At least five African migrants died and another 33 were missing after four boats sank off the coast of Tunisia on Wednesday as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, an official of a local rights group said.

Romadan Ben Omar, the official in the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights, said that coast guard rescued five migrants who had been on board boats that sank off the coast of the southern city of Sfax, and that they were in a bad psychological condition.

A judicial official told Reuters on Thursday that 33 of the migrants were still missing and the Coast Guard had rescued 84 others.

The coastline of Sfax has become a major departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East for a shot at a better life in Europe.

The incident comes amid a significant increase of migration boats from the Tunisian coast toward Italy and in the midst of a campaign by Tunisian authorities of arrests targeting undocumented sub-Saharan African immigration.

According to unofficial United Nations data, 12,000 of those who have reached Italy this year set sail from Tunisia, compared with 1,300 in the same period of 2022. Previously, Libya was the main launch pad for migrants from the region.

Last month, President Kais Saied said in comments widely criticised by rights groups and the African Union that undocumented sub-Saharan African immigration was a conspiracy aimed at changing Tunisia’s demographic make-up.

He ordered security forces to expel any migrants living in Tunisia illegally.

The order had led people to flee the country, even if they previously had no intention of making the dangerous crossing to Europe, a senior official with the United Nations said.

Tunisia is struggling with its worst financial crisis due to the disruption of negotiations with International Monetary Fund for a loan amid fears of default in debt repayment, raising concerns from Europe, especially neighboring Italy.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani previously told Reuters that Rome wanted the IMF to unblock the $1.9 billion loan to Tunisia, fearful that without the cash the country would be destabilised, unleashing a new wave of migrants toward Europe.

Source:  Reuters

More than 400 rebels in Chad were handed life sentences on Tuesday following the death of former ruler Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed in 2021, a public prosecutor told AFP.

After a mass trial, they were sentenced for “acts of terrorism, mercenarism, recruitment of child soldiers and assaulting the head of state,” said Mahamat El-Hadj Abba Nana, prosecutor for the capital N’Djamena.

He did not give a detailed figure for those jailed, saying only that “more than 400 were sentenced” to life, while 24 other defendants were acquitted.

The trial opened last month behind closed doors at Klessoum prison, 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of the capital.

In early 2021, the country’s main rebel group, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), launched an offensive on the north of the country from bases in Libya.

On April 20, the army announced that Marshal Deby, Chad’s iron-fisted ruler for the previous three decades, had died from wounds sustained in the fighting.

His death was announced just a day after he had been declared victor of a presidential election that gave him a sixth term in office.

He was immediately succeeded by one of his sons, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who took the helm at the head of a 15-member military junta.

‘A masquerade’

Several defendants were also ordered to pay damages of more than $32 million to the state and $1.6 million to the ex-president’s family, said FACT lawyer Francis Lokoulde, who suggested there would be an appeal.

“It’s a masquerade that follows no law, no convention”, said FACT leader Mahamat Mahdi Ali.

“All that comes from a willingness to criminalise our struggle. The verdict is a non-event,” he said.

Defence lawyers had protested at the very short notice after the mass trial had been announced just days before it started on February 13.

Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno had promised to hold free elections within 18 months, but that deadline was extended for another two years.

Protests last October to mark the initially promised end to military rule met with a deadly crackdown.

The Chadian authorities first put the death toll in the capital at around 50, before updating that figure to 73 deaths. Opposition groups say the number is higher.

The Geneva-based World Organization against Torture (OMCT) accused the Chadian authorities of summary executions and torture.

A total of 262 people were then handed terms of between two and three years after a trial in the notorious Koro Toro prison, isolated in the desert 600 kilometres from N’Djamena.

The remote location and proceedings drew condemnation from international human rights groups.

Human Rights Watch not only denounced the mass trial but also the murders, forced disappearances and torture that preceded it.

The main leaders of Chad’s opposition now live in hiding or in exile, even though the junta lifted a suspension of several opposition parties in January.

Despite criticism of his authoritarian rule, the elder Deby was a key ally in the West’s anti-jihadist campaign in the unstable Sahel, particularly due to the relative strength of Chad’s military.

Source: AFP

Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara, was reburied Thursday, eight years after his body was exhumed as part of an investigation.

Sankara’s body, and those of the 12 people who died with him, were reburied at the site of his assassination, which has since become a memorial for Sankara featuring a life-size statue of the former leader pumping his fist in the air.

Soldiers and community leaders paid tribute during a ceremony Thursday, some posing for pictures by Sankara’s coffin. All the coffins were draped in Burkina Faso flags with a photo beside them.

