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Uganda’s inter-religious council called off the eagerly awaited presidential candidates’ debate.
The council said the debate, that was due on Thursday 03 was cancelled due to limited resources.
Local media reported that a total of ten presidential candidates were expected to grace the occasion.
This comes amid numerous complaints majorly from the opposition who have constantly blamed the security apparatus for rights violations.
Uganda opposition have in most cases face wrath of the police especially the renowned musician-turned politician, Bobi Wine.
Two weeks ago, 54 people died in protests after Wines supporters called for his release following a brief arrest at campaign rally.
They have defended themselves by claiming that they were only implementing Covid-19 guidelines to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
Bobi Wine was later charged with violating pandemic restrictions on gathering of crowds and granted bail.
The embattled singer later met the electoral commission and asked them to ensure that there should be equitable campaigns and police should be stopped from intimidating the opposition leaders and their members.
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
Malawi’s electoral commission appealed for “peace and calm” on Wednesday as it counted ballots following a historic poll to re-elect a president after Peter Mutharika’s victory was overturned.
Voters in Malawi went to the polls on Tuesday for the second time in just over a year after the Constitutional Court dramatically ruled that last year’s polls were fraught with “grave and widespread” irregularities.
Results from the May 2019 election sparked countrywide protest that lasted months, a rare occurrence in the impoverished southern African country.
It took the top court six months to sift through the evidence before concluding that Mutharika was not duly elected and ordered fresh elections.
The chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission, Chifundo Kachale, said tallying of the votes from 5,002 polling stations was underway.
“We appeal to Malawians to maintain peace and calm as the vote-counting continues,” Kachale told a news conference in Blantyre.
Mutharika has accused the opposition of inciting violence following isolated incidents which the police and electoral commission said had not affected the election.
“It’s obvious that the opposition is doing this,” he told reporters after voting in Blantyre, claiming some of his party monitors were “chased away, some were beaten”.
“It’s obviously people that are afraid of the will of the people that are engaging in these barbaric acts,” he alleged.
Mutharika, 79, did not take the decision of the constitutional court lightly when it overturned last year’s poll.
He accused judges of working with the opposition to steal the election through what he dubbed a “judicial coup d’etat”.
He had narrowly won the now-discredited election with 38.5 percent of the ballots, beating his closest rival Lazarus Chakwera, 65, by just 159,000 votes .
Victory in the rerun will be determined by whoever garners more than 50 percent of the votes — a new threshold set by the top court.
Some 6.8 million people were asked to vote between Mutharika, Chakwera and an underdog candidate, Peter Dominico Kuwani.
The electoral commission has until July 3 to unveil the results, although the announcement is widely thought likely to come this week.
Kachale says the commission will only announce results after dealing with all the complaints.
AFP
Tanzanian authorities on Wednesday released on bail a popular comedian who was held for more than a week after posting a video of himself laughing at a photo of President John Magufuli.
Police summoned Idris Sultan, a former winner of the Big Brother Africa television series, on May 19 and questioned him over a possible violation of a law against \"cyberbullying\", his lawyer, Benedict Ishabakaki, told AFP on Wednesday.
Sultan was instead charged with a lesser offence related to using a SIM card registered in someone else's name, according to a charge sheet seen by AFP.
Sultan's release comes one day after activists and opposition leaders took to Twitter demanding the case against him be thrown out.
It is not the first time Sultan has run afoul of Magufuli's government.
Tanzania's main opposition party on Tuesday said its chairman had been hospitalised after being beaten up in a \"politically-motivated\" attack as police said they would investigate the assault.
Freeman Mbowe was ambushed by unknown assailants as he returned home late on Monday in the capital Dodoma, and rushed to hospital with injuries, his Chadema party said in a statement.
A high-profile critic of President John Magufuli, Mbowe has repeatedly accused the government of covering up the extent of Tanzania's coronavirus outbreak and failing to take the pandemic seriously.
Tanzania is one of few countries in Africa that has not taken extensive measures against the virus, and Magufuli is among a handful of world leaders still playing down the seriousness of the pandemic.
The US and Britain expressed concern last November over local government elections in Tanzania after Magufuli's party won 99 percent of seats.
