Day: September 6, 2021

Tanzania suspended on Sunday another newspaper accused of false stories even though President Samia Suluhu Hassan had pledged to uphold media freedoms quashed by her predecessor.

Raia Mwema, a leading Swahili-language weekly, was suspended for 30 days from Monday, for “repeatedly publishing false information and deliberate incitement,” Gerson Msigwa, the government’s chief spokesperson, said in a statement.

Msigwa cited three recent stories, including one about a gunman who killed four people in a rampage through a diplomatic quarter of Tanzania’s main city Dar es Salaam.

The article linked the gunman to ruling party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the statement read, adding that the article violated a 2016 media law. The newspaper’s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, the government suspended the Uhuru newspaper, owned by the CCM party, for publishing what it called a false story saying Hassan would not vie for office in 2025. That was the first newspaper suspension in Hassan’s tenure.

The CCM said after the suspension that Uhuru’s board had already suspended three top managers, including the CEO, over the story, and was investigating why the story was published.

Hassan took office in March following the death of predecessor John Magufuli, who was Africa’s most prominent COVID-19 sceptic and banned several newspapers during his six-year rule.

Within weeks of taking office, Hassan called for all the outlets banned by Magufuli to be allowed to reopen immediately.

Source: Voice of America

Somalia’s prime minister suspended the intelligence chief on Monday, prompting a public rebuke from the president and highlighting growing divisions at the heart of the political elite.

Analysts said the suspension – triggered by a dispute over investigations into an unsolved murder – pointed to a deeper power struggle that could further destabilize a country already riven by militant attacks and clan rivalries.

Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble said he had told Fahad Yasin, the director of Somalia’s National Intelligence Service Agency (NISA), to step aside for failing to deliver a report on the murder of one of the agency’s agents.

Soon after, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed issued his own statement calling the prime minister’s move unconstitutional. “(Yasin) should continue being the director of NISA,” the president said.

Somalia’s police chief called an emergency security meeting on Monday, officers told Reuters on condition of anonymity without going into further details.

“This shows the rift between the president and the prime minister is fully in the open – something that had been bubbling beneath the surface for some time,” Mahmood Omar, Somalia analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Reuters.

“It could result in another security crisis as the president is telling Roble there are some clear red lines to what he will accept, while Roble interprets his authority differently. The danger is either side, … will try to impose their will on the other.”

‘Serious divisions’

The immediate cause for the dispute – the murder of the young female agent, Ikran Tahlil Farah, who worked in the cybersecurity department and went missing in late June – has been a highly contentious issue.

The government last week blamed the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab for her death, prompting scores of angry posts on social media from people who said the agency itself had been involved. Al-Shabaab took the unusual step of denying any involvement.

“This is a very serious issue,” said Rashid Abdi, a Nairobi-based independent analyst.

“It will most likely sow serious divisions within the security services and result in the type of violence we saw in April between the fragmented security forces.”

In April, factions of the security forces seized positions in the capital, angered by moves to extend the president’s four-year term by another two years, which the opposition said was part of a power grab.

That confrontation was resolved when the president put the prime minister in charge of security and organizing delayed indirect elections.

Voting for lawmakers by elders had been due to be completed this week, with the election of a speaker and swearing in of members of parliament happening next week – in time for them to pick a president on Oct. 10.

But in a separate development on Monday, voting for members of the lower house of parliament was rescheduled to late November, causing a further delay to the whole process.

Source: Voice of America

A Guinean army unit seized control of the country Sunday and announced it had deposed President Alpha Conde. The soldiers expressed frustration over widespread poverty and corruption in Guinea.

After Conde’s first win in 2010, citizens hoped he would bring stability to Guinea, which had suffered decades of rampant corruption.

It was the country’s first democratic election since gaining independence from France in 1958.

But critics say Conde’s presidency has only increased poverty, despite the country’s immense supply of mineral riches.

Tensions peaked last year when the 83-year-old president changed the constitution to allow himself to seek a third term. After he won, violent demonstrations erupted across the country.

David Zoumenou is a senior research consultant with the Institute of Security Studies in Dakar and Pretoria.

“That really created heavy tension. You have civil society organizations, you have other political forces, contesting his decision, contesting his elections,” Zoumenou said. “But the military was on his side, able to quell the demands of the people. So the ground was almost leveled for political instability to lead to what we are observing now in Guinea.”

On Sunday, the dissenters within Conde’s military criticized his actions and said they were taking matters into their own hands. They said a curfew would be imposed and the borders would be shut.

While many civilians were seen celebrating the coup, international actors, including the U.S., France and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the seizure of power.

Political analysts worry the events are representative of a larger trend. In recent years countries throughout West Africa have witnessed a surge in unconstitutional third-term bids as well as a rise in coups.

Mali, for example, has been rattled by two coups in the last year, Zoumenou notes.

“All that is due to the lack of commitment of leaders to democratic principles,” Zoumenou said. “So if the governance is not adequately rooted in the express will of the people, unfortunately we have to continue to deal with military intrusion.”

Zoumenou said such interventions are hardly conducive to a healthy democracy.

Gilles Yabi is a political analyst and the founder of West Africa Citizen Think Tank.

He says it gives the impression of a worrying political trajectory with the possibility of a return of military coups.

But, Yabi said it’s important to note that Mali and Guinea were already in crisis mode – other West African countries, particularly those who have stable democracies, won’t necessarily follow the same path.

Source: Voice of America

Sudan’s interior ministry said on Monday that more than 70 boxes of weapons seized by authorities had turned out to be part of a legal cargo imported by a licensed arms trader.

Sudanese authorities had confiscated the weapons after they arrived by air from neighboring Ethiopia on suspicion that were destined for use in “crimes against the state,” state news agency SUNA reported.

The boxes included night-vision goggles and arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines commercial flight on Saturday night, SUNA reported.

On Monday, Sudan’s interior ministry said the shipment, which included 290 rifles and belonged to a licensed trader, Wael Shams Eldin, had been checked and found to be legitimate.

Ethiopian Airlines said the weapons were hunting guns that were part of a verified shipment.

Tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia have been running high due to a spillover of the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and Ethiopia’s construction of a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile.

The Tigray conflict has sent tens of thousands of refugees into eastern Sudan and triggered military skirmishes in an area of contested farmland along the border between the two countries.

Source: Voice of America