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[RFI] Ethiopia's army captured the town of Alamata, in southern Tigray, 115 kilometres from the regional capital Mekelle, according to a statement on Monday by the Ethiopian government, as a conflict between the federal government and Tigray region continues to escalate.
Nationwide protests have taken place since October 7 despite the disbanding of the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit.
The demonstrators have been accused of attacking police stations and personnel.
The rallies which are mostly attended by young people have become avenues to vent against corruption and unemployment.
Rights groups say at least 15 people have been killed the demonstrations began in early October.
Black Lives Won’t Matter Until Black Politics Do. Black centered policies developed by Black people that will change the daily lives of all Black people are necessary now more than ever.
COVID-19 CAN provide an opportunity for African governments to strengthen the way they govern and...
The post COVID-19 can ‘provide an opportunity for innovation and solidify unity’ in Africa appeared first on Voice Online.
Ethiopia's confirmed Covid-19 cases on Sunday reached 582 after 88 more infections were confirmed, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said in a statement.
This is so far the highest daily increase in the Horn of Africa country, which on Saturday reported 61 new confirmed Covid-19 cases.
The Ministry of Health said all 88 new Covid-19 cases are Ethiopian nationals – 51 males and 37 females – with their ages ranging between 8 to 75 years.
The Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health also said that 152 patients who tested positive for Covid-19 have so far recovered from the virus.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with about 107 million people, confirmed its first case of Covid-19 on March 13.
An Egyptian journalist arrested after appearing on the Al Jazeera network has died of the novel coronavirus, his daughter confirmed, days after he was released from detention.
Struggling with hunger, Covid-19 and death threats, the residents of Nairobi's Kariobangi shack settlement are speaking out against state demolitions that left thousands homeless.
The demolitions in the Kariobangi Sewage Farmers estate, in the northeast of the city, were carried out in May and continued for days, destroying at least 600 homes in addition to shops, schools and churches.
The state-run Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) claims ownership of the land, but residents have legal documents from the Nairobi City County that they say prove their rights to the land.
According to George Kegoro, the executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the privatisation of public land, including through \"corrupt processes\", has contributed to the evictions and demolitions in shack settlements.
Kegoro noted that the Kenya Human Rights Commission is discussing the possibility of seeking \"legal redress\" for the forced evictions and demolitions in Kariobangi.
Burundi's longtime President Pierre Nkurunziza has congratulated the governing party's hand-picked successor on a \"large victory\" in the country's presidential election, though the main opposition has pledged to contest the result in court.
The election commission on Monday declared Evariste Ndayishimiye, a former army general chosen by the CNDD-FDD party as heir to Nkurunziza, the winner of the May 20 poll with 68.72 percent vote.
\"I warmly congratulate the President-elect General Major Evariste Ndayishimiye for his large victory which confirms that the great majority of Burundians adhere to the projects and the values he embodies,\" Nkurunziza, who chose not to run after 15 years in power, posted on Twitter.
On May 8, 12 days to the polls and before the scheduled arrival of an East African Community mission to the country, the government said the regional bloc's observers would have to be in quarantine for 14 days, effectively ruling them out of the election process.
Nkurunziza was this year elevated by Burundi's parliament to the rank of \"supreme guide for patriotism\" and he will continue to be chairman of the governing party's powerful council of elders.
Muslim Journal Newswire WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 26, 2020) – Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore presented the Alfredo Sirkis Memorial Green Ring Award to global climate activist Nana Firman at the 44th Climate Reality Leadership Corps Global Training, July 26, 2020. This was a virtual event to train attendees with practical skills and knowledge to […]
Amzie Moore was a prominent figure in the Mississippi civil rights movement and voter registration campaign. He was born on September 23, 1911, on the Wilkins plantation near Greenwood, Mississippi, to black sharecropper parents. When Moore was fourteen, his mother died leaving him to care for himself by picking cotton in Drew, Mississippi. While living with different family members and friends, Moore attended Stone Street High School in Greenwood. He performed household chores and worked part-time jobs at a café, hotel, and gin.
