United Nations investigators say despite Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye’s pledges to end repression, the human rights situation in the East African country has worsened in the 15 months since he took office.
Ndayishimiye’s election last year had raised hopes of a more open political environment emerging after many years of violence and severe rights violations in the troubled nation.
But in a report released Thursday, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi said that although the authorities appeared to have eased some restrictions, conditions had actually worsened for opposition parties, journalists and NGOs, which are facing a renewed crackdown.
The UN statement said members of opposition parties… are still regularly targeted by abusive restrictions and are subject to grave human rights violations such as disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions and torture.
Observers had hoped that Ndayishimiye’s government would help the country turn a corner and improve its human rights record, but UN investigators said Burundian security forces were still committing violations.
Burundi has been in crisis since 2015, when then president Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term and was re-elected in polls boycotted by most of the opposition.
At least 1,200 people were killed and more than 400,000 forced into exile as a result of violence which the UN says was mostly carried out by state security forces.
British retailer Marks and Spencer said Thursday it planned to shut more than half its stores in France with Brexit affecting supplies of fresh and chilled products.
Announcing the closure of 11 out of 20 franchise stores, the food-to-clothing retailer said in a statement that “the lengthy and complex export processes… following the UK’s exit from the European Union are significantly constraining” supplies.
Paul Friston, managing director of the British company’s international arm, added that while it will shut all 11 franchise stores with partner SFH in France over the coming months, the nine franchise stores with partner Lagardere Travel Retail will remain open across airports and train stations”M&S has a long history of serving customers in France and this is not a decision we or our partner SFH have taken lightly,”
Marks said it planned to close the mainly Paris stores by the end of the year.
Already following Britain’s formal EU exit at the start of the year, Marks has reconfigured its food business in Czech Republic, removing the sale of all fresh and chilled products from stores.
It comes as British businesses across various sectors are struggling with deliveries as the pandemic and Brexit result in a shortage of lorry drivers.
Consequently, Britain on Tuesday said it would push back its implementation of full post-Brexit borders checks on goods from the European Union, as Covid, red tape and new immigration rules fuel supply problems.
A global human rights group Thursday accused Egypt’s main domestic security agency of harassing and intimidating rights advocates and activists to silence them.
The Amnesty International report was the latest rebuke to Egypt’s government, which faces increasing pressure from the U.S. to improve its human rights record.
The rights group said the National Security Agency was “increasingly using a well-honed pattern of unlawful summons, (and) coercive questioning” of activists in practices amounting to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
The London-based group said it documented how the agency, which handles terror-related and political cases, used such measures to “control the lives” of at least 26 people, including seven women, between 2020 and 2021.
The report is titled: “This will only end when you die,” in reference to what one activist was told of her regular summons to the agency.
Amnesty did not disclose the names of those activists. The NSA is overseen by the Interior Ministry. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has in the past maintained that his country has no political prisoners.
Egypt’s government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists, but also secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Many people have been imprisoned on terrorism charges, for breaking a ban on protests or for disseminating false news.
Nigeria’s air force says it is now investigating reports that shots fired from one of its aircraft killed civilians in the north-east of the country.
In a statement it retracted its earlier denial, which we reported on, saying it was based on incorrect reports that those who died were killed in a bombing adding that the aircraft involved was not carrying any bombs.
Spokesperson Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet said that there had been intelligence reports of militant activity and an aircraft was sent to respond in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
One million Nigerian children will likely stay away from school because of the threat of violence after a series of mass kidnappings and attacks targeting students this year, the UN said on Wednesday.
More than 1,000 pupils have been snatched in mass abductions for ransom by criminal gangs in Nigeria’s north-west and central states since December with dozens still in captivity.
Some of the state governments have temporarily shut schools after the abductions.
As schools resume this month, the UN children’s agency Unicef says many children will be cut off from their education and other vital benefits schools provide.
Libyan forces loyal to the eastern-based commander, General Khalifa Haftar, have been clashing in the south of the country with rebels from neighbouring Chad.
Gen Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army said it had carried out air strikes.
The rebels, from a group called the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, said their positions on the border between the two countries had been attacked.
It claimed French forces allied with Gen Haftar had been involved. France denies this.
Analysts say the fighting is another example of the instability of the Sahel region, where a range of armed groups operate across borders.
The United Nations has urged Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to resume talks to resolve the dispute over the Nile dam “within a reasonable time frame”.
A UN Security Council statement noted on Wednesday that the three nations should restart the negotiations at the invitation of the African Union’s chairperson “to finalise expeditiously the text of mutually acceptable and binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam”.
The 15-member Security Council also invited observers acceptable to the three countries to support the process.
The dam project on the Blue Nile has caused tension between Ethiopia and its neighbours, with Egypt and Sudan worried about droughts and water security.
