Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
Nine people, including one police officer, have died in the West African state of Guinea, the security ministry said Wednesday, following days of unrest after a tense weekend presidential election.
In a statement, the ministry pointed to shootings and stabbings in the capital Conakry and elsewhere in the country since Sunday's presidential vote.
"This strategy of chaos (was) orchestrated to jeopardise the elections of October 18, " the ministry said, adding that many people had been injured and property was damaged.
Clashes were ongoing in Conakry on Wednesday, where a security officer, Mamadou Keganan Doumbouya, told the press that at least three people had died.
And a local doctor, who declined to be named, said he had received two dead bodies, and nine injured people, at his clinic.
The violence follows the high-stakes election in which President Alpha Conde ran for a third term in a controversial bid that had already sparked mass protests.
With tensions already running high, Guinea's main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo on Monday declared victory in the election -- before the announcement of the official results, which are expected this week.
Opposition supporters are deeply suspicious about the fairness of the poll, although the government insists that it was fair.
Much of the tension in Guinea centres on Conde's candidacy.
In March, the 82-year-old president pushed through a new constitution which he argued would modernise the country. It also allowed him to bypass a two-term limit for presidents, however.
Security forces repressed mass protests against the move from October last year, killing dozens of people.
On Wednesday, plumes of black smoke rose over an opposition stronghold in the capital Conakry, where protesters erected barricades and lit fires, an AFP journalist saw.
Youths in alleyways also hurled stones at police officers stationed along a main artery who fired back tear gas canisters.
The security ministry stated that "a police officer was lynched to death" in a Conakry suburb, without specifying when the attack occurred.
In a social media post earlier on Wednesday, Conde appealed for "calm and serenity while awaiting the outcome of the electoral process".
- Clashes and barricades -
Ten candidates are in the race besides alongside frontrunners Conde and Diallo, old political rivals who traded barbs in a bitter campaign.
Despite fears of violence after the pre-vote clashes, polling day was mostly calm.
Then Diallo's self-proclaimed election victory ratcheted up tensions, and celebrations by his supporters descended into violent clashes with security forces on Monday.
The opposition politician said that security forces killed three youngsters that night, although AFP was unable to confirm the details.
Security forces also barricaded Diallo inside his house, the politician said on Tuesday.
Monitors from the African Union and the 15-nation West African bloc ECOWAS both said that Guinea's election was mostly fair, despite insistence from Diallo's camp tha
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
The Sharpeville Massacre, which occurred on March 21, 1960, in the township of Sharpeville, South Africa, was the incident that to that point resulted in the deaths of the largest number of South Africans in a protest against apartheid. It also came to symbolize that struggle.
Sharpeville, a black suburb outside of Vereeniging (about fifty miles south of Johannesburg), was through the 1950s a community untouched by anti-apartheid demonstrations that occurred in surrounding towns. By 1960, however, anti-apartheid activism reached the town. In March 1960, Robert Sobukwe, a leader in the anti-apartheid Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) organized the towns first anti-apartheid protest. In order to reduce the possibility of violence he wrote a letter to the Sharpeville police commissioner announcing the upcoming protest and emphasizing that its participants would be non-violent.
On March 21, an estimated 7,000 Africans gathered in front of the Sharpeville police station to protest against the restrictive pass laws. Nearly 300 police officers arrived to put an end to the peaceful protest. As they attempted to disperse the crowd, a police officer was knocked down and many in the crowd began to move forward to see what had happened. Police witnesses claimed that stones were thrown, and in a panicked and rash reaction, the officers opened fire into the crowd. Other witnesses claimed there was no order to open fire, and the police did not fire a warning shot above the crowd. As the thousands of Africans tried to flee the violent scene, police continued to shoot into the crowd. Sixty-nine Africans were killed and 186 were wounded with most shot in the back.
The Sharpeville Massacre awakened the international community to the horrors of apartheid. The massacre also sparked hundreds of mass protests by black South Africans, many of which were ruthlessly and violently crushed by the South African police and military. On March 30, the South African government declared a state of emergency which made any
Key statistics as at May 12, data from National Institute For Communicable Diseases, NICD
\t
\t\tThe total number of confirmed cases = 11,350
\t\tThe total number of tests so far = 369,697
\t\tTotal death toll = 206
\t\tTotal recoveries = 4,357
\t\tMost impacted provinces = Guateng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Kwa Zulu-Natal
May 12: US donates ventilators
\tThe U.S. government is donating “up to 1,000” ventilators to South Africa to help the country respond to COVID-19 as the Trump administration addresses criticism that it hasn’t done enough for countries in need.
“South Africa is the first country in the world to receive this state-of-the-art equipment” from the National Security Council and USAID, the U.S. Embassy said in a tweet.
The donation brings the total U.S. government financial support to South Africa’s COVID-19 response to more than $41 million, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, president Ramaphosa has had a busy last 24 hours with a phone call with President Donald Trump during which the American leader pledged support for South Africa in the fight against the virus.
READ MORE: Mboweni on Ramaphosa’s new tax measures
April 23: SA scores WHO praise
\tA top World Health Organization official has hailed steps taken by South Africa to curb spread of the virus despite being the second most impacted country on the countinent – only behind Egypt as of April 23.
The beleaguered country was dealt a catastrophic blow in January 2010 when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the countrys capital. It was regions worst earthquake in 200 years. The quake leveled many sections of the city, destroying government buildings, foreign aid offices, and countless slums. Assessing the scope of the devastation, Prime Minister Préval said, Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. He called the death toll unimaginable. Fatalities were reported to be around 230,000 by early February.
Since then the numbers have been revised. According to a draft report commissioned for the United States Agency for International Development, the number of fatalities were between 46,000 and 85,000 people. The United Nations mission in Haiti was destroyed, 16 members of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti were killed, and hundreds of UN employees were missing. International aid poured in, and the scope of the damage caused by the quake highlighted the urgent need to improve Haitis crumbling infrastructure and lift it out of endemic poverty—the country is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.
Already a victim of regular hurricanes, this earthquake-devastated country quickly faced another challenge: cholera. In November, the Haitian government said that the death toll had reached 1,034, with 16,799 people treated for cholera or symptoms of the disease.
The country was thrust into further disarray following Novembers presidential election. There were widespread allegations of irregularities, such as ballot-box stuffing, people casting multiple votes, discarded ballots, vandalized polling stations, and voter intimidation. Opposition candidates called for a revote, but their requests were rebuffed. On December 7 2010, the countrys electoral commission announced that Mirlande Manigat, the top vote getter, and Jude Célestin, the hand-picked candidate of Pré val, would face off in the second round of voting.
President Gnassingbe won a third term in the April 2015 presidential election. Gnassingbe received 58.8% of the vote. His main challenger, National Alliance for Change Party President Jean-Pierre Fabre received 35%. Turnout was 60%.
Following his re-election, Gnassingbe appointed Komi Sélom Klassou as prime minister. Klassou previously served as Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports as well as Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. Klassou took office as prime minister on June 5, 2015.
See also Encyclopedia: Togo .
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Togo
