Month: November 2020

Award-winning Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was charged on Friday with obstructing justice and ordered held in a maximum-security prison.
Chin’ono is accused of breaching his bail conditions by tweeting about the court outcome of a gold smuggling scandal despite a ban on him posting on Twitter.
He had initially been arrested in July on charges of inciting public violence before planned anti-government protests but was freed in September on bail.

The 49-year-old, who was arrested again on Tuesday, arrived at the Harare magistrate’s court in leg irons and handcuffs, where he was charged with obstructing justice and contempt of court for the tweet.
His latest detention is linked to the arrest of Zimbabwe Miners Federation head Henrietta Rushwaya at Harare Airport on October 26 as she was about to board a flight to Dubai with six kilos (13 pounds) of gold in her hand luggage.
In a tweet, Chin’ono said he had talked to prosecutors about Rushwaya, an act which the state said had jeopardised “the integrity of the case against himself and that of Rushwaya”.

Harare magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa ordered that Chin’ono be detained at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, which houses convicted criminals on death row or serving life terms.
His legal team said his case should not be heard by a Special Anti-Corruption Court as it did not involve graft, and said the new detention conditions threatened their client’s welfare.
Why is he being kept together with most- dangerous criminals in D Section when he is not a dangerous criminal? lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa asked.
Why is he being brought to court in leg irons and handcuffs, yet he should be at remand prison
Chin’ono had initially been detained for 45 days for inciting public violence before planned demonstrations against corruption and deteriorating living standards that were thwarted by a heavy deployment of police and soldiers.
Praised for his investigative journalism, he helped expose a multimillion-dollar scandal involving the procurement of coronavirus supplies in May.
He is scheduled to be back in court on Monday, when he is expected to apply for bail. Africanewsguru update.

Dozens of protesters took to the streets of Nigeria’s capital Abuja calling out police abuse, activists said, two weeks after the unrest over the issue rocked the country.
Activists reported that four protesters were arrested on Friday.

Footage on social media showed a small crowd taking to the streets to try to keep up pressure on the authorities after a bloody crackdown helped stamp out demonstrations last month.
Four of our members were arrested this morning in front of the National Assembly,” rights activist Deji Adeyanju gave the report while addressing the newsmen.
Youth-led protests against police brutality erupted early last month after a video that purportedly showed a federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operative killing a man was shared online.

After days of demonstrations, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government agreed to disband SARS, but the protests persisted with demands of sweeping reforms of police forces and action against corruption.
Amnesty International estimated that 56 people died across the country, including a dozen peaceful protesters gunned down by security forces in the heart of Nigeria’s biggest city Lagos.
Authorities denied any responsibility for the killing of demonstrators.
That bloodshed unleashed days of chaos and looting in a string of cities.
Demonstrations have since stopped. But activist Deji Adeyanju insisted the “#EndSARS” protests will continue until demands for an overhaul are met.
Government opponent Omoyele Sowore said Friday’s arrests showed the police will never learn. Africanewsguru update.

In the early hours of Wednesday a Facebook post by the Office of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed seemed to indicate that several months of growing tension between the federal government and the country’s northern Tigray regional state had reached a tipping point.

The Facebook post accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of an unprovoked attack on the Ethiopian army’s northern command of trying to loot its weapons. In response, the prime minister said he had ordered military operations against what it called “a treacherous” group.
The TPLF, meanwhile, has accused Abiy’s administration of trying to destroy Tigray’s right to self-determination and conspiring with Ethiopia’s northern neighbour Eritrea to stage a military attack.
On Thursday, Tigray regional president Debretsion Gebremichael said the region has gained control of all the heavy weaponry of the northern command and that the division’s leadership and rank and file had decided to side with Tigray, an allegation denied by the federal government.
Martin Plaut, a former BBC Africa editor and a longtime observer of politics in the Horn of Africa said despite long-standing tensions between the two sides, there were two main reasons why a conflict broke out this week.

