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[AI London] 'Escape the Scan' filter for Instagram and Facebook will be displayed at Westfield Stratford shopping centre in east London
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
Democratic Republic of Congo: President Tshisekedi reneges on justice pledge, leaving victims in despair
\tPresident Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo has reneged on his inauguration pledges to strengthen the rule of law, fight impunity and ensure justice, leaving the families of hundreds of people killed during the country’s pre-election crisis in despair, Amnesty International said today.
“President Tshisekedi and his government must acknowledge the pain that victims and their families have been enduring and publicly commit to promptly and effectively prosecute those responsible,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.
Victims of 2015-2018 brutal crackdowns denied justice in the DRC, Amnesty International interviewed 115 survivors and victims’ family members, on their quest for justice.
Farcical investigations
\tUnder international pressure, former President Joseph Kabila constituted three committees to investigate the deadly crackdowns on protestors, none of which have resulted in any prosecutions.
A second committee created in February 2018 investigated the use of deadly force against protestors on 31 December 2017 and 21 January 2018, recommending prosecution of security officers who ordered or used excessive force against protestors.
Troops from neighboring Eritrea have “started to evacuate” the conflict-hit Tigray region
A fire tore through an overcrowded maximum security prison in Cameroon’s port city of Douala on Thursday leading to the hospitalisation of three prisoners with serious burns, a local fire chief said.
“The operation was made more difficult by the layout and the large number of inmates,” fire brigade chief Kadrey Abdiel said.
The operation was made more difficult by the layout and the large number of inmates.
New Bell was built in the 1930s for 800 inmates, but held around 2,500 as of 2011, according to Amnesty International.
A few inmates had tried to climb over the prison’s walls, but police around the perimeter stopped them escaping, regional Governor Samuel Ivaha Diboua told journalists.
By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in a London court on Monday to fight a U.S. extradition request, at a high-stakes hearing that was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. Assange, who has spent almost a year and a half in a British prison, sat in the dock at the Old Bailey criminal court and formally refused the U.S. demand he be extradited to face trial on espionage charges. He wore a dark suit, white shirt and maroon tie, with glasses perched atop his neatly trimmed white hair. Several dozen supporters, including fashion designer […]
The post WikiLeaks' Assange in UK court to fight US extradition bid appeared first on Black News Channel.
[Shabelle] The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) says an airstrike that was intended to target al-Shabab fighters in Somalia earlier this year killed one civilian and wounded three others, in a rare admission by the Command.
Gambia’s renowned justice minister Abubacarr Tambadou, who established a probe to investigate abuses under the country’s ex-dictator and spearheaded the international defence of Myanmar’s Rohingya, has resigned, the government said Thursday.
Appointed justice minister in 2017, Tambadou was instrumental in setting up The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, designed to investigate abuses committed under the country’s former dictator, Yahya Jammeh.
We didn't always agree with Tambadou, but he always listened to human rights advocates and especially to Yahya Jammeh's victims.
On Thursday, President Barrow’s office released a statement praising Tambadou’s “patriotic and selfless service” as justice minister, and for helping restore The Gambia’s international image.
“We didn’t always agree with Tambadou, but he always listened to human rights advocates and especially to Yahya Jammeh’s victims,” Brody said.
On Tuesday ( Oct 20) Beyoncé took to Instagram to share her support of protestors and activists fighting on the frontlines of the #EndSARS movement and speak out against the violent attacks that they are facing at the hands of police. According to published reports, Amnesty International has confirmed that the Nigerian army and police killed at least 12 peaceful protesters Tuesday at two locations in Lagos.
Senegal's government on Thursday said an \"independent and impartial\" commission would investigate deadly violence in March that stained the country's reputation as a haven of stability in West Africa.
