Press Freedom for Ethiopian Bloggers Tested Again

Marthe van der Wolf  |  VOA

FILE - Ethiopian journalists hold placards as they shout slogans during a demonstration at the Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi, May 2, 2006.
FILE – Ethiopian journalists hold placards as they shout slogans during a demonstration at the Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi, May 2, 2006.

Abel Wabela, 29, and eight other bloggers and freelance journalists spent more than a year and a half in prison. They were acquitted five months ago, but life has not been easy since.

“We cannot go abroad,” Wabela said, “getting a job is very difficult. We are not allowed to work, not allowed to move.”

Wabela previously worked at Ethiopian Airlines as an engineer, but it will not take him back. His left ear is no longer functional, he says, due to mistreatment in prison.

In addition, the bloggers’ passports have been confiscated.

Back in court

Wabela was one of six bloggers and three affiliated freelance journalists who were arrested in April 2014. They were accused under the anti-terrorism law of using social media to incite violence in Ethiopia.

Although all the bloggers and journalists were acquitted, the prosecutor appealed their release. For that reason, they have to appear Tuesday in Ethiopia’s Supreme Court.

Atnaf Berahane says that even though he has been out of prison for five months, he lives in a state of fear.

“After my release I basically do nothing, because I know that every move I make will be traced,” Berahane said. “I am afraid that I may go to prison. The appeal is going on, so the appeal is like a chain to me right now. I am preparing myself for prison.”

Imprisonment called unacceptable

Ethiopia is frequently criticized by human rights organizations on its press freedom record. The government states that those imprisoned are criminals using journalism as a cover.

Zone 9 is a reference to an Ethiopian state prison with eight zones; the bloggers use Zone 9 to indicate the larger “prison” they feel makes up the rest of the country.

Africa researcher Kerry Paterson of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says the possible return of the bloggers to jail is unacceptable and a huge blow to press freedom in Ethiopia.

“The Zone 9 bloggers, their tagline has always been that they blog because they care,” Paterson said. “These are young people who are deeply committed to seeing a safer, freer, better, more democratic Ethiopia, and who have faced repression and crackdowns on every turn.”

Despite the belief by the bloggers that their future in Ethiopia is bleak and uncertain, Wabela, Berahane and the others are still blogging. The decision by Ethiopia’s Supreme Court on the appeal will mean they either must go back to prison, or can continue writing.

Three killed in oil pipeline explosion in Nigeria’s delta: environment group

File photo: Twelve people died and three were injured in an explosion during repair work at an Eni SpA crude oil pipeline in Nigeria, 2015. The victims worked on a maintenance team for a local service company, Rome-based Eni said in a statement Friday.
File photo: Twelve people died and three were injured in an explosion during repair work at an Eni SpA crude oil pipeline in Nigeria, 2015. The victims worked on a maintenance team for a local service company, Rome-based Eni said in a statement Friday.

Three people were killed and several wounded when an oil pipeline belonging to Italy’s ENI exploded during repair works in Nigeria’s southern Delta region, an environmental group said on Tuesday.

The blast was one of the worst in recent weeks in the swampland, where residents and former militant groups have long complained about oil pollution and casualties caused by pipeline accidents.

The explosion happened in the Olugboboro community in Bayelsa state on Sunday but bodies were only recovered on Monday after the fire was brought under control, residents said. Up to seven had been wounded, they said.

“The news of another tragic incident in the oil industry which claimed three lives … came to the Environmental Rights Action (ERA) as a great shock,” said Alagoa Morris, an activist at the group.

“We in ERA will not stop calling on the authorities and regulators of the oil industry to make safety and best practices the mantra of the industry, not just profit (seeking),” he said.

The group and residents said workers had been repairing the pipeline when it caught fire. There was no immediate comment from ENI.

Several bodies had been burned beyond recognition, while some injured were brought with severe burns to hospitals, residents said.

Peter Idabor, director general of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency in charge of handling spills and other pipeline accidents, said safety procedures had been breached during the repair works.

“I am going to report the matter officially to the Minister of Environment today,” Idabor said.

Tensions have been building in the Delta, an impoverished region where most complain they do not benefit from oil production.

Pipeline attacks by militants and other residents have been on the rise since authorities issued in January an arrest warrant for a former militant leader for corruption charges.

