Many dead in DR Congo blast caused by lightning - UN

The explosion destroyed houses near an arms depot in the central city of Mbuji-Mayi

An explosion at an arms depot in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 20 people, UN officials say.

The explosion happened on Friday after a bolt of lightning caused a fire at an army base in the city of Mbuji-Mayi.

More than 50 people were also injured and houses were destroyed, said the statement by the Monusco UN mission.

The aim of the Monusco is to neutralise armed groups in DR Congo, which is struggling to recover from a war that killed millions between 1998 and 2003.

Friday's blast, which occurred near the main market in Mbuji-Mayi, caused "desolation" in the central city, according to Monusco.

"I have instructed our office in Mbuji-Mayi to stand by and support local authorities in dealing with the situation," said Martin Kobler, head of the peacekeeping mission.

Mbuji-Mayi is DR Congo's third-largest city and is at the heart of the county's diamond mining industry.

DR Congo has massive mineral resources but most of its people live in poverty.

Zimbabwe: Botswana Breaks Ranks With AU, SADC

Botswana President Seretse Khama Ian Khama has broken ranks with Sadc and the rest of Africa, saying his country will not participate in future Sadc election observer missions as he claims that there were irregularities in Zimbabwe's polls last year.

He has also gone against the African Union (AU), saying sitting heads of state should be brought before the Western-controlled International Criminal Court (ICC).

The AU last year resolved that no sitting African head of state should be taken to the court.

In an interview aired on BTV last Sunday, the Botswana leader disclosed that he was against the AU resolution.

On Zimbabwe, he announced that his country will no longer participate in any Sadc election observer missions as the regional bloc appears to have let the country "off the hook".

Without citing specific examples, he also said he was convinced that the elections, which saw Zanu-PF gallop to a massive victory and receive congratulatory messages from such bodies as the United Nations, the AU and Sadc, among others, were neither free nor fair.

"I want to correct the word fairness... the Sadc observer statement said the elections were free and peaceful, they never used the word fair... that's why we asked for an audit of the Zimbabwe election," he said.

"Sadc has set itself guidelines for the conduct of free and fair elections and, therefore, it's incumbent on all of us in Sadc to conform to those set of guidelines and if there is a breach of those guidelines then we have to say, 'Fine, we have breached these guidelines; what now happens? What do we do about it?'

"And in Zim, we sent 80 plus or so observers and almost every one of them said there were irregularities in that election, and there were. I am convinced of it.

"So, the point was just to say that we must fix the problem because if the guidelines were violated and you create that precedent in Zimbabwe, then it means the next election, because Zimbabwe is gonna have elections again, they are likely to repeat the same irregularities. So, do we say Zimbabwe is an exception to the Sadc guidelines?"

Quizzed if he was comfortable with making Botswana the only African country calling for an audit of the Zimbabwean election, Mr Khama replied, "I am very comfortable, I would sleep better at night knowing that I have taken that stance."

He also claimed that Sadc's alleged failure to deal with Zimbabwe would give rise to a situation whereby other countries will flout the bloc's election guidelines before telling it to go hang.

"If we say this year, there are going to be elections in South Africa and Botswana . . . there are one or two other Sadc countries that are going to be holding elections this year . . . if we breach the Sadc guidelines and they then try and point a finger . . . we will say to them, 'So what? You let Zimbabwe off the hook, you have to let us off the hook.' Then where does it end?

"So, we have written to Sadc and the head of the Sadc organ on defence and security and we sent them a dossier of all the irregularities our people picked up. But we have gone on to say until we get a response, we, as Botswana, are not going to participate in any more Sadc observer missions because there is no point going there . . . these observer missions cost money and we are not going to throw money down the drain.

"So, we are making a statement."

He, however, reiterated that he was ready to work with President Mugabe's Government.

"Zimbabwe is a neighbour; we cannot get away from that.

"Despite what has happened, that Government has been recognised and we will do business because it's in our interest, because it's for the benefit of both peoples that we work together," said the Botswana leader, adding that he would have no problems with visiting Harare as well as hosting President Mugabe.

Asked about his opinion on the ICC indicting sitting African leaders, Mr Khama once again stepped out of line with the AU position on the matter.

"Now someone once said to me, 'Should a sitting president, while he is in office, have to appear before the ICC, shouldn't he rather wait until his term of office has concluded and then he goes to the criminal court?'

