Thousands of people rallied in Congo’s capital Brazzaville to protest against plans by veteran ruler Denis Sassou Nguesso to try to extend his rule. Sunday’s rally was the biggest since Sassou Nguesso returned to power in 1997, an AFP journalist said, with protesters stretching for almost a kilometre along a main boulevard in the city centre. If a planned referendum is approved on changes to allow Sassou Nguesso to run again – dubbed a “constitutional coup” by the opposition – he would be eligible to contest elections next year. Sassou Ngeusso, a former rebel leader, announced on Tuesday plans for the…
Author: AMA
At least five people were killed and dozens of others were wounded in the capital of Central African Republic on Saturday as Muslims attacked a mainly Christian neighbourhood, medical officials and witnesses have said. The attack came after a Muslim man was killed and his body was found dumped in the street, witnesses and a Muslim group spokesman, Ousmane Abakar, told news agencies. There were conflicting reports on the number of deaths, ranging from five to 21. Two years of violence, which erupted after Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the majority Christian country in 2013, has killed thousands of…
Burkina Faso’s cabinet has dissolved the elite presidential guard unit that took the interim president and prime minister hostage in a failed coup just weeks before elections, according to a series of decrees read on state television. The government on Saturday also dismissed the minister in charge of security and created a commission to identify those responsible for the coup attempt. The cabinet meeting was the first since President Michel Kafando was restored to power on Wednesday. “Judicial prosecutions will immediately be engaged against the authors and accomplices,” state television RTB announced, according to the Reuters news agency. The country’s…
An alleged al-Qaeda-linked leader has been handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face charges of aiding the destruction of Mali’s city of Timbuktu, in the first such case before the tribunal. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi was detained under an arrest warrant issued by the ICC last week and handed over by the authorities in Niger, the court said in a statement on Saturday. The details of his arrest were not immediately clear. Faqi is suspected “of war crimes allegedly committed in Timbuktu, Mali, between about 30 June 2012 and 10 July 2012, through intentionally directing attacks…
The European Union (EU) will use warships to catch and arrest human traffickers in international waters as part of a military operation aimed at curbing the flow of refugees into Europe, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief has said. “The political decision has been taken, the assets are ready,” Federica Mogherini said on Thursday at the headquarters of the European Union’s military operation in Rome. The first phase of the EU operation was launched in late June. It included reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence gathering, and involved speaking to refugees rescued at sea and compiling data on trafficker networks. The operation currently…
The South African military has said it is withdrawing about 50 peacekeepers from a UN mission in Congo to face a court martial because they violated disciplinary codes, a military spokesman said. The violations included leaving a base after curfew, Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga said on Thursday. The troops were deployed in eastern Congo as part of a unit with a mandate to fight rebel groups, according to a South African military statement. The statement said the personnel compromised the security of other South African troops and would face prosecution. It said they violated not only the South African military…
Check this infographic by Alia Chughtai about Kenya’s Water Women. The following are induced: Globally,one child dies every 60 seconds from a water-related disease. UNICEF estimates that poor water and sanitation leads to a loss of 0.9% or $234m per year in GDP. Over 10,000 Kenyan children die every year from Diarrhoea. In Africa, just 5% of all potential water sources are developed. 43% of Kenya’s population drinks unsafe water. Only 43% of births in Kenya take place in health facilities
Burkina Faso army have entered the capital Ouagadougou without resistance after coup leader General Gilbert Diendere said he would hand over power to a civilian transitional government. Army leaders also began surrender talks late on Monday with the elite presidential guard that staged the coup against the government last week. “All units [of the army mobilised on Monday to march on the capital] reached Ouagadougou” overnight, Colonel Serge Alain Ouedraogo, deputy head of the Burkinabe police, told the AFP news agency. “We must now secure the surrender of the [coup leaders] without gunfire or bloodshed,” he said. At least 10 people…
Burkina Faso’s army has issued an ultimatum to coup leaders to lay down their weapons or face attack, hours after the elite presidential guard released the country’s prime minister, Yacouba Isaac Zida, from custody. The deadline, which expires at 10:00 GMT on Tuesday, came as talks between the army and the elite presidential guard continued in the capital, Ouagadougou. The release of Prime Minister Isaac Zida, who was detained alongside the country’s president and an unknown number of cabinet ministers last Wednesday by presidential guard soldiers, came hours after army soldiers entered Ouagadougou without resistance. Coup leader Diendere said he…
Coup leaders have released the Burkina Faso prime minister, Yacouba Isaac Zida, from custody, Al Jazeera has learnt, as the army and the elite presidential guard continued surrender talks. The prime minister was detained alongside the country’s president and an unknown number of cabinet ministers last Wednesday by presidential guard soldiers who then installed General Gilbert Diendere, a close ally of deposed long-term President Blaise Compaore, as leader of the West African country. The release of Zida, on Tuesday, came hours after army soldiers entered the capital Ouagadougou without resistance after coup leader Diendere said he would hand over power…
More than 1,500 people have been quarantined in Sierra Leone to stop the spread of the Ebola virus. The West African country recently began a 42-day countdown to being Ebola-free. But two recent deaths have caused a setback. It has led to a renewed emphasis on increasing awareness of the virus. Nina Devries reports from Port Loko in Sierra Leone. http://bc05.ajnm.me/665003303001/201509/702/665003303001_4497238499001_4497198031001.mp4 Source:: Al Jazeera The post Sierra Leone faces setback in Ebola fight appeared first on African Media Agency.
