Day: January 1, 2023

KAMPALA— The present conflict in the DRC Congo that has seen Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda send troops to flush out terrorist organizations harbouring in the vast forests of Eastern Congo has resulted in more refugees fleeing to Uganda in the quest to escape the violence.

The European commission’s civil protection and humanitarian aid operation (ECHO) has increased its aid support to the UN refugee agency.

According to an EU statement, the €1.5m will help assist over 60,000 Congolese get registration and reception services from the UNHCR. The aid will strategically target Congolese refugees in transit seeking relocation services until they are fully relocated to access protection and national services in Uganda.

Esther Anyakun Davinia the Minister of state for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees appreciated the continuous support being provided by the European Union to Uganda. Anyakun emphasized how Uganda is the largest refugee-hosting nation in Africa and requires more urgent international support in addition to being critically underfunded.

According to UNHCR, Uganda currently has 42 percent of its refugee budget funded but still needs $199m to execute its operations efficiently.

“We cannot thank the European union enough for this timely contribution to the emergency appeal. The contribution will save lives by addressing the critical needs of thousands of Congolese refugees fleeing war and violence in eastern DRC,” said Mathew Crentsil the UNHCR representative in Uganda.

The EU’s emergency support will also contribute to securing the new arrivals WASH (Water, sanitation and Hygiene) and health services in both the transit and reception centers and reception resettlements.

Of recent, it has been increasingly difficult for Uganda’s UNHCR operation to maintain operations for a growing number of new refugee arrivals for more than 1.4 million refugees in 13 hosting districts.

“The Uganda government has been very generous in hosting the largest refugee population in Africa,” said Bruno Rotival Head of ECHOs in Kampala, “with partners such as UNHCR, the EU is helping to address the needs of the refugees, when they come across the border and when they are resettled in the settlement sites such as access to water, protection services, primary health services and education.

From April 2021 to December 2022, ECHO provided €14.4m to UNHCR for refugees.

Uganda currently hosts 1,460,520 refugees mainly from the DRC and South Sudan.

92 percent of refugees live in 13 hosting districts in transit centers and settlements while eight percent dwell in urban centers. Based on the inflows 81 percent constitute of mainly women and children while 23 percent are youths.

According to the UNHCR statement, Uganda has continued to receive refugees from both the southwestern and northern borders. Records from as far as January 2022 indicate that 129,580 arrivals were made. From the DRC refugees coming to Uganda totaled up to 87,567 while those from South Sudan totaled up to 42,013.

The security situation in the DRC remains fragile with a likelihood that more refugees are expected to continue flowing into Uganda as the UPDF (Uganda Peoples Defence Forces) forges strategies on how to eliminate the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) that has become a thorn in the side.

Signe Winding Albjerg, the Danish Ambassador to Uganda, Rwanda , Burundi ,DRC, Madagascar and Mauritius welcomed the financial aid.

Source: Nam News Network

NAIROBI— Jubilant Kenyans joined the rest of the world in ushering in the New Year 2023 n style.

Many thronged places of worship to praise God for enabling them to put behind them 2022 that brought about a sea of challenges.

While many were rendered jobless due to post Covid-19 pandemic effects, others can hardly afford a meal due to the biting drought that has ravaged parts of the country.

President William Ruto who ushered in the New Year 2023 at State House, Mombasa is promising that his administration will work round the clock to reverse the tide.

He spoke in the company of First Lady Rachel Ruto, Senate Speaker Amason Kingi, Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir and other congregants.

Source: Nam News Network

NAIROBI— A boat capsized in Lake Victoria, Busia County, Saturday evening, with a number of university students on board who had earlier attended a religious activity.

Authorities have since confirmed that three students, from the University of Nairobi, lost their lives in the tragedy, while four others were rescued from the sinking vessel.

According to Bunyala Police Boss, Isaiah Mose, the students were having fun, taking boat rides as they planned to welcome the new year. At the time of the tragedy, Mose confirmed the students were taking selfies.

Reports indicate two bodies have been retrieved from the lake even as search for a third continues.

Efforts by Kenya Coast Guards to retrieve the other body had not borne fruits by the time the rescue team was forced to call off the exercise due to darkness. The search resumed Sunday morning.

“Our Officers were unable to continue with the exercise last evening due to bad weather and darkness. We have called on a multi-agency team to join the local and Kenya Coast Guard in the search,” noted the police boss

Mose confirmed that the seven students were on an evangelical mission in Budalang’i. He disclosed that the learners had successfully attended a crusade which was capped with a baptism event led by the Seventh Day Adventist church.

“After completing their mission, they went to the Lake Victoria waters to take photos. In the process, one of them attempted to take a selfie while standing on the boat, making it unstable. That is how the boat capsized.” he said

He said the ill-fated boat has capacity of three passengers but students had overloaded it, resulting to the calamity.

Source: Nam News Network

LILONGWE, Jan 1 (NNN-ALLAFRICA) — Civil Servants Trade Union and Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) have threatened to go on a nationwide demonstration from Jan 9 in a bid to press the government to address the high cost of living.

In a statement co-signed by CSTU general secretary Madalitso Njolomole and his TUM counterpart Charles Kumchenga this follows the government’s failure to honour the resolution during a meeting with the two unions on Dec 16, 2022.

