Metro

Senegal residents lament rising cost of food items as Ramadan closes in

Published

1 year ago

March 31, 2022

Residents of Senegal have been lamenting the rising cost of food items with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan just a few days away.

Basic foodstuffs in the West African country has been on a steady rise following the closure of Senegal’s border with Mali, which has seen the restriction of foodstuff and other items coming into the country.

The worst hit is the capital, Dakar, where residents have been calling on the government to reopen the border so that products can come in.

The closure of the Senegal-Mali border was necessitated by a range of
economic and diplomatic sanctions against Mali, including border closures, by ECOWAS and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) in January, following a coup staged by the military.

The sanctions by the regional bodies were meant to deal a blow to the Malian junta, but the effect of the sanctions have gone beyond Mali and are now taking tolls on neighbouring countries including The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso and even as far as Nigeria, where prices of goods have skyrocketed.

A resident of Dakar, Ndèye Marie Diop, who spoke on the price increase, said:

“The closure of the Mali border has made things worse because there are products that Senegal does not have and that leave Guinea, Mali or the Ivory Coast, and inevitably, one must pass through Mali before coming to Senegal.

“Things will be very difficult during Ramadan under these conditions.
There are all these problems, they must open the border. All the products are there. If the border is closed, what will come in?”

Metro

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

Published

18 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

19 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.