Soldiers killed in CAR ‘died for France’, Hollande says

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Video by Julia SIEGER

Text by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2013-12-11

The French president arrived in the Central African Republic on Tuesday amid a French-led mission in the restive country and immediately praised the two French soldiers slain overnight who he said, “gave their lives to save the lives of others.”

French troops to begin disarming CAR rebels

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Text by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2013-12-09

France said its troops will begin to disarm militias in the Central African Republic on Monday, while acknowledging that its reinforced presence in the capital of Bangui and nearby towns was creating tensions with former Seleka rebels on the ground.

Thousands queue to see Mandela lying in state

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Video by Kethevane GORJESTANI

Text by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2013-12-12

Thousands of mourners formed a queue that at one point stretched back for a mile to pay their final respects to Nelson Mandela at the Union Buildings in Pretoria Wednesday, where the former leader’s open casket will lay in state for three days.

French forces ‘kill Islamist militants’ in Mali operation

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Text by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2013-12-10

French forces killed 19 Islamist militants during an operation in northern Mali on Tuesday, according to a military source.

French forces killed 19 Islamist militants during a military operation in northern Mali on Tuesday.

"A French military operation is underway north of Timbuktu. French troops are facing a pretty determined group. At the moment, 19 members of this group have been killed," an unnamed French military source based in the capital Bamako told the AFP news agency.

Firm Defended Against Pollution Claims

        Kilifi County government and national government agencies have defended a local cement factory against environmental pollution claims.

The county government said the allegations by a civil society group against the Athi River Mining Factory based in Kaloleni was untrue and were aimed at frustrating investors.

“Kilifi County government is marketing the area to international investors especially those in the industrial sector to facilita creation of more jobs and we will not entertain groups out to,”said Kilifi deputy governor Mr Kennedy Kamto, who led area residents in a demo to support the firm.

 Area resident recently held a demonstration in support of the firm after the group, Human Rights Agenda (Huria), published a report accusing the factory of pollution.

Probe company  The report dubbed ‘Polluted Justice’ unveiled on Monday details alleged pollution by the company and recommends a probe into the firm’s activities.

“From the household survey conducted on the environmental, health and safety impacts of Athi River Cement Company on the community neighbouring the company, all the respondents said that the activities of the company were affecting the environment and the people negatively,” states the report.

Yesterday, the cement company rubbished the allegations, terming them “a gross misrepresentation of facts.”

“The implied link between our activities and adverse environmental and health effects is false and malicious.

We established that these reports were doctored and obtained under false pretenses,” said the company’s Managing Director Pradeep Paunrana in a statement yesterday.

Congo Signs Peace Deal With M23 Rebels

       The Congolese government has signed a peace deal with the M23 rebels it had been fighting until they laid down their arms last month, Kenya's presidential spokesman said on his official Twitter account on Thursday.

"DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) govt, M23 sign peace agreement in Nairobi," Manoah Esipisu wrote on his account.

M23 are the latest incarnation of Tutsi-led insurgents who have battled Congo's government in its mineral-rich eastern regions for more than two decades.

Sanef In Talks Over Mandela Funeral Coverage

       National editors held talks on Thursday with the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) on media coverage of Nelson Mandela's funeral in Qunu, Eastern Cape.

"The SA National Editors' Forum [Sanef] is concerned over restrictions of media coverage in Qunu," forum member Adriaan Basson said.

Journalists were being barred from entering the village and taking pictures. They were told to go to the media centre, about 3km from Mandela's homestead.

The restrictions have forced journalists renting houses nearby to find alternative accommodation.

A police officer said: "We were briefed not to allow you access or to let you take pictures. You can go to the white tent," he said, referring to the nearby media centre.

ANC Lashes At State For Organising 'Fake' Interpreter

         The memorial for Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium where an inadequate interpreter was used, was organised by the state and not the ANC, the party said on Thursday.

"Since yesterday [Wednesday], the African National Congress has been inundated with enquiries from local and international media regarding the sign language interpreter," spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.

"The ANC confirms that the organisation has over the years utilised the services of Thamsanqa Jantjie. The official memorial service held for president Mandela, however, was organised by the state and not the ANC."

Mthembu said the way Jantjie's services were procured were thus government and not ANC processes.

