Politics

After 43 years in power, 80-year-old Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang, to run for sixth term

Published

2 years ago

September 24, 2022

After ruling Equitorial Guinea with an iron fist for 43 years, 80-year-old President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is to seek s sixth term in office in the presidential elections scheduled for November, his son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who the country’s Vice President said in a post on Twitter on Saturday.

“Because of his charisma, his leadership and his political experience, the ruling party unanimously chose President Teodoro Obiang as its candidate for the November 20 poll,” Mangue.

Mangue, nicknamed “Teodorin”, had been touted to succeed his father last where when the President battled with a strange ailment and many expected he would contest the presidential election in November but with the announcement, it is now clear that his father not yet ready to relinquish power.

Obiang who is one of the longest ruling presidents in the world, has run a dictatorial regime where little or no opposition is allowed. In his five previous tenures, he has appointed members of his family into key positions including three of his children whom he made ministers.

His Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) currently holds 99 of the 100 seats in the Lower House of Parliament and all 70 of the Senate seats.

The PDGE was the country’s single legal political movement until 1991 even when multi-party politics were introduced while Obiang has never officially been re-elected with less than 93 per cent of the vote in previous elections.

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

11 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.