On a bus, South Africans claim back land taken under apartheid

In this file April 24, 2012 photo, a worker walks between rows of vegetables at a farm in Eikenhof, south of Johannesburg. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

LONDON, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – South Africans whose land was confiscated under racist laws in the apartheid era have lodged more than 27,000 legal claims at “mobile land claims offices” housed in buses and four-wheel-drive trucks, a land rights commission said.

Six specially adapted vehicles have travelled between remote rural communities since April 2015, reaching more than 100,000 households, according to the Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights, which operates them.

They are part of an initiative to contact victims of racially motivated land dispossession and help them claim back their land.

Under the previous Union and apartheid white-minority governments, segregationist laws severely restricted the right of black South Africans to own land and forced millions onto reservations.

Alfred Msibi, 97, and Maria Sibisi, 79, from northeastern Mpumalanga Province, told Commission officials they hoped the use of mobile offices would speed up access to compensation for their historical claims.

“We have had no peace since the day we were dispossessed of our ancestral land,” a Commission statement quoted them as saying.

The Restitution of Land Rights Bill, aimed at restoring land to those who had it taken from them during the apartheid era, was among the first laws passed by the country’s first democratic government in November 1994.

But many people failed to claim their land in the initial period from 1995 to 1998, and President Jacob Zuma re-opened their right to make claims when he signed the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act on June 30, 2014.

Nomfundo Ntloko-Gobodo, Chief Land Claims Commissioner, said the decision was made to re-open claims because many families had not been aware that they qualified for the process, the commission statement said.

It quoted him as saying he was confident the mobile offices would enable farmers to reclaim their land by the 2019 deadline.

LAND CLAIM VEHICLES ON TOUR

The vehicles contain electronic equipment to register claims on site, and have toured sparsely populated areas of northeastern Limpopo province and towns in desert regions of Northern Cape province.

The initiative aimed to contact rural people who could not reach the 14 fixed-location offices, which are mostly in urban centres.

Staff are registering claims for South Africans who were dispossessed of land after June 19, 1913 – when the notorious “Natives Land Act” came into force. The Act prevented black South Africans from owning land outside designated reservations which amounted to just 7 percent of agricultural land, though black South Africans formed 67 percent of the population.

Under the Act and subsequent legislation, more than 3 million people were forcibly relocated to black townships and “Bantustan” homelands.

Land remains a highly emotive issue in South Africa, where 300 years of colonial rule and white-minority government left the vast majority of farmland in the hands of a tiny, mainly white, minority.

The 1996 constitution places a duty on the government to ensure equitable land distribution and address the consequences of the 1913 Act.

In 1996, two years after the end of apartheid, 90 percent of all agricultural land was owned or leased by just 60,000 white commercial farmers, according to government figures.

The National Development Plan set a target of transferring 20 percent of agricultural land to black South Africans by 2030. Between 1994 and 2014, the state handed 7.5 million hectares to black farmers, 46 percent of this target, according to official figures.

(Reporting by Matthew Ponsford, editing by Tim Pearce. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, traficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)

College Student, 21, Who Vanished After Saying She Was Taking An Uber is Found Safe

Monique Priester had last spoken with her mom about 6:15 p.m. Friday, when she told her that she was leaving GSU’s campus in Atlanta in a shared Uber.

The 21-year-old college student who disappeared after telling her mother she was getting in an Uber cab has been found safe, officials said.

Monique Priester, from Georgia, was located Monday after last speaking with her mother three days earlier, a police spokeswoman with the Gwinnett County Police Department told InsideEdition.com.

An officer was able to make contact with Priester between 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and confirmed the Georgia State University sophomore was in good health and had left on her own accord, authorities said.

At the request of Priester, police will not disclose her location. Officials could not say if Priester had been in an Uber.

She had last spoken with her mom about 6:15 p.m. Friday, when she told her that she was leaving GSU’s campus in Atlanta in a shared Uber.

Her worried mother told reporters that since then, her daughter’s phone had gone straight to voicemail and her bank account showed activity in Nashville, Tennessee, about 250 miles away from her school.