"My answer to that person was that (Muammar) Gaddafi was in power for 40 years. We have others on this continent who have been in power for 30 years, 20 years. Are you suggesting that if any president commits a crime, maybe earlier on in his term, the victims have to wait 10, 20, 30, 40 years before there is justice?

"I think being president shouldn't protect us from appearing before the court," he said.

In October last year, an AU summit agreed to a resolution that no sitting African president should be tried in international courts while in office.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Sudanese leader Omar-al Bashir are some of the African leaders who have been indicted by the ICC.

Egypt clashes kill 29 on third anniversary of revolution

Military helicopters are hovering above Tahrir Square, as Sally Nabil reports

At least 29 people have been killed in clashes in Egypt as the country marks the anniversary of the 2011 uprising which overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, the health ministry says.

Rival demonstrations of supporters and opponents of the military-backed government took place in Cairo.

But police broke up anti-government protests, and arrests were reported in Cairo and Alexandria.

Hundreds have died since July when the army deposed President Mohammed Morsi.

Extra security measures were in place for Saturday.

Egyptian Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim had urged Egyptians not to be afraid to go to events marking the anniversary of the uprising.

Thousands of supporters of the military and the government gathered in high-profile locations including Tahrir Square - the focal point of the 18-day 2011 popular revolt.

Participants waved Egyptian flags and banners showing army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom many urged to run for president.

But police dealt harshly with anti-government protesters in Cairo, with 29 killed and 147 injured in street clashes, health ministry official Ahmed Kamal confirmed to the BBC.

The majority died in Cairo, with two dead in the southern city of Minya and another - a woman - killed in Egypt's second city of Alexandria.

Meanwhile on Saturday, an army helicopter crashed in the restive Sinai peninsula, with an unconfirmed report that its crew of five soldiers was dead.

A large car bomb exploded near a police building in Suez, at the southern entrance of the Suez canal, with reports that nine people were injured.

At least 18 people died in violence on Friday.

Huge crowds turned out in Cairo's Tahrir Square - the focal point of the 2011 uprising - urged on by members of Egypt's military-backed government

Many held posters - such as this one - urging military chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to "complete his good deed" and run for president

Arrests

The BBC's Yolande Knell, in Cairo, says that three years on from an uprising that raised hopes of political reform in the Arab world's most populated country, rival demonstrations are showing the deep divisions.

There is an extreme anti-Islamist emphasis at pro-government rallies, with chants for "the execution of the Brotherhood" and fury at anyone believed to be critical of the post-coup leadership, reports said.

At anti-government protests, police chase protesters into side streets, firing live rounds as well as tear gas and birdshot.

One of those killed was a member of the April 6 movement, which led protests against Mubarak before and during the 2011 uprising and also opposed Mr Morsi, the group said.

Opponents of the military regime - both Islamist and secular - attempted to gather but were dispersed by security services using live rounds, tear gas and birdshot

Here, a plain-clothes security officer - holding a gun - detains a a supporter of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in the Cairo neighbourhood of Nasr City

Scores of arrests have been reported in Cairo and Egypt's second city, Alexandria - not just of Islamist supporters of deposed President Morsi, but secular opponents of the military government who have also been protesting.

"The only thing allowed is Sisi revolutionaries," one of the activists, blogger Wael Khalil, told the Associated Press news agency.

"This was supposed to be a day to mark the revolution... I don't get it. Do they think that there will be a working democracy this way?"

Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste - detained by Egyptian authorities for nearly a month - has written a letter from solitary confinement, describing Egypt's prisons as "overflowing with anyone who opposes or challenges the government".

Egyptian Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim had urged Egyptians not to be afraid to go to events marking the anniversary of the uprising.

Thousands of supporters of the military and the government gathered in high-profile locations including Tahrir Square - the focal point of the 18-day 2011 popular revolt.

Participants waved Egyptian flags and banners showing army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom many urged to run for president.

But police dealt harshly with anti-government protesters in Cairo, with 29 killed and 147 injured in street clashes, health ministry official Ahmed Kamal confirmed to the BBC.

The majority died in Cairo, with two dead in the southern city of Minya and another - a woman - killed in Egypt's second city of Alexandria.

