Category: General

A Botswana court has issued an arrest warrant for former President Ian Khama, who is facing 14 charges ranging from unlawful possession of firearms to money laundering.

Khama fled to neighboring South Africa a year ago, after a bitter fallout with his hand-picked successor, President Mokgweetsi Masisi.

Khama was formally charged in April but has yet to appear in court. The warrant said Khama should be arrested on sight.

Khama was officially charged in absentia in April 2022 but has not made a single court appearance.

The arrest warrant for Khama stems from charges of the illegal possession of firearms, a crime he allegedly committed in 2016.

But Khama, who led Botswana between 2008 and 2018, told VOA he is being persecuted for his opposition to Masisi, a former ally.

“This warrant is the latest in a long, long line of actions that Masisi and his regime have targeted me with in order to remove me from the scene as we go towards the 2024 [general] elections,” Khama said. “I have been and I will continue being more and more targeted in this manner because I remain the most constant voice condemning and exposing Masisi for the incompetent failure that he is.”

Khama said he will welcome any extradition request that will enable him to expose what he calls “fabrications” by the government but adds he will tread with caution.

“Am I prepared for the consequences? Well, as prepared as one can be,” he said. “Don’t forget that these people have tried on three separate occasions to poison me. So that is what one is up against. But at the end of the day, we can certainly not allow this rot, this cancer in our country, to continue.”

Khama quit the ruling Botswana Democratic Party in 2019 and is now a patron of the splinter Botswana Patriotic Front.

He has indicated he is ready to return home, without mentioning a specific date.

Piers Pigou, of the International Crisis Group for southern Africa, said it is important to ensure there is no interference in due process.

“Political disagreements are one thing. Manipulating institutions for partisan political purposes is something quite different,” Pigou said. “The arrest warrant dragging from a case in 2016 and employing it six years later is going to be seen as some kind of political targeting. The integrity of state institutions should be subject to greater scrutiny to help avoid this disagreement deepening further.”

The arrest warrant could allow Botswana to seek Khama’s extradition from South Africa.

Pigou said bringing the case to court could answer lingering questions.

“It could assess where the problem lies,” Pigou said, “whether there is merit in the case being put forward here or if indeed it appears to be a result of external pressure to manipulate a particular outcome.”

Khama was charged along with former intelligence boss Isaac Kgosi, suspended police commissioner Keabetswe Makgophe and Victor Paledi, a former senior government employee.

Under Botswana law, illegal possession of a firearm carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Source: Voice of America

Witnesses in the towns of Axum and Shire, in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, say some Eritrean forces withdrew Friday. It is unclear when the Eritrean troops will completely withdraw to their borders.

The withdrawal may ease fears of the Tigray rebel group, which has accused the forces of killing civilians and blocking aid.

The presence of Eritrean forces is seen as an obstacle to the enforcement of the peace agreement signed in South Africa in November between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Mulu Beyene is a Tigrayan living in Norway. This week, he connected with his mother and other relatives in the Tigray region after the restoration of telecommunication services. He said Eritrean forces need to leave the region.

“The fact that they began reportedly leaving some parts of Tigray is a welcome development; most importantly, it needs to be followed through all other towns and villages of Tigray, too,” he said.

Beyene spoke to relatives in Adwa town Friday. He said Eritrean forces, militias and government forces are in charge of the town, where abuses against the population continue.

“There are many types of military people around the town. People largely don’t know what has what mandate, because Eritrea seems to be in the vicinity of the town. Federal police are also holding some pockets of the town, and there are other military people from the Amhara region that come and go from time to time. Sometimes they arrest people and killings are reported from time to time,” he said.

Ethiopian federal forces and Eritrean forces captured Adwa in October after the Tigray rebel group suffered losses and withdrew.

A week later, the warring factions met in South Africa and agreed to end hostilities, attend to the population’s humanitarian needs, and restore services in the region.

This week, the groups agreed to form a joint monitoring team to oversee the cease-fire and follow up on the peace deal’s implementation.

Tigray rebel group spokesman Getachew Reda said government forces were taking positions previously occupied by their troops.

“We have done every effort on our part to make sure that all the heavy weapons that we have at our disposal for the monitors to monitor,” Reda said. “Of course, the battalion that is responsible has already moved into position and it clearly shows that, with a clear understanding between our two sides, that there is nothing that cannot be achieved.”

Tigray regional leaders have expressed concerns about the presence of foreign forces and other militia groups.

Ahmed Mohamed, the head of the Center for Security and Strategic Studies, said the mistrust between the warring factions will be there for some time, despite making progress in stopping the war.

“The only obstacle I see so far maybe is in the area of trust between the parties and between individuals having followed what they have gone through so far in the last year or so, and the damages have been done so far. The idea of that trust is what will be very paramount, but I am sure with what we have seen so far, with the engagement so far with parties agreeing and conforming to the agreement, that mistrust will go,” he said.

Mohamed said the federal government must deliver peace as Tigray accepts being under central government leadership.

“The biggest loser in the whole conflict is the Tigray people and the Tigray leaders and therefore, they were most affected,” he said. “They were badly hit and because of that, it’s fair that the federal government comes down, cools down, remains calm and delivers to their best of its ability to bring back normalcy in the Tigray region. In essence, the whole thing lies with the federal government.”

The two-year conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. The peace agreement has brought some normalcy to Tigray families that can now reconnect as the region comes out of a long stretch of isolation from the rest of the country.

Source: Voice of America

Arusha. The verification procedure may begin shortly, but Somalia’s admission to the East African Community (EAC) is likely to be difficult.

Although the Horn of Africa country may be on the verge of joining the union, issues about its eligibility remain.The EAC secretary general, Peter Mathuki, recently stated that a team of senior EAC technocrats will fly to Mogadishu next month to begin the mission.

