Author: b_igi_adm1n

Burundi’s year-on-year inflation rate rose to 17.6% in July from 17.3% a month earlier, driven by housing, water and energy price rises, the country’s statistics office said.

Activists and trade unions warned last week that they were planning to call a general strike in the coffee-producing nation in protest against high utility costs and power rationing.

The price index for housing, water and energy surged 30.4% in the year to end-July, from 29.9% in June, the Institute of Economic Studies and Statistics (ISTEEBU) said.

Only 3% of Burundi’s population has access to electricity, while demand for power grows by about 13 percent every year.

The International Monetary Fund forecast this month that inflation would drop to 14.7% by the end of 2012 before easing further to 8.4% at the close of 2013.

Reuters

India has said that it acquired nuclear weapons to prevent other strong nations from blackmail and coercion.

National security advisor Shivshankar Menon disclosed that after India became a declared nuclear weapons state in 1998, it has not faced such threats.

Menon made the remarks during a national outreach conference on global nuclear disarmament.

He underlined that until the world arrived at “this happy state” it will continue to maintain atomic weapons as they have helped deter others from attempting nuclear coercion or blackmail.

On at least three occasions before 1998, other powers used the explicit or implicit threat of nuclear weapons to try and change India’s behaviour,” he revealed.

“So the possession of nuclear weapons has, empirically speaking, deterred others from attempting nuclear blackmail against India,” he added.

The day-long conference, organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs and supported by the external affairs ministry, saw the participation of nearly 1500 students from around 37 universities.

Menon said,”Unlike certain other nuclear weapon states, India’s weapons were not meant to redress a military imbalance, or to compensate for some perceived inferiority in conventional military terms, or to serve some tactical or operational military need on the battlefield,” he added.

Menon underlined that said the acquisition of nuclear weapons has imparted an added authority to India’s moral authority for universal disarmament on the global fora.

“We spent 24 years after our first peaceful nuclear explosion in 1974 urging and working for universal nuclear disarmament and a nuclear free world,” he said.

Rwanda National Police is hosting a week-long Police Command Post Exercise (PCPX) codenamed “Solidarity” that began August 20 to 25/2012 at Kacyiru Police Headquarters.

The Exercise aims at promoting strengthening and perpetuating cooperation between EAPCCO members through information sharing and intelligence on cross-border and trans-national crime and criminals based on INTERPOL best practice as well as promote the increasing Police role in Peace Support Operations (PSO).

The Exercise is being conducted in specialized areas of Counter Terrorism (CT), Human Trafficking and Peace Support Operations(PSO).

The PCPX Exercise brings together ninety participants from 12 EAPCCO member states namely Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Cyprus, Eritrea, Ethiopia and hosts Rwanda.

Parties involved include;Interpol, EAPCCO Secretariat, Eastern African Standby Force Coordination Mechanism (EASFCOM), Rwanda National Police and other selected partners with specific expertise.

APCCO, CAPCCO, WAPCCO Partners-UNODC, IOM, RECSA, AU, and UNPKO are among observers gracing the exercise.

The objective of this exercise is to bring EAPCCO law enforcers together in a theoretical training in three responsive areas and thereafter do a centrally controlled joint exercise with intent to put theory to practice.

Police in Muhanga district has arrested Five suspects in connection with the brutal murder of 9 residents in the district. The deaths have occurred within the past two months.

On August 19, two people including;Bagirubwira Callixte and Niwemfura John Espain were attacked with machetes by unknown people.

Bagirubwira a water technician in Muhanga district was attacked in his area at Biti, Remera in Nyamabuye sector. He told IGIHE that while he was walking back home, he met two unidentified men one was holding a machete and another with a stick.

He says he was beaten with a stick on his face and later the man with a machete tried to cut off his head but Bigirubwira guarded with his hand and in the process one figure was chopped off.

The two attakers thought Bigirubwira had died and left him. After several hours Bigirubwira became conscious and crawled to a nearby home which refused to open for him and later went to the incharge of security in the cell who later took him to the health center.

During the same night, Niwemfura John was found in his home and attacked by two men. His wife said she had seen someone peeping through the door glass.

She later opened the door and was immediately hit with a stick. She struggled with the attacker. Another attacker attempted to cut Niwemfura’s wife with a machete.

Police in Ngororero district is holding Erneste Dufanye 23, found in possession with 86 boules of narcotic cannabis in his house.

The suspect is detained at Gatumba police station.

Natural Balance, a social enterprise and the driving force behind the prodigious Wonderbag – a heat retention cooker which offsets carbon by reducing the use of cooking fuel – will launch in Rwanda today.

The expansion cements the organisation’s vision of an East African head office.

As well as its geographical location, Rwanda’s focus on the environment as a means of galvanising the population perfectly aligns with Natural Balance’s own ethos.

