Zimbabwe Chief Accuses Grace Mugabe of Wrongfully Burying Former President, Wants Him Exhumed

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - Zimbabwean chief has summoned former First Lady, Grace Mugabe, to appear before a village court to face charges of inappropriately burying the country’s late former president, Robert Mugabe, at the family’s homestead.

Chief Zvimba wants Mrs. Mugabe to exhume her late husband’s body and rebury it at a gravesite where his mother, Bona, was laid to rest.

In a letter dated April 29, 2021, and signed by the traditional leader, Chief Zvimba ordered Mrs. Mugabe to attend the village court next week on Thursdayat Gonzo Guzha Hall in Murombedzi Growth Pointat 9:30am.

The letter reads in part, “You are facing charges of burying the late Robert Gabriel Mugabe at his homestead. This is unheard of in Chief Zvimba’s area. At the same, time you are accused of abandoning Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s property which is scattered nationwide.

“All properties of the late Robert Gabriel Mugabe are supposed to be kept at his homestead and handled in line with our traditions. I want you to rebury the late president in accordance with our traditions and in Zvimba at a place designated by the family and his late mother. These charges you are facing attract a fine of five cattle and a goat.”

Chief Zvimba further said Mrs. Mugabe is allowed to bring witnesses.

“We will proceed with the case and make an appropriate ruling if you don’t attend the village court without seeking permission.”

Mrs. Mugabe was asked to fix a date with appropriate authorities if she won’t attend the village court on next week.

The former first lady and his nephew, Leo Mugabe, were unreachable on their mobile phones. Leo Mugabe was quoted by an online publication recently as saying he was not aware of any moves by Chief Zvimba to summon him to the village court to face charges of breaking traditional rules and regulations of burying people in his area.

Mugabe, who was toppled in a defacto military coup in 2017, died of cancer in Singapore. The family is believed to have multiple farms, several companies, including a dairy farm.

According to independent economists, the Mugabe family has businesses worth more than US$10 million. (VOA)

Zimbabwean Girl Uses Martial Arts to Warn Against Child Marriage

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - In Zimbabwe, some girls are forced to marry as young as the age of 10 because of poverty or for traditional or religious reasons.

One Zimbabwean teenager is using the sport of taekwondo to give girls from a poor community a fighting chance to have a better life.Natsiraishe Maritsa has been a fan of taekwondo since she was very young. Taekwondo is a Korean martial art.

Today, the 17-year-old holds taekwondo lessons outside her parents’ home in the poor settlement of Epworth. The area is about 15 kilometers south of the capital, Harare.

“Not many people do taekwondo here, so it’s fascinating for the girls, both married and single,” Maritsa said. “I use it to get their attention.” Children as young as four follow her instructions to stretch, kick, strike and punch. After class, the group talks about the risks of child marriage.

Newly married girls led one recent discussion. One by one, they describe extreme abuse they have experienced in their marriages. They describe being raped and being hungry.

“We are not ready for this thing called marriage. We are just too young for it,” Maritsa told The Associated Press. She described her small group as “a safe space” for the girls to share ideas.

“I use their voices, their challenges, to discourage those young girls not yet married to stay off early sexual activity and marriage,” Maritsa said.

Zimbabwe law says boys and girls cannot legally marry until they reach the age of 18. That law was passed in 2016. Child marriage, however, is widespread in the southern African nation.

For some poor families, the reason is an economic one. Marrying off a young daughter means fewer costs. The rights group Girls Not Bridessays the bride price paid by husbands of these girls is “used by families as a means of survival.”

An estimated 30 percent of girls in Zimbabwe are married before they reach 18,the United Nations Children’s Fund says.Rising poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased pressures on families around the world to marry off their young daughters.

Maritsa’s group is called Vulnerable Underaged People’s Auditorium. She started the project in 2018 after seeing her friends leave school for marriage. She hopes to increase the confidence of both married and unmarried girls through the martial arts lessons and discussions.

She accepts 15 students in each lesson, she said. “The only support I get is from my parents.” After class, her parents usually provide fresh juice and sweets.

Zimbabwe recently announced a ban on public gatherings. The measure is meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The ban has forced Maritsa to suspend her lessons, but she hopes to restart as soon as the country’s lockdown is lifted.

Maritsa said, “From being hopeless, the young mothers feel empowered...being able to use their stories to dissuade other girls from falling into the same trap.” (VOA)

Ugandan Forces Search for Abducted US Tourist and Driver

KAMPALA, LELEMUKU.COM - Ugandan security forces are searching for an American tourist, her driver and the four gunmen who abducted them inside a national park on Tuesday. The gunmen have demanded half a million dollars to release the captives.

Ugandan police say a group of three tourists and their Ugandan driver were out in Queen Elizabeth National Park at about 2:00 p.m. Tuesday when the unidentified men held them up at gunpoint.

They say the gunmen kidnapped an American, identified as 35-year-old Kimberly Sue Endecott, and the driver, Jean Paul. The other two tourists, an elderly couple, were freed and later informed park officials of the abduction.

The abduction happened in the Ishasha section of the park, which sits near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The kidnappers, using the victim's phone, have demanded $500,000," Polly Namaye, the police deputy spokesperson told reporters. "We strongly believe that this ransom is the reason behind the kidnap."

