International Sustainability Academy (ISA) Scholarship Program 2022 for Young Professionals (Fully Funded to Hamburg, Germany)

 Application Deadline: March 15th 2021 

During the period of sponsorship until 2022, the ISA offers up to 12 students and professionals every year (see requirements) an 8-month research stay in Hamburg, together with a further month of sponsorship in their home country in order there to complete and customize the results of the research report.

The primary focus is on the close exchange of know-how amongst the scholarship holders during their individual research work. Further focal points of the program are training courses and internships developed together with the scholarship-holders, visits to Best Practice companies and institutions. Students will be supervised and supported in the subject matter by the ISA and selected universities and research centers.

Sponsorship: The costs for accommodation in flat-shares, the work station, the costs of return flights, health insurance and a 10-week German language course will be taken over. In addition each sponsorship-holder will receive an amount of money for the research work.

Click here to apply: https://bit.ly/3kB4RXu

Benefits

Costs of the stay will be paid

€ 1,300 per month expenses (includes own research and as applicable, excursions and internships)

Health insurance

accommodation (private, furnished flat-share room (ca. 12m²) with shared bathroom and kitchen)

return flight (Economy Class (max. three stopovers, flight from home country airport) (airport transfer in home country may be granted under justified circumstances)

airport transfer in Hamburg with public transport

season ticket for the use of public transport in Hamburg

costs of group excursions

BMZ sponsorship regulations apply

Mountain of gold discovered in Congo Africa

 Eastern DRC, South Kivu. Villagers has discovered a treasure mountain. The soil is 90% gold, the whole mountain is gold! Its like Eldorado the land of gold! People are digging and just taking the soil to their homes, the gold to be washed and then smelted into dory.

Amazing! This will help lift a lot of people out of poverty, if they can keep their government's hands off of it.

All praise to the most high God, the possessor of the heavens and the earth! THIS DISCOVERY CHANGES EVERYTHING! What will this do to the world's economy? What will this do to the price of Gold? Will the United States invade the Congo and seize their Gold? Think not, consider Libya.

Get Silver! This find makes Gold less valuable than it was 3 weeks ago. No wonder the price of Gold has been falling lately. Knowledge is power. Act accordingly.

More than 50 killed at collapsed gold mine in eastern Congo in 2020

Officials say more than 50 people are dead after landslides caused the collapse of three artisanal gold mines near the city of Kamituga in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province in 2020.

People gather at the scene of a gold mine collapse near the town of Kamituga, South Kivu province, in eastern Congo Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. More than 50 people are dead after landslides collapsed three artisanal gold mines near the town of Kamituga in eastern Congo's South Kivu province on Friday, officials said. (Jeff Mwenyemali / Maisha RDC via AP).

KINSHASA, Congo - More than 50 people are dead after landslides caused the collapse of three artisanal gold mines near the city of Kamituga in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province on Friday, officials said.

Heavy rains for days led to the disaster.

“The diggers and the transporters of the stones were swallowed up by the waters,” said the Kamituga mayor, Alexandre Bundya. “A team of rescuers with motor pumps came to recover the bodies of the victims.”

Diwa Honoré, who survived the tragedy, said more than 50 people had been in the three mines, which are about 50 meters (54 yards) deep.

"Kamituga is in mourning,” wrote Dieudonné Bazika, sharing a video on social media showing the aftermath. Hundreds of people gathered to observe and help in rescue efforts.

Most of the dead were young people, according to a statement from the office of the governor of South Kivu, Theo Ngwabidje Kasi, who offered condolences to families.

“Investigations continue to identify our deceased compatriots, to provide assistance and to take measures to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies,” the statement said.

Artisanal mining quarries are often unsafe in eastern Congo and the Kasai region. Women and children also work in the mines to make ends meet. Deadly collapses occurred earlier this year in Maniema and in Katanga, killing at least 18 people.

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Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal contributed.

Happy Angolan Women's Day!

The March 2nd is the day consecrated to the Angolan women, in recognition of their role in the struggle of resistance of the Angolan people against the Portuguese colonial occupation.

The event, of particular importance, not only for women but also for the other members of the society, is owed to their recognition and with  courage, determination and price of their lives, contributed to a free and independent Angola.

The Angolan women have always played a prominent role in the country's liberation process, with representative examples of the heroic deeds of Queen Njinga Mbandi, in the distant past, and Deolinda Rodrigues, Irene Cohen, Engracia dos Santos, Teresa Afonso, Lucrecia Paim and other anonymous figures.

