NA sittings will continue with a limited number of its members assembling physically and the rest joining through a virtual platform…reports Asian Lite News
South African Parliament said its lower house, the National Assembly (NA), will host sittings in a much smaller chamber inside the precinct, with some lawmakers to participate online, after the original chamber was burned down in last week’s fire accident.
The fire, which lasted more than 70 hours from January 2, severely damaged the NA building in the legislative capital of Cape Town and completely burned down the NA chamber, reports Xinhua news agency.
It also caused extensive damage to the century-old Old Assembly building that houses the National Council of Provinces, the upper house.
A meeting, which brought together parliament leaders and political parties to discuss alternative venues for sittings of the 400-member house, decided the NA sittings to be held in the Good Hope Chamber within Parliament precinct, Parliament said in a statement.
Good Hope Chamber, which used to host legislative sittings between 1854 and 1885 in the colonial period, has a seating capacity of 170 persons but only permits 70 in a sitting under Covid-19 social distancing measures.
Parliament said it will continue NA sittings with a limited number of its members assembling physically and the rest joining through a virtual platform, a method it has been using since May 2020 due to Covid-19.
The work of repairing or rebuilding the NA will take longer, according to it.
Parliament’s flagship program, the State of the Nation Address, will be held at the historic City Hall of Cape Town on February 10.
Mali government calls ECOWAS sanctions 'inhumane, unfortunate'
Mali reserves the right to respond to the “inhumane and unfortunate sanctions” taken by the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS)…reports Asian Lite News
Mali has decided to “recall its accredited Ambassadors” in other ECOWAS member states and to close “its land and air borders” with the states concerned on the basis of reciprocity, Xinhua news agency quoted spokesman Abdoulaye Maiga as saying in a live broadcast.
The government of Mali deplores the “inhumane” nature of these measures, which “affect the populations already severely affected” by security and health crises, in particular that of Covid-19, Maiga said, vowing steps to respond to these “unfortunate, illegal and illegitimate” sanctions, which were announced on Sunday at the conclusion of an ECOWAS extraordinary summit in Accra, Ghana.
The sanctions include the immediate withdrawal of ambassadors of all other ECOWAS member states from Mali; closure of land and air borders; suspension of all financial and economic transactions, with the exception of essential consumer goods, according to a communique issued after the meeting.
Maiga said the measures were in “contrast with the efforts made by the government and its readiness for dialogue with a view to reaching a compromise with ECOWAS on the timing of the elections in Mali”.
He called for “calm and restraint” among the Malian people, adding that “steps have been taken to ensure the normal supply of the country by all appropriate means”.
The ECOWAS leadership said the sanctions were taken because the proposed chronogram by the Malian transitional authorities that set the duration of the transition for a total of five and a half years is “totally unacceptable”.
The sanctions excluded the supply of pharmaceutical and medical supplies, including materials needed for the control of Covid-19, petroleum products, and electricity.
All ECOWAS institutions are instructed to take steps to implement the sanctions with immediate effect.
ECOWAS has 15 member states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Last November, ECOWAS imposed sanctions on the Malian transitional authorities in response to their claim of inability to meet the transition deadline of February 2022 for holding elections, including a travel ban and a freeze on financial assets.
One protestor was killed and 30 others injured during mass demonstrations in Khartoum and other major cities demanding a return to civilian rule in the country…reports Asian Lite News
Sudanese police have confirmed that one protester was killed and 30 others were injured during mass demonstrations in Khartoum and other major cities demanding a return to civilian rule in the country.
A total of 22 policemen were injured during the demonstrations on Sunday and the police used “minimum legal force” in dealing with the protesters, reports Xinhua news agency.
During the demonstrations, 86 protesters were arrested and legal procedures have been taken against them, the police said on Monday.
However, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD), a non-governmental organisation, claimed that two protesters were killed and 68 others injured.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday to demand civilian rule despite efforts by parties concerned to bring a political solution to the crisis in the North African country
On January 8, the UN launched an intra-Sudanese political process to end the crisis.
Volker Perthes, the UN envoy for Sudan, said in a statement that the political process would seek a “sustainable path forward towards democracy and peace” in the country.
It was not immediately clear when the discussions might begin.
Sudan has been suffering a political crisis with regular mass protests after the general commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan declared a coup on October 25, 2021 and dissolved the Sovereign Council and the government.
Some 3.8 million refugees in the Middle East and millions of low-income families in Africa are facing dire conditions during one of the coldest winters in the region…reports Asian Lite News
Refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq are suffering from cold temperatures that can reach below zero degrees.
Under this framework, the World’s Coolest Winter campaign partnered with Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Food Banking Regional Network, to launch the Warm Winter campaign to support refugee and displaced persons and families in the Middle East and Africa. The initiative is a collaboration with Galaxy Racer’s Content Creator AboFlah.
