Burundi secretly sent troops to DR Congo - rights group

BUJUMBURA, Burundi

Burundi has secretly sent hundreds of troops and members of a youth militia into neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo since the end of 2021 to fight an armed rebel group, a Burundian human rights group said Wednesday.

The main target of the operation is the RED-Tabara, the Burundi Human Rights Initiative said, referring to the most active of the rebel groups which is deemed a terrorist organisation by the Burundian government.

Burundi has always denied carrying out any secret operations, insisting it has acted only within the framework of joint operations by the East African Community (EAC), African Union or United Nations.

Burundi is part of a regional force agreed by the EAC in June to fight the myriad rebel groups involved in an upsurge of violence in the eastern DRC that has ensnared neighbouring countries.

"Several hundred Burundian soldiers and Imbonerakure -- more than 1,000 -- are believed to have gone to the DRC in successive waves since late 2021," the BHRI said in a report.

The Imbonerakure are members of the youth league of the ruling CNDD-FDD party of President Evariste Ndayishimiye.

"For more than 10 years, Burundian soldiers and Imbonerakure have periodically sought to hunt down Burundian armed opposition groups in the DRC," the BHRI said.

"But the current operation is different in scale and duration," it said, adding that about 700 were estimated to be on DRC soil in the early phase of the deployment in December.

The rights group, which is based abroad, said it collected testimonies from soldiers, relatives and members of the ruling and opposition parties.

It said it was not able to confirm the exact numbers of troops or incursions, although it reported that the UN Group of Experts collected information on 17 incursions in the Uvira region between September last year and this March.

"Some soldiers are ordered to swap their military uniforms for civilian clothes and leave behind possessions that could identify them," said the BHRI. 

The report said those returning have been warned not to talk about their mission, and little or no explanation is given to the families of those who die on the battlefield.

It said some Imbonerakure have become angry about their treatment during the military operation, with some saying they felt they had been deceived or abandoned.

In May, Ndayishimiye said he was ready "to dialogue" with Burundian rebels in DRC, in particular RED-Tabara and the National Forces of Liberation (FNL).

Founded in 2011, RED-Tabara has been accused of a string of attacks in Burundi since 2015. 

In September it claimed responsibility for an attack on the international airport in Bujumbura, the country's economic capital. - AFP

Oil block auction in DRC punctures Africa’s climate goals

MAPUTO, Mozambique

Sections of a renowned peatland tropical forest in the Congo Basin that plays a crucial role in Africa’s climate system go up for oil and gas auction in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday.

Virunga National Park, taken from the rim of the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano and looking over the crater of another, extinct volcano, in North Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Several oil and gas fields in the DRC, including some in the park, are being put up for auction starting Thursday, July 28, 2022, prompting outrage from environmental groups.

The DRC government will auction 30 oil and gas blocks in the Cuvette-Centrale Peatlands in the Congo Basin Forest — the world’s largest tropical peatland. Peatland soils are known as ‘carbon sinks’ because packed into them are immense stores of carbon that get released into the atmosphere when the ecosystem is disturbed.

Some of the areas, or blocs, marked for oil leasing lie within Africa’s iconic first conservation area, the Virunga National Park, created in 1925 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to the last bastion of mountain gorillas.

The Congo basin covers 530 million hectares (1.3 billion acres) in central Africa and represents 70% of the continent’s forested land. It hosts over a thousand bird species and more primates than any other place in the world, including the great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees and Bonobos.

People are at risk, too. Members of the Mbuti and Baka people could be displaced or evicted.

The move by the Congo-Kinshasa Ministry of Hydrocarbons has angered environmentalists and climate activists who say that oil drilling will pose significant risks to a continent already inundated by harsh climate effects. The Centre for International Forest Research puts the massive Cuvette-Centrale carbon sink at 145,000 square kilometers (56,000 square miles) and said it stores up to 20 years’ equivalent of the carbon emissions emitted by the United States.

Other blocs the DRC plans to auction include some located on Lake Kivu, Lake Tanganyika, and one in a coastal region alongside the Albertine-Grabben region, the western side of the Eastern African Rift Valley system.

“These are the last refuges of nature biodiversity,” and our last carbon sinks, said Ken Mwathe, of BirdLife International in Africa. “We must not sacrifice these valuable natural assets for damaging development.”