Now, the phone is switched off, meaning authorities have to wait for kidnappers to get back in touch.

Security agencies including the president's Elite Special Forces, the tourism police and the regular police are searching the national park, an area that covers 2,000 square kilometers, in hopes of rescuing Endecott and Paul.

They are hoping the gunmen do not cross into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, which is just 18 kilometers from the kidnap scene and stretches into Congo.

In 1999, armed Hutu fighters from Congo entered Bwindi Park and killed eight tourists and four Ugandans.

Namaye says police suspect Endecott, Paul and the kidnappers are still somewhere in Queen Elizabeth Park.

“We strongly believe that the perpetrators and the victims could still be trapped within our search area and we are hopeful that our efforts will lead to their successful and safe recovery.” said Namaye.

Uganda earns about $1.3 billion per year from tourism.

Bashir Hangi, the spokesperson for the Uganda Wildlife Authority, acknowledged the kidnapping could hurt the tourism industry but said tourists need to be cautious when traveling in national parks.

“Maybe we need to appreciate the fact that these people did not have a ranger guide, the time they went for a game drive. And why do we have guns in the park? It’s to protect our visitors, not only against wildlife but also against such illegal armed entrants in the parks," said Hangi.

Meanwhile, in an advisory, the U.S. embassy in Kampala has asked Americans to exercise caution when traveling in Queen Elizabeth National Park due to ongoing security activity. (VOA)

Students Worldwide Skip School to Protest Global Warming

STOCKHOLM, LELEMUKU.COM - They're angry at their elders, and they're not taking it sitting down.

Students worldwide are skipping class Friday to take to the streets to protest their governments' failure to take sufficient action against global warming.

The coordinated "school strikes," being held from the South Pacific to the edge of the Arctic Circle, were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament last year.

Since then, the weekly protests have snowballed from a handful of cities to hundreds, driven by social media-savvy students and dramatic headlines about the impact of climate change.

Thunberg, who was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was cheered for her blunt message to leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this year, when she told them: "I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day."

Friday's rallies are expected to be one of the biggest international actions yet. Protests were under way or planned in cities in more than 100 countries, including Hong Kong; New Delhi; Wellington, New Zealand; and Oulo, Finland.

In Berlin some 10,000 protesters, most of them young students, gathered in a downtown square, waving signs with slogans such as "There is no planet B" and "Climate Protection Report Card: F" before a march through the capital's government quarter. The march was to end with a demonstration outside Chancellor Angela Merkel's office.

Organizer Carla Reemtsma, a 20-year-old university student, said social media had been key in reaching people directly to coordinate the massive protests in so many different locations, noting that she was in 50 WhatsApp groups and fielding some 30,000 messages a day.

"It's really important that people are getting together all over the world, because it's affecting us all," she said.

Critics, supporters

Some politicians have criticized the students, suggesting they should be spending their time in school, not on the streets.

"One can't expect children and young people to see all of the global connections, what's technically reasonable and economically possible," said the head of Germany's pro-business Free Democratic Party, Christian Lindner. "That's a matter for professionals."

But scientists have backed the protests, with thousands signing petitions in support of the students in Britain, Finland and Germany.

"We are the professionals and we're saying the young generation is right," said Volker Quaschning, a professor of engineering at Berlin's University of Applied Sciences.

"We should be incredibly grateful and appreciative of their bravery," said Quaschning, one of more than 23,000 German-speaking scientists to sign a letter of support this week. "Because in a sense, it's incredibly brave not to go to school for once."

Scientists have warned for decades that current levels of greenhouse gas emissions are unsustainable, so far with little effect. In 2015, world leaders agreed in Paris to a goal of keeping the Earth's global temperature rise by the end of the century well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Yet at present, the world is on track for an increase of 4 degrees Celsius, which experts say would have far-reaching consequences for life on the planet.

"As a doctor, I can say it makes a big difference whether you've got a fever of 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit) or 43 C (109.4 F)," said Eckart von Hirschhausen, a German scientist who signed the call supporting striking students. "One of those is compatible with life, the other isn't."

Other action

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have publicly welcomed the student protests, even as their policies have been criticized as too limited by environmental activists.

In France, activist groups launched legal action this week for failing to do enough to fight climate change, citing a similar successful effort in the Netherlands.

In Germany, environmental groups and experts have attacked government plans to continue using coal and natural gas for decades to come. Activists say that countries like Germany should fully "decarbonize" by 2040, giving less-advanced nations a bit more time to wean themselves off fossil fuels while still meeting the Paris goal globally.

Other changes needed to curb greenhouse gas emissions include ramping up renewable energy production, reining in over-consumption culture now spreading beyond the industrialized West and changing diets, experts say.

"The fight against climate change is going to be uncomfortable, in parts, and we need to have a society-wide discussion about this," said Quaschning.

That conversation is likely to get louder, with several U.S. presidential hopefuls planning to campaign on climate change.

Luisa Neubauer, one of the Berlin group organizing Fridays for Future, said politicians should take note of the young.

