Feed aggregator

Les centristes se réunissent en congrès dimanche à Versailles.

March 17, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir, has approved a request by the chief of general staff of South Sudanese army, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), General Paul Malong Awan, to make a reshuffle in the top command of the army.

S Sudan's President Salva Kiir is received by Chief of General Staff of the SPLA Paul Malong Awan at the airport in Juba March 6, 2015 (Photo Reuters/Jok Solomun)

President Kiir, according to a circular given to all units, approved the changes sought by the chief of general staff to swap his deputies.

Awan, according to an administrative order announced on Wednesday, appointed Lieutenant General James Ajonga Mawut Ajonga as the deputy chief of general staff for administration and finance. General Ajonga replaced Lieutenant General Malual Ayom, who has been moved by the same order to the directorate of inspection.

Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka has been moved from the directorate of training and appointed head of the directorate responsible for procurement and logistics management.

He replaced Lieutenant General Malek Reuben, who has been the head of directorate for training. Lieutenant General Mangar Buong was named the head of operations and Lieutenant General Bapiny Monytuil retained his previous assignment as the head of the directorate responsible for chief of general staff for moral and orientation.

No explanations for changes were made public. Several military figures attributed the cause of the administrative changes to a simmering friction between chief of general staff and some of his deputies over the manner in which he has been running the affairs of the army.

General Awan has registered interest in wanting to assemble a team of military officers loyal to him and for a very long time sought the approval of president Kiir, who is the commander in chief.

(ST)

L'Organisation mondiale de la Santé (OMS) a annoncé avoir dépêché une équipe de spécialistes dans la préfecture de Nzérékoré, au sud de la Guinée, après que deux nouveaux cas d'Ebola ont été détectés et confirmés dans un village rural.

A l'occasion d'une réunion du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU sur le Burundi, deux hauts responsables de l'Organisation se sont déclarés très inquiets vendredi face la montée de la violence au Burundi, qui risque selon eux de dégénérer prochainement en guerre civile.

Le Secrétaire général de l'ONU, Ban Ki-moon, a pris connaissance vendredi de l'arrivée à Djibouti, dans la journée, du ministre des Affaires étrangères du Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, et a salué l'annonce de la libération de quatre prisonniers djiboutiens par les autorités érythréennes.

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

March 17, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Survival International (SI)‚ a global movement for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples has lodged complaint against an Italian giant construction company, Salini, over impacts of one of Ethiopia mega projects, the Gilgel Gibe III hydro power plant it has built.

The US$1.5 billion Gibe III project dam is expected to generate 1870 MW of electricity.

Survival said it has reported the Italian engineering giant Salini to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) over the rights impacts to communities in Ethiopia and Kenya.

It also stressed that the construction of the controversial dam in Ethiopia's Omo River cuts off the Omo River's regular flooding‚ over which 100‚000 people rely on to water their crops and livestock and a further 100,000 depend on indirectly.

It said the dam project will eventually destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in Ethiopia and Kenya.

“Up to half a million people face starvation as a result of the dam Salini has constructed on the Omo River,” Survival said in a statement it issued on Monday.

According to experts, the dam project threatens Lake Turkana – the world's largest permanent desert lake – and disaster for the 300,000 people from tribes living along its shores.

Survival said Salini did not seek the consent of local people before building the dam, but claimed that an “artificial flood release” would compensate them for their losses. However, this promised flood never came and thousands of people now face starvation.

According to Survival, the region is one of the most important sites in early human evolution‚ and an area of exceptional biodiversity‚ with two World Heritage Sites and five national parks.

“The head of Kenya's conservation agency said last week that the dam is unleashing “one of the worst environmental disasters you can imagine.”

Stephen Corry of Survival international said “Salini has ignored crucial evidence‚ made false promises and ridden roughshod over the rights of hundreds of thousands of people.”

"Thousands are now facing starvation because Italy's largest contractor‚ and one of its best known companies‚ didn't think human rights were worth its time,” he said.

He said the real consequences of the Ethiopian government's devastating policies for its country's 'development'‚ which were “shamefully supported by western aid agencies like the UK's DFID and USAID”‚ are plain for all to see.

Stealing people's land and causing massive environmental destruction, he added, is not progress; it is a death sentence for tribal peoples.

Ethiopia has been facing massive protests from a number of international rights groups and environmental campaigners over the construction of the Gibe III dam project.

Groups like the International Rivers, Friends of Lake Turkana, The Oakland Institute, and other groups argued that no inclusive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment was made ahead of the construction and extensively campaigned for halt of the project.

According to the groups, Gibe III like those Gibe I and II diverts the flow of the Omo River in Ethiopia, which feeds 90% of Lake Turkana in Kenya and endangers the lake and tens of thousands of people from 17 ethnic groups who live in the Lower Omo Valley.

