News From Africa Somalia’s al-Shabab journalist Hassan Hanafi sentenced to death
UN: Tens of thousands killed in South Sudan war
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Somali military court has sentenced to death a former journalist who helped al-Shabab kill five fellow reporters. Hassan Hanafi assisted the Islamist militant group by indentifying possible targets amongst journalists between 2007 and 2011. He joined its armed wing after working for Radio Andalus, al-Shabab’s mouthpiece in Somalia. More than 25 journalists have been murdered in Somalia since 2007, the Committee to Protect Journalists says. While he was working for al-Shabab, Hanafi would call up journalists and threaten them with death if they refused to join the militant group, the BBC Somali’s Mohammud Ali says. The court in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, ruled that he should be executed by firing squad.
MH370 search: ‘High possibility’ debris is from same plane model
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alaysia’s transport minister has said there is a “high possibility” that debris found in Mozambique came from a Boeing 777, the same model as missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Australia said the location was consistent with models of where ocean drifts could carry debris. The 1m-long (3.3ft) piece of metal was found on a sandbank at the weekend. MH370 disappeared in March 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 239 passengers. Despite an extensive deep water search, led by Australia, the plane and all its passengers remain missing. Malaysia’s transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Twitter that based on early reports, there was a “high possibility debris found in Mozambique belongs to a B777”. But he said: “I urge everyone to avoid undue speculation as we are not able to conclude that the debris belongs to MH370 at this time.”
Conflicted: The Fight over Congo’s Minerals
The war erupted amid a power struggle between President Kiir and his sacked deputy [Goran Tomasevic [Reuters]
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ens of thousands of people have been killed in South Sudan’s two-year civil war, the UN said, putting the death toll much higher than estimates by aid groups that operate in the country. An unnamed UN official told news agencies that 50,000 have died in the conflict, which is a fivefold increase of the toll previously reported by humanitarian agencies. Fighting is still ongoing, despite a peace agreement between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar signed in August last year. The two men’s power struggle
started in the December 2013 and prompted a cycle of retaliatory killings along ethnic lines between Kiir’s Dinka and Machar’s Nuer people. UN spokesperson Ariane Quentier in Juba told Al Jazeera that “tens thousands” have been killed in the war but that the exact number is difficult to verify. “The country has hardly any roads and besides that moving around is very dangerous. It is impossible for anyone in or outside the country to have exact numbers,” she said. The battle for control of South Sudan has repeatedly pushed the
country to the brink of famine, with millions of people dependent on the UN and aid agencies. In January both sides of the conflict agreed to share positions in a transitional government, and in February Kiir reappointed Machar to his former post as vice president. But despite the reconciliatory rhetoric there have been multiple clashes in the past weeks, according to UN spokesperson Ariane Quentier. Last month the United Nations stated that South Sudan’s warring parties are still killing, abducting and displacing civilians and destroying property.
he Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the least developed countries in the world. Yet it is also home to $24tn worth of untapped mineral reserves. In the eastern hills of the country, the “three Ts” - tantalum, tungsten and tin - are mined by hand, eventually making their way into electronic devices across the world. For a decade, advocacy groups in the US and Europe pressured technology companies to pay attention to violencelinked “conflict minerals” in their products. They successfully lobbied to include a resolution called Section 1502 in 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act, requiring all publicly traded companies to track whether they are receiving minerals from Congo. Soon after the law was passed, the mineral trade in eastern Congo came to a standstill. Buyers took their business elsewhere. Fault Lines travels to the region to hear from miners who have been struggling to make ends meet and questions advocacy groups that say Dodd-Frank 1502 has been a success. With evidence of fraud and smuggling, how can some of the biggest brands in the technology industry take credit for reducing violence and claim to be sourcing “conflict-free”?
LRA rebels ‘seize children’ in Central African Republic
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he Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel force has abducted 217 people since January in the Central African Republic (CAR), a campaign group says. This is nearly double the number of abductions carried out by the LRA in 2015, LRA Crisis Tracker added. The abductees, including 54 children, may have been forced to become soldiers or sex slaves, it said. The LRA appear to be trying to “replenish” its forces because of military setbacks, the group added. It has been hit by a spate of defections, and arrests since foreign forces began pursuing it in 2011. The US deployed 100 special forces to support thousands of African troops searching for LRA commanders. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for its leader, Joseph Kony, to stand trial for war crimes. In December, his former bodyguard, George Okot, defected. The LRA had lost a “large chunk of its fighting force”, and seemed to be trying to rebuild its force through abductions, said Sean
LRA leader Joseph Kony is wanted for war crimes Poole of the Invisible Children campaign group, which is part of LRA Crisis Tracker. The spike in abductions in the first three months of this year signalled a “huge change
in the modus operandi” of the LRA, he told the BBC’s Newsday programme. The LRA was formed in northern Uganda nearly three decades ago, but retreated to CAR
and other countries as it came under military pressure. LRA Crisis Tracker says it is responsible for more than 100,000 deaths, and a similar number of abductions.