President of Tanzania expected in Rwanda next week

By Ivan Mugisha, KIGALI Rwanda 

Tanzanian President Samia Hassan will on Monday arrive in Kigali for her first visit state to Rwanda. 

During the two-day visit, she is expected to hold private talks with President Paul Kagame.

President Hassan's visit follows recent high-level meetings between top officials from the two countries.

The most recent meeting occurred on July 16, when Rwanda’s Minister of ICT, Paula Ingabire, met her Tanzanian counterpart, Faustine Ndugulile, to review submarine cable infrastructures in Tanzania that support communication services to Rwanda.

On July 9, Rwanda's Ambassador to Tanzania, Major General Charles Karamba, met Tanzania's Minister of Defence Elias Kwandikwa in Dodoma, where they discussed "mutual interest" topics.

One of the most crucial topics of interest between the two countries now is the instability in Mozambique, where Rwanda has deployed 1000 soldiers and policemen to fight Islamist insurgents. 

Tanzania also has a Memorandum of Understanding with Mozambique - signed in November 2020 - to jointly battle against Islamists in Cabo Delgado Province.

Rwanda's deployment of troops to Mozambique was not entirely supported by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), with reports indicating that the bloc expressed concern over a non-member deploying soldiers to the region without its approval.

Hassan's visit now provides Rwanda with an opportunity to woo one of SADC's core members - Tanzania - on her side on matters related to the instability in Mozambique.

High on the agenda for talks between Suluhu and Kagame will also be the Isaka-Kigali standard gauge railway line, which has experienced delayed construction due to lack of funds.

The 532km railway line linking Rwanda to Tanzania and DRC is expected to cost up to $2.5 billion, with Tanzania paying $1.3 billion and Rwanda $1.2billion.

Rwanda and Tanzania have enjoyed cordial ties since 2015.

Before that both countries had a tumultuous past, at the height of which Rwanda accused Tanzanian officials of supporting rebels, while Tanzania also expelled thousands of Rwandan settlers in 2013.

They have been largely on the same page since 2015.

The most recent notable point of contention came in mid-2020 over disagreements on how to control border crossings during the coronavirus pandemic.

After back and forth interactions, the impasse was solved in May when Rwanda agreed to draw back its proposed swapping of drivers at Rusumo border, a proposal that had angered Tanzania's truck drivers' association.

Both countries also agreed to mandate the testing of truck drivers at their starting point in order to curtail the spread of Covid-19 across borders.

President Suluhu's first trip was to Uganda in April, followed by Kenga in May.

Earlier in July, she visited Burundi, and with her visit to Rwanda, she will have visited all members of the East African Community - except South Sudan - within the first four months of her presidency.

This also means that she has visited more countries than her predecessor, John Pombe Magufuli,  did in his first full year as president.

WHO urges action to suppress COVID before deadlier variants emerge

GENEVA, Switzerland

The Delta variant of COVID-19 is a warning to the world to suppress the virus quickly before it mutates again into something even worse, the WHO said Friday.

The highly transmissible variant was first detected in India. It has now surfaced in 132 territories and is partly to blame for an 80 percent rise in coronavirus deaths in Africa over the past four weeks, the World Health Organization said.

"Delta is a warning: it’s a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge,” the WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added: “So far, four variants of concern have emerged — and there will be more as long as the virus continues to spread.”

Though Delta has shaken many countries, Ryan said proven measures to bring transmission under control still worked.

"The same measures that we have applied before will stop that virus,” notably physical distancing, wearing masks, hand hygiene and avoiding long periods indoors in poorly ventilated, busy places.

"They are stopping the Delta strain, especially when you add in vaccination. But we need to work hard,” he said.

"The virus has got fitter, the virus has got faster. The game plan still works, but we need to implement and execute our game plan much more efficiently and much more effectively than we’ve ever done before.”

Tedros said that on average, infections increased by 80 percent over the past four weeks in five of the six WHO regions.

The UN health agency has consistently called for vaccines to be distributed more evenly around the world.