Sankara and the others were gunned down in the capital, Ouagadougou, during a 1987 coup and buried hastily, their bodies only allowed to be dug up in 2015, after the ousting of former President Blaise Compaore.

Sankara, a charismatic Marxist leader with a reputation as “Africa’s Che Guevara,” came to power in 1983 at the age of 33 after he and Compaore led a leftist coup that overthrew a moderate military faction. But in 1987, Compaore turned on his former friend in a coup in which he seized power and then ruled the country for 30 years.

Last year, Compaore, who now lives in Ivory Coast, was tried in absentia and convicted of complicity in their murders. A Burkina Faso military tribunal sentenced him to life imprisonment. Compaore’s right-hand man, Gilbert Diendere, and former spy chief Tousma Yacinthe Kafando were also given life sentences. Eight other people were found guilty of a range of charges including giving false testimonies and complicity in undermining state security.

While Sankara’s family was happy that he was finally laid to rest, they said the place of burial was like a slap in the face because of the horrors that occurred there.

“That place is painful for us to put our feet there. A lot of people were tortured there and crimes committed there and murders,” his younger brother Paul Sankara told The Associated Press by phone from the United States where he lives. The family asked the government to bury him elsewhere but was told it was at the army’s discretion since he was a soldier.

The West African nation has been struggling with a jihadi insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 2 million people and sowed division among the population leading to two coups last year. The current junta leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore, has been likened by some to Sankara, as an anti-imperialist pan-African leader, and is using the reburial to increase support, analysts say.

“With undertaking a symbolic state funeral for Sankara, Traore aims to boost his image by appealing to the collective memory of the young revolutionary leader that still shapes society in Burkina Faso,” said Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk intelligence firm.

Source: AP

Suspected jihadists killed 13 people, most of them from the military, in the lastest such attack in Burkina Faso’s restive north, the army said Tuesday. 

Burkina Faso’s State Information Agency posted on its Facebook page that a dozen security officers and a civilian were killed Monday in Falagountou in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region during clashes between the military and jihadis.

Ten military police officers, two members of an auxiliary force supporting the army, and a civilian died as a result of a “terrorist attack on Monday” in the locality of Falangoutou, the army said in a statement.

Ten other military police officers were missing and another five wounded in the attack, the army said.

Fifteen abducted people found dead: governor

The latest attack followed a weekend of violence, when another 20 people were killed in two attacks in the country’s east-central and western regions.

Fifteen people seized by suspected jihadists in western Burkina Faso at the weekend have been found dead, the region’s governor said on Tuesday.

“Fifteen bodies were found on Monday in Linguekoro village in Comoe province,” said Colonel Jean Charles dit Yenapono Somé, governor of the Cascades region, in a statement.

Four people were executed Saturday afternoon when gunmen intercepted their van between Tenkodogo and Ouargaye villages.

On Sunday, a passenger mini-bus coming from the western city of Banfora was intercepted by armed men, said Col. Somé in a statement.

Eight women and one man were freed, the rest of the people were abducted and their lifeless bodies were found with bullet holes the following day, he said.

Armed groups, coups, fleeing civilians

Jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State Group has ravaged the West African country for years killing thousands and displacing nearly 2 million people. Nearly 5,000 civilians have been killed since 2015, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).

The violence has sowed frustration and distrust among the population and led to two coups last year. The new junta leader, Ibrahim Traoré, seized power in September promising to stem the violence but attacks are increasing.

Traoré has mobilised tens of thousands of civilian fighters to combat the jihadis alongside the army. But analysts says the civilian fighters are accused of targeting other civilians perceived to be working with the jihadis, which is fueling retaliatory attacks.

“The types of mass-atrocities that are occurring were expected, as the conflict was expected to escalate in the coming months due to the increased mobilization of the population through the (volunteer) program and the increasing trend of extrajudicial killings by defence and security forces observed in recent months,” said Héni Nsaibia, senior researcher at ACLED.

“With the increase in state violence and state-sanctioned violence, it is not surprising that militant violence is escalating and further fueling cycles of attacks and retaliation,” he said.

Source: AP

The chief executive officer of AFOSMA, a US-based non-governmental organization, Elvis Mbeng, is currently in the Democratic Republic of Congo where is sharing perspectives with officials of certain non-governmental organizations on future collaboration between his organization and local NGOs with similar missions.

It should be underscored that AFOSMA is a 501 c3 non-profit organization aimed at supporting educational projects in Africa.

