<p>KINSHASA &#8211; Security forces in Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 34 people during protests this week against President Joseph Kabila&#8217;s refusal to step down at the end of his mandate, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.</p>
<p>Congo&#8217;s capital Kinshasa and other cities were convulsed by violent demonstrations on Tuesday as Kabila, in power since 2001, reached the end of his second term in office without an election in place to choose his successor.</p>
<p>HRW&#8217;s Central Africa director said on Twitter that the deaths, including 19 in the capital Kinshasa and five in the southeastern mining hub of Lubumbashi, happened at protests early on Tuesday and HRW was verifying reports of more deaths.</p>
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<p>Congo&#8217;s government says 22 people were killed in the clashes, including a police officer, most of them by stray bullets or while looting.</p>
<p>Separately, fighting in the eastern province of North Kivu between Hutu and Nande ethnic militia &#8211; violence fed by Congo&#8217;s political uncertainty and its security vacuum &#8211; killed 17 civilians and a police officer, a local army spokesman said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some were killed by gunshots and others by machetes,&#8221; he told Reuters, naming the officer as Captain Guillaume Djike.</p>
<p>Authorities said on Wednesday they had arrested 275 people across the country, 116 of whom remain in custody. LUCHA group activist, Fred Bauma, tweeted on Thursday that police had arrested 14 more youth activists in the eastern city of Bukavu, including six from LUCHA.</p>
<p>A police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.﻿</p>
<p>African and Western powers fear escalating violence over the political impasse could spark another major conflict in the massive central African nation where millions were killed between 1996 and 2003, and which has never experienced a peaceful transition of power.</p>
<p>In a bid to avoid that, talks between pro- and anti-Kabila politicans, facilitated by the Catholic church, took place on Thursday, but it is unclear what they can achieve, since the opposition has said a deal is possible only if Kabila commits publicly to stepping down and holds an election next year.</p>
<p>The constitution bars Kabila from standing for a new term but his government says it cannot organise the presidential election, originally scheduled for last month, until at least April 2018 due to delays in registering millions of voters.</p>
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<p>Opposition leaders say the delay is a ploy by Kabila to cling to power and ultimately change the constitution to run again. Kabila denies this but has declined to commit to not changing the constitution.</p>
<p>(Editing by Tim Cocks and Louise Ireland)﻿</p>


At least 34 killed in anti-Kabila protests

<p>CAPE TOWN (Reuters) &#8211; Ephraim &#8220;Shakes&#8221; Mashaba has been sacked as South Africa coach despite leading the side to a crucial World Cup qualifying victory over Senegal last month, the country&#8217;s football association confirmed on Thursday.</p>
<p>A disciplinary committee found Mashaba guilty of several offences following his public outburst aimed at the association president Danny Jordaan and guests directly after the 2-1 victory over Senegal on Nov. 12.</p>
<p>Mashaba, who has had several scrapes with South African Football Association (SAFA) officials during four stints in charge of the side, was reportedly unhappy at what he perceived was a lack of support from his superiors.</p>
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<p>&#8220;Due to the seriousness of the coach&#8217;s actions, we had to release our head coach with immediate effect,&#8221; SAFA CEO Dennis Mumble said in a statement on Thursday.</p>
<p>&#8220;We shall immediately institute a search for a new head coach familiar with African football competition, who will be expected to continue the quest to qualify for the world&#8217;s apex football competition.&#8221;</p>
<p>South Africa are second in their qualification pool, behind Burkina Faso on goal-difference, having managed four points from their opening two games. Only the top team in each pool will advance to the 2018 tournament in Russia.</p>
<p>The side did not qualify for the African Nations Cup finals in Gabon starting on Jan. 14 and are next in action when the 2019 Nations Cup qualifiers kick off in March.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by John O&#8217;Brien)﻿</p>
<p> </p>