More than four billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have now been administered globally, according to an AFP count.

In countries deemed high income by the World Bank, 98 doses per 100 people have been injected.

That figure drops to 1.6 per 100 in the 29 lowest-income countries.

Ryan said: “There are no gold and silver bullets here; there are no magical solutions; there’s no magic dust.

"The only magic dust we have is vaccination.

"The problem is we’re not sprinkling that evenly around the world and we are working against ourselves.”

Tanzanian 'miracle' pastor Mwasapile is died

ARUSHA, Tanzania

The retired Tanzanian priest of the Lutheran Church who used a tree known as mugariga to make a non-flavored drink administered to thousands of patients with various chronic diseases has died.

Reverend Ambilikile Mwasapile (86) died Friday July 30 at Digodigo health centre after a short illness.

One of his longtime assistant, Paul Dudui told our reporter confirmed the death. "It is true, the old man has passed on and we are waiting for his body her at the mortuary." Dudui said.

He said that his burial processes will supervised by the Ngorongoro district government considering his contribution to the community.

The 'Miarcle' pastor lived in Samunge village in Loliondo, near Ngorongoro in northern Tanzania, an area marked by the proximity of the world-famous Ngorongoro Crater, a volcanic mountain top depression and game park with various big game.

In 2011, Reverend Mwasapile told people  that he had a vision in which he was instructed by God to make the potion he administered. 

His vision was of a tree that provided medicine and that many people would come to be healed. 

Upon waking, in the daily routine that followed, he claimed to have met a woman who had HIV, and she told him that she came for medicine. Rev. Mwasapile claims to have followed a vision, gone into the bush, and taken portions of the tree as directed.

Reports of healing from his potion spread, and he began to sell the concoction at a price of 500 Shillings ($0.21) per mug. 

At one point in 2011 the treatment was quite popular, although its popularity trailed off when it became clear that the potion was not the cure-all many thought it to be.

Newspapers reports regularly picked up what notable visitor had been to the place; notables who have visited him include legislators and cabinet ministers locally, and scores of personalities from Eastern Africa, among are cited the wife of former DR Congo Joseph Kabila. 

There were many reports in the local dailies in Kenya of many politicians and ordinary citizens who chartered helicopters and vans to transport people to Loliondo. 

The small sleepy town was alive with long queues of people all yearning for that one mug of herbal concoction.

Tanzania win CECAFA U-23 Challenge Cup 2021

BAHIR DAR, Ethiopia

Tanzania’s Taifa Stars held their nerves to beat Burundi 6-5 on post-match penalties and lift the Council for East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) Under-23 Cup at Bahir Dar Stadium in Ethiopia on Friday afternoon.

The two teams had settled for a barren draw in regulation time before proceeding to the penalty lotteries which saw Adolphe Hakizimana missing the decisive sixth penalty for Burundi and hand Tanzania the title.

The two teams played a highly cautious and defensive game, with a few scoring opportunities created. It was Burundi’s Adolphe Hakizimana who missed the sixth penalty to hand Tanzania the trophy.

"It’s a great moment and I am happy we came here and won the trophy with little preparation. Burundi was a very good side,’ said Tanzania’s coach Kim Poulsen.

Burundi’s coach Jimmy Ndayizeye thanked Tanzania for the good display. “I want to thank my boys for showing good fighting sprit through out the tournament. It was not our day today in the penalties,” added the coach.

Tanzania's team captain, Israel Patrick Mwenda

The final was also graced by CAF 3rd Vice President Souleiman Hassan Waberi, CECAFA President Wallace Karia and Ethiopia Football Federation (EFF) President Esayas Jira among others.

The regional tournament attracted nine teams with South Sudan finishing third and Kenya in fourth place. In the other classification matches Uganda defeated Eritrea to finish 5th, while hosts Ethiopia where ranked 7th and guest side DR Congo 8th. Djibouti who lost all their two games were placed 9th. - Africa

Mozambique forces killed 15 terrorists on border with Tanzania

MAPUTO, Mozambique

The Mozambican defence and security forces have killed at least 15 alleged terrorists who were trying to cross the Rovuma River into Tanzania, according to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”.

