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Even as Ethiopian prime minister Abit Ahmed claimed that the federal troops have claimed complete control of the northern region of Tigray in the ongoing onslaught against the leaders of the area, refugees, according to Daily Nation, on Sunday, dismissed the claim.

Recall that on Saturday night, Prime Minister Ahmed declared military operations in Tigray “completed” after the army claimed control of the regional capital Mekele, a city of half a million before the conflict broke out three weeks ago.

“I heard the news yesterday on Ethiopian state television… but I don’t believe it,” said refugee Mangosto Dekhele who sought refugee in Sudan’s “Village 8” transit camp near the border.

“We will only believe it if it is confirmed by Tigrean media,” he said.

“Of course it’s true that Abiy is bombing Mekele and launching air raids, but controlling the cities (in Tigray) is not possible,” he said, echoing many of his compatriots who fled to Sudan.

Abiy, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, announced on November 4 he had ordered military operations against leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the regional ruling party that dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before he came to power in 2018.

“I am pleased to share that we have completed and ceased the military operations in the #Tigray region,” Abiy said in a Twitter post.

Tigray has been under a communications blackout throughout the conflict and media access has been restricted making it impossible to verify claims.

Little news filtered out of the city on Sunday even through official channels.

“I heard people in the camp speak of it (Abiy’s declaration). But it’s fake news,” said Haylo, a 20-year-old Ethiopian refugee who did not give his full name.

“Recently, he had announced capturing a small town but we later found out that it was just propaganda.

“Abiy is used to sending out false information to Ethiopians and the world. But we Tigrayans know him well,” added the young man.

Refugees questioned by AFP said they fully trusted the strength of Tigrayan forces, who they stressed was able to stand up to Abiy’s army.

“He cannot seize Mekele. It is a symbol for the Tigrayans and our leader Debretsion Gebremichael is much stronger than Abiy Ahmed,” said Simon Gabryones.

Another refugee, Genet Gebramayki, called Abiy a “liar”.

“He also lied about Mai-Kadra,” he said of the Tigrayan town where according to Ethiopia’s rights watchdog 600 civilians were massacred.

More than 44,000 refugees have crossed into Sudan since the fighting broke out in Tigray, according to the UN refugee agency.

On Sunday, more refugees poured in across the Lugdi crossing point, AFP reporters said.

One of Togo’s main opposition figures was arrested Saturday for “attacking the security of the state”, a government prosecutor said.

The West African country of eight million is led by President Faure Gnassingbe, who took over in 2005 following the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for 38 years.

Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson’s arrest in the capital Lome follows an investigation which revealed opposition “documents that contained a plan to destabilize the country”, prosecutor Essolissam Poyodi said in a televised address.

She was arrested at home before being taken to the Central Research and Criminal Investigation Service, her relatives told AFP.

Gerad Djossou, another opposition figure, was also arrested Friday.

A police search of his home “uncovered a plan to commit violent acts” during a banned protest this Saturday, Poyodi added.

The opposition had called for a rally in Lome to protest against February election results but it was cancelled by the government who cited the coronavirus risk.

The country has recorded 1,722 infections and 44 Covid-19 deaths.

According to the Zimbabwean Mining Federation, about 40 informal miners were trapped underground after a shaft in a disused goldmine collapsed on them.

The incident occurred late Wednesday in the town of Bindura, around 70 kilometres (43 miles) north of the capital Harare, said Wellington Takavarasha, head of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation.

Takavarasha told AFP the miners were working inside the disused Ran Gold Mine when a shaft caved in.

Six miners have since been pulled from the rubble and taken to hospital.

“Those who were rescued said there were about 40 people in the mine shaft at the time of the incident,” said Takavarasha, adding that rescue efforts were ongoing.

Mining is a major source of foreign currency for Zimbabwe, where gold alone accounts for 60 percent of exports.

The landlocked southern African country is home to vast gold and mineral reserves, including diamonds and platinum.