SA Football Assocition sacks Bafana Bafana Coach

<p>ACCRA &#8211; Ghana&#8217;s president-elect Nana Akufo-Addo said on Wednesday he would focus on restoring stability, cutting taxes and interest rates and spurring double-digit growth, in his first comments on the economy since winning a Dec. 7 vote.</p>
<p>Akufo-Addo, whose New Patriotic Party government is due to be sworn in on Jan. 7, inherits an economy that has slowed sharply since 2014, in part because prices have fallen for its cocoa, gold and oil exports.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will reduce the cost of doing business, maintain fiscal discipline, reduce government borrowing and reduce interest rates to spur private sector investment,&#8221; he told a meeting of private businesses in the capital, Accra.</p>
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<p>Ghana is midway through a three-year aid deal with the International Monetary Fund to reduce inflation, the public debt and the budget deficit and to boost growth.</p>
<p>Outgoing Finance Minister Seth Terkper said on Tuesday the government will overshoot its 2016 budget deficit target of 5 percent by two percentage points due to a shortfall in anticipated tax revenues.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Andrew Heavens)﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Ghana's new president vies for double digit growth

<p>Volkswagen ﻿on Wednesday inaugurated a vehicle production facility in Kenya and revealed plans to start assembling cars in Rwanda by end 2017﻿.﻿</p>
<p><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/east-africa/2016/09/08/volkswagen-targets-east-africa/">Volkswagen targets East Africa &#8211; CNBC Africa </a></p>
<p>The Government of Rwanda signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Volkswagen Group for a new integrated mobility concept Wednesday evening. The signing took place at the Marriot Hotel. According to a statement on the Republic of Rwanda&#8217;s website, &#8220;﻿The concept includes car sharing and ride hailing services as well as the establishment of a local production facility in accordance with the environmental standards of Volkswagen’s Think Blue&#8221;.﻿</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Volkswagen?src=hash">#Volkswagen</a> to start assembling cars in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rwanda?src=hash">#Rwanda</a> by end 2017 <a href="https://t.co/pwGBcNKqhz">https://t.co/pwGBcNKqhz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RDBrwanda">@RDBrwanda</a> <a href="https://t.co/Q1LVBF7KmE">pic.twitter.com/Q1LVBF7KmE</a></p>
<p>— Government of Rwanda (@RwandaGov) <a href="https://twitter.com/RwandaGov/status/811644842744967173">December 21, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></p>
<p>&#8220;In addition, possibilities of training initiatives for the local population are being investigated together with other German companies&#8221;.﻿ </p>
<p>The MOU signing between <a href="https://twitter.com/RDBrwanda">@RDBRwanda</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/Volkswagen">@Volkswagen</a> South Africa is a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MadeInRwanda?src=hash">#MadeInRwanda</a> breakthrough within the<br /> automative industry in Rwanda <a href="https://t.co/S40bQ1toaK">pic.twitter.com/S40bQ1toaK</a></p>
<p>— Rwanda Development (@RDBrwanda) <a href="https://twitter.com/RDBrwanda/status/811583037473484800">December 21, 2016</a></p>
<p>Explaining the rationale for the deal Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen Group in South Africa said: “Volkswagen is consistently developing market potentials in Africa. Only a few hours ago, we inaugurated our third production facility in Africa in Kenya. Today in Rwanda, we are launching a concept that will foster individual mobility in this rapidly developing country and make this market a further pillar of the Volkswagen brand’s commitment to Africa”.</p>
<p>Schäfer added that the implementation of the MoU will start with an investigation phase in January next year; and if all goes as planned, the first cars will be assembled in Rwanda before the end of next year.</p>
<p>The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) welcomed the Uber like innovative approach to mobility concepts.</p>
<p>The RDB’s CEO Francis Gatare said Rwanda is a competitive place to do business and this was demonstrated in many international rankings that <a href="/news/financial/2016/10/25/africa-reforms-to-make-doing-business-easier/">capture the ease of doing business around the world</a>.</p>
<p>“Rwanda has been putting in place infrastructure for technology and connectivity that makes it a convenient place to experiment in new ways of mobility that have not been integrated in other African markets,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>“We have 100% 4G connectivity across the country,” he said, which along with our population and location, “makes a strong business proposition for VW and other companies to do business here.&#8221;</p>
<p>The RDB is not in talks with other international car manufactures at this stage. However, Uber, which does not yet operate in Rwanda, is working with local regulators to put in place platforms to become operational, according to Gatare.</p>
<p>The impact the assembly plant will have on Rwanda&#8217;s economy and jobs is not yet clear. But the RDB CEO said estimates had forecast between 5000 and 10 000 cars could be manufactured from the plant.</p>
<p>In Kenya, Volkswagen inaugurated a vehicle production facility in the industrial town of Thika﻿. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and Dr Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen brand, were present when the first locally produced Polo Vivo rolled off the production line. </p>
<p>At the inauguration, Diess underlined Kenya&#8217;s key role within the Volkswagen brand&#8217;s Africa strategy: &#8220;After over 60 years of Volkswagen vehicle production in South and North Africa, I am delighted to now have a further site in Kenya. We will systematically continue to develop our position in the fast-growing African car market.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Volkswagen Kenya Polo Vivo car will retail at Ksh1.65M. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KaribuVW?src=hash">#KaribuVW</a><a href="https://t.co/BcNK5EFhqB">pic.twitter.com/BcNK5EFhqB</a></p>
<p>— Adan Mohamed (@AdanMohamedCS) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdanMohamedCS/status/811540904292954113">December 21, 2016</a></p>
<p>In addition to vehicle production, Volkswagen will be offering Kenyan customers a comprehensive package including a manufacturer&#8217;s guarantee as well as a maintenance and service plan. Financing schemes will be developed together with local banks in order to allow individual mobility and to provide Volkswagen with the impetus it needs for its re-entry to the Kenyan market.</p>
<p> President Kenyatta said: &#8220;A few months ago, this was only a dream. Now Volkswagen&#8217;s investment in Kenya has become reality. This is further proof of my government&#8217;s determination to strengthen the production location of Nairobi and to forge ahead with the industrialization of the nation.&#8221;</p>
<p>The decision by the Volkswagen Group to invest in Kenya resonates well with my Administration’s stated policy to industrialize our economy. <a href="https://t.co/SAjUisaNpW">pic.twitter.com/SAjUisaNpW</a></p>
<p>— Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) <a href="https://twitter.com/UKenyatta/status/811544510249443328">December 21, 2016</a></p>
<p> The joint project implemented together with DT Dobie in Thika near to the Kenyan capital Nairobi is Volkswagen&#8217;s third production plant in Africa, together with one plant in South Africa and one in Nigeria. In the initial phase, annual production of up to 1,000 vehicles is planned. In the long term, it will be possible to produce up to 5,000 units per year at the plant of Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers (KVM). The assembly facility is flexibly designed and offers the possibility of investigating the production of further models in the event of positive developments in the new car market. In addition, the Volkswagen Group recently announced plans to start vehicle production in Algeria.  ﻿﻿</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>


