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The Judicial Conduct Committee was tasked with probing several complaints against Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, and also whether he had contravened the Code of Judicial Conduct.
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.
June 18: President Ndayishimiye sworn into office
\tBurundi has a new president in the person of Evariste Ndayishimiye who won May 20 elections as the country entered the post-Nkurunziza era.
June 15: Incoming president takes office June 18
\tBurundi will swear in president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye on Thursday, June 18; the AFP news agency reports citing an official source.
READ MORE: Pierre’s zigzag – Burundi’s cyclist, controversially sporty president
June 13: Incoming president eulogizes Nkurunziza
\tBurundi’s president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye today visited the presidency where he signed a book of condolence opened for the late president Pierre Nkurunziza.
June 12: Burundi court rules president-elect should be sworn in
\tBurundi’s should swear-in president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye as incumbent as soon as possible, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled today.
VIDEO
June 11: Burundi cabinet wants apex court to declare presidency vacant
\tBurundi will seek constitutional interpretation on how to proceed over the power vacuum created by the death of president Pierre Nkurunziza on June 8.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA ZANU PF has told Western countries, especially Britain and United States, “to shut up” and stop pontificating about democracy and human rights, adding that Britain and the US’s hands were historically dirty. Party acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa said Western countries could not lecture Zimbabwe on democracy when they were responsible for denying the people of Zimbabwe their freedom. “Zanu PF takes strong exception to being lectured on issues of human rights by citizens of countries which perpetrated the brutalities accompanying the Atlantic African Slave Trade and colonial conquest of Africa, and who refuse to render apologies or pay reparations,” Chinamasa said. Zimbabwe is under international spotlight over human rights violations, closing of the democratic space and clamping down on opposition political parties, resulting in the imposition of sanctions against top government figures. Chinamasa said this was a form of slavery and bullying by the Western powers, which were also yet to come clean on their role on slavery. “As a consequence of seeking to redress the brutalities that occurred in the colonisation of Zimbabwe, accompanied by dispossession of our land and brutal confiscation of livestock by colonialists, the country has suffered 20 years of naked bullying, economic isolation and severe sanctions regime by the former colonial powers now acting in concert as economic and political powers in support of what they allege are rights of 4 500 white former farmers,” he said. The British have since dismissed the letter brandished by Chinamasa at his Press conference as fake photoshop replete with errors, but Zanu PF insists it was genuine. Zanu PF also demanded that all Western countries which were involved in colonialism and slavery should pay compensation and offer apologies to those that they wronged. Chinamasa said instead the British found it worthwhile to compensate the slave owners instead of the slaves. “That at the time of abolition of the Atlantic African slave trade the British through the British Parliament approved and paid 20 million pounds to slave owners already rich through the labour of the slaves,” he said. Despite Chinamasa’s utterances, the Zanu PF-led government is pursuing re-engagement with the West after being left in the cold over alleged human rights violation. Chinamasa said sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe were unjustified and should be removed because there were an extension of slavery and colonialism.
China has pledged to supply any vaccine against Coronavirus to African first free of charge.
Five out of 10 potential vaccines undergoing clinical trials have been developed by Chinese scientists, while a sixth is the result of a partnership between a Chinese company and a German biotech firm, according to the World Health Organisation
\tChinese President Xi Jinping spoke to an online coronavirus forum with the leaders of several African nations on Thursday.
“We gathered here with our new and old friends through video to discuss anti-epidemic cooperation and cement China-Africa brotherhood,” said Xi in a speech on Wednesday aired on state media.
Xi added China would push the Group of 20 to slow down debt repayment for African nations and that China’s construction of a new Africa Center of Disease Control headquarters would start “ahead of schedule” this year, despite the pandemic.
State media reported China has sent 30 million testing kits, 10,000 ventilators 80 million masks monthly to Africa, in addition to teams of experts to help nations fight the coronavirus.
The 36-year-old left back announced his decision to quit professional football on social media on Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Former Indomitable Lions defender, Henri Bedimo Nsame, has officially retired from football.
The 36-year-old left back announced his decision to quit professional football on social media on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.
Bedimo played 447 professional football matches and scored 30 goals for club and country.
The former Cameroonian international began playing football in Grenoble, France in 1999 at the age of 15.