"For the European elections in May, we're urging everyone to think about whether they want to give their vote to a party that doesn't have a plan for the future and the climate," she said. (VOA)

Nigeria Building Collapse Kills 20, Mostly Children

ABUJA, LELEMUKU.COM - Twenty people are confirmed dead in the school building that collapsed in Nigeria on Wednesday, and most of them are children, an official said Friday.

Forty-three other people were rescued, Lagos State Health Commissioner Jide Idris told The Associated Press. The disaster occurred in the heart of Nigeria's commercial capital.

Officials have said the three-story residential building had been marked for demolition and that the school was operating illegally on the top two floors. It is still not clear how many people were inside when it collapsed.

Rescue crews halted their search Thursday, saying they had reached the building's foundation without finding any other victims. Some anguished families protested and sifted through the rubble for any sign of their children.

Building collapses are all too common in the West African nation, where new construction often goes up without regulatory oversight. Official moved through the neighborhood on Thursday, marking other derelict buildings for demolition.

Adeyemo Sunday, the father of twins, mourned one of his sons. The other was pulled out alive, he said.

Sunday said his family lived on the building's second floor and he sent his boys to school there so they wouldn't have to travel far.

Another parent, Yewande Ogunsanwo, said her son remained in critical condition Thursday.

"Let's thank God for God, he's getting better but his condition is so critical," she said. "The pain is too much."

The collapse came as President Muhammadu Buhari, newly elected to a second term, tries to improve the distressed infrastructure in Africa's most populous nation. (VOA)

Senegal Awaits Election Results After Sunday Voting

DAKAR, LELEMUKU.COM - Vote counting has begun in Senegal after a peaceful day of voting in Sunday's presidential election.

Polls closed at 6 p.m. local time and preliminary results are expected as soon as Monday or Tuesday, according to CENA.

After three weeks of campaigning, long lines of voters formed early Sunday to either support incumbent Macky Sall's bid for re-election or replace him with one of his four challengers - Idrissa Seck, Ousmane Sonko, Madické Niang or Issa Sall.

The election process was smooth and there were no major disruptions in the election process, Doudou Ndir, president of Senegal's electoral commission (CENA) told a press conference.

"Our observations show everything is proceeding in good conditions, peacefully, calmly," Ndir said.

President Sall, 56, cast his ballot in his hometown of Fatick early Sunday. "I hope that at the end of this day, the Senegalese people will be the sole winner," he said after voting.


"What we all have in common is our country, and we want a candidate who will work for it, for our Senegal," Mbéne, an 18-year-old student who voted for the first time Sunday, told VOA Afrique after casting her ballot for Sall.

Though some will renew their support for Sall, some young voters are pledging their support to the youngest of the candidates, Ousmane Sanko, 44, who is promising drastic changes from the current system.

"The system has been in place for 60 years with the same men, the same heads, and we need to break from this," Pape Amadou Diop, a student in Dakar, said after voting for Sonko, whom he calls the "perfect representation of hope in Senegal."

Approximately 15,000 voting stations were expected to be open Sunday. CENA chief Ndir said that by noon, about 30 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballots.

A candidate must win more than 50 percent of Sunday's vote to be declared Senegal's president. If no one wins an outright majority, then the top two contenders will face off in a run-off vote in March. (Salwa Jaafari-VOA)

Sudan Lawmakers Cancel Meeting on Constitutional Changes for Omar al-Bahsir

KHARTOUM, LELEMUKU.COM - Sudan's state-run news agency says a parliamentary committee tasked with amending the constitution to allow President Omar al-Bashir to run for another term has abruptly canceled its meeting.

SUNA says the meeting was scheduled for Sunday but has been postponed for "emergency reasons." It says a new date will be announced later.

Sudan has been rocked by a wave of protests since December calling on al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 military coup, to step down. Activists say at least 57 people have been killed, but the government tally stands at 30.

Al-Bashir has vowed to run for another term, saying the country can only change leadership through elections. (VOA)

Zanu PF Youth: We Were Given Army Uniforms At Ruling Party Offices

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM -  A Zimbabwean man claims that the ruling Zanu PF party gave party supporters army uniforms during recent public protests over the high cost of living sparked by fuel price increases of 150 percent announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

According to the privately-owned Standard newspaper, Shepherd Magorimbo, who was arrested in Harare while dressed in an army camouflage after allegedly robbing some people in Harare, is facing charges of armed robbery.

The newspaper reports that the Zanu PF Youth League member told prosecutors that “we were given the uniforms at the party office.”

Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo was not available for comment.

State security agents claimed recently that some protesters stole arms and uniforms at army barracks, which they allegedly used to gun down at least 12 people in some parts of Zimbabwe.

But the opposition dismissed the remarks as misleading and designed to protect the army.

The Movement for Democratic Change led by Nelson Chamisa says latest reports pinning the army to some atrocities committed by state security agents, some of the in army uniforms, indicates that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces are now an extension of the ruling party.

“There has always been a conflation between Zanu PF and the state agencies. And this is something that we have been crying about as opposition and also as citizens of this country that we need to separate the state from the party that is called Zanu PF. But what we have been witnessing for a long time is that you can’t separate Zanu PF from the army, which makes the military not so professional at all.

“It is true that what we have been witnessing in the last four weeks was not only being perpetrated by the army but by Zanu PF youth too. At times Zanu PF youth were actually commanding the people that were causing all the confusion in the country.”

