Africa

Member journalists of Karachi Union of Journalists and Karachi Press Club stage a protest demonstration against flurry of attacks on press freedom and killing of journalists across Pakistan. The journalists are holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans “Attacks on Press Freedom Unacceptable”, “Long Live Press Freedom” and “Attempt to muzzle free press will be opposed”. Credit: Saleem Shaikh/IPS

By Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan , Feb 5 2016 (IPS)

Pakistan continues to remain one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, where frequent attempts to restrict press freedom are commonplace and challenges to expanding media diversity and access to information abound.

Tense and uncertain security conditions, looming risks of terrorism and extremism-related activities, rampant political influence and the feeble role of the country’s democratic institutions, including parliament and judiciary, constitute the main reasons behind the sorry state of press freedom in Pakistan.

To address this issue, editors and news directors of a large number of Pakistani newspapers and television channels formally established ‘Editors for Safety’, an organisation focused exclusively on issues pertaining to violence and threats of violence against the media.

The organization would work on a core philosophy that an attack on one journalist or media house would be deemed as an attack on the entire media. The body would also encourage media organizations to speak with one voice against the ubiquitous culture of impunity, where journalists in the country are being frequently attacked while perpetrators are rarely brought to justice.

Former Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mr. Javed Jabbar, welcomed the formation of Editors for Safety and said “today, militants alone do not target press freedom and journalists in the country. Political, religious, ethnic and the law enforcement agencies also attack them.”

In 2015, the country was ranked 159th out of 180 countries evaluated in the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Pakistan has been a “frontline state” for almost four decades, which has polarised society and ruined people’s sense of security. Because of the Afghan war, the areas bordering Afghanistan, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and tribal areas in the country’s northwest region, are the most troubled areas for journalists to report from.

Media freedom across the country – and particularly in the terrorism-hit northwest region – has deteriorated over the last several years in part because of extremist groups who hurl threats to journalists for reporting their activities. Religious extremists go after media persons as they believe the latter do not respect their religion and harm it on the pretext of press freedom.

On March 28, 2014, Raza Rumi, a TV anchor, blogger and widely-acclaimed political and security analyst in Pakistan, narrowly escaped death when gunmen opened fire on his car in an attack that left his driver Mustafa dead. He moved to the U.S. soon after the attack on his life, which was triggered by his liberal and outspoken voice on politics, society, culture, militancy, human rights and persecution of religious minorities.

Last year on November 30, one journalist and three other employees of Lahore-based Din Media organization, which runs a TV channel and daily Urdu language newspaper, were killed when unknown miscreants lobbed a hand grenade on the office of the media organisation in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest urban city of 20 million people. The attack drew countrywide condemnation protests by journalists. The Prime Minister announced his pledge to bring those behind attack to the book and boost security measures for media offices and journalists.

Afzal Butt, president of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) told IPS,
“We have conveyed the deep concern of the journalist community about the deteriorating state of press freedom to the Prime Minister and federal and provincial information ministers. We have also reminded them of their commitments made for protecting lives of journalists and press freedom in the country. But it has fallen on deaf ears.”

International media watchdogs including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and RSF have kept highlighting the dismal state of press freedom in the country in their [annual] reports from time to time. Around 57 journalists have been killed in the line of the duty between year 1992 to 2015 and hundreds other harassed, tortured and kidnapped, according to recent data compiled by CPJ, a New York-based independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to the global defence of press freedom. In its 2015 report, CPJ ranked Pakistan as the sixth most deadly country for journalists.

Pakistan is ranked ninth out of 180 countries on CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries, where journalists are slain and the killers go free.

“Incidents of threats, attacks and killings of journalists in Pakistan are the clear evidence of how critical the situation has become due to thriving culture of impunity,” said Mazhar Abbas, former deputy news director at the Ary News TV in Karachi and well-known champion of press freedom.

The good news is that the country has battled against impunity through judicial actions and institutionalisation of mechanisms to tackle this problem. For instance, two landmark convictions and arrests brought relief to the aggrieved families of slain TV journalists Wali Khan Babar, murdered in 2011 in Karachi, and Ayub Khattak, murdered in Karak district in conflict-prone Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan’s northwest.

The cases made progress thanks to relentless efforts by families of journalists, journalist unions and civil society pressure groups with cooperation from government and justice system, Khursheed Abbasi, PFUJ’s secretary general, said. The judicial commission set up to probe the attempt to murder Islamabad-based eminent television journalist Hamid Mir associated with the Geo News TV is part of this movement forward. Further to this was the announcement in April 2015 by the provincial government of Balochistan to establish two judicial tribunals to investigate six murder cases of journalists since 2011.

In another positive development, on March 9, 2015, the Islamabad High Court upheld the conviction of Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of publisher of English newspaper Daily Times Mr. Salman Taseer, under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Qadri, his official guard in Islamabad in January 2010, killed Taseer, who was governor of Punjab province at that time.

