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Kagame denounced the injustice that conflicts inflict on innocent people, taking as an example the migration crisis that drives refugees to undertake dangerous journeys every year in search of a better future
Abiy's government and the regional one run by the Tigray People's Liberation Front each consider the other illegitimate.
\t There was no immediate word from the three AU envoys, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe. AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo did not say whether they can meet with TPLF leaders, something Abiy's office has rejected.
\"``Not possible,'' senior Ethiopian official Redwan Hussein said in a message to the AP. ``\"Above all, TPLF leadership is still at large.'' He called reports that the TPLF had appointed an envoy to discuss an immediate cease-fire with the international community ``masquerading.''
\t Fighting reportedly remained well outside the Tigray capital of Mekele, a densely populated city of a half-million people who have been warned by the Ethiopian government that they will be shown ``no mercy'' if they don't distance themselves from the region's leaders.
\t Tigray has been almost entirely cut off from the outside world since Nov. 4, when Abiy announced a military offensive in response to a TPLF attack on a federal army base.
That makes it difficult to verify claims about the fighting, but humanitarians have said at least hundreds of people have been killed.
\t The fighting threatens to destabilize Ethiopia, which has been described as the linchpin of the strategic Horn of Africa.
\t With transport links cut, food and other supplies are running out in Tigray, home to 6 million people, and the United Nations has asked for immediate and unimpeded access for aid.
AP
By JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump still won't bring himself to concede the election he decisively lost to President-elect Joe Biden. But he's now acknowledging he will leave the White House if Biden's win is affirmed by the Electoral College, which is firmly on track to do just that in a few weeks. 'Certainly I will,' he said Thursday when asked if he will vacate the premises after electors make Biden's win formal. 'But you know that.' Trump, who took questions from reporters for the first time since the election, unleashed another round of complaints […]
The post Trump may be coming to terms with loss he won't acknowledge appeared first on Black News Channel.
The rapper and his mom lived there during the early 2000s.
[Thomson Reuters Foundation] Policy, aid, and private investments should go towards growing nutritious crops that are adapted to climate extremes
[Nairobi News] Former Gor Mahia Organising Secretary Judith 'Nyangi' Anyango has spilled the beans on why the cash-strapped club failed to travel to Kigali on Wednesday for a preliminary Caf Champions League match against APR.
Madagascar has affirmed its decision not to participate in the Covax global initiative for the access to Covid-19 vaccine once they have been approved and licensed.
The government spokesperson confirmed the island will resort to its traditions concoction that its own scientist discovered earlier this year to stem out the virus.
He further said that they were waiting to see the effectiveness of the vaccine first in the countries that will first use it.
The tonic, based on the plant Artemisia annua which has anti-malarial properties, was not proven by the World Health Organization but had put it on sale to several African countries.
Vaccines in Madagascar have never been popular among the general population. The island in 2018 was among the last four countries in the world registering polio cases from its stance on vaccines.
[Nation] KCB Group Plc has entered a deal to buy out two banks in Rwanda and Tanzania in what will cement its dominance in the East African region, weeks after its main rival Equity Bank pulled out of a similar deal.