Meanwhile on Saturday, an army helicopter crashed in the restive Sinai peninsula, with an unconfirmed report that its crew of five soldiers was dead.

A large car bomb exploded near a police building in Suez, at the southern entrance of the Suez canal, with reports that nine people were injured.

At least 18 people died in violence on Friday.

Huge crowds turned out in Cairo's Tahrir Square - the focal point of the 2011 uprising - urged on by members of Egypt's military-backed government

Many held posters - such as this one - urging military chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to "complete his good deed" and run for president

Arrests

The BBC's Yolande Knell, in Cairo, says that three years on from an uprising that raised hopes of political reform in the Arab world's most populated country, rival demonstrations are showing the deep divisions.

There is an extreme anti-Islamist emphasis at pro-government rallies, with chants for "the execution of the Brotherhood" and fury at anyone believed to be critical of the post-coup leadership, reports said.

At anti-government protests, police chase protesters into side streets, firing live rounds as well as tear gas and birdshot.

One of those killed was a member of the April 6 movement, which led protests against Mubarak before and during the 2011 uprising and also opposed Mr Morsi, the group said.

Opponents of the military regime - both Islamist and secular - attempted to gather but were dispersed by security services using live rounds, tear gas and birdshot

Here, a plain-clothes security officer - holding a gun - detains a a supporter of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in the Cairo neighbourhood of Nasr City

Scores of arrests have been reported in Cairo and Egypt's second city, Alexandria - not just of Islamist supporters of deposed President Morsi, but secular opponents of the military government who have also been protesting.

"The only thing allowed is Sisi revolutionaries," one of the activists, blogger Wael Khalil, told the Associated Press news agency.

"This was supposed to be a day to mark the revolution... I don't get it. Do they think that there will be a working democracy this way?"

Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste - detained by Egyptian authorities for nearly a month - has written a letter from solitary confinement, describing Egypt's prisons as "overflowing with anyone who opposes or challenges the government".

The Anti-Coup Alliance, led by Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, called in a statement for 18 days of protests beginning on Saturday, mirroring the 18 days of protests that three years ago led to Mr Mubarak stepping down.

The Brotherhood has regularly held protests since the overthrow of Mr Morsi. Hundreds of its supporters have been killed, and thousands detained.

It has been declared a "terrorist organisation" and accused by the interim government of being behind a string of violent attacks in recent months, which the Brotherhood denies.

In a defiant statement on Saturday, the Brotherhood vowed not to leave the streets "until it fully regains its rights and breaks the coup and puts the killers on trial", reported AP.

Kagame Receives US Senators, Congressmen

Kigali-President Paul Kagame, on Saturday received a delegation of six US senators and Congressmen at Serena Hotel in Kigali.The delegation, led by Sen. James Inhofe from Oklahama State, is in the country for a three-day visit.

Speaking to reporters shortly after meeting with the President, Sen. James Inhofe said that they held discussions with President Kagame on different issues but particularly the progress the country has made as well as Rwanda’s continued role in peacekeeping missions in the region.

“We have been to the countryside and the transformation of this country is incredible. You can’t see it in other countries. We commend Rwanda’s role in peace building and peace creation in the region; in South Sudan, and especially in the Central African Republic. I speak on behalf many fellow Senators; the USA doesn’t have a better friend than Kagame,” he said.

Sen. Inhofe added that he personally organized the visit mainly to introduce his fellow US representatives to Rwanda.

During the visit, the delegation met and held talks with ministers of Defence and Trade, as well as officials from the office of Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs.

Sen. Inhofe specified that his delegation appreciated a briefing given by the Minister of Defence on peace and security in the Great Lakes region in general and particularly in Central African Republic.

Among other things, the delegation also held talks with Minister of Trade on the prospects to increase trade between Rwanda and United States.

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mary Baine said that among the key trade prospects to be facilitated will be promoting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

Rwanda is an eligible member of Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) – a programme designed to assist the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa and improve economic relations between the United Statesand the region.

Tracing President Kikwete’s FDLR Links Back To Rwanda

On 17 September, 1994, the entire interim government of Rwanda which had been overseeing the mass slaughter of Tutsis since April, crossed into the then Zaire (now DR Congo). Among the flood of officials is a man called Djumatatu Nzeyimana. As New of Rwanda reports in this exclusive investigation, Nzeyimana went on to be hosted at the personal residence of Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete in Dodoma for several months.