The auction of part of the Congo Basin rainforest, which represents 5% of the global tropical forests, comes barely a week after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature hosted the inaugural Africa Protected Areas Congress in Kigali, Rwanda. There, attendees resolved to strengthen protection of Africa’s key biodiversity hotspots.

The DRC is one of 17 nations in the world classified as “megadiverse.” In September last year, at the World Conservation Congress meeting in France, 137 resolutions dubbed the “Marseille Manifesto” highlighted the significant role the Congo Basin is expected to play in the global commitment to protect 30% of the Earth by 2030.

Last year at the U.N. climate conference COP26, a dozen donors dubbed the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use, pledged some $1.5 billion “to working collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.”

The Democratic Republic’s carbon sponge is also at risk from large-scale logging, expansion of agriculture and the planned diversion of the Congo River’s waters into the shrinking Lake Chad.

‘New Cold War’: Russia and West vie for influence in Africa

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa

Russian, French and American leaders are crisscrossing Africa to win support for their positions on the war in Ukraine, waging what some say is the most intense competition for influence on the continent since the Cold War. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French President Emanuel Macron are each visiting several African countries this week. Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, went to Kenya and Somalia last week. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will go to Ghana and Uganda next week.

“It's like a new Cold War is playing out in Africa, where the rival sides are trying to gain influence,” said William Gumede, director of Democracy Works, a foundation promoting good governance.

Lavrov, in his travels across the drought- and hunger-stricken continent, has sought to portray the West as the villain, blaming it for rising food prices, while the Western leaders have accused the Kremlin of cynically using food as a weapon and waging an imperial-style war of conquest - words calculated to appeal to listeners in post-colonial Africa.

Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has been working to win support in Africa for several years, reinvigorating friendships that date back a half-century, when the Soviet Union backed many African movements fighting to end colonial rule.

"Now that campaign has gone into high gear,” Gumede said.

Moscow's influence in Africa was on display in March during the U.N. vote to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While 28 African nations voted in favor of the resolution, a significant minority of countries on the continent - 25 - either voted to abstain or did not vote at all.

ALSO READ: French president slams African ‘hypocrisy’ over Ukraine war

Russia's top diplomat this week visited Egypt, Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia, pledging friendship and charging the U.S. and European countries with driving up food prices by pursuing “reckless” environmental policies. He also accused them of hoarding food during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The situation in Ukraine did additionally negatively affect food markets, but not due to the Russian special operation, rather due to the absolutely inadequate reaction of the West, which announced sanctions,” Lavrov said in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital.

Lavrov was warmly received in Uganda by President Yoweri Museveni, who for years has been a U.S. ally but has refused to criticize Russia over the invasion. Museveni even suggested at the outbreak of the war that Putin’s actions might be understandable because Ukraine is in Russia's sphere of influence. 

Lavrov voiced support for reform of the U.N. Security Council to give African countries permanent seats and greater influence. 

Appearing with Lavrov, the Ugandan leader spoke fondly of old ties with Russia, asking how he could spurn Moscow when he has good relations with countries that participated in slavery. 

Museveni, an opinion leader on the continent who has held power for three decades, is an obvious choice for Russia as someone to strengthen ties with, said Ugandan political analyst Asuman Bisiika. 

“Uganda is the center of gravity in East Africa,” Bisiika said.

Museveni, 77, has been strictly wearing a mask in public since the COVID-19 outbreak. But he did not have one on when greeting Lavrov in front of photographers, apparently wanting to show warmth to the Russian. Museveni had a mask back on in his next public appearance a day later.

Russia is also courting African public opinion through its state television network, RT, formerly known as Russia Today. RT has announced that it will open a new bureau in Johannesburg.

RT was abruptly removed from Africa's biggest pay-TV platform in Africa, Johannesburg-based Multichoice, in March after the European Union and Britain imposed sanctions against Russia. It is not clear whether establishing the new bureau will enable RT to resume broadcasts to Africa through Multichoice, which claims nearly 22 million subscribers on the continent.

“For Russia, it is the battle to be heard in Africa. It is not important for the actual war effort but for their long-term political influence," Anton Harber, professor of journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. “They see it as fertile ground to cultivate their influence, and, of course, votes in the U.N. are important."

