Nigeria goment withdraw charges against Ibom air passenger Comfort Bob, restore license of valueJet pilot
We dey update dis tori...
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
22 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Zambian president's feud with late rival continues over site of funeral
A furious row over whether the Zambian president, Hakainde Hichilema, will preside over the funeral of his predecessor, Edgar Lungu, is raging, as the former president's family wages a legal battle in South Africa to try to stop his body from being repatriated to Zambia. The legal fight marks the latest twist in a feud between the two men that goes back at least a decade and has now outlasted the former president, who died in South Africa in June aged 68 while being treated for an undisclosed illness. Mourners had already arrived at the funeral in Johannesburg in June when it was halted by a high court judge, after an 11th-hour request by Zambia's attorney general, Mulilo Kabesha. Lungu's family said he specifically requested that Hichilema not attend his funeral. On 8 August, the Pretoria high court ruled that Lungu's body could be sent back to Zambia for a state funeral. Lungu's older sister Bertha broke down, shouting across the courtroom at Kabesha as she was restrained by other relatives. Lungu's family then applied for leave to appeal. On Monday, the high court adjourned the case indefinitely, while South Africa's constitutional court decides whether to hear the appeal. Meanwhile, conspiracy theories have spread, from rumours that Lungu is not actually dead to speculation that Hichilema wants to use the body for witchcraft. Many Zambians have joked about the saga. 'It's coming home!' Kodwani Banda, a self-described 'youth advocate', posted to his 356,000 Facebook followers, with an image of white smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel chimney. 'There should have been more sympathy,' said Emmanuel Mwamba, spokesperson for the Patriotic Front, Lungu's party. 'When [government officials] came to South Africa, they were just interested in picking up the body and holding the funeral. It was very mechanical. Their approach lacked sympathy, lacked empathy, lacked a sense of Africanness, a sense of ubuntu.' Kabesha had previously argued a state funeral with full military honours was a legal requirement, citing a court ruling on the burial of Zambia's first president, Kenneth Kaunda. 'The moment that a national mourning is declared, the law kicks in,' he told the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation in June. Mwamba responded that a state funeral could be held without the current president presiding over it: 'His presence doesn't make it. A state funeral is, in fact, the protocols such as the gun salute, the pallbearers being soldiers, the ceremony being handled by the defence forces.' Sishuwa Sishuwa, a political historian and senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University, said the burial dispute had heightened political discord in Zambia. 'The faultlines have always been there, but the dispute over Lungu's burial place has exacerbated the country's regional and political polarisation,' he said. 'Whatever way the dispute is resolved, it will have a significant bearing on the 2026 elections … A key reason behind the government's court action in South Africa is to reduce the political costs of burying Lungu in exile.' Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion Lungu ruled Zambia from 2015 to 2021, taking over when Michael Sata died in office. He then defeated Hichilema in the 2016 presidential election, which Hichilema and his United Party for National Development (UPND) party claimed was rigged. The following year, Hichilema was sent to prison to await trial on treason charges, after his convoy did not give way to Lungu's presidential motorcade. Four months later, after an international outcry, he was released and the charges were dropped. Hichilema finally defeated Lungu in the 2021 elections, amid an economic crisis. Since then, he has been accused of using similar oppressive methods to his longtime rival. In 2023, police stopped Lungu from going out for runs, saying they were 'political activism' that had to be approved in advance to 'ensure public safety'. His wife and children have also faced corruption charges, which they have denied and said were politically motivated. In 2024, Lungu was banned from running in next year's presidential election by the constitutional court, which ruled that the period from when Lungu took office in 2015 until the 2016 election counted as a full first term.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Sudan's Burhan shakes up army, tightens control
CAIRO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Sudan's army chief appointed a raft of new senior officers on Monday in a reshuffle that strengthened his hold on the military as he consolidates control of central and eastern regions and fights fierce battles in the west. Sudan's army, which controls the government, is fighting a more than two-year civil war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, its former partners in power, that has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan made new appointments to the Joint Chiefs of Staff a day after announcing the retirement of several long-serving officers, some of whom have gained a measure of fame over the past two years. Burhan, who serves as Sudan's internationally recognised head of state, kept the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mohamed Othman al-Hussein, but appointed a new inspector general and a new head of the air force. Another decree from Burhan on Sunday brought all the other armed groups fighting alongside the army - including former Darfur rebels, Islamist brigades, civilians who joined the war effort and tribal militias - under his control. Sudanese politicians praised the decision, saying it would prevent the development of other centres of power in the military, and potentially the future formation of other parallel forces like the RSF. The RSF has its roots in Arab militias armed by the military in the early 2000s to fight in Darfur. It was allowed to develop parallel structures and supply lines. The reshuffle comes a week after Burhan met U.S. senior Africa adviser Massad Boulos in Switzerland, where issues including a transition to civilian rule were discussed, government sources said. The war erupted in April 2023 when the army and the RSF clashed over plans to integrate their forces. The RSF made quick gains in central Sudan, including the capital Khartoum, but the army pushed them westward this year, leading to an intensification in fighting in al-Fashir in Darfur.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Congo and M23 rebels miss deadline to reach Doha peace deal
KINSHASA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The Congolese government and M23 rebels have missed Monday's deadline to reach a peace agreement in Doha, raising fears that tensions between the two parties might derail talks and reverse progress made to end the conflict. Fighting in eastern Congo has intensified this year, with the M23 group launching an offensive that allowed it to capture the two largest cities in the region. Under a mediation effort hosted by Qatar, Congo and the rebels signed a declaration of principles on July 19 in which they vowed to start negotiating a deal no later than August 8 with the goal of reaching it by August 18. The AFC-M23 Movement said in a statement on Sunday that only the full implementation of the declaration of principles, which includes the release of prisoners, would enable the next round of talks to proceed. A senior AFC source said on Monday that while rebels didn't expect significant progress from the talks, they would send a small delegation in the coming days due to Qatar's pressure as negotiators. "Our delegation will simply reinforce the need to implement these measures before we can engage in negotiations," the source said. A governmental source said authorities had received a draft agreement from the mediation team, and both parties are working on their comments before delegates return to Doha later this week. It added that the release of prisoners is a complicated prerequisite because it can be a subject of negotiations rather than a condition to continue talks. A Qatari official told Reuters on Sunday that while the timeline outlined in the declaration of principles had not been met, both parties expressed a willingness to continue negotiations.
