Africa

South Africa's winemakers hope for a brighter future after a very tough 12 months.

Germany is set to apologise to Namibia for a genocide more than 100 years ago - and to pay an as yet unknown amount of money.

The jihadists appear to be aiming to create their own self-declared "caliphate".

UN-appointed independent rights experts on Wednesday raised concerns over the recruitment and use of private military and foreign security contractors by the Government of the Central African Republic, and their apparent close contacts with UN peacekeepers there.

March 30, 2021 (WASHINGTON) – The International Monetary Fund said it had released $174.2 million to South Sudan under its Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) for urgent balance of payments needs.

The IMF headquarters is seen in Washington. File Photo: AP

"The pandemic-related oil price shock and devastating floods have led to an economic downturn. The ... downturn widened the fiscal and the balance of payments deficits, opening large financing gaps in the absence of concessional financing,” IMF said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It expected the economy would contract 4.2% in the 2020/21 fiscal year,” it added.

In November last year, the IMF's Executive Board approved a disbursement of $52.3 million to South Sudan under the RCF.

This was the first time the IMF was giving the world's newest nation financial assistance since it joined the institution in 2012 shortly after its independence.

The loan, IMF said, was granted after the Bank of South Sudan implemented its recommendations to record all oil exports and transactions under the Transitional Financial Agreement.

According to South Sudan's IMF report on external sector statistics mission published in January 2020, there was a need for essential economic policy-making by the authorities to meet the data needs of key stakeholders to assess the country's external sector developments.

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March 30, 2021 (GADAREF) - Eritrean forces killed two refugees on the Sudanese-Ethiopian border as they were returning to their areas in Tigray from the Hamdayet reception centre on the Sudanese border.

Many Ethiopians who recently fled their areas of origin after the eruption of fighting in the restive Tigray decided to return home due to the lack of services in the crowded reception centres, as the two existing camps are full and a third one has not yet been established.

Eyewitnesses in the border area told the Sudan Tribune, Tuesday that Eritrean forces killed two Ethiopian returnees in the Dima area and wounded two others, while at least 76 escaped the attack.

The refugees were on their way from the Hamdayet centre to Humera town in the northern Tigray Region.

Some of those who survived the attack transported the injured to Sudan for treatment. Also, the dead were buried in Sudan.

On 26 March, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed flowing his return from Asmara said that Eritrea would withdraw troops from the Tigray Region, as he admitted for the first time their involvement in the war against the TPLF.

Thousands of Tigryans are believed to have been killed since November 2020. Fighters from the Amahara region and Eritrean soldiers are accused of committing war crimes including rape against women.

The witnesses said that the dead were shot directly by bullets in the head.

Also, they added that some Oromos were injured alongside the Tigryans.

According to Sudan's Commission for Refugees (COR) daily report of Tuesday 29 March, there are some 30048 refugees at the border facilities for refugees in Hamdayet and Madina.

The report further said that the Gadaref State proposed a location for the third camp but no decision has been made as it should be first visited by the UNHCR and the COR before making a final decision.

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March 30, 2021 (KAMPALA) - At least nine Ugandan drivers were been killed in deadly road ambushes in neighboring South Sudan over the weekend, a Ugandan official said.

Addressing lawmakers, Uganda's state minister for internal affairs, Obiga Kania said the nine drivers were shot dead on the Yei-Juba highway.

"The number is not yet clear because some of the people who were injured could have died. This matter is known to the ministry of foreign affairs because these people died in South Sudan,” he said.

Added the minister, “Our embassy in South Sudan is handling it”.

The official further said authorities in Kampala and their counterparts in Juba are working to resolve the deadly attacks and killings.

"These people were killed by unknown gunmen. There are armed military groups operating in those areas who are apparently opposition forces to the government in South Sudan and they are in control of that area," he told lawmakers.

In recent years, several foreign nationals, including aid workers have been killed in targeted attacks, making South Sudan one of the most dangerous places for foreigners in the world.

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March 30, 2021 (TORIT) - The Governor of South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria, Louis Lobong Lojore escaped an assassination attempt on the Torit highway on Sunday, his aide confirmed Tuesday.

Eastern Equatoria state governor Louis Lobong Lojore talks to communities in Bari and Omorwo villages (ST)

According to the governor's press secretary Aliandro Lotok, Lobong and the state Minister of Information, Martin Oting Cyprian were attacked on their way to Buya County to meet youth who blocked roads in the area.

