Mass arrests in DR Congo's second city: residents

Mass arrests in DR Congo's second city: residents

2016-12-22 [22ND DECEMBER, 2016]

LUBUMBASHI, DR Congo, Dec 22, 2016 (AFP) - Soldiers sealed part of DR Congo's second city and carried out mass arrests of young men Thursday, residents said, as talks to defuse the country's explosive political crisis were set to continue.

    Protests and deadly clashes have erupted in the vast country over President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down at the end of his mandate on December 20.

    The army sealed off the Matshipisha-Gbadolite neighbourhood of Lubumbashi from 5am (0300 GMT), five residents of the city told AFP.

    On Wednesday the governor of Haut-Katanga province, Jean-Claude Kazembe, was forced to flee as stones were thrown at him when he tried to visit Matshipisha on a "peace march" aimed at demonstrating that the authorities were in control there following deadly violence on Tuesday.

    Police said a total of 22 people were killed Tuesday in clashes in the capital Kinshasa, Lubumbashi in the southeast, and Matadi and Boma in the west.

    They said eight of the deaths were in Matshipisha, where 47 people were also injured.

    Human Rights Watch has placed the total death toll at 26.

    "The army has sealed off the district and carried out arrests" of young men and adolescents, said one resident.

    "There are soldiers all along the road" that surrounds the neighbourhood, a resident of an adjacent district said by telephone, adding that soldiers could be seen "going house to house looking for young people".

    "They arrest all men, with or without identity documents. They put them in trucks to take them off in an unknown direction," another resident said, adding that two adolescents and a young man were arrested in his area.

    "I saw three trucks filled with young people," said another resident.

- 'Arbitrary arrests' -

    A demonstration of several dozen people, representing families of those detained, formed outside the Lubumbashi headquarters of the UN's MONUSCO force to protest the "arbitrary arrests". They were cleared by Congolese police around 11:30 am (0930 GMT) without incident.

    Lubumbashi, the capital of Haut-Katanga, is the fiefdom of an opposition leader in exile, Moise Katumbi.

    Talks to end the political crisis headed by the Episcopal Conference, CENCO, resumed on Wednesday after breaking up at the weekend without a breakthrough. CENCO chairman Archbishop Marcel Utembi appealed for a deal by Christmas.

    The mainstream opposition headed by 84-year-old Etienne Tshisekedi has called for "peaceful resistance" from the country's 70 million people, pinning its hopes on a deal at the negotiating table.

    But in what Kabila's opponents dubbed a provocation, a new government was announced overnight Monday.

    In separate development, 17 people were killed in clashes between DR Congo police and members of a cult that believes the end of Kabila's mandate will usher in the apocalypse, a regional governor said Thursday.

    Bienvenu Esimba, governor of DR Congo's northwestern Mongala province, said the clashes broke out Wednesday in the provincial capital Lisala when members of the sect burned dozens of houses and attacked a market before launching an assault on local electoral commission offices.

    DRC has never witnessed a democratic transfer of power following polls since independence from Belgium in 1960.

    The president has been in office since his father Laurent Kabila's assassination in 2001. He was elected in 2006, and again in 2011.

    Two decades ago, the country collapsed into the deadliest conflict in modern African history. Its two wars in the late 1990s and early 2000s dragged in at least six African armies and left more than three million dead.

Mortar fire kills 11 including aid workers in Iraq's Mosul: UN

Mortar fire kills 11 including aid workers in Iraq's Mosul: UN

2016-12-22 20:28:35.0

BAGHDAD, Dec 22, 2016 (AFP) - Mortar fire killed 11 people including four aid workers as civilians gathered to receive assistance in the battleground Iraqi city of Mosul, the United Nations said on Thursday.

    Iraqi forces launched an operation on October 17 to retake Mosul, the country's last city held by the Islamic State jihadist group, and have retaken part of its eastern side, but these areas are still exposed to deadly artillery attacks, bombs and gunfire.

    "According to initial reports, four aid workers and at least seven civilians queueing for emergency assistance in eastern Mosul city have been killed by indiscriminate mortar fire," Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in a statement.

    "Within the last 48 hours, there have been two separate incidents" that also wounded up to 40 people, Grande said.

    "People waiting for aid are already vulnerable and need help. They should be protected, not attacked," she said, adding: "The killing of civilians and aid workers violates every humanitarian principle."

    Mahmud al-Sorchi, a spokesman for volunteer fighters from Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, said mortar fire had killed aid workers from a local organisation called Faz3a.

    A post on a Facebook page identified as belonging to an aid organisation called Faz3a said that mortar fire and a roadside bomb in Mosul had killed six of its members.