Volkswagen to open plants in Kenya, Rwanda

<p>SAN FRANCISCO &#8211; Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] has removed its self-driving cars from San Francisco streets, halting the autonomous program one week after its launch as the company faced a regulatory crackdown.</p>
<p>The California Department of Motor Vehicles said on Wednesday it revoked the registration of 16 Uber self-driving cars because they had not been properly permitted. For the last week, the agency was demanding that Uber shut down its program and comply with regulations requiring a permit to test self-driving cars on public roads.</p>
<p>Uber said it was not obligated to have a permit because its vehicles require continuous monitoring by a person in the car.</p>
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<p>San Francisco was supposed to be Uber&#8217;s second testing ground for its self-driving cars. The company unveiled its self-driving cars in September in Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re now looking at where we can redeploy these cars but remain 100 percent committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules,&#8221; an Uber spokeswoman said in a statement.</p>
<p>California defines autonomous vehicles as having the capability to drive &#8220;without the active physical control or monitoring of a natural person.&#8221;</p>
<p>Uber has argued that the law does not apply to its cars, which cannot stay in autonomous mode continuously. A driver and an engineer are in the front seats to take over frequently in sticky traffic situations such as construction zones or pedestrian crossings.</p>
<p>Uber&#8217;s defiance was met with threats of legal action from the DMV and the state attorney general.</p>
<p>The DMV told Uber that if it had obtained a permit, the regulator would have given the green light to the self-driving pilot. DMV director Jean Shiomoto said in a letter sent to Uber on Wednesday that she would &#8220;personally help to ensure an expedited review and approval process,&#8221; which she said can take less than three days.</p>
<p>The permit process is largely seen as a public safety measure, as regulations also require that companies provide the DMV with accident reports. Uber, however, has complained that its home state has favored complex rules over technological innovation.</p>
<div class="related-content group-one">It is not yet clear whether Uber will apply for the permit or simply bring the self-driving cars to another state.</div>
<p>Another 20 companies exploring self-driving cars, including Alphabet&#8217;s Google, Tesla Motors and Ford Motor Co, have obtained California DMV permits for 130 cars.</p>
<p>Uber opened up the self-driving car program to San Francisco passengers on Dec. 14, but has been testing the cars on city roadways for more than a month.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler)﻿</p>


