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93-year-old President Robert Mugabe started the celebration on Monday when he spent some time with school children gathered at an indoor sports centre in Harare.

“You must remember that we took our land back from our erstwhile colonisers … you are the inheritors of it,” he told the children at their party.

Mugabe, who has been caught on camera at several high-profiled occasions dozing off, told the children to “remember to guard against dozing off during lessons”. “You should not feel tempted to turn lessons into a siesta,” he was reported to have said jokingly.

Ahead of the major celebration at the National Sports Stadium, opposition leaders and supporters have expressed disdain towards the celebration.

“We commemorate and not celebrate because the stinking poverty around us and the extreme suffering of the people is not worth celebrating. Our current sad national predicament is not commensurate with the sacrifice we made as a nation in the brutal struggle for our independence,” leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party, Morgan Tsvangirai said in a statement.

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Rita Akana

18.Apr.2017

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Born in Kenya and raised in Bamenda, Dr Vera Songwe, the newly appointed Executive Secretary for United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, becomes the first woman ever to head this important unit of the United Nations. Before her Appointment, Dr. Songwe has been Regional Director, covering West and Central Africa for the International Finance Corporation.

This appointment has brought lots of smiles on the faces of many passionate Anglophones and some say it is a step in the right direction given the state of affairs in the country.

According to Lapsambu Clement, a fervent activist of the Anglophone struggle, this appointment could just be the last straw that might break the camel’s back.

Clement says “God has a way of doing His things. We have been clamouring for the UN to intervene in the current struggle but it has almost fallen on deaf ears. Little did we know that God is busy preparing one of us to head this very important unit of the United Nations. Now we have somebody in such an important position and she will surely facilitate to make our voice heard in the international community”.

Although many are happy, Critics say only time will tell. “I think we should watch and see her stands as regards the struggle in the weeks ahead. It is too early to judge” says a Douala based.

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Ndi Derek Giyoh

16.Apr.2017

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The UK secretary of state for international development has said that the violence in South Sudan amounted to genocide along tribal lines. Priti Patel's comments came after she visited the country earlier in April.

UK International Development Minister Priti Patel said Thursday that massacres were taking place across South Sudan as part of what she referred to as a "scorched earth policy."

Patel described the situation in South Sudan as "absolutely abhorrent and inhumane," highlighting that villages were being burned down, women were being raped and "people's throats (are) being slit."

"It's tribal, it's absolutely tribal, so on that basis it's genocide," Patel told reporters in Uganda.

International Development Minister Priti Patel made the scathing comments after a visit to South Sudan earlier in April

The minister also urged foreign leaders to do more to force the country's government to end the conflict in which tens of thousands of people have been killed. South Sudan, which broke away from Sudan in 2011, has been in a state of civil war since December 2013 following a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.

Last month, the UN released a report saying that South Sudan was teetering on the edge of genocide and undergoing broad ethnic cleansing, being largely carried out government forces. The report emphasized that the country also faces a serious hunger crisis, with famine having been declared in two counties.

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Rita Akana

16.Apr.2017

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Pope Francis denounced "oppressive regimes" in his Easter message on Sunday but in an apparent call for restraint urged world leaders to prevent the spread of conflicts, as tensions rose in North Korea and Syria.

Francis, marking the fifth Easter season of his pontificate, said Mass before tens of thousands of people under exceptional security measures in St. Peter's Square following recent vehicle attacks against pedestrians in London and Stockholm.

More police vans and army vehicles than usual were positioned at the entrances to the Vatican area and the faithful were stopped at several check points leading into the square, which was decorated with 35,000 flowers and trees.

In his Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) message, delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, Francis spoke of a world lacerated by conflicts and laced with tensions.

From the same balcony from where he first appeared to the world on the night of his election in 2013, Francis spoke of God walking "beside all those forced to leave their homelands as a result of armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, famine and oppressive regimes".

He did not name any specific governments.

"In the complex and often dramatic situations of today's world, may the Risen Lord guide the steps of all those who work for justice and peace. May he grant the leaders of nations the courage they need to prevent the spread of conflicts and to put a halt to the arms trade," he said.

Francis spoke hours after North Korea warned the United States to end its "military hysteria" or face retaliation as a U.S. aircraft carrier group steamed towards the region and the reclusive state marked the 105th birth anniversary of its founding father.

Concern has grown since the U.S. Navy fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield last week in response to a deadly gas attack. That raised questions about U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for North Korea, which has conducted missile and nuclear tests in defiance of United Nations and unilateral sanctions.

Francis also condemned the bomb blast on a crowded Syrian bus convoy that killed at least 112 people outside Aleppo as an "ignoble" attack, asking God to bring healing and healing and comfort to civilian population in what he called the "beloved and martyred Syria".

Speaking on the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, he called for peace in South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine.

A surprise downpour hit Rome as the Mass was held but it passed quickly, allowing Francis to ride around in an open pope mobile so people at the back of the crowd could see him.

Repeatedly during Holy Week services, Francis has drawn attention to the plight of war victims, refugees and migrants.

On Good Friday, he spoke of the "shame" of humanity becoming inured to daily scenes of bombed cities and drowning migrants.

 

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Reuters

16.Apr.2017

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Nearly 100 migrants are missing and feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Tripoli. 23 others have been rescued by Libya's coastguard. Authorities say the migrants were pulled off a craft near Gargaresh, a suburb of Tripoli....

Uganda has opened another migrant settlement camp to accommodate the growing number of refugees from South Sudan. Palabek Settlement in Lamwo will accommodate close to 40,000 temporary houses. According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 2,000 South Sudanese cross the border into Uganda every day....

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Rita Akana

14.Apr.2017

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A groundbreaking black jurist who became the first Muslim woman to serve as a U.S. judge was found dead in New York's Hudson River on Wednesday, police said.

Sheila Abdus-Salaam, a 65-year-old associate judge of New York's highest court, was found floating off Manhattan's west side at about 1:45 p.m. EDT (1545 GMT), a police spokesman said.

Police pulled Abdus-Salaam's fully clothed body from the water and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Her family identified her and an autopsy would determine the cause of death, the spokesman said.

Abdus-Salaam, a native of Washington, D.C., became the first African-American woman appointed to the Court of Appeals when Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo named her to the state's high court in 2013.

"Justice Sheila Abdus-Salaam was a trailblazing jurist whose life in public service was in pursuit of a more fair and more just New York for all," Cuomo said in a statement.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History said Abdus-Salaam was the first female Muslim to serve as a U.S. judge.

Citing unidentified sources, the New York Post reported that Abdus-Salaam had been reported missing from her New York home earlier on Wednesday. Attempts to reach her family were unsuccessful.

A graduate of Barnard College and Columbia Law School, Abdus-Salaam started her law career with East Brooklyn Legal Services and served as a New York state assistant attorney general, according to the Court of Appeals website.

She held a series of judicial posts after being elected to a New York City judgeship in 1991.

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Rita Akana

13.Apr.2017

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