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The heavy rains that have fallen on Niger since June and the severe flooding caused have killed 159 people and affected more than 225,000. This makes this rainy season one of the deadliest in the history of this country with a usually dry climate.
The court enjoys global jurisdiction.
Investigators will now need the authorization of the court’s judges to open a probe. Bensouda appealed for support from Nigeria’s government.
She said the army has dismissed accusations against government troops after examining them.
Boko Haram strictly opposes formal education. In 2015, Nigeria enlisted the support of neighbors Chad, Cameroon and Niger to try and defeat the group.
While the joint operations made the group lose considerable territory, they have not been able to wipe it out.
The ICC has conducted investigations in several African countries. In Sudan, Libya and Ivory Coast, former leaders were indicted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity after the investigations.
AT the time people thought the government has now reformed and breathing a new political life, the opposite is happening. Last week’s arrest and detention of MDC Alliance vice-president Tendai Biti on allegations of insulting a Russian national Tatiana Aleshina, is clear testimony that a leopard will not change its spots. This has exposed the new dispensation’s hatred of the opposition and selective application of the law or simply abusing law. Judging from the way the Judiciary or our courts are handling cases involving opposition and civic society activists, one would be left with no option, but to conclude that some animals are not equal to others. Arrests, harassments, detentions of opposition activists have become a common place in Zimbabwe. Police and prison cells are being used to harass and torture opposition and civic society activists. It has now become so easy for opposition activists to be fast-tracked to prison than a member of Zanu PF to be fast-tracked to a police interrogation desk. Vice-President Kembo Mohadi threatened his harmless and defenceless wife with an axe, but he never got arrested. That is gender-based violence at play. If the rule of law was applied, by now Mohadi should have been locked up or appeared before a court of law. Members of the opposition are arrested nearly every month and are given stringent bail conditions, some being denied bail a number of times and then released after establishing that they had no case to answer. This demonstrate that there is selective application of law and opposition activists. It has nothing to do with whether one is guilty or not. It has to do with your political identity. Instead of investigating and bringing Tawanda Muchehiwa's abductors to book, the government is wasting resources on investigating a spurious charge of assault against Biti. There is an urgent need to reform our legal system. The Judiciary is being abused to cow opposition activists. Biti is not the only one who has been caged for such charges. Harare mayor Jacob Mafume was also arrested and denied bail on frivolous charges. Leonard Koni
According to published reports, the Food and Drug Administration has officially approved the vaccine for the coronavirus after hearing the research materials and answering questions from Pfizer’s vaccine experts.
BY MOSES MATENGA PARLIAMENT has summoned Local Government and Public Works minister July Moyo for grilling over the mass demolition of houses in Harare, which have brought President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration under the spotlight for human rights abuses. The august House, exercising its oversight function, also wants Moyo to give a ministerial statement explaining the rationale behind the demolitions. The also wanted a plausible explanation especially given that the demolitions were happening at a time Zimbabwe has received heavy rains and was in the middle of a major fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. About 200 houses were demolished by the City of Harare City in Budiriro, Harare, after the local authority obtained a High Court order to destroy the structures arguing they were illegally erected. The demolitions attracted censure from the civil society, opposition political parties and other stakeholders who questioned the timing of the move. Pictures of people braving the heavy rains, which included women and children crying and men battling to salvage and secure their belongings exposed to the vagaries of the weather, went viral on social media, triggering an outpour of sympathy. Some of the pictures showed furniture strewn all over in the mud, with only a few people having managed to ferry their property to safer places. Opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, who visited the area on Thursday, described the demolitions as “callous, disproportionate and inhumane”. Parliament is keen to establish why the government allowed the demolitions to proceed in the current unfavourable weather conditions that have left thousands of people, mainly children exposed. The affected residents under the Tembwe Housing co-operative, chaired by a Zanu PF official and 2018 losing candidate in the party primary elections Caleb Kadye, were left to face the rains and exposed to waterborne diseases at a time COVID-19 cases were also soaring. Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya demanded answers on Thursday on why the government was allowing that to happen. “However, in respect of Section 51 of our Constitution which provides for human dignity and Section 52 of the Constitution which provides for personal security, I implore the Government to properly consider its timing when demolishing illegal houses,” Chikwinya said. “Just yesterday (Wednesday), illegal settlements in Budiriro were destroyed amidst rainfall and bad weather. My call today and my prayer is that yes, whilst the laws may provide that the houses are illegal, I implore the executive to consider the timing of destroying such in respect of human dignity and personal security.” Ironically, Chikwinya said, the demolitions came on the day Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in commemorating International Human Rights Day. He said the demolitions were a violation of people’s rights and dignity especially coming when the government has not provided an alternative. “Zimbabwe having enacted the new Constitution in 2013 enacted Section 44 of that Constitution that provid
By BlackPressUSA WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden announced key nominations and appointments of his health team, including Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services; Dr. Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General; Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, COVID-19 Equity Task Force Chair; Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Adviser to the President on COVID-19, who will also continue in his role as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Jeff Zients, Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response and Counselor to the President. In addition, former White House and Pentagon senior […]
The post President-Elect Joe Biden Announces Key Members of Health Team appeared first on Black News Channel.
Among the thousands of people fleeing the five-week-old conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region are a few dozen men, women and children from Eritrea, one of the world's most authoritarian states.