Uber puts brakes on self-driving cars in San Francisco

<p>UNITED NATIONS &#8211; The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on Friday on whether to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan, even though the U.S.-drafted measure is likely to fail despite warnings by U.N. officials of a possible genocide, diplomats said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The resolution also proposes blacklisting South Sudan opposition figure Riek Machar, army chief Paul Malong and Information Minister Michael Makuei by subjecting them to an asset freeze and travel ban. </p>
<p>To be adopted, a resolution needs nine votes and no vetoes. Diplomats say that so far seven members were in favor, with the remaining eight planning to abstain. The United States has requested that a vote be held on Friday.</p>
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<p>&#8220;Council members will need, each of us, to own our decisions. So the United States urges you to prepare to vote your conscience, and to vote to stand with the people of South Sudan,&#8221; Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the council on Monday. </p>
<p>The United States has been unable to win over its ally Japan, which last month deployed troops to a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. It is focusing lobbying efforts on Senegal and Angola, diplomats said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We urge all our council colleagues to vote in favor of that resolution on Friday. I don&#8217;t know whether enough of them will do so,&#8221; British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters on Wednesday. Political rivalry between South Sudan President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and Marchar, his former deputy, led in 2013 to civil war that often has followed ethnic lines.</p>
<p>The pair signed a peace deal last year, but fighting has continued. Machar, a Nuer, fled in July and is now in South Africa. </p>
<div class="related-content group-one">U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Security Council that he feared genocide was about to start in South Sudan unless immediate action is taken, renewing his months-old plea for an arms embargo.U.N. peacekeepers have been in South Sudan since the nation gained independence from Sudan in 2011, and there currently are some 13,700 U.N. troops and police in the country.</div>
<p>(Reporting by Michelle Nichols Editing by W Simon)﻿</p>


