While the Algerian side did not disclose the date of the visit, the Elysee Palace said President Emmanuel Macron will visit Algeria from August 25-27.
Macron's visit is being seen as an opportunity to mend strained ties between the two countries.
(Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron will pay an official visit to Algeria next week, the Algerian and French presidencies have announced.
In a phone call on Saturday, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Macron discussed bilateral co-operation and the agenda of the upcoming visit.
Macron thanked Tebboune for the invitation and conveyed his condolences on the loss of lives in recent forest fires that ravaged northern Algeria.
While the Algerian side did not disclose the date of the tour, the Elysee Palace said Macron will visit Algeria from August 25-27.
"This trip will contribute to deepen the bilateral relationship...to strengthen Franco-Algerian co-operation in the face of regional issues and to continue the work of addressing the past," the French presidency said.
Macron's visit is being seen as an opportunity to mend strained ties between Paris and Algiers.
Tensions hit a new low last year after Macron questioned Algeria’s pre-colonial identity and France slashed the number of visas available to nationals from Algeria.
The North African country won its independence from France following an eight-year war in 1962.
Pro-democracy activists challenge SADC to bring King Mswati III to the negotiation table with a clear framework, timelines and set targets.
They also want reports by previous envoys dispatched to Eswatini through SADC's troika to be made public.
Opposition leader accuses SADC of being a group of "elite" leaders covering up for King Mswati III and vows people of Eswatini will take charge of their destiny.
Pro-democracy activists from Eswatini welcomed the Southern African Development Community (SADC) resolution to send a fact-finding mission to Africa's last absolute monarchy.
They noted, however, that it was not the first fact-finding mission to be sent to Eswatini, with those before not yielding much progress.
Thulani Maseko, a prominent human rights lawyer from Eswatini, and Mlungisi Makhanya, leader of the People’s United Democratic Movement, the largest opposition party in the country spoke to News24.
Maseko said: "While we welcome the developments, we are concerned about what we see as a lack of decisiveness when it comes to the Eswatini question.
"The question is, how many fact-finding missions will be conducted before there is a serious commitment to a real meaningful process to resolve the crisis?"
He added that he hoped President Cyril Ramaphosa's framework for dialogue would be consolidated so that King Mswati III commits to it, although in the past, the king had not been so keen on engagement.
"We do feel that the king is given leeway to delay the resolution of the impasse while he continues to harass the people in Eswatini and the leaders of the mass democratic movement.
He added:
In our view, the facts speak for themselves for the need to bring the parties to the impasse to the table of dialogue, and SADC long accepted that dialogue is the only possible and meaningful way to address the socio-economic and political crisis facing the country.
He also said that SADC should pin down the king to commit to the creation of a political climate of peace conducive to dialogue, ensuring that all political prisoners are released, exiles return home safely, and all impediments to meaningful dialogue and free political activity are removed.
Another wish from Maseko was for SADC to agree on a framework for the dialogue to start, including timelines, and the adoption of mutually agreed terms of reference.
"We do hope that the fact-finding mission will realise the urgency because the security situation is fast deteriorating," he added.
Makhanya told News24 that while SADC was going to send another fact-finding team led by a panel of elders, it owed the people of Eswatini an update on what happened with past envoys.
"While we in principle welcome the decision by the SADC summit to send the panel of elders on a fact-finding mission anywhere it deems fit, we however strongly feel that SADC owes the people of Swaziland an explanation on how far the previous fact-finding mission went and their subsequent reports," he said.
Three envoys sent by SADC have been to Eswatini in the past.
Makhaya feels SADC was playing "marbles" with the Eswatini situation and as things stood, "the country will continue to burn".
While SADC handles the diplomatic side of the crisis, Makhanya said they would not wait but take matters into their own hands.
"We are not waiting for SADC to liberate us, we are liberating ourselves. Our message to our people is very clear: You are on your own and only your efforts will liberate you," he added.
He also branded SADC leaders as "elites" who are "indifferent" about the massacre of innocent people.
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
Pakistan on Wednesday strongly denounced the Modi-led BJP government's move to mark August 14 -- Pakistan's independence day -- as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’.
The Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson said that the “revisionist” BJP-RSS regime “sought to hypocritically and one-sidedly invoke the tragic events and mass migration that occurred in the wake of Independence in 1947”.
