southeastern states. President Muhammadu Buhari last month directed police and soldiers to “take all necessary action to stop the carnage” and has proposed the creation of grazing land to prevent further clashes. But Fayose promised to send a bill to the state parliament to criminalise cattle grazing in the state after last Friday's attack in Oke Ako, which also left five others critically injured. The mainly Muslim Fulani herders and largely Christian farmers have clashed for decades over increasingly scarce land and resources, particularly in Nigeria's religiously mixed central states. But the violence has escalated in recent months and spread further south. In February, hundreds of people were said to have been killed and about 1 000 homes destroyed in farming villages in the Agatu area of Benue state in a wave of attacks blamed on Fulani. AFP This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Foreign companies to search for black boxes Posted: 25 May 2016 06:42 AM PDT EgyptAir will contract two foreign companies to help search for the black boxes of its plane that crashed in the Mediterranean. |||Cairo - EgyptAir will contract two foreign companies, one French and one Italian, to help search for the black boxes of its plane that crashed in the Mediterranean, the airline's chairman said on Wednesday EgyptAir flight 804 crashed on Thursday with 66 people on board including 30 Egyptians and 15 from France in an area of the Mediterranean where the waters can be 3 000 metres deep. “We have contracted a French and an Italian company to conduct deep sea searching in the Mediterranean, 3 000 metres deep,” EgyptAir chairman Safwat Moslem told a news conference. The plane and its black box recorders, which could explain what brought down the Paris-to-Cairo flight as it entered Egyptian air space, have not been located. Investigators are looking for clues in the debris and human remains recovered so far from the Mediterranean Sea. Reuters This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Congolese teacher ‘murdered’ in India Posted: 25 May 2016 06:31 AM PDT African nationals in New Delhi live in a “pervading climate of fear and insecurity”, a group of African ambassadors has said. |||New Delhi - African nationals in the Indian capital live in a “pervading climate of fear and insecurity”, a group of African ambassadors has said, after the brutal murder of a Congolese teacher sparked allegations of racism. The Group of African Heads of Mission said they may recommend their governments not to send students to India until safety conditions improve, following a string of what they say are unpunished racial attacks. In the latest case, Masunda Kitada Oliver, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was allegedly bludgeoned to death in New Delhi on Friday night by three Indian men after an argument over an auto-rickshaw. “Given the pervading climate of fear and insecurity in Delhi, the African Heads of Mission are left with little option than to consider recommending to their governments not to send new students to India, unless and until their safety can be guaranteed,” Alem Tsehage Woldemariam, Eritrean ambassador and dean of the group said in a statement Tuesday. “Several attacks and harassment of Africans in India have gone unnoticed without diligent prosecution and conviction of perpetrators,” he said. In an embarrassment for New Delhi, the envoys said they would not participate in Africa Day celebrations being organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations on Thursday. They said the African community was in mourning over Oliver's death and asked for the event to be postponed. Oliver had completed his postgraduate study in India and was teaching at a private institute in the capital. Police have arrested two of the three men accused in the attack but deny the murder was racially motivated. India's foreign ministry condemned the killing but said not every attack on an African national should be regarded as racist. “Thousands of African students continue to pursue their education in India without any issues,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement. Junior minister VK Singh will meet mission heads and students to assure them of their safety, the spokesman said, without specifying a date. In 2013, a Nigerian national was killed by a mob in western Goa state, with local politicians later comparing Africans to “cancer”. Meanwhile in January, an Indian mob beat a Tanzanian woman and her male friends in Bangalore and set their car ablaze before dragging them off a bus, in an apparent revenge attack for an earlier road accident. Delhi's former law minister was also accused in 2014 of harassing African women after he led a vigilante mob through an area of the capital, accusing the women of being prostitutes. AFP This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Liberia’s top politician Sherman arrested Posted: 25 May 2016 06:30 AM PDT The chairman of Liberia's ruling Unity Party, Varney Sherman, was arrested in connection with a vast system of political bribery. |||Monrovia - The chairman of Liberia's ruling Unity Party was arrested on Wednesday in connection with a vast system of political bribery he allegedly orchestrated on behalf of a British mining firm. Varney Sherman, often described as Liberia's best connected lawyer, was taken in by police after young party activists blockaded his home on Monday when officers attempted to raid it. “He was arrested early this morning at his residence because he refused to cooperate with the taskforce set up by the president,” a security source told AFP. Sherman was the Liberian legal fixer for London-based Sable Mining, co-founded