• Tunisie: Une islamisation rampante menace les libertés

    Un metteur en scène agressé, un DJ britannique condamné par contumace à un an de prison, des appels à la fermeture de débits d’alcool. L’image de la Tunisie tolérante, ouverte et progressiste relèvera bientôt du mythe, dénonce cette chroniqueuse tunisienne. C’est bel et bien le verdict surréaliste rendu [le 6 avril] par un tribunal tunisien à l’encontre du DJ britannique ayant mixé, dans une discothèque [à Hammamet, dans le cadre du festival de musique Orbit Festival, du 31 mars au 1er avril], l’appel à la prière. L’artiste est accusé d’outrage public à la pudeur, d’atteinte aux bonnes mœurs et à la morale publique. Comme la cabale menée sur les réseaux sociaux, le harcèlement et les menaces de mort à l’encontre du DJ ne suffisaient pas, le gouverneur, un nidaiste [du parti au pouvoir Nidaa Tounès] notoire, s’est vu investi de la noble mission de défendre la foi bafouée.

  • Uganda to Retire Bush War-era generals

    Uganda has unveiled an eight-year timetable that will see nearly all generals from the bush war era retire. Among those to exit the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) is Gen David Sejusa, who will be retired next year. Two years after the former Coordinator of Intelligence Services walks away from an army with which he has had a love-and-hate relationship for more than three decades, Gen Sejusa (formerly known as Tinyefuza) will be joined in civilian life by police chief, Gen Kale Kayihura, whose year of retirement on the schedule is 2020.

  • Machar-allied South Sudan rebels take control of Raja

    Rebels with the South Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), allied with rebel leader Riek Machar, on Friday attacked Raja town, the capital of Lol state. SPLM-IO Secretary-General Tingo Peter confirmed his forces now controlled Raja after clashing with government troops. “Since 12 o’clock, we captured Raja, and it is now totally under our control. Even now, our forces are looking for the governor. They are trying to see where he is,” Peter said. Lol Governor Rizik Zachariah Gassan and his entire cabinet fled the area, according to Peter. Peter said the SPLM-IO was asking civilians in Raja to remain calm as their forces combed the town for government soldiers who might be hiding in residential areas.

  • Kiir signs oil deals with shady entities in effort to turn economy round

    The South Sudanese government is signing deals with shady wheeler dealers, some of whom may be out to take advantage of Juba’s financial crisis. In less than four months, President Salva Kiir, who is presiding over a cash-strapped economy ravaged by a conflict that is teetering towards genocide, has received offers from agents of established companies, organizations and non-descript financing groups, all dangling deals worth billions of dollars that critics warn will mortgage the country and its resources for generations. Critics in Juba worry that Kiir’s urgent need for cash may push him into the hands of con-men, and that even legitimate companies could take advantage to secure sweet deals for themselves while leaving the country with peanuts.

  • Niger: “La victoire sur Boko Haram ne sera pas que militaire”

    Après avoir longtemps épargné le Niger, Boko Haram a commis sa première attaque sur le territoire en février 2015 à Diffa, chef-lieu de la région du même nom, dans le sud-est du pays. Le groupe terroriste a ensuite multiplié ses actions au Niger: attaques et incendies de villages, raids contre des casernes de l’armée, tentatives d’attentats-suicides. Les habitants de 211 villages, soit près de 200 000 personnes, ont dû fuir les exactions de Boko Haram sur les berges de la rivière Komadougou et dans le lit du lac Tchad pour se réfugier sur des sites spontanés le long de la route nationale numéro 1. Selon un décompte établi par les organisations humanitaires, près de 300 personnes ont été tuées par Boko Haram en deux ans au Niger.

  • Au Cameroun en guerre contre Boko Haram, des rescapées racontent: “J'ai trouvé les enfants en morceaux”

    Elles ne connaissent pas la cause des explosions qui ont tué leurs enfants. Début mars, ces mères et leur famille, victimes collatérales des violents combats qui opposent les forces gouvernementales à la secte islamiste Boko Haram, dans le nord du Cameroun, à la frontière avec le Nigeria, ont été admises à l’hôpital régional de Maroua. Dans cet établissement, l’ONG Médecins sans frontières (MSF) et le ministère camerounais de la santé fournissent depuis août 2016 une prise en charge gratuite de la chirurgie d’urgence et des soins postopératoires.

  • Mgwebi to stay on as MONUSCO Force commander for another year

    To many in South African military circles he is the epitome of the professional officer and further testimony to this comes with the renewal of Lieutenant General Derrick Mgwebi’s contract as MONUSCO Force Commander in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for another year. This was confirmed to this week by Charles Bambara, director of the MONUSCO public information division in Kinshasa, and follows the extension of the mission’s mandate by the UN Security council – albeit with reduced troop numbers – for another year. Mgwebi took up the post at the start of last year after being appointed by then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for a year. Bambara told defenseWeb: “General Mgwebi is still in charge as MONUSCO Force Commander. I am not aware of any plan for him to leave the mission soon and, like all staff in a peacekeeping mission, contracts are renewed once a year.”

