Category: Africa,

U.N. says 82 aid workers killed in South Sudan’s three-year war 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,Leave a comment

A United Nations official said on Wednesday 82 aid workers had been killed in South Sudan’s civil war and the number of its citizens displaced by the fighting now stands at 3.5 million.

Two years after its much celebrated birth as an independent state, South Sudan plunged into conflict in December 2013 as rivalry between President Salva Kiir and his then-vice president, Riek Machar, exploded into violence.

U.N. says 82 aid workers killed in South Sudan’s three-year war | Reuters

sigh…

A US-Africa Trade Conference With No Africans 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,, Domestic Affairs,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Judging by his proposed budget, I don’t think Trump particularly cares about the United States’ intellectual, innovative and artistic contributions to the world. But do you know where conferences are held? Hotels. Now that’s an industry I know the Cheeto-in-Chief doesn’t want to see decline–so maybe he should quit it with the racist, erratic visa policies, hm?

A US-Africa Trade Conference With No Africans | The Mary Sue

Sigh…..

Crossing the border: US migrants seek refugee status in Canada 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,, Domestic Affairs,, The Americas,Leave a comment

“We’ve always had people jumping the borders, for, I don’t know, 30, 40, 50 years. Back then, it was people running away from something – usually the law,” says town official Greg Janzen.

But in recent years it has been mostly asylum seekers, hailing mainly from Somalia but also Ghana, Djibouti, and Ethiopia, who are finding their way across. Community workers say most have been denied refugee status in the US.

Many have been met with generosity.

….Mohammed says he once viewed the US as a beacon for human rights and a place that welcomed newcomers but “when we came, we didn’t see that”.

 

Crossing the border: US migrants seek refugee status in Canada – BBC News

Sigh….

Gambia president plans massive overhaul, but keeps secret police

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,Leave a comment

Gambian President Adama Barrow said Saturday that every aspect of his tiny west African state would need an overhaul after ex-leader Yahya Jammeh’s 22-year rule, but that its dread secret police would remain.

Barrow faces an uphill task after taking over from Jammeh, who left behind a dysfunctional  economy and allegedly emptied state coffers ahead of his departure.

Rights group blame the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) under his longtime control for forced disappearances and torture.

Gambia president plans massive overhaul, but keeps secret police

hmmmm

Nigeria finds Chibok girl kidnapped by Boko Haram, with baby 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,Leave a comment

Nigeria’s government has been criticized over its treatment of the freed girls, who have been sequestered in Abuja, the capital, allegedly for trauma counseling and rehabilitation.

The freed girls insisted on being taken to Chibok for Christmas, but they were kept in the home of a local legislator and prevented from attending Christmas service at their EYN Church of the Brethren, supposedly for security reasons. They were not reunited with their parents until the day after Christmas. Chibok is a small Christian enclave following a branch of the U.S.-based Brethren in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria. Many parents of the girls are translating the Bible into local languages.

More than a dozen of the parents have died since their daughters were kidnapped, relatives say from stress-related illnesses.

…Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus has told The Associated Press that more than 100 of the girls appear unwilling to leave their Boko Haram captors. He said the unwilling girls may have been radicalized or are ashamed to return home because they were forced to marry extremists and have babies.

In captivity, Boko Haram forced the girls to convert to Islam and “married” many of them to fighters. There have been unverified reports that some were carried across borders into Cameroon and Niger and Shekau had threatened to sell some of them into slavery.

Boko Haram’s seven-year Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people, spread across Nigeria’s borders, forced. 2.6 million from their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis in which the U.N. says 5.1 million people face starvation in northeast Nigeria.

Hundreds of innocent victims have died in the hands of the military, Amnesty International has charged.

Nigeria finds Chibok girl kidnapped by Boko Haram, with baby | Colorado Springs Gazette, News

Sigh….

Nigeria’s Chibok girls rescued from Boko Haram will be sponsored by African American billionaire Robert Smith — Quartz

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,, Chick Stuff,, Education,Leave a comment

Shehu says Smith is “currently sponsoring the education of 24 girls from Chibok, among them the first set of escapees from Boko Haram at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola.” AUN is owned by Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former vice- president. Given the high cost of tuition ($8,000 for an academic session minus housing and meals), AUN is typically regarded as a school for children of Nigeria’s elite. Smith has also “offered to pay for the education of the 21 released girls through negotiations and is offering to take responsibility for all the others who will hopefully be eventually set free,” Shehu says.

Nigeria’s Chibok girls rescued from Boko Haram will be sponsored by African American billionaire Robert Smith — Quartz

Good.