Reads the statement in part: “Reference is made to the above subject matter following our recent Government Negotiating Team meeting between government and Civil Servants Trade Union (C STU) and Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) that took place on Friday 16th December, 2022 at Kumbali Lodge in Lilongwe.

“We (CSTU) and Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) would like to notify government of our intention to call for a nationwide industrial strike for all civil servants in Malawi from 9th January 2023 that shall be called off until government addresses all concerns we presented during the recent GNT Meeting.

“We have opted for this nationwide Industrial strike due to government’s failure to address most of the workers concerns, especially in relation to the current prevailing high cost of living in Malawi that has made life of the majority of public civil servants unbearable.”

The organisations have appealed to government to treat the matter with the urgency it deserves.

The statement has been copied to Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Ministry of Labour Principal Secretary and Malawi Congress of Trade Union.

The call also comes three months after MCTU appealed to the government to address issues of high unemployment rate as well as high cost of living as promised in their manifesto.

Source: Nam News Network

The world welcomed the new year with a packed party in Times Square and fireworks soaring above European capitals, while hoping for an end to the war in Ukraine and a return to post-COVID normality in Asia.

It was a year marked by the conflict in Ukraine, economic stresses and the effects of global warming. But it was also a year that saw a dramatic soccer World Cup, rapid technological change, and efforts to meet climate challenges.

After 2023 descended upon Asia, Africa and Europe, New York rang in the new year in typical style as thousands corralled themselves into pens under pouring rain in Times Square, waiting hours for the ball to drop. A 12-foot (3.7-meter) geodesic sphere made of Waterford crystal triangles slid down a pole atop a 25-story building to mark the calendar change.

Meanwhile, millions watched the accompanying musical acts and countdown on television from dry and warm living rooms around the world.

Tommy Onolfo, 40, a mechanic from nearby Nassau County, said he wore a diaper during his drenched, 14-hour wait in Times Square, as security measures require spectators to deprive themselves of all comforts to maintain a front-row view.

“I’m a lifeguard in the summer so I’m not afraid of water at all,” Onolfo said. “I have my bathroom thing down to a science. I haven’t had to use the diaper yet. It’s just in case.”

Earlier, across the Atlantic, the London Eye turned blue and yellow in solidarity with Ukraine as fireworks saw in midnight in the British capital.

The celebration, which London’s mayor had branded the biggest in Europe, also referenced Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September, the red and white of England’s soccer team, and the rainbow colors of the LGBTQ Pride event, which had its 50-year anniversary in 2022.

For Ukraine, there seemed to be no end in sight to the fighting that began when Russia invaded in February.

Numerous blasts were heard in Kyiv and in other places around Ukraine and air raid sirens wailed across the country in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

On Saturday, Russia fired a barrage of cruise missiles that Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman described as “Terror on New Year’s Eve.”

Evening curfews remained in place nationwide, making the celebration of the beginning of 2023 impossible in many public spaces. Several regional governors posted messages on social media warning residents not to break restrictions.

In Kyiv, though, people gathered near the city’s central Christmas tree as midnight approached.

“We are not giving up. They couldn’t ruin our celebrations,” said 36-year-old Yaryna, who was celebrating with her husband, tinsel and fairy lights wrapped around her.

In a video message to mark the New Year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Time Magazine’s 2022 Person of the Year, said: “I want to wish all of us one thing – victory.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin devoted his New Year’s address to rallying the Russian people behind his troops.

Festivities in Moscow were muted, without the usual fireworks on Red Square.

“One should not pretend that nothing is happening – our people are dying (in Ukraine),” said 68-year-old Yelena Popova. “A holiday is being celebrated, but there must be limits.” Many Muscovites said they hoped for peace in 2023.

Elsewhere in Europe, fireworks exploded over the Parthenon in Athens, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where crowds gathered on the Champs-Elysees avenue to watch the French capital’s first New Year fireworks since 2019.

But, like many places, the Czech capital Prague was feeling the pinch economically and so did not hold a fireworks display.

“Holding celebrations did not seem appropriate,” said city hall spokesman Vit Hofman.

Earlier, Australia kicked off the celebrations with its first restriction-free New Year’s Eve after two years of COVID disruptions. Sydney welcomed the New Year with a typically dazzling fireworks display, which for the first time featured a rainbow waterfall off the Harbour Bridge.

In China, rigorous COVID restrictions were lifted only in December as the government abruptly reversed its “zero-COVID” policy, a switch that has led to soaring infections and meant some people were in no mood to celebrate.

While China’s official death toll is barely ticking higher, UK-based health data firm Airfinity estimated last week that around 9,000 people in the country are probably dying each day from COVID.

“This virus should just go and die, cannot believe this year I cannot even find a healthy friend that can go out with me,” wrote one social media user based in eastern Shandong province.

But in the city of Wuhan, where the pandemic began three years ago, thousands of people gathered to despite a heavy security presence.

Barricades were erected and hundreds of police officers stood guard. Loudspeakers blasted out a message on a loop advising people not to gather. But the large crowds of revelers took no notice.

In Shanghai, many thronged the historic riverside walkway, the Bund.

“We’ve all traveled in from Chengdu to celebrate in Shanghai,” said Da Dai, a 28-year-old digital media executive who was visiting with two friends. “We’ve already had COVID, so now feel it’s safe to enjoy ourselves.”

Source: Voice of America