According to the foreign ministry, the BJP’s “deplorable” aim, as part of its divisive political agenda, was “wantonly attempting to play with the sentiments of the people through distorted interpretation of history”.
“If the Indian leaders genuinely care about agony, suffering and pain, they must work to improve the conditions of the Muslims and other minorities in India,” said the statement.
The MoFA stated that the last seven decades were replete with “undeniable proof that India’s espousal of secularism was a sham”.
“The fact is that today’s India is an undeclared ‘Hindu Rashtra’ that has no place or tolerance for other religious minorities, especially Muslims who are faced with discrimination, persecution and political and socio-economic exclusion.”
The FO advised New Delhi to desist from politicising events related to Independence and instead sincerely honour the memories of those who made sacrifices for a better future for all.
Backchannel contacts between Pakistan and India met a dead end as both sides have struggled to agree on the moves that may pave the way for slow but gradual improvement in the relationship.
“Talks have been going on but have reached a point where things aren’t moving anywhere,” a source familiar with the development said.
There has been a desire from both sides to break the impasse but the issue is how to move forward from this point onwards, the source explained.
What slowed down the process was the political uncertainty in Pakistan.
Across Ukraine's battlefields, there has been no let-up in fighting that has entered its 152nd day as the Kremlin says a Russian missile strike against the port of Odessa should not affect grain exports.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was optimistic about a UN-brokered deal to reopen Ukrainian ports for grain exports but warned the agreement alone will not solve the global food crisis.
(AA)
Monday, July 25, 2022
First Ukraine grain ships may move in days: UN
The first ships to export Ukraine grain from the country's Black Sea ports may move within a few days under a deal agreed on Friday by Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye and the United Nations, a UN spokesperson said.
A Joint Coordination Center will liaise with the shipping industry and will publish detailed procedures for ships in the near future, said deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.
UN World Food Programme optimistic on Ukraine grain export deal
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was optimistic about a UN-brokered deal to reopen Ukrainian ports for grain exports but warned the agreement alone will not solve the global food crisis even if it is implemented effectively.
The WFP itself has had to cut aid this year in key hunger hotspots like Yemen and South Sudan due to global inflation and critical funding gaps, both exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict.
The current global food crisis is not a price crisis alone, and that man-made conflict, climate shocks and the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to drive up global food insecurity even if Friday's deal holds, a WFP spokesperson said.
"We are preparing for everything to start this week," says Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, who led Ukraine's delegation at last week's grain talks in Istanbul pic.twitter.com/7E85Ie4hxO
Ukraine claims it has destroyed 50 Russian ammunition depots
Ukraine said its forces had used US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems to destroy 50 Russian ammunition depots since receiving the weapons last month.
Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov underlined the growing impact that the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) are having as Ukraine tries to repel Russia's attack.
Reznikov also said Ukraine had received three Gepard anti-aircraft armoured fighting vehicles, the first of 15 expected, and that Kiev was expecting to take delivery of several dozen Leopard tanks.
This cuts their (Russian) logistical chains and takes away their ability to conduct active fighting and cover our armed forces with heavy shelling
Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine's Defence Minister
Russia wants to end Ukraine's “unacceptable regime” - Lavrov
Russia’s top diplomat said Moscow’s overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its “unacceptable regime,” expressing the Kremlin’s military aims in some of the bluntest terms yet as its forces pummel the country with artillery barrages and airstrikes.
Lavrov said Moscow is determined to help Ukrainians “liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime.”
Lavrov accused Kiev and its Western allies of spouting propaganda intended to ensure that Ukraine “becomes the eternal enemy of Russia."
Russian and Ukrainian people would continue to live together. We will certainly help Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical
Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister
Kremlin says Odessa strike should not hamper grain exports
The Kremlin has said that Russian strikes on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa "should not affect" a Türkiye-brokered and UN-backed deal between Moscow and Kiev to unblock grain exports.
"This cannot and should not affect the start of shipment," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, two days after Moscow hit the port.
He said Moscow's strikes targeted "exclusively" military infrastructure and were "not connected with the agreement on the export of grain". The weekend strikes on Odessa came less than a day after Moscow and Kiev signed the landmark deal.
