- By Ryekolal Raphie Africanews reporter in Kampala Uganda. Nairobi-“The ICC move to establish an office in Kenya shows the process is now indispensable. There is now a lot of anxiety within the political class as we head to the 2012 elections,” Nairobi lawyer John Waiganjo said. A more robust International Criminal Court process is at play as chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo appears keen to complete his investigations of key post-election violence suspects by the end of the year. About 1 300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced from their homes in the ensuing battles.During the fighting in late 2007 and early 2008, some of the worst in the histor…

- By Ryekolal Raphie Africanews reporter in Kampala uganda. Kampala-Majestic build ups, crisp finishing and classic goalkeeping were the tonic as Uganda made the best possible perfect start to qualifying for Africa’s elite competition in 34 years. The fans were at their best shouting their voices horse but couldn’t out do sky-rocketing vuvuzelas. The players responded in similar fashion with David Obua, Andy Mwesigwa and Geoffrey Sserunkuma each rupturing the Angolans’ net. President Museveni, his customary hat fully embracing his head, was among the over 30,000 fans at Mandela National stadium and despite finding the match underway, he was in time to see Obua’…

- By Ryekolal Raphie Africanews reporter in Kampala. Mogadishu-A Somali rebel group has told the Horn of Africa nation's embattled leader to quit power and said hardline Islamists had succeeded where government had failed, establishing order in areas they controlled. Hisbul Islam, which has waged a three-year insurgency against the fragile interim government alongside the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group, urged Somalia's Muslims to unite and join in the holy war. "President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed ought to quit. He has nothing for the people except a call for more foreign troops that massacre Somalis," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, leader of Hisbul Islam, told reporters o…

- By Ryekolal Raphie Africanews reporter in Kampala Uganda. Nairobi-At least 1,000 delegates are expected to descend on Kenya's capital Nairobi to attend a meeting of Members of Parliament from the Commonwealth countries. The meeting, to be held at the Kenyatta International Conference, runs from September 10-19 and will be opened by President Kibaki on September 14. According to the Clerk Patrick Gichohi, said on Tuesday that by Monday evening, 800 delegates from some 54 countries had confirmed attendance to the nine day Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting National Assembly. “We are preparing for 1,000 delegates and would not be surprised to get more,”…

- By Ryekolal Raphie Africanews reporter in Kampala Uganda. Kigali-Rwanda has threatened to withdraw its troops from United Nations peacekeeping operations if the world body publishes a report accusing the Rwandan army of committing possible genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the 1990s, Rwanda's foreign minister says in a letter sent to the UN. Addressed to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the letter from Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo describes the report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as "fatally flawed" and "incredibly irresponsible". A draft of the report leaked this week accuses Rwandan troops and rebel allies tied to…

- By Ryekolal Raphie Africanews reporter in Kampala Darfur-The army spokesman said on Monday, the second kidnapping of 2 Russian pilots in the war-torn region of western Sudan this month. "Two Russian pilots were kidnapped by a small armed group in a section of Nyala," Saad said. "We have closed off all access routes (around Nyala)." The pair were seized in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, on Sunday around 16:00 (13:00 GMT), spokesperson Sawarmi Khaled Saad told AFP. The pilots were working for the private aviation company Badr, Saad told the official Suna news agency. Abdel Hamid Kasha, the governor of South Darfur, said no details on the latest situati…

- By Ryekolal Raphie AfricaNews reporter in Kampala Uganda. Kampala-The African Centre for Cyber Law and Cyber Crime Prevention has been launched in Naguru, a Kampala suburb. The centre, set up by the United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI), in conjunction with the International Association of Cyber Crime Prevention (AILCC), is based in France. The centre is to deal with organised crime, child pornography on the Internet, cyber terrorism, information security and online tax fraud among others. And Cyber crime refers to any vice committed by means of a computer system, in a computer system, or against a computer system. Masa…

- By Ryekolal Raphie AfricaNews reporter in Kampala Uganda. Hague-The International Criminal Court said Friday that it was reporting indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's visit to Kenya to the UN Security Council, so that appropriate steps might be taken. Bashir attended a ceremony in Nairobi Friday to adopt a new constitution for Kenya despite warrants for his arrest issued by the ICC on charges of genocide and war crimes by the ICC. Speaking to reporters in Nairobi Friday, Moses Wetangula said Omar al-Bashir was invited to the dedication ceremony because Kenya invited the leaders of all its neighbors. "There are no apologies to make about anybody we invited to th…

