Politics

Rwandan President, Kagame seeks 4th term, declares bid for reelection

Published

7 months ago

September 20, 2023

Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame has confirmed that he will be seeking his country’s presidency in pursuit of a fourth-term reign, under the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF).

Kagame was sworn into office on September 12, 2003, to end the nine-year transitional government. A major focus of his presidency was building national unity and the country’s economy.

Kagame told Jeune Afrique magazine in an interview published on Tuesday that he was “happy with the confidence that the Rwandans have shown in me. I will always serve them, as much as I can. Yes, I am indeed a candidate.”

After a referendum to amend the constitution in 2015 received more than 90% approval, Rwandan lawmakers eliminated Kagame’s term limitations, allowing him to lead the country for the following 19 years, ending in 2034, if he wished to run.

In particular, Rwandan lawmakers passed a stand-alone Article 172 in the draft constitution, which will permit Kagame to lead the nation for however long he pleases.

The legislative election that was initially slated for September this year has been combined with the presidential election that will take place next year, albeit the National Electoral Commission has not yet made the official timetable public.

President Kagame is in the league of long-serving African leaders like Equatorial Guinea’s President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo who has been in power for the last 43 years as the world’s longest-serving president, Cameroon’s Paul Biya who has been in power since 1982, and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni who has been president since 1986.

Related Topics:Featured Paul Kagame Rwanda

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

6 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.