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A 53-year-old Chinese citizen was arrested on Tuesday by the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) in the Patrice Lumumba district of Ingombota, Luanda, accused of forging work visas and the illegal transfer of valuables.money to outside of the country.
Speaking to Angop today, Wednesday, the national SIC spokesman, chief superintendent Manuel Halawia, said that the arrest was the result of a investigation started last November, culminating in the issuance of a mandate of search and seizure of various materials at the defendant's residence.
According to the source, 18 Chinese citizens' passports were seized within the residence , five of them with fake work visas from supposed Angolan law firms
Angolan, 12 billing blocks, proof of transfers made at the margin of the banking circuit, 119 visa issuing models, and 239 bank deposit vouchers.
The United Nations has warned that millions of children in Ethiopia’s Tigray region remain out of reach, despite an agreement made earlier this month to channel desperately needed humanitarian aid to the northern region where a month of war has killed, wounded and uprooted a large number of people.
“Some 2.3 million children in Tigray, Ethiopia, remain cut off from humanitarian assistance amid continuing violence since the beginning of November,” UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We are extremely concerned that the longer access to them is delayed, the worse their situation will become as supplies of food, including ready-to-use therapeutic food for the treatment of child malnutrition, medicines, water, fuel and other essentials run low,” Fore said.
“Protecting these children, many of whom are refugees and internally displaced, and providing them with humanitarian aid must be a priority,” she added.
The pact reached with Ethiopia and announced by UN officials on December 2 aimed to allow aid workers “unimpeded” access to the government-controlled areas of Tigray, where federal troops have been battling the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced a military operation against forces loyal to the TPLF on November 4.
Abiy, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, has rejected the idea of dialogue with the TPLF leaders, who are on the run but say they continue to fight even after the government claimed seizure of the regional capital, Mekelle.
The war is believed to have killed thousands, sent more than 45,000 refugees into Sudan, displaced many more within Tigray, and worsened suffering in a region where 600,000 people were already dependent on food aid even before the conflict began.
For weeks before the announcement of the deal, the UN and others pleaded for aid access amid reports of food, medicines and other supplies running out.
The deal was expected to allow the first aid to the region of six million people cut off due to the fighting between the federal and Tigray regional governments, each regarding the other as illegal.
But in its statement on Wednesday, UNICEF said the situation remained difficult, calling for “urgent, sustained, unconditional and impartial humanitarian access to all families in need wherever they are”.
“We also urge authorities to allow the free movement of civilians wishing to seek safety elsewhere. This includes those requesting to cross the border to seek international protection.
“Meeting the critical needs of children and women must not be delayed any longer,” the UNICEF statement said.
The UN said some two million people in Tigray need assistance – a doubling from the number before the fighting – and some one million people are displaced.
Food, fuel and cash are in short supply, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), while the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says basic medical equipment is lacking.
The UN also sounded an alarm over severe food shortages being faced by nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees sheltering in Tigray’s camps, requesting “urgent access” to deliver aid.
Eritreans often leave to escape mandatory, indefinite military service and repression or search for better opportunities out of what has long been one of the world’s most isolated countries.
SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
National Fuel Society of Angola (Sonangol) is following with concern some protests held in front of its headquarters building, allegedly staged by ex-workers from the companies with which it maintained a contract for a certain period.
The State oil company’s concern is expressed in its press release, where it denies having direct links with the protesting workers and says that the compensation required by the companies had fully been paid.
According to the company, such rallies are devoid of the legality and are being fuelled by unquestioned individuals.
In document, the Sonangol said that it maintained a contractual relationship, for a fixed period, with some companies, including Angola Offshore Services, HR Services, Comassica and Interserviços.
In 2018, the country's socio-economic situation, the restructuring of the oil sector and the consequent regeneration of Sonangol, forced the company to suspend some services, which led to the termination of contracts with the aforementioned companies.
In accordance with legal rules, Sonangol reported that all legal requirements inherent to the termination of the contractual relationship have been met.
They include communication within the recommended periods and fair compensation.
Likewise, it says, compensation was made to the companies, under the terms of the contracts, and in their turn, they did so to their workers, according to the documents held by the parties involved.
It explained that some employees with the said companies, who worked for Sonangol Distribuidora, under the term of contract, claim to be victims of injustice.
They claim the fact that the oil company has absorbed, in view of given qualifications – the age and performance - a certain number of employees of the said companies.
Sonangol justifies that the integration of those workers meet specific criteria and aimed to fill sensitive functions in certain units. This action is completely independent of the contracts with the mentioned companies and with their respective employees, said the document.
The Angolan health authorities announced Wednesday the report in the last 24 hours of 204 patients recovered from Covid-19, 45 new infections and seven deaths.
According to the Secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, who was speaking at the usual the Covid-19 update session in the country, of those recovered, 117 are in Luanda, 30 are in Cunene, 23 in Moxico, 16 in Huambo, 12 in Benguela, five in Lunda Sul and one in Uige, aged between one and 94 years.
