Category: Foreign

South Africa has temporarily closed its embassy in Nigeria following the ongoing xenophobic crisis, Foreign Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor told Reuters.
She said South Africa was in constant contact with Nigerian authorities to try to restore calm, adding there is no provision in local law for compensation for damage caused in the attacks.
“There is an Afrophobia we are sensing that exists, there is resentment and we need to address that,” Pandor said on the sidelines of a continental economic conference in Cape Town.

South Africa’s Foreign Minister acknowledged on Thursday that prejudice against people from other African countries was one of the causes behind deadly attacks on foreign-owned businesses, a day after Pretoria was forced to shut its embassy in Nigeria over threats of retaliatory violence.

At least five Africans have been killed in attacks on foreigners in South Africa this week.

On Wednesday South African companies MTN, and Shoprite closed stores in Nigeria after retaliatory attacks in one of the store.

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said the government decided to temporarily close the embassy in Nigeria for security reasons after a protest march was planned there and threats of violence were received.

In an interview on the sidelines of a continental economic conference in Cape Town, Pandor said South Africa was in constant contact with Nigerian authorities and was also working to restore calm in areas affected by the violence.

“There is an Afrophobia we are sensing that exists, there is resentment and we need to address that,” Pandor said.

“There is a targeting of Africans from other parts of Africa, we can’t deny that. But, there is also criminality … because a lot of this is accompanied by theft,” she said, describing the attacks as a complex phenomenon whose root causes were not easy to define.

The violence in South Africa has overshadowed the conference of the World Economic Forum in Cape Town. Nigeria announced on Wednesday it would boycott the meeting.

The withdrawal from the summit of Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who was scheduled to address a panel on universal energy access on Thursday, has cast a cloud over initiatives to boost intra-African trade.

Botswana’s Shumba Energy says it has formed a joint venture with two Chinese companies to build a coal-to-liquids plant that will cost between $1.5 billion and $2 billion

The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mashale Phumaphi, told Reuters in Gaborone that the coal-to-liquids plant was expected to produce 20,000 barrels of diesel and 5,000 barrels of gasoline per day when completed.

Botswana has abundant coal reserves of around 212 billion tonnes but currently imports all its fuel needs of 1.2 billion litres per annum.

Shumba has over the last few years progressed from being an exploration company to an energy development company.

It sits on over 4.5 billion tonnes of thermal coal reserves in Botswana’s eastern coal fields.

Shumba will hold an 80 per cent stake in the joint venture, CoPet, with partners PowerChina International Group, part of state-owned Chinese firm PowerChina, and Wison Group.

“Our primary objective is import substitution, and to this end we have already had fruitful discussions with the largest fuel retailers in Botswana for off-take,” Phumaphi said.

He said up to 75 per cent of the capital expenditure for the plant could be financed by debt, with Shumba hoping to use its relationship with PowerChina International and the Wison Group to borrow from Chinese lenders.

The coal-to-liquids plant will require 3.2 million tonnes of coal per annum, which will be supplied by Shumba’s Mabesekwa coal mine, currently under development.

Shumba aims to reach financial close on the project in the next two years, with construction taking a further four years.

Greece began moving hundreds of asylum-seekers on Monday from a camp on the island of Lesbos that holds around four times the number of people it was built for.

More than 11,000 refugees and migrants, most of whom have fled war or poverty in the Middle East, Asia or Africa, are holed up at Moria in Europe’s biggest migrant camp.

Some 635 people, mostly families, boarded a passenger ship on Monday for facilities in northern Greece and more were due to leave later in the day.

Moving asylum-seekers from island camps to the mainland is part of government measures announced on Aug. 31 to deal with the rising numbers.

All of Greece’s five formal island camps are over capacity.

Moria, which is a disused military base, has been criticised by humanitarian organisations for its squalid living conditions.

It currently holds the highest number of people in three years and violence is not uncommon.

An Afghan boy was killed in a fight there last month and women have told aid groups they often feel unsafe.

Greece is Europe’s main gateway for Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi asylum-seekers, and accounts for more than half of the 56,000 migrants, who have landed on the Mediterranean’s northern shore this year.

The numbers are small compared to the nearly one million people, who fled to northern Europe through Greece in 2015, as a deal between the EU and Ankara in March 2016 all but cut off the flow.

But they have still piled pressure on Greek facilities.

