Author: Database of Press Releases related to Africa

BANGUI, Central African Republic, March 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic (MISCA) welcomes the signing, on 13 March 2014, by the Head of State of the Transition,…

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — South Africa must take urgent steps to proactively investigate and prosecute foreign bribery. No foreign bribery cases have been prosecuted since South Africa joined the Convention in 2007. The 4 on-going investigations – out of only 10 allegations that have surfaced to date – are also far from reaching the prosecution stage, according to a new report by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.

The need for enforcement is imperative, especially as South African companies are increasingly operating abroad, often in sectors with a high risk of foreign bribery. There are also serious concerns that prosecutions may be hampered by political and economic considerations.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery has just completed its report on South Africa’s implementation of the Convention of Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and related instruments. Recommendations made by the Group to improve South Africa’s fight against foreign bribery, include:

• Significantly increase its efforts to proactively detect, investigate and prosecute foreign bribery;

• Ensure that national economic interests and the identities of the natural or legal persons involved do not influence the investigation or prosecution of foreign bribery cases;

• Increase the financial resources available to law enforcement authorities and ensuring enhanced cooperation and coordination between the police and prosecutors;

• Urgently ensure and raise awareness that people who report suspected acts of foreign bribery are in practice afforded the protections guaranteed by the law, including those in the auditing profession.

The report also highlighted positive aspects of South Africa’s efforts to fight foreign bribery. South Africa has a well-drafted foreign bribery offence and a broad and flexible corporate liability regime. The Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA) allows for the broad use of freezing orders and confiscation measures. Steps have also been taken to encourage publicly-listed and state-owned enterprises to strengthen internal controls, ethics and compliance measures for the purpose of preventing and detecting foreign bribery, including through the establishment of social and ethics committees.

The Working Group on Bribery – made up of the 34 OECD Member countries plus Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Latvia, Russia and South Africa – adopted South Africa’s report in its third phase of monitoring implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

The Report, available at www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/SouthAfricaPhase3ReportEN.pdf, lists all of the recommendations of the Working Group to South Africa on pages 68 – 74, and includes an overview of recent enforcement actions and specific legal, policy and institutional features of South Africa’s framework for fighting foreign bribery. The report recommends a written follow-up report by South Africa in six months on progress made in (i) pro-actively investigating and prosecuting foreign bribery; (ii) ensuring that investigations and prosecution are not influenced by political and economic considerations; (iii) ensuring, and raising awareness of, protection for whistleblowers, and; (iv) responding promptly to MLA, to help the Working Group decide whether a further evaluation is necessary. As with other Working Group members, South Africa will submit a written report to the Working Group within two years on steps it has taken to implement the new recommendations. This report will also be made publicly available.

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — After days and nights on the road, a second IOM convoy of 661 distressed migrants (604 Chadians and 57 Sudanese) arrived in Moundou in southern Chad yesterday. An earlier IOM overland convoy from Cameroon to Chad brought 862 migrants last week.

IOM continues to assist thousands of migrants fleeing the ongoing violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) stranded in Cameroon. This includes 10,000 Chadians and other Third Country Nationals (TCNs) that have fled CAR for Cameroon and are seeking IOM assistance to continue their journey back home.

The stranded migrants in Cameroon have reported fleeing violence in Bangui, Carnot and Berberati in CAR where Muslims are currently being targeted in acts of brutal violence. Some have reported losing family members amidst the chaos and with homes and businesses destroyed. People are arriving in Chad with almost nothing to support themselves having spent two months in Cameroon sleeping in the open with little to no assistance.

ANALYSIS:

“The shocking physical condition of the evacuees being transported home to Chad after fleeing the crisis in CAR speaks volumes about the widening regional dimensions of the crisis now spanning many African countries. There are 15,000 Muslims and minorities scattered across multiple villages in CAR who are at constant risk for their lives. They have survived in small groups so far, by gathering together, with limited access to services, including health. These vulnerable people require urgent humanitarian and protection assistance. Many can be expected to try to flee at great risk to neighbouring countries”

Giovanni Cassani

IOM Emergency Specialist for West and Central Africa

Among the stranded migrants, there are also many cases of malnourished children with over 20 children having been reported to have died as a result of hunger. The IOM medical staff stationed in Moundou has additionally reported that there are numerous cases of physical disability due to stroke and communicable diseases such as malaria and respiratory infections. Moreover, the very serious traumatic events endured by many of the new arrivals highlights the dire need for psychosocial support.