The gold sector provides jobs to nearly 10 percent of the country’s population, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).

Small-scale miners often operate illegally to avoid selling their bullion to the state-owned buyer, Fidelity Printers, and Refiners, as they are paid only 55 percent in foreign currency.

The remaining 45 percent is paid in Zimbabwean dollars, which is notorious for its weakness.

Accidents are relatively common in decommissioned mines, particularly when the ground is loosened by rain.

The raging coronavirus has claimed another top politician as former Sudan Prime Minister, Sadiq al-Mahdi, has died from infections from the virus.

The 84-year-old was the country’s last democratically elected prime minister before he was toppled in 1989 by now-ousted president Omar al-Bashir in an Islamist-backed military coup.

The leader of the moderate Islamist National Umma Party was transferred to the United Arab Emirates for treatment three weeks ago after being hospitalised in Sudan and testing positive for COVID-19.

“We offer our condolences to the Sudanese people over his death,” the party said in a statement.

Mahdi was a staunch opposition figure during Bashir’s long rule and threw his weight behind a mass protest movement that eventually prompted the military to overthrow the president last year.

Since his ouster, Bashir has been jailed in Khartoum’s high-security Kober prison and was found guilty last December of corruption.

He is currently on trial in Khartoum for his role in the 1989 coup that brought him to power and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has charged him for alleged war crimes in the Darfur war that began in 2003.

If convicted, Bashir and his co-accused — including former top officials — could face the death penalty.

Sudan has so far recorded nearly 17,000 coronavirus cases including more than 1,200 deaths.

Algeria has lost up to 120 frontline health workers to the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic. This is among the over 9,000 health officials who contracted the virus. The country’s health ministry revealed this on Monday.

“So far a total of 120 health staff have died and 9,146 others have been infected by the virus” in the North African country, said the spokesman of the government’s coronavirus scientists’ panel Djamel Fourar.

With the country facing a severe second wave of infections, several doctors have gone public with calls for the population to respect health protocols and avoid going out except when necessary.

Algeria is one of the hardest-hit countries in Africa, with almost 76,000 infections since its first registered case on February 25, with over 2,000 deaths, according to official statistics.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been receiving treatment for the virus in Germany since October 28.

This month the government tightened movement restrictions and extended a night-time curfew.

It also imposed weekend halts on public transport and a two-week shutdown of sports facilities and cultural centres.

All gatherings have been banned and the borders closed since March 17.

Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, a militia commander in Congo, has been sentenced to life in prison by a military court on Tuesday. The sentence was over a war crime Sheka committed, including murder, sexual slavery, and child soldier recruitment in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The two-year trial involving more than 300 victims is a landmark for Congolese justice, rights groups and the United Nations said.

Authorities first issued a warrant for Sheka’s arrest in January 2011 but he remained at large until 2017 when he surrendered to U.N. peacekeepers.

Sheka and Séraphin Zitonda, a commander from another militia in the same Congo, received life sentences at the trial in the city of Goma for crimes committed in Congo’s eastern province of North Kivu between 2010 and 2014.

“This verdict is a source of immense hope for the many victims of the conflicts in the DRC: their suffering has been heard and recognized, and impunity is not inevitable,” said Leila Zerrougui, head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo.

The men were found guilty of orchestrating raids on villages in Walikale territory in mid-2010 where 380 men, women, and children were raped, and 287 killed.

“We salute the courage of the victims, who have continued to testify despite the threats,” said Yuma Fatuma Kahindo, the lawyer representing the group of victims.

Daniele Perissi, a representative of TRIAL International, a charity that fights impunity for international crimes, said the authorities had proved they are capable of taking on “an incredibly complex case” from a legal and security point of view.

A successor to Sheka’s militia, the NDC-Renove, was one of the largest armed groups in the east of the country in recent years and seen as having close ties with the national army until it split and turned on itself in July.

The army will continue military actions to bring perpetrators of crime to military justice, an army spokesman said.