The paper’s sources said those shot dead were part of a group that had recently been dislodged from a terrorist base. They headed north, and the defence forces caught up with them on the south bank of the Rovuma, in the Pundanhar administrative post in Palma district.

“Carta de Mocambique” did not give an exact date for the clash, but it may have been one of the operations mentioned by President Filipe Nyusi in his address to the nation last Sunday, when he said that, following the defeat of the jihadists’ latest attacks against Palma town, “patrolling and clean-up operations are continuing along the Quionga-Pundanhar axis (north of the town)”.

“Carta de Mocambique” also reports that terrorists attacked the villages of Mandimba and Chacamba, in Nangade district, on Tuesday. The number of deaths in these raids has yet to be confirmed. Survivors from the two villages fled to Nangade town.

In the locality of Chai, in Macomia district, there was an intensive exchange of fire between the islamists and local militia. The terrorists set one vehicle on fire, but if they intended to occupy Chai, they failed.

Chai is of historic importance, since it is the site of the first clash between guerrillas of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) and the Portuguese authorities on 25 September 1964, at the start of the war for Mozambican independence.

Meanwhile, on the Cabo Delgado coast, a humanitarian crisis is developing in Ibo district, formed by several of the islands in the Qurimbas archipelago. Thousands of people have fled from terrorist attacks on the mainland to the islands, where they are living under miserable conditions, desperately short of food and clean water.

Matemo island has become home for many of the displaced people who fled from Palma after the terrorist attack on the town on 24 March.

Speaking to the independent television station STV, one of the displaced, Sumail Saide, said “I came to Matemo 27 days ago, with my wife and four children, and we never received any aid. We eat thanks to some people who occasionally give us a kilo of rice or flour. And when there is nothing, we all go to sleep hungry”.

The displaced in Matemo have no decent accommodation. Most of them sleep in improvised shacks with thatched roofs. They also have no access to basic social services. Halima Saide, a woman who was displaced from Palma, told STV “there is a small health post, but it’s far away, and doesn’t have enough medicines. Pregnant women can’t manage to walk there. We have no school here, and so the children have stopped studying”.

The Ibo district government admits that, even with the assistance of some humanitarian organisations, it cannot solve the problems of the 35,000 displaced people now living on the islands.

“We can’t deal with all the problems”, said the Ibo district administrator, Issa Tarmamade, “because of the large number of displaced people, and they all need a little of everything. People are arriving at Matemo every day”.

Luisa Meque, the chairperson of the Mozambican relief agency, the National Risk and Disaster Management Institute (INGD) visited the islands this week, and promised solutions for the displaced.

“We came here to assess the situation, and now we know the reality experienced here on Matemo”, said Meque. “We shall seek immediate solutions”.

Zimbabwe pledges more than 300 military personnel to 'troubled' Mozambique

HARARE, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe will send 304 military personnel to the SADC Standby Force Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) to train Mozambican forces as part of efforts to stabilize the southeast African nation which has been plagued by an Islamist insurgency.

Defense minister, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, on Thursday said the group will compose of 303 instructors and one specialist officer and be deployed to the coordinating mechanism of the SADC Force Headquarters in the Mozambican capital Maputo.

“While other countries have to deploy combat troops, Zimbabwe pledged to assist in the training of Mozambique armed forces to enhance their capability to combat terrorism,” Muchinguri-Kashiri told journalists during a press briefing in Harare.

The deployment, she added, will take place once the Status of Force Agreement is signed.

Defense Minister,
Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri

Islamic State-linked militants who have been terrorizing Mozambique’s gas-rich north since 2017 escalated their attacks last year and culminated on March 24 with coordinated raids on the port town of Palma in which dozens of people were killed, some decapitated, and thousands of others displaced.

