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In Pemba, the port city of Cabo Delgado, the wait is coming to an end for some, as they are reunited with their relatives. But the situation is far from calm in the town of Palma, and other areas, where locals are fleeing.
In May, Burundi held a presidential election which was won by Evariste Ndayishimiye, candidate of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy - Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party.
Ndayishimiye was hurriedly sworn in after the untimely death of president Pierre Nkurunziza in June.
Rights violations continue
The Council encouraged donor countries which had suspended aid to Burundi to continue dialogue towards resumption of development assistance.
A report by a UN watchdog in September said human rights violations were still being committed in Burundi, including sexual violence and murder.
The country was plunged into a crisis in April 2015 when Ndayishimiye’s predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a controversial third term, which he ultimately won in July 2015.
His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup in May 2015.
Hundreds of people were killed and over 300,000 fled to neighboring countries.
[CAJ News] Bangui, Central African Republic -- THE United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) has denied allegations of electoral fraud leveled against it by the main opposition.
Maputo — Mozambique's publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, expects to lose about 15 million US dollars this year from the price cuts ordered by the government, as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Wednesday, EDM spokesperson Luis Amado said a third measure is to allow businesses to defer payment of the fixed fee on their electricity bills.
Consumers on the social tariff \"have been protected in all the electricity price rises of the last four years\", said Amado.
The low voltage clients on the general tariff, he said, are offices, workshops and other small businesses who have installed power of between 19.9 and 39.9 kilowatts.
Amado said that, taken together, these price cuts will deprive EDM of about 15 million dollars.
[DW] The UNHCR recorded events of killing, mutilation, sexual violence and looting in DR Congo in the last eight weeks. The African nation has one of the highest rates of internal displacement in the world.
During the lean season in June and August, more than 21 million people across West Africa \"will struggle to feed themselves\", she explained, adding Gambia and Benin to the list of countries in need.
\"An additional 20 million people could struggle to feed themselves due to the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in the next six months, doubling the number of food-insecure to 43 million in this region\", the WFP official added.
Highest forced displacement in Africa
Highlighting people's vulnerabilities, Babar Baloch from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), described West and central Africa as \"one of largest displacement situations in Africa…we are talking about 5.6 million internally displaced people, more than 1.3 million refugees and 1.6 million stateless.\"
The UN refugee agency has repeatedly called for greater support for increasing numbers of people forced to flee for their lives amid renewed conflict in West Africa's turbulent Sahel and Lake Chad region.
On Monday, the agency condemned attacks on 2 May on Malian refugees in Burkina Faso – \"reportedly by the country's security forces\", in Mentao refugee camp in which at least 32 people were injured.
Speaking in Maputo at the Ministry of Health's daily press conference on the Covid-19 pandemic, Marlene said the latest victim was a six year old child who had been hospitalised in the paediatric intensive care unit in Nampula Central hospital on 21 May.
143 of these samples came from Tete province, 101 from Nampula, 97 from Niassa, 85 from Inhambane, 68 from Sofala, 62 from Nampula, 42 from Maputo City, 41 from Zambezia, 26 from Manica and 17 from Maputo province.
Nampula has now overtaken Cabo Delgado as the province where the largest number of cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed, and the overwhelming majority of them are in Nampula city.
The breakdown by province of the 638 positive cases is as follows: Nampula, 204; Cabo Delgado, 197; Maputo city, 105; Maputo Province, 67; Tete, 19; Sofala, 15; Inhambane, 12; Niassa, seven; Zambezia, five; Gaza, four, Manica, three.
As of Tuesday the basic Covid-19 statistics for Mozambique were: 638 positive cases, of which 160 have made a full recovery and 473 are active cases.
Luanda — The Council of Ministers of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) approved Thursday, by consensus, the candidate of Angola for the position of president of the organ's Commission, Gilberto Veríssimo, as part of the ongoing reform process.
The two-day meeting held Wednesday and Thursday in Luanda also approached the need to fill the vacancies for the positions of vice-chairs of Commissions for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Rural Development.
The meeting, held via videoconference, also approved the methods for electing the members of ECCAS Commission and discussed the political and security situation in the Central African Republic (CAR).
As for the draft regional strategy against the covid-19 pandemic, the members decided to hold a meeting, still without a date, to tackle the issue.
Created in 1983, ECCAS comprises Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and São Tomé and Príncipe.
[CAJ News] Bangui -- From dispatching hundreds of military personnel to delivering humanitarian aid in recent years, Russia's role in assisting the Central African Republic (CAR) hold elections and avert catastrophe cannot be overestimated.
Sunday:
PREMIUM TIMES reported that gunmen attacked three communities in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
In a separate attack, armed men killed no fewer than 20 people in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State.
