– NEWS –
Somaliland issues fatwa banning female genital mutilation: Somaliland has issued a religious edict banning female genital mutilation, paving the way for the breakaway region to pass legislation against the internationally condemned practice. The practice – which involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia – is almost universal in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. The fatwa from the ministry of religious affairs on Tuesday said those who perform female genital mutilation would face punishment, and victims would be eligible for compensation. The sentence could be up to 30 years in prison. Nafisa Yusuf, executive director of the Nagaad Network of 45 women’s organisations in Somaliland, said this was an important step in the right direction.
reuters.com
Russian interests in Africa: Russia wants to intensify its engagement in Africa in areas such as education, energy and military cooperation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a stopover in Harare, Zimbabwe, during a week-long Africa tour which also included visits to Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and Ethiopia. Speaking to reporters in Angola’s capital Luanda on Monday, Lavrov emphasized the role of international support on the continent, while also acknowledging the need for African solutions. Lavrov’s tour appears to have an interest in re-establishing former Soviet-era ties with African states — in particular with Ethiopia, with which Russia has long-standing diplomatic relations dating back to the 19th century.
dw.com
Mauritius turns 50: Mauritius is marking 50 years of independence. The island nation is seen as a success story but the celebration is marred by a political scandal which may cause the country’s president to step down. On Friday, March 9, the country’s prime minister, Pravind Jugnauth, announced that the president, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, would step down in the coming days following a financial scandal. She was accused of having used a credit card from a London-based Planet Earth Institute to buy clothes, jewelry, and other items. Gurib-Fakim said that she had refunded all the money. Aside from this most recent scandal, Mauritius has had little in terms of political crises since independence in 1968.
dw.com
Appeal proceedings against Belgian government: An appeal proceeding against the Belgian government is taking place in a Brussels court. Three families of Rwandan genocide survivors had sued Belgium regarding one of the worst massacres in the country’s recent history. When the Hutu militia „Interahamwe“ attacked the technical high school ETO Don Bosco in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, around 2,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu politicians were killed. The school was protected by UN peacekeepers from Belgium. When they left school, the massacre began. The court now needs to find out who issued the withdrawal order – the UN or Belgium?
taz.de
British Court starts hearing in Sierra Leone: A British High court has for the first time in history moved its sittings to Sierra Leone on allegations of human rights abuses by a London Iron Ore company, African Minerals Limited (AML) and its subsidiary company, Tonkolili Iron Ore Limited, against villagers in the Tonkolili district and workers of the mines. The court was established as a result of allegations by 142 claimants over both AML and Tonkolili Iron Ore Limited over issues of personal injury, complicity in killing, rape, assault and false imprisonment of workers and villagers in Kemedugu and other nearby villages away from the mines site.
taz.de, awoko.org
Egypt army says 16 Islamic State terrorists killed in Sinai operation timesofisrael.com
Opel to assemble cars in Namibia nasdaq.com
Europe no longer attractive: Internal migration in Africa is increasing neues-deutschland.de
– BACKGROUND –
In Egypt’s election, Sissi’s only challenger is barely campaigning: The election billboards of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi are everywhere in the capital of Cairo. Egyptian voters will struggle to find a billboard for his only challenger. That obscure candidate, after all, said weeks ago that he wants Sissi to remain as president. Moussa Mostafa Moussa has so far not given speeches, made television commercials or bought newspaper ads seeking votes. On March 4, his first election rally was attended by no more than 25 supporters. As leader of the centrist Ghad Party, Moussa has been one of Sissi’s staunchest supporters and part of a well-orchestrated effort backing Sissi for a second term.
washingtonpost.com
Health startup in Kenya: Kenyan founder Felix Kimaru wants to save lives with his startup „Totohealth“. While everyone in Kenya is in possession of a cell phone, doctors are in short supply. Every 200th woman dies during childbirth. That’s the problem Nominet Trust 2015 winner, „Totohealth“ is attempting to solve. The business is best-known for its text messaging platform, which sends messages to mothers and fathers during pregnancy and for the first five years of a child’s life – offering health tips and simple diagnostic questions to help parents keep track of their child’s health. Other Kenyan business founders are also aiming to improve the health sector, such as the micro-health insurance „Blue Wave“ or the start-up „Flare“, a kind of Uber that locates ambulances.
taz.de, ventureburn.com
– NUMBER –
25 billion dollars in economic output are lost each year in sub-Saharan Africa due to malnutrition. „Stunted children lead to stunted economies“, Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, cynically commented on his institute’s calculations.
faz.net
– QUOTE –
„I am very upset about how the economic powers in Europe treat the people in Africa.“
Johannes Pfaller, Chairman of the Federal Advisory Board of the Federal Association of German Dairy Farmers, called on European policymakers to control the quantity of milk produced in order to protect African agriculture from cheap milk from Europe.
agrarheute.com
– AT LAST –
Over 1,000 skulls from Germany’s colonies still sitting in Berlin: It is a legacy of the German colonial era. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the group administering Berlin’s state museums, still holds more than 1,000 skulls originating from Rwanda and some 60 from Tanzania. Both countries belonged to the German East Africa colony from 1885 to 1918. Some of the remains are believed to have come from insurgents who were killed by German troops during the colonial wars. Their skulls were subsequently sent to Berlin for „scientific“ experiments. The foundation has held the so-called Luschan Collection of remains since late-2011, to which the skulls currently belong. Among the artifacts, there are some 4,600 other skulls collected by researcher Felix Luschan between 1885 and 1920.
dw.com