In what has been applauded even beyond the South African enclave, the City of Cape Town firefighters in South Africa have been lauded for their swift response after they helped deliver a baby on a rooftop on Tuesday.

In a statement, iol.com quoted mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith, as saying that the crew from Belhar Fire Station received a call just before 5 am and when they got to the address, found a woman in labour on the roof of the house.

According to Smith, the roof was the only way the woman could get out of the yard from the residence. She shortly gave birth to a baby boy.

Firefighters from the Belhar station delivered a baby on a roof on Tuesday morning. Photo: Supplied by City of Cape Town

“Staff clamped and cut the baby’s umbilical cord, and monitored his vitals until the rescue vehicle arrived from Epping Fire Station,” Smith said.

“Firefighters also assisted the mom and baby from the roof.”

The mother and newborn baby were transported to the hospital soon afterwards.

This is not the first time members of this fire crew have stepped up to help a baby. On October 9, a two-week-old baby boy was brought to the fire station by his family, unresponsive and not breathing.

The crew members sprang into action and gave the baby cardiopulmonary resuscitation, after which he started breathing again. Once stable, the child was transported to Tygerberg Hospital in Parow by ambulance.

At the time, Smith commended the crew for saving the young baby’s life.

“Our emergency services exist to ensure the safety and the well-being of all our residents and it is heart-warming to know that the community can turn to our services when in need,” he said.

Fifa, the world football governing body, has come down hard on CAF President, Ahmad Ahmad as it has clamped a five-year ban on the Madagascan.

Fifa’s Independent Ethics Committee handed the CAF President the ban for five years from all football-related matters.

In addition to the sanction, the Madagascan administrator was punished with a fine of 200,000 Swiss Franc. 

The adjudicatory chamber of the Independent Ethics Committee found Ahmad guilty of abuse of office, misappropriation of funds and, offering gifts and other benefits as Caf president and Fifa vice-president.

Late last month, Ahmad disclosed his intention to run for a second term in office but he was down with coronavirus, which forced him to hand over to CAF’s first vice-president Constant Omari as he continues his recovery.

The statement from the FIFA website read: “The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has found Ahmad Ahmad, the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and a FIFA Vice-President, guilty of having breached art. 15 (Duty of loyalty), art. 20 (Offering and accepting gifts or other benefits) and art. 25 (Abuse of position) of the 2020 edition of the FIFA Code of Ethics, as well as art. 28 (Misappropriation of funds) of the 2018 edition.

“The investigation into Mr. Ahmad’s conduct in his position as CAF President during the period from 2017 to 2019 concerning various CAF-related governance issues, including the organisation and financing of an Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca, his involvement in CAF’s dealings with the sports equipment company Tactical Steel and other activities.

“In its decision, following an extensive hearing, the adjudicatory chamber ruled that, based on information gathered by the investigatory chamber, Mr. Ahmad had breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds and abused his position as the CAF President, pursuant to the FIFA Code of Ethics.

“Consequently, the adjudicatory chamber found that Mr. Ahmad had breached arts 15, 20 and 25 of the current edition of the FIFA Code of Ethics, as well as art. 28 of the 2018 edition, and sanctioned him with a ban from all football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level for five years. In addition, a fine in the amount of CHF 200,000 has been imposed on Mr. Ahmad.”

The armed forces in Burkina Faso have killed an American citizen outside a military base in the capital Ouagadougou on Saturday, security and diplomatic sources said.

The man was strolling outside the Baba Sy military camp to the south of the city and acting “suspiciously”, a high-ranking source in the security forces told AFP.

After he refused to comply and tried to flee, soldiers fired warning shots, some of which hit the man, according to the source.

He was immediately taken to a health centre where he died, the source added.

An official at the American Embassy in Burkina Faso confirmed the death of an American citizen in Ouagadougou, without providing details.

The shooting comes with the West African country on edge as it prepares for a general election Sunday in the shadow of a growing jihadist insurgency.

