Ghana's top court invalidate opposition election petition

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo was Thurday retained as leader, following a seven-member panel of the country’s top court Judges' dismissal of the election petition filed by main opposition leader John Mahama.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said this is because the case had no merit.

Former President John Dramani Mahama who contested the 2020 elections on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress, took the Electoral Commission to court.

He sought to challenge validity of results and subsequent declaration of President Akufo-Addo as the winner.

But reading the ruling of the court Thursday, Chief Justice Anin Yeboah said the petitioner did not satisfy all the 5 issues outlined by the court to determine the case.

According to the Electoral Commission, President Nana Akufo-Addo, was re-elected with 51.59% of the vote against 47.36% for his predecessor and opponent John Dramani Mahama of the main opposition NDC.

Only 515,524 votes separated the two candidates.

International and local observers said the election was generally calm. However, five people were killed in violence on voting and counting day, according to police.

Aside from these sporadic incidents, the election was generally hailed as an example in West Africa.

This was the third time that these two old political rivals had faced each other, with equally close results in the previous two elections.

In 2016, Nana Akufo-Addo won with 53.8%. Four years earlier, in 2012, John Mahama had 50.7% of votes.

At the time, Akufo-Addo challenged Mahama's victory and appealed to the Supreme Court to invalidate the results.

Eight months later following intense debates broadcast live on radio and television, the court upheld Mahama's victory.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, Nana Akufo-Addo admitted defeat.

Mahama is expected to address his supporters during the day, his lawyers said.

 

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Rwanda's economy in recession

 

 

Rwanda’s economy

Rwanda’s economy is in a recession. Restrictions imposed to curb the coronavirus is piling pressure on the economy. Thousands face unemployment and there’s risk of more Rwandans falling into poverty. That’s why analysts are urging the government to take additional measures to spur growth in this East African nation. Retail trade, leisure, hospitality and conference tourism are key sectors hard hit.

The country of 12 million people has seen strict coronavirus-prevention measures in place since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Rwandan population has felt the effects of these measures - with 5% more unemployed since the start of the health crisis i.e. 550,000 people in 2021.

Over 80% of those recently out of work are in rural areas, according to data published by the World Bank this week. The pandemic has affected all sectors in the nation - including services, small to medium enterprises and the leisure and tourism industry.

There has been a significant drop in activity as Africa’s technology hub has been in lockdown - leading to a notable decline in growth.

The government has adopted an economic recovery plan estimated at 900 million USD - whose implementation will span the two fiscal years 2019/20 and 2020/21.

"Tourism has been the top foreign exchange earner, and when the pandemic kicked in, this sector was heavily affected. If you look into the growth that we experienced in 2019, you are talking about where the economy grew by 9.4 percent, but if you go into the numbers from 2020, we are projecting to receive a growth rate that is going to be even less than 2 percent’’, Zephanie Niyonkuru, Deputy CEO, Rwanda Development Board tells Ignatius Annor.

 

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HIV findings in DR Congo 'give hope for cure'

 

The researchers were surprised by their findings

The discovery of a large group of people whose bodies naturally control HIV without taking medication is leading to hopes of an eventual cure, scientists say.

The study found as many as 4% of HIV carriers in the Democratic Republic of Congo were able to suppress the virus.

Typically less than 1% of people with HIV are able to do so.

This could serve as springboard for further research to develop a vaccine or new treatments to tackle the virus that causes Aids, researchers say.

"When we first started to see the data coming in from the study we were surprised, but we were also elated," Mary Rodgers, the study's lead scientist, told the BBC.

"This could mean that this is something that we can actually cure," she said.

The findings, published in eBioMedicine which is part of The Lancet family of medical journals, looked at samples taken FROM people living with HIV between 1987 and 2019.

The team included scientists from pharmaceutical company Abbott, Université Protestante au Congo, Johns Hopkins, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and University of Missouri - Kansas City.

 

Mary Rodgers: "This group of people gives us hope"

Dr Rodgers, head of Abbott's global viral surveillance programme, said the group in DR Congo was the biggest detected in one country - between 2.7% and 4.3% . Another 1% of people living with HIV in Cameroon were also identified as controlling the virus well without medication.

"This has never really been seen before, typically we would find less than 1% of all people with HIV who are able to suppress the virus naturally."

Currently, most people living with HIV have to take anti-retroviral medicines daily to suppress the virus and reduce their viral load.

It is not yet known how the so-called "elite controllers" discovered in DR Congo are able to suppress their HIV infection.

But Dr Rodgers said understanding how the group was able to maintain low or undetectable viral loads would be crucial to controlling the virus.

However, she stressed the need for more research, while pointing to previous studies that showed this group of people potentially lose their protection as the disease progresses.

HIV came to global attention in the 1980s. It has infected 76 million people since then and 38 million people are living with the virus, Abbott says.

It is believed to have originated in what is now DR Congo a century ago, and today HIV disproportionately affects women in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

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Pregnant woman, five others killed as ambulance hits land mine in Burkina Faso

Six people were killed after an ambulance hit an explosive device on Tuesday in northeast Burkina Faso, government spokesman Ousseni Tamboura on Wednesday said.

"The coward and barbaric incident that occurred while the ambulance was ensuring a medical evacuation to the capital Ouagadougou claimed the lives of six people," the spokesman said.

The victims included a woman patient and her husband, two members of the nursing staff, a girl, and the ambulancier.