In 2009, the OPEC member brokered a multi-million amnesty for militants who ended blowing up pipelines to demand a greater share of the country’s oil wealth and an end of oil pollution.

President Muhammadu Buhari, elected a year ago, has extended the amnesty, but upset former militant leaders by ending generous pipeline protection contracts.

Foreign airlines to sack 2,000 Nigerian workers

Foreign airlines plan to sack about 2,000 Nigerian workers
Foreign airlines plan to sack about 2,000 Nigerian workers

GhanaWeb – The National Union of Air Transport Employees has alleged that foreign airlines plan to sack about 2,000 Nigerian workers.

NUATE said the airlines premised this on their inability to transfer their earnings to their respective home countries to meet operational costs because of the new Central Bank of Nigeria policy on forex and fund transfer.

In a letter addressed to the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, the Acting General Secretary of NUATE, Comrade Olayinka Abioye, said the news has jolted workers.

“The reason being adduced for this danger is that their earnings in the past year is under lock with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as they are unable to transfer these earnings to their respective home countries to meet operational costs in accordance with international rules,” the letter read in part.

Calling on federal government to act fast, Abioye said “following concerns raised recently by leaders of these workers and other stakeholders and in appreciation of the good intent of the government’s fiscal policy, we humbly make this clarion call for your (Minister) intervention to grant foreign airlines concession to repatriate their proceeds to their home countries.

“We hasten to place on the front burner an emerging threat confronting over 2,000 private sector aviation workers in Nigeria which, requires your intervention to forestall imminent loss of jobs of these number of workers.”

EgyptAir says only crew and four foreigners remain on hijacked plane

CAIRO (Reuters) – EgyptAir said in a statement on Tuesday that only crew and four foreigners remained on a hijacked Egyptian plane that was forced to divert to Cyprus. It had said in a previous statement that the number of foreigners remaining on the aircraft was five.

Egyptair_Boeing_737-800_SU-GDD_FRA_2011-3-191

INITIAL REPORT

EgyptAir flight MS181 en route from Alexandria to Cairo has been hijacked and has landed in Cyprus, Cypriot officials have stated. It was also confirmed that the plane’s pilot was threatened by a passenger with a suicide belt.

The Civil Aviation Ministry says that the pilot of the EgyptAir plane, Omar Al-Gammal, told the authorities he was threatened by a passenger with a suicide belt. This has also been confirmed by Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, who said that one hijacker is believed to be strapped with explosives and the person has ordered police to stand clear of the aircraft.

Egyptian state media say that the hijacker is an citizen of Egypt. He has been named as Ibrahim Samaha and was sitting in seat K38. According to the Greek television station Sky, the hijacker has demanded a translator and wants political asylum in Cyprus.

The aircraft is an A320 belonging to EgyptAir. It landed in Larnaca at 08:46 local time, with 81 passengers on board.

Larnaca Airport has been closed, while ambulances have been sent to the scene.

This latest incident will be a bitter blow to the safety reputation of Egypt’s air industry, which is still reeling after a bomb on a Russian passenger plane on October 31, 2015, killed all 224 people on board.

Islamic State claimed responsible for bringing down the Russian A321 passenger jet over Sinai, which was bound for St. Petersburg.

Two employees at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport were arrested on suspicion of assisting those who planted the explosive device on the Russian jet that crashed in Sinai.

Earlier last November, an AP investigation found that Sharm el-Sheikh Airport had many gaps in security, such as lax searches at the entry gate and poor quality of scanning devices. Seven officials involved in security at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport, several with more than a decade’s service, told AP of the lapses, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A 10-year-old CTX scanner had broken down several times because operators didn’t use it properly, an official at the airport said. “I have seen people unplug it to save power.” 

Another official added that the machine wasn’t working properly at all and only managed to scan a sample of the bags, and not all the contents that they contained.

Boko Haram insurgents abducts 14 women, 2 girls in Adamawa

By Umar Yusuf Yola – Vanguard

No fewer than 14 women and 2 girls were abducted by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents in Sabongari Madagali, in Madagali Local Government of Adamawa state, Thursday, locals and police sources have confirmed. The women who were said to be in company of two local vigilante operatives before their abduction went into the nearby forest in search of fire wood and farm produce as others went for fishing in a nearby river before they abducted. A source in the area told vanguard that two out of the women had managed to escape the snare of the abductors under the pretext of being drowned by the river.