A car bomb has exploded near the presidential palace in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, police said. Ali Hussein, a police officer, told the Reuters news agency that there were casualties, without giving more details. “A suicide car bomb exploded outside the compound of the presidential palace. There were casualties but we are still investigating,” Hussein said. Abdi Fatah, a witness in the area, told Al Jazeera that the blast occured in front of Villa Somalia, a building that serves as the official presidential palace and principal workplace of the president. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the armed group…
Burkina Faso will return to civilian rule and reinstate an interim government led by President Michel Kafando. The decision comes after Benin’s president Thomas Boni Yayi held talks with coup leader general Gilbert Diendere in the capital Ouagadougou. “We may hope again,” Boni Yayi said at a press conference after a third round of talks with Diendere late on Saturday. “We are going to relaunch the transition that was underway – a transition led by civilians, with Michel Kafando,” he added, saying that more details of the “good news” would be provided on Sunday. Soldiers from the elite presidential guard…
The African Union (AU) says it has suspended Burkina Faso and set to impose sanctions on coup leaders if they do not release the country’s senior officials and restore the interim government. The AU statement, issued on Friday, followed a meeting of the Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Soldiers from the elite presidential guard (RSP) stormed into a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and abducted President Michel Kafando and Isaac Zida, the prime minister, disrupting a transition period due to end with polls next month. General Gilbert Diendere, a former spy chief and close ally of Blaise Compaore, the former…
According to government officials, seven senior political figures have been expelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ruling coalition for signing a letter urging President Joseph Kabila not to cling to power after his term expires next year. The planning minister was also sacked from his post later on Wednesday on an order from the president, as was another longtime ally of Kabila whose party signed the letter. In Monday’s letter to Kabila, the leaders of the G7, a group of parties within the coalition, demanded immediate steps to ensure a presidential election scheduled for November 2016 was held on…
Officials have told our correspondent that around 100 people have died in South Sudan when a truck carrying petrol exploded. The blast on Thursday is believed to have happened when a crowd gathered to collect fuel from an oil truck that had veered off the road. The truck exploded leaving scores dead and around 50 people seriously injured, according to Charles Kisagna, the minister of information in Western Equatoria. [Al Jazeera]
The supply chain is complicated and often hard to trace, but it begins in the bush in Africa, where poachers kill an estimated 30,000 elephants each year. Tusks taken from slaughtered animals are then shipped through a complex web of middlemen before reaching Chinese buyers. A key conduit is the city of Hong Kong, where an undercover investigation reveals that legitimate operations are used to mask a far more sinister, more lucrative business. 101 East investigates the shadowy trade in illegal ivory. Join the conversation @AJ101East http://bc05.ajnm.me/665003303001/201509/3032/665003303001_4475033001001_20150910-PRM-P-EST-WHITE-GOLD.mp4 [Al Jazeera]
Military leaders responsible for recent coup in Burkina Faso has reportedly released the country’s interim president detained during the coup that dissolved his government. The military released a statement on Friday saying that Michel Kafando has been released from military custody. The move comes after international condemnation and demands for his release. The interim prime minister was also detained and remains under house arrest. Kafando, a former UN ambassador, had been chosen as an interim civilian leader after longtime President Blaise Compaore was ousted in a popular uprising last October. His government had organised national elections for October 11 but members…
Mozambique has declared itself free of landmines, ending two decades of work to rid the country of a legacy of war that killed or maimed thousands of people, many of them civilians. A British charity, the HALO Trust, said on Thursday that it had cleared more than 171,000 landmines from 1,100 minefields in Mozambique since 1993 and had finally destroyed the last known mine. “I have honour to declare Mozambique as a country free of the threat of landmines,” Foreign Affairs Minister Oldemiro Baloi said at a ceremony in the capital Maputo. The exact human toll caused by landmines in…
Not less than three people have been killed and 60 injured during street clashes in Burkina Faso’s capital as protesters demonstrated against a military coup, a senior source in the main hospital has said. Witnesses said that soldiers fired warning shots on Thursday to disperse crowds gathering in the streets of Ouagadougou, who responded by throwing stones. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for the country’s military to “exercise restraint”. Ban condemned “in the strongest terms” the coup led by a close ally of toppled former leader Blaise Compaore. “Those responsible for the coup d’etat and its consequences must be…