As for the new positive cases, he pointed out that they involve citizens whose ages are between seven and 76 years old, 30 men and 15 women.
According to him, 36 cases were diagnosed in Luanda province, four in Lunda Norte, two in Bié, the same number in Cabinda and one in Lunda Sul.
He reported the deaths of six Angolans and one Chinese, aged between 44 and 70, three residents in Lunda Norte and one each in Luanda, Huambo, Malanje and Zaire, all of them men.
Angola has 16,407 positive cases, 379 deaths, 9,194 recovered and 6,834 active people.
Of the active cases, six are in critical condition with invasive mechanical ventilation, five severe, 81 moderate, 137 with mild symptoms and 6,605 asymptomatic.
The health authorities follow up 204 patients admitted to treatment centres in the country.
Facebook has exposed a curious battle for influence in Africa, with former colonial power France and former superpower Russia using fake accounts to engage, criticize and even befriend each other online.
The U.S. tech firm said on Tuesday it had closed down two Russian-linked networks of accounts and a third with “links to individuals associated with French military” for breaking its policy against foreign or government interference.
While information warfare is nothing new, Facebook was still surprised to see two countries fighting head-on in a third region.
France, the former colonial power in large parts of Africa, has thousands of troops deployed in the region to fight jihadists.
Russia has also stepped up its bid for sway in recent years with observers accusing it of using a notorious mercenary group called Wagner to fight in countries including Libya.
One of the networks shut down by Facebook was linked indirectly with shadowy Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused by the West of running troll factories and Wagner — allegations he denies.
“This was the first time our team found two campaigns — from France and Russia — actively engage with one another, including by befriending, commenting and criticizing the opposing side for being fake,” wrote Facebook’s Nathaniel Gleicher and David Agranovich in a blog.
The networks “used fake accounts as a central part of their operations to mislead people about who they are and what they are doing, and that was the basis for our action,” Facebook said.
In its first reaction on Wednesday, the French army did not confirm any involvement but noted that such activity had become widespread.
In the Central African Republic “for many months now, we have been seeing the rise of disinformation actions aimed at destabilizing the country, actions that we condemn,” the defense ministry told AFP.
The ministry said it was not surprised by the conclusions published by Facebook, but “we are not at this stage in a position to attribute any responsibility.”
However, the French army has already acknowledged that social networks have become theaters of conflict.
“The real change lies in the systematic use of information warfare, which has a lot of influence in today’s conflicts,” ground army chief of staff General Thierry Burkhard told AFP in October.
In a magazine interview published in November, President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia and Turkey of seeking to promote anti-French sentiment in Africa by funding people who whip up resentment against France in the media.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded at the time by saying Moscow “aimed to fight such examples of disinformation.”
Russia has not commented on Facebook’s latest findings.
The French network targeted the Central African Republic and Mali and to a lesser extent Niger, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Ivory Coast and Chad, Facebook said.
It involved 84 Facebook accounts, six pages, nine groups and 14 Instagram accounts that violated policy against “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”
In disrupting the two Russian networks, the social network removed 274 Facebook accounts and 18 Instagram accounts, along with an array of groups and pages.
The EU slapped sanctions on Prigozhin in October over Wagner’s alleged activities in north Africa, though he denied any knowledge of the group and has filed a lawsuit asking to be removed from the sanctions list.
He was also sanctioned by Washington, which accused him of meddling in the 2016 presidential election, in particular through his troll factory.
Prigozhin denied any involvement and in March asked for $50 billion in compensation from the United States.
Saudi Arabia is detaining hundreds of migrants in squalid conditions in Riyadh, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says, quoting some who claimed they had been tortured or beaten.
The migrants at the centre, mostly from Ethiopia but also from other African or Asian countries, were being held pending deportation, most having been arrested by Saudi authorities because they did not hold valid residency permits.
The report, released on Tuesday, quoted detainees as saying they were held in extremely overcrowded rooms and that guards tortured and beat them with rubber-coated metal rods, leading to at least three allegations of deaths in custody between October and November.
HRW said it spoke last month to seven Ethiopians being held and two Indians who were recently deported. All of them said they were kept in small rooms in a detention centre with up to 350 others.
Two of the detainees said they had been held for more than a year.
The detainees said no measures had been taken to minimise the spread of COVID-19, and some inside the facility had shown symptoms of being infected.
Migrants said they do not have enough room to all lie down on the bare floor at the same time, so some detainees would sleep during the day and others at night.
In video footage published with the report, dozens of migrants could be seen sleeping in tightly packed rows, some in what looked to be a toilet, next to piles of rubbish.
“Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s richest countries, has no excuse for detaining migrant workers in appalling conditions, in the middle of a health pandemic, for months on end,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW.
Saudi authorities have not commented on the report.
Foreign workers, who form the backbone of Gulf economies, account for some 12.6 million of Saudi Arabia’s total population of 33.4 million, according to the latest available government data from 2018.
