NEWSBRIEFS

Photo: The late former South African President Nelson Mandela and President Robert Mugabe. Credit: The Herald

Mugabe Faults Late Mandela for Leaving South Africa to the Whites

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | HARARE (IDN) - Thanks to the former South African leader, “Everything (today) is in the whites’ hands.” That was the harsh judgment of the legacy of President Nelson Mandela heard early September 2017 at a rally in Zimbabwe. It provoked a media whirlwind that rocked southern Africa.

"The most important thing for (Mandela) was his release from prison and nothing else," Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was widely reported to say. "He cherished that freedom more than anything else and forgot why he was put in jail." Mugabe made his remarks in Shona at a ruling party rally in the central town of Gweru. NewZimbabwe.com translated these remarks.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 26 September 2017

Photo: Eugen Fischer, an infamous German eugenicist who studied “racial mixing” in colonial Namibia, and whose theories inspired Adolf Hitler, and later eugenics researchers at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University. Credit: africasacountry.com

Skeletal Remains of Hereros Give a New Twist to Genocide Case

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The New York-based American Museum of Natural History is believed to be holding skeletal remains collected by a German racialist scientist who studied the Herero and Namaqua peoples of Namibia.

The find was announced earlier in September 2017 and will be included in a federal class action suit filed on behalf of the Hereros and Nama people by the New York attorney Kenneth McCallion.

The remains were originally gathered for use in experiments. According to representatives of the Namibian groups, skulls and skeletons dating to the German occupation of southwest Africa in the decades before World War 1 still remain in a museum archive. The museum has declined to comment.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 26 September 2017

Photo (left to right): Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the sidelines of the US-Islamic World summit in Riyadh in May 2017. Credit: Axar.az

U.S. State Secretary Lauds Kazakh Decision to Renounce Nukes

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – "The Republic of Kazakhstan is a particularly illustrative example of the wisdom of relinquishing nuclear weapons," according to Rex W. Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State. He was addressing the United Nations Security Council Session on Nuclear Non-Proliferation on September 21, 2017.

"In partnership with the United States, and aided by the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act spearheaded by U.S. Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar, Kazakhstan opted to remove from its territory former Soviet weapons and related nuclear technologies, and joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-weapons state," Tillerson added.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; NEWSBRIEFS; 22 September 2017

Photo: The skyline of Johannesburg's Central Business District as seen from the observatory of the Carlton Centre. CC BY-SA 3.0

The 25 Biggest Companies in Africa and Their Industries

By Jackie

RENO, Nevada, United States (IDN) – Business is booming across Africa and a number of companies have risen above the fray with 24 of them being worth over $1 billion. However, many of these companies are not famous outside of the continent, so what are the 25 biggest companies in Africa? They are:

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; NEWSBRIEFS; 16 September 2017

President Akufo-Addo at inauguration. Credit: myjoyonline

Corruption Returns with a Vengeance in Ghana

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – Waving a gold sword – a symbol of Ghana’s presidency – the new president came out swinging against years of debilitating corruption.

“We must restore integrity in public life,” President Nana Akufo-Addo thundered at his swearing in ceremony last January. “State coffers are not spoils for the party that wins an election, but resources for the country’s social and economic development.”

Nine months later, the unpleasant stench of corruption is swirling around the presidency after it was revealed that highly-overpriced garbage contracts to the tune of $74 million were okayed by government officials.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 12 September 2017

Thousands March for Change in Togo and End to Dynasty Rule

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LOME (IDN) - In another strike against presidents who refuse to hand over power, the people of Togo filled the streets this month to protest 50 years of repressive rule by one family.

In an estimated crowd of 100,000 protesters, banners reading “Free Togo” and “Faure resign” could be seen. Police dispersed the protestors with tear gas and violence. In earlier protests in August, two people were killed and 13 injured when police fired on demonstrators. Taking the punishment a step further, the regime shut down the internet, making it almost impossible for opponents to use social media to organize.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 12 September 2017

Photo: F. George Njoroge (left), Ambassador Robinson Njeru Githae (centre) and Prof. Makua Mutua (right)

U.S.-Based Kenyan Scholars Spar Over Election Outcome

By Global Information Network

ATLANTA (IDN) – The fierce contest between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition candidate Raila Odinga since their discarded election in August found echo here in Atlanta between Nairobi’s ambassador to Washington and a prominent U.S.-based legal scholar.

“I can categorically say here looking you straight in the eye that the Supreme Court robbed Uhuru Kenyatta of his win and stole the election from the Kenyan people,” Ambassador Robinson Njeru Githae was reported to say.

Not so, responded Prof. Makua Mutua, a human rights advocate and former dean at the University at Buffalo Law School.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 12 September 2017

Photo: People are evacuated by boats in southern Malawi. Credit: UNDA

Floods in Africa Go Unnoticed Despite High Death Toll

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LAGOS (IDN) – “Floods in Africa in August killed 25 times more people than Hurricane Harvey did.” That was the headline of a recent story in Quartz online by Lagos-based writer Yomi Kazeem.

“Like severe floods in southern Asia, the disasters in Africa have been largely under-reported compared to similar events in Houston where Hurricane Harvey, a once in a '500-year storm' has wreaked havoc,” wrote Kazeem.

Across Texas, 50 people have been reported dead due to the tropical storm but across Africa, intense rains and mudslides killed at least 1,240 people in August, he pointed out.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 07 September 2017

Photo: Selous Game Reserve. Credit: UNESO | Evergreen

Tanzania Plans Hydroelectric Plant on World Heritage Site

By Global Information Network

PARIS | NEW YORK (IDN) - "The Selous Game Reserve, covering 50,000 square kilometres, is amongst the largest protected areas in Africa and is relatively undisturbed by human impact," says UNESCO, which decided in 2014 to include it in the List of World Heritage in danger.

Notwithstanding the prominent status given to Selous Game Reserve by including it among world's 54 properties of "outstanding universal value", and much to the dismay of environmentalists, Tanzanian President John Magufuli has invited bids for a 2,100-megawatt hydroelectric plant. The project would more than double the country’s power generation capacity, ending chronic electricity shortages.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 07 September 2017

Photo: UNFPA does a lot of work in Sierra Leone especially with regards to maternal health. Credit: Joan Erakit | IDN-INPS

Freetown Flooding Raises Concern About Maternal Healthcare

By Joan Erakit

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - In the early hours of August 14, disastrous weather took to Freetown as the city was flooded with torrential downpour. Shortly after, a mudslide followed dragging countless homes down a suburban hillside in slushy red dirt in Regent, east of Freetown. The Red Cross reported at least 200 people dead as aid organizations and local authorities rushed to the scene.

In a statement attributable to the Spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General, Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told IDN that, “the Secretary-General is saddened by the deaths and devastation caused by the mudslide and flooding in the town of Regent, Sierra Leone, and throughout Freetown,” adding, “the Secretary-General extends his condolences to the people and Government of Sierra Leone for the loss of life and destruction caused by this natural disaster.”