“A free press is a fundamental foundation of sustainable and effective democracy. Any effort aimed at scuttling press freedom will only weaken democracy and democratic institutions,” warned journalist-turned Pakistani parliamentarian Mushahid Hussain Syed. He said that politicians need to realise that supporting endeavours for press freedom at any level would benefit the democratic political leaders themselves.

(End)

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Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has declared a state of disaster in most rural parts of the country severely hit by a drought.

Ugandan journalist Andrew Lwanga, who is still recovering more than one year after allegedly being battered by a police commander while covering a protest. Credit: Amy Fallon/IPS

By Amy Fallon
KAMPALA, Uganda, Feb 5 2016 (IPS)

On October 2015, the day that Ugandan journalist Enoch Matovu, 25, was allegedly shot by the police for simply “doing my job”, the police had “run out of tear gas”, he claimed.

“So they had to use live bullets,” this journalist for broadcaster NTV Uganda told IPS. Matovu was injured in the head while covering the apparent vote rigging by contestants during the ruling party’s — National Resistance Movement (NRM) — elections in Mityana, central Uganda. “I only realised when I woke up in hospital what had happened,” he added.

Shockingly, since party elections in October, over 40 Ugandan journalists have been detained, beaten, had their tools and material taken, blocked from covering events and have lost employment, according to Robert Sempala, the National Coordinator for Human Rights Network for Journalists (HRNJ) Uganda. Two other journalists besides Matovu have allegedly been shot by the police.

Ahead of the February 18 elections, in which President Yoweri Museveni, 71, and already in power for 30 years, is standing, there’s a “likelihood” the press crackdown “is going to get worse”, said Sempala. “The contest is neck-to-neck,” he told IPS, adding there was “stiff competition” from the three-time presidential challenger Kizza Besigye and former Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi. “According to our statistics, most of the victims have been those that cover either Besigye or Mbabazi, as opposed to the rest of the contestants,” he emphasised.

On January 20, Endigyito FM, a privately owned radio station in Mbarara, about 170 miles outside the capital Kampala, was shut down, purportedly over unpaid licence fees of $11,000. Mbabazi’s campaign team claimed that an interview with him two days earlier had been disrupted 20 minutes into the show, after officials from the Uganda Communications Commission stormed the building. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and others have called for the broadcaster to be allowed to resume operations.

In a January report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned of a media clampdown, saying radio reporters working in local dialects with an audience in rural areas particularly faced intimidation and threats from government. “Looking over the last decade, its clear that violations of press freedom have clearly increased during elections and also during times of political tension in Kampala,” Maria Burnett, HRW senior researcher for Africa, told IPS.

“For journalists working outside Kampala, in local languages, my sense is that media freedom has been very difficult during political campaigns and elections in recent times,” she added. Burnett said in terms of what is happening outside Kampala, HRW’s research indicated that “the patterns are fairly similar” to the 2011 elections: “Perhaps the only real difference is that some radio journalists are more able to state the pressure they are under and the problems they face, either via social media or other media platforms as the Kampala-based media houses expand coverage country-wide.”

Sempala said “on the whole” there were more cases of violations against the press outside Kampala, according to HRNJ’s statistics. Most journalists attacked anywhere in Uganda claim it is hard to get justice. “Each morning I wonder what to do,” said Andrew Lwanga, 28, a cameraman with local WBS station, who was assaulted last year by the then Kampala district police commander Joram Mwesigye, leaving him with horrific injuries and unable to work. His equipment was also damaged.

“I loved covering the election so much. I would love to be out there,” he added. He is now fund-raising for a spinal operation in Spain — Ugandan doctors told him he had no option but to go abroad – and spends his days sitting in a lounge, watching his colleagues on the TV doing what he most wants to be doing.

Lwanga, a journalist of eight years, was injured while covering a small demonstration involving a group called the Unemployed Youths of Uganda in January 2015. Online, there is footage of Mwesigye assaulting Lwanga, of the cameraman falling down and then being led away by police, holding his head and crying in pain. “Now I can’t walk 50 metres without crutches,” said Lwanga, who has a visible scar on one side of his head and a bandage on one hand. “For the past 90 days I haven’t been able to sleep more than 40 minutes… All of this makes me cry,” he added.

More than a year after the assault, Lwanga’s case is dragging on. Mwesigye has been charged with three counts including assault and occasioning bodily harm, and suspended from his role. But at the last hearing, when Lwanga had to be carried into court by two others, it was revealed that the journalist’s damaged camera – an important exhibit – had disappeared and still hasn’t been found. “(The police) are trying to protect Joram, he wants to retain his job and he (has) always confronted me saying ‘you’re putting me out of work’,” said the cameraman.

Recently, Museveni pledged to financially help this journalist. But Lwanga said he hadn’t received any communication as yet when the money was coming. The last state witness in the trial was due to be heard on February 4 but has been adjourned to the 29th. Despite his ordeal, if he eventually has the operation and recovers, Lwanga said he will get back to work: “I miss my profession”.

