𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐒 𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐔𝐏

𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐔𝐄 230
𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍
𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 08, 2023
🇺🇬🇺🇬🇺🇬

🇺🇬 President Museveni launches ICT centre that will create 12,000 jobs
📌President Yoweri Museveni has today March 8 launched the ICT centre at the National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Innovation Skills Enhancement Project in Rwebitete-Kiruhura District. The project which will enhance the technological skill base of Ugandans to participate in strategic national infrastructural projects and manufacturing industries is expected to create 12,000 jobs. Right now, the President is presiding over the International Women’s  Day celebrations taking place at Sanga grounds in Kiruhura District under the theme ‘Equal Opportunities in Education, Science and Technology for Innovation’.

🇺🇬 Speaker Among wants an education policy that will harmonise school fees to promote access to education for all
📌The Speaker of Parliament Anita Annet Among has called for an urgent policy that will harmonise school fees and promote access to education for all in Uganda. During plenary on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, the Among expressed concern about the significant variations in school fees charged by different institutions leading to hardships for parents and students. She said that the current lack of regulation has resulted in schools setting exorbitant school fees leading to significant disparities across the education sector beyond what parents can afford.

🇺🇬 Uganda to host 14th East African procurement forum 
📌Uganda will host the 14th East African Procurement Forum 2023. The forum is a platform for the public procurement regulatory bodies and suppliers from seven partner states of the East African Community which oversee over 200,000 registered suppliers. The forum which is expected to draw over 300 participants is scheduled to take place at Kololo independence grounds from 23rd-26th March 2023. The Executive Director of Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority-PPDA, Benson Turamye, said the forum provides participants with an opportunity to share experiences, opportunities, and challenges regarding public procurement in the region to come up with tangible resolutions to improve procurement systems and regulatory frameworks.

🇺🇬 Government bans tree and charcoal trade
📌 The Ministry of Water and Environment has banned the issuance of any form of documents authorising commercial production and trade in charcoal, timber and other forest produce regardless of the source except for local consumption within Acholi subregion. In a letter dated February 24 and addressed to the Chief Administrative Officers in seven districts of Acholi Sub region, Hon. Beatrice Atim Anywar,  the State Minister of Water and Environment with immediate effect recalled the forest produce permit books issued by her Ministry.

🇺🇬 3 arrested in Jinja for chopping off teen’s hand over ‘pilau’ rice
📌Police in Jinja have arrested three suspects accused of chopping off the right palm of 15-year-old boy Shafic Sizomu during a fight for pilau. Kiira regional police spokesperson, James Mubi says that the suspects face two charges of attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm to the victim. The suspects in custody are; Yasin Eguma, Ziyadi Akidi, and Norman Kabale. It is reported that Sizomu, a resident of Wakalenge cell, Jinja attended a graduation ceremony in the same area on Sunday evening. Sizomu and his friends lined up for food at the serving table. However, the suspects pushed them from the line and forcefully grabbed the rice-filled saucepan sparking off a fistfight.

🇺🇬 ARUA: Leaders demand closure of abattoir over poor hygiene
📌 A section of Arua City councillors are demanding the immediate closure of the main abattoir in Arua City Central Division, along Iddi Amin road over poor hygiene. Godfrey Anguyo, Ayivu North councillor said the abattoir operates in dilapidated structures and lacks running water and drainage systems, electricity, and sanitary facilities for the butchers. The Arua city female Youth Councilor, Doreen Onyiru wants the abattoir relocated as the facility poses a big health risk to the local communities in the city.

🇺🇬 MASINDI: Ministry of education set to construct girl’s hostels of Budongo secondary school 
📌Masindi Local Government has kickstarted the construction of Budongo Secondary School. While at the site-levelling function at the school in Nyantonzi Village, Nyantonzi Parish, the District Engineer said that with the construction of the girls hostel blocks that meet the modern accommodation standards will boost better performance of girl child education.

