Politics

Another Rwandan opposition party leader ‘disappears’. Why it matters

Published

6 years ago

October 9, 2018

The jailed vice president of Rwanda’s opposition FDU-Inkingi party escaped from prison on Sunday, according to the country’s correctional service.

Boniface Twagirimana was missing from a routine headcount at the prison Monday, local media reported, quoting a Rwanda Correctional Service spokesperson. The spokesperson said that Twagirimana and another prisoner had managed to escape by jumping over the complex’s fence and said that an investigation had been launched.

But members of the FDU — an unregistered political party — are calling “foul play” and fear that Twagirimana’s life could be in danger.

In a statement released Monday, the FDU party questioned how Twagirimana could have escaped out of a high security prison he had been transferred to only five days prior and called on the Rwandan government for answers.
“This information…leaves us to believe that there could be foul play by Rwandan security services,” the statement said.

“We call on the Rwandan government to inform the family, the party FDU-Inkingi and the general prison about the circumstances of the disappearance of Twagirimana. Mr Twagirimana was in the custody of the state which is accountable for his safety,” it added.

In September 2017, Twagirimana and eight other FDU party members were arrested on charges of forming an armed group and seeking to overthrow the government, charges Twagirimana denies.

The FDU members were placed in a Kigali jail where their party leader, Victoire Ingabire, was serving out a sentence for charges related to comments she made about the country’s 1994 genocide and collaborating with a “terrorist organization.”

Ingabire has long said her sentence was a result of her work as a prominent government critic and that the charges effectively criminalized her freedom of expression. International organizations such as Amnesty International and a 2017 African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruling have supported those views.

Last month, Ingabire was granted a presidential pardon by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and was released from jail after serving eight years of her 15-year sentence.

Immediately after she was freed, she called on the Rwandan government to open the country’s political landscape to the opposition and asked them to free all other political prisoners, including Twagirimana and other members of her political party.

On October 3, Twagirimana was moved from Kigali’s Mageragere prison to Mpanga prison, in the country’s southern Nyanza District. The authorities did not inform Twagirimana’s family that he was being transferred or give any explanation for the move, according to Twagirimana’s wife.

Rwanda’s National Police and Rwanda’s Correctional Service have not immediately responded to CNN’s request for comment.

Twagirimana is not the first FDU member to go missing.

In May 2017, party member Jean Damascene Habarugira disappeared after he was called to meet an official responsible for the security of his locality. A few days later, Habarugira’s family were called to collect his body from a local hospital.

Twagirimana denounced Habarugira’s murder as an assassination. In a statement, the FDU said that Habarugira was “assassinated in cold blood” because of his opposition to the local authority’s agricultural policies and concerns over police brutality.

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Politics

South Africa: Russia remains a valued ally, Ramaphosa tells Putin

Published

7 hours ago

October 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

At a bilateral meeting with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday, the eve of the BRICS summit of developing economies that will be held in the Russian city of Kazan, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that South Africa viewed Russia as a valued ally.

“We continue to see Russia as a valued ally, as a valued friend who supported us right from the beginning, from the days of our struggle against apartheid,” Ramaphosa said, according to a clip of the two leaders’ meeting shared on social media by South Africa’s government news agency.

“We are going to have important discussions here in Kazan within the BRICS family,” the South African president added.

South Africa sees China and Russia as friends rather than rivals because it is working to create a more multipolar international order in which emerging nations have greater clout.

The BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—may benefit from the membership increase, particularly since Beijing and Moscow are trying to position the group as a viable alternative to the West as a result of geopolitical polarisation.

Politics

Nigeria’s Tinubu reshuffles cabinet

Published

21 hours ago

October 23, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Following weeks of speculations around an imminent cabinet reshuffle in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday dismissed six ministers from his cabinet and sent seven new ministerial nominations to the National Assembly to fill the vacancies.

This was revealed by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, to State House media following the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, which was chaired by the President and held in the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Additionally, Onanuga declared that eleven ministers had been given new responsibilities.

Prof. Tahir Mamman (Education), Uju Kennedy Ohanenye (Women Affairs), Mohammad Gwarzo (State for Housing), Jamila Ibrahim (Youth Development), Lola Ade-John (Tourism), and Betta Edu (Humanitarian Affairs), who had been suspended but replaced were among the ministers removed from the cabinet.

Additionally, the President sent seven new ministerial candidates, including Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu (State for Foreign Affairs), the wife of the late Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, together with their portfolios to the National Assembly for approval.

Others include Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment; Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi, Minister of Labour and Employment, Federal Ministry of Labour & Employment; and Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda, who takes over for the suspended Beta Edu Minister of Humanitarian, Affairs, and Poverty Reduction.

Suwaiba Said Ahmad, Minister of State, Education, Federal Ministry of Education; Rt. Hon. Yusuf Abdullahi Ata, Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development; and Idi Mukhtar Maiha, Minister of Livestock Development.

The redeployed ministers include Dr Yusuf Tanko Sununu, former Minister of State, Education, now Minister of State Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr. Morufu Olatunji Alausa Minister of State, Health, now substantive Minister of Education, Bello Muhammad Goronyo Minister of State, Water Resources and Sanitation, now Minister of State for Works.

Also redeployed are Abubakar Momoh, former Minister of Niger Delta Development, now Minister of Regional Development, Uba Maigari Ahmadu, Minister of State Steel Development, now Minister of State, Regional Development and Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, now Minister of State Finance.

The former Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh has been redeployed as the Minister of State Trade and Investment [Industry], Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, who was the Minister of State, Police Affairs, is now Minister of Women Affairs, Ayodele Olawande, Minister of State for Youth Development, now Minister for Youth Development, while Dr. Salako Iziaq Adekunle Adeboye, Minister of State, Environment, now Minister of State, Health.

Meanwhile, reports emerged following the cabinet change of the president’s direction that ministers who have been fired and redeployed are to hand over to their successors by October 30, 2024.

With the most recent cabinet reorganisation, President Tinubu’s cabinet now consists of 46 federal ministers, down from 48 last year. The size is still a record since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, even with the decrease.

Nigeria’s constitution requires the president to select ministers in a way that fosters unity within the country and represents federal character.