Matovu is back at work, but still suffers a lot of headaches after his alleged attack, and admitted “sometimes I’m scared to do my job” “The police are not doing anything about this, only my bosses,” he said of his case.

Sempala said so far HRNJ had only managed to take “a few” cases involving journalists being assaulted to court. More advocacy is required to put pressure on police to investigate cases, he said. Burnett said it was “important that journalists who are physically attacked by police share their stories and push for justice”.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga told IPS that Lwanga’s case was an “isolated” one, but the fact that police had “managed” to charge Mwesigye was “one very good example” that the authorities did not take human rights breaches against journalists lightly. “Over the years there’s been this very good working relationship with the media,” insisted Enanga.

(End)

Ethiopia is suffering its worst drought in decades with failed crops, livestock at risk and more than 10 million people needing emergency aid.

February 4, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Libya's internationally recognised government based in Tobruk decided to stop air flights with Sudan for security reasons without further details.

An Islamist fighter from the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition flashes the V sign for victory at the entrance of Tripoli international airport on 24 August 2014 (Photo: AFP/Mahmud Turkia)

Sudan is accused by the official government of supporting Libyan Islamists government based in Tripoli, as reports say Jihadist fighters from Sudan and other African countries are joining the Libyan chapter of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Daesh group.

A spokesman for the Libyan Interior Ministry, of Colonel Abdul Hakim al-Obeidi said that the interior minister instructed to stop flights to and from Sudan for security reasons with effect from 28 February 2016.

Al-Obeidi didn't elaborate on the reason behind the decision.

On Tuesday February 2, a senior police officer in Misrata town, told London based The Telegraph that Daesh is recruiting improvised migrants from neighbouring countries such as Sudan, Chad and Mali.

"Illegal immigration is a menace because it brings and encourages foreign fighters to come and fight with ISIS. "Most of the migrants want to go to Europe, but some want to link up with ISIS. Unfortunately, here in Libya we are right in the middle of the migration rat run."

Colonel Ismail Shukri, the head of military intelligence in Misrata, further said that around 70 % of ISIS's army in Sirte was made up of foreign fighters. "The majority - I cannot tell you exactly how many - are Tunisians, while the rest are made up mostly of Sudanese, Egyptians and then people from the Sub-Saharan countries stretching from Chad and Nigeria, along with a few from Algeria and the Gulf," he said.

In September02014, the Libyan government had expelled the Sudanese military attaché after accusing Khartoum of flying weapons to Islamist rebels in Tripoli.

CLASHES WITH DARFUR REBELS

The Sudanese army on Wednesday said they clashed with rebels belonging to the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) without specifying which faction near Libyan town of Al-Kufra which borders Sudan.

Sudanese army spokesperson Ahmed al-Shami told Radio Sawa that Libyan Army killed over 20 SLA fighters. He added the rebels were forced to enter in the Libyan territory after their defeat by the Sudanese army in the far northern border.

On the other hand in statements to Alarabiya.net Wednesday, a Libyan military source confirmed the clashes with the Sudanese rebels.

According to Alarabia, the Libyan army repulsed an attack by the Sudanese rebels who tried to recapture Bouzriq area in the southern part of Al-Kufra town.

The SLA fighters controlled the area for three months before to pull out of the areas as result of an attack by the Libyan army.

Al-Kufra region is under the control of the rival government of the General National Congress (GNC) in Tripoli.

The international community still continues its efforts to form a national unity government in Libya including Tobruk and Tripoli governments, one month after the signing of a UN-brokered deal in Morocco.

(ST)

February 04, 2016 (JUBA) – A group of South Sudanese politicians who were detained at the outset of country's conflict in December 2013 and later released to form a third bloc of the ruling party (SPLM) have hinted on returning to the faction of President Salva Kiir.

Former cabinet affairs minister and G-10 team leader Deng Alor with former justice minister, John Luk Jok, after their arrival at Juba Airport on 1 June 2015 (Photo Moses Lomayat)

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune Thursday, the former political detainees welcomed the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) communique, calling on parties to conflict to form the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU).

“It is our hope that all parties to the agreement will take seriously the recommendations contained in the communique and agree to expeditiously establish the transitional government of national unity and to subsequently engage positively on the issue of the twenty-eight states,” said John Luk, the spokesperson for the former detainees.

The former detainees have two ministerial portfolios and a deputy minister. The government of President Kiir will appoint 16 minister and the armed opposition of former vice president Riek Machar, who will serve as first vice president in TGONU, have 10 ministers. Other South Sudanese political parties will appoint two ministers.

The formers detainees called on South Sudanese citizens to support the directives from regional bodies to form the 30-months running TGoNU by forgiving one another.

Former justice minister John Luk added that his SPLM faction, known as SPLM leaders are ready to join President Kiir's SPLM in government.

