31, May 2021
France Afrique: Chad accuses the Central African Army of killing six of its soldiers 0
Chad has accused the Central African army of killing six of its soldiers on Sunday, five of whom were “abducted and then executed”, after an attack on a border post in Chadian territory.
The N’Djamena authorities termed this as a “war crime” and vowed to retaliate.
The Central African Republic frequently accused Chad of supporting Central African armed rebel groups in its territory.
The soldiers were killed during a confrontation between Central African soldiers and a militia group by the name Ali Darassa’s Unité pours la Paix en Centrafrique near the border with Chad, according to Chadian Foreign Minister Chérif Mahamat Zene.
“The Central African armed forces attacked the Sourou outpost on Chadian territory on Sunday morning, killing one Chadian soldier, and wounded five and kidnapped five others, who were then executed in Mbang, on the Central African side of the border,” Chadian Foreign Minister Chérif Mahamat Zene said in a statement.
The group has been accused of trying to topple the Central African Republic regime. The border post was being manned by 12 soldiers when the attack occurred at dawn. Authorities from the Central African Republic have not yet commented on the attack. Chad is now calling upon the international community to intervene in this alleged perpetration.
Source: Africa News



















31, May 2021
China allows couples to have up to three children 0
China has relaxed its family planning policy to allow couples to have a maximum of three children after a census showed its population is rapidly ageing, state media Xinhua reported Monday.
For almost 40 years, China enforced a controversial “one-child policy” — one of the strictest family planning regulations worldwide — which was lifted in 2016 due to widespread concerns over an ageing workforce and economic stagnation.
“To actively respond to the ageing of the population … a couple can have three children,” Xinhua said, citing a Monday meeting of China’s elite Politburo leadership committee hosted by President Xi Jinping.
Despite government efforts to encourage childbirths, China’s annual births have continued to plummet to a record low of 12 million in 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said last month.
China’s fertility rate stands at 1.3 — below the level needed to maintain a stable population, the bureau revealed.
The once-in-a-decade 2020 census results published last month also showed that China’s population grew at its slowest rate since the 1960s, reaching 1.41 billion.
It comes alongside a sharp drop in the number of working-age people, once again raising fears of a looming demographic crisis.
China’s gender balance has also been skewed by decades of the one-child policy, and a traditional social preference for boys which prompted a generation of sex-selective abortions and abandoned baby girls.
(AFP)