PM Abiy gradually eroded the system of ethnic federalism that the TPLF had built under PM Meles (who died in 2012),” Plaut reported. “This threatened their hold over the Tigray region. The TPLF resisted, holding elections on 9 September this year, despite PM Abiy banning this show of regional autonomy.
Secondly, PM Abiy mended fences with Eritrea, Ethiopia’s northern neighbour which borders directly on Tigray. Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki has a long-standing animosity towards the TPLF. The Tigrayans were threatened with a pincer movement from south and north and have effectively seized control of their region.”
Although the TPLF governs Tigray it acts as an opposition party at the federal level, with Abiy’s Prosperity Party (PP), which was formed late in 2019 controlling the central government and the country’s nine remaining regional states.
With telephone and internet communications lines cut in Tigray, many Ethiopians and analysts are relying on media outlets owned by the federal government and the Tigray regional government as well as social media posts of partisan bloggers for information.
Tsedale Lemma, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Addis Standard, an English publication that reports on domestic and foreign current affairs, agrees politics is behind the escalation between the federal government and Tigray regional state but says the flare-up was precipitated by differences over military appointments.
Kjetil Tronvoll, a professor of peace and conflict studies at Bjorknes College in Norway and a keen observer of Ethiopian politics for 30 years, says the establishment of PP from the ashes of the ruling coalition Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and TPLF’s refusal to enter a centralised party system had fed mutual animosity, on top of tensions that had been festering since Abiy came to power in April 2018.
This mutual animosity deepened when the PP-dominated federal legislature postponed national elections slated for last August citing the risks from COVID-19, while the Tigray regional administration, which opposed the move, held its own election in defiance of federal government warnings.
Although the scant information coming out of the front lines around Tigray suggest the military skirmishes have been limited, many Ethiopians are worried the country could be entering into a phase of destructive civil war reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s.
Plaut, while not discounting this possibility, says a full-fledged civil war is not inevitable.
“This could be the start of a civil war, but that is not certain,” he said. “The situation in Tigray is one of many crises in the country, but could intensify, drawing in other Ethiopian regions, while also threatening neighbouring Sudan and Eritrea.”
While Lemma agrees a full-fledged civil war is not inevitable, she says it is a “real possibility” and one that could endanger the very territorial integrity of Ethiopia.
To assert it could be the beginning of a civil war depends on whether or not both parties heed the growing international calls to de-escalate the current standoff and tension,” she said. “But I can say both have passed the phase of mutual brinkmanship and that should worry us all.
The possibility of Ethiopia breaking apart is real, but the final verdict depends on two critical outcomes of the current standoff. First, if the parties opt for a conventional war; and second, absent that, if they refused to conduct a serious dialogue and power bargain as a peaceful way out and continue maintaining a tense status quo.
Tronvoll notes the crisis would be difficult to solve through military means.
“I don’t think any side can militarily annihilate the other side, it’s likely instead it could turn into an unnecessary protracted conflict which in the end would need to find a political solution,” he said.
While the federal government and TPLF seem to be inching towards war, with the world distracted by other events including the US presidential election, there are calls domestically and internationally for both sides to show restraint.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on the Ethiopian federal government to restore communications in Tigray, while there are reports of behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict.
For now, many Ethiopians regardless of their political motivation are looking on helplessly, fearful their country is drifting inexorably towards civil war. Africanewsguru update.

Tanzania’s populist President John Magufuli has been sworn into office for a second five-year term amid tight security by the police and the army.
The swearing-in on Thursday came despite the opposition calling for a fresh election, the disbandment of the electoral commission and an “endless peaceful demonstration” over the October 28 vote.
Magufuli over the weekend said he would not pursue another term amid concerns that the governing party, which won nearly all parliament seats, might try to extend the presidency’s two-term limit.