  • Constraints on food aid delay help amid famine: U.S. lawmakers

    As President Donald Trump seeks to cut foreign aid, two U.S. senators are proposing making American food assistance more efficient after meeting with victims of South Sudan’s famine and civil war. Following a visit to the world’s largest refugee settlement in northern Uganda with Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Senator Chris Coons (Delaware) said that the U.S.“can deliver more food aid at less cost” through foreign food aid reform. The United States spent roughly $2.8 billion in foreign food aid last year, and is the world’s largest provider of humanitarian assistance. But current regulations require most food aid to be grown in the U.S. and shipped under an American flag.

  • Kenya to send 100,000 workers to help Saudi economy

    Kenya may soon export 100,000 workers to Saudi Arabia if negotiations between the two countries bear fruit, while Qatar is willing to open its market for Kenyan meat. These are some of the wins the government achieved when it received high-profile visitors from the two countries this week. The Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, was on a one-day state visit to Kenya on Tuesday and Saudi Arabia’s Commerce minister Majed bin Abdullah Al-Kassabi led a delegation of seventy people from the private sector and government officials for talks with Nairobi on Wednesday. Resolutions seen by the Sunday Nation show that Saudi Arabia and Kenya agreed to work together on a number of issues.

  • U.S. begins shipping nonlethal aid to CAR Army

    At a ceremony this month, the U.S. ambassador to the Central African Republic turned over the keys to four cargo trucks to the national army. It was the first installment of $8 million worth of nonlethal assistance that is expected to include sixteen more trucks and communications equipment. “Essentially, we want to help the various processes that will allow this country that has known some really difficult times to pull out of that crisis and move into something sustainable, something safer for the region and ultimately safer for the American people as well,” U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Hawkins said. “Because if there is glaring instability, even in a place that is remote like C.A.R., that does not serve American interests.”

  • Post-election rise in vigilante violence raises concern in Ghana

    Ghanaians were uneasy watching members of a vigilante group loosely affiliated with the ruling party storm a court to free thirteen members standing trial for assault late last week. The Delta Force is just one of a handful of groups responsible for commandeering public facilities since New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader Nana Akufo-Addo won December’s presidential polls. In March, more than 200 Delta Force vigilantes attacked a regional government building in an attempt to force a senior official out. Described as “macho men” in Ghana, vigilante groups like the Delta Force campaign on behalf of political parties. In return, they expect jobs. With names like “Aluta Boys” (wrestling boys), “Pentagon”, “Al Qaeda,” or “Al Jazeera,” members of the more than twenty vigilante groups in Ghana tend to come mostly from poor backgrounds.

  • Mali’s president appoints loyalists to cabinet ahead of 2018 elections

    Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced a new government last week, with most positions stocked with loyalists to help him prepare for a re-election bid next year. The government, announced in a presidential decree, includes ten new ministers and twenty-five holdovers from the previous cabinet. Tieman Hubert Coulibaly, a former defense minister and close Keita ally, was handed the key post of minister of territorial administration, charged with organizing presidential and parliamentary elections late next year.

  • Security forces insufficient to deal with extremism in Burkina Faso

    There have been about twenty terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso since April 2015, when a Romanian citizen was abducted in Tambao on Burkina Faso’s north-east border with Mali and Niger. More than seventy people were killed in these attacks. Most of the attacks occurred in the Sahel region. They have been claimed or attributed to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)’s al-Mourabitoun brigade, and two groups linked to Ansar Dine – the Katiba Macina (active in central Mali) and Katiba Khalild Ibn Walid (which initially operated in the Sikasso region, southern Mali). In late 2016, a local actor began to launch terrorist attacks in the country. Known as Ansarul Islam, this group is structured around Malam Ibrahim Dicko, a radical Islamist preacher.

  • UN to try to broker new talks on Western Sahara

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for new talks to resolve the decades-old Western Sahara conflict, saying negotiations should address proposals from both Morocco and the separatist movement — the Polisario Front. Repeated UN efforts have so far failed to bring the two sides to agree to a settlement over the disputed territory. Spain left the territory in 1975. The Polisario says the land belongs to the Sahrawi people, while Morocco regards it as an integral part of the kingdom. The UN negotiated a cease-fire in 1991, but a permanent political agreement has been elusive. “I intend to propose that the negotiating process be relaunched with a new dynamic and a new spirit,” Guterres said in a report to the Security Council.

  • Also noted

    Good governance crucial for African countries to succeed: Blair | Chinese Firms Surge into Africa in Search of Customers, Contracts, Jobs | Bénin : la Banque mondiale soutient le programme d’action du gouvernement à hauteur de 500 millions de dollars | Démographie : quel avenir pour les moins de 25 ans sur le continent ? | Boko Haram feeds off corruption in Nigeria | Dogs trained in Wales help fight rhino poaching in Africa | Côte d’Ivoire: des milliers de fillettes tombent enceintes à l’école | Bénin: que comprendre du projet “Asphaltage des espaces libérés”? | Millions risks starvation in Nigeria’s northeast as WFP funds running out | France gives citizenship to 28 African WW2 veterans | Is Buhari winning the fight against Boko Haram? | Boko Haram insurgency weighs on minority Christians three years after Chibok | On the Kenya-Sudan border, refugees and locals vie for limited resources | Has democracy failed in Africa? | Africa is at a tipping point | “The development of Africa will be done only by Africans,” Guinea’s president states | 4 maps that explain wars in the Middle East and North Africa | Morocco’s Security Strategy, Model to Fight Terrorism in Sahel: Potomac Institute | Donald Trump’s administration is not prepared for the next global pandemic