Day: September 4, 2023

A Dutch far-right politician has reposted a video claiming Muslim women in Ethiopia are being sold and enslaved. But our fact-checking reveals that the video actually shows “Ndut” – a rite of passage belonging to the Serer ethnic group in Senegal. Our team liaised with a father whose son participated in the viral ceremony, while a Senegalese journalist and expert of the Serer community gave us more information on the cultural event itself. Vedika Bahl explains in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Source: France24.com

Gabon’s new military ruler, General Brice Oligui Nguema, was sworn in as the country’s caretaker president on Monday, only five days after seizing power in a coup in the Central African country.

The inauguration ceremony took place at Gabon’s presidential palace in the capital Libreville, which was surrounded by cheering crowds.

On Saturday, Nguema pledged to introduce more democracy, after the military overthrew President Ali Bongo from the long-term ruling Bongo family last week.

The suspension of all state institutions is a temporary measure, Nguema said on state television, without specifying any concrete steps or a timetable for new elections.

A spokesman for the putschists said later, that Gabon’s borders had been reopened with immediate effect.

The military initially closed all land, sea and air borders, after the putsch on August 30. Nguema, the head of the presidential guard, was then named the new ruler.

Four days earlier, Bongo was elected for a third term, according to official results that the putschists subsequently annulled, deeming them to be falsified.

The Bongo family, which has ruled autocratically for more than 50 years, has long been accused of corruption. Gabon’s population of about 2.3 million people lives mostly in poverty, despite the country’s oil wealth.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The government of the German state of Bavaria, got in trouble after accusations of anti-Semitism, emerged against its deputy Premier Hubert Aiwanger, weeks before the state election due in October.

The state’s Premier Markus Soeder, announced on Sunday that he would not sack his deputy, one week after Aiwanger, head of the conservative Free Voters party, was first accused of writing an anti-Semitic flyer during his school days back in the 1980s.

Before the decision, Soeder had a long conversation with Aiwanger, who was to answer a catalog of 25 questions that Soeder gave earlier this week. Soeder said at a press conference in Munich that it would not be proportionate to sack Aiwanger, but he also stressed that ‘anti-Semitism has no place in Bavaria.’ ‘This isn’t just a foolish youth prank,’ Soeder said earlier this week, adding that ‘even the suspicion’ that Aiwanger was behind the flyer ‘damages the image of Bavaria.’ Still, he stressed that his deputy should be given the opportunity to speak, ‘reasonably, fairly, and yet also comprehensively.’

For Aiwanger’s part, he has repeatedly spoken of a ‘smear campaign’ against him that is politically motivated. While he admitted to possessing such flyers, his brother claimed to be the author. ‘I deeply regret if I hurt feelings by my behavior in relation to the pamphlet in question or other accusations against me from my youth,’ the deputy premier said in an apology issued earlier this week.

Aiwanger must regain the lost trust and seek talks with Jewish communities, Soeder said at Sunday’s press conference. Germany’s education policy has been active against anti-Semitism since World War II. Schools usually organize visits to former concentration camps and regular commemorative events. Nevertheless, there were 2,480 anti-Semitic crimes last year, with the number of ‘extreme violent’ cases reaching a new high of nine since data collection began in 2017, according to the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Anti-Semitism. Felix Klein, the German government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, accused Aiwanger of stylizing himself as a victim and damaging awareness-raising work in the country. Klein blamed Aiwanger’s apology ‘as late as possible, as little as possible and as lacking in empathy as possible,’ and called him a ‘bad role model of politics for young people in Germany.’ The scandal has drawn the attention of federal policymakers.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, ‘Everything that has become known is very depressing.’ But he added that nothing should be ‘covered up and blurred.’

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) said 16 civilians were killed, in an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in the capital Khartoum on Sunday.

The army said the RSF carried out ‘indiscriminate shelling’ on Karari and Wad al-Bakhit neighborhoods in northern Omdurman, northwest of the capital city, killing 13 civilians and wounding multiple others. ‘The militia also attacked Al-Maseed area (south of Khartoum) and opened fire randomly on the citizens, killing 3 civilians,’ the army said in a statement. It added that clashes also took place between the two forces in Al-Shajara area, south of Khartoum, resulting in the killing of 5 RSF fighters and injuring 6 others.

