George Weah reveals plan for Liberia

Liberia president-elect, George Weah, has declared that social transformation especially at the grassroots would be the “singular mission and focus” of his administration.

Weah made the promise while delivering his victory speech at his party’s headquarters in Monrovia on Saturday.

He pledged to improve the lives of ordinary Liberians through the instrumentality of pro-poor governance.

He also promised to tackle corruption, which is a big issue in the country, and improve the business environment to attract investments.

“I declare publicly today that transforming the lives of all Liberians is the singular mission and focus of my presidency.

“Over the next few days, we will assemble the government that is committed to fighting for the ideas that inspired our campaign, and dedicated to delivering for the Liberian people.

“Those chosen to serve will and must be dedicated to the ideas of grassroots social transformation.

“Partisans looking to cheat the Liberian people through the menace of corruption will have no place in my administration,’’ he declared.

Weah thanked outgoing President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for sustaining peace in Liberia over the last 12 years, and for her commitment to the first democratic transfer of power in 73 years.

He said his administration would build on the institutional gains made by Sirleeaf, but quickly assured that change would be made where necessary.

The president-elect said the country was open and ready for business, calling on investors, partners and Liberians in the Diaspora to join hands with his administration to build the economy.

“We will work to relax constraints to private investment, strengthen the business, legal and regulatory environment, and protect business profits,’’ he said.

Weah extended a hand of fellowship to his rival in the just-concluded presidential runoff election and outgoing Vice President Joseph Boakai, saying he will be counting on his advice and contributions.

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George Weah wins Liberia presidential elections

Retired footballer turned politician, George Manneh Weah, has won the Liberia Presidential election. The 1995 FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d’Or winner, succeeds President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. In 2011 he also ran for the vice-president role on the losing ticket but now, at the age of 51, is strongly placed to emerge as the successor to Ellen Sirleaf Johnson. The former Chelsea and Manchester City player was a three-time winner of the African Footballer of the Year prize. He was crowned World Footballer of the Year in 1995, comfortably beating German legend Jürgen Klinsmann into second place. Other footballers to enter politics include: – Pelé and Zico have both served as Brazilian sports ministers.

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Joseph Kabila’s residence burned down in DR Congo

A residence of President Joseph Kabila was burned down early Monday in a suspected militia attack that killed a police officer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, witnesses said.

So-called Mai-Mai armed groups were probably trying to steal goods from the building in Musienene, North Kivu province in the country’s troubled east, according to a military official.

“The residence of the head of state in Musienene has been targeted in an attack from 03:00 (01:00 GMT) and then burned by the Mai-Mai,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“The attackers ransacked everything before setting the house and some vehicles on fire.”

Kabila spends most of his time in the capital, Kinshasa, but is believed to have several homes across the country, including a farm.

Musienene regularly sees protests against Kabila’s extended time in power and demonstrations over insecurity.

He has managed to cling to power despite his second and final term as president officially ending in December 2016.

Elections to replace him never took place and a deal was eventually brokered that enabled Kabila to stay in office until a vote that was due to be held in 2017. The poll has since been postponed until December 23, 2018.

“We saw the flames consume the residence of the president of the republic when we awoke,” said Pascal Mukondi, a resident of Musienene.

Another resident said they “feared retaliation” from the army.

Armed Congolese groups and foreign forces control swathes of territory in North Kivu province and fighting is relatively common.

In a separate development, nine soldiers were killed in two ambushes by a suspected rebel militia group in South Kivu province, the military said Monday.

“The army recorded a loss of nine soldiers in two ambushes in the Baraka operational zone”, a unnamed military official told AFP.

A lieutenant was killed on Sunday in the village Lweba, seven kilometres (four miles) from the Baraka district, the official added.

The other deaths came in an attack two days earlier.

“Our hospital received the bodies of eight soldiers killed by bullets on Friday,” an official at a hospital in Lulimba, a village 60 kilometres south of Baraka, told AFP.

The military official accused the Mai-Mai militia of being responsible for both attacks, adding that DR Congo’s army lost “important material”.