The Electoral Court has granted the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) permission to postpone by-elections in the country due to the continuous effects of the coronavirus.
This after the commission approached the court seeking a postponement.
\"As required in law, the municipal elections will be proclaimed by Cogta Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma after her consultations with the Electoral Commission.
\"In this regard, the Electoral Commission has begun consultations with the minister.
These matters are not a prerogative of the Electoral Commission, but require a collaborative effort and national consensus,\" she said.
A fatal Israeli police shooting of an unarmed Palestinian man in Jerusalem last weekend has led to a government apology and protests comparing the case to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Eyad Hallaq, 32, was on his way to a school for special needs students in the historic Old City of Jerusalem on May 30 when police shouted, \"terrorist!\"
\"Policing in Jerusalem and in particular in the Old City is a particularly complex task that involves complex decisions and the risk of life,\" the police said in a statement following the shooting.
Aviad Friedman, an Israeli father of a child with autism, paid Hallaq's father a condolence visit, despite friends warning him against traveling alone to a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem.
\"I do not think [the Hallaq killing] is similar to the incident in Minneapolis,\" he wrote, citing the stress Israeli police face in Jerusalem.
As the country continues to fight tirelessly to control the spread of Covid-19, a total of 5 million children are set to benefit from the three phase program of World Vision aimed at mitigating the after-effects of the pandemic in the vulnerable community.
The Government together with World Vision on Wednesday launched the second phase response program where it dispersed USD 3.3 million (Shs 15 billion), that will be used to buy reading materials for children and facilitating radio programs in 38 districts.
According to World Vision national director Mr Jason Evans, the expanded response will focus on support for children impacted by Covid-19 through education, child protection, food and livelihoods.
With this phase two response program here in Uganda, world vision aims to support 5 million Ugandan children, their families and communities to adapt and thrive during and after the Covid-19 pandemic,\" Mr Evans said.
According to the Mr Evans, the program will include supporting learning continuity for school age children, ensuring effective reporting and referral mechanisms for child protection are maintained, increasing food and nutrition security of the most vulnerable households during and post Covid-19 as well as facilitating radio station teachings programs for children.
The opposition Tonse Alliance is taking the campaign of its presidential candidate, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) leader Lazarus Chakwera, to the doorstep with former and incumbent Karonga Central constituency parliamentarians Frank Mwenifumbo and Dr. Cornelius Mwalwanda setting aside their political rivalry for the canvassing strategy.
Mwalwanda and Mwenifumbo were accompanied by People's Party (PP) vice president for North, Ralph Mhone in the canvassing of votes.
Taking his turn, MCP's director of economic affairs Dr. Cornelius Mwalwanda said the Alliance will enhance social-economic development that will in turn spur tourism to boost the economy.
Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) party chairman Frank Mwenifumbo said the only hope for Malawi is the Tonse Alliance which is geared to enable people afford meals three times a day, provide affordable fertilizer at K4, 900 per bag to revamp agriculture which is the backbone of the country's economy and create one million jobs to the youth.
\"This is the time to stop the 'two finger' political party alliance of United Democratic Front (UDF) and DPP and usher in power development conscious leaders who will give people different development projects, job and business opportunities beyond regionalism and tribalism lines,\" Mwenifumbo said.
The Electoral Commission now has to make arrangements to include them on the voters’ register to participate in next year’s general election.
The ruling is a result of a petition filed in 2018 by lawyer Stephen Kalali seeking declarations and orders that prisoners and Ugandans in the diaspora have a fundamental and absolute right to be registered as voters.
Mr Kalali argued that their omission and exclusion from voting amounts to segregation and discrimination, demanding that all prisons in Uganda be declared registration and polling centres ahead of the 2021 election.
She added that prisoners were allowed to vote in countries like South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia, which subscribe to several international human rights instruments to which Uganda is signatory
The ruling is bound to impact the Electoral Commission’s preparations for elections due to be held between January 8, 2021 and February 10, 2021.
Commission spokesperson Jonathan Taremwa said they were yet to receive the ruling and promised to study it and take a decision.
