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While delivering the Thabo Mbeki lecture, Professor 'Funmi Olonisakin said the war in Ethiopia's Tigray region was evidence of the shortcomings of the African Union.
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.
In a clear \"Africa Day 2020,\" message last Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari warned fellow African leaders that there will be no development, without peace, on the continent.
But the elephant in the room of Africa's development discourse is its population.
It is not that population growth has only adverse effects on development and human welfare, we know that it can hinder improvements in both, which was why in 1979, the Chinese government implemented a historic population control policy of one child per family, complete with birth control programmes.
While I am not recommending a one-family-one-child policy for Africa, there is no doubt today that the economic incentives aspect of China's population policy is a good development policy.
Professor Okey Onyejekwe, a noted African expert on governance and a former director at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, was unequivocal when he said, \"It is a delusion to think that we can address poverty alleviation or eradication without population control.\"
Special to The Dallas Examiner BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of the Congo – As the race to find a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is showing increasing promise, a new World Health Organization analysis finds [...]
The post WHO urges African countries to ramp up readiness for cOVID-19 vaccination drive appeared first on Dallas Examiner.
The suspense is over, the much talked about ‘Kings of Joburg’ series premieres on Netflix on 4 December 2020. Here's what you need to know.
The ATM’s motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa was first submitted in February and got approved last week Thursday.
Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren Student Loan Debt Op-Ed
CHUCK RICHARDSON National Organization of Rehabilitated Offenders (TriceEdneyWire.com) – There is something magical about a fearless, intelligent, incorruptible Black woman. A woman willing to sacrifice and face any obstacle she must for [...]
The post The DNA of a Black woman appeared first on Dallas Examiner.
[RFI] Ethiopia's army captured the town of Alamata, in southern Tigray, 115 kilometres from the regional capital Mekelle, according to a statement on Monday by the Ethiopian government, as a conflict between the federal government and Tigray region continues to escalate.
Geneva — 'We share the faults' when things go wrong
The UN has pledged to \"carefully consider\" the recommendations of an operational review into humanitarian aid operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a draft of the document leaked to The New Humanitarian revealed widespread corruption and abuse.
The operational review was commissioned by an anti-fraud taskforce created by UN agencies and aid groups in Congo after the NGO Mercy Corps discovered a large-scale fraud scheme in late 2018 - first made public this week after a more than nine-month investigation by TNH.
\"We share the faults\" when things go wrong, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Congo, David McLachlan-Karr, said in a frank statement, vowing that the UN would do \"everything possible to maintain... trust by fighting fraud, corruption and abuse at all levels\".
McLachlan-Karr said allegations in the review that the selection committee of the UN's humanitarian pooled fund - a major pot run by the UN's emergency aid coordination body, OCHA - had demanded kickbacks from national NGOs in exchange for contracts could \"damage donor confidence in the Fund and ancillary financing\".
The operational review said there is a mutual lack of trust between aid groups and communities in Congo, who \"perceive humanitarian aid as corrupt and driven by external agendas\".
[ANGOP] Luanda -- The remains of the Angola Press Agency (Angop) journalist Agostinho Quilemba were buried Saturday morning in the Viana Cemetery, Luanda province.
Aid agencies fear the fighting - which has reportedly killed thousands and displaced many thousands more - could tip the Tigray region into catastrophe.
[ANGOP] According to the spokesman for the event, Adriano Campos, the conference will also serve to formalise and launch the ECOWAS Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Angola.
English actor Idris Elba will host an Africa Day benefit concert with the continent’s biggest stars to raise Covid-19 funds for food and health assistance in Africa.
In celebration of the Africa Day on May 25, ViacomCBS Networks Africa and YouTube will hold the show in partnership with Elba.
According to the organisers, the Africa Day Benefit Concert At Home aims to raise funds to help children and families in Africa who have been affected by the pandemic.
The concert will also be made available after Africa Day to encourage individuals and organisations to continue pledging.
The managing director of Emerging Markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at YouTube, Alex Okosi, said: “Music is a powerful tool that connects Africans, and this Africa Day concert is a great way to bring people together and support a great cause.
June 10: Speaker Keria replaced
\tEthiopia’s upper parliamentary chamber, the House of Federation (HoF), on Wednesday elected a new speaker following the resignation of Keria Ibrahim.
June 8: Speaker of Ethiopia’s upper parliament quits over postponed polls
\tKeria Ibrahim, speaker of Ethiopia’s upper parliamentary chamber, the House of federation, has quit her position citing a looming constitutional blank with postponed elections.
