Henri Christophe
L'empereur
Botswana has a IDH higher then my country.
The Africa Thread
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Broken_Erika
Play with me.
One-year-olds among those raped during Sudan civil war, UN says
Armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children as young as one during Sudan's civil war, says the UN children's agency, Unicef.Mass sexual violence has been widely documented as a weapon of war in the country's nearly two-year conflict.
But Unicef's report is the first detailed account about the impact of rape on young children in Sudan.
A third of the victims were boys, who typically face "unique challenges" in reporting such crimes and seeking the help they need.
Unicef says that, although 221 rape cases against children have been officially reported since the start of 2024, the true number is likely to be much higher.
Sudan is a socially conservative country where huge societal stigma stops survivors and their families from speaking out about rape, as does the fear of retribution from armed groups.
The Unicef report provides an appalling window into the abuse of children in the country's civil war.
Perhaps its most shocking revelation is that 16 of the victims were under the age of five years, including four infants.
Unicef does not say who is responsible, but other UN investigations have blamed the majority of rapes on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), saying RSF fighters had a pattern of using sexual violence to terrorise civilians and suppress opposition to their advances.
The RSF, which is fighting this war against its former allies, the Sudanese Armed Forces, has denied any wrongdoing.
"The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering," said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the UN's fact-finding mission when its previous report was published in October.
According to evidence presented by international human rights groups, victims in the RSF's stronghold of Darfur were often targeted because they were black African rather than Arab, apparently with the aim of driving them out of Sudan.
The UN humanitarian response for Sudan is already underfunded. Recent cuts in US aid are expected to reduce programmes to help the victims even further.
Harrowing details in Unicef's report underscore the dire situation.
"After nine at night, someone opens the door, carrying a whip, selects one of the girls, and takes her to another room. I could hear the little girl crying and screaming. They were raping her," recalls Omnia (not her real name), an adult female survivor who was held by armed men in a room with other women and girls.
"Every time they raped her, this girl would come back covered in blood. She is still just a young child. They only release these girls at dawn, and they return almost unconscious. Each of them cries and speaks incoherently. During the 19 days I spent there, I reached a point where I wanted to end my life."
As a fractured nation at war, Sudan is one of the most challenging places on earth to access services and frontline workers.
The vast number of people displaced by the war has made women and children more vulnerable to attack – three out of four school-age girls are out of school, the UN says.
Trump government cuts end vital help
The devastating outcome of these crimes is aggravated by the fact that victims have few places to turn to for medical help, because many medical facilities have been destroyed, looted or occupied by the warring parties.Recent US aid cuts may be endangering even the limited services available to protect children.
Unicef has been providing safe spaces for children through a network of local activists who have set up what are known as Emergency Response Rooms to deal with the crises in their communities.
The activists relied quite heavily on US aid, and most have been forced to shut down, according to a Sudanese coordinating committee that monitors them.
More broadly, the UN organization dedicated to protecting women's rights says local organisations led by women are vital in delivering support to survivors of sexual violence. But they receive less than 2% of the total funding of the UN's Sudan Humanitarian Fund.
The BBC learned that at least one of these local groups, known as "She Leads", was forced to close when US funding was stopped.
It was not a big expense, measured in the tens of thousands of dollars, but enabled case workers to reach around 35 survivors a month, said Sulaima Elkhalifa, a Sudanese human rights defender who runs a government unit on combatting violence against woman and helped organize the private initiative.
Those who have been raped by armed men "don't have the luxury of being depressed," she told the BBC.
The demands of war – finding food, needing to flee – leave no space to deal with trauma, she added.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgpdxk853jo
Leaked UN experts report raises fresh concerns over UAE’s role in Sudan war
Pressure is mounting on the United Arab Emirates over its presence at a crucial conference in London aimed at stopping the war in Sudan after a leaked confidential UN report raised fresh questions over the UAE’s role in the devastating conflict.