The government of Burkina Faso condemned on the strongest terms this criminal act perpetrated by faithless individuals and extended its condolences to the bereaved families, Ousseni Tamboura said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for laying the land mine.

Attacks in Burkina Faso by fighters linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State have risen sharply over the last three years, displacing more than a million people.

Last month, Burkina Faso’s government for the first time said that it was open to talks with Islamist militants to try to end the insurgency, a position echoed by authorities in neighbouring Mali.

 

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Uganda Targets Doubling Palm Oil Production With Second Estate

Oil palm fruit bunches harvested. Resting on the ground

Wilmar International Ltd.’s Ugandan unit is establishing the East African country’s second palm oil project, which is expected to double national output to as much as 80,000 tons.

Bidco Uganda Ltd. -- jointly owned by Wilmar, Josovina Commodities Pte Ltd. of Singapore and Bidco Africa Ltd. of Kenya -- is already producing as much as 40,000 tons of palm oil from its Bugala island estate on Lake Victoria.

It started planting on Buvuma island last month and targets to have 1,000 hectares under trees this year and 5,000 hectares in four years, according to Connie Masaba, head of the Ugandan agency supervising the project. Small-holder farmers producing for Bidco are expected to plant a total of 2,500 hectares by 2025, she said Wednesday by phone from the capital, Kampala.

Uganda is providing land under an investment deal aimed at slashing imports. The nation shipped in crude and refined vegetable fats and oils valued at $243 million in 2017-18, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The global vegetable oil market could expand to $299.2 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate of 3.3%, according to a report by Research and Markets.

 

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Nigeria school abduction: Hundreds of girls released by gunmen

The freed schoolgirls were taken to a government building in Zamfara state in a fleet of minibuses

 

Girls among the nearly 300 who were kidnapped from a school in north-western Nigeria have been describing their ordeal following their release.

"Most of us got injured," one of the schoolgirls told the media, adding that gunmen threatened to shoot them.

The girls were abducted by unidentified assailants from their boarding school in Jangebe, Zamfara state, on Friday and taken to a forest, police said.

The state's governor said on Tuesday that the 279 girls had been freed.

Such kidnappings are carried out for ransom and are common in the north of the country.

 

On Tuesday, dozens of the girls were seen gathered at a government building in Zamfara after they were taken there in a fleet of mini-buses.

Speaking to the media, one of the schoolgirls said that some of those kidnapped had found it difficult to continue walking when instructed to do so by the gunmen because of their injuries.

"They said they [would] shoot anybody who did not continue to walk," she said. "We walked across a river and they hid us and let us sleep under shrubs in a forest."

Another of the girls, aged 15, said that some of her classmates found it difficult "walking in the stones and thorns" and had to be carried.

"They started hitting us with guns so that we [would] move," she told Reuters news agency, adding: "While they were beating them with guns, some of them were crying and moving at the same time."

 

 

The girls were reportedly made to walk a long distance into the forest after their kidnapping

Some of the fathers who had arrived to see their daughters for the first time since their abduction told reporters they were "very happy" at the news of their release.

The group's release was secured through negotiations between government officials and the abductors, authorities in Zamfara state told the media.

 Local authorities said that an earlier figure provided by police of 317 for the number of girls kidnapped was not accurate.

One official told Reuters that the discrepancy was because of the fact that some girls had fled shortly after being abducted.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said he felt "overwhelming joy" at the news of the girls' release. "[I am] pleased that their ordeal has come to a happy end without any incident," he said.

 

The governor of Zamfara state, Bello Matawalle, tweeted that it "gladdens my heart to announce the release of the abducted students".

"This follows the scaling of several hurdles laid against our efforts," he added. "I enjoin all well-meaning Nigerians to rejoice with us as our daughters are now safe."

Mr Matawalle has denied paying for the girls to be released, but last week President Buhari admitted state governments had paid kidnappers "with money and vehicles" in the past and urged them to review the policy.

Analysis: Nigeria's ransom controversy

It is believed that schools have started to be targeted as such abductions attract a lot of attention - putting more pressure on the authorities to negotiate with the armed criminal group responsible.

The authorities rarely admit to paying ransoms - but some observers say it is unlikely that the gunmen would release their victims without some sort of exchange, either of money or the release of their members who are in jail.

Besides, kidnapping for ransom is a widespread criminal enterprise across the country - people are seized by gunmen on almost a daily basis - with both the rich and the poor falling victims. Security personnel have been held too. People often speak of how they have managed to secure someone's release by raising funds from friends and relatives - or even selling their assets.

But ransom payments are controversial. It may save someone's life, yet some observers say paying ransom only fuels the problem. President Buhari agrees, saying today ''ransom payments will continue to prosper kidnapping''.

He has repeatedly said his government will not negotiate with the armed criminal gangs. But many believe the failure of his administration and those at the state level to provide security is to blame. There are growing calls for the authorities to provide security for thousands of schools across the country - many of which are unfenced and do not have adequate security guards.

The 2014 kidnap of 276 schoolgirls in the north-eastern town of Chibok by Islamist militants Boko Haram brought global attention to the scourge of raids on schools in Nigeria, but a surge in recent attacks is suspected to be the work of criminal gangs.

The raid in Zamfara state was the region's second kidnapping in recent weeks. Some 27 students were kidnapped from a boarding school in Kagara in the north-central state of Niger last month before they were released on 17 February.

No group has said they were behind the Zamfara kidnappings.