The recent violence offset major gas exploration projects in Cabo Delgado province and raised fears it could spread to neighbouring countries, placing pressure on President Filipe Nyusi to accept foreign troops.

The 16-member SADC agreed late last month to send troops to the province. That military intervention was formalized a week after east African nation Rwanda announced it was starting to deploy 1,000 troops to the area.

Botswana has also deployed troops while South Africa on Wednesday announced its intention to send more than 1,400 troops to quell the insurgency. 

COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Africa intensified - WHO

Brazzaville, Republic of Congo

The shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine to Africa has accelerated, injecting fresh impetus in the continent’s quest to limit infections and fatalities arising from the virus, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said Thursday.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said that nearly 4 million doses arrived in the continent last week, as plans to ramp up deliveries and inoculate 30 percent of the population by the end of this year gathers steam.

“I urge all countries with surplus doses to urgently share more in the spirit of life-saving solidarity and enlightened self-interest because no country is safe until all countries are safe,” Moeti said in a statement.

According to Moeti, 79 million COVID-19 doses have already arrived in Africa and 21 million people or 1.6 percent of the continent’s population are fully immunized.

She said Africa required 820 million doses to inoculate 30 percent of its population by the end of 2021 even as multilateral initiatives plan to deliver the life-saving commodity in large quantities in the coming weeks.

Moeti said the COVAX facility will ship 520 million doses to the continent towards the end of this year while African Union’s Africa Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) plans to deliver 10 million doses each month from September, to hit a target of 45 million by year’s end.

She disclosed that the COVAX facility has clinched new deals with China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac to rapidly supply 110 million additional doses to low-income countries, a majority in Africa.

Moeti said multilateral lenders like the World Bank are set to boost COVID-19 vaccine supply to developing countries at a subsidized cost, adding that Africa will benefit from that arrangement.

She said that vaccine donation from bilateral partners will help the continent plug a shortfall occasioned by global supply hiccups and revitalize action on the third wave of infections that has strained public health systems.

Hopes for Tanzania democratic turn fades following arrest of main opposition party leader

 By Rael Ombuor / Max Bearak, NAIROBI Kenya

The sudden death of Tanzanian president John Magufuli in March plunged much of the East African country into mourning but prompted some to hope his successor would reverse his government’s authoritarian tendencies.

Much of that hope was dashed in recent days, after the chairman of Tanzania’s most prominent opposition party was arrested last week and charged Monday with plotting to assassinate government officials.

The opposition leader, Freeman Mbowe, had been campaigning for changes to Tanzania’s constitution that would lessen the central government’s power and create greater parliamentary oversight. 

The party he leads, the Party for Democracy and Progress, commonly known as Chadema, is focused on rooting out corruption, which it says worsened under Magufuli.

For many, the arrest was reminiscent of crackdowns on the opposition and journalists under Magufuli.

The charges against Mbowe, which include accusing him of paying three men to blow up gas stations and other “terrorism-related” activities, were farcical, said his lawyer, Peter Kibatala.

“It is too much of a coincidence, the timing,” he said. “Why arrest him at this moment right when agitations for a new constitution are taking shape?”

Police and government spokesmen did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

“They are saying: ‘We will not accept any kind of conversation around any kind of reforms,' " said Maria Sarungi Tsehai, founder of Change Tanzania, an online platform that advocates for democracy.

Samia Hassan, Magufuli’s successor and the country’s first female president, had made some overtures during her first months in office that had given activists reason for hope. She moved away from Magufuli’s pandemic denialism that had left Tanzania without any public monitoring of covid-19’s spread or a plan for procuring vaccines.

Tanzania received its first vaccine doses through the global Covax program this week and has released some new case data. Hassan received her jab on Wednesday and urged all Tanzanians to get vaccinated.

Hassan also replaced numerous officials, including the top public prosecutor, and travelled to neighboring Kenya, lowering tensions over tariffs that had flared under Magufuli.