ALSO READ: "No reason to criticize Russia over invasion of Ukraine" - President of Uganda

On his tour of Africa, France's Macron accused the Kremlin of using TV channels like RT to spread propaganda in support of the war. And he charged the Kremlin with blackmailing the world by thwarting the export of grain from Ukraine.

"They are blackmailing because they are the ones who blocked cereals in Ukraine. They are the ones who regulate their cereals,” he said in Benin. His itinerary also included Cameroon and Guinea-Bissau.

Macron appealed to Africans to side against Russia. 

“I’m telling you here in Africa, a continent that has suffered from colonial imperialism: Russia is one of the last colonial, imperial powers. She decides to invade a neighboring country to defend her interests,” he said. “That’s the reality.” 

Power, the top U.S. AID official, was in East Africa to pledge aid to help the region's fight against hunger amid a devastating multi-year drought. She did not hold back in criticizing Russia. 

“By blockading Ukraine’s grain exports and restricting the trade of Russia’s own fertilizer, Putin’s actions have had the consequence of inflicting pain on the people of Kenya and on other countries throughout the world," Power said in Nairobi. “He is hurting the people of Kenya in order to benefit his own situation.” - AP

Militants kill 15 soldiers, 3 civilians in two Mali attacks

SEGOU, Mali

Islamist militants killed 15 soldiers and three civilians during two separate attacks in southwest Mali on Wednesday, the army said in a statement.

Six soldiers died and 25 were wounded when militants assaulted a military camp in Sonkolo, a rural commune in the south-central Segou region, more than 300 kilometres (186 miles) north of the capital Bamako.

Nine soldiers and three civilians were killed during an early morning attack on a different camp in the southwestern town of Kalumba, the army said.

Another military base in the central town of Mopti also was attacked during the night, but the assailants were pushed back without casualties.

All the attacks were eventually repelled and soldiers killed 48 of the militants in Sonkolo, the statement added.

Militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have repeatedly raided bases across Mali during a decade-long insurgency concentrated in the country's north and centre.

The groups have gained ground despite the presence of foreign troops and United Nations peacekeepers.

Mali's main military base just outside Bamako was hit with a complex assault involving car bombs on Friday, the closest the insurgents have come to the capital in years. - Africa

French president slams African ‘hypocrisy’ over Ukraine war

YAOUNDE, Cameroon

French President Emmanuel Macron has strongly criticised African leaders’ response to the Ukraine war during a press conference in Yaoundé.

Mr Macron hit out at “the hypocrisy, particularly on the African continent” that denied the Ukraine conflict was a war.

Some African countries have held back from outright criticising Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. In March, 17 African countries abstained in a UN vote to condemn the invasion.

He also said that the only solution to Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis is decentralisation: “It is through this political process of dialogue and reform that a lasting solution can be found,” the privately-owned Journal du Cameroun website quoted Mr Macron as saying.

He was speaking alongside Cameroonian President Paul Biya in Yaoundé.

According to Journal du Cameroun, the two leaders also discussed “jihadist threats in northern Cameroon with Boko Haram”, and the conflict between the Cameroonian forces and armed separatist groups.

The French president began a three-country tour of Africa on 25 July, with food security, militant violence and France’s relation with the continent expected to dominate his talks with African leaders. - BBC

Over 1,000 Lufthansa flights cancelled as staff strikes

FRANKFURT, German

More than 1,000 Lufthansa flights were cancelled Wednesday because of a one-day strike by the airline’s German ground staff, affecting tens of thousands of passengers in the latest travel turmoil to hit Europe.

Passengers queue at check in counters at the international airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, July 27, 2022. Lufthansa went for a 24-hours-strike on Wednesday, most of the Lufthansa flights had to be cancelled.

About 134,000 passengers had to change their travel plans or cancel them altogether. At least 47 connections were canceled Tuesday, German news agency dpa reported.

Lufthansa’s main hubs in Frankfurt and Munich were most affected, but flights were also cancelled in Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Hannover, Stuttgart and Cologne.

The airline advised affected passengers not to go to airports because most service counters would be unstaffed. Airport terminals were unusually empty during the early morning hours, but people lined up at ticket counters later trying to find replacements for their cancelled flights, dpa reported.