    The UN announcement came a day after Human Rights Watch said that IS was "indiscriminately" attacking civilians who refused to retreat along with the jihadists in Mosul.

    "Residents said (IS) members told them in person, by radio, and over mosque loudspeakers that those who stayed behind were 'unbelievers' and therefore valid targets along with the Iraqi and coalition forces," the rights group said.

    The jihadists have targeted civilians with mortars, explosives and gunfire, HRW said.

    Amnesty International highlighted the impact of the Mosul conflict on children, saying they were exposed to injury or death, in addition to witnessing horrific violence.

    "Children caught in the crossfire of the brutal battle for Mosul have seen things that no one, of any age, should ever see," Amnesty's Donatella Rovera said.

    More than 100,000 people have been displaced since the battle for Mosul began more than two months ago, but the Iraqi government has encouraged civilians to stay in their homes if possible.

    This keeps the number of people from fleeing from reaching the catastrophic proportions estimated by some aid organisations before the Mosul operation began, but also exposes civilians to significantly more danger than they would face if they moved to camps.

    Iraq's elite counter-terrorism service punched into Mosul from the east, but progress has since slowed and the battle is far from over.

    Forces that made a long advance toward Mosul on the southern front have yet to enter the city, as have those on the northern side.

    The immediate area around western Mosul remains open on the ground, though forces from pro-government paramilitary groups have advanced close to the town of Tal Afar, between Mosul and the Syrian border.

Japan sends troops to fight massive fire

Japan sends troops to fight massive fire

2016-12-22 16:33:59.0

TOKYO, Dec. 22 : (AFP) - Japan drafted in troops Thursday to help contain a rapidly spreading fire, fanned by strong winds, which engulfed dozens of buildings and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from a northern city.

Aerial footage broadcast live on Japanese TV showed massive orange flames and thick smoke spewing out of buildings in the city of Itoigawa in Niigata prefecture.Troops were on their way to the coastal city after Niigata Governor Ryuichi Yoneyam requested military aid, an official in the fire division of the prefectural government said.

"At the moment, activities to put out the fire are still going on," he told AFP on the phone."About 50 houses and buildings have been damaged," he said.The blaze started at 10:28 am (0128 GMT) at a Chinese restaurant, and a total of 17 fire trucks have been deployed in the area.

The blaze spread quickly due to strong winds, according to public broadcaster NHK.

"Sparks of fire flew around," a man in the neighbourhood told NHK."That's why far away buildings unexpectedly caught fire and it became large-scale. I've never seen something like this before."

The city also issued an evacuation advisory to 586 residents in the neighbourhood.Despite the scale of the fire, there were few reported injuries.Two women in their 40s were lightly injured. One fell sick after inhaling smoke and a prefectural government employee fell and hit her head, according to the fire division official.

France, Britain push for helicopter ban, sanctions on Syria

France, Britain push for helicopter ban, sanctions on Syria

2016-12-22 16:34:13.0

UNITED NATIONS, United States, Dec. 22 : (AFP) - France and Britain are pushing the UN Security Council to ban the sale of helicopters to Syria and to impose the first sanctions over the use of chemical weapons in the five-year war.

A draft resolution obtained by AFP on Wednesday calls for asset freezes and travel bans against four Syrian officials and 10 entities including a Syrian research center tied to chemical weapons development.

Diplomats however said the measure is certain to be vetoed by Russia, Syria's ally, which has blocked council action on Syria with six vetoes so far.A vote at the council is expected as early as next week.

A joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found that several units of the Syrian army had used toxic weapons against three villages in northern Syria in 2014 and 2015.

It was the first time an international probe blamed President Bashar Al-Assad's forces after years of denial from Damascus.

Government helicopters flying from two regime-controlled air bases dropped chlorine barrel-bombs on the villages of Qmenas, Talmenes and Sarmin, the panel's latest report said.

Chlorine use as a weapon is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013 under pressure from Russia.British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said there must be "significant measures" to follow up on the panel's findings and called for sanctions."We'll be pursuing that with our council colleagues and circulating a draft shortly," he told reporters.

Russia however has said that the report's findings are "inconclusive" and not strong enough to warrant sanctions.

Under the proposed measure, the council would demand that all UN member-states "prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer" to the Syrian military and government of "any helicopters, or related materiel including spare parts."

A UN committee that oversees a sanctions blacklist for Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State would also be tasked with adding names of those responsible for a mustard gas attack in Syria in 2015.The UN panel concluded that IS fighters were behind that attack.

The mandate for the joint investigation was recently extended for another year to allow it to investigate chemical attacks that have been reported in Syria this year.The OPCW is investigating more than 20 alleged cases of use of toxic chemicals in Syria since August, the director general told AFP last month.