- By Ryekolal Raphie Africanews reporter in Kampala. Kinshasa-Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda said on Thursday that they were “in no way involved” in mass rapes reported in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations on Monday reported that at least 179 women and children had been raped in recent weeks in villages of the Nord-Kivu province of the DR Congo, where the Rwandan rebels are active. The FDLR are “in no way involved in these odious actions and takes umbrage at the baseless accusations launched against them by the secretary general of the United Nations,” Ban Ki-moon, the rebel movement’s exe…

A passenger plane crashed on Wednesday after trying to land in western Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 19 people but two survived, a deputy provincial governor told AFP. - The Filair Let-410 twin turboprop crashed just before 1200 GMT after failing to land at Bandundu after a 300-kilometre (200-mile) flight from the capital Kinshasa, and apparently running out of fuel, Vicky Mboso Muteba said. "They have brought out the people, we have 19 bodies in the morgue and two survivors," said Mboso, the deputy governor of Bandundu province, northeast of Kinshasa. According to the DR Congo's aviation sector, which is littered with ageing Soviet-era planes, is genera…

An African Union official said Monday that hundreds of additional troops have arrived in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, to bolster the AU force that supports the Somali government. - The AU deputy special representative for Somalia, Wafula Wamunyinyi, said the troops began arriving on Friday and have already been deployed to different areas. Ugandan troops make up the bulk of the AU force, which often battles Somali insurgents trying to topple the government. Uganda pledged to send more troops after the insurgent group al-Shabab carried out twin bombings in Kampala last month killing 76 people. But the insurgents control most of the capital and much of southern and central Somalia.…

- By Ryekolal Raphie AfricaNews reporter in Kampala Uganda. Sweden-Swedish authorities issued an arrest warrant for the founder of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks on Sunday on suspicion of rape, but then swiftly withdrew it. Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne determined there were not enough grounds for the warrant for Mr Assange, whose website last month published secret US military files on Afghanistan, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said on its website. “... he is no longer suspected of rape. All the charges concerning rape have been lifted,” a spokeswoman for the office said. A police investigation continues into another accusation, of molestation. Mr Assange, who…

- By Ryekolal Raphie AfricaNews reporter in Kampala Uganda. Lagos-Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chuku says more than 230 people have died and more than 4,600 people are affected by a disease that has spread since the start of rains in late June,overwhelmed by rains. Nigeria's cholera outbreak spreads as far south as Cross Rivers and Ogun States and is even effecting the capital, Abuja. But most of the cases so far are concentrated in the northeast states of Borno, Bauchi, and Adamawa. "Many people in those areas still do not use standard toilet facilities. It is open defecation. So as long as there is nothing carrying that waste into the source of water supplies, there…

Almost 20,000 failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the United Kingdom could be deported before the end of the year as a result of the relative economic and political stability in the southern African country following the formation of a unity government. - Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial master this week sent a fact finding mission from its Border Agency to Harare to assess claims that the country is still unsafe for the failed asylum seekers to return. New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States being one of the many Western countries with a huge population of immigrants but UK has the majority of Zimbabwe who escaped the economic and political turmoil that began inten…

The Security Council joined UN chief Ban Ki-moon in urging swift justice for the killers of three Indian UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. - "The secretary-general condemns the assault and calls on the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to launch an immediate investigation into this incident and ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly identified and brought to justice," a United Nations statement said. In its own statement, the 15-member Security Council "condemned in the strongest terms" the attack that left at least six other UN military personnel injured, three of them critically. The three Indian peacekeepers assigned to the U…

- By Ryekolal Raphie AfricanNews reporter in Kampala Uganda. Hague-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed a Kenyan diplomat as the first Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union, established earlier this year to strengthen links between the two organisations. Mr Zachary Muburi-Muita, who previously served as Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York since 2006, will now head the new UN office, to be based in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. And this new UN Office to the AU was set up by the General Assembly on 1 July. Mr Mburi-Muita has worked in diplomatic, political, civil-military and managerial roles for the country since 1982.“The di…

The United States says it is "concerned" by disturbing acts by the Rwandan government in the run up to the country's elections that President Paul Kagame won. - “Democracy is about more than holding elections,” the White House said in a statement last Friday. While congratulating President Kagame for securing another seven-year term, Washington said it “remain(s) concerned about a series of disturbing events prior to the election”. Kagame won the August 9 ballot with roughly 93 per cent. He faced three contestants, all his former partners in a post-genocide coalition government, and critics said the challenge was a smokescreen. The unsettling acts…

