Somalia ja Itä- sekä Keski Afrikan konfliktit

ctg · 18.07.2022

Zambia has extradited a Chinese filmmaker to neighbouring Malawi to face charges relating to racism and child exploitation.

Lu Ke was a Malawi resident when he was exposed by BBC Africa Eye, which reported he had used local children to film personalised greetings videos, some of which included racist content.

The videos could be bought for up to $70 (£55) on Chinese social media and internet platforms.
Lu Ke denied making derogatory videos.

He had said he made them in order to spread Chinese culture to the local community.

Lu Ke was detained last month in Zambia and fined for entering it illegally.

Malawi's Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda confirmed to the BBC that he had been extradited. He added that the Chinese citizen is due to appear in court on Monday in line with procedures after someone has been arrested.

The BBC Africa Eye documentary led to a promise from China to clamp down on online racism against Africans, the South China Morning Post reported.

Also in the wake of the film, social media platforms popular in China took steps to prevent the circulation of the types of videos from Africa that it highlighted, according to website Rest of World.

BBC Africa Eye expose: Chinese man extradited to Malawi over racist videos

He was filmed using Malawian children to make videos, some of which included racist content.

www.bbc.com

Bwana · 18.07.2022

Jep. Malawissa ja Ugandassa oli "hassua" seurata kuinka normaalisti toisiaan dissailleet intialaistaustaiset bisneksien omistajat ja bantu työväki yhdistelivät säännöllisen epäsäännöllisesti voimiaan ttuillessaan mistään tajuamattomille, ylimielisille kiinalaisille. Meihin possunvärisiin oli jo totuttu...

ctg · 25.07.2022

Face to face with the bandit warlords of Nigeria

BBC Africa Eye has tracked down the ultra-violent bandit warlords who are raiding villages and abducting schoolchildren across north-western Nigeria.

www.bbc.co.uk

ctg · 27.07.2022

At least 15 people were killed and about 50 wounded during a second day of violent anti-United Nations protests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern cities of Goma and Butembo, authorities have said.

The dead included demonstrators and UN personnel as UN sites were attacked by crowds.

A Reuters journalist reported seeing UN peacekeepers shoot dead two protesters as people threw rocks, and vandalised and set fire to UN buildings in Goma.

The demonstrations began on Monday, when hundreds of people attacked and looted a UN warehouse in the city, a regional hub for international aid groups, demanding the mission leave the country. They flared again on Tuesday and spread to Butembo, about 124 miles (200km) north of Goma.

The protests were called by a faction of the ruling party’s youth wing that accuses the UN mission, known as Monusco, of failing to protect civilians against militia violence.

“Mobs are throwing stones and petrol bombs, breaking into bases, looting and vandalising, and setting facilities on fire,” deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.

Some stormed the houses of UN workers who were evacuated from Goma in a convoy of vehicles escorted by the army, a reporter said.

One peacekeeper and two UN police personnel were killed when their base in Butembo was attacked, the UN spokesperson said. Butembo’s police chief, Paul Ngoma, said that seven civilians were also killed when the peacekeepers retaliated.

“The situation is very volatile and reinforcements are being mobilised,” Haq said, adding that UN forces had been told to exercise maximum restraint and only fire warning shots.

At least 15 killed in second day of anti-UN violence in DRC

Protesters and United Nations personnel among dead after incidents that left about 50 injured

www.theguardian.com

On ollut muutaman päivän mielessä että jotakin käy täällä, jostain syystä

ctg · 07.08.2022

One high-profile actor has been the Wagner Group – a private company linked to the Kremlin thathas supplied mercenaries to about half a dozen African governments. These have not always met with unmitigated success. A deployment to combat Islamic extremist insurgents in Mozambique was a fiasco. Nor did Wagner fighters in Libya distinguish themselves on the battlefield when supporting the Benghazi-based warlord Khalifa Haftar’s offensive against Tripoli in 2019.

But when Wagner Group fighters were deployed to Mali following a takeover by military officers last year, they scored a geopolitical success for Moscow. The new regime in Bamako has since forced a major French force fighting jihadist insurgents to leave, pivoting a key state in an important strategic region away from the west. A bomb close to the capital last week underlined how the Wagner fighters have made less progress militarily, however, and have been blamed for multiple human rights abuses.

