Month: June 2023

Amnesty International said on Thursday it had counted 23 dead in the unrest that shook Senegal last week, more than the official toll of the authorities, and demanded an independent investigation.

Senegal was plagued from June 1 to 3 with its worst troubles for years after the condemnation of opponent Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison in a sex scandal. The announcement of the sentence sparked violence which officially claimed 16 lives.

The court decision makes, in the current state, ineligible for the presidential election of February 2024 a personality popular in youth and underprivileged circles.

Through 18 interviews, authenticated videos and death certificates and autopsy reports attesting to gunshot wounds, Amnesty gives an increasing human toll and denounces excessive use of force as well as attacks on the freedom of expression and information.

“Almost 23 dead, according to our figures, including several by bullets, were recorded between Dakar and Ziguinchor” (south), Amnesty said in a press release. Three were minors, the NGO said.

Bassirou Sarr, 31, in Dakar, Fallou Sall, 25, and Ousmane Badio, 17, all three died as a result of gunshots, reveal testimonies from their relatives collected by Amnesty.

For its part, Mr. Sonko’s party, Pastef, reported Thursday 26 deaths through the voice of its spokesperson, El Malick Ndiaye, reported the information site Dakaractu .

Amnesty says it has noted, in videos it has analyzed, the presence, alongside the police, of armed men in civilian clothes who violently attack demonstrators.

“The State must not allow the presence of individuals not identified as part of the security forces for law enforcement operations, nor the use of force. These are clear violations of international law ” said Seydi Gassama, executive director of Amnesty Senegal, in the statement.

The organization denounces attacks on freedom of expression. The authorities suspended access to popular social networks and internet access via mobile phones for several days.

Asked by Africanewsguru.com, the government did not react. He previously justified the use of force by the need to restore order in the face of what he presented as an attempt to destabilize the state, including by armed men.

Prior to Amnesty, Human Rights Watch also criticized the authorities’ response to the unrest and called for an investigation.

The authorities have banned two opposition marches scheduled for Friday and Saturday against President Macky Sall, the first for non-compliance with the deadlines for requesting authorization, the second for risk of disturbing public order, the prefecture said.

Concern is widespread of a new conflagration. It is fueled by uncertainties about the fate of Mr. Sonko, likely to be arrested after his conviction, and whether or not the president will run for a third term.

Mr. Sonko is generally presented as not being able to appeal his sentence. The young woman who had filed a complaint against him for rape, charges finally reclassified as “corruption” of a person under 23, appealed the verdict, said one of his lawyers, Me El Hadji Diouf.

The positions of the lawyers diverge as to the consequences of this appeal and the possibility of a new trial.

South African firefighters sang and danced at an airport in Edmonton, Canada, after arriving to help in fighting wildfires in the province of Alberta. The team of 200 firefighters and 15 managers from South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment’s Working on Fire Programme is expected to stay for several weeks to help battle the blazes.

This comes as larger and more powerful wildfires than ever have scorched millions of hectares of Canadian forests and displaced tens of thousands of residents. With so many fires out of control and no relief in sight, the nation is facing a logistical nightmare.

After an early start, it is on course to be the worst wildfire season on record as hot, dry conditions are forecast to continue through August.

“The distribution of fires from coast to coast this year is unusual,” said Michael Norton, an official with Canada’s Natural Resources ministry. “At this time of year, fires usually occur only on one side of the country at a time, most often in the West.”

But in the last month fires have erupted in almost every province across Canada.

As a consequence, Canada has had to juggle resources and call in reinforcements from abroad, including more than 1,000 firefighters from Australia, the United States, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Spain and Portugal.

In a typical year, about 7,500 wildfires burn more than 2.5 million hectares of forests in Canada. So far this year, 2,293 fires have already burned more than 3.8 million hectares. The amount of burned forest area is projected to double by 2050.

Franco-Algerian striker Karim Benzema has officially joined Saudi Arabian champions Al-Ittihad.

Benzema, winner of the 2022 Golden Ball, has signed a 3-year contract and will earn more than 50 million dollars per season.

