News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Algeria builds giant mosque

Posted: 06 May 2016 02:21 AM PDT

Algeria is building one of the world's largest mosques which officials say will serve as a buffer against radical Islam.

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Algiers - Algeria is building one of the world's largest mosques which officials say will serve as a buffer against radical Islam and crown the legacy of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The Djamaa El Djazair mosque is being built facing the picturesque bay of Algiers as part of a complex that will include a one-million book library, a Qu’ranic school and a museum of Islamic art and history.

It will also have a 265-metre high minaret - the world's tallest - as well as a 20 000 square metres prayer hall capable of accommodating up to 120 000 worshippers.

The complex will be located between a future tourist hotspot and working class districts that were once a bastion for Islamist extremists.

The North African country was battered by a civil war in the 1990s between the government and Islamists that killed about 200 000 people.

More than two decades later, armed groups remain active in parts of Algeria and the country has been hit by several devastating attacks claimed by al-Qaeda in recent years.

“Some have accused us of building a temple for the extremists,” said Ahmed Madani, an adviser to the minister of housing responsible for the construction, which is being carried out by a Chinese firm.

“On the contrary, it will be a heavy blow for the extremists. They are the ones hostile to this project,” said Madani.

The new mosque - due to be completed in 2017 - will be “an emblem of moderate Islam in Algeria and a shield against all forms of extremism,” said Madani, who hopes it will draw Muslims away from Islamist-run houses of worship.

According to Madani, Algerian officials have been mulling the idea of building a mega-mosque since 1962, the year Algeria gained its independence from France.

“The dream started becoming a reality” after the election of Bouteflika, a man known for his piety and devotion to Muslim art and culture, Madani said.

The 79-year-old president has been in power since 1999. He is respected by many for his role in ending the civil war but his opponents and rights groups accuse him of having an authoritarian streak.

The new mosque “will not only serve as a house of worship. It will be a place where links between faith and culture will be reinforced thanks to its ultra-modern library and the Qu’ranic school which will be open to about 300 students,” said Madani.

Oil-rich Algeria is already home to more than 30 000 mosques.

The construction of Djamaa El Djazair - dubbed “Bouteflika Mosque” by some - was launched in 2012, when oil prices were high, said Housing Minister Abdeladjid Tebboune.

Four years later, Algeria is facing revenue shortages due to weaker oil prices and its foreign exchange reserves have fallen.

The new mosque complex has a price tag of 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion), with online critics saying the cost is “mind-boggling” and that the money should have been used to build hospitals and improve health care.

Experts questioned by AFP have bemoaned what many have described as an “unsound” project, and warned that the cost of this mammoth construction could further grow if deadlines are not met.

“Most of the work is far from over and it will take a lot of time to finish everything,” said an architect, referring to technical installations as well mural decorations including calligraphy that is still unfinished.

The mosque will be equipped with solar panels and a sophisticated system to retain rain water which will then be recycled for other uses.

Experts have also warned against the risks of the mosque being destroyed in an earthquake.

Algeria sits astride two major plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes, especially along the Mediterranean coast.

A 2003 earthquake that hit the coastal town of Boumerdes to the east of Algiers killed nearly 3 000 people and injured 10 000.

Earthquake expert Abdelakrim Chelghoum has told authorities that a seismic study conducted by a German firm underestimated the risk of an earthquake damaging the mosque.

But Madani has dismissed the concern.

He said a mechanism capable of absorbing earth movements has been put into place and could decrease the effect of a magnitude 9 quake to that of a 3.5 tremor.

AFP

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#BreakTheTrade: Kenya burns tons of ivory

Posted: 06 May 2016 01:34 AM PDT

The confiscated stock was made up of tusks from 6 700 elephants with 1.35 tons of rhino horns.

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Swaziland contests a 39-year-old global ban against rhino horn trade, while Kenya sets fire to a 105 tons pile of confiscated elephant tusks and rhino horns in protests against ivory trade.

IOL Mojo

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Call to declare anal examinations unconstitutional

Posted: 06 May 2016 12:34 AM PDT

Two men are seeking a Kenyan court ruling declaring enforced anal examinations unconstitutional, the men's lawyer said.

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Nairobi - Two men are seeking a Kenyan court ruling declaring enforced anal examinations unconstitutional after they were subjected to such tests last year to see if they had been involved in gay sex, the men's lawyer said on Tuesday.

Rights activists have condemned the examinations as inhuman and humiliating.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said such coerced examinations might amount to torture under international law.

Kenya, like many African nations, outlaws homosexuality.

The law calls for jailing those involved in homosexual acts, but violations are rarely prosecuted.

In court papers filed in September, the two men, whose names have not been made public, alleged they were coerced into undergoing anal examination by security personnel and a public hospital in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa in February 2015.

Sande Ligunya, the men's lawyer, told Reuters a court in Mombasa would conduct the case's first hearing on Wednesday.