It erupted over a land dispute between Lunguda and Waja communities in Guyuk and Lafiya Lamurde local government areas of the state
The police spokesman in the state, Suleiman Nguroje, who confirmed the arrest over the latest round of violence, said many houses and valuables were destroyed, forcing residents to flee the affected communities.
Saturday
Early Saturday morning, bandits murdered the village head of Mazoji in Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina State, Dikko Usman.
- Members of ISWAP, a breakaway faction of Boko Haram, on Saturday staged another deadly attack on a village in Gubio local government killing at least 31 residents and injuring many others, security sources told PREMIUM TIMES Sunday.
There are now more than over 300,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the continent, with a number of African countries imposing a range of prevention and containment measures against the spread of the pandemic.
According to the latest data by the John Hopkins University and Africa Center for Disease Control on COVID-19 in Africa, the breakdown remains fluid as countries confirm cases as and when.
As of May 13, every African country had recorded an infection, the last being Lesotho.
We shall keep updating this list largely sourced from the John Hopkins University tallies, Africa CDC and from official government data.
SUGGESTED READING: Africa’s COVID-19 deaths pass 100,000 mark
Major African stats: June 23 at 7:30 GMT:
\t
\t\tConfirmed cases = 315,380
\t\tActive cases = 156,447
\t\tRecoveries = 150,594
\t\tNumber of deaths = 8,339
Countries in alphabetical order
\t\tAlgeria – 11,920
\t\tAngola – 186
\t\tBenin – 807
\t\tBotswana – 89
\t\tBurkina Faso – 903
\t\tBurundi – 144
\t\tCameroon – 12,041
\t\tCape Verde – 944
\t\tCentral African Republic – 2,963
\t\tChad – 858
\t\tComoros – 247
\t\tCongo-Brazzaville – 1,087
\t\tDR Congo – 5,924
\t\tDjibouti – 4,599
\t\tEgypt – 56,809
\t\tEquatorial Guinea – 1,664
\t\tEritrea – 143
\t\tEswatini – 643
\t\tEthiopia – 4,663
\t\tGabon – 4,739
\t\t(The) Gambia – 41
\t\tGhana – 14,154
\t\tGuinea – 4,988
\t\tGuinea-Bissau – 1,556
\t\tIvory Coast – 7,677
\t\tKenya – 4,797
\t\tLesotho – 12
\t\tLiberia – 650
\t\tLibya – 595
\t\tMadagascar – 1,640
\t\tMalawi – 749
\t\tMali – 1,960
\t\tMauritania – 3,121
\t\tMauritius – 340
\t\tMorocco – 10,172
\t\tMozambique – 737
\t\tNamibia – 63
\t\tNiger – 1,036
\t\tNigeria- 20,919
\t\tRwanda – 787
\t\tSao Tome and Principe – 702
\t\tSenegal – 5,970
\t\tSeychelles – 11
\t\tSierra Leone – 1,340
\t\tSomalia – 2,812
\t\tSouth Africa – 101,590
\t\tSouth Sudan – 1,916
\t\tSudan – 8,698
\t\tTanzania – 509
\t\tTogo – 569
\t\tTunisia – 1,159
\t\tUganda – 774
\t\tZambia – 1,430
\t\tZimbabwe – 512
SUGGESTED READING: rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Africa II
Maputo — The Mozambican health authorities on Thursday registered a further 36 positive cases of the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease, raising the total number of people infected in the country since the start of the pandemic to 352.
Speaking in Maputo at the daily Health Ministry press conference on the Covid-19 crisis, the National Director of Public Health, Rosa Marleyn, said that so far 12,096 suspect cases have been tested in Mozambique, 529 of them in the previous 24 hours.
Three of the new cases, a boy under the age of 15 and two adult women, are from Maputo City, and two others, a boy under 15 and an adult woman, are from Marracuene district in Maputo province.
The distribution of positive Covid-19 cases by province, as of Thursday, was as follows: Cabo Delgado, 150; Nampula, 87; Maputo City, 60; Maputo Province, 24; Sofala, 12; Niassa, five; Tete, five; Inhambane, three; Gaza, three; Zambezia, two; Manica, one.
Samo Gudo regarded the increase in the number of children infected by the coronavirus, as a sign that the pandemic in Mozambique might be moving from its current classification as \"an epidemic with foci of transmission\" towards the far more dangerous phase of \"community transmission\", in which the disease will spread more widely, with a danger that a large number of cases, all needing medical assistance at the same time, could overwhelm the health service.
Maputo — Mozambique's National Director of Public Health, Rosa Marlene, announced on Thursday that, with the diagnosis of a further eleven positive cases in the previous 24 hours, the number of people diagnosed with the disease in Mozambique has risen to 662.
