The Angolan government’s request to freeze overseas accounts of Isabel dos Santos has been granted by the Portuguese authorities, a number of media outlets including the Expresso newspaper have reported.

This is the latest leg in a resolve by Luanda to bring the billionaire daughter of ex president Jose Eduardo dos Santos to book for alleged corruption and pillaging of public funds.

Isabel was head of the country’s oil firm, SONANGOL, a post she was controversially handed by her father. President Lourenco fired her months after taking office in 2017. Her brother Jose Filomeno is also facing corruption charges over his time at the head of the national sovereign fund.

Local accounts of Ms Dos Santos were frozen by a court late last year before an exposé into corruption files linked to her wealth were released last month. She has repeatedly rubbished the reports and stressed that she had earned all her wealth legally.

Luanda has slapped charges of embezzlement and financial misappropriation against the 46-year-old who has been living outside the country for the better part of the time that her father left office. She is on record to have said that she would consider running for the presidency when next polls are held.

Lourenco vows to recover stolen funds hidden abroad

President Joao Lourenco last Friday told visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel that his reformist government was working to recover funds stolen from public coffers and stashed abroad.

“With the support of everyone, civil society and specialised international institutions, we are implementing initiatives to combat money laundering, as well as to recover assets that have been set up with public resources… (or) been illegally transferred… outside the country,” he said.

He said his government was determined to fight corruption in the graft-tainted oil-rich country.

“We are deepening the foundations of the rule of law, where there is no impunity for acts of corruption and for practices of nepotism and influence peddling,” he said in an address during Merkel’s one-day visit to the country.

Dos Santos built up a vast business empire over the past two decades, with stakes in several Angolan and Portuguese companies. Her fortune is valued at $2.1 billion by Forbes Magazine, which named her Africa’s richest woman in 2013.

Source: Africa News

Human Rights Watch on Monday called on Mali to bring to justice jihadist and ethnic militants who killed more than 450 people in the centre of the war-torn country last year.

Massacres committed in the centre of the West African country amounted to “the deadliest year for civilians” since 2012, the NGO said in a report.

Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012, and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives.

Despite the presence of foreign troops, the conflict has since spread to the centre of the country as well as neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Human Rights Watch pointed to the ethnic mosaic of central Mali as the “epicentre” of violence in the country.

“Armed groups are killing, maiming, and terrorizing communities throughout central Mali with no apparent fear of being held to account,” said report author Corinne Dufka in a statement.

Ethnic killings increased in central Mali following the emergence of the Katiba Macina group in 2015.

Led by jihadist preacher Amadou Koufa, Katiba Macina has recruited mainly from among the Fulani people and has been accused of ethnically-motivated attacks.

Other ethnic groups such as the Bambara or the Dogon have formed self-defence groups, which have in turn been accused of reprisal massacres.

Fourteen Fulani people were killed in central Mali in January, for example, in an apparent spate of ethnic violence.

Interviewing 147 victims or witnesses to attacks, Human Rights Watch said that at least 456 people were killed in central Mali last year, and hundreds more were wounded.

It said while Malian authorities convicted about 45 people for “smaller incidents of communal violence,” they had yet to question or prosecute the leaders of armed groups.

“The Malian government’s failure to punish armed groups on all sides is emboldening them to commit further atrocities,” Dufka said in a statement.

(AFP)

Thousands of African students in Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus epidemic, face dwindling food supplies, limited information and lockdowns restricting them to their campuses or hostels.

Two weeks after restrictions on movement were imposed, residents are running short of basic necessities, say students in the central Chinese city.Quick guide

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Several people described profound anxiety, insufficient food and a lack of information. Many complained about the lack of assistance received from their own embassies but refrained from criticising Chinese authorities.

There are more than 80,000 African students in China, often attracted by generous government scholarships. About 5,000 are thought to be in Wuhan, where there are scores of further education establishments offering qualifications that are prized in Africa.

A 21-year-old student from Cameroon living in Jingzhou city was reported on Tuesday to be among new cases. He is thought to have contracted the illness on a trip to Wuhan two weeks ago before the lockdown was imposed on the city but is not in any danger, university officials said.

More than 56 students from Malawi, mostly on scholarships, are among those trapped in Wuhan.

Bright Chipao, the president of the Association of Malawians in the city, said the students were desperate. “There is panic among us as we don’t know how long we are going to survive. We are also increasingly running out of foodstuffs,” he said.

Chipao said the students lacked masks, food and water. Prices had tripled in the city, he said.

The students have asked the Malawian government to airlift them out of the city and return them home, citing the example of other countries in Africa. However Chinese authorities have asked local embassies to tell their citizens not to seek to return home to avoid further spread of the disease.