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Teargas, chaos as Kenyatta to be sworn in for disputed second term

Kenyan police fired teargas and clashed with both ruling party and opposition supporters Tuesday ahead of the swearing in as president of Uhuru Kenyatta after two disputed polls that have left the nation deeply divided.

As foreign and local dignitaries poured into the 60,000-seat Kasarani stadium in Nairobi where the ceremony is to be held, the opposition attempted to gather for a “memorial rally” honouring the more than 50 people killed, mostly by police, in four months of political upheaval.

However police fired volleys of teargas and beat opposition supporters, prompting running battles in the area, an AFP reporter said.

Meanwhile at the Kasarani stadium chaos erupted as a crowd attempted to force its way into the venue, prompting police to fire teargas at Kenyatta supporters who tried to fight their way in.

“I just want to see President Uhuru Kenyatta because I voted for him, why are we being beaten like NASA (opposition),” said Janet Wambua, who was among the angry crowd.

Joseph Irungu of the interior ministry planning committee had said there was space for 40,000 people who did not get in to watch the event on big screens outside the stadium. However no such screens were provided, further angering the crowd.

Around 13 mostly African heads of state are expected to attend the ceremony where Kenyatta, 56, will be sworn in for his second and final five-year term.

These include the presidents of South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia and Somalia — among others — while prime ministers, foreign ministers and special envoys will represent other African nations, as well as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Serbia.

– Two elections and a historic court case –
Kenyatta’s inauguration comes after the Supreme Court validated his victory in last month’s rerun poll.

However, the swearing-in may not draw a line under the country’s political crisis with Odinga vowing to fight on.

The electoral strife goes back to an August 8 poll that was annulled in September by the Supreme Court, citing “irregularities and illegalities”.

The court ordered a rerun in October that was boycotted by the opposition, handing Kenyatta a landslide of 98 percent of votes cast by just 39 percent of the electorate.

The disputed election season has split the country along ethnic and regional lines, although political violence has not reached the scale of that which followed a 2007 poll when 1,100 were killed.

Odinga, denied the presidency for a fourth time this year, believes that he was cheated and the 72-year-old has refused to recognise the result.

He has promised to found a “third republic” — following independence from Britain in 1963 and a new constitution adopted in 2010 — as well as to continue a programme of protests and economic boycotts aimed at undermining Kenyatta’s “dictatorship”.

The current political crisis draws on a deep well of social, ethnic and geographic grievances in the country of around 48 million people.

In areas loyal to Odinga, an ethnic Luo, there is a sense of having been ground down and discriminated against since independence, not least by Kenyatta’s Kikuyu group, which has given Kenya three of its four presidents.

The months of disruption and unrest, plus the holding of two separate elections, have badly affected the economy, hitting the poorest hardest while leaving the wealthy political elites relatively unharmed.

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Libya navy says over 30 migrants dead, 200 rescued off coast

More than 30 migrants died and 200 were rescued on Saturday after their boats foundered off Libya’s western coast, the Libyan navy said.

The coastguard conducted two rescue operations off the city of Garabulli, 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of Tripoli, spokesman Colonel Abu Ajila Abdelbarri said.

He added that patrols had found 31 bodies and 60 survivors from one boat, along with a further 140 survivors from a second.

“When we arrived at the spot, we found an inflatable dinghy with several people clinging to part of it,” he said. He did not specify whether any people had been reported missing.

“The weather conditions these days are favourable for sending migrants to European shores on boats that are often unseaworthy,” he added.

Libyan patrol boat commander Nasser al-Ghammoudi said one of the vessels was three-quarters under water when the coastguard arrived.

“We looked for other survivors for more than five hours,” he said. “We were able to rescue one woman after we heard her shouts.”

A French NGO, SOS Mediterranee, said later Saturday that it had rescued over 400 people from a stricken wooden boat in international waters further from the Libyan coast.

Other rescue operations were ongoing on Saturday evening, Italian coastguard told AFP.