Women sit at Gamboru central market in northeastern Nigeria on Monday, burnt by suspected Boko Haram insurgents during  a previous attack.
Women sit at Gamboru central market in northeastern Nigeria on Monday, burnt by suspected Boko Haram insurgents during a previous attack.

The source said “the two women who are in real state of trauma told us that the suspected Boko Haram insurgents had a field day carting away the women when their escorts ran away for fear of dear lives,” The source noted that on sighting the gunmen who came in their numbers wielding dangerous weapons, the vigilante men took to their heels for the fear of being killed by the rampaging assailants. “The two local vigilante men took to their heels when they sighted the gunmen who were armed to the teeth. “They left the women to their own faith as the gunmen were left unchallenged leading to the abduction of the said women,” the source added Confirming the incident, the member representing Michika/ Madagali Federal constituency in the National Assembly Mr. Adamu Kamale said “I just received the shocking news to the effect that about 16 women have been abducted by Boko Haram. “We have been witnessing pockets of attacks contrary to the belief that security has been fully restored in the area.

As a member of National Assembly (NASS) I have been calling for the deployment of security personnel but to no avail as the government seems to have relegated our concerns to the background,” he regretted. When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer of Adamawa state command DSP Othman Abubakar confirmed the incident adding that on hearing about the development, the command sent a detachment of police officers to the affected area are working round the clock to track down the abducted women and girls even as he said normalcy has returned to the area.

Ivory Coast arrests 15, seeks leader of al Qaeda beach attack

By Ange Aboa  |  Reuters

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Ivory Coast authorities have arrested 15 people in connection with an attack claimed by al Qaeda that killed 19 people at a beach resort this month, a state prosecutor said on Tuesday.

They were still seeking the suspected ring-leader, whom prosecutor Richard Adou named as Kounta Dallah.

Gunmen shot swimmers and sunbathers before storming into several hotels when they burst onto the beach in the town of Grand Bassam, 40 km (25 miles) from the commercial capital Abidjan, on March 13.

“Evidence found at the scene has allowed us to identify and trace certain individuals who participated in these acts,” Adou told a news conference.

Adou gave no further information on those arrested, declining to give their nationalities out of concern that their countrymen living in or visiting Ivory Coast could become the target of violent reprisals.

Soldiers stand guard on the beach following an attack by gunmen from al Qaeda's North African branch, in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast, March 14, 2016. REUTERS/Luc Gnago
Soldiers stand guard on the beach following an attack by gunmen from al Qaeda’s North African branch, in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast, March 14, 2016. REUTERS/Luc Gnago

He showed reporters a photo of Dallah that appeared to have been taken during an airport passport inspection. No other details about the suspect were available.

“This person is directly involved in the attack, was recognised by witnesses … He was present at the scene, but left at a certain moment,” Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko told reporters.

“Concerning him, there is no doubt. The arrests that followed are a community of individuals who were with him, who have links to him,” he added.

Weapons, ammunition, balaclavas and vehicles believed to have been used by the attackers were being examined and a judge was preparing both domestic and international arrest warrants for other suspects.

Eleven Ivorians, including three special forces’ soldiers, died in the shooting rampage. Four French citizens were killed and other foreign victims included citizens of Germany, Lebanon, Macedonia and Nigeria.

Adou said that Ivorian authorities had received assistance from a team of French investigators, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations as well as law enforcement officials from Germany, Morocco and Mali.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the group’s North African affiliate, announced that it was responsible for the Grand Bassam assault and posted the photos of the three suicide attackers it said had carried it out.

Interior Minister Bakayoko said the investigations had not been able to confirm that they were the same three men killed by Ivorian security forces on the beach.

(Writing by Joe Bavier; editing by Gareth Jones)

Brussels Attacks: Nigeria’s Buhari Calls for Cooperation Against Terrorism

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels “reinforce the need for greater international cooperation” in fighting militant groups.

At least 30 people were killed in the Belgian city after a suspected suicide bomb attack at Zaventem airport and an explosion at the Maelbeek metro station. The attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and come just days after Salah Abdeslam , one of the last remaining suspects from the November 2015 attacks in Paris—in which 130 people were killed—was arrested in Brussels.