Armed groups operating in the state often kidnap for ransom but when gunmen took more than 300 boys from Kankara in neighbouring Katsina state in December last year, some reports said Boko Haram, which operates hundreds of miles away in the north-east, was behind the attack.

The reports were later disputed and the boys released after negotiations.

 

Source: BBC

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Kenya receives 1.02 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Over 1 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine part of 24 million doses country expects to receive within months

 

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya has received just over 1 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in the first batch from the global COVAX initiative that was created to ensure that low- and middle-income countries have fair access to vaccines.

Some 1.02 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, arrived in Nairobi early Wednesday, according to a joint statement from UNICEF, the World Health Organization, international vaccine alliance GAVI and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

Kenyan Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe expressed excitement and optimism that the vaccines would help stop the spread of the coronavirus that has forced the East African country to partially lock down its economy with devastating consequences for many citizens.

“We have been fighting the pandemic with rubber bullets but what we have acquired today is equivalent, metaphorically speaking, to bazookas and machine guns,” Kagwe said.

The minister said the vaccines will be administered to some 400,000 medical workers and the rest will go to other frontline workers such as teachers and police officers.

Many Kenyan public health care workers have been disgruntled over the inadequate supply of personal protective equipment, and they say they were never paid the allowances that the government promised them for the extra work and risk while combating COVID-19.

Austine Oduor, an official with the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers, said there is no palpable excitement from members of his union and nurses who were forced by a court order to resume work last week after a 70-day strike.

“What they really wanted was payment of the allowances,” Oduor said. “ In fact, some are questioning whether the distribution will be done fairly in a country where corruption is rampant.”

Kenya has more than 106,000 confirmed virus cases including more than 1,800 deaths.

 

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US calls for withdrawal of Eritrean forces in Ethiopia following investigation into massacre

 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Saturday for the withdrawal of Eritrean and Ethiopian regional forces from the Tigray region of Ethiopia, and an end to killings and human rights violations there.

His call came a day after investigations by CNN and Amnesty International into the massacre of civilians in two separate assaults in the northern Tigray region late last year.

Thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military operation against leaders in the Tigray region. CNN has previously reported that soldiers from neighboring Eritrea have perpetuated many of the extrajudicial killings, assaults and human rights abuses in the Tigray region.

"The United States is gravely concerned by reported atrocities and the overall deteriorating situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia," Blinken said in a statement Saturday.

 "We strongly condemn the killings, forced removals and displacements, sexual assaults, and other extremely serious human rights violations and abuses by several parties that multiple organizations have reported in Tigray." He added that "those responsible for them must be held accountable."

Eyewitnesses told CNN that a group of Eritrean soldiers opened fire on Maryam Dengelat church in Dengelat village, eastern Tigray, on November 30 while hundreds of congregants were celebrating mass. Dozens of people died over three days of mayhem, with soldiers slaughtering local residents, displaced people and pilgrims, they said.

Ethiopia responded to CNN's request for comment with a statement that did not directly address the attack in Dengelat. Eritrea has yet to respond to a CNN request for comment.

Amnesty International charged in a report Friday that Eritrean forces killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the city of Axum in November through indiscriminate shelling and shooting and extrajudicial killings, in what the human rights organization said could amount to a crime against humanity.

 

Members of the Amhara Special Forces keep guard at the 5th Battalion of the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Army in Dansha, Ethiopia, on November 25, 2020.

In his statement, Blinken recognized the Ethiopian Prime Minister's commitment to allow humanitarian aid to the region, adding: "The international community needs to work collectively to ensure that these commitments are realized.

"The immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces and Amhara regional forces from Tigray are essential first steps," Blinken said, referring to forces from Ethiopia's Amhara state, which neighbors Tigray. "They should be accompanied by unilateral declarations of cessation of hostilities by all parties to the conflict and a commitment to permit unhindered delivery of assistance to those in Tigray."

Blinken said the US was committed to working with the international community to achieve these goals and that the US Agency for International Development would send a disaster assistance response team to Ethiopia.

"We ask international partners, especially the African Union and regional partners, to work with us to address the crisis in Tigray, including through action at the UN and other relevant bodies," he added.

After seizing control of Tigray's main cities in late November, Abiy declared victory and maintained that no civilians were harmed in the offensive. Abiy has also denied that soldiers from Eritrea crossed into Tigray to support Ethiopian forces.

 

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SOUTH AFRICA: Four men shot dead

 

Police line tape. Crime scene investigation. Forensic science.

Four men aged between 30 to 64 were shot dead and another was injured Saturday at Mitchells Plain near Cape Town, said South African police.

“The victims were shot and killed at close range while a 37-year-old male victim escaped the attack with a gunshot wound,” said Western Cape police spokesman Andre Traut.

“It is alleged that unknown suspects opened fire at the group of five and fled the scene on foot. The suspects are yet to be arrested and police are making an appeal to the community to approach us with information,” he said.

The cause of the shooting was not clear at this stage.

 

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FARMING: Adapting to survive and thrive in Ghana

In the West African country of Ghana, many people from farming backgrounds are forced to find new ways to survive, as droughts, floods and erratic weather patterns upend age-old agricultural practices.

Programmes supported by the UN are helping, especially, women to acquire new skills, and adapt to an increasingly uncertain world.

They’ve been learning how to process soy beans, shea and rice, turning them into more profitable products, such as soy milk, soy flour, and shea butter.

Women across Ghana are learning how to process their crops into food stuffs that can be sold in markets., by UNDP/PraiseNutakor

Selling these processed goods at the local market, can help them to live through lean times, for example when drought and other climate change-related events hit.