In Sudan, where a military coup last year derailed a fragile transition to democratic rule, Russian companies linked to the Wagner Group by western analysts and officials have run goldmines since before the fall of the dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

The military regime in Khartoum also has a close relationship with Moscow and western officials have monitored an intensification in recent months of flights believed to be transporting precious metals to Russia from Sudan. Sudan has also concluded a big deal offering Russia a port on Africa’s eastern coast for 25 years.

Another key location is Central Africa Republic, where more than 1,000 Wagner mercenaries have mounted a series of bloody offensives against rebels on behalf of a weak central government in return for mining concessions. In recent months, according to witnesses, Russian military contractors have mounted violent and sometimes lethal raids on goldmines in the east of the country apparently aimed solely at looting quantities of gold.

Support from many African leaders and governments for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine – or at least reluctance to condemn it – has dismayed western officials.

A once close relationship between the US and UK and Uganda, the next stop on Lavrov’s tour, has soured over the crushing of political dissent and western pressure to recognise LGBT rights. Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986 and the recipient of huge sums of western aid, has accused the west of interfering in domestic affairs. Museveni’s influential son and aspirant successor, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has said on Twitter that “the majority of mankind (that are non-white) support Russia’s stand in Ukraine”.

Ethiopia, where Lavrov will travel after Kampala, might be a tougher sell for Lavrov, though the prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s relations with the west have also suffered in recent years following the war in the northern province of Tigray. In Addis Ababa the conversation is likely to be more about money and technology than military assistance.

A major Russia-Africa summit was held in Sochi in 2019. The event is set to be repeated later this year, possibly in the Ethiopian capital.

Russian ties across the continent have been strengthened through investment in mining, financial loans and the sale of agricultural equipment or nuclear technology. Rosatom, the Russian state corporation involved with military and civil use of nuclear energy, has sought to expand in Africa in recent years. Russia was the largest arms exporter to sub-Saharan Africa in 2016-20, supplying almost a third of total sub-Saharan arms imports, up from a quarter in 2011-15, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

One explanation for the support for Moscow is that many countries across the continent are still ruled by parties that were helped by the USSR during their struggles for liberation from colonial or white supremacist rule. Though few among their youthful populations experienced the bitter battles of the 1960s, 70s or 80s, leaders of ruling parties in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique remember how Soviet weapons, cash and advisers helped them win freedom.

Moscow has sought to highlight this history since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, repeatedly saying that Russia has “never colonised” any African country and is on the side of Africans against western neoimperialists.

Lavrov’s African tour another front in struggle between west and Moscow

Analysis: Foreign minister seeks to win friends and influence people in countries where closeness can be traced back to USSR

www.theguardian.com

ctg · 07.08.2022

British forces have begun training Ukrainian soldiers in a new programme to help in their fight against Russia.

Up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers will arrive in the UK for specialist military training lasting several weeks. The first cohort met the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, on Thursday, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed.

Wallace, widely expected to launch a campaign to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative party, described the programme as the next phase of Britain’s support to the Ukrainian army.

“Using the world-class expertise of the British army we will help Ukraine to rebuild its forces and scale up its resistance as they defend their country’s sovereignty and their right to choose their own future,” he said.

Ukrainian soldiers arrive in UK for training with British forces

Up to 10,000 new recruits will train for several weeks to help in their country’s fight against Russia

www.theguardian.com

The training will give volunteer recruits with little to no military experience the skills to be effective in frontline combat. Based on the UK’s basic soldier training, the course covers weapons handling, battlefield first aid, fieldcraft, patrol tactics and the law of armed conflict.

ctg · 07.08.2022

Leaderwolf · 07.08.2022

ctg kirjoitti:
‘Absolute evil’: inside the Russian prison camp where dozens of Ukrainians burned to death

Entrepreneur Anna Vorosheva accuses Moscow of murder after spending 100 days in the Olenivka detention centre

www.theguardian.com

Vastuulliset, käskijät sekä likaisen työn tekijät itse täytyy saada kärsimään sodan jälkeen. Venäjä ei voi päästä tästä paskasta ilman raskasta sakinhivutusta. Ryssä alentava sana? Viikon vitsi.