To ensure travel in a safe and dignified manner, IOM provides pre-departure medical and fit for travel checks and provides also water and food for the journey, as well as post-arrival medical screening and care in Moundou.

IOM has made all the necessary preparations from additional shelter to the procurement of generators in order to receive the increasing number of arrivals in Moundou and facilitate their efficient transportation to their final destinations in Chad.

IOM has transported so far to their final destinations in Chad 3,675 out of the 5,276 migrants that have been registered in Moundou since December 2013.

More than 85,000 evacuees composed of Chadian returnees, other TCNs and those claiming to be CAR nationals have arrived in Chad. Moreover, the unabated violence in the CAR continues to cause a steady flow of migrants direct to Chad or through Cameroon and other neighbouring countries in the sub-region that need emergency assistance to meet their basic needs.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The African continent must strive to have one voice, and act as one on issues around mining and commodities. This was a clear point of convergence between the African Union Com…

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The refugees fleeing the Central African Republic (CAR) have had to endure a torturous journey before finally reaching Sido, on the Chadian side of the border. After witnessing the massacre of their neighbours or relatives in the CAR, they arrive exhausted both physically and mentally after travelling several hundred kilometers packed in trucks or vehicles escorted from Bangui by the Chadian army. Dr. Frédérique Drogoul, an MSF psychiatrist, talks about these lives torn apart by violence and exile.

“Most of the refugees who told me their stories did so in a monotone, with solemn faces, without going into details about the bodies carved up in the massacres, keeping their distance from the expression of painful emotions. ‘You have to bottle things up, otherwise you go mad,’ a man whose wife and children had been savagely killed, told me.” Dr. Frédérique Drogoul is returning from Sido, where Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) opened a health centre and a hospital unit in early February to meet the urgent medical needs of some 13,000 refugees relocated to this town on the border of the RCA.

“Despite the terrible stories I heard throughout my visit, I often had the feeling that the painful memories were being held in check by a staggering effort,” Frédérique said. That was the case with the grandmother of Abdel and Zacharia, two brothers about 20 years old. “She was as if detached.” Residents of the “kilo 5” neighbourhood of Bangui, they arrived in Sido in one of the convoys organized by the Chadian army. The 28 members of their family had been massacred. “When I met him, Abdel was really not there. He was sitting down and mumbling from time to time. His grandmother told me that, when his older brother was decapitated before his eyes, Abdel ran out screaming. He has not recovered since,” Frédérique said. Zacharia, Abdel’s younger brother, was not with them at the time. He was working in his shop, which was also attacked. He said that the Anti-balakas tied up his arms before throwing a grenade into the shop. Part of his right hand was torn off and he was hit in the right eye. “Zacharia was reunited by chance with his grandmother and Abdel in Sido. Now he is anxious, exhausted, worried about his grandmother, who is not able to do very much, and a brother who is psychotic and no longer self-sufficient. It’s a very heavy burden for him. “The family is being supported and receiving medical help from the MSF team in Sido.