Many educational establishments have imposed rigorous curbs on students, restricting them to their campuses or hostels. A statement from one colleges read: “Considering your safety, please stay inside your dormitory during this period … Most of the materials are in short supply. Please save resources, cherish your life.”

Kondwani Chembezi, a Malawian student at Wuhan University of Technology, said he and his roommate had only 2 gallons (9 litres) of water and some food.

He said: “Wuhan is becoming a death zone each passing day as the numbers of infected persons, as well as death toll, keep rising. There’s a great atmosphere of panic and despair as others have been repatriated to their nations, yet others remain here trying to survive this unpredictable period.

“Going [to buy things] is a grave personal risk as no one knows who has been exposed to the virus – anyone can be a carrier. Prices of commodities have really gone high – three or more times the usual price. It’s a hustle to actually buy what you need as the demand is also high.”

A Kenyan postgraduate student who has been in Wuhan for five years said the biggest problems were a shortage of reliable information and of food.

He said: “The worst part about it all is not knowing what is going on because all the information we are getting is from online sources or from friends from other universities … We have been forced to have one meal a day.

“Our institute gave us some rice, milk, oil and some vegetables but advises we also use them sparingly because when they are over we might not [be able] to get more.”

Many students contacted by the Guardian were reluctant to talk or be named, as they feared expulsion or other sanctions.

A Ugandan doctor in Shanghai said she and her colleagues felt better on Monday after a “worrying weekend”.

“We’re wearing our masks, washing our hands and avoiding crowded places,” she said. “But most importantly we’re trying to be positive and not live in constant fear and panic.”

Source: The Guardian.com

Six Chadian soldiers were killed and 10 others were injured in an ambush by suspected Boko Haram militants near Tetewa Island in the Lake Chad region on Monday, according to the army.

Chad’s army chief of staff Taher Erda said that the soldiers were on patrol when they were attacked by Boko Haram elements.

“Our forces were looking for Boko Haram elements when they were ambushed around Mandrari, a place with lots of tall grass,” a local official also told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The number of jihadist attacks around Lake Chad, which is shared by Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, has increased in recent months.

Just over a week ago, a female suicide bomber killed 9 civilians in Kaiga Kindjiria village near the lake.

In December, suspected Boko Haram militants killed at least 50 people on an island on Lake Chad, bordering Cameroon and Chad, according to an official.

Earlier this month, Chad ended a months-long mission fighting Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria and withdrew its 1,200-strong force across their common border.

Boko Haram began the insurrection in Nigeria a decade ago, leading to at least 35,000 deaths with violence spilling over into Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

A Boko Haram faction aligned with Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) jihadists is highly active around Lake Chad where the group has training bases on the Niger border and regularly carries out raids on military bases and regional security forces.

Source: AFP

The National Boundary Commission (NBC), has embarked on sensitisation and advocacy visits to communities along the Nigeria-Cameroon International Boundary in the Northeast.

According to a statement by the commission’s Head of Press, Mrs Efe Ovuakporie, the aim is to reinforce peace and cooperation, preparatory to the continuation of the demarcation of the Nigeria/Cameroon boundary in line with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) requirements

The sensitisation, which was led by the Acting Director-General of the Commission, Mr Adamu Adaji, focused on Adamawa and Taraba.

Adaji, while addressing the Governor of Adamawa, Alhaji Ahmad Fintiri, said that the commission had been crisscrossing several border communities in the country with the message of peaceful co-existence.

“In the light of the previous cooperation and successes recorded with the state government in similar exercises, the team is in the state to seek further support in the enlightenment of the people in border communities about the forthcoming pillar emplacement exercise, LOT5.

“I also want to canvass for the active participation of the relevant state boundary committee officials for proper coordination and record purposes,” Adaji said.

The NBC boss called on the Adamawa State government to assist the commission in the provision of Base and Forward Camp Sites to support security and logistics for those that would be engaged in the emplacement exercise.

In his response, Fintiri pledged his government’s support, stressing that the exercise was in the interest of the people in particular, and the country at large.

The NBC boss also visited the chairmen of Ganye and Toungo Local Government Areas where he solicited for their cooperation toward boosting awareness creation among their communities ahead of the exercise.

The team equally visited the traditional leader of Ganye Chiefdom who promised to mobilise his subjects to assist the NBC team during the demarcation exercise.

The emplacement exercise, otherwise known as the ‘Lot 5 stage’, is scheduled to take place at the Gotel Mountain and will involve the emplacement of 322 pillars.

Source (NAN)

At least six soldiers have been killed and several wounded in an overnight attack in central Mali, the army says, in fresh violence in the war-torn West African state.

