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If judges in Ghana will shut down the courts, here is why

Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana (AMJG) has threatened to embark on industrial action over non-payment of arrears and review of salaries of lower court judges and magistrates

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Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana (AMJG) has threatened to embark on industrial action over non-payment of arrears and review of salaries of lower court judges and magistrates.

The Association said although reviews of salaries of lower court judges had been constitutionally provided for by the 1992 Constitution, past and present governments had failed to implement the law.

Addressing the media in Accra last Friday, Justice Victor Ofoe, a Court of Appeal Judge, said a meeting would be convened on July 6 for a decision to be taken on the matter.

Even though, strike action, was not one of the considered options to have the concerns of members addressed, Justice Ofoe, who is the president of the Association said the matter was getting out of hand.

“The situation is frustrating, annoying, in fact, insulting. For how long can we continue to hold our members in check?” he asked.

For more than three years, he said the Association had prevented judges and magistrates of the lower courts from striking, but their concerns remained unresolved.

To calm down tempers, the Chief Justice, Ms. Sophia A.B.Akuffo met President Nana Akufo-Addo but nothing has changed.

“Should the CJ now be a trade unionist?And even after her meeting nothing appears to have changed. This is where our members think the “no strike no strike” should give way since all equations in executing the dictates of the constitution is being unbalanced.”

The Judge, observed that the bench was made up of more young men and women who cannot be financially deprived.

We should note that the bench is not made up of old men as it used to be sometime back, he explained, adding that “about 90 per cent are now young men and women, very boisterous and hot blooded, who cannot be easily convinced anymore with the reputation of the judiciary when they are being financially deprived.”

He appealed to the President to take immediate action in the matter and approve the salary review.

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Politics

Ugandan opposition politician abducted, wife says

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According to his wife on Wednesday, a well-known opposition leader from Uganda, Kizza Besigye was abducted during a book launch in Kenya over the weekend, taken to Uganda, and detained at a military prison in Kampala.

Despite his rejection of the results, Besigye has run against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni four times and lost each time, claiming voting intimidation and fraud. He has been arrested several times in the past.

“I request the (government) of Uganda to release my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately,” said his wife Winnie Byanyima.

It was not immediately possible to get in touch with a Ugandan military spokesperson for comment.

“As police we don’t have him, so we can’t make any comment,” Ugandan police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke told Reuters.
A spokesperson for Kenya’s national police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, one of Uganda’s major opposition parties, had 36 members arrested by Kenyan police in July. They were then deported to Uganda and accused of terrorism-related charges.

On the social networking site X, Byanyima stated that Besigye, who served as Museveni’s doctor during the guerrilla war but later turned into a vocal opponent, was abducted on Saturday as senior Kenyan opposition leader Martha Karua was launching a book.

“I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala,” said Byanyima, who is the executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. “We his family and his lawyers demand to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military jail?”

Museveni’s administration has been charged with repeatedly violating the human rights of opposition leaders and followers, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and unlawful detentions.

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Politics

Sudan army chief Burhan meets US envoy

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The United States special envoy to Sudan has made his first trip to the African nation, hoping to bring an end to a horrific war and boost relief to millions of people in need.

After being appointed Washington’s ambassador to Sudan in February, Tom Perriello visited Port Sudan, the army-led government’s de facto capital on the Red Sea coast.

For the first time since the evacuation of the U.S. embassy in April 2023 due to the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a top U.S. official visited the nation.

“We feel an enormous amount of urgency to end this crisis and to ensure that we can … help to get food and medicine and life-saving support to the 20 million people plus that are in need,” a State Department official said before the trip.

Over 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require help, according to the U.N., as hunger has spread to one area and over 11 million people have abandoned their homes.

Sudan’s sovereign council stated in a statement that Perriello spoke with tribal, government, and humanitarian figures in addition to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s army head.

During what the council described as a “lengthy, comprehensive, and frank” discussion, the two men talked about how to provide humanitarian help and how to end the war through a political process.

“The U.S. envoy presented several suggestions which the head of the sovereign council agreed to,” the statement said.

Although the army declined to join U.S.-mediated peace negotiations in Geneva earlier this year, the meetings did obtain commitments from the warring parties to increase access to aid.

A power battle between the army and the RSF preceded a planned shift to civilian government, which is why the conflict broke out more than a year ago.

Perriello discussed “the need to cease fighting, enable unhindered humanitarian access, including through localized pauses in the fighting to allow for the delivery of emergency relief supplies, and commit to a civilian government,” a State Department statement said.

“Right now, I think there’s a key opportunity to build on the expansion of humanitarian aid,” the State Department official stated, emphasising the need for relief corridors to the most battle-ravaged areas, such as al-Fashir, Sennar, and parts of the capital Khartoum, even though the U.S. would continue to pursue a more comprehensive ceasefire and negotiations.

Last Monday, Sudan’s sovereign council announced that it would prolong the temporary opening of the Adre border crossing with Chad. According to relief organisations, this crossing is essential for delivering food and other supplies to famine-prone portions of the Darfur and Kordofan regions.

An RSF official stated at a press conference in Nairobi that while they were still amenable to peace, they had doubts about the army’s readiness.

“They do not listen to any language but that of the rifle, and so we will continue to talk to them in the language they understand,” said Brigadier General Omar Hamdan.

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