Matabeleland secessionist group Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) has petitioned Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe and Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga over harassment of commuter omnibus operators and malicious damage of vehicles by the law enforcement agents in Bulawayo. BY SILAS NKALA MRP president Mqondisi Moyo handed the petition to Bulawayo Metropolitan Affairs minister Judith Ncube and Police Traffic Section at the Drill Hall in Bulawayo. The petition was directed to Kazembe, Matanga, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Transport minister Joel Biggy Matiza, officer-in-charge of Bulawayo province, Minister Ncube, the Joint Operations Command (JOC) and Bulawayo Transport Operators Associations. The secessionist party complained over acts of barbarisms and terrorism by police officers on private taxis and kombi operators. “This is my second letter to you Kazembe and Matanga. “On August 25, I wrote the first letter complaining about the conduct of your police officers at roadblocks,” the petition read. “I advised you to come down to Bulawayo and rein in on the police officers. I would applaud you for coming down on my insistence, to discuss the issues of concern so that you restore sanity on the roads by immediately stopping the harassment of citizens at road blocks.” Moyo said that he wrote this second petition because another wave of madness by irresponsible police officers has emerged. “On several occasions, I have witnessed your police officers smash windows of emergency taxis in the city and in other places in Bulawayo,” the petition read. “Public safety is now greatly compromised by the very conduct of security members. The attack on the kombis results in motorists disregarding road rules leading to pedestrians being run over as drivers try to save their vehicles from destruction by police officers,” Moyo wrote. “Just a week ago, an old lady was knocked down by a kombi as the driver was trying to escape the brutality of your officers. “We understand that their (police) authority is limited to arresting offending drivers, recording vehicle registration numbers, and even advising on the right conduct without necessarily causing all this damage.” Moyo said he wondered where the police were getting fuel to race after transport operators, when they are failing to respond to genuine reports of theft and murder reported to them by the public claiming they do not have resources. Moyo asked why the police and the Zanu PF government were blocking private transport operators from operating. “We strongly call upon your ministry to treat this as a matter of urgency, as we are slowly losing our patience and faith in your compromised police force,“ he wrote. “We are heading towards effecting citizens’ arrest against your dubious officers. “We are aware that in many instances they make life difficult for transport operators so that they make them to pay bribes. I put it to you that there is no law that was gazetted to stop the private kombis to get into town and that there is no proper gazetted law that prohibits the p
Since President Félix Tshisekedi took power in 2019 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, political mechanisms have been put in place to bring political stability to the country.
Africanews Journalist Pascale Mahe Keingna speaks to François Muamba Tshishimbi, Special Advisor to President Félix Tshisekedi on the outcomes of a number of initiatives taken by the President thus far to ensure political stability in Central Africa’s most populous nation.
[IPS] New York -- Wealthier countries struggling to contain the widening COVID-19 pandemic amid protests over lockdowns and restrictions risk ignoring an even greater danger out there - a looming global food emergency.
In France, clementine producers in Corsica are delighted that Moroccan seasonal workers are able to step in and help save their crops. Overwhelmed by the harvest and a shortage of labor, French farmers do seek services from the North African country every year during harvests.
The Moroccan workers tested for Covid-19 before departure and upon arrival in relation to French Covid-19 guidelines.
\"It was really very, very important to have this labour force now, to be able to collect all these fruits which must not remain on the tree for very long, otherwise we will reach over-ripeness,\" Christophe Fouilleron, Clementine producer said.
Corsica’s farms are suffering from a lack of workers that worries farmers facing real prospects of seeing their crops rotting on trees.
Corsica produces 20,000 to 30,000 tons of clementine annually. Seasonal workers usually sign a contract of three to four months.
900 Moroccan seasonal workers have so far travelled to Franc this year.
The government allowed them to bring in labourers during the pandemic but further directed that they should respect the safety measures.
\"The clementine harvest is not too affected by barrier gestures in the orchard because in fact each worker will be at his post, a little far from each other. Once the worker is working inside the tree, they are rarely on top of each other, so in the end they work normally, but with protective equipment, masks, etc,\" Christophe Fouilleron, Clementine producer said.
In response to the economic crisis of 1973/74 the French government had banned the admissions of seasonal foreign workers.
In 2010, France authorized under exceptional circumstances admissions of seasonal foreign workers.
Ten-year-old Samarwat Tkhal fled fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray region this month -- now she sells food to survive, among tens of thousands of fellow refugees building a new life in neighbouring Sudan.
Tkhal, wearing a red T-shirt and yellow trousers, wanders the dusty streets of \"Village Eight\", a transit point just across the border into Sudan that has rapidly swelled into the size of a small town.
It is the first stop for many of the Ethiopians fleeing their homeland.
Tkhal holds up a box of chocolate cakes, as she shyly approaches potential customers.
\"My father gives me a box of 50 cakes every morning that I sell,\" she said. \"I work from morning to night.\"
Over 43,000 refugees have crossed into Sudan since fighting broke out in Tigray on November 4, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Friday, as he visited Sudanese camps crammed with those fleeing the conflict in northern Ethiopia.
