Metro

Over 500 Nigerien street beggars repatriated from Senegal

Published

1 year ago

March 27, 2022

The government of Niger, on Saturday, said it has received 530 of its citizens mainly made up of women and children who lived on begging from Senegal.

The repatriated Nigeriens arrived in Niamey on Friday on a special flight chartered by the Nigerien government. They were welcomed by Interior Minister Hamadou Souley Adamou.

“The image of our country is dragged in the mud, that’s why the government wants to take this phenomenon in hand”, said the Nigerien Minister of Interior, Hamadou Adamou Souley.

Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum had called a meeting earlier this week “on the phenomenon of begging”.

“The government of the Republic of Niger has learned with amazement the presence in the streets of Dakar, Senegal, of several hundred Nigerien nationals engaged in begging,” said government spokesman Tidjani Idrissa Abdoulkadri in a statement read out on public television on Tuesday.

“This is an illicit traffic in migrants and human trafficking organized by criminal groups in the direction of certain neighboring countries and even beyond,” he said.

One of the returnees as they got off the plane, Ousmane Issoufou said “no one will go begging if they have the means to live in better conditions. Begging is not a good thing,”

Niger is a country ravaged by lots of humanitarian crises. Food insecurity, terrorism, drought amongst others. Many Nigeriens flee their country-home to search for greener pastures in neighbouring countries like Nigeria and Senegal.

Metro

Rwandan President, Kagame sacks over 200 military personnel in major shake-up

Published

20 hours ago

June 7, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

Rwandan President, Paul Kagame has sacked over 200 soldiers including top military brass and commanders from the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) in a massive shake-up.

The dismissed officers include the former Commander of the Reserve Forces, Maj. Gen. Aloys Muganga, and Brig. Gen. Francis Mutiganda, a former Head of External Security in the National Intelligence Services, as well as 14 senior officers.

The announcement of the sacking of the officers which was contained in a statement released by the RDF on Wednesday, did not give reason for the sackings, but the move come a day after the president reshuffled the top echelon of the country’s military, which saw the firing of the Defence Minister and an Army Chief.

The sacking of the soldiers has further heightened tension between Rwanda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, with each side accusing the other of working with rebels to topple one another’s governments, according to reports in local media.

Metro

UN war crimes court declares Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga unfit to stand trial

Published

20 hours ago

June 7, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

An 88-year-old Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga has been declared unfit to stand trial by judges at a United Nations War Crimes Court in The Hague.

In a decision published by the court on Wednesday, the judges acknowledged that Kabuga was no longer able to actively participate in his trial, and rather proposed an alternative process that aims to resemble a trial but does not allow for a conviction instead of stopping the proceedings completely.

“The trial chamber finds Mr. Kabuga is no longer capable of meaningful participation in his trial,” the publication said.

“The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, therefore, finds that Mr. Kabuga is not fit for trial and is very unlikely to regain fitness in the future.

“It is therefore agreed to adopt an alternative finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without the possibility of a conviction,” it added.

Kabuga who was arrested in Paris where he had been in hiding under a false identity for several years, was one of the most wanted suspects of the Rwandan genocide, and was charged at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda with genocide and crimes against humanity.

At his initial arraignment in September last year, the ICC heard that Kabuga was alleged to have been the main financier of the ethnic Hutu militias who slaughtered over 800,000 minority Tutsis as well as political opponents during the genocide in 1994.

According to the UN, Kabuga, a wealthy businessman from the Hutu ethnic group, had established and financed an infamous media outfit, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which was notorious for inciting violence and promoting the targeting and elimination of individuals from the Tutsi ethnic group who were referred to as “Cockroaches”.

Kabuga was arrested in Paris in 2020 after decades on the run and sent for trial in The Hague where he pleaded not guilty to charges of sponsoring the infamous Hutu radical radio station urging people to kill Tutsi “cockroaches”.

He also denied supplying machetes and supporting the murderous Interahamwe Hutu militia.