“Concerning the re-unification of the SPLM, we are satisfies that this has been achieved through the incorporation of the Arusha Agreement in the SPLM Constitution which was finally adopted by the extra-ordinary SPLM national convention,” he said, referring to an extraordinary meeting organized early January.

Luk, who is named as minister of transport in the TGONU, did not say when the SPLM leaders, whose number has continued to reduce after former Lakes state governor Chol Tong Mayay left them last month, will formally join the SPLM under President Kiir.

The ex-detainee's press statement said the controversy created by President Kiir's decision to create more states will be addressed after forming the unity government.

"We firmly believe that the formation of the Government of National Unity will enhance the building of trust and confidence amongst the parties to the ARCSS and together work to resolve any challenges that may adversely affect the implementation of the agreement and welfare of the people of South Sudan,” further stressed the statement.

(ST)

By Farhana Haque Rahman, Director General, Inter Press Service
ROME, Feb 5 2016 (IPS)

While our goal at Inter Press Service is to provide information – a precious global public good – we naturally applaud all efforts to foster and promote the safety of journalists, and so applaud UNESCO’s international conference in Paris on Friday, February 5, 2016 with media executives and member states to discuss just that.

Farhana Haque Rahman

The conference aims both to improve the safety of reporters and tackle ‘impunity for crimes’ against media professionals.

Some 370 journalists were murdered between 2004 and 2013 “in direct retaliation for their work”, according to a recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The toll has sadly increased by another 230 in the past two years alone, according to the International Federation of Journalists.

One of IPS’s own, Alla Hassan, was shot and killed while driving to work in Baghdad in 2006. When a journalist is killed, so is the story she or he was working on, and the broader story all news organizations are trying to tell is seriously wounded. IPS emphatically joins in the call for a way to enforce international law on the protection of journalists.

A first step is to pressure countries to submit updates on investigations into attacks against the media on their territory. Currently fewer than half are doing so. Eradicating impunity for such attacks is crucial for reducing their occurrence.

At stake is not only the basic human right of every individual not to be killed but a veritable ecosystem in which a plurality of voices can be represented in increasingly complex and globalized societies. Unsolved attacks cast a long shadow over what remains, potentially enforcing self-censorship, as some reporters on organized crime in Mexico complain.

To be sure, reporters will always resist. Consider Ruqia Hassan, who was executed by ISIS for reporting on militia attacks in her native Raqqa. She knew the threat but preferred it to the humiliation of silence.

In a fast-moving world, attacks on media are taking on new forms. Reporters now must be concerned about their digital safety, for example. And Hassan represents a new breed of independent citizen journalists. While such cases stretch beyond the traditional purview of professional media organizations, we know there is a common cause and that there is great need for progress. So today our hearts are in Paris.

By James Okuk, PhD

The Auxiliary Bishop Santo Loku Pio (born in 1969) of Juba Archdiocese has been consistent in his stance on faith and reason in the context of South Sudan. We should keep congratulating him for that faithful shepherding of the people of God, especially the downtrodden and the made-to-suffer as Luky Dube used to sing for South Africa. At tough time like the one we are encountering now, the Republic of South Sudan needs nothing less than revolutionary theology even if not a liberation theology similar to that of Latin America.

But the concern of many analysts is Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro. He is unable to get into shoes of Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako who managed to stand tall against the oppressive Islamists regime in Khartoum during the SPLM/A just war of struggle. It was disgusting last month seeing His Lordship Lukudu spraying holy water on 28 states which has been a violation to the signed peace agreement (ARCSS) in August 2015. He did this when he decided to go to the Secretariat of the former Central Equatoria State Government to bless the three illegitimate governors of the so-called Jubek, Terekeka and Yei River states.

Did His Lordship know the evil he was blessing in that building? Why did he accept to do that when he knew that the ‘three-governors-in-one' (as they would like to pretend in their operation) and their states are still pending political problems in making? Is he not ashamed of shifting loyalty from 28 states (he blessed and endorsed for partitioning Central Equatoria State and erasing it from political map) to IGAD's Communiqué which brings back the disintegrated Equatoria?

Now thank God that the Holy Archbishop has turned around to support the IGAD's Communiqué that demands suspension of the proposed 28 states until it is discussed later by the established TGoNU in competition with other proposed states (Twenty One, Five, Three, None, etc). Men of God should always stand where the truth is, like what Auxiliary Bishop Santo has been doing (including his homely of the new year 2016 when he told the faithful that he finds it hard even to pronounce some names of 28 states, e.g. 'Nyamurnyang' which is an insult to women).

It is high time Archbishop Lukudu start repenting and learning from the young truthful Bishop Santo how Catholic Bishops are supposed to conduct themselves when it comes to issues involving dirty politics of treacherous politicians.