Speaking in Maputo, at the daily Ministry of Health press conference on the Covid-19 situation, Marlene said the number of people tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic now stands at 21,780.
Six of the new cases are in Maputo city, and one each was diagnosed in Nampula city, in the Cabo Delgado provincial capital of Pemba, in Tete city, in Inhambane city and in Maputo province (Magude district, on the border with South Africa).
Marlene added that a further six Covid-19 patients have made a full recovery, three in Maputo City and three in Cabo Delgado.
As of Thursday the breakdown of positive cases by province was: Nampula, 213; Cabo Delgado 199; Maputo City, 112; Maputo province, 71; Tete, 20; Sofala, 15; Inhambane 13; Niassa, seven; Zambezia, five; Gaza, four; Manica, three.
French Defence Minister Florence Parly has urged governments in the Sahel to uphold human rights during military operations, in a report on the progress of France's regional Operation Barkhane before the French senate's foreign affairs committee.
Parly was positive about the deployment of the European Takouba force, made up of special forces troops from several European countries under French command, as well as the strengthening of the G5 Sahel force of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad.
Respect for human rights
The French defence minister called on governments of the G5 group to ensure that their troops respect human rights during military operations amid accusations over executions carried out by soldiers.
\"Political leaders of the Sahel countries are perfectly aware of what's at stake,\" Parly told French senators from the foreign affairs committee.
Parly said that international support for operations against jihadist groups in the region could be called into question if rights abuses by G5 Sahel soldiers continue.
Bodies - all male - have been found dumped in groups by the roadside, under bridges and in fields in town of Djibo.
Libyan politicians from rival administrations met for the latest round of peace talks in Morocco on Thursday.
The lawmakers met in the coastal town of Bouznika, south of Morocco's capital Rabat, for talks that come ahead of a major meeting in Tunisia slated for November 9.
The talks follow a \"permanent\" UN-backed ceasefire agreement signed in Switzerland last month, intended to pave the way towards a political solution to the country's grinding conflict.
Libya, with Africa's largest proven crude oil reserves, has been wracked by conflict for nearly a decade, since the overthrow and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
It has since been dominated by armed groups and divided between two administrations that have been bitterly-opposed: the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital Tripoli, and a rival administration in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Warring factions returned to the negotiating table in September in UN-supported talks, with negotiations being held in Morocco, Egypt and Switzerland.
Details of the agenda of the talks in Morocco have not been released.
Negotiators are pushing parallel efforts to broker peace, with the military section of talks taking place this week for the fist time on Libyan soil.
On Tuesday, former enemy officers sat together in a joint military commission and agreed on a road map for implementing the ceasefire deal.
Rwanda National Police (RNP) has issued fresh caution to individuals, groups and the business community, whose actions contravenes the government safety guidelines meant to contain the pandemic of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
RNP spokesperson, Commissioner of Police (CP) John Bosco Kabera said that although the security situation remains generally good and the compliance largely high, there are still \"unnecessary isolated incidents of selfish business owners who are being willingly negligent,\" warning of \"punitive measures without exception.\"
He singled out the recent cases; 20 people found in a Sauna and massage parlour at Lebanon Hotel in Remera, Gasabo District and 55 others at a music concert at +250 Bar in Niboye, Kicukiro District.
On May 23, at about 9:30pm, Police caught 55 people drinking at +250 Bar, where a local music group called TUFF GANG had held a virtual concert.
If online concerts attract people to gather in a bar, hotel or home, this is a violation of anti-COVID-19 directives and measures will be taken.
Rwanda has launched a new mineral export certificate to curb allegations of smuggling of precious metals from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The new export certificate is for all minerals not usually covered by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) export certificate.
The country now has two different mineral export certificates namely the ICGLR mineral export certificate designated for principal minerals of tin, tungsten and tantalum — commonly known as “The 3 Ts” — and the second one for the rest of minerals, including gold.
Government officials say all the country’s mineral exports are traded legitimately, even as a new report by the UN Security Council said that smuggling of minerals from DR Congo, mainly gold, is conducted by its neighbours.
The report said that smugglers in eastern DR Congo in areas controlled by armed groups sold untagged minerals to middlemen, who in turn sold the minerals across the border in Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Schools in French-speaking regions hosting the children are calling for peace so that schools closed in the troubled English-speaking regions can be reopened.
Treasure Fomunyuy, a 13-year-old who escaped from Cameroon’s English-speaking northwestern town of Kumbo a year ago after his school was torched by armed men, has joined 300 other school children at the Etoug Ebe government school in Yaounde to ask for closed schools in the English-speaking North West and South West regions to be reopened.