Many of the stranded passengers had arrived in Germany from abroad to find out that their connecting flights were grounded due to the walkout.

At Frankfurt airport, 725 of 1,160 scheduled flights were cancelled for the day, according to a spokesperson for airport operator Fraport. Flights operated by other airlines, which are usually supported by Lufthansa ground staff, were also affected, dpa reported.

Flights operated by Lufthansa Group companies such as Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Italian regional airline Air Dolomiti were also cancelled. In addition, planes from Croatia Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada and Poland’s LOT were unable to take off, dpa reported.

The ver.di service workers’ union announced the strike Monday as it seeks to raise pressure on Lufthansa in pay negotiations for about 20,000 employees of logistical, technical and cargo divisions of the airline.

"Lufthansa did not make an adequate offer in the first two rounds” of negotiations, a union spokesperson, Dennis Dacke, said Wednesday.

"It is time for the employees to express their opinion now before the third round of negotiations,” Dacke said. “This is a ‘warning strike,’ and the effects are visible. We hope that Lufthansa will not provoke another one in the future.”

Lufthansa spokesperson Martin Leutke criticized the strikes as harmful.

"People who wanted to travel, who planned vacations for a long time, who waited for vacations, had these vacation dreams unfortunately postponed … maybe even destroyed by the strike,” Leutke told reporters in Frankfurt. “This strike is completely unnecessary. It is also completely exaggerated.”

Airports in Germany and across Europe were already seeing disruption and long lines for security checks because of staff shortages and soaring travel demand.

As inflation soars, strikes for higher pay by airport crews in France and Scandinavian Airlines pilots in Sweden, Norway and Denmark have deepened the disruption. Travelers have faced last-minute cancellations, lengthy delays, lost luggage or long waits for bags in airports across Europe.

Travel is booming this summer after two years of COVID-19 restrictions, swamping airlines and airports that don’t have enough workers after pandemic-era layoffs. Airports like London’s Heathrow and Amsterdam’s Schiphol have limited daily flights or passenger numbers.

The Lufthansa strike started Wednesday at 3:45 a.m. local time and is set to end Thursday at 6 a.m.

Ver.di is calling for a 9.5% pay increase this year and says an offer by Lufthansa earlier this month, which would involve a deal for an 18-month period, fell far short of its demands. - AP 

Record breaking pink diamond unearthed in Angola

LUANDA, Angola

Miners in Angola have unearthed a rare pure pink diamond that is believed to be the largest found in 300 years, the Australian site operator announced Wednesday.

A 170 carat pink diamond - dubbed The Lulo Rose - was discovered at Lulo mine in the country’s diamond-rich northeast and is among the largest pink diamonds ever found, the Lucapa Diamond Company said in a statement to investors.

The “historic” find of the Type IIa diamond, one of the rarest and purest forms of natural stones, was welcomed by the Angolan government, which is also a partner in the mine.

"This record and spectacular pink diamond recovered from Lulo continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage,” Angola’s Mineral Resources Minister Diamantino Azevedo said.

The diamond will be sold at international tender, likely at a dazzling price.

Although The Lulo Rose would have to be cut and polished to realize its true value, in a process that can see a stone lose 50 percent of its weight, similar pink diamonds have sold for record-breaking prices.T

The 59.6 carat Pink Star was sold at a Hong Kong auction in 2017 for $71.2 million. It remains the most expensive diamond ever sold.

DR Congo tightens security in east after anti-UN unrest

NORTH KIVU, DR Congo

Soldiers and police officers were deployed across eastern DR Congo towns Wednesday after days of deadly anti-UN protests that have claimed at least 19 lives in the volatile region.

Calm appeared to have returned to several towns in North Kivu province, according to AFP reporters, after unrest broke out in the provincial capital Goma on Monday and quickly spread.

Crowds had stormed a United Nations peacekeeping base and a supply centre in the city of Goma in North Kivu on Monday, looting valuables and chanting hostile slogans.

Three UN peacekeepers were then killed on Tuesday after protests spread, in an attack on their base in the town of Butembo.

Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said during a televised news conference on Tuesday night that 12 protesters in total had been killed during the unrest, in addition to the peacekeepers.