This year, the Angolan women are called upon to transform the celebrations date into an event for reflection, enabling a healthy and constructive debate, with a view to seeking consensual solutions to problems.

 

Thus, it is considered essential that the state continues to support the fight to eradicate attitudes that contrast with the importance of the social role of women or that violate their individual and collective rights, thus creating conditions for their protection.

In the present case of Angola, despite the achievements, there is the awareness that the Angolan women still continue to face numerous problems for their full emancipation.

The high degree of illiteracy that rages among women, inequality in employment opportunities and socio-professional growth, the persistence of domestic violence, which mainly affects women and children, are some of the many problems to which the civil society should pay special attention.

The importance of the date for the Angolan people, is celebrated at a time the consolidation of peace, national reconstruction, and the society has become irreversible, towards a greater gender balance at all levels of the social structure of the State.

The Organisation of Angolan Women (OMA), established in 1962 as the women's wing of the Movement of Liberation of Angola (MPLA), played a crucial role in supporting the guerrilla forces in and out of Angola.

Chad opposition leader quits presidential race after shoot-out

 Chad’s main opposition figure has announced his withdrawal from the upcoming race for the country’s top job, accusing veteran President Idriss Deby of using force to intimidate rivals.

Saleh Kebzabo said his party he had decided “purely and simply” to not enter the April 11 presidential election, according to a statement released on Monday, a day after a deadly shoot-out at the home of another candidate, Yaya Dillo,

Kebzabo condemned what he called a “military attack” on Dillo’s home in the capital, Ndjamena.

“The climate of insecurity… will definitely overshadow the electoral campaign of candidates confronting [Deby’s] Patriotic Salvation Movement [MPS],” he said.

By withdrawing from the race, said Kebzabo, he was refusing to “provide cover for a large-scale masquerade”.

Deby has ruled Chad for more than 30 years and is running for a sixth term on April 11.

Kebzabo, a former journalist who in the late 1990s was a minister under Deby, has contested the presidency four times.

He came in second in the 2016 elections with 12.8 percent of the votes.

‘Rise up’

On Sunday, a gun battle erupted at Dillo’s home when security forces came to arrest him. Dillo had holed up with “armed individuals” after refusing to obey two arrest warrants, filed last year for allegedly slandering the president’s wife.

The government said two deaths occurred when the security forces came under fire from his home and were forced to respond. Five people were wounded, three of them soldiers, it added.

But in a string of posts on social media, Dillo said his home had been surrounded and his mother and several relatives had been killed.

In his final messages from him, he said an armored vehicle had smashed down the door, and urged the public to “rise up”.

Dillo’s account could not be independently confirmed, and the authorities did not respond when asked by the AFP news agency. His whereabouts of him were also unknown, and phone calls went unanswered.

Several armored vehicles, as well as gendarmes and members of the elite presidential guard, were deployed on the roads leading to his home from him, but there was no visible increase in security at the presidency or the defense ministry, an AFP journalist saw.

However, mobile phone services were slow and access to the internet in Ndjamena was also disrupted.

The authorities have barred public demonstrations for the past several weeks as the elections approach.

Global rights watchdog Amnesty International has hit at what it calls “unnecessary and disproportionate restrictions” on the right of peaceful assembly, as well as “arbitrary arrests”.

Deby’s grip

Dillo is a formal rebel leader who fought against Deby in 2006 before joining his government and becoming a minister. More recently, he served as Chad’s representative to the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC).

He had filed papers to contest the election on Friday.

Deby, a 68-year-old former armed forces chief, has been Chad’s ruler since December 1990, when he removed the autocratic leader Hissene Habre. He pushed through a new constitution in 2018 that reinstated term limits but could let him stay in power until 2033.

Hundreds took to the streets earlier this month to protest against his candidacy in April ’s vote.

During his long rule of his, Deby has been accused by critics of authoritarianism and nepotism as well as failing to address the poverty that afflicts many of Chad’s 13 million people.

Despite its oil wealth, the country ranks 187th out of 189 in the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI).

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Trauma, anger as Tigrayans recount Eritrea troops’ ‘grave crimes’

 December 4 is a date that fills Mona Lisa Abraha with horror. It was then, the 18-year-old says, that Eritrean soldiers entered her village of Tembin in Ethiopia’s embattled region of Tigray.

“They tried to rape me and I was thrown to the ground. Then, one of the soldiers fired bullets to scare me, but they hit my hand and then fired another bullet that went through my arm, ”Abraha recalls from a hospital bed on the outskirts of Tigray’s capital, Mekelle.

