page 30

page 30 Panama Papers name 18 prominent Africans Former governor of Delta State, James Ibori was among the 18 high-profile Africans named in a massive data leak exposing the financial activities of some of the world’s rich and famous and their use of tax havens. Four offshore companies connected to Ibori are named in the […]

page 30

Panama Papers name 18 prominent Africans

Former governor of Delta State, James Ibori was among the 18 high-profile Africans named in a massive data leak exposing the financial activities of some of the world’s rich and famous and their use of tax havens.

Four offshore companies connected to Ibori are named in the Panama Papers – one of which was used to buy a $20m (£14m) private jet.

More than 11 million documents, known as the Panama Papers, were leaked by an unknown source at one world’s most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

The documents reveal that Mossack Fonseca assisted companies and individuals to utilise tax havens in numerous ways.

For some – such as Sudan’s former President Ahmad Ali al-Mirghani, Kenya’s Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal or ex-UN chief Kofi Annan’s son Kojo Annan – offshore companies were used to buy and sell expensive real estate in London.

Mounir Majidi, the king of Morocco’s personal secretary, used an offshore company to buy a luxury yacht in 2006 – a transaction that Mr Majidi’s lawyers maintain is above board.

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma’s nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, is named as a representative of two offshore companies that acquired oil fields in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010.

Some of those named have previously been found guilty of money laundering activities and are serving time.

TURKEY

Migrant crisis: Greece starts deportations to Turkey

The first boats carrying migrants being deported from Greece have arrived in Turkey as part of an EU plan aimed at easing mass migration to Europe.

Most of the 202 people who left Lesbos and Chios, and arrived at Dikili in western Turkey, are Pakistanis.

Under the deal, for each Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, the EU is due to take in another Syrian who has made a legitimate request.

Thirty-two Syrian migrants were the first to arrive in Germany from Turkey.

They were flown to Hanover in Lower Saxony, officials say.

The Greek authorities say 130 of those returned to Turkey on Monday were from Pakistan. There were 42 migrants from Afghanistan and others from Iran, Sri Lanka and Morocco, as well as several other countries.

DJIBOUTI

Djibouti expels BBC reporters ahead of presidential vote

The BBC has written to the government of Djibouti to ask why a reporting team was detained for 16 hours and then expelled without explanation. They were in the country ahead of the presidential elections on 8 April.

After interviewing the foreign minister and an opposition candidate, they were detained by plain clothes security officials and questioned for eight hours before being put on a plane.

There has not yet been a response from the Djibouti government.

The reporting team had been granted media accreditation and advised by the government director of communications that they had the necessary authorisation to proceed with their work.

Having been held overnight, without means of communication, they were put on a plane out of the country on Saturday morning without any reason being given.

Press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders says Djibouti has a poor record when dealing with journalists. The organisation ranked Djibouti near the bottom of its World Press Freedom Index, at 170 out of 180 countries

UNITED STATES

U.S. transfers two Libyans to Senegal from Guantanamo prison

Two Libyans held for years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been flown to Senegal for resettlement, the Pentagon said on Monday, the latest move in President Barack Obama’s final push to close the facility.

The two men were the first of a group of about a dozen who are expected to be transferred in coming weeks to at least two countries that have agreed to take them, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

With the latest departures, there are now 89 prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo. Most have been held without charge or trial for more than a decade, drawing international condemnation.

The Pentagon identified the two Libyans as Salem Abdu Salam Ghereby and Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjour Umar.

They were among a group of prisoners, now numbering 35 following their departure, who have been cleared for transfer by a U.S. government inter-agency task force.

CONGO

Gunbattles rock Brazzaville in wake of disputed Congo election

Gunbattles rocked the capital of Congo Republic on Monday, shattering a relative calm that had followed President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s re-election in a disputed poll last month.

Former members of the “Ninja” militia that fought Sassou Nguesso in a 1997 civil war raided and set alight military, police and local government offices but the attacks have been contained, said government spokesman Thierry Moungalla.

Opposition leader Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas came second in the March 20 election and his father led the Ninjas during the civil war. The group signed a peace accord with the government in 2003 after years of sporadic clashes, though rivalries persist along regional and ethnic lines.

Kolelas was not involved in the attacks, an aide said.

“The government … does not yet have proof that the candidates or their supporters were involved in this affair but … investigations are under way,” government spokesman Moungalla said on state television.

LIBERIA

New Ebola flare-up in Liberia

Health officials in Liberia say a five-year-old boy has tested positive for Ebola just days after his mother died of the virus.

A 30-year-old woman died of Ebola in Monrovia last week, months after Liberia was declared free of the virus. Her death followed a recent flare-up that took the lives of at least four people in neighboring Guinea.

Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah, who is also head of Liberia’s Ebola Incident Management System, said the latest flare-up has been traced to Guinea. But he said unlike in the past, Liberia’s health system has the capacity to deal with the flare-up.

Meanwhile, Survivors of Ebola are holding protests across Sierra Leone over what they believe is a lack of government care. They say some people have died because they have not received proper medical treatment.

Some women whose husbands died from Ebola say the government has not provided them with the support it promised, meaning their children cannot go to school.

S/AFRICA

S/African ruling party in crisis talks over Zuma scandal

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party held crisis talks on Monday to discuss the fallout from a court ruling last week that President Jacob Zuma flouted the Constitution, triggering calls for him to resign.

The ANC backed Zuma, 73, after the Constitutional Court rebuked him for ignoring Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s order that he pay back some of the $16 million spent on upgrading his private Nkandla home.

But the scandal, one of several which have dogged Zuma over the past decade, could strain relations between the ANC and its allies the South African Communist Party (SACP) and labor federation COSATU, which have helped it to retain power since the fall of apartheid in 1994.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s Defence Minister has warned a union official representing soldiers that he risks being charged after he called for the removal of President Jacob Zuma from office.

“If he is mobilising men and women in unform, what it actually amounts to is a coup d’etat. He should be charged,” said Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.

IRAQ

Wave of suspected ISIL attacks kill at least 60 in Iraq

At least 62 people have been killed and about 83 wounded in a wave of suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacks on military posts and civilian neighbourhoods across Iraq, officials said.

In the worst of Monday’s attacks, at least 26 troops were killed when a car bomb went off in the city of al Baghdadi, which is west of the strategically vital Anbar province and near Ain al-Asad airbase.

A police source from Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, said at least six pro-government militia fighters were killed and 18 others injured in two separate ISIL attacks there.

Thirteen other members of the security forces were killed in an attack on a military barracks east of Fallujah.

PAKISTAN

Scores dead as flash floods ravage northwest Pakistan

At least 63 people have been killed and 34 injured after flash floods ravaged parts of northwest Pakistan, including the Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Homes in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province faced extensive damage after rain started on Saturday causing flash floods.

“There are 30 people stranded by a landslide in the Kohistan Valley where we have sent a helicopter to rescue them,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa disaster management official Yousuf Zia, told Reuters news agency.

One of the worst-affected districts was the Swat Valley, northwest of the capital, Islamabad, where 121 mm of rain fell on Sunday, the Meteorological Department said.

TANZANIA

Magufuli scraps Union Day celebrations

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has cancelled celebrations to mark Union Day as part of his cost-cutting efforts.

“People should celebrate this day at home or continue with their personal business”, said a statement by his office.

He said the money government had set aside for the celebrations should be spent on improving roads in Mwanza in north-western Tanzania.

Union Day is marked on 26 April to commemorate the formation of Tanzania in 1964 through the merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Last year, Mr Magufuli scrapped celebrations to mark 54 years of independence from the UK, and led a clean-up campaign instead.