Other ministers, however, rejected Mr Kutesa's suggestion and asked Mr Matia Kasaija of Finance to look for funds in the 2020/21 budget for buying radios and TV sets for the 15 million learners.
While the planned distribution of free radios and TV sets was never intended to assist virtual political campaigns but ease access to distance learning and teaching across Uganda, sources in Cabinet talked of \"killing two birds with one stone\".
She, however, said the distribution of radio sets and TV had nothing to do with the anticipated virtual political campaigns.
Dr Arthur Bainomugisha, the executive director of Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (Acode), and other analysts have questioned the rationale of buying radios and TV sets for households without access to electricity, money for buying batteries and struggling to feed themselves in the face of the pandemic.
According to another Cabinet source, the President also told Cabinet that since Education requires only two senses - listening and seeing, the planned distribution of free government TV sets and radios will boost distance learning infrastructure, a teaching strategy needed to combat the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown forced Cameroonian President Paul Biya to cancel the government's planned feasts and parades to celebrate Cameroon's annual Unity Day.
But for opposition leaders and separatists, the day signifies anything but unity: rather they view it as the date Cameroonian authorities unjustly cancelled an agreed federal system of government, and consolidated the head of state's power.
No unity to start with
In an interview with DW, opposition leader Kah Walla in Cameroon questioned the very existence of unity in the country.
For Dorothy Njeuma, who voted in the 1972 referendum, the over-centralization of power by national government in Yaounde is provoking Anglophones and separatists to take up arms against the state.
Foreign intervention not an issue
On social media, separatists have criticized the canceling of the federal system in 1972 via a referendum as unjust because the voting population was heavily skewed in favor of French speakers.
July 10: Buhari approves Magu’s suspension
Nigeria’s anti-corruption chief has officially been suspended days after he was invited by a panel at the presidency and subsequently detained.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the immediate suspension of Ibrahim Magu as Agcting Chairman of the EFCC in order to allow for unhindered inquiry by the Presidential Investigation Panel under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act and other relevant laws,” the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami said in a statement on Friday.
According to the statement, President Buhari has also approved that the EFCC Director of Operations, Mohammed Umar, should take charge and oversee the activities of the commission pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and further directives in that regards.
This is contained in a statement issued by Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice made available to newsmen on Friday the 10th day of July, 2020.— Government of Nigeria (@NigeriaGov) July 10, 2020
July 7: Magu invited, quizzed, detained
Local media widely reported that Buhari has suspended the acting EFCC chairman on charges of embezzlement. Magu was on Monday invited to appear before a Presidential Panel that reviews the agency’s activities.
His summons is believed to have been the result of a recent petition from Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami.
The acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was questioned for hours by an inter-agency committee led by a former Court of Appeal judge, Ayo Salami.
He was subsequently detained for further questioning.
Ibrahim Magu has been the EFCC’s acting chairman since 2015, with his appointment twice rejected by Nigeria’s Senate due to a damaging report about his suitability for the role.
But many observers say Magu’s suspension is politically motivated adding that many Nigerian elites want him sacked.
A law expert has said the resignation of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah just weeks into a crucial presidential election has plunged the country into yet another electoral crisis.
Justine Dzonzi: Fresh elections are court sanctioned polls therefore do not disrupt the electoral process
Justin Dzonzi of Justice Link says it will not be possible for a new commission to hold an election in two weeks' time.
The term of office for Ansah--a judge of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal--was set to expire in October this year while that for her eight commissioners is ending on June 5 this year
\"This means in two weeks' time, we will have no commission at all.
\"Take into account that we will have an election on 23 June, this is an electoral crisis,\" he said.
The judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal, the country's top judicial authority, after an appeal by Mutharika and the electoral body.
At least 22 people died as the fiercest cyclone to hit parts of Bangladesh and eastern India this century sent trees flying and flattened houses, with millions crammed into shelters despite the risk of coronavirus.
Millions were left without power after Cyclone Amphan, packing winds of around 150 kilometres per hour (95 miles), carried away electricity pylons, walls and roofs, officials said Thursday as they began to assess the damage.
Bangladesh officials said at least 10 people had died, including a five-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man both hit by falling trees and a cyclone emergency volunteer who drowned.