Read more here  about how across northern Ghana, thousands of women are benefiting from similar projects, financed by The Adaptation Fund, which was set up to support programmes in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change.

 

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Tanzania COVID U-turn ‘a good move’ – but is it good enough?

After months of downplaying deadly disease, government officials have called on people to take precautions and wear masks.

 

Tanzania stopped releasing infection numbers in April 2020 [Ericky Boniphace/AFP]

Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania – Esther Mngodo, like other Tanzanians, was relieved to hear this week government officials are finally urging people in the country to take precautions against the coronavirus – and even wear face masks.

“It is a good move,” said Mngodo, a 34-year-old resident of Dar-es-Salaam. “But much more needs to be done to increase public awareness, testing and treatment. Most importantly, we must have a clear strategy on how to navigate through these unprecedented times.”

In a surprise change in the official stance on coronavirus, President John Magufuli on Sunday said the government had not forbidden the wearing of masks and encouraged those who wanted to do so.

However, he warned against what he claimed were faulty face coverings on sale in the country, suggesting that high coronavirus-related death rates worldwide could be linked to the uptake of such products and claiming those in Tanzania’s rural areas were less likely to fall victim to the virus because they tended not to wear them.

“The government has not forbidden mask-wearing. But we have to be careful about which masks we wear. We will perish. Don’t think we’re loved so much. Economic war is bad,” Magufuli told a congregation at a church service in Dar-es-Salaam.

“These masks which we buy in the shops- we’re killing ourselves,” he argued, before advising Tanzanians to either to make the masks themselves or use those produced locally.

Magufuli has long downplayed the severity of COVID-19, urging Tanzanians to pray, use steam inhalation and embrace local remedies to protect themselves from the respiratory disease. Tanzania stopped releasing infection numbers in April 2020, weeks before Magufuli declared the country coronavirus-free in June through divine intervention.

For Mngodo, the recent U-turn could be a result of what seems to be a deadly resurgence of infection, which has swept across the country over the past few months.

“It appears that the extent of the problem has reached to a point where the government cannot deny the severity of the problem,” said Mngodo, a media consultant.

Announcements of deaths often attributed to “the current pneumonia” or “breathing problems” have flooded social media.

Among the deceased are a number of high-profile individuals, including several university professors, a former governor of the central bank, the country’s chief secretary and Zanzibar’s first vice president, Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad.

Of them, Hamad was the only person confirmed to have been infected by the novel coronavirus, as he texted his COVID-19 test results to the media. As for the others, the public has been left to speculate about the causes of their deaths, at a time when the world is stilling battling the coronavirus pandemic and many common Tanzanians have been touched by the effects of it.

These circumstances have led religious leaders and other critics, particularly on social media, to put pressure on the government to provide clear and consistent guidelines on fighting the pandemic, while also urging individuals to take precautions.

A Tanzanian medical doctor based in the United States, Frank Minja, said the change of mind is welcomed, if long overdue, and could present an opportunity. “We want to encourage [the president] to move faster in implementing what we know to be effective and implement it right away,” he said.

“I don’t want to say it’s too late, because if we say too late then it means we might as well not do anything. And because, by its nature, the pandemic attacks in waves, it is never too late to start doing the right thing,” added Minja, who has been campaigning on social media to raise awareness about the coronavirus.

Dorothy Semu, acting chairperson of the opposition ACT Wazalendo party, criticised Magufuli, saying the measures implemented when the virus first entered the country – including physical distancing and cancellation of large events – should have been kept in place.

“I am a politician but I am also a believer in science,” Semu said. “As leaders responsible for people’s lives it is important that we make our decisions based on facts. It’s like when HIV/AIDS was discovered; some people denied its presence and many lives were lost. So, I expected the president, who is also a scientist, to have continued with the past measures and we would have saved many lives.”

 

Magufuli in June declared Tanzania ‘coronavirus-free’, thanks to the prayers of its citizens [File: AP Photo]The new stance by Magufuli – a former teacher and industrial chemist – on mask-wearing seems to have also prompted many other public offices and officials to suddenly come forward and warn people of the dangers of coronavirus and measures individuals should take to protect themselves from the virus.

For instance, the agency which runs Dar-es-Salaam’s rapid transport buses on Monday said passengers would not be allowed to board if not wearing a mask.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health, headed by Dorothy Gwajima who has previously advocated steam inhalation and a vegetable smoothie to treat COVID-19, earlier this week issued a statement warning people against the virus and appealing to them to take precautions.

However, it insisted that it would not be recommending lockdown measures.

“As said by the president, we won last year and the economy continued to grow until we achieved middle-income economy status, and Coronavirus still existed,” said the ministry’s statement.

“We did not set lockdowns, and even now, we will not impose lockdowns because God is on our side.”

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Rwanda Official Admits Legal Violations in ‘Hotel Rwanda’ Case

A video, aired by Al Jazeera English, shows that the attorney general intercepted legal materials from Paul Rusesabagina, who was portrayed in the movie “Hotel Rwanda” and is accused of terrorism.

Paul Rusesabagina in court in Kigali this month.Credit...Simon Wohlfahrt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Rwanda’s attorney general inadvertently revealed that he had intercepted privileged and confidential legal materials in the ongoing terrorism case against Paul Rusesabagina, the prominent dissident whose efforts to save more than 1,200 people during the country’s genocide was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated movie “Hotel Rwanda.”