🇺🇬 BUKEDEA: Residents embrace indoor residual spraying program
📌 Residents of Busikwe and Bubera cell in Kadenghe ward, Kachomo Town Council have embraced the ongoing indoor residual spraying program. According to the district records, malaria contributed 90 % to all cases of patient attendance in the Outpatient Departments within the district. The Ministry of Health rallies all leaders to encourage people to embrace the spraying of their houses since the chemical used is not harmful to human life.

🇺🇬 KABALE: Leaders conclude plans for new airstrip  
📌Kabale District leaders have concluded arrangements for Government to establish an airstrip in the district as an outstanding landing site for tourists to visit Lake Bunyonyi, the second deepest lake in Africa and one of the leading tourist destinations in Uganda. The decision was arrived at during the launch of the District Physical Development Plan with financial support of Ugx.300 Million from the Ministry of Finance.

🇺🇬 KATAKWI: Okadanya Primary school to get a new classroom block, borehole
📌The VP Jessica Alupo Epel has partnered with Time on Development, a civil society organisation to construct a new classroom block and borehole at Okadanya Primary school in Adacar Parish, Guyaguya Sub County in Katakwi District. Alupo, also the Woman Member of Parliament, also toured the school with officials from Time on Development where they held a community meeting.

𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒
🌍 🌍 🌍

🌍 DRC: Opposition outraged by President Tshisekedi’s attempt to delay Polls
📌The Opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo has expressed outrage over President Felix Tshisekedi’s “attempt” to postpone the December 20  general elections over persistent insecurity in the east.
“The situation in the east of the country should not constitute an excuse for the President to postpone the elections,” Cherubin Okende, the spokesperson for opposition politician Moise Katumbi Said. Opposition leader Martin Fayulu, said that according to article 70 of the constitution, the President is elected for a five-year term. “Come 23 January 2024, Tshisekedi must vacate his post,” he said. The politicians were reacting to Mr Tshisekedi’s remarks to French President Emmanuel Macron that the conflict in the east may delay the elections.

🌍 Tanzania’s Godbless Lema returns from exile
📌 Tanzanian opposition politician Godbless Lema last week returned home from exile in Canada to a cheering crowd. A former lawmaker from the main opposition Chadema party, Lema fled the East African nation in November 2020, citing threats to his life following a disputed election. Lema said he “wept” upon seeing such a large crowd to greet him at the airport.
“I have come back from a better place to fight for my country,” he told a rally of supporters in Arusha.

🌍 EGYPT: Two dead, scores injured in train accident
📌Two people were killed and several others injured on Tuesday in a train accident north of Cairo, Egypt’s Health Ministry said. A ministry statement said there were “two dead in the train accident at Qalyub, while many others injured.” The incident occurred in Qalyub, just north of the capital Cairo in the Nile Delta. Egyptian rail accidents have mostly been blamed on poor infrastructure and lack of maintenance.

🌍 The West responsible for CAR’s instability – President Touadera 
📌President Faustin-Archange Touadéra of the Central African Republic (CAR) has accused Western nations of deliberately keeping his country politically unstable, days after he met French President Emmanuel Macron. At the UN conference in Qatar, President Touadéra said the Central African Republic was a victim of geostrategic aims linked to its natural resources, and that foreign interference keeps his nation and others like it in a state of “dependence, insecurity and instability”.
“The Central African Republic has been subjected since its independence to systematic looting facilitated by the political instability maintained by certain Western countries or their companies which finance armed terrorist groups whose main leaders are foreign mercenaries,” he said at a UN conference of the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

🌍 ZAMBIA: Four women arrested for holding ‘Pro-Gay’ rights rally
📌Police in Zambia have arrested four women after they took part in a march against gender-based violence that also attracted LGBTQ-rights activists. Same-sex relationships and marriages in Zambia are illegal and on Monday the Government warned against the promotion of gay and lesbian rights. The march which took place at the weekend was organised by Sistah Sistah Foundation, a local non-profit organisation. It is believed that while the protesters were allowed to march by Police, the Procession was based on the event being an anti-gender-based violence event, not to allegedly advocate gay and lesbian rights.