We are blessed in Juba to have an articulate and caring Auxiliary Bishop Santo who has, indeed, proven himself time and again that he is unshakable voice of the voiceless like the known liberation theologian, Martin Niemöller (1892 -1984), who became a soldier in German Navy at age of fourteen and was sub-Lieutenant by the time the First World War began in 1914. He also took interest in nationalistic politics and became a supporter of Adolf Hitler and Nazi' regime. Even after he was ordained in 1929 as a Pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ at Dahlem, Rev. Niemöller remained an ardent supporter of Hitler.

However, he got arrested when he started criticizing in his sermons the evils of the Nazis and was sent to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp to be "re-educated" in German patriotism. Pastor Niemöller refused to change his revolutionary views and was later transferred to Dachau Prison. In 1938 Joseph Goebbels urged Hitler to execute him but Alfred Rosenberg opposed the idea as it would provide an opportunity to critics like Bishop George Bell of Chichester of the Church of England to attack fiercely the German Government and mobilize the Christians all over the world against it. Rev. Niemöller was allowed to live.

With his release from prison after the end of World War II, Rev. Niemöller became convinced that the German people had a collective responsibility (i.e., guilt) for the Nazi atrocities. He became a pacifist as he realized that military force is never sustainable for political ends. He joined the World Peace Movement and became an outspoken anti-war activist. On his 90th birthday, Rev. Niemöller confessed that he had started his political career as “an ultra-conservative” and later a “revolutionary”, but if he lived to be a hundred years he may become an “anarchist”.

Rev. Niemöller has remained well known for the following famous poetic quote: “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Milton Mayer in his book, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans (1955) gave a strong tribute that Niemöller is a great man of God who spoke for thousands of the oppressed masses in all corners of the world: “when the Nazis attacked the Communists, he was a little uneasy, but, after all, he was not a Communist, and so he did nothing; and then they attacked the Socialists, and he was a little uneasier, but, still, he was not a Socialist, and he did nothing; and then the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on, and he was always uneasier, but still he did nothing. And then they attacked the Church, and he was a Churchman, and he did something—but then it was too late.”

Together with Bishop Santo of Juba Archdiocese lets speak out for peace, justice, community development and prosperity in our dear country before it is too late for all of us to have strong voice of the people, amounting to the voice of God.

May the almighty God give more wisdom and courage to all our bishops and other men and women of God so that they don't fear to always remind our astray leaders of the righteous path of peace in the Republic of South Sudan.

Dr. James Okuk is lecturer of politics, reachable at okukjimy@hotmail.com

February 4, 2016 (BOR) – At least seven people were killed and five wounded in Twic East county of South Sudan's Jonglei state last month, an official disclosed Thursday.

Twic East county commissioner Dau Akoi speaks in Panyagoor town on July 9, 2012 (ST/File)

Commissioner Dau Akoi Jurkuch claimed the criminals were mainly from the Murle ethnic tribe, whose intention was to raid cattle and abduct children.

“When they miss to find cattle and children to abduct, they cannot miss to kill a person who comes across their ways”, said Akoi, citing an18 January incident in which two men were allegedly killed.

Another two, said the commissioner, were killed on 24 January in western Kongor payam.

“These people went for hunting and they fell into an ambush. Two were killed and six managed to run away”, he told Sudan Tribune Thursday.

The six who escaped, according to Akoi, identified their attackers as Murle tribesmen.

Meanwhile the Twic East county commissioner has appealed to the Boma state governor, Baba Medan Konyi, to help them combat existing crimes.

“My appeal to the governor is for him to talk to traditional leaders so that these criminals are brought to book”, stressed the Twic East county commissioner.

(ST)

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

February 4, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – East African countries are due to be linked through a regional power interconnection in a bid to boost their economic development, Ethiopian officials told Sudan Tribune Thursday.

Ethiopia's Tekeze Hydropower project (AP)

According to officials at the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity, the 11th Council of Ministers for the Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP) endorsed the long-awaited master plan aimed at inter-connecting the region through energy.

All EAPP member states with the exception of Egypt agreed on the forwarded positions that will be taken to effect the implementation of the 25-year master plan.

Cairo opposed the endorsement arguing that it has not been addressed on the details of the planned regional power network, hinting on the need for more time to deal with it.

At a meeting in the Ethiopian capital last week, the Egyptian delegation further argued that it doubts whether sufficient risk analysis and environmental assessments were made over the master plan.

Established in 2005, the EAPP member countries include Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Libya.

South Sudan and Djibouti are also expected to join the regional bloc anytime soon.

Ethiopian officials say the master plan would assist countries to collectively work for the realisation of rapid economic development in the region and further expand their energy resources and improve utilisation.

The EAPP Council's chairperson, also the Burundian Energy and Mines Minister, Come Manirakiza said that the master plan, which was drawn up by a Danish company, Energinet, will ensure an equal utilisation of resources and ensures mutual development among the East Africa countries.

Manirakiza underscored the need for an immediate engagement in infrastructure development and persistent support from member states to realise a quick implementation of the master plan.

EAPP intends to ensure access to electricity to millions of people in the region through the regional power interconnections and improve their livelyhood by tackling power shortage.

