News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

60 killed in week of violence in South Sudan

Posted: 14 Oct 2016 12:28 PM PDT

Fighting in South Sudan killed at least 60 people this week, stoking fears the region could plunge back into full-scale war.

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Juba - Fighting in South Sudan killed at least 60 people this week, the military said on Friday, stoking fears the region could plunge back into full-scale war.

Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang accused the rebels of “burning civilians, maiming women and child abductions and setting ablaze properties”.

Armed men loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar killed 11 government soldiers and 28 civilians from Saturday to Thursday, Koang said in a press statement. Twenty-one rebels were also killed, he said.

A spokesman for the rebels denied the accusations.

“Those who are committing atrocities and raping are deserted SPLA (government) soldiers who have not been paid for several months and their families are starving. Our forces are aiming to target only those in uniforms,” the deputy spokesman for the opposition forces, Dickson Gatluak, told Reuters by phone from Ethiopia.

South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, sank into civil war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, sacked Machar, a Nuer, from his position as vice president. Subsequent fighting often followed ethnic lines and human rights groups say both sides targeted civilians.

A peace pact in 2015 ostensibly ended the fighting but has frequently been violated. Major clashes broke out again in July. Machar fled the country and is seeking medical treatment in South Africa. He has been replaced as vice president by General Taban Deng Gai.

The government wants the international community to designate the rebels as terrorists and take punitive measures against them.

Koang said that could include “travel bans, asset freeze and extradition to ICC of key players including ... Riek Machar.” The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) tries suspects accused of war crimes and genocide.

On Monday, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it had received reports of horrific attacks on civilians, including some who were burned to death, and urged both sides to control their forces.

Reuters

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Why Africans should care who wins the US election

Posted: 14 Oct 2016 08:18 AM PDT

Africans who think the US election is nothing more than entertainment should note the old adage: when the US sneezes, the world catches a cold.

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Cape Town - Africans who think of the US election campaign as nothing more than distant, amusing, sometimes shocking, entertainment should note the old adage: when the US sneezes, the world catches a cold.

Scott Eisner, the president of the US-Africa Business Centre at the US Chamber of Commerce, told delegates at the 5th Annual Thomson Reuters Africa Summit on Friday that the outcome would likely affect America’s trade policy with Africa.

Who could forget the excitement across Africa during the US election campaign of 2008 at the prospect of the country election its first African-American president, particularly in Kenya, where Barack Obama’s father comes from.

The current campaign for the White House, while hardly as exciting for Africans, is nonetheless likely to affect trade between the continent and the global powerhouse that is America.

Hillary Clinton’s views on trade with Africa are better known than her Republican rival’s, but it is safe to say that Donald Trump would be less likely to actively seek to build on any benefits for Africans in the US-Africa trade relationship.

That is unless, according to Eisner, a real national security benefit for America could be illustrated.

Eisner pointed to Brexit and the Colombian people’s recent surprise rejection of a peace deal with Farc, the guerrilla movement, as examples of the international trend towards protectionism. No prizes for guessing which US candidate would be more protectionist.

But, Eisner added, if it could be demonstrated that there was an American national security interest in building trade relations with Africa, if creating jobs abroad through trade policy made Americans more safe at home, it would be an easier sell to a Trump White House.

Additionally, Eisner argued that a national information campaign was required to change American perceptions about Africa.

“We need to redefine Africa in the eyes of the US public,” said Eisner, mentioning areas where government, business and media could contribute to better informing the public.

He noted, for example, the widespread idea that corruption was a particularly African problem.

“Corruption is not exclusive to Africa. It is happening in Iowa and, this may come as a surprise to some of you, Washington DC,” Eisner said.

African News Agency

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Chibok girls swapped for detainees, ransom or both?

Posted: 14 Oct 2016 06:05 AM PDT

There are conflicting reports about the terms of the first negotiated release of some Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

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Johannesburg - Conflicting reports emerged on Friday about whether the first negotiated release of some Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2014 involved a ransom payment, a prisoner swap for Islamic extremist commanders, or both.

A Nigerian hostage negotiator who was not involved in Thursday's release told The Associated Press a "handsome ransom" in the millions of dollars was paid by Switzerland's government on behalf of Nigerian authorities. He said the Swiss would recoup the money from some $321 million it had said it would repatriate to Nigeria this year from frozen funds looted under former military dictator Sani Abacha.