Egypt sees it as an existential issue as it relies almost entirely on the river for its water supply.
Ethiopia sees the dam as a way to bring electricity to millions of its citizens.
The dam is almost complete and due to start generating an initial 750 megawatts of electricity in a month.
The head of the Islamic State group in the Sahara has been killed by French troops, President Emmanuel Macron has said. Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi formed Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in 2015.
The group is blamed for most attacks in the region, including the targeted killing of French aid workers in 2020.
Macron called Sahrawi’s death “another major success in our fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel”.
The Sahel is a vast, three million sq km (1.16 million sq miles) area that stretches across Africa south of the Sahara desert, from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east.
Macron did not disclose the location or any details of the operation.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Abuja Regional Office, in collaboration with the Forestry Research Institute of (FRIN), has approved 20 Biosphere Reserves across the globe.
The biosphere reserves were approved on Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at the on-going 33rd Session of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB-ICC) in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
A Biosphere Reserve (BR) is an international designation by UNESCO in the MAB programme and a biosphere reserve includes one or several protected areas and their surrounding landscapes.
BR combines both biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.
The 18 BR included Wando, situated in the Republic of Korea with 50,000 inhabitants, Penang Hill in Malaysia, UVS Lake Depression, Mongolia, with the North East tip linking Russia.
Others are: Kuznetsky, Alatau, Russia; Mountain Great Bogdo, Doi Chiang Dao, Thailand; and Nui Chua,Konha- Nung, Kolsai Kolderi all in Vietnam.
Also included were Lower Amudarya State, Uzbekistan; Juzur Farasan in Saudi Arabia; Ashaafean in Libya; Matseng in Lesotho; and Transboundary Reserve linking Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia and Austria.
Mount Grappa in Italy, Ribeira Sarca in Spain, Moselle Sud and Martinique both in France, Aviveri Vraem in Peru and Atl’ka7tsme Howe Sound in Canada were also some of the BR approved.
Prof. Adesola Adepoju, MAB-ICC Chairman and the Director-General of FRIN, said approval of the BRs made them officially restricted sites.
“It means the biodiversity resources of that particular area becomes protected, the activities there now will be protected. When people are taking something out of the reserve, it must be done in a sustainable manner.
“The benefit is that the world will pay attention to the people living there, which will make them to get external support to make their livelihoods better,’’ Adepoju said.
He noted that the MAB-ICC, being hosted by Nigeria and Africa for the first time, was a huge achievement for the country, citing it as an opportunity for the country to designate more sites, conserve as much biodiversity that will be useful to future generations.
Mr Dimtri Sanga, Officer In-Charge, UNESCO Abuja Regional Office, said the approval focused on the concept of sustainable development, using available natural resources in a sustainable manner.
Sanga stated that the idea, which started in UNESCO like 50 years ago, was a way of making sure that communities that lived around the reserves kept benefiting from the resources within those reserves.
“It is a way of co-existing with nature to make sure that we can continue to benefit from those resources today and in the future,’’ he said.
Sanga, however, called on Nigeria and other countries across the globe to conserve natural areas that could be beneficial to mankind, as it encourages healthy living.
Representatives of countries with the approved BRs expressed their gratitude to the council for including them on the global map.
The MAB-ICC is the main governing body of the UNESCO MAB inter-governmental Programme which holds annual sessions to review the progress made in the implementation of the MAB Programme, recommend research projects to countries, and decide on new biosphere reserves.
The council, comprising 34 member states, is elected by the organisation’s biennial General conference, while the MAB programme is an intergovernmental scientific programme launched in 1971 to establish a scientific basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environments.
Nigeria’s President Mohammadu Buhari has charged Bankers and Banking Institutions in Nigeria to help improve the nation’s economy.
He said this at the14th virtual Annual Banking and Finance Conference on September 14.
The Banking and Finance Conference is an annual event of The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), with an estimated audience of 1,000 people comprising professionals, policy makers, regulators, operators and other stakeholders in the financial services industry.
African Continental Free Trade Area is creating new opportunities for pan African trade and investments. Banks with Continental reach, like several institutions presented here, can lead the way in cementing economic integration,”
We look to you to set the pace in this regard,” Kagame noted.
The Rwandan President added that as government the role is to maintain good enabling environments, protecting both shareholders and consumers, while allowing for innovation.
Africa Has Resources To Fund Its Economic Growth
President Paul Kagame says Africa has the resources to fund its own economic growth and reduce dependence on external resources.
“Indeed, Africa has the resources to fund its own economic growth and reduce dependence on external resources,” Kagame said.
The 14th virtual Annual Banking and Finance Conference Themed “Economic recovery, inclusion and transformation: The Role of Banking and Finance” the conference runs from 14th to 15th September 2021, targeting to reposition Nigeria’s banking and finance industry as a catalyst for an inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development of the country.
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