Burundi has again pushed back at the findings of a United Nations human rights investigation released Wednesday that found grave violations continue in the small African nation, including summary deaths, torture, sexual violence and arbitrary arrest. Government spokesman Willy Nyamitwe, a senior advisor to President Pierre Nkurunziza and member of his…
Ethiopia’s progress under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has moved at an impressive speed, but a more transparent, democratic and peaceful nation isn’t the reality in Ethiopia’s ethnic Somali region. That needs to change in the country’s eastern region, the Human Rights Watch NGO said Monday. “To break with the past,…
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali was expected to win Sunday’s second-round runoff election, as he faced Soumaila Cissé, the main URD opposition candidate, to determine the country’s final presidential election result. Keïta, the EPM party’s incumbent candidate, received 41.4 percent of votes cast in the July 29 election, according…
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali will face Soumaila Cissé, the main URD opposition candidate, in a second-round runoff to determine the country’s final presidential election result. Keïta, the EPM party’s incumbent candidate, received 41.4 percent of votes cast on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Territorial Administration responsible for…
As yet, there’s no clear outcome following Sunday’s presidential election in Mali, with an August 12 runoff likely between EPM candidate and incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Soumaila Cisse, the main URD opposition candidate. There’s also been a claim from ADP candidate Aliou Diallo, right, who says he received…
Officials in the Comoros said Tuesday that a constitutional referendum that would allow current President Azali Assoumani to extend his term has passed with an overwhelming 93 percent of the vote. The provisional results released by the country’s electoral commission showed 170,240 votes in favor of the measure, which would…
Preliminary results of Sunday’s presidential election aren’t expected until later this week, but officials in Mali have issued a first assessment of the voting process. The polls were closed at 716 stations for various reasons, many of them because of violence in the country’s north and central regions. Incidents included…
Officials in the Comoros said they’re still tallying the results of a divisive referendum that would allow current President Azali Assoumani to extend his term in the Indian Ocean island nation. Interior Minister Mohamed Daoud said late Monday that 63 percent of voters participated across the three islands, with an…
The head of the United Nations mission in Mali (MINUSMA) says that the country is prepared for a successful election on Sunday, despite the recent rise in violence against civilians and the chronic challenges presented by regional Islamic extremists. Mahamat Saleh Annadif, speaking with the MINUSMA radio network in Mali,…
Authorities in Guinea have yet to take seriously the allegations of abuses by government security forces during violent street protests that rocked the small West African nation following its February elections. That’s according to a new report issued Tuesday by Human Rights Watch, which found “credible evidence that Guinea’s security…
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is appealing to the international community to take serious measures to curb the spiraling ethnic and communal violence in Central African Republic. “Last week’s violence in Bangui demonstrates just how volatile the situation is, and how easily crowds…
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has opened an office in Democratic Republic of Congo it says will establish a greater presence for the regional body amid Kinshasa’s national political crisis. The SADC office “provides an avenue for closer collaboration with stakeholders in the DRC, in the continued efforts by…
Hundreds of people gathered Friday evening in the central Lavapiés neighborhood of Madrid to protest against police treatment of migrants, following the death Thursday of a 35-year-old Senegalese man. The protesters in Nelson Mandela Square were peaceful, according to El Mundo, but riot police were on hand to ensure that…
Another temporary base for United Nations peacekeepers was established this week near Lita, as part of the MONUSCO response to increased violence in the Ituri region of Democratic Republic of Congo. The new base is one of four established as MONUSCO troops seek to quell attacks that have claimed 100…
Six people were killed Sunday in Kinshasa, as security forces shut down protest marches against President Joseph Kabila’s government organized by lay leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Roman Catholic churches. Florence Marchal, a spokeswoman for the United Nations mission there, told MONUSCO-affiliated Radio Okapi that there also were…