#Putin, Central African Republic leader to discuss security cooperation
The Russian leader noted that Russia attaches great importance to cooperation with the CAR on the global arena, including within the #UN framework.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Central African Republic (CAR) counterpart Faustin-Archange Touadera will discuss security cooperation during their upcoming meeting, the Russian leader said, opening the talks.

"I would like to emphasize our security cooperation. We are determined to continue our previous policies in this domain," Putin said.

"We are going to discuss these [cooperation] prospects with the expanded circle of delegates and, subsequently, during our one-on-one meeting," the Russian leader added.

He went on to say that Russia attaches great importance to cooperation with the CAR on the global arena, including within the UN framework.

Children executed and women raped in front of their families as M23 militia unleashes fresh terror on #DRC.


They were looking for new ways to kill, ways to send fresh terror across North Kivu.

It was early afternoon when the M23 militia raided the Congolese town of Rubaya. In a marketplace, gunmen found a giant wooden pestle and mortar for crushing grain. They began rounding up children, wedging them tight in the mortar. Isabel, 32, watched the rebels stove in their skulls. The mortar turned red, overflowing with blood.

Six children, said Isabel, were pummelled to death on 4 April 2024. “It was terrible.”

She fled with two friends. Among the rainforests of the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), armed men caught them. Isabel and a friend were raped. The other friend was executed.

Her account is among new testimony of fresh #M23 atrocities obtained by the Observer. They detail indiscriminate killing, torture and mass abductions; women raped at gunpoint in front of their children; others pinned down on main roads and attacked in broad daylight. Their collective testimony confirms an ongoing calamity that humanitarians hoped might never happen.

The DRC, long synonymous with supercharged levels of sexual violence, has entered a bleak new chapter. Rates of rape are far higher than ever recorded. But the M23 rebels largely responsible cannot be categorised alongside the scores of chaotic militia roaming North Kivu. Instead, the M23 is backed and armed by one of the west’s most cherished and increasingly indispensable allies on the continent.

“Rwanda has wooed the west, particularly the UK. They’re playing a dual narrative; reliable partner on one hand while facilitating conflict in the Congo,” said a senior diplomat.

As the M23, supported by thousands of Rwandan troops, pushes deeper into neighbouring DRC, UN intelligence sources confirm the west’s security services are “intimately aware” of the evolving incursion. “It’s shocking and frustrating that sanctions have not been forthcoming,” said a UN expert familiar with evidence of M23 war crimes sent to the UN security council.

The worst may be about to unfold. Another senior UN official admitted that a sinister masterplan might be under way. Kigali, they warn, might be planning to annex a chunk of DRC larger than Rwanda itself. “This is a long-term policy to get the broader Kivu area into the sphere of Rwandan influence and, later, under complete administrative control.”

The ongoing failure to rein in Rwanda risks broader repercussions, say analysts, exposing potentially fatal weaknesses in western liberal interventionism and conflict resolution. As the killings continue, as women are raped in extraordinary numbers, how long is the west prepared to look away?

Much of the horror unfolding in the rainforests of eastern Congo is traceable to the shocking events of 1994: the genocide of Rwanda’s minority Tutsis.

Largely low-tech – performed mostly by machetes wielded by ordinary Hutus – it remains among the fastest mass killings in history. At least 800,000 died in 100 days.

Shortly after the massacre, more than 1 million Hutus fled to DRC, including many responsible for the slaughter. Twice, Rwandans invaded their neighbour, ostensibly to hunt down the génocidaires. In turn, Hutu militias linked to the carnage started to regroup, plotting a return to Rwanda to seize power. To counter this threat, Rwanda began arming Tutsi militias – forerunners to the M23 – inside the DRC.

Other factors bolstered its decision. Eastern DRC holds huge, widely coveted reserves of precious minerals. “If groups like the M23 gain control of the minerals, it gives them – and Rwanda – significant international clout,” said a UN intelligence official.

The battle over billions of pounds worth of minerals, alongside the settling of old scores, has plunged eastern DRC into near continuous conflict since the genocide. More than 6 million are thought to have died and a similar number forced from a swathe of DRC, whose government has lost control in the east to a hierarchy of armed groups.

"We are now in crisis mode. We need help, Mr President. Please help us," a West Coast activist has said in a passionate plea to President Cyril #Ramaphosa to help Cape Flats residents who are plagued by ongoing gang violence.

#Kinshasa's intriguing security sweep in #Zambia ,Dozens of DR Congo nationals suspected of planning to destabilise their country were picked up and brought home from neighbouring Zambia, in an October operation greenlit by Lusaka.

#LGBTQ2S+ refugees languish as Kenyan government blocks Canadians from resettling them.

The Canadian Press travelled to #Kenya as part of an investigative series looking into a global backslide in LGBTQ2S+ rights and the consequences for Canada, including the mounting difficulties Canadians face in resettling refugees.

This week, that reporting revealed that the Kenyan government has nearly halted approvals of exit permits and refugee status for people claiming the need for asylum on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Kenyan government does not consider those legitimate grounds for seeking refugee status.

"It's stressful, when you don't know how long you'll be waiting," Anne told The Canadian Press.

Anne left Uganda years ago, and they now run Rainbow Family Support and Advocacy-Africa, an organization that helps LGBTQ2S+ refugee parents in Nairobi.

Its headquarters is a home that includes an office and workshop space, but also a playroom and bedrooms with bunk beds for families who have been evicted for being #LGBTQ2S+. Drawings of same-sex couples with children adorn the walls, and the staircase is painted with a rainbow flag.

The group provides workshops to help its clients navigate bureaucracy, and the questions their children face at school.

