Beirut, Lebanon | AFP | Syria’s eight-year war has seen the Damascus regime lose control of key oil fields and caused state hydrocarbon revenues to plummet by billions of dollars. Weak production has forced President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to import oil, but Western sanctions on Damascus and Tehran are hampering incoming …
Read More »President Museveni explains why Acholi, Lango war claimants funds were diverted
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Most of the funds initially meant to compensate Acholi and Lango War Debt Claimants and victims of different insurgencies have been diverted to facilitate critical national infrastructure developments, according to President Yoweri Museveni. The president said the government has now prioritized infrastructure developments like roads, …
Read More »Four million Syrian children have only known war since birth: UNICEF
Damascus, Syria | UNICEF | Half of Syria’s children, that’s four million, have grown up only knowing a life of violence, as the war-battered country enters its eighth year of conflict, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday. “Every eight-year-old in Syria has been growing up amidst danger, …
Read More »Kwoyelo denies three counts of war crimes
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Thomas Kwoyelo, the former operations commander of the notorious rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army-LRA has denied the first three counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kwoyelo was on Monday formally charged by the International Crimes Division of the High Court for …
Read More »Ethiopia lawmakers to appoint new president: state media
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopian lawmakers on Thursday will meet to appoint a new president, a largely ceremonial post in the Horn of Africa nation, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported. A session involving both houses of parliament is expected to hear and formally accept the resignation …
Read More »Sierra Leone cut down by war and Ebola
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | The West African nation of Sierra Leone, among the world’s poorest countries despite significant mineral wealth, has been scarred by a brutal civil war and the deadly Ebola virus. Here is some background as Freetown prepares to hold a delayed presidential runoff on Saturday to …
Read More »COMMENT: South Sudan’s wars
SOUTH SUDAN: The revitalisation process can restore the tainted credibility of key players if they avoid previous mistakes. COMMENT | Duop Chak Wuol | Countries are created in line with international treaties and norms, and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the deciding factor for any organised society …
Read More »Dutch-Ethiopian man gets life for ‘Red Terror’ war crimes
The Hague, NETHERLANDS | AFP | A Dutch-Ethiopian man was sentenced to life in jail on Friday after Dutch judges found him guilty of war crimes committed during Ethiopia’s bloody purges in the late 1970s, a period known as the “Red Terror”. Eshetu Alemu, 63, was “guilty of war crimes …
Read More »War crimes judges to award child soldiers compensation
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | International war crimes judges will hand down on Friday landmark reparations to former child soldiers conscripted into a Congolese militia about 15 years ago, who were left brutalised and stigmatised by their horrific experiences. Warlord Thomas Lubanga, 56, was found guilty in 2012 at the …
Read More »Full text of N. Korean leader’s message to Trump
Seoul, South Korea | AFP | North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un Friday warned he would make US President Donald Trump “pay dearly” for threatening the destruction of his country at the United Nations. Here is the full text of his statement as published by the official KCNA news agency: “The speech …
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