"In no case is violence justified," he said.

The UN mission in DRC, known as MONUSCO, has come under regular criticism in the troubled east, where many accuse it of failing to stop decades-old armed conflict.

More than 120 armed groups roam the volatile region, where civilian massacres are common and conflict has displaced millions of people.

Even as tensions began to dissipate in North Kivu on Wednesday, a deadly anti-UN protest erupted in the town of Uvira in neighbouring South Kivu province.

Four people were killed, according to Uvira town hall spokesman Dominique Kalonzo -- raising the total death toll from the anti-UN protests to 19.

Youngsters had attempted to besiege a MONUSCO base in the town on Wednesday morning, he said, before being dispersed by police officers firing warning shots.

A bullet pierced a high-voltage cable, however, which collapsed on protesters about 100 metres (yards) from the UN base, Kalonzo said, killing four.

On Wednesday, AFP correspondents saw tighter security in the North Kivu towns of Beni and Butembo, as well as in Goma, the provincial capital.

Armed police and soldiers were patrolling Beni in jeeps and a highway leading out of the town towards several MONUSCO bases was heavily guarded.

Relative calm had also returned to Goma, where shops were beginning to open again as security forces deployed across the city.

In the town of Sake about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Goma, Congolese police fired tear gas to deter protesters from approaching a UN base, which was ringed with soldiers and police officers.

"We will protest until they leave," said Jackson Kibuya, a protester in Sake, holding up a banner reading "Bye Bye MONUSCO".

On Tuesday, MONUSCO released a statement strongly condemning the attacks on its peacekeepers, which it called unjustifiable.

Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman, also warned reporters in New York on Tuesday that the situation on the ground is "very volatile".

The latest protests come after the president of the senate, Modeste Bahati, told supporters in Goma on July 15 that MONUSCO should "pack its bags".

They also coincide with the resurgence of the M23 -- a militia that lay mostly dormant for years before resuming fighting last November.

In 2010, it became the peacekeeping mission MONUSCO -- the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- with a mandate to conduct offensive operations.

It has a current strength of about 16,300 uniformed personnel, according to the UN.

The rebels have since made significant advances in eastern Congo, including capturing the North Kivu town of Bunagana on the Ugandan border.

The UN first deployed an observer mission to eastern Congo in 1999. - AFP

U.S. senator questions aid to Rwanda over human rights, role in Congo

WASHINGTON, USA

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he would place a hold on U.S. security assistance to Rwanda in Congress over concerns about the Rwandan government’s human rights record and role in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Senator Robert Menendez called for a comprehensive review of U.S. policy towards Rwanda.

Menendez said he would begin by placing a hold on several million dollars in support for Rwandan peacekeepers participating in U.N. missions, according to the letter, which was leaked to media and which his office confirmed was authentic. A hold is a Senate procedure that prevents a motion from reaching the floor for a vote.

Menendez said he feared that U.S. support for the Rwandan military while it is deployed to Congo and backing rebels would send “a troubling signal that the U.S. tacitly approves of such actions.”

The M23 rebel group began a major offensive in Congo’s eastern borderlands with Rwanda at the end of March. Congo has accused Rwanda of backing M23, which Kigali denies.

The United States allocated more than $147 million in foreign assistance to Rwanda in 2021, making it Rwanda’s largest bilateral donor.

Menendez also cited what he said were credible accusations that the Rwandan government was muzzling critics at home and targeting dissidents living outside the country.

The U.S. State Department reviews its policies in response to events on the ground and would consult closely with Congress on the question of aid to Rwanda, department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday.

"We’ve said before that we’re concerned about the rising tensions between the DRC and Rwanda,” Price told a regular press briefing, urging both sides to exercise restraint and engage in dialogue.

A Rwandan government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. - Reuters

"No reason to criticize Russia over invasion of Ukraine" - President of Uganda

KAMPALA, Uganda

President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni praised Russia on Tuesday as a partner in the struggle against colonialism going back a century.

"Whenever issues come up and some people want us to take positions against Russia, we say 'but you people, these people have been with us for the last 100 years, how can we be automatically against them?'" Museveni said.