However, Believe Gaule of the ruling Zanu PF party’s powerful Central Committee, said his party had nothing to do with the distribution of army uniforms.

“Zanu PF is not part of that rubbish. I think those (claiming to have received uniforms from the ruling party) are being used by the opposition. They have a hidden agenda. Zanu PF does not distribute army uniforms. We did not do that and we won’t do that at any time.” (VOA)

Egypt's Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi Elected New Chairman of African Union

CAIRO, LELEMUKU.COM - Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has been elected chairman of the African Union at the continental body's summit in Ethiopia.

The rights group Amnesty International warned that el-Sissi's chairmanship might undermine the African Union's human rights mechanisms.

The rights group said Egypt since 2015 has orchestrated a sustained political attack against the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the body that aims to monitor African states' human rights records. “Dozens of cases alleging serious human rights violations have been lodged against Egypt at the ACHPR,” it said.

El-Sissi's election brought to an end the one-year chairmanship of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame.

African Union chairmen set agendas of issues to be addressed during their one-year tenure. (VOA)

French Airstrikes in North Chad Affirm Support for President Idriss Deby

NDJAMENA, LELEMUKU.COM - When French fighter jets bombarded 40 pickup trucks of suspected insurgents last week in Chad, the former colonial power signaled an unprecedented willingness to engage openly in joint military operations in Northern Africa.

But observers, including Chadian opposition leaders, are questioning whether the airstrikes were intended to fight terrorism or prop up President Idriss Deby, who has led Chad for nearly 30 years.

“The French launched the airstrikes themselves, and they did not even try to make it seem as if they were not interfering with Chadian politics,” said Marielle Debos, an associate professor at Paris Nanterre University. Debos, who has researched the country for more than a decade, told VOA in the past the French army’s support has been more discreet.

On February 3, French jets attacked a convoy of heavily armed pickup trucks that had entered Chad from neighboring Libya. The strikes lasted four days.

France said it had responded to a request for assistance from the Chadian government, calling the country an essential partner in the fight against terrorism.

Chadian officials said the attacks were legal and necessary to prevent terrorist activity.

“Both the French and the Chadian governments were portraying this as a decision that they undertook together,” said Alex Thurston, an assistant professor in political science and comparative religion at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio.

Joint operation

The planes flew from N’Djamena, Chad’s capital, where France headquarters its 4,500-person anti-terror mission, Operation Barkhane.

“There are agreements between states. Operation Barkhane covers a number of countries, and their role is precisely to fight terrorism,” said Mahamat Zen Bada, the secretary general of Chad’s ruling party, the Patriotic Salvation Movement, or MPS.

“If a column [of fighters] enters Chad, and that column is not a column of the Chadian army, it is normal for people to intervene,” VOA’s French-to-Africa service reported Bada as saying.

But others are questioning why France would attack a rebel group on behalf of Chad, an ally with a spotty record on human rights and democracy.

The opposition party denounced the airstrike.

“We condemn the intervention of France in the internal affairs of Chad,” said Célestin Topona, the first vice president of the National Union for Development and Renewal.

“We want a truly inclusive dialogue to know why, 30 years after the MPS took power, the instability continues,”Topona added.

Historical ties

France has intervened on behalf of Deby before.

In 2006 and 2008, when rebels based in Sudan advanced to the capital, France helped the Chadian Army repel the attacks with logistics and intelligence support.

“It’s possible —highly possible — that without French support that he would’ve been overthrown at the time,” Thurston said. “I think the French government sees a strong interest in keeping him in power.”

Although Barkhane has been operational since 2014, France established another military operation in Chad, Épervier, in 1986, under former President Hissène Habré.

At the time, France was backing Habré, before Déby and his supporters threw him from power.

“What is striking in this history is the fact that the French never left Chad. There has been a succession of military interventions in Chad, and Barkhane is the latest of this military intervention,” Debos said.

'French interests'

After years of instability, Chad has gained a newfound stature as an important regional player, especially in joint security operations.

“Chad has long been considered as a very unstable and conflict-ridden country, but for the past eight years, it has acquired a new regional and global status,” Debos said. “It is now considered as a regional power.”

That’s raised the stakes for France.

“The French tend to point to issues of border security and stability and so forth and to say that the Chadian regime should not be overthrown by rebels and that it’s a key partner for them,” Thurston said.

“This does raise questions about what is the French government’s understanding of so-called counterterrorism in the region, and what are the French interests in Chad,” he added. (Andre Kodmadjingar/VOA)

Report: E. Libyan Forces Launch Airstrikes Near El Feel Oil Field

TRIPOLI, LELEMUKU.COM - Eastern Libyan forcesloyal to commander Khalifa Haftar carried out four airstrikesnear the El Feel oil field as a warning to a rival commander, afield engineer said Saturday.

It was the first military action by the eastern army sinceit banned all flights in southern Libya without itsauthorizationon Friday.

The strikes were directed at commander AliKennah, who wasinside the compound at the time, the engineer told Reuters.

Kennahis allied with the internationallyrecognizedTripoligovernment, while Haftar backs a parallel administration in theeast.

The fractured political climate has caused significantdisruption to the country's oil industry.

