Category: General

OPUWO: Debmarine Namibia Premier Football League clubs are playing friendly matches on Saturday to prepare for the league's resumption next month. The mid-season friendly matches will take place at the Legare sports complex in Gobabis and the Oscar Norich Stadium in Tsumeb. The Northern Clubs' Tournament will pit four Premier League clubs against each other in Tsumeb, where Mighty Gunners will face Julinho Sporting Club at 12h00. Eeshoke Chula Chula, who embarked on a shopping expedition this week to fill the void left by Alfeus Leevi, Moses Shindolo, and experienced right-back Riddick Gariseb, will face Otjiwarongo-based squad Life Fighters FC at 13h30. It will be an exciting game since Chula Chula has signed two Kahiron'a players, Eliakim Nangoro Jackson and Laurence Milneer Doeseb, as well as Eleven Warriors FC midfielder Joseph Jackie. Julinho Sporting FC will play Eeshoke Chula Chula again before Mighty Gunners concludes the day with an Otjiwarong derby against Life Fighters FC. Elsewhere in Gobabi s, Eleven Warriors FC will face Young African FC at 10h00 on Saturday at Legare Sports Complex. League champions African Stars, who recently acquired the signature of veteran forward Lazarus Kaimbu from Blue Waters FC, will face Southern Stream First Division log leaders Namibian Correctional Services FC at 12h00. Eleven Warriors FC will face Namibian Correctional Services FC at 15h00 on Saturday, before Young African faces African Stars in the final game of the weekend preseason competition. All football leagues will resume on 10 February. Source: Namibia Press Agency

Accra: The ECOWAS Court of Justice has declared the State of Côte d'Ivoire liable for the violation of the rights of Adou Kouamé and nine other Ivorians. It has, therefore, ordered the Ivorian government to pay 50 million CFA Francs to each of them as compensation. In its judgement delivered by Hon Justice Ricardo Claúdio Monteiro Gonçalves, Judge Rapporteur, the Court declared that the respondent (State of Côte d'Ivoire) violated the right to a healthy environment and health, right to private and family life, right to an adequate standard of living and food, right to freedom of religion and right of minorities to have their own culture. However, the Court dismissed the Applicants (Adou Kouame and Others') claim that their property right was violated, for lack of sufficient evidence of ownership. The Court also declared the second, thirteenth and fourteenth Applicants in the suit as improper parties before the Court, stating that they did not present evidence showing their relationship with the parents th ey claimed to be representing respectively. The Applicant's request for collective compensation was dismissed by the Court too. In the Applicant's case, one Kouame, village head of Similimi and 14 other residents, claimed that the State of Côte d'Ivoire's failure to protect them from the negative effects of the mining activities in their community violated their right to a healthy and sustainable environment, and health, right to religious and cultural freedom, right to private and family life, right to adequate standard of living and food, and right to property guaranteed under international laws cited in the application. The Applicants' lead Counsels, Mr Rashidi Ibitowa, Ms Geneviève Aïssata Diallo and Mr Jonathan Kaufman argued that the Ivorian government did not 'take measures to give effect to human rights protected by international law.' They added that the mining operations have had adverse effects on plantations, forests, rivers, and places of worship causing them health hazards from polluted wate r, polluted air, explosions, noise pollution and ground tremors. 'And that their ancestral places of worship were destroyed by the mining activities including altars for sacrifices and they are of the opinion their ancestors are angry with them because their prayers and invocations were no longer answered,' they said. They also asked the Court to hold the State liable for failure to validate the impact assessment results of 2010 that would have resettled them, adding that the Ministry of Mining and Geology renewed the mining licence of the company in 2018 even though the environmental damage persisted, and the company had not fulfilled its obligations. They demanded 12 billion CFA francs as compensation for the estimated 600 residents of Similimi, and another 3 billion CFA francs for the Applicants for the prejudice suffered, and an order for their resettlement, among other reliefs. The Respondent said that following the exploitation of the mines, and the residents' demand for compensation from the mining company as well as complaints of adverse effects on water and human health, the Minister of Environment engaged its agencies like the Ivorian Anti-Pollution Centre and the National Environment Agency and that their reports led to the suspension of the activities of the mining company by an Order of November 11, 2015. However, the company was allowed to resume activities in 2016 while implementing corrective measures, adding that periodic meetings between all parties continued until 2020 and that a general meeting was held in 2021. The Respondent asked the Court to declare the case inadmissible, arguing that the matter was within the jurisdiction of national courts and that the Applicants' claims were ill-founded and should be dismissed. In the judgment, the Court which held that the matter was within its jurisdiction, also asked the State of Côte d'Ivoire to ensure the residents of the Similimi community located in Bondoukou district in Côte d'Ivoire were resettled in compliance with relevant laws . It wa s also to ensure a healthy environment was restored rapidly, end the ongoing environmental degradation, and hold the perpetrators responsible for the environmental degradation. The State of Côte d'Ivoire was ordered to bear the cost of litigation and submit to the Court within three months measures taken to implement this judgment. Also on the bench were Justices Edward Amoako Asante (presiding) and Dupe Atoki (Member). Source: Ghana News Agency

