Latest news with #EastAfrican
CAF
an hour ago
- Sport
- CAF
CAF concludes two-day Senior Supervisors Commanders' workshop in Nairobi ahead of CHAN
Dr. Christian Emeruwa, the Head of CAF's Safety and Security department is confident that the East African region is well on course ahead of its first ever joint major tournament, the 2024 TotalEnergies Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) set for August. Dr. Emeruwa says he is impressed with the caliber of the security workforce and the zeal to work exhibited by personnel from all the host countries, after conducting the last of three workshops for senior supervisors in Nairobi on Friday. 'In terms of personnel, what we have seen is impressive and commendable. We are happy with the people we have trained. They have been very positive and receptive in terms of the training and we are confident that we have the right people. But, we still have some way to go in terms of getting enough material for the personnel to work,' Dr Emeruwa said. He conducted the first workshop in Tanzania, culminating with practical work at the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup final between Simba SC and RS Berkane in Zanzibar before heading to Uganda. He then conducted the workshop in Nairobi, bringing together 40 senior security personnel from the National Police Service as well as officials from both the Ministry of Sports and Interior Coordination. 'For us it is very important to get all the security stakeholders in a room and expose them to the CAF way of doing things. We are not here to teach them how to police the country. Football has its own security requirements and programs which are not openly available to the conventional police,' Dr Christian said. He added; 'We needed to expose them to this kind of training and also let them know what is coming to them. CHAN is the second biggest tournament in CAF; it is not just a one-off game. We have tried to show them what has happened in other countries, and for a country well connected from the borders we expect quite a lot of people coming in for this tournament.' The two-day workshop culminated in a practical session at the Nyayo National Stadium, one of the principal host stadia of the tournament. They were taken through various crowd control measures, including managing entry of spectators and manning ticket verification points. 'This was a brilliant platform for us to get rolling in terms of helping our security personnel understand how football security operations are done. It is very different from the normal day to day job of the police and there have been massive benefits from this training by CAF. Locally we have endeavored to train as many police officers as possible to ensure that we have a very safe CHAN in August,' said Austin Oduor, CAF's National Safety and Security Officer, Kenya. The 2024 TotalEnergies CHAN is scheduled for August, and this will be the first time three countries will be co-hosting the tournament specially tailor-made for locally-based players.
The Star
a day ago
- Health
- The Star
Africa CDC urges aggressive action to curb mpox outbreak in southern Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has called for aggressive efforts to control mpox in southern Ethiopia to avert possible cross-border spread. The East African country reported its first mpox case on May 25 when a 21-day-old infant tested positive in Moyale near the Kenyan border. On Friday, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health announced that the number of cases has now reached six as three new cases were confirmed. During an online media briefing on Thursday evening, Ngashi Ngongo, chief of staff and head of the Executive Office at Africa CDC, expressed concern due to Moyale town's close proximity to neighboring Somalia. "The proximity to Somalia, and knowing all the challenges in Somalia, makes it that we really need to be very bold and aggressive to control this outbreak from the source so that it does not expand from the region," he said. Meanwhile, Ngongo said that the African continent has reported 139,233 mpox cases since the start of last year. Of these, 34,824 were confirmed and about 1,788 related deaths were recorded. Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, was first detected in laboratory monkeys in 1958. It is a rare viral disease transmitted through body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials. The infection often causes fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes.
