News & Announcements

Twelve days after he was arrested in Addis Ababa, an Ethiopian cameraman working for Reuters was released “without charge” the international news agency said on Tuesday, following criticism from the US.

Kumerra Gemechu had been arrested by armed federal police at his home on December 24, and the following day a judge ordered him held for two weeks.

“We are delighted that Kumerra has been released and reunited with his family. His release today affirms he has done nothing wrong,” Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler said in a statement.

A freelance cameraman for Reuters for a decade, Kumerra had been reporting on the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered the military to confront the ruling party of the dissident northern region.

Ethiopia restricted media access to the region, and Tigray was under a total communications blackout for six weeks as the conflict raged between federal and regional forces.

Kumerra’s arrest drew swift criticism from the US, with Washington’s top Africa envoy Tibor Nagy saying last month he was “extremely concerned by continuing reports of intimidation of journalists in Ethiopia”.

At the time, Reuters said Kumerra’s arrest followed the beating of one of its photographers in Ethiopia by two federal police officers on December 16.

The agency said on Tuesday that “Ethiopian police and prosecutor’s office did not respond to questions from Reuters on the reasons for Kumerra’s arrest and subsequent release.”

Officials had earlier told the cameraman’s lawyer, Melkamu Ogo, that he was suspected of “disseminating false information, communicating with groups fighting the government, and disturbing the public’s peace and security”, Reuters said.

Ogo said he had seen no evidence, Reuters added.

The Committee to Protect Journalists last month identified Ethiopia as a top jailor of reporters, saying at least seven media workers were behind bars in the Horn of Africa nation.

Most were accused of crimes against the state, the US-based watchdog said.

The CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo, has condemned the “Ethiopian authorities’ pattern of maneuvering around bail orders to extend pre-trial detention”.

In Reporters Without Borders’ annual World Press Freedom Index, Ethiopia is ranked 99th among 179 nations.

Three music promoters in Zimbabwe have been jailed by the country’s government court in Tuesday’s ruling.

The three popular music promoters were jailed six months each for hosting a Covid-19 ‘superspreader’ event that was attended by thousands of people on New Year’s eve.

The trio’s arrest coincided with a huge jump in Covid-19 cases with the country recording the highest daily infections of 1, 365 on January 5.

Thirty-four people also died on the same day, the highest number since the first Covid-19 death was recorded in Zimbabwe in March last year.

Tinashe Chinachimwe, Arnold Kamudyariwa, and Tafadzwa Kadzimwe organized the all-night music concert at the heart of  Harare’s most populous suburb of Mbare.

Prosecutor Michael Reza accused the trio of attempting to murder thousands of people through their reckless actions.

“The three circulated a banner on social media headed ‘Thursday, December 31, 6 pm to 6 am,”

“They overlooked the curfew and invited over 22 artists to perform,” Mr. Reza said.

“A message must be sent to all that you don’t risk people’s lives in this manner.

“What they did is akin to attempted murder,  the seriousness of their offense must be reflected in the sentence.”

Harare magistrate Vongai Guwuriro initially sentenced three to a year in jail each for violating Covid-19 regulations before reducing their sentences by half of the condition of good behaviour.

Four police officers stationed close to the venue of the event have since been suspended on charges of negligence.

This week  Zimbabwe reimposed a strict lockdown to slow down the spread of the coronavirus after Covid-19 cases more than doubled in the last two months to 17 194 as of January 5.

A group of doctors, however, warned on Tuesday that the new lockdown restrictions did not go far enough to halt the spread of the virus.

“The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) is of the position that the current lockdown measures announced by the government though welcome, may not provide the much-needed impact in breaking the Covid-19 curve,” ZADHR said.

The doctors said as long as the measures did not specifically target hotspots such as the capital Harare and the second city of Bulawayo, it would be difficult to bring the cases down.

“ZADHR also laments the continued influx of travelers when the country is faced with an existential threat of new strains of Covid-19 from South Africa and the United Kingdom,” the doctors said.

“The response by the government since the onset of the pandemic has been mostly reactionary and devoid of proper planning that responds to the existing risk levels.”

President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the new lockdown was “the final push to defeat this virus for good.”

The local media has reported that Malawi has locked its borders following a spike in the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.

The southern African country is also restricting numbers at public gatherings including religious ones to no more than 100 people, local media reported.