Ahead of the swearing-in, leaders of Tanzania’s two main opposition parties, ACT Wazalendo and CHADEMA, were charged with organising unlawful assembly and demonstration.
The opposition alleges the October 28 election was riddled with irregularities.
Magufuli received 12.5 million – or 85 percent – of the total votes polled, while his main challenger, CHADEMA’S Tundu Lissu, got 1.9 million or 13 percent, the electoral commission said.

After the landslide results were announced, CHADEMA and fellow opposition party ACT Wazalendo called for new elections and mass protests.
But police swiftly arrested the parties’ leaders, while a heavy security presence deterred potential protesters and the demonstrations never took place.
CHADEMA’s Tundu Lissu, ACT Wazalendo’s leader Zitto Kabwe, and several other opposition leaders were arrested this week.
Kabwe had called for a panel of African leaders to investigate “large-scale irregularities” during the polls.
Several nations, including the United States, noted credible allegations that call the vote’s results – and the country’s democratic ideals – into question. Few international observers were allowed to watch the vote.
Magufuli’s CCM party, a version of which has held power in Tanzania since independence from Britain in 1961, has also retained power in the semi-autonomous Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar with 76 percent of the vote. Africanewsguru update.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have once again failed to agree on a new negotiating approach to resolve their years-long dispute over the controversial dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile River.
In late October, the three African nations resumed virtual talks over the filling and operation of the $4bn Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) project, which broke ground in 2011.

The renewed talks followed US President Donald Trump’s comments in which he said downstream Egypt could end up “blowing up” the project, which Cairo has called an existential threat. The remarks angered Ethiopia.
Foreign and irrigation ministers of the three nations met last week and delegated experts from their countries to discuss and agree on an approach so the talks could be fruitful.
But differences remained and Wednesday’s meeting failed to bridge the gaps, said Mohammed el-Sebaei, Egypt’s Irrigation Ministry spokesman.
Sudan’s water ministry said in a statement: “Water ministers of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia agreed to end this round of negotiations over Ethiopia’s Nile dam.”

“This round failed to make any tangible progress,” the statement read.
Sudan’s Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said the talks did not achieve concrete progress and that Egypt opposed a Sudanese proposal supported by Ethiopia to maximise the role of the African Union (AU) experts.
Ethiopia said the countries “were unable to reach a complete agreement” on items such as the “basis for the upcoming negotiation and the time frame”.
It said they would turn to the chair of the AU Executive Council and South Africa’s foreign minister “to consult on the next steps”.
Multiple rounds of talks have over the years failed to produce an agreement on the filling and operation of the vast reservoir behind the 145-metre (475-foot) tall hydropower barrage.
Ethiopia rejects binding arbitration at the final stage of the project.
El-Sebaei, the Egyptian spokesman, said the three countries would separately report their positions to South Africa, which heads the AU.

Ethiopia is building the dam on the Blue Nile, which joins the White Nile in Sudan to become the Nile river – the world’s longest and a lifeline supplying water and electricity to the 10 countries it traverses.
About 85 percent of the river’s flow originates from Ethiopia, whose officials hope the dam, now more than three-quarters complete, will reach full power-generating capacity in 2023.
Ethiopia views the project as essential for its electrification and development and insists that the flow of water downstream will not be affected.
In July, Addis Ababa declared that it reached its first-year target for filling the reservoir of the mega-dam, which can hold 74 billion cubic metres (2,600 billion cubic feet) of water.
But Egypt and Sudan have expressed concerns the dam will reduce the flow of the Nile waters to their countries.
Egypt relies heavily on the Nile to supply water for its agriculture and to its more than 100 million people, while Sudan warned that millions of lives would be at “great risk” if Ethiopia unilaterally fills the dam.
On Wednesday, Sudan said it “cannot keep negotiating without an end and must guarantee the safety of its water installations”.
Sudan and Egypt have long called for a political solution to the dispute, rejecting any unilateral action by Ethiopia. Africanewsguru update.

