Sunday 19 May 2024 {HMC} The Democratic Republic of Congo army says it has quashed an attempted coup against President Felix Tshisekedi in the capital Kinshasa involving Congolese and foreign fighters.

DR Congo army spokesperson Brig Gen Sylavin Ekenge said on the state-run broadcaster RTNC TV that several suspects have been detained and the “situation is now under control”.

His statement comes hours after armed men attacked the house of Vital Kamerhe, the former chief of staff and close ally to President Tshisekedi early on Sunday morning.

Witnesses say a group of about 20 assailants in army uniform attacked the residence and an exchange of gunfire followed.

Two guards and an assailant were killed in the attack on Mr Kamerhe’s house, his spokesman and the Japanese ambassador said in posts on X.

The men also occupied the Palais de la Nation, the office of the President of the Republic which is located in the city centre, a place highly secured by the Republican Guard.

Japan’s ambassador in the Congolese capital has warned nationals not to go out.

President Tshisekedi has not made any public comment on the situation so far.

Local media reports said the assailants were members of the New Zaire Movement linked to formerly-exiled politician Christian Malanga.

The BBC has seen a video of Mr Malanga saying in Lingala, the local language: “We the military are tired, we cannot march together with Vital Kamerhe and President Félix Tshisekedi.”

President Tshisekedi was re-elected for a second term in the disputed elections last year in December. He won about 78% of the vote.

Nearly 20 people were killed in election-related violence in the run-up to the vote.

Congo is a country with vast mineral wealth and a huge population, but despite this life has not improved for most people, with conflict, corruption and poor governance persisting.

Much of the country’s natural resources lie in the east where violence still rages despite Mr Tshisekedi’s attempts to deal with the situation by imposing a state of siege, ceasefire deals and bringing in regional troops.

SOURCE BBC

Sunday 19 May 2024 {HMC}  South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma put on a show of strength in the historic township of Soweto as he campaigned for votes in the build-up to the 29 May general election.

Zulu warriors marched around Orlando Stadium with their spears and shields, men in camouflage sang and danced to revolutionary songs, while some of South Africa’s famous singers – including rapper Big Zulu – provided entertainment to the near capacity crowd at Saturday’s rally.

For Mr Zuma’s supporters a major coup was the presence of the man known as a disco king, Papa Penny.

Having announced his resignation from the governing African National Congress (ANC) last week, he has now joined the former president’s new party, uMkhonto weSizwe, which translates as Spear of the Nation.

“Unite Africa. Unite South Africa,” he said in a short address to the crowd, adding: “Phansi [Down with] tribalism.”

Mr Zuma’s supporters saw Papa Penny’s presence – he hails from the small Tsonga community – as significant as it challenged perceptions that the former president’s support only comes from his Zulu ethnic group, the biggest in South Africa.

But the star attraction at the rally was none other than the 82-year-old former president.

The crowd burst into chants of “Zuma, Zuma” as he walked into the stadium, while his increasingly influential daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, knelt in front of him and hugged him before he took his seat on the stage.

She serves on what is called the “national core” of the party, recently telling The Shady PHodcast: “My father is obviously the head, and I’m the neck.”

Mr Zuma’s decision to hold his biggest campaign rally in Soweto was significant because it is a stronghold of the ANC in South Africa’s economic heartland of Gauteng.

Soweto also has deep political symbolism as it was at the forefront of the struggle against the racist system of apartheid, which ended with the ANC’s rise to power in 1994.

But now, 30 years later, the ANC risks losing its outright majority as it faces a threat from Zuma’s breakaway party, as well as other opposition parties.

With this in mind, ANC leader and President Cyril Ramaphosa has been hard on the campaign trail in Mr Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Addressing voters on Saturday in Mandeni town, about 100km (62 miles) from the coastal city of Durban, Mr Ramaphosa said creating jobs was his priority, warning “small parties” like MK – the acronym by which Mr Zuma’s party is known – that they were looking down on the ANC at their peril.

“These small parties, the MK-what-what don’t really know us. They only know about us from the media. They will know us on 29 May,” he was quoted as saying by the News24 website.

