Metro

Algerian civil servants to embark on nationwide strike to protest socio-economic crisis

Published

1 year ago

April 20, 2022

Beginning from April 26 and 27, public servants in Algeria will begin a massive strike action to protest against worsening social crisis in the country which has given rise to “soaring food prices which have grown to record levels, and eroding purchasing power due to the ruling junta’s mismanagement and corruption.”

The two-day industrial action, according to the organisers, was agreed upon by the confederation of trade unions representing the country’s employees in several public administrations.

“University teachers, academic researchers, healthcare workers and local authority workers will also join the strike movement,” a memo dispatched to all the unions stated in part.

“The trade unionists protests are against deteriorating public working conditions and services. The social crisis in Algeria has reached its peak heralding an imminent implosion of the country following the devaluation of the dinar and skyrocketing inflation.

“Algerians suffer from acute shortage of cooking oil, water, milk, pasta and other staple foods, leading to a widespread and growing popular uproar in the country,” it added.

Experts in the country are blaming the government for the situation, saying food shortages are the outcome of a broken socioeconomic model.

“Despite the recent rise in oil prices, Algeria is paying the price of its economic choice to buy social peace,” a business economist said.

“The Algerian rulers have so far failed to reduce the country’s reliance on hydrocarbon exports and sustainably reduce macroeconomic imbalances, diversify the economy, and create private sector jobs

“Their only strategy is survival and maintaining grip on power, regardless of the immense and ruinous long-term damage that they are inflicting on their country,” he added.

Related Topics:Algeria Featured Public Servants Strike

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Metro

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

Published

8 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

8 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.