A cream of African and Arab heads of state present in the Equatorial Guinean capital, including Gabon, have pledged to develop and consolidate the cordial relations of fraternal cooperation that exist between the two regions.Among the key political discourse during the forum were the acceleration of the process of establishing the Joint Africa-Arab Disaster Response Fund and the implementation of the Joint Plan of Action on Agricultural Development and Food Security with the aim of working closely together to ensure food security in Africa and the Arab countries by 2025.

The issue of agricultural development and food self-sufficiency reportedly attracted the attention of President Ali Bongo of Gabon who some reports have suggested is conscious of the urgency of being less dependent on the West and Asia.

Co-chaired by Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno, current President of the African Union, the Mauritanian President, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President-in-Office of the League of Arab States and His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait, the Fourth Afro-Arab Summit, resulted in the Malabo Declaration. President Biya was conspicuously absent.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Scores of people have been killed and more than a hundred others injured in an explosion that happened as they tried to siphon oil from an overturned truck in western Mozambique. The incident occurred on Thursday in the village of Caphiridzange in Tete Province, killing 73 people and injuring over 110, some of them critically, the government said in a statement.

The truck had been carrying fuel to Malawi from the port city of Beira. The exact circumstances of the incident were not clear. An early government statement had said the blast occurred “because of the heat.” Information ministry director Joao Manasses, however, said people may have ambushed the truck.

Government officials said the local hospital was reinforcing its staff to help treat those injured, saying more bodies might be in surrounding woods because some badly burned people had tried to run into a nearby river. Three government ministers were due to arrive to the village on Friday to monitor the rescue work.

The government in Mozambique increased fuel prices at the beginning of October, causing a rise in the inflation rate. Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been suffering the consequences of an economic crisis since its civil war ended in 1992, according to the International Monetary Fund.

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A large group of militants belonging to the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group along with their families have surrendered themselves to the army troops in Chad since September. “They surrendered to our troops on the front line in Lake Chad,” said Colonel Mohammad Dole, the Chief Military Public Information Officer for the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) headquartered in Chad’s capital N’Djamena, on Saturday.

Dole further said all these militants, some 240, mostly Chadian nationals, had been held in two detention centers along with their families in the remote town of Baga Solo. “The surrenders are taking place because of the firepower of our operations. The groups, many of them armed, have been arriving since September and their number keeps increasing,” he added.

The MNJTF is a joint force consisting of troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin, tasked with ending the Boko Haram militancy in the Lake Chad region. It launched a regional operation in July against the group, which has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. Boko Haram seeks to overthrow the government and seize power in northern Nigeria. The group has killed some 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.6 million since 2009, when it started its campaign.

The terrorist group, however, did not confine itself to the northern parts of Nigeria and has widened its attacks into neighboring countries, notably Cameroon and Chad. They have forcibly recruited young men in Chad. The terrorists have kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children in their six-year campaign. The kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls from Nigeria’s northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 unleashed a wave of international outrage.

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South African President Jacob Zuma has survived a no-confidence vote, the third in less than a year, over what the opposition called “reckless leadership.”   “I think the no’s have it,” Deputy Speaker of Parliament Lechesa Tsenoli ruled on Thursday, after lawmakers of Zuma’s African National Congress (ANC), which controls almost two-thirds of the assembly, voted against the motion.

After a heated debate, 214 lawmakers voted against the motion and 126 voted in favor. The vote came despite opposition parties calling on ruling ANC lawmakers to remove Zuma. Earlier on Thursday, Mmusi Maimane, leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), urged Zuma to quit power and called on ANC lawmakers to vote him out of office. “To put it plainly, we can choose Jacob Zuma, or we can choose South Africa,” Maimane told parliament, adding, “Many of you have been speaking out against him in recent weeks … I know that there are men and women in these ANC benches who want to do the right thing.”