The Tripoli Government of National Accord (GNA), backed bythe United Nations, said in a statement that the strike targeteda civilian plane that was trying to evacuate a number of woundedpeople from the oil field to Tripoli.

The strikes damaged the oil field's infrastructure and itsairport runway and "put civilian lives at risk,"the statementadded, without adding details of any casualties.

State oil firm NOC, which runs the El Feel field withforeign partners,could not be immediately reached for comment.

Haftar is a dominant figure in eastern Libya where hisLibyan National Army group seized the second-largest city ofBenghazi in 2017 by expelling Islamists and other fighters.

Last month, his forces started an offensive in the south tofight militants and secure its oil fields, and on Wednesday madegood on the promise by moving on the closed ElShararafield.

His forces have occupied a pumping station 20 kilometers (12miles) from the main ElShararafield but not the rest of the315,000-barrel-a-day site, according to a field engineer.

The El Feel field is located in the same southwestern regionand is still producing crude, usually around 70,000 barrels aday.

ElShararawas shut in December after tribesmen and stateguards seized it.

Kennah, the commander of the Sabha military zone who servedunder former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, was appointed by PrimeMinister FayezSerajlast week. Fayez leads the GNA. (VOA)

High-level Detainee Accuses Kenya, South Sudan of Kidnapping

KHATOUM, LELEMUKU.COM - “I was terrified ... I knew that I was heading for a terrible situation.” For the first time, the spokesman for South Sudan’s armed opposition leader has spoken out about his alleged kidnapping in neighboring Kenya, deportation to his home country and death sentence.

James Gatdet Dak, one of the highest-profile detainees during South Sudan’s five-year civil war, spoke to The Associated Press shortly after his pardon and release under a fragile peace deal signed in September. Now in neighboring Sudan while seeking asylum in Sweden, he says he is ready to have his story told.

His account, which has been shared with a United Nations commission of inquiry, asserts that high-level Kenyan authorities collaborated with South Sudan’s government to seize him from his Nairobi home in November 2016 and force him onto a plane for deportation to a country where he feared for his life.

At a detention facility near the Nairobi airport, a high-ranking Kenyan police officer told him there had been a deal between the presidents of Kenya and South Sudan. “There’s no way they’re going to help you,” Dak said, recalling the officer’s words.

Soft-spoken and one of the most trusted colleagues of opposition leader Riek Machar, Dak had fled to Kenya shortly after the civil war began in late 2013.

When Dak was seized, he said, Kenyan authorities told him he was being deported because of his statement supporting the dismissal of the Kenyan force commander for South Sudan’s U.N. peacekeeping mission. The U.N. had been sharply criticized for not acting quickly to protect the Terrain hotel complex from a deadly rampage by South Sudanese soldiers in July 2016.

Dak said he resisted boarding the plane to South Sudan, pleading for help from a flight attendant at the Nairobi airport.

″(I told her) I’m press secretary for a rebel leader who’s fighting that government and these people are kidnapping me,” he said. She prevented him from leaving, but Dak said Kenyan national security officers forced him onto an afternoon flight, warning that if he struggled he’d be handcuffed and carried onboard.

He didn’t fight back, Dak said. “I thought it was meaningless to resist.”

Machar’s frantic calls for assistance to Kenya’s deputy president and attorney general were futile, Dak said. An opposition member who saw Dak detained at the airport confirmed that Machar, then based in South Africa, made the calls but to no avail. The opposition member spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Kenya’s government spokesman, Eric Kiraithe, would not comment on Dak’s case but said Kenya is committed to making sure “peace was accelerated” in its neighbor.

South Sudan’s government denied any collaboration with Kenya in the case. Dak was detained on arrival for fueling the conflict with a Facebook post he made when fresh fighting broke out in the capital, Juba, in July 2016, government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said. The post alleged that President Salva Kiir had attempted to arrest Machar, his deputy at the time, at the presidential palace.

Dak said he spent two years behind bars, including almost 10 months in solitary confinement in a national security prison. Locked in a tiny, dark cell 24 hours a day, he said he lost more than 20 kilograms (44 pounds) on a daily meal of beans and porridge.

He said he maintained his sanity by reading the Bible and trying not to dwell on whether he would be killed. He said he went months before gaining access to a lawyer, who quit during his trial while calling the process unfair.

Fifteen months into his prison term, Dak was charged with treason and sentenced to death.

The peace deal saved him. Two years to the day after he said he was kidnapped in Nairobi, he was released with another opposition member, William Endley, a South African former defense colonel. Machar had demanded that all political detainees be released, per the terms of the peace deal, before he would return to South Sudan.

And yet many political prisoners remain behind bars without charge. Two other opposition figures who disappeared from Kenya, lawyer Dong Samuel Luak and government critic Aggrey Ezbon Idri, went missing from Nairobi two years ago. Both were last seen in a South Sudan national security prison, Human Rights Watch said last month.

The U.N. commission on human rights in South Sudan said it remains deeply concerned by the “complicity of the governments of Kenya and South Sudan” in the unlawful removal and transfer of Dak, chairwoman Yasmin Sooka told the AP last month. Dak has given the commission a detailed report of his ordeal but said that for now he is not taking legal action.

Currently in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, the 45-year-old father of five is waiting to be reunited in Sweden with the family he hasn’t seen in years.

