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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) - A law adopted on June 21 but still awaiting presidential approval would send writers to jail for up to 10 years’ jail for “demoralizing the defense and security forces of Burkina Faso.”
A fine of up to $3,500 would be imposed for publishing what the government called “fake news information compromising security operations, false information about rights abuses or destruction of property, or images and audio from a “terrorist” attack.”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – "Inequality has reached extreme levels in West Africa, and today the wealthiest 1 per cent of West Africans own more than everyone else in the region combined." That was the finding in a new report published by Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI).
According to the "West Africa Inequality Crisis" report, six of the ten fastest-growing economies in Africa were in West Africa, with Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal among the world's 10 fastest-growing economies.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – If a democratic society is characterized by “tolerance, diversity and open-mindedness,” three countries in Africa have now reached that pinnacle.
Botswana joined Angola and Mozambique in de-criminalizing same-sex relations in June 2019. High Court Justice Michael Lebruru, in his defining decision, added: “human dignity is harmed when minority groups are marginalized.”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
New York (IDN) – A shipload of desperate Bangladeshi migrants was told to turn the boat around and go home by Tunisian officials or be deprived of food, water and medicines. The migrants, trapped on a merchant ship off Tunisia for three weeks, were sent back to their home country against their will, according to relatives.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), an intergovernmental organization linked to the United Nations, said the Bangladeshis “wished to return home”.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Strike! That’s the sound of the world's top two producers of cocoa who say they are suspending their sales for better prices.
The governments of Ivory Coast and Ghana are trying this time-honored strategy to address the imbalance between farmers’ income and money made by foreign commodity markets who scoop up most of the profit.
If the strategy sounds familiar, it’s the same one described in the Greek play Lysistrata where the women withheld affection from their husbands in order to secure peace and end the Peloponnesian War.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | YAOUNDE (IDN) – Facing a growing pro-democracy movement, Cameroon is resorting to an old formula – namely unleashing government power in the form of threats, arrests and excessive force.
Hundreds of supporters of Maurice Kamto, leader of the opposition Cameroon Resistance Movement, have been filling the streets, demanding his release from detention but were detained themselves by security forces on June 8, 2019. According to his lawyer, Kamto could be charged with: insurrection, hostility against the homeland, criminal association, threats to public order, rebellion, group rebellion, and inciting insurrection.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Lending institutions fear that Kenya’s foot may be stuck on the debt pedal with the latest loan of USD 750 million from the World Bank to be paid over 30 years. Several experts and players in the financial sector do not think all is well.
The Central Bank, which is the government’s banker, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) all say Kenya’s debt position is getting to dangerous levels and the country must engage a lower gear before it is too late.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | KINSHASA (IDN) – The father of Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi, opposition icon Etienne Tshisekedi, was laid to rest on June 1 in his homeland more than two years after he died in Belgium during a political stalemate over the country's long-delayed elections.
Thousands took part in the procession which made its way to the outskirts of Kinshasa following several days of tributes to the man who was the face of DR Congo's opposition for decades but died before his political nemesis agreed to step aside and allow a new presidential vote to go forward.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Binyavanga Wainaina, one of Africa’s best-known authors and gay rights activist, has died in Nairobi after a short illness. He was 48.
Wainaina won the 2002 Caine prize for African writing. Credited with founding the literary magazine and collective Kwani? and advancing the fight for LGBTQ rights in Africa, he made headlines around the world in 2014, when he responded to a wave of anti-gay laws around the continent by publicly outing himself in a short essay, published to mark his 43rd birthday.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – From the presidency to prisoner behind bars, former President Omar al-Bashir now faces formal charges of murder in the latest development to spring from a massive turnout of Sudanese people demanding civilian rule.
"Omar al-Bashir and others have been charged for inciting and participating in the killing of demonstrators," the office of Sudan's acting prosecutor general, Al-Waleed Sayyed Ahmed, announced on May 13.
