Africa

Lecturer goes to jail for insulting President Museveni in poem

Published

4 years ago

July 8, 2019

Eric

Ugandan feminist and lecturer, Stella Nyanzi has been imprisoned over a poem about ‘Vagina’ she wrote and shared on Facebook in September.

The Ugandan feminist, in the poem, used a graphic description of the birth of the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and his mother’s private part to criticise his “oppression, suppression and repression” in the country.

Stella, who was arraigned before Buganda Road Court, was charged with “cyber harassment and offensive communication”.

She was accused of intending to disturb the peace and privacy of President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his mother, the late Esteeri.

The poem she wrote, read:

Yoweri, they say it was your birthday yesterday.

How bitterly sad a day!

I wish the smelly and itchy cream-coloured candida festering in Esiteri’s cunt had suffocated you to death during birth.

Suffocated you just like you are suffocating us with oppression, suppression and repression!

Yoweri, they say it was your birthday yesterday. How painfully ugly a day!

I wish the lice-filled bush of dirty pubic hair overgrown all over Esiteri’s unwashed chuchu had strangled you at birth.

Strangled you just like the long tentacles of corruption you sowed and watered into our bleeding economy.

Yoweri, they say it was your birthday yesterday.

How nauseatingly disgusting a day!

I wish the acidic pus flooding Esiteri’s cursed vaginal canal had burnt up your unborn fetus.

Burnt you up as badly as you have corroded all morality and professionalism out of our public institutions in Uganda.

Yoweri, they say it was your birthday yesterday.

How horrifically cancerous a day!

I wish the infectious dirty-brown discharge flooding Esiteri’s loose pussy had drowned you to death.

Drowned you as vilely as you have sank and murdered the dreams and aspirations of millions of youths who languish in the deep sea of massive unemployment and under-employment in Uganda.

Yoweri, they say it was your birthday yesterday.

How traumatically wasted a day!

I wish the poisoned uterus sitting just above Esiteri’s dry clitoris had prematurely miscarried a thing to be cast upon a manure pit.

Prematurely miscarried just like you prematurely aborted any semblance of democracy, good governance and rule of law.

Yoweri, they say it was your birthday yesterday!

How morbidly grave a day!

I wish that Esiteri’s cursed genitals had pushed out a monstrously greenish-bluish still-birth.

You should have died at birth, you dirty delinquent dictator…

You should have died in birth, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

She concluded by saying: “If you want to beat me for my heartfelt birthday poem, come and find me at my home.

“Ask the bodabodamen to direct you to Mama Stella’s house with a red gate. I refuse to be gagged!

The academic had stated that she has no case to answer and pushed for her immediate release, but the judgment wasn’t in her favour. Her request for the court to summon 20 defence witnesses, including President Yoweri Museveni himself was also turned down.

Nyanzi is battling three other legal cases among which is “cyber harassment and offensive communication” trial for a poem calling the President a “pair of buttocks,” which she was granted bail.

She is also in dispute with her former employer Makerere University, which dismissed her for staging a naked protest, and a case disputing her inclusion on Uganda’s “no-fly” list initiated by her critical Facebook commentary.

Nyanzi is still being held at Luzira prison where she has been since November 2018.

Africa

UN Warns of ‘Catastrophe’ As Sudan War Rages On

Published

4 weeks ago

May 2, 2023

Eric

Fierce fighting between rival generals raged on in Sudan Tuesday despite the latest truce, as warnings multiplied of the potential for a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Bloodshed has gripped Sudan since April 15 when tensions erupted into armed exchanges between regular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy-turned-rival, Mohamed Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded as air strikes and artillery exchanges have gripped swathes of greater Khartoum sparking the exodus of thousands of Sudanese to neighbouring countries.

Many more cannot afford the arduous journey to Sudan’s borders, and have been forced to hole up inside the city of five million people with dwindling supplies of food, water and electricity.

“We are hearing some sporadic gunfire, the roaring of a warplane and the anti-aircraft fire at it,” said one resident of south Khartoum.

In a Monday briefing, the top United Nations aid official in Sudan, Abdou Dieng, warned that the situation was turning into “a full-blown catastrophe”.

Kenyan President William Ruto said the conflict had reached “catastrophic levels” with the warring generals declining “to heed the calls by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and the international community to cease fire.”

In a virtual meeting with senior UN officials, Ruto said it was imperative to find ways to provide humanitarian relief “with or without a ceasefire”.

Burhan and Daglo, who fell out after carrying out a 2021 military coup which derailed Sudan’s transition to elective civilian rule, have flouted multiple ceasefires, the latest a 72-hour extension agreed late on Sunday.

Foreign governments have scrambled to evacuate their citizens. Over the past 10 days, thousands of foreigners have been brought to safety by air or sea in operations that are now winding down.

Russia’s armed forces said on Tuesday they were evacuating more than 200 people from Sudan on four military transport planes.

Nearly 500 people arrived in the Saudi port of Jeddah on Monday aboard two vessels, one a US Navy ship, the other Saudi.

– Relief trickles in –

Top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths arrived in Nairobi on Monday on a mission to find ways to bring relief to the millions of civilians trapped inside Sudan.

“The situation unfolding there (in Sudan) since April 15 is catastrophic,” he said on Twitter.

Sudan’s turmoil has seen hospitals shelled, humanitarian facilities looted and foreign aid groups forced to suspend most of their operations.

At least 528 have been killed and some 4,600 wounded in the violence, according to the health ministry.

The United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was bracing for “the possibility that over 800,000 people may flee the fighting in Sudan for neighbouring countries”.