by former England international cricketer Phil Edmonds, between 2010 and 2012. The party chairman is accused of organising a vast system of patronage, channelling handouts to help win Sable iron ore concessions, and inserting favourable representatives to key posts with responsibility for licences and tenders. Sherman has denied the allegations and has said he will refuse to co-operate with the taskforce set up by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has herself faced criticism for alleged nepotism and corruption. Campaign group Global Witness, which first made the accusations earlier this month, said the bribes, alleged to have mostly been paid out by Sherman are thought to total $960 000 (860 000 euros). Sherman looked unlikely to be the only scalp claimed by the task force on Wednesday, with police gathering outside the home of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Alex Tyler. “The Speaker of the House will soon join him (Sherman) in court,” the source added. Tyler recently resigned from the ruling party and is believed to have presidential ambitions. He received $75 000 and subsequently “helped to get the Sable-friendly legislation through parliament”, the Global Witness report alleged, with changes that included relaxing laws on the tender process. Sable Mining has said the report was based on “unreliable testimony” from former business partners. Edmonds, who resigned as chairman of the firm in 2014, along with Andrew Groves, the current CEO, “strenuously deny any wrongdoing,” they said in a statement released after the report was published. Sable has since refused to answer calls for comment by AFP. AFP This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Foreign powers to blame for refugee exodus Posted: 25 May 2016 06:30 AM PDT President Isaias Afwerki claimed the exodus of youth to Europe is a deliberate policy fomented by foreign powers to weaken the country. |||Asmara - Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has claimed the exodus of youth to Europe is a deliberate policy fomented by foreign powers to weaken the country, in a speech released on Wednesday. The hardline regime is accused of jailing thousands of political prisoners while refugees from the repressive Red Sea state have in recent years made up one of the largest contingents of people risking the dangerous journey to seek a new life in Europe. But the 70-year-old ex-rebel Marxist leader said in a speech on Tuesday to mark 25 years of independence that the 5 000 Eritreans who risk their lives to flee the country every month according to the UN were leaving because they were encouraged to do so. “The greatest historical threat to Eritrea's arch-enemies being the Eritrean people, 'human trafficking' was employed to disperse and weaken Eritrea's human capital,” Isaias said, in the speech released by the Ministry of Information. “This policy was given paramount priority under the rubric of 'granting asylum status' to Eritreans. The campaign was formalised with the official blessing of the US president.” Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1991 after a three-decade independence war, which saw Eritrean rebels battling far better-equipped Ethiopian troops which were backed first by Washington and then by the Soviet Union. Victory in May 1991 was followed by an independence referendum two years later. He also blamed the woes of the isolated Horn of Africa nation on deliberate policies to undermine its economy, and said the past quarter century had been “sadly a narrative of incisive hostility against the sovereignty and independence” of Eritrea. “Economic sabotage is further resorted to on a constant basis, with the aim of creating poverty and starvation to instigate crisis in the country,” Isaias said, criticising the nations that block Asmara's demands that its expatriates pay a two percent income tax via its embassies. The expatriate taxes that are collected, along with gold, copper and zinc mines, are one of its few sources of foreign income. With an annual per capita gross national income of $480, Eritrea is one of the world's poorest nations, according to the World Bank. “Various subterfuges are also conducted by Washington to paralyse and destroy the mining industry and discourage foreign investment and development assistance,” he added. Eritrea's media is ranked below North Korea as worst in the world for press freedom by Reporters Without Borders. But Isaias said the problem Eritrea faced was the “psychological campaigns and media demonization” of the country, with “suffocating measures to prevent objective media portrayal of the reality in Eritrea”. Isaias led the rebel army to victory and has remained in power without an election ever since. Speaking in front of a military parade in the national sports stadium, he made no mention of stepping down from power or of elections. He ended the speech by shouting “victory to the masses!” AFP This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Kenya troops ‘kill 21’ al-Shabaab fighters Posted: 25 May 2016 06:30 AM PDT Kenya's military said it had killed 21 al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia where its troops are trying to defeat the militant Islamist group. |||Mogadishu - Kenya's military said on Wednesday it had killed 21 al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia where its troops are trying to defeat the militant Islamist group that has often struck civilian targets inside Kenya. Kenyan troops, which are in Somalia as part of an African Union (AU) deployment, struck a group of al-Shabaab fighters in the west of the country, near the Kenyan border, David Obonyo, spokesman for Kenya Defence Forces, said