The RSF, instead, accused the SAF of bombarding residential neighborhoods in Nyala, the capital city of South Darfur State in western Sudan, killing 14 civilians and wounding dozens. The paramilitary forces said in a statement that 60 of its soldiers were killed Sunday during the attack at the SAF’s Engineers Corps base, west of Omdurman city.

Sudan has been witnessing deadly armed clashes between the SAF and RSF in Khartoum and other areas since April 15, which left over 3,000 people killed and more than 6,000 injured, according to the Sudanese Health Ministry. More than 4.5 million people have been displaced inside and outside Sudan due to the conflict, according to the latest update by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Source: Ghana News Agency

France is banning girls from wearing abayas and boys, from wearing qamis at state schools, in a move that is controversial, although French law imposes a strict separation between the state and religion.

The abaya is a full-length garment, traditionally worn by women in Muslim countries. The qamis is the counterpart for boys.

The step, coming as the new school year begins, was decreed by France’s new Education Minister Gabriel Attal.

It is based on a long-standing ban on visible religious symbols in schools in France, amid ongoing efforts to promote secularism.

Attal said the number violations of secularism rules at schools has significantly increased over the past few months, often involving abayas.

The ban comes after extensive debate in France, as to whether the abaya is a religious symbol or an ordinary garment.

‘Religious symbols have no place in school,’ President Emmanuel Macron said last week. Heads of schools should not be stuck, having to decide on the matter themselves, he said.

An association for the protection of Muslims’ rights has already filed a complaint with the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court.

It is estimated that between 3.5 million and 6 million Muslims live France, a country of 67 million.

The public display of symbols seen as religious, has repeatedly provoked controversy, in particular where Islam is concerned.

In 1994, a law was passed that allowed only discreet religious symbols in schools.

Ten years later, the donning of headscarves was completely banned in schools, along with the kippa and large crosses.

Source: Ghana News Agency

After a well-known brown bear nicknamed Amarena, was killed by a man in central Italy last week, the search for her two cubs was ongoing, and a source of growing worry in the country.

The search in and around the Abruzzo National Park, has so far proved unsuccessful, and there are fears it soon will be too late to save the cubs, which are not yet self-sufficient.

Amarena enjoyed a measure of fame, for strolling through towns in the region along with her offspring, with many videos of the bear circulating online.

Last Thursday, a 56-year-old man said he opened fire at Amarena on his property near the village of San Sebastiano Dei Marsi, after he felt threatened. The public prosecutor’s office has started an investigation.

All attempts to lure the months-old cubs into traps have been fruitless.

The man who shot Amarena – named after the black cherries she loved eating – has received death threats.

In his neighbourhood, ‘Giustizia,’ or ‘Justice’ was written on a building wall. But a demonstration titled Justice for Mama Bear Amarena was not allowed by the authorities.

About 60 brown bears live in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park in Italy.

Encounters between bears and humans have been a major topic of debate in the region since April, when a jogger was attacked and killed by a bear in the Trentino region.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A German man is standing trial for allegedly strangling and killing a young woman, during Carnival festivities in the western German city of Cologne 35 years ago.

The murder of the 24-year-old woman, remained unsolved for decades.

Then, last year, investigators reopened the cold case and presented it on a programme on public broadcaster ZDF.

The now 56-year-old man was arrested after a tip-off from a viewer. A DNA match with traces seized at the crime scene had resulted in a match.

The man appeared in the Cologne Regional Court on Monday.

The accused allegedly killed her in February 1988 on the night of Carnival Sunday in Cologne’s Old Town, in order to get his hands on her valuables – including a pouch containing a 100 Deutsch Mark (about $55) note.

According to the prosecution, the accused followed the woman that night when she moved from one discotheque to another while partying.

Behind a snack cart, he then allegedly attacked the young mother, beat her and strangled her with her necklace, causing severe injuries to her head and upper body.

The strangulation with the necklace had resulted in a ‘shattering of the laryngeal skeleton,’ the prosecution said.

After the arraignment, a defence lawyer, representing the man, said: ‘I had nothing to do with the killing and death of the woman.’

Nine more days of hearings are scheduled for the trial, with a verdict expected on October 24.

Source: Ghana News Agency