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"Alpha Condé's record can hardly be considered anything but disastrous. Especially since he came to power in 2010, carrying hopes for the country and the region. Let us not forget that he was a former democratic opponent, who had himself been a victim of Lansana Conté ." Fabien Offner, a researcher
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.
Guinea's main oppositon party published Friday a list of 46 people, aged between 3 and 70 years, killed during the repression of demonstrations after the October 18 election, officially won by the incumbent Alpha Condé.
Condé was declared re-elected on October 24 by the Electoral Commission for a controversial third term with 59.5% of the vote, but three of his opponents, including opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, are contesting the results before the Constitutional Court, whose decision is expected on Saturday.
Diallo's party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), denounced in a statement a \"wave of terror\" orchestrated by the government between October 19 and November 3.
\"The provisional toll of this repression is 46 dead, nearly 200 wounded by gunfire, about a hundred arrests and extensive material damage,\" according to the UFDG.
The opposition has so far reported a death toll of at least 27, while for the government, the post-election violence resulted in 21 deaths, including members of the security forces.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Africa Officer Ida Sawyer on Twitter on October 24 accused Guinean security forces of killing \"at least 8 people, including 3 children.
Amnesty International for its part accused the same security forces of firing live ammunition at demonstrators, without giving a detailed account.
The Ministries of Security and Territorial Administration did not immediately respond to the multiple requests for a reaction from the AFP to the UFDG document.
This document includes a list of names, usually with age, profession, circumstances of death, contacts of a relative, and photos showing these people, dead or alive. In about fifteen cases, these are photos of bodies showing traces of violence.
Most of the presumed victims are young men and women between 15 and 30 years old: motorcycle cab drivers, mechanics, students...
The youngest are a boy and a girl of 3 years old, Mamadou Midiaou Diallo and Mariatou Bah, and the oldest Mamouna Camara, a housewife of 70 years old.
The UFDG also states that \"the overwhelming majority of the victims (...) belong to the same ethnic group as the opposition leader,\" in a country where community affiliations play an important role in elections.
Trump then tweeted an all-caps missive with many of the debunked claims he’s been pushing all year: “RIGGED 2020 ELECTION: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND OTHERS.
In a third tweet Monday morning, Trump said “Because of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, 2020 will be the most RIGGED Election in our nations history – unless this stupidity is ended,” and accused his political opponents of “using Covid in order to cheat by using Mail-Ins,” without providing proof.
This new line from Trump — that foreign countries might hijack mail-in voting to meddle in the US election — puts him in a contorted position.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which plays a leading role in identifying and countering foreign election security threats, declined to address Trump’s claim that foreign governments will “print millions” of mail-in ballots in the upcoming election.
Trump’s claims on Monday were part of a larger effort to tarnish the legitimacy of mail-in voting, which the President claims will help only Democrats, even though nonpartisan researchers consistently say it doesn’t provide any major partisan advantage.
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 International interviewed more than 230 people affected by the conflict, including 119 who were children when they suffered serious crimes by Boko Haram, the Nigerian military, or both.
Military detention
Children who escape Boko Haram territory face a raft of violations by the Nigerian authorities, also 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.
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.
Citing a 'continuing crackdown on Amnesty International India over the last two years and the complete freezing of bank accounts,' Amnesty International has shut its India operations, sparking a debate about civil liberties in the [...]
Idi Amin Dada, who became known as the Butcher of Uganda for his brutal, despotic rule whilst president of Uganda in the 1970s, is possibly the most notorious of all Africas post-independence dictators. Amin seized power in a military coup in 1971 and ruled over Uganda for 8 years. Estimates for the number of his opponents who were either killed, tortured, or imprisoned vary from 100,000 to half a million.
He was ousted in 1979 by Ugandan nationalists, after which he fled into exile.
Date of birth: 1925, near Koboko, West Nile province, Uganda
Date of death: 16 August 2003, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
An Early Life
Idi Amin Dada was born in 1925 near Koboko, in the West Nile Province of what is now the Republic of Uganda. Deserted by his father at an early age, he was brought up by his mother, a herbalist and diviner. He was a member of the Kakwa ethnic group, a small Islamic tribe that was settled in the region.