In a video interview published by Al Jazeera English, Johnston Busingye, who is both justice minister and attorney general, rejected accusations that authorities had confiscated Mr. Rusesabagina’s papers or trampled on attorney-client privilege.

But in an hour-and-half-long preparation video that his public relations team accidentally sent to the media outlet, Mr. Busingye contradicted himself, saying that the prison authorities had intercepted correspondence between Mr. Rusesabagina and his lawyers and children, some of which included escape plans.

Mr. Busingye also discussed with the team how to respond to questions about whether the Rwandan government had paid for the flight that in August brought Mr. Rusesabagina to Kigali, where he was arrested on charges including murder, armed robbery and being a member of a terrorist organization.

The latest revelations came just hours after a Rwandan court on Friday ruled that it had jurisdiction to try Mr. Rusesabagina — a Belgian citizen and permanent resident of the United States. It also came as the trial faces widespread condemnation from entities including rights groups, members of the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament.

The latest disclosures, his lawyers say, also cloud the prospects of Mr. Rusesabagina’s getting a fair hearing, given that his international lawyers have not been permitted into Kigali to represent him and prison officials continue to confiscate his case files. Mr. Rusesabagina, a former hotelier, has told his lawyers that he is afraid to die of a stroke in prison, and his family members have said they remain concerned about his deteriorating health.

During the interview with Al Jazeera, Mr. Busingye denied that Mr. Rusesabagina’s communication with his lawyers had been intercepted. But “if that has happened, it will be raised in the courts and the courts will address it fairly,” he told the Al Jazeera interviewer, Marc Lamont Hill, on the “UpFront” show.

 

Johnston Busingye, Rwanda’s justice minister and attorney general, rejected accusations that the authorities had confiscated Mr. Rusesabagina’s papers.Credit...Cyril Ndegeya for The New York Times

In another clip aired by Al Jazeera, Mr. Busingye is seen receiving advice on how to respond to queries about who paid for the private jet that brought Mr. Rusesabagina to Kigali. In the video, the public relations consultant can be heard warning the minister to be “cautious” because the interviewer was “looking for something they can put out in a news release about the interview — looking for nuggets of hard stuff.”

When Mr. Hill from Al Jazeera queried him about who had paid for the jet, Mr. Busingye said the Rwandan government had done so.

Ever since Mr. Rusesabagina was presented to the press handcuffed in Kigali on Aug. 31, questions have swirled about how he ended up there.

He left his home in San Antonio, Texas, and arrived in Dubai on an Emirates flight from Chicago on the evening of Aug. 27. He then checked into the Ibis Hotel in Dubai, according to a document from the United Arab Emirates mission in Geneva, and five hours later boarded a private jet that he believed was headed to Burundi, where he planned to speak to churches at the invitation of a local pastor.

The next day, the plane, operated by the Greece-based charter firm GainJet, landed in Kigali, where he was arrested, bound and interrogated.

The Rwandan authorities have, including in interviews with The New York Times, previously confirmed that they had leased the charter service for government operations, but never explicitly confirmed having hired the exact flight that brought Mr. Rusesabagina to Kigali.

In December, Mr. Rusesabagina and his family sued GainJet over its role in the episode.

After his arrest, President Paul Kagame — whose government had been trying to apprehend the 66-year-old Mr. Rusesabagina for years — dubbed the operation “flawless” and said that it was not a kidnapping.

As for Mr. Rusesabagina’s escape plans, his daughter Carine Kanimba said she had received WhatsApp and Twitter messages since November of a person claiming to be one of her father’s prison guards. The messages, both audio and written and reviewed by The Times, described Mr. Rusesabagina’s routine and suggested ways of helping him escape.

“I never responded,” Ms. Kanimba said in a telephone interview. “My fear was that I would respond and that they would use that against my father.”

In December, the family also shared the material with the F.B.I., the U.S. State Department, and the Belgian foreign ministry.

On Friday, the Rwandan authorities doubled down on their position, calling the arrest “legal and proper.” In a statement, the Justice Ministry said that Mr. Busingye had become aware of a “possible violation” in December with regards to privileged documents, and that he had instructed that they be returned to Mr. Rusesabagina.

Kate Gibson, Mr. Rusesabagina’s lead counsel, contested the statement, saying that his papers “continue to be routinely and systematically confiscated, including his privileged and confidential materials.” Ms. Gibson is one of three lawyers awaiting permission to represent the former hotelier in Kigali.

As late as this past week, she said, Mr. Rusesabagina was denied from going to his cell with his documents.

“We now see from the Al Jazeera preparation video that the content of privileged and confidential legal documents are making their way to the highest levels,” she said in an email. “The right to confidential communication is at the heart of legal representation. Without it, it is impossible to consider proceedings fair.”

 

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In Burkina Faso ‘Doctors are paying for supplies': inside a stretched Burkina Faso Covid ward

In a country where pneumonia, malaria and TB are much bigger killers, doctors say ‘resource-intensive’ Covid-19 is diverting precious resources

 

A Covid patient is transferred from Tengandogo University hospital's ICU. Photograph: Amanda Coakley

When stocks of medical equipment in the general ward of Tengandogo University hospital in Ouagadougou ran low as resources flowed to the coronavirus unit, medical staff bought the essentials themselves.

Blood pressure monitors, glucose monitors and oximeters were needed. Even the ink in the printers had to be replaced.

