Lord's Resistance Army kidnaps dozens in Central African Republic

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/Kony-LRA-kidnap-Central-African-Republic/-/1066/3031610/-/p2h116/-/index.html

BANGUI 

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels killed a villager and abducted dozens of others during two weekend raids in a remote diamond-producing area of Central African Republic, local residents and officials said on Tuesday.

The incidents represent the largest kidnapping by the Ugandan rebel group — headed by notorious warlord Joseph Kony — in recent months in the former French colony, which is also reeling from years of inter-religious bloodshed.

The LRA, known for massacring and mutilating civilians as well as abducting children to serve as fighters and sex slaves, raided a mine near the village of Diya, around 600 km east of the capital Bangui, on Saturday.

"In the first abduction, they kidnapped 10 people. Six were freed. The others are still with them. In the second abduction, around 20 people were taken and are still with the attackers," said local government official Herve Omere Fei-Omona.

He said one person was also killed and a vehicle was burned during the attacks.

News of the kidnappings emerged on Tuesday due to the raids' isolated location and Central African Republic's poor communications infrastructure, made worse by violence between Muslims and Christians that has split the former French colony.Local residents said the gunmen wore uniforms and did not speak French or the national language, Sango.

"Those kidnapped went to sell their products at the market in Diya and were kidnapped in order to carry what the LRA had looted in the village," said local humanitarian worker Gaston Gazale.

After a military crackdown by Kampala, the LRA left Uganda about a decade ago and its fighters have roamed across lawless parts of Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic ever since.

The United States has backed Ugandan-led regional military efforts to defeat the rebels, who are now believed to number just several hundred battle-tested fighters in addition to Kony and other leaders wanted by the International Criminal Court.

However, despite some progress, notably the surrender of senior commander Dominic Ongwen last year, the LRA continues its attacks on civilians

Two former premiers to vie for CAR presidency in run-off vote

http://www.france24.com/en/20160107-dologuele-touadera-central-african-republic-presidential-election

Two former Central African Republic premiers, Anicet Georges Dologuele and Faustin Archange Touadera, will vie for the presidency of the strife-torn nation in the final January 31 round of elections, provisional results showed Thursday.

Dologuele won 23.78 percent of the vote in the first December 30 round, trailed by Touadera, who picked up 19.42 percent, according to the results that still need to be officially confirmed by the Constitutional Court.

The National Election Authority (ANE) said turnout at the presidential and parliamentary elections reached a high 69 percent.

Nearly two million people in the country of around five million were eligible to vote in the elections, seen as turning the page on three years of sectarian violence, the deadliest since the country won its independence from France half a century ago.

Despite security concerns, the elections went off without major incident after initial delays caused by logistical glitches.

One of the world's poorest countries, Central African Republic descended into chaos in 2013 after former leader Francois Bozize was ousted by a mainly Muslim rebel alliance.

Thousands of people were killed and around one in 10 fled their homes in attacks by rogue rebels on remote villages and brutal reprisals by Christian vigilante groups against Muslim communities.

Police: 2 Killed in Fight With Burundi Security Forces

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2016-01-13/police-2-killed-in-fight-with-burundi-security-forces

By ELOGE WILLY KANEZA, Associated Press

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Two security officers who defected were killed in a gunfight with military forces in Burundi's capital, police said Wednesday.

Army Capt. Idi Omar Bahenda and police Brig. Jean Claude Niyongabo were killed Wednesday in the Kiyenzi area of Bujumbura, said police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye. Bahenda was wanted for recruiting rebels opposed to the government, he said.

The men, along with another renegade policeman who is now in custody, were traveling in a car in which police found explosives, a rocket-propelled grenade and a rifle, he said. The suspects tried to flee into a nearby bush but were chased by the security forces and local people, said the spokesman.

President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to seek re-election last year has left Burundi on the brink of civil war. Bujumbura has been hit by violence as opponents and supporters of Nkurunziza target each other in gun, rocket and grenade attacks. There has been a wave of extrajudicial killings that human rights activists blame on the security forces.

In December a senior military officer announced that he had formed a rebel group that aims to oust Nkurunziza.

The violence started in April 2015 and boiled over into a failed coup attempt by some senior military officers. On Thursday, a verdict is expected in the trial of some of the alleged coup plotters.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Ghana: Cancer Ward

Of all the exports from the West to the developing world, breast cancer is one of the most unpleasant.

What was once described as a curse of the rich is now on the march through Africa and Asia - with increasing prosperity and a move away from traditional lifestyles believed to be the factors to blame.

Specialists say that a combination of richer diets, smaller families, delayed child-bearing and reduced breast-feeding have driven the increase in number of breast cancer cases. Rising obesity and increased alcohol consumption may also be factors.

Mugabe: Rivalries threaten to split ruling party

The annual conference of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party is under way, with the disastrous state of the economy as a major talking point.

Another issue in focus is the growing question mark over who will succeed 91-year-old President Robert Mugabe.

He has not named a successor and there is a growing power battle behind the scenes.

The president said on Wednesday that the party was in danger of splitting and accused rival factions of stoking division as they position themselves to eventually succeed him.

