The Pope expresed his deep sadness in receiving news of the “brutal attack" on a group of Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that resulted in the deaths of Sister Mary Abud and Sister Regina Roba. In the telegram, sent through Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, the Pope offered his “heartfelt condolences” to their families and religious community in the wave of this “senseless act of violence”.
He expressed his hope that “their sacrifice will advance the cause of peace, reconciliation and security in the region” and offered prayers for “their eternal rest and the comfort of those who grieve their loss”.
The two sisters were killed following an ambush on the road that connects the South Sudanese capital Juba to Nimule, on the border with Uganda. The nuns, along with some sisters and several faithful, were returning to Juba after participating in the celebration of the centenary of the establishment of the parish of Loa, in the diocese of Torit, where the church is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. They were traveling on a bus that was attacked by armed men. Local sources reported that Sister Mary, Sister Regina and three other people were killed as a result of the assault. - Amedeo Lomonaco, Vatican News
August 16, 2021 — South Sudan, alongside Afghanistan, tops the list as one of the deadliest places to be an aid worker according to an analysis done by CARE International on data from the Humanitarian Outcomes Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD). A devastating 78 aid workers have lost their lives since the beginning of this year, including 17 in South Sudan and Afghanistan respectively. The two countries account for 44% of all humanitarian deaths so far this year (although the majority of Afghanistan’s fatalities occurred in a single incident).
According to Rosalind Crowther, CARE South Sudan Country Director, “Ten years on from independence, South Sudan is facing its worst humanitarian crisis ever. At the same time, the safety and security of aid workers has seen a concerning deterioration. There was an alarming increase in aid workers attacked and killed, and aid supplies stolen in 2020, which has continued into 2021. A failure to ensure that humanitarians are protected will lead to unavoidable suspension or disruption of lifesaving operations in critically affected areas.”
After a two-year decline in fatal attacks against aid workers in South Sudan, killings increased sharply in 2020 and continue at a level not seen since 2016-2017. In 2021, this worrying trend is continuing. According to Humanitarian Outcomes, “most attacks occurred in Jonglei and Unity states, but have also been rising in areas outside of these original conflict hotspots, reflecting an expansion of lawlessness and growing desperation in parts of the population traumatised by years of civil war.”
On top of having the highest number of aid worker fatalities, South Sudan also recorded the most attacks against aid workers so far in 2021 and for the 2nd year in a row. Incidents in South Sudan account for 35% (40) out of the 115 recorded so far this year.
Amin David Asu, CARE South Sudan Area Manager in Koch says, “Working in South Sudan is so frightening. Since 2018 the situation has been very volatile, and we have seen a lot of cattle raids and revenge killings and this really traumatised all staff, making us fear for our safety and security. This year, project supplies from the nutrition and women and girls’ friendly centres were also looted, which disrupted the smooth service delivery of humanitarian aid to those already in desperate need.”
This year’s World Humanitarian Day theme #TheHumanRace focuses on the impact of climate change on humanitarian crises. Both South Sudan and Afghanistan are countries facing complex emergencies that are being exacerbated by climate crises including flooding and droughts.
Sheri Lim, CARE International Lead Advisor on Resilience and Gender says; “We know that climate change is a threat multiplier and can lead to increased tension and conflict within communities and populations, as people are forced to compete over already scarce resources. It also leads to increased displacement and more pressure on the communities hosting the displaced. Countries already in situations of armed conflict are disproportionately affected by climate variability and extremes. Climate change adds extra burdens, tensions and stress onto already severely stressed populations, and further reduces their ability to cope.”
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Since the coronavirus pandemic that started in China in late 2019 spread to the rest of the world in March 2020, almost all facets of everyday life have been adversely affected. Businesses have been forced to close or work at only a fraction of their capacity so as to combat the spread of the virus.
The business of education has not been exempt from the lockdown and social distance measures, as they are known. Since March last year, countless students across Kenya have been forced to leave their school accommodation and move back home.
Most schools managed to resume offering their courses online within six months of the forced closure, although some schools are still struggling to get teachers and students online.
Higher learning institutions in Kenya were not adequately prepared for the transition to online learning. At the University of Nairobi, Kenya’s largest public university, the pandemic brought learning to a near standstill.
Time seems to have stopped at the main campus with only a few students, lecturers, and staff walking down the walkways. Emptiness looms over the whole campus casting a stark contrast to the normally bustling campus fields and noisy hallways.