Success in the Kings African Rifles
Idi Amin received little formal education: sources are unclear whether or not he attended the local missionary school. However, in 1946 he joined the Kings African Rifles, KAR (Britains colonial African troops), and served in Burma, Somalia, Kenya (during the British suppression of the Mau Mau) and Uganda. Although he was considered a skilled, and somewhat overeager, soldier, Amin developed a reputation for cruelty - he was almost cashiered on several occasions for excessive brutality during interrogations.
He rose through the ranks, reaching sergeant-major before finally being made an effendi, the highest rank possible for a Black African serving in the British army. Amin was also an accomplished sportsman, holding Ugandas light heavyweight boxing championship from 1951 to 1960.
A Hint of What was to Come?
As Uganda approached independence Idi Amins close colleague Apolo Milton Obote, the leader of the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), was made chief minister, and then prime minister.
Obote had Amin, one of only two high ranking Africans in the KAR, appointed as
BY SIZALOKUHLE NCUBE ALPHA Media Holdings reporters, Veneranda Langa (NewsDay) and Moses Mugugunyeki (The Standard), yesterday scooped two national journalism awards. Langa
The post 2 AMH journalists scoop top awards appeared first on NewsDay Zimbabwe.
Amnesty International has published two major reports on human rights and environmental issues associated with cobalt mining and launched an initiative that challenged the electric vehicle industry to produce a battery with a completely clean human rights record for all its components.
At the Responsible Business Alliance, the Responsible Minerals Initiative is helping companies understand and improve the social and environmental performance of their cobalt supply chains.
The alliance recently teamed up with RCS Global Group, a company that specializes in responsible sourcing of materials, to expand assessment, monitoring and improvement of artisanal and small-scale cobalt mining practices in the DRC.
Butler says the Responsible Business Alliance now has over 50% of globally identified cobalt refiners -- the companies buying and processing cobalt from small-scale and artisanal mines -- in its program, largely because of customer demand for ethical and sustainable products, investor expectations of responsible sourcing, and global interest in the social and environmental costs of minerals.
Photo courtesy of Sumitomo Metal Mining
A Japanese company, Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd., recently announced it had developed a method for melting down spent electric vehicle batteries and recovering the cobalt.
Donald Trump’s lies and hateful rhetoric are not only destructive to our democracy, they have cost the United States over 6 million coronavirus infections and nearly 200,000 coronavirus deaths. No one should be in the least surprised that Donald Trump would boast to the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward that he downplayed the threat of the coronavirus when he knew that it was a very deadly pandemic.
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian protesters demanding an end to police brutality defied a curfew as gunfire rang out where they were setting up a blockade Wednesday, a day after shots were fired into a crowd of demonstrators singing the country’s national anthem. That disturbing turn drew global outrage. It’s not clear if any protesters […]
Konaté kept his word in the June 2010 race. The first round of the election was inconclusive, and former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo faced opposition leader Alpha Condé in the run-off vote. Condé, a professor and opposition leader who has spent much of his life in exile in France, prevailed in the November run-off, taking 52.5% of the vote.
Originally supposed to take place within six months of the presidential election, Guineas first general election since 2002 finally took place in Oct. 2013—three years late. President Alpha Condes Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) party won 53 out of 114 seats in the national assembly, which is a slim working majority. International observers reported breaches and irregularities in the vote.
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.
A push by President Cyril Ramaphosa to discourage ANC leaders to allow their family members to do business with the state fell on deaf ears at a party meeting.
Amnesty International said late Tuesday there was “credible but disturbing evidence” that security forces in the megacity of Lagos had fatally shot protesters who were demonstrating against police brutality despite a new curfew going into effect.
The Lagos state commissioner for information, Gbenga Omotoso, said in a statement Tuesday night only that “there have been reports of shooting at the Lekki Toll Plaza following the 24-hour curfew imposed on Lagos.”
“The state government has ordered an investigation into the incident,” he said.
Video shown on Nigeria’s Channels Television appeared to capture audio of live rounds being fired at the scene.
“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 imminent threat of death or serious injury,” Amnesty tweeted.
The development came just hours after Lagos state Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu warned on Twitter that the growing protests against police brutality in Nigeria had “degenerated into a monster that is threatening the well-being of our society.”