\"Texas is not safe for you,\" the NAACP told pro athletes about new laws targeting abortion and voting rights. \"Look elsewhere.\"
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), founded in 1990, is one of the earliest and highly regarded LGBTI (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Intersex) advocacy organizations in Southern Africa. GALZ is the country’s only gay rights group and the first one in the nation to start HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns. The organization also promotes gay rights in the Southern African region and encourages emerging LGBTI groups in other countries.
GALZ was originally a small social club of mostly middle class professionas drawn from the active urban social scene in Harare, the nations capital, which flourished after Zimbabwean independence in 1980. GALZ launched in 1990 with seventy members, grew to approximately 500 in 2000, but had about 300 members by 2012. The drop in membership was caused mainly by its members seeking asylum in other nations. Whites or mixed race persons were the early members, but most GALZ members today are LGBTI people from the nation’s urban black communities. The involvement of lesbians increased dramatically with the establishment of the Gender Department in 2002. With its national headquarters in the capital of Harare, as of 2012 GALZ had ten centers throughout Zimbabwe.
The mission of GALZ is to serve the needs of LGBTI persons in Zimbabwe, advance social tolerance of sexual minorities, and repeal homophobic laws. A 1995 incident propelled GALZ into the national and international spotlight. The Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), with that year’s theme of “Human Rights and Justice,” banned GALZ from participating. The rejection attracted local and regional news coverage. In response, regional and international organizations such as Amnesty International began to recognize homosexuality as a human rights issue and international groups also began to fund GALZ.
GALZ offers a wide variety of services. They began providing HIV/AIDS awareness at a time when their nation’s political leadership and many citizens remained in denial of the dangers and risks of the disease. This program has evolved
By SAM OLUKOYA Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian protests against police brutality continued Friday for the ninth day, with demonstrators fending off attacks from gangs suspected to be backed by the police, warnings from the Nigerian military, and a government order to stop because of COVID-19. In Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, protesters blocked the road to the international airport and the main highway into the city. The Lagos-Ibadan highway, one of Nigeria's busiest, is the main road linking the port city to the rest of Nigeria. Protesters in the capital, Abuja, dedicated the day to Nigerians they charge […]
The post Nigeria's anti-police brutality protests block major roads appeared first on Black News Channel.
[Thomson Reuters Foundation] Nairobi -- Africa has received only 0.2% of 300 million coronavirus vaccine doses administered worldwide while Western members of the World Trade Organization seek to defend their patent rights
Press Release - Nigerian security forces have committed a catalogue of human rights violations and crimes under international law in their response to spiralling violence in Southeast Nigeria - carrying out a repressive campaign since January which has included sweeping mass arrests, excessive and unlawful force, torture and other ill-treatment, said Amnesty International.
A Northern Cape man says he was unable to vote in the municipal elections on Monday morning after Electoral Commission of South Africa officials informed him he was not on the roll.
By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian authorities 'abandoned' thousands of elderly people who died in nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic and did not seek hospital treatment for many who were infected, violating their human rights, Amnesty International said in an investigation published Monday. One of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, Belgium has reported more than 531,000 confirmed virus cases and more than 14,400 deaths linked to the coronavirus. During the first wave of the pandemic last spring, the European nation of 11.5 million people recorded a majority of its COVID-19-related deaths in nursing homes. Between March […]
The post Report: Belgian nursing homes failed patients amid pandemic appeared first on Black News Channel.
[Premium Times] \"The Buhari-led regime has consistently demonstrated its lack of temperament and intellectual capacity to govern a modern democracy where dissenting voices matter.\"
Mozambique on Saturday allowed the repatriation of 100 Indians who were stranded in the country over Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Meanwhile, the Mozambican authorities have not released 16 African refugees and asylum seekers who have been in prison for the past 18 months, a lobby group said Saturday as the world marked the World Refugee Day.
Amnesty International said the 16 have not committed any crime.
The refugees and asylum seekers include 15 Congolese and one Ethiopian who have been in detention in Pemba, Cabo Delgado province, since their arrest in January 2019, Amnesty said.