(ST)

Timbuktu, Mali (PANA) - A consecration ceremony of the Timbuktu mausoleums, last held in the 11th century, was celebrated on Thursday at the initiative of the local community, the final phase of the United Nations-backed cultural rebirth of the age-old Sahara city after the destruction wrought by radical Islamists in 2012. Culture

January 4, 2016 (JUBA) - The Government of Japan has earmarked $1.65 million and delivered three ambulances to health facilities in three conflict-affected locations of South Sudan, where 250,000 women of reproductive age reportedly in need of obstetric services.

Children in South Sudan. (Photo UNMISS/Ilya Medvedev)

The ambulances, according to a statement, were handed over by the ambassador of Japan to South Sudan, Kiya Masahiko, to the national minister of health, Riek Kok Gai, in the presence of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) country representative, Ibrahim Sambuli.

The ambulances, according to the statement extended to Sudan Tribune, are part of the $3.22 million that Japan government disbursed in 2015 for the year-long UNFPA project, “Strengthening Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care in Crisis affected areas of South Sudan.”

This project reportedly saw five ambulances, assorted maternal health and gender-based violence response equipment and supplies sent to South Sudan.

“The people of Japan care about the health of mothers who bring new life to South Sudan that has been devastated by long years of conflict,” said Masahiko.

“We believe that the challenge of building a new nation starts with caring for the life of new-born babies and of their families. In that spirit, we hope that enhanced obstetrics and neonatal care services will lay the foundation of a vibrant society where people enjoy full-fledged healthcare services,” he added.

Since 2014, the Japanese government, through UNFPA, has reportedly allocated $ 4.42 million to the provision of reproductive healthcare equipment and infrastructure as well as the enhancement of management of medical aspects of gender-based violence in the conflict-affected Greater Upper Nile from a humanitarian point of view.

The Government of Japan will further extend support to obstetrics and neonatal care with an additional $1.65 million starting next month, it emerged.

“This support from the Government of Japan is very crucial as it facilitates timely referral of mothers with pregnancy-related complications to regional health facilities as well as prompt improvement of their capacity to handle such complications. This would go a long way in preventing unnecessary maternal deaths which are contributing to the high maternal mortality rate in the country”, said the UNFPA country representative.

Meanwhile, UNFPA and its partners estimate there will be 190,000 births in 2016, among which 23,500 are likely to get pregnancy-related complications.

(ST)

February 4, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese army (SPLA) on Thursday said its forces are ready to deploy outside the national capital, Juba, in preparation to receive forces from the armed opposition faction led by former Vice-president, Riek Machar. However, it added the government had no resources to establish military camps 25km from the national capital as provided for in the security arrangements of the August 2015 peace agreement.

SPLA) soldiers sit before the start of celebrations on the 31st anniversary of the SPLA in Juba May 16, 2014. (Photo Reuters/Andreea Campeanu)

Lieutenant General Malek Reuben Riak, deputy chief of general staff for logistics revealed on Thursday that preparations to demilitarize Juba and relocate the remaining units of the SPLA allied to the government have been completed and were waiting for directives and assistances to move to their new locations 25km.

“We have been ready from the time we signed the security arrangements matrix and indeed some of our forces have already moved out in compliance with the directives,” General Riak told Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

Genera Riak, who is the head of security arrangements committee representing the government, stressed the necessity to first provide essential services to where forces would be deployed outside Juba before they can begin to move out of the capital.

“Obviously you cannot send people to where there is no water, where there are no structures for living, no medical facilities. These are very important things to be taken into consideration,” he said.

He also confirmed that members of the armed opposition faction under the leadership of the former Vice-president, Riek Machar, represented in the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism (CTSAMM) participated in identification and assessing areas where forces would be redeployed.

CTSAMM is a body set up by the two sides and chaired by the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC). It comprises military commanders representing the government, armed opposition leadership and other stakeholders.

The committee started on Tuesday visiting identified sites located along the Nimule-Torit road and Torit-Mangala road as well as proposed assembling points along the Kajokeji-Yei road on Wednesday.

Assessment of military barracks located along the Terekeka-Juba road concluded Thursday. It is not clear who supports the relocation exercise though officials are hoping JMEC, a body tasked to oversee the implementation of peace agreement, would provide support for the establishment of new military barracks outside Juba.

(ST)

February 4, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Leadership of the armed opposition faction led by former Vice-president, Riek Machar, said they wished a Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) would have been formed in the first week of February as called for in the recent communiqué of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), but said it was too soon and unrealistic.

SPLM-IO Chief Negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, leader of advance team, with David Deng Athorbei, chairman of national committee, hold a press conference in Juba airport upon arrival on Monday, 21 December 2015 (ST Photo)

“Of course we would have wished that a transitional government of national unity is formed this week, but this has become practically unrealistic,” James Gatdet Dak, opposition leader's spokesman, told Sudan Tribune on Thursday when asked about readiness to form the government by the end of this week.