For the past 18 years, Djumatatu Nzeyimana has lived in a rural area between France and The Netherlands. He chose this place to be able to hide away from the praying eyes the law due to his role in the extermination of Tutsis back in Rwanda. The specific position Djumatatu held in the political establishment is unclear, but was senior political strategist for the MRND party of former president Juvenal Habyarimana.

When the interim government was sworn in led by Theodore Sindikibwabo, Djumatatu rose up the ranks of the extremist establishment to become a principal advisor to the minister of territorial administration.

Who exactly is Djumatatu Nzeyimana?

Djumatatu Nzeyimana is the current vice president of PDR-IHUMURE, the political grouping of Paul Rusesabagina, the man whose story is the inspiration of the Hollywood theatrical “Hotel Rwanda”. Nzeyimana is the one who signs on all press statements of PDR-IHUMURE.

Rusesabagina formed the group as opposition platform to the government of Rwanda around 2007. Hotel Rwanda movie had been released back in 2004, prompting Rusesabagina to gain international fame for supposedly saving some Tutsis while he was a hotel manager at Hotel Mille Collines in Kigali during the genocide.

However, all the people Rusesabagina names as having saved from the killing machine have disputed his version of event. Several books have been published by survivors from the hotel dismissing the movie. The survivors accuse the former taxi driver in Brussels of using the painful plight for personal enrichment. The survivors and film critics have described the movie as “fiction”.

Back to Djumatatu Nzeyimana, he is a breed of former government bureaucrats in Rwanda, who formed the fabric of the extremist views, which laid ground for the meticulous execution of the genocide against Tutsis. Before 2007, Djumatatu Nzeyimana was living a quiet life in the rural area between France and The Netherlands.

Overnight, he rose through the ranks to become a very close confident of Paul Rusesabagina and the vice president of his political group PDR-IHUMURE. Djumatatu is married to Safia Sengondo, who has since changed her names to be simply as “REHEMA”. It is this name that her neighbours and anybody who knew her after 1994 actually knows.

In comes President Kikwete

While the genocide was being executed in Rwanda, Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete was the head of security and intelligence in (CCM), the party which has single-handedly ruled Tanzania for decades. In that position, he was more powerful than a cabinet minister, because he essentially was among the few people who vetted the ministers.

According to information corroborated from various sources, the period when Djumatatu Nzeyimana with his family – along with the entire interim government fled to Zaire, Lt Col Kikwete had direct contact with some of these officials. News of Rwanda’s concern in this article is Djumatatu Nzeyimana.

A few days after arriving in the infamous Mugunga camp, some kilometers from Goma, Djumatatu with wife and children travelled to Dodoma. They lived in the personal residence of Lt Col Kikwete until he was appointed finance minister in early 1995.

Between June and July of the same year, Djumatatu and wife with their children were provided with Tanzanian passports as well as visas to travel to their current place of residence. However, while in Tanzania, Djumatatu was helped to get a job at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which was being set up.

According to individuals at ICTR at the time, chances were high that he would get the job. But a ferocious campaign from prosecution investigators forced the registrar to drop Djumatatu from possible candidates for employment. His tormentors accused him of taking part in the genocide. “I am very sure it is the reason his hosts in Tanzania realized keeping Djumatatu around was a very dangerous thing to do,” said one of our sources.

Djumatatu FDLR links

As principal advisors to the minister of territorial administration of the interim government, Djumatatu was the man doing the minister’s dirty work. According to evidence given at various judicial instances, Djumatatu was in charge of securing the arms and crude weapons like machetes from Felicien Kabuga’s network, and facilitating them to reach the villages across Rwanda.

Using local administrators and militia leaders, these arms were distributed to the rampaging local population to do “the work”, a term used to refer to the hunt for Tutsis wherever they were hiding.

When Djumatatu and the other officials arrived in Zaire, they were escorted by tens of thousands of heavily armed soldiers from the then defeated army. According documented data, as the RPF rebels advanced south, west and north of Rwanda, the ex-army carried all their arms to the camps. Mugunga camp is one exception that stood out.

Even after leaving for Tanzania, and eventually rural France into hiding, Djumatatu maintained his role as fundraiser and political ideologue for the interahamwe militia – who maintained a campaign of attacks into Rwanda for years to come. In Mid 2000, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) was formed from the jungles of eastern DRC. Djumatatu was on the executive committee.