“I’m panicked,” Jaqueline Vanloo-Alkush told WSB-TV. “I’m hoping she’s safe.”

Uber said it would only be able to hand over ride records if the company were subpoenaed, but police said they had no reason to suspect foul play in Priester’s so-called disappearance.

“Immediately upon hearing from the family, we contacted local law enforcement to offer any assistance or information that could help them locate Ms. Priester and get her home safely,” an Uber spokesperson told InsideEdition.com before Priester was located.

After she was found, the Gwinnett County Police Department thanked Uber for their help.

“They were more than cooperative… before the investigator even had a chance to call Uber, they called us. We’re so grateful,” a spokeswoman with the police department told InsideEdition.com.

Enugu attacks: Southerners in Nigeria ‘have been targeted for decades’

Fulani militants are believed to carry out attacks mainly in Nigeria and CAR. In Nigeria, they mainly operate in the Middle Belt and attack primarily private citizens to gain control of grazing lands.

By Ludovica Iaccino | IBT/

Militants have been targeting southerners throughout Nigeria for decades, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Biafran government in exile (BGIE) told IBTimes UK. Emmanuel Enekwechi, head of BGIE since its creation in the US in 2007, made the comments just days after dozens were killed in Enugu state, southeastern Nigeria, amid fears herdsmen from the Fulani ethnic group were behind the atrocity.

The killings occurred at a time when attacks attributed to Fulani militants are on the rise in Nigeria, where pro-Biafran secessionist groups have accused the Fulani herdsmen of targeting Christians and southerners in a bid to “Islamise the Christian-dominated region”.

“We don’t have the details yet, of what happened in Enugu, but for my experience, thousands and thousands of Biafans [who inhabit southeastern Nigeria] have been massacred in the north,” Enekwechi said. “A very large percentage of Biafrans living in the north relocated to their homeland, but even then, you can see they are still being pursued and killed.”

Ending attacks by herdsmen a national priority

President Buhari condemned the attack in Enugu and called on security forces to bring perpetrators to justice. “Ending the recent upsurge of attacks on communities by herdsmen reportedly armed with sophisticated weapons is now a priority on the Buhari Administration’s agenda for enhanced national security and the Armed Forces and Police have clear instructions to take all necessary action to stop the carnage,” Buhari’s spokeperson, Femi Adesina, said in a statement.

“The President urges all Nigerians to remain calm and assured of his administration’s readiness to deploy all required personnel and resources to remove this new threat to the collective security of the nation,” he continued.

The killings occurred at a time when attacks attributed to Fulani militants are on the rise in Nigeria, where pro-Biafran secessionist groups have accused the Fulani herdsmen of targeting Christians and southerners in a bid to "Islamise the Christian-dominated region". — The killings occurred at a time when attacks attributed to Fulani militants are on the rise in Nigeria, where pro-Biafran secessionist groups have accused the Fulani herdsmen of targeting Christians and southerners in a bid to “Islamise the Christian-dominated region”.

Not a sectarian conflict

Framing the Enugu and similar attacks as a sectarian conflict could further deepen violence, David Otto, CEO of UK-based global security provider TGS Intelligence Consultants, told IBTimes UK.

“It is not impossible for Fulani herdsmen to infiltrate Enugu to retaliate or defend their nomadic lifestyle and their cattle, but the danger lies in framing these attacks by so-called ‘Hausa Fulani herdsmen’ under sectarian terms or targeted killings against Christians or Biafrans, amounting to genocide attempts or ethnic cleansing,” he said.

“It will only add fuel to the situation. These types of violent land disputes have existed for decades – caused primarily by the mere lifestyle of Fulani Nomads and their grazing land in the Sahel region. The disputes have increasingly become worse because of the current land degradation in the Lake Chad region, forcing migration of Nomads with their cattle from the North to the Middle Belt regions. It is not uncommon for individuals, politicians, criminal groups or Islamic movements like Boko Haram to take advantage of the situation to achieve their own goals.”