In a communiqué issued by IGAD on Sunday, 31 January, in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the regional bloc called on the South Sudanese parties to the peace deal, signed in August 2015, to form a transitional government of national unity in the first week of February.

The communiqué also called on the parties to implement the first phase of the provisions of the security arrangements, particularly the deployment of joint police and military forces in the capital, Juba, prior to formation of the transitional government.

Dak said the decision to form the transitional unity government in the first week of February was “positive but too soon” as the opposition faction was still looking for assistance to transport its troops from hundreds and thousands of kilometres away to the capital.

“You know we don't have resources to transport our forces on our own. Even our advance team to Juba was transported through external assistance. The leadership has therefore asked for additional assistance from international partners in the peace process to soon transport our troops to the capital,” he said.

He said the arrival of the opposition forces to Juba (1,500 police and 1,410 military force, etc) will depend on how soon facilities for transporting them are availed, adding that it may take about two weeks for the forces to arrive in Juba with their military equipment.

He called on President Salva Kiir's government to join the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) in soliciting assistance from the international community to transport the troops so as to soon form a new government.

Juba, he added, was also supposed to be demilitarized by withdrawing government troops to 25km outside the capital in accordance with the security arrangements. Government however said it has no money to establish military camps for the the troops and provide them with basic services such as water, shelter and medical facilities outside the capital.

Dak said as soon as the opposition forces enter Juba, Machar will return to the capital for formation of the transitional unity government with President Kiir after he takes oath of office as First Vice-president.

The top opposition leader will become First Vice-president of the new transitional government in which he will have more powers than he had before when he was Vice-president prior to the 2013 crisis.

In addition to shared executive powers in the presidency, Machar will have 10 national ministers nominated by him, a sizeable number of members of national parliament in Juba as well as govern the oil producing states in the country's Upper Nile region.

He will also continue to command a separate opposition army from that of the government as their commander-in-chief with a military structure headed by a chief of general staff who will be reporting directly to him for at least the coming one and a half years before unification of the two armies.

(ST)

February 4, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's President Omer Hassan al-Bashir Thursday announced the resumption of river transport with the landlocked South Sudan ending a four-year halt decided by Khartoum over security concerns and accusations of support to rebel groups .

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir listen to the National anthem during opening session of Sudan National Dialogue conference October 10, 2015 (REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

In a speech delivered in the capital of White Nile state, Rabak, al-Bashir announced the resumption of transport by river between Kosti and Juba.

The river transport was very active between North Sudan and South Sudan before and after the secession. Goods were transported by river barges to Juba or shipped by barge from Juba to Mongalla, Bor, Adok, Shambe, Malakal and Renk.

The decision of President al-Bashir follows his decisions to open border and review oil transportation fees. It also come after statements by President Salva Kiir vowing to improve ties with Khartoum and increasing bilateral cooperation.

The Sudanese president further said that his country will remain open for the South Sudanese citizens who flee the armed conflict in their country and seek refuge in Sudan.

He added that they should be mistreated or held accountable for the actions of their leaders.

The White Nile state and Khartoum state are the two regions where reside the majority of the South Sudanese refugees in Sudan.

Nearly 200.000 South Sudanese moved to Sudan since the eruption of the armed conflict between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar in December 2013.

Bashir also inaugurated a power plant in Um Dabakir area at a capacity of 500 megawatts. He disclosed that they agreed with the Indian government which constructed the new electricity station to increase its capacity to 750 megawatts in the near future.

He further vowed to transform the White Nile state to an oil producing region and to build a new airport in the White Nile state adding it would be achieved before the new Khartoum international airport.

(ST)

Two women selling fruit, grains and vegetables in the Little Haiti street market in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. They allowed their picture to be taken but preferred not to talk about their situation. Fear is part of daily life for Haitian immigrants in this country. Credit: Dionny Matos/IPS

By Ivet González
SANTO DOMINGO, Feb 5 2016 (IPS)

A middle-aged woman arranges bouquets of yellow roses in a street market in Little Haiti, a slum neighbourhood in the capital of the Dominican Republic. “I don’t want to talk, don’t take photos,” she tells IPS, standing next to a little girl who appears to be her daughter.

Other vendors at the stalls in the street market, all of them black women, also refuse to talk. “They’re afraid because they think they’ll be deported,” one woman whispers, as she stirs a pot of soup on a wood fire on the sidewalk.

That fear was heightened by the last wave of deportations, which formed part of the complicated migration relations between this country and Haiti – the poorest country in the Americas, with a black population – which share the island of Hispaniola.

According to official figures, the Dominican Republic’s migration authorities deported 15,754 undocumented Haitian immigrants from August 2015 to January 2016, while 113,320, including 23,286 minors, voluntarily returned home.

“This process has a greater impact on women because when a son or a daughter is denied their Dominican identity, the mothers are directly responsible for failing to legalise their status,” said Lilian Dolis, head of the Dominican-Haitian Women’s Movement (MUDHA), a local NGO.

