Lesotho’s beleaguered prime minister, Thomas Thabane, finally resigned on Tuesday, ending a months-long crisis that engulfed the kingdom after he was accused of having a part in his ex-wife’s murder.

“I come before you today to announce that the work that you assigned me may not be over but the time to retire from the great theatre of action, take leave from public life and office has finally arrived,” he said in nationwide TV address.

The tiny southern African state has been plagued by instability since early this year, when police accused Thabane of having a hand in the killing of his estranged wife in June 2017.

Thabane and his then wife Lipolelo Thabane, 58, were in the midst of a bitter divorce when she was shot dead outside her home two days before her husband’s inauguration.

Police have since found Thabane’s mobile number in communications records from the crime scene.

Thabane, 80, who has denied any involvement in the murder, had been under mounting pressure to resign.

Source: AFP

Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga was arrested on Saturday in the Paris region, the French Justice Ministry said.

Kabuga, 84, who was living under a false identity in a flat in Asnieres-Sur-Seine, near Paris, had been pursued by international justice for 25 years, the ministry said in a statement.

French gendarmes arrested him at 0530 GMT on Saturday, the ministry said.

Kabuga is Rwanda’s most-wanted man and the United States has put a $5 million bounty on his head.

A Hutu businessman, he is accused of funding the militias that massacred some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over a span of 100 days in 1994.

The arrest paves the way for bringing the fugitive in front of the Paris Appeal Court and later to the International Court in The Hague.

(REUTERS)

Nearly 2000 students from Chad have returned home from neighbouring Cameroon after COVID-19 spread there.

Many reached the border on foot, crossing into the Chadian provinces of Logone Occidental and Mayo-Kebbi Ouest.

Joint initiative

They were supported in their journey home after a joint initiative from the European Union (EU) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was launched to help them return.

The EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration is the first comprehensive mechanism to protect migrants in West and Central Africa.

The fund made a special allocation of 50,000 Euros through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa that allows these students to return home.

Quarantined

Upon their arrival, the students were quarantined for 14 days along the border.

None tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Nonetheless, most now find themselves without resources to continue their journeys to the capital N’Djamena, 450 kilometres from the quarantine centres.

IOM, at the request of the government of Chad, supported the students with transportation, chartering special buses headed back to their communities of origin.

With 46 cases of COVID-19 — yet no fatality- confirmed as of 27 April — Chad, too, has closed its land and air borders, schools, universities, religious buildings and non-essential businesses.

Enforcing curfews

Public transport is strictly limited and several provinces are enforcing curfews.

IOM said it is working closely with Chad’s government and other partners to ensure that the most vulnerable population groups are protected and assisted.

Anne Kathrin Schaefer, IOM Chief of Mission in Chad said: “Since the borders closed, we have been informed of regular arrivals of Chadian nationals in the country.”

She continued: “This worries us as most here have no opportunities to safely return to their families after having used their meagre resources to purchase food, water and other essentials during their quarantine period.”

Source: Voice-online

Egypt on Tuesday flew a plane of medical supplies to the United States to assist in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a role reversal for a top US aid recipient.

Egypt’s general-turned-president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has been eager to cement relations with President Donald Trump, and his country has already shipped medical goods with fanfare to China and Italy.

A video statement from Sisi’s office showed crates in wrapping that read in English and Arabic, “From the Egyptian people to the American people,” being loaded into a military cargo plane.

Dutch Ruppersberger, who leads a group in the US House of Representatives that promotes relations with Egypt, said the plane landed at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington.

The plane brought 200,000 masks, 48,000 shoe covers and 20,000 surgical caps among other supplies, said Ruppersberger, a Democrat who heads the bipartisan group.

“This is why international diplomacy and maintaining relationships with allies like Egypt are essential not in times of crisis, but every day,” he wrote on Twitter.

The US ambassador in Cairo, Jonathan Cohen, also voiced appreciation for the “generous” shipment.