Cyclones are an annual and growing hazard along the Bay of Bengal coast, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in recent decades.
Anwar Hossain Howlader, an official in the Khulna coastal district of Bangladesh, said a three-metre (10-feet) surge had destroyed embankments protecting villages despite locals toiling through the night.
Journalists in Cameroon have taken to the streets of Buea in the South west region to protest and demand an account of their missing colleague, Samuel Wazizi, after local media reported he had died in military custody.
Wazizi, was arrested in August 2019.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) confirmed his death in a statement on Wednesday evening, after a privately-owned Cameroonian TV station and then the National Union of Cameroonian Journalists (SNJC) announced his death on Tuesday.
Neither the government nor the army had yet confirmed the journalist’s death, or reacted to requests on his whereabouts.
Now, what really happened to Samuel Wazizi?
Zimbabwe has come under international scrutiny after President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government launched a crackdown against its critics that include opposition leaders, lawyers and journalists.
\"A pattern of intimidation and arbitrary arrest and detention of lawyers and journalists and indeed legitimate political opponents has distinctly emerged in Zimbabwe during the Covid-19 era,\" said Martin Okumu-Masiga, the AJJF secretary-general.
\"We urge the government of Zimbabwe to respect the rule of law and the right to freedom of expression and the right to fair trial as well as to respect the independence of judges and lawyers as is guaranteed by domestic and international obligations that the country is party to\" said Okumu-Masiga.
\"I draw the Zimbabwe government's attention to principle 16 of the UN basic principles on the role of lawyers, which requires surety from governments that lawyers are afforded the space to perform all of their professional functions free from intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; nor may lawyers suffer or be threatened with prosecution, or administrative, economic or any other sanction for any action taken in light of the recognised professional duties, standards and ethics.\"
\"We are concerned about the shrinking democratic space evidenced by abductions, arrests, persecution by the prosecution of civil society, lawyers and political opponents is inconsistent with (the government's) assertion that Zimbabwe is stable and peaceful.
LONDON — Thousands of anti-racism campaigners around the world staged demonstrations on Sunday, acting in solidarity with Americans protesting police violence after George Floyd, a Black man, died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes last week.
In Berlin, several hundred demonstrators staged a rally outside the U.S. Embassy, with posters bearing “Justice for George Floyd,” “Stop killing us” and “Who’s neckst.”
LARS BARON via Getty Images
Dortmund's English midfielder Jadon Sancho shows a \"Justice for George Floyd\" shirt after scoring his team's second goal during a Bundesliga match on Sunday.
Soccer player Jadon Sancho, who plays for Borussia Dortmund in Germany, as well as England’s national team, revealed a “Justice for George Floyd” T-shirt after scoring his first goal since Germany’s top soccer league, the Bundesliga, started up again after being halted due to coronavirus concerns.
IDA GULDBAEK ARENTSEN via Getty Images
A Black Lives Matter demonstration in front of the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen on Saturday.
[RFI] At least three people have been killed and several others wounded on the streets of Guinea's capital Conakry after main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo declared himself the winner of Sunday's presidential election.
Agathon Rwasa, Burundi's opposition leader and deputy speaker of Parliament has filed a petition at the country's constitutional court disputing the win of the ruling CNDD-FDD party's Evariste Ndayishimiye.
Mr Ndayishimiye won the May 20 presidential election with 68 per cent of the vote against Mr Rwasa's 24 per cent.
\"If the constitutional court rules in their favour I will move to the African Court because all the results that were announced by the electoral commission were wrong,\" said Mr Rwasa.
The country's Catholic Church deployed 2,716 observers countrywide, and has also expressed misgivings on the election process and its outcome.
However the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Pierre Claver Kazihise, said that members of the Catholic church observer mission weren't well educated and informed about the electoral process.
By Russ Bynum and Ed White
The Associated Press
Anti-racism protesters on June 13 sought to call attention to the deaths of two more Black men — one who was found hanging from a tree in California and another who was fatally shot by police outside an Atlanta restaurant.
In Palmdale, Calif., hundreds of people marched to demand an investigation into the death of 24-year-old Robert Fuller, who was found hanging from a tree early June 10 near city hall.
