LiveAtState: Foreign Policy and Security Cooperation in Sub Saharan Africa
Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander of U.S. Africa Command, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield held a LiveAtState press briefing July 1. The two answered questions submitted by journalists via email and social media outlets. More than 60 journalists participated including those who attended listening parties at a handful of U.S. embassies in Africa.
AFRICOM Commanding General David M. Rodriguez and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Washington, DC
UK: Flawed Policy on Eritrean Refugee Claims
(London, July 2, 2015) – The United Kingdom's Home Office should issue new guidance to staff screening Eritrean refugee claims that reflects the continued real risk of persecution and other abuses there, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.
Three key changes to recent Home Office asylum guidance on Eritrean asylum claims are based exclusively on a flawed Danish report that suggests there have been improvements in the human rights situation in Eritrea and on statements by Eritrean government officials. But the most up-to-date evidence, including a June 2015 UN Commission of Inquiry reportand recent Human Rights Watch interviews with Eritreans who have fled the country, indicates that long-standing abuses continue.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/07/02/uk-flawed-policy-eritrean-refugee-claims
Britain sends £300million to Africa and the Middle East to stop the 'ever growing flow' of migrants wanting to travel to Europe
Britain will send more than £300million to countries in Africa and the Middle East in an effort to reduce the number of migrants fleeing to Europe, the Government announced today.
International Development Secretary Justine Greening said the growing migrant crisis in Calais was proof that 'the world's problems touch our lives here in Britain'.
She said the alternative to spending international aid was 'ever-growing migrant flows' into Europe
Higher Education in Africa: Our continent needs science, not aid
The continent of Africa suffers a crippling disease burden, which continues to choke economic growth in addition to causing high morbidity and mortality. It is therefore vital for Africans to contribute to finding solutions to their health problems. The discovery and development of new medicines inAfrica led by Africans is essential to that.
Long-term sustainable provision of new affordable medicines in Africa can only be ensured through committed investments in research and development (R&D) through African-led local and international public-private partnerships so that risks, and not just benefits, are shared. Africa needs science, not aid.
Science, in this context, means Africa having the capacity to use science for the benefit of its people. Historically the ability to discover and develop medicines has been hampered by lack of expertise and infrastructure. The reasons for this are varied but include the massive brain drain over many decades, fuelled largely by a lack of meaningful investment in research infrastructure by most African governments, which makes it almost impossible for scientists to implement what they have learnt back home.
If not the ICC, what else is there?
Imperfect as it is, it is the only judicial mechanism fighting for justice and defending the rights of African victims, writes Angela Mudukuti.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has left the Republic of South Africa but his visit has had far-reaching consequences. Media reports indicate that the State intends to appeal the judgment handed down by the high court in Pretoria.
The court ruled that South Africa had an obligation to arrest and detain President Bashir during his visit to the 25th AU Summit in Sandton last month.
This case has reignited the anti-International Criminal Court (ICC) rhetoric, fuelled threats of withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the ICC and brought into focus the glaring deficiency that exists when one looks at African regional and sub-regional accountability mechanisms.
Statements from the cabinet meeting on June 25 indicate that the government seeks to reconsider its commitment to the ICC and possibly withdraw from the Rome Statute.
This is an ill-conceived and counterproductive suggestion
http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/if-not-the-icc-what-else-is-there-1.1879599#.VZWo-flViko
'When you're cut you won't be a slut looking for men like a prostitute': An utterly horrifying encounter with the FGM cutter women who butcher young girls' genitals with a razor blade
Standing barefoot with a viciously sharp blade in her hand this is a cutter woman who performs female genital mutilation (FGM) on young girls as part of a misguided belief it prevents promiscuity and maintains family status in the traditional community.
Half-blind and with just a couple of teeth left in her mouth, Anna-Moora Ndege started cutting girls' sexual organs over 70 years ago.
At first she used a six-inch nail, sharpened on stone to create a crude flat blade. Now she uses a razor blade - bought at the little shop at the end of the dirt track leading from her mud hut in rural Africa.
