REMAINS OF S.AFRICAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN D.R.C ARRIVE HOME

On 21 February, the bodies of two South African soldiers killed while on a peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) arrived back home. Their remains were received amid sombre military salutations at Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.

Captain Simon Mkhulu Bobe and Lance Corporal Irven Thabang Semono were killed last week when a mortar bomb hit a camp housing a South African military contingent. It’s the first fatalities for South Africa since it began deploying 2,900 soldiers to the Eastern Congo to help put an end to increasing rebel violence in the region. The mortar attack also left three soldiers with serious injuries.

Continued….At the invitation of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) agreed to deploy a regional peacekeeping mission to the Eastern DRC. In mid 2023, Tshisekedi announced that a SADC military battalion would replace soldiers from the East African Community (EAC) who had been deployed to Eastern Congo months earlier. Their role was to help fight the M23 rebels who are blamed for the rise in violence in the region. However, Tshisekedi accused the EAC forces of not only being ineffective against the M23 but also colluding with them. Equally unsatisfied with a two-decade-long United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in his country, Tshisekedi has demanded their total withdrawal from the Congo by the end of this year.

Several stakeholders, including the UN and the Congolese government, have accused neighbouring Rwanda of funding and arming M23, a charge that Kigali has repeatedly denied.

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MYSTERY DEATH: FAMILY DENIED ACCESS TO KENYAN HAITI-MISSION COP FOUND IN U.S. HOTEL

The family of a Kenyan police inspector found dead in mysterious circumstances in the US says it’s being denied access to the body.

Walter Nyankieya Nyamwato - along with a group of other officers - was en route from Kenya to Haiti, where Nairobi controversially intends to deploy 1,000 police on a security mission. He was found lying on his stomach, unresponsive, in his Washington hotel room. No explanation has been offered for his death.

Nyamwato’s father says another family member living in the US was turned away by police when he made enquiries - and was told that this would be a ‘government-to-government’ matter.

In this clip, the father relates what happened.

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I’M PROUD OF GAZA RUINS - ISRAELI POLITICIAN

Another shocking statement out of Israel. This time, May Golan, Israeli Minister of Social Equality & Women’s Advancement, said she’s proud of how the Israeli military has flattened Gaza with bombardments.

Golan was speaking during a 19 February debate in the Knesset, Israel’s legislative body, on a motion to expel Ofer Cassif, a member of the Arab-majority, left-wing Hadash-Ta’al political coalition, over his support for South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Continued…..One might assume that, as a woman, she would sympathise with the plight of women and children, who comprise 70 per cent of the nearly 30,000 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip. A UN report documents that two women are killed every hour in the besieged enclave. Every day, 180 women are giving birth without water, painkillers, medical supplies or anaesthesia for Caesarean sections. Meanwhile, incubators cannot access electricity because the ongoing Israeli blockade that began in 2007 intensified with the 7 October escalation in the Palestine-Israel conflict.

As a supposed proponent of women’s advancement, Golan may go down in history books for cheerleading Israel’s murder of Palestinian women.

What do you think of this viral clip? Let us know in the comments.

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Continued…..Civilian casualties have been commonplace as the United States executes its foreign policy. In Korea, the US dropped so many bombs in the early 1950s that the Air Force eventually could not find a building over one story tall to destroy. A US State Department official said they bombed 'everything that moved,' resulting in 20 per cent of Koreans dying. In Vietnam, US chemical attacks in the mid-20th century are still causing birth defects, while land mines continue to blow off limbs. The same can be seen in Iraq's Fallujah, where depleted uranium was used in the early 2000s, resulting in birth defects.

Let's also not forget the reason al-Shabaab is such a threat today to the Horn of Africa. The US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006 created a vacuum from which the group rose. Today, their 7,000 to 12,000 militants commit dozens of attacks a year. They pledge allegiance to the Islamist group, Al-Qaeda, itself formed by US-backed mujahideens after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

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FRANCE TARGETS COMORANS IN MAYOTTE

France is once again targeting Africans from the Comoros Islands in its latest crackdown on migration. It wants to deter them from coming to Mayotte - technically a French overseas territory that forms part of the same Indian Ocean archipelago, just off the southeastern coast of our continent.