A documentary exhibition was inaugurated, on Friday, at the headquarters of the National Archives in Tunis, on the 69th anniversary of the creation of the National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT). The exhibition includes photos and manuscripts which retrace the journey of this national organization and its active participation in the national liberation movement as well as the mobilization of feminist consciousness for the benefit of the Tunisian cause at home and abroad. The exhibition also includes a rare collection of manuscripts on the first struggles of the formation of the feminist movement in Tunisia as well as the names of the first Tunisian feminist activists such as Zoubaida Bchir and Radhia Haddad. The exhibition shed light on the role of the Union in building modern Tunisia, encouraging schooling, developing health and social services. The exhibition also emphasizes the efforts made by the UNFT to promote the rights of Tunisian women and the need to respect them, strengthen them and diversify them so that they include all aspects of the life and concerns of Tunisian women, which contributed to forming a national consensus on the inalienable rights of women in various areas of the political, economic, social and cultural life. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

OPUWO: Debmarine Namibia Premier Football League clubs are playing friendly matches on Saturday to prepare for the league's resumption next month. The mid-season friendly matches will take place at the Legare sports complex in Gobabis and the Oscar Norich Stadium in Tsumeb. The Northern Clubs' Tournament will pit four Premier League clubs against each other in Tsumeb, where Mighty Gunners will face Julinho Sporting Club at 12h00. Eeshoke Chula Chula, who embarked on a shopping expedition this week to fill the void left by Alfeus Leevi, Moses Shindolo, and experienced right-back Riddick Gariseb, will face Otjiwarongo-based squad Life Fighters FC at 13h30. It will be an exciting game since Chula Chula has signed two Kahiron'a players, Eliakim Nangoro Jackson and Laurence Milneer Doeseb, as well as Eleven Warriors FC midfielder Joseph Jackie. Julinho Sporting FC will play Eeshoke Chula Chula again before Mighty Gunners concludes the day with an Otjiwarong derby against Life Fighters FC. Elsewhere in Gobabi s, Eleven Warriors FC will face Young African FC at 10h00 on Saturday at Legare Sports Complex. League champions African Stars, who recently acquired the signature of veteran forward Lazarus Kaimbu from Blue Waters FC, will face Southern Stream First Division log leaders Namibian Correctional Services FC at 12h00. Eleven Warriors FC will face Namibian Correctional Services FC at 15h00 on Saturday, before Young African faces African Stars in the final game of the weekend preseason competition. All football leagues will resume on 10 February. Source: Namibia Press Agency

Accra: The military rulers of Mali have ended a major peace deal with Tuareg separatist rebels in the north of the country, government spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said in a televised statement on Thursday. Maiga said the government 'notes the complete impossibility of the deal… and in consequence announces its end, with immediate effect.' Rebels, grouped under the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), had already accused the government in Bamako of 'abandonment' of the peace deal in July 2022. The 2015 Algiers Accord brought stability to the north of the country as jihadist violence was on the rise. The military took control of Mali following two coups in 2020 and 2021. The Algiers Accord was signed in 2015 with support from the UN. It had been considered an essential agreement to maintaining stability in the region that has seen a flare-up of jihadist violence since 2012. The agreement aimed to see ex-rebels integrated into the national army and allowed for more autonomy for the various regio ns. Mali's junta blamed a 'change in posture of certain signatory groups' as well as 'acts of hostility' from Algeria, the peace deal's main mediator. Tensions have been increasing between Mali and Algeria, with the former accusing the latter of 'interference' and 'unfriendly acts.' Mali's government summoned the Algerian ambassador in December last year, saying that the diplomat had held meetings with the Tuareg separatists. There were already signs of the deal coming apart when fighting broke out between Mali's military and the separatists in August last year. The West African country has undergone two coups since 2020, leading to military rule and a fallout with Western powers that had been present in Mali as part of a counterinsurgency operation. The junta ordered UN peacekeeping troops to leave the country, as well as French troops who had been fighting insurgents in the north of Mali. Their departure has been seen as an instigator for the upsurge in violence as both the government and separatist groups raced to fill up the vacuum. Algeria on Friday expressed 'many regrets and deep concern' after neighbouring Mali's military rulers scrapped a 2015 peace deal with separatist groups that it had mediated. 'Algeria has taken note, with many regrets and deep concern, of the Malian authorities ending the agreement for peace and reconciliation in Mali,' the Algerian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Source: Ghana News Agency