Swiss officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment after confirming on Thursday that they had played a neutral, humanitarian role in the operation. The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that it had received 21 Chibok girls from Boko Haram and handed them over to Nigerian authorities.

Nigerian authorities have said negotiations continue for the release of the remaining 197 missing girls, though at least half a dozen are reported to have died of illnesses.

Two military officers told the AP the 21 girls were swapped for four detained Boko Haram leaders. The hostage negotiator and officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.

Nigerian officials deny any swap. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said "there was no exchange of any kind... No such thing took place." He did not mention a ransom.

Some parents of the freed girls on Friday were making their way to Abuja, the capital, where the girls were flown on Thursday, to be reunited with their daughters. At least 23 parents of the kidnapped girls have died since their abduction, some from stress-related illnesses and others in Boko Haram attacks.

More than 20,000 people have died and 2.6 million have been driven from their homes in Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state across the West African oil producer, whose 170 million people are divided almost equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.

The first negotiated release of Chibok schoolgirls comes after three failed attempts over several months broke down as extremist leader Abubakar Shekau kept changing his demands, according to Information Minister Lai Mohammed. Negotiations last year failed when Boko Haram demanded a ransom of $5.2 billion, according to a recently published authorised biography of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari by American historian John Paden.

Daily Trust, the most widely read newspaper in northern Nigeria, has reported a ransom was paid for the 21 Chibok girls because none of the detained Boko Haram commanders wanted to be released, fearing for their lives amid a leadership struggle in the extremist group.

The girls are from a Christian enclave in the predominantly Muslim northeast. Many of their parents are involved in translating the Bible into local languages and belong to the Nigerian branch of the Elgin, Illinois-based Church of the Brethren.

AP

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Kenya takes death penalty debate to the people

Posted: 14 Oct 2016 02:56 AM PDT

The second and final leg of the Kenyan national public debate on capital punishment has begun.

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Nairobi - The second and final leg of the Kenyan national public debate on capital punishment has begun.

The debate is to solicit views from Kenyans on the administration of capital punishment and management of capital offences.

The public discussion, which is being spearheaded by the Power of Mercy Advisory Committee (POMAC) and National Crime Research Centre (NCRC), will be conducted in 28 counties countrywide, within the next two months.

The debate provides a platform for Kenyans to express their opinions on capital offences and what form of punishment capital offenders should be subjected to.

According to the Kenyan law, five types of offences attract capital punishment. These are: murder, treason, and robbery with violence, attempted robbery with violence and oathing with intent to commit a felony.

After the debate, the committee will document findings of the public views and make appropriate recommendations.

The first public dialogue took place in June in the first 19 counties.

In 2009, former President Mwai Kibaki commuted the sentences of all those on death row to life imprisonment. The decision affected over 4,000 prisoners and at the time was said to be one of the largest commutation of death sentences anywhere in the world.

According to the Kenya Prisons Act, executions are to be carried out by hanging. The last hanging in Kenya took place in 1987 after the plotters of the August 1982 coup attempt were sentenced to death.

African News Agency

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Kenya wants SA to support bid for AU chair

Posted: 14 Oct 2016 01:48 AM PDT

South African President Jacob Zuma left Kenya with an unusual request from host President Uhuru Kenyatta.

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Nairobi - South African President Jacob Zuma left Kenya with an unusual request from host President Uhuru Kenyatta.

He was asked support Kenya's candidate foreign minister Amina Mohammed in the election for the new African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson.

Kenyatta's spokesperson Manoah Esipisu confirmed to ANA on Thursday that the two leaders discussed the AUC succession race on Tuesday in Nairobi during Zuma's state visit.

"The matter was discussed, but the deliberations are not open to the public. President Zuma will report the deliberations to the SADC (Southern African Development Community)," said Esipisu.

Kenyatta's request to Zuma was odd because SADC countries - including South Africa - unanimously endorsed the candidature of Botswana's Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi for the top AU job at its last summit in Swaziland on August 31, this year.

Kenya's push for the job, Esipisu said, would continue as Kenyatta sends emissaries to the other regional blocs with a view to lobbying support to send Mohammed to the helm of the AU Commission.