“I was bleeding for hours. Then, I had my arm amputated, ”she says, before breaking down in tears.

Abraha's account is one of few emerging from the secretive conflict in Tigray, where communications were cut for many weeks and media access was severely curbed before being slightly eased recently. Al Jazeera has now gained rare access and heard from witnesses and survivors who allege they suffered serious abuses at the hands of Eritrean troops.

“I was bleeding for hours. Then, I had my arm amputated, ”she says, before breaking down in tears.

Abraha’s account is one of few emerging from the secretive conflict in Tigray, where communications were cut for many weeks and media access was severely curbed before being slightly eased recently. Al Jazeera has now gained rare access and heard from witnesses and survivors who allege they suffered serious abuses at the hands of Eritrean troops.

Last week, Amnesty International said in a report that hundreds of civilians were massacred by Eritrean soldiers in the town of Axum in November, amounting to “a series of human rights and humanitarian law violations”.

The massacre was committed in a “coordinated and systematic” manner in order “to terrorize the population into submission” and may amount to a crime against humanity, the report said.

Its findings were based on 41 interviews with witnesses and survivors of the massacre, all ethnic Tigrayans.

Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, author of the report, told Al Jazeera: “The Eritrean forces called [for] reinforcements and proceeded to shoot at civilians on the streets using sniper rifles and machine guns.”

Axum residents quoted in the Amnesty report identified the perpetrators as Eritrean soldiers, saying that they often rode in trucks with license plates reading “Eritrea”.

Witnesses said most wore a uniform and shoes easily distinguishable from those of Ethiopian soldiers. They remarked that the troops distinguished themselves as Eritrean when they spoke in a distinctive dialect with its own words and accent.

Some soldiers had three scars on each temple near the eye, identifying themselves as Beni-Amir, an ethnic group that straddles Sudan and Eritrea but is absent from Ethiopia, the report said.

Ethiopia’s government has questioned the accuracy of Amnesty’s sources, but says an investigation will be launched. The state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission also said that Amnesty’s report should be taken seriously and that preliminary investigations indicated that Eritrean soldiers had killed an unknown number of civilians in Axum.

But in a letter to Al Jazeera, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Qatar, Samia Zekaria Gutu, called the Amnesty report “cooked”.

“This kind of‘ report ’based on unreliable sources is known to have the risk of further reinforcing the misinformation and propaganda by [the] TPLF criminal click,” Gutu wrote.

Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Meskel rejected Amnesty’s “preposterous accusations”.

.

Abiy, who in 2019 won the Nobel Peace Prize after restoring ties with Eritrea following the 1998-2000 war, declared victory against the TPLF on November 28 after federal forces entered Mekelle. The TPLF’s leaders, however, have pledged to continue fighting and clashes have persisted in the region, hampering efforts to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid.

Last month, the United States said all soldiers from Eritrea should leave the Tigray region “immediately”.

Meanwhile, Mekelle residents that spoke to Al Jazeera demanded Eritrean forces leave the country.

“Why did all of this happen? The Eritrean forces committed serious crimes. We want everyone who committed these crimes to be put on trial and want foreign forces to leave our homeland, ”said Loul Malas, a trader.

Kibrom Zaro, an engineer, added: “Our infrastructure is destroyed and basic services are absent. There is no safety and we want the world to know our struggle. ”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Nigeria: Kidnapped schoolgirls released, says governor

 Governor Matawalle told Al Jazeera no ransom was paid to kidnappers to secure the release.

Kidnappers have released girls who were abducted from a boarding school in the northwest Nigerian state of Zamfara on Friday, governor of the state told Al Jazeera.

Bello Matawalle said on Tuesday the students were safe with authorities and no ransom was paid for their release.

“Today, we have received the children who were under captivity since Friday. I initiated a peace accord, which yielded a positive result. No ransom was paid to anyone. I insisted that we were not going to give anything to any of them, ”Matawalle told Al Jazeera.

The governor said the students were been taken to a health facility for medical examination.

Police initially said 317 girls were abducted in the raid by hundreds of gunmen on the Government Girls Secondary School in remote Jangebe village. But Matawalle told Al Jazeera the “total number of female students abducted” was 279.

Government officials had been in talks with the kidnappers - known as bandits - following Nigeria’s third school attack in less than three months.

Heavily armed criminal gangs in northwest and central Nigeria have stepped up attacks in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, raping and pillaging.

