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[MAP] Rabat -- The security and stability challenges facing Africa, and which manifest themselves in the multiplication of conflicts and crises, require a synergy of efforts and a concerted and united response from all, underlined, Sunday in Rabat, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Mohcine Jazouli.
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — Polls opened in Russia yesterday for a week-long vote on constitutional changes that would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036.
The vote on a slew of constitutional amendments, proposed by Putin in January, was initially scheduled for April 22, but was postponed because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The proposed amendments include a change in the constitution that would allow the 67-year-old Putin, who has ruled Russia for over two decades, to run for two more six-year terms after his current one expires in 2024.
The changes have already been approved by both Houses of Parliament, the country's Constitutional Court and were signed into law by Putin.
He insisted that they be put to a vote, even though it is not legally required, in what many see as an effort to put a veneer of democracy on the controversial changes.
Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton (left), Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Kamina Johnson Smith and US Ambassador to Jamaica Donald Tapia examine one of the beds in the newly erected modular field hospital at National Chest Hospital in St Andrew, while touring the facility donated by the US Government, yesterday.(Photo: Garfield Robinson)
Amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual solemn ceremony presided by the UN Secretary, General Antonio Guterres, is being held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York today, to commemorate the International Day of UN Peacekeepers.
It is in memory of those who lost their lives in the course of peacekeeping operations across the globe and also solidarise with the civilians, police, military who serve under the UN flag for their professionalism, dedication, and courage in the global maintenance of peace and security.
The day is set aside to commemorate the first UN peacekeeping mission on May 29, 1948 when the UN Security Council authorised the deployment of a number of military observers to the Middle East to form the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbours.
According to the UN, it has deployed more than 95,000 military, police and civilian personnel to maintain peace and security in 13 hotspots across the globe.
Other guest speakers were Lieutenant Colonel Prakash Lamichhane, UNIFIL Senior Military Public Information Officer and Lieutenant Dorcas Quaye, Military Police Officer with Cynthia Prah, National Information Officer, UN Information Centre, Accra.
New York — On February 26 this year, 15 South Sudanese children were released from armed groups and handed over to civilian child protection actors, including UNICEF and UNMISS, UN's peacekeeping operation in South Sudan, who were able to facilitate the children's safe return to their families.
For more than 20 years, the Security Council has been mandating UN peacekeeping operations with a specialized child protection mandate to be jointly implemented by UN civilian, military and police peacekeepers.
Advocates and supportive countries already fear the impact that a severe restriction of movement due to COVID-19 may have on the UN's ability to monitor and report on violations, as well as on the Child Protection staff's capacity to carry on their outreach to armed groups.
While often being the only entry point with armed groups and the communities themselves, these civilian child protection staff on- and off- UN compounds must be equipped with basic materials and technology, including internet connectivity, SIM cards and cell phones, to ensure the implementation of the mandate bestowed upon them by the Security Council.
Next month, Secretary-General António Guterres will present his 2020 report on children and armed conflict to the UN Security Council, noting violations across 20 country situations for calendar year 2019.
Ethiopia’s plan of filling the dam remains on course.
Most of Mali, in West Africa, lies in the Sahara. A landlocked country four-fifths the size of Alaska, it is bordered by Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Côte dIvoire. The only fertile area is in the south, where the Niger and Senegal rivers provide water for irrigation.
Republic.
Caravan routes have passed through Mali since A.D. 300. The Malinke empire ruled regions of Mali from the 12th to the 16th century, and the Songhai empire reigned over the Timbuktu-Gao region in the 15th century. Morocco conquered Timbuktu in 1591 and ruled over it for two centuries. Subjugated by France by the end of the 19th century, the land became a colony in 1904 (named French Sudan in 1920) and in 1946 became part of the French Union. On June 20, 1960, it became independent and, under the name of Sudanese Republic, was joined with the Republic of Senegal in the Mali federation. However, Senegal seceded from the federation on Aug. 20, 1960, and the Sudanese Republic then changed its name to the Republic of Mali on Sept. 22.
In the 1960s, Mali concentrated on economic development, continuing to accept aid from both Soviet bloc and Western nations, as well as international agencies. In the late 1960s, it began retreating from close ties with China. But a purge of conservative opponents brought greater power to President Modibo Keita, and in 1968, the influence of the Chinese and their Malian sympathizers increased. The army overthrew the government on Nov. 19, 1968 and brought Mali under military rule for the next 20 years. Mali and Burkina Faso fought a brief border war from Dec. 25 to 29, 1985. In 1991, dictator Moussa Traoré was overthrown, and Mali made a peaceful transition to democracy. In 1992, Alpha Konaré became Malis first democratically elected president.