Several teachers have been kidnapped from a school in a western Cameroon region gripped by years of armed uprising by anglophone separatists, a local teachers’ union reported.
Armed men raided the local presbyterian primary and secondary school in Kumbo, taking away 11 teachers, said Reverend Samuel Fonki, head of the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, and Stephen Afuh, head of a presbyterian teachers’ union called PEATTU.

A local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that six teachers had been kidnapped.
There was no immediate response from the armed forces or government on the latest incident.
The abduction came on the heels of the killing of eight schoolchildren in Kumba in the neighbouring Southwest Region last month, which the government blamed on the separatists.
In that attack, the government in Yaounde described the armed men as separatists scaring off parents from sending their children to school. No group has claimed responsibility for the killings so far.
In October 2017, anglophone fighters declared an independent state in the Northwest Region and Southwest Region, home to the most of the anglophone minority in the majority French-speaking country.
The declaration, which has not been recognised internationally, sparked a brutal conflict with the country’s security forces.
More than 3,000 people have been killed and 700,000 fled their homes. Rights groups say crimes and abuses have been committed by both sides.
Schools and other institutions representing the Cameroonian state have been repeatedly targeted for attacks and kidnappings, often for ransom.
In November 2019, the UN children’s fund, UNICEF, estimated that 855,000 children were without schooling in the two anglophone regions.
About 90 percent of the country’s primary schools and 77 percent of secondary schools were either closed or non-operational at that time.
Anglophones account for about four million of Cameroon’s 23 million population. Their presence is explained by the decolonisation process in West Africa some 60 years ago.
In 1961, the Southern Cameroons, a British-ruled territory, voted to join the newly independent former French colony of Cameroon. The Northern Cameroons joined Nigeria.
There have been decades-long resentment among anglophones in Cameroon at perceived discrimination in education, economy and law.
Demands by moderates for reform and greater autonomy were rejected by the central government, leading to the declaration of independence by the hardline separatists. Africanewsguru update.

Security forces in Ivory Coast have surrounded the homes of opposition leaders after they rejected President Alassane Ouattara’s re-election and pledged to set up a “transitional government.
Ouattara, 78, won by a landslide in Saturday’s vote, which was boycotted by the opposition who said the incumbent’s bid for a third term was unconstitutional. While Ivory Coast has a limit of two presidential terms, Ouattara has insisted the new constitution approved in 2016 allowed him to run again.

On Tuesday, hours after Ouattara was declared the winner of the presidential election, with more than 94 percent of the vote, Justice Minister Sansan Kambile accused the opposition of acts of assault and plotting against the authority of the state.
The public prosecutor has been asked to investigate, Kambile said, warning that all options are on the table.
Opposition leader Pascal Affi N’Guessan had told reporters late on Monday that opposition parties and groups were forming a “council of national transition”.
“This council’s mission will be to create a transitional government within the next few hours to prepare the framework for a fair, transparent and inclusive presidential election,” N’Guessan said.
He added that the “transitional council” would be led by Henri Konan Bedie, 86, a former president and long-term adversary of Ouattara.

He warned that keeping Mr Ouattara as head of state could lead to civil war.
In Abidjan, the economic capital, security forces on Tuesday blocked off roads close to Bedie’s home, said by a journalist reporter.
The forces fired tear gas to disperse small groups of supporters and journalists outside, preventing the staging of a news conference. Then, they entered Bedie’s home.
Bedie’s deputy Maurice Kakou Guikahue was taken away by police, according to several journalists at the scene.
But sources close to the government said that Guikahue was not arrested, instead he was taken back to his home.
Two other opposition figures reported that their homes were being guarded by police.
I am at home, there are 12 officers in the street in front of my house and a police van around the back,” said Assoa Adou, secretary-general of the opposition Ivorian Popular Front.

