Month: May 2023

Burundi reaffirmed its “neutrality” on the conflict in Ukraine on Tuesday, saying that “no one can win this war”, during a visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

In February, Burundi, an African country in the Great Lakes region, abstained from voting on the latest UN General Assembly resolution calling on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.

In all, 22 of the 54 member states of the African Union abstained or took no part in the vote, and two countries – Eritrea and Mali – voted against.

“We have taken an abstentionist position, a position of neutrality, of non-alignment to prevent this conflict from reaching other regions, notably Africa, we need to mitigate the impact of this conflict, and this is the position of most African countries on this issue,” said Albert Shingiro, Burundi’s Foreign Minister, at a press conference in Bujumbura, in the presence of his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

“There is no one who can win this war,” Mr. Shingiro also asserted.

“We highly appreciate Burundi’s balanced and responsible position, and above all the fact that Burundi understands the root causes of this conflict,” said Sergei Lavrov, continuing: “We also talked about the need to reform the UN Security Council, and the fact that Africa is not sufficiently represented.”

Mr. Lavrov’s visit to Kenya on Monday follows a trip by his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kouleba to several African countries, including Ethiopia and Rwanda, last week.

Moscow and Kiev are seeking to increase their respective influence on the African continent.

Mr. Lavrov has already visited Africa twice since the start of the war in Ukraine at the end of February 2022, on tours of several countries.

For his part, Mr. Kouleba last week called on some of the continent’s countries to end their “neutrality” on the war in Ukraine, and also said he wanted to strengthen Kiev’s ties with a continent with a population of 1.3 billion, notably by announcing the opening of new embassies.

Russia’s ties with African countries date back to the Cold War, when the Soviet Union presented itself as a fighter against imperialism.

A Russia-Africa summit, the second of its kind, is scheduled for July 26-29 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Seven people have died after consuming adulterated alcohol in Meknes, central Morocco, Moroccan news agency MAP reported on Tuesday, adding that police have arrested two suspects.

An investigation was launched after seven people died after consuming adulterated alcohol suspected of having been purchased from a grocery shop, a police source in the city of Meknes told MAP, adding that an eighth person was intoxicated.

Investigations led to the arrest of a 67-year-old shopkeeper and his 17-year-old apprentice, suspected of possessing and selling adulterated alcoholic products that had caused the death of consumers, according to the same source.

The police also seized around ten empty bottles containing medical alcohol “which caused the death of the victims”.

This is not the first time such a tragedy has occurred in Morocco, but also in Tunisia and Algeria.

A total of 19 people died last September in Ksar El Kebir, a town in the north of the kingdom, after consuming adulterated alcohol.

In July 2021, around twenty people died after drinking adulterated alcohol in Oujda, in eastern Morocco.

In theory, Moroccan law prohibits the sale of alcohol to Muslims – 99% of the population of Morocco, where Islam is the state religion.

In practice, however, alcohol is readily available in bars, restaurants, and licensed shops, which sell it behind opaque glass or thick curtains.

About 40 people, including army auxiliaries, were killed last weekend in western Burkina Faso, during two attacks by suspected jihadists, security and local sources told Africanewsguru.com on Tuesday.

On Saturday, “a secure convoy” was “the target of an attack by armed men” near Bourasso, informs a press release from the governorate of the Boucle du Mouhoun region, near Mali.

“This attack caused the death of about twenty people, mainly VDP (Volunteers for the defense of the homeland, civilian auxiliaries of the army),” said a local official who requested anonymity.

The governorate of Boucle du Mouhoun, which does not mention any deaths, mentions for its part “18 combatants wounded” and “currently supported”.

Confirming the attack, a security source said that “air support deployed after the ambush detected and neutralized around thirty terrorists”, northeast of Bourassa.

On Sunday, “another group (of presumed jihadists) attacked the populations of Ouakara, still in the Boucle du Mouhoun region, causing innocent victims among the inhabitants”, continued this same source, specifying that ” operations are underway to secure the populations”.

