Former UN Secretary to address Nigeria Civil societies

Kofi Annan,Chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, is to visit Nigeria from January 12 to 14 2015 to address a conference on the February elections. The conference is being organized by a coalition of Nigerian civil society organisations.

Mr. Annan will deliver the keynote address at the conference, to be held on Tuesday, January 13 in Abuja, based on his work as chairman of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security and the findings and recommendations of its report, Deepening Democracy: A Strategy for Improving the Integrity of Elections Worldwide.

Mr. Annan will meet with a broad range of Nigeria’s civil society organisations, as well as engage the audience in a question and answer session. He will also be meeting privately with various national stakeholders engaged in the electoral process.

Nigeria's military looking for support in battle against Boko Haram

Nigeria's military has called for support in tackling Boko Haram after a major attack on a key northeast town that is feared could be the worst in the bloody six-year insurgency.
There are still no independently corroborated figures for the huge numbers said to have been killed in Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad in the far north of Borno State.
But defence spokesperson Chris Olukolade said in a statement issued late on Saturday that the description of the assault as "the deadliest" was "quite valid".
 
 
"The attack on the town by the bloodhounds and their activities since January 3rd, 2015 should convince well-meaning people all over the world that Boko Haram is the evil all must collaborate to end, rather than vilifying those working to check them," he said.

Ethopian Cargo plane crash landed in Ghana yesterday

An Ethiopian Cargo plane from Lome is said to have crash-landed at the Kotoka International Airport. The plane in the process of landing skidded off the runaway around 11:00 am yesterday Joy Business' George Wiafe reported. Three crew members on board the air craft have been injured and taken to hospital. It is not clear yet the severity of the injuries.

It is unclear what may have caused the accident even though airport officials suspect bad weather. Officials of fire service, police and other security agencies have arrived at the scene of the accident and have begun investigations to ascertain the cause of the accident.
The incident  has left a number of passengers at the airport traumatised. This is not the first time a plane has skidded off the runway at the KIA.

In 2012, a Nigerian Cargo plane skidded off the tarmac and run into a passenger vehicle killing about ten passengers.

Full statement by the Ghana Airports Company Limited

Girl as young as 10 may have been used in yesterday's suicide bombing in Northern Nigeria

There was heavy explosion at the popular Maiduguri Monday Market thisyesterday at about 12.40pm.

A thunderous sound was heard across Maiduguri even as there are fears many people might have been killed or injured.
The incident happened along One Way, a popular road at the market where two female suicide bombers killed many people on two separate occasions last year.
Hundreds of people were seen going out of the market, traders locking their shops while humanitarian agencies, such as Red Cross and NEMA were seen at the scene.
Witnesses said the bomb blast was perpetrated by a ten year old suicide bomber.
A youth vigilante who was near the scene said the girl detonated her explosive in the midst of people.
"The girl is about ten years old...the bomb tore her body into two and flung the lower part across buildings and fell near the highway. It also killed many people while decapitated bodies litter the scene," he said.

Zambian presidential candidate ready to undergo medical tests after two previous presidents die in office

 

 Edgar Lungu (l) is Zambia's justice and defence minister and a frontrunner in the presidential election

Zambian presidential candidate Edgar Lungu is ready to take medical tests to show he is physically fit for office, his spokesman has told the BBC.

He said Mr Lungu, who is standing for the governing Patriotic Front (PF), "enjoys good health".
The spokesman said concerns about Mr Lungu's health had been raised by opponents as a "campaign tactic". 
Two Zambian presidents, Levy Mwanawasa and Michael Sata, have died in office in the past seven years.
Zambian voters will go to the polls on 20 January to elect a permanent successor to Mr Sata, who died in October last year.