The Nigerian military deployed to the area in 2016 and a peace deal with bandits was signed in 2019 but attacks have continued.

In December, more than 300 boys were kidnapped from a school in Kankara, in President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state of Katsina, while he was visiting the region.

The boys were later released but the incident triggered outrage and memories of the kidnappings of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Chibok that shocked the world.

Many of those girls are still missing.

The gangs are largely driven by financial motives and have no known ideological leanings.

But there are concerns they are being infiltrated by rebel groups.

Kidnapping for ransom in Africa’s most populous country is already a widespread national problem, with businessmen, officials and ordinary citizens snatched from the streets by criminals hunting for ransom money.

At least $ 11m was paid to kidnappers between January 2016 and March 2020, according to SB Morgen, a Lagos-based geopolitical research consultancy.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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‘Love Island South Africa’ cast is announced — with only 3 Black contestants

 

The makers of “Love Island South Africa” are facing criticism after announcing a predominantly White line-up for the show.

The latest spin-off of the reality dating show-turned-cultural-phenomenon premiered on Sunday on South Africa’s M-Net network. However, the launch was subject to a wave of ridicule on social media after only three Black contestants entered the luxurious villa.

Viewers flocked online to express their disappointment that, despite South Africa’s population being more than 80% Black African, producers cast just two Black men and one Black female contestant.

Durang Atembe, 22, Asad Boomgaard, 24, and 26-year-old Thimna Shooto, the only Black female contestant so far, make up this year’s handful of non-White contestants.

“Y’all are in South Africa but managed to have a whiter cast than UK Love Island,” one viewer tweeted.

Reacting to the casting, another argued: “I don’t ever want to hear‘ they cast according to their population ’… the percentage of black people in South Africa is 80.2% and there is only two black people in love island South Africa. It’s a choice. '”

South African actor Siv Ngesi shared a picture of the cast with the caption: “This is Africa!”

CNN has reached out to Rapid Blue, the production company behind the show, for comment.

The “Love Island” format sees 10 hopefuls - five men and five women - shut up in a villa together, away from the world, for six weeks as they search for love.

Throughout the new series - hosted by South African actress Leandie du Randt - there will be regular recouplings, which will allow the islanders to choose to remain with their current partner or swap suitors when new islanders enter the villla.

Any contestant left single after the weekly recoupling is eliminated from the show. In the final week, the public vote for their favorite couple to win the 1 million rand (around $ 66,000) prize.

The “Love Island” franchise has become wildly popular, with “Love Island Nigeria” announced last year along with other new territories.

Despite impressive ratings, the original UK edition has been embroiled in controversy since its inception in 2015. Its host, Caroline Flack, took her own life from it in February 2020 while awaiting trial on assault charges. Flack’s suicide was the third associated with the show, after former contestants Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon also took their own lives.

In 2019, production company ITV Studios responded to the growing scrutiny by releasing an updated set of “duty of care” guidelines ahead of its fifth season. Provisions included a minimum of eight therapy sessions for each islander on their return home, as well as “proactive contact” from the team for a further 14 months.

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Haiti Faces Unrest As President Refuses To Step Down

 Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s rise to power and administration has been anything but stable. Moise was elected in 2015 under allegations of fraud. He was elected again in 2016 for a five-year term but was sworn into office in 2017, claims Al Jazeera. He asserts that he deserves another year in office since a temporary government was in place the first year of his term.

The Haitian Times and the Center for Economic and Policy Research claim that the Organization for American States and writers of the 1987 Haitian Constitution confirm that Moise's term began in 2017 and thus must end in 2022. However, the opposition does not interpret the Constitution this way . Given this ambiguity, Moise wants to modify the document with clearer language to pave the way for timely elections and more accountability for government leadership, according to the Haitian Times.

The New York Times claims Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Haitians have struggled for years with poverty and the government’s inability to provide necessities. Despite the hope that circumstances would improve under Moise’s rule, Haitians believe the country “is in the worst state it has ever seen,” according to the New York Times. Pierre Espérance, a Haitian human rights activist, claims conditions Haitians are living in are “worse than during the dictatorship” under the Duvalier family, who ruled until 1986.

Moise blames government inefficiency on parliament while the opposition accuses him of impeding political processes, claims Al Jazeera. In the last year, Moise removed two-thirds of the Senate, all of the Chamber of Deputies, and every mayor, according to the New York Times. No elections have been held over the last four years under Moise’s leadership. This leaves only 11 elected officials in the country to represent 11 million Haitians. Moise plans to continue his presidential decrees by modifying the country’s Constitution through a referendum in April. Without proper representation, Moise’s opposition fear a vote won’t be fair.

