Wednesday -1, May 2024 {HMC} Commander of the Somali National Army Brigadier General Ibrahim Sheikh Muhyadin met with Commander of the US Special Forces Colonel David Haskell.

The Somali news agency (SONNA) reported that during the meeting, ways to strengthen and support counter-terrorism efforts were discussed.

The Somali army Commander requested, during the meeting, the support of the US forces in a military operation that the Somali forces will soon carry out against the Al-Shabaab movement linked to Al-Qaeda, SONNA added.

SOURCE 

Wednesday -20, April 2024 {HMC} A first failed asylum seeker has gone to Rwanda under a voluntary removals programmed, it is understood.

Under the scheme, announced last month, migrants whose claims are rejected are offered up to £3,000 to move to the east African country.

It is separate to the forced returns scheme the government announced two years ago.

That scheme, which has been beset by delays, is due to begin by mid-July.

The Sun, which first reported the story, said the unnamed man was flown out of the UK on Monday on a commercial flight.

Officials would not be drawn on any details, other than to say the asylum seeker had exhausted all rights to be in the UK.

The Rwandan government confirmed that a failed asylum seeker arrived on Tuesday on a flight from London.

Labour said the move showed ministers were “desperate” to get a flight off to Rwanda before Thursday’s local elections in England.

The scheme announced in March is understood to be a variation of an existing voluntary returns scheme for failed asylum seekers.

The scheme will also be opened up to other people with no right to remain in the UK, and foreign criminals.

The Home Office says payments under the current scheme “can pay for” temporary accommodation in the destination country, or education costs, or the cost of setting up a business.

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch suggested the fact someone had volunteered to go to Rwanda undermined the argument that it was not a safe country.

In response to criticism of the £3,000 paid for relocation, she told Sky News there was no “cost-free option” for border control.

According to official statistics, 19,253 people with no right to remain in the UK were voluntarily removed from the UK last year.

Of these, 3,319 received a “reintegration package” or flights paid by the Home Office.

Jacqueline McKenzie, partner and head of immigration at Leigh Day solicitors, said she was aware from contacts that many people had recently been offered this package to go to Rwanda, including some very vulnerable individuals.

“I am surprised, given the amount of calls that have been made, that more people haven’t gone, if it’s a good idea,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programmed.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called news of the voluntary return a “pre-election gimmick,” adding taxpayers were “forking out £3,000 for a volunteer to board a plane”.

“The Tories are so desperate to get any flight off to Rwanda before the local elections that they have now just paid someone to go,” she added.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the individual went to Rwanda under “an old scheme”, which “won’t stop the boats”.

“They’ve had to pay someone £3,000. There’s a suspicion out there that this is about an election – it’s not about seriously stopping the boats,” he said, in a reference to the local elections taking place in England on Thursday.

“Liberal Democrats believe this scheme is extremely expensive and won’t actually work,” he added.

It comes after the Home Office confirmed Rwanda had agreed to accept an initial cohort of 5,700 asylum seekers under the separate forced returns scheme.

The scheme – which the government argues will deter future migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats – has been dogged by legal delays.

However, it is finally set to begin in the summer, after legislation to override a Supreme Court ruling entered into force earlier this month.

The Home Office has said 2,143 asylum seekers can immediately be located for detention in the run-up to their flights, as they are reporting to the department.

It has denied losing track of the remaining 3,557, who are subject to a range of different monitoring requirements.

Downing Street insisted on Tuesday it remained confident of their whereabouts, after the figures became public as part of a policy document.

However, a government source admitted it was possible some could abscond before they were detained.

SOURCE BBC

Wednesday -29, April 2024 {HMC} Botswana’s diamond trade is on the rise despite industry uncertainty over efforts to sanction Russian stones. De Beers has relocated its auctions headquarters from Singapore to Botswana, while the secretariat of the Kimberley Process, a trade regime that certifies rough diamond exports to eliminate trade in conflict gems, also moved to the African nation.

De Beers, which has a long-standing sales agreement with Botswana, sells 10 percent of its diamonds through auctions.

De Beers’ Executive Vice President Paul Rowley said the relocation of its auctions office is part of an effort to streamline its business operations and facilitate the further development of Botswana’s diamond sector.

“The auction platform coming across, it will bring some additional customers and also auction sales will also enable us sell to small players and perhaps some Botswana nationals will be able to register and engage in that platform. That will be very exciting from that perspective,” he said.

The relocation comes as the diamond industry reels from effects of a traceability initiative introduced by the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries, or G7, in a bid to sanction Russian diamonds.

Under the arrangement, all diamonds entering G7 markets are routed through Antwerp, Belgium, to ascertain their origin.

The tracking system, however, has caused disruptions to the supply chain, according to Rowley.

“Obviously there have been the G7 issues in the past few months. We continue to work closely with the G7 and try to find a solution that works for the industry as well as for the G7. We obviously all support [Russian] sanctions; it’s absolutely understandable. What we are concerned about are the unintended consequences of perhaps having a single node, which we think is very inappropriate,” he said.

The relocation of De Beers’ auctions office coincides with the Kimberley Process secretariat commencing its operations in Botswana.

The Kimberley Process is a global initiative by the diamond industry to eliminate trade in conflict gems.

In mid-May, the Kimberley Process will hold its intersessional meeting in Dubai, where the G7’s tracking system is expected to come under intense debate.

