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…
Author: AMA
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…