Tag: Africa

‘Museveni kills more people than previous regimes combined’ – citizens

Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni |Photo: Via Facebook
Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni |Photo: Via Facebook

Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is said to have killed more people compared to previous regimes, according to Ugandans who expressed their anger on social media.

The accusation comes after the president admitted publicly for the first time that some of his security forces were responsible for the killing of an NRM supporter.

“When I heard of the unfortunate death of Isaac Ssenyange alias Mando Zebra, Uganda’s boxer and former captain of the Bombers. I telephoned his wife who narrated to me the events in detail. Zebra was an NRM supporter, and was mobilising for us so well. He was also training many youth in the ghetto and giving them hope in their search for meaningful life,” Museveni narrated on his Facebook page.

“At first I thought they were thugs disguising in uniform, but as I continued investigations, I found out that Zebra was killed by security personnel.”

The 76-year-old Ugandan President explained that the slain NRM supporter would have seen him in the office, if he hadn’t fallen into the hands of his security personnel.

“Indeed, Zebra was meant to come and see me when he was killed. Zebra’s wife told me people in police uniform came to pick Zebra but he jumped over the wall and could have met another group who shot him.”

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S. Sudanese mistake Google’s Internet Balloons for drones

Google sets to launch its balloon into the skies |Photo: Google

Nov 5, 2020 (Thessherald)–Earlier this month, South Sudanese were left in shock after unidentified drone-like objects with bright flashing lights were spotted in the country’s airspace flying over the capital, Juba, on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters to highlight the issue that left hundreds of citizens astonished, the Deputy Information Minister, Baba Medan, explained that the drone-like objects that were launched remotely by Google as part of its initiative to provide an aerial wireless network across the continent.

“We made an agreement with Google that we need to have the mobile internet in the region and that is targeting the rural areas,” Baba Medan told Eye Radio on Tuesday.

“So that balloons are not a threat to people, it is flying at 50,000 feet which is almost 20 kilometers above the earth. It is safe,” he stated.

“What the google balloon tries to do is to introduce a technology called LPE 4G, which is a high-speed technology and they try to make that connection without you having to wait for the installation of towers. It is now at a testing stage,” he noted.

Recently, the tech giant company, Google, launched a new project known as Google’s Loon Internet Balloon Project, and it has begun the first phase of its high-altitude balloons trial aimed at creating aerial connectivity supported by an antenna installed on the ground.

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Panic engulfs residents as mysterious drone hovers over Juba

An unidentified drone hovers over in the capital, Juba on October 31, 2020 |Photo: Via Facebook

November 1, 2020 (Thessherald)–South Sudanese were left in shock after a mysterious drone with bright flashing lights was spotted flying over the capital, Juba, on Saturday.

“Our citizens and certain uninformed officials panicked over what they perceived as UFOs or Drones flying over Juba,” Deng Bol Aruai, the Chairman of the Red Army Foundation confirmed on his Facebook on Sunday.

Several eyewitnesses interviewed by our correspondent gave an account of what the drone looked like.

“At first glance, it looked like an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) but when it started flying at a low altitude, we noticed that it was, in fact, a drone,” said Michael Ajak Deng, a Juba resident interviewed this evening by Thessherald.

There are also concerns that the drone may have been sent by foreign spies to snoop around and gather information about the country.

South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, is currently dependent on the Sudanese government for air traffic as it lacks financial capability to build an Air Management System at Juba International Airport.

South Sudan needs millions of dollars to construct a modernized Airport Management System that has an Air Traffic Control Administrator, Over Flight Billing, Real Time Apron Management, Airport Flight Information Display, Gate Allocation, Automated Warehouse, Security and Meteorological Systems.

Report | By Buay Kapduel
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Sudan, U.S. sign deal on restoring Sudan’s Sovereign Immunity

By Reuters
President Donald Trump is seen on the phone with leaders of Israel and Sudan in the Oval Office at the White House in WWashington © Reuters/CARLOS

October 31, 2020 (Thessherald)–Sudan and the United States signed an agreement to restore the African country’s sovereign immunity, the Sudanese Ministry of Justice said Friday.

The ministry said in a statement the agreement would settle cases brought against Sudan in U.S. courts, including for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, for which Sudan has agreed to pay $335 million to victims.

The deal is part of a U.S. pledge to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. The designation goes back to Sudan’s toppled Islamist ruler Omar al-Bashir, when Washington believed the country was supporting militant groups.

President Donald Trump said this month that the United States would remove Sudan from the list as soon as Khartoum set aside the $335 million it has agreed to pay to American victims of militant attacks and their families.

To avoid new lawsuits, Sudan needed its sovereign immunity restored, which it lost as a designated sponsor of terrorism.

