Port-au-Prince residents report heavy gunfire as Haiti opposition scrambles to form coalition against gangs
Haiti remained largely paralysed on Wednesday, with schools and businesses still closed amid heavy gunfire blamed on the gangs that control an estimated 80 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The country’s two biggest prisons were raided, resulting in the release of more than 4,000 inmates over the weekend.
UN says Haiti’s deteriorating security has compromised healthcare as government extends state of emergency
Authorities first announced a state of emergency on Sunday after fighting escalated, inmates were broken out of prison by armed gangs, and an estimated tens of thousands were displaced while Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Kenya, seeking its leadership of an international force intended to fight the gangs.
Eastern Africa coast of Indian Ocean draws in more foreign militaries as Iran considers buidling naval base at Port Sudan
Iran has meanwhile stationed a warship in the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden region, ostensibly to protect its own shipping interests. The Iranian Navy frigate IRIS Alborz has been deployed since early January to the Red Sea where having a neutral base in the region would have provided assistance with logistical and intelligence requirements.
UN peacekeepers in Kivu, eastern DR Congo, hand base to government as M23 rebels ramp up attacks
Kamanyola was staffed mainly by Pakistani military personnel in its 19 operational years with Keita thanking them for their dedication and excellent service. Pakistan is the second largest MONUSCO TCC behind India. Speaking at the Kamanyola handover, Keita noted the MONUSCO withdrawal from South Kivu was “not synonymous with the UN leaving the DRC”. She termed it “a reconfiguration” of the UN presence.
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels kill 10, run Congolese army out of Nyanzale town in eastern DRC
M23 controls about half of the North Kivu province, according to Richard Moncrieff, the Crisis Group’s Great Lakes Region director. The violence in the province has worsened in recent weeks as security forces battle the rebels. Residents have said the group’s fighter mostly launch attacks with bombs out of hills overlooking remote towns.
Drink-and-Drive: How Kenya’s ex-president signed away standard gauge railway deal with China without reading it
The SGR contract left no room for rescheduling of the loan of approximately Ksh400 billion ($3.8 billion). The government, it now emerges, had to sit down with unwilling Chinese government to insert a clause in the agreement that now allows for rescheduling of repayment or renegotiating the loan without ceding sovereignty.
Kenyan opposition politician vows fresh challenge to Haiti police deployment
Ekuru Aukot said the agreement between President William Ruto and Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was invalid and failed to address objections by the judge who blocked the deployment in January following a lawsuit by Aukot’s party.
Uganda’s lords of poverty: Where political elite find thrill in poverty for it earns them fat paycheques
Uganda has the largest percentage of the world’s freshwater resources, which are unfortunately being degraded by leaking chemicals and oil in them. Her freshwaters are naturally productive, but their productivity is in danger of plummeting due to unwise policies and use of the land and natural resources such as oil.
Haiti PM whereabouts fuzzy as he’s denied landing in Dominica, gangsters lord ‘orders’ him to stay away after visit to Kenya
Puerto Rico’s governor’s office confirmed Henry had landed in capital San Juan after reports from local media said the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, had earlier disallowed his plane to land.
South Sudanese scholars charged in US with planning to illegally export arms to Juba to overthrow government
A federal criminal complaint unsealed on Monday in Arizona charges Ajak and Abraham Chol Keech, 44, of Utah, with conspiring to purchase and illegally export through a third country to South Sudan a cache of weapons in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the Export Control Reform Act. The weapons that were considered included automatic rifles like AK-47s, grenade launchers, Stinger missile systems, hand grenades, sniper rifles, ammunition and other export-controlled arms.
