NEWS - The African Mirror

Nov

01

2023

US to evict Gabon, Niger, Uganda and Central African Republic from trade program

NEWS

U.S. President Joe Biden said that he intends to end the participation of Gabon, Niger, Uganda and the Central African Republic in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade program. Biden said he was taking the step because of "gross violations" of internationally recognized human rights by the Central African Republic and Uganda. He also cited Niger and Gabon's failure to establish or make continual progress toward the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law. "Despite intensive engagement between the United States and the Central African Republic, Gabon, Niger, and Uganda, these countries have failed to address…

Nov

01

2023

By DUNCAN MIRIRI

King Charles expresses “deepest regret” for Kenya’s colonial wrongdoings

NEWS

KING Charles said he felt the "greatest sorrow and deepest regret" for the atrocities suffered by Kenyans during their struggle for independence from British colonial rule. But in a speech at the start of a four-day state visit to Kenya, he stopped short of making a full apology called for by survivors of that period and local rights groups who are pressing for reparations from the British government. "The wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret," Charles said during a state banquet. "There were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against…

Nov

01

2023

By The African Mirror

American couple in Uganda accused of torturing boy plead guilty to lesser charges

NEWS

A U.S. couple previously charged in Uganda with aggravated torture and child trafficking pleaded guilty to lesser charges and will now pay a range of fines of up to 105 million shillings ($28,000), according to a court ruling. Nicholas Spencer and his wife Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer, both in their early 30s and from South Carolina, were detained in December last year and initially charged with the graver offences against a 10-year-old boy they had fostered and were living within Kampala, the Ugandan capital. The charge of aggravated child trafficking carries the death penalty in Uganda while aggravated child torture draws a…

Nov

01

2023

By The African Mirror

Spain offers drones, reinforcement to help Senegal tackle migration crisis

NEWS

SPAIN has delivered six new multi-copter drones to Senegal and plans to reinforce its deployed security personnel to help the West African nation tackle a migration crisis, Spain's acting Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said. Grande-Marlaska is in Senegal where he met his Senegalese counterpart, Sidiki Kaba, as the number of would-be migrants from West Africa, especially Senegal, to reach Spain's Canary Islands this year is near a record high. Grande-Marlaska said the drones delivered to the Senegal Police are designed to detect vessel departures so that they could be intercepted. He added that Spain had also deployed a civil guard aircraft…

Nov

01

2023

By TAREK AMARA

Five Islamist convicts escape from Tunisian jail

NEWS

FIVE Islamist prisoners convicted of killing two secular politicians and policemen escaped from a Tunisian jail, in a rare such security breach for the North African country. Security sources said the men were "very dangerous terrorists". The interior ministry published the names and photos of the escaped convicts and urged citizens to contact the police if they see them. The five men included Ahmed Malki, known as "the Somali", who had been serving a 24-year sentence for the assassination of secular politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi in 2013. Another of the five, Rayd Touati, was arrested in 2019 and…

Nov

01

2023

By SONIA ROLLEY

Congo presidential candidates call for urgent measures to ‘save’ election

NEWS

SIX presidential candidates in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including President Felix Tshisekedi's main rivals, called for urgent measures to prevent potential fraud in the upcoming general election. In a joint statement, the candidates promised to work together to prevent any manipulation of results and demanded a number of measures from the electoral commission including the publication of electoral lists and mapping of polling stations. The run-up to Congo's December 20 vote has been fraught with tension. International allies and human rights groups have accused the authorities of cracking down on dissent and freedom of expression, charges the government has denied.…

Oct

31

2023

By DUNCAN MIRIRI

Kenya blocks airing of allegations of UK army abuses before king’s visit

NEWS

KENYAN police blocked a news conference intended to air allegations of human rights and environmental abuses by British troops in the country, hours before King Charles arrives for a four-day state visit. Buckingham Palace has said Charles' visit will acknowledge "painful aspects of the UK and Kenya's shared history". The British ruled for more than six decades before the East African nation won its independence in 1963. The allegations in question relate to a period long after the end of colonial rule. Residents of central Kenya's Lolldaiga area have accused a British army training unit based nearby of causing a 2021 wildfire…

Oct

31

2023

By AARON ROSS

Dispossessed Kenyans demand compensation ahead of King Charles’ visit

NEWS

WHEN the then-Princess Elizabeth visited Kenya in 1952, Kibore Cheruiyot Ngasura was among a group of young men chosen to sing for her at an event near Lake Victoria. The men planned to use the occasion to petition Elizabeth to relocate their parents from a detention camp in the barren, mosquito-infested town of Gwassi, where members of the Talai clan had been held for nearly two decades on suspicion of fomenting resistance to British colonial rule. The event never happened. Before Elizabeth could make it to Lake Victoria, word came that her father, King George VI, had died. The new…

Oct

31

2023

By The African Mirror

South Africa declares Dec 15 a holiday to celebrate rugby win

NEWS

SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that he was declaring December 15 a public holiday to celebrate the country's Rugby World Cup win. The Springboks claimed a record fourth Rugby World Cup on Saturday with a 12-11 win over old foes New Zealand. Ecstatic South African supporters who had called for a holiday on Monday to bask in the victory of their rugby heroes, will get their wish - albeit a month and a half after the fact. "In celebration of the Springboks momentous achievement and... all our other sportsmen and women... I'm declaring Friday the 15th of December 2023 as a public holiday,"…

Oct

31

2023

By NELLIE PEYTON

South Africa calls for UN force to protect civilians in Gaza

NEWS

SOUTH Africa called for the United Nations to deploy a rapid protection force to protect civilians in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza from further bombardment as Israel steps up its retaliation for a deadly attack by the militant group Hamas. South Africa has long been an advocate for peace in the region, likening the plight of Palestinians to its own under the apartheid regime that ended in 1994. In calling for a protection force, South Africa has gone further in its support for the Palestinians than most nations, some of which have called for a ceasefire or the opening of…