Bedimo had a bitter experience at Olympique Marseille where he was dismissed for having created and inaugurated a football academy in his home town, Douala, Cameroon in partnership with his former club, Montpellier.
In 1991, a multiracial forum led by de Klerk and Mandela, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), began working on a new constitution. In 1993, an interim constitution was passed, which dismantled apartheid and provided for a multiracial democracy with majority rule. The peaceful transition of South Africa from one of the worlds most repressive societies into a democracy is one of the 20th centurys most remarkable success stories. Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
The 1994 election, the countrys first multiracial one, resulted in a massive victory for Mandela and his ANC. The new government included six ministers from the National Party and three from the Inkatha Freedom Party. A new national constitution was approved and adopted in May 1996.
In 1997 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Desmond Tutu, began hearings regarding human rights violations between 1960 and 1993. The commission promised amnesty to those who confessed their crimes under the apartheid system. In 1998, F. W. de Klerk, P.W. Botha, and leaders of the ANC appeared before the commission, and the nation continued to grapple with its enlightened but often painful and divisive process of national recovery.
In September last year, Doudou Diene, chairman of the commission of inquiry set up by the UN on Burundi, said the country was primed for a genocide.
His commission, working with the UN Office for the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect, established risk factors in Burundi for criminal atrocities likely to lead to genocide.
We facilitated meetings with communities in Nairobi’s informal settlements, with Yves Niyiragira from Burundi and Leonie Abela from Democratic Republic of the Congo.
For instance, the identity of Niyiragira as a Hutu from Burundi and Abela Tutsi from the DRC confused Kenyans.
Burundi and Rwanda have several commonalities such as being the only two African countries who speak the same language—Kinyarwanda in Rwanda or Kirundi in Burundi.
Apartheid is an Afrikaans word that means separation. It is the name given to the particular racial-social ideology developed in South Africa during the twentieth century.
At its core, apartheid was all about racial segregation. It led to the political and economic discrimination which separated Black (or Bantu), Coloured (mixed race), Indian, and White South Africans.
What Led to Apartheid?
Racial segregation in South Africa began after the Boer War and really came into being in the early 1900s.
When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910 under British control, the Europeans in South Africa shaped the political structure of the new nation. Acts of discrimination were implemented from the very beginning.
It was not until the elections of 1948 that the word apartheid became common in South African politics. Through all of this, the white minority put various restrictions on the black majority. Eventually, the segregation affected Coloured and Indian citizens as well.
Over time, apartheid was divided into petty and grand apartheid. Petty apartheid referred to the visible segregation in South Africa while grand apartheid was used to describe the loss of political and land rights of black South Africans.
Before its end in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela, the years of apartheid were filled with many struggles and brutality. A few events hold great significance and are considered turning points in the development and the fall of apartheid.
What came to be known as pass laws restricted the movement of Africans and required them to carry a reference book. This held identification papers as well as permissions to be in certain regions. By the 1950s, the restriction became so great that every black South African was required to carry one.
In 1956, over 20,000 women of all races marched in protest. This was the time of passive protest, but that would soon change.
The Sharpeville Massacre on March 21, 1960, would be the turning point in apartheid. This too was a protest against the pass laws and a
Tunis/Tunisia — The National Coordination for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms denounced, on Monday, the increase in consular service fees for Tunisians abroad, calling on the Executive to reverse its decision.
The coordination considers \"unjustified\", this \"exorbitant\" increase in fees, noting that the State must ensure this type of services to its citizens, wherever they are,\" a statement said Monday.
Besides, the coordination which brings together a group of associations and organisations, active in the field of human rights defense has described as \"repressive\" the measures recently announced by the government and related in particular to the return of Tunisians abroad during the third phase of the opening plan.
In this regard, the coordination has called for a review of the measures of mandatory sanitary lockdown in hotels and has only requested proof of a negative COVID-19 test.
It also recommended that Tunisians returning from abroad should be subject to \"ordinary\" preventive measures.
Collaboration between politically connected Nigerians and Chinese corporations in illegal gold mining drives rural banditry and violent local conflicts in some parts of Nigeria.
The government's ban of artisanal gold mining in Zamfara State and across the region, and the deployment of soldiers to enforce the ban since April 2019, have yielded few results.
In April, four soldiers were killed by robbers in Zamfara State, and police arrested two Chinese nationals for illegal mining.
