Category: NEWSBRIEFS

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | KINSHASA (IDN) – Difficult negotiations have succeeded in bridging the differences between President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and opposition parties who wanted the President to abide by the constitution and step down, having served the two terms he is legally allowed.

President Kabila had sought to stay until 2018 but will now step down by the end of next year. The deal was concluded on New Year’s Eve in the capital Kinshasa, according to negotiators, ending a lengthy stalemate in the country.

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Israel lashed out at its African and other allies, suspending aid and other relationships in retaliation for their votes on a UN resolution calling for an end to Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

Senegal and Angola were the primary targets of Israeli fury. The two countries were non-permanent members of the UN Security Council when the resolution was adopted on December 23. Both voted with the entire council on the measure which passed unanimously and which Israel had furiously lobbied against.

NEW YORK | ABUJA (IDN | GIN) – Dozens of young girls, rescued from Boko Haram kidnappers, were made victims again by the Nigerian soldiers and policemen assigned to protect them, according to accounts documented by investigators for Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based rights group found forty-three cases of “sexual abuse, including rape and exploitation.” Four victims told HRW they were drugged and raped. Thirty-seven said they had been coerced into sex through false marriage promises and material and financial assistance.

NEW YORK | NAIROBI (IDN | GIN) – Dizzying amounts of taxpayers’ money are alleged to have gone missing from Kenya’s Ministry of Health including 800 million shillings (close to US$8 million) designated for free maternity care for poor mothers to be.

The scandal has stunned even the most jaded media pundits who have seen the theft of public monies throughout their careers.

“This is official corruption at its most cruel and unbelievable,” wrote Otieno Otieno of Kenya’s Daily Nation. “You know Kenya has gone to the dogs when they steal from Kenyatta National Hospital, the country’s largest referral health facility mostly in the news for its stone-age problems like the single broken down cancer machine.”

BERLIN (IDN) – Inadequate infrastructure and weak logistic chains substantially increase the risk that an extreme natural event will become a disaster, find the World Risk Report 2016 released here on August 25 by the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University and Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft – Gemeinsam für Menschen in Not e.V., in cooperation with the University of Stuttgart presented today in Berlin.

By IDN-INPS Africa Desk

BERLIN – Germany regards Botswana as one of Africa’s success stories. The landlocked country is the seat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other organisations. Women hold some positions in politics and society, including at the highest levels.

Ahead of the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the country’s independence on September 30, Professor Maria Boehmer, Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office said: “In many different ways, Botswana is one of Africa’s success stories.”

KIGLI (IDN | GIN) – National leaders at the African Union summit held in Kigali, Rwanda, were presented on July 17 with a prototype of the long-awaited Pan-African passport.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by requests and enquiries of other ministers, officials and African citizens to share in this privilege of holding an African passport,” said AU Commissioner Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

It is hoped that the new document will facilitate the seamless mobility of Africans and ease trade across the continent, consequently leading to the continent’s economic transformation.