The UAE has been accused of secretly supplying weapons to Sudanese paramilitaries via neighbouring Chad, a charge it has steadfastly denied.
However an internal report – marked highly confidential and seen by the Guardian – detected “multiple” flights from the UAE in which transport planes made apparently deliberate attempts to avoid detection as they flew into bases in Chad where arms smuggling across the border into Sudan has been monitored.
The allegations raise complications for the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, who controversially invited the UAE alongside 19 other states for Sudan peace talks at Lancaster House on 15 April.
The date marks the second anniversary of a civil war that has caused the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 12 million people.
A senior diplomat, who is familiar with the leaked report but requested anonymity, said: “The UK needs to explain how it is responding to massacres of children and aid workers while hosting the UAE at its London conference.”
The 14-page report – completed last November and sent to the Sudan sanctions committee of the UN Security Council – was written by a panel of five UN experts who “documented a consistent pattern of Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo flights originating from the United Arab Emirates” into Chad, from where they identified at least three overland routes potentially used for transporting weapons into neighbouring Sudan.
They found that the cargo flights from airports in the UAE to Chad were so regular that, in effect, they had created a “new regional air bridge”.
They noted that flights demonstrated peculiarities, with planes often disappearing for “crucial segments” of their journey, a pattern that the experts said “raised questions of possible covert operations”.
However, the experts added that they could not identify what the planes were carrying or locate any evidence that the planes were transporting weapons.
The findings of numerous cargo flights from the UAE to Chad are not mentioned in the final report of the UN expert panel on Sudan, due to be published in a few days. No reference is made to the Emirates in the expert’s final 39-page report except in relation to peace talks.
Questions over the UAE’s alleged role in backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) arrive after a weekend that saw its fighters kill more than 200 civilians in a wave of violence against vulnerable ethnic groups in displacement camps and around the city of El Fasher, the last major city still held by the Sudanese army in Darfur, the vast western region of Sudan.
“It will be shameful if the conference does not deliver concrete civilian protection in the context of ongoing genocide,” said the diplomat.
In January the US formally declared that the RSF had committed genocide in Sudan.
The UAE states that it is committed to bringing “lasting peace“ to Sudan.
In their November update, the UN experts, investigating the possible smuggling of weapons from Chad into Darfur in possible violation of an arms embargo, identified at least 24 Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo flights landed at Amdjarass airport in Chad last year.
The flights, they noted, coincided with an escalation of fighting in El Fasher, in particular a “surge in drone activity primarily by the RSF for combat and intelligence” whose arrival in Sudan, said the experts, marked “a new technological phase in the conduct of hostilities”.
Some of the flights identified in the report were linked to operators previously connected to “military logistics and illicit arms transfers”. Two of them, said the experts, had previously been flagged for violations of the arms embargo.
Experts also examined “regular departures” into Chad from two UAE airports – in Ras Al-Khaimah emirate and Al Ain in Abu Dhabi emirate – and found that the flights frequently disappeared from radars during crucial moments.
On one occasion, the report describes how a flight “left Ras Al-Khaimah, vanished mid-flight, and later surfaced in N’Djamena [capital of Chad] before returning to Abu Dhabi”.
Crucially, however, the UN experts said they could not prove that the planes were carrying weapons because the “flights lacked evidence regarding the specific content being transported”.
Four of the five UN experts said that although the flights “marked an important new trend”, what they managed to uncover “failed to meet evidentiary standards regarding evidence of arms transfers”.
For instance, although residents of the South Darfur city of Nyala reported “cargo plane activity and informants attributed it to RSF logistical operations, further triangulated evidence to confirm the nature of the cargo transported was absent”.
Therefore, the experts said, it was “premature to infer that these flights were part of an arms transfer network”. They also added that the fact that several of the flights and cargo operators were linked to military logistics and past arms violations “did not provide proof of current arms transfers”.
It added: “Additionally, patterns and anomalies in flight paths, such as mid-flight radar disappearances and unrecorded take-offs, raised concerns but did not offer verified evidence directly linking these flights to arms shipments.”