“I’m fine, but it’s the blockade. We cannot leave my home,” said Albert Abdallah Mabri Toikeusse of the small UDPCI party.
Police were also outside N’Guessan’s home, his spokesman Issiaka Sangare said.

In Daoukro, an opposition stronghold 235km (146 miles) north of Abidjan, anti-Ouattara protesters were manning barricades.
“These results are a farce,” said one, who gave his name as Firmin. “We are going to carry on with civil disobedience until Ouattara steps down.”
At least 30 people were killed in the weeks leading to the vote, bringing back fears of a crisis a decade ago that tore the country apart and dealt it a devastating economic blow. Some 3,000 people died in the 2010-2011 post-election violence after then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by Ouattara.
“Ouattara’s supporters are ecstatic. For the opposition supporters, this is not what they wanted and they say they are going to resist it. And for the rest of Ivory Coast, this result means more tension. There are concerns things could deteriorate in the coming days,” Idris said.
In a joint statement, the UN, African Union and Economic Community of West African States regional bloc called on Ivory Coast’s opposition to “respect constitutional order” and seek dialogue, while urging all sides to show “restraint to preserve human lives”.
European Union diplomacy chief Josep Borrell, meanwhile, expressed “deep concern over tensions, provocations and incitements to hatred” and called for violence to be “independently investigated”.
A mission from the US watchdog Carter Center said that “the overall context and process did not allow for a genuinely competitive election,” but an African Union observer team said the vote was “generally satisfactory”.
Ouattara had said after his second term he planned to make way for a new generation. But the sudden death of his chosen successor in July prompted him to seek a third term. Africanewsguru update.

Dozens of people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Mozambique last week when their boat capsized as they fled from unrest in the country’s insurgency-hit north.
Rescue workers reported on Tuesday that the tragedy started coming to light after some 20 survivors managed to swim to Pemba beach on Monday. About 50 are still missing.

The wreck was last Thursday but we only found out yesterday when the survivors arrived in the Paquitequete neighbourhood in Pemba and narrated what happened,” Taibo Ali, a volunteer helping the survivors find shelter. Reported.
“Some people managed to swim using jerrycans as a float. But there were only a few people just to tell the story.
“One survivor said she lost an 11-year-old son and the body has not yet been recovered.”
Amade Abubacar, a journalist based in Pemba, said that according to the survivors, the boat was carrying around 70 people and only about 20 survived.
Police spokesman Ernesto Madungue said that the incident was not yet confirmed.
“I interacted with colleagues from the coastal police who still have no confirmation,” said Madungue. “We are waiting for the investigation.”
An armed uprising has wreaked havoc in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province over the past three years, targeting villages and towns.

With the recent intensification of attacks in the districts of Central and North Cabo Delgado, thousands of people have left their villages to seek refuge in safer areas towards the south.
Violent attacks in Cabo Delgado have triggered a humanitarian crisis, with more than 300,000 internally displaced people and 712,000 in need of humanitarian assistance, according to an Amnesty International report released last month.
The roadside attacks that began in 2017 have left people with no option but to be transported on boats, without life jackets, on long journeys on the high seas that take about four days on average.
About 100,000 of the displaced people have sought refuge in and around Pemba in temporary shelters, such as school buildings, or with host families, increasing by one third the city’s inhabitants, according to a statement released by Doctors Without Borders on Tuesday.
“Approximately 10,000 displaced people arrived by boat to the provincial capital of Pemba last week alone,” said MSF coordinator in Cabo Delgado, Joaquim Guinart.
They were dehydrated. Women gave birth at sea. There have been cases of severe, potentially fatal diarrhoea. More will continue to come. Africanewsguru update.

Abidjan, Ivory Coast – As the plates of grilled chicken were left untouched, Abdoulaye Kouame decided to lock up his restaurant early.
“All we want is a leader that can ensure peace and stability,” the 32-year-old chef said as he closed up. “If we can get someone to continue the path the country’s on, things will be fine.”
As the first results from Ivory Coast’s October 31 election continued to trickle in late on Monday, the streets in Cocody – an upscale neighbourhood of the commercial capital, Abidjan – were eerily empty.