UN expected to vote on South Sudan arms embargo

<div id="article-byline">LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; The humanitarian catastrophe in Lake Chad basin, where conflict has left over 8 million people destitute with many &#8220;teetering on the brink of famine&#8221;, was the most neglected crisis in 2016, according to a survey of aid agencies.</div>
<p>Following Lake Chad in a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of 19 leading aid groups were Yemen, where children are starving, and South Sudan where U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fears genocide is about to start.</p>
<p>Overshadowed by the wars in Syria and Iraq and the global refugee and migrant crisis, Lake Chad barely made the headlines this year, but aid organizations said the crisis was &#8220;on an epic scale&#8221; with &#8220;terrifying rates of child malnutrition&#8221;.</p>
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<p>&#8220;Syria broke my heart, but for out and out human suffering and almost zero media coverage, the food crisis sparked by Boko Haram in Nigeria and Niger was the pits,&#8221; said Suzanna Tkalec, humanitarian director at Caritas.</p>
<p>Boko Haram militants have displaced 2.4 million people across Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger during a seven-year campaign to create an Islamist caliphate.    </p>
<p>Oxfam said parts of northern Nigeria were already experiencing famine and Action Against Hunger warned many children were at risk of dying.</p>
<p>Almost 7 million people lack food but insecurity makes it hard for aid agencies to reach the most vulnerable.</p>
<p>International Medical Corps&#8217; programs director, Ognjen Radosavljevic, said border closures had disrupted markets, agriculture was collapsing and food was unaffordable.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is essential that the global community wakes up to the horrors &#8230; in this region,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p> YEMEN &#8220;SHAMES US ALL&#8221;</p>
<p>Aid workers also warned of famine in Yemen where nearly two years of war between a Saudi-led Arab coalition and the Iran-allied Houthi movement has pushed the Middle East&#8217;s poorest country to breaking point.</p>
<p>The crisis, exacerbated by restrictions on imports, has left over four fifths of the population struggling to find enough food and water to survive.</p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the highest level of humanitarian needs in the world and yet Yemen has received negligible media attention,&#8221; said Laurie Lee, head of CARE.</p>
<p>Eight in 10 children are stunted and every 10 minutes a child dies from preventable diseases, agencies say.</p>
<p>Some have warned that Yemen could run out of food within months.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is heart-breaking to already witness starving children,&#8221; said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, adding that all sides in the conflict were hampering aid deliveries.</p>
<p>&#8220;We must put an end to this man-made disaster that shames us all. If the situation is allowed to continue to deteriorate, it will result in famine across Yemen in 2017.&#8221;</p>
<p> &#8220;OMINOUS SIGNS&#8221;</p>
<p>Several agencies sounded the alarm over South Sudan where there have been calls by the head of a U.N. human rights commission to deploy a 4,000-strong protection force to stop a &#8220;Rwanda-like&#8221; genocide.</p>
<p>&#8220;South Sudan passed the one million refugee mark this year, yet it is a crisis that has barely made the front pages,&#8221; said Mercy Corps&#8217; director Craig Redmond, adding that the world&#8217;s youngest country had overtaken Afghanistan as the most dangerous place to be an aid worker.</p>
<p>More than 3 million people have been uprooted by fighting, with 1.2 million seeking shelter in nearby countries.</p>
<p>Agencies said the response was chronically underfunded with the regional refugee plan getting only a third of the support it needed. </p>
<div class="related-content group-one">&#8220;In sheer scale it has become Africa&#8217;s biggest displacement crisis. And as 2017 approaches the signs are ominous that more suffering is to come,&#8221; U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi said.</div>
<p>The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and World Vision named the fallout from the powerful 2015-2016 El Nino weather phenomenon as the most neglected crisis, saying over 60 million people remained affected worldwide.</p>
<p>In southern Africa, El Nino-induced drought has devastated farms, killed off livestock and crippled food production, with &#8220;alarming consequences&#8221;, said Garry Conille, IFRC&#8217;s head of operations.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is the poor and vulnerable once again who are suffering disproportionately and far too quietly,&#8221; added Conille, a former Haitian prime minister.</p>
<p>Libya and Myanmar, where renewed violence has uprooted many Rohingya Muslims, were also flagged up in the poll.</p>
<p>International Rescue Committee&#8217;s policy director Sanjayan Srikanthan said Libya, which has made headlines for the refugees and migrants leaving its shores for Europe, was in crisis.</p>
<p>Instability and fighting has left more than one in five Libyans needing humanitarian assistance and displaced 240,000 people, he said, adding that the healthcare system was on the brink of collapse.</p>
<p>Several agencies expressed alarm at the sheer number of neglected crises.</p>
<p>Christian Aid said 2016 was notable for &#8220;an emerging chasm between need and response&#8221; which threatened to undermine the foundations of humanitarian aid.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting Umberto Bacchi. Editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.)﻿</p>


