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FNDC alliance scraps planned demonstrations in capital Conakry at the request of a West African ECOWAS bloc.
FNDC says it wanted "to give yet another chance to ECOWAS mediation so that it can find a way out of the Guinean crisis maintained by the military junta."
(AFP)
A political opposition coalition in Guinea has said it was calling off planned protests against the country's ruling junta, at the request of a West African regional group.
The National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC) had called for fresh demonstrations in the capital Conakry on Monday and September 4, after accusing junta forces of killing two teenagers during previous protests.
But in a statement sent to the AFP news agency on Saturday, the FNDC said it had "complied with a request from the heads of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Guinea Christians to suspend the peaceful citizen demonstrations".
The September 4 protest would have fallen on a Sunday, "a day of prayer for our Christian compatriots".
The ECOWAS mediator for Guinea, former Benin president Thomas Boni Yayi, announced that he had completed his mediation mission on Saturday, after holding talks in the country since August 21.
The FNDC said it wanted "to give yet another chance to ECOWAS mediation so that it can find a way out of the Guinean crisis maintained by the military junta."
But it was not suspending its call for nationwide protests on September 5.
READ MORE:Guinea opposition calls for protests after junta denies role in new deathsPushing for constitutional return
The FNDC, a coalition of political parties, trade unions and civil society organisations, was banned by the junta in August.
The alliance staged rallies on July 28 and 29 in which five people were killed. Two teenagers, aged 17 and 19, were shot dead during protests it called for on August 17, which were banned by the junta.
The FNDC, relatives and neighbours accused junta leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya's forces of having killed the two boys –– charges the junta has denied.
In a press release, Boni Yayi said his mission was to meet with the authorities of the transition and socio-political actors for a dialogue which should "allow the return to constitutional order".
During his stay, the mediator said he met with Doumbouya, members of the government, leaders of political coalitions and civil society and foreign diplomats.
The poor but mineral-rich state has been ruled by the military since a coup last September that ousted president Alpha Conde, in power since 2010.
Doumbouya has pledged to hand over power to elected civilians within three years, a timeline that political players in Guinea and West African states want to be shorter.
READ MORE:Guinea junta leader announces 39-month transition period
Source: AFP
Gotabaya Rajapaksa flew into Singapore from the Maldives on July 14 after fleeing a deepening economic crisis and widespread protests in his home country, and tendered his resignation shortly after his arrival.
Rajapaksa fled his nation after tens of thousands of protesters overran his official residence last month.
(Tananchai KEAWSOWATTANA / THAI NEWS PIX / AFP)
Former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has arrived in Bangkok after his visa ran out following a month-long stint in Singapore where he had taken refuge from protesters at home.
The deposed leader landed on a private jet at Don Mueang International Airport around 8:00 pm local time (1200 GMT) on Thursday, a senior Thai official said.
Rajapaksa flew into Singapore from the Maldives on July 14 after fleeing a deepening economic crisis and widespread protests in Sri Lanka, and tendered his resignation shortly after his arrival.
Sri Lankans arriving in Singapore normally receive a 30-day visa, but authorities said they had initially given Rajapaksa only two weeks and later extended the visa by another two weeks.
The Thai foreign ministry, as well as a source in Colombo, had said on Wednesday that he was seeking a new safe haven in Thailand.
"His Singapore visa runs out on Thursday," a close associate of Rajapaksa in Colombo said on Wednesday. "He had applied for an extension, but it had not come through as of Wednesday morning."
The source said Rajapaksa planned a short stay in Thailand and would return to Singapore.
The Thai foreign ministry confirmed it had received a request from Colombo for the 73-year-old deposed leader to visit and an assurance that he would not seek political asylum.
The Rajapaksa confidant said that the former leader was keen to go home as protests against his administration had fizzled out, but his successor Ranil Wickremesinghe had advised him against an early return.
Singapore officials had said he was on a private visit to the city-state and the foreign minister stressed that he was not given any special privileges.
"In general, the Singapore government does not accord privileges, immunity and hospitality to former heads of state or heads of government," Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in a written reply to a question in parliament last week. "Consequently, former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was not accorded any privileges, immunity or hospitality."
Rajapaksa fled his nation after tens of thousands of protesters overran his official residence last month angry about acute shortages of food, fuel and medicine endured by Sri Lanka's 22 million people since late last year.
Protesters in capital Conakry suburbs burn tyres, overturn rubbish bins and throw stones at police vehicles as anger grows against junta and its handling of plans to return to democracy.
FNDC, an influential political coalition, called for the demonstrations to denounce the junta's "unilateral management" of the return to civilian rule
(AFP)
Fresh clashes between protesters and security forces have erupted in Conakry despite a ban by the junta on demonstrations amid discontent with the regime's planning to transition back to democracy.
The latest clashes came after protests against Guinea's junta and its handling of plans to return to democracy brought the capital to a standstill on Thursday, with organisers claiming that one person was killed.
