Month: June 2022

KHARTOUM — Sudan decided to file a formal complaint to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) against Ethiopia over “the killing of seven Sudanese soldiers and a citizen held as captives.”

Sudanese Foreign Ministry also decided to immediately recall its ambassador to Ethiopia for consultations, and to summon the Ethiopian ambassador in Khartoum to inform him of Sudan’s condemnation.

In a statement, the ministry condemns “in the strongest terms the heinous crime committed by the Ethiopian army, which violates all principles of international humanitarian law, by killing seven Sudanese soldiers and a civilian after they were kidnapped from inside the Sudanese territory.”

“The ministry embarked on filing a formal complaint to the UN Security Council and the concerned international and regional organizations,” it added.

On Sunday, the Sudanese Armed Forces said the Ethiopian army “executed” seven Sudanese soldiers and a citizen who were held captive, which Ethiopia denied.

The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter that the incident taking place on the “common border” with Sudan on June 22 was a “tragedy,” adding it was the result of skirmishes between the Sudanese army and “a local militia.”

Since September 2020, the Sudan-Ethiopia border has been witnessing rising tensions and deadly skirmishes between the two sides.

Sudan has accused the Ethiopian military of backing the farmers’ seizure of Sudanese lands at the disputed Fashaga district on its border with Ethiopia.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

JUBA— Twenty-five people in South Sudan were killed when soldiers faced off with suspected cattle rustlers in a northwest state plagued by ethnic conflict, an official said.

The attack occurred at the weekend in a village in Tonj North County in Warrap state, Warrap state information minister Ring Deng said Monday.

The government had sent its forces to recover stolen cattle when they came under fire, he said.

Eighteen soldiers and seven civilians died, he said, adding that many soldiers were still missing.

“I condemn this… I am urging all the civilians wherever they are listening to talk to their people so they should not see the government as their enemy.”

Local MP Mawien Dhor Ariik said the violence may have stemmed from a “leadership vacuum” after the government suspended the region’s county commissioner this month over deteriorating security.

Warrap State, and particularly Tonj North County, has been the scene of bloody clashes in recent years between government forces and young armed civilians.

In August 2020, at least 127 people died in clashes between soldiers and youths from a local community, the Gelweng, who refused to be disarmed.

The young nation of 11 million is struggling to recover from a civil war and an entrenched economic and political crisis.

The five-year conflict, which pitted now-President Salva Kiir against his rival and current Vice President Riek Machar, killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions from their homes.

A 2018 ceasefire and power-sharing deal between Kiir and Machar still largely holds but little progress has been made in implementing its provisions.

The UN warned earlier this year that the country risks a return to conflict.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

EAST LONDON (South Africa)— South African police were combing a township tavern where 21 teenagers mysteriously died as survivors described a battle to escape the jam-packed premises and one reported a suffocating smell.

Officials have ruled out a stampede as the cause of the deaths.

Most of the victims, some as young as 13, were found dead inside a popular bar in the southern coastal city of East London.

Seventeen died inside the bar, while four died later in hospital. The victims included 13 boys and eight girls.

Thirty-one others were hospitalised with symptoms including backache, tight chests, vomiting and headache, officials said.

Most were discharged on Sunday, leaving two in hospital, they said.

The fatalities bore no visible signs of injury, sparking initial speculation among local officials and politicians that this was a case of underage drinking that had gone tragically wrong.

“But the suspicion is that it is something either they ingested through drinks, food, or something they inhaled,” Unathi Binqose, a government official on safety, said.

Politicians expressed their shock at the deaths.

“It has never happened that our country loses children in this manner,” Elleck Nchabeleng, who chairs the parliamentary committee on education and technology, sports, arts and culture.

“This unfortunate and unprecedented incident underscores the importance of vigilance from parents.”

But new details emerged Monday as survivors spoke of a strong and suffocating smell in the jam-packed double-storey building.

Sinovuyo Monyane, 19, who was hired by the bar to promote an alcohol brand, said she was still “confused” but felt lucky to be alive.

She said she struggled to escape through a door gridlocked with people.

“We tried moving through the crowd, shouting ‘please let us through,’ and others were shouting ‘we are dying, guys,’ and ‘we are suffocating’ and ‘there are people who can’t breathe’,” she said.

“I passed out at that moment. I was running out of breath and there was a strong smell of some type of spray on in the air. We thought it was pepper spray,” she said.

She later regained consciousness after someone sprayed water on her.

“I got up and realised that there were bodies lying around. I saw people being poured water, but those people did not even move,” she said in a phone interview.

“I could have died.”

A member of staff at the bar, Sifiso Promise Matinise, said he sprinkled water on the unconscious people to revive them, thinking they were drunk, before realising what had happened.

“I saw two people collapse, they died,” he said.

Special investigators from Pretoria have been rushed to the scene but no arrests have been made so far.

“The investigators continue to search for possible clues and answers at Enyobeni Tavern,” regional police spokesman Thembinkosi Kinana said.

Many of the victims are thought to have been students celebrating the end of their high-school exams, officials said.

Autopsies are being conducted to see if the deaths could be linked to poisoning.

Forensic analysis will be conducted this week.

“Samples were taken and were on (the) first flight today to Cape Town, where the tests will be conducted,” said Binqose.

Drinking in South Africa is permitted for over-18s.

But in township taverns which are often located cheek-by-jowl with family homes, safety regulations and drinking-age laws are not always enforced.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is among those who have voiced concern.

The teenagers reportedly “gathered at a venue which, on the face of it, should be off-limits to persons under the age of 18”, he said.

A resident DJ, Luhlemela Ulana, who was also celebrating his birthday on the night, spoke of a rush of revellers who forced their way into an already packed venue.

“We tried to close the door, but people kept pushing. The bouncers could not handle the crowd that was pushing from outside the entrance door. There were so many people,” the DJ said.

He turned off the music to try to discourage the revellers, but to no avail.

The crowd was just “unruly and could not be managed”, he said, adding he was “traumatised”.

About 100 mourners attended an emotional prayer service at the Assemblies of God church in the Scenery Park township, where local municipal councillor Monica Goci broke down on the pulpit with a microphone in her hand.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

BLANTYRE— A Malawi court sentenced a Catholic priest to 30 years and several other people to life in prison over the gruesome 2018 murder of a man with albinism.

Judge Dorothy NyaKaunda Kamanga said Thomas Muhosha had planned to traffic 22-year-old MacDonald Masambuka’s tissue.

“The offence was motivated by the disability of the deceased, that of albinism,” she said in a Monday ruling handed down in the city of Blantyre.

She said the priest, who led a parish in Machinga, 100 kilometres northeast of Blantyre, had breached the trust many had placed in him.

Five other suspects were handed life sentences. One of the five was the victim’s brother.

The killing occurred at the height of a spree that saw over 40 people with albinism murdered and scores of others assaulted.

“The convicts took advantage of the deceased’s psychological need for love,” the judge said.

“They lured him into believing that they had found a prospective wife for him and that they should go and meet her — that ended up being his death trap.”

A total of 12 people were handed various sentences over the killing.

From 2014 Malawi suffered a wave of assaults against albinos, whose body parts were used in witchcraft rituals in the superstitious belief that they brought wealth and luck.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK