News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Court bid to block Lungu’s inauguration fails

Posted: 09 Sep 2016 11:42 AM PDT

Zambia's High Court has rejected an application to block President Edgar Lungu's inauguration after last month's contested election.

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Lusaka - Zambia's High Court has rejected an application by the main opposition party to block President Edgar Lungu's inauguration set for next week after last month's contested election, his lawyers said on Friday.

Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema had petitioned the court to overturn a Constitutional Court decision not to give him more time to legally challenge Lungu's reelection.

“The court has refused to block the inauguration. The High Court has no power to block a decision of a higher court,” Lungu's lawyer Tutwa Ngulube told reporters.

Reuters

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Gabon vote recount will prevent instability: Ping

Posted: 09 Sep 2016 11:10 AM PDT

Jean Ping, President Ali Bongo’s opposition leader, said a recount of votes in Gabon's presidential election would prevent ‘profound and sustained instability’.

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Libreville - If there is no recount of votes in Gabon's presidential election, the country will face “profound and sustained instability”, the man who lost by less than 6 000 votes said on Friday.

Jean Ping has applied to the Constitutional Court to authorise a recount in a province where President Ali Bongo won 95 percent of the votes on a 99.9 percent turnout.

But he has already said he has no faith in the judicial body he thinks is too close to the government, and suggested on Friday that people would take to the streets if it does not order a recount.

“I strongly fear that a new false step by the Constitutional Court would be the cause of profound and sustained instability in Gabon,” Ping told a news conference where he also called for an international inquiry into the killing of several of his supporters during post-election riots.

“If ... the Gabonese people don't accept the constitutional court's decision (if it rules against a recount), the people will assume their responsibility, and I will stand by their side,” Ping said, hinting at a return to street protests.

Ping says between 50 and 100 people were killed in the riots after the election results were announced, much more than the government's death toll of six.

Ali Bongo, first elected in 2009 after the death of his father Omar who ruled the former French colony for 42 years, has accused Ping - a close ally of then-president Omar Bongo - of cheating in the August election.

EU observers said they found anomalies in the vote in Haut-Ogooue province where Ping is demanding a recount. France has called for a recount and the United States and European Union have urged the government to release polling station results.

France said on Friday it was closely following the case in the oil-rich Central African country which is home to 14 000 of its citizens and a permanent military base.

“(The court) must examine (the results) with transparency and impartiality and all means must be put in place to ensure the respect of its principles and establishment of the integrity of the vote,” Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement.

Gabon recalled its ambassador to Paris in January after France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls appeared to question the legitimacy of Bongo's 2009 election, marking a new low in relations with the former colonial power with whom Omar Bongo enjoyed close ties.

Reuters

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Congo warlord on hunger strike over ‘bad treatment’

Posted: 09 Sep 2016 07:21 AM PDT

Former Congolese rebel commander on trial at the International Criminal Court, has gone on hunger strike to protest the conditions of his detention

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Amsterdam - A former Congolese rebel commander on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity has gone on hunger strike to protest at the conditions of his detention, his lawyer said on Friday.

Bosco Ntaganda faces charges for atrocities committed by his troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002-2003.

“Mr. Bosco Ntaganda has decided to stop eating,” defense attorney Stephane Bourgon said, and he will also refuse to attend court hearings.

Ntaganda is unhappy with restrictions imposed on his phone calls and visitation rights in 2014 due to concerns that he was attempting to interfere with witnesses. The measures were upheld by the court last month.

“Ntaganda has lost all faith in the court because of the way he is treated. The situation now is that my client would prefer to die than to be were he is,” Bourgon said.

Ntaganda has asked the judges if he can explain his viewpoint when the case resumes on Tuesday. It was unclear if he will be allowed to do so.

Ntaganda, whose trial began a year ago, started his military career in Rwanda when he joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front during the 1994 genocide. He later joined a branch of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), before surrendering in 2013.

He faces 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity relating to two attacks against the non-Hema population in Congo's Ituri province in 2002 and 2003. The charges include murder, rape, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers.

Reuters

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Mbeki expected in Sudan for peace talks

Posted: 09 Sep 2016 06:14 AM PDT

Thabo Mbeki, the chief negotiator of Sudanese peace talks, may soon travel to Khartoum if the expected peace talks resume.

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Johannesburg - Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, the chief negotiator of Sudanese peace talks, may soon travel to Khartoum if expected peace talks between the Sudanese government and warring opposition groups resume.

The Sudan Tribune reported on Thursday that government spokesman and Information Minister, Ahmed Al Balal, explained that the international community was involved in efforts to promote a cessation of hostilities, and humanitarian access agreements, by attempting to persuade armed opposition groups to sign on to these agreements.

Al Balal said that if these efforts succeeded, Mbeki, who chairs the African Union High level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) on Sudan, would arrive in the capital to discuss the resumption of the negotiations.

“This year is the year of the final negotiations, so there is a need to reach understandings that satisfy all the parties,” Al Balal added.

“Last month, the AUHIP suspended sine die the talks for a humanitarian truce in Darfur and the Two Areas (Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states) after the parties failed to reach a deal,” reported the Tribune.

However, a week later, Presidential Assistant, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, who heads the negotiating team for the talks with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), said the AU decided on the resumption of the peace talks within two weeks without further details.

Mbeki has remained tight-lipped about developments, declining an interview with the African News Agency (ANA) to discuss political developments in Sudan.

His spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, told ANA that Mbeki wouldn’t be granting media interviews at this point in time and neither would he be commenting on Sudan as the matter was sensitive and they preferred not to involve the media.

Meanwhile, informed sources told the Tribune that the opposition Sudan Call groups prefer to resume peace talks during the last week of September as they first want to hold a one-week consultation meeting.

The sources added that the opposition Sudan Call alliance would hold their meeting after Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice which ends on September 25.

The alliance wants to coordinate their respective positions before the strategic meeting on other confidence-building measures in Khartoum.

On August 8, Sudanese Revolutionary factions and the National Umma Party signed the Roadmap Agreement, five months after previously rejecting it.

In a statement issued after the suspension of the talks, the mediation said an agreement on the Two Areas was only impeded by the difference over humanitarian access.

However, it pointed to several obstacles preventing the signing of a deal on Darfur, reported the Tribune.

African News Agency

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Nigerian army destroys 74 refineries in Niger Delta

Posted: 09 Sep 2016 03:27 AM PDT

Nigerian soldiers destroyed 74 illegal oil refineries and several militant camps in the oil-rich Niger Delta, an army spokesman says.

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Abuja - Nigerian soldiers destroyed 74 illegal oil refineries and several militant camps in the oil-rich Niger Delta, an army spokesman said on Friday.

The army carried out raids based on a tip-off in southern Rivers and Bayelsa States on Wednesday, where oil pipelines and refineries are regularly attacked by militants, spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement.

No arrests were made, since the militants managed to escape, but some weapons and ammunition were recovered, Usman said.

Across the swamps of the Niger Delta, oil thieves refine stolen crude oil worth billions of dollars in makeshift, illegal refineries, such as massive tanks or open-air pits.

In addition, various militant groups regularly attack oil installations in the Niger Delta to demand a share of profits for the local population. Some also demand regional self-government.

The attacks regularly cause a slump in oil production. Some 70 percent of state income depends on oil and gas.

dpa

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