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More than 20 people have been killed, 15 wounded and a number of others taken hostage after al-Qaeda militants stormed a hotel known to be popular with UN staff and Westerners in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou. The gunmen launched an attack on the Splendid Hotel in the business district of Ouagadougou on Friday night, burning some 10 cars outside and firing in the air to drive back people before the arrival of security forces. According to witnesses, there were four or five armed men involved in the raid.

The army has surrounded the building following reports of gunfire and car bomb explosions. An unknown number of other people lost their lives after the attackers targeted the Cappuccino Cafe, located opposite the hotel, which is also popular with Westerners, a worker at the cafe said. The al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) militant group has claimed responsibility for the ongoing attack on the hotel. Early on Saturday, French Ambassador to Burkina Faso Gilles Thibault wrote on his Twitter page that a curfew has been put in place in Ouagadougou from 2300 GMT on Friday to 0600 the next day. Thibault also said the embassy had set up a crisis unit to help more than 3,500 French nationals living in the African country.

Describing the raid on the hotel as a "terrorist attack," the embassy had earlier told French citizens to stay at home and avoid the area. Hours after the raid, an operation to free the hostages was underway, while part of the hotel was on fire. Burkinabe security forces have reportedly managed to bring out eight hostages from the hotel.

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Jan.2016

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Italian police have arrested a Senegalese illegal immigrant who prosecutors believe killed Ashley Olsen, a U.S. woman who was found dead in her apartment in Florence last weekend. "We have collected very serious evidence of his guilt," Florence chief prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo told reporters at a news conference on Thursday after the man was arrested and questioned in the early hours of the morning. Creazzo said the man, named as Diaw Cheik Tidianee, had met the 35-year-old Olsen in a local nightclub and that the two had consensual sex in her home under the influence of alcohol, and possibly drugs, before he killed her.

She was strangled in the early hours of Friday, Creazzo said, but the autopsy revealed that she had two fractures to her skull -- injuries that would also have proved fatal. The case has attracted huge international media attention and investigators were keen to avoid any repeat of the drawn-out saga that followed the 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, not far from Florence. Kercher's American flatmate Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend spent almost four years in prison for the crime before finally being acquitted last year by Italy's highest appeals court.

During a long interrogation that ended at 4.00 a.m. local time, Tidianee had "substantially admitted" the prosecutors' reconstruction of events, Creazzo said. Tidianee and his lawyers have not made any public comment but Italian media said he told police he had not meant to kill Olsen, but that she had fallen during a row.

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Ngwa Bertrand

15.Jan.2016

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Nearly one in four children growing up in conflict zones are missing out on education, with South Sudan, Niger, Sudan and Afghanistan the worst-affected countries, the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. An estimated 24 million children of school-going age are out of school in 22 countries affected by conflict, according to the agency's research. South Sudan has the largest proportion of children out of school, 51 percent, followed by 47 percent in Niger, 41 percent in Sudan and 40 percent in Afghanistan. "When children are not in school, they are at an increased danger of abuse, exploitation and recruitment into armed groups," said UNICEF's head of education, Jo Bourne. "School equips children with the knowledge and skills they need to rebuild their communities once the conflict is over, and in the short-term it provides them with the stability and structure required to cope with the trauma they have experienced," said Bourne.

If children grow up without an education, their future prospects are bleak, UNICEF said. "Unable to learn even the basic reading and writing skills, they are at risk of losing their futures and missing out on the opportunity to contribute to their economies and societies when they reach adulthood," said Bourne. Education is one of the least funded sectors in humanitarian appeals. In 2014, it received 2 percent of humanitarian aid, the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO said in June. UNESCO said 10 times as much - an additional $2.3 billion - is needed for education in conflict zones. U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown, UNICEF and others have called for a multi-million dollar humanitarian fund for education in emergencies to be set up, that can be mobilized quickly in a conflict, natural disaster or other humanitarian emergency.

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Ngwa Bertrand

12.Jan.2016

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The First Lady Madam Chantal Biya received 2016 New Year wishes from wives of the Diplomatic and National dignitaries at State House on Friday 8th January 2016. The ceremony started at mid day when the wives of Diplomats accredited to Yaounde and female members of the Diplomatic corps, led by Mrs. Kaya, wife of Russian Ambassador to Cameroon and Vice Dean of the Female Diplomatic corps arrived the Unity Palace.

Various groups of women from different walks of life then took turns to greet the First Lady, including the wives of Senators, Parliamentarians, female mayors, members of GFAC and CERAC including the spouses of the senior staff at the Presidency of the Republic. The ceremony was spiced with music,dancing and merry making, while all the invitees took home a symbolic gift from Madam Chantal Biya.

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Ngwa Bertrand

11.Jan.2016

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South Africa’s ruling ANC party is pushing for tougher anti-racism laws following a white woman’s Facebook post comparing black beachgoers to monkeys. A spate of similar postings has ignited fresh debate on racism.

Anger following racist postings on social media sites has highlighted racial divisions in South Africa. Many see the comments as a confirmation that even twenty-one years after the official end of South Africa's apartheid system, racism is still a reality.

White South African Penny Sparrow is facing criminal charges after a Facebook post in which she described black people as ‘monkeys' because of the mess they made on Durban's beach during New Year's Eve celebrations. The real estate agent from KwaZulu-Natal, a province on South Africa's eastern coast, wrote: "From now I shall address the blacks of South Africa as monkeys as I see the cute little wild monkeys do the same -- pick and drop litter." Sparrow later deleted the post and apologized.

Legal action

The African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's ruling party, said in a statement on Tuesday that it had launched legal action and was pursuing a case against Sparrow and others "who have made racist remarks on a number of social media."

The country's opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), of which Sparrow was a member, has also opened a case against her, and has suspended her membership. "Our member in Gauteng, Herman Mashaba has opened a criminal case against Penny," the DA's Dumisani Mcwango said. "We really want to show to South Africans that there is no space for racism in South Africa. This is an insult to all South Africans especially the black majority, because her comments are actually dehumanizing the black majority in South Africa."

Tensions erupt online

In a similar incident, prominent economist Chris Hart was suspended by his employer Standard Bank for what it said were "racist undertones" in a tweet. Hart criticized black South Africans for a "sense of entitlement" after Apartheid, suggesting that "minorities," referring to white South Africans, were being treated badly.

(DW)

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Ngwa Bertrand

07.Jan.2016

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The police in Kumba have recorded more success in efforts to rid society of fraudsters. A young man passing for a soldier was arrested on January 1, 2016, in Kumba. Alain Azonga Valentine, aged 24, who was arrested by operatives of the Kumba Central Police Station, claimed he was given the fatigues by a military friend in Buea by name Mbaku. The fake military man said the uniform was for him to use for farm work, but he decided to put it on and come right to Kumba. Azonga said he makes his livelihood by fetching and selling fuel from the mountain in Buea.

According to the Commissioner of the Kumba Central Police Station, Nelson Elong Njumenjikang, the fake military man will be sent to the Legal Department for the Senior State Counsel to decide his fate. Elong Njumenjikang also spoke of the need for community policing, saying it facilitates the provision of intelligence by the public. It is thanks to such security measures that a suspect was recently arrested with four and a half sacks of ‘Cannabis sativa’ commonly known as Marijuana or Indian hemp. A gang of suspected robbers operating from Kumba was picked up in Mbanga in Moungo Division of Littoral Region and several other people arrested in Kumba for allegedly possessing or consuming Marijuana, the Commissioner explained.

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Ngwa Bertrand

07.Jan.2016

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