Started as SEPFO in 2002 in Mamfe with its most accepted Searchlight School Project, AFOSMA provides quality basic education to Orphans and career training to teenage mothers.

Mr. Elvis Mbeng is visiting Gemena Congo on invitation by the Vice President of the Senate’s Sanguma Foundation which runs an orphanage, a clinic, a university, income generating activities like maize farms, bakery and transportation to all for sustainable training of orphans and refugees in the Gemena area.

On a collaboration visit, the AFOSMA CEO donated items ranging from computer, dresses, medication, food, toys, shoes, pens, soap worth thousands of dollars to the Sanguma Foundation orphanage.

Reported by Camcordnews Africa Desk

More than 120 people were killed Tuesday as the worst floods in years battered DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa following an all-night downpour, authorities said in a provisional assessment.

Major roads in the centre of Kinshasa, a city of some 15 million people, were submerged for hours, and a key supply route was cut off.

Earlier in the day, city police chief General Sylvano Kasongo gave a provisional toll of at least 55 dead in a statement to AFP, concentrated especially on hillside locations where there had been landslips.

However, the toll was then revised upwards to at least 100, according to the country’s state television. 

An AFP reporter saw the bodies of nine members of the same family – including young children – who had died after the collapse of their home in the Binza Delvaux district.

Source: AFP

At least four people were killed in an ongoing attack by Al Shabaab militants who laid siege to a popular hotel in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu overnight, a national security agency official told AFP on Monday.

Gunfire and explosions could still be heard more than 12 hours after the militants stormed the Villa Rose hotel near the presidential palace in a hail of bullets.

Mohamed Dahir, an official from the national security agency, told AFP the gunmen were holed up in a room at the hotel surrounded by government forces.

“So far we have confirmed the death of four people”, he said, adding that others had been rescued from the besieged venue.

Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab militants stormed the hotel on Sunday using guns and explosives, with a police officer saying at the time that some government officials escaped from its windows.

“There is still heavy gunfire inside the hotel and we hear explosions from time to time … we are still in our houses since last night, when the siege started,” Ismail Haaji, who lives near the hotel, told Reuters.

Special forces units, known as Haramcad and Gaashaan, had taken over operations, said a police officer at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The fighters who launched the attack are still fighting inside the hotel, and they are fighting with the forces of Haramcad and Gaashaan, and security forces are trying to rescue the people trapped inside the hotel,” the officer added.

Government officials in Mogadishu frequently use the Villa Rose hotel for meetings.

Somalia’s parliament said it had postponed a scheduled session for both of its houses.

“All members of parliament of both councils are being informed that today’s scheduled meeting has been postponed,” it said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Al Shabaab, which is seeking to topple the government and establish its own rule based on an extreme interpretation of Islamic law, frequently stages attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was elected this year, has launched a military offensive against the group.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)

Traders working on Cameroon’s border with Equatorial Guinea say Malabo has partially reopened border traffic a day after partial election results indicate Teodoro Obiang Nguema will extend his 43-year rule. The 80-year-old Nguema, the world’s longest-ruling head of state, came to power in a 1979 coup and has since ruled the west African nation with an iron fist.

Merchants from Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria say they were permitted to enter Equatorial Guinea Wednesday.

Equatorial Guinea closed its borders October 30 ahead of its November 20 elections and said it wanted to prevent what it called “infiltration of mercenaries who want to destabilize the elections.”

Cameroon-born building material exporter Pierre Marie Mihamle says several hundred traders entered Equatorial Guinea a day after the central African state’s government announced November 20 elections results.

He says the re-election of Obiang as president of Equatorial Guinea means the movement of goods and persons to the central African state will be frequently interrupted or meticulously controlled. Mihamle says foreign nationals who speak against Obiang will be chased from Equatorial Guinea.

Mihamle said Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo Brazzaville are members of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, or CEMAC, but Obiang regularly orders the deportation of foreign citizens, citing national economic and security concerns.

Obiang’s ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, or the PDGE, is winning over 98% of the vote in presidential, legislative, and municipal elections held Sunday, according to preliminary election results released this week by Equatorial Guinea’s interior minister, Clemente Engonga Nguema Onguene. The results indicate that Obiang’s challengers, Andrés Esono Ondo of the CPDS party and former ally Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu of the PCSD, got 1.34% and 0.35% of the vote.

The final results of the one-round election will be announced November 26, according to Equatorial Guinea’s electoral laws. The 80-year-old Obiang is Africa’s longest serving leader. He took power from his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 coup.