The Ugandan leader, who has gripped power for 36 years, added "We have even forgiven our former enemies, the colonialists, the ones who have colonized us, the ones who had actually taken slaves from here and who did bad things. We have forgiven them and we are working with them." He said.

His statement came during a joint news appearance with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who came to Uganda after visiting Egypt and the Republic of Congo.

From Uganda, he will head to Ethiopia, which has long been a stalwart ally of the West but has recently rowed with the United States over its conduct of a conflict in its northern region of Tigray.

In response to Museveni, Lavrov praised what he described as "the responsible and balanced position taken by Uganda and other African states", accusing the West of displaying a colonial mindset by demanding that Africa adopt an anti-Russian stance.

Uganda was among 17 African nations that abstained in a March vote on a United Nations resolution condemning the Russian invasion, which was supported by 141 countries out of 193.M

Museveni's warm praise of Russia is in sharp contrast to the views of French President Emmanuel Macron, who is also on an African tour. 

He said in Cameroon on Tuesday that Moscow is using food as a "weapon" to coerce hungry African nations to hew to its side. 

Macron's position is also echoed in other western capitals.

Kenya suspend Modern Coast bus operating licence following tragic accident

NAIROBI, Kenya

The Kenya National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has suspended the licence of Modern Coast bus company with immediate effect.

This is after a bus registered under the company name was involved in a tragic accident that has so far claimed the lives of 33.

In a statement, NTSA Director General John Njau said the order will affect the company’s 31 buses.

He added that a thorough multi-agency investigation will be conducted to unearth the cause of the accident.

The suspension affects the operations of the bus company which plies a number of routes including Mombasa, Nairobi, Malaba, Kisumu, Mumias and Kampala.

Police say the accident occurred on Sunday evening near Nithi Bridge along Chogoria-Chuka road.

The accident involved the bus of Scania model registration number KCF 614U. The bus was from Meru heading to Chuka.

On reaching the location of the accident, the driver lost control and veered off the road on the right-hand side, hit the river bridge guard rail, and plunged into the river.

The police added on Sunday update that about 13 victim’s passengers were rushed and receiving treatment at Chuka County Referral Hospital while the bodies of deceased were moved to the same hospital morgue pending autopsy.

At least 10 people killed in Tanzanian school bus crash

By Our Correspondent, MTWARA Tanzania

Ten people including eight children and two adults suspected to be a teacher and driver have died in an early morning accident in south-eastern Mtwara region in Tanzania on Tuesday.

Though the Police is yet to confirm the cause and circumstances of the accident, the van is said to belong to King David Primary School in Mikindani.

The bus, according to pictures that circulating in the social media, veered off the road and plunged into a ridge leaving several children dead and injured.

Several children injured in the accident were seen lying by the roadside after rescuers came to their aid.

The country President Samia Hassan has sent a message of condolences to the bereaved families and wished the injured a quick recovery.

“I am saddened by the deaths of 8 pupils of King David primary school and 2 adults that happened this morning in Mtwara - Mikindani after their school bus plunged into a ditch. I offer my condolences to the bereaved, the Regional Commissioner and relatives. May Allah have mercy on the deceased and heal the injured.” She tweeted.

In May 2017, a speeding bus went off the road and into the Marera river gorge in Karatu district near the northern city of Arusha in Tanzania claiming lives of 32 primary school pupils, two teachers and the driver. - Africa

Moscow’s goal is to remove ‘unacceptable’ Kyiv regime, - Minister

CAIRO, Egypt

Russia’s top diplomat said Moscow’s overarching goal in Ukraine is to remove from power its “unacceptable regime,” expressing the Kremlin’s war aims in some of the bluntest terms yet as its forces pummel the country with heavy bombardment.

The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes amid Ukraine’s efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports, something that would help ease global food shortages, under a new deal tested by a Russian strike on Odesa over the weekend.

After the failed attempt to seize much of the country amid its February invasion, Moscow officials have stated that the goal of Russia’s aggression on its western neighbour was to “liberate” the Kremlin-backed and equipped separatists in the eastern industrial region of the Donbas.

However, this goal was recently expanded to parts of Ukraine’s south, such as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, while many believe Moscow also has the Black Sea port of Odesa in its crosshairs.

