The president of South Africa, Mr. Jacob Zuma, has replaced the country’s finance minister for the second time in four days, following criticism and market turmoil. Pravin Gordhan, who previously served as finance minister from 2009 to 2014, was appointed as the minister of finance on Sunday, replacing David van Rooyen, who had only been sworn in on Thursday. In a statement, President Jacob Zuma said he received many proposals to reconsider his decision to install van Rooyen, a relatively unknown member of parliament. “As a democratic government, we emphasise the importance of listening to the people and to respond…
Author: AMA
At least two people have been killed and 20 others wounded when heavy fighting broke out in a Muslim enclave of Central African Republic’s capital Bangui as people voted in a constitutional referendum. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Sunday that it treated 12 people for gunshot wounds. Gunfire and the explosion of rocket-propelled grenades were heard in the PK5 neighbourhood, witnesses told the Reuters news agency. Residents of the isolated enclave, which was visited by Pope Francis during a trip to Bangui last month, marched to the headquarters of the country’s UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA, to complain they…
Libya’s rival factions have agreed to sign a United Nations-backed deal for government of national unity, but questions over whether the main political and military actors are backing the agreement have raised serious concerns over the forthcoming process. Representatives from Libya’s two rival parliaments – Salah Makhzoum of the General National Congress (GNC) based in Tripoli, and Mohammed Shoaib from the Tobruk-based House of Representatives – announced in Tunis that the signing of the deal will happen on Wednesday. But that is not the reality. What Al Jazeera understands is that Makhzoum no longer represents the GNC. In fact, one…
Burundi’s political violence escalated on Saturday with dozens of people found shot dead in the capital, a day after the government said an unidentified group carried out coordinated attacks on three military installations. A climate of fear has engulfed Bujumbura after the sound of battle could be heard throughout Friday and sporadic gunfire overnight. Residents hid in their houses leaving only security personnel patrolling the streets. “Residents say people wearing police uniforms came into residential areas that have been hotbeds of protest. Residents believe these killings were a response to Friday’s attacks on the military,” reported Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb,…
An unidentified attacker has reportedly thrown a hand grenade into the largest mosque in Ethiopia’s capital, injuring at least 16 people, officials said. Information Minister Getachew Reda told Al Jazeera that no one died in the attack, which occured at the Anwar Mosque in Addis Ababa after Friday prayers. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Police and security officials quickly descended to the scene and prevented an Al Jazeera camera crew from filming at the mosque. Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Addis Ababa, said tensions were high in the city on Friday night. “It’s important to recognise…
Rival Libyans have agreed to sign a UN-backed national unity government deal following months of negotiations, the UN special envoy for Libya announced in Tunis. Speaking in the Tunisian capital at a UN-facilitated meeting on Libyan political dialogue on Friday, Martin Kobler, a German career diplomat and United Nations (UN) representative, said: “I’m very happy to have this agreement around the table. I’m convinced that human suffering has to end in Libya.” The agreement is due to be signed on December 16. “Those who agree to sign must put the interest of the Libyan people above personal interest,” said Kobler,…
Two Burundi army posts was stormed by heavily armed assailants in deadly overnight attacks in coordinated attacks. The attacks which happened in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura in the early hours of Friday sparked clashes with troops that left at least 12 fighters dead, an army spokesman said. Gaspard Baratuza told state radio that 20 other fighters were arrested after the attacks on a base at Ngagara in the north of Bujumbura and a military training college in the south. Presidential media adviser Willy Nyamitwe wrote on Twitter: “Sindumuja [a name for armed opponents] tried to attack military camps but they failed,”…
Six years ago local hunters stumbled on one of the world’s largest deposit of rubies in the northern province of Mozambique, a potential source of riches for a country in which much of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. The deposits are now being mined by a local company, Mwriti, in partnership with a British company, Gemfields, which owns the luxury Fabergé brand and prides itself on the ethical sourcing of precious stones – “completely traceable from mine to market”. Their joint venture, 75 percent owned by Gemfields, controls a concession that covers 340 square kilometres…
A middle-aged American citizen who had been fighting for al-Shabab in Somalia has fled the group after angering its leadership with a pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Abdul Malik Jones surrendered himself to an African Union military base in Barawe in southern Somalia on Monday morning, senior al-Shabab sources and government officials told Al Jazeera. “No one expected him according to officials, and he has now been airlifted and is being kept [by the government] in Mogadishu,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow said. Al-Shabab is fighting to overthrow Somalia’s government and establish a…
The Seychelles will go to an unprecedented presidential election runoff after all six candidates in the first round failed to secure a 50 percent share of the vote, the electoral commission said on Sunday. “We will have to go into a second round,” said Hendrick Gappy, chairman of the Seychelles Electoral Commission. The next vote begins on December 16. The Indian Ocean archipelago nation of 115 islands and 93,000 people went to the polls to pick a new president on December 3 in the three-day vote. The incumbent President James Michel, 71, won 47.76 percent of the 62,004 votes that…
