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For thousands of Ethiopians who have fled fighting in the Tigray region to Sudan, this year’s Coptic Christmas on January 7 is a sombre celebration. There will be little feasting for those living hand-to-mouth in the crowded Um Raquba refugee camp.
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
We believe that within the coming days, Gauteng will emerge with the highest Covid-19 numbers
“We are seeing a rapid rise in the cumulative number of positive Covid-19 cases, indicating that, as we had expected, we are approaching a surge during the latter winter months of July and August,” health minister Zweli Mkhize, said.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize
“In addition to regular hand washing, social distancing and the correct wearing of masks at all times, early case detection, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation are the key armaments we have in our toolbox to break the cycle of infection,” Mkhize said.
We expect that all provinces will start experiencing an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases – even those with low numbers now
“Our concern is that this continues to exacerbate the risk of spread of infections in communities, especially in households where it is practically impossible to self-isolate, given the limited space.”
Complaints
“As in other provinces, carriers of coronavirus seed infection into spaces where people congregate, and so we have also seen a number of cluster outbreaks in Eastern Cape,” Mkhize said.
Masks are being abandoned or not worn properly, and there is laxity setting in around frequent hand-washing
Hotpots, he said, need reinforcements and health intervention teams will be deployed for additional capacity so that the outbreak response matches the rise in numbers.
After winning the 30 December daily Lotto jackpot of R314 000, the anonymous punter collected his winnings this week. The winner used R15 to bet.
Information secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana on Friday issued a statement suspending mobile money transactions and trading on the stock exchange in order to facilitate investigations into illicit activities said to be sabotaging the economy.
The drastic measures did not only leave the general public in a state of panic, but also in the dark as to the fate of their funds deposited in the mobile money accounts.
That such a pronouncement with far-reaching consequences was made by Information secretary and not by the Finance minister nor Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, also raises eyebrows.
As anticipated, all the mobile money platforms immediately issued statements urging clients to disregard Mangwana’s statement and continue transacting using the platforms until further notice from the official fiscal and monetary authorities.
The central bank later added a new twist to the drama with a statement announcing a partial suspension on mobile money agents’ accounts while the rest of the public was left to transact freely.
By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia's government says its security forces shot at and detained United Nations staffers as they tried to reach part of the embattled Tigray region. Senior official Redwan Hussein told reporters that the U.N. staffers were to blame because they 'broke' two checkpoints to go to areas where 'they were not supposed to go.' He said the staffers have since been released. The shooting occurred amid soaring frustration among humanitarians as aid is still not freely reaching the Tigray region more than a week after the U.N. and Ethiopia's government signed a […]
The post Ethiopia's forces shoot at, detain UN staffers in Tigray appeared first on Black News Channel.
THE High Court has ordered local legal firm to pay US$58 000 to a South African company, following a botched elephant hunting deal.
The court heard that it was the term of their agreement that Paarklip Trading would deposit US$58 000 into the trust account of Mutudo and Mhiribidi’s law firm.
However, when the hunting deal failed to sail through, the South African firm demanded a refund of the paid amount which the legal practitioners said they would pay using the local currency, culminating in the current lawsuit.
Justice Moyo further said the debt was foreign as the firm was also not a local firm, more so that the funds were invested from South Africa.
“It is a foreign debt as the applicants (Paarklip Trading and Burger) are clearly South African and obviously the funds were invested from there…,”the judge said ruling against the local law firm.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s recent admission that there are ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ within the top echelons of his beleaguered government simply calls for an operation of caging them in order to abate further battering of our economy.
In simple terms, I personally find the failings of some of Mnangagwa’s ministers and top officials in government as a direct throwback to the previous regime.
In the hope of setting a new and desirable form of governance, Mnangagwa simply needs to deal with corruption very decisively and like yesterday.
The key hallmark of Mnangagwa’s governance lies in the complete eradication of corruption and failure to do this may prove very costly for him and his government.
I think the President needs to make a decree that anyone simply suspected of engaging in graft shall not have access to bail until their matter is finalised, and in the case of convicted top government officials, I suggest he gets the best advice from China.
[RFI] Ethiopia's army captured the town of Alamata, in southern Tigray, 115 kilometres from the regional capital Mekelle, according to a statement on Monday by the Ethiopian government, as a conflict between the federal government and Tigray region continues to escalate.
Upholding ethics, human rights in biomedical study
Monday, June 29, 2020 0:01
By CATHY MPUTHIA
One of the first South African Oxford vaccine trialists looks on as a medical worker injects him with the clinical trial for a potential vaccine against the coronavirus at the Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, South Africa, on June 24 ,2020.
In undertaking biomedical research, trials and vaccines may need to be undertaken on human beings.
While Kenya does not have a standalone law on biomedical research providing for issues such as the rights of the targets of the research, issues of biomedical ethics are contained in several laws.
Fortunately, today there is a lot of regulation concerning human trial vaccines and research such that rights are upheld.
The above represent some of the Constitutional rights which must be adhered to when conducting Covid-19 research and trial runs in Kenya where the same involve human beings.
Somalia’s President Mohamed Farmaajo has taken a step further to mend relations with federal member states and put the electoral programme back on track.
On Wednesday, President Farmaajo invited all the five federal state presidents to Mogadishu to a meeting, set for July, to discuss elections, national security and economic issues.
“His Excellency (Mohamed Farmaajo) will host Federal Member States Presidents and Governor of Banadir Administration in Mogadishu to deliberate on a vast of issues significant to the Federal Republic of Somalia,” Mr Ahmed said.
“The meeting is a good gesture, after nearly two years of no substantive communication and collaboration between the federal government and the federal member states,” said Ilyas Ali Hassan, a Somali senator and foreign secretary of opposition party Himilo-Qaran, which is led by former president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
When the virtual meeting ended on Monday, a dispatch indicated that the leaders had agreed to meet face to face, but that parliament will delay debating amendments to electoral regulations until the input of the federal member states is included.