The hospital closed to non-Covid patients during Burkina Faso’s first wave in March but reopened in July to treat the numerous other illnesses that affect the population of approximately 20 million people. Without any emergency budget for resources, doctors faced a challenge.

“The pandemic has had a big impact on resources, especially things like oxygen that are needed for coronavirus treatment,” Dr Lassina Séré, a senior practitioner, told the Guardian. “In terms of equipment, some things that the hospital used to be able to pay for are no longer covered by the budget because it’s all been used on Covid, so what the doctors have done is start initiatives to buy what’s needed ourselves.”

Tengandogo is one of Burkina Faso’s leading health institutions. A sprawling blush pink complex, it’s eerily quiet. There is no buzz of machines or the drone of a hospital intercom. It’s a private facility that treats the country’s most critical patients, but since March it has treated people with coronavirus without charge.

Before the pandemic this landlocked country had a shortage of specialist staff, especially in rural areas where the quality of care is considerably lower. Poor salaries coupled with growing insecurity in the north and east due to militant violence have led many young professionals to leave, and deterred others from coming. In Tengandogo, the staff are overworked, and when some have had to self-isolate, it has been a struggle.

 

A small clinic in Gampela village on the outskirts of Ouagadougou. Photograph: Sam Mednick/AP

“We had to create a new Covid area in the hospital. We couldn’t hire new personnel, so we had to take from the regular staff, which means there are shortages on the other services,” says Dr Moussa Kabré, head of the general ward. The slight 41-year-old is exhausted, and says recent months have been among the most challenging of his career.

Respiratory diseases such as pneumonia are the leading cause of death in Burkina Faso. Dr Christian Jules Wenl Minoungou, head of respiratory medicine at Tengandogo, has struggled to access resources. One patient under his care, 23-year-old Philomon, has been in the general ward for two months with an undisclosed respiratory disease. His body has wasted away and speaking has become uncomfortable. On the floor next to him sits his tired mother, Delphin. “My only hope is for my son to get better and recover,” she says.

“There are only 30 lung specialists in this country,” says Minoungou. “Pneumonia is the first cause of death here and if you don’t act quickly the situation deteriorates. We need more resources to deal with it. People are always coming in from the countryside in an advanced condition because they are unable to get care there.”

The director of Tengandogo, Ferdinand Tiendrébéogo, agrees: “When you look at the figures, coronavirus is not a priority. It’s very small compared to, say, malaria. That said, you do need to keep an eye on Covid because you never know what can happen with it, but overall it’s been a very resource-intensive disease for this hospital.”

Crossing the threshold into the ICU at Tengandogo, the quiet is replaced by the steady beat of heart monitors. A handful of nurses care for four Covid patients and the 12 other patients who are at the other end of the ward. Some of the staff are in full PPE, others wear only mask and gloves. In the corner by the door is a pile of discarded garments.

Head ICU nurse Ally Ouattara. Photograph: Amanda Coakley

 

Ally Ouattara, the unit’s head nurse, is six hours into his shift. The smile behind his mask reaches his eyes and he stands out in brightly patterned scrubs. He carefully recounts the details of each of his Covid patients. Two men in their 60s with underlying health conditions. A middle-aged woman with a history of TB. The fourth, Ismail, 50, is being moved to the recovery ward after eight days. It’s a moment of celebration for the staff in a ward where the Covid survival rate is 50%.

According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 11,847 lab-confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Burkina Faso and 139 deaths. The true figure is thought to be higher as testing is limited to about 2,000 rapid tests a day.

Track and trace is nonexistent and daily life for millions of people continues as normal despite some earlier restrictions. Since late November the Burkinabé have seen a second wave that led to a spike in admissions and renewed fears that hospitals could be overrun. Dr Brice Wilfried, the director of Corus, Burkina Faso’s health emergencies organisation, says the second spike is in decline, after a fall in cases over the past two weeks.

 

Getting the Covid message across in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Photograph: Legnan Koula/EPA

Dr Jerry-Jonas Mbasha, health cluster coordinator for the World Health Organization in Burkina Faso, says: “We need to understand the fragility of the health system here before Covid-19 and what’s happened over the last year is a significant amount of extra stress. There already was a strategy to identify specific respiratory diseases across the country and what we did to ensure that continued to function was integrate Covid testing into that structure and that’s been quite effective.”

For Séré, Covid is more of an economic problem than a health emergency. “It’s changed our access to resources and the attention it’s getting here is disproportionate compared to the impact,” he says.

Like his colleagues, he believes that quality care has to continue for all patients even if it means financing it from their own pockets.

 

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ZIMBABWE: Unvaccinated Citizens To Be Barred From Public Spaces

President Emmerson Mnangagwa

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has warned Zimbabweans to get vaccinated against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic or they will soon be barred from all public spaces.

Zimbabwe rolled out the national immunisation programme last week after receiving a donation of 200 000 Sinopharm doses from China.

Speaking in Nyamandlovu, Matabeleland North province Thursday, Mnangagwa said his government was expecting to purchase another 1,8 million doses from China before warning citizens avoiding inoculation that they would be barred from all public spaces.

Mnangagwa is yet to receive the vaccination.

A person who has been vaccinated is issued with a “Covid-19 Vaccination Card”.

“Don’t forget your Covid-19 Vaccination Card for the second dose. Make sure you keep this record card in your wallet. Keep it in a safe place,” the card reads in part.

Mnangagwa’s Thursday chilling warning was confirmed by his spokesperson George Charamba.