In addition to the violent incidents experienced at home, there are those that sometimes occur on the long journey to Chad. Mariama is a little 10-year-old Peulh girl. When Frédérique met her for the first time, she was accompanied by one of her older sisters. “She looked afraid. Her face was sad and closed. She did not speak on her own. It was her sister who told me their story,” Frédérique recalls. Mariama’s parents were killed during the attack on Bossembélé and she fled into the bush with some neighbours. The husband of one of her older sisters managed to find her and brought her to their place in Bonali before they all fled to Bangui in one of the convoys escorted by the Chadian army. Their truck broke down on the road. “The escorted convoy did not stop and, according to Mariama’s sister, the Anti-balakas immediately attacked. All the men –including the brother-in-law who had saved Mariama –were killed by machetes in front of the women and children.” Some of them were raped and Mariama was trampled on. She complains of generalized pain. “On our third meeting she told me that, before abandoning them there in the middle of the night, the Anti-balakas set fire to all their belongings, leading them to believe they would also be cooked in the fire and eaten,” said Frédérique. “While her sister was telling me all this, Mariama was listening and nodding her head to what her sister said. I was really touched when they spoke about tears. Her older sister said to me, ‘if she cries, I also start to cry. It’s too hard.‘ I had the impression that speaking about it helped to ease the terror, and at our last meeting her sister told me that Mariama was no longer crying, that she had begun to participate in activities appropriate to her age.”

About 100 kilometres from Sido, at Doyaba, a special reception site has been set up for unaccompanied minors, that is, all the children who arrive alone, completely separated from their families. There are about 400 children there, but a little over 1,000 throughout southern Chad, according to UNICEF. Four young brothers who have been in care for several weeks at Doyaba had arrived via Sido with wounds from machete blows on the skull and, for two of them, fingers deliberately mutilated. “The two older ones, 7-8 years old, seem to be getting better. The wounds have healed and they play quietly with the other children. However, the two younger ones are isolated, withdrawn and still stare blankly.”

In addition to the trauma of the violence suffered in the CAR, there is also that of family separation. For Frédérique, “it is essential to work for the reunification of families, for example, by examining the lists drawn up by UN agencies in Chad and in the CAR or by setting up telephone booths, as the ICRC has already done in Goré and Doyaba –to enable the refugees to call their relatives or neighbours and to re-establish contact with those they have lost.”

“It’s survival from day to day. Mental life seems suspended. There is little room for memories of terror, no space to imagine a future for oneself. To have survived and managed to protect one’s children is what counts above all now,” according to Dr. Frédérique Drogoul. “But when the minimum conditions for survival are finally provided to the refugees, it is likely that situations of great distress, even of psychic collapse, will become more frequent.”

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, will visit the war-torn Central African Republic from 18 to 20 March 2014, to discuss the dire human rights situation ther…

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — With reference to the 2nd Africa CEO Forum to be held in Geneva, the CEO of the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) (http://www.africanguaranteefund.com), Felix BIKPO, will host a press…

NEW YORK, March 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Government of Gabon and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) will host a workshop in Libreville 20-21 March to help French-speaking States in preparing their initial reports pursuant to Security Council resolutions concerning the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to non-State actors.

The “Workshop on Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004) Reporting”, is organized through the UNODA Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa. Participating States will benefit from the assistance of experts of the Security Council’s 1540 Committee and the experience of African States that have already submitted reports.

Oh Joon of the Republic of Korea, Chair of the 1540 Committee, has called for the full support of Member States in order to achieve universal reporting in 2014. Currently, 22 States — 18 of which are in Africa — have yet to submit a first national report describing the steps they have taken towards implementation of resolution 1540 (2004).

Gabon, which submitted its first report in 2011, agreed to host the workshop and share its experience with other participating States. Two similar workshops are planned for English- and Portuguese-speaking Africa.

By its unanimous adoption of resolution 1540 on 28 April 2004 — acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter — the Security Council obliged all States to refrain from providing any form of support to non-State actors attempting to develop, acquire, manufacture, possess, transport, transfer or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery. The resolution also requires all States to establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of such weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, including by establishing appropriate controls over related materials.

The Council later adopted resolution 1977 (2011), which calls upon all States that have not yet presented a first report on steps they have taken or intend to take in implementation of resolution 1540 (2004) to submit one to the 1540 Committee.

For further information please contact the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), tel: +228 22 53 50 00; e-mail: mail@unrec.org; web: www.unrec.org.