On Tuesday, he received a final tribute from Real Madrid, the club he played for for 14 years and with whom he won 25 trophies, including 5 Champions Leagues.

“It was my only dream: to sign for Real Madrid, and I wanted to end my career at Real Madrid, but life gives you another chance sometimes and I’ve decided to do this with my family. But Real Madrid will always be my family. It’s time for me to leave and experience a different story, but what I’ve done here at Real Madrid will always be the most important thing for me. I wanted this ever since I was a little kid. And like I said the first day I arrived here: 1, 2, 3, hala Madrid! I’m going to say it again: 1, 2, 3, hala Madrid!”, cheered former Real Madrid striker, Karim Benzema.

In Saudi Arabia, Benzema will be reunited with his former team-mate in Spain, Cristiano Ronaldo, who is wearing the colours of rivals Al-Nassr.

Benzema will be wearing the yellow and black colours of Al-Ittihad, the kingdom’s most popular club.

The striker will form a formidable attacking pair with Moroccan Abderrazak Hamdallah, top scorer in the last championship, under the direction of Portuguese coach, Nuno Espirito Santo from São Tomé e Príncipe.

Al-Ittihad, champions for the ninth time in their history, could soon be welcoming other top players such as Chelsea’s French-Malian midfielder Ngolo Kanté.

Algeria, Sierra Leone, Guyana and South Korea were elected unchallenged on Tuesday to sit on the UN Security Council in 2024-25, while Slovenia handily beat Belarus for the only contested seat.

The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members, including five permanent members (United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom ) and ten countries elected for two years, half renewed each year, and respecting rules geographical distribution.

In the secret ballot vote in the General Assembly, Slovenia – competing with Belarus for the seat going to Eastern Europe – obtained 153 votes, against 38 in Belarus.

“Today’s vote in the General Assembly shows why a competition for UN elections is essential,” commented Louis Charbonneau of Human Rights Watch.

“UN member states have undoubtedly decided that Belarus’ grave human rights violations at home and attempts to cover up Russian atrocities in Ukraine disqualify it from serving on the Security Council, a crucial body for ensuring human rights. humans,” he added.

The other four seats to be filled, held by representatives from Africa, Asia -Pacific and Latin America/Caribbean, all had a single candidate. Algeria got 184 votes, South Korea 180 votes, Sierra Leone 188 votes and Guyana 191.

The five countries elected on Tuesday will replace Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates from January 1, 2024. They will join the five permanent members of the Council who have a right of veto as well as the five countries elected last year: Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland.

Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister David Francis said it was “a great day for this small, progressive and confident country…which has successfully transitioned from war to peace” to return to Council after 53 years.

Francis said his country knew the ravages of civil war and the plight of bitterly divided communities, and that he would bring his experience to the Security Council because he knows “what the United Nations can do in terms of deployment of major peacekeeping and peace support operations.

This is the third time that South Korea and Guyana have served on the Council and the fourth time for Algeria.

Burundi’s main opposition party, the National Council for Freedom (CNL), has seen its activities suspended by the Interior Ministry due to ” irregularities” during its last two congresses, it has been reported. learned in a letter made public on Tuesday.

The party leadership denounced to Africanewsguru.com “a serious violation of the Constitution” and “an attempt to destabilize and weaken the CNL” in this country in the Great Lakes region regularly singled out for rights violations . humans .

This decision follows two congresses – one ordinary on March 12 and the other extraordinary on April 30 – aimed at providing the party with new statutes and internal regulations in accordance with the new administrative division of the country, which will be effective in 2025.

These meetings also saw eight executives opposed to the president of the CNL, Agathon Rwasa , ousted from the political office.

The latter had lodged a complaint with the Minister of the Interior, Municipal Development and Public Security, Martin Niteretse , who had challenged the decisions taken during these congresses at the end of May.

In a letter addressed to Agathon Rwasa dated June 2 and made public on Tuesday, the minister mentions “irregularities” in relation to the statutes of the CNL, which provide in particular for the holding of a meeting of the political bureau before any congress.

“All the activities organized by the bodies irregularly set up are suspended throughout the country” , he concludes, specifying that “only meetings organized with the aim of defusing tensions within the party are authorized” .