In an interview, Wario, a fourth year Mechanical Engineering student at the university decried the time he had lost when the pandemic began in 2020. His faculty took two months to transition to online learning after physical classes were discontinued, and even after classes resuming, many students are still facing a number of challenges in attending classes. As an engineering student, he is especially troubled by the fact that he and his classmates cannot access the engineering labs on campus yet several of the modules in their course involve practical work.
Some students at the university have no access to hardware that they can use to attend classes e.g. laptops or personal computers. Many of the students who are in rural parts of the country complain that it is a challenge to even find a reliable internet connection over which they can comfortably attend the two to three hour long lectures.
Adano, who has just completed his degree in Business and Commerce at the same university, says he feels fortunate to have been at the end of his course when the pandemic caught the whole world by surprise.
For him, there have been positive and negative effects from the pandemic. He spoke positively of how the pandemic and lockdown were bringing families back together. He is also optimistic that the transition to learning and working from home presents a new way of life that could be healthier for our minds and the environment. He also believes that life is a bit more affordable for most students because they no longer have to pay rent for accommodation close to school or pay commuter fares to travel to and from class.
At private universities, it is a similar situation. One of the only advantages private university students; who tend to be from more privileged backgrounds; have is that they have no difficulty accessing a reliable internet connection and good quality hardware i.e. computers that they can use to log in to their classes. Faith, a second year law student at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, expressed grievances about the time she lost while classes transitioned to online platforms.
A major concern for university students across the country and even the rest of the world is the reduction in the quality of learning in online classes compared to traditional face to face teaching methods. Students and parents are generally unhappy that tuition fees have remained the same despite this reduction in the quality of education being offered.
I am also a master’s student taking classes online and I agreed with the students I interviewed when they said that it is hard to focus on a screen for two to three hours and remain alert and receptive to the information being delivered by the lecturer.
The fact that most lecturers are still untrained in online teaching methods and practices is also a major factor that has caused the quality of education to drop significantly since the adaptation of online learning. Due to the lack of face to face communication, it is a lot harder to engage with students and read the class for lethargy or notice when students are confused or falling behind. Online learning has also made it difficult to assess students properly because with exams being taken from home and submitted online, it is virtually impossible to prevent students from cheating.
The pandemic has also brought with it serious mental health concerns. The students I interviewed all said they felt traumatized by the sudden change caused by the onset of the virus. The lockdown measures and curfews have also led many students to feel isolated in their homes causing some to fall into depression.
Aside from academics, the pandemic has also affected the social lives of students. Social activities such as extra-curricular clubs and parties have always been a big part of the university experience. With campuses closed and students learning from home, the social scene involving university students is all but dead, with students now meeting up only with close friends to share leisure and recreational activities.
Although all university students in the country are in the same proverbial storm that is the pandemic, every student is not in the same boat. Each student has a different level of financial privilege to help them face the practical challenges of digital learning. Students also have different types of families and support structures to help them adequately deal with the psychological and moral hurdles brought about by the pandemic.
Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema secured a stunning landslide victory over incumbent Edgar Lungu in Zambia's presidential election, results showed on Monday.
The electoral commission said Hichilema got 2,810,777 votes against Lungu's 1,814,201, with all but one of the 156 constituencies counted.
"I therefore declare that the said Hichilema to be president of Zambia," electoral commission chairman, Esau Chulu, said in a packed results centre in the capital Lusaka.
That would make the third time that power has shifted peacefully from a ruling party to the opposition since the southern African country's independence from Britain in 1964.
Across Zambia, celebrations broke out in the streets as Hichilema's supporters wearing the red and yellow of his United Party for National Development (UPND) danced and sang, while drivers honked their horns.
Celebrations could be short-lived however: Zambia is in dire financial straights, and it became the continent's first pandemic-era sovereign default in November after failing to keep up with its international debt payments.
That was owing to an explosive mix of depressed commodity prices - which had pushed Zambia into recession well before the pandemic - and a brutal slowdown in economic activity caused by the pandemic itself.
Hichilema, 59, a former CEO at an accounting firm before entering politics, now faces the task of trying to revive Zambia's fortunes. The economy has been buoyed only slightly by more favourable copper prices - now hovering around decade highs, driven partly by the boom in electric cars.
Last year, Zambia, Africa's second biggest copper miner, produced a record output of the metal.
International Monetary Fund support is on hold until after the vote, as is a debt restructuring plan seen as an early test for a new global plan aimed at easing the burden of poor countries.
Lungu, 64, has yet to concede defeat, and has indicated that he might challenge the result, which will be difficult, given the margin.
Lungu said on Saturday that the election was "not free and fair" after incidents of violence against ruling Patriotic Front party agents in three provinces, and the party was consulting on its next course of action.