Edit. Hetkinen oliko tämä veli @ctg tarkoituksella tässä ketjussa?

ctg · 07.08.2022

Leaderwolf kirjoitti:
Edit. Hetkinen oliko tämä veli @ctg tarkoituksella tässä ketjussa?

oops

arix · 07.08.2022

ctg kirjoitti:
oops

Viestejä pukkaa niin ettei tahdo ketjut riittää...

Bwana · 29.08.2022

No niin. Viime keskiviikkona alkoi taas kolisemaan. Tässä on jo ehditty pommittaa Mekelleä ja siviileitä, mukana lapsia, meni. Toiset sanovat että Etiopian ilmavaivat, toiset jotta Eritrean. Samanhan tuo tekköö.

Abiyllä meni sukset ristiin amharoiden FANO:n kanssa ja sitten 140 km:n rintamalla TDF sanoo ottaneensa Guguwdon, Fokisan, Zobilin, Mendeferan, Kobon, Robitin, Shiwoch Mariamin ja Tekuloshin. Nyt väitetään myös Lalibelan menneen eli kaiken kaikkiaan Etiopian armeijan rippeet ottavat ilmeisesti parhaillaan taas tosissaan käkeen. TDF väittää pistäneensä 23 etiopilaista divisioonaa + erikoisjoukkoja + FANO sileäksi. Sen se tekee kun FANO:n kovinta kärkeä laittaa pahnoille, on vissiin Abiyen kannatus Amharassa aika heikoilla.

TDF on treenauttanut joukkojaan tämän vallinneen luppoajan ja peruuttanut mm. WFP:lle lupaamansa polttoaineen. Etenemisensä on tällä hetkellä nopeampaa kuin vuosi sitten. Abiye koittaa hankkia pyssyjä mm. Algeriasta.

Pienoisen suolan kanssa otetettakoon taas nämä, tuolta ei kauhean paljon infoa irtoa.

Leaderwolf · 30.08.2022

Kuinkas ne dronet? Onko TDF:llä nyt jokin kyky torjua niitä?

Bwana · 30.08.2022

Leaderwolf kirjoitti:
Kuinkas ne dronet? Onko TDF:llä nyt jokin kyky torjua niitä?

Eiköhän heikäläistenkin kyky tuohon ole kasvanut. Nyt tosin otellaan taas vuoristoseuduilla eli TDF:n jalkaväen kärki etenee taas korkealla tiettömillä taipaleilla, luodaan saarrostus kukkuloilta (asutus tuolla on aina laaksoissa) ja sitä rataa. Droneista ei puhetta ole ollut vielä mutta viimeksikin ne astuivat kuvaan vasta Addiksen edustan tasaisella. Nyt voi olla se regiiminvaihto kuitenkin edessä koska ENDF on melko selvästi teränsä menettänyt. Oromothan ovat kuitenkin kanssa koko TDF:n "huilin" ajan järjestäneet keskushallinnolle ohjelmaa...

ctg · 13.09.2022

The capital of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region was hit by an air strike on Tuesday, hospital officials and Tigrayan rebels said.

The reported strike on Mekele came just days after the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) said it was ready for a ceasefire and talks with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government after nearly two years of war.

"AbiyAhmed's drones targeted MekelleUniversity Adi Haki campus," TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda said on Twitter.

Another TPLF spokesman, Kindeya Gebrehiwot, also said on Twitter that Mekele University had been "bombed" causing injuries and property damage, which was still being assessed.

"This is happening after the Govt of Tigray established a negotiating team & expressed its readiness for peace talks," he said.

Kibrom Gebreselassie, a senior official at Tigray's Ayder hospital, also said on Twitter there had been "an early morning drone attack" on Mekele.

"One injured patient has arrived at Ayder. Total casualties not yet known," he said.

AFP was not able to independently verify the claims. Access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted and Tigray has been under a communications blackout for over a year.