While Dak said he is grateful for his freedom, he doesn’t feel safe after receiving threats from South Sudan government loyalists that if he criticizes the government it could all happen again. He is taking a break from politics while deciding what to do next.

Despite the harrowing experience, he said he has no regrets.

“It was worth it,” Dak said. “What I was doing I believed was good for the country, it was good for the people of South Sudan, because we need change.” (VOA)

Terror Attacks Hit Two Somali Cities

MOGADISHU, LELEMUKU.COM - A gunman has shot dead the manager of a Dubai-owned port in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

Mohamad Dahir, a local security official, told the French news agency (AFP), "An armed man shot and killed Paul Anthony Formosa who was the construction project manager for DP World. He was killed inside the port and the security forces also shot the killer on the spot."

The Islamist Al-Shabab group has claimed responsibility for the attack at Bosaso port Monday.

"We are behind the operation," Abdiasis Abu Musab, a spokesman for Al Shabab's military operations told Reuters. "We had warned him, but he turned deaf ear. He was illegally in Somalia."

In another development Monday, a powerful blast hit a market in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

"There was a strong explosion at the Hamarweyne market," police officer Ibrahim Mohamed told AFP. He said "the blast happened in a densely populated market" that is located near the city's local government buildings.

The cause of the blast was not immediately clear.

Al-Shabab militants, however, have been known to target areas in the capital. (VOA)

Internet Shutdowns Mushroom Across Africa

KINSHASHA, LELEMUKU.COM - The last two years have been grim for internet access on the African continent, according to analyst Robert Besseling of risk-assessment firm EXX Africa, and the situation may be getting worse. In the last four weeks alone, no fewer than five African governments have temporarily shut down internet access amid political crises and unrest.

While this practice dates back several years, he says it has accelerated and hit nations that rely on the internet for spreading information and for internet-based commerce, like Zimbabwe.

“We counted 21 shutdowns across Africa in 2018, and so far this year in the first three weeks of 2019, we saw shutdowns in five countries: again, Cameroon, as well as most prominently, Zimbabwe, as well as during the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and unrest in Sudan, as well as briefly following the attempted coup in Gabon," Besseling said.

Those five nations have one thing in common: recent political unrest. Congo's shutdown occurred during a chaotic, disputed, long-delayed election and its contentious aftermath. In Zimbabwe, fuel price hikes led to violent protests, which led to even more violent crackdowns by security officials, which was followed by an internet blackout.

Congolese rights activist Sylvain Saluseke - who lives in self-imposed exile outside of the country — says his compatriots in pro-democracy youth group LUCHA struggled under the blackout as they tried to carry out their mission of observing the December 30 polls and documenting the aftermath.

“That was a major hindrance," he told VOA. "Of course, beyond that, there have always been these questions of how less are we able to pass on information or exchange information, and that in itself raised the risk of if and when somebody has been arrested, or somebody goes into any dangerous situations or risky situations."

Stopping the flow of information is the point of these internet shutdowns, argues Edgar Munatsi of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights. Other rights groups have claimed the same, saying this was a tactic to give cover to the rampant human rights abuses that happened — and still may be happening — in Zimbabwe.

“Beyond just stopping people from organizing themselves, was the need to black out, in terms of the media and the international community, to what was taking place during the night, and sometimes during the day," Munatsi told journalists. "Because a lot of atrocities were committed during the night and during the internet shutdowns. If you realize, most civil society leaders and activists in Zimbabwe were abducted during the night, and no one knows, up to now, where they are, some of them.”

Besseling, who assesses the continent from a business perspective, notes that African nations have an easier time shutting down or forcibly slowing down internet services, because many African telecom companies are under state control.

The shutdowns come at a high cost, he says.

“If you were to shut down the internet throughout the geography of an economically important country, then you can estimate of course a far higher cost. In a country like Kenya, for example, the cost would be $6.3 million a day, in the case the internet was shut down across the country.”

Those losses come, he said, through disruptions in information networks — such as internet-accessible stock and commodity price indices — and the unavailability of e-commerce and electronic banking.

He said there are other losses that can’t be easily quantified, though, like getting reliable information about what’s going on around you, or perhaps hardest of all, losing touch with loved ones during a time of crisis. (VOA)

Zimbabwe Lawyers Petition Government over 'Deteriorating' Rule of Law

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM -  Zimbabwe’s lawyers Tuesday took to the streets and petitioned the government complaining over what they called deteriorating rule of law, as the High Court delivered a bail ruling on pastor-cum-activist Evan Mawarire.

Lawyers presented a petition to the country’s chief justice Luke Malaba’s office. One of the lawyers is Fadzayi Mahere.

“The lawyers are marching in support of human rights and restoration of constitutional freedoms. And we do not want the military on the streets or in civilian life. Or in the courts. It is a march in support of fair trial,” said Mahere.

Among the lawyers' complaints is the courts’ refusal to grant bail to more than 1,000 civilians arrested during this month’s protests over a fuel hike. They say courts are “fast tracking” trials of the protesters before they get all materials they want to defend themselves.

A few protesters, like pastor Evan Mawarire, face subversion charges, he was granted $2,000 bail Tuesday at the High Court.