The World Health Organization warned that the fighting was pushing Sudan’s already ailing health sector toward “disaster” with only 16 percent of health facilities in Khartoum still functioning.

The WHO said that it had delivered six containers of medical equipment to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, including supplies for treating trauma injuries and severe acute malnutrition. It had also distributed scarce fuel to hospitals which rely on generators for power.

– Darfur chaos –

Beyond Khartoum, lawlessness has engulfed the West Darfur state capital, El Geneina, where at least 96 people have been reported killed since the start of the fighting, according to UN figures.

More than 330,000 people have been displaced, over 70 percent of them in West and South Darfur states, according to the International Organization for Migration.

“The health system has completely collapsed in Geneina,” the doctors’ union said, adding that looting of clinics and camps for the displaced had forced several agencies to carry out “emergency evacuations” for their teams.

On Friday, Doctors Without Borders said the fighting had forced it to halt “almost all activities in West Darfur”.

The Darfur region is still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003 when then hardline president Omar al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, against ethnic-minority rebels.

The scorched-earth campaign left at least 300,000 people dead and close to 2.5 million displaced, according to UN figures.

The Janjaweed — which rights groups have accused of atrocities in Darfur — later evolved into the RSF, which was formally created in 2013.

AFP

Africa

Violence Erupts in Sudan over Struggle for Power

Published

1 month ago

April 17, 2023

Eric

The power struggle between two generals in Sudan and its associated violence escalated dramatically on Saturday and Sunday, with at least dozens of civilians and soldiers killed.

It remains unclear who has the upper hand in the power struggle, according to media reports, which said fighting around the Sudanese army’s general command in the capital Khartoum had intensified.

At least 83 people have died and 1,126 others have been injured in heavy fighting in Sudan between the army and the influential paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, the World Health Organisation said on Sunday.

A Sudanese medical organisation said on Sunday that so far at least 56 civilians and dozens of soldiers had been killed.

According to WHO, the hospitals in Khartoum, which is home to around six million people, have been overwhelmed.

Among those killed on Saturday were three employees of the UN World Food Programme, which announced on Sunday that it had stopped its aid mission due to the killings.

Two other WFP employees were injured in the clashes between the army and paramilitaries.

WFP executive director Cindy McCain said the staff had been delivering relief supplies to people in the village of Kabkabiya in North Darfur.

She called for “immediate steps” to ensure the safety of other WFP staff in Sudan.

The events triggered worldwide fears of a potential civil war in the state with about 46 million inhabitants and prompted calls from the international community for an immediate ceasefire.

As the situation escalated, two important regional organisations convened emergency meetings on Sunday. The Peace and Security Council of the African Union consulted on Sunday afternoon on the “worrying” situation in Sudan. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in East Africa also convened an extraordinary summit of heads of state and government.

The IGAD wants to discuss how best to “de-escalate the situation in Sudan and restore calm for the good of the country,” executive secretary Workneh Gebeyehu said on Twitter.

The clashes follow tension between Sudan’s de facto president and commander-in-chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemedti, the leader of the RSF.

The RSF and the military have effectively held power in the country since the fall of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

In the course of the delayed transition to a civilian government, the RSF were to be integrated into the armed forces, which led to a rift between the allies. RSF leader Daglo accused al-Burhan of clinging to power.

Fighting broke out unexpectedly on Saturday morning in Khartoum.

The RSF claimed Sudanese soldiers had entered their headquarters in the south of the city.

RSF forces attacked the airport in the north of the city and the presidential palace.

The army used fighter planes and tanks.

On Sunday, fighting continued to concentrate on the nearby army headquarters and the state radio building.

Both sides repeatedly reported combat successes that contradicted each other.

The claims of both sides could not be independently confirmed.

Fighting was also reported in other parts of the country such as Darfur and North Kordofan provinces.

Heavy fighting was also reported in the town of Merowe in the north of the country.

As the situation escalates, the UN Security Council called on all parties to the conflict to stop the fighting and start talks to end the crisis.

Humanitarian workers must also be given safe access and UN staff must be protected from attacks; the UN’s most powerful body demanded on Sunday.

The statement stressed the goal of the unity, sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of the republic of Sudan.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock demanded a ceasefire.

The Punch

Africa

South Africa: Gunmen Attack Birthday Party, Kill Host, Eight Others

Published

4 months ago

January 30, 2023

Eric

Gunmen opened fire on a group of people celebrating a birthday at the weekend in a township in South Africa, killing eight and wounding three others, police said on Monday.

The birthday celebrant was among those gunned down in the mass shooting in the southern port city of Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth.

“The owner of the house was celebrating his birthday when two unknown gunmen entered the yard” on Sunday evening “and started shooting at the guests,” police said in a statement.

The gunmen “randomly shot at guests,” police said, adding “eight people died while three others are still fighting for their lives in hospital. The homeowner is among the deceased”.

The motive of the attack is yet unknown.

Nomthetheleli Mene, the provincial police chief for the Eastern Cape province, condemned the killings as “a blatant disregard for human life”.

An investigation has been launched into the attack and police said a manhunt for the perpetrators was underway.

Shootings are common in South Africa, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates, fuelled by gang violence and alcohol.

South Africa last year saw string of shootings that killed nearly two dozen at separate bars in working class suburbs in Johannesburg and in the eastern city of Pietermaritzburg.

Police Minister Bheki Cele, the national police commissioner Fannie Masemola, and crime experts were scheduled to visit the scene of the attack later Monday morning.

AFP