News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Burundian government cracks down on WhatsApp group

Posted: 24 Aug 2016 11:12 AM PDT

Eight members of a Burundian WhatsApp political discussion group have been detained at the police jail in the capital Bujumbura.

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Bujumbura - Eight members of a Burundian WhatsApp political discussion group have been detained at the police jail in the capital Bujumbura, police said on Wednesday.

They were meeting when police arrested them last Saturday.

National police spokesperson Pierre Nkurikiye told ANA on Wednesday that they are accused of “sending out libellous and insulting writings against institutions and authorities on the social media networks”. Police arrested 54 members of the group but released 46 of them soon after. “They had gathered in a pub in the town centre where they were preparing to write and send out their writings through social media networks like Facebook and Twitter,” Nkurikiye said.

Since the government shut down the main independent media after the failed coup in May last year, social networks have become almost the main source of information. For example, the most famous and read media collective, SOS Media Burundi, uses social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to publish information. However, the Burundi government keeps accusing some independent media and social networks of spreading rumours.

African News Agency

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Churches demand that Mugabe be impeached

Posted: 24 Aug 2016 06:53 AM PDT

Some Zimbabwean churches have called for the impeachment of President Robert Mugabe over his misrule that has resulted in the economic collapse.

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Harare - Some Zimbabwean churches have called for the impeachment of 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe over his misrule that has resulted in the economic collapse that have left the country exposed to civil unrest.

The coalition of churches, which include Zimbabwe Divine Destiny, Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, Christian Voice, Zimbabwe Pastors' Fellowship and Prayer Network Zimbabwe, said it would protest in the capital Harare on Thursday.

In a statement, the coalition said it would demand that Mugabe's government be held accountable for failing to deal with the unfolding economic crises.

The churches would also protest against the abuse of state security apparatus, abductions, vote rigging and illegal arrest of citizens.

After the demonstration, church members plan to petition Parliament to impeach Mugabe. Bishop Ancelimo Magaya, speaking on behalf of the churches, demanded Mugabe's government acknowledged Zimbabwe was in a dire situation that required “an extraordinary collective response”.

“Failure of which, the church demands Parliament to move a motion of impeachment of the President over failed governance and subsequently set up a transitional authority to handle the crises and carry the nation through until the next election,” said Magaya. Mugabe, a Catholic, has previously quashed criticism from church leaders.

Last month, Mugabe, who has been in power for more than 36 years, lambasted popular pastor Evan Mawarire as a false preacher sponsored by foreign countries bent on destabilising Zimbabwe. Earlier this year, on July 6, Zimbabweans heeded the “national stay away” called for by Mawarire who used his social media #ThisFlag campaign to mobilise citizens. Mawarire has since fled Zimbabwe. The nonagenarian Mugabe has also previously called retired Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube a half-wit and a liar.

Mugabe has previously also vowed to cut church leaders' “political tentacles” because of their criticism of his government. On Friday opposition parties will protest in Harare to demand electoral reforms and solutions to the worsening economic and political problems in the Southern African country.

African News Agency-CAJ

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Cops use teargas to disperse opposition march

Posted: 24 Aug 2016 06:25 AM PDT

Zimbabwean police used teargas, water cannon and batons to disperse opposition youths who were demonstrating against alleged brutality by security agents.

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Harare - Zimbabwean police used teargas, water cannon and batons on Wednesday to disperse opposition youths who were demonstrating in the capital against alleged brutality by security agents.

More than 200 youths from the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had taken to the streets two days before a planned march by all opposition parties to try to force President Robert Mugabe to implement electoral reforms ahead of the 2018 vote.

Police intercepted them and fired teargas at the protesters who were planning to hand a petition at the offices of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is in charge of the police.

Some protesters threw back the teargas canisters, as well as rocks, towards the police, who chased them with water cannon and fired more teargas outside the MDC headquarters, forcing pedestrians and people standing in nearby bank queues to flee.

The youths had marched through the streets of the capital denouncing the police for beating up protesters and called on Mugabe to step down, accusing him of running a dictatorship.

“We have been seeing a deliberate attempt by the police to intimidate, harass and silence the people of Zimbabwe,” MDC Youth Assembly secretary general Lovemore Chinoputsa told Reuters TV during the march.

Chinoputsa said police had refused to sanction the march, saying that it would degenerate into violence.

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said she could not immediately comment. The police routinely deny charges of brutality and instead accuse the opposition of using “hooligans” during protests to attack officers.