Egypt has reported 250 deaths from COVID-19 and some 3,300 cases, according to the World Health Organization.

It is far below the nearly 45,000 deaths recorded in the United States, which has been scrambling to provide supplies and tests.

Still, some questioned whether Egypt, where one-third of the population lives on about $1.50 or less a day, was in a position to offer relief.

“Egyptians who are happy and proud that Egypt sent medical supplies to Italy, UK and the US are probably the ones who can afford to pay 10 EGP for a mask,” tweeted a prominent blogger who goes by The Big Pharaoh. Ten Egyptian pounds is more than half a dollar.

Egypt last month revoked the press credentials of a journalist from The Guardian who wrote that the country’s COVID-19 infections were higher than reported.

Trump has voiced enthusiastic support for Sisi, who toppled Egypt’s elected Islamist president in 2013 and has backed strong relations with Israel.

The United States gave Egypt more than $1.2 billion in the 2018 fiscal year, largely in military aid that goes back to US contractors.

Source:  AFP

Militants have killed 52 villagers in northern Mozambique who refused to be recruited to their ranks.

The massacre took place on April 7 in the village of Xitaxi in the Muidumbe district of Cabo Delgado Province, home to multi-billion-dollar gas projects led by foreign companies such as Total.

“The young men were about to be recruited but they resisted, which provoked the ire of the bandits, who killed the 52 indiscriminately,” police spokesman Orlando Modumane said on Tuesday.

Modumane said most of the victims had been either shot dead or beheaded, adding that a manhunt had been launched for the attackers.

Militants have in recent weeks stepped up attacks in the gas-rich province, targeting towns, villages, or government buildings.

For more than two years, the militants have mainly targeted isolated villages, killing more than 900 people, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).

The unrest has forced hundreds of thousands of locals to flee the troubled province.

Cabo Delgado, expected to become the center of a natural gas industry after several promising discoveries, has seen a string of assaults on security forces and civilians.

In 2017, the government announced plans to build a commercial port in Cabo Delgado.

Attacks have prompted security concerns for investors in Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries.

NGOs say the government must do more to protect the mostly poor civilians in the area.

Source: Presstv

The Federal Government has directed security agencies to stop Cameroonian refugees fleeing Southern Cameroons  from gaining entrance into Nigeria through Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State to check the spread of Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic,  in the country. State Deputy Governor, and chairman of the State Action Committee on COVID-19, Benson Abounu, announced this, yesterday, in Makurdi, while inaugurating members of the 11 task forces constituted by the state government to enforce restriction of movement at the major interstate boundaries of the state.

 According g to the Deputy Governor, “the directive that came from the presidency is that we must stop every refugee coming from Cameroon from entering Benue state to help us check the spread of Coronavirus in our state and country. That order did not stop us from allowing Nigerians into their own country but certainly not citizens of other countries who might expose our people to the pandemic.” He explained that the task force members on inter-state boundaries were not on a mission to stop interstate movements but to ensure that travelers were checked and their temperatures taken to determine their health status.

 “Where the health status of any traveler is suspicious, such a person must be asked to step aside for observation and necessary checks and test for the virus. The task force must ensure that the destination of every traveler is availed them to know those coming into the state for all necessary action to ensure that no one brings the virus into the state. The essence is to ensure that our people are protected.” The Deputy Governor who expressed displeasure at the attitude of beer parlor operators in the state who he said flagrantly disobey the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed on the state by the government promised to lead a team round such drinking spots to enforce the order.

Source: Vanguard

The UN Security Council on Monday imposed sanctions on Central African Republic rebel leader Abdoulaye Miskine, who last year signed a peace agreement between the government and armed groups.

Miskine, founder and head of the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), was offered a government position under the terms of the February 2019 accord.

However, in the last report by UN experts monitoring sanctions and an arms embargo imposed in 2013, the self-proclaimed general was mentioned as looking for fighters.