South Sudanese player detained in Canada says he doesn’t know his true age

Nicola told the Star in the January feature story that he arrived in Windsor on Nov. 22, 2015, just three days before his 17th birthday. He said he left South Sudan, his disease-ridden, wartorn home, for a better life in Windsor.

A South Sudanese man who was arrested in Canada last week for allegedly posing as a teenager in order to gain entry to the country and play high school basketball admitted in a immigration and refugee board hearing he is not a teenager but claimed he does not know his true age.

Canadian border officers arrested Jonathan Nicola on April 15 after receiving confirmation from the United States that Nicola’s fingerprints matched those of a man who had applied for a visa to the U.S. from Syria using a birth date in 1986. Nicola is believed to be 29.

He had been in Canada attending Catholic Central high school in Windsor and playing basketball for the school on scholarship since November 2015. His situation came to the attention of authorities when the coach at the school helped Nicola submit paperwork to allow him to travel with the team to the U.S. to play in games here.

During the hearing, Nicola told the officiant of the Canadian Immigration Division that he is ‘not a liar person’ but does not know his true age because his mother never told him his true birthday because she could not remember it. Nicola also said a man who originally processed his paperwork in South Sudan went forward with it despite Nicola never being able to provide an accurate age.

“I really do not know what is my real age, I cannot tell you what is my real age,” he said during the hearing, according to an official transcript provided to Yahoo Sports. “But over there my mom always keep telling us different age, I do not remember what specific age, I always keep her asking like what is the specific age that I was born, and she has told me that she could not remember.”

The officiant, Valerie Currie, eventually ruled that Nicola be detained because he was a flight risk. She also said she did not believe that Nicola was being honest in saying that he didn’t know his true age.

“You have misrepresented yourself and you have been untruthful in order to achieve your goals and that shows considerable disrespect for the laws of Canada, specifically the immigration laws of Canada,” Currie said. “Those circumstances suggests to me that you are a person who cannot be trusted to comply with the laws of Canada.”

An Immigration Refugee Board has since determined that Nicola should remain in detention until a May 24 hearing. During his first hearing, Nicola said he has had suicidal thoughts while under arrest and would like to return to South Sudan to be reunited with his mother.

Nicola is 6-foot-9 and helped the Catholic Central team advance to the second round of the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association playoffs this season.

Nigeria and EU to start migrant return talks

File photo: A number of officials called for the European Union to help with the influx of immigrants [Reuters]

Maggie Fick | FT – The EU and Nigeria will discuss a deal to send economic migrants back to Africa’s most populous country as Europe seeks to replicate a recent pact with Turkey that is dramatically curbing migration flows from the Middle East.

A “readmission agreement” would probably involve migrants from Nigeria being deported in exchange for EU economic aid for Abuja. It would be the bloc’s first major return deal with a sub-Saharan African nation — its only existing one is with tiny island nation Cape Verde.

The EU and Nigeria agreed to “take the necessary steps to launch negotiations” for a deal after meetings in Brussels last month, and diplomats there have since been working to secure a mandate from member states to start the negotiations, an EU diplomat said.

The move comes after the EU signed a deal with Turkey earlier this year, in which Ankara agreed to accept the return of migrants landing in Greece — including Syrian refugees — in exchange for benefits, including aid and visa-free travel for Turkish citizens.

Striking a deal with Nigeria has become a focus for EU diplomats after a jump in arrivals of people from the country to Europe since 2014. While the number of Nigerians pales in comparison to arrivals from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, the EU considers the flow of Africans as a long-term structural problem.

Italy is lobbying especially hard for the EU to come to an agreement. The vast majority of migrants reaching the country come from Africa. Figures from the Italian interior ministry show the number of Nigerians arriving has increased 37 per cent this year compared with the same period in 2015.

Nigerians arrive almost exclusively across the central Mediterranean from war-torn Libya. Many African migrants destroy their identification documents during their journey, meaning a returns deal could be difficult to enforce if European authorities cannot identify where people should be deported to.