Police said they could not comment on the men's claims since they were a subject of court proceedings.

In the petition, the men say they want the court to declare that forced anal examination “amounts to degrading treatment” and “a violation of the human and constitutional rights”.

On a visit to Kenya in July last year US President Barack Obama equated discrimination against gays to treating people differently because of race, adding: “That's the path whereby freedoms begin to erode.”

Human Rights Watch senior researcher Neela Ghoshal said the medical procedures “accomplish nothing, other than humiliating and demeaning people who are considered moral 'outcasts.'“

Reuters

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Zanu-PF ‘will not win another election’

Posted: 06 May 2016 12:23 AM PDT

The ruling Zanu-PF was unelectable and would never win another plebiscite to govern Zimbabwe, a retired army general said.

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Harare - A retired army general in Zimbabwe on Thursday said the ruling Zanu-PF, led by 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe, was unelectable and would never win another plebiscite to govern the country.

Retired Brigadier General Agrippa Mutambara, who also served as Zimbabwe ambassador to three different countries over a 21-year span and was now a member of an opposition political party , said Zanu-PF had no future in the politics of the country, adding that opposition political parties should rally together to remove the liberation war movement from power.

He was speaking at a round-table discussion under the topic, “Emergence of new political outfits, new perspective or political ego”, held at the Media Centre in Harare.

“I sincerely believe that Zanu-PF will not win another election and I think they also know that the tables are turning and they are resorting to a well-known tactic that they have used in the past and succeeded. The tactic of using violence, using youths to unleash violence on people who don’t support Zanu-PF,” he said.

Mutambara, who said he voluntarily left the ruling party to join former vice-president, Joice Mujuru, who was unceremoniously kicked out of the party and formed her own outfit, Zimbabwe People First, said what happened at Rufaro Stadium when the Zimbabwe government tried to organise a workers’ day event that turned out to be a flop was an indication that the ruling party was unelectable.

“That was not an indication that (Vice-President Emmerson) Mnangagwa had failed, it was an indication that Zanu-PF was unelectable, not an individual because the Vice-President was appointed by the President. But if Zanu-PF itself thinks that he is unelectable, then it is a vote of no confidence in the President who actually appointed him,” he said.

The liberation war veteran said many people were turning away from Zanu-PF because it had strayed from the principles of the liberation struggle and was now trying to create one centre of power, saying that was not what the people fought for.

“If Zanu-PF enjoys support, why is it that they have to harass and force people to accept them? If Zanu-PF has got support, why is it that when just holding a provincial rally, they have to send buses across the country to shuttle people to come and attend a rally. It is a clear indication that Zanu-PF has lost support and they want to give an impression that they still enjoy support when they do not,” he said.

The ruling party, he said, was abusing and misusing state resources meant for the people of Zimbabwe and giving them to their supporters.

Mutambara, who himself held senior positions in the Zanu-PF government, said he had tendered his notice of retirement from government because he wanted to feel free to express himself about what was going on within the ruling party, saying the situation had become untenable.

“Zanu-PF has lost direction. Within Zanu-PF, I tried to communicate my apprehension of what I thought was going on but without success. Unlike many of my comrades, I was not dismissed from Zanu-PF. I took a personal decision that I could no longer continue to be Zanu-PF. If you look at the number of people that are being expelled and suspended, you find that the party has lost direction,” he said.

– African News Agency

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Rise in number of refugees fleeing S Sudan

Posted: 06 May 2016 12:21 AM PDT

The UNHCR is upgrading its emergency response to deal with the increasing numbers of refugees fleeing South Sudan.

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Adjumani Refugee Settlement, Northern Uganda - The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) is upgrading its emergency response to deal with the increasing numbers of refugees fleeing South Sudan as the country’s new unity government fails to bring peace.

“Despite expectations that there would be an improvement in the humanitarian situation with the implementation of the new government in South Sudan, the opposite is happening and we are alarmed by this,” said Akiko Tsujisawa, UNHCR’s protection officer from Adjumani Refugee Settlement near the South Sudan border.

“In 2015, 23 000 South Sudanese refugees arrived in Adjumani, an average of around 63 per day,” Tsujisawa told the African News Agency (ANA) on Thursday.

“The number of new arrivals has increased sharply in 2016, with a daily average of around 200.

“Reports in recent weeks from new arrivals have informed us that they are fleeing due to increased activities by militia groups in South Sudan, who are looting villages, burning down houses, committing acts of physical assault and forcibly recruiting children into their ranks.

“The situation is exacerbated by failing crops, at a time when food prices are increasing due to inflation,” said Tsujisawa.

ANA spoke to Amnesty International’s (AI) South Sudan researcher Elizabeth Deng shortly before the recent return of former South Sudanese opposition leader and incumbent vice president Riek Machar.