Mr Ramaphosa ousted Mr Zuma as president in 2018 after a vicious power-struggle, culminating with the former president ditching the ANC last December and making a fresh bid for power under the banner of MK.

South Africa’s highest court is yet to rule on whether Mr Zuma can serve as a lawmaker in the next parliament. The electoral commission argues that the constitution bars anyone who was sentenced to more than 12 months in prison from doing so.

Mr Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in 2021 after being convicted of contempt of court for defying an order to appear before an inquiry investigating corruption during his presidency.

But his lawyers say he is entitled to become an MP as his sentence was reduced to three months after Mr Ramaphosa released him from prison in what widely seen as an attempt to placate the former president’s angry supporters.

Senior MK official Visvin Reddy told the BBC that he expected the court to give its ruling this coming week. Even if it went against their leader, MK would still contest the election, with Mr Zuma’s face remaining on the ballot paper, he said.

“We’ll go to parliament, change the constitution, and bring him in,” Mr Reddy added.

MK has set itself the target of winning a two-thirds majority in the election, though this appears to be an overly ambitious target. An Ipsos opinion poll released last month put the party’s support at only 8%.

And in a worrying sign for Mr Zuma, a large section of the crowd left before he finished his lengthy speech, which dwelt on political history.

While the Ipsos poll put the ANC’s support at 40% (down from the 57% it got in the 2019 election) the Social Research Foundation (SRF), which has been tracking polls on a daily basis, says the governing party has seen a surge in support in recent weeks as it steps up its campaign, the local City Press newspaper reports.

SRF head Frans Cronje said that if elections were held now, there was a likelihood that ANC could pass the 50% mark.

“According to our computer projection in the past four weeks, the ANC has been squeezing the life out of the opposition parties,” he is quoted as saying.

On the campaign trail in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Ramaphosa urged his party’s supporters to come out in large numbers to vote.

“If we win in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, then we’ve won because those provinces have the most people,” he was quoted as saying at the rally.

SOURCE BBC

Sunday 19 May 2024 {HMC} Kenyan lawyers have moved to block the country’s planned deployment of police to Haiti, a court filing showed, days before officers are expected to arrive in the Caribbean nation to tackle spiralling violence there.

The High Court on Friday ordered the lawsuit be served to top government officials and that the case be heard on June 12, it said in a statement.

Responding to Haiti’s appeal for assistance, Kenya offered last July to send 1,000 officers to Haiti to help tackle a worsening security crisis where escalating gang control has plunged millions into a humanitarian crisis.

However, Kenya’s High Court ruled in January that the police officers could not be deployed to Haiti in the absence of a “reciprocal arrangement” with the host government.
Kenyan President William Ruto then signed a security deal with Haiti’s then-prime minister Ariel Henry in March which Nairobi hoped would satisfy the court’s objections and allow the deployment to go ahead.

Lawyers Ekuru Aukot and Miruru Waweru, who lead an opposition party in Kenya called Thirdway Alliance, said in their application to the High Court on Thursday that respondents including Ruto and the police had blatantly disobeyed the court order in signing the reciprocal instrument with Haiti.

They said the government would be in contempt of court if it pressed ahead with the deployment.
“The applicants are reliably informed that the impugned deployment may be done any time from now,” the lawyers said in their application.

Ruto’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the application.

Kenya’s government said in March it was pausing the deployment following Henry’s resignation. But Ruto said later that the swearing-in of a transition council in Haiti on April 25 had addressed concerns about a power vacuum there and that Kenya was now discussing how to proceed with its deployment.

Last week, the U.S. military’s Southern Command said civilian contractors had arrived in Haiti to build living quarters for the Kenyan-led force.

Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Bangladesh have also pledged personnel to the force.

Foreign governments have been reluctant to take part in the mission. Many Haitians have also been wary of international interventions after previous U.N. missions left behind a devastating cholera epidemic and sex abuse scandals.

Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Hereward Holland, Clarence Fernandez and Gareth Jones.

SOURCE