It said “closing these investigative gaps was crucial”.
The revelations come days after the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague heard a case brought by Sudan accusing the UAE of being “complicit in the genocide” during the war. The ICJ has heard claims that the RSF is responsible for serious human rights violations including mass killings, rape and forced displacement in West Darfur.
The UAE has said the case is a cynical publicity stunt and a “platform to launch false attacks against the UAE”.
A UAE source pointed out that the confidential UN expert report contained the disclaimer that four of the five panel members felt that “allegations of an airbridge from the UAE to Sudan via Chad failed to meet the evidentiary standards required to establish a clear link between the documented flights and the alleged transfer of arms”.
A UAE statement added that the imminent final report from the Sudan expert panel did not reference the Emirates in relation to any flights “because the allegations against us failed to meet the panel’s evidentiary threshold. The record speaks for itself.”
It added that they had been told by the UN security council’s Sudan sanctions committee that the final report “did not make any negative findings” against them.
“The latest UN panel of experts report makes clear that there is not substantiated evidence that the UAE has provided any support to RSF, or has any involvement in the conflict,” said the statement.
Pressure is mounting on the United Arab Emirates over its presence at a crucial conference in London aimed at stopping the war in Sudan after a leaked confidential UN report raised fresh questions over the UAE’s role in the devastating conflict.
The UAE has been accused of secretly supplying weapons to Sudanese paramilitaries via neighbouring Chad, a charge it has steadfastly denied.
However an internal report – marked highly confidential and seen by the Guardian – detected “multiple” flights from the UAE in which transport planes made apparently deliberate attempts to avoid detection as they flew into bases in Chad where arms smuggling across the border into Sudan has been monitored.
The allegations raise complications for the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, who controversially invited the UAE alongside 19 other states for Sudan peace talks at Lancaster House on 15 April.
The date marks the second anniversary of a civil war that has caused the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 12 million people.
A senior diplomat, who is familiar with the leaked report but requested anonymity, said: “The UK needs to explain how it is responding to massacres of children and aid workers while hosting the UAE at its London conference.”
The 14-page report – completed last November and sent to the Sudan sanctions committee of the UN Security Council – was written by a panel of five UN experts who “documented a consistent pattern of Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo flights originating from the United Arab Emirates” into Chad, from where they identified at least three overland routes potentially used for transporting weapons into neighbouring Sudan.
They found that the cargo flights from airports in the UAE to Chad were so regular that, in effect, they had created a “new regional air bridge”.
They noted that flights demonstrated peculiarities, with planes often disappearing for “crucial segments” of their journey, a pattern that the experts said “raised questions of possible covert operations”.
However, the experts added that they could not identify what the planes were carrying or locate any evidence that the planes were transporting weapons.
The findings of numerous cargo flights from the UAE to Chad are not mentioned in the final report of the UN expert panel on Sudan, due to be published in a few days. No reference is made to the Emirates in the expert’s final 39-page report except in relation to peace talks.
Questions over the UAE’s alleged role in backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) arrive after a weekend that saw its fighters kill more than 200 civilians in a wave of violence against vulnerable ethnic groups in displacement camps and around the city of El Fasher, the last major city still held by the Sudanese army in Darfur, the vast western region of Sudan.
“It will be shameful if the conference does not deliver concrete civilian protection in the context of ongoing genocide,” said the diplomat.
In January the US formally declared that the RSF had committed genocide in Sudan.
The UAE states that it is committed to bringing “lasting peace“ to Sudan.
In their November update, the UN experts, investigating the possible smuggling of weapons from Chad into Darfur in possible violation of an arms embargo, identified at least 24 Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo flights landed at Amdjarass airport in Chad last year.
The flights, they noted, coincided with an escalation of fighting in El Fasher, in particular a “surge in drone activity primarily by the RSF for combat and intelligence” whose arrival in Sudan, said the experts, marked “a new technological phase in the conduct of hostilities”.