The troops came under fire late Wednesday from “unidentified armed men” in Dioungani, an area in central Mali’s volatile Mopti region near the border with Burkina Faso, the army said on Twitter. 

A security official who declined to be named said that, in an assault lasting several hours, the attackers overwhelmed the soldiers’ position before reinforcements took it back. 

Local authorities and inhabitants have blamed the attack on militants. 

The army gave a “provisional toll” of six dead and several wounded, without giving further details. 

The security official, however, said seven soldiers had been killed.

Mali has been struggling to contain a militant insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012 and has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since. 

Despite some 4,500 French troops in the Sahel region, plus a 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Mali, the conflict has engulfed the center of the country and spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Local Malian troops are frequently attacked. On Tuesday, two soldiers were killed in the Mopti region when their convoy hit a roadside bomb.

On January 13, French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Sahel states agreed to focus their military efforts on the border region between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. 

(Source: AFP) 

Angola’s billionaire former first daughter Isabel dos Santos has been charged with money laundering and mismanagement during her stewardship of state-owned oil firm Sonangol.

Documents leaked this week alleged the daughter of ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, plundered state coffers to build her fortune, estimated at $2.1 billion (1.82 billion euros).

“Isabel dos Santos is accused of mismanagement and embezzlement of funds during her tenure at Sonangol and is thus charged in the first instance with the crimes of money laundering, influence peddling, harmful management … forgery of documents, among other economic crimes,” prosecutor general Helder Pitta Gros told a news conference late Wednesday.

Investigations into Isabel dos Santos’s 18-month tenure as Sonangol head from June 2016 were opened after her successor Carlos Saturnino raised the alarm about “irregular money transfers” and other dodgy procedures.

Dubbed Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos is accused of using her father’s backing to plunder state funds from the oil-rich but poor southern African country and moving the money abroad with the help of Western firms.

She stopped living in Angola after her father, who ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly 40 years, stepped down in 2017 for his anointed successor Joao Lourenco.

Gros said dos Santos was among five suspects, all of whom were currently residing abroad. “At the moment, the concern is to notify and get them to voluntarily come to justice,” said Gros.

Source:  AFP

Sudan says it has quelled a revolt after hours of heavy gunfire between the government forces and former agents of president Omar al-Bashir in the capital Khartoum.

Gunfire erupted and some explosions were heard at some bases of the Directorate of General Intelligence Service, formerly known as the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) — the security arm of Bashir — early Tuesday afternoon, in what the government said was a violent mutiny over pay by members of the intelligence services.

Troops from operating centers of the intelligence started a rebellion in some parts of the capital, said government spokesman Faisal Mohamed Saleh.

He said a number of NISS troops had come out on the streets, set up barricades and opened fire in the air.

“This happened because those troops rejected the amount of money they got for their retirement,” Saleh said, adding that negotiations were being held.

Reuters quoted residents as saying that a security building was seized by gunmen near the airport.

The army said two soldiers were killed and five people injured in the gunfire. Medics said a 15-year-old boy and a soldier were among those wounded.

On Wednesday, the head of the sovereign council announced that it had reopened the airspace and that the army was in control of all intelligence buildings.

Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan also said he will never allow any coup to take place in the country.

Sudan’s prosecutor general called for removing the immunity of NISS troops involved in the revolt.

“Those members of the intelligence involved in what happened today have committed a crime … I call for their immunity to be removed so they can face justice,” the prosecutor general said.

The Forces of Freedom and Change — a key part of the transitional government — also said in a statement earlier on Tuesday that it was “assessing the situation.”

“We are calling on our people to be calm and not give a chance for those who want to drag our homeland into bloodshed,” it added.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said in a Twitter message that the situation was under control and that “this will not stop us from achieving the goals of our revolution.”

A senior member of the ruling council, General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, accused former intelligence chief Salah Gosh of being behind the rebellion.

He said he did not consider the unrest as a coup attempt, but such action would never be tolerated.

The former agents, who started the rebellion, were at the forefront of a bloody crackdown against demonstrations, which eventually led to the ouster of Bashir in April last year — 30 years after he took power in a coup.

At least 170 people were killed during the crackdown on demonstrations.

Late last year, a court sentenced Bashir to two years in prison for corruption and the illicit possession of sizable amounts of foreign currency.

The African country is now run by a transitional government, composed of military rulers as well as members of the protest movement.

Source: Presstv

French President Emmanuel Macron says that he “hopes to convince” his US counterpart Donald Trump to keep American troops in Africa, after a top general said the Pentagon was weighing a troop reduction.

“If the Americans decided to leave Africa, this would be very bad news for us,” Macron said after a summit meeting with leaders of five Sahel nations fighting a mounting Islamist insurgency.

(Source: AFP)