In the early 1990s, the government fought the Tuaregs, nomads of Berber and Arab descent who inhabit the northern desert regions of Mali and have little in common with Malis black African majority. The Tuaregs accused the government
The quarrel is over the rate at which Ethiopia fills the reservoir behind the dam and its effect on water supplies downstream in Sudan and Egypt--for who the Nile is the primary water source.
On and off since construction started, Egypt has threatened to go to war to secure continued access to the Nile waters.
If Egypt attacked Ethiopia, the antiquated idea that the Nile is a common good to which all have natural rights would collapse.
The Nile has two major tributaries--the White Nile is the headwaters and primary stream of the river, and the Blue Nile, containing 80 per cent of the water and originates in Ethiopia.
For now, Uganda should be able to collect custodian's fees from South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt, and invest it in protecting the polluted Lake Nalubaale from which the Nile flows, and the real estate of the river that sits on its territory as it flows north.
Prime Minister Trudeau’s rejection of a deal with China over the detention of two Canadians has lent a significant twist to the extradition battle over Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
A few days earlier 19 former diplomats and politicians argued in a letter to Trudeau that “[r]emoving the pressures of the extradition proceeding and the related imprisonment of the two Michaels [former diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor] will clear the way for Canada to freely decide and declare its position on all aspects of the Canada-China relationship.”
Instead he warned that intervention by the federal justice minister – who has the power to dismiss the proceedings against Meng – would embolden China, or any other country, into thinking that “all they have to do to get leverage over the Canadian government is randomly arrest a couple of Canadians.”
Last year while criticising countries which were too closely aligned with the One Belt, One Road initiative the European Commission described China as “an economic competitor in pursuit of technological leadership and a systemic rival promoting alternative models of governance.”
On the other hand, Trudeau’s resistance to China is a powerful reminder that not all “models of governance” are equal and that liberal democracies with independent judiciaries, freedom of speech and other anti-authoritarian encumbrances, are worth defending.
[New Era] President Hage Geingob yesterday hailed the United Nations' (UN) role in the attainment of Namibia's independence, saying the organisation has become the guarantor of human dignity for millions of people across the world. In his virtual message on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the UN, Geingob said the fact that for 75 years the world has averted a Third World War is testament to the \"success of this great human experiment in multilateralism\".
Heads of state in the South African Development Community have committed to support the government of Mozambique in countering a terrorism threat.
A Deputy Minister of Health (MoH), Dr Bernard Oko-Boye has stated that the country's success in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is no fluke.
\"The achievement of Ghana is not just by an accident but about the effective measures that the government has put in place in aggressively tracing, testing and treating people with the virus,\" DrOko-Boye stated.
Dr Oko-Boye explained that since the outbreak, efforts at getting medical supplies for frontline staff had solely been on the government and expressed happiness for the embassy's support to MoH.
DrOko-Boye maintained that all the necessary measures had been put in place to control the spread of the virus in the country, stressing that government has established COVID-19 structures at the national, regional and district level.
Presenting the items, the Deputy Ambassador of Beijing Mission, Dr Charles Dwamena explained that the items came from Chinese companies that do business in Ghana, with majority of the supplies from the Tianyun Manganese, the parent company of Ghana Manganese Company (GMC) to supplement government's effort in the fight against COVID 19.
Just in recent weeks, fighters allied to Libya's internationally recognised Government of National Accord have made significant gains against their rivals in the Libyan National Army, led by self-proclaimed Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
As various would-be mediators attempted to fill the leadership void - from French president Emmanuel Macron to Italy's prime minister, Giuseppe Conte - Haftar's Libyan National Army slowly consolidated its grip on large parts of the country.
When it appeared that Salamé would try to circumvent Haftar and start a national dialogue process, the Libyan National Army launched its assault on Tripoli last April with backing from Egypt, the UAE and Russia.
There was hope that Germany could parlay its neutrality to bring Libya's internationally recognised prime minister, Fayez al-Serraj, and Haftar together along with their main backers, respectively Turkey and Russia.
Given Haftar's recent declaration of military rule over the areas he controls, darker days could be ahead, especially when external powers insist on playing out their great game for the Middle East in Libya.
