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The Democratic Republic of Congo’s ‘Mama Jeanne’, ‘Mama Jeannette’ and Dr. Denis Mukwege are contenders for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for their fight against sexual violence.

Mukwege is the director of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, which offers physical and emotional treatment to some hundreds of women who are raped in the region each year.

Jeanne Nacatche Banyere (Mama Jeanne) and Jeannette Kahindo Bindu (Mama Jeannette) have used their church network since the early 2000s to seek out survivors of sexual violence all across the country.

The two have also work alongside gynaecologist Mukwege whose hospital has treated more than 46,000 girls and women with gynecological injuries, about half of them, victims, of sexual violence. 

The number of women and girls raped in eastern Congo is unknown, but experts and campaigners say the scale is enormous. Swedish Prime Minister and former United Nations’ special representative on sexual violence in conflict Margot Wallstrom has called Congo the “rape capital of the world.”

Violence is frequent in both North and South Kivu provinces, with rebels commonly using rape as a weapon to intimidate and drive communities from their lands.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday, October 7.

The prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns (1.4 million U.S. dollars), will be handed over on December 10, 2016.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

02.Oct.2016

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Gabonese president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, has appointed the current foreign minister, Emmanuel Issoze Ngondet as the new prime minister tasked to form an “inclusive government”.

The presidency announced the decision on Wednesday.

“The President of the Republic has issued a decree appointing Mr. Emmanuel Issoze Ngondet as Prime Minister, Head of Government and asked him to form an inclusive government,” the presidential communication directorate (DCP) said in a statement released a day after the swearing in of Ali Bongo for a second term.

“The government could be announced latest by Sunday. Since this is an open government, it takes time for consultations,” the communications minister, Alain-Claude bile-By-Nze told AFP.

Issoze Ngondet’s appointment means he replaces Daniel Ona Ondo. 

The appointment of a new prime minister and calls for dialogue and openness “do not change anything. He (Ali Bongo) should leave,” John Nambo, the chief of staff of Jean Ping told AFP.

Opposition leader Jean Ping is scheduled to speak on Thursday afternoon, Nambo added.

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Rita Akana

29.Sep.2016

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The Head of State president Paul Biya"absentee landlord" as he is fondly called has not yet returned back to the country.

Paul Biya has not returned to Cameroon after  the 71st General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) which was held between 20 and 26 September 2016 in New York-USA.

 Like many other world leaders, the President of the Republic attended the full sessions of the General Assembly, after which most of  the Heads of States and Governments representatives  immediately headed back  to their respective countries.

"The Cameroonian absentee landlord", chosed to divert his presidential chattered plane to fly in a different direction other than Nsimalen Airport. His present destination has just been revealed  in the columns of  La Nouvelle Expression's September 28, 2016 Edition. According to the newspaper, "the veteran Cameroon leader flew to Geneva in Switzerland",his favourite destination and "second home". 

The paper also stresses that Paul Biya has a history of never returning home  immediately after the end of the tops summits out of Africa.

Mr Biya, could not attend Tuesday's inauguration of Ali Bongo who was elected for a second term at the head of Gabon and whose contested victory by his main opponent, Jean Ping, was confirmed by the Gabonese Constitutional Court.Mr  Paul Biya chosed to rather send his close aid,Laurent Esso(Cameroon's Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals)to represent him at the ceremony.

It is commonplace to hear Cameroonians say with contemptuous chortles that President Biya lives in Switzerland, where his children attend school and where he spends weeks at a time, and then visits Cameroon once in a while.

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Mbi James

28.Sep.2016

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Seychelles President James Alix Michel said on Tuesday he would resign on Oct. 16 after a constitutional amendment to limit the number of presidential terms to two, a statement published by the state house showed.

This month, opposition parties swept to victory in the country's parliamentary elections, shaking up the political landscape after decades of control by Michel’s party, Parti Lepep, which has been in power since 1977.

"Tonight I am announcing my decision to resign from the post of President of the Republic,” Michel said in the statement.

It was unclear if Michel's resignation stemmed from his party's defeat in the parliamentary polls. 