Despite being in Europe, like Djumatatu, all other political leaders of the group were also there. Ignace Murwanashyaka and Straton Musoni – both president and vice president were living in Germany, and using phones at their work places to coordinate FDLR in the DRC jungles, according to data produced in court at ongoing trial of the two men.

Kikwete and FDLR

On 26^th June 2013, President Kikwete made the unthinkable, as has been widely reported previously. During a closed-door African Union heads of state special summit on DRC in Ethiopia, President Kikwete called for talks between the government of Rwanda and the FDLR.

The months that followed saw a near-complete breakdown of relations between Kigali and Dodoma, as Rwandan officials and ordinary population believed they had a serious large enemy on its eastern border. Rwanda foreign affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo was so angry that she described President Kikwete in subsequent media interviews, as “spokesman” of FDLR.

However, Tanzania’s connections with the FDLR are not new. Around mid-last year, FDLR deputy commander General Stanislas Nzeyimana (aka Izabayo Bigaruka) was announced to be in Tanzania. But weeks later, news surfaced that he had disappeared – prompting questions as to why he was in Tanzania in the first place.

Observers say President Kikwete’s comments may have come as a surprise to many, but have cast doubt on whether they were accidental. One observer said the comments were a well-planned scenario which had been prepared for years.

Last week, News of Rwanda, broke the news of the visit of former Rwanda prime minister Faustin Twagiramungu to Dodoma at the personal invitation of President Kikwete. Reaction from Tanzania has been that of utter shock and dismay at the news considering that during the previous week, the same Twagiramungu had announced an alliance with the FDLR rebels.

In Twagiramungu forming alliance with the FDLR, the rowdy politician said in a statement last week that he wants to force the government in Rwanda out by use of arms. Before January 2014, no Rwandan political organization or international group has ever given public backing to the FDLR.

Twagiramungu now falls within the FDLR agenda which does not agree with existing global agreement that Tutsis were targeted in Rwanda, in a clearly planned mass slaughter set in motion by the government at the time. The FDLR agenda is to return the extremist politicking in which Rwanda lived through for years before 1994.

In December 1995, Kikwete would go on to be appointed foreign minister, a post he held until 2005. Could it be possible that President Kikwetwe has maintained links with FDLR which we do not know?

Egypt: Living Without the State in Cairo's Slums

Cairo — For the residents of the Middle East and Africa's largest city, Cairo, 2013 ended with the often repeated government promise to finally provide basic services and development in the slums, where half of the city's residents live.

But instead of waiting for Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi's slum renewal project, announced in November, to bear fruit, many are simply coping as best they can without the state.

When basic services are lacking, it is often down to slum dwellers to use their own initiative. They dig land, construct septic tanks and water pipes, install storage barrels, and raise community funds to get private engineers to build sewage pipes and connect them to the main network.

"These communities have an inherent self-reliance in finding ways to get by," said Thomas Culhane, co-founder of Solar CITIES, an NGO that invests in solar and renewable energy in poor communities.

Few sit around waiting for the government to fulfil its promises.

"There's a lot of mistrust among slum residents regarding the government's intentions. They've been promised so many things, yet nothing's been delivered," said Khalil Shaat, technical advisor at the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

According to official government figures, Cairo has 112 informal areas. Out of those, 24 are classified as "category I", or life-threatening. Twenty-eight are "category II", meaning unsuitable housing; 11 are "category III", meaning health-threatening; and 49 are "planned".

Ezzat Naem Guindy, the founder of the Spirit of Youth Association for Environmental Service (SOY), which works in Manshiet Nasser, one of Cairo's largest slums, says the area is a "model" in terms of self-reliance. While the government is not completely absent, poor infrastructure and the irregular provision of public services create serious problems.

IRIN took a look at how Manshiet Nasser slum residents survive, and how they compensate for the lack of state support with their own networks of services.

Water and sewage

Most informal areas in Cairo find ways to access to water and electricity, though Shaat estimates only 20 to 30 percent of homes are connected to the formal water network. Almost 60 percent are hooked up to an informal network, while around 10 percent have no water at all. No more than 5 to 10 percent of these areas have a formal sewage network, with the rest getting rid of waste water through septic tanks, many prone to leaking.