The authorities are looking to twist French law as it applies to Mayotte by - exceptionally - revoking the right to citizenship-by-birth on the territory. This would potentially also majorly disrupt the lives of immigrants who have already settled in Mayotte.

Continued….Living standards on Mayotte have been declining and there is a rise in gang-related violence and crime. For weeks now, protesters have been blocking roads - calling on the government to address these urgent issues. Some locals blame the problems on Comoran newcomers, encouraged, no doubt, by France’s previous attempts to scapegoat them and expel them from the island.

It’s a complex situation. Mayotte voted to remain part of France in 1974, while the rest of the archipelago chose independence. What is certainly true is that these island communities remain inextricably linked - and African. France has no business dictating their relations.

Do you agree?

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PT. 1: GRENADA'S EDUCATION REVOLUTION 🇬🇩

While not often raised when discussing Grenada’s revolution, education helped build a new state after the people ousted a Western-backed leader in 1979.

The tiny Caribbean island state’s literacy campaign was a beacon that aimed to eradicate adult illiteracy. Volunteer teachers, community involvement, and innovative teaching methods were the driving forces behind this initiative, creating a pathway for individuals in both urban and rural areas to become literate. The campaign symbolised the revolutionary government’s commitment to social justice, grassroots empowerment and equality.

Let us know in the comments if you’d like to hear more about Grenada’s education-led revolution.

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REFUGEES FACE HUNGER IN SOUTH SUDAN

A Swahili saying goes, ‘When two bulls fight, it is the grass that suffers.’ Few places reflect this as much as Sudan, where the civil war that kicked off in April between the army and paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has led to the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.

More than 9 million people are in refugee camps in Sudan. Approximately 1.7 million people have fled to neighbouring countries, like Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic.

The more than 500,000 Sudanese that have flooded South Sudan now make up 35 per cent of those in South Sudan facing catastrophic levels of hunger.

Sudan has been in turmoil since 2019 when President Omar al-Bashir was ousted in a military coup after street uprisings. Thereafter, a military-civilian transitional council was set up. That collapsed with the civil war that broke out in April between Sudan’s army and the RSF. Brokered peace talks over the past few years have failed.

#METOO MOVEMENT IN CAMEROON

Cameroon is experiencing a revival of MeToo-style activism - after a high-profile businessman was accused of multiple rapes. It’s encouraged other women to come forward and share their own harrowing experiences. The alleged abuser - Hervé Bopda - has since been arrested, after an online campaign calling for him to face justice went viral. The question is, will Cameroonian society at large now undergo a shift regarding men who exploit their positions of power to abuse women?

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DICK GREGORY: BROTHERS DIDN’T SHOOT MALCOLM X

This week marks 59 years since our revolutionary ancestor, Malcolm X, was assassinated.

The late great Dick Gregory, a renowned actor, comedian and activist, was Malcolm X’s close friend. In this passionate and revealing address, Gregory tells the story of how the people forced the US government to reveal the facts about Malcolm X’s 1965 assassination. Information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request demonstrated bullets that took Malcolm X’s life were shot from above him, rather than from the guns of brothers who stood below the stage.

Continued…..Decades later, Malcolm X’s family has begun the process of suing the New York Police Department, the CIA and the FBI for their role in the Organization of Afro-American Unity founder’s assassination. This comes on the heels of two brothers, who had served prison time and were exonerated in the case, winning settlements in 2022 totalling $36 million from the governments of both New York City and New York State. One of the men filed a federal lawsuit in November to enquire about the FBI’s role. He seeks $40 million.

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U.S. AMBASSADOR CALLS FOR ‘FINAL SOLUTION’ TO PALESTINE QUESTION

Moments after vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the press that Washington would pursue what she termed as a ‘final solution’ to the conflict.

That reminded some of the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question,’ a N*zi plan to exterminate the Jewish population in Europe. Whether she meant that or not, it came across as a tone-deaf response negating the grave situation facing Gaza’s people and ignoring the United States’ role in perpetuating the brutal Israeli occupation Palestinians have endured for more than 75 years.

Since 7 October, Washington has reportedly supplied 21,000 precision-guided munitions, including 100 2,000-pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs designed to penetrate hardened structures or underground targets.