Many refugees and displaced families depend on the UNHCR’s aid to overcome winter conditions and secure their children’s food and shelter needs.
Without emergency aid, many families will not be secure and warm this winter. This is the tenth consecutive winter they spend away from home while suffering extreme poverty.
The UNHCR operates in 130 countries to help refugees and host communities and adapt and find solutions amidst increasingly harsh conditions. The international organisation’s statistics show that the number of forced migrants in 2021 exceeded 84 million people.
According to UNHCR’s figures, the number of displaced persons inside Iraq amounted to over 1.2 million people at the end of 2020, in addition to over 280,000 refugees, including 242,000 Syrian refugees. Women account for 48 percent of the total number of refugees in Iraq.
Syria refugee
A UNHCR report on Syrian refugees published in March 2021 pointed out that half of the Syrian population has become refugees. More than 13 million Syrians require humanitarian assistance and protection, while 12.4 million people or 60 percent of the population suffer from malnutrition.
The organisation, therefore, called on the international community to intensify its collective efforts to help Syrian refugees and host communities.
The UNHCR cooperates with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Lebanon, which is suffering dire economic conditions, addressing the rapid deterioration in the living conditions of Syrian refugees. All three organisations have highlighted their inability to provide the minimum required funding to protect refugees.
Nearly 60 percent of Syrian refugee families in Lebanon live in overcrowded conditions. Furthermore, two-thirds of refugee families had to reduce their food supplies or their number of meals per day. The WFP currently helps over 1.1 million Syrian refugees and 600,000 Lebanese citizens by providing financial and food aid every month.
In Jordan, the UNHCR allocated nearly US$35 million in 2021 in the form of winter aid for refugees. Jordan has hosted over 1.3 million Syrian refugees since the outbreak of the crisis in 2011, including 669,992 refugees in the UNHCR’s records until 17th August, 2021.
The United Nation’s (UN) figures point out nearly 1 percent of the world’s population have been forcibly displaced and unable to return home, primarily due to the effects of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected the world over the past two years.
In a previous statement, Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, stressed that forced displacement has become a reality and is no longer a temporary or short-term phenomenon. He added that millions of people live outside their countries because they cannot live in turbulent environments.
The refugee crisis is also threatening the future of entire generations, as nearly 374 million children are refugees, including many who are without their parents.
Nearly 80 percent of refugees and displaced persons worldwide live in areas suffering from food insecurity or severe malnutrition and facing environmental risks.
Over three-fourth of the world refugees, or 77 percent face long-term displacement; nearly 85 percent of refugees live in under-developed countries, while two-thirds of the world’s refugees belong to five countries – Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar.
In addition to the refugee crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the global economy and increased poverty worldwide in 2020. Subsequently, the World Bank’s figures indicate that the pandemic has pushed nearly 150 million to below the poverty line in 2021.
Thirty students and a teacher have regained freedom after being held for more than six months by gunmen who attacked their school in northwest Nigeria’s Kebbi state and abducted them in June 2021…reports Asian Lite News
Yahaya Sarki, spokesperson for the governor of Kebbi state, said in a statement that the 30 students and their teacher from the Federal Government College in Birnin Yauri area of the state arrived in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital, on Saturday following their release.
“They shall undergo medical screening and support while being re-united with their families,” Xinhua news agency quoted Sarki as saying.
A group of unknown gunmen attacked the secondary school on June 17, 2021, killing at least one policeman and abducted an unspecified number of students and several teachers.
According to local media reports, scores of students had been freed in batches before the latest release.
A series of gunmen attacks recently happened in the northern part of the most populous African country, including attacks on schools and the kidnapping of students.
The leadership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has announced a flurry of ‘harsher’ sanctions on Mali…reports Asian Lite News
Leaders of ECOWAS gathered in an extraordinary summit to deliberate on the situation in Mali, Xinhua news agency reported.
In the communique after the summit, the regional body said the proposed chronogram by the Malian transitional authorities that set the duration of the transition for a total of five and a half years is “totally unacceptable.”
The communique said all ECOWAS member states would immediately withdraw their ambassadors from Mali.
“The other sanctions include the closure of land and air borders between ECOWAS countries and Mali, the suspension of all financial and economic transactions between ECOWAS member states and Mali, with the exception of essential consumer goods,” said the communique.
The sanctions specifically excluded the supply of pharmaceutical and medical supplies, including materials needed for the control of Covid-19, petroleum products, and electricity.
ECOWAS instructed the freeze of all assets of Mali in the ECOWAS central bank, a freeze of assets of the Malian state, state enterprises, and parastatals in commercial banks, and the suspension of Mali from all financial assistance and transactions from all financial institutions.