in a statement. Al-Shabaab spokesman Abdiasis abu Musab said its fighters had killed five soldiers, wounded eight and burnt one military vehicle in the fighting. The reports could not be independently verified. Obonyo said the Kenyan troops suffered no casualties. Al-Shabaab, a hardline Islamist group, ruled large parts of Somalia until 2011, when it was driven out of Mogadishu by AU and Somali troops. It still control some rural areas and carries out frequent attacks in the capital and other areas in its attempt to dislodge the Western-backed government. In January, Kenyan troops took heavy losses when al-Shabaab made a dawn raid on their camp in El Adde near the Kenyan border. Al-Shabaab said it killed more than 100 soldiers. Kenya gave no exact casualty figure. The group killed 148 students at Garissa University in north-east Kenya in April 2015, the worst militant attack in the country in almost two decades. An al-Shabaab attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi in September 2013 killed 67 people. Reuters This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Over half of Malawi’s population ‘need food aid’ Posted: 25 May 2016 06:26 AM PDT More than half of Malawi's population is in need of food aid after an El Nino-induced drought decimated crops, the minister of agriculture said. |||Lilongwe - More than half of Malawi's population is in need of food aid after an El Nino-induced drought decimated crops, the minister of agriculture said on Wednesday. The drought has ravaged much of southern Africa, but Malawi has been the worst-hit country with more almost half of its population of about 15 million affected. “The results of this rapid assessment showed that close to 8.4 million people will need food because they have partially or completely lost their crops through El Nino induced dry spells,” Godfrey Chaponda told Reuters. He said that in collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the government had conducted a rapid assessment to determine the impact of El Nino on crop production. “The results further show that the affected population will require about 790 000 metric tons of relief food for a period ranging from April 2016 to March 2017.” Prices for maize, the nation's staple crop, have in recent months gone up more than 60 percent above the 3-year average for this time of the year, making it increasingly difficult for many people to buy food. The minister said that in total, the country is projecting 1.2 million tons of maize will be needed to avert the growing hunger situation this season. The second round of crop estimates, which government undertook between mid-February and March this year, estimates that maize production for the current season will be 2.4 million tons or a 12.4 percent decline compared to last season. Chaponda said that in two years, Malawi has registered a cumulative 42 percent decline in maize output. “To offset the huge maize deficit facing the country this year, government has laid out a plan to import about one million tons of white maize to fill the food gap,” the minister said. Reuters This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Take our special #AfricaDay quiz Posted: 25 May 2016 03:10 AM PDT May 25 is recognised as Africa Day. Take our quiz and see how well you know our diverse continent. |||May 25 is recognised as Africa Day. Take our quiz and see how well you know our diverse continent. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| #EgyptAir: Body parts 'point to blast on plane' Posted: 25 May 2016 01:41 AM PDT A forensics official has said human remains retrieved from the area where EgyptAir flight 804 crashed point to an explosion on board. |||Cairo - A forensics official has said human remains retrieved from the area where EgyptAir flight 804 crashed point to an explosion on board. The anonymous official is part of Egypt’s investigative team and has examined victims’ remains at a morgue in Cairo. He told the Associated Press that all 80 body parts retrieved so far are small and that “there isn’t even a whole body part, like an arm or a head”, adding: “The logical explanation is that an explosion brought it down... but I cannot say what caused the blast. Egypt's al-Watan newspaper quoted another unnamed forensics official as saying the plane blew up in mid-air, leaving remains “no larger than the size of a hand”, but that it has yet to be determined whether an explosive device was to blame. The head of Egypt’s forensics authority denied there was evidence of an explosion later on Tuesday. “Everything published about this matter is completely false, and mere assumptions that did not come from the forensics authority,” Dr Hisham Abdel Hamid said in a statement quoted by Mena news agency. EgyptAir said relatives of the victims were giving DNA samples to forensics officials and investigators in the hope of identifying their loved ones. There has been no confirmed cause of the disaster, which killed all 66 passengers and crew on board the flight on its journey from Paris to Cairo. Automatic messages sent in the minutes before the plane disappeared from radar in the early hours of Thursday morning appeared to indicate problems with the cockpit windows, autopilot and the flight control system, and smoke on board. Body parts, luggage and passengers’ belongings have been recovered alongside wreckage from the aircraft during searches of the Mediterranean Sea. But the location of the main body of the Airbus A230, complete with its “black boxes” and their vital data, remains unknown. Phil Giles, a former air safety investigator who worked on the Lockerbie bombing case, told The Independent that images of wreckage published on Saturday added