There was no immediate comment from government officials.

Tigray has been hit by several air strikes since fighting resumed in late August between government forces and their allies and TPLF rebels in northern Ethiopia.

The return to combat shattered a March truce that had paused the worst of the bloodshed, and dashed hopes of peacefully resolving a war that began nearly two years ago.

The fresh offensives have also drawn in Eritrean troops and cut off aid deliveries into Tigray, where the UN says a lack of food, fuel and medicine is causing a humanitarian disaster.

Both sides have accused the other of firing first, and fighting has spread from around southern Tigray to other fronts further to the north and west.

Air strike on Ethiopia's Tigray: rebels, hospital

METATEXT

www.spacewar.com

Bwana · 17.09.2022

Ertsilä vetäisi torstaina yleisen liikekannallepanon 55-vuotiaisiin asti. Kadulta jengiä kyytiin ja rajalle tai ilmoittautukaa kasarmilla, aikaa kolme-neljä tuntia. Omat eväät ja vesikanisterit. Osa noudattaa ohjeita, osa menee taas maan alle. Se vaan alkaa käydä koko ajan vaikeammaksi kun väki kaupungeissa vähenee.

Eihän tuossa mitään uutta ole.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-62927781

StepanRudanskij · 09.10.2022

Yritystä kulisseissa on ollut. Sotainto kuitenkin painaa enemmän.

After Secret U.S. Talks Fail, a Hidden War in Africa Rapidly Escalates

NAIROBI, Kenya — As fighting flared in northern Ethiopia last month, shattering a five-month truce and reigniting a destructive civil war, a small U.S. military aircraft carrying senior American diplomats crossed the front line on a secret mission to halt the bloodshed. Flying low and taking...

www.yahoo.com

ctg · 10.10.2022

Tigrayan rebel forces have killed dozens of civilians during their latest occupation of a town in the Amhara region, survivors claim, after fighting resumed last month in the northern area of Ethiopia.

The alleged killings took place in the town of Kobo, located along the highway to the capital, Addis Ababa. Between 13-15 September, Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters shot dead unarmed civilians they suspected of supporting federal forces and local militias, survivors have told the Guardian.

In one district of Kobo alone, witnesses counted 17 bodies of people killed over two days.

Fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigrayan rebels erupted again in late August, shattering a six-month humanitarian truce. On 4 September the TPLF announced it had captured Kobo but in the past week rebels withdrew from the town amid fierce fighting with federal troops and Amhara militias.

Meanwhile, fighters were killing people and looting in Kobo, residents said.

“It started on Tuesday, 13 September. Before that day the Tigray fighters were intimidating residents, looting, and searching for hidden arms. There was no fighting inside Kobo when they committed the killings. Federal troops had already withdrawn weeks earlier and it was Tigray forces who had fully occupied the town,” said Bekalu*, a 47-year-old father of three who fled the town after witnessing the killings.

The extrajudicial executions were carried out during house-to-house searches by the rebels, according to the testimonies of seven survivors.

“On 14 September a group of Tigray fighters came to our neighbourhood. They were searching houses, harassing civilians they found inside and asking them where they hid weapons. They would torture those who replied that they didn’t have weapons.

“Then I began hearing gunshots and screams of neighbours. The fighters were shouting ‘kill them, they are dogs of Amhara militias’,” said Mekdes*, 29, who survived by hiding in a neighbour’s house.

Another witness told of seeing a woman and her son murdered. “I saw the Tigray fighters dragging out a mother and her teenage son from their house to the road. They viciously beat them. They were yelling at them: ‘Your husband is an Amhara militiaman.’ The mother was screaming: ‘That’s not true. Please stop, leave my son. We don’t have guns’,” said Sentayhu*, 53, a shopkeeper who fled Kobo after the killings.

“They shot both the son and his mother in the head. The woman, who I know by sight as a local resident, was in her 60s and her son was 17 years old. They looted everything in my shop. They threatened me to give them all the money I have, or they would kill me.

“I was relieved they stopped by looting the shop and did not shoot me like other residents. Terrorised by what I saw, I fled the next day, leaving behind everything I had,” he said.