They were already living as refugees in Tigray, which had long been a safe haven for them during years of conflict and repression in Eritrea.
But when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government launched a military operation against Tigray's ruling party, the Eritrean refugees' illusion of safety was shattered as violence escalated around their camps.
\"Suddenly soldiers came to our camp and they started shooting,\" Kheder Adam told AFP in a Sudanese refugee camp. \"The situation was very serious. There was a lot gunfire.\"
Kheder and his family had originally settled in one of the refugee camps in the Sheraro area of Tigray near the Eritrean border around two years ago, he said.
For years, Ethiopia and Eritrea had been officially in a state of war.
In 2018, Abiy took power, ending years of political dominance by the Tigray People's Liberation Front -- sworn enemies of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.
Abiy and Afwerki signed a historic peace agreement that same year, winning the Ethiopian leader the Nobel Peace Prize.
After the dramatic shift in alliances, Abiy's forces launched their operation in Tigray on November 4, Eritreans who had long benefitted from protection in Ethiopia appear to have become a target.
Since then, a few Eritrean refugees have managed to escape to Sudan.
The UN, meanwhile, has expressed fears for the safety for those still in Tigray, home to some 96,000 Eritrean refugees living in four refugee camps.
- 'Refugee again' -
Kheder, 30, who was separated by the recent violence from his wife and two children, aged three and one, was among several Eritrean refugees interviewed by AFP at a reception centre for new arrivals from Ethiopia in Hamdayit on the eastern Sudanese border.
\"Some of the soldiers were Eritreans, some of them were (Ethiopian) federal soldiers,\" said Kheder, of the attack on the camp in Tigray.
\"They were shooting at all people. All -- women, men, children,\" he said.
His comments were echoed Friday by a US State Department spokesperson -- though the Ethiopian government, a US ally, has denied the claim.
\"I feel worried and sad to be a refugee again. There I was a refugee, and here I am also a refugee. It's really difficult,\" said Kheder.
He cited Eritrea's notorious policy of universal, indefinite conscription as one reason why he fled his home country in the first place.
\"They forced us\" to undergo a mandatory national service in Eritrea, he said. \"That's why we decided to go to Ethiopia.\"
The Eritrean regime once used its war against Ethiopia to justify its system of universal conscription.
But the system remains in place despite the fact that the war ended in the year 2000, followed by the peace agreement in 2018.
Rights groups say Eritrea's national service often extends for years and any act of desertion or perceived disobedience leads to
By NANCY BENAC Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has been highlighting lots of really big numbers this week: New highs for the stock market. The 100-plus House members backing a lawsuit challenging his election loss. The nearly 75 million people who voted for him. All the while, he's looked past other staggering and more consequential figures: The record numbers of coronavirus deaths, hospitalizations and new cases among the citizens of the nation he leads. On Friday, Trump's team blasted out a text with this strong, high-minded presidential message: 'We will not bend. We will not break. We […]
The post As he rails on election, Trump largely mum on toll of virus appeared first on Black News Channel.
Namibia has appointed a technical team to look into logistical requirements of importing a COVID-19 vaccine.
The southern African country’s minister of health said the team was instructed to study the storage, transport and distribution needs, local newspaper The Namibian reported on Friday.
Namibia lacks the infrastructure needed to store or distribute a COVID-19 vaccine. Most of the vaccine candidates so far require ultra-cold conditions for storage and distribution.
Namibia has paid $1.9m to the COVAX programme, a global initiative aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to ensure equitable access to safe and effective vaccines - to secure the medicines for her people.
The country targets to vaccinate 20% of its population. Frontline health workers and people of advanced age will be the first recipients of the jabs.
Namibia has recorded 16,097 cumulative cases, 14,332 recoveries and 160 deaths.
The country has a population of nearly 2.5 million people.
Neighboring Angola on Thursday said it expected to receive five million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021.
Health Minister Silvia Lutucuta said seven million more doses would be delivered in April in partnership with COVAX.
Angola has so far reported 15,925 positive cases, 362 deaths, and 8,679 recoveries.
Egypt on Thursday took delivery of the first batch of China’s Sinopharm vaccine.
Morocco on Wednesday announced that it was gearing up for an ambitious COVID-19 vaccination program, aiming to vaccinate 80% of its adults in an operation starting this month.
The North African kingdom is pinning its hopes on two vaccine candidates, one developed by China’s Sinopharm and the other by Britain’s Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
It seeks to vaccinate 80% of its adults, or 25 million people, as soon as the vaccines get regulatory approval.
A family separated as they fled Ethiopia's Tigray region have been reunited in Sudan.
Tsiga Tegra's husband was detained by armed men for seven days in their village before being released, but the experience left the family feeling they had no choice but to flee.
Leaving in various directions they had no idea if they would see each other again but were finally reunited in Hamdayet - a reception center hosting thousands of refugees from Ethiopia fleeing to Sudan.
Although safe, they are struggling to cope.
There is a lack of food, sanitation and healthcare, alongside the threat of waterborne disease.
The UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency), together with Sudanese authorities, have moved some 12,000 refugees from Hamdayet and Abderafi border points to Um Rakuba camp, situated some 70 kilometers away from the Ethiopian border.
Nearly 50,000 Ethiopians have fled to Sudan, following conflict in Tigray.