Kenya celebrates 50 years of independence

 

 

 

Kenya is marking half a century of freedom from British colonialist rule, and while many agree there is much to celebrate as it forges its path as an economic power, there is also a feeling that it is struggling to shed a legacy of corruption, inequality and violence.
Celebrations for Thursday's anniversary began at midnight, with the Kenyan flag raised in Uhuru Gardens - meaning "freedom" in Swahili - in a re-enactment of the moment 50 years earlier when Britain's rule since 1895 came to a close.
Climbers are also raising another flag on the snow-capped peak of Mount Kenya.
President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed crowds, as his father Jomo Kenyatta did in 1963 when he became the first Kenyan to lead the east African nation.
"From that night [50 years ago], the empire waned and a proud new nation was born... finally Kenyans were masters of their own destiny," Kenyatta said, as supporters sang and danced, as they had done to his father's speech.

Kenya celebrates 50 years of independence

The speech was heavy with anti-colonial rhetoric, amid international pressure on Kenyatta ahead of his international crimes against humanity trial early next year.
Kenyatta, who denies all charges of masterminding violence following contested elections in 2007, has campaigned hard to have his trial at the International Criminal Court suspended, appealing for support from fellow African presidents and the African Union.
At midnight, Kenyatta called for the honouring of the country's freedom fighters of the Mau Mau uprising, a largely ethnic Kikuyu insurgent movement in the 1950s brutally suppressed by colonial powers.
"I ask you this night to rededicate ourselves to defending that freedom and sovereignty that they secured at such great cost, and to resist tyranny and exploitation at all times," he said to cheers from the crowd.
Kenya's former colonial rulers are supporting the building of a memorial for those who suffered during the uprising, a British minister said on Wednesday.
Britain's Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds launched a competition for Kenyans to design the memorial, in collaboration with the Mau Mau War Veterans Association and other partners.
"Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of colonial administration, and we expressed sincere regret that these abuses took place," Simmonds said.
Current violence
As well as dealing with a violent past, many Kenyans want to focus on its current issues and struggles.
This week the World Bank has cut its growth forecast for Kenya for 2013 and 2013 to five percent, suggesting Kenya is drifting behind regional nations.
Gado, one of Kenya's most famous cartoonists, drew an image for the Daily Nation newspaper, showing a map "figure" of the country holding a list of challenges faced in 1963 - poverty, illiteracy and disease - and again in 2013, including the same problems, but tribalism and corruption tacked on too.
Security remains a challenge, with Somalia's al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab threatening Kenya with more attacks following its Nairobi Westgate mall massacre in September, in revenge for Kenya's two year military intervention in southern Somalia.
On Tuesday, gunmen killed eight Kenyans including five policemen in an ambush in the troubled northeast border region close to war-torn Somalia.
Last week, on another border, the army was forced to put down bitter clashes between two rival ethnic groups near Kenya's border with Ethiopia that had spiralled into a wave of brutal killings.

Obama's funeral selfie won't be shared, as Danish PM says it didn't turn out to be a good picture

 

Mine, all mine! Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt says she won't be sharing the picture she took of Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama.

She's keeping it to her selfie!
The infamous selfie of President Obama from Nelson Mandela's memorial service is not going to be shared, the Danish prime minister who snapped the shot says, since it’s not a very good picture.

The little lady who started selfie-gate, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, dashed the hopes of those wanting a peek at the pic when she revealed to the Danish press that the image won't be seeing the light of day.
The blond beauty says she has no regrets instigating the photograph with UK Prime Minister David Cameron and President Obama at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service Tuesday.

President Obama posed for a selfie with UK PM David Cameron and Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. The photo of the incident went viral — garnering considerable attention.

The Dane sat between the American and British leaders at the affair and held out her phone to capture the moment, while Cameron and Obama leaned in and flashed cheesy grins.

Insisting the mood at the Tuesday service was “festive,” the Scandinavian leader doesn’t think it was inappropriate to seize the moment for a selfie, according to Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet.

Brushing aside the controversy, she hinted that she finds all the press about the incident “funny.”

Really? The impromptu pic went viral with commentators the world over questioning the propriety of behavior at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.

Previously she was relatively unknown to the world, but she’s been plunged into the spotlight and her image was plastered across front pages across the globe — given her high-profile posing partners at the South African event.

The 46-year-old didn’t give her opinion on the reaction from President Obama’s wife, Michelle, who appeared annoyed at the display, according to photographs of the dignitaries seated in the stands at the FNB Stadium in Soweto, near Johannesburg.
Obama has not yet commented on the infamous picture, but the White House did say at a Wednesday press briefing it was "a shame” that “a couple of other things” distracted attention from the celebration of the legacy of the anti-apartheid leader.

Thorning-Schmidt says she doesn't regret taking the selfie, saying the mood at the affair honoring Mandela was 'festive.'