“Cde ED Mnangagwa, today (Thursday) broke his silence on whether or not (to take) the Covid-19 vaccination remains voluntary forever,” Charamba said after Mnangagwa’s speech.

“Those wishing to abstain from the vaccination programme are free to do, for as long as they accept the onerous trade-off: namely that they may have to be barred from public spaces, including accessing offices, shops, or riding mass transits like ZUPCO.”

Charamba added: “The leadership has and continues to demonstrate safety of the country’s chosen vaccines by being the first ones to have the vaccines administered on them, added the President, revealing he is set to be vaccinated in the second batch of the vaccine which is expected in the country in the next week or two.

“So, too, will his Cabinet ministers. So, asked the President, who are you to resist the vaccination programme thus imperiling the general public, including yourself and your family? The President invited Vice President (Constantino Chiwenga) up as proof that the Sinopharm vaccine was indeed safe.

“Many medical staff, themselves the core frontline in the fight against Covid-19, have been vaccinated under the programme which is wholly government funded and is meant to get Zimbabwe back to normalcy.”

Mnangagwa said there were companies who had approached government with proposals to import Covid-19 vaccines and sell them for a profit, but they had been turned away.

“If any company buys vaccines, they must be distributed freely. The Ministry of Health supported by (Finance Minister Mthuli) Ncube also bought two sets yesterday (Wednesday), 600 000 doses which will come during the first two weeks of March and another 1,2 million doses.”

Chiwenga was the first official to get injected when the vaccination programme was rolled out in Harare last week.

However, some Zimbabweans have raised concerns on being vaccinated with Sinopharm vaccine when the World Health Organisation (WHO) is yet to approve it while there many other approved inoculations from other countries.

In response to these dissenting voices, Charamba retorted: “Go to those countries for those vaccines; here we decide! Period. And to govern is to decide. You don’t dictate to us!”

 

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ETHIOPIA: Eritrean troops’ massacre of hundreds of Axum civilians is a crime against humanity

Eritrean troops fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray state systematically killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the northern city of Axum on 28-29 November 2020, opening fire in the streets and conducting house-to-house raids in a massacre that may amount to a crime against humanity, Amnesty International said today in a new report.

Amnesty International spoke to 41 survivors and witnesses – including in-person interviews with recently arrived refugees in eastern Sudan and phone interviews with people in Axum – as well as 20 others with knowledge of the events. They consistently described extrajudicial executions, indiscriminate shelling and widespread looting after Ethiopian and Eritrean troops led an offensive to take control of the city amid the conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in mid-November.

Satellite imagery analysis by the organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab corroborates reports of indiscriminate shelling and mass looting, as well as identifies signs of new mass burials near two of the city’s churches.

“The evidence is compelling and points to a chilling conclusion. Ethiopian and Eritrean troops carried out multiple war crimes in their offensive to take control of Axum. Above and beyond that, Eritrean troops went on a rampage and systematically killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood, which appears to constitute crimes against humanity,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International's Director for East and Southern Africa.

This atrocity ranks among the worst documented so far in this conflict. Besides the soaring death toll, Axum’s residents were plunged into days of collective trauma amid violence, mourning and mass burials. 

Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International's Director for East and Southern Africa

“This atrocity ranks among the worst documented so far in this conflict. Besides the soaring death toll, Axum’s residents were plunged into days of collective trauma amid violence, mourning and mass burials.”

The mass killings came just before the annual celebration at Axum Tsion Mariam, a major Ethiopian Orthodox Christian festival on 30 November, compounding the trauma by casting a pall over an annual event that typically draws many pilgrims and tourists to the sacred city.

Large-scale military offensive

 

 

Overview image of damage & debris around the city of Axum, in Ethiopia's Tigray region, following an offensive by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in November 2020. Image: Google © 2021 Maxar Technologies

On 19 November 2020, Ethiopian and Eritrean military forces took control of Axum in a large-scale offensive, killing and displacing civilians with indiscriminate shelling and shooting.

In the nine days that followed, the Eritrean military engaged in widespread looting of civilian property and extrajudicial executions.

Witnesses could easily identify the Eritrean forces. They drove vehicles with Eritrean license plates, wore distinctive camouflage and footwear used by the Eritrean army and spoke Arabic or a dialect of Tigrinya not spoken in Ethiopia. Some bore the ritual facial scars of the Ben Amir, an ethnic group absent from Ethiopia. Finally, some of the soldiers made no secret of their identity; they openly told residents they were Eritrean.

‘All we could see were dead bodies and people crying’

According to witnesses, the Eritrean troops unleashed the worst of the violence on 28-29 November. The onslaught came directly after a small band of pro-TPLF militiamen attacked the soldiers’ base on Mai Koho mountain on the morning of 28 November. The militiamen were armed with rifles and supported by residents brandishing improvised weapons, including sticks, knives and stones.

Sustained gunfire can be heard ringing out across the city in a video recorded early that day from several locations at the bottom of the mountain.

A 22-year-old man who wanted to bring food to the militia told Amnesty International: “The Eritrean soldiers were trained but the young residents didn’t even know how to shoot… a lot of the [local] fighters started running away and dropped their weapons. The Eritrean soldiers came into the city and started killing randomly.”

Survivors and witnesses said Eritrean forces deliberately and wantonly shot at civilians from about 4pm onwards on 28 November.

