Kenya cult deaths hits 90 as authorities expand operation

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 25 April 2023

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By EVELYNE MUSAMBI

NAIROBI, Kenya — The death toll at a ranch in coastal Kenya that is owned by a pastor who is accused of leading a religious cult and ordering his followers to starve themselves reached 90 on Tuesday, as the country’s interior minister announced an expanded operation at the site.

The new figure came after police exhumed 17 more bodies. The total number of those rescued while starving at the ranch now stands at 34.

The Kenya Red Cross Society’s latest figure on the number of missing is 213.

Pastor Paul Makenzi, who heads the Good News International Church, is accused of luring his followers to the ranch near the town of Malindi. He allegedly told them to fast to death in order to meet Jesus before burying them in shallow graves spread across his land. He was arrested after police raided the property earlier this month, and he remains in police custody.

Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said that the security team will “upscale search and rescue missions to save as many lives as possible.”

“The entire 800-acre (320-hectare) parcel of land that is part of the Shakahola ranch is hereby declared a disturbed area and an operation zone,” Kindiki said while visiting the area.

The minister said there would be a turning point on how the country handles threats caused by religious extremism and was looking into another suspected cult in the same Kilifi county.

“We have cast the net wider to another religious organization here in Kilifi. We have opened a formal inquiry on this religious group and we are getting crucial leads that perhaps what was being done by Makenzi is a tip of the iceberg,” Kindiki said.

The teams digging at the site have been finding decomposed bodies buried in mass and single graves marked with a cross.

Those believed to be living in mudwalled houses inside the ranch have been fleeing from rescue teams, and mostly those who can’t walk or talk have been rescued so far.

The Mombasa-based Muslims for Human Rights Group called on the government “to consider the option of using aerial surveillance by use of helicopters to rescue more people and make the process quicker.”

The autopsies on the bodies are set to begin on Thursday with local media reporting that government morgues in Kilifi are filled to capacity.

These are Kenya’s worst recorded cult deaths.

The broadcast regulator, Kenya Film and Classification Board, sounded the alarm in 2017 on radicalization-like content by Makenzi on television. The board’s former chairperson, Ezekiel Mutua, told local media that the content was taken off air at the time and law enforcement agencies were notified.

The pastor had been arrested twice before — in 2019 and in March of this year — in relation to the deaths of children. Each time, he was released on bond, and both cases are still proceeding through the court system.

The interior minister likened the cult deaths to one run by U.S. preacher Jim Jones, whose 900 followers took poison in a mass suicide in 1978.

Other cult activities that ended up in mass deaths include Uganda’s Kanungu cult massacre that killed 700 followers in 2000.

How Chinese are financing terrorists to illegally access mineral resources in Nigeria – Report

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Written by alib

Category: Africa

Published: 17 April 2023

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By Theophilus Adedokun

LAGOS - A British national newspaper, The Times, has reported that Chinese nationals in the mining sector are financing terrorist groups in some parts of Nigeria to gain access to the country’s mineral resources.

The national daily revealed this in an investigation it published on Saturday, April 15.

The Times said that the Chinese nationals are fuelling insecurity and terrorism through illegal transactions, lobbying and bribes.

The newspaper reported, “Beijing could be indirectly funding terror in Africa’s largest economy.”

According to the report, some Chinese who work informally as miners in Zamfara are serving as smugglers for some militant groups in the state and other states in the north-western part of Nigeria.

It noted that Chinese firms constantly negotiate with terrorists and bandits.

“Chinese companies working in parts of Nigeria where attacks are frequent have been striking security deals with insurgents.

“Attacks on Chinese citizens, of whom there are said to be between 100,000 and 200,000 in Nigeria, have become regular occurrences in recent years amid the country’s many conflicts.”

Research shared with The Times from SBM Intelligence, a Nigeria-based analytics company, revealed videos on social media, including WhatsApp, of militant leaders boasting that they are so powerful that Chinese workers wishing to operate in their areas must pay them ‘rent’. They have taken over swathes of northwest Nigeria, turning the region into the country’s bloodiest conflict zone.

“In one pocket of Zamfara, researchers found, interaction with militants runs so deep that some serve as runners for Chinese miners who have spread throughout Nigeria, controlling digs for gold. The country has some of the largest gold reserves in the world.

“Often operating informally in small groups as contractors registered to clearing-house companies, they speak local languages and can stay for years at a time living in remote areas that western companies consider off-limits.”

The report stressed that Chinese mining contractors underpay locals working on their fields.

“Chinese mining contractors, who local communities have accused of abuses and paying pitiful wages, often smuggle minerals out of the country illegally and are sometimes arrested.”

