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…
Since China’s devaluation of the yuan last month, an estimated $5tn has been wiped off global stock markets. Jolting financial markets, emerging and developing nations have been the hardest hit and have seen their currencies fall to multi-year lows. Albert Essien, the CEO of the pan-African bank EcoBank, joins the programme to discuss the impact on African economies. http://bc05.ajnm.me/665003303001/201508/2957/665003303001_4451892567001_CTC-Clip—Currency.mp4 Source:: Al Jazeera The post China’s currency wars rattle African economies appeared first on African Media Agency.
Al-Shabab fighters in Somalia have killed “scores” of African Union troops in an attack south of capital, Mogadishu, a spokesman for the armed group told Al Jazeera. The attack in Janaale, in the country’s Lower Shabelle province, early on Tuesday was confirmed by residents, but an exact casualty figure was not immediately available. The assault involved the use of a car bomb, which breached the defences at an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base in Janaale, residents told Al Jazeera. Heavily armed fighters then stormed the base. In July, al-Shabab claimed to have killed “dozens” of AMISOM troops at…
Six soldiers have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu province, a region where Rwandan Hutu rebels are known to operate, regional and military sources said. The attack took place in Rugari, about 50km north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu. “A Republican Guard jeep was ambushed in Rugari,” said Justin Mukanya, administrator of Rutshuru territory, which lies on the border of Rwanda and Uganda, on Monday. “Six soldiers were killed by a rocket during in the ambush,” he said, indicating that the attackers had not yet been identified but that an inquiry was under…
The Ethiopian highlands are often called “the roof of Africa”. It’s a rugged, breathtakingly beautiful landscape and a discovery in recent years has got precious gem experts around the world excited: opals. Ethiopia’s government has supplied the miners with basic tools and says it wants to improve health and safety standards. Miners who have formed cooperatives told Al Jazeera they have been able to save money to buy cars and houses. Ethiopia’s opal industry currently generates around $25m a year. http://bc05.ajnm.me/665003303001/201508/1940/665003303001_4454171992001_20150831-ethiopia-cst-opal-nostraps.mp4 Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports from the Wollo district in the country’s northeast. Source:: Al Jazeera The post Ethiopia…
Burkina Faso’s Constitutional Council has rejected the chosen nominee of the ousted President Blaise Compaore’s party prompting threats of a boycott of the presidential elections slated to be held in October. Eddie Constance Konboigo, head of Compaore’s Congress for Democracy and Progress party, was among six candidates barred from running on Saturday, along with Gilbert Noel Ouedraogo of the ADF/RDA grouping that was allied to the former leader’s administration. The council provisionally cleared 16 other candidates to contest the polls. Compaore was toppled in October last year and fled into exile in Ivory Coast after a popular uprising triggered by…
Johnny Magdaleno relays that Ethiopia’s Jews see small gains in tolerance. Source:: Al Jazeera
In January 2013, a large part of northern Mali was under the control of Ansar Dine and the rule of Sharia law. The al-Qaeda-linked group imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law on the local population. Adulterers were being stoned, thieves mutilated, women forced to wear veils in public, and World Heritage sites were destroyed. The fighters were largely depicted as inhuman in the media, and so when one voice offered a slightly different view, it resonated around the globe. Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako’s latest movie,Timbuktu, talks about occupation, resistance, extremism, and above all, about humans, including fighters in all…
Deep in the remote countryside of Senegal, a unique arts centre is aiming to bring inspiration to local villagers. It is called “The Thread” – and its ambition is to widen the appeal of modern art, away from its usual hubs of London, New York and Berlin. http://bc05.ajnm.me/665003303001/201508/435/665003303001_4450815211001_20150829-SENEGALART-NHA-nostraps.mp4 Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque reports from Sinthian. Source:: Al Jazeera The post Senegal art village hope to attract world designers appeared first on African Media Agency.
The anti-Balaka militia has released 163 children from its ranks in the Central African Republic (CAR), a country where as many as 10,000 youth have been recruited to fight for armed groups since 2013. The children were handed over at a ceremony on Friday in the northern town of Batangafo that was facilitated by the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) and the UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSCA) in the country. The youth were freed from the anti-Balaka group, which still vies with the Seleka rebels for control of this town where some 30,000 people are living in a refugee camp. “The move…
At least 82 people have been killed and more than one hundred others are still missing after a boat, reportedly packed with people from Africa and South Asia bound for Italy, capsized and sunk off the Libyan coast. The Libyan Red Crescent said on Friday it had recovered 82 bodies. Nearly 200 had been rescued, the organisation said. A security official in Zuwarah, a town in the North African nation’s west from where the overcrowded boat had set off, said that there were about 400 people on board. The UNHCR, the UN Agency for refugees, in a statement, released on…