The attack on his convoy resulted into the death of two people, one of whom was the wife of the area army commander who accompanied the governor's entourage.

The governor was travelling from Budi County to his native hometown of Kapoeta for talks with members of his ethnic Toposa about the same mission.

No one knows the motive behind the attack, which state officials largely blamed on armed youth from Budi County.

The deputy spokesman of the army, Santo Domic said the situation was now under control and the army had managed to extract the governor from the area in which he restricted movement.

“Because of his safety and safety of his entourage, the governor was advised to go to one of barracks in the area which he did. He spent the night there under our protection. Now he has been extracted”, he told Sudan Tribune Tuesday.

Meanwhile, analysts attributed the assassination attempt on Lobong's life to a recent attack on Lowareng cantonment in which a top military officer from the armed opposition (SPLM-IO) was killed.

As a result, the local youth from Lobong's ethnic group believe the governor was targeted in possible revenge on a high-profile person.

According to previous reports, the routine of intercommunal clashes in many parts of South Sudan prevails due to lack of an efficient justice system in the young nation.

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Thousands of young Tunisians have been demanding change as they strive to live in and shape the post-revolution dream.

March 30, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Security and Defence Council directed the armed groups, signatory of the Juba peace agreement, to stop the recruitment of new fighters and to withdraw their armed elements in Khartoum.

On Tuesday, the Technical Committee of the Security and Defence Council held headed by the Chief of Staff of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) Lt Gen Mohamed Osman al-Hussein a meeting at the Presidential Palace.

In a statement extended to the Sudan Tribune, SAF Military Media said that the committee decided to "stop the political recruitment by the Armed Struggle Movements in the various cities of Sudan until the security arrangements chapter is fully implemented."

Further, the committee decided to "empty the capital and major cities of the manifestations of armed presence," stressed the statement.

In February and March, fighters of some armed groups in Darfur arrived in the capital Khartoum with all their armament and heavy military equipment.

The matter was criticized by the public and raised debate about their presence in Khartoum particularly after the occupation of the Olympic Committee premises.

The leaders of the armed groups that have forces in the capital say it is part of the security arrangements. But other leaders who kept their forces in the cantonment sites in the conflict areas say such deployment is not part of the peace agreement.

According to the peace agreement signed between the government and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) groups, the implementation of the security arrangements was supposed to start two months after the signing of the deal on 3 October 2020.

Hadi Idris, a member of the Transitional Sovereign Council and SRF leader on Tuesday directed the security authorities in the Northern State to arrest and prosecute anyone who recruits people in the name of the armed movements.

"The movements that signed the Juba Agreement Peace for Sudan began the preparations for the implementation of the security arrangements to form a unified national army. They did not seek at all to recruit anyone," he added during a meeting with the security committee in the Northern State.

Governor Amal Mohamed Izzaldin welcomed Idris's visit to the Northern State to brief them about the peace agreement and to assess the situation in the region.

She further pledged to implement his directives on the arrest of those who recruit civilians.

During his visit to the Darfur region earlier this year, Idris spoke about the need to restore the state authority and prevent armed fighters from bearing arms outside the cantonment sites.

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The 2023 electoral process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will mark “a new critical stage” in the country’s journey to democratic transition and stabilization, UN Special Representative Bintou Keita said on Tuesday in her first briefing to the Security Council. 

In a statement released on Tuesday, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has concluded that a 3 January French military airstrike on the central Malian village of Bounty, hit a group largely made up of civilians, killing several of them.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville visits Tarhuna where the victims of years of civil war are being reburied.

Some African countries are witnessing Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy amidst the pandemic.

A glacier in western Uganda is disappearing, endangering the traditions of those who live nearby.

South African Adrian Nel would have celebrated his 41st birthday on 1 April.

The stranded Ever Given container is no longer blocking the canal after being stranded for a week.

Sidney Kombi Kitombo is an award-winning Congolese special effects artist behind Avengers: Endgame.

Mike Sonko was elected governor of Kenya's capital despite a criminal past - and now faces more legal woes.

A herbal practitioner and CEO of Nana Nketia Herbal Center Mr. Paul Nketia also known as Nana Nketia has admonished the government of Ghana to as a matter of urgency assist local farmers to switch from the heavy dependence on chemical farming to a more sustainable organic farming practices.