WarLeaks Geopolitics

16/04/2024

🇱🇷 Liberian Senate reportedly backs establishment of civil war crimes court

The document was approved by 28 of the 29 members of the Senate (upper house), local media said.

The court will be tasked with prosecuting those most responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between 1989 and 2003, media said.

During his swearing-in speech in January, Liberian President Joseph Boakai said that his government would explore the possibility of opening a "war and economic crimes court" for "those who bear the greatest responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity."

In Liberia, no one has been tried for crimes committed during the two civil wars, the first from 1989-1997, and the second from 1999-2003. Around 250,000 people were killed in conflicts.



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03/04/2024

Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany.

The president of Botswana has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany in a dispute over conservation.

Earlier this year, Germany's environment ministry suggested there should be stricter limits on importing trophies from hunting animals.

Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi told German media this would only impoverish people in his country.

He said elephant numbers had exploded as a result of conservation efforts, and hunting helped keep them in check.

Germans should "live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to", Mr Masisi told German newspaper Bild. "This is no joke."

Botswana is home to about a third of the world's elephant population - over 130,000 - more than it has space for.

Herds were causing damage to property, eating crops and trampling residents, Mr Masisi said.

Botswana has previously given 8,000 elephants to neighbouring Angola, and has offered hundreds more to Mozambique, as a means of bringing the population down.

"We would like to offer such a gift to Germany," Mr Masisi said, adding that he would not take no for an answer.

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Germany wants tougher limits on hunting the animals, but Botswana says it has too many of them.

02/04/2024

Bassirou Diomaye Faye to be sworn in as Senegal’s youngest president.

Bassirou Diomaye Faye will be sworn in as Senegal’s youngest president on Tuesday, pledging reforms to build on his stunning election win only 10 days after he was released from prison.

The 44-year-old pan-Africanist leftwinger has never before held an elected office but several African leaders, including Nigeria’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are to attend the ceremony in the new town of Diamniadio, near the capital, Dakar.

The formal handover of power with President Macky Sall will follow at the presidential palace in Dakar.

Faye was one of a group of opposition politicians freed from prison 10 days before the 24 March presidential ballot under an amnesty announced by Sall who had tried to delay the vote.

Faye’s campaign was launched while he was still in detention.

The former tax inspector will become the West African state’s fifth president since independence from France in 1960 and the first to openly admit to having a polygamous marriage.

WarLeaks Geopolitics

Leftwinger one of a group of opposition politicians freed from prison 10 days before presidential ballot

02/04/2024

🇹🇿 Power restored in Tanzania after nationwide blackout

Power has been restored in Tanzania after a massive nationwide blackout that affected several islands and most of the mainland on Monday.

The electricity outage struck shortly after 02:00 local time on Monday, privately owned newspaper Daily Citizen reported.

State-run power company Tanesco said the outage was caused by a technical fault at the Kidatu hydroelectric power plant in the east of the country.

Its water intake control equipment was affected.

The fault resulted in large volumes of water entering the systems, causing them to "suddenly shut down to protect themselves", and in turn impacting the national power grid, Tanesco added.

Energy Minister Doto Mashaka Biteko ordered power officials who were on their Easter break to return to work immediately in order to restore power supplies.



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02/04/2024

🇹🇷 Turkish opposition party's head, Mehmet Palaz, died in a balcony collapse during election celebrations. Eight others were hospitalized.

Imagine winning the elections and then this happens.

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02/04/2024

⚡️ Shooting incident reported at a school in Vantaa, Finland

"Police are at the scene investigating the incident. Bystanders are asked to stay away from the area and indoors. The door should not be opened to strangers," police said.

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02/04/2024

🇨🇳 China Coast Guard maintains its role in the South China Sea

The China Coast Guard (CCG) remains the dominant state actor in disputed waters of the South China Sea, according to CSIS analysts.

Analysis of AIS data from commercial providers MarineTraffic and Starboard Maritime Analytics show that the CCG continued to maintain daily patrols at key features across the South China Sea in 2023.

CSIS examined data from the year 2023 across five features most frequented by Chinese patrols: Second Thomas Shoal, Luconia Shoals, Scarborough Shoal, Vanguard Bank, and Thitu Island. Comparison with 2022’s data shows that the CCG maintained a similar degree of presence, with a slight shift in attention away from Vanguard Bank and toward Luconia Shoals and Second Thomas Shoal.



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02/04/2024

🇬🇭Ghanaian priest reportedly married 12-year-old girl, drawing wrath of netizens

A 63-years-old Ghana's traditional priest, Gborbu Wulomo aka Nuumo Borketey Laweh Tsuru ###III, has taken a 12-year-old girl as his customary wife, local media reported.

The girl got a new traditional name after the wedding - Naa Ayemoede and should subsequently undergo "a second customary ceremony, one centered on purification," the outlet added. The ceremony will reportedly prepare the customary wife for marital responsibilities such as childbearing.

Many social media users have condemned the marriage, calling on the Ghana Police Service and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to pay attention to the situation which is against the law of the land.

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02/04/2024

🇬🇧🇪🇹British Museum investigated for hiding Ethiopian artifacts from public display for over 150 years

The Information Commissioner's Office (the UK's information watchdog) is investigating the British Museum for alleged excessive secrecy about sacred Ethiopian altar tablets hidden for over 150 years, as reported by Returning Heritage, a cultural restitution a non-profit organization (NPO).

"Returning Heritage believes the exemptions the British Museum is using to retain eleven sacred tabots that can be returned to Ethiopia without breaching the Museum’s existing governing Act have been wrongly applied. As a result, [...] we have submitted a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office," the NPO wrote.

The 11 wood and stone tabots that were looted by British soldiers after the Battle of Maqdala in 1868 (and the museum acknowledges it), have never been publicly displayed and are regarded highly sacrosanct. Even the museum's curators and trustees are forbidden from examining them.

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02/04/2024

Nepal Villagers Duped for Their Kidneys

Almost every household in the village of Hokse includes someone who sold a kidney for money, leading to a health crisis.

"It's impossible to count how many have done it," villager and donor Kanchha says. "Everywhere, this village, that village, so many people have sold their kidneys."

Some are told that their kidneys will grow back, and they are also suffering from their own kidney problems as a result of their labor in hot weather.

One villager sold his kidney for only £3,000 to a woman in India pretending to be his sister, even though this is illegal.

Estimates claim, globally, one in 10 transplanted organs have been trafficked.

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02/04/2024

🇳🇬🇸🇳 Nigerian President Tinubu to travel to Senegal for April 2 inauguration of President-Elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye, presidency says

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02/04/2024

South Korean Companies Offer Incentives To Boost Birth Rate

Construction company Booyoung offers employees $75,000 for each new child they have.

So far, the company has paid out $5 million to 66 employees.

"Korea will face a crisis of national existence 20 years from now, including a decline in the economically productive population and a shortage of defense personnel to ensure national security and maintain order," chairman Lee Joong Keun said.

The company also wants to provide "housing with no tax burden on tenants and no maintenance responsibilities" for people who have three children.

Other South Korean companies offer different incentives: The Lotte Group, for instance, offers employees with three or more children a 7-9-seat family vehicle for free.

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