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US Senators urge Joe Biden to impose more sanctions on Myanmar junta
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Tuesday urged the Biden administration to slap more sanctions on the military junta in Myanmar, including choking revenues to a state energy company, in response to its coup and violent crackdown on protesters. Senators Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, and four others urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a letter to “explore new avenues to support the people of Burma in their ongoing struggle for democracy in the face of escalating crimes against humanity.” They want the Biden administration to stop royalties flowing from businesses including U.S. energy major Chevron to Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE, an agency within the energy ministry, that provides financial support to mil...
Namibian president caught in new fishing corruption allegations
Informante The president of Namibia has been implicated in new allegations of corruption involving the country’s lucrative fishing industry by an investigation released by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and The Namibian newspaper. According to a lawyer who allegedly arranged the deal, President Hage Geingob instructed his close associates to embezzle millions of dollars from a state-run fishing enterprise in order to bribe electors at the 2017 congress of the ruling SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organization) party, reports the new investigation released on Friday. The lawyer, who is not named by the OCCRP, claims that Hage Geingob – elected as President of Namibia in 2014 and re-elected in 2019 – allegedly asked James Hatuikulipi, then chairman of the sta...
Zamfara offers cows for guns to halt bandit attacks
Authorities in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state have offered two cows for each gun surrendered to halt bloody attacks by criminal gangs, including cattle rustlers. Remote communities across the region have for years been hit hard by deadly raids from armed groups of motorcycle-riding cattle rustlers and kidnappers. Military operations have failed to end the killings and local officials have tried repeated negotiations to broker peace. Zamfara governor Bello Matawalle said on Thursday that under the new initiative “for every rifle submitted by a repentant bandit, there would be compensation of two cows”. Matawalle said the offer of livestock was meant to convince the gangs, known as “bandits”, to disarm without cash payments that could be used to buy more arms. There was no indication i...
