Africa at a glance

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres greets the crowd after receiving the Charlemagne prize on May 30, 2019 at the townhall of Aachen, western Germany. The UN is set to discuss the Sudan crisis on Tuesday after a request by Germany and Britain. Guterres has also warned of a "high risk" of atrocities in Mali amid calls by the United States for the number of Minusma peacekeepers to be reduced. PHOTO | INA FASSBENDER | AFP  

   

By AFRICAREVIEW.COM
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• UN Security Council to discuss Sudan crisis on Tuesday

The UN Security Council will meet behind closed doors on Tuesday to discuss the crisis in Sudan after security forces violently broke up weeks of protests against military rule, leaving more than 30 dead.

Britain and Germany requested the talks on Monday, diplomats said, after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized Sudan's security personnel for using excessive force.

The Transition Military council head Abdel Fattah al Burhan, while announcing elections to be held by March next year on Tuesday, said he was committed to a transparent investigation into the deaths.

• Ethiopian churches oppose gay travel company's tour plans

Ethiopia's religious leaders want a US gay travel company blocked from touring the country's ancient sites
The Chicago-based Toto Tours, which describes itself on its website as "the only gay tour company in existence," told news agencies it had received death threats since announcing the 16-day trip.

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One group warned the visiting homosexuals could face violence.

Ethiopia, like many African countries, has strict anti-gay laws, punishing homosexual acts with up to 15 years in prison.

Angola, Mozambique and Seychelles have moved to scrap anti-gay laws, breaking ranks with 46 other countries that penalise same-sex relationships.

• Uganda accuses Rwanda of blocking pilgrims

Rwandan troops blocked about 200 of their citizens from crossing into Uganda to attend a Christian pilgrimage amid a spat between the neighbours.

A Ugandan government official said the Rwandans were seeking to attend the annual Martyrs Day commemoration on June 3 in Uganda.

Janinah Busingye, an official at Katuna, the border town with Rwanda, said pilgrims from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi had been using the same crossing to enter Uganda via Rwanda without encountering any problems.

An elderly Rwandan pilgrim said he had been denied entry into Uganda.

• UN chief warns of 'high risk' of atrocities in Mali

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning of a "high risk" of atrocities in Mali in a report that calls for beefing up the UN peacekeeping presence in the strife-torn middle of the country.

In the report to the Security Council obtained by AFP, Guterres said he was "appalled" by the upsurge in violence and called on the government to strengthen its response to extremist groups.

"If these concerns are not addressed, there is a high risk of further escalation that could lead to the commission of atrocity crimes," Guterres wrote in the report sent to the council on Friday.

Guterres recommended that there be no drawdown of the UN peacekeeping force, known as MINUSMA, despite calls by the United States for cuts to blue helmet missions worldwide.

• Libyan conflict risks oil output 'collapse'

The head of Libya's National Oil Company warned Monday against a "collapse in production" stemming from conflict in the North African country.

Oil production "could collapse at any moment", said NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla, even as he cited current output of over a million barrels per day.

But output could potentially fall by 95 percent, Sanalla said, in a video published on social media networks.

Strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive against Tripoli -- seat of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), on April 4.

Sanalla called on the Haftar and GNA camps to respect the NOC's neutral status and leave it outside the conflict.

• Apple leaves iTunes behind as it harmonizes software

Apple on Monday announced the demise of groundbreaking iTunes as it tuned its offerings to be a stage for digital music, films, podcasts and more.
Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said at the firm's annual gathering of developers in Silicon Valley that the future of iTunes was in "Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV."

The new content will be available on an upgraded Apple TV app.
The iTunes online shop transformed the way people buy and listen to music after its launch in 2001.

Its exit is in response to changing lifestyles where people stream music, video and other entertainment on demand from the internet.

Apple is preparing to launch an eponymous TV+ later this year.

• Canadian indigenous women victims of silent 'genocide': inquiry

ACanadian inquiry Monday released its final report on the disappearance and death of hundreds of indigenous women, concluding they were victims of endemic violence that amounted to "genocide."

The release of the report follows two and a half years of hearings over alarming disproportionate crime levels affecting indigenous women over the past three decades.

According to official estimates, almost 1,200 indigenous women and girls went missing or were killed between 1980 and 2012, out of a community of 1.6 million people, by family members and partners, casual acquaintances and serial killers.
Suggesting the figure could be many times higher, the enquiry said indigenous women and girls were 12 times more likely to experience violence and seven times more likely to be killed than other women in Canada.

It blamed "state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies" for the violence.

• S.Africa apartheid cop set for trial over 1971 killing

An apartheid-era policeman accused of killing a South African activist 48 years ago will stand trial after losing a court battle to have the murder charge dropped.

Joao Rodrigues, 80, is accused of murdering anti-apartheid campaigner Ahmed Timol in detention in 1971 when he worked for the police's infamous security branch that targeted anti-apartheid crusaders.

A campaign by Timol's family to get his alleged killers in the dock so long after the advent of democracy in 1994, is seen as a test case for families of other activist victims whose killers have not yet been brought to justice.

Under South African law, the statute of limitations that determines the maximum period of time that can lapse before a prosecution is initiated, does not apply to the crime of murder.

• Last known survivor of Sobibor Nazi death camp dies

Semion Rosenfeld, the "last known survivor" of the Nazi death camp Sobibor, has died aged 96, the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency said Monday.
Born in Ukraine, the Jewish soldier was one of over 50 camp prisoners who survived World War II according to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre.

Some 250,000 Jews died in Sobibor camp, Poland, between May 1942 and the summer of 1943.

Rosenfeld managed to escape death with nearly 300 other captives when they escaped through Sorbibor's barbed wire in October 1943.

• Swiss court temporarily suspends IAAF testosterone rules

Switzerland's top court has temporarily suspended IAAF rules that oblige athletes including double Olympic champion Caster Semenya to take medication in order to compete in certain events.

Swiss Federal Tribunal spokesman Peter Josi said the court had issued a "super-provisional order," barring the application of the rules introduced by the International Association of Athletics Federations until a further hearing can take place.

Semenya said last week she would appeal a previous court of Court of Arbitration for Sport finding that the rules were discriminatory but necessary to ensure fairness in women athletics.