Africa

The destruction unleashed by Cyclone Idai on Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, continues to claim lives and displace thousands, in what the UN’s top disaster risk reduction official called on Monday “the worst extreme weather event to occur so far this year”.

The UN chief has expressed his sadness at the loss of life and displacement across Zimbabwe, as a result of the deadly Tropical Cyclone Idai, which has pounded Southern Africa in recent days, leaving at least 150 dead in Malawi alone, according to latest news reports.

A major aid operation is under way in Mozambique and Malawi to help victims of Tropical Cyclone Idai, which has reached the densely-populated Mozambican port city of Beira, after registering maximum wind speeds of nearly 200 kilometres per hour, UN agencies said on Friday.

As the sun rises over Mali’s vast desert, a group of 20 peacekeepers prepare their equipment and line up to receive instructions before heading out for their first patrol of the day on one of the most dangerous roads in the region.

Attacks on Ebola treatment centres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), risk reversing the gains made during the current outbreak in the north-east of the country, the head of the UN health agency said on Thursday.

In a country so used to government corruption, have ordinary Kenyans totally lost hope?

More than a quarter of a million children in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – and thousands of others who have fled with their families to nearby provinces – are suffering severe and acute malnutrition, and need lifesaving treatment, said the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday.

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Anselme Mutuyimana. 

© FDU Handout

The death of an assistant to Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire last weekend has sent a chill through those who still dare to challenge the status quo in Rwanda. Investigations by authorities into the death of Anselme Mutuyimana, who had only been released from prison six months ago, should be independent and transparent.

According to a statement from Ingabire’s party, the unregistered FDU-Inkingi, Mutuyimana’s body was found in a forest in northwestern Rwanda showing signs of strangulation. The Rwanda Investigation Bureau told Reuters that it has opened an investigation.

Mutuyimana’s death is the latest in a long line of murders, disappearances, politically motivated arrests, and unlawful detentions in Rwanda, especially of suspected government opponents, including those from the FDU-Inkingi.

Mutuyimana was first arrested in 2012 and accused of holding an illegal meeting in a bar. In January 2014, he was convicted of inciting insurrection, alongside the FDU-Inkingi’s Secretary-General, Sylvain Sibomana. Mutuyimana was released in August 2018, while Sibomana continues to serve his sentence.

Ingabire was sentenced to 15 years for inciting insurrection, after she tried to contest the 2010 presidential elections. She served six years before her release in September 2018, when President Paul Kagame pardoned more than 2,000 prisoners.

And the list continues.

In October 2018, the deputy leader of the FDU-Inkingi, Boniface Twagirimana, “disappeared” from his prison cell in Mpanga, southern Rwanda. He had been charged alongside several other party members with state security offenses, as part of a larger crackdown on free speech after elections in 2017.

And in March 2016, political activist and FDU-Inkingi member Illuminée Iragena went missing, most likely forcibly disappeared in unacknowledged government detention.

Both Iragena and Twagirimana are feared dead.  

The reality seems to be that opposing the government in Rwanda remains a dangerous undertaking.  

Sexual attacks in South Sudan are so common that mothers now teach their daughters how to survive the ordeal of being raped, in such a way as to minimize the violence. That’s according to Yasmin Sooka, chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, who was speaking on Tuesday in front of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, during its latest session.  

"New waves of violence” could erupt "at any time" in western Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN rights office warned on Tuesday, unless the Government acts to ease “tensions and resentment” between the two communities involved.

Journalist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani writes about an influential ruler's bid to promote farming.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has extended his condolences to the families of flood victims across Malawi, where at least 23 have died in recent days, and to the Government and citizens of the country.

The UN’s Deputy Special Representative in the West African state of Guinea-Bissau, has congratulated politicians, voters and officials across the country for the peaceful conduct of Sunday’s national assembly elections.

An Ethiopian  Airlines flight crashed shortly after take off from the capital Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing more than 150 people on board. The UN  Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened at the tragic loss of lives” , as reports emerged that UN staff were also among the dead.

Amidst a deadly Ebola outbreak, on Saturday morning armed militia members brutally attacked an Ebola clinic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) eastern city of Butembo, prompting a call from the UN's global health agency chief “to protect the treatment centres”.

After months of preparation by hundreds of national and international officials, including the United Nations, around 760,000 registered voters from Guinea-Bissau headed to the polls on Sunday to choose new members of the National Assembly.  

September’s UN-backed South Sudan peace agreement is holding and has led to positive change, but tens of thousands of civilians in the war-weary nation are still reliant of life-saving humanitarian assistance, and time is running out. This was the message that David Shearer, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for South Sudan, relayed to the Security Council on Friday.

The speaker of Zimbabwe's parliament wants MPs to get an education to ensure a better level of debate.

The UK is one of the main export destinations for Kenyan cut flowers.

Violent attacks are making treating the worst Ebola outbreak in the history of the DR of Congo even harder.