Nigeria’s population of more than 180m is expected to jump to 300m by 2030. Economic growth is not keeping pace, however. The government in the oil-rich state failed to capitalise on high crude prices and poverty levels remain high. The oil price crash has caused a severe slowdown and growth is forecast to be less than 3 per cent this year.

For many Nigerians the money they can potentially earn in Europe outweighs the risks of the journey. Virtually none of the migrants are believed to be refugees from the Boko Haram conflict that has devastated the northeastern region recently, according to the EU.

Given the population growth trend not just in Nigeria but across west Africa, “these pressures for migration are going to be huge”, the EU diplomat said.

Nigeria’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment over a potential deal with the EU, but Abuja may look to the terms secured by Turkey. The EU has agreed to give Ankara €6bn in exchange for accepting migrants who land on Greek islands. The flow of migrants into Greece has slowed to a trickle since the deal was signed five weeks ago but rights groups say the agreement breaks EU and UN laws related to the processing of asylum seeker claims — a charge the EU denies.

Advocates of Houston’s African Diaspora to be honored during Flamingo Awards

HOUSTON (TX) — During the Houston African Community International USA (HACIUSA) annual gala, several individuals, businesses and organizations that support and provide advocacy for the African community will be awarded. Houston is home to one of the nation’s largest African communities contributing heartily to the city’s overall economic prosperity. The event takes place from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., on Friday, April 29, 2016, at the Sugar Land Marriott Hotel, 16090 City Walk, Sugar Land Town Square Plaza, Sugar Land, TX 77479.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee will deliver this year’s keynote address. Among her many important committee assignments; the Congresswoman serves as co-chair of the Congressional Nigerian Caucus, and is a member of the Congressional African Partnership for Economic Growth Caucus.

“We are excited to welcome Congresswoman Lee to this year’s gala as keynote,” said Dr. Gracie G. Chukwu, president and CEO of HACIUSA. “The Congresswoman leads in providing Houston’s African community with the support needed to build and foster essential relationships here and abroad.”

During the event, awards will be presented in various categories including: Community Hero, Educational Excellence, African Heritage, Community Service, Medical Missions, Humanitarian, Life Achievement, African Businessman/Woman of the Year, MLK Jr’s Legacy, African Newspaper, Best African Magazine, Best African Fashion Designer, and Outstanding Community Leadership, to name a few. Congressman Al Green is an esteemed honoree this year and will be in attendance.

In addition to the awards program, hundreds of guests will enjoy featured entertainment, networking, an authentic African cuisine and silent auction. Pre-bidding for the silent auction is currently underway. Auction items include elegant trips and fun excursions, sporting events, and romantic getaways. You may review and bid on items here.

Proceeds from the event will fund construction of a new mixed-use development named the African International House. HACIUSA headquarters, business offices, hotel and conference center, African art gallery, and social services are among the planned purposes for the facility.

Tickets for the event are $50.00 each and $80.00 for a VIP ticket and may be purchased on the event website at www.flamingoawardsgala.com. Sponsorships are still available ranging from the Community Partner level of $300.00 to the Platinum Sponsor level of $2,000.00.

For more information, call 713-781-9992, email Info@Haciusa.org or visit www.flamingoawardsgala.com.

Nigeria’s herdsmen-farmer conflict takes a turn for the worse in Enugu

A pastor surveys the rubble of a church torched by rampaging Hausa-Fulani herdsmen in Sabon Gida, Nigeria on May 21, 2004. The ongoing conflict in Nigeria between herdsmen and settled communities has killed hundreds in 2016.

Roaming herdsmen in Nigeria have reportedly killed scores of people after invading several towns in the southern Enugu state.

Ongoing clashes between herdsmen mostly belonging to the Fulani ethnic group and settled farming communities have already killed hundreds of people in 2016. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari called an investigation after clashes in February in Benue state that reportedly resulted in hundreds of deaths.

Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed said that the government is working behind the scenes to resolve the conflict, which reportedly costs the West African country billions in lost revenues.