Anne's children are often asked by Kenyan schoolmates why they left Uganda, a country that is not at war. Many Kenyans assume the only reason Ugandans would move to #Kenya is because they are gay.

"They would ask intimate questions to the kids, like 'Do you see your mom with a man or with a woman? Because you are Ugandan,'" said Anne.

An underage #illegal miner who emerged from Shaft 10 in Stilfontein, along with other teenagers, had gold wrapped in a white cloth around his penis, according to #police.

L'Égypte apporte son soutien à la souveraineté et l'intégrité de la #RDC
Pendant l'entretien, les deux hommes ont résolu ce qui suit :

- Le soutien sans faille à la souveraineté et à l'intégrité du territoire congolais réaffirmé par l'Égypte;

- La consolidation de la collaboration et du soutien apporté par l'Égypte pour le renforcement de la sécurité et de la stabilité de la République Démocratique du Congo;

- Le renforcement effectif de la diplomatie parlementaire entre l'Égypte et la RDC, notamment à travers l'échange d'expériences et l'accord des points de vue dans les instances interparlementaires;

- Le soutien que va désormais accorder l'Égypte à la République démocratique du Congo en matière de lutte contre le terrorisme, notamment dans sa partie Est;

- L'engagement de la Chambre des Représentants Égyptienne à soutenir la convocation en 2025 de la commission conjointe entre la RDC et l'Égypte au Caire;

- L'accroissement de la relation bilatérale entre les deux pays tournée vers de nouveaux horizons pour l'intérêt des peuples congolais et égyptiens.

En outre, le Parlement égyptien a salué également le soutien lui accordé par la République démocratique du Congo pour la signature de l'accord-cadre sur la coopération dans le bassin du fleuve Nil et sur la candidature égyptienne au poste de Directeur de l'UNESCO.

De ce fait, l'Égypte a réaffirmé sa volonté de continuer à aider la RDC à réaliser le maximum de développement à travers l'Agence Égyptienne de Coopération dont il est au premier plan des pays bénéficiaires de l'appui égyptien dans différents domaines.

De son côté, Vital Kamerhe a réitéré au Parlement égyptien l'engagement de l'Assemblée nationale à appuyer la demande du soutien de la #RDC à la candidature de l'Égypte au poste de Vice-Président de la Commission de l'Union africaine lors du sommet d'Addis-Abeba qui se tiendra en 2025 et l'adhésion de l'Égypte au Conseil des droits de l'homme pour la période 2026-2028, lors des travaux de l'Assemblée Générale à New-York attendus l'année prochaine.

#Namibia votes and could have its first female leader. But election upsets have shaken the region.

#WINDHOEK, Namibia -A woman who joined Namibia's underground independence movement in the 1970s is a strong contender to become its first female leader as the country voted Wednesday in a presidential election.

#Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, is the current vice president and the ruling SWAPO party's candidate for president. She's already in the lead after special voting among citizens overseas and the armed forces.

But #SWAPO, which has governed the southern African country and held the presidency for 34 years since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990, faces growing frustration caused by high unemployment and economic hardship, especially among young people.
That is a common theme that has led to momentous election upsets in other countries in the region this year. Voters elsewhere in southern Africa have rejected parties that liberated their nations from colonial or white minority rule in favor of era-ending change to address new problems.

In neighboring South Africa(opens in a new tab), the African National Congress that ruled for three decades since the end of the racist system of apartheid lost its majority in a landmark election result in June. Botswana's ruling party lost in a landslide last month after 58 years in power since independence from Britain, and Mauritius delivered a surprising heavy defeat for its incumbent party this month.

Mozambique's long-ruling Frelimo party was declared the winner of an election in October, prompting claims of vote rigging and sparking ongoing violent protests against the party.

About 1.4 million people — approximately half the Namibian population — are registered to vote to decide the president and the makeup of Parliament for a five-year term. The country on the southwestern coast of Africa is a former German colony that came under South African control after World War I and its Black majority was later subjected to some of South Africa's apartheid policies. SWAPO was at the forefront of the battle for independence.

While Namibia's population is 85% Black, its colonial history is illustrated by large white and biracial communities, and English, German and South Africa's Afrikaans language are all spoken.

Nandi-Ndaitwah voted at an elementary school in the capital, Windhoek. She told reporters that one of her party’s key focuses to fight poverty was attracting more foreign investment to a country with diamond and uranium resources, and untapped oil and gas off its coast that is being explored by international energy companies.

#Kenya-#Police in Nakuru and its environs are hunting for a church official from a popular church who is accused of stabbing his partner multiple times.

Elias Njau is suspected to have attacked Florence Njeri near her home on Thursday and fled the scene, leaving her for dead.

According to #Wanjiku, who is now recuperating at a Nakuru hospital, Njau attacked her because of business and relationship reasons.

“I told him it was time to call it quits to let everything go, he also owed me money and I was requesting for that money,”

Njau could not take no for an answer and attacked the victim, leaving her with 18 stab wounds and several severed fingers.

"On my right leg he was stabbing me and then tearing it and so he ran away," she added.

Wanjiku has since undergone the first of a number of surgeries.

Meanwhile, her attacker remains at large, but the police say his days as a free man are numbered.

"Before long the suspect will be in our custody. He can save us alot of time if he turns himself in. We are telling him that he can run but he can't hide," said Jasper Ombati the Rift Valley Regional Commander.

The attack has been condemned by leaders from the county who are calling for a speedy dispensation of justice for Wanjiku.

"We will stand with the family and when the security agents are done with the investigation, we volunteer on pro bono to hold brief for her family," said Gender Principal Secretary (PS) Anna Wangombe.

This attack is the latest in a series of similar attacks which have left many maimed and others dead.

The government had pledged to act and end these cases of gender-based violence which have in some instances turned to femicide.