Speaking to envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday, Lavrov accused Kyiv and its Western allies of spouting propaganda intended to ensure that Ukraine “becomes the eternal enemy of Russia”.

"We are determined to help the people of eastern Ukraine to liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime,” he said.Suggesting that Moscow’s war aims extend beyond Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region in the east, Lavrov said: “We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.”

Lavrov’s remarks conflicted with the Kremlin’s line early in the war when it repeatedly emphasised that Russia was not seeking to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government, even as Moscow’s troops closed in on Kyiv.
Russia later retreated from around the capital and turned its attention to capturing the Donbas. The fighting is now in its sixth month.

Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian security officials claimed that, in fact, Moscow had sent special units tasked with capturing or killing the Ukrainian president in Kyiv early on in the war.

Lavrov now argued that Russia was ready to negotiate a deal to end hostilities in March when Kyiv changed tack and declared its intention to rout Russia on the battlefield. He said the West has been encouraging Ukraine to keep fighting.

"The West insists that Ukraine must not start negotiations until Russia is defeated on the battlefield,” Lavrov said.

Hunger kills 900 in Karamoja, Uganda - leaders

KAMPALA, Uganda

The suffering and pain in Karamoja, Uganda’s north-eastern pastoralist region, needs no hyperbole.

It is visible in massive crop failures as a result of a long dry spell. The scorched gardens and pasture mean limited or no food for both humans and their animals. Yet, cattle keeping provides main livelihood.

The strong heat wave has terminated torrents of water that gurgled from Mt Moroto, turning the valley of life it coursed through into a shallow sand bed and killer of aquatic life. And crops in gardens are sterile when sorghum should be fast-maturing this season. 

Eight in every ten households here are either critically food-insecure or simply food-insecure, according to United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) and government of Uganda statistics, meaning they have no food to eat or limited stock, barely lasting a month to three.

Dr Paul Lokubal, a Chevening alumnus and current doctoral student of population health at the University of Oxford, hails from Karamoja and on July 14 set up a GoFundMe account to raise Pounds20,000 (Shs96m) to feed afford “4,000 people one meal a day for a month”.

“[Many] people have died of hunger in the last two weeks alone”, he wrote, “Another 23,000 children face severe acute malnutrition and could die in the following days if they do not receive emergency help.”

By 7:36pm, 88 donors had raised £4,203 (Shs20m) in support of the online campaign.

Back in Dr Lokubal’s Karamaoja birth place, multiple leaders, citing compilations by local governments and the domestic spy agency, ISO, said over 900 Karimojong, mainly children and elderly, have succumbed to hunger-related diseases since February, this year.

The death toll is rising, but help, including the government’s 790 metric tonnes of maize flour and beans trucked to the famine hotspot last week, have been slow to reach the most in need and too small a handout.  

Among the most at risk are underfed HIV and Tuberculosis (TB) patients on strong daily drugs, but lack proper dieting, let alone food to eat in sufficient quantities. 

But there is another layer of trouble, a recurrent one --- cattle rustling. 
Insecurity caused by these raids blamed on local warriors prompted a counter-operation by UPDF, Uganda’s army, which says it has taken 400 suspects into custody since May 16. 

Many of these are energetic youth whose vibrancy powers Karamoja, meaning their arrests spell additional doom for families where they were bread winners.

“It is hard to explain our situation to outsiders until they visit our settlements,” says Mr John Robert Adupa, the chairperson of Lotisan Sub-county.

Mr Adupa told this publication on Tuesday that in Lotisan alone, 22 people have died due hunger-related diseases.

“There is barely anything to harvest, crops have withered, people need food from the government, but it’s yet to come. Now some have resorted to boiling skins and hides of goats, cows as food,” he explained, sounding distraught.

Kotido, Kaabong, Moroto, Napak, and Amudat are districts in Karamoja. Their leaders last Thursday that each of the districts had received 100 tons and 50 tons of posho (maize flour) and beans, respectively, out of the government donation. 

In Atedeoi village, Lotisan Sub-county, Moroto District, children with distended bellies, which health professionals attribute to malnutrition, gaze at passerby with inquisitiveness. They talk nothing, only blank stares.

Tanzania bans day-old chicks imports, again

DODOMA, Tanzania

Tanzania government has imposed a total ban on the importation of day-old chicks effective next week as it seeks to protect its local hatcheries and limit the inflow of substandard chicks.