The G7 countries and Russia are all members of the Kimberley Process.

World Diamond Council President Feriel Zerouki told VOA that the G7 traceability scheme needs to be reviewed.

“The WDC believes that mechanisms for assuring a diamond’s provenance should be efficient, effective and equitable. However, we don’t believe that the approach of a single Antwerp entry point meets this test. Antwerp is not the source of any diamonds, so it’s basically not the best place to certify where a diamond has originated from,” she said.

Botswana’s minister of minerals, Lefoko Moagi, meanwhile, hailed the establishment of the Kimberley Process secretariat in Gaborone.

“The Kimberley Process is an international and multi-stakeholder organization whereby we aim to increase ethical conduct in diamond trade and to prevent conflict diamonds from entering legitimate trade in rough diamonds. Therefore, this is very key for us; we will protect our diamonds with everything that we have,” said Moagi.

Botswana is the world’s second-largest producer of diamonds after Russia and is leading calls for the G7 traceability initiative to be revised.

SOURCE VOA

Wednesday -1, May 2024 {HMC} Kenyan President William Ruto on Tuesday deployed the military to evacuate everyone living in flood-prone areas in a nation where 171 people have been killed since March by torrential rains.

Seasonal rains, amplified by the El Nino weather pattern, have devastated the East African nation, with floodwaters engulfing villages and threatening to unleash even more damage in the weeks to come.

In the worst incident, which killed nearly 50 villagers, a makeshift dam burst in the Rift Valley before dawn Monday, sending a torrent of water and mud gushing down a hill and swallowing everything in its path.

The tragedy in Kamuchiri village, Nakuru county, was the deadliest episode in the country since the start of the March-May rainy season.

Ruto, who visited the victims of the Kamuchiri deluge after chairing a Cabinet meeting in Nairobi, said his government had drawn up a map of neighborhoods at risk of flooding.

“The military has been mobilized, the national youth service has been mobilized, all security agencies have been mobilized to assist citizens in such areas to evacuate to avoid any dangers of loss of lives,” he said.

People living in the affected areas will have 48 hours to move, he said.

“The forecast is that rain is going to continue, and the likelihood of flooding and people losing lives is real. Therefore, we must take preemptive action,” Ruto said.

“It is not a time for guesswork, we are better off safe than sorry.”

The Kamuchiri disaster — which killed at least 48 people dead — cut off a road, uprooted trees and destroyed homes and vehicles. Some 26 people were hospitalized, Ruto said, with fears the death toll could rise as search and rescue operations continued.

The Cabinet warned that two dams — Masinga and Kiambere — both less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of the capital, had “reached historic highs,” portending disaster for those downstream.

“While the government encourages voluntary evacuation, all those who remain within the areas affected by the directive will be relocated forcibly in the interest of their safety,” a statement said.

Monday’s tragedy came six years after a dam accident at Solai, also in Nakuru county, killed 48 people, sending millions of liters of muddy water raging through homes and destroying power lines.

The May 2018 disaster involving a private reservoir on a coffee estate also followed weeks of torrential rains that sparked deadly floods and mudslides.

Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused Ruto’s government of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings, demanding that it declare the floods a national disaster.

Kenya’s main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, said Tuesday the authorities had failed to make “advance contingency plans” for the extreme weather.

“The government has been talking big on climate change, yet when the menace comes in full force, we have been caught unprepared,” he said. “We have therefore been reduced to planning, searching and rescuing at the same time.”

Environment Minister Soipan Tuya told a press briefing in Nairobi that the government was stepping up efforts to be better prepared for such events.

“We continue to focus on the need to invest in early warning systems that prepare our population — days, weeks and months ahead of extreme weather events, such as the heavy rainfall we’re experiencing.”

The international community, including the United Nations and African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat, have sent condolences and pledged solidarity with the affected families.

The weather has also left a trail of destruction in neighboring Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding and landslides.

Late last year, more than 300 people died in rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, leading to drought in some parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere.

SOURCE VOA

Wednesday 1, May 2024 {HMC} Tanzania and Kenya have successfully resolved a longstanding dispute over the export of poultry and poultry products between the two countries, the East African Community (EAC) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The statement said the dispute was resolved during a two-day consultative meeting held at the EAC headquarters in Tanzania’s northern city of Arusha that ended on Tuesday.

Rabson Wanjala, the co-chair of the meeting from Kenya who represented the Kenyan High Commissioner to Tanzania, said both countries are committed to fostering trade relations, adding that their commitments underscore the importance of collaborative efforts to ensure increased trade in the region.

Benezeth Lutege Malinda, acting director of veterinary services in Tanzania’s Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, said Tanzania is actively addressing trade obstacles by ensuring that all trade-facilitating agencies focus on resolving issues, particularly non-tariff barriers, that hinder trade.
“We remain committed to tackling these challenges and fostering an environment conducive to seamless trade between Kenya and Tanzania,” he said.

The meeting brought together veterinary authorities from both countries to resolve the ban on the export of poultry and poultry products from Kenya to Tanzania.

Kenya has historically been a significant exporter of poultry and poultry-related products to Tanzania, including day-old chicks, hatching eggs, parent stock and processed poultry items, said the statement.

According to the statement, Tanzania imposed a ban on poultry imports from Kenya in 2021 due to the global outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a ban that severely impacted Kenya’s poultry industry, hindering access to a vital market.

Source: The East African