Despite huge pressure, Ethiopia however recently completed the Gibe which is the country's second largest hydro power plant after the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam; the horn of Africa's nation is building along the Nile River.

Gibe III, a 610 meter-long and 243 meter high roller-compacted concrete dam has power generation capacity of 1,870 Megawatt.

Ethiopia has dismissed allegations that its dam projects will cause environmental damage to populations in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Previously, Addis Ababa however said claims released by the rights groups are bogus. It further accused them of working for the interest of their western alleys.

(ST)

March 17, 2016 (KHARTOUM/JUBA) - A Sudanese presidential aide Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid on Thursday warned that his government may close the border with South Sudan if Juba continues its support to rebel groups in Darfur and the Two Areas.

Sudanese military personnel inspect the belongings of South Sudanese on the Sudanese border on 18 April 2014 (Photo: Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

Following a meeting between President Omer al-Bashir with the head of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel, Hamid told reporters that the meeting touched on the continued support that Juba provides to Sudanese rebels groups.

"If the South Sudan does not stop supporting the insurgency we will have to take action to protect the country, even if it led to the closure of the border again," he said, adding "We are waiting for the implementation of the Cooperation Agreements signed with the South Sudan since 2012, so there will be no security problems between the two countries."

The renewal of accusations comes after reports in Khartoum about meetings in Juba between senior South Sudanese officials and SPLM-N leadership to discuss the needs of the Sudanese rebels who are facing a large scale military campaign in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.

Last January, President Omer al-Bashir announced the opening of border with South Sudan for the first time since its secession in July 2011. Also it reduced oil transportation fees and decided to open river transport with the South Sudan.

According to the official news agency SUNA, the governor of White Nile state Abdel Hamid Kasha on Wednesday called for the withdrawal of the South Sudanese troops from the border with Sudan, adding that the presence of the SPLA soldiers hinders Khartoum's decision to open the border.

Kasha made his statement during a meeting with an American diplomat from the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan who visited the border state where are the camps of South Sudanese refugees.

In a statement he issued on 26 January, President Salva Kiir instructed to withdraw South Sudan army units on the border with Sudan, to "at least five miles south of our common borders of 1st January 1956, in accordance with our commitment to the terms of The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 with Khartoum”.

SPLA TROOPS ARE AT 1 KM

However the top command of the South Sudanese army on Thursday denied the accusations of failing to implement the presidential order.

“That order has been complied with long time ago. Our forces have been withdrawn more than 1 kilometre away from the common border with Sudan but they want us to go beyond that, which has security concerns,” South Sudanese presidential advisor on security affairs, Tut Gatluak, told Sudan Tribune on Thursday when asked to comment on the matter.

Gatluak said the government was concerned that “negative and hostile” rebel forces could take advantage of movement away from the common border and may use the area for activities which may compromise security between the two countries.

The new deputy chief of general staff for finance and administration, Lieutenant General James Ajonga Mawut Ajonga, also confirmed that government forces have complied with the order after the army's chief of general staff, Paul Malong Awan, sent out to all units at the border with Sudan to act in compliance with the order of the president.

“In the army, there is a culture of command, order and comply, which is the guiding doctrine world over for the military. When the office of the commander in chief issued the directives, the chief of general staff received it and acted immediately. He issued instructions to all the units and our troops at the common border with Sudan and they complied,” said Ajonga.

Sudan closed its border with the South Sudan in June 2011, one month before the formal declaration of independence.

At the time, the decision intervened days after the start of a rebellion in the South Kordofan by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N). Khartoum accused Juba of supporting the former members of the ruling party in South Sudan.

(ST)

Le débat qui a opposé Patrice Talon à Lionel Zinsou suscite beaucoup de réactions dans la sphère béninoise. Après la réaction de Jacques Ayadji, nous vous proposons celle d'Edgard Guidibi publiée sur les réseaux sociaux. Lire son intervention.

Read more ...

Patrice Talon vient de remporter haut la main le face à face de cette nuit. Ce n'est qu'un avant-goût de ce qui va se passer le dimanche 20 mars 2016. Le sort en est jeté, Patrice Talon, nouveau Président de la République.

Read more ...

L’ancien chef rebelle s’est rendu à Brazzaville, pour la première fois depuis une décennie pour soutenir ses amis de l’opposition Congo: 9 candidatures approuvées Congo : faible affluence au référendum Congo-Brazza : manifestation suspendue

Très attendu, le face-à-face Lionel Zinsou-Patrice Talon, les deux finalistes au second tour de la présidentielle 2016 qui a lieu dimanche 20 mars prochain, s’est tenu effectivement tenu dans la soirée d’hier. Décryptage commenté !

Read more ...

Mehrere Parteien wollen die Zuwanderungsfrage mit einem Inländervorrang lösen. Das kann vieles heissen – aber nicht unbedingt das, was man bisher darunter verstanden hat.

