Djibouti News Gazette

Mogadishu (SONNA)-Four children were confirmed dead after an old building next to their residence, where they were sleeping, collapsed in Mogadishu’s Shangani district overnight , SONNA reported Saturday.

District Commissioner, Aweys Amudi expressed sorrow over deadly incident that happened in his district and called poor families living inside such buildings or nearby to alert district authorities about possible threats.

The Parents said that they could not afford to hire better house and demanded support for the rest of the family at moment.

Source: Somali National News Agency

Mogadishu (SONNA)-On Friday, at Villa Somalia’s Mosque, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud delivered a speech emphasizing his commitment to building a self-sufficient government in Somalia. He stated that he has reached the highest position that a Somali man can reach and that his only goal in life is to see Somalia with a self-sufficient government.

He also mentioned that he has no other material hope and that there is no age or rank left for him.

The president called on the Somali people to support him in building the government and stressed the importance of self-reliance. He stated that no one will come to build a government for them and that they have the support of the world in their fight against al-Shabaab.

In addition, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud stated that his administration has taken tough measures to fight corruption and that the government will soon put in place a national plan to protect public revenue.

This speech raised several questions. What specific steps is the president taking to build a self-sufficient government? How can the Somali people support him in this endeavor? What role does the world play in supporting Somalia’s fight against al-Shabaab?

Overall, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s speech at Villa Somalia’s Mosque on Friday showed his dedication to building a strong and self-sufficient government in Somalia. His call for support from the Somali people, emphasis on self-reliance, fighting against Al-Shabaab and commitment to tackling corruption demonstrate his commitment to achieving this goal.

Source: Somali National News Agency

A workshop organized by the Defyhatenow Civic Watch in Douala on May 4 2023 served as an opportunity to tell online content creators to consider the effects of their content first before publication.

Facilitators speaking during the workshop said many media professionals have found themselves propagating hate speech, at times without knowing because they didn’t take time to fact-check or reflect on the effects.

Kinang Derick Fai, Conflict Research and Administrative Coordinator for Defyhatenow, said the session in Douala was meant to bring media professionals together so that they could talk about responsible use of the social media. “We wanted to look at ourselves eyeball to eyeball and critically examine some of our publications,” he said.

“We wanted to see among ourselves if there was a better way we could produce some of this content in a responsible way without violating the community standards of the different platforms we use,” the coordinator added.

He noted that the Defyhatenow project is organized in collaboration with Meta, which is why they decided to do a study of online platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as well as Twitter and Tik Tok among others. “We wanted to see how these platforms are being used by these different content creators and influencers,” the facilitator indicated.

Participants were encouraged to avoid making publications because they want to please followers or simply because they want to put food on their table. “You must not do it the wrong way,” the media experts were told.

The content creators were urged to be peace builders and persons who use the digital space to build a better society.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

For some time now, users of the MTN mobile telephone network have been expressing dissatisfaction and disappointment as they share their personal experiences as far as money transfers are concerned.

Some of these users say money has “disappeared” many times from their accounts and at others, the amounts sent were not the amounts received and the mobile network’s customer service has been useless as far as solving the problem is concerned.

“I stood there and watched 225,000frs being sent to my phone then later on checking my balance, I saw only 222,000 frs. I was confused. The entire money was sent because I recieved the message. How then and why 3,000frs was deducted by MTN, I cannot understand. I called customer service they picked up and said it must be a problem from the optic fiber they will fix. Till date nothing. It’s been a week now,” Aurel Tsafack, a disappointed MTN user explains.

Users say call credit and data activation is worst. Helen Ngwafor a business woman in Buea says she activates data atleast 3 times a day even after having activated for a month:

“I have the 10,000frs 1GB each day subscription but before 2pm, MTN tells me I exhausted my data for the day so I end up activating another data plan. In less than an hour, a message pops up saying I have consumed 50% of my data already when I’m not even online. The expense is too much. To calculate how much I use a day for data not to talk of a month is a total fraud.”

Aside the grievances shared above, some users express the insecurity around the mobile banking service where consumers have lost hundreds of thousands to scammers who have some how managed to have access to their accounts.

“I was deceived by a short message from MTN to activate a free data bundle offered to me. Once I approved, I realised the next morning that I had been robbed,” Mercy Linjap another user explains.

From horrible network to countless interrupted calls, users say it is invasion of privacy and are irritated.

Users say they expect to recieve their money back as MTN remains the most used network service in Cameroon.

Source: Cameroon News Agency