Cameron did confront the issue during a House of Commons debate Wednesday, joking that the selfie was a tribute to Mandela’s role in bringing people together.
Thorning-Schmidt is married to Stephen Kinnock, whose father Neil Kinnock is the former leader of Cameron's political opponents in the Labour Party. Cameron is the head of the Conservative Party.
Then later Wednesday, Sun photographer Arthur Edwards joked with the PM, instructing him that  "this is not a selfie" as he snapped Cameron with a large group of Sun Military Award honorees at a Downing Street reception.
"You'll be out of a job if we all do selfies," Cameron, 47, retorted.



Cholera epidemic raging in Congo, Angola and Haiti

The Russian Federal Service for Surveillance of Customers' Rights recommends Russian tourists not to celebrate the New Year in the Congo, Angola and Haiti due to the epidemic of cholera in these countries.

Officials with the department said that the number of cholera cases in the Congolese province of South Kivu made up over 2.5 thousand people in July 2013. Seventeen of them died. In the Congo, over 11,500 cases were reported; in Haiti - 58,000 cases; in Angola's Cunene Province, there were more than one thousand cholera patients, 48 of whom died during two weeks of November.

For those, who still travel to the above-mentioned countries despite the warning, need to observe precaution measures. Meat, fish and seafood must be exposed to thermal treatment; vegetables and fruits must be washed with pure water. 

DR Congo's UN forces attack Rwanda's FDLR rebels

 

 

 

UN forces have launched an offensive against a Rwandan rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in a new move to end regional instability.

The FDLR was the next target following the defeat of M23 rebels and a key road had already been recaptured, the UN's force commander Gen Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz told the BBC.

Neighbouring Rwanda views the FDLR as major threat to its stability.

The group is accused of involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Some 800,000 people, mostly from the Tutsi ethnic group, were killed in the conflict.

'Spread out'

Rwanda invaded resource-rich eastern DR Congo in 2003 under the pretext of fighting the FDLR, which is made up of the rival Hutu ethnic group.

The UN has more than 19,000 troops in DR Congo, with an attack force given the mandate of neutralising armed groups.

Gen Dos Santos Cruz told the BBC that 200 UN troops and an attack helicopter supported government troops in a two-day operation against the FDLR.

There was hardly any fighting, as FDLR fighters fled their positions, he said.

The government had regained control of the road between the towns of Kitchanga and Pinga, Gen Dos Santos Cruz said.

"It was very important to open the way to Pinga because for almost two years the population was almost isolated because of the presence of FDLR and some more associated groups along the road," he added.

UN officials estimate there are about 1,500 FDLR fighters spread out in small groups across eastern DR Congo's North and South Kivu provinces, an area the size of England.

The group has not carried out any major cross-border raid into Rwanda in recent years, correspondents say.

The FDLR was formed by Hutu militiamen who retreated to DR Congo when the genocide ended with the seizure of power by the Rwandan Patriotic Front led by Paul Kagame, who is now president.

Since 2011, Mr Kagame has repeatedly been accused of backing the M23 to counter the FDLR - an allegation he denies.

UN and DR Congo government forces defeated the M23 last month.

Most M23 fighters come from the same Tutsi ethnic group as Mr Kagame.

DR Congo has been hit by more than two decades of instability.



 

Algeria ends Burkina Faso's run

 

Algeria claimed Africa's final place at the World Cup on away goals after beating Burkina Faso 1-0 in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday and progressing with a 3-3 aggregate draw.

Algeria qualified for the finals in Brazil after a nerve-tingling finish at home to Burkina Faso, which hit the post in injury time to agonizingly miss the goal that would have taken the country to its first finals.

Angola's MPLA says opposition UNITA plans rallies 'to cause chaos'

 

 

 

Angola's ruling MPLA party on Tuesday accused the main opposition group, UNITA, of seeking to cause "chaos and anarchy" by planning nationwide rallies on Saturday to protest against the kidnapping of two activists last year.