"We have a candidate in the race and when you have a candidate you have to build consensus with everyone, not just the SADC, but EAC (East African Community) and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States)... that is what we are doing," Esipisu said.

The geopolitical headache for Kenya is to convince the rest of the continent that its foreign minister has the experience to run the AU Commission. Kenya will also have to sell its pan-Africanist agenda which it exhibited during the lobbying against the International Criminal Court's (ICC) indictment of Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.

Kenyatta is also like to encounter resistance from most Francophone countries which want a Francophone AU Commission chair to replace South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. When she was elected in 2012, most Francophone countries backed one of their own, Gabon's Jean Ping, to serve a second term.

Aggrey Mutambo, a Kenyan journalist who reports on diplomacy and foreign affairs for the Daily Nation, told ANA that those two issues could derail Mohammed's chances.

But if SADC and EAC joined hands in lobbying for Kenya's nominee, then her chances would improve.

"Kenya can sell its Pan-African agenda and Amina's role in pushing that agenda," said Mutambo in an interview. He added that diplomats were saying that Botswana had not voted with the rest of the continent in the AU against the ICC and that would damage Venson-Moitoi's chances.

Venson-Moitoi's bid has also been weakened by her failure to muster enough support when AU leaders voted to try to elect a replacement for Dlamini Zuma at their last summit in Kigali in June. The other two candidates also failed to win enough support and so the AU postponed the election to their next summit, in Addis Ababa, in January.

Kenyatta nominated Mohammed after the June summit when the AU opened the contest to new candidates.

"Given her track record, I am confident that Amina Mohammed will serve our continent with the requisite professionalism, intellect, skill, integrity, passion and commitment," Kenyatta said at the time.

African News Agency

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Zim corruption watchdog takes on Moyo

Posted: 14 Oct 2016 12:37 AM PDT

A Zimbabwe anti-corruption body says money that cabinet minister, Jonathan Moyo, is said to have embezzled was used for personal expenses.

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Harare - The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on Thursday, refuted claims by Higher and Tertiary Education Minister, Jonathan Moyo, that the money that the minister is accused of having embezzled was used to fund ruling Zanu-PF activities.

Moyo, who, together with his Deputy, Godfrey Gandawa, is accused of embezzling the Zimbabwe Development Fund (Zimdef) of more than $400,000, claimed the money was used to fund the one million men march and some of First lady, Grace Mugabe's rallies.

Zimdef is a government arm under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education and was established under Section 47 (1) of the Manpower Planning and Development Act to develop critical skills for the country's economy.

But ZACC Investigation Committee chairperson, Goodson Nguni, told a press conference at the commission's offices in Mount Pleasant, Harare that according to the Zimdef Act, the fund was supposed to be used for manpower development and nothing else, insisting the missing money benefited individuals.

He said he had bank statements from Fuzzy Technologies, Gandawa, Wisbone Trading and Zimdef confirming all the transactions involving Zimdef.

"No monies from Zimdef benefited any political party. All monies paid out have been traced to the personal benefit of Professor Moyo, Dr Gandawa, Mr (Shepherd) Hozheri," he said.

Hozheri is the personal assistant to Moyo.

Nguni said the money from Zimdef was used to pay for personal furniture, bicycles, tricycles and payment of personal loans.

ZACC, he said, had obtained bank statements through the courts and they had confirmed that Moyo had lied about the money having been used for Zanu-PF activities.

"It is false that Zimdef funds were used to fund the million man march, it is false that Zimdef funds were used to fund any meeting of political parties. The Zimdef funds that we investigated were used to fund personal issues relating to Professor Moyo and Dr Gandawa," he said.

He said Moyo had unlawfully authorised payments without consulting the National Manpower Council and that the deputy minister had no authority to act on behalf of the minister.

Nguni said the commission had never attempted to arrest Moyo at the Zanu-PF headquarters but had only gone to interview him and explain the charges they were laying against him as he had failed to turn up at their offices as arranged.

Moyo was allegedly saved by President Mugabe who prevented the ZACC officers from arresting him during a Zanu-PF Politburo meeting last Wednesday and was later defended by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko who said he was being persecuted along factional lines.

African News Agency

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