The verification duty comprises analysing the country’s readiness to join the Community, which currently has seven partner states.

“A verification mission will be despatched to Mogadishu in January of next year,” he said when addressing newly elected regional lawmakers.

This, Dr Mathuki stressed, was one of the major tasks ahead of the organisation to widen and deepen the regional integration.

The EAC boss had already been there in October of this year during which he held discussions with Somalia leaders, including President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Generally, Somalia meets some criteria to become a member of the Community, including proximity to the current EAC.

Others are inter-dependence between it and the EAC partner states and its status of a market-driven economy.

Its potential contribution to the strengthening of the bloc is not likely to be much questioned being a trading neighbour.

However, the other key criteria will have much to do with the country’s current state of insecurity and governance.

The EAC Treaty says a foreign country intending to join the bloc must adhere to universally acceptable principles of good governance.

Adherence to democracy, the rule of law, and observance of human rights and social justice are all linked to this. That will largely await the EAC verification mission when they land at Aden Abdulle International Airport in Mogadishu next month.

However, the EAC boss is confident that the Horn of Africa country will meet all the criteria and join the bloc.

He banked this on DR Congo’s seamless admittance as the community’s seventh member state early this year.

Dr Mathuki said the expansion of the EAC was for the benefit of the people of the region and the economies of their countries.

EAC verification teams for the proposed new member states often consisted of at least three officials of the partner states with full membership.

In July, the EAC Summit of Heads of State unanimously agreed to admit Somalia as its eighth member state following its application to join the bloc some years back.

For its part, Somalia believes its entry into the community will boost the regional economy, especially in areas of the blue economy and cross border trade.

President Mohamud told the EAC delegation in October that his country was linked to Somalia through business and historical linkages.

However, regional observers in East Africa have often pointed to the state of insecurity in Somalia as one of the reasons which had delayed its admission into the EAC.

For the past three decades the country has gone through chaos, mainly attributed to deadly attacks by Al Shabaab militia within Somalia and in some East African states, notably Kenya and Uganda.

Source: Somali National News Agency

Mogadishu, The Speaker of the House of the People of the Federal Republic of Somalia, H.E Sheikh Adan Mohamed Noor (Madobe) held a meeting with the Presidential Candidates for the Southwest State seat at his residence.

The candidates and the Speaker agreed to work together and reconcile the South in order to find unity and cooperate in continuation of the liberation of the areas where the Al-Shabaab terrorists are hiding.

Source: Somali National News Agency

Mogadishu-The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism of the Federal Government of Somalia, H.E Daud Aweis Jama welcomed a delegation from Djibouti led by Minister of Youth and Culture Dr. Hibo Moumin Assoweh ahead President Ismael Omar Guelle who is expected to arrive tomorrow in Mogadishu.

The Minister is accompanied by former Djiboutian Ambassador to Somalia and the Cultural Adviser to the President of Djibouti, Mr. Adan Hassan Adan, Mohamed Duale, Director of Arab countries to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Jama Mohamed Hassan, President of the University of Djibouti.

Officials from the Djibouti Embassy in Somalia were part of welcoming party.

Minister Hibo held meeting with the Minister of Information of Somalia, Mr. Daoud Aweys Jama and discussed enhancing the cooperation on cultural awareness between the two sisterly countries.

Source: Somali National News Agency

Mogadishu, The National Consultative Forum between the Federal Government of Somalia and the Federal Member States got its second day at the Presidential Palace in Mogadishu.

The Leaders’ meeting focuses on National Security, Federalism, resource sharing and Judiciary issues, in particular, victories gained from the war on Al-Shabaab terrorists.

President Hassan Sh. Mohamud, Prime Minister, Hamza Abdi Barre, Presidents of Puntland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Southwest, Jubaland States and Governor of Benadir regional Administration are participating the NCF.

Source: Somali National News Agency

Mogadishu, The Minister of Planning, Investment and Economic Development of the Federal Government of Somalia, H.E Mohamud Abdirahman Sh. Farah (Beenebeene) held an important meeting with the Directors of the different departments of the Ministry, urging them to speed up the activities planned for the Ministry.

The meeting discussed the various functions and how to strengthen accountability. The meeting was attended by the Director General of the Ministries, the acting Director General of the ministry and the Director of Department of Monitoring, Evaluation and Sustainable Solutions, Mrs. Zahra Abdi Mohamed, the Directors of the various Departments of the Ministry of Planning and experts working at the Ministry.

The meeting that lasted for many hours was presented with the things that have been done for the past six months by the federal government agencies presented by the Department of Inspection and Evaluation and gathered from the government ministries, looking at the standards that have been completed and won, those that are still drafts and the various obstacles that caused some jobs to be unsuccessful.

On the other hand, the meeting analyzed the information about the donations that come to our country from international donors and the countries that support Somalia, and the way and process to take advantage of those opportunities, the existing challenges and strengthening the knowledge of government agencies at the executive level were discussed.

Source: Somali National News Agency

Mogadishu National Consultative forum has on Monday kicked off at Presidential Palace in Mogadishu and it is expected to focus on National Security, Federalism and Judiciary issues.

President Hassan Sh. Mohamud is chairing the forum in attendance with Prime Minister, Hamza Abdi Barre, Presidents of Puntland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Southwest, Jubaland States and Governor of Benadir regional Administration.

“Heads of the Federal Government and Federal members States will share updates on the National Security, in particular, the fight against the Al-Shabaab terrorists and Somali National Army’s successful operation that led liberation of many areas under Al-Shabaab before”, Presidency said in a statement after the opening of the forum.

This is the 4th consultative forum held in Mogadishu and Leaders are expected to review completion of the implementation of the communique of the 3rd NCF on September 12, 2022 according to the statement.

Source: Somali National News Agency