to mounting indications the plane broke up mid-air. “All the evidence so far, including the pictures, indicates that the aircraft broke up at altitude rather than when it impacted the sea,” he said. “Aircraft do infrequently break up as a function of severe weather; however, this wasn’t a factor in this accident. Modern aircraft such as the A320 don’t have a habit of suffering major structural failure unless there is some external factor like a BUK missile as in the case of MH17, or an internal device. Mr Giles said he favoured the latter explanation, meaning a bomb may have been planted on board, but needed more evidence. Claims by Greece’s defence minister that the plane swerved and rapidly lost altitude before it disappeared from radar have been challenged by an Egpytian official. Egyptian authorities previously said they believed terrorism was a more likely explanation than equipment failure but so far no hard evidence has emerged and no group has claimed responsibility. Ships and planes from Britain, Cyprus, France, Greece and the United States are taking part in the search for the debris from the aircraft, including a French vessel equipped with sonar. The search area is roughly halfway between Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria and the Greek island of Crete, where the water is 8 000 to 10 000 feet deep. The Independent This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| ‘5 600 migrants rescued in just two days’ Posted: 25 May 2016 01:39 AM PDT About 3 000 migrants were saved off the Libyan coast in 23 separate rescue missions, the Italian coastguard said. |||About 3 000 migrants were saved off the Libyan coast on Tuesday in 23 separate rescue missions, the Italian coastguard said in a statement. The coastguard said this meant more than 5 600 migrants had been rescued from various boats and dinghies in the southern Mediterranean in just two days, with every ship in the area being called on to help with the complex operation. Humanitarian organisations say the sea route between Libya and Italy is now the main route for asylum seekers heading for Europe, after a European Union deal on migrants with Turkey dramatically slowed the flow of people reaching Greece. The Independent This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 24 May 2016 11:22 PM PDT “What is good for Africa is good for the world,” UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said ahead of Africa Day today. |||Cape Town - What is good for Africa is good for the world.” That was UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s message on Tuesday ahead of Africa Day on Wednesday. As celebrations have been lined up across the world for this year’s Africa Day, Ban said the continent’s economic prospects were looking positive despite the uncertain global economic landscape. “Growth is projected to increase to 4.4% in 2016 from 3.7% in 2015,” said Ban. “I urge Africa’s leaders to use these gains to address rising social and economic inequalities and ensure that no African is left behind.” The annual international event offers the continent an opportunity to reflect on its history, liberation struggle, economic and social development, and a celebration of its rich and diverse cultures. This year’s Africa Day is themed “Year of Human Rights, with particular focus on the Rights of Women”. Ban said it was crucial to tackle the root causes of conflict, terrorism and violent extremism, and foster peace and stability. “I commend Africa’s bold initiative on ‘Silencing the Guns by 2020’, which is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063’s First 10-Year Implementation Plan.” He said the private sector had a key role to play in creating jobs, promoting innovation in technologies and services, and supporting the infrastructure transition needed to fulfil Africa’s sustainable development objectives. Ban said Africa had the opportunity to pursue industrialisation in a more environmentally sustainable manner through climate-smart agriculture, renewable energy and arresting deforestation. “I encourage African nations and their partners to spare no effort in advancing these priorities. The UN is committed in its support,” he said. African Union (AU) chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said while the AU had created many frameworks and normative instruments to achieve an inclusive, democratic and prosperous continent, there were many challenges ahead regarding effectively ensuring that critical norms and laws became a reality for African people. “This cannot happen without the collaborative efforts of the government, civil society organisations and other stakeholders. “Malawi is a recent example, having established a body whose sole responsibility is to ensure that all African Union protocols, charters and treaties are ratified and domesticated,” said Dlamini Zuma. She said this year the AU wanted to place its focus on women’s rights as it was a fundamental obligation and because it made economic sense. “Investing in our women is a guarantee for sustainable peace, community stability and cohesion,” she said. “Investing in women contributes to the prosperity of families, communities and the continent.” President Jacob Zuma said: “Many countries on the continent provided refuge to many South Africans who went into exile and provided material, social, political and military support. “Africa Day thus provides an opportunity to celebrate that African solidarity and to continue expressing it through the ongoing support for many on the continent who are caught up in conflict.” Cape Times This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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