“The biggest tragedy about the continued arbitrary detention of these refugees is that 18 months after their detention, they remain in the dark as to why they have been arrested in the first place,” Amnesty International deputy director for southern Africa, Muleya Mwananyanda, said in a statement.
[SciDev.Net] Nairobi -- Laser treatment could be affordable in low-income settings, and more effective than eye drops in managing glaucoma, an eye disease, a study has found.
An immense blanket of dead fish stretching across three states has sparked anger and frustration among communities along the Atlantic Ocean coastline in Nigeria. The area is known for oil spills that have polluted the [...]
The world premiere of Bob Marley's Bio-Musical Get Up, Stand Up!, starring Arinzé Kene as Marley, opened October 20 in London's West End, and thus far, the show has received rave reviews.
The sorority sisters of Alpha Kappa Alpha announced today that they will be providing mammograms to caregivers in the Navajo Nation. As part of Caregivers’ Impact Day, Alpha Kappa Alpha will serve the residents of the Navajo Nation in Arizona on November 19th and 20th. 'We will provide a free 3D mammogram to caregivers and […]
The post Alpha Kappa Alpha To Provide Free Mammograms To Caregivers in The Navajo Nation appeared first on Watch The Yard.
FIVE more murders on Sunday pushed the country's tally to 10 in the first three days of 2021, with a further two people killed in alleged confrontations with the police.Sunday's killings included a double murder in St James where two armed men opened fire at a group of people in a bar and grocery store in John's Hall.
Anti-Police Brutality Protest Sees Police Brutality
National armed forces opened fire on Nigerian youth in Lagos at an anti-police brutality demonstration on Tuesday — injuring around 50 people and shooting at least 20 dead, as per unconfirmed reports
Amnesty International which has already condemned the use of excessive force by the Nigerian police to subdue protesters, stated there was ``\"credible but disturbing evidence'' of the incident.
\"While we continue to investigate the killings, Amnesty International wishes to remind the authorities that under international law, security forces may only resort to the use of lethal force when strictly unavoidable to protect against the imminent threat of death or serious injury,\" Amnesty tweeted.
#EndSARS, #EndSWAT and Police Reform.
The escalation in violence comes two weeks after the #EndSarsNow movement took to the streets across Nigeria, following the circulation of video showing a man being beaten, apparently by police officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, known as SARS.
The government proclaimed the dissolution of the police unit which has been accused of human rights crimes including abuse, torture and killings but has since created the Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT) in its stead further inciting the youth to seek complete police reform.
Press Release - Pharmaceutical companies' restrictive patents denying vaccines to poorer countries
Amnesty International has documented torture, unlawful detention and sexual abuse of children escaping Boko Haram in the Northeast
At least 10,000 people, including many children, have died in military detention during the conflict
UK funding a flawed 'rehabilitation' centre - full investigation needed into deaths at the site
'This must serve as an urgent warning to the UK Government currently supporting a military abusing the very people it's meant to be protecting' - Kate Allen
Nigeria must urgently address its failure to protect and provide education to an entire generation of children in the Northeast, a region devastated by years of Boko Haram atrocities and gross violations by the military, Amnesty International warned today in a chilling new report.
The 91-page report, 'We dried our tears': Addressing the toll on children of Northeast Nigeria's conflict, examines how the military's widespread unlawful detention and torture have compounded the suffering of children from Borno and Adamawa states who faced war crimes and crimes against humanity at the hands of Boko Haram.
Between November 2019 and April 2020, Amnesty interviewed more than 230 people affected by the conflict, including 119 who were children when they suffered serious crimes at the hands of Boko Haram, the Nigerian military, or both.
Thousands, including children, held in military detention
Children who escape Boko Haram territory face a raft of violations by the Nigerian authorities, including crimes under international law.
A 14-year-old boy whom Boko Haram abducted as a young child before he fled and was placed in detention by the Nigerian military, said: \"The conditions in Giwa are horrible.