The Southern African Development Community is expected to discuss the political progress in Zimbabwe during its annual two-day summit. Regional heads of states are taking part in the meeting in Windhoek, Namibia. While some progress since the last summit is being reported, analysts say Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party leaders still dominate the 18-month-old unity government. - South African President Jacob Zuma is leading the Southern African Development Community's mediation efforts in Zimbabwe. During the regional summit, he is expected to report on the progress of the outstanding issues in the power-sharing government. Political analysts say the Movement for Democratic Change’s …

Armed men abducted two U.N.-African Union (UNAMID) peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region in the biggest town Nyala. The mission said the two men were walking to a UNAMID transport dispatch point about 100 meters from their residence when they were approached by three individuals in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. - An American woman working for the charity Samaritan's Purse was kidnapped almost three months ago near Nyala and remains in captivity. The kidnappings have become a new business in Darfur with tribal leaders reporting that handsome government ransoms were paid for some hostages, fuelling the abductions. Khartoum denies paying any ransom money. Sudanese authorities have…

About 54 Uganda nationals are behind bars in China with 20 on death row, stated Uganda ambassador to China Charles Madibo Wagidoso on tour in China. "It is unfortunate but we have more than 50 Ugandans detained in various prisons in China and counting because just last week another one was arrested." - Wagidoso: “Twenty have been sentenced to death and the rest have sentences ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment.” He also spoke of a narcotics trafficking racket between drug lords in Kampala, Dubai and Thailand, where unemployed Ugandans are recruited into smuggling the drugs with baits of quick cash. “They are innocent vulnerable young people,” h…

- By Ryekolal Raphie africaNews reporter in Kampala Uganda Kampala-The US-based Human Rights Watch has reported that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), headed by Joseph Kony, has embarked on “massive abduction” of adults and children in the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The LRA has abducted an estimated 697 people in the last 18 months on the orders of Kony, the human rights watchdog said in a statement issued yesterday. It said in May, Kony directed his commanders to institute a massive abduction campaign of mainly children aged between 10 and 15 years with a view of returning to Uganda to continue with his atrocities. …

Zimbabwe on Wednesday opened the first sale of diamonds from its Marange fields since international regulators partially lifted a ban imposed after the military violently seized control of the mines. The diamond sale Wednesday will be audited by Ernst and Young. - About 900,000 carats valued at about $72 million were on sale, according to Abbey Chikane, the monitor from the international Kimberley Process which is charged with preventing trade in "blood diamonds". Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said in opening the sale "Indeed it is historic in that we have managed to satisfy the minimum requirements of the Kimberley Process". Zimbabwe has now contracted operation…

Former President of Uganda Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa QC has died. He died at 90 on Thursday morning at his home in Kizungu Zone in Makindye Division, a Kampala suburb. - He was the nation’s 6th President. Ex-president Binaisa is said to have died in his sleep. “We are gutted and really depressed,” said Nakalema Binaisa, a daughter to the former President, struggling to hold back tears. Ms Nakalema said her father went to bed last night “smiling” but did not wake-up this morning. “We went to the hospital on Monday and we were told that his blood sugar levels had gone down,” she said. “We went back home and he seemed alright. He was smili…

Zimbabwe's aviation authority said the plane accident it reported on Thursday at Harare's airport was actually a "planned drill" to test emergency responses, an aviation official said. - "This was a planned drill, to test our national response system. An official statement will be issued by the CEO," the senior Civil Aviation Authority official said, asking not to be named until the statement was released. However, officials told reporters who arrived at the airport that it was only a drill and the Civil Aviation CEO David Chawota had 90 minutes earlier told international media and the head of flag carrier Air Zimbabwe that a Boeing 767 had suffered an accide…

Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir is to embark on a two-day official state visit to neighbouring Libya on Wednesday despite an arrest warrant on him. - According to Rabie Abdelati Obeid, a prominent member of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party, “This visit to Libya will be on certain issues. Issue number one is the (bilateral relations) between Libya and Sudan. Number two will be on the discussion of different regional issues concerning (the) African Union and the Arab League. And, (Libya’s mutual relations) with Sudan in the state of commercial activities and movement of people from Libya to Sudan and vice-versa, as well as technical cooperation between (them).&…