ROME, Italy, March 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Theme: African youth in agriculture and rural development

WHAT: 28th Session of FAO Regional Conference for Africa

WHERE: Hotel “Le Palace” Gammarth, Tunis – Tunisia

WHEN: March 24 to 28, 2014

FAO in collaboration with the Government of Tunisia will convene the 28th Session of the Regional Conference for Africa in Tunis from 24 to 28 March 2014. The Conference will bring together ministers of agriculture and senior government officials from FAO Member countries in the Region as well as members of the Civil Society and partners.

Delegates will discuss issues relating to the current state and perspectives of food and agriculture in Africa. These will include:

• The African youth in the food sector and rural development

• The State of food and agriculture in the region and implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) with a special focus on small farmers and family farming.

• The follow-up to the High-level Meeting of African and international leaders “Towards African Renaissance: Renewed Partnership for Unified Approach to End Hunger in Africa by 2025 under the CAADP Framework”.

Side Events

1. Youth and development of Aquaculture and livestock in Africa – The main objective of the side event is to discuss with key stakeholders attending the ARC opportunities and challenges in engaging the youth in aquaculture and livestock sub-sectors. The discussions will focus on practical approaches and measures to engage young people and will include recommendations to the conference.

2. Ministerial Roundtable – The ministerial roundtable will follow up on the High Level Meeting of African and International Leaders on “Toward African Renaissance: Renewed Partnership for Unified Approach to End Hunger in Africa by 2025 within the CAADP Framework”. This ministerial roundtable will provide an opportunity to share knowledge on the action taken to end Hunger in Africa. Particular guidance will be solicited on how to strengthen the mobilisation of additional resources for the African Solidarity Trust Fund and catalytic investment in the region.

The Conference is open to the media. Selected sessions will be webcast on the web site of the 28th ARC Conference.

A press conference will be held Friday, March 28 2014. Further information will be provided later.

Accreditation

Accreditation of journalists can be processed through ARC-Secretariat@fao.org with copy to fao-tun@fao.org. A ‘Press Desk ‘ will be open at the Conference venue during the whole week. A valid press card is required. Journalists should collect their accreditation/conference badges in person.

More information

Conference web site: http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/arc28/en/

FAO Regional Office for Africa: www.fao.org/Africa

BANGUI, Central African Republic, March 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Mrs. Zainab Hawa Bangura, arrived in Bangui on 17 March for a 3 day visit. Among other goals, she will interact with the transition authorities on matters relating to the prevention of sexual violence in conflict.

In the CAR, Mrs Bangura will also monitor the implementation of two communiqués jointly signed in December 2012 by the United Nations and the CAR Authorities, through which the Government had made a number of commitments including “the adoption of legislation on protection of women from violence (Law N0. 06.032); revision of the Penal Code and Penal Procedure Act to recognize sexual violence, including rape, as a crime; incorporating provisions of the Protocol on the Prevention and Suppression of Sexual violence against women and children of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) into national legislation; and preparing a draft national plan for implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000)”.

“My visit is also intended to send a strong and clear message towards the perpetrators: wherever they are, they will be prosecuted and punished,” said Mrs. Zainab Hawa Bangura, stressing that “the protection of populations, especially women and children, are among the priorities of the United Nations. ”

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General is paying a second visit of to the CAR to lend support to the efforts of national and international partners to address the crisis. In addition to the highest authorities of the Transition, She will meet with political and religious leaders, civil society, including women’s groups and youth groups, as well as international and diplomatic representations and international forces, MISCA and Sangaris. Mrs Zainab Hawa Bangura’s agenda also includes a visit to Bossangoa (East).

The SRSG is mandated to provide coherent and strategic leadership to address sexual violence in armed conflict; engage in advocacy efforts with governments, including military and judicial representatives, all parties to armed conflict and civil society; and strengthen existing UN coordination mechanisms, and promote cooperation and coordination of efforts among all relevant stakeholders, primarily through UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action).

The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) was established in 2009 pursuant to Security Council resolution 1888, which seeks to strengthen the response to conflict-related sexual violence by assigning high-level leadership, building judicial response expertise, strengthening service provision for victims and building reporting mechanisms.