Fuller’s death has brought to light the death of another Black man found hanging from a tree on May 31 in Victorville, a desert city 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Palmdale.
Meanwhile in Europe, far-right activists scuffled with police in London and Paris as more Black Lives Matter demonstrations unfolded nearly three weeks after George Floyd, another Black man, died at the hands of a White Minneapolis police officer who pressed a knee to his neck.
In Paris, police stopped protesters from confronting far-right activists who unfurled a huge banner from a building denouncing “anti-white racism.”
President Donald Trump addressed an enthusiastic — though smaller than expected — crowd of supporters at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday night as some protesters gathered outside to call for an end to systemic racism and police brutality.
We had some very bad people outside,” Trump told the crowd inside the BOK Center, later referring to protesters as “thugs.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, advised in an interview earlier this month that large events of any kind, including Trump’s rally, remain “risky,” and he urged people to avoid such gatherings.
On Saturday afternoon, a peaceful protester wearing an “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirt was arrested by Tulsa police outside the BOK Center at the behest of Trump’s campaign staff.
Trump lambasted protesters, calling them “thugs” and “bad people,” but did not respond their calls to end racial injustice or police brutality in the wake of Floyd’s death.
Electric buses made by students of the Makerere University in Uganda have now hit the road with improved health guidelines as the country battles Covid-19.
According to local media, the EVS bus has an onboard Wi-Fi to ensure the travelers stay connected, USB charging ports to enable charging of traveler’s display boards for timely and accurate information dissemination.
Kiira Motors, who assembled the buses, have equity partners made up of the Government of the Republic of Uganda represented by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (96%) and Makerere University (4%).
The company, which is made up of students from the Makerere University has also produced the Kiira EV, Kiira EV SMACK – the first electric hybrid vehicle to be designed and built in Africa, as well as, the Kayoola which is Africa’s first solar powered bus.
According to the company, the production of the bus, “provides an unprecedented opportunity for participation of a wide range of local manufacturers making components to feed the production line at the Kiira vehicle plant addressing the key aspects of Supply Chain Localization and engendering import substitution.”
Nobel Peace laureate Dr Denis Mukwege has resigned as head of a local task force fighting Covid-19 in eastern DRC in frustration at the government's response to the crisis.
Two months into his job as vice-president of a special health commission set up to fight Covid-19 in South Kivu province, Denis Mukwege called it a day on Wednesday, blaming organisational problems.
Sources from the national response team have acknowledged the resource shortage but have vowed that, as of next week, test results will be available in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, within 24 hours.
His resignation from the special health commission could strike a blow to the entire national response team led by Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe, another renowned medical researcher in DRC.
While prioritising his role as caregiver to the influx of patients to Panzi hospital, Mukwege said he would continue to bring his \"intellectual contribution in the fight against the pandemic in the province of South Kivu\".
Malawi's electoral commission has appealed for peace and calm as it tallied ballots following a historic poll to re-elect a president after Peter Mutharika's victory was overturned.
[Monitor] By Derick Kissa
“Further Covid-19 measures will be announced by Cabinet on Tuesday 2 June,” a tweet from the Rwandan Prime Minister’s office read.
The new move is linked to the country’s first recorded death from the virus and a spike in cases over the weekend.
Health minister told state broadcaster that the decision was because of the new cases reported in the western Rusizi district.
On the last day of May 2020, Rwanda recorded 11 new cases on the same day the first casualty was buried in the outskirts of Kigali.
Rwanda was among the first countries on the continent to impose a strict lockdown in the arly days of the virus’ arrival.
Stevante Clark was booked into Sacramento County main jail on felony battery charges this week, after he was apprehend by the Sacramento Police Department’s Career Criminal Unit on May 18, Sacramento police said.
Clark is scheduled to be arraigned in a Sacramento County court on May 27.
Clark is the older brother of Stephon Clark, who was shot and killed by two Sacramento police officers in the back of his grandparent’s South Sacramento home on March 18, 2018.
After a few public outbursts related to the death of his brother, Stevante Clark has been a model citizen by supporting other families that suffered similar consequences.
Clark recently helped a family bring attention to a video of a Sacramento County Sheriff beating a defenseless 14-year-old boy late last month.
