As Sudan burns foreign powers, including UAE, reap big from precious minerals and agriculture
Gold has been one of the main drivers of the Sudan conflict. It allows both parties to fuel their war machines. The UAE is the main beneficiary of this trade. It receives nearly all the gold smuggled from Sudan and has become a hub for laundering trafficked gold into the global market. The latest available statistics show that, officially, the UAE imported precious metals from Sudan valued at about $2.3 billion in 2022.
Kenya’s impeached deputy president accuses President Ruto of attempts to assassinate him via compromised food, drinks
Police spokeswoman Resila Onyango declined to make an immediate comment and said she would make inquiries about Rigathi Gachagua’s statement on the security protection. Ruto’s spokesperson said they would comment later.
Investigation: How Ethiopian authorities submit lists of 100,000 fake names, which they use to steal relief food
Some aid recipients in Ethiopia said they do sometimes sell some of their food rations, but out of desperation. “I got aid because I have health conditions,” said Leelity Gebreegizabher, a single mother of two in a camp in the town of Shire. “A local official helped me to get 15 kilos of food so that I could sell some of it to buy medicine.”
Investigation: WFP, US, state and military officials massive implicated in theft of relief food as hundreds of starving Ethiopians died in Tigray region
Some US officials privately accuse the UN food body of being untrustworthy. An internal WFP investigative report cites a May 2023 cable from Washington’s top US diplomat in Ethiopia at the time: “The scale and depth of diversion” in areas where the WFP managed food relief “calls into question WFP’s ability to be a faithful and principled” partner for distributing food in Ethiopia.
Rwanda accused of trying to shrug off ‘sportswashing’ by touting economic outcomes
Rwanda President Paul Kagame has built a close working relationship with Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, which has opened an office in Rwanda and held its annual meeting there last year. Now he is taking the biggest step yet in his ambition to transform the country into a global sporting power, with F1 executives confirming that they are in exploratory talks with Kagame’s government about a possible Rwandan Grand Prix.
Bionetwork: Environmental neglect in Uganda sets off ruthless rejection of humans by Nature
The Uganda government’s refocusing on Indians as the engine of economic development and on the Chinese as the source of foreign financing of development projects, simultaneously with building a refugee economy is threatening the natural belonging of Ugandans.
Court stops President Ruto from replacing impeached deputy president to hear petition
The high court in the capital Nairobi said Kindiki’s appointment as deputy president and the Senate’s resolution upholding impeachment charges against Gachagua were suspended until October 24, when a bench of judges appointed by the chief justice will debate the issue.
Kenya turns to starlicide to check soarig numbers of Indian crows as native birds count declines
Since being deployed, the starlicide has killed around 200 crows in a month in the coastal town of Watamu, said Eric Kinoti, a crow control officer at A Rocha Kenya.
Hours after senate impeaches deputy president, Kenya’s president nominates interior minister to replace him
Prof Kithure Kindiki, a close ally of Ruto, has held the interior ministry post throughout Ruto’s two years as president.
Kenya senate impeaches deputy president to set East African nation on course to ethnic tensions
Rigathi Gachagua, who has denied the allegations, had been due to defend himself against the charges in the Senate on Thursday afternoon ahead of the vote. When he failed to show up, his lawyer Paul Muite said the deputy president had been hospitalised with intense chest pains, urging the Senate to pause proceedings for a couple of days.