The presidential task force on COVID-19 said borders should be closed for two weeks with effect from December 22, according to a report by news website Malawi 24.

Information Minister Gospel Kazako said only Malawians returning home and people providing essential services would be allowed to enter through the borders.

Airports will remain open because, as the task force argued, it is easier to track people arriving in the country through that avenue.

Malawi has recorded 6 221 cases in total of the coronavirus first detected in China a year ago. Of these, 187 people have died while 5 675 have recovered. About 1 275 infections were imported while 4 927 were locally transmitted.

On Monday 41 new cases were reported, of which 38 were imported.

Broadcast station Zodiak reported that 23 buses carrying repatriated Malawians from South Africa arrived at the Mwanza border post on December 18.

The government has previously faced resistance in trying to enforce measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

July, newly appointed Attorney-General Chikosa Silungwe urged the presidential task force on COVID-19 not to implement restrictions as there was an injunction in place against them.

In April the Lilongwe High Court granted an injunction to the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, bottle store owners, and some residents preventing then-President Peter Mutharika against locking down the country.

Mutharika had wanted to impose a 21-day lockdown from April 18.

University lecturers in Nigeria under the aegis o the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), has called off its strike, ending a protracted industrial action that started in March 2020.

ASUU National President, Biodun Ogunyemi, made the announcement during a briefing of the union in Abuja on Wednesday.

He did not give more reasons the industrial action was suspended but asked lecturers to resume classes.

Recall that due to the strike that has lasted, going up to a year, students of Universities in Nigeria have remained at home with a good number of them joining the recently#EndSARS protest that claimed the lives of so many youths.

The protest was a call to end police brutality in Nigeria and to ensure a better working condition for the cops.

However, the lecturers were making demands running into billions of naira for a better condition for the nation’s university system, leading to industrial action.

The Al-Shabaab militant group has claimed that it abducted and beheaded the chief of a clutch of villages in northeastern Kenya near the border with Somalia, the Islamists and local police sources said Wednesday.

Omar Adan Buul, the head of the Gumarey sub-location in Wajir county, was kidnapped on Friday was by jihadists who had raided the area and “lectured the locals”, according to Kenyan media reports.

“It is true the chief who went missing last week on Friday has been found dead. His head was dumped on the road but the rest of the body has not been found,” a local police officer said on condition of anonymity.

Another police officer said, “we have collected the head and taken it to the mortuary”.

“This is the work of Al-Shabaab… we are looking for the rest of the body or the parts, we hope it wasn’t taken to the other side,” he added, referring to over the Somali border.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the “execution” through their Shahada News Agency, according to the US monitoring group SITE.

The group said it had taken the chief prisoner during an attack that seized control of a Kenyan police outpost, a claim that has not been confirmed.

The Al-Qaeda-linked group has been waging a violent insurgency across Somalia seeking to unseat the internationally-backed government in the capital Mogadishu.

They were driven out of Mogadishu by government forces backed by 20,000 African Union peacekeepers in 2011.

But the group still controls swathes of territory outside the cities, from where they launch attacks against government targets, as well as occasionally crossing the border to carry out raids in Kenya.

Al-Shabaab has ramped up the intensity of its attacks in Kenya in recent years, including several major assaults as far as the capital Nairobi, which have left nearly 300 dead.

At least five countries have suspended flights from South Africa after a coronavirus variant was recently discovered in the country.

Germany, Turkey, Israel, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia are among the countries that have announced the banning of such flights to prevent the spread of a variant of the SARS-COV-2 virus currently termed 501.V2 Variant. The ban was coming into effect on Monday in most of these countries. 

Germany was one of the first nations to announce the ban. 

“Because of the reported coronavirus mutation, the federal government intends to restrict travel options between Germany and Great Britain and South Africa,” said Government Spokesperson Martina Fietz.  

Israel also banned the flights on Sunday, saying that its citizens returning from South Africa would be required to undergo a 30-day mandatory quarantine on their return.  

The new variant was discovered in the Eastern Cape and also affects Kwazulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said his department has been observing a huge number of young people with no illness testing positive lately. 

“The evidence that has been collated, therefore, strongly suggests that the current second wave we are experiencing is being driven by this new variant,” he said. 

A number of countries have also added Britain to their list of banned flights following the discovery of a COVID-19 variant there. 