Le groupe britannique Rolls-Royce a réussi un très joli coup en parvenant à vendre sa turbine à gaz MT30 pour le futur bâtiment de projection de la marine italienne. Une surprise puisque les bâtiments de la marina militare dotés de TG adoptaient jusqu’ici, fort logiquement, la LM 2500 de General Electric fabriquée sous licence par le groupe italien Avio. On se rappelle d’ailleurs que cette machine avait été imposée par Rome au moment de la conception des frégates franco-italiennes du type FREMM, alors que la MT30, plus récente et puissante, avait la préférence la préférence de Paris.

• Lire la suite de La marine italienne choisit des turbines MT30 pour son futur LHD

La présence d’un sous-marin russe dans le golfe de Gascogne, révélée la semaine dernière par le Nouvel Observateur, a été abondamment relayée par la presse française. Sans grande précision sur l’affaire puisque, c’est historiquement l’usage, la Marine nationale ne communique jamais sur les détections sous-marines que ses unités sont amenées à réaliser. Cela, pour des questions notamment tactiques.  

La thèse du SNLE exclue d’entrée de jeu

• Lire la suite de Sous-marin russe dans le golfe de Gascogne : Qu’en est-il ?

Moyen-Orient, Amérique du nord, Océanie… Les perspectives à l’exportation de la nouvelle frégate de premier rang française sont relancées grâce à la nouvelle version de la FREMM. Dévoilée pour la première fois fin 2012, à l’occasion du salon Euronaval, la FREMM Extended Range, dotée d’une mâture intégrée, devient aujourd’hui un produit beaucoup plus concret. Le ministère français de la Défense a en effet, en 2014, donné son feu vert aux équipes tricolores de Thales pour développer le Sea Fire 500.

• Lire la suite de DCNS mise sur la FREMM à mâture intégrée pour l’export

C’est ce jeudi que le transport de chalands de débarquement brésilien Bahia, ancien Siroco de la Marine nationale, doit quitter Toulon pour rejoindre Rio de Janeiro. Retiré prématurément du service au sein de la flotte française suite à la réduction du format de la force amphibie, restreinte aux trois BPC du type Mistral, le TCD a été vendu pour un montant de 80 millions d’euros. Le contrat comprend également la cession d’une batellerie composée du chaland de débarquement d’infanterie et de chars Hallebarde, ainsi que deux chalands de transport de matériel.

• Lire la suite de L’ex-Siroco en partance pour le Brésil

L’hydrogène sera sans doute l'un des combustibles du futur : plus propre, moins cher, disponible partout, ses avantages ont déjà suscité l’intérêt de nombreux industriels. Dès 2010, un programme européen, baptisé IDEALHY (Integrated Design for Efficient Advanced Liquefaction of Hydrogen), a réuni universitaires et industriels avec comme idée de travailler sur un process de liquéfaction de l’hydrogène viable et économe en énergie.

• Lire la suite de Kawasaki et Shell veulent transporter de l'hydrogène liquéfié

Le roulier Hoegh Osaka est resté échoué 19 jours dans le Solent en janvier 2015. Le voiturier de 180 mètres de long, avec 1450 voitures à son bord,  avait pris une très forte gîte juste après son appareillage de Southampton, alors qu’il faisait route vers Bremerhaven. Cette gîte de 40 degrés avait provoqué un important ripage de cargaison, dont des engins de chantier qui ont ouvert des brèches dans la coque. Le roulier avait été échoué par précaution sur le banc de West Bramble.

• Lire la suite de Hoegh Osaka : Un problème de stabilité dès l’appareillage

Après quelques péripéties, notamment médiatiques, le préjudice écologique va être inscrit dans le code civil. Une nouvelle version de l’article 2 bis de la loi Biodiversité a en effet été votée mardi 15 mars. Celle-ci va modifier l’article 1386 en y ajoutant un nouveau régime de responsabilité qui prévoit que « toute personne qui cause un préjudice écologique est tenue de le réparer » (article 1386-19).

• Lire la suite de Le préjudice écologique va entrer dans le code civil

En provenance du port algérien de Bejaia, le Lidia, un gros vraquier de 180 mètres de long pour 28 mètres de large, s’est apparemment brièvement échoué hier soir alors qu’il remontait la Loire vers Nantes. Peu avant 22 heures, le navire a touché selon des témoins le bord du fleuve, au niveau de Basse-Indre. Les trois remorqueurs l’assistant dans son transit, les VB Ouragan, VB Pouliguen et Guérande, sont alors intervenus pour le sortir de cette mauvaise passe. Une heure plus tard, la proue du Lidia se remettait dans l’axe du fleuve et le convoi progressait de nouveau vers Nantes.

• Lire la suite de Un gros vraquier s’échoue brièvement en Loire