The al-Shabab group has taken control of two towns in two days in southwestern Somalia, an official and the group have confirmed, just days after its fighters attacked an African Union base in the same area. A spokesperson for al-Shabab told Reuters that the group had seized two small towns in the Lower Shabelle region; El Saliindi, 65km south of Mogadishu, en route to the port town of Marka; and Kuntuwarey, on the road between the capital and the port of Barawe. Ali Nur, the acting governor of Lower Shabelle, confirmed the towns had been captured. “It is sad to…
Author: AMA
By Al Jazeera Around 4.5 million Ethiopians could be in need of food aid because of a drought in the country, the UN has said. Hardest-hit areas are Ethiopia’s eastern Afar and southern Somali regions, while pastures and water resources are also unusually low in central and eastern Oromo region, and northern Tigray and Amhara districts. Reacting to the UN’s claims that the number in need had increased by more than 55 percent this year, Alemayew Berhanu, spokesman for Ministry of Agriculture, told Al Jazeera that Ethiopia had “enough surplus food at emergency depots and we’re distributing it”. “When we…
Al Jazeera’s Inside Story is in the Moroccan capital Rabat, where voters have cast their votes in the first regional and local elections to take place since King Mohammed VI conceded powers and changed the constitution following 2011 protests. The Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party won an historic victory in the elections that followed those protests. And this vote is seen as a test of their time in office. But it will also usher in a new er of decentralisation in Morocco, giving more powers to the country’s 12 regions, each with its own governing council. Morocco is sometimes described as…
A rebel leader known as “The Terminator” has told judges trying him at the International Criminal Court in The Hague that he was a professional soldier who never attacked civilians and tried to restore peace during a brutal conflict in eastern Congo. Speaking on Thursday during the second day of his trial on 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Bosco Ntaganda said, “I have never attacked civilians”. He added during a nine-minute speech to the court, “I have always protected them”. “I have been described as The Terminator, as an infamous killer, but that is not me,”…
By Al Jazeera The UN says a new round of talks aimed at ending more than a year of violence and political chaos in Libya has opened in Geneva. Bernardino Leon, the UN special representative for Libya, was mediating the latest round of talks that opened in the Swiss city on Thursday. The UN has been brokering talks aimed at establishing a unified government, and the September 3-4 talks are the latest round in long-running peace negotiations. “The Libyan political dialogue round commenced at the United Nations Office at Geneva,” the UN said in a statement on Thursday. “All parties…
The measles epidemic spreading through the Katanga province in the DR Congo has to be halted within the next sixty days, or the country would be facing a major health crisis, medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) has warned. Michel Janssens, coordinator for the MSF in the DR Congo, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that immediate action was needed to address the outbreak as it would be close to impossible to access those in need during the rainy season, expected within the two months. “This began many months ago, in March and it took a long time for it to…
The Democratic Republic of Congo has banned a film about Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege, who has treated thousands of women raped during conflict, the government said. Belgian film maker Thierry Michel’s movie, “The Man Who Mends Women,” follows Mukwege’s efforts to repair the physical and psychological injuries of the victims of sexual violence by armed forces and militia groups in eastern DRC. “I have decided not to approve this film,” Lambert Mende, the DRC’s media minister, told the AFP news agency in Kinshasa, confirming a claim by Michel. “There is a clear intent to harm and sully the image of…
By Tania Page Hundreds of students at Stellenbosch University in South Africa have protested against the Afrikaans language being favoured at their school, alleging that it promotes racism. Afrikaans is viewed by many South Africans as the language of the oppressors during apartheid and was formerly used as the language of instruction at Stellenbosch University, a school which used to be for “whites-only”. Now, Afrikaans and English are supposed to be on equal footing at the university, but protesting students say lecturers favour Afrikaans. “It isn’t simply about language as a teaching tool,” student activist Mo Shabangu told Al Jazeera.…
Former Congolese warlord Bosco “Terminator” Ntaganda is set to be tried before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, including the rape of child soldiers within his own rebel force. The former leader of rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who turned himself in two years ago, will face 18 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at his highly-anticipated trial on Wednesday before The Hague-based court. Prosecutors say Ntaganda played a central role in savage ethnic attacks on civilians in the mineral-rich and restive northeastern Congolese province of Ituri in 2002-2003, in a conflict rights groups…
Unlike some of its West African neighbours, Gambia has enjoyed relative stability, portrayed in tourist brochures as an idyllic holiday destination. But it’s also a country whose government is well known for intolerance to dissent. Gambians have been imprisoned, exiled and even allegedly disappeared for being critical of President Yahya Jammeh and his government. Our mission in the country was to objectively report on issues that affect Gambians: human rights; why thousands of young people are risking their lives to take the perilous journey across the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe; government measures to empower and…