The Financial Times, a world-renowned international business newspaper, on Tuesday, described Nigeria as a nation that has the highest number of poor people living with less than $1.90 a day.

The paper equally stated that Nigeria is on the brink of becoming a failed state, following the spate of kidnappings, killings, insecurity and violation of human rights.

The international business newspaper, Vanguard Reports, stated conspicuously that the government has lost control of the country.

Giving a perceived solution to Nigeria’s problem, Financial Times said: “President Muhammadu Buhari must seek to draw a line in the sand. He must redouble efforts to get a grip on security. He also needs to restore trust in key institutions, among them the judiciary, the security services and the electoral commission, which will preside over the 2023 elections.

“More than 300 Nigerian schoolboys were reunited with their families last weekend, days after they had been abducted by kidnappers from their dormitory in the country’s north-west. The kidnapping revived memories of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls abducted in Borno state in 2014. Just as then, Boko Haram, the militant Islamist group, claimed responsibility.

“The government insists no ransom was paid. Scepticism is warranted. In a country going backwards economically, carjacking, kidnapping and banditry are among Nigeria’s rare growth industries. Just as the boys were going home, Nigerian pirates abducted six Ukrainian sailors off the coast.

“The definition of a failed state is one where the government is no longer in control. By this yardstick, Africa’s most populous country is teetering on the brink.

“President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 pronounced Boko Haram “technically defeated”. That has proved fanciful. Boko Haram has remained an ever-present threat. If the latest kidnapping turns out to be its work, it would mark the spread of the terrorist group from its north-eastern base.

“Even if the mass abduction was carried out by “ordinary” bandits — as now looks possible — it underlines the fact of chronic criminality and violence. Deadly clashes between herders and settled farmers have spread to most parts of Nigeria. In the oil-rich, but impoverished, Delta region, extortion through the sabotage of pipelines is legendary.

“Extortion is a potent symbol for a state whose modus operandi is the extraction of oil revenue from central coffers to pay for a bloated, ruinously inefficient, political elite. Security is not the only area where the state is failing.

“Nigeria has more poor people, defined as those living on less than $1.90 a day, than any other country, including India. In non-Covid-19 years, one of every five children in the world out of school lives in Nigeria, many of the girls.

“The population, already above 200m, is growing at a breakneck 3.2 per cent a year. The economy has stalled since 2015 and real living standards are declining.

“This year, the economy will shrink 4 per cent after Covid-19 dealt a further blow to oil prices. In any case, as the world turns greener, the elite’s scramble for oil revenue will become a game of diminishing returns. The country desperately needs to put its finances, propped up by foreign borrowing, on a sounder footing.

“In its three remaining years, the government of Mr Buhari must seek to draw a line in the sand. It must redouble efforts to get a grip on security. It also needs to restore trust in key institutions, among them the judiciary, the security services and the electoral commission, which will preside over the 2023 elections.

“More than that, Nigeria needs a generational shift. The broad coalition that found political expression this year in the EndSARS movement against police brutality provides a shard of optimism.

“At least Nigeria has a relatively stable democracy. Now Nigeria’s youth — creative, entrepreneurial and less tainted by the politics of extraction — should use that system to reset the country’s narrative.

“A new, slimmed-down state — ideally one with fewer, bankrupt regional assemblies — must concentrate on the basics: security, health, education, power and roads. With those public goods in place, Nigeria’s young people are more than capable of turning the country round.

“At the present trajectory, the population will double to 400m by 2050. If nothing is done, long before then, Nigeria will become a problem far too big for the world to ignore.”

Police in Maara, Tharaka Nithi County area of Kenya are holding a colleague for reportedly sodomizing six teens in his house.

A police report seen by The Nation indicates that on Tuesday, Sub-County Police Commander Mohamed Jarso was informed by a resident that a chief inspector in charge of the Mitheru police post was housing minors whom he was suspected of sodomising.

Upon receiving the information, Mr. Jarso immediately mobilised officers and went to the man’s rented house within Chogoria township.

The officers found four young boys aged between 14 and 15 and two young adults aged 18 and 19 sleeping on the floor inside the house. 

Upon interrogation, the officers established that all six were from Ndunguri Primary School in Ntumu village. They were rescued and taken to safety at Chogoria Police Station. 