The designation makes it difficult for its transitional government to access urgently needed debt relief and foreign financing as it fights an economic crisis.

Sudan has agreed, under U.S. pressure, to normalize ties with Israel, making Khartoum the third Arab government after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to establish relations with Israel in the last two months.

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UNHCR provides life-saving assistance to IDPs as floods wreak havoc in Bor

IDPs receive food assistance from UNHCR| Photo: UNHCR/Gift Friday Noah

October 27, 2020 (Thessherald)–The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR-South Sudan) has provided life-saving humanitarian aid to thousands of internally displaced people who have been uprooted from their homes by the devastating floods.

“Thousands have been temporarily displaced from their homes by floods in Bor and are currently living in the Mangala IDP settlement. As part of the response to this situation, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and its Partner Humanitarian Development Consortium, have been distributing much needed assistance,” the UN Refugee Agency said in a brief statement.

“More than 1,200 vulnerable families, for a total of 6,340 individuals, received emergency assistance.”

Currently, around 700,000 people are reported to have been affected by the floods across the country.

South Sudan has been torn apart by the conflict, forcing over 1.47 million people to seek shelter in the UNMISS camps and another 2.2 million to neighbouring countries.

In September, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and disaster management (MHADM) declared Mangalla as an IDPs camp to host flood-stricken communities.

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South Sudan receives $88m in loans from Afreximbank

South Sudan's Minister, Michael Makuei Lueth
Minister of Information Michal Makuei Lueth |Photo: File

Oct 3, 2020 (Thessherald)–South Sudan’s government has received an amount of $88 million in loans from the from the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), according to Minister of Information Michal Makuei Lueth.

Speaking to reporters after an extraordinary cabinet meeting, Makuei said the government had decided to borrow money from Afreximbank to improve the economy and settle outstanding debts.

“The Afreximbank in the last meeting approved a loan of $25 million. This time the bank has decided to increase the amount, and it also approved that they will give us an additional sum of $63 million for the same pandemic trade impact mitigation,” Makuei explained.

South Sudan continues to struggle to improve an economy that is nearing total collapse due to corruption, sharp drops in oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic.

In August, President Kiir set up a committee charged with overseeing the management of the economy.

The Committee consists of ministries of finance, trade and industry, petroleum, mining and the governor of Central Bank.

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Sudan, Kenya, and Ethiopia confirm first COVID-19 cases today

(Thessherald)–Three east African countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan – have confirmed cases of COVID-19 for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic virus in 2019.

–In Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Public Health Institute confirmed on Friday that a 48-year-old Japanese citizen who came from Burkina Faso had been tested positive and quarantined in a health facility to control the transmission of the virus.

“The person found positive is a 48 year old Japanese citizen who came to Ethiopia on March 4, 2020 from Burkina Faso,” confirmed the Ministry of Health.

“Ethiopia has put in place a disease surveillance program since the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, and it has now identified the first positive case in the country. The patient is currently isolated at our facility.”

The Ethiopian government stated that the case is being addressed and that those who may have been in close contact with the patient are being tracked and quarantined when they are found as part of preventive measures against the transmission of the virus.

“He is undergoing medical follow up and is in a stable condition. Those who have been in contact with this person are being traced and quarantined. Since fear and panic are as dangerous as the disease itself, this first positive case in the country should not let us lower our guard but should propel us to redouble our effort to control the disease.”

–In Kenya

On Friday, The Ministry of Health confirmed a case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nairobi and was the first of its kind to be reported in Kenya since the outbreak in China in late 2019.

“The case is a Kenyan citizen who travelled back to Nairobi returning from the United States of America via London, United Kingdom on the 5th March 2020. She was confirmed positive by the National Influenza Centre Laboratory at the National Public Health Laboratories of the Ministry of Health. The patient is clinically stable, and is being managed at the Infectious Diseases Unit at the Kenyatta National Hospital,” the Ministry of Health explained in a statement obtained by The South Sudan Herald.

“The Government of Kenya, through the Ministry of Health, continues to strengthen measures to ensure no further transmission of the disease in Kenya. The National Emergency Response Committee on Coronavirus preparedness and response will continue to provide strategic leadership working through whole Government approach to respond to this case in the implementation of mitigation measures. I wish to assure all Kenyans that we have been beefing up our preparedness capacities since the first confirmed cases in China. The Government will use all the available resources to respond to this case,” the statement added.

The Government traced all the contacts of the patient since her arrival in Kenya.

–In Sudan

The Sudanese Ministry of Health reported the country’s first confirmed COVID-19 of a man who died on Thursday after traveling to the United Arab Emirates earlier this month, bringing the number of COVID-19 cases to 170 in African countries.

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