Month: January 2023

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Rwanda and DRC end year with icy relations as fresh allegations emerge

KINSHASA/KIGALI, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are trading accusations over alleged territorial violations and espionage, which could dampen the hope for any ebbing of tensions between the two countries.

On Wednesday, Kigali said a Congolese military plane had trespassed into Rwandan territory, the second such incident raised in more than a month. Kinshasa did not immediately respond, although it had admitted to an earlier violation in November, terming it as an “unfortunate” disorientation by the pilot.

The spark was touched off on Tuesday after authorities in DRC said they were holding two Rwandans and two Congolese citizens accused of spying for Kigali under the cover of their day jobs.

The four were presented in Kinshasa and described as “spies for Rwandan authorities who operate in Kinshasa under the cover of NGO African Health Development Organisation, AHDO.”

According to a brief from the Deputy Minister of Interior, Jean-Claude Molipe, one of the Rwandans is a medical doctor while the other is a soldier with the Rwandan Defence Force.

Molipe claimed that “these spies had infiltrated senior army officers, political figures, economic operators, and members of civil society.”

The Congolese nationals are affiliated with AHDO. The Rwandans had, in fact, been arrested in August, a matter that caused a diplomatic protest from Kigali.

Rwanda’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta on Nov 4 wrote to Congolese counterpart Christophe Lutundula to demand the “unconditional release” of the two Rwandans. In response to the incident in November, the DRC government said its jet “unfortunately” entered Rwandan airspace and that it had “never harbored intentions of violating that of its neighbor.”

Rwanda did not immediately respond to the latest espionage allegations but, on Wednesday, Kigali accused DRC of violating its airspace. A statement said a Sukhoi-25 fighter jet from DRC violated Rwandan airspace along Lake Kivu in the Western Province at around midday. Rwanda accuses DRC of repeated violations, against the spirit of Luanda and Nairobi peace initiatives.

“The authorities in the DRC seem to be emboldened by consistent coddling by some in the international community, who repeatedly heap blame on Rwanda for all ills in the DRC while ignoring the transgressions originating from the DRC,” the Rwandan government said in a statement.

The Nairobi and Luanda peace initiatives are two peace-seeking processes for the eastern part of DR Congo, which is plagued by war between the M23 rebels and the Congolese army. Eastern DRC is also home to dozens of local and foreign armed groups, responsible for several massacres and abuses against civilians.

The Nairobi and Luanda process recommended a ceasefire and de-escalation between the DRC and the M23 rebels, but also to cool tensions between Rwanda and the DRC, who accuse one another of sponsoring rebels against their authorities. The Nairobi process was signed between the DRC government and about 50 armed groups (apart from the M23) in search of peace.

The DRC, now joined by France and the US, has sustained allegations that M23 receives backing from Rwanda, a charge Kigali rejects.

On Tuesday, Congolese officials made accusations about the four people arrested. Molipe said the four had acquired “a large amount of land in the areas [near] N’djili International Airport and the Kibomango military base.” The airport is Kinshasa’s biggest while the base lies east of Kinshasa, a few kilometers from the city center.

The Deputy Minister of the Interior and Security added that the fact that these people had acquired land near the airport suggested: “they were preparing for a Machiavellian plan.”

“The arrested Rwandan soldier revealed that he had access to different strategic sites in Kinshasa, in complicity with some general officers of the Congolese army.”

He said that investigations are continuing to arrest “military or civilian accomplices.” With the continual tensions between Kigali and Kinshasa, there is a risk of deteriorating the fragile relations between the two EAC partners.

Source: Nam News Network

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QRCS concludes eye surgery, anti-blindness convoy in Somalia

Doha, Qatar: Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has concluded its eye surgery and anti-blindness medical convoy, carried out at De Martino Public Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia.

With a total cost of $85,535 (QR 311,776), the project was coordinated with Somalia’s Federal Ministry of Health, the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS), and the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Somalia.

The 17-day project was aimed at providing medical assistance for poor and displaced people with eye diseases in the Banaadir region, with a special focus on people with special needs and those living at camps in Mogadishu and surrounding areas.

It involved clinical examinations for 502 patients at the outpatient clinic, and eye diseases were diagnosed through fundus examination, optometry, tonometry, focal length, and ocular ultrasound.

While other patients received prescriptions, 82 patients were identified as requiring surgical interventions, including 43 major cataract surgeries, 29 medium surgeries, and 10 minor surgeries.

In addition, 226 lab examinations were conducted, 400 prescriptions were given to outpatients, 223 reading glasses were distributed to +40- year-old patients, 82 prescriptions and 27 sunglasses were given to patients who underwent major and medium eye surgeries, the operating room was rehabilitated, and five local medical professionals were trained. The medical team comprised an ophthalmologist, an anesthesiologist, and a nurse from Sudan.