Rights groups have complained that security forces have been brutal in handling the protesters, with cases of rape and assaults flooding the media.

But Tuesday, Zimbabwe police spokesperson Charity Charamba denied charges of widespread abuse.

“The law is clear, for each and every offense there should be redress or a penalty, hence our passionate appeal to members of the public to report. Reports in some sections of the media that those who have reported are being bullied and labeled are not correct," said Charamba. "Only one case of alleged sexual abuse was recorded. Investigations are already in progress. It is not in the culture of the Zimbabwe Republic Police to sweep cases under the carpet ... ”

Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration had not taken reports of human rights abuses by the security forces seriously.

“So apart from raising this issue with SADC (Southern African Development Community,) we want this issue to be addressed in the context of the international community helping us. These are clear cases of unleashing our military on unarmed civilians. Citizens are defenseless obviously what we want is the intervention of the international community to help us in any manner possible to protect citizens so that there is a restoration of civilian authority in the country,” he said.

Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have asked Mnangagwa to order soldiers to go back to barracks. They have been assisting police maintain law and order since the protests turned violent two weeks ago. (VOA)

UN Seeks Nearly $1 Billion to Assist Displaced in Nigeria

ABUJA, LELEMUKU.COM - The United Nations is launching a three-year Humanitarian Response Strategy together with the Nigeria Regional Refugee Response Plan. The $983 million appeal will assist millions of victims of Boko Haram attacks in northeastern Nigeria and hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled to neighboring countries.

The bulk of the appeal, $848 million, will assist 6.2 million vulnerable people in Nigeria's north-eastern Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.They have been the hardest hit by the decade-long crisis between Boko Haram and Nigeria's government forces.

Boko Haram, which wants to set up its own Islamic State based on Shariah law, reportedly has killed more than 20,000 people and forced more than two million to flee their homes since the insurgency began in 2009.

Spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, says a recent upsurge in violence has displaced more than 80,000 civilians who have sought refuge in crowded camps or in towns in Borno State.

"In total," added Laerke, "1.8 million people are internally displaced in the northeast due to this protracted crisis which is characterized by massive abuses against civilians including killings, rape, abduction, child recruitment and burning and pillaging of homes and entire villages."

Food aid accounts for nearly one third of the appeal.Money also will be used to provide special treatment for some 370,000 severely, acutely malnourished children, for nutrition, health, water and sanitation projects among others.

The U.N. refugee agency and U.N. Development Program are launching Nigeria's Refugee Response Plan.The agencies are appealing for $135 million to assist more than one-quarter million Nigerian refugees displaced by the worsening Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin region.

The appeal will assist Nigerian refugees in Cameroon, Chad and Niger.Beyond supporting those forced to flee, money also will help the communities hosting the refugees as they themselves are living below the poverty line and are in dire need of aid. (VOA)

World’s Worst Air is in South African Coal Community

PRETORIA, LELEMUKU.COM - South Africa's coal mining heartland has the worst air quality in the world, according to a recent study by environmental group Greenpeace. The 12 large coal mines in this area make it the world’s hotspot for toxic nitrogen dioxide emissions. Residents and health experts say the effects are ruining their health and their lives.

Thirty-five-year-old Patrick Mdluli considered himself healthy until he moved two years ago to Mpumalanga province - South Africa’s coal mining heartland.

He developed breathing problems, including tuberculosis and nasal issues.

“The mines, the dust, pollution -- you go to doctors, they tell you the very same thing. ‘Are you living next to a mine?’ Yes, I am. ‘Are you living next to a dumping site?’ Yes, I am,” said Mdluli.

A large coal mine operates, literally, in Mdluli’s backyard.

The mine has conducted blasts every day, shaking his small home to its foundation and causing a large crack in the wall.

This sunnyswath of South Africa last year earned the unfortunate distinction of having the world’s worst air quality, says the environmental group Greenpeace.
And it shows, said the head of one of Middelburg’s main clinics, Dr. Mohammed Tayob.

Tayob has lived in the area his entire life and says the emissions from the mines have made many of his patients sick.

“Children and adults are paying the ultimate price. When we say ultimate price, it’s the neurocognitive, loss of neurocognitive development, children’s infant mortality rate is higher in our area than other areas, adults, heart attacks and respiratory diseases are much higher. So people are paying with their lives, across the board, because of these pollutants in the air,” he said.

Tayob blames the coal mining industry and poor governance.

Although mines are big money, locals say the coal companies have done little to improve the community.

Middelburg is poor and many people lack basic services like electricity and running water.

Tayob said the government is also failing to enforce environmental laws and crack down on the mines.

“One cannot be faulted in thinking, ‘Is there some level of corruption operating in this area as well, where these big boys are getting away with murder, literally?’ They’re literally getting away with murder. It's just the reality. I’d like someone to come up and dispute this fact and challenge me on that,” he said.

VOA contacted three of the larger mines in the area for comment. None of them responded to our request.

Environmental activist Bafana Hlatshwayo said he and other activists are preparing to lobby decision-makers at an upcoming mining industry gathering in Cape Town.

They want the coal industry to shift to a cleaner resource: the region’s abundant sunshine.

Bringing solar panel production to the area, said Hlatshwayo, would also create jobs.