Role models of strong female leadership and gender balancing companies are emerging across corporate Africa. 20-first’s 2020 Gender Balance Scorecard – Focus on Africa reveals the continent’s top companies seem to be ahead of their Western counterparts in terms of the gender balance of their Executive Teams. Will Africa fuel its rise with gender-balanced talent?
The emergence of Africa onto the global stage provides an exciting opportunity. “After centuries on the periphery,” observes The Economist, “Africa is set to play a much more important role in global affairs, the global economy and the global imagination.” As the continent’s top companies climb the global rankings, will they shake up the slow-moving norms on the gender balance of richer regions? Four African nations – Benin, Burundi, Zambia, and Guinea – are among the world’s top 10 countries in terms of the economic participation of women.
Dr. Anino Emuwa is CEO of Avandis Consulting (a partner in producing this Scorecard). She is also the Founder of the Africa Women CEOs Network which connects over 300 of the continent’s top female business leaders and entrepreneurs. “Africa is starting to be recognized for its gender-balanced advancement,” she notes referring to a range of reports, including the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index.
Africa’s population is set to increase by 50% over the next two decades and will surpass 1.8 billion people by 2035 – a jaw-dropping quarter of the world’s total. If its GDP growth keeps pace, notes some observers, Nigeria’s economy could overtake France or Germany in size. No surprise, then, that many are looking to Africa as the continent that will drive change and innovation. It’s not just the size of its population that beckons, but also its youth. By 2035, sub-Saharan Africa will boast the youngest population in the world and be one of the rare regions of our aging world where what is now considered ‘working-age’ individuals will outnumber the over-65. Richer countries, including Japan, are introducing drastic measures to sustain sagging population levels. This leads to a growing number of commentators predicting this may be Africa’s century – and it may be powering ahead with the early integration of women in the economy and private sector.
The 2020 Gender Balance Scorecard – Focus on Africa looks at the balance of the Executive Teams of the top five companies across four African regions – North, East, South, and West. Of these companies’ 210 Executive Team members, the gender ratio is 77% men and 23% women. That is above the global average, which was below 15% in our 2018 Global Scorecard. A promising advantage for the region’s future, and some great role models for the continent’s talent.
“There are instructive case studies in Africa of progressive government measures driving gender balance in business,” explains Dr. Anino. “Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame, for example, has been a vocal advocate for gender parity. He spearheaded policy changes in the law, promoted education for girls, and introduced a constitutional minimum threshold for female parliamentarians of 30%. Interestingly, Rwanda’s share of women parliamentarians has now grown to over 60%, the highest ratio in the world.
In Nigeria, women Chair four of the country’s 24 major commercial banks (First Bank, GTB, Access, and Union Bank). “This is the legacy of the former CBN governor, Muhammadu Sanusi II,” explains Dr. Anino, “who championed building more gender balance on bank boards.” As in our Scorecard and reporting on India, several women have been CEOs of Nigeria’s biggest banks. This is in stark contrast to the US, where the first female CEO of a major bank, Janet Fraser of Citibank, was just appointed this year.
POWER vs INFLUENCE
The majority (54%) of the women on the Executive Teams of Africa’s top countries are in line roles, compared to 46% in staff roles. So not only do Africa’s top companies have more women at the top, but they also appoint them to more powerful profit and loss (P&L) roles rather than the staff or support roles still common in many companies in our global benchmarks. A recent BoardEx study across 26 wealthy nations showed the majority of women in executive teams of top companies were in positions of ‘influence’ (e.g. staff positions like legal and HR) rather than positions of ‘power’ with P&L responsibility (like general management).
REGIONAL DIFFERENCES
As the world’s second-most populous continent (following Asia), it is important to note the massive differences within and across Africa, and how this influences the development and size of companies – and their gender balance. To get a sense of the regional variations and attitudes, the Scorecard looked at the top companies in each region (North, East, South, and West).
The South region has the highest average percentage of women (30%) on Executive Teams across its top companies and 16 of the top 20 companies are South African. The East region has the greatest number of companies ranked as ‘Critical Mass,’ meaning they have three or more women on their Executive Teams. While it’s the North that trails behind, with three of the continent’s five companies ranked as ‘Asleep’ on gender balance. Sub-Saharan African has the highest rate of female entrepreneurship in the world according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
These regional discrepancies mirror similar variations across other regions of the world, like Europe and Asia. Individual African countries will be yet another place to assess the competitive advantages – for both countries and companies – of tapping into 100% of the talent and the market.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The important lesson to be learned from Africa in terms of driving gender balance is that transformation can happen quickly – and deliver immediate benefits. “Achieving gender balance,” reminds Dr. Anino, “is primarily the responsibility of the people who run organizations, rather than the out-of-power group. When powerful leaders act, change happens fast.” As Africa rises, women may be the continent’s unexpected competitive edge. Watch this space.
Forbes
Every dollar of investment in renewables creates three times more jobs than in the fossil fuel industry. Greetings friends. I am Sofonie D...