Privately-owned Addis Standard said Keria’s resignation was on the outcome of a Council of Constitutional Inquiry on deferred elections.
The former speaker belongs to the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, TPLF, a former coalition partner of the now defunct Ethiopia Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, EPRDF; which brought Abiy to power in 2018.
TPLF is currently the ruling party in the northern Tigray region but technically in opposition with the federal government.
Irene McCoy Gaines was a civil rights activist and a community leader. Born October 25, 1892, in Ocala, Florida, to Charles and Mamie McCoy, she had one older sister who died while Gaines was a child. Her family moved to Chicago, Illinois when she was an infant. In 1903, Gaines’s mother became a single parent after a divorce. After she graduated from Wendell Phillips High in Chicago in 1908, Gaines attended Fisk University (Nashville, Tennessee) from 1908 to 1910, and then the University of Chicago from 1910 to 1912. She studied civics and social work at both campuses.
When she returned to Chicago in 1910, Gaines began working at the Cook County Juvenile Court as a stenographer, which helped her become aware of the problems affecting the youth in her community. After World War I started, she found a new job with the US Department of Labor’s War Camp Community Service Program as an organizer for the girls division.
On October 7, 1914, McCoy married Harris Barrett Gaines, a law student at the time. They had two sons, Harris Barrett, Jr., in 1922, and Charles Ellis in 1924. Her children’s public school education offered a window into the desperate inequality between segregated schools.
In 1920, Gaines became the industrial secretary for the first African American branch of the YWCA in Chicago, and during the 1920s, she became involved with and took leadership positions in many different activist groups. Because of her association with groups such as the Chicago Urban League, Woman’s City Club, Woman’s Trade Union League, Illinois Women’s Voters’ League, the District Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, University Society, and Household of Ruth, she quickly gained a great reputation in Chicago’s African American community for her extensive social work. Beginning in 1930, Gaines began working for the welfare department of Cook County, where she would remain until 1945.
In 1939, Gaines founded the Chicago Council of Negro Organizations and remained its first president until 1953, and used her position to protest the
President Dr Lazarus Chakwera says African countries must unite in order to build the Africa people on the continent want. He made the remarks in a message today as the African continent is commemorating Africa Day. The day this year is being commemorated under the theme of ‘Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the […]
The post Africa Day: Chakwera calls for unity appeared first on Malawi 24.
Below is the full message: Special greetings to all of my African brothers and sisters — whether on the continent or in the Diaspora — on this beautiful Africa Day 2021! Africa Day holds a place of great significance for us of the Caribbean Community because it reminds us of our inter-connectedness with Africa and […]
The post PM’s message for Africa Day 2021 appeared first on Barbados Today.
Press Release - Carbone Beni did not sleep the night of December 17, 2016. The pro-democracy activist had spent the previous four days naked in a dark Kinshasa jail cell before being beaten by six soldiers. Beni was arrested while campaigning for the then-president, Joseph Kabila, to leave office at the end of his second term. The day after his beating, he was put in front of Gen. Ilunga Kampete, then commander of the elite Republican Guard. \"If you want to go free, tell the media that you are now ready to work with the p
Africa Day will go virtual this year with a star-studded benefit concert hosted by English actor Idris Alba, an online how-to video for jollof rice, and a U.N. call for a global ceasefire issued by the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.
African countries have “demonstrated commendable leadership” battling the COVID-19 pandemic, he said in a Monday message, “but more nations across the continent where conflict prevails should heed the UN call for a global ceasefire to push back the deadly virus.”
Africa Day is observed annually on May 25 to commemorate the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) which was created on May 25, 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Besides celebrating Africa’s decolonization, Africa Day is also a time of sober reflection on how African countries can consolidate peace and democracy on the continent.
The U.N. leader welcomed support for his global ceasefire call which reflects the African Union’s 2020 theme: “Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development.”
Early Friday afternoon, the House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 3884, the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, a bipartisan legislation that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal […]
The post Marijuana Decriminalization Passes House appeared first on Essence.
[ANGOP] Luanda -- Angolan health authorities announced Tuesday the registration of 112 new infections, 81 patients recovered and two deaths in the last 24 hours.
[The Herald] Afro -- Fusion musician Ranson Madzamba popularly known as Mazarura has composed a Pan- African song called \"Africa\" and will be released on Africa Day, May 25 2021.