“We are not saying we want to close down the mines...We must go the renewable energy way, we are saying, people will manufacture solar panels inside South Africa, and they are the ones who are supposed to install the solar panels and they are the ones who are supposed to maintain the solar panels,” he said.

But that is a faraway dream for people like Mdluli and his neighbors, who complain unemployment is high and all of them - including the children - have health problems.

This province, said longtime resident and environmental activist William Jiyane, used to be beautiful.

“It’s endless agony, now, Mpumalanga. It’s not bread and butter anymore. It’s endless agony,” he said.

South Africa is the continent’s largest coal producer and relies on coal to power much of the economy.

But for the poor communities that live in the shadow of coal mines - it just makes them sick. (VOA)

Netflix Criticized for Using South Sudan Flag

JUBA, LELEMUKU.COM - The very first image in Netflix's new film Closeis South Sudan's flag billowing in the wind.

Shot in Morocco, the opening scene introduces the main character, a professional bodyguard named Sam, played by actress Noomi Rapce, who accompanies two journalists across war-torn terrain in a vehicle that is ambushed by armed men.

The scene is action-packed and lasts only 4½ minutes, but it has dominated heated discussion and sparked questions about why South Sudan's flag was used. The country has been locked in a civil war since 2013.

"If you use people's flag, you need to talk to them to see whether you are offending them, because it is not just about leadership, it's not just about governments, it's about people," said Kuir Garang, a South Sudanese-Canadian novelist living in Alberta, Canada.

Netflix did not respond to requests for comment.

Garang said he feels the internet giant owes South Sudan an explanation.

"There are many people here in Canada, in Australia, in the U.S. who use that flag. And if that flag represents terrorism, or you know, mindless violence, and is seen on the cause of people, those people can easily be associated with terrorism," he said.

Many people also expressed their concerns on Twitter.

South Sudanese native Malith Dak Gerich, who lives and works in South Korea, said moviemakers did not consider the fact that the South Sudanese flag was a lot more than a plot object to many observers around the world.

"Looking at the movie, I cannot even go through New York City wearing anything to do with the South Sudanese flag without [fear of being] attacked or something like that," Dak said.

Garang said the larger issue is that the scene pushed a negative narrative about his country, and that Westerners should work harder to understand the context and the sensitivities of each country.

"I think people at Netflix should see that they have resources, moviemakers have resources, so what they should do is to put in resources into making research as to what is appropriate talk to the people," he said. (VOA)

Protests Rock Sudanese Cities, One More Dead

KHARTOUM, LELEMUKU.COM - Protests raged across Sudanese cities Thursday and another demonstrator died in the most widespread rallies of anti-government unrest that began last month.

The 24-year-old man died from his wounds in Omdurman, a city across the Nile from the capital Khartoum, where crowds were railing against Sudan's three-decade ruler Omar al-Bashir.

That took the official death toll from unrest since Dec. 19 to 29, according to government investigatory committee spokesman Amer Mohamed Ibrahim.

Rights groups put the total at more than 40.

Trouble raged into the night in Omdurman, with smoke billowing over a street barricaded by steel poles, burning tires and tree branches.

In Khartoum, security forces fired tear gas at protesters in various neighborhoods, witnesses said. At night, smoke wafted over Khartoum, fires burned and a main street was blocked.

There were also protests in the eastern cities of Port Sudan and al-Qadarif, where hundreds gathered in the main market area, chanting "Down, that's it! Freedom, freedom."

Triggered by a worsening economic crisis, protests calling for Bashir to step down have spread into the most sustained challenge yet to his rule.

The opposition Sudanese Professionals' Association, a union group that has led calls for demonstrations, had urged protesters to rally from early afternoon and march to Bashir's palace on the banks of the Nile.

The group said on its social media sites that protesters had gathered in cities including Madani and Sennar south of Khartoum as well as smaller towns.

Many protests were reported in Gezira state and witnesses said demonstrators had blocked the main road in al-Nuba district, also south of Khartoum.

Security forces have used tear gas, stun grenades and live ammunition to disperse demonstrations, as well as arresting hundreds of protesters and opposition figures.

Authorities have blamed the unrest on "infiltrators" and foreign agents, and said they are taking steps to resolve Sudan's economic problems. (VOA)

Top Female Candidate Withdraws From Nigerian Presidential Race

ABUJA, LELEMUKU.COM - Nigeria’s leading female presidential candidate has withdrawn from the crowded field of candidates to help build a viable coalition to take on the country’s two main parties.

Oby Ezekwesili announced she was dropping out as a candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria in a series of tweets Thursday. The former government minister and former president of the World Bank said the need for an alternative to President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress and the main opposition People’s Democratic Party is “an urgent mission for and on behalf of the citizenry.”

Ezekwesili was one of 73 candidates running for the February 16 elections, but many believe the race is between President Buhari and Atiku Abubakar, the leader of the PDP. The PDP governed Nigeria from 1999, the year civilian rule was restored, and Buhari’s victory in 2015.

The 55-year-old Ezekwesili led the “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign that raised awareness of the 270 girls who were kidnapped from their school in the northwest town of Chibok in 2014 by the Boko Haram militant group. She is also a co-founder of the anti-corruption group Transparency International. (VOA)