Russia says it destroyed HIMARS ammo depot in Ukraine
Russia's Defence Ministry says its forces have destroyed an ammunition depot for US-made HIMARS rocket systems in Bogdanovtsy, in Ukraine's Khmelnytskyi region.
The reports were not independently verified.
Russia has previously said it destroyed several of the HIMARS systems supplied to Ukraine by the West, in claims denied by Kiev.
Britain says fighting continues in Ukraine’s Donbass and Kherson
Inconclusive fighting has continued in both Donbass and Kherson regions in eastern and southern Ukraine, British military intelligence has said.
Russian commanders continue to face a dilemma - whether to resource Russia's offensive in the east, or to bolster the defence in the west, Britain's defence ministry said on Twitter.
The ministry added in its regular bulletin that on July 18, the British intelligence identified a Russian military vehicle refit and refurbishment facility near Barvinok, in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, which is 10 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.
"At least 300 damaged vehicles were present, including main battle tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and general support trucks," the update added.
Putin will not attend Japanese ex-PM Abe's funeral, Kremlin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the state funeral of Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Kremlin has said.
"No, Putin has no plans to visit Japan and attend the funeral," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Russia was yet to decide the country's presence at the funeral.
The Japanese government has notified all the countries it has diplomatic ties with, including Russia, of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's state funeral, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yos hihiko Isozaki said.
Zelenskyy says Ukrainians won't be 'cowed'
After five months of Russian attacks,
Ukraine will continue to do all it can to inflict as much damage
on its enemy as possible, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
"Even the occupiers admit we will win," he said as he hailed
the upcoming day of Ukrainian statehood, July 28, a new annual
holiday that Zelenskyy announced in August last year. "We hear
it in their conversations all the time. In what they are telling
their relatives when they call them."
Like every day in the last months, Zelenskyy said that
Ukraine was not letting up. "We do everything to inflict the
highest possible damage on the enemy and to gather for Ukraine
as much support as possible."
He said Ukraine had an important week ahead, with the
holiday approaching in the midst of what he called a "cruel
war." "But we will celebrate against all odds. Because Ukrainians
won't be cowed."
Russian investigator seeks new tribunal for Ukraine
The head of Russia's investigative committee has said Moscow had charged 92 members of Ukrainian armed forces with "crimes against humanity" and proposed an international tribunal backed by countries including Bolivia, Iran and Syria.
The government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta quoted committee head Alexander Bastrykin as accusing "more than 220 persons, including representatives of the high command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as commanders of military units that shelled the civilian population."
The Ukrainians were involved in "crimes against the peace and security of humanity, which have no statute of limitations," he said.
For live updates from Sunday (July 24), click here
The PTI's workers gather at the SC's Lahore Registry late Friday night. Photo: Twitter
The leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) have moved the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the ruling of the Punjab Assembly's deputy speaker that paved the way for Hamza Shahbaz to retain his post of the chief minister of the province.
The PTI and PML-Q leaders reached the SC's Lahore Registry late Friday and filed a petition against the ruling of Punjab Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari.
In Friday's dramatic session of the Punjab Assembly, Mazari announced the win for Hamza Shahbaz. After waving a letter from PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain who disallowed the party's members to take part in the vote, he cited Article 63A of the Constitution and rejected ten votes cast by PML-Q lawmakers.
The deputy speaker's ruling frustrated the bid of Pervez Elahi to become the Punjab CM. He was the PTI's candidate for the chief ministership. Having bagged 186 votes against Hamza's 179, Elahi lost the contest as his own party's ten votes were declared invalid.
Challenging the deputy speaker's ruling, PTI leader Raja Basharat said Shujaat is not authorised to take such a decision for his party under Article 63A as Sajid Bhatti is PML-Q's parliamentary leader.
Following the election, the PTI's and PML-Q's parliamentary parties discussed Mazari’s ruling and decided to challenge it in court the same day. Later, they reached the apex court's Lahore registry and submitted their petition.
Earlier, Deputy registrar SC Lahore registry Ijaz Goraya reached the court and received their application.
Ankara urges Greece to respect international law, fulfill obligations stemming from Lausanne Peace Treaty on Turkish minority in Western Thrace