The secretary general of the CNL, Simon Bizimungu , says to Africanewsguru.com “a serious violation of the Constitution and of the law on political parties which prohibits any interference by public authorities in the functioning of parties” .

“It is an attempt to destabilize and weaken the CNL in view of the legislative elections of 2025” , he said: “There is no tension or dispute within the CNL. C It’s just a small group of eight protesting people who have no weight except the support of the public authorities” .

Main opposition to the CNDD-FDD, the party in power since 2005, the CNL was created in 2011 by Agathon Rwasa after dissension within the FNL, a party from the former Hutu rebellion of the National Liberation Forces .

Presidential candidate of 2020, Mr. Rwasa had described as an “electoral charade” the victory of Evariste Ndayishimiye , who succeeded Pierre Nkurunziza , who died after having led Burundi with an iron fist for 15 years.

Since his accession to power, President Ndayishimiye has oscillated between signs of openness of the regime, which remains under the influence of powerful “generals” , and firm control of power marked by human rights violations denounced by NGOs and the UN. .

In March, the UN High Commissioner deplored “increasing repression” of critical voices in Burundi.

12 years after South Sudan’s independence, landmines are still a threat.

Over 5,000 people have been killed or injured by unexploded ordnances and land mines since 2004, according to the UN Mine Action Service.

Eastern Equatoria’s Magwi county, near the border with Uganda, is one of the country’s most heavily mined areas.

By the end of 2021, the state had the most areas contaminated with cluster munitions in the nation — 55 out of a total of 130 — according to Mine Action Review, who does global mine analysis.

Mine-clearing experts from NGO Mines Advisory Group (MAG) are.

James Dangasu, is the site supervisor in Ayii for MA: “Sometimes operations may stop for some days just because of the rain. Just now (as) I talk it’s the season of the rain and after maybe some two hours or three hours in the evening you’ll see that rain is coming here, which also sometimes jeopardizing with the operations at the site that can make people not operate.”

“Also, the challenges is the streams. A lot of streams in South Sudan here. When you’re crossing to the operation also, sometimes you’ll be cut off with the water flow which cannot be crossed.”

Eastern Equatoria county was also impacted by wars with Sudan and fighting with Ugandan rebel group LRA.

For mine-clearing experts working with NGO MAG, this is not merely a job: it’s a mission. Landmines took the life of Monica Fekuriu Michael’s uncle.

She wants the best for her compatriots who have started returning to the country after a five-year civil war.

“I want to make this area very clean so that my fellow people from Uganda, from Kenya, from Congo, from Khartoum should come back to the South Sudan.”

Mine-clearing experts expert visit remote villages for mine awareness training even though they face challenges. While a peace deal signed in 2018 is largely holding conflict between communities persists, making the context unpredictable to operate in.

It’s also hard to work once the rainy season starts, usually between June and September.

In Eastern Equatoria state, local authorities say thousands who fled the civil war to Uganda have started returning.

In Pageri county, approximately 1,500 people have come back this year, out of nearly 17,000 (almost the entire community), which had fled.

Yet many have returned to villages with little food or shelter, no working schools and are unable to cultivate because mines were discovered in their farms.

Jacob Wani fled to Uganda in 2015 and returned to his village in January.

The 45-year-old said he’s been unable to farm since explosives were confirmed to be on his land while he was gone. “I do not have the capacity to rebuild in this place and I am also afraid of(explosives). If I go, maybe something can hurt me,” he said.

Residents say more than half of the area is not accessible due to landmines.

During clearance in a cluster munitions site in Ayii commune in May, 16 unexploded munitions were found during five days of work.

Locals are also finding devices a few kilometers from main roads.

During a visit by the Associated Press in May, a villager alerted a de-mining team of an unexploded 60 millimeter mortar, which he found a few kilometers into the brush.

South Sudan’s given UN Mine Action Service until 2026 to clear all anti-personnel minefields in the country.

As munitions are being found daily many fear the deadline won’t be kept.

With elections scheduled for next year, locals say they want to clear contaminated areas so those who have fled can return.