The no-confidence motion was tabled by the DA, which argued that Zuma had wreaked havoc on South Africa’s “infant democracy” by being involved in various corruption and influence-peddling scandals. Zuma had managed to weather two previous no-confidence votes. The 74-year-old, who has been in office since 2009, enjoys strong loyalty among ANC lawmakers and many party activists, particularly in rural areas.

The vote came days after South Africa’s top watchdog issued a report, detailing the president’s relationship with the Guptas, an Indian business family accused of wielding undue political influence. The report raised fresh allegations of misconduct in Zuma’s administration.

Zuma is already gripped in a series of corruption scandals. He was found guilty by South Africa’s highest court in March, after he refused to repay taxpayers’ money used to refurbish his private rural house. A court has also ruled that Zuma should face almost 800 corruption charges over a multi-billion dollar arms deal in the 1990s. Zuma has appealed the ruling.

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Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has accused the United Nations of covering up its failure to establish peace in South Sudan by blaming a Kenyan commander in charge of the UN forces in the conflict-stricken country. Kenyatta said on Thursday that the UN was “scapegoating” Kenyan forces deployed to South Sudan for the failings of its mission in the country, known as UNMISS.

“We know that the people of this region want peace in South Sudan. But we also know that peace will not come to South Sudan by blaming a Kenyan commander for the wider failings of the mission to South Sudan,” said Kenyatta.

The harsh criticism came two days after the UN sacked Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki as the head of UNMISS, saying the results of a probe into his response to the fighting in South Sudan in July were “chaotic and ineffective”. The UN said soldiers killed civilians, looted warehouses and raped women, including foreign aid workers, during the escalated wave of violence in the capital, Juba.

Kenyatta, however, rejected the findings and said that Kenya would pull out its troops from South Sudan in protest at the UN statements. “We will no longer contribute to a mission that has failed to meet its mandate, and which has now resorted to scapegoating Kenyans,” Kenyatta said, adding, “Serving does not come at the expense of the country’s dignity.”

Kenyatta’s angry remarks followed a Wednesday statement by the Kenyan Foreign Ministry which announced Ondieki’s dismissal but said soldiers would be withdrawn and Kenya would disengage from its mediator role in the peace process for South Sudan.

Kenya has more than 1,000 troops in South Sudan. The troops are part of the 13,000-strong force of UN Mission in South Sudan. It had also agreed to contribute to a proposed 4,000-strong “regional protection force” intended to bolster UNMISS.

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Kenya says it will withdraw from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dismissed the Kenyan commander of the mission over its failure to protect civilians. The Kenyan Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the country would “withdraw, immediately” its forces from South Sudan in reaction to Ban’s decision.

On Tuesday, the UN secretary general dismissed and called for the immediate replacement of Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki in reaction to a damning report that showed the failure of the mission to protect civilians and the UN staff during the deadly violence that erupted in the capital Juba in July.

The ministry said it had been informed “with dismay” of Ban’s decision, adding, “The continued deployment of (Kenya’s) troops in South Sudan is no longer tenable and is inimical to their safety and well-being.” It also accused the UN of failing to address the shortcomings of the peacekeeping mission, known as UNMISS. An independent UN inquiry released on Tuesday found that UNMISS had failed to respond to repeated pleas for help from aid workers under attack just a few minutes’ drive away.

According to the summary of the report, General Ondieki lacked the proper leadership of the mission that “culminated in a chaotic and ineffective response to the violence.” Kenya rebuked the dismissal as lacking transparency and consultation.

“This action is not only wrong but also insulates the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) from the hard questions it needs to answer, and the responsibility it must shoulder to facilitate the proper management of UNMISS,” the Kenyan Foreign Ministry said.

Kenya contributed about 1,000 troops to UNMISS, which is composed of nearly 16,000 soldiers. The ministry added that Kenya would also “discontinue plans to contribute to the Regional Protection Force, and … disengage from the South Sudan peace process.”

South Sudan gained independence in July 2011, but descended into war in December 2013, after President Salva Kiir accused the former vice president, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup to usurp power. Numerous international attempts to reach a truce between the warring sides have failed.