The US special envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes region says Burundi is at risk of descending into total chaos. Thomas Perriello is calling for urgent regional mediation to establish a peace process between the government and opposition groups to prevent further bloodshed. The crisis began earlier this year when President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a controversial third term in office and won. That led to months of protests and violence, including an attempted coup. The United Nations says at least 240 people have been killed since April. So is Burundi on the brink of civil war? Or can violence be…
Voters in the main islands of the Seychelles have cast their ballots in a presidential election in which incumbent James Michel is facing his first serious challenge after two terms in office. Although voting on more remote islands began on Thursday, the main vote took place on Saturday on the Islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue, home to most of the archipelago’s estimated 91,000 citizens. Aside from a late start in several places, voting got under way smoothly in Mahe, the largest island, where long lines of people could be seen waiting to cast their ballots, an AFP correspondent…
Armed men in the Central African Republic (CAR) killed eight civilians at a camp for displaced people and wounded one UN peacekeeper just days after the pope visited the capital. CAR turned violent in early 2013 when Seleka rebels seized power in the majority Christian country, sparking reprisals from the Christian rebel group called anti-Balaka. Leaders from both sides say the hatred has been manipulated for political gain. The latest attack took place at Ngakobo, about 60km south of the central town of Bambari on Thursday, UN coordinator Aurelien Agbenonci said in a statement. Five of the rebels from the…
Burundi is on the brink of civil war and will need regional mediation to establish a peace process between the government and opposition to prevent further bloodshed, a US envoy said. Thomas Perriello, the US special envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes region, said on Thursday that Burundi is “facing a real possibility of civil war,” though there is still “a window, no matter how small, to get a peace process going”. “The most urgent thing is a regionally mediated dialogue that will deal with the crisis itself,” said Perriello. But regional efforts to cool Burundi’s crisis have stumbled, despite calls…
Gnawa is the music of formerly enslaved Black Africans who integrated into the Moroccan cultural and social landscape, and founded a model to preserve the traditions and folkloric music of their ancestors. Rising to prominence from a marginalised practice to heal people possessed by genie spirits, it is one of the most popular styles of North African music, which not only attracted fans worldwide, but also interested famous European and American musicians such as Randy Weston, Bill Laswell, and Robert Plant. Gnawa reflects the impact of black African culture on Moroccans. The African touch is clearly reflected in the dances and…
French army officers have denied allegations by rights groups that the country’s peacekeeping force knowingly failed to prevent the killing of hundreds of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Three groups, including the International Human Rights Federation (FIDH), last week called for two French officers to be charged with aiding and abetting genocide by failing to rescue endangered Tutsis who were later massacred. The genocide occurred two months after the country’s president, Juvenal Habyarima, a Hutu, died when his plane was shot down, an incident that prompted the genocide of mostly ethnic Tutsis which claimed at least 800,000 lives. The two…
Rastafarians around the world see Ethiopia as their spiritual home. Many of them believe the country’s last king, Haile Selassie, was a descendent of King Solomon and the messiah. Many of the men travelled thousands of kilometres to live in what they say is their promised land. The town of Shashamane in southern Ethiopia is a place of pilgrimage for Rastafarians around the world. The Rastafarians say they smoke marijuana because it is their sacrament – the equivalent of bread and wine given during Christian communions. The nearly 800 Rastafarians who live in the area say they are fulfilling a…
Climate change is affecting all regions of the globe, but some places are more vulnerable than others. Parts of East Africa are already seeing the effects of climate instability, with those dependent on farming for their livelihood among some of the hardest hit. Refusing to fall victim to the weather, Kisilu, a Kenyan smallholder farmer, uses a camera to capture the human impact of climate change. Filmed over four years, he documents floods, droughts and storms that menace his and his community’s farms, forcing some to stop tending the fields and seek work in towns and cities. In Kisilu: The…
Vanessa Berhe’s mother tried hard to teach her daughter about the rich culture and history of her ancestral home. Born in Sweden to Eritrean parents, Vanessa would listen to her mother’s stories about a land where towering mountains dropped precipitously towards the sweltering and inhospitable Red Sea coast. Woven into these stories were the epic tales of the Eritreans who had, for 30 years, fought against Ethiopian rule, finally attaining statehood in 1993. Her uncle, Seyoum Tsehaye, was one of them. Dreams lost and found As a child, Seyoum dreamed of becoming a journalist. But as he learned of the…
Kenyan police have blamed a Nairobi university for failing to gain the appropriate authorisation from authorities prior to holding a simulated “terror” drill that led to the death of a staff member. Strathmore University apologised “unreservedly” on Tuesday for the incident a day earlier, where local police helped the school test its emergency procedures by staging a mock attack on the school. The simulated attack, which included the use of gunshots, caused students and staff to panic and attempt to flee from the university campus. A significant number of people jumped from the windows of higher floors in a university…