Nasser bin Ali Al-Kaabi, Deputy Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Somalia, visited QRCS’s representation office in Sudan. He praised QRCS’s role in the field of health in Somalia, as well as its significant projects to serve a large segment of Somali society.

The Federal Ministry of Health held a dinner party to honor QRCS’s personnel, in the presence of Dr. Maryan Maxamud, Somalia’s Miniser of Health, the Director of De Martino Public Hospital, programs manager and health coordinator at QRCS’s representation office, and members of the Sudanese medical team.

Somalia is one of the countries that have shortages in some health areas, especially eye treatment and surgery. Due to the high cost of treatment services, the poor and displaced people resort to unreliable traditional medicine. According to a World Health Organization’s (WHO) report, the eye disease rates among men and women are 52% and 48%, respectively. The total blindness rate among the Somali population is 9.8%.

Source: Qatar Red Crescent Society

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Libya says boat with 700 Europe-bound migrants intercepted

Cairo, A vessel carrying at least 700 migrants was intercepted off the eastern coast of Libya, the coast guard said. It was one of the largest interceptions in recent months of migrants seeking a better life in Europe through the war-torn North African country.

The coast guard said the boat was stopped Friday off the Mediterranean town of Moura, 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of the eastern city of Benghazi, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

It said in a statement that the migrants hail from different nations and that those who illegally entered Libya would be handed over to their home countries.

The statement did not provide further details.

The coast guard posted images on Facebook showing a large, overcrowded vessel with most of those on board appearing to be young people.

It was one of the largest interceptions in recent months of migrants sailing to Europe, a destination for thousands fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

In August last year, Italian military vessels aided a boat crammed with 539 migrants off the southern island of Lampedusa. The boat was launched from Libyan shores.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

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General Assembly approves UN regular budget for 2023

UNITED NATIONS, The General Assembly on Friday approved an annual regular budget for the United Nations of about 3.396 billion U.S. dollars.

The 2023 budget is higher than that of 2022, which stood at 3.122 billion dollars.

The regular budget covers UN activities across a range of areas, including political affairs, international justice and law, regional cooperation for development, human rights and humanitarian affairs, and public information.

The world body has a separate peacekeeping budget, which has a fiscal cycle ending on June 30. The regular budget covers the calendar year.

Source: Nam News Network

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Mudslides kill at least 10 miners in eastern DR Congo

BUKAVU (DR Congo), Mudslides killed at least 10 people at two makeshift mines in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after torrential rain, local officials said.

The disasters came after heavy rain overnight Thursday to Friday across the Fizi enclave in South Kivu province, said locals.

The mudslides hit two gold mining sites in the area.

“The provisional toll is 10 people dead, nine others injured, and missing people,” Aime Kaway, the administrator at Fizi, said, adding that it was difficult to know the exact number of missing.

“Most of the victims are artisanal miners and other persons who frequent the two mining sites,” he said.

Onesphore Kabandilwa, a local Red Cross official, whose teams were handling the burial of the victims, confirmed the toll of 10 people.

Search teams were still working to try to recover other bodies, he added.

Floods and landslides provoked by heavy rains often prove deadly in DR Congo.

In mid-December, floods caused by torrential rain killed more than 160 people in the capital Kinshasa, in the west of the country.

Source: Nam News Network

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Islamic State Claims Attack on Police in Suez Canal City

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Saturday for an attack Friday on a police checkpoint in Egypt’s Suez Canal city of Ismailia. At least four people, including three police officers, were killed, officials and state-run media said.

The attack also wounded 12 others, mostly conscripts who were taken to a hospital, according to a casualty tally document at the hospital.

The dead included three police officers and a still unidentified person, the hospital document obtained by The Associated Press showed.

“A cell of soldiers of the caliphate managed to attack an Egyptian police roadblock … with a machine gun,” the militant group’s Amaq news agency said Saturday.

The attack took place late in the afternoon in Ismailia city, on the western side of the Suez Canal, according to security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The media office of Ismailia province described the attack as a terrorist strike.

State-run al-Qahera New television reported that security forces killed one of the attackers. It broadcast graphic footage purportedly showing a body, saying it was the dead militant.

Egypt has been battling the Islamic State extremist group in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula for years. The militants have carried out numerous attacks in Sinai and elsewhere in the country, mainly targeting security forces, minority Christians, and those who they accuse of collaborating with the military and police.

In May, at least 11 Egyptian soldiers, including an officer, were killed in a militant attack on a water pumping station east of the Suez Canal.

The pace of IS attacks in Sinai’s main theater and elsewhere has slowed to a trickle since February 2018, when the military launched a big operation in Sinai as well as parts of the Nile Delta and deserts along the country’s western border with Libya.

Source: Voice of America