Kibatala said he was not notified by the court where Mbowe was arraigned, that charges were being read, which Edward Hoseah, president of one of Tanzania’s biggest federation of lawyers, said was unlawful.

Magufuli’s authoritarian tendencies brought about a new era in Tanzania that saw widespread intimidation of the opposition, the arrests of dozens of journalists and curtailing of freedoms of speech. But he was also admired for his fierce nationalism and focus on infrastructure projects that earned him the nickname “the Bulldozer.”

He had won reelection just months before his death, which leaves Hassan, formerly his vice president, with most of a five-year term to finish.

Magufuli’s pandemic response — which centered at first on denial and then on playing down its severity — earned him international reprove. Rumors swirled around the cause of his death, but officials said he succumbed to a long-standing heart ailment.

Mbowe’s son, James, said that while his father had been arrested before, the seriousness of the charges this time came as a shock to the family. A day after Mbowe’s detention, the health of his beloved uncle Alfayo Mbowe, 88, quickly deteriorated, and he was taken to a hospital where he died.

“We thought that things had changed when Mama Samia said that this is not the time to look back,” the younger Mbowe said. “But we are seeing that things are not as she promised.”

South Africa ‘appalled’ by AU’s decision to give Israel observer status

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa

The South African government has said that it is “appalled” at the unjust and unwarranted decision of the African Union Commission (AUC) to grant Israel observer status in the African Union (AU).

"The African Union Commission has taken this decision unilaterally without consultations with its members.” The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said in a statement.

"The decision to grant Israel observer status is even more shocking in a year in which the oppressed people of Palestine were hounded by destructive bombardments and continued illegal settlements of the land.”

The South African government said it will ask the Chairperson of the Commission to provide a briefing to all member States on this decision which the department said it hopes will be discussed by the Executive Council and the Assembly of Heads of States and Government.

"South Africa firmly believes that as long as Israel is not willing to negotiate a peace plan without preconditions it should not have observer status in the African Union.”

"The African Union cannot be a party in any way to plans and actions that would see the ideal of Palestinian statehood reduced into balkanised entities devoid of true sovereignty, without territorial contiguity and with no economic viability.” The department added.

Israel on July 22 rejoined the African Union as an observer state.

It enjoyed observer status in the predecessor Organization of African Unity until 2002, when the organization dissolved itself and became the African Union.

Israel has relations with 46 countries in Africa, and has wide ranging partnerships and joint cooperation in many different fields including trade and aid.

Netherlands extradites another Rwanda genocide suspect

KIGALI,Rwanda

The Netherlands has deported Rwanda genocide suspect, Venant Rutunga who had been residing in the European country over the last 27 years, a judicial source revealed in Kigali early this week.

A statement issued by the Rwanda’s National Public Prosecution Authority said the deported suspect was born in 1949 in the former Ruhengeri Prefecture (North).

According to the prosecution, Rutunga during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis lived in southern Rwanda where he was a senior manager at the Rwandan Institute of Agricultural Sciences (ISAR, French acronym).

In a statement made available to APA, Rwandan judicial authorities commended the Ducth for the extradition of several genocide suspects.

This is the result of a continued cooperation in matters of mutual legal assistance and contribution to the global efforts to fight impunity, it said.

So far The Netherlands has deported two more genocide suspects to Rwanda.

The previous deportations followed a Dutch court’s ruling to deport Jean-Claude Iyamuremye and Jean-Baptiste Mugimba, for genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the genocide.

Mugimba was Secretary General of the Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), an extremist Hutu political party.

Iyamuremye is suspected of having been the leader of the Interahamwe militia in Kicukiro Sector, a suburb of Kigali.

He is suspected of having been the leader of the Interahamwe militia in Kicukiro Sector and a member of the Mouvement Révolutionnaire National Pour Développement (MRND) held responsible for the genocide.

 

Time to cut Uganda’s Museveni loose from military aid?

By Mike Brodo

On February 23, State Department spokesperson Ned Price was asked a brief question about Uganda’s recent elections and the apparent win by incumbent Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.