The statement said vice president, Danny Faure, would be sworn in as the new president after Michel steps down and did not say if any elections would follow.

In April this year Seychelles' 33-seat parliament unanimously passed a constitutional amendment to limit the president's tenure to two five-year terms from the previous three.

Michel is currently in his second term, which he narrowly secured in December last year.

The parliamentary election win this month by the opposition coalition, Linyon Demokratik (LDS), followed growing public frustration over economic inequality, analysts said.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

28.Sep.2016

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Shimon Peres, who died on Wednesday at the age of 93, never realized his vision of a new Middle East built upon a 1993 interim peace deal he helped shape with the Palestinians.

But Israel's elder statesman won world acclaim and a Nobel prize as a symbol of hope in a region long plagued by war fueled by deep religious and political divisions.

Peres was hospitalized following a stroke two weeks ago and his condition had improved before a sudden deterioration on Tuesday, doctors said. In announcing his passing, family members said that he did not suffer pain, and as a last act after death, he donated his corneas for transplant.

"Don't forget to be daring and curious and to dream big," Peres urged first-graders at the start of the school year in a posting on his Facebook page earlier this month. The comment seemed to sum up his own credo.

In a career spanning nearly seven decades, Peres, once a shepherd on a kibbutz, or communal farm, served in a dozen cabinets and twice as Labour Party prime minister, but he never won a general election outright in five tries from 1977 to 1996. 

"I am a loser. I lost elections. But I am a winner -- I served my people," Peres, who held the largely ceremonial post of president from 2007-2014, once said in a speech. 

He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Israel's late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for a 1993 accord that they and their successors failed to turn into a durable treaty.

When a far-right Jewish Israeli opposed to the peace deal assassinated Rabin in November 1995, the torch passed to Peres.

But Palestinian suicide bombings that killed dozens of Israelis and an aggressive campaign by Likud battered Peres's rating and he lost the 1996 election to Benjamin Netanyahu by less than 30,000 votes.

In 2000, the failure of final-status peace talks with the Palestinians and the eruption of a Palestinian uprising rife with suicide bombings further damaged Israel's left and Peres's leadership prospects.

In 2005, Peres left the Labour Party to join then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new party, Kadima, which had spearheaded Israel's unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip earlier that year. Following Kadima's 2006 election victory, Peres served as vice prime minister.

 

FOUNDING FATHERS    

Born in 1923 in what is now Belarus, Peres immigrated to British-ruled Palestine with his family a decade later.

Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion groomed him for leadership. He oversaw arms purchases and manpower in the Hagana, the Zionist fighting force, before Israel's establishment.

Peres is widely seen as having gained nuclear capabilities for Israel by procuring the secret Dimona reactor from France while defense ministry director-general in the 1950s.     

As defense minister he oversaw the dramatic 1976 Israeli rescue of hijacked Israelis at Entebbe airport in Uganda.      

Peres was popular in his first term as prime minister in 1984-86 as part of a power-sharing pact with Likud. He pulled troops back from Lebanon, normalized relations with Egypt and cut inflation from 445 percent a year to below 20 percent.    

Despite his key role in building Israel's defenses, Peres never gained broad popular trust in his security credentials as Rabin, his Labour rival and former army chief, or Sharon enjoyed.  

Most Israelis, hardened by frequent conflict, dismissed his vision that a new age for the Middle East was dawning hand-in-hand with peace deals.

He was seen abroad as an urbane diplomat but at home often as an ego-driven manipulator in domestic politics who eroded his party's identity out of a thirst for cabinet posts after election losses to Likud. 

Nevertheless, during his last years, the last of Israel's founding fathers saw a rise in his popularity among Israelis. He used the presidency as a pulpit for advocating peace and maintained an active public schedule, encouraging Middle East diplomacy and technological innovation.

He is also known for his stewardship of the Peres Center for Peace, a non-governmental organization focused on building closer ties with the Palestinians, improving healthcare and developing local economies.

Earlier this month, after a series of health scares including a mild heart attack, Peres received an artificial pacemaker.