Even when the governors of Katsina, Niger and Zamfara states led negotiations with the sponsors of illegal mining, this was under conditions determined by the sponsors - showing the level of political connectedness and state protection they enjoy.
Those who sponsor illegal mining also fund banditry and cattle rustling in these communities
Some political 'godfathers' put pressure on the government to free Chinese nationals arrested for illegal mining in Zamfara State.
Ahead of the potential reopening, the Inter-religious Council and RGB have agreed upon various preventive measures meant to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
2) In addition, RGB has asked religious leaders to conduct an inventory of all houses of worship, their location, accommodation capacity in normal circumstances as well as the number of people they could accommodate in exercise of social distancing measures.
4) The Inter-religious Council has been tasked to select prayer houses that meet safety measures.
The Mufti of Rwanda, Sheikh Salim Hitimana, says that the children may be difficult to manage during prayer, which can lead to violation of Covid-19 safety measures.
According to a statement from RGB, the timeline for the reopening of places of worship is set to be determined by the readiness to combat the virus as well as the national preventive measures at the time.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the decision was arrived at following an assessment of compliance levels by the restaurants for the COVID-19 protocols.
\"With this extension, the restaurants will be required to continue to adhere to the protocols set out,\" Kagwe said on Tuesday, when he released new statistics for COVID-19 status in the country.
The new cases, announced Tuesday, raises the infections tally in Kenya to 3,860 by June 16.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the new cases were detected from 3,255 samples tested since Monday when the last update was given by Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe.
The infection cases have been on a sharp increase in the country lately, despite tough containment measures, which include a night curfew that starts at 9pm to 4 am, and cessation of movement in Nairobi, Mombasa and Mandera Counties which have recorded high infections.
[ICTJ] Tunis -- The Truth and Dignity Commission's (TDC) final report was at last published on June 24, six year after the TDC began its work. It marks an important milestone in Tunisia's transition, but the journey ahead to justice and democracy is a long one. The policymakers and practitioners leading the country's transitional justice process now have the responsibility to take the next step forward. Using the report's findings and recommendations, they must consult with civil society and the public to shape and adopt
Using her hairstyle and social media platforms, Zozibini Tunzi is calling out racism and challenging perceptions of beauty
Johannesburg - When Zozibini Tunzi marched in the Black Lives Matter protests in New York City, the latest Miss Universe kept thinking how young people in her native South Africa died fighting for the same cause 44 years ago.
\"South African students were marching against systemic racism,\" said Tunzi, 26, recalling the 1976 Soweto Uprising when tens of thousands of students protested against apartheid laws that segregated and controlled the black majority.
\"So many years later, that's still happening, not only in South Africa, but across the world,\" she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview from New York, where she is spending her year as Miss Universe.
As one of only a handful of black women to have won the title, Tunzi was intending to use her influence to challenge racism, inequality and perceptions of beauty even before the Black Lives Matter protests erupted in the United States.
Hair might seem a relatively trivial issue, but Tunzi recalled how in 2016, 13-year-old Zulaikha Patel led protests against a demand by her school that black students cut their natural afro hairstyles.
Below, Black community activists and their allies share how to turn your empathy into action in the wake of police brutality.
Now more than ever is the time to take action to support Black, Indigenous and other people of color ― even if you’ve been slow to get involved in the past.
(The group Perkal is involved with, Showing Up For Justice, is a perfect example of that: They’re a nonprofit that works to bring more white communities and people into multiracial, antiracist movements for justice.)
In the clip, Elliott asks an audience of mostly white people a very, very simple question: Would you want to be treated like a Black person in America?
“Then you can show up at the police precinct and let the chief of police know you are outraged by the treatment of Black people,” she said.
Many thought Africa would become the next high-risk area, but when COVID-19 eventually arrived on the continent, most of the dire predictions were way off.
Some point to Africa's relative youth: While nearly 95% of COVID-19 deaths in Europe were people over 60, Africa's median age is only 19, and 60% of the continent is under 25.
We also know that Africa CDC created its COVID-19 task force on February 5 , before the continent had a single case.
We know that Rwanda became the first African nation to lock down on March 21st and that many other African countries soon followed: South Africa implemented its comprehensive lockdown when it had only 400 cases and two fatalities.
It's widely agreed that South Africa's strict lockdown bought critical time to prepare health systems and flattened the COVID-19 curve.