Machar arrived in Juba on April 28 to form a new unity government with South Sudan President Salva Kiir following a two-year civil war between the two bitter political rivals, and their supporters, which left thousands dead and uprooted tens of thousands more.

“The arrival of Machar and the formation of the new unity government would help establish bodies that would end the culture of impunity in regards to human rights abuses,” said Deng in an interview from Nairobi.

“Once the unity government is formed it will be a step towards the implementation of the peace agreement.

“The peace agreement would include the African Union (AU) establishing a hybrid court, provide for a truth commission, and a compensation and reparation authority,” said Deng.

However, this has failed to materialise.

UNHCR emergency response team members told ANA during a briefing in Adjumani that the number of new arrivals in Uganda had initially decreased following the signing of the peace deal in South Sudan in August 2015.

However, the numbers started increasing following the deterioration in security conditions in South Sudan’s Jonglei and Eastern and Western Equitoria states in January 2016.

Accordingly the UNHCR has had to revamp and strengthen its emergency response.

There are now 132 250 refugees in Adjumani’s 17 resettlement camps.

Five thousand refugees arrived in March alone.

UNHCR is implementing a number of strategies to help the refugees and asylum seekers in conjunction with the Ugandan government.

The aim of these is to ensure legal support, social services, including child protection, assistance to vulnerable persons, psychosocial activities and community building in the settlements are provided to South Sudan’s vulnerable.

The Uganda education strategy aims to increase enrolment for children aged 6 to 13 in primary schools and improve access to secondary, skills training and tertiary educations.

Medical Teams International (MTI) together with the UNHCR are providing preventive health services at nine health centres in Adjumani.

Refugees also have access to nutrition programmes in the settlements, while all children are immunised upon arrival at reception centres.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and UNHCR provide hot meals for refugees at the reception centre as well as monthly food rations once refugees are moved to settlement plots.

The UN is endeavouring to meet the minimum water requirements for refugees in addition to supporting sanitation activities with its partners.

Shelter kits and relief items are provided to the refugees on their arrival.

“We support livelihood interventions by building household capacity for food and income security through training and improving access to agricultural inputs,” said the UNHCR members.

“Non-agricultural support is also provided and it includes enhanced access to materials and capital to start or develop small businesses such as soap making, tailoring, hairdressing, retail shops, restaurants and phone-charging,” said UNHCR.

With its partners, UNHCR is also supporting environmental intervention by building individual and institution capacities through training, establishment of nurseries and provision of seedlings.

– African News Agency

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Bodies found scattered in Mozambican bush

Posted: 06 May 2016 12:20 AM PDT

Regardless of whether there is any mass grave in central Mozambique there are certainly victims of atrocities decomposing in the bush.

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Maputo - Regardless of whether there is any mass grave in central Mozambique - as journalists have claimed - there are certainly victims of atrocities decomposing in the bush, and their remains have been photographed and filmed.

On Thursday, Mozambique’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) - a statutory though independent body - threw its considerable weight behind the growing calls for a thorough investigation of the deaths.

The story that there is a mass grave in Gorongosa district was first published by the Portuguese news agency Lusa, which said that a group of peasants had found the grave near an abandoned gold mine in Canda administrative post, about 76 kilometres from the district capital, Gorongosa town.

A statement issued a week ago by the district administrator, Manuel Jamaca, says the authorities investigated the story - and found nothing.

He described the story as “disinformation”.

But shortly after this denial, photos of bodies appeared on social media, taken by a Mozambican journalist who had visited the scene.

The bodies were said to be a few hundred metres from the site of the supposed mass grave.

Any suspicions about the authenticity of these photographs was dispelled when the same bodies were filmed by the independent television station, STV, which counted 13 of them. Nine of the bodies were lying under a bridge over the Piro river.

The other four bodies were a few metres from the bridge, near a field.

This is not in Gorongosa, but in the neighbouring district of Macossa, in Manica province.

The shocking story was aired on the STV evening news on Wednesday.

Jamaca admitted that these bodies existed.

He believed the victims did not die at the bridge but were killed elsewhere and their bodies later dumped.

He remained adamant in his insistence that there was no mass grave anywhere in Gorongosa.

So far nobody knows who the victims in Macossa are, or who killed them.

This part of central Mozambique has been the stage for clashes between the rebel movement Renamo and the police and armed forces.

The CNDH on Thursday said the discoveries indicated “serious violations of human rights”, and called for a full and independent investigation, in which all the relevant bodies would be given unfettered access to the sites of the killings.

The CNDH is a statutory, independent body.

Its members are appointed by the government, by the political parties in parliament and by civil society.

Its current chairperson is a prominent human rights lawyer and civil society activist, Custodio Duma.

The CNDH also urged the authorities to collect the bodies and take them to a morgue where autopsies could be held.

Attempts should be made to identify the bodies, and deliver them to their relatives so that they could be given a decent funeral.

– African News Agency

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