While praising Sudan for upholding its \"traditional hospitality to people in need\", Grandi warned that the host country also \"urgently requires international assistance to support its efforts.\"
- Heavy fighting -
Hundreds have been killed in fighting between the federal government of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and dissident forces of the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
On Friday, Abiy is due to meet African Union envoys to discuss the worsening conflict, after he ordered the army to launch a final offensive against Tigrayan forces.
But while conflict rages at home, many of the refugees in Sudan are already eking out a living in their new surrounds.
Taray Burhano, 32, walks the streets selling cigarettes -- one-by-one, not by the pack.
\"I'm not making a fortune,\" said Burhano, who, like many, escaped with only what he could carry for the hard trek across the baking hot bush.
\"But at least I don't sit around and think about what happened to us.\"
Once a sleepy settlement, Village Eight is now a busy centre.
- Entrepreneurs -
Chekhi Barra, 27, sits on the ground waiting for clients.
\"Until a solution to the fighting is found, something has to be done,\" he said, adding that while aid is trickling in, people need more than what is provided.
Barra fled with his wife and son from their home in the town of Mai-Kadara, where Ethiopia's rights watchdog this week said at least 600 civilians were massacred.
Using the little cash he took with him, Barra invested in a box of 100 bars of soap, a basic necessity that he knows will generate a profit when sold individually.
\"I sell them for twice as much as I bought them,\" he said.
Despite losing their homes and businesses, the new Ethiopian arrivals to Sudan are not wasting their time.
Sylvia Tahai immediately resumed her work -- selling coffee.
\"As soon as I arrived, I went to buy coffee, cups, sugar and a coffee-maker\", the 23-year-old said, as customers crowded around her traditional Ethiopian flask brewing on a charcoal brazier.
Buhano Amha, 28, has built a stall where he sells tomat
[Monitor] The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has tasked the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and security agencies to exercise caution and wisdom in the interpretation and implementation of the election guidelines so as to ensure a smooth hybrid exercise.
WHEN a fire gutted her house a few years ago, 36-year-old Tendai Chamboko was badly injured.She lost her sight in the inferno.However, she had no insurance cover to help her cope with the huge costs that come with injuries of this nature. BY FIDELITY MHLANGA Chamboko’s predicament was compounded by the fact that Zimbabwe has no disability insurance schemes, excerpt for a fund that is administered by the National Social Security Authority, which caters for injured workers. Chamboko, who has never been formally employed, soon found herself in a quagmire. “The fire accident taught me about the importance of insurance,” she told Weekly Digest. “We lost everything and I was left disabled. I lack access to information, especially in brail language, which is compatible with my condition.” Chamboko’s problem is also shared by many people living with disabilities (PWDs), who struggle to access specialised insurance cover to take care of their needs in time of poor health. But, it does not end with PWDs. The Insurance and Pensions Commission of Zimbabwe (IPEC) says generally, medical insurance coverage is extremely low. This means the majority of people are confronted by frightening experiences once they get ill because they cannot access appropriate health care, which is expensive in Zimbabwe. Over 70% of working age people are jobless. Those who are still in formal jobs are not paid enough to afford medical cover. “I think the fact that our coverage ratio is only 10% means that medical cover is not working for the majority of Zimbabwe,” says Grace Muradzikwa, the IPEC commissioner. “If it was working our coverage and penetration ratio would be higher than the 10%. My observation is that most of the people who are covered are actually those employed in the formal sector. If you are a non-standard worker you cannot afford medical aid so I think this is probably the time we need to look at some kind of national health insurance. I think the need is there,” she says. The IPEC chief added that she is worried that even vulnerable groups like pensioners cannot afford medical cover. “You are covered for the 30 years that you are working because your employer is paying. The day that you leave your employment you cannot afford medical aid anymore. In fact, I think that your pension benefit is less than the cost of medical contribution so from day one when you are a pensioner you cannot be covered by medical aid,” she says. It is a bigger crisis. Many PWDs have bemoaned a plethora of challenges that hinder them access to insurance products and services. They say this level of exclusion from a key service turns them into second class citizens. In Zimbabwe there is life assurance, pensions and funeral assurance. Life assurance guarantees a normal life after retirement. Funeral assurance helps people prepare for a decent burial whereas a pension is a fund into which a sum of money is accumulated during an employee's employment to support them on retirement. The products are vital in the event of death, disability, serious illnesses and ot