About 7,000 people landed on Greece’s shores in August, the highest number since the deal was signed.

Last Thursday alone, more than a dozen boats arrived with around 600 migrants, prompting the government’s Council for Foreign Affairs and Defence to hold an emergency session.

To curb the influx, Greece also plans to tighten its border controls and speed up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers.

Britain’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday says it is due to return from recess with lawmakers bracing for a showdown that can lead to a snap election.

A group of lawmakers were expected to put forward legislation in a fresh bid to stop a no-deal Brexit after Johnson vowed that Britain would leave the EU on Oct. 31.

If successful, the bill would force the prime minister to ask for Brexit to be delayed until Jan. 31, unless lawmakers approved a new deal or vote in favour of a no-deal Brexit by Oct. 19.

However, government sources said Johnson would request to schedule a general election for Oct. 14, if the lawmakers’ move was successful.

Johnson did his best on Monday to dampen speculation about fresh elections, however, with protesters threatening to drown him out in Downing Street.

Johnson said: “I don’t want an election, you don’t want an election.”

Earlier, Johnson had called an unscheduled cabinet meeting in the face of a potential revolt from some of his own Conservative members of parliament.

Former Chancellor Philip Hammond told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he thought “there will be enough people, to get this over the line today.

“He called it “rank hypocrisy” that Downing Street had threatened rebel lawmakers with expulsion and deselection.

He warned of the “fight of a lifetime” if officials attempt to prevent him from standing at the next general election as a Conservative candidate.

Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd urged the government to think carefully about taking such a dramatic step in response to the threat of expulsion and deselection. ain

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), on Monday released the final list of candidates vying for the centre-left party’s leadership, confirming a crowded field of eight pairs, along with a number of individual candidates.

Interim party leader, Manuela Schwesig, acknowledged the criticism that there were too many applicants for the SPD’s top job, saying that those wanting to be party leader have to show seriousness.

The most high-profile candidate is Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who would be campaigning alongside Klara Geywitz, a member of the state parliament of Brandenburg.

The SPD is in turmoil after a series of election losses, most recently on Sunday in the state of Saxony, where the party received only 7.7 per cent of the vote.

This led to the resignation of the former leader, Andrea Nahles, after SPD took a huge hit in European elections in May.

SPD General Secretary, Lars Klingbeil, said he expected the candidates to discuss the main issues the country was expected to face in the future as they kick-off their campaigns in the coming weeks.

This, he said, should be the focus of SPD, rather than continuing debates on whether the party should remain in a ruling coalition with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

“The candidates will travel across the country for a series of 23 regional conferences where they will present their ideas and plans.

“The first event will take place on Wednesday in the western city Saarbruecken.

“The new leaders are expected to be announced on Oct. 26, after the party members have cast their votes. The new leaders will officially be introduced in December, “ Klingbeil said.

Other candidates include: Norbert Walter-Borjans, a former Finance Minister in the state of North Rhine, Westphalia, along with lawmaker Saskia Esken, and Lower Saxony Interior Minister, Boris Pistorius, with Saxony Integration Minister, Petra Koepping.

Meanwhile, Ralf Stegner, deputy SPD leader, and Gesine Schwan, Head of the party’s basic values committee, had also entered the race, as well as Minister of State for Europe,Michael Roth, alongside NRW member of parliament, Christina Kampmann.

Satirist Jan-Boehmermann had also applied to run, but said he had not been able to meet the conditions in time.

In a video released earlier, he said his team was looking into whether he could take legal steps to ensure his candidacy was accepted after all.(dpa/NAN)

(FLOWERBUDNEWS)  Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has called on Nigerian Government and the international community to pay special attention to the lingering violence in the north-central.

“The situation in the north-central appears to be spreading to other parts of the country. There is need for urgent actions to end the violence which is claiming thousands of lives,” Callamard said at a press conference on Monday in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), quotes the UN official as saying that she called the conference to share her findings on “arbitrary deprivations” in the country..

“According to my preliminary findings, Nigeria is a pressure cooker of internal conflicts with issues of poverty and climate change adding to the crisis.

“If the crisis in central Nigeria is ignored, its ripple effects will spread through the-sub region given Nigeria’s important role in the continent. If that happens, the major victim will be the vulnerable populations in the country.”

She also called for more attention to the north-east where victims of violence could share their experiences, and stressed the need to bring perpetrators to book to make them account for the violations.