Italy’s coastguard, which coordinates the rescue effort in international waters, reported that a total of 1,500 people had been saved on Thursday and Friday.

Sharp drop in Italy arrivals

The large numbers of recent days contrast with the sharp drop since mid-July in the number of migrants being brought to Italy.

On Thursday, the UNHCR put the number of arrivals at Italian ports in the previous three months at 21,666, the lowest total registered in four years for that period of the year.

The downward trend has been attributed to a controversial combination of an Italian-led boosting of the Libyan coastguard’s ability to intercept boats and efforts to enlist the help of powerful militias to curb traffickers’ activity.

There have also been moves to tighten Libya’s southern borders, accelerate repatriations directly from Libya and measures to stem the flow of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa through transit states such as Niger and Sudan.

Those rescued by Libyan coastguard on Saturday were brought back to a naval base in Tripoli where the authorities provided them with water, food and medical care.

Migrants intercepted or rescued by the Libyans are usually held in detention centres to await repatriation, but waiting times are often long and conditions deplorable.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in mid-November labelled as “inhuman” European Union support for Libyan authorities to intercept migrants in the Mediterranean and return them to “horrific” prisons in Libya.

Last week, US television network CNN aired footage of an apparent slave auction in Libya where black men were presented to North African buyers as potential farmhands and sold off for as little as $400 (350 euros).

Libya’s UN-backed unity government said it would form a “commission to investigate these reports in order to apprehend and bring those responsible to justice”.

People trafficking networks have flourished in the chaos that followed a NATO-backed uprising which toppled long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

The unity government has said Libya is “a victim of illegal immigration, a transit state, not its source”, adding that the only solution is a return to stability.

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So Shocking!! Stream Mysteriously Turns Blood In Ghana (Photos + Video)

Residents of the New Juaben Municipality of the Eastern region have been thrown into a state of shock as the Nsukwa River flowing across the municipality has suddenly turned red.

Intrigued residents who are running to catch the glimpse in droves are assigning superstition for the change in colour of the popular river.

We are yet to confirm if the development is as a result of an industrial pollution or just a mystery.

See more photos and watch the video below:-

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Turkey inaugurates military academy in Somalia

Turkey inaugurated on Saturday the largest foreign-run military training centre in Somalia, where local troops are due to take over the protection of a nation threatened by Shabaab Islamist attacks.

Somalia’s fragile government and institutions, including its national army, are backed by the African Union’s 22,000-strong AMISOM force and powers like the United States.

But the gradual withdrawal of the AMISOM troops is due to start in October 2018 and doubts persist over the readiness of Somali forces to confront the Qaeda-aligned Shabaab.

In the meantime, training of the Somali army is handled primarily by foreign powers like the US, Kenya, Great Britain and the United Arab Emirates. About 200 Turkish soldiers and trainers will be stationed at the centre, which is near Mogadishu’s airport.

“This academy is quite different because the Turkish will train the forces and equip them with their military hardware so that they will not be left alone after the training”, Somali General Ahmed Mohamed Jimale said during the inauguration ceremony.

About 1,500 Somali soldiers can be trained there at a time, making it the largest foreign-run military training centre in the country.

“We thank the Turkish government people and their government for standing up to help our country, this academy is opened at a time when we dearly need it,” Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said.

The Shabaab have been fighting to overthrow the internationally backed government in Somalia since 2007.

It was pushed out of the capital in August 2011 and lost most of its other bastions in Somalia.

But the Shabaab still control vast swathes of countryside, from where they launch guerilla operations and suicide attacks against the capital and against local and international military bases.

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Supporters rally for Grace Mugabe after assault claim

Zimbabwe first lady Grace Mugabe attends the opening of the annual agricultural fair on August 25, 2017 in the capital Harare. Zimbabwe’s first lady Grace Mugabe appeared in public for the first time since she returned from South Africa where she was accused of assaulting a model and granted diplomatic immunity. The first lady, who is seen as possible successor to her 93-year-old husband, was granted diplomatic immunity by South Africa at the weekend and flew out of the country. / AFP PHOTO / Jekesai NJIKIZANA

Thousands of Zimbabweans marched through Harare on Wednesday in a show of support for first lady Grace Mugabe who evaded assault allegations in South Africa by claiming diplomatic immunity.