"I feel great. When can I get back to work already? I'm bored!" he told reporters at the time.

Peres wrote several books including "Entebbe Diary", "The New Middle East" and "Battling for Peace". His wife, Sonia, died in 2011. He is survived by two sons and a daughter.

Reuters

 

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Rita Akana

28.Sep.2016

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Ali Bongo was sworn in on Tuesday as Gabon's president for a second seven-year term. His inauguration came after the Constitutional Court upheld his victory. The opposition maintains that they won the election.

"I pledge to devote all my efforts for the good of the Gabonese people and to ensure their well-being and to respect and defend the constitution and the rule of law," Bongo said amid jubilation from supporters. The 57-year-old narrowly won the August presidential elections with 50.66 percent of the vote, while his main challenger Jean Ping got 47.24 percent.

There was a 99 percent voter turn-out in Bongo's home area where more than 95 percent of the votes were in his favor. The Constitutional Court confirmed Bongo's victory, dismissing opposition claims of voter fraud.

Opposition leader Ping, who had called for a recount, described the court ruling as a "failure of justice," maintaining that he had won the election. Ping said that the Constitutional Court had denied Gabonese the right to elect their president.

"The Gabonese do not see their will in the result," he argued.

No job offers for Ping

The EU is now calling for a "peaceful and just solution" to the conflict between Ali Bongo and his challenger Jean Ping. But Andreas Mehler, director of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg, Germany said that it is still unclear what this solution could be.

"There's no chance of a vice presidency, which is almost the only thing Bongo could put on the table," he said. 

Even then, Gabon expert Kamissa Camara believes that a high post in government would not be enough for Ping.

"Ping has held high posts all his life. I don't see any position which would satisfy him," said Camara, a researcher at the US National Endowment for Democracy.

Election observers from the European Union acknowledged the weakness of the electoral system in Gabon. Using an unusually clear language, the EU complained about "clear abnormalities" in the results which could not be rectified.

Mehler added that recent elections have given rise to criticism elsewhere in Africa, including in Burundi, Congo Brazzaville and Chad.

"European governments put up with the farcical elections in Chad where the regime is more repressive than that of Gabon," he said.

Gabon does not have the same significance for Europe as Chad does, which could be why the EU and France are ready to criticize the country more harshly. This is even more the case in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where President Joseph Kabila is trying to hold onto power by any means possible.  

"The EU and France want to show that they are still serious about their own principles," Mehler said.

According to Mehler, there have been several agreements between the EU and Gabon. Gabon is an interesting partner when it comes to environmental issues, climate change and the protection of tropical timber.

"In the past they took each other seriously," Mehler said. "But this could now be more difficult."

Although Ali Bongo seems unbothered by the EU's criticism, it would be problematic for his regime if it loses its diplomat influence, said Mehler. However, Kamissa Camara does not believe that the government will be deterred by criticism from the EU. 

Dialogue possible?

After the Constitutional Court's decision Bongo called for dialogue with the opposition. He said all political leaders and the defeated candidates should now work with him, urging to prioritize the country's interests over personal and party interests. However, Mehler does not believe that a dialogue would be in the interests of the nation. He even sees a military coup as a possibility.

As ex-President of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping has excellent contacts abroad. He also has ties among the Gabonese elite, having worked as minister in various positions during Ali Bongo's last term as president and that of his father, Omar Bongo. His most recent post was foreign minister, a position he held from 1998 to 2008. According to Mehler, this makes Ali Bongo extremely nervous and could lead to the further restriction of civil rights. Accordingly, Mehler foresees Bongo's regime becoming even more authoritarian while the opposition could try to get more military support.

In August, preliminary results from the election led to a breakout of violence lasting several days. Protesters set Parliament on fire and the police arrested more than 1,000 people. The opposition said that more than 50 people were killed. Camara attributes the current calmness to security precautions by the government.

As for Jean Ping, Camara thinks that his political career might be over. "Perhaps he will write a book about it," she said. 

DW

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Rita Akana

28.Sep.2016

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