Prosecutors said last week that Isaias Cassule and Antonio Alves Camulingui, who were involved in organizing protests by former presidential guards to demand payment of wage arrears, had been kidnapped and possibly murdered in May 2012.
Authorities have detained four suspects, but in strongly worded statement on Friday UNITA called the rallies to demand those who had ordered the kidnappings be held responsible and blamed President Jose Eduardo dos Santos for not preventing or investigating the crimes.
"The (MPLA) Political Bureau considers UNITA is clearly and irresponsibly taking political advantage... it is opportunistic to hold rallies under the pretext of protesting the disappearances," the MPLA said in a statement.
"Its only goal is to demand a change of regime, outside any political legitimacy, seeking to create a situation of chaos and anarchy with violence, subversion and terrorism, to prepare an ante-chamber for a new conflict," it added.
Former rebel group UNITA lost a 27-year civil war to the MPLA in 2002 and has since been trounced in two elections.
It has long accused Dos Santos of suppressing human rights and using excessive violence to clamp down on dissent during his 34-year rule over Africa's No. 2 oil producer.
The MPLA said the investigation into the disappearances had been ordered by the president and that everyone found responsible will be punished.
It alleged that UNITA is losing support and has been inspired by Mozambique's Renamo opposition guerrillas, who have staged attacks and clashed with government forces in recent months after two decades of peace following a devastating 1975-1992 civil war.
(Reporting by Shrikesh Laxmidas, editing by William Hardy)

DRC Armed Groups Ready to Demobilize, Activists Say

 

 

 

KIGALI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO — Several armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have said they are ready to lay down their weapons, following the army's defeat of M23 rebels. Since then, there has been a series of letters and declarations by other militias expressing their willingness to be demobilized.

It has been two weeks since the M23 rebels fled from their last holdouts in Congo after coming under intense bombardments from the U.N.-backed Congolese army.

Other armed groups in North Kivu province seem anxious to avoid the same fate.

Several of them are ready to give up their activities and demobilize, according to documents VOA has seen that apparently were signed by their leaders.

One of these documents appears to have been signed by leaders of the Mai Mai Kifuafua and Raia Mutomboki groups in Walikale territory - two groups that recently were fighting each other. Another comes apparently from the so-called Cheka group, which has been repeatedly condemned for human rights violations, and named as a priority target by the U.N.

Researcher Fidel Bafilemba, who works for the NGO the Enough Project in eastern Congo, told VOA the documents are genuine. He said they are authentic and were given to Enough by local government officials in Walikale, and were then confirmed by a Catholic priest who helped organize a peacemaking dialogue.

The signatories to one of the documents pledge to abandon all armed group activities and to join the army or return to civilian life, without conditions.

The other document from the Cheka does pose conditions, as it asks the government to integrate its fighters in the army and to recognize their self-proclaimed “ranks.”

There are said to be some 30 armed groups in eastern Congo. Bafilemba said most of the others also have pledged to demobilize, with some already partly integrated in the army, while others are disintegrating as their members desert.

He said it really is an avalanche, a tidal wave of armed groups giving up since the Congolese army defeated the M23, which he said was, in a sense, the reason for their existence.

A civil society leader in Walikale, Prince Kihangi Kyawami, also said the armed groups in the territory have pledged to demobilize. A civil society spokesman for North Kivu province, Djento Maundu, said the same was true for the whole province.

Both the Congolese army and the U.N. mission MONUSCO have said their number one target among the armed groups is now the Rwandan rebel group FDLR, whose core members include perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.

As for the FDLR, said Bafilemba, they have received an ultimatum from the DRC army high command to lay down their arms, and already had written to the DRC president saying they were ready to disarm, but had concerns about their repatriation.

A senior Congolese government delegation, including several generals and the interior minister, was in North Kivu at the weekend. The minister told reporters he was there to discuss the province’s reconstruction, but he did not give further details.

Non-governmental organizations have called on the government to revive a program for demobilizing Congolese combatants and helping them to rejoin civilian life. 

Kenya's Ticking Time Bomb

How political corruption is turning the country's spiralling youth unemployment into a threat to society.     You can witness the same scene at dawn every morning in Kenya's capital, Nairobi: thousands of young people in search of work are streaming out from the city's slums towards its industrial areas. Most of them are neatly if simply dressed, many of them are full of optimism, but the vast majority are destined to be disappointed. Those that can afford it will try and cram onto a bus in an attempt to beat the crowds, the rest will weave their way on foot through the heavy morning commuter traffic. But when they arrive, the situation for all of them will invariably be the same as it was on the previous day and the day before that and on all the other preceding days.

DR Congo soldiers go on trial for mass rape, murder

The trial of 41 soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo began in Goma on Wednesday, with the troops accused of committing mass rape, murder and other war crimes as they fled their positions when M23 rebels took the city in November 2012.

Algeria's World Cup celebrations turn deadly

Celebrations in Algeria after the country qualified for the 2014 World Cup finals has left at least 12 people dead and some 240 injured, authorities said Wednesday, with at least nine of the victims killed in car accidents.