The march, organised by President Robert Mugabe’s all-powerful ZANU-PF party, came two weeks after Grace was accused of attacking a 20-year-old model at an upmarket Johannesburg hotel.

Grace Mugabe was due to address the “solidarity rally” once marchers reached the party’s headquarters in the capital.                                                                                                                  She is alleged to have assaulted Gabriella Engels with an electrical extension cable at the hotel where the Mugabes’ two sons, who have a reputation for partying, were staying.

The marchers, who were mainly women and young men dressed in party colours, chanted slogans and singing praises for “Dr Amai” (Doctor Mother).

Some street vendors and shopkeepers told AFP they were forced to close their businesses and join the march.

“We support the president and Dr Amai all the way to elections in 2018,” said 21-year-old unemployed mother-of-one Belinda Sunga, adding she relied on party-sponsored projects to survive.

President Mugabe, 93, who came to power in 1980, is due to stand again in elections next year, with his wife, 52, seen as one possible successor when he leaves office.

– ‘A insult to women’ –
“We came here to march and mobilise support for our president and the first lady,” said Lovemore Goka, 22, a motor mechanic who travelled by ZANU-PF transport from Gokwe, about 340 kilometres (210 miles) away.

“Engels is not an angel,” read one placard held by a supporter while another said “We Stand by Our Mother, Dr Grace.”

Engels suffered cuts to her forehead and the back of her head, and opened a police case in South Africa alleging assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Zimbabwean opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) dismissed the marchers as “sycophants” trying to seek favour with the Mugabe regime.

“If there should be any march, it should be against Grace Mugabe,” MDC spokesman Obert Gutu told AFP.

“The march is an insult to women. She had no decency to apologise after she was granted diplomatic immunity in suspicious circumstances.”

The state-run Herald newspaper on Wednesday ran a special supplement praising Grace Mugabe for her charity work and describing her as “a loving mother of the nation”.

The first lady is increasingly active in public life and in 2014 became the head the ZANU-PF party’s women’s wing.

She regularly speaks at rallies across the country, railing against anyone alleged to be disloyal to the president, and handing out clothes and domestic goods.

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UN calls on South Sudan to stop impeding its peacekeepers

on Thursday called on the government of South Sudan to “cease obstructions” to its peacekeeping mission’s operations and urged all sides to stop the fighting.

Egypt’s envoy to the 

The UN Security Council world body Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta, who currently holds the council’s rotating presidency, told reporters that council members had also asked all parties to the conflict to put a halt to “offensive operations.”

“The members of the Security Council condemned the recent fighting in Pagak,” a major rebel stronghold, the Egyptian diplomat said. “They demanded the government cease obstructions to UNMISS (UN Mission in South Sudan) and deployment of its Regional Protection Force, and noted that the recent suspension of flight clearances affected UNMISS operations,” he said.

“The members of the Security Council reminded all parties that the obstruction of activities of international peacekeeping may be subject to sanctions” under UN resolutions, he added.

UNMISS is more than 13,000 strong, including peacekeepers, police and civilians.

During their meeting, the 15 council members also expressed “deep concern at the continuous rise in humanitarian access incidents” and demanded that all parties to the conflict stop blocking aid from getting through.

South Sudan’s civil war erupted in December 2013 just two years after it obtained independence from Sudan, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

The conflict initially pitted Machar’s ethnic Nuer against Kiir’s Dinka, but since the collapse of a peace agreement in 2015, the war has engulfed other ethnic groups and been spurred by local grievances.

Thousands of people have been killed by the violence, which plunged part of the country into famine earlier this year. Some four million have been displaced, according to UN figures.

The United States has repeatedly called for an arms embargo on South Sudan, and one UN diplomat said that drive could eventually be put on the council’s agenda, as the UN grows increasingly exasperated with the spiral of violence.

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