Headlines

Nigeria's government has made preventing attacks by armed herdsmen a security priority in Africa's most populous country, a spokesman for the president said on Wednesday in the wake of an attack that may have left up to 50 people dead.

The government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler, is already contending with the militant Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast and a resurgence of pipeline attacks in the oil-rich southern Niger Delta region.

Clashes over land use between the semi-nomadic, cattle-herding Fulani people and more settled communities that practice a mix of farming and cattle rearing, claim hundreds of lives each year, but have increased in frequency in recent months.

Police and local politicians said seven people were killed on Monday when armed herdsmen, suspected to be Fulani, clashed with locals in the southeastern town of Ukpabi Nimbo, in Enugu state. But local media reports suggest up to 50 were killed.

Two witnesses told Reuters more than 20 people were killed and many were injured in the attack which they said involved herdsmen shooting and burning houses.

Buhari's spokesman Garba Shehu said the police and Nigeria's security agencies, acting on a "directive" from the president, were taking "urgent steps to fully investigate the attacks, apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice".

"Ending the recent upsurge of attacks on communities by herdsmen reportedly armed with sophisticated weapons is now a priority on the Buhari administration's agenda for enhanced national security," said Shehu.

"The armed forces and police have clear instructions to take all necessary action to stop the carnage," he said, adding that the government was ready to "deploy all required personnel and resources" to remove the threat to national security.

The latest attack took place in the country's southeast, though in the last few years the unrest has been concentrated in Nigeria's middle belt where the country's mostly Christian south and Muslim north meet.

Fulanis are Muslim and the communities with which they are in conflict in central Nigeria tend to be Christian.

Nigeria, which has around 180 inhabitants, is split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims and around 250 different ethnic groups who mostly co-exist peacefully.

Details

Elangwe Pauline

28.Apr.2016

Hits: 2815

The entire Democratic Republic of Congo prepares to host this Thursday, April 28 the remains of Jules Shungu Wembadio aka Papa Wemba  after a final tribute yesterday in Ivory Coast where he died.

The body of the musician is expected to arrive this Thursday morning at Ndjili International Airport onboard a chattered plane from Congo Airways organized by the government. 

Congolese Minister of Tourism Elvis Mutiri wa Bashara led the Congolese delegation that was sent on Wednesday to Abidjan, Ivory Coast to organize the repatriation of his remains. President Joseph Kabila or his representative will be present at the airport to recieve the remains of the legendary Rumba King.

Details

Elangwe Pauline

28.Apr.2016

Hits: 2276

Liberian football legend George Weah of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) party is expected to accept a petition from his supporters Thursday to run for president in the coming 2017 general elections.

Weah, who is now a first-term senator for Montserrado County, first ran for president in 2005 and came second to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. He ran again in 2011, this time as a vice president to Winston Tubman and again his party came second to Sirleaf.

Nathanial McGill, national chairman of the CDC, said the 10-year administration of President Sirleaf has failed to improve the welfare of Liberians in spite of the enormous international goodwill it has received. 

As a result, McGill said “marginalized” Liberians yearn for change, and they believe Senator Weah can be the vehicle for that change.

“Considering that the Unity Party-led government has not done sufficient in the face of the enormous resources it has received, we think there’s a need for change. Liberians believe Senator Weah can be the vehicle for that change. He’s a man who understands their condition, who indeed understands their plight,” he said.

McGill said two million people are expected to follow the petition rally on radio.

Some analysts have commented that the CDC lost the last two presidential elections because, while the party was popular in urban areas like the capital, Monrovia, it failed to extend its reach to the rural areas.

McGill described the assertion as a myth. He said the only political party with national appeal is the CDC. “If we are a Monrovia-based party, how come we pushed this president to the second round in two successive elections? The fact that the government did not win on the first ballot shows we are not a Monrovia-based party. We are a national-based party,” McGill said.

He also said the CDC hopes to improve on its errors in the last two elections. “We realize that we needed to improve our ability to man the polls and in that area we had some lapses. But we’ve improved on that, manning the polls making sure we have a strong and vigorous poll monitoring officers. And we are quite sure that this time around there will be no reason to complain because we will be on top of our game,” McGill said.  