“We recorded about twenty people killed by the attackers who burst into the village of Ouakara”, located about 100 km from Bourasso, a resident told Africanewsguru.com, adding that “the balance sheet is provisional”.

“Since yesterday (Monday), several people have left the village to go to Nouna or Dédougou, because the terrorists gave a 72-hour ultimatum to empty the village”, indicated this resident.

In recent weeks, violent attacks have multiplied in the region of Boucle du Mouhoun, bordering Mali.

Burkina, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence that appeared in Mali and Niger a few years earlier and which has spread beyond their borders.

The violence over the past seven years has killed more than 10,000 civilians and soldiers, according to NGOs, and more than two million internally displaced persons.

A Sudanese diplomatic source announced on Wednesday that the army had suspended talks with rival paramilitary force, RSF, over a ceasefire and access to aid.

Since April 15th that fighting has erupted in Sudan between government forces and paramilitary group, Rapid Support Forces.

In early May negotiations produced a declaration of commitments to protect civilians and two short-term ceasefire deals, although these suffered repeated violations.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia where talks are taking place, a government official accused the paramilitary forces of repeated violations of previous ceasefires.

Despite the extension of a previous ceasefire, fighting resumed on Tuesday in the capital, Khartoum, and in the Darfur region.

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council meets this Wednesday at the headquarters in Addis Ababa to discuss the next steps regarding the situation in Sudan, including the implementation of the AU roadmap for the resolution of the conflict.

At least 17 people were killed by extremist rebels in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province, local authorities said.

Civilians were killed by fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces — believed to be linked with the Islamic State group — in the Bambuba-kisiki area in Beni territory, said Sabiti Njiamoja, a deputy to the local governor, on Monday.

“We buried 10 bodies on Sunday. The victims are civilians killed by ADF between Thursday and Friday in Kainana. Seven others were found on Monday,” he said.

Conflict has been simmering for decades in eastern Congo, where more than 120 armed groups are fighting. Most are vying for land and control of mines with valuable minerals, while some groups are trying to protect their communities.

Since last April, ADF attacks have killed at least 370 civilians and several hundred people have been abducted, including a significant number of children, according to the UN. The group also extended its area of operations to Goma and into the neighboring Ituri province.

In March, the group claimed responsibility for killing more than 35 people and wounding dozens in Mukondi village, also in North Kivu province.

The fighting is exacerbating eastern Congo’s dire humanitarian crisis. Almost 6 million people are internally displaced in Congo with more than 450,000 displaced in North Kivu province. Hundreds of thousands are facing extreme food insecurity, and disease is spreading, aid groups say.

Libya’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned an attack on its embassy in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, whose buildings were ransacked and looted.

Tripoli “denounced the assault and looting” of the Libyan embassy building in Khartoum, whose staff had been evacuated due to the violence, according to a ministry statement.

Expressing its “deep regret and displeasure” at such acts, the Libyan ministry “calls on the parties to the conflict in Sudan to reject violence and to protect diplomatic representations”, in the spirit of the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations between States, which “stipulates the obligation to protect embassies and diplomatic missions”.

In its statement, Libya stressed its “attachment” to the stability of Sudan and its people, but reiterated its condemnation of the attacks on the headquarters of diplomatic missions in the Sudanese capital.

Last Thursday, the Libyan ministry deplored an attack on the offices of the Libyan military attaché in Khartoum, calling for those responsible for this “criminal act” to be “identified and prosecuted”.

Several countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have deplored attacks on and looting of their embassies in Khartoum.

The last group of Libyan nationals was evacuated from Sudan on 13 May, according to the Libyan embassy in Khartoum.

A first group of 105 people had been evacuated to Jeddah on 24 April by the Saudi navy from Port Sudan, before being repatriated to Libya by a national airline.

In Sudan on Tuesday, fighting continued between the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, despite the extension of a truce intended to allow the delivery of vital humanitarian aid to a country on the brink of famine.

The war, which began on 15 April, has already claimed more than 1,800 lives, according to the NGO ACLED, and almost one and a half million displaced persons and refugees, according to the UN.