🇸🇴 Soldiers and militants executed in Somali region

Thirteen men have been executed in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland.They were executed by firing squad in the northern cities of Garowe, Bosasso and Galkayo.

Nine of them were accused of belonging to the militant Islamist groups al-Shabab and Islamic State. Six were former soldiers convicted of murder.

Human rights groups say executions are on the rise in Somalia. Most of those put to death are suspected Islamist militants, rapists and members of the security forces.

#Somalia

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🇨🇩 DR Congo hit by fighting despite ceasefire

Fighting is continuing between the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23 rebels in violation of Tuesday's ceasefire.

Local media said there were clashes on several fronts in the eastern province of North Kivu.

The rebels are reported to have seized a number of villages, including Karuba which is around 30km from the regional capital Goma.

The army has accused M23 of shelling UN peacekeepers and Burundian soldiers from an East African force recently deployed in an effort to stop the violence.

#DRC

@africaintel

🇹🇿 Tanzania's president shows up at opposition event

For the first time in Tanzania's history, the president has attended an International Women's Day event organized by the main opposition party, Chadema.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan's presence was welcomed by Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe, who said it was the fruit of meetings aimed at achieving reconciliation.

Samia, who addressed thousands in the meeting, said that reconciliation was ongoing in Tanzanian politics, and that some steps had already been taken meanwhile others were in progress, including the finding of a new constitution.

President Samia added it had been difficult to start the reconciliation process as some in her ruling party "were not ready".

#Tanzania

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🇹🇳 Tunisian groups denounce minister for calling journalists, unions, businessmen "traitors"

Tunisian civil society groups on Wednesday accused the interior minister of incitement after he said some journalists, activists, politicians, business people and union members were traitors.

The organisations include Tunisia's main labour union and the Journalists Syndicate, as well as the Human Rights League and the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.

Interior Minister Toufik Charfeddine said on Tuesday that "journalists are mercenaries and traitors. Businessmen, trade unionists and parties have sold the country and allied themselves against the Tunisian people, they are traitors".

#Tunisia

@africaintel

🇳🇬 Nigerian court rejects bid to stop reconfiguration of voting system for governorship polls

A Nigerian judge on Wednesday refused a request by one opposition candidate who lost last month's presidential election to stop the electoral body from reconfiguring a voting system for state elections.

Opposition challenger Peter Obi of the Labour Party said a reconfiguration will destroy the evidence for his case after he lost the presidential election to the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress party, Bola Tinubu.

The Independent National Electoral Commission asked the court for an order to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System that uses fingerprints and facial recognition which was previously used for the presidential vote for governorship election on March 11.

#Nigeria

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🇪🇬 Egypt may offer stakes in state-controlled firms to strategic investors

Egypt's prime minister said on Wednesday his government was in favour of "strategic investors" buying stakes in big state-owned companies.

Speaking after the cabinet's weekly meeting, Mostafa Madbouly said the government was considering offering stakes in listed companies on top of the planned IPOs for 32 companies.

#Egypt

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🇬🇭 Ghana's loan programme request to go to IMF board by end March

International Monetary Fund staff will present Ghana's request for a loan programme to its executive board by the end of the month, the country's President Nana Akufo-Addo said.

Ghana, struggling with its worst economic crisis in a generation, secured a staff-level agreement with the IMF in December for a $3 billion loan, but approval is contingent on it restructuring its debt of $47.6 billion.

"We are on course for the IMF staff to present to the IMF executive board Ghana's programme request for a $3 billion extended credit facility by the end of the month," Akufo-Addo said in his speech to parliament.

#Ghana

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🇳🇬 Nigeria postpones election of state governors

Nigeria's electoral commission has postponed elections for state governors and local assemblies by one week.

The polls had been scheduled to take place on Saturday. They will now be held on 18 March.

Nigeria's opposition had asked to check electronic voting machines. A court rejected their complaint. But the electoral commission said the legal challenge had held up preparations and the machines would not be ready in time.