“Uganda’s January 14th elections were marred by … abuses by the government’s security services against opposition candidates and members of civil society,” acknowledged Price, before reminding reporters that “Uganda … does have an important role when it comes to some of our interests in the region.” 

Seconds later, Price confidently argued “this goes to the point that we’ve now made even more times throughout this briefing, that we can pursue our interests and pursue our values at the same time.”

While being able to simultaneously pursue interests and values in Uganda would be ideal, this clearly does not reflect the reality of the U.S.-Uganda counterterrorism partnership constructed in its fullest form on the heels of 9/11.

Over the past two decades, Uganda has become a major recipient of U.S. military aid and stands as one of America’s closest military allies on the continent.

Supporters of singer-turned-activist politician Bobi Wine have been tortured and beaten to death.

Although such military assistance is difficult to quantify due to the classified nature of certain programs, Ugandan officials in 2016 estimated that Washington provided $170 million per year in military assistance.

As this counterterrorism partnership has flourished, abuses against the political opposition in Uganda have skyrocketed.

In 2011, during opposition demonstrations dubbed the “Walk to Work” campaign, tens of people were shot dead and hundreds injured by a joint military-police operation.

When student demonstrators protested the lifting of the age amendment that would allow Museveni to run for president again in 2021, military forces shot them; when opposition MPs opposed the same proposal, Museveni sent plainclothes special forces to beat them on the floor of parliament.

More recently, the supporters of singer-turned-activist politician Bobi Wine have been tortured and beaten to death.

In fact, Museveni himself admitted that security forces killed at least 54 civilians at a November 2020 opposition protest that was sparked by another arrest of Bobi Wine.

Though official State Department reports acknowledge these atrocities, no consideration is given to how the U.S. might be culpable for such abuses given its counterterrorism partnership with the Museveni regime. That would seem a bit hypocritical, however, given its routine condemnation of such behavior in online statements and press conferences.

There are two pathways through which the U.S.-Uganda counterterrorism partnership contributes to human rights abuses.

The first is the United States contributing directly to the violations by supporting the Ugandan military which carries them out. The second involves Washington accepting such abuses — at least to the level at which it does not preclude military aid — in order to maintain the counterterrorism partnership, thereby allowing such behavior to continue.

The highly politicized Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) and the paramilitary structures that benefit from the same (or superior) U.S. funding, equipment, and training have tortured and killed opponents of the Museveni regime.

Therefore, by supporting the same military units that brutalize dissidents as a result of its counterterrorism partnership with Uganda, the United States contributes to egregious human rights abuses of the country’s political opposition. 

In addition, America’s blunted criticism of numerous human rights violations, which stem from not wanting to strain the counterterrorism relationship with Uganda, allows crackdowns on the political opposition to continue.

Even a Congressional Research Service report agrees, making the claim that “President Yoweri Museveni has been a vocal supporter of counterterrorism efforts in the region, but the State Department has documented serious human rights abuses … in Uganda, and some observers have expressed concern that Museveni’s cooperation on counterterrorism constrains Western criticism for alleged political abuses.”

Although lately the United States has gone further in its condemnations compared to its past use of empty statements, there is no indication that the culpable counterterrorism partnership with Uganda and related military assistance will see any significant change or reduction.

In a 2008 speech, President Museveni confidently stated, “I am a revolutionary; I have never been a terrorist. … When you target noncombatants, you are a terrorist.” While Museveni’s assessment of terrorism is accurate, his negation of identification with the label misses the mark. 

As it was in 2008 as it is today, on any given day in the streets of Kampala, Museveni orders his henchmen to specifically target noncombatants, fearing that any lack of repression of such nonviolent protesters may spell the end of his regime.

Despite such actions being correctly identified as human rights violations, it seems as though they also fall under a separate label: terrorism. 

If such is the case, as it appears so using Museveni’s own preached definition of the word, it is worth considering whether America’s counterterrorism policies in Uganda undermine its counterterrorism aims as well. – Responsible Statecraft