“If the mother is undocumented then the validity of her children’s documents is questioned,” she told IPS.

“And in the case of Haitian immigrant women, it’s not enough to marry a Dominican man even though the constitution grants them their husband’s nationality,” said Dolis, whose movement emerged in 1983. “That right is often violated.”

The latest migration crisis broke out in 2013 when a Constitutional Court ruling set new requirements for acquiring Dominican citizenship.

The aspect that caused an international outcry was the fact that the verdict retroactively denied Dominican nationality to anyone born after 1929 who did not have at least one parent of Dominican blood, even if their births were recorded in the civil registry.

This affected not only the children of immigrants, but their grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

Tens of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent were left in legal limbo or without any nationality, international human rights groups like Human Rights Watch complained.

In response to the international outrage, the Dominican government passed a special law on naturalisation that set a limited period – May 2014 to February 2015 – for people born to undocumented foreign parents between 1929 and 2007 to apply for citizenship.

Antonia Abreu, one of the few street vendors who agreed to talk to IPS about the harsh reality faced by Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic, at her street stall where she sells flowers in the Little Haiti neighbourhood in Santo Domingo. Credit: Dionny Matos/IPS

But only 8,755 people managed to register under this law.

At the same time, the authorities implemented a national plan for foreigners to regularise their status, from June 2014 to June 2015.

Under this plan, 288,466 undocumented immigrants, mainly of Haitian descent, applied for residency and work permits. But only about 10,000 met all the requirements, and only a few hundred were granted permits.

Since August, the police have been carrying out continuous raids, and undocumented immigrants are taken to camps along the border, to be deported to Haiti.

“Most Haitian women work outside the home; very few can afford to be homemakers,” said Antonia Abreu, a Haitian-Dominican woman who has sold floral arrangements for parties, gifts and funerals in the Little Haiti market for 40 years.

Abreu, known by her nickname “the Spider”, said “women sell clothes or food, they apply hair extensions, they’re domestic employees and some are sex workers. Many are ‘paleteras’ (street vendors selling candy and cigarettes) who suffer from police abuse – the police take their carts and merchandise when they don’t have documents.”

“Those who work as decent people have integrated in society and contribute to the country,” she told IPS.

Among the unique mix of smells – of spices, open sewers, traditional foods and garbage – many women barely eke out a living in this Haitian neighbourhood market, selling flowers, prepared foods, fruit and vegetables, clothing, household goods and second-hand appliances.

The small neighbourhood, which is close to a busy commercial street and in the middle of the Colonial City, Santo Domingo’s main tourist attraction, has been neglected by the municipal authorities, unlike its thriving neighbours.

No one knows exactly how many people live in Little Haiti, which is a slum but is virtually free of crime, according to both local residents and outsiders.

Most of the people buying at the market stalls in the neighbourhood are Haitian immigrants, who work in what are described by international rights groups as semi-slavery conditions.

The street market is also frequented by non-Haitian Dominicans with low incomes, in this country of 10.6 million people, where 36 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures from 2014.

A Haitian immigrant in the rural settlement of Mata Mamón in the Dominican Republic, where she works as a ‘bracera’ or migrant worker in agriculture. Haitian women who work on plantations in this country are invisible in the statistics as well as in programmes that provide support to rural migrants, activists complain. Credit: Dionny Matos/IPS

“Undocumented immigrants can’t work, study or have a public life,” Dolis said. “They go directly into domestic service or work in the informal sector. And even if they have documents, Haitian-Dominican women are always excluded from social programmes.”

In this country with a deeply sexist culture, women of Haitian descent are victims of exclusion due to a cocktail of xenophobia, racism and gender discrimination, different experts and studies say.

“They are made invisible,” said Dolis. “We don’t even know how many Haitian-Dominican women there are. The census data is not reliable in terms of the Dominican population of Haitian descent, and the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) survey is out-of-date.”

The activist was referring to the last available population figures gathered by the National Survey on Immigrants carried out in 2012 by the National Statistics Office with UNFPA support.

At the time, the survey estimated the number of immigrants in the Dominican Republic at 560,000, including 458,000 born in Haiti.

The lack of up-to-date statistics hinders the work of Mudha, which defends the rights of Haitian-Dominican women in four provinces and five municipalities, with an emphasis on sexual and reproductive rights.

The movement is led by a group of 19 women and has 62 local organisers carrying out activities in urban and rural communities, which have reached more than 6,000 women.

Mudha says the Dominican authorities have never recognised the rights of women of Haitian descent. “They’ve always talked about immigration of ‘braceros’ (migrant workers), but never ‘braceras’ – that is, the women who come with their husbands, or come as migrant workers themselves,” Dolis said.

Since the mid-19th century Haitians have worked as braceros in the sugarcane industry, the main engine of the Dominican economy for centuries. But today, they are also employed in large numbers in the construction industry, commerce, manufacturing and hotels.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

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But does it need international aid?