Ahead of vote on term limits, Rwandans worry about presidential power grab

KIGALI, Rwanda — In her days as an active member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Eloise Umutoni did her best to show support for Rwanda’s ruling party and its leader, Paul Kagame.

As a district-level party cadre, Umutoni was responsible for mobilizing youth in line with the RPF’s development agenda, widely considered to be one of the most ambitious on the African continent. By helping lead various government initiatives, from the monthly communal work program, umuganda, to a campaign to eradicate traditional thatched roof houses, she was the face of the RPF for the young people of her village, a cog in a party machinery that penetrates deep into rural Rwandan life. Come local or national elections, she would dress in the RPF’s red, white and baby blue, extolling the party’s role in Rwanda’s progress, and reminding voters what was expected of them.

“I’m the one who told people, ‘You know who to choose,’ ” she said on a recent afternoon. “The RPF is like a family. And everyone understands they’re not supposed to vote against it.”

South African court changes Oscar Pistorius verdict to murder

South Africa's top appeals court ruled on Thursday that paralympian Oscar Pistorius' earlier conviction be scaled up from manslaughter to murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp two years ago.

Judge Thokozile Masipa, who handed Pistorius his original sentence, will re-sentence the Paralympic champion at a later date.

In South Africa, a murder conviction usually carries a minimum sentence of 15 years, although Pistorius' lawyers are likely to argue that his physical disability and mental stress should be considered as mitigating circumstances.

The announcement marks the latest twist in a protracted legal saga that began with Steenkamp’s death on Valentine’s Day 2013.

Pistorius has argued that he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he shot four times through the locked door of his bedroom toilet, killing the model and law graduate.

Pope Francis calls for peace in conflict-hit Central Africa

Protected by the heaviest security ever seen on his trips, Pope Francis on Sunday preached reconciliation in the divided Central African Republic, a nation racked by bloodshed between Muslims and Christians.

As the pope’s Alitalia plane touched down from Uganda to start his first visit to a war zone, attack helicopters patrolled the skies and armoured personnel carriers from French and UN peacekeeping forces waited outside the airport.

Special security forces wearing patches of the yellow and white colours of the Vatican flag were on hand to help his normal Vatican security retinue.

In an unprecedented precaution for papal trips, a UN soldier armed with a rifle rode in each of the mini-buses carrying reporters accompanying the pope.

Bangui, the capital of the former French colony, has seen a surge in clashes that have left at least 100 people dead since late September, according to Human Rights Watch.

France, which has around 900 soldiers deployed in the country, warned the Vatican this month that the visit could be risky but the pope was determined to go to the majority Christian nation.

Ugandan rebels 'launch deadly attack' in DR Congo

At least 12 people have been killed in an overnight attack blamed on Ugandan rebels in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a witness and local NGO said Monday.

“I saw four civilians killed by bullets ... and seven patients and a nurse cut up by machete at the hospital,” a regional official told AFP at Eringeti in the north of the troubled North Kivu province.

A local non-governmental organisation however put the toll much higher, at 30 dead: 14 rebels, seven civilians, eight Congolese soldiers and one soldier with the large UN mission in the DRC, MONUSCO.

The Study Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO) blamed the attack on Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who have moved beyond bases in the Ruwenzori mountains by the Ugandan border.

Sudanese refugees shot dead on Egypt-Israel border

At least 15 Sudanese refugees have been shot dead and eight more injured in Egypt's Sinai region as they reportedly attempted to enter Israel. 

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, Egyptian security officials told the Associated Press that the refugees were killed while caught in the crossfire between security forces and people smugglers on Sunday. 

Earlier in the day, however, officials said that security forces had shot the Sudanese as they approached the border fence separating the Sinai and southern Israel. 

Most of the people being smuggled through the Sinai are fleeing political violence in Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia, among other countries - risking their lives to make the perilous journey to seek asylum in Israel. 

Many have been shot, sometimes fatally, by security forces, while others have been tortured by Egyptian and Sudanese human traffickers, according to human rights groups.

Burundi's capital hit with deadly violence

At least four people died in shootings and explosions in various neighborhoods in Burundi's capital on Sunday, with the government-supporting mayor's house among those attacked during a night of violence, witnesses and local administration said.

Burundi has been shaken by months of violence, sparked when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided in April to run for a third term. He won a disputed election in July.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report within 15 days on options for boosting the U.N. presence in Burundi amid growing concern that the violence could spiral into an ethnic conflict.

Boko Haram destroyed more than 1,000 schools this year, UN says

Boko Haram members have destroyed an estimated 1,100 schools this year in their stronghold region surrounding Lake Chad, the United Nations envoy to the area said Monday.

The targeted schools were in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, the four countries most affected by the armed uprising, said Toby Lanzer, who became U.N. envoy to central Africa's restive Sahel region in July.

Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of attacks on schools and universities in an insurgency that has killed at least 17,000 people since 2009. The armed group made international headlines in April 2014 when its members kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from a school in Chibok, a town in Borno State, Nigeria. Fifty-three of the school girls escaped but the rest remain missing. 

Lanzer also provided updated figures for the number of people displaced by the conflict.