Armed herdsmen entered a community in the Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu on Monday, Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper reported, on the pretence that some of their cattle had gone missing in the area. Scores of people were killed as the herdsmen attacked civilians, burning out a local Catholic church and slaughtering livestock.

The Nigeria Police Force’s state branch in Enugu announced on Monday that “full-scale investigations” had been launched into the killing of six people in the Uzo-Uwani area “by men suspected to be herdsmen.” The police claimed that security had been beefed up in the area and urged local people not to take the law into their own hands.

The conflict between Fulani herdsmen and settled communities has mainly affected Nigeria’s Middle Belt — primarily the states of Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Nassarawa. A series of reports in July 2015 by global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps found that the four states stood to gain up to $13.7 billion annually in total macroeconomic benefits if the conflict was reduced to near zero. Nigerian households affected by the clashes could expect to see their incomes increase by between 64 and 210 percent if a lasting peace were to be established.

Attacks by Fulani herdsmen have rocketed in recent years. Total casualties attributed to Fulani herdsmen hit 1,229 in 2014, a massive increase from just 63 in 2013, according to the Institute for Economics & Peace’s Global Terrorism Index 2015, though analysts have warned that Fulani herdsmen do not constitute a single militant group but rather roving communities loosely connected by ethnicity.

Nigeria’s Bukola Saraki wants a swift end to the Fulani herdsmen conflict

Bukola Saraki said the violence between herdsmen and farmers puts Nigeria's security and unity at risk. — Bukola Saraki said the violence between herdsmen and farmers puts Nigeria’s security and unity at risk.

The president of Nigeria’s Senate, Bukola Saraki, has demanded a swift end to the wave of violence allegedly perpetrated by predominantly Fulani herdsmen across the country.

The third most powerful politician in Nigeria behind the president and vice president, Saraki—who is currently standing trial on allegations of fraud, which he denies—ordered a senate committee on agriculture to fast-track a public hearing on the violence, which has claimed hundreds of lives in 2016 alone. Saraki tweeted that addressing the conflict was necessary to safeguard Nigeria’s unity.

Herdsmen mostly from the Fulani ethnic group have clashed with settled farming communities on numerous occasions in 2016, in a conflict reportedly motivated by competition for scarce resources but which also contains an ethnic element. At least five people were killed on Monday after armed herdsmen ransacked a community in Nigeria’s southern Enugu state, according to the state police. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered an inquiry in February after similar clashes in Benue state, central Nigeria, which reportedly resulted in hundreds of deaths.

Low-level violence between herdsmen and farmers also has a massive economic cost for Nigeria. Four of the worst-affected states—Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Nassarawa—stand to gain up to $13.7 billion annually in macroeconomic benefits if the conflict were reduced to near zero, a series of 2015 reports by global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps found.

Taken as a whole, attacks by Fulani herdsmen resulted in 1,229 casualties in 2014, a massive increase from the 63 recorded in 2013, according to the Institute for Economics & Peace Global Terrorism Index 2015. Analysts, however, have cautioned against grouping the attacks together under a single perpetrator and against classifying Fulani herdsmen as an organized militant group.

The Fulani is a disparate, mostly Muslim ethnic group spread across West Africa. Also known as Fula or Peul, Fulani people have traditionally led nomadic lifestyles as cattle herders following their livestock’s migratory patterns. They have clashed with a wide range of ethnic communities, including fellow Muslims such as the Hausa and Christian communities in Nigeria.

Former House speaker sentenced to more than a year in prison

CHICAGO (AP) — Dennis Hastert, the Republican who for eight years presided over the House and was second in the line of succession to the presidency, was sentenced Wednesday to more than a year in prison in the hush-money case that included accusations he sexually abused teenagers while coaching high school wrestling.

Judge Thomas M. Durkin also ordered Hastert to undergo sex-offender treatment, spend two years on supervised release after 15 months behind bars and pay a $250,000 fine to a crime victims’ fund.