Military camps have been frequently targeted, including an attack on a base near the Malian border last year that killed 24 soldiers.

The security crisis has dominated the electoral campaign and an undisclosed number of troops have been deployed for polling day in the landlocked nation, one of the world’s poorest.

No votes in the presidential and parliamentary polls will be cast in one-fifth of the country’s territory, where large swathes remain outside the state’s control and jihadists strike almost daily.

The violence has forced one million people — five percent of the 20 million population — from their homes in the last two years, and at least 1,200 have been killed since 2015.

After days of unrest that claimed the lives of at least 37 persons, Ugandan pop star and presidential candidate, Bobi Wine, has been granted bail by the authorities Friday.
Bobi Wine was arrested and charged with holding rallies likely to spread the coronavirus.

The violence came as campaigns kick-off ahead of January elections in the oil-rich East African nation, whose ageing leader Yoweri Museveni is a staunch Western ally but faces accusations of corruption and nepotism at home, which he denies.

Opposition leader Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, was arrested on Wednesday while campaigning in eastern Uganda for allegedly holding mass rallies in violation of restrictions imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Uganda is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 14, with Wine emerging as a serious threat to Museveni, 76, who aims to extend his 34-year rule.

Violence snowballed as authorities deployed the military across the capital Kampala and surrounding areas to help police forces disperse protesters they accuse of rioting and looting. Police said they used live bullets, tear gas, and water cannon, and arrested nearly 600 people.

Local media reported police pathologist Moses Byaruhanga as having told Reuters on Friday the death toll had jumped to 37.

Witnesses said they saw university and high school students gunned down in the streets.

Journalist Jocylynne Nakibuule, who works at local station Spark TV, said she had helped a 15-year-old boy shot in the back on Thursday.

“I am a mother. When I saw the boy, my motherly instincts kicked in. I forgot all about the riots,” Nakibuule said, adding that she took him to the hospital on a motorbike taxi.

“He was bleeding constantly,” Nakibuule said, sobbing. “I kept calling his name, Amos, Amos, please fight to save the pain of your mother.”

The boy’s mother told her that soldiers had shot at them as they came out of a shop, she said.

Nakibuule went back to covering the protests. On Friday morning, the hospital told her the boy had died.

Fred Mpanga said his 21-year-old nephew, Yusuf Kimuli, was also killed after going to buy milk.

“Gunmen who were not in uniform and were in a private car moving around shooting people, they shot him in the back,” Mpanga said.

Kimuli lay in the street for more than an hour bleeding to death because people were afraid to help him, Mpanga said, citing accounts from witnesses who spoke to the family.

“All the light has been snuffed out of my life.”

It remains unclear who was responsible for the bloodshed. During the protests, a witness told Reuters that men in civilian clothes were walking around carrying assault rifles.

Multiple opposition parties have previously accused the government of using non-uniformed security personnel to quell riots. The government has denied those accusations.

Police spokesman Fred Enanga blamed the protesters, saying Wine’s supporters targeted bystanders who do not support their National Unity Platform (NUP) party.

“What we have seen in the last few days, that is violence, vandalism, looting, intimidation, and threats, are crimes that were being committed (against) people who are not pro-NUP,” he said. “This is not something that we can tolerate.”

NUP spokesman Joel Senyonyi told Reuters the party condemned the looting and said it had urged supporters to protest peacefully.

In a televised court appearance on Friday, Wine blamed the president for the shootings: “It is Museveni who is supposed to be in this dock for killing innocent citizens.”

Wine is popular among Ugandan youth, who often play songs in which he denounces government corruption.

Wine has said that being “born hustling and born to hustling parents, raised in the ghettos” meant he could understand the struggles of impoverished Ugandans. He has repeatedly urged Museveni to retire.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said authorities were “weaponizing” Covid-19 to suppress opposition ahead of the elections.

“This is just the beginning of the campaign season,” said Oryem Nyeko, the group’s Africa researcher. “It seems to be a sign of things to come.”