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Moroccans have staged protest rallies across the North African country after a fisherman was crushed to death in a garbage truck while trying to take back fish seized by police. On Sunday, thousands of outraged people marched on the streets of several cities, including the northern town of Hoceima in the country’s Rif region where the fishmonger lost his life on Friday.

According to local media and authorities, the street vendor, Mouhcine Fikri, jumped inside the trash truck that police used to destroy the confiscated fish in a desperate attempt to recover it when he was caught inside the crusher. Fikri, 31, was selling sword fish, which is not allowed to be fished during this time of the season.

Protesters blamed the police for the gruesome death and demanded an end to what they termed official abuse and injustice. Sunday’s rallies were called by activists from the February 20 movement, which organized demonstrations during the Arab Spring-style protests in 2011. Arab Spring refers to a series of uprisings and revolutions that started across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 against unemployment, inflation as well as corruption, among other issues.

Fikri’s body was laid to rest in the area of Imzouren some 20 kilometers southeast of Hoceima in a huge funeral procession late Sunday afternoon.

“I have never seen such a crowd in the last few years, since 2011 at least,” said Houssin Lmrabet, an activist from the town of Imzouren, where thousands took part in the funeral of the victim and protests that followed. “Everyone feels crushed by that garbage truck.”

In an effort to calm tensions, Moroccan King Mohamed VI, currently on a tour of Africa, ordered Interior Minister Mohammed Hassad to visit the victim’s family and to ensure a “meticulous” investigation. Hassad denounced the incident and vowed that an investigation would be held to “determine the exact circumstances of the tragedy and punish those responsible.”

“No one had the right to treat him like this…. We cannot accept officials acting in haste, anger or in conditions that do not respect people’s rights,” Hassad said. The Moroccan Human Rights Association also censured the “heinous” incident and recalled another incident in Hoceima, in which five youths died during 2011 protests of the February 20th Movement. That movement emerged amid the Arab Spring uprisings that began in Tunisia when vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after police confiscated his wares.

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President Biya has thanked his Chadian counterpart and Chairman of the African Union for coming to comfort the Cameroonian people after the railway accident that shocked the entire nation. The Chadian leader Idriss Deby Itno paid a 48 hour visit to Cameroon on Friday, October 28, 2016.

The two heads of State met head-to-head at the Unity Palace during a dinner offered by the presidential couple. Paul Biya thanked Deby for his presence after the tragic train accident on the 21^st of October at Eséka. Said Biya, “As soon as you were informed of the rail disaster in my country, you sent us the condolences of the Chadian people and those of the people of the African continent in your capacity as Chairman of the African Union. This tragedy, this disaster, this event, shocked the entire Cameroonian people. Many of our compatriots have died … So many others were wounded.”

Biya added that “in addition to your message of condolence, you wanted to come in person today to bring us the comfort of your friendship. Thank you, Mr. President and dear brother. It is in trouble, they say, that one recognizes his true friends.”

President Biya did not miss the opportunity to magnify the relations linking the two countries in Central Africa. “These links are based on woven relations in history, between two neighboring peoples who have much in common. In the latest period, these relationships have shown that when the safety or even the existence of our country was threatened, we were able together to face and reverse the common enemy.”  President Deby will leave Cameroon today, October 29, 2016.

By Sama Ernest

The President of the Republic of Chad and current Chairman of the African Union, Idriss Deby Itno will begin a two day state visit to Cameroon today Friday the 28^th of October 2016.The Chadian dictator is expected in Yaounde at about 3:00pm local time.

President Idriss Deby will be received at the Nsimalen International airport by his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya. The two men will have a brief discussion at the Hilton Hotel in Yaounde.

Idriss Deby Itno and Biya will have a tete a tete at the Unity Palace at 5:00pm.Chad and Cameroon are neighbouring countries that share strong bilateral ties. Both countries are currently combating the terrorist group Boko Haram. The Chad – Cameroon pipeline project remains concrete example of the brotherly ties that both countries share. The Idriss Deby visit ends on Saturday.

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