Some of the flights identified in the report were linked to operators previously connected to “military logistics and illicit arms transfers”. Two of them, said the experts, had previously been flagged for violations of the arms embargo.
Experts also examined “regular departures” into Chad from two UAE airports – in Ras Al-Khaimah emirate and Al Ain in Abu Dhabi emirate – and found that the flights frequently disappeared from radars during crucial moments.
On one occasion, the report describes how a flight “left Ras Al-Khaimah, vanished mid-flight, and later surfaced in N’Djamena [capital of Chad] before returning to Abu Dhabi”.
Crucially, however, the UN experts said they could not prove that the planes were carrying weapons because the “flights lacked evidence regarding the specific content being transported”.
Four of the five UN experts said that although the flights “marked an important new trend”, what they managed to uncover “failed to meet evidentiary standards regarding evidence of arms transfers”.
For instance, although residents of the South Darfur city of Nyala reported “cargo plane activity and informants attributed it to RSF logistical operations, further triangulated evidence to confirm the nature of the cargo transported was absent”.
Therefore, the experts said, it was “premature to infer that these flights were part of an arms transfer network”. They also added that the fact that several of the flights and cargo operators were linked to military logistics and past arms violations “did not provide proof of current arms transfers”.
It added: “Additionally, patterns and anomalies in flight paths, such as mid-flight radar disappearances and unrecorded take-offs, raised concerns but did not offer verified evidence directly linking these flights to arms shipments.”
It said “closing these investigative gaps was crucial”.
The revelations come days after the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague heard a case brought by Sudan accusing the UAE of being “complicit in the genocide” during the war. The ICJ has heard claims that the RSF is responsible for serious human rights violations including mass killings, rape and forced displacement in West Darfur.
The UAE has said the case is a cynical publicity stunt and a “platform to launch false attacks against the UAE”.
A UAE source pointed out that the confidential UN expert report contained the disclaimer that four of the five panel members felt that “allegations of an airbridge from the UAE to Sudan via Chad failed to meet the evidentiary standards required to establish a clear link between the documented flights and the alleged transfer of arms”.
A UAE statement added that the imminent final report from the Sudan expert panel did not reference the Emirates in relation to any flights “because the allegations against us failed to meet the panel’s evidentiary threshold. The record speaks for itself.”
It added that they had been told by the UN security council’s Sudan sanctions committee that the final report “did not make any negative findings” against them.
“The latest UN panel of experts report makes clear that there is not substantiated evidence that the UAE has provided any support to RSF, or has any involvement in the conflict,” said the statement.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Burundi's ruling party wins every seat in poll as rivals say democracy 'killed'
The ruling party in Burundi has won all 100 seats in a parliamentary election that the opposition says has "killed" democracy in the central African state.Giving the provisional results for last week's poll, electoral commission head Prosper Ntahorwamiye said the CNDD-FDD party secured more than 96% of votes in all provinces.
The election had seen only "some minor irregularities", he added.
The opposition Uprona party came second with a little over 1% of the vote. The party denounced the election as rigged, with its leader Olivier Nkurunziza telling the AFP news agency: "We have killed democracy."
The main opposition party, the National Congress for Liberty (CNL), fell into third spot, getting only 0.6% of the vote.
Campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the result showed that democracy had been "hollowed out" in Burundi.
It added that the CNDD-FDD, in power since 2005, "sought to dismantle all meaningful opposition", including from its biggest rival, the CNL.
Freedom of expression is limited in Burundi and critics say these polls followed a prolonged campaign of intimidation and harassment.
Election observers from the Catholic Church were turned away from some polling centres, according to HRW.
The African Union meanwhile has been criticised for praising the "climate of freedom and transparency" of the polls, which it declared were "peaceful".
Correspondents say there was little sign of celebrations in the main city of Bujumbura after the provisional results were announced on Wednesday.
