South China Sea dispute: Malaysia accuses China of breaching airspace

Malaysia says it is to summon China’s ambassador after 16 Chinese military aircraft flew over disputed waters off its eastern state of Sarawak.

Fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the transport planes on Monday after detecting “suspicious” activity over the South China Sea.

Malaysia’s foreign ministry described the manoeuvre as a “serious threat to national sovereignty”.

China, however, said its aircraft had abided by international law.

Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam all contest China’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea. The row has rumbled on for decades but tensions have increased in recent years.

Beijing continues to claim an area known as the “nine-dash line” and has backed its claim with island-building and patrols, expanding its military presence while maintaining that its intentions are peaceful.

According to the Malaysian air force, the Chinese aircraft were “flying in tactical formation” at up to 27,000 ft (8.2km) and came within 60 nautical miles (110km) of Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. Attempts to contact them went unheeded, a statement said.

Malaysian fighter jets were then scrambled from the Labuan Air Base to carry out “visual identification”.

Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the planes had entered the country’s “maritime zone” and that a complaint would be lodged with Beijing.

He said the Chinese ambassador was being summoned to explain the “breach of the Malaysian airspace and sovereignty”.

“Malaysia’s stand is clear – having friendly diplomatic relations with any countries does not mean that we will compromise on our national security,” he said in a statement.

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A statement from the Chinese embassy in Kuala Lumpur played down the incident, saying Chinese military aircraft enjoyed “the freedom of overflight in the relevant airspace”.

“During this training, the Chinese military aircraft strictly abided by the relevant international law and did not enter the territorial airspace of any other country,” a spokesman said.

“China and Malaysia are friendly neighbours, and China is willing to continue bilateral friendly consultations with Malaysia to jointly maintain regional peace and stability.”

In recent years the South China Sea has become a flashpoint between China and other nations in the region which claim sovereignty over two largely uninhabited island chains, the Paracels and the Spratlys.

China claims the largest portion of territory, saying its rights go back centuries.

In March, the Philippines raised a complaint with China, saying more than 200 Chinese fishing boats were encroaching on its territorial waters.

The Philippines says the boats do not appear to be fishing and are crewed by Chinese maritime militia. China has largely ignored the protest.

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Uganda minister shot in assassination attempt: Katumba Wamala

Gunmen have attacked and wounded Uganda’s Transport Minister and former army commander, Gen Katumba Wamala, killing his daughter and driver.

Witnesses say men on motorbikes fired several shots at their vehicle near their home in the capital, Kampala.

The army says phone calls potentially linked to planning the assassination attempt are being investigated.

Soldiers are guarding the hospital where Gen Wamala is being treated for non life-threatening injuries.

He is regarded as one of Uganda’s most respected politicians and military men.

The attempt on his life comes as a shock although such attacks are not rare, the BBC’s Patience Atuhaire reports from Kampala.

image caption Soldiers have been sent to secure the hospital where Gen Wamala is being treated

Gen Wamala was previously a police chief as well as an army commander.

At the time of Tuesday’s attack, he was travelling in army vehicle that was then sprayed with bullets from the sides and front.

His daughter Brenda Wamala and his driver, named locally as Haruna Kayondo, did not survive.

Video footage from the scene in Kisaasi shows the former army chief visibly shaken and covered in blood – being rushed to hospital on the back of a motorbike.

Over the last few years, the country has been rocked by such shootings by armed men riding on motorcycles, our correspondent says.

In June 2018, Ibrahim Abiriga, a politician and ardent supporter of President Yoweri Museveni, was shot and killed near his home.

Former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi was assassinated in a similar manner in April 2017.

A magistrate and several Muslim clerics were killed in the same way.

None of the assassinations has ever been successfully investigated or prosecuted

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Mali suspended from African Union, threatened with sanctions

AU calls on military to ‘urgently and unconditionally return to barracks’ and to refrain from further interference in Mali’s political process.

Mali’s membership with the African Union has been suspended with immediate effect and the impoverished country threatened with sanctions following a second military coup in nine months.

The AU “decides … to immediately suspend the Republic of Mali from participation in all activities of the African Union, its organs and institutions, until normal constitutional order has been restored in the country”, the body’s Peace and Security Council said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The AU called for the military to “urgently and unconditionally return to the barracks, and to refrain from further interference in the political processes in Mali”.