Rebels in CAR want $5m from the US for capturing Ugandan fugitive

                                                       Seleka rebels control parts of northern Central African Republic where the LRA has been active

Seleka rebels in the Central Africa Republic (CAR) say they should get a reward for capturing a Ugandan militia leader wanted for war crimes. Dominic Ongwen, a senior commander in the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), was taken into US custody this week. The US had offered up to $5m (£3.3m) as a reward for information leading to his arrest, transfer or conviction.

Ebony TV boss Mo Abudu named as one of Forbes Africa Magazine's most successful Women

Mo Abudu, a 50 year-old Nigerian media entrepreneur and talk show host, is the founder of Ebony Life TV, a fast-growing black African multi-broadcast entertainment network, which showcases informative and entertaining programmes that portray Africa at its best. Abudu, who has been described by international news outlets as ‘Africa’s Africa’, is keen in her resolve to rewrite Africa’s story. 

Yaya Toure named African Footballer of the Year for the fourth years in a row

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has become the first player to be named Confederation of African Football African Footballer of the Year four years in a row.
Toure, 31, was nominated after playing a pivotal role in winning the Premier League and League Cup. 

He also helped Ivory Coast qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.Toure beat off the challenge of Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. 

UN inquiry has ruled out genocide in Central African Rebublic's ethnic cleansing

Christian militia in Central African Republic have carried out ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population during the country's ongoing civil war, but there is no proof there was genocidal intent, a United Nations commission of inquiry has determined.

The final report of the inquiry, which was submitted to the U.N. Security Council on Dec. 19, said up to 6,000 people had been killed though it "considers that such estimates fail to capture the full magnitude of the killings that occurred."

The mostly Christian or animist "anti-balaka" militia took up arms in 2013 in response to months of looting and killing by mostly Muslim Seleka rebels who had toppled President Francois Bozize and seized power in March the same year.

US hands over top rebel leader to CAR and Uganda

The UPDF has said it has positively identified the man who surrendered to Seleka rebels as Maj Gen Dominic Ongwen, one of the notorious commanders of the LRA.


Major Gen Dominic Ongwen was operating in the CAR.

Gen Ongwen, who had been in the hands of the US Special Forces since Tuesday has been handed over to UPDF troops in Central African Republic (CAR).

"He [Gen Ongwen] is with us now and consultations between the government of Uganda, the African Union, United Nations and the International Criminal Court are ongoing for the way forward on his future," Lt Col Paddy Ankunda, the UPDF spokesperson said yesterday. "His surrender puts the LRA in the most vulnerable position," he added.

Four Muslim clerics go missing in Ugandan capital

                                                                         Two Ugandan clerics were killed in December in drive-by shootings
 

Four Muslim clerics in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, have gone missing after being picked up by unidentified men, a community leader says.

The head of Uganda's Muslim Tabliq sect told the BBC they were "kidnapped" from their homes or places of work. The police have yet to investigate as they had not been officially reported missing, a spokesperson told the BBC.
 
It is not clear if the disappearances are linked to the shooting of two Muslim clerics in December. One was the head of Uganda's Shia community, who was gunned down in eastern Uganda by people on motorbikes on 25 December, the other was a Tabliq leader shot in his car on 28 December in Kampala.

Bodies remain on the streets of town ravaged by Boko haram in Northern Nigeria

                                                         Boko Haram controls large swathes of territory in north-eastern Nigeria
 

Bodies lay strewn on the streets of a key north-eastern Nigerian town following an assault by militant Islamists, officials have told the BBC.

The Boko Haram group attacked Baga town on Wednesday, after over-running a military base there on Saturday, they said.
Almost the entire town had been torched and the militants were now raiding nearby areas, they added. 
Nigerian lawmaker Maina Maaji Lawan said Boko Haram controlled 70% of Borno state, which is worst-affected by the insurgency.
Musa Alhaji Bukar, a senior government official in the area, said that fleeing residents told him that Baga, which had a population of about 10,000, was now "virtually non-existent".
"It has been burnt down," he told the BBC Hausa service. 

Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their Namibian wildlife support

American film stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have continued supporting a Namibian private wildlife sanctuary with a new enclosure for endangered cheetah the latest donation, the sanctuary said on Monday.

"Five of your seven magnificent cheetahs are strolling into their new seven-hectare enclosure, purring their appreciation for the Jolie-Pitts," the Naankuse Foundation said in a newsletter.

Boko haram issues threats on Cameroon

A man purporting to be the leader of Nigerian militant sect Boko Haram has threatened to step up violence in neighbouring Cameroon unless it scraps its constitution and embraces Islam.

The video posted online this week shows a man who looks like the group's head, Abubakar Shekau, but is filmed from a distance at different angles.

Chinese firm set to build "New York of Africa" in South African city

Construction has started on a new Chinese-financed R84bn city in Modderfontein, Gauteng, The Star reported on Thursday.

Work on the first set of 300 residential units and some of the roads is reportedly already under way.
Chinese firm Shanghai Zendai acquired 1 600 hectares of land in Modderfontein in 2013 to build the city.

Academic tourism and university education in Africa

There has been a rise in the number of Africans looking for Secondary and post-secondary education outside their home country. Children as young as ten years of age are sent in search  of knowledge to nations far away from home. 
 
Hopeful students line up outside Unisa s Sunnyside campus in Pretoria. Photo: Phill Magakoe
 
The Ghanian and South African Universities seem to be on high demand in the continent which has seen an increase in the number of overcrowded universities as well as a increase in the fees charged making education less affordable to the locals.

All female team from Ghana's Army take over guard duties at the presidency

 

An all female contingent from the Ghana Army Forces has taken over guard duties at the Flagstaff house.

The change in guard, the first for 2015 coincided with the second anniversary of President John Mahama's term in office.

Islamists kill five in Mali

The Malian government has sent reinforcement to the border town of Nampala, about 550 kilometres north of the capital, Bamako following a raid by Islamist militants on January 5, 2015 that led to the killing of at least five people. A military source at the United Nations mission in Mali put the number of deaths at five and said the identity of people killed had not been confirmed, stating that they were all "wearing military fatigues," BBC reported.

The militants, witnesses reportedly told BBC opened fire on soldiers after arriving in pick-up trucks, while other reports said they came on motorbike and on foot. Controversy surrounds the intervention of the Malian military as one report said, soldiers fled the attack and another one said troops fought back and clashes last several hours. They were also conflicting reports on the subsequent eviction or not of the militants from the town.

The attack came less than a month after Mali confirmed it had freed four Islamist militants in exchange for the release of a French hostage, Serge Lazarevic who was seized by armed men in Mali in 2011 and had been the last French hostage in the region being held by al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The Islamist militants have been fighting the Malian army for a number of years. BBC reported that the latest phase of the insurgency began after a French-led military intervention in January 2013. The intervention was aimed at driving out Islamist militants from towns they had seized in northern Mali and declared to be an "Islamic State". The French military action dispersed but did not destroy the extremists and sporadic attacks have continued.

South African Church set to translate the Bible into Zulu

                                                             It is expected to take 10 years to complete the translation

South Africa's Roman Catholic Church has welcomed a donation of about $40,000 (£26,000) by President Jacob Zuma to translate the Bible directly from Hebrew and Greek into isiZulu. Current translations lacked the "idiom and music" of isiZulu, Bishop Mlungisi Pius Dlungwane told the BBC.

Tunisian blogger faces jail for Facebook posts

A Tunisian blogger has been imprisoned after the Tunis military court sentenced him to a three-year term for "defaming the army" and "insulting military high command" through Facebook posts.
 
Authorities arrested Yassine Ayari upon his arrival at Tunis-Carthage airport from France on December 24, 2014. On December 25, he appeared before a military judge who informed him that a military court had convicted him in absentia on November 18. In another trial on November 18, the same military court sentenced in absentia Sahbi Jouini, a police union leader, to two years in prison under the same article of the military justice code concerning defamation.