To fight the government’s attempts at staying in power, Haitians are taking to the streets to protest. On 7 February 2021, the opposition attempted a coup to overthrow Moise, according to the Haitian Times. Though their plan failed and dozens were arrested, the opposition is not backing down. André Michel, leader of the opposition group, the Democratic and Popular Sector, promises more demonstrations in the streets if Moise remains in power, claims Al Jazeera.

The Haitian government is accused of employing local gangs to intimidate government opposition, says the New York Times. These gangs have been given free reign and are now acting untethered and unpunished. Because of this, Haitians are afraid to leave their homes to do daily activities, like grocery shopping or sending their children to school. The opposition is seeking to gain additional support from the country’s millions of unemployed citizens as a large portion of Haitians live in poverty. However, the opposition’s battle is uphill. Opposition groups cannot agree on strategies, and they face a strong pro-Moise front, asserts the New York Times.

In December, the U.S. condemned some officials in Moise’s government for providing weapons and protection to gangs, according to the New York Times. However, the U.S. State Department spokesman, Ned Price, claims the U.S. backs Moise’s additional year in office and should be succeeded by another elected president, according to Al Jazeera. Price asserts the importance of timely elections, supporting democratic institutions, and following the will of the people. Additionally, human rights groups assert that the United Nations ’forces on the ground in Haiti are supporting Moise, claims Al Jazeera. These decisions further sow seeds of hopelessness for Haitians looking to outside actors for assistance.

The Moise government’s avid attempts to remain in power for another year are hindering democratic processes in the country and further catapulting Haiti into social chaos. Anti-Moise protestors want him out of office, an end to rampant gang violence, and a temporary government to get democratic elections back on track. Moise promises to revamp the energy industry, reorganize elections, and reform the Constitution in his next year, claims Al Jazeera. However, there is doubt that he has the best interests of Haitians in mind if he could not achieve positive results in the last four years of his term.

It is clear some influential countries and organizations do not support the goals of the opposition in Haiti, which seems to suggest Moise should remain in power until February 2022. Though the Constitution may give Moise another year in office, most Haitians want a change. In this case, Moise should step down to allow for a transitional government to clear up Constitutional ambiguities, improve basic services for all Haitians, and assure democratic institutions and processes are upheld for the future. Regardless, Moise’s government and opposition should compromise for the future of Haitians as continuing this trajectory will lead the country into future chaos, disorder, and oppression.

Kristen Morris

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Global COVID-19 infections up for first time in 7 weeks, WHO says

 The number of new coronavirus infections globally rose last week for the first time in seven weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva the increase in cases was “disappointing but not surprising”, noting that the upward trend was taking place everywhere in the world apart from Africa and the Western Pacific region.

“Some of it appears to be due to relaxing of public health measures, continued circulation of variants and people letting down their guard,” he said.

For her part of it, Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for COVID-19 at the United Nations' health agency, described the increase as “a stern warning for all of us”, before adding: “This virus will rebound if we let it - and we cannot let it. ”

So far, there have been more than 114 million confirmed coronavirus cases, including some 2.5 million related deaths and 64.5 million recoveries, according to data by Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, Tedros said it was too early for governments to just count on vaccination programs and abandon other measures to fight the disease.

“If countries rely solely on vaccines, they are making a mistake. Basic public health measures remain the foundation of the response, ”Tedros said.

However, he said it was encouraging that vaccine doses for medical personnel in poorer countries are finally being given, including in the West African countries of Ghana and Ivory Coast.

The two countries on Monday were the first to begin vaccinating people with doses supplied by COVAX, the international program to provide vaccines for poor and middle-income countries.

The WHO chief also criticized rich countries for hoarding vaccine doses, saying it was in everyone’s interest for vulnerable people to be protected around the world.

“It is regrettable that this comes almost three months after some of the wealthiest countries started their vaccination campaigns,” Tedros said.

“Some countries continue to prioritize vaccinating younger healthier adults at lower risk of diseases in their own populations, ahead of health workers and older people elsewhere.”

By the end of May, 237 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be ready for distribution in 142 poorer countries.

Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergency expert, said the global fight against the coronavirus was in a better state now than it was 10 weeks ago before the roll-outs of vaccines had begun. But it was too early to say the virus was coming under control.

“The issue is of us being in control of the virus and the virus being in control of us. And right now the virus is very much in control. ”

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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