The electoral commission said the results would be submitted to the Constitutional Court, which has to then certify them and provide the final results by 20 June.
Ntahorwamiye said there were "some minor irregularities - shortcomings that came about which have been resolved - because as you know, nothing is completely perfect".
In line with the Arusha Accords that brought an end to the bitter Burundian civil war more than two decades ago, the ethnic composition of the country's parliament has to mirror the proportions of Hutus, Tutsis and Twa people in the population at large.
After this month's vote count, the electoral commission announced that an additional 11 seats were to be created and filled to remedy an imbalance - which will bring the total number of MPs to 111.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wgzvn20gdo
danjuno
Cole Phelps, Badge 1247
You'd think dictators would learn to keep it to a believable "landslide" like 60% or something by now!
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Uganda's 80-year-old president in bid to extend 40-year rule
Uganda's long-serving president, Yoweri Museveni, 80, has been declared the governing party's candidate in next year's presidential election, opening the way for him to seek to extend his nearly 40 years in power.In his acceptance speech, Museveni said that he had responded to the call and, if elected, would press ahead with his mission to turn Uganda into a "high middle income country".
Museveni's critics say he has ruled with an iron hand since he seized power as a rebel leader in 1986.
He has won every election held since then, and the constitution has been amended twice to remove age and term limits to allow him remain in office.
Pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine is expected to be Museveni's main challenger in the election scheduled for next January.
Wine told the BBC in April that he would run against Museveni if he was nominated by his party, the National Unity Platform, but it was getting "tougher" to be in opposition because of growing state repression.
"Being in the opposition in Uganda means being labelled a terrorist," he said.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, lost the last election in 2021 to Museveni by 35% to 59% in a poll marred by allegations of rigging and a crackdown on the opposition.
Another prominent opposition politician, Kizza Besigye, has been in detention since November after being accused of treason. He denies the allegation, saying his arrest is political.
In his acceptance speech at the National Resistance Movement (NRM) conference on Saturday, Museveni said that he had brought about stability and progress in Uganda.
He said it was crucial that Uganda did not "miss the bus of history as happened in the past when Europe transformed and Africa stagnated and was enslaved".
Museveni added that he wanted Uganda to take a "qualitative leap", and become a "high upper middle income country".
"Other countries in Asia with less natural resources, did it. We can do it," he added.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2ml8lzzrno
Bonyduck Campersang
Not staring into the distance
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r16
not deity
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ethiopia did NOT outfox Egypt . During the building of the dam there was the whole Arabian Spring thing , which included New Turkey primed to fight in an actual shooting war and no less , against the Sisi dictatorship . Who took advantage the irritation of Egyptian generals about Mursi's supposed reserves outside his country and control and so on . This is why the PM of New Turkey had to remind Mursi that he had to slow down and secularism was good . That was an incredible thing in this country . Mursi didn't want to hear so the US had him hanged . The dam is an Israeli weapon , however this might seem unsavory and whatnot to Israeli media apparatchiks .
Bonyduck Campersang
Not staring into the distance
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yeah that's what the article talks about
apart from the Israeli weapon angle
apart from the Israeli weapon angle
Zardnaar
Deity
I read it. Building the dams fibe imho. Using it to reduce Egypts water would be a justified CB.
EnglishEdward
Deity
I assume that CB = Casus Belli
Zardnaar
Deity
Yup.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Pot breaks as Nigerian chef attempts to cook largest jollof rice dish
The giant pot in which Nigerian chef and former Guinness World Record holder Hilda Baci attempted to make the world's largest dish of jollof rice has broken as it was being hoisted on a crane to be weighed.Thousands of people gathered in Lagos to watch the latest world record bid from the well-known food influencer, who in 2023 held the title for the longest cooking marathon.
Her recipe for jollof, a popular West African dish, included 4,000kg (8,800lb) of rice, 500 cartons of tomato paste and 600kg of onions - all poured into a custom-made pot that can hold 23,000 litres.
The dish took nine hours to cook but despite two attempts, it was not possible to weigh the enormous pot of food.
However, a member of Baci's team told the BBC they were collating evidence from different cameras to send to Guinness World Records (GWR) so it could be officially recognised. The organisation had tweeted a message of good luck to Baci, 28, in advance of her attempt.
The event was trending on social media and videos show that as the huge red pan was being lifted, one side buckled and the supporting legs gave way, however the food did not spill.
Afterwards the giant dish of jollof rice, which also included 168kg of goat meat, was divided into individual portions and distributed to the huge crowds.
The chef told BBC Pidgin that it took her a year to plan how she would tackle the mammoth challenge.
"We [Nigerians] are the giant of Africa, and jollof is a food that everybody knows Africans for," she said.
"It would make sense if we had the biggest pot of jollof rice, it would be nice for the country."
She was assisted by 10 other chefs in red uniforms wielding long wooden spoons to stir the food.
Manufacturing the giant steel vessel to hold her dish took a team of 300 people two months to make but one of its legs gave way at the crucial time.
Jollof rice is a staple in several West African countries, featuring rice simmered in a tomato sauce, often paired with meat or seafood.
Baci won a competition for her version of jollof rice in 2021, and then became a national sensation in 2023 when she claimed the world cooking marathon record - an exhausting 93 hours and 11 minutes, or nearly four days.
However, she was later surpassed by Irish chef Alan Fisher. The current record-holder is Evette Quoibia from Australia, with 140 hours and 11 minutes, according to GWR.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c306m1j542po
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
War crimes alert as food runs out in besieged Sudan city
Satellite images show how Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is flouting international law by intentionally targeting civilians in the besieged city of el-Fasher - actions that should be considered war crimes, a research team from Yale University says."We're looking at the growth of an entire new burial area with over 60 new mounds that have been built in just a two-week period," Caitlin Howarth, from the university's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), told the BBC.
People are now completely trapped with no hope of escape as the RSF recently completed a 57km (35-mile) earthen wall around the city.
Desperate residents in the army's last stronghold in Darfur say food has run out.
"There is nothing left to eat today - all food supplies have run out," the resistance committee for el-Fasher, made up of local citizens and activists, said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Even the alternatives that people clung to for survival have disappeared," it said, referring to "ambaz", a residue of peanuts after oil has been extracted, which is normally fed to animals.
Sudan plunged into a civil war in April 2023 after a vicious struggle for power broke out between the military and the RSF.
Since the conflict erupted, RSF fighters and allied Arab militia in Darfur have been accused of targeting people from non-Arab ethnic groups.
- Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening
- Sudanese city under siege: 'My son's whole body is full of shrapnel'
The resistance committee warned that time was running out for the estimated 300,000 people who still live in the city.
"We write, we scream, we plead; but it seems our words fall into a void," it said. "There are no aid planes, no humanitarian airlifts, no real international movement and no ground efforts to break the siege."
Community kitchens have had to stop providing meals to people seeking refuge in shelters, traders inside the city told the Sudan Tribune news website.
They added that all food goods had completely disappeared even from shops, which used to get smuggled stock to sell at exorbitant prices.
Ms Howarth told the BBC's Newsday programme that in the last few months civilians had been driven by the RSF from the displacement camps around el-Fasher and other neighbourhoods by arson and in some cases by what looked like "house-to-house clearance operations".
They were now in their last places of refuge in "increasingly smaller zones", concentrated in shelters at mosques, near hospitals and markets - areas that were undergoing repeated bombardment.
Satellite images showed "burn scars" where specific buildings had been targeted with "horrific" results, according to Ms Howarth.
"We had air-deployed munitions - this could be a combination of drone and artillery that came in… through the roofs, exploding on impact and then burning everything that was within those structures," she explained, adding that ground sources had told them the people inside had been "burned alive".
The Yale HRL researchers found that over the last month attacks included those on two shelters, one of which was also a community kitchen, two mosques, one hospital and one market - killing at least 174 people and wounding at least 123 people.