- By Ryekolal Raphie, AfricaNews reporter in Kampala, Uganda Zanzibar-August 1, 2010 - Zanzibar has opted to enshrine power-sharing in the constitution in a bid to end decades of crippling political feuds, according referendum results released Sunday. The Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced that two thirds of the semi-autonomous Tanzanian territory's voters approved the idea of a coalition government being formed after the upcoming October 31 polls. The "yes" vote, supported by both the ruling CCM and the opposition CUF parties, mustered 66.4 percent while the "no" vote took 33.4 percent in the referendum held on Saturday. Tallying from polling st…

Medecins Sans Frontieres said armed men stole medical equipment from one of its health clinics twice this month in Jonglei state. Staff members have also been attacked while delivering aid, the organization said. - Also known as Doctors Without Borders, the aid group said it has been forced to suspend work in a volatile part of South Sudan because of attacks against their staff, as violence between rival tribes surges in the area. A statement on Doctors Without Borders' website called on armed groups to respect its neutrality so it can resume providing aid. It said more than 160 malnourished children had been receiving treatment at its clinic in the Gumuruk area and that there were a…

- By Ryekolal Raphie AfricaNews reporter in Kampala,Uganda. Geneva-The United Nations refugee agency called on Saudi Arabia on Friday to halt expulsions of Somalis to Mogadishu, rebuking the oil-rich kingdom for deporting 2,000 in the past two months to the war-torn capital. It continued to say neighboring countries should offer legal residence to Somali workers and asylum-seekers until it is safe to return to Mogadishu until when it is safe to go home. Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said "Given the deadly violence in Mogadishu, UNHCR is urging the Saudi authorities to refrain from future deportations on humanitarian grounds,"…

- By Ryekolal Raphie AfricaNews reporter in Kampala,Uganda Zanzibar-Tanzania's politically volatile Zanzibar island votes in a referendum Saturday to install a power-sharing government aimed at ending the archipelago's persistent election unrest. According to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM - Revolutionary party) and the main opposition Civic United Front (CUF) are backing the deal and have called on voters to endorse it. A new form of government would see Zanzibar have a president with two deputies. The first vice president would be from the party which comes second in the polls and the second from the winning party. Zanzibar President Amani Karume told a gathering t…

Somali pirates on Thursday released a Turkish-owned cargo ship and its crew of 21 people nearly four months after seizing the vessel, a company lawyer reported on Turkish broadcaster NTV. The Maltese-flagged vessel was seized by pirates on March 23 in the Indian Ocean. - It was seized about a day after passing through the warship-patrolled transit corridor in the Gulf of Aden, which commercial vessels are encouraged to use. Nilgun Yamaner said "the pirates abandoned the ship, the Frigia, at 7:25 am (0425 GMT) this morning. It has since been under the captain's control," as she represents the ship's owners, the Istanbul-based Kayra shipping company. The ship's c…

France's government vowed to step up the fight against Al-Qaeda in northern Africa after militants killed a French hostage in the Sahel desert region. "The fight against terrorism continues and it is going to strengthen, particularly against AQMI," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told Europe 1 radio. - France's President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Monday that Germaneau's killing "will not go unpunished." He said the government had authenticated the group's claim to have killed Germaneau although his body has not been recovered. The group, a northern Africa-based affiliate of Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, claimed the killing of Michel Germane…

The African Union president Bingu wa Mutharika has criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir. He said they were "undermining African solidarity and African peace and security." The ICC is trailing the Sudanese leader for genocide and other crimes. - According to diplomats at the AU summit in Kampala, the leaders have been urged to fashion out strategies that would help resolve the conflict in Sudan without the need to arrest al-Bashir. After a stormy debate, which went on until 3:00am on Sunday, the delegates reportedly agreed to remove the part which instructs AU members not to cooperate with the ICC in apprehending al-…

Guineans went to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president and reports say turn out was impressive and calm. The election being contested by 24 presidential candidates was the first democratic one since the West African country gained independence. - The poll follows a pledge by military ruler Sekouba Konate to return the country to civilian rule. He has vowed not to stand or allow any members of his administration to do so. About 4.2 million Guineans are eligible to vote. Guinea has been ruled by a succession of military and civilian autocrats since independence in 1958. The army seized power in 2008, following the death of strongman Lansana Conte, who had been in power for more…