The ECOWAS authority instructed all community institutions to take steps to implement the sanctions with immediate effect.
“The sanctions will be gradually lifted only after an acceptable and agreed chronogram is finalized and monitored satisfactory progress is realized in the implementation of the chronogram for the elections,” the communique added.
ECOWAS explained that the sanctions were necessary to facilitate the process of the return to constitutional rule in Mali, which is necessary for peace, stability, and growth as well as to protect the populations.
Last November, ECOWAS imposed sanctions on the Malian transitional authorities in response to their claim of inability to meet the transition deadline of February 2022 for holding elections, including a travel ban and a freeze on financial assets.
A fresh round of demonstrations took place in Sudan’s capital Khartoum and other cities to demand civilian rule in the North African country…reports Asian Lite News
Groups of protesters set out from Bashdar bus station in the capital city and marched towards the Republican Palace in central Khartoum, reports Xinhua news agency.
In a bid to contain the demonstrations, authorities have closed most of the state’s bridges linking the three major cities of Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri, leaving only Al-Halfaya and Suba bridges open to traffic.
The security bodies have also closed most of the roads around the army’s general command headquarters and those leading to the presidential palace.
On Saturday, the UN launched an intra-Sudanese political process to end the crisis.
Volker Perthes, the UN envoy for Sudan, said in a statement that the political process would seek a “sustainable path forward towards democracy and peace” in the country. It was not immediately clear when discussions might begin.
On January 2, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation amid a political crisis and waves of protests in the country.
Sudan has been suffering a political crisis after the general commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan declared a state of emergency on October 25, 2021 and dissolved the Sovereign Council and the government.
More than 55 people have been killed in protests since the coup.
At least 58 people were killed by armed bandits who attacked villages in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state…reports Asian Lite News
Ibrahim Bello Zauma, a spokesperson for the governor of Zamfara state Bello Matawalle, told Xinhua news agency that the attacks took place on January 5 and 6 in the villages in the Anka and Bukkuyum areas.
“We recorded 36 (deaths) at Bukkuyum and 22 (deaths) in Anka so far,” Zauma said.
He said the state Governor has visited the affected areas to condole with the people over the tragic incident of bandit attacks in the areas.
AU Chief commends release of opposition political figures in Ethiopia
Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat has commended the release of senior opposition political figures detained in Ethiopia…reports Asian Lite News
“The Chairperson welcomes this important gesture of appeasement of the political situation in Ethiopia,” an AU statement read.
The statement came a day after the Ethiopian government on Friday released high-level and senior opposition party members who were in prison over the past years, reports Xinhua news agency.
Among those released include Sibhat Nega, former senior leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a rebel group currently engaged in a deadly conflict with the Ethiopian government.
Nega was detained during the early days of the ongoing conflict that started in November 2020.
According to the chairperson of the pan African bloc, the move will trigger a political process, paving the way for the implementation of a genuinely inclusive national dialogue process for the peaceful and consensual solution to the political and institutional problems facing the federation.
Mahamat further encouraged all the actors to engage in it with courage and determination while assuring them, to this end, of the resolute support of the African Union.
Among the released also include Jawar Mohamed, Eskinder Nega and Bekele Gerba — influential opposition political figures in Ethiopia.
Upon announcing the decision, the Ethiopian government said “the key to lasting unity is dialogue. Ethiopia will make any sacrifices to this end”.
It said Ethiopia’s problems need to be addressed in a comprehensive dialogical approach.
“The government took the initiative to pardon some prisoners for the betterment of the political situation,” the statement from the Ethiopian Government Communications Service read.
It said that a National Dialogue Commission has been set up to deal with contemporary political issues in the country and unresolved discourses in the East African country.
Sudanese police announced on Friday that two protesters were killed and 54 security personnel injured in demonstrations in the capital Khartoum that took place a day ago…reports Asian Lite News
Sixty suspects were arrested during the protests and legal measures were taken against them, the police said in a statement, which blamed the protesters of committing violence against the security forces, reports Xinhua news agency.
New demonstrations were staged on Thursday in the capital city to demand that the authority be handed over to a civilian government.
The protesters attempted to reach the presidential palace, but the security forces used tear gas to disperse them, witnesses said.
Earlier in the day, communications and internet services on mobile phones were disrupted in Khartoum ahead of the planned protests.
The security authorities closed major roads in central Khartoum and deployed military forces around the army’s general command headquarters and the presidential palace.
They also announced the closure of bridges linking the three major cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri ahead of the demonstrations, but Al-Halfaya and Suba bridges were open to traffic.
On January 2, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation amid waves of protests in recent weeks in the country.
Sudan has been suffering a political crisis after the general commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan declared a state of emergency on October 25, 2021 and dissolved the Sovereign Council and the government.