According to residents, the victims carried no weapons and many were running away from the soldiers when they were shot. One man who hid in an unfinished building said he saw a group of six Eritrean soldiers kill a neighbour with a vehicle-mounted heavy machine-gun on the street near the Mana Hotel: “He was standing. I think he was confused. They were probably around 10 metres from him. They shot him in the head.”

I saw a lot of people dead on the street. Even my uncle’s family. Six of his family members were killed. So many people were killed. 

21-year-old male resident of Axum

A 21-year-old male resident said: “I saw a lot of people dead on the street. Even my uncle’s family. Six of his family members were killed. So many people were killed.”

The killings left Axum’s streets and cobblestone plazas strewn with bodies. One man who had run out of the city returned at night after the shooting stopped. “All we could see on the streets were dead bodies and people crying,” he said.

On 29 November, Eritrean soldiers shot at anyone who tried to move the bodies of those killed.

The soldiers also continued to carry out house-to-house raids, hunting down and killing adult men, as well as some teenage boys and a smaller number of women. One man said he watched through his window and saw six men killed in the street outside his house on 29 November. He said the soldiers lined them up and shot from behind, using a light-machine gun to kill several at a time with a single bullet.

Interviewees named scores of people they knew who were killed, and Amnesty International has collected the names of more than 240 of the victims. The organization has been unable to independently verify the overall death toll, but consistent witness testimonies and corroborating evidence make it plausible that hundreds of residents were killed.

Burying the dead

Most of the burials took place on 30 November, but the process of collecting and burying the bodies lasted several days.

Many residents said they volunteered to move the bodies on carts, in batches of five to 10 at a time; one said he transported 45 bodies. Residents estimate that several hundred people were buried in the aftermath of the massacre, and they attended funerals at several churches where scores were buried. Hundreds were buried at the largest funeral, held at the complex that includes the Arba’etu Ensessa church and the Axum Tsion St Mariam Church.

Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab geolocated a video showing people carrying a dead man on a stretcher in Da’Ero Ela Plaza (14.129918, 38.717113), towards Arba’etu Ensessa church. High-resolution satellite imagery from 13 December shows disturbed earth consistent with recent graves around the Arba’etu Ensessa and the Abune Aregawi churches.

Intimidation and looting

In the days following the burials, the Eritrean army rounded up hundreds of residents in different parts of the city. They beat some of the men, threatening them with a new round of revenge killings if they resisted.

Axum residents witnessed a surge in the Eritrean army’s looting during this period, targeting stores, public buildings including a hospital, and private homes. Luxury goods and vehicles were widely looted, as well as medication, furniture, household items, food, and drink.

International humanitarian law (the laws of war) prohibits deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate attacks, and pillage (looting). Violations of these rules constitute war crimes. Unlawful killings that form part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population are crimes against humanity.

“As a matter of urgency, there must be a UN-led investigation into the grave violations in Axum. Those suspected of responsibility for war crimes or crimes against humanity must be prosecuted in fair trials and victims and their families must receive full reparation,” said Deprose Muchena.“We repeat our call on the Ethiopian government to grant full and unimpeded access across Tigray for humanitarian, human rights, and media organizations.”

 

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NIGERIA: Gunmen killed 36 in attacks in northern Nigeria

Armed bandits killed people, burn down houses in villages of Kaduna and Katsina states.

 

Gunmen killed 36 people in two attacks in northern Nigeria on Wednesday, a day after fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades amid worsening security in Africa’s most populous nation, officials and residents said.

The series of attacks by armed bandits occurred over the past 60 hours with 18 people killed each in villages of Kaduna and Katsina states and several others injured.

The assailants burned down houses, displacing the villagers.

In a statement quoted by the Daily Post website, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan said the attacks in that state followed an air operation by security forces in which “several armed bandits” were killed.

 

Hundreds of people have been killed in northern Nigeria by criminal gangs carrying out robberies and kidnappings.

The attacks have added to security challenges in Nigeria, which is struggling to contain insurgencies in the northeast and communal violence over grazing rights in central states.

The latest attack comes less than a month after President Muhammadu Buhari replaced his longstanding military chiefs amid the worsening violence, with the armed forces fighting to reclaim other northeastern towns overrun by fighters.

Last week, unidentified gunmen killed a student in an attack on a boarding school in Nigeria’s north-central Niger state and kidnapped 42 people, including 27 students.

 

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Kenya to Receive First Batch of Covid-19 Vaccines Next Week

Residents queue for a Covid-19 test in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 26. Photographer: Luis Tato/Bloomberg

Kenya will receive its initial batch of Covid-19 vaccines in the first week on March, according to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s office.

Health-care workers and frontline personnel, including security officers, teachers, vulnerable persons and those in the hospitality sector, will be the first priority for inoculation, the presidency said in a statement following a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The East African nation expects to vaccinate 16 million of its approximately 53 million people by June next year, Health Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said earlier this month.

 

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South Africa has found 4,000 Covid-19 re-infections

About 4,000 cases of re-infection with Covid-19 have been found in South Africa, Barry Schoub, the chair of the country’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines, said.

“This is probably to a large extent due to the variant” of the virus that was first identified in the country, he said on a webinar on Wednesday.

The mutation, known by scientists as B.1.351, was identified in the country last last year and has become the dominant strain in the nation.

With over 1.5 million known coronavirus infections and almost 50,000 deaths, South Africa has been the hardest hit country on the continent.

On Thursday the South African government will release the results of a study into the transmissibility of the variant, whether it can cause re-infection and whether it causes more severe disease.

 

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