In 1935 Moore accepted a federal post office job in Cleveland, a rare position for African Americans to assume in the Deep South. In the same year, his yearning for black economic development and empowerment drove his interests in politics. When Moore registered to vote in 1935, an almost impossible feat for Mississippi blacks, he could vote only in general elections and not the primaries. Experiencing the economic downturn of the Depression, Moore switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in support of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the early 1940s, Moore secured a federal loan to build a brick house with in-door plumbing and married Ruth Carey, a beautician, whom he divorced in 1961.
When the United States entered World War II, Moore joined and served in a segregated army from 1942 to 1946. His experiences in China, Burma, and India influenced his decision to bring about social change when he returned to the United States. In 1946 he returned to Cleveland and opened a combination service station, beauty shop, and restaurant with a loan from the Standard Life Insurance Company. His success in business led him to start a movement for economic development with T.R.M. Howard, Aaron Henry, and Medgar Evers. In 1951 they founded the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, and, five years later, Moore was elected president of the Cleveland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The 1960s civil rights movement in Mississippi
Tanzania's main opposition party says attack on its chairman is politically-motivated.
HOLLYWOOD – Andre Harrell, the founder of Uptown Records best known as the man who turned Sean “Diddy” Combs into a music mogul, died Fried at the age of 59.
In 1983, Harrell met Russell Simmons, the founder of Def Jam Records.
After a few years working at Def Jam, Harrell left and founded his own label, Uptown Records.
Harrell renamed Uptown Records as Uptown Enterprises, and its records were featured in productions for Universal Pictures and Universal Television.
After working with world famous artists (Bradley Theodore) on the branding of his Pet project, Harrell hosted Champagne & Bubbles on Sunday nights from 6-9 p.m. on Emmis Urban AC WRKS (98.7 Kiss FM) New York.
Kenyan police have been involved in the killing of 15 people since the country put a nighttime curfew in place in March to combat the coronavirus, the policing oversight body said in a statement seen by AFP Friday.
The Independent Policing Oversight Body (IPOA) said it had received 87 complaints against police since the dusk to dawn curfew and heightened security measures were imposed on March 27.
The IPOA statement was released earlier this week as the United States was gripped by anger over racism and police brutality that has prompted protests in the country and around the world.
\"Although many killings by the police have been well documented by both state institutions and rights organisations, the security officers have rarely been held to account, including by the police oversight authority,\" said HRW.
On Thursday the IPOA announced six police officers would be arrested and prosecuted, one for the killing of Moyo, another for shooting dead a secondary school teacher while responding to a burglary at a market in western Siaya, and four others for seriously assaulting a man during an arrest.
NATIONAL Constitutional Assembly (NCA) leader Lovemore Madhuku has warned fellow opposition leaders against entrusting the ruling Zanu PF with the role of promoting constitutionalism. BY MOSES MATENGA Madhuku, who has often been described by critics as pro-Zanu PF, told NewsDay on Saturday that he was recently disappointed when President Emmerson Mnangagwa disregarded contributions made by members of the Political Actors’ Dialogue regarding proposed amendments to the Constitutional Bill Amendment No 2. Madhuku, as chair of the Polad sub-committee on governance and legislative agenda, said they submitted a number of key recommendations which were largely ignored by the ruling party. “As NCA we are still very much opposed to the Bill. As a party we will continue to demonstrate to the voters that Zanu PF is not a party to entrust with the promotion of constitutionalism,” Madhuku said. “As Polad sub-committee chair on governance and legislative agenda, I am heartbroken that the government has rejected our recommendations. However, I accept that Polad can only recommend, leaving it to the government to accept or reject. Polad has done its part.” Mnangagwa has proposed 27 amendments to the Constitution adopted by a popular vote in 2013. Among the proposed amendments is the scrapping of the contentious running mate clause to give the President sweeping powers to appoint his deputiaes. Rights groups view the proposed changes as meant to consolidate the President’s powers, whittling down powers of Parliament and other arms of the State. Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has already brought the Bill before Parliament for the second reading after public hearings were fast-tracked under cover of COVID-19 lockdown. Madhuku said despite the frustrations, Polad would continue engaging the ruling party on other reform agendas including electoral reforms. “Polad is not just about the Constitutional Amendment Bill,” he said. “Polad has lost on the Constitutional Amendment Bill but we will continue fighting outside Polad. “We will remain in Polad for other issues that our sub-committee is working on such as electoral reforms. We hope to succeed in those other areas. It will take time for Zanu PF to appreciate the value of a dialogue platform such as Polad.”