The release of Peter Erlinder, an American lawyer who had been detained since May on charges of denying the 1994 genocide in Rwanda has been welcomed by the US administration. According to the State Department embassy officials were at the court session and broke the news to Erlinder's family. - Erlinder was freed on bail on health grounds but the case has not been dropped, according to the BBC. He was detained after travelling to Rwanda to defend an opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza who is also accused of denying the genocide. Erlinder is the lead defence counsel for top genocide suspects at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. …

President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan will not be among the 20 African Heads of State and Governments at the opening ceremony of the World Cup in South Africa, according to SAPA news agency. He said he cannot make it because of war crimes charges against him by the International Criminal Court. - South Africa president Jacob Zuma has confirmed inviting al-Bashir to join the likes of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to witness the historic moment in Africa since the World Cup was introduced some eight decades ago. Security pundits say the Sudanese leader’s fear is that he might be arrested by Interpol in South Africa and handed over to The Hague-based court.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority and the police are hunting for three hippopotamuses which killed two people and cows in Munyonyo near Lake Victoria and Nakawuka. Peter Lugo, 25, a fisherman, and his young brother, Lazarus Muko, 20 all died during the attack. - Farmers working in the neighbouring wetlands of Munyonyo suspended their work soon after receiving the news of the demise of the two residents. Police Marine and Fire Brigade on Saturday retrieved the bodies of the two victims which they took to the City Mortuary for postmortem. Moses Kafeero the Kampala Metropolitan South Regional Police Commander has confirmed the death of the two people. “We have spent the night tracing fo…

The World Bank is lifting aid ban on Niger. The West African country was suspended from receiving loans following a February military coup. Meanwhile, the suspension notice from the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) still holds. - The World Bank has budgeted $40 million in assistance to Niger, which despite being an exporter of uranium and target for billions of dollars of investment in oil, faces severe food shortages, according to United Nations humanitarian agencies UNHCR. According to the UN aid chief John Holmes the Niger food crisis has gotten worse than the last emergency in 2005. He said the country is better prepared to face it due to govern…

Two U.N.-African Union peacekeepers have been killed in an ambush by armed men in Darfur last Friday. The incident happened when a military convoy from UNAMID's Egyptian contingent, with three vehicles and 20 personnel, was ambushed near Katila village, 85 kilometres south of Eddal Fursan. - The attackers indiscriminately opened fire, without warning, on the peacekeepers. The attackers fled when the convoy returned fire. The attack left two peacekeepers killed in action and three seriously wounded. The injured soldiers were air-lifted to UNAMID's hospital in Nyala, South Darfur, and are reported to be in stable condition, according to PANA. The AU-UN Joint Special Represen…

The Libyan leader Col. Muammar el Gadhaffi has arrived in Uganda on an official visit. Col Gadhaffi was received by his host President Yoweri Museveni at State House, Entebbe Wednesday afternoon. Former premier Stephen Nyabongo earlier said Gaddafi and at least 100 kings from all over the world are expected to attend the three-day event. - “Kabaka Ronald Mutebi, who is also a guardian to the young king, will be in attendance to see the person he has been taking care of come of age,” officials said. “The King of Kings (Gadaffi) is expected in Toro this Saturday,” Nyabongo told journalists at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel. Gadaffi got the title in August 2008, from o…

The Ugandan government is planning to export over 300 monkeys that are destroying lucrative palm fruit plantation in the Kalangala District of the Lake Victoria islands in Uganda to Russia. However, critics have condemned the move saying the measure would harm tourism. - According to Zahra Abigaba & Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa Palm oil growers in Kalangala District, the move is to save the monkeys’ lives instead of killing them. "We were planning to issue licenses to companies that will sell them overseas," said the Tourism Minister Sarapio Rukundo The minister added: “We have plans to start giving out licenses to some people to export them (monkeys) to Russia and i…

Kenya's Internal Security Ministry, George Saitoti, has announced an ambitious plan to rid itself of corruption by 100 percent within 100 days. The plan when implemented will crack harder on drug barons, cattle rustlers, highway bandits, carjackers and other criminals as part of the programme. - "We want to reduce corruption by 100 per cent in the next 100 days," a tough-talking Internal Security minister told senior officials of his ministry who included Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere and Provincial Commissioners. He further directed that unnecessary road blocks set up by the police be removed with immediate effect, and that the war on bootleg liquor be stepped up. &qu…