The ban, which takes effect on July 30, aims to protect the local poultry market, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries said in a statement on Monday.

Deputy Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, Abdallah Ulega said the government would no longer issue import permits on chicken from Saturday.

This was after a meeting with poultry business executives in the capital Dodoma.

The minister said that the government is currently collecting poultry industry data to ascertain the demand for day-old chicks.

Local poultry producers, had decried the rise in smuggled chicks sold at lower prices.

Most incubators in the country are selling day-old chicks at an average price of Tsh2,000 ($0.85), while the smuggled chicks sell at Tsh1,200 ($0.5) per chick.

In 2016, Tanzania banned the importation of chicks and fresh poultry meat from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa and the US to protect local farmers.

On October 31, 2017, government authorities in Arusha destroyed 6,400 chicks imported from Kenya through the Namanga border crossing. The ban was later lifted.

Most of the day-old chicks are imported from the United Kingdom and South Africa, with substantial quantities imported from Kenya and Zambia. – The EastAfrican

President Macron embarks on African visit to ‘renew relationship’

PARIS, France

President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday begins a three-nation tour of western African states in the first trip to Africa of his new term as he seeks to reboot France’s post-colonial relationship with the continent.

Macron will begin his July 25-28 tour, also the first venture outside Europe of his new mandate, with a visit to Cameroon, before moving on to Benin and then finishing the trip in Guinea-Bissau.

Top of the agenda in the talks will be food supply issues, with African nations fearing shortages especially of grain due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But security will also loom large as France prepares to complete its pullout from Mali this year, with all countries in the region seeking to head off fears of Islamist insurgencies.

The trip to three countries which rarely feature on the itinerary of global leaders comes with Macron, who won a new term in April, pledging to keep up his bid for a new relationship between France and Africa.

France has also followed with concern the emergence of other powers seeking a foothold in an area Paris still considers parts of its sphere of influence, notably Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but also increasingly China and Russia.

The tour “will show the commitment of the president in the process of renewing the relationship with the African continent”, said a French presidential official, who asked not to be named.

It will signal that the African continent is a “political priority” of his presidency.

In Cameroon, which has been riven by ethnic violence and an insurgency by anglophone separatists, Macron will meet President Paul Biya, 89, who has ruled the country for almost 40 years and is the longest-serving non-royal leader in the world.

Biya has run the country with an iron fist, refusing demands for federalism and cracking down on the rebellion by separatists.

Macron will move on Wednesday to Benin, a neighbour of Africa’s most populous nation Nigeria. The north of the country has faced more deadly attacks, with the jihadist threat now spreading from the Sahel to Gulf of Guinea nations.

He is likely to be lauded for championing the return in November of 26 historic treasures which were stolen in 1892 by French colonial forces from Abomey, capital of the former Dahomey kingdom located in the south of modern-day Benin.

Benin was long praised for its thriving multi-party democracy. But critics say its democracy has steadily eroded under President Patrice Talon over the last half decade. Opposition leader Reckya Madougou was sentenced in 2021 to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges.

On Thursday, Macron will finish his tour in Guinea-Bissau, which has been riven by political crisis at a time when its President Umaro Sissoco Embalo is preparing to take the helm of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

With all the countries criticised by activists over their rights records, the Elysee has insisted that governance and rights issues will be raised, albeit “without media noise but in the form of direct exchanges between the heads of states”.

Macron’s first term was marked by visits to non-francophone African countries including regional powerhouses Nigeria and South Africa as he sought to engage with the entire continent and not just former French possessions.

Benin is a former French colony, but Guinea-Bissau was once a Portuguese colony while Cameroon’s colonial heritage is a mixture of British and German as well as French.

Macron meanwhile has insisted France’s military presence in the region will adapt rather than disappear once the pullout from Mali is complete.

He announced last week that a rethink of France’s presence would be complete by autumn, saying the military should be “less exposed” in the future but their deployment still a “strategic necessity”.

The pullout from Mali follows a breakdown in relations with the country’s ruling junta, which Western states accuse of relying on Russian Wagner mercenaries rather than European allies to fight an Islamist insurgency. - AFP