#Nigeria

@africaintel

🇹🇳🇬🇼 Tunisian president met with his counterpart and ECOWAS chairman from Guinea-Bissau

Tunisia’s president hosted his counterpart from Guinea-Bissau. The visit to Tunis of the ECOWAS chairman came amid attacks targeting sub-Saharan migrants.

"There is the Tunisian state, the sovereign Tunisian legality concerning the status of foreigners, even though they are our brothers; they may not have Tunisian nationality, but they are our brothers. I believe that any country wouldn't accept parallel jurisdictions to the state's jurisdictions," said Tunisia's president Kaies Saied, adding that he is a proud African.

Saied denied racism insisting on his will to uphold the law.

#Tunisia #GuineaBissau

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🇸🇸 South Sudan president dismisses foreign minister

South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Wednesday sacked the foreign minister, the president's spokesperson said, less than a week after the dismissal of the ministers of defence and interior and he did not provide an explanation.

Foreign minister Mayiik Ayii is a close ally of Kiir, and previously served as the minister of the president's office.

It wasn't immediately clear if Ayii's termination was linked to those of the defence and interior, which strained relations with opposition leader First Vice President Riek Machar.

#SouthSudan

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🇺🇳🇸🇴 UN warns of humanitarian crisis in Somaliland

About 100,000 people fleeing fighting in Somaliland, Somalia's self-declared independent region, have taken refuge in a month in a remote area of Ethiopia already suffering from severe drought, the UN and Ethiopian refugee agencies announced.

If the number of refugees is confirmed, their arrival will add 40% to the population of the three districts in Ethiopia bordering Somalia, where about 236,000 people are already suffering severely from the drought affecting their region and more broadly part of the Horn of Africa.

Before the arrival of the Somaliland refugees, Ethiopia, with a population of about 120 million, was already hosting more than 880,000 refugees, mostly from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan, according to the UNHCR.

#UN #Somalia

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🇲🇱 Muslim leaders in Mali call for vote against draft constitution over "principle of secularism"

The Mali League of Imams and Scholars for Islamic Solidarity called Tuesday for the "removal pure and simple of the word" secularism and for it to be replaced with "multiconfessional state". The organisation called on its followers to reject a new constitution..

The new constitution is supposed to be put to a plebiscite, originally scheduled for March 19. The government's declared goal is to hold elections in February 2024 that would lead to the restoration of civilian rule.

A constitutional draft received by military leader Colonel Assimi Goita late last month stated an "attachment to the republican form." "Secularism is not opposed to religion and to beliefs," the drafts says, adding its aim was to "promote and reinforce living together based on tolerance, dialogue and mutual understanding".

#Mali

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🇧🇫 At least 60 dead in Partiaga attack in Burkina Faso

60 people were killed on February 26 in a suspected jihadist attack in Partiaga, a town in eastern Burkina Faso.

"In the morning of February 26, "armed terrorist groups invaded Partiaga, killing, destroying property and carrying off livestock", indicated the Burkinabè Movement for Human and People's Rights (MBDHP).

According to the MBDHP, the attack led to "massive displacement" of populations. Organisation called on the authorities to "truly ensure their sovereign mission of securing the populations and their property".

#BurkinaFaso

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🇹🇳 New Tunisian parliament to meet on Monday

Tunisia's new parliament will sit for the first time on Monday, President Kais Saied said.

Saied shut down the previous elected parliament in July 2021, moving to rule by decree in a move that opposition parties called a coup. He has said his actions were legal and needed to save Tunisia from years of crisis.

The new parliament, operating under a new constitution, will have little power compared with the previous body it replaces.

Most parties boycotted the election. Most of the new parliament members are political independents.

#Tunisia

@africaintel

🇹🇳 Tunisian president to dissolve municipal councils months before local elections

Tunisian President Kais Saied said he will dissolve municipal councils months before they were due to be elected, further dismantling the systems of government developed after the 2011 revolution.

"We will discuss a decree to dissolve municipalities and replace them by special councils," he said.

The new councils will also be elected, but under new rules that he will write, he said. He has previously called the existing councils "states within a state" and said they were "not neutral".

#Tunisia

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