The organisation delivers positive sociological and environmental benefits for families in developing countries, while providing a responsible yet commercial solution to carbon offsetting for global corporations, such as existing partner Unilever.

With regular nationwide clean up and recycling schemes operating in Rwanda, Natural Balance will bring additional sustainable and economic support to the country. Providing bags will impact on the environment andhelp to alleviate poverty – from reducing fuel usage to job creation and freeing up valuable time. Already bags are being manufactured locally in the first Natural Balance factory outside South Africa, established in central Rwanda.

Recent trials across Rwanda found that the average family’s fuel usage is reduced by up to 70 per cent when using the Wonderbag, saving 4.9 trees per household every year.

This is vitally important as the population has limited access to clean and safe cooking fuels and consequently the country’s natural resources are depreciating rapidly, disrupting the balance of the local ecosystem.

The Wonderbag dramatically reduces cooking times on open fires and paraffin lit stoves – on average five hours – saving anywhere from 50-90 per cent of the time food needs to be on an external heating source.

In addition, up to 80 per cent less water is used as there is no evaporation due to the heat retention properties of the cooker. This is the equivalent of five meals cooked with the same amount of water required for one meal using traditional means.

Speaking of the expansion, Sarah Collins, founder, Natural Balance said: “Our business is at a revolutionary point with governments and organisations alike recognising the extraordinary opportunity the Wonderbag provides for them to contribute positively to society.

As Africa’s most densely populated country, Rwanda is a vital territory for our business as we look to continue to promote the benefits of the Wonderbag and set up our central East Africa head office. The expansion marks the start of a global programme of growth across both developing and developed nations in the coming months.”

The launch into Rwanda comes after a year of significant change and continued success for Natural Balancewhich actively seeks to launch in to countries and communities identified with high poverty rates, a shortage of fuel supplies, a high incidence of health problems associated with air pollution, and/or injuries resulting from fuel fires. As of June 2012, 500,000 Wonderbags have been distributed throughout South Africa directly improving the lives of over 2.5 million people.

Furthermore each Wonderbag can prevent the emission of half a ton of C02 each year, even if only used three times a week. This is the equivalent to the annual emissions of over 45,000 European households, or more than 400,000 return flights between London and New York.

Moreover, since September 2011, over 2,000 temporary and permanent jobs have been created in local communities by Natural Balance by establishing factories which produce Wonderbags.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a regional strongman in power for over two decades, has died in hospital abroad, the government said Tuesday.

“Prime Minister Meles Zenawi passed away yesterday evening at around midnight,” Bereket Simon said, adding that the 57-year-old “was abroad” when he died, without giving further details.

Meles had not been seen in public for two months, and had been reported to have been sick in a hospital in Brussels, although Bereket gave no details of the illness.

Botswana is facing stiff resistance from lobbyists who say that Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations should impose an air blockade on Botswana if it agrees to host United States Africa Command (Africom).

Botswana political analyst on African affairs, Dr Honourable Saka, spearheaded the call for a Botswana blockade if Botswana goes ahead to give Africom a base.

“I am appealing to the governments of SADC to impose sanctions on Botswana if it goes ahead with the measure and ignores the position of the SADC community,” he said.

On August 11, the deputy secretary-general of South Africa’s ruling ANC, Thandi Modise, said “leaders want to host people who want to hurt us. They think as long as they can get funding from these Western people they are fine. But I can tell you that we are not happy at all”.

Between August 1-17, Botswana defense Forces BDF and Africom held a joint military exercise at Thebephatswa Air Base outside Molepolole in south-east Botswana, 60 km from the capital Gaborone.

The joint military drills were sponsored by Africom dubbed Southern Accord 12.

Afircom Commander General Carter F. Ham’s has also visited Botswana Capital Gaborone last week.

SADC and the African Union have made it clear that they do not want a permanent US military base on the continent.

But there have long been suspicions that Botswana and Liberia are amenable to hosting the unit.

Botswana’s hosting AFRICOM would directly suck SADC into the orbit of Pentagon and NATO military adventures, while indirectly affecting the rest of Africa.

Major-Gen David Hogg of the US Army says that America would soon begin regular deployment of a brigade of 3 000 or more troops to Africa.

The unit is the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, which “will be the main force provider for security co-operation and partnership-building missions in Africa”.

It is Feared that this unit will form the core of AFRICOM and will be stationed in Botswana.

US has more than 187 000 soldiers based in nearly 160 countries.

PRIOR

Leaked diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Gaborone, Botswana gave Washington the green light to explore the possibility of establishing an AFRICOM base on its territory.

A cable sent by America’s Ambassador in Botswana, Katherine Canavan, to the US Secretary of State in Washington in October 2007, shows senior embassy officials met then Vice President Mompati Merafhe to discuss the matter.

Canavan said Botswana and other unidentified African countries were being considered for hosting elements of AFRICOM.