It warned that if the military did not hand back power to civilian transitional leaders, “the Council will not hesitate to impose targeted sanctions and other punitive measures”.

Condemning the coup “in the strongest terms possible”, it added it was “deeply concerned about the evolving situation in Mali and its negative impact on the gains made thus far in the transition process in the country”.

The move follows a similar suspension on Sunday from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The coup sparked deep concerns over stability in the volatile Sahel region and warnings of economic penalties from across the international community.

Colonel Assimi Goita was at the ECOWAS crisis summit in Ghana on Sunday to argue the military’s case but has now returned to Mali.

Last August, Goita led army officers who overthrew elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, following mass protests over perceived corruption and a bloody insurgency.

After the takeover, the military agreed to appoint civilians as interim president and prime minister under the pressure of ECOWAS trade and financial sanctions.

Elections pledge

But in a move that provoked a diplomatic uproar, soldiers last week detained transitional president Bah Ndaw and prime minister Moctar Ouane, releasing them on Thursday while saying that they had resigned.

Mali’s constitutional court completed Goita’s rise to full power on Friday by naming him transitional president.

With the military going back on its previous commitment to civilian political leaders, doubts have been raised about its other pledges, including a promise to hold elections in early 2022.

The military said this week it would continue to respect that timetable, but added that it could be subject to change.

The United States and Mali’s former colonial master France had both threatened sanctions in response to the second coup.

But ECOWAS, at a crisis summit in Ghana on Sunday, refrained from reimposing sanctions – a move it had adopted after the first coup.

The 15-nation bloc still pushed for Mali to transition to civilian rule under a previously agreed timetable.

The bloc suspended Mali from ECOWAS until February 2022, “when they are supposed to hand over to a democratically elected government,” Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said after the meeting.

Mali is among the world’s poorest countries, and the previous ECOWAS sanctions hit hard.

It is also battling an armed uprising which first emerged in the north of the country in 2012 and has since spread to Burkina Faso and Niger, leaving swaths of the vast nation of 19 million people outside government control.

SOURCE: AFP

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Africa media leaders meet in Accra

Leaders of regional and national media organisations in Africa Tuesday began a two-day conference in Accra to discuss strategies to shape the media industry in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has dealt a terrible blow to jobs and media sustainability.

Under the auspices of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the conference will also examine the worrisome erosion of media freedom in many countries in Africa and propose practical measures to reverse the trend.

Mr Affail Monney, a Member of the Steering Committee of the FAJ, in a press release, said: “The general precarious working conditions of journalists will receive priority attention. To this end, the conference will explore viable options to strengthen the bargaining capacity of journalist unions in Africa,” he added.

He said the conference was expected to come out with an Accra Declaration, which would articulate the future direction of journalism in Africa.

The President of FAJ, El- Sadig Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim, and a representative of the African Union, Ambassador Ahmed Salah are already in Accra for the conference.

GNA

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Uganda minister’s daughter killed in failed assassination attempt

Gunmen sprayed General Katumba Wamala’s car with bullets in the Kampala suburb of Kiasasi, killing his daughter and driver.

Gunmen have attacked and wounded Uganda’s former army commander, killing his daughter and driver in an assassination attempt.

Four attackers on motorcycles opened fire at a vehicle carrying General Katumba Wamala, the minister of works and transport, in the Kampala suburb of Kiasasi on Tuesday, local television station NBS reported.

“There was a shooting involving him … he is hurt and he’s been taken to the hospital, his driver was killed,” army spokeswoman Brigadier Flavia Byekwaso said.

Wamala’s daughter, who was in the vehicle with him, was also killed, NBS reported.

Images circulating on social media showed Katumba in apparent distress outside an SUV, his light-coloured trousers splattered with blood.

Social media images also showed bullet holes in a car window and casings on the ground.

There have been several assassinations and mysterious deaths of high profile officials in the east African country in recent years, fuelling speculation about perpetrators and their motivations.

Victims have involved a lawmaker, a senior police officer, the country’s top public prosecutor, senior Muslim leaders and others.

The attempt on Katumba was orchestrated in the same suburb in the capital where in 2017 gunmen on motorcycles sprayed bullets on a vehicle carrying a senior police officer.

That police officer, Felix Kaweesa, was killed along with his bodyguard and driver.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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