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Thousands of refugees trying to reach Europe were rescued off the coast of Libya Monday morning after their overcrowded wooden boats sent people falling into the Mediterranean.

Those rescued are believed to be Somali and Eritrean nationals fleeing Libya on around 20 small unseaworthy boats. 

The Italian Coast Guard and workers of a non-government organization came to their aid when they were spotted roughly 13 miles north of Sabratha, a coastal city in Libya.

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Rita Akana

30.Aug.2016

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A loud explosion was heard in Somalia's capital on Tuesday, and huge clouds of smoke could be seen, accompanied by gunfire, a Reuters witness said.

The cause of the blast was yet to be established. 

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants have claimed responsibility for several recent explosions in Mogadishu, including a car bomb and gun attack last week at a popular beach restaurant in Mogadishu that killed 10 people.

 

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Rita Akana

30.Aug.2016

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A new report finds economic and social discrimination against women is costing Africa more than $100 billion a year. The U.N. Development Program’s 2016 Africa Human Development Report argues closing the gender gap would be a boon for the Continent’s economic and social prospects.

The report finds African women across the board are denied the same kind of economic, social and political opportunities men enjoy. It says women lose out when it comes to education, work and health.

It notes fewer girls than boys go to school, women earn less money than men for paid labor, harmful traditional practices affect their health, and certain cultural norms act as a hindrance to women moving ahead in society.

The report finds practices, such as child marriage and sexual and physical violence adversely affect women’s health and result in high maternal mortality. 

Ayodele Odusola is U.N. Development Program chief economist for the Regional Bureau for Africa. On a line from Nairobi, Kenya, he tells VOA evidence shows countries that invest heavily on gender equality tend to perform better on human development.

“On the basis of this, investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment is not only a human rights issue, but it is good economics and at the same time a development imperative," he said. "What we learn is that if we are able to address the impediment in the labor market, for instance, it is going to enhance not only social-economic opportunities of women, but it is going to enhance the growth opportunities for African countries.”

Consequences

The report notes sub-Saharan Africa pays a very high price for maintaining discriminatory gender policies. It estimates total economic losses due to gender inequality in the labor market in 2014 cost the region $105 billion, or six percent of its Gross Domestic Product.

U.N. economists point to Rwanda as one of a few African countries that has increased the level of its human development index — that is, its life expectancy, education, and per capita income — by bridging the gender divide.

Ayodele Odusola says some things are beginning to change for the better elsewhere in Africa. He says reproductive rights are becoming acceptable in Niger and Burkina Faso countries where talk of family planning used to be taboo. He says Gambia is one of several countries that have banned early child marriage.

The report proposes several strategies for creating greater gender equality. It calls on African countries to adopt legal reforms, to give women a greater voice in decision-making, to actively promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, and to ensure women have ownership of assets and management of resources.

VOA

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Rita Akana

29.Aug.2016

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Rita Akana

29.Aug.2016

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Supporters of Gabon's President Ali Bongo and his chief rival both said on Sunday they were set to win a presidential election that poses the most serious challenge yet to the Bongo family's half-century rule in the tiny, oil-rich nation.

Backers of the president and his main challenger, Jean Ping, also traded accusations of fraud allegedly committed during Saturday's vote, raising the prospect of increased tension in the wake of an uncharacteristically bitter campaign.

At a large gathering of supporters at his campaign headquarters in the capital, Ping, 73, distributed figures showing him handily beating Bongo.  

"The general trends indicate we're the winner of this important presidential election," Ping told backers and reporters. "Despite numerous irregularities ... you have managed to thwart this regime's congenital traps of fraud."

Interior Minister Pacôme Moubelet-Boubeya, who had already warned candidates that giving results before the official declaration was against the law, condemned Ping's announcement.

"The candidate Jean Ping has just carried out an attempt to manipulate the democratic process," he said in a statement distributed late on Sunday.

Official results are expected on Tuesday.

Bongo, 57, who first won election after his father Omar died in 2009 after 42 years in office, has benefited from being the incumbent in a country with a patronage system lubricated by oil largesse.

Gabon's one-round election means the winner simply requires more votes than any other candidate. In 2009, Bongo won with 41.73 percent of the vote.

Addressing Ping's declaration, Bongo warned his rival against pre-empting the result by claiming victory before an official announcement.

"You must not sell the skin of the bear before you've killed him," he said, speaking at one of his campaign offices in Libreville. "In any case, I am confident."

 

FRAUD?

Minutes earlier, his spokesman Alain Claude Bilie By Nzé told journalists that Bongo was leading in five of Gabon's nine provinces.

In comments broadcast overnight on state-owned television, the spokesman went even further, stating that Bongo was poised to win another term in office.

"Even if no figure can or should be given at this stage, we are, in light of information we are receiving, able to say that our candidate ... will claim victory," he said.

Bilie By Nzé also said "massive fraud" had been observed during the vote, particularly in polling stations located in opposition strongholds.

The interior ministry on Sunday acknowledged fraud had been noted in some polling stations. But it offered little detail and said that the process remained "satisfactory and positive".

An oil producer with a population of less than two million, Gabon is one of Africa's richest countries.

However, declining oil output and falling prices have resulted in budget cuts and provided fodder for opposition claims that the average person has struggled under Bongo's leadership. His re-election bid was also hobbled by a series of high-profile defections from the ruling party.

Ping, one of 10 candidates contesting the poll, is a former foreign minister and African Union Commission chairman, who was a close ally of Omar Bongo.

Some opposition supporters have called into question Bongo's Gabonese nationality, claiming he was adopted from eastern Nigeria as a baby, a charge that risks fuelling xenophobic sentiment and which the president denies.

Reuters

 

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Rita Akana

29.Aug.2016

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Cameroonian Journalist Arrested In Buea as Biya's regime Continues to Harass Reporters. Prince Nfor Hanson Nchanji a journalist working with Equinox TV Douala, and a reporter for Cameroon Concord was detained today Sunday,28.August 2016 at a Police station in Muea-Buea,South West region of Cameroon.

Hanson was detained this Sunday for interviewing Derick Jato who had been under custody since Wednesday at thesame police station. Derick Jato, South West Correspondent for Equinoxe Television was detained last Wednesday under unclear circumstances.

Journalists in Cameroon are often subjected to arrests designed to intimidate. 

Journalists in Cameroon are often subjected to arrests designed to intimidate. Ahmed Abba, Radio France Internationale's Hausa-language correspondent in northern Cameroon, is being held incommunicado in Yaoundé since August in a manner qualified as “extra-judicial” by RFI.Abba was later charged with terrorist collusion and failing to report terrorist acts to the authorities,

François Fogno Fotso, the editor of the weekly Génération Libre, has been facing charges of disobeying the police and “rebellion” ever since he photographed the heavy-handed arrests of pro-democracy activists in September. His trial has so far been postponed three times.

Cameroon is ranked 133rd out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

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Glory Agwetang

28.Aug.2016

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