Despite the signing of the agreement, Miskine “remains a threat to the peace, stability and security of the CAR,” a diplomat said.

Miskine had signed the peace agreement in Khartoum between CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera and the heads of 14 armed groups.

Under the deal, militia chiefs were given senior government positions in the purported aim of helping to cement peace.

Miskine was named as an adviser to the new government but never took up his post, according to Bangui.

In November 2019, the Central African government said Miskine had been arrested in neighboring Chad and demanded his extradition.

He has now been put under UN sanctions, which include an asset freeze and travel ban. One of the world’s poorest countries, the landlocked CAR has been mired in conflict for years.

Most of the country is in the hands of armed groups that claim to represent religious or ethnic communities, and often fight over the country’s rich mineral resources.

Miskine set up the FDPC in 2004, when the country first plunged into civil war, and gave himself the rank of general.

He joined the coalition of mainly Muslim militias that in 2013 overthrew then-president Francois Bozize — a revolt that sparked French military intervention and the holding of elections for a successor.

Since then the CAR has been devastated by fighting between numerous rebel militias and government forces and also between the armed groups themselves.

The violence has abated in CAR since the Khartoum accord, but fighting between rebel groups continues and the toll among civilians is still rising. More than a quarter of the 4.7 million population have fled their homes.

Source:  AFP

Ghana’s president on Sunday lifted targeted lockdown on two major regions in the country citing improved testing of the coronavirus pandemic across the West African country.

In the over half-an-hour address delivered to the nation, the president also announced that Ghana’s tally had passed the 1,000 mark. Ghana becomes the first African country to not extend but lift a lockdown.

Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and more recently Zimbabwe have all extended lockdowns aimed at curbing spread of the pandemic. Government however warned that lockdowns could be imposed in hotspots if need be.

Source: Africa News

The government and people of Togo are mourning the death of a former Prime Minister of the West African country, Edem Kodjo. The former diplomat died at the age of 82 in the French capital Paris on Saturday, April 11.

The current Togolese Foreign Minister in reacting to the news posted on Twitter: “A brilliant academic, and an ardent Pan-African, our beloved Edem Kodjo died in Paris after a long illness.

‘You will always remain a reference for us’. On the eve of Easter, you practicing Christian return to your creator. Condolences to his family,” Minister Robert Dussey added.

In Togo, Kodjo spent two stints as Prime Minister, the first period from 1994 to 1996 and again from 2005 to 2006 under former president Gnassingbe Eyadema. He also held a number of ministerial posts.

Kodjo served in Eyadéma’s government as Minister of Finance from 1973 to 1976 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1976 to 1978. He was elected as the Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) at its summit in Khartoum on July 18–22, 1978.

At the time he took over the OUA leadership from Etéki Mboumoua, a Cameroonian diplomat reputed as the man who dismantled the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa. Eteki died in October 2016 at the age of 83 in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde.

In his condolence message, the current African Union Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, described Kodjo as “a brilliant African intellectual,” and “a distinguished statesman and tireless knight of peace.”

The AU chief continued that death was “painful” before extending on behalf the staff of the AUC, his most sincere and deep condolences to his family, the Togolese people and all the African peoples. May his soul rest in peace and may his example continue to inspire the continent,” the statement concluded.

Namibian president Hage Geingob was one of the earliest African leaders to react to the death as well as Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Geingob wrote: “With the passing of Edem Kodjo, Africa has lost an illustrious former SG of the OAU, a former Prime Minister of Togo and a refined intellectual. A towering Pan-Africanist who contributed immensely to a peaceful and better Africa is no more. Condolences to the people of Togo. RIP.”

Aside his work as OAU chief which ended in 1983 following which he returned to France to continue with academic pursuits at the prestigious University of Sorbonne; the AU named him envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo during the electoral crisis in the late years of Kabila’s mandate.

Source: Africa News