The incidents have been condemned by numerous world leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

By    | NewsWeek

Nigeria has faced a six-year insurgency from Boko Haram, a militant group that pledged allegiance to ISIS in March 2015, that has resulted in some 20,000 deaths and more than two million people being displaced.

President Muhammadu Buhari, pictured at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, February 3, has expressed Nigeria's solidarity with Belgium following attacks that killed at least 30 people in Brussels. PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images
President Muhammadu Buhari, pictured at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, February 3, has expressed Nigeria’s solidarity with Belgium following attacks that killed at least 30 people in Brussels.
PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images

In a statement released by Nigeria’s state house Aso Rock, Buhari said that Nigeria stood “in full solidarity” with Belgium and wished those injured in the attacks a speedy recovery. “The president assures the global community that under his leadership, Nigeria will continue to work with other countries of the world to ensure that terrorism never triumphs over free, peaceful and law-abiding nations and peoples of the world,” said the statement.

Other African heads of state have also come out in condemnation of the attacks and in support of Belgium. Alassane Ouattara, the president of Ivory Coast—itself the victim of a militant attack claimed by Al-Qaeda’s North African branch earlier in March, in which 18 people were killed—expressed his solidarity with both Belgium and Mali.

It is not clear which specific incident in Mali he was referring to, but an attack on a hotel in the capital Bamako killed 20 people in November 2015 . Al-Qaeda’s North African franchise also claimed responsibility for a foiled attack on a Bamako hotel that has been converted into an EU military training base on Monday.Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza also expressed his condolences to the Belgian people for the “attacks of unspeakable savagery” that took place in Brussels.

Burundi, which has been riven by conflict since Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a third term in April 2015, was formerly part of the Belgian colonial empire as Ruanda-Urundi, which later became the independent states of Rwanda and Burundi in 1962. Senegalese President Macky Sall also sent his support to Belgium in these “times of trial,” while Ghana’s president John Dramani Mahama said that the incident was “another cowardly attack on innocent civilians.”

South Africa’s inflation jumps to near seven-year high

The rise in the consumer price index (CPI) was the largest since May 2009 when the rate was 8.0 percent, according to data from StatsSA (AFP Photo/Rajesh Jantilal)
The rise in the consumer price index (CPI) was the largest since May 2009 when the rate was 8.0 percent, according to data from StatsSA (AFP Photo/Rajesh Jantilal)

Johannesburg (AFP) – South Africa’s consumer inflation rate accelerated 0.8 percentage points to 7.0 percent in February, its highest in nearly seven years, official data showed Wednesday.

The rise in the consumer price index (CPI) was the largest since May 2009 when the rate was 8.0 percent, according to data from StatsSA.

A sharp fall in the rand currency and the worst drought in a century pushed food prices higher, taking the consumer price index up from January’s annual rate of 6.2 percent.

The rise in the inflation rate has forced the central bank to increase interest rates twice in a row this year.

Last week the central bank hiked its benchmark repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 7.0 percent after an aggressive 50 basis points in January.

Nedbank, one of the country’s leading lenders, stated that the central bank “will have an increasingly difficult task of balancing rising inflation and weak growth.”

“We anticipate that the monetary policy committee will remain focused on the upside risks to inflation, and continue raising the repo rate,” Nedbank said a statement.

Inflation is increasing at the same time that growth is slowing, with the World Bank and the IMF predicting economic growth will drop to less than one percent this year.

Africa’s most advanced economy is battling to avoid a credit downgrade in the face of slow growth and a weak currency.

South Africa’s Zuma wins party backing as Gupta row mounts

By Joe Brock

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa’s ruling party said on Sunday it had full confidence in President Jacob Zuma after a three-day party summit following mounting claims of political interference by the leader’s business friends.

Pressure on Zuma intensified when former cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko told the Sunday Times newspaper that the president asked him in a 2010 phone call to meet the Guptas – a family of Indian-born businessmen who relocated to South Africa in the 1990s – at their home in Johannesburg and to “please help them”.

Zuma has so far insisted his ties with the Gupta family are above board, but investors fear further political uncertainty could hasten a credit ratings downgrade, potentially into “junk” territory, and sharply raise South Africa’s borrowing costs.

Zuma’s son, Duduzane, is a director – along with Gupta family members – of at least six companies, documents show.

The allegations have reinforced concerns over governance and stability in Africa’s most industrialised country. The opposition has called on Zuma to resign.