New York City restaurants can resume indoor dining at the end of the month but with certain restrictions. Governor Andrew... View Article
The post Cuomo says NYC can reopen indoor dining at 25% capacity appeared first on TheGrio.
The two Zimbabwean journalists arrested last week as they were investigating the abduction of three opposition party members have been released on bail, a lawyers' association said on Tuesday.
The pair were \"ordered not to interfere with witnesses and continue to reside at the addresses they gave the police until the matter comes to an end\", he said outside the Mbare magistrate's court in the capital.
Chikowore and Takawira were arrested on Friday at a private hospital where they were conducting interviews with an opposition lawmaker and two party officials.
Accused of not maintaining adequate social distancing between themselves and interviewees, the journalists were arrested by a police officer guarding the hospital and charged with breaching regulations to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Last month a Zimbabwean high court ordered police to desist from arresting, detaining or interfering with the work of journalists providing coverage during the Covid-19 lockdown which began March 30 in the southern African country.
In particular, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a regional political organisation that had major dominance over the old revolutionary front, has now emerged as a major political foe to Abiy's Prosperity Party.
As a result, Ethiopia's road to democracy and national elections, which were due to be held in August, is now facing two challenges: a global pandemic, and deteriorating relations between the Tigray regional state and the Prosperity Party, which is in charge of the federal government, and the remaining eight regions and two city administrations.
By holding an election without the supervision of the National Electoral Board, the Tigray People's Liberation Front is undermining Ethiopia's federal constitutional system.
Finally, unless addressed, the deteriorating relations between the federal government and the Tigray region could further unravel Ethiopia's dangerously designed federal system that in any case, is in need of major revision.
For democracy to take root in Ethiopia, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front's defiance to the country's constitutional order must resolved.
Keria Ibrahim, speaker of Ethiopia’s upper parliamentary chamber, the House of federation, has quit her position citing a looming constitutional blank with postponed elections.
Her resignation was announced first by regional Tigray TV. Privately-owned Addis Standard said Keria’s resignation was on the outcome of a Council of Constitutional Inquiry on deferred elections.
According to Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau, Keria resigned from her position refusing to work with those who display unconstitutional & authoritarian practices. She has been in the role since April 2018.
She is quoted as saying she did not want to be part of a system where: “the constitution is being violated and an authoritarian government is being formed.”
Ethiopia, currently under a five-month State of Emergency imposed over the coronavirus pandemic have also postponed the much anticipated polls. The current government’s mandate expires in October and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has recently rejected calls for a transitional government.
The former speaker belongs to the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, TPLF, a former coalition partner of the now defunct Ethiopia Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, EPRDF; which brought Abiy to power in 2018.
Abiy has since gone on to disband and rebrand it into the Prosperity Party, PP, which the TPLF opposed and refusing to be part of the new party. TPLF is currently the ruling party in the northern Tigray region but technically in opposition with the federal government.
Despite the shelving of polls by the elections body, the TPLF has insisted that elections will be held in the region according to schedule.
Tension between Amhara and Tigray, two of Ethiopia's most powerful regions, is increasing as the country approaches elections next year, says a new International Crisis Group report.
But it is the dispute between the Amhara and Tigray regions, the new report says, that “is arguably the bitterest of these contests, fueled in part by rising ethnic nationalism in both regions.”
