Metro

M23 rebels capture key DRC town as Congolese military blames Rwanda

Published

2 years ago

June 14, 2022

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebel group, M23, have reportedly captured a key border town in the renewed fighting in the country, with the Central African nation blaming its neighbours, Rwanda, for allegedly supporting the militia.

The DRC’s military on Tuesday, accused Rwanda of encouraging an invasion on its territory after the M23 rebels captured Bunagana, a key border town, marking a dramatic escalation in tensions between the two neighbours.

“The Rwandan defence forces have this time decided to violate our territorial integrity by occupying the border town of Bunagana.

“This is no less than invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo,” General Sylvain Ekenge, spokesman for the military governor of North Kivu province, said in a statement late on Monday night.

Bunagana, a city of about two million people, is located 60km northeast of Goma, and serves as a hub for international aid organisations and the United Nations peacekeeping mission, which is known by its French acronym MONUSCO, fell into the hands of the M23 on Monday.

Relations between the two countries have been frosty at best in the past two decades since the rise of the M23 fighters who are mostly of Congolese ethnic Tutsis, with the DRC accusing Rwanda of backing the rebels, often citing Rwandan Tutsi descent as the basis for the support.

But in its defence, Kigali has strongly denied accusations over the years that it supports the M23 rebels fighting in DRC.

Rwanda has also allege that the DRC gave refuge to the ethnic Hutus who carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

This is the second time the M23 will capture a key DRC city after it rose to prominence more than a decade ago when its fighters seized Goma, the largest city in DRC’s east, which sits along the border with Rwanda, before they were pushed out of the country by government forces.

They were said to have fled to neighbouring Rwanda with some of them integrated into the Congolese national military after a peace deal.

But earlier this year the group appeared to make a comeback, launching an offensive against the DRC military after saying Kinshasa had failed to live up to its decade-long promises.

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Metro

Tanzania, Rwanda others recall Johnson & Johnson children’s cough syrup

Published

3 hours ago

April 16, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

As a safety step, drug regulators in Tanzania, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe have called back a batch of Johnson & Johnson children’s cough syrup after their counterparts in Nigeria said that lab tests showed high levels of toxicity.

These countries are the fourth and fifth to recall the same batch of syrup. The syrup is used to treat children with coughs, hay fever, and other allergic responses. South Africa has also called back another group.

Nigeria’s health regulator, NAFDAC found a high amount of diethylene glycol in the syrup. This chemical has been linked to the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia, Uzbekistan, and Cameroon since 2022, in one of the worst waves of poisoning from oral medications in the world. Diethylene glycol is dangerous for people to eat or drink and can cause sudden kidney failure.

J&J made the recalled batch of Benylin Paediatric syrup in South Africa in May 2021. However, the brand is now owned by Kenvue (KVUE.N), which split off from J&J last year. The Tanzania Medicines and Medical Devices Authority (TMDA) said the recall began on April 12 after learning about the test results in Nigeria.

“This is an exercise that does not involve investigation but rather monitoring to ensure that those affected drugs are removed from the market,” TMDA spokesperson Gaudensia Simwanza told Reuters on Monday.

A spokesperson for Kenya’s drug regulator said its test results on the syrup would likely be ready on Wednesday. “A review of our safety database doesn’t reveal any adverse events reported,” the Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority said in a statement dated April 12. “However, Rwanda FDA issues the present recall for precautionary measures.”

The Medicines Control Agency of Zimbabwe said it didn’t know when the product was brought into the country, but it was worried that the syrup could get into the market without permission. In this case, it said it would do more checks.

Metro

Nigerian govt claims over 1,000 kidnapped victims rescued without ransom payments

Published

9 hours ago

April 16, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

The Nigerian government claims that no fewer than 1,000 victims of abductions in the country have so far been rescued by the President Bola Tinubu administration without the payment of any ransom.

National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, who disclosed this on Monday when he received 22 kidnapped students and staff of the Federal University of Gusau, Zamfara State, who were rescued on Sunday by security operatives, said the Tinubu administration had vowed never to pay ransom in any form to criminals so as not to encourage the proliferation of such cases.

The NSA, who recieved the freed victims in his office in Abuja, commended the security operatives who carried out the rescue operation without losing any of the abducted students or paying any ransom.

“On behalf of the President, I thank all those involved in the successful rescue of the victims without losing anyone of them or paying any ransom” Ribadu said.

“This is yet again a success story in our efforts to free all those being unlawfully held in captivity.

“We have so far released over a thousand such victims without noise and with complete respect to their privacy and safety.

“This occasion marks a final juncture in a series of rescues we have undertaken in the last few months, to free victims of recent cases of mass abductions.

“Going forward, we are strengthening law enforcement and security measures to prevent these abductions and strengthen physical security across vulnerable communities.”

On Friday, September 22, 2023, suspected bandits riding on about 50 motorcycles and armed with sophisticated weapons, had invaded three students hostels in Sabon Gida Village near the Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State, where they kidnapped a number of students and staff of the institution and whisked them to an unknown destination.”

Seven of the students were initially rescued by the police while two escaped, leaving a total of 22 others in captivity.

But on Sunday, April 14, the 22 captives, comprising 15 students and seven workers of the university, were rescued in an exercise coordinated by the National Counter-Terrorism Centre.

The National Coordinator, NCTC, Maj-Gen Adamu Laka (retd.), who briefed the NSA on the rescue mission, said search and rescue operations conducted by security agencies led to the release of the students in three batches.

“Search and rescue was conducted by a combined team of law enforcement agencies and the abductees were subsequently released in three batches, after 207 days in captivity.

“The first batch was rescued on March 15 the second batch was rescued on April 12 and the last batch rescued on April 14.

“All the abductees were profiled at NCTC while the ONSA Medical Team examined them and administered minor treatments on the bruises sustained by three of them.

“Four of them were diagnosed with malaria and are being treated. None of the females was molested and all the females tested negative for pregnancy test,” Laka said