Murder of French journalists a ‘botched AQIM operation’

© Photo: AFP

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said the kidnapping and killing of two French journalists was in retaliation for the "daily killings" by French troops in Mali. But the claim appears to be a jihadist whitewash for a botched operation.

French forces kill Islamist chief Belmokhtar's No. 2

French forces in Mali have killed the No. 2 in command of the militant group, led by Islamist chief Mokhtar Belmokhtar (pictured), that claimed a January attack on an Algerian gas plant and the bombing of an Areva mine in Niger in May.

Kenya Warns ICC Trials Could Threaten Regional Security

Kenya argued on Thursday that putting its top two leaders on trial before the International Criminal Court could compromise security in the often volatile east African region.

The indictments for crimes against humanity against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto "create particular problems in the context of regional peace and security," Kenya's attorney-general Githu Muigai said.

Muigai was speaking on the second day of an annual meeting of the Hague-based ICC's member states, during a session to discuss whether heads of states should be given immunity from prosecution.

"Kenya is the lynchpin in the peace and security of more than 250 million people from Djibouti to the eastern Congo. Kenya is one of the most important pillars in eastern Africa" in the fight against terror, drug trafficking and piracy, Muigai said.

He stressed: "It is not in our humble view a country... the international community should play Russian roulette with."

The United States, Britain and Israel have long had close military and intelligence ties with Nairobi.

British Diplomats Ejected From Hotel

Tension between Kenya and Britain almost reached boiling point when county Deputy Governor Daniel Chemno accused the trio from the British High Commission not following proper protocol, Standard Digital reports.

Relations between the two countries has been frosty over the past few weeks amid the trials of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto at the International Criminal Court. Britain abstained from voting for Kenya at the Security Council and they proposed a video trial for the duo, who are facing charges of crimes against humanity. Kenya rejected the proposal.

The senior officials from Britain were removed from the Sirikwa Hotel in Eldoret town where they were attending attending with various community groups based in the North Rift area of the country. 

Read More At: http://http//www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000098325&story_title=british-diplomats-ejected-from-hotel

Cabinet Secretary Criticised Over Sentiments About Rising Crime Rate

Cabinet Secretary in charge of Interior and Coordination of National Government Joseph Ole Lenku’s sentiments for branding retired disciplined forces officers as criminals due to rising incidences of armed robberies has come under sharp criticism from retired officers organizations.

The retired officers from the disciplined forces now want Lenku to apologize over his utterances.

Speaking on Thursday at a press conference in Nakuru, Col Dickson Swegenyi, the executive director of Global Veterans for Peace (GLOVEPA) termed Lenku's utterances as unfortunate.

“Lenku’s words that branded the retired forces officers as criminals due to the rising cases of insecurity across the country are not acceptable,” said Swegenyi.

Swegenyi further added that retired members of the disciplined forces have played a great role in the community through various organizations and needed to be respected.

Nigeria: Cameroon Turns Blind Eye for Extremists

Officials in Nigeria battling an Islamic uprising are accusing Cameroon's security forces of allowing extremists to flee across the border.

Deputy Governor Zannah Umar Mustapha of Nigeria's Borno state says Cameroonian authorities habitually refuse to either arrest or chase militants fleeing after attacks in Nigeria.

At a meeting on Wednesday with army officials, Mustapha called for a stronger military on the porous borders.

Cameroonian Governor Fonka Awa Augustine of the Far North region neighbouring Nigeria has said he is puzzled by such complaints.

He said Cameroon is "in full collaboration" with Nigeria and has "stepped up" co-operation since a French priest was kidnapped last week in northern Cameroon by suspected Nigerian militants and transported into Nigeria.

Read More At: http://www.news24.co.ke/Africa/News/Nigeria-Cameroon-not-helping-fight-extremists-20131121-2

White supremacists jailed for Mandela murder plot

A South African court Tuesday sentenced members of a white extremist militia accused of plotting to kill former president Nelson Mandela after a trial that lasted ten years. The apartheid loyalists received jail terms ranging from five to 35 years.

Al Qaeda-linked group claims murder of journalists

© Photo: RFI

Mauritanian news agency Sahara Medias said Wednesday that it has received a message from Al Qaeda-linked militant group AQIM claiming responsibility for the murder of RFI journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, killed in Mali on Saturday.

Kidal, a lawless outpost in Mali's desert north

Kidal, the northern Malian town where two French journalists were abducted and murdered on Saturday, is a remote and volatile outpost where neither French nor UN troops, let alone Malian forces, are truly in control.