NEWS - The African Mirror

Sep

23

2023

Tunisia detains cartoonist over drawings mocking prime minister

NEWS

TUNISIA'S public prosecutor detained the cartoonist Tawfiq Omrane over drawings mocking the prime minister, Omrane's lawyer said, fuelling concern among free speech advocates. Omrane is well known for publishing satirical cartoons featuring President Kais Saied, who seized almost all powers two years ago after he shut down Tunisia's elected parliament in a move that the opposition described as a coup. "The police interrogated him (Omrane) for hours without the presence of lawyers on suspicion of insulting through social networks ... over cartoons mocking the prime minister," his lawyer, Anas Kadoussi, told Reuters. Kadoussi said the cartoonist could face one year…

Sep

23

2023

By The African Mirror

Nigerians march for late Afrobeats star as police exhume body

NEWS

NIGERIANS marched in several states this week in an outpouring of grief and to press authorities to investigate the death last week of popular Afrobeats musician Mohbad, forcing the police to exhume his body on Thursday for an autopsy. The 27-year-old singer, whose real name was Ilerioluwa Aloba, died in a Lagos hospital in unclear circumstances. Thousands of fans marched and held a candlelight vigil in the commercial capital Lagos on Thursday night, following similar processions in other states this week. Police in Lagos said they had exhumed Mohbad's body and conducted an autopsy, bowing to pressure from supporters who…

Sep

23

2023

By KANISHKA SINGH

US contractor charged with giving classified information to Ethiopia

NEWS

A U.S. government contract employee for the Justice and State Departments was arrested on espionage charges unsealed, prosecutors said, accusing him of passing on classified information to Ethiopia. Abraham Teklu Lemma, 50, was charged in a complaint from late August, which was unsealed on Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement. He faced three charges including "delivering national defence information to aid a foreign government, conspiracy to deliver national defence information to aid a foreign government, and the willful retention of national defence information," the Justice Department said. Prosecutors did not name Ethiopia but said Lemma spied for…

Sep

23

2023

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

At UN, Kenya’s president asks world not to leave Haiti behind

NEWS

KENYAN President William Ruto urged the United Nations Security Council to formally back a security support mission to Haiti, which Kenya has shown a willingness to lead, saying the Caribbean country "deserves better from the world." The council could vote as soon as next week, diplomats said, on a U.S.-drafted resolution supporting a multinational police deployment. Haiti last year asked for help to combat violent gangs that have largely overrun the capital Port-au-Prince. "Kenya is ready to play its part in full, and join with a coalition of other nations of goodwill - and there are many - as a great friend and true…

Sep

23

2023

By DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS

Amal Clooney, international leaders call for accountability in Sudan war

NEWS

HUMAN rights lawyer Amal Clooney and world leaders pleaded for more attention to be paid to the war in Sudan and for accountability in fighting that has killed thousands and displaced millions of civilians. "There are survivors around the world who see robust and concerted action on Ukraine, and ... they are no less deserving elsewhere," Clooney said at an event in New York during the annual high-level United Nations General Assembly. The event was hosted by the U.S., Canada, Gambia, Norway and the United Kingdom to bring attention to the Sudan conflict and ensure justice. The war between the army and…

Sep

23

2023

By The African Mirror

DRC Congo to move its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, Israeli prime minister says

NEWS

DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo will move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Netanyahu, who met Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi during the U.N. General Assembly, announced in a statement that Israel would also be opening an embassy in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Only a handful of countries have their embassies in Jerusalem, with most others maintaining their diplomatic representation in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, Israel's main economic hub. While Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there, most of the…

Sep

23

2023

By KHALID ABDELAZIZ

Sudan’s rival military leaders give competing addresses to U.N.

NEWS

THE heads of Sudan's rival military factions gave competing addresses to the United Nations, one from the podium at U.N. headquarters in New York and the other in a rare video recording from an undisclosed location. Army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, speaking at the United Nations following a string of foreign trips, called on the international community to designate the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as a terrorist organization and to counter its sponsors outside Sudan's borders. In a video message, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said that his forces were fully prepared for a ceasefire and…

Sep

23

2023

By PHILIP PULLELLA

Pope says impeding migrant rescues at sea is ‘gesture of hate’

NEWS

POPE Francis said that migrants who risk drowning at sea "must be rescued" because doing so was "a duty of humanity" and that those who impede rescues commit "a gesture of hate". Francis, 86, spoke at an inter-religious prayer service before a monument dedicated to those lost at sea. Earlier, the city's archbishop, Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, an Algerian-born Frenchman, criticized politicians who block NGOs and their ships from saving drowning people. "We cannot be resigned to seeing human beings treated as bargaining chips, imprisoned and tortured in atrocious ways," Francis said. "We can no longer watch the drama of shipwrecks,…

Sep

23

2023

By RODRIGO CAMPOS

Food insecurity in Africa should be overcome in 5 years -AfDB head

NEWS

PROGRAMS supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in over 30 African countries have helped produce some $12 billion worth of food, and the bank’s $25 billion objective is "well on track," AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina said on Friday. "As far as I'm concerned, we shouldn't be talking about food security in Africa more than five years from now. There's no reason for it," he told Reuters. "We have the technology and the financing to do it at scale." Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, one of the world's top grain exporters, sent tremors through global grain markets, threatening food…

Sep

22

2023

By LIBBY GEORGE and MARC JONES

Counting the cost of contagion fears from Africa coups

NEWS

WHEN Gabon's General Brice Oligui Nguema ousted his distant cousin last month, he became the eighth military leader who has taken power by force in Africa since 2020. But one aspect about the country was different: it had sold a sizeable amount of bonds on international capital markets and had just weeks prior sealed continental Africa's first debt-for-nature swap. The putsch not only sent Gabon's bonds tumbling 10% but also hit those issued by a number of other countries including neighbouring Cameroon, as jittery investors scanned for who might be next. The apparent coup trend is adding to other major concerns deterring many investors…