“Upon interrogation, the boys said that the officer in question had been sodomising them,” read part of the report. 

The senior officer was arrested and locked up at Chogoria Police station awaiting arraignment in court upon completion of investigations.

The Nation also learned that the children’s parents have been contacted. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) thanked members of the public who provided information leading to the arrest.

“Equally, we appeal to Kenyans to continue making such reports anonymously, through the DCI emergency toll-free line 0800722203, for decisive action by our detectives,” DCI said on its Twitter page.

Following the continued election violence that has marred the Central African Republic, Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, has approved the deployment of more soldiers to CAR for the protection of the United Nations peacekeepers and to also quell the violence.

The new contingent of soldiers will, however, “not be constrained” by UN rules of engagement, he added.

The troops were deployed in the wee hours of Monday morning, according to sources within the Ministry of Defense, under a bilateral agreement on defense signed between Rwanda and the Central African Republican.

A statement from the government of CAR said they were joined by Russian troops on Monday, who immediately were deployed to counter rebels advancing towards the capital Bangui.

At a press conference on Monday, Kagame said Rwandan soldiers and police officers serving in Bangui under the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) have been targeted by rebel forces commanded by former President François Bozizé Yangouvonda.

“Troops that have been sent to CAR will not operate within the rules of engagement of UN peacekeepers, but under a new bilateral arrangement with CAR that will authorize them to contain any situation that is aimed at disrupting the elections and also protect Rwandan peacekeepers against being targeted by rebels,” Kagame said.

“This force will really deal with the matter without being constrained by the other rules of engagement but at the same time operating within a legal and legitimate framework.”

UN peacekeeping operations are barred from using force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

These restrictions will not apply to the Rwandan troops sent under the special bilateral deal between Rwanda and CAR.

Rwanda has over 6,500 troops and police officers serving in UN missions. Some1,267 troops are in CAR with 147 serving under MUNISCA.

Burundi also has 744 troops serving in the Central African Republic.

Rwandan soldiers have since 2016 provided protection for President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and other top government officials in CAR.

“We also learned that some of them (rebels) wanted to target our own forces in Central Africa because our forces there have been uncompromising,” he said. “If the troops become a deterrent, maybe that is better, so that those who have ideas of being so disruptive may not do that. But if they do it, then the troops are there to do the business they are supposed to do.”

In November, the Security Council extended the mandate of MINUSCA until November 15, 2021, outlining its priorities as protection of civilians, supporting the peace process, and preparing for elections.

A Nigerian University student named Gbenga Olaoye-Akanbi has killed himself after losing N300 million ($786,885.22) to foreign exchange trading.
The 300-level student at the Department of Agriculture of the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, 19 years of age, was allegedly duped by a forex trader, Eseka Chuckwutem Gospel (ESG
Family sources told SaharaReporters that Olaoye-Akanbi was discovered dead on Sunday after drinking poison.

The 19-year-old student was said to have invested over N300 million belonging to his colleagues and friends in a business run by  ESG.

Speaking to SaharaReporters, a friend of the deceased and an investor with the firm explained how they were duped.

He said: “The investment in forex. The guy’s name is Eseka Chuckwutem Gospel. We started the investment together this year. It seems he stopped trading, so he turned indirectly to a Ponzi scheme without the knowledge of those investing.

“He has a particular group. Most people in that group collected money from other people to invest in their business. The late Gbenga collected money from different people to invest with ESG at a certain percentage.

“Later on, the investment crashed, and the guy was arrested. With the help of some senior police officials, he was released. So over time, people that were with ESG as investors (they had borrowed money to invest) were now being pressurized to repay the loan they took. I am one of the investors, too; we were under a lot of pressure to pay up. So I think because of this guy’s age, he is just 19-year-old, he couldn’t withstand the pressure and committed suicide.”

A course mate of the deceased said he assured them that forex is not a Ponzi scheme and that he had back up funds, much enough to pay every one of his investors their capital and profits even if things went wrong.

“It’s so sad; I have over N5 million investment deal with him. He claimed to be the one doing the trading initially, but when the problem started around June, he started mentioning one Eseka Chuckwutem Gospel as his boss. He told us they were arrested together, but that our money was safe with him. 

He later promised to pay everyone’s capital before December. I was surprised when I saw people posting his pictures with RIP today,” he told SaharaReporters.