President Embalo blames his fight against drug cartels for Guinea Bissau instability

 President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has accused kingpins of the long-established drug traffickers in Guinea Bissau of masterminding plots to remove him from office.

According to President Embalo, his unrelenting fight to eradicate the illegal drug industry in his country is the reason why they want him out.

“Many people involved in drug trafficking are subject to legal proceedings and investigation that is why they want me to go from power,” Embalo is reported as saying.

In a bit of a twist, though, Embalo has vehemently refused to extradite Antonio Indjial, former Chief of Staff of the Guinea Bissau Armed Forces to Washington, which is accusing the military man of heading drug trafficking in the country.

Bissau, the capital is identified by a UN report as being an important transit point for South American drug cartels.

Embalo survived a failed coup attempt that threw the small West African country into a state of confusion for five hours last week.. And today another armed attack at a Voice of America affiliate radio station Radio Capital has added to an emerging instability in Guinea Bissau.

DNT News from Correspondence Reports from Julius Ouya

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More shooting in Guinea Bissau – Radio station affiliate of VOA attacked

 Six days after a failed coup attempt in Guinea Bissau, residents of the capital were subjected to yet another series of shooting.

About half a dozen “Heavily armed men” shot their way into Radio Capital FM and damaged equipment and other properties inside the station.

   

Two members of the station’s staff were reportedly injured. Radio Capital FM is the Bissau affiliate of Voice of America.

More on this as we receive it at DNT.

From Correspondent Julius Ouya.

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South Africa riot report highlights police failures

 An inquiry into last year’s deadly riots in South Africa has found that there were serious failures in the police response.

The report, commissioned by President Cyril Ramaphosa, said the security services failed to anticipate, prevent or disrupt the violence sparked by the jailing of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.

He has since been released on medical parole.

Sources told the inquiry that factional battles within the governing African National Congress had become a serious source of instability in South Africa.

More than 350 people died in the unrest.

Days of arson and looting caused more than $3bn (£2.2bn) worth of damage.

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Severe hunger threatens 13m in Horn of Africa – UN

 The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) says 13 million people across the Horn of Africa face severe hunger because of continued drought.

Failed harvests and food shortages are forcing families from their homes, the WFP says, and immediate assistance is needed to prevent a humanitarian crisis.

The rainy season has failed three years in a row – and the drought continues.

Crops are ruined, livestock are dying, and 13 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya are going hungry.

Food prices are rising, and with little to harvest, demand for agricultural labour is falling, increasing the pressure on families trying to feed themselves.

Without immediate assistance, the WFP says, a humanitarian crisis is unavoidable.

The WFP is appealing for $327m (£242m) to respond to the drought – in the short term to provide food and cash grants, and in the long term to build resilience among farming communities where less rain and more drought could, with climate change, become the norm.

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Ukraine crisis: Macron says crucial days ahead after Putin summit

 French President Emmanuel Macron has said the coming days will be crucial to de-escalating the Ukraine standoff, after a meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Mr Putin hinted that progress had been made during his first Moscow summit with a Western leader since Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders.

Moscow has denied any plans to invade.

However, Western powers have become increasingly concerned by the possibility of a conflict.

US officials said on Sunday that Russia has assembled 70% of military forces needed for a full-scale invasion.

On Monday, President Joe Biden met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington and threatened to shut down a key Russian gas pipeline to Germany if Moscow invaded Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also indicated his support for sanctions. Writing in The Times newspaper on Tuesday, he added that the UK was considering deploying Royal Air Force fighters and Royal Navy warships “to protect south-eastern Europe”.

Western countries have already rejected a number of Moscow’s demands, including that the Nato defence alliance rule out Ukraine becoming a member, and that it reduce its military presence in eastern Europe.

They have instead suggested other areas of negotiation, for example talks on cutting back nuclear weaponry.

Mr. Macron, who spoke with Mr Putin over a five-hour dinner which included reindeer with sweet potatoes and blackberries, told reporters the coming days would be “decisive” and “require intensive discussions which we will pursue together”.

The Russian president said that some of Mr Macron’s proposals “could form the basis of further joint steps”, stating that they were “probably still too early to talk about”.

The pair are due to speak again after the French president meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday. Mr. Putin said after the French leader’s talks in Kyiv, “we shall determine our own further steps”.

President Macron will then travel to Berlin for talks with the German chancellor and Polish President Andrzej Duda.

During a tense news conference in Moscow, Mr Putin repeated earlier warnings that should Ukraine join the Western military alliance Nato and attempt to take back Crimea – which Russia annexed eight years ago – Europe could get sucked into a major conflict.

“Do you want France to fight with Russia?” he asked French reporters. “That’s what will happen. And there will be no winners.”

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Fresh strike plans threaten Nigeria’s public universities

 A Nigerian university teachers’ union has said it is preparing for indefinite industrial action, which would hit the country’s already troubled tertiary sector.

If it goes ahead it would be the second strike in two years.

The last stoppage lasted for nine months, between March and December 2020.

It led to the loss of nearly one full academic session for the students.

The lecturers have accused the government of failing to implement agreements reached by the two parties over a year ago, concerning pay and conditions.

The president of the lecturers union, Prof Emmanuel Osadeke, told the BBC that the body was meeting next week to decide on industrial action.

Incessant strikes by teachers in public universities have forced many parents who can afford it, to send their children abroad or to private universities for studies.

Students at public universities are meanwhile left frustrated.

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Ugandan court refuses to release novelist’s passport

A Ugandan court has declined to release the passport of a novelist and critic of President Yoweri Museveni to allow him to seek treatment abroad after being allegedly tortured in detention.

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was arrested in December and charged with offensive communication for reportedly calling Mr Museveni’s son – the army General Muhoozi Kainerugaba – “obese”.

A chief magistrate said a medical report showed for Rukirabashaija there were local options for the writer’s treatment.

The European Union condemned the alleged torture and other rights abuses by the country’s security agencies.

“The arbitrary arrest of people by security services, holding them in ungazetted places of detention for prolonged periods of time, torturing them, not bringing them before a court within the mandatory time limits, are violations of Uganda’s national legislation, regional and international commitments as well as specific presidential guidelines,” the EU said in a statement.

It followed similar concerns raised by the US government over “recurring” rights abuses in Uganda.

The Ugandan government has faced many previous accusations of arrest and torture of individuals who are opposed to, or critical of, the administration.

President Museveni has in the past called for the denial of bail to suspects of capital offences – a move critics say was intended to stifle dissent and target critics for prolonged detention.

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