– NEWS –
Dozens dead after militant assault on Palma: Dozens of people are dead following an attack by Islamist militants on a town in northern Mozambique, officials say. Hundreds of militants stormed Palma on Wednesday, targeting shops, banks and a military barracks. Seven people were killed trying to escape a siege on a hotel. Hundreds of others, both locals and foreigners, were reportedly rescued from Palma after the attack. Militants linked to the „Islamic State“ (ISIS) group are behind the conflict in the predominantly Muslim region. The fighting has left more than 2,500 people dead and 700,000 displaced since the insurgency began in 2017.
bbc.com
New allegations of massacres in Tigray: Almost three weeks ago, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights called for an independent investigation into human rights violations that may amount to war crimes in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. A CNN investigation published on Friday revealed a massacre which took place during a religious festival in the town of Dengelat late last year. Now, more evidence of sexual violence being used as a deliberate weapon of war is emerging from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Women are being gang-raped, drugged and held hostage, according to medical records and testimonies from survivors shared with CNN. According to the doctors, almost all the women they treat recount similar stories of being raped by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers.
cnn.com, cnn.com
Eritrea criticizes EU sanctions: The EU has imposed sanctions over torture, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings in South Sudan and Eritrea. Under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime established on 7 December 2020, the listed individuals and entities are subject to an asset freeze in the EU. In addition, listed individuals are subject to a travel ban to the EU. Moreover, persons and entities in the EU are prohibited from making funds available, either directly or indirectly, to those listed. Eritrean authorities described the EU sanctions as “malicious” and charged the EU with having “ulterior motives.”
apnews.com, consilium.europa.eu, washingtonpost.com
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Libya militia leader wanted by ICC shot dead: Libyan militia leader Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf al-Werfalli, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes, was shot dead by armed men in the eastern city of Benghazi on Wednesday, Libyan officials said. Werfalli was shot dead along with his cousin when unidentified gunmen opened fire on his car in a busy street in Benghazi, the unidentified officials were reported as saying. The two were seriously wounded in the attack. They were taken to the Benghazi Medical Centre where they were reported to have been pronounced dead on arrival. The ICC first issued a war crimes arrest warrant against Werfalli in August 2017 after video footage appeared to show him carrying out and ordering seven separate rounds of summary executions of 33 people in 2016 and 2017.
dw.com
Traffic resumes on Suez Canal as Evergiven is refloated: Traffic resumed on the Suez Canal waterway on Monday almost a week since a massive cargo ship blocked it, bringing an end to a crisis that for nearly a week clogged one of the world’s most vital maritime arteries. The Evergreen vessel has refloated and traffic is resumed, the Suez Canal Authority announced. The obstruction has created a massive traffic jam in the vital passage, holding up $9 billion each day in global trade and straining supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.
africanews.com
“Fridays for Future” in Africa is protesting against oil exploration in natural paradise on the Okavango deutschlandfunk.de
Barack Obama’s step-‚granny‘ dies in Kenya aged 99 africanews.com
Warning of vaccine disputes deutschlandfunk.de
New Tanzania President fires port authority boss over graft allegation africanews.com
– BACKGROUND –
Is Germany promising to return artefacts looted from Benin? Berlin is negotiating to fully restitute hundreds of the Benin bronzes in a shift of policy that has been welcomed in Nigeria but will put pressure on museums in London and Oxford to also return artefacts looted from Britain’s former west African empire in 1897. Located in the southwest of present-day Nigeria, the city of Benin, with 2.5 million inhabitants, was once a flourishing trade center, famous for its valuable bronze sculptures. The so-called Benin bronzes, which can now be found in many major European museums, hail from this once strong precolonial monarchy called the Kingdom of Benin. Several bronzes are scheduled to be the centerpieces in a large exhibition at the opening of Berlin’s new Humboldt Forum in the fall — yet it has raised questions about art restitution in the context of colonialism.
dw.com, theguardian.com
Portugal confronts its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade: As the world marks the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery, more and more Portuguese with African roots are calling for a critical reappraisal of this dark chapter in history. „Portugal has long swept the history of slaves from Africa under the carpet,“ said Evalina Dias, president of the Lisbon-based association of Afro-descendants, Djass. A native of Portugal with ancestors from Guinea-Bissau, she is now demanding that Portugal finally face up to its historical responsibilities and thoroughly reevaluate its role in the story.
dw.com
Bloody chocolate: Greenpeace criticizes Mondelez for human rights violations along the supply chain: The biodiversity expert of Greenpeace Austria, Lukas Meus, has criticized the Milka company. The use of cocoa beans from Ghana or the Ivory Coast, but also the processing of Indonesian or Malay palm oil, are troubling. In order to be able to take active action against child labor and environmental degradation, the environmental protection organization calls on the company to make its supply chains more transparent. Greenpeace is not alone in its criticism: in February, the human rights organization International Rights Advocates filed a class action lawsuit against Mondelez – the company behind Milka – and six other large chocolate companies.
derstandard.de
African elephant species now endangered: Following population declines over several decades due to poaching for ivory and loss of habitat, the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is now listed as Critically Endangered and the African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Before the update, African elephants were treated as a single species, listed as Vulnerable; this is the first time the two species have been assessed separately for the IUCN Red List, following the emergence of new genetic evidence.
iucn.org
– NUMBER –
40 percent of the world’s population still have no internet connection. Most of the people without internet live in Africa. The African continent runs the risk of being left behind. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this could result in enormous job losses.
dw.com
– QUOTE –
„War is a nasty thing.“
After months of denials, Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed has finally admitted what everyone knew about the conflict in the Tigray region: Eritrean troops are present alongside the federal military, and atrocities have been reported.
theguardian.com
– AT LAST –
Man from Tanzania has been looking for the skull of folk hero Mangi Meli since 1978: Mnyaka Sururu Mboro has been looking for the head of Mangi Meli, who was murdered and beheaded by German colonialists, for more than forty years. Because: He promised his grandmother.
spiegel.de