Initial results showed President Alassane Ouattara was heading for a landslide victory in a tense vote that was marred by deadly violence before and after the polls opened on Saturday.
Opposition leaders had called on supporters to boycott the electoral process, saying Ouattara’s bid for a third term was unconstitutional. While Ivory Coast has a limit of two presidential terms, Ouattara insists a new constitution in 2016 allows him to run again.

At least nine people were killed in clashes between political supporters and protesters and security forces on election day, according to local authorities. Some 30 people were reported killed in pre-election violence. The government said it had deployed more than 35,000 security forces across the country to secure the vote.
The volatile security situation deterred many voters from casting their ballots. Voting did not take place in 23 percent of polling stations, according to the non-profit Indigo Cote d’Ivoire, which deployed 700 observers across the country on election day.
The opposition candidates who boycotted the vote – ex-President Henri Konan Bedie and former Prime Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan – said on Monday that they did not recognise Ouattara’s victory. N’Guessan said late on Monday that a group of political opposition parties had formed a national transition council. An interim government would be named within the next hours to prepare for a new election, he added.

The high tensions surrounding the vote have raised concerns about the continued stability of the world’s top cocoa producer, a country still recovering from months of post-election violence in 2010 and 2011 that killed some 3,000 people. Initial reports of a low voter turnout – particularly in opposition strongholds where political supporters disrupted the process by destroying voting materials and preventing polling stations from opening – further raises concerns over the credibility of Ouattara’s continued rule.
The Carter Center said in a report that the political context did not allow for a “competitive and credible” election. Of the 44 presidential aspirants, 40 were disqualified. The opposition’s call for a boycott, acts of violence and the fact that several candidates did not participate fully in the election “risked the acceptance of the results by the population and the stability of the country”, the report added.
Aminata Bamba, a 38-year-old trader in Yopougon, a populous neighbourhood in Abidjan, said the election was important so that Ivory Coast could “move forward”.
“If there’s peace, there will also be progress,” she said.
Drissa Tiote, a 37-year-old mechanic and Ouattara supporter, said, “The president is working for the Ivorians. If he’s in power, there will be stability and growth.”
Under Ouattara, Ivory Coast has rebuilt its economy over the past decade through large-scale infrastructure and agriculture projects. Growth averaged more than seven percent during Ouattara’s first two terms, before the coronavirus pandemic pumped the brakes on the economy this year.
But despite the skyrocketing growth rates, the government’s focus on infrastructure projects – mainly in Abidjan – has frustrated many Ivorians who feel left out.
Others are clearly “offended” by Ouattara’s bid for a third five-year term, and the president will have to tread carefully to not plunge the country into another crisis should he win another term, said Flan Moquet, a political analyst and director of the Abidjan-based Center for Political Research.
“There’s not only the issue of voter participation that remains important for the legitimacy of the vote and Ouattara’s third mandate, but also the fact that a large part of the population feel left out of this vote,” Moquet said.
This will determine how an eventual winner is received, particularly by those who didn’t participate in the vote either due to the opposition’s call for a boycott or [due to] the fact that their candidate wasn’t even on their ballot,” he added.
An African Union observer mission urged both sides to engage in talks to ensure stability in the post-election period. Ouattara looked set for a landslide victory, having been named the winner in all constituencies announced by the electoral commission late on Monday and having garnered at least 90 percent of the vote in most constituencies.
A clear victory for the incumbent could calm tensions in the long-term, said Sylvain N’Guessan, a political analyst and director of the Abidjan Strategy Institute. However, he added, We’re likely to see an increase in violent incidents in the days to come as those figures are scrutinised by the opposition. Africanewsguru update.