Gwede Mantashe, secretary general of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), said the party’s National Executive Committee held “frank and robust discussions” over claims the Guptas had influenced the appointment of ministers and deputies.

“The appointment of ministers and deputy ministers is the sole prerogative of the President of the Republic, in line with the Constitution. To this end, the ANC continues to confirm its full confidence in our President,” Mantashe told a nationally televised news conference.

Mantashe said party officials had not discussed Zuma standing down from the presidency during the summit. The 73-year-old president has survived several scandals over the years..

In the past week, senior officials have accused the Gupta family of wielding undue influence in government activities. The Guptas say they are pawns in a plot to oust Zuma.

Maseko said he met two Gupta brothers who wanted his help in directing government advertising to a newspaper that the family was launching, the report said.

The Gupta family rejected Maseko’s accusations.

“We are bemused by Mr Maseko’s six-year-old allegations, which are totally unfounded,” Nazeem Howa, CEO of Oakbay Investments, the holding company for the Gupta family’s businesses in South Africa, said in a statement.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma answers questions at Parliament in Cape Town, in this picture taken March 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma answers questions at Parliament in Cape Town, in this picture taken March 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

The presidency made no comment on the claims, but in a statement rejected local media reports of an impending government reshuffle this week as “mischievous”.

Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas said on Wednesday that the Gupta family had offered him former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene’s job shortly before Zuma abruptly dismissed Nene in December, sending South Africa’s rand down nearly 10 percent. Another ANC official also said last week that she had been offered a cabinet position by the Guptas.

Zuma has said in parliament that only he appoints ministers to the cabinet and dismissed Jonas’ account.

Mantashe said the party also had full confidence in Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who has been involved in a prolonged confrontation with the elite police unit Hawks. Gordhan has repeatedly said an investigation into a surveillance unit set up at the revenue service when he headed the agency was a smear campaign aimed at tarnishing his credibility.

The ANC said it had also discussed this year’s municipal elections in which it faces stiff competition from the opposition, notably in the commercial hub of Johannesburg and the capital of Pretoria.

(Additional reporting and writing by James Macharia; Editing by Louise Ireland)

South Africa’s Guptas hit back in Zuma finance minister row

The wealthy South African family accused of wielding undue influence through its links to President Jacob Zuma says it has been the victim of “xenophobic and hate speech”.

The family took out two pages in a newspaper it owns to deny the allegations and respond to criticism.

President Zuma's son (right) works for a company owned by the Gupta family
President Zuma’s son (right) works for a company owned by the Gupta family

Deputy Finance Minister Mcebesi Jonas has said that he was offered the top job by a member of the Gupta family.

This has led to increasing pressure on President Zuma.

“As the global economic slowdown began to bite, the family became the scapegoat for every calamity and misfortune that South Africa has faced,” the Guptas said in a statement, carried in the local New Age newspaper.

The office of the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, known as the Public Protector, has said it is considering whether to investigate the involvement of the Gupta family in state affairs.

Questioned by the opposition in parliament on Thursday about Mr Jonas’ allegation, Mr Zuma said: “I’m in charge of the government. There is no minister who was ever appointed by the Guptas.”

 

The Zumas and the Guptas – the ‘Zuptas’

  • Bongi Ngema-Zuma, one of the president’s wives, used to work for the Gupta-controlled JIC Mining Services as a communications officer.
  • Duduzile Zuma, his daughter, was a director at Sahara Computers.
  • Duduzane Zuma, a son, is a director in some Gupta-owned companies.

 

Mr Zuma’s presidency has been marred by allegations of corruption, cronyism and incompetence, amid a worsening economic situation.

Last year, South Africa was hit by a wave of xenophobic violence against African migrants.

A senior governing party official warned on Thursday that the country risked turning into a “mafia state”.

Gwede Mantashe is the third most powerful person in the governing African National Congress (ANC), and his remarks suggest Mr Zuma may be losing the confidence of influential members of the party as well, correspondents say.

Senior ANC officials are meeting this weekend and they may examine Mr Zuma’s relationship with the Guptas.

The Guptas, who arrived in South Africa from India in 1993, have huge interests in computers, air travel, energy, and technology.

In 2013, there was an outcry after a private jet carrying guests to the wedding of a Gupta family member was allowed to land at a South African military air force base in Pretoria.

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