In explaining his punishment, the judge called Hastert a “serial child molester” and described as “unconscionable” his attempt to accuse one of the victims of extortion.

Hastert becomes one of the highest-ranking politicians in American history to be sentenced to prison. He pleaded guilty last fall to violating banking law as he sought to pay $3.5 million to someone referred to in court papers only as Individual A to keep the sex abuse secret.

Earlier in the hearing, a former athlete who said he was molested by Hastert decades ago told the courtroom that he was “devastated” by the abuse.

The man, now in his 50s, said Hastert abused him while they were alone in a locker room. He struggled to hold back tears as he described the incident in detail. In the years since, he said, he sought professional help and had trouble sleeping. He said the memory still causes him pain.

He said he trusted and looked up to Hastert.

In his own statement, Hastert admitted that he “mistreated” some of his athletes and said he was “deeply ashamed.”

“I am sorry to those I hurt and misled,” he said. “What I did was wrong and I regret it.”

When the judge asked whether he sexually abused one wrestler specifically, Hastert said yes.

Moments before the man took the stand, a woman who says her brother was sexually abused by Hastert told the courtroom that her sibling felt “betrayed, ashamed and embarrassed.”

Dennis Hastert was former Republican and Speaker of the House of Representatives. He becomes one of the highest-ranking politicians in American history to be sentenced to prison.

Jolene Burdge said Hastert abused her brother, Stephen Reinboldt, throughout his years at Yorkville High School, where Hastert was a history teacher and coach from 1965 to 1981.

Reinboldt died of AIDS in 1995.

His sister turned toward Hastert and said, “Don’t be a coward … tell the truth.”

She also said, “I hope I have been your worst nightmare.”

Authorities alleged that Hastert abused at least four students throughout his years at the school about 45 miles southwest of Chicago. He will report to prison at a later date.

The 74-year-old, who was in a wheelchair at the courthouse, agreed to a plea deal that suggested anything from probation to a maximum of six months behind bars.

But after prosecutors lifted a veil of secrecy from the case, the judge made comments suggesting he might impose a longer sentence, potentially putting Hastert behind bars for years, because of the abuse allegations.

Defense attorneys were seeking probation on the grounds that Hastert has already paid a high price in disgrace. They also cited his health, saying a blood infection nearly killed him in November and that a stroke has limited his mobility.

The lead prosecutor said he wishes Hastert could have been charged with the abuse he was trying to cover up.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Block called Hastert’s conduct “horrendous.” But because of the statute of limitations, he could only be charged with a financial crime related to the payments he was making to one of at least four victims of sexual abuse.

Block said the sentence should take into account that Hastert “continues to deny what should now be obvious to everyone,” that the payments were to conceal sexual abuse.

Defense attorney Thomas Green said he “acknowledges and respects” the pain of the man who described being molested. He urged the judge to take into consideration the “entire arc” of Hastert’s life, asserting that he reshaped his life as a public servant during his political career.

“Decades of not just political achievement but acts of goodness and charity have been erased, a lot of it even physically as his name has been removed from public places and his portrait at the Capitol put into storage,” Green said.

Some letters of support were withdrawn because the writers did not want to be identified, Green said, an example of Hastert’s deepening isolation.

The maximum sentence available was five years in prison.

Until recently, it was hard to gauge what Durkin might be thinking. But at a recent hearing, he let his dismay show for the first time.

He singled out how Hastert in a 2015 interview with federal agents sought to deflect blame by falsely accusing Individual A of extorting him with a bogus sex-abuse claim.

On Wednesday, the judge returned to that example, saying that Hastert was willing to send an innocent man to prison to avoid getting caught.

Because of Hastert’s false accusations, “the full weight of the federal government’s resources” was thrown at Individual A, the judge said.

Earlier this month, prosecutors went into graphic detail about the sex-abuse allegations for the first time, even describing how Hastert would sit in a recliner chair in the locker room with a direct view of the showers.

The victims, prosecutors said, were boys between 14 and 17. Hastert was in his 20s and 30s.

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