UPND officials dismissed Lungu's statement as emanating from people "trying to throw out the entire election just to cling on to their jobs."
If Lungu wants to settle a dispute or nullify elections, he must approach the Constitutional Court within seven days to lodge a complaint after a winner is announced. Hichilema's win reverses a narrow loss in the 2016 presidential election against Lungu. PD Daily
You have probably stumbled on her poetry on Informer East Africa Newspaper. Missed? Never mind! Perhaps, you heard about Mwana, her new collection? Mwana is creating excitement across online forums. Or you might know Tanzanite Events, a Zoom happening that banged our doors throughout the Covid 19 lockdowns and is still inspiring African greens. So, you haven’t heard all of that.
What about the esteemed Shaaban Robert? Most well-known Swahili writer, considered the William Shakespeare of our region? You haven’t heard of Shaaban Robert either? But we are aware that Ki-Swahili is targeting becoming the lingo for black people across the universe by 2063, right? Anything transporting the Swahili tag means serious business, or as we say in Fursa.
Fursa means “opportunity...” Entrepreneurs recognise that word like how we notice spider’s webs on the corners of our rooms. Jackline Waziri was born 1993 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Aged seven, she made her way to London, as both parents had, sadly. passed on. Subsequently, the bright girl was raised by her loving maternal, energetic aunties in this third largest city of Europe.
No wonder Jackline Waziri, has not disappointed and is also energetic, positive, innovative; it is in her genes …Look. During his times, around 75 years ago, the legendary Shaaban Robert was an active media personality with a regular column ( in the 1940s East African Mambo Leo, newspaper) and it is natural his descendants are as inventive.
In October 2020 Ms Waziri, launched Tanzanite Events. The Zoom forum, showcases everything Tanzanian through artists, hard-working entrepreneurs and other uniquely driven individuals. Like Kenya in the Park- annual function, run by dancer Lydia Olet, “Tanzanite Events” sometimes spreads wings by inviting non-Tanzanians in the spirit of like-mindedness.
For example, in February 2021, the theme of the monthly gig was Friends of Tanzania. March 2021, Tanzanite Events brought international women to task. Jackline Wazir's debut book, “Mwana”, is gentle, persuasive and, passionately written verse which she summarises as being : “ Inspired by my beautiful daughter so that she knows she has a voice in this world.
Just like many young girls and boys that look like her, Mwana means child, in various African languages including Swahili (grammatically and structurally a Bantu speaking idiom).
On page 21 is “Tanzanite”:
My earth skin till six feet under
for you hold light of Birth
My dear “melanin” so ancient
stained by grace
diverse shades of complexion
I treasure you dear, my
Body of Kingdom civilisation...”
Consistently aware of her identity and roots, the most poignant piece was the brutal killing of George Floyd- June 2020.
“A worthy breath blown away
Countless others.
Ugly truth haunts
the nations spirit, chocked.
But the sound of the heartbeat
of every “ I cant breathe.”
Breathes change
Sons of the sun, its time to rise again.
Chains off.”
Jackline invested her own hard earned cash into this self-published opus , coming out with a thousand copies. In almost a year, she has sold half of them.
And here we have to speak about self-publishing. Many young authors are now doing their own thing. Back in the 1970s, and 80s it was a bit rare. I recall when I self-published my English- German poems, (Papers! Papers! Papers!, 1986) , I did it so I could sell the work in my music concerts. This is because I always use music to recite my spoken word. Back then we relied on bookshops. It wasn't easy.
Nowadays, the internet is limitless. You can publicise your work via social media, speak about it, or collaborate with Amazon, whose distribution is a multi-billion industry and quite efficient. Jackline Waziri is using her times and surroundings well. Easy? Hard?
Ms Waziri : “I am just having fun with the moment (becoming an author)I tend not to think of the struggle of the process at the moment...I just care about my story being out there and being heard.”
Did she inherit, the gift of literary arts from her maternal grandfather? Jackline confesses she was not aware of this at the beginning. Growing in Tanzania then London she might not have known her great great Babu. Ironically not much of the esteemed icon has been translated into English (or other languages)...the most well-known of Shaaban Robert's verse : Titi la Mama Litamu Hata Likiwa la Mbwa (One mother's tongue is the best) which eulogises Kiswahili, comes to mind.
However, Jackline found effortlessly expressing herself through writing. From then on there were no brakes. Ms Jackline Waziri's motor-engine has been scorching, ever since, sizzling through traffic, jumping red , yellow , blue , lilac , purple lights and creating whole fresh, artistic planets. Hail Jackline Waziri, an inspiration for optimistic, glowing African renaissance!
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