Following the November 2011 first-round presidential election, the CDC decided to boycott the second-round vote because it felt it had been cheated in the first round.

A rally of its supporters called by the CDC leadership in support of the party’s plan to boycott the runoff election turned violent when police fired on protesters, killing one and wounding several others.

A commission set up by President Sirleaf to investigate the violence recommended, among other things, the dismissal of the director of police.

A number of other Liberians have already announced their intentions to contest the 2017 election. They include Liberia’s incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai of the ruling Unity Party; Charles Brumskine of the opposition Liberty Party, who ran in the 2005 and 2011 presidential elections and lost; and businessman Benoni Urey, who served as head of the country’s lucrative Bureau of Maritime Affairs during the presidency of Charles Taylor.

Others likely to enter the race include Dr. J. Mills Jones, former governor of the Central Bank of Liberia, and former Foreign Minister Augustine Ngafuan, who resigned last year, saying he wanted to be an “active player” in the coming 2017 presidential and general elections.

McGill said the CDC is contemplating collaborating with other political parties for the 2017 campaign. 

“We are thinking of that. That is correct. We believe that the only way we can move this country forward and unite our people is to form some kind of unity government. And to do that you must collaborate and we will pursue that,” McGill said.

VOA

Details

Elangwe Pauline

27.Apr.2016

Hits: 2177

Donald J. Trump crushed his Republican opponents in Pennsylvania, Maryland and three other states on Tuesday, a sweep that put him considerably closer to capturing the party’s presidential nomination outright, while Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland and Delaware and was battling to amass enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination as early as mid-May.

Though Mr. Trump was widely expected to dominate the primaries, his margins of victory represented a breakthrough: He received 55 percent to 60 percent of the vote in some states, after months of winning many primaries with less than a majority.

Mr. Trump’s success intensified the aura of inevitability around his bid to lead the Republicans, and created urgent new challenges for his rivals. More significant, it increased his chances of avoiding a fight on the floor of the party’s convention in July and of claiming the nomination on the delegates’ first ballot. 

“When the boxer knocks out the other boxer, you don’t have to wait around for a decision,” he said boastfully at an election-night appearance before supporters at Trump Tower in New York.

Clinton advisers said Tuesday’s final delegate tally would reveal not if, but when, Mrs. Clinton would win the nomination: either in early June, if she continues at her current pace, or as soon as the Kentucky and Oregon primaries on May 17, if she does better than expected in the coming weeks, once her support from more than 500 superdelegates is included. Superdelegates could switch their votes at any point, but Mrs. Clinton’s are widely considered to be staunch supporters.

Mrs. Clinton predicted that she would return to Philadelphia this summer for the Democratic convention “with the most votes and the most pledged delegates.”

She pledged to unify the party, telling Sanders supporters that “there is much more that unites us than divides us,” but she also looked past him as she took a swipe at Mr. Trump and his campaign motto, “Make America Great Again.”

“Despite what other candidates say, we believe in the goodness of our people and the greatness of our nation,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Details

NYT

26.Apr.2016

Hits: 1749

Prof. Peter Agbor Tabi , Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic has died in a hospital in the French city of Neuilly .

The former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research was currently admitted at the American Hospital of the French city for proper care, according to sources.

Born in February 1951 in Mamfe, South West Province, Prof Agbor Tabi, was Deputy Secretary General at the Presidency,  Associate Professor who among others obtained a Ph.D in International Studies, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA in 1982 and a Fulbright Scholar in Residence-Spellman College, Atlanta, GA, USA between September 1983 and May 1984. 

The administration in Yaounde confirmed his death in a statement signed by Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic.

Details

Elangwe Pauline

26.Apr.2016

Hits: 7770

Kenya’s opposition has called for the country’s electoral commission to disband before next year’s presidential vote.

On Monday (April 25) some 500 of their supporters marched on the commission’s offices in Nairobi. They say they have no confidence in the organisation after it dismissed complaints of voting irregularities following the 2013 election. 

Opposition Senator Bonny Khalwale rejected accusations that the opposition was trying to bring down the government.

“ We are not overturning the government, we are saying the institution is rotten and it must go. Whether they like it or not this is just the beginning of our strategy.”

Details

Elangwe Pauline

26.Apr.2016

Hits: 1954