🌍  Nigeria bans dogs at Polling Stations
📌The Nigerian Police has banned dogs and other pets in polling stations ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial elections. Following last month’s Presidential election where violence was witnessed in some polling centres, some voters said they would bring dogs with them this time. The Police has cautioned voters that dogs could be classified as “offensive weapons” and carrying them is punishable by law.

🌍  Ghana apologises for Military excesses in Accra
📌Ghana’s Deputy Defence Minister Kofi Amankwa-Manu apologised for military excesses after soldiers were deployed early Tuesday in Ashaiman, a suburb of capital Accra. The deployment followed the killing of a young soldier allegedly stabbed to death by unknown assailants in the area. Social media users have been sharing pictures and videos of alleged soldiers’ brutality during the operation.
“If decent, innocent residents of Ashaiman were caught up in these operations, I, in my capacity as Deputy Defence Minister, I apologise for that, “ Amankwa-Manu said in an interview.
Mr Amankwa-Manu said the operation was sanctioned by the military high command “to bring to book the perpetrators of this heinous crime”.

🌍  Black Wall Street’ survivors granted Ghana citizenship 
📌According to the Justice for Greenwood Foundation, two survivors of the 1921 massacre of about 300 black people in the US City then known as “Black Wall Street” Tulsa have been granted Ghanaian citizenship. Viola Ford Fletcher, 108 and her brother Hughes Van Ellis, 102, became the oldest African Americans to be granted Ghanaian citizenship.

🌍 BENIN: Security Forces foil attack on Army base
📌Security Forces in Benin repulsed an early Tuesday morning attack at a military base in the north of the country. Unidentified gunmen attacked the Gouande military base in the Altacora Department near the border with neighbouring Togo and Burkina Faso. Benin, like Togo, has seen increased cross-border incursions from militants based in Burkina Faso since 2022.

🌍 Tunisia talks over Migrants ‘deeply concerning’
📌The World Bank has suspended talks over its future engagement with Tunisia following President Kais Saied’s recent criticism of Sub Saharan migrants. The outgoing head of the bank, David Malpass, said Mr. Saied’s remarks had triggered racially motivated harassment and even violence in Tunisia. He described the situation as deeply concerning.

🌍 INDONESIA: At least 15 killed, dozens missing after landslide
📌At least 15 people have been killed, with dozens missing after torrential rains and landslides hit Indonesia’s Natuna region on the edge of the South China Sea. The Natuna Search and Rescue Agency’s head, Abdul Rahman said that 15 people had been confirmed dead and 50 were missing.

🌍 UK introduces new law stopping  illegal migrant boats from entering country
📌The UK Government has put forward controversial new legislation seeking to stop tens of thousands of migrants reaching the country illegally in boats every year. Interior Minister Suella Braverman said the migrants would be detained on arrival, and swiftly deported. They would only be able to claim asylum once returned to their countries of origin, or to Rwanda, which has signed an agreement to take them in. Ms Braverman said this was the only way to stop people coming to the UK.

🌍 Two killed enroute Mexico for cheap tummy tuck surgery
📌The road trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery ended with two Americans dead and two others found alive in a rural area near the Gulf Coast after a violent shootout and abduction that was captured on video, officials said Tuesday. The surviving Americans were back on U.S. soil after being sped to the border near Brownsville, the southernmost tip of Texas, in a convoy of ambulances and SUVs escorted by Mexican military Humvees and National Guard trucks with mounted machine guns. A relative of one of the victims said Monday that the four had travelled together from the Carolinas so one of them could get tummy tuck surgery from a doctor in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, where Friday’s abduction took place. The victims were accidentally caught in an ambush of an imfight between criminal cartels.