Politics

Ex-Tunisian PM Jebali arrested on allegations of money laundering

Published

2 years ago

June 24, 2022

Former Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who is also senior member of the opposition Ennahdha Party, was on Friday, arrested by the police on allegations of money laundering, according to his lawyer, Mokhtar Jemai said in a statement.

The statement said police in the city of Sousse also seized the phones of Jebali and his wife, before taking him to an unknown location.

The arrest of Jebali has raised further concerns within the ranks of the opposition over the human rights situation in Tunisia since President Kais Saied took unpopular actions including dissolving the parliament last July, suspending the electoral commission, dissolved the Supreme Juducial Council and sacked 57 judges this month, which his opponents have called a coup meant to entrench a one-man rule in the country.

Jebali’s defence team have said they have been able to meet with him at the detention centre where he is being held.

“Jebali told us he will not answer the investigators’ questions and he entered into a hunger strike as the issue has a political motivation and nothing to do with money laundering,” Jemai said.

Jebali who was Tunisian Prime Minister in 2012 but resigned in 2013 following a political crisis, is not the first opposition figure to be arrested in what has been seen as a clampdown on opposition leaders by President Saied.

Earlier this year, Noureddine Bhiri, the vice president of Ennahdha was arrested and detained for more than two months before he was released without any charges being brought.

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Politics

Mozambique: Ruling FRELIMO announces Chapo as presidential candidate

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Daniel Chapo has announced that he will run for president in the October election on behalf of the ruling FRELIMO party in Mozambique.

Since achieving independence in 1975, FRELIMO has ruled the nation in southern Africa, and the party is hoping that Chapo can lead it to another win in the election on October 9.

“The soap opera of speculation is over, including speculation about the third term,” President Filipe Nyusi said on state television on Sunday, dismissing the prospect of contesting elections again.

“We must all unite around comrade Daniel Francisco Chapo, in the demanding march towards electoral victory next October,” Nyusi said.

The president of Mozambique is limited to two terms of five years by the constitution. Nevertheless, following his reelection as party leader in 2022, there had been conjecture in the media that Nyusi may run for a third term.

Chapo, a relatively unknown person in national politics, is the governor of the province of Inhambane in southern Mozambique. As to the party announcement, he secured 225 votes (about 94%) from the central committee of the party.

“We are going to work with all social strata,” Chapo said on television after his win.

Chapo, a former radio host, was born in 1977, making him the first candidate for FRELIMO to be born since the nation gained its independence.

He has served in many governmental capacities, most notably as an administrator of the districts of Nacala and Palma. He also has a master’s degree in development management and a law degree.

Politics

Again, Rwanda denies it attacked displaced persons in DR Congo

Published

3 days ago

May 4, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

For the sixteenth time, Rwanda refuted US charges on Saturday that its troops attacked a camp for internally displaced persons in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), placing the blame instead on militants it claimed were backed by the military of the Congo.

The US State Department released a statement in which it vehemently denounced the incident that claimed at least nine lives on Friday.

There have been persistent accusations against Rwanda of providing support to the armed organizations, which has resulted in diplomatic tensions between the neighbours in East Africa.

Citing the threat that Rwanda’s surface-to-air missile systems posed to civilians, U.N. and other regional peacekeepers, aid workers, and commercial aircraft operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the US demanded in February that Rwanda remove its systems and all of its armed forces from the DRC immediately. Rwanda denies providing any assistance to the rebels.

According to the U.S. statement, the M23 rebel group, which Rwanda supports, and the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) held the positions from which the attack was launched. The United States is “gravely concerned about the recent RDF and M23 expansion” in eastern Congo.

Speaking on behalf of the Rwandan government, Yolande Makolo refuted claims that the RDF was responsible for the attack, blaming instead rebels backed by the Congolese military.

“The RDF, a professional army, would never attack an IDP (displaced persons). Look to the lawless FDLR and Wazalendo supported by the FARDC (Congolese military) for this kind of atrocity,” she said in a post on X.

Wazalendo is a Christian sect, while the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is a Hutu organization that was founded by Hutu officials who left Rwanda after planning the 1994 genocide.

Thousands of people from the surrounding areas have fled to Goma in eastern Congo as a result of the M23 rebels’ two-year offensive, which has advanced toward the city in recent months.