William Davison, the Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Ethiopia, tells VOA that Amhara citizens believe that several key zones, notably the Wolqait and Raya areas, were annexed by Tigray when the current Ethiopian federation was mapped out in the early 1990s.
Plans to hold a vote have led political elites in Tigray and Amhara to adopt increasingly hardline stances toward each other, the report says, noting a recent warning from Prime Minister Abiy that any such act would “result in harm to the country and the people.”
But Dessalegn Chanie Dagnew, chairman of the opposition National Movement of Amhara, said via a messaging app that Ethiopia’s regional map based on ethnic territories has been the root cause of many tensions, not just between the Amhara and Tigray regions, but many others.
Ethiopia has said that forces loyal to the ruling party in the Tigray region had fired into neighbouring Amhara region.
[ENA] Addis Ababa -- Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the law enforcement operations in Tigray Regional State are proceeding as planned.
JAMAICANS for Justice (JFJ) wants the joint select committee of Parliament tasked with reviewing the proposed sexual harassment legislation to reform the provision imposing a 12-month limit on complaints brought by victims before the tribunal.
“This proposed limitation restricts victims' rights to effectively access justice and ignores many of the most obvious underlying issues associated with sexual harassment.
Jamaicans for Justice believes that Section 25 (3) sends a message that is inconsistent with the spirit and the purpose of the proposed legislation and ultimately diminishes its scope as a mechanism created to protect victims from sexual harassment,” the release said.
The rights groups said it has written to members of the joint select committee, outlining its reasoning on the issue and a detailed analysis of why the amount of time given for reporting sexual matters should be more.
We are urging the committee to amend the Bill by either removing the limitation being proposed or where such is deemed necessary, to create a limit that allows for the longest reasonable time for a complaint to be made which is consistent with the limits that already exist for other civil claims,” said the human rights group.
Dozens in Kenya’s capital Nairobi held peaceful demonstrations on Monday against police brutality. Marching through Mathare slums, the demonstrators demanded justice for the victims of extrajudicial killings.
According to Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority, at least 15 people have been killed by the police since authorities imposed a coronavirus curfew in late March.
Rebecca, a protester underlined the necessity of the march: “It’s important to stand in solidarity with victims of police brutality both locally and globally and it’s atrocious. We can’t have a peaceful, prosperous, existence with a police state, period.”
“We are sick and tired of the police brutality, we want justice for everyone, regardless whether in Kenya or all over the world, LGBT, any body, black lives matter. We just want justice, there’s no need of violence, nobody needs to be killed nobody needs to be beaten,” another protester, Beatrice, stressed.
Kenya’s police force is often accused by rights groups of using excessive force and carrying out unlawful killings, especially in poor neighbourhoods. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Human Rights Watch documented eight cases of police killings in less than two months.
On June 3rd, Concerned Citizens, a group formed by five DC organizers, attracted thousands marching through Capitol Hill.
The organizers include Ty Hobson-Powell a DC Community Organizer currently leading the charge for DC Statehood and a Spring 12 initiate of the Durham Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Seun Babalola, a Root 25 Young Futurist Awardee who has worked with LeBron James on social justice and a Fall 2018 initiate of the Gamma Nu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and Aalayah Eastmond, a Parkland Survivor, Congressional speaker, and Team Enough organizer.
Rounding out their core group are Tylik McMillan, a Policy Advisor for Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and a Spring 18 initiate of the Eta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Kyra Stephenson-Valley a Policy Advisor for Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and a Fall 13 initiate of the Lambda Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Micah Scott, a DC organizer.
The group then collaborated with 30 other activists and organizers around the DC area to form a list of demands, then took to the streets protesting in a way that brought the entire community together.
“We are simply concerned citizens of Washington, DC,” their list of demands stated.
June 10: Speaker Keria replaced
\tEthiopia’s upper parliamentary chamber, the House of Federation (HoF), on Wednesday elected a new speaker following the resignation of Keria Ibrahim.
June 8: Speaker of Ethiopia’s upper parliament quits over postponed polls
\tKeria Ibrahim, speaker of Ethiopia’s upper parliamentary chamber, the House of federation, has quit her position citing a looming constitutional blank with postponed elections.