"These incidents include only those that HRL corroborated through either remote sensing, open source documentation, or a combination of both methods and are likely an undercount," its report said.
"These actions are prima facie war crimes and may rise to the level of crimes against humanity."
The researchers also identified that between 26 September and 10 October, at least 60 burial mounds were created in a new cemetery in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood, one of the only areas still under the control of the army and their allies, local armed groups known as the Joint Forces.
Ms Howarth said there were now only four RSF-controlled exits out of the city.
"There should be calls for the immediate cessation of these hostilities, for civilians to be allowed to immediately and safely depart el-Fasher without harassment, without taxation, without the risk of extrajudicial execution," she said.
"And aid and humanitarian aid access should be allowed completely in without any threat of bombardment or attack."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yd8rv02ydo
Violent protests erupt as Tanzanian president nears election victory
Violent demonstrations broke out in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, as the country held an election on Wednesday.
Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president, is expected to strengthen her grip on the country against the backdrop of rapidly intensifying repression and the exclusion of opponents from the presidential contest.
Social media videos show protesters throwing rocks at police, and a petrol station burning. Internet service was disrupted across the country, the global monitor NetBlocks said. “Live network data show a nationwide disruption … corroborating reports of a digital blackout,” it posted on X.
Hassan, a former vice-president who took office after the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, in 2021, has left nothing to chance for her first presidential test.
Opponents from the two main opposition parties in the east African country have been disqualified and government critics have been abducted, killed or arrested.
Analysts say they expect voter apathy, possible unrest over the stifling of opposition voices and the further entrenchment of Hassan and the ruling CCM party.
“Tanzania will never be the same after this election,” said Deus Valentine, the chief executive of the Center for Strategic Litigation, a Tanzania-based nonprofit organisation. “We are either entering a completely new paradigm or level of impunity, or we are entering a completely new level of civil defiance. Something is going to give.”
CCM and its predecessor Tanu have ruled the country since independence in 1961, making it one of the longest-ruling political forces in Africa.
Violent demonstrations broke out in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, as the country held an election on Wednesday.
Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president, is expected to strengthen her grip on the country against the backdrop of rapidly intensifying repression and the exclusion of opponents from the presidential contest.
Social media videos show protesters throwing rocks at police, and a petrol station burning. Internet service was disrupted across the country, the global monitor NetBlocks said. “Live network data show a nationwide disruption … corroborating reports of a digital blackout,” it posted on X.
Hassan, a former vice-president who took office after the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, in 2021, has left nothing to chance for her first presidential test.
Opponents from the two main opposition parties in the east African country have been disqualified and government critics have been abducted, killed or arrested.
Analysts say they expect voter apathy, possible unrest over the stifling of opposition voices and the further entrenchment of Hassan and the ruling CCM party.
“Tanzania will never be the same after this election,” said Deus Valentine, the chief executive of the Center for Strategic Litigation, a Tanzania-based nonprofit organisation. “We are either entering a completely new paradigm or level of impunity, or we are entering a completely new level of civil defiance. Something is going to give.”
CCM and its predecessor Tanu have ruled the country since independence in 1961, making it one of the longest-ruling political forces in Africa.
EnglishEdward
Deity
Remind me Samson, which particular institution installed by the British is responsible for this ?
danjuno
Cole Phelps, Badge 1247
You were the one who wanted that subject split off into it's own thread, now you're going around bringing it into other threads.
EnglishEdward
Deity
It all started in Africa.
And it ought to be easier to discuss the impact of colonialisation in one country than throughout the world.
And it ought to be easier to discuss the impact of colonialisation in one country than throughout the world.
danjuno
Cole Phelps, Badge 1247
Then there was no need for you to ask the colonial discussion to be split off from the UK thread.
In this particular case it seems quite clear that the lack of multi party democracy is at the heart of the issue, so the CCM / Tanu. I have no particualar insight into this case though.
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