Ngah Derrick is an international relations specialist at Cameroon’s National Institute of International Relations. He says Equatorial Guinea should not expect any changes from Obiang, who has ruled the country with an iron fist.

“Obiang has done everything to eternalize power,” said Derrick. “The reigning vice president of the country that is his son is the vice president of the Republic and it tells you that he is gradually grooming his son in order to be able to ascend to the highest office of magistracy of the state in Equatorial Guinea in case he [Obiang] becomes tired, sick or in case of death.”

Obiang’s son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, is Equatorial Guinea’s vice president. Equatorial Guinea’s political opposition says Obiang’s rule is marked by favoritism, persecution and torture of political opponents. Santiago Oliveira, who led Obiang’s election campaign in Cameroon, denies the charges. He says the long-serving central African state’s leader should be credited with bringing development to his country.

He says Obiang has transformed Equatorial Guinea from a very poor and heavily indebted country it was in 1980, to an emerging economy today.

Oliveira said Equatorial Guinea civilians who voted in Cameroon should wait for Malabo to declare election results. He said all civilians should rally behind Obiang as he continues managing affairs of the state in the country’s general interest.

The United Nations says Equatorial Guinea has an annual oil revenue of more than $3 billion, but most of its 1.5 million people live in abject poverty. The nation’s opposition parties say most of the wealth is in the hands of Obiang, his family and friends.

Source: VOA

New police statistics show more than 7,000 people have been murdered by criminal gangs in a span of three months across South Africa.

On Wednesday, South Africa’s parliamentary portfolio committee on police heard details of the crime statistics, recording those crimes reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS) from July 1 to September 30.

Quarterly crime statistics showed a rise in murder, rape and kidnapping figures compared with the same period last year. The murder rate rose 14 percent during the period, compared with the same timeframe in 2021, when 6,163 people were killed. Virtually 1,000 women and more than 550 children were among those murdered during the period.

More than 13,000 women were also victims of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and 1,277 women were victims of attempted murder.

Rapes, in a country notorious for sex assaults against women and children, also recorded a huge jump. Kidnappings doubled to more than 4,000 in the three months, compared to the same time last year.

Commenting on violence against women and children, Police Minister Bheki Cele said, “The rate at which women are abused, violated and some killed in South Africa remains worrying and unacceptable.”

“The crime statistics again show that we as communities continue to fail to protect some of the most vulnerable in society: our children,” Cele said.

Carjackings rose 24 percent to more than 6,000.

The police minister promised that 10,000 new recruits would be ready to join the police force before the Christmas and New Year period, when crime typically rises. Their deployment “will intensify police visibility during the festive season and beyond,” he said. “Nothing will replace fighting crime [better] than warm bodies.”

Andrew Whitfield, a lawmaker with the largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, however, called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire Cele. “The bloodbath of violent crime remains out of control across the country with millions of people living in fear.”

Source: Presstv

The M23 rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has pushed into fresh territory, officials said, after a regional bloc issued a call to lay down arms.

A resurgent group mostly drawn from Congolese Tutsis, the M23 has swept across North Kivu province, triggering a humanitarian crisis and a showdown between the DRC and Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of supporting the rebels.

In recent weeks, fighters have been edging closer towards Goma, an important commercial hub of one million people on the border with Rwanda.

But local residents and administrative officials told AFP that the armed group had also begun a push westwards into Masisi territory.

“The rebels are here,” a resident of Tongo, a town in wildlife haven Virunga National Park, which lies on the road leading to Masisi territory, said on Thursday.

An official in the local administration, who requested anonymity, also told AFP late Wednesday that M23 fighters had entered his office.

M23 fighters and Congolese troops were clashing this week in Kibumba, which is just 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Goma.

A security official, who declined to be named, said Thursday the M23 now controlled the settlement.

The DRC’s army has yet to communicate officially about the rebel advance.

On Wednesday, the head of the newly created East African Community (EAC) military force in eastern DR Congo, Jeff Nyagah, said that rebels that must pursue political negotiations and disarm.

“Those who fail or refuse to voluntarily disarm, then we’ll go for them,” the Kenyan general warned.

Nyagah also vowed that the EAC force would protect Goma.

Despite official denials from Kigali, an unpublished report for the United Nations seen by AFP in August pointed to Rwandan involvement with the M23.

The report also said the M23 plans to capture Goma in order to extract political concessions from the government in Kinshasa.

The M23 first leapt to prominence in 2012 when it captured Goma, before being driven out and going to ground.

But the rebel group re-emerged late last year, claiming that the DRC had failed to honour a pledge to integrate its fighters into the army, among other grievances.

Source: AFP