Mumah Bih Yvonne of the Cameroon Women’s Peace Movement is asking for the right of children to education to be respected on the Day of the African Child in commemoration of the June 16, 1976, street protests in South Africa against poor quality education there.
Asheri Kilo, the secretary of state in the Ministry of Basic Education, said the government is determined to educate all children, but added that some schools are constantly attacked, torched, looted or are occupied by separatists.
The separatists have blamed the military for torching schools and public buildings and said they will allow children to go to school only after the central government withdraws its troops from the English-speaking regions.
Coronavirus has swiftly gained status as the world's No. 1 threat but in eastern DR Congo, one of Africa's most volatile regions, militia killings and ethnic violence are an older and -- for now -- far greater source of dread.
In the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, \"civilians are being massacred,\" he said.
\"In South Kivu, Rwandan and Burundian armies are battling armed groups in the high plateaus of Minembwe, destroying everything in their wake,\" Mukwege said.
Since November, more than 400 civilians have been butchered in North Kivu province by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a mainly Muslim militia.
North Kivu and Ituri are also hosting an epidemic of Ebola, which has killed 2,279 people since August 2018.
Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario on Thursday called on the authorities in the northern province of Nampula to be on full alert due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but not to neglect the economy.
Rosario also stressed the need for personal hygiene, the correct use of face masks and cooperation with the health authorities in the epidemiological survey that was launched in Nampula city on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister described the terrorist attacks in the neighbouring province of Cabo Delgado as a problem that affects all Mozambicans, and everything should be done to fight the terrorists.
The conflict in Cabo Delgado has impacted Nampula, because thousands of people displaced by the terrorists have fled over the provincial boundary into Nampula.
\"We know that Nampula faces challenges arising from the terrorism in Cabo Delgado, where the population cannot produce freely, and cannot live in their normal homes\", he said.
Kenya’s Chief Justice David Maraga publicly accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of trying to control the Judiciary and disrespecting court orders.
Justice Maraga in a statement read on June 8 made a withering attack on President Kenyatta for refusing to appoint 41 additional judges and snubbing requests for a meeting to discuss a dispute that has strained the relationship between the executive and judiciary for the past eight months.
AG Kariuki, himself a former judge who was head of the Appeals Court at the time of his appointment in 2018, accused his former boss of engaging in personalised attacks against the president, whipping up public emotions and prejudicing cases that may end up before him at the Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice has in the past complained of deep cuts to the Judiciary budget, which have frustrated efforts to hire more judges and magistrates, build more courts and clear a backlog that stood at more than 460,000 cases by February.
TENSE RELATIONS
The military this week said it had killed at least 13 separatist fighters who blocked the Bamenda-Enugu Road for two months and were demanding illegal tolls.
General Valere Nka, commander of Cameroonian forces fighting separatists in the English-speaking North West region, said his troops had destroyed several camps along the road linking the Cameroonian town of Bamenda to Enugu in Nigeria.
Jude Chukudi, a 42-year-old trader who buys motor parts and electronics in Nigeria to sell in Cameroon, said despite Nka’s assurance, he was still reluctant to use the road.
Eric Tataw, a U.S-based spokesman for the separatists, said armed groups that have arisen from the crisis in the English-speaking regions may have been responsible for the interruption of trade between Cameroon and Nigeria on the road.
True Amba fighters are well-schooled on the ethics of war,\" said Tataw,
Cameroon’s military has maintained that it had killed at least 13 separatist fighters who were blocking the road and collecting illegal tolls, abducting travelers and stealing their goods.
[HRW] Beirut -- Transparent Inquiry Needed into Latest Politically Motivated Killing
Tunisian President Kais Saied said his country would not accept a divided Libya at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris Monday.
Saied is the first head of state to visit France since the country’s de-confinement due to the pandemic.
And I will say it from this podium, in Paris, that Tunis will not accept the division of Libya.
And I will say it from this podium, in Paris, that Tunis will not accept the division of Libya”, he said.
Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising overthrew leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later killed.
Niamey – Thousands of people have fled a camp hosting 20 000 Malian refugees in western Niger after a deadly jihadist attack devastated the site, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Around 50 jihadists on motorbikes killed three local leaders, abducted a guard, destroyed communication antennas and sabotaged the water supply at the Intikane site near the Malian border in a co-ordinated attack on Monday.
Intikane is home to around 20 000 Malian refugees and 15 000 internally displaced Niger citizens – all of whom previously fled their villages due to jihadist violence – as well as the local population.
The jihadists \"attacked the sensitive points of the site – they cut communication lines to isolate the population and they destroyed the sources for drinking water,\" he told the national public radio station after visiting Intikane.
Niger is home to nearly 60 000 Malian refugees who fled their country's north after it fell under the control of Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups in 2012, according to the UN.