Ndege, 86, along with Agnes Kerubo, are two of the cutters that can be found in villages, towns and cities in Kenya and across Africa and parts of the Middle East where communities cling on to this barbaric tradition.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3143295/When-cut-won-t-slut-looking-men-like-prostitute-utterly-horrifying-encounter-FGM-cutter-women-butcher-young-girls-genitals-razor-blade.html#ixzz3elrFwFOI
UN: Show compassion for rape victims
Geneva - The United Nations rights chief on Wednesday urged Nigeria to show compassion and make it easier for women and girls who became pregnant in Boko Haram captivity to access abortions.
Boko Haram militants are estimated by Amnesty International to have kidnapped more than 2 000 women and girls in northeastern Nigeria since the beginning of 2014, including the 276 girls seized from their school in Chibok last year in a kidnapping that sparked global outrage.
"During their captivity, lasting in many cases for months or even years, women and girls have been sexually enslaved, raped and forced into so-called 'marriages'," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein told the UN Human Rights council in a special session on Boko Haram.
"Many survivors of these horrific experiences are now pregnant by their rapists ... and several reportedly wish to terminate these unwanted pregnancies," he said.
But in Nigeria, abortion is only legal when the life of the woman is at risk, Zeid said, warning that a lack of access would only add to the horrendous suffering the former captives had been through.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/un-show-compassion-for-rape-victims-1.1879306#.VZWpivlViko
BBC's Hausa website launches advertising offering for West Africa
"The bbcswahili.com and bbcafrique.com online sites will be set live in the next wave of commercialisation of BBC World Service language sites. They will be followed by bbcsomali.com andbbcgahuza.com (Great Lakes in Kinyarwarnda/Kirundi)," says Isla Macleod, digital business development director for EMEA countries at BBC Worldwide.
"Out of BBC World Service's 28 language sites, six provide local and international news in languages spoken on the continent: Arabic, French, Hausa, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Somali and Swahili," she explains. Other sites that carry advertising content are bbcarabic.com, bbcbrasil.com (in Portuguese), bbchindi.com, bbcmundo.com (in Spanish), bbcrussian.com and bbcturkish.com
Ebola, West Africa: Low intensity transmission continues, failure to achieve zero cases could result in persistent low-intensity epidemic
01 Jul 2015
ECDC Rapid risk assessment on the outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa, published today, provides the latest figures on cases for the week 14-21 June 2015, re-assesses the risk of importation of Ebola virus disease into the EU and discusses options for risk reduction.
EVD cases in the last weeks
The 20 new confirmed cases reported in the week from 14 to 21 June indicate that the weekly incidence of new cases, which has levelled off over the last 10 weeks, remains unchanged.
Shipping industry part and parcel of West Africa security situation
ECSA, the European Community Shipowners' Associations, organised on 29 June, in cooperation with the European External Action Service and the European Commission, a very well attended workshop on the ways in which the shipping industry can get involved in the Gulf of Guinea Strategy and Action Plan. The workshop took place on the eve of a high-level conference on the maritime security situation in the Gulf of Guinea, bringing together EU and African stakeholders.
The recent EU strategy aims at supporting the efforts in the Gulf of Guinea and its coastal states to address the many challenges of maritime insecurity and organised crime by fostering regional cooperation, capacity building and economic development of the coastal areas.
Threats to Tourism economy in North Africa
The terrorist attack on June 26, 2015 inSousse that killed 39 European tourists– deliberately targeted, mainly British citizens – could deal a fatal blow to the first signs of the tourism economy'srecovery that began to emerge after lengthy public relations efforts from the Tunisian government in order to bring tourists back to Tunisia after the troubles generated by the "Arab Spring". Representing approximately 15% of Tunisia's national GDP, the tourism industry could lose about $500 million this year (2015) – nearly a quarter of its forecast annual revenue – and thus fueling greater economic hardship for the 2 million Tunisians who make a living out of it.
http://cyceon.com/2015/07/02/threats-to-tourism-economy-in-north-africa/
Posted by: Africa Realities <africarealities@gmail.com>
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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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