A police statement also had warned that security forces would now “exercise the full powers of the law to prevent any further attempt on lives and property of citizens.”
The reports of fatal shootings in Lekki come after two chaotic weeks of mounting protests leading to more widespread social unrest. On Tuesday, authorities said nearly 2,000 inmates had broken out of jail after crowds attacked two correctional facilities a day earlier.
The Inspector-General of Police said it was deploying anti-riot police across Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous nation, and ordered forces to strengthen security around correctional facilities.
The governor of Lagos state said the new curfew would cover the entire city of some 14 million people and surrounding areas. The announcement came after a police station was burned down in the city and two people were shot dead by police.
“Lives and limbs have been lost as criminals and miscreants are now hiding under the umbrella of these protests to unleash mayhem on our state,” the governor said.
Lagos has been the epicenter of the protests, with demonstrators at times blocking access to the airport and barricading roads leading to the country’s main ports.
A curfew also went into effect in Benin City after a pair of attacks on correctional facilities that left 1,993 inmates missing. Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Manga said large, armed crowds had attacked the two prisons, subduing the guards on duty. It was unclear what the prisons’ exact populations had been before the attack.
“Most of the inmates held at the centers are convicted criminals serving terms for various criminal offenses, awaiting execution or standing trial for violent crimes,” he said in a statement.
The protests began two weeks ago after a video circulated showing a man being beaten, apparently by police officers of
Press Release - Celebratory footage of Egyptian military's North Sinai operations shows 'cold-blooded killings', with one man shot at close range while sleeping in a tent Call for Egypt's Public Prosecutor to investigate 'The harrowing scenes in this video serve as a chilling reminder that the Egyptian authorities hold international law in contempt' - Philip Luther
The A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) is an organization for African-American trade unionists. APRI advocates social, labor, and economic change at the state and federal level, using legal and legislative means.
In response to the 1963 Childrens Crusade [citation needed] and the passage of the Voting Rights Act, A. Philip Randolph, former head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, an early black trade union, and Bayard Rustin, founded the APRI to forge an alliance between the civil rights movement and the labor movement. These efforts got them on the master list of Nixon political opponents.
APRI describes its mission as a fight for racial equality and economic justice. It works with black trade unionists, seeking to build relations between labor and abor and black communities. APRI was also the spearhead for an organization called the Black Alliance, and together they would support the trade union movement.[citation needed] APRI has 150 chapters in 36 states.
APRI is currently led by National President Clayola Brown, a post she has held since August 2004. Brown also serves on the boards of Amalgamated Bank and the Center for Disease Control and Preventions Business Response to AIDS/Labor Response to AIDS.[needs update] She was appointed to the National Commission on Employment Policy by President Bill Clinton, and appointed a member of the New York State Workforce Investment Board by Gov. George Pataki (Black Leadership Forum, Inc., 2002–03).
APRI filed suit against the state of Ohio, charging that its process of purging voter roles violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Husted v. Randolph Institute in 2017.
Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza, who died of a heart attack aged 55 according to an official statement released on Tuesday, has left behind a mixed legacy.
Viewed as a pan- Africanist by his East African Community (EAC) peers and as a ruthless dictator by his critics, Nkurunziza was a dominant figure in Burundi's politics in the last 26 years.
\"Death has robbed East Africa of a prominent leader whose contribution to the integration and progress of the region shall be sorely missed,\" President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement.
Libérat Mfumukeko, a Burundi national who serves as EAC's Secretary- General, said in a statement on June 9: \"President Nkurunziza's unequivocally decided to lead Burundi into the community in 2007, having figured out that the economic, social and political homogeneity of the region provided vast opportunities for his country's economic recovery and national reconciliation.\"
Nkurunziza, a former leader of a Hutu rebel group, was elected by lawmakers after promising peace but oversaw a crackdown on political opponents and the media when he was re-elected five years later.
Amnesty International, a London-based human rights organization, has criticized governments throughout the world, including the U.S., for neglecting health care workers who have died from the coronavirus.
The fight against police brutality against people of color has never been just a United States problem. Currently, protests are occurring worldwide against the ongoing police violence in Nigeria, which […]
The post appeared first on Essence.