Privately-owned Addis Standard said Keria’s resignation was on the outcome of a Council of Constitutional Inquiry on deferred elections.
TPLF is currently the ruling party in the northern Tigray region but technically in opposition with the federal government.
THE international media swooped on Kingston shortly after May 17, 2010 when Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced in Parliament that he would instruct Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne to authorise extradition of west Kingston Don, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, to the United States.
His decision sparked bloody fighting between security forces and gunmen loyal to Coke in west Kingston, for which Golding was Member of Parliament.
He reflected on a knotty situation that ended in Coke's capture one month after the fighting, and which forced Golding to resign one year later.
He believes Golding's stance that the US was encroaching on Jamaica's rights as a sovereign nation by demanding Coke's extradition, was baseless.
What is most astounding is that as the prime minister of Jamaica he went to Gordon House and defended Dudus Coke's inalienable constitutional rights against a foreign power which Jamaica has an extradition treaty with for over a quarter century.
A version of this story appeared in CNN's What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
Voting by mail is actually very secure, despite what the President says. However, if people don't trust that their votes will be counted, that's a full-blown crisis of democracy. With millions of Americans turning to mail-in voting, many for the first time, because of the coronavirus pandemic, that means doubts about the ability of the USPS to deliver mail equal doubts about the election.
Related: What you need to know about voting by mail
Vote early! On Friday, we learned USPS has notified states that some mail-in ballots are at risk of not being counted.
From CNN's Ellie Kaufman:
Multiple states received communications from the USPS general counsel outlining standard mail delivery times and prices leading up to the November election and warning secretaries of state that election laws established by the states would not necessarily guarantee that mail-in ballots will be received in time to be counted.
CNN obtained letters sent to Washington, Pennsylvania, California and North Carolina. The Utah lieutenant governor's office also confirmed to CNN that it received a letter at the end of July. The Washington Post reported 46 states and Washington, DC, all received similar warnings.
USPS General Counsel Thomas Marshall wrote to California's secretary of state that there is \"a significant risk that some ballots will not be returned by mail in time to be counted under your laws as we understand them.\"
The letters suggest election mail be sent by first class mail, at a higher rate than the nonprofit rate most states use, an obstacle for cash-strapped states dealing with the pandemic.
The slowdown. Meanwhile, in a Pennsylvania court filing, it was alleged that slower USPS delivery times are a likely outcome of recent changes put in place by the post office that have been criticized for putting at risk the ability to conduct vote by mail across the country.
Pennsylvania may extend its deadline to receive ballots to up to three days after the election, provided they are mailed by Election Day.
See below for more on deadlines, but just remember not to wait 'til the last minute to vote by mail. And if you want to know how to get an absentee ballot, there are links below
The USPS crisis is not just about ballots. The saddest mail story you'll read today has to do with a neighborhood in Southeast Washington, DC, where they aren't getting mail at all.
Knee-capping the mail. Former President Barack Obama, appearing on a podcast, accused President Donald Trump of trying \"starve\" the postal service.
\"What we've seen in a way that is unique to modern political history is a President who is explicit in trying to discourage people from voting,\" Obama said. \"What we've never seen before is a President say, 'I'm going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting and I will be explicit about the reason I'm doing it.'\"
\"That's sort of unheard of,\" he said.
After saying on Thursday on Fox News he was in
Nkurunziza's sour relations with international organisations began in 2015 when he insisted on running for a for a third term.
Later in 2017, Burundi became the first country to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, amid accusations by African countries that the court was targeting Africans for prosecution.
Lewis Mudge, Human Rights Watch director for Central Africa said Nkurunziza betrayed his call.
\"When Pierre Nkurunziza was sworn in as president in 2005 at the end of a brutal civil war, many hoped he would lead the country on a path of democratic reforms,\" Mr Mudge said.
\"Nkurunziza was willing to isolate Burundi almost entirely from the international community, with devastating consequences for the Burundian population.