Protesters in the Conakry suburbs on Friday burned tyres, overturned rubbish bins and threw stones at police vehicles with officers responding with teargas, according to an AFP news agency journalist.
Thursday's protest took place ahead of comments by the chair of a regional bloc who claimed to have persuaded the junta to shorten its timeline for a return to democracy. The junta has not confirmed his comments.
The National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), an influential political coalition, called for the demonstrations to denounce the junta's "unilateral management" of the return to civilian rule after it seized power in 2021.
A junta led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, which overthrew president Alpha Conde in September last year, has pledged to hand over power to elected civilians within three years.
But regional powers have rejected this timeline, with Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspending Guinea after the coup.
Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a briefing in Bissau on Thursday, the ECOWAS regional bloc chair Umaro Sissoco Embalo said he had recently convinced Guinea's junta to hasten the return to democracy.
"I was in Conakry with the president of the commission (of ECOWAS) to make the military junta understand the decision of the summit of heads of state that the transition cannot exceed 24 months", Embalo said.
"They had proposed 36 months, but we succeeded in convincing them," he added.
But Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, a Guinean minister and spokesperson for the transitional government, told AFP that "neither the government nor the presidency confirms this information about the duration of the transition in Guinea".
Cairo lodges its protest at UN Security Council, objecting to Addis Ababa's unilateral filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam without a binding deal with downstream countries including Sudan.
Egypt and Sudan fear the dam could threaten their access to vital Nile waters and have demanded a written pact between the three countries.
(Reuters Archive)
Egypt has protested to the UN Security Council (UNSC) against the Ethiopian plan to fill the reservoir of a controversial Nile dam for a third year without agreement from downstream countries.
Egypt "received a message from the Ethiopian side on July 26, stating that Ethiopia would continue filling the reservoir of the Renaissance Dam during the current flood season," a Foreign Ministry statement said on Friday.
In response, Egypt wrote to the UNSC "to register its objection and complete rejection of Ethiopia's continuation of filling the Renaissance Dam unilaterally without a deal."
The ministry stressed that Egypt maintains its "legitimate right... to take all necessary measures to ensure and protect its national security, including against any risks that Ethiopia's unilateral measures may cause in the future."
The multi-billion dollar Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile is set to be the largest hydroelectric scheme in Africa but has been at the centre of a dispute with Egypt and Sudan ever since work began in 2011.
Cairo, Khartoum seek accord
Addis Ababa deems the GERD essential for the electrification and development of Africa's second most populous country.
But Cairo and Khartoum fear it could threaten their access to vital Nile waters and have demanded a written agreement between the three countries on the dam's filling and operation.
The $4.2-billion dam is ultimately expected to produce more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity, more than doubling Ethiopia's output. The first of 13 turbines began generating power in February.
The process of filling the GERD's vast reservoir began in 2020, with Ethiopia announcing in July that year it had hit its target of 4.9 billion cubic metres.
The reservoir's total capacity is 74 billion cubic metres, and the target for 2021 was to add 13.5 billion, a target Ethiopia said it had met.
US involvement
The new US envoy for the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, was in Ethiopia on Friday for talks that were expected to include the dispute over the dam.
The envoy already held talks in Egypt on Monday.
"We are actively engaged in supporting a diplomatic way forward under the African Union's auspices that arrive at an agreement that provides for the long-term needs of every citizen along the Nile," he said.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers protested across the country late Friday night against the ruling of the Punjab Assembly's deputy speaker that helped Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) candidate to retain his chief ministership of the province.
Disappointed with what happened during the run-off election in the provincial assembly's session on Friday, Chairman PTI Imran Khan gave the protest call in his late-night speech. The PTI chief said he was "in a state of shock" to see the incidents in the Punjab Assembly during the run-off election.
Imran Khan said that Article 63A of the Constitution states that it is the head of the parliamentary party, whose decision is binding on the members to vote.
Responding to his call, the PTI workers took to roads and streets in different cities and staged protest demonstrations. The PTI activists and supporters gathered in Islamabad at D Chowk and F9 Park and Lahore's Liberty Chowk and Karachi's Shahra-e-Faisal.
The demonstration of the PTI workers caused massive traffic jams from the nursery to the Baloch Colony Bridge owing to the road closure. The protest demonstrations were staged in other areas of the metropolis including Teen Talwar.
Peshawar's Hashtnagari also witnessed protests where the PTI workers set tires on fire to block the road for traffic. They raised slogans against the election of the Chief Minister of Punjab.
Protest rallies were also taken out at Chandni Chowk in Rawalpindi, Manan Chowk in Quetta, Ghanta Ghar Chowk in Faisalabad and Sialkot. Similar protests were held in other cities including Gujranwala, Gujrat, Faisalabad and Multan.
In Hyderabad, the situation turned volatile when the workers of the PPP and PTI came face to face while shouting out slogans at Hyder Chowk. Police resorted to baton-charge to break up the confrontation.
Friday's Dramatic PA session
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.
FOR 29th August 2022