The southern African nation has a history of violence against opponents of Mugabe, where police have in the last few months crushed demonstrations against high unemployment, acute cash shortages and corruption.

A trauma clinic in Harare last month recorded a list of cases of people who had been caught up in a police crack down during anti-government protests.

The MDC's leader Morgan Tsvangirai and former vice president Joice Mujuru are expected to lead Friday's march.

Reuters

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Zim may shed 8000 jobs in agriculture ministry

Posted: 24 Aug 2016 04:51 AM PDT

Zimbabwe's government plans to abolish about half the jobs in the agriculture department, a government official says.

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Harare - Zimbabwe's government plans to abolish about half the jobs in the agriculture department, a government official said on Wednesday, as President Robert Mugabe's administration struggles to pay public service wages.

Zimbabwe is facing a biting shortage of cash, its worst since 2009 when it dumped its hyperinflation-wrecked currency in favour of the US dollar.

Zimbabwe, which spends 82 percent of its national annual budget on wages, said on Monday it would no longer hire new public workers as it struggles to pay soldiers, police, teachers and other employees.

The deputy minister in the agriculture department, Paddy Zhanda, said his office was seeking to prevent the shedding of about 8,000 jobs, a decision by the Public Service Commission (PSC), which hires state workers.

Zhanda said the department had offered an alternative plan that would cut wages but save jobs, because dismissing staff could impact agriculture at a time the sector is struggling to recover from the worst drought in a quarter century.

"For example, workers can work fewer days and we could retire non critical staff above the age of 60 years as well as doing away with posts that are vacant," Zhanda told Reuters.

Cecelia Alexander, chairperson of the main union for state workers Apex Council, could not be reached for comment.

The state-run Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday that the PSC had notified the agriculture ministry on July 29 that 8,252 posts out of 19,235 had been scrapped with immediate effect.

In March last year, Harare carried out an audit of its government workforce but has not made the results public. An audit by private consultants carried out in 2010 showed that up to 70,000 "ghost workers" were on the payroll.

There are more than 300,000 employees in government, according to the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency, a number which does not include the army, air force, police and prisons.

Delays in salaries as well as the cash squeeze that has seen long queues at banks, are some of the reasons that have in the last three months fuelled anti-government protests that have ended in clashes with police.

Reuters

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8 die as Nigerian mob burns down house

Posted: 24 Aug 2016 12:38 AM PDT

A Nigerian mob burned down the house of a Muslim man who intervened in the attempted lynching of a Christian student accused of blasphemy.

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London - A mob has killed eight people by burning down the house of a Muslim man who intervened in the attempted lynching of a Christian student accused of blasphemy.

The incident has sparked fears of religious riots in northern Nigeria, where the population is evenly split between Muslims and Christians, and has been condemned by President Muhammadu Buhari as "barbaric and unacceptable".

Local police in Zamfara State said a row erupted after a Christian student at a polytechnic was alleged to have made a blasphemous statement against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

Witnesses told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that a large group of his Muslim classmates beat the student in public, until a passerby, named in local reports as Tajudeen, stepped in and drove the victim to hospital.

Zamfara state police spokesman Shehu Mohammed told the AFP News Agency the mob then turned on the Muslim passerby, setting fire to his house which had eight people in it at the time.

The spokesman added: "The man who rescued the student and his wife were not among the dead."

The incident took place on Monday, and yesterday state governor Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari joined hundreds of people in mourning those killed.

Amid fears of an escalation of violence, Yari called an emergency security council meeting over the incident and police have imposed a nightly curfew on the community around the Abdu Gusau Polytechnic in Talata-Mafara.

"No stone will be left unturned until all those behind this act are brought to book," Yari said.

President Buhari reacted to the developing story on Twitter, writing: "I received news of the mob killings in Zamfara with great dismay. It is barbaric & unacceptable. I assure that the law will take its course.

"My prayers are with the families of the victims.

"Under my watch we will work to ensure that there is no place for violence in the name of religion, ethnicity, or in any guise whatsoever."

Despite periodic flare-ups of sectarian violence, Muslims and Christians have lived relatively peacefully side by side in northern Nigeria, since the country won independence from Britain in 1960.

The Boko Haram Islamist group has largely been to blame for a spate of church bombings in the region in recent years, which tend to be met with violent reprisals by Christians against Muslims in general.

Nigeria was named at the start of the year as the most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian, in a report by the Christian charity Open Doors, though some criticised the findings as overly simplistic.

The Independent

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