DW
a day ago
- Politics
- DW
Tanzania's intolerance of transnational activism – DW – 05/30/2025
05/30/2025 May 30, 2025 Tanzania's detention, alleged torture and deportation of two East African human rights defenders has sparked a storm. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has warned that there's no place for activists "invading and infiltrating", but critics of her government say the case involved simple acts of regional solidarity.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
US Africa commander highlights terror growth in Sahel and competition with China for influence
A top United States military general warned Thursday that terror groups in Africa are ramping up their ability to conduct attacks in the U.S. Gen. Michael Langley, the four-star Marine General who leads U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), said the Sahel region of the continent is now the "flashpoint of prolonged conflict and growing instability. It is the epicenter of terrorism on the globe." Several terror groups have expanded drastically in the last three years. Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is three times the size it was in 2022, he said, and has spread across Mali, Burkina Faso, and parts of Niger, which the U.S. military pulled out of last year. Isis Increasingly Unopposed Following Us Withdrawal From Afghanistan, Collapse Of Syria Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, a faction affiliated with Al-Qaeda, is now four times the size it was in 2022, expanding mainly in Burkina Faso. "We're keeping a good eye on this because they could have the capacity to attack the homeland," Langley said in a call with reporters. Read On The Fox News App "Throughout my travels across West Africa and through dialog here at the conference, the concerns shared by my peers match my own," he added. "One of the terrorist's key goals now is access to the west coast of Africa. If they gain access to the vast coastline, they can diversify their revenue streams and evolve their tactics, more easily exporting terrorism to American shores." Lone Wolf Attacks Surge In The West As Terrorism Intensifies Globally He noted that the terror groups engage in illicit activity like smuggling, human trafficking and arms trading, which fund their nefarious actions and destabilize the region. U.S. forces over the weekend conducted an airstrike against the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab in Somalia. The East African country has been wracked for decades by attacks and insurgency from Islamist terrorists, both from ISIS and al-Shabab. The U.S. is in a race with China and Russia to gain influence and trust with the local governments of several African nations to help protect citizens from terror groups. Langley said there is an increasing concern about the number of African soldiers going to Beijing for military training and replicating a U.S. International Military Education and Training (IMET) program. "They're trying to replicate what we do best in our IMET program," said Langley. "And then they also said they're going to increase security and training in a number of countries. So, they're trying to replicate what we do."Original article source: US Africa commander highlights terror growth in Sahel and competition with China for influence
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
China backs Starmer's Chagos deal
The Chinese government has welcomed Sir Keir Starmer's Chagos Islands deal as a 'massive achievement', despite his claim that Beijing had opposed it. Beijing's ambassador to Mauritius talked up the deal in a speech on Tuesday, after Sir Keir signed away the Chagos Islands and agreed to pay Mauritius £30 billion over 99 years. Huang Shifang told guests at the Chinese embassy that her government offered 'massive congratulations' on the deal, and that China 'fully supports' Mauritius's attempt to 'safeguard national sovereignty'. She also confirmed that Mauritius would soon join Beijing's Belt and Road initiative, despite claims from the UK Government that the East African island nation was not under Chinese influence. The relationship between Mauritius and China has been a point of contention for Sir Keir, who faced accusations he was giving away British territory to an ally of one of the UK's enemies. The Chagos Islands, known in the UK as the British Indian Ocean Territory, host the Diego Garcia military base which is jointly used by British and US forces. Under the terms of the Prime Minister's deal announced last week, the UK will pay billions of pounds to rent back the military base after sovereignty of the islands has been transferred to Mauritius. The Government argues that the deal creates legal security from the base, which was under threat from a territorial dispute from Mauritius in the international courts. Addressing his critics, Sir Keir told a press conference that Conservative and Reform opponents of the deal were in a 'column' with Russia, China and Iran, who he said had all opposed it. 'In favour are all of our allies: the US, Nato, Five Eyes, India,' he said. 'Against it: Russia, China, Iran. Surprisingly, the leader of the opposition and Nigel Farage are in that column alongside Russia, China and Iran, rather than the column that has the UK and its allies in it.' But that argument was contradicted by the Chinese government five days later, when their ambassador welcomed the deal. According to the local newspaper Le Mauricien, Ms Huang told party guests on Tuesday that China offered 'massive congratulations' to Mauritius for securing the disputed territory with the UK. Dame Priti Patel, the Tory shadow foreign secretary, told The Telegraph: 'Once again, Keir Starmer has been caught peddling a lie. 'He claimed that those who opposed his mad plan to surrender the Chagos Islands were in league with hostile powers – whilst himself handing over control of our own sovereign territory to a nation firmly in China's grasp. 'And now China itself has welcomed the deal – knowing that Labour weakening our national security is at their benefit – Keir Starmer must apologise, and retract his baseless slander.' A Mauritian government statement said that the Chinese ambassador pointed to 'Mauritius's firm adherence to the One-China policy', the political doctrine that Taiwan is part of China, and drew comparison between China's dispute with Taiwan and Mauritius's dispute with the UK. The government statement said she 'commended the recent achievement regarding the Chagos Archipelago'. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not mention the Chagos Islands in its own statement, but said: 'China expects Mauritius to join the Belt and Road Initiative as soon as possible and work together to promote the building of an all-weather, China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.' It comes after The Telegraph revealed that Mauritius was building a closer relationship with China, Russia and Iran, all of whom have sent ambassadors to meet the Mauritian prime minister in the past six months. Critics of the Chagos deal said those diplomatic ties would endanger the Diego Garcia base by allowing the UK's enemies to build spying installations on nearby islands. The final text of the agreement says that neither China nor any other country can build installations on the outlying islands without the UK's consent, and that all civilian or military security staff are banned from entering the archipelago.