It said that the Chinese who smuggle mineral resources out of the country through illegal routes were sometimes apprehended.

“In 2020, 27 miners, including 17 said to be Chinese, were arrested in Osun state. Last October, a Chinese citizen, Gang Deng, 29, was jailed for five years after being found with 25 tonnes of a mineral thought to be lepidolite, containing lithium, which is used in batteries.”

SBM also found Chinese workers involved in the Boko Haram conflict in Nigeria’s northeast, with a case of a Chinese smuggler being paid to help a jihadist group move metal ore out of the country.

The ICIR had published a two-part investigation on the activities of illegal gold mining in Osun and Ondo states.

The ICIR’s investigations highlighted the implications of illegal mining on the environment and the health of the natives.

The reports revealed that the traditional rulers and native authorities were in connivance with illegal miners.

The ICIR had also reported that Kogi and Osun states banned illegal mining operations in their territories.

The governors of the two states reiterated their commitment to clamping down on all forms of illegal mining in the state within the ambit of the law, while stating the adverse effects of illegal mining on the well-being of residents of the states.

The government of the two states urged legitimate miners whose activities have contributed to environmental degradation and water pollution in the states to retract immediate steps towards remedying the situation.

Nigeria's Tinubu defends win in disputed presidential poll

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 01 March 2023

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By Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh

ABUJA - Nigeria's new president-elect, Bola Tinubu, called on citizens to unite around him on Wednesday, as he defended the integrity of the national election he won amid a bitter dispute over the results.

Both of the two main opposition parties have rejected the outcome as fraudulent, and said they would challenge the results in court. The bitter dispute has raised fears of violence in Africa's most populous nation and leading energy producer, which has a long history of electoral violence.

In past polls, street gangs with loyalty to Tinubu in the commercial hub of Lagos have fought pitched battles with gangs loyal to rival parties.

"I am very happy I have been elected the president of the federal republic of Nigeria," Tinubu said to cheers in Abuja. "This is a serious mandate. I hereby accept it."

He now faces a litany of national problems, including Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, armed attacks, killings and kidnappings, conflict between livestock herders and farmers, cash, fuel and power shortages, and deeply entrenched corruption.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Tinubu garnered 37%, or 8.79 million votes, in the weekend election, ahead of main opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar's 29%, or 6.98 million votes.

Peter Obi, an outsider popular with younger and more educated urban voters, won 25%, or 6.1 million votes.

A candidate can win by getting more votes than any of their rivals, provided they get 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of the 37 federal territories - that is the 36 states and the federal capital territory of Abuja, which Tinubu managed to do.

LOW TURNOUT, LOW TRUST

With total votes cast at just under 25 million, out of 87 million people with voter identity cards and eligible to vote, turnout was only 29% - low, even by Nigerian standards. The 2019 election saw 35% turnout.

At least some of them were unable to vote due to malfunctioning of voter card reading machines.

Nigeria's election was meant to be its fairest and most open contest to date. But the electoral process encountered problems, owing to new technology that did not function well and seemed to overwhelm Nigeria's notoriously inadequate communications network. That undermined trust in the whole process.

"In the eyes of God, the man (Tinubu) is not the winner," trader Mercy Efong said in Akwa, in Obi's home state of Anambra.

The INEC had promised to upload results from each polling unit to its website in real time, but most units were unable to do so immediately. That was not a legal requirement, but it meant results had to be collated manually inside ward and local government counting centres as in previous polls, reneging on a policy that was meant to improve transparency.

"President Buhari said that he would do free and fair election (but) INEC is now turning everything upside down," said rickshaw driver Nedu Chukwunata, referring to the outgoing president.

"We want justice in Nigeria; we want democracy here in Nigeria ... we want our voice to be heard we are tired of corruption," said Chukwunata, who had parked his yellow rickshaw on a sandy patch of ground in Akwa.

'CREDIBLE ELECTION'

Observer missions have criticised the problems as the result of poor planning.

"I commend INEC for running a credible election no matter what anybody says," Tinubu said. "The lapses that were reported, they were relatively few in number and were immaterial to affect the final outcome of the election."

President Muhammadu Buhari, also from the All Progressives Congress (APC), congratulated his successor.

"Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power," he said in a statement.

As Lagos governor, Tinubu won praise for partially fixing some of the cities problems, including reducing violent crime, waste collection and traffic.

The 70-year-old has, however, sometimes appeared frail in public, slurring his speech, answering questions with platitudes and skipping several campaign events, leaving some to doubt how effective or dynamic he will be as leader.