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Rwanda genocide sites declared gets World Heritage Site status

Rwanda genocide sites declared gets World Heritage Site status

WORLD War One cemeteries in Belgium and France, the hills of Rwanda's 1994 genocide and a former torture center in Argentina have been declared UNESCO World Heritage sites as the UN agency ends a moratorium on memorial sites for human suffering. So far, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan have been the only memorial sites inscribed on the United Nation's cultural agency's closely watched World Heritage list. At a meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday, UNESCO member states agreed to add the World War One and…
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UK PM Sunak dealt blow as court rules Rwanda deportation plan unlawful

UK PM Sunak dealt blow as court rules Rwanda deportation plan unlawful

ANDREW MACASKILL, SAM TOBIN and MICHAEL HOLDEN BRITISH Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government would appeal to the UK's top court after its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was deemed unlawful, a major blow to his pledge to stop asylum seekers arriving in small boats. Under an initial 140 million pound ($177 million) deal struck last year, Britain planned to send tens of thousands of asylum seekers who arrive on its shores a distance of more than 4,000 miles (6,400 km) to the East African country. The government argues the plan would smash the business model of human…
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Rwanda and partners to seek further 300 million euros for climate resilience

Rwanda and partners to seek further 300 million euros for climate resilience

RWANDA and international development banks plan to raise an extra 300 million euros ($328.86 million) to help the country adapt to a changing climate, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. In April, the IMF said it had allowed for a disbursement of $98.6 million of an initial $319 million. It said on Thursday, the new support would build on that and the Rwandan government's fund-raising efforts would be helped by France's Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), Italy's Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The proceeds will help businesses in Rwanda to access…
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Five African countries to join tier-topping economic growth list amid GDP rebound

Five African countries to join tier-topping economic growth list amid GDP rebound

BENIN, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania are on course to post some of the strongest economic growth rates globally - a show of resilience in the face of troubling global headwinds. A robust combination of domestic policy reforms, increased investment and strategic sectors will mark those nations' outstanding economic outcomes, according to the African Economic Outlook 2023. The countries are bright spots in a continental economy still shaking off residual pandemic shocks. Amid a flurry of global and local challenges, African economies are exhibiting impressive overall resilience, however, with average growth predicted to stabilise at 4% in 2023-24, surpassing…
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RWANDA: Church massacre survivors laud arrest

RWANDA: Church massacre survivors laud arrest

ONCE the mass murder of their people began, Safari Jean Bosco and his mother, sister and brothers sought refuge in a Catholic church along with over 2,000 others packed into the building. Some prayed as hungry mothers strained to breastfeed. By April 12, 1994, six days after the genocide against Tutsis by an extremist Hutu regime began, militia surrounded the church. Soon afterward Bosco saw local police inspector Fulgence Kayishema in a meeting with the parish priest and others. "We thought the meeting... was addressing how to maintain our security," Bosco told Reuters. "It later came to our knowledge that…
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Africa’s debt financing in the spotlight

Africa’s debt financing in the spotlight

IN the face of economic challenges, Rwanda has achieved a significant milestone by successfully repaying its $400 million debut Eurobond, after defaults by Zambia and Ghana, which were unable to repay US$3 billion and US$13.2 billion respectively. A statement from the Rwandan Ministry of Finance to The East African, a regional media outlet, indicated that the loan, which was due this month, is now fully repaid, thanks to IMF financing and prudent saving. The report further details that the released amount - US$63 million, equivalent to 15.1% of the 2013 Eurobond - was to repay IMF’s Special Drawing Rights loan…
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Heavy rain, floods kill at least 136 in Rwanda and Uganda

Heavy rain, floods kill at least 136 in Rwanda and Uganda

FLOODING and landslides triggered by heavy rain have killed at least 129 people in Rwanda and six in Uganda, authorities said, as rescuers hunted survivors trapped in homes. In chaotic scenes after weeks of rain in the region, one video clip posted by the state-owned Rwanda Broadcasting Agency showed muddy water gushing down an inundated road and destroying houses. "We woke up at 2 a.m and heard people screaming," Angelique Nibagwire, 47, said from Karongi district in western Rwanda where at least 16 people died. Another resident in the area, Nyandwi Emmanuel, said three relatives died after a house he…
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Italy’s Meloni defends Britain’s migration deal with Rwanda

Italy’s Meloni defends Britain’s migration deal with Rwanda

ITALIAN Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that Britain's plan to send illegal migrants to Rwanda was a deal between two free nations which are safeguarding the safety of the people, adding it was wrong to call it a deportation. Meloni, who heads a right-wing government in Rome, was talking to reporters at the Italian embassy in London after a two-day visit to the British capital during which she met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. "I think that talking about deportation or suggesting that Rwanda would be a country that does not respect rights and would be an inadequate or unworthy nation…
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Britain’s migrant deal unlawful as Rwanda is unsafe, lawyers say

Britain’s migrant deal unlawful as Rwanda is unsafe, lawyers say

MICHAEL HOLDEN and SAM TOBIN BRITAIN'S plan to send migrants to Rwanda is unlawful because the East African country is not a safe country, lawyers for a group of asylum seekers told the Court of Appeal in London on Monday. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government wants to send thousands of migrants more than 4,000 miles (6,400 km) away to Rwanda as part of a 140 million pound ($174 million) deal agreed upon last year. It regards the plan as central to deterring record numbers of asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the Channel from France, something Sunak has made…
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Outer space: Rwanda and Nigeria sign an accord for more responsible exploration – why this matters

Outer space: Rwanda and Nigeria sign an accord for more responsible exploration – why this matters

IN 2020, the United States announced a framework for the private exploitation of space resources. It consists of practical principles to guide exploration, science and commerce in outer space. The Artemis Accords are intended to make space activity responsible, transparent, safe, peaceful and sustainable. Nigeria and Rwanda signed the accords on 14 December 2022, becoming the 22nd and 23rd countries, respectively, and the first African countries to do so. Nigerian space law and policy scholar, Anne Agi, explains why they signed and what the potential impacts could be. Author ANNE URUEGI AGI, Law lecturer, University of Calabar What are the…
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