She also emphasised the need to involve the victims in the search for solutions, and particularly called for the creation of a safe space where victims could share and talk about what happened to them.

According to her, the crimes committed in the northeast are not just against the victims and the Nigerian state.

“The crimes are against humanity; accountability must be delivered and the people must be involved and present in those processes.

“The suspected perpetrators – whether they are Boko Haram, other split groups or even security agencies – must also be held accountable,” Callamard added.

She called for trust in the Justice sector, saying that distrust could lead to the proliferation of vigilante groups and cases of jungle justice in the country

Callamard urged government to ensure access to justice for victims of human rights violation, and expressed happiness at the positive signs in the north-east demonstrated by the decrease in the number of killings over the last years.

“I have found some positive signs; for instance, in the north-east, the number of allegations of arbitrary killings or death in custody has decreased over the last two years.

“This evolution needs to be thoroughly assessed to determine the factors and actors that allowed for that positive development.”

She said that Nigeria was currently being confronted by regional and global pressures, saying that the situation could be blamed on population explosion, increased number of people living in poverty, climate change, desertification and the increased proliferation of weapons.

The UN official said that the step taken by the government to consider ranching and increased security in the country was a welcome development.

“Ranching is a long term measure but steps must be taken now and a great deal of discussions and consultations must take place.

“Due to the level of distrust and lack of confidence, more efforts must be placed on finding long-term solutions. There is need for a roadmap that must develop meaningful accountability.

“There must also be a real plan toward ending the excesses of the security agencies,” she said.

She also called for more attention to the herders/farmers conflicts to check its spread, urging government to also
look for a shorter immediate solution to the humanitarian crisis enveloping some parts of the country. (NAN)

(FLOWERBUDNEWS)  Thousands of Hong Kong university and school students swapped classes for demonstrations on Monday the latest act of defiance in an anti-government movement that has plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its biggest political crisis in decades.

The boycott follows a weekend marred by some of the worst violence since unrest escalated more than three months ago, with protesters burning barricades and throwing petrol bombs, and police retaliating with water cannon, tear gas and batons.

Thousands of students gathered on the hilltop campus of Chinese University under leaden skies, taking turns to make speeches from a stage with a black backdrop embossed with “Students in Unity Boycott for our City”.

They are seeking greater democracy for the former British colony which returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that guarantees wide-ranging autonomy, including the right to protest and an independent judiciary.

There fear those freedoms are being slowly eroded by Communist Party rulers in Beijing, a charge China denies.

“I come here just to tell others that even after summer holidays end we are not back to our normal life, we should continue to fight for Hong Kong,” said one 19-year old student who asked to be identified as just Chan.

“These protests awaken me to care more about the society and care for the voiceless.”

On the first day of the new school year, secondary students were seen singing, chanting and forming human chains, some wearing hard hats and masks. Many primary schools were closed because of a typhoon warning.

China accuses Western countries of egging on the protests. It says Hong Kong is its own internal affair.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated Beijing’s support for Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam.

Zimbabwean civil servants have on Wednesday, accepted a 76 per cent salary adjustment offered by the government with effect from Aug. 1.

The state media reported that negotiations for higher wages are still on.

The Herald newspaper reported that the least-paid worker will now earn 1,023 Zimbabwean dollars (about 102 U.S. dollars or 37,000 naira) per month, up from 582 Zimbabwean dollars per month.

The decision to accept the government offer followed a meeting between the civil servants’ umbrella representative body, the Apex Council, and government representatives.

The civil servants umbrella body was led by the Secretary for Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare Simon Masanga at a National Joint Negotiating Council meeting on Tuesday.

Apex Council chairperson Cecilia Alexander said that a cost of living adjustment of the total package would be implemented from beginning of August.

Alexander said they had provisionally agreed to the offer while they continued with negotiations.

“It must be reiterated that this is a provisional agreement meant first and foremost to allow the government to cushion its impoverished civil servants.

“Our substantive demand of 4,750 dollars, which is benchmarked against the interbank rate, still stands and negotiations still continue towards that end,” she said.

The government had offered the 76 per cent cost of living adjustment which the Apex Council neither rejected nor accepted.

The council, however, went back to consult with its members and on Tuesday gave the feedback that sealed the deal.

However, teachers on Monday rejected the offer, insisting that the employer paid them nothing more than 4,600 Zimbabwe dollars per month, which the government said it could not afford.