Lake Chad most neglected humanitarian crisis in 2016 – Report

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><em>This article first appeared in Forbes Africa and is republished with its permission. Subscribe today by contacting Shanna Jacobsen <a href="mailto:Shanna.Jacobsen@abn360.com">Shanna.Jacobsen@abn360.com﻿</a>﻿</em>﻿</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>The internet is a web of opportunities. Many look at YouTube for entertainment, but some look at it for business. The highest paid YouTube channel is PewDiePie who reportedly made $12 million last year, according to FORBES. Meet some Africans who are making money online.</em></p>
<p>Not many can say they were self-made millionaires by the age of 20. Caspar Lee can— thanks to YouTube.</p>
<p>“At the age of 16, I started making YouTube videos because I was bored and I could use them to procrastinate my homework way more effectively,” he says on YouTube.</p>
<p>After about a year and two unsuccessful YouTube channels, he started Dicasp (Director Caspar).</p>
<p>“Six months after starting Dicasp, it became fairly popular, so I traveled to England to meet and collaborate with people like Jack and Finn Harries, Sam Pepper, Marcus Butler, Alfie Deyes and Bertie Gilbert. These collabs dramatically increased my following, and I went back to South Africa with one intention: to make a life out of YouTube because there is nothing I love more.”</p>
<p>And it is what he has done. On December 31, 2012, he moved to England. Thirteen days later, he moved into his own flat.</p>
<p>“A huge part of me wanted to stay in South Africa but I am confident and positive I have made the right decision. Living in London allows me to work with some of the best YouTubers in the world on a day to day basis,” he says.   </p>
<p>It is this dedication that has earned Lee over 6.8 million subscribers to his channel and over 649 million views.</p>
<p>This is big money.</p>
<p>According to reports, Lee was banking R5 million ($350,000) a year in 2014 and his net worth was estimated to be $2 million in 2015.</p>
<p>Lee says he has no idea how to describe his channel. He posts anything that comes to mind and takes suggestions from his subscribers.</p>
<p>His main source of income is the advertisements before and after his videos. His fame has also stirred him to acting and book writing.</p>
<p>Lorton started his IT career in 1991 but he lost his job in 2011.</p>
<p>“I had an idea that it was coming but I didn’t expect it to come so quickly,” he says.</p>
<p>It gave him time to tinker and play. He started sharing videos on YouTube for fun.</p>
<p>“I tried work doing solar power, energy audits and heat pump installations but none of that took off. After not being paid for a small solar-powered project and being rather peeved, I decided to try make money out of running my YouTube channel full time,” he says.</p>
<p>It took off.</p>
<p>He has over 2 million views on one video, over a million on another, and many with hundreds of thousands of views. In July 2013, at 18 months, he was earning about $5,000 per month; about $1,900 from YouTube and the rest from a sponsor.</p>
<p>“I have over 21 million views in total across my channel and average about 500,000 views per month with 620 videos… It’s no longer enough to make a viable full-time income from YouTube alone. In the last 18 months, the advertising rates on YouTube have dropped to a quarter of what they were in 2013 and my sponsor did not renew at the beginning of this year. My income now averages about $1,500 per month.”</p>
<p>Lorton has diversified into affiliate sales through Amazon, earns some money from crowd-funding platform Patreon, produces videos for the channels of other companies and sells advertising space on his website.</p>
<p>“It’s very difficult to start out now on YouTube and make a viable income. You really need to stand out among hundreds of thousands of other channels trying to do the same thing. Your chances of success now are really slim compared to when I started out.”</p>
<p>The channel is for people interested in solar power, electronic measurement equipment, and multimeters. He does reviews, tutorials, how-tos, fun testing, experiments, innovative ideas and solutions.</p>
<p>It may take a while for Lorton to start making as much as he used to, but it is $1,500 he didn’t have.</p>
<p>Ossendryver has always been fascinated by wildlife. As an obsessive Kruger National Park visitor, his favorite pastime was asking his parents to flag down passing motorists asking them what they had seen. Eventually they tired of this and said no. Ossendryver looked to technology to solve his problem.</p>
<p>At the age of 15, he founded Latest Sightings, a wildlife crowdsourcing site for visitors who are in the Kruger National Park to report the animals and events that they are seeing live. They report their location, time and sighting to Latest Sightings, which in turn broadcasts it on social media.</p>
<p>“At 15 I was naïve and phoned an app development company to ask them to develop my idea. They quoted R200,000 ($13,000) and I said ‘no thanks’ as I didn’t have that kind of money.”</p>
<p>He spent hours on YouTube teaching himself how to code an iPhone app.</p>
<p>“Within three weeks, I had the app out on the App Store. I used social media to grow a community of around 30,000 in three weeks. All of this for only $10 for the domain name for my site.”</p>
<p>Four years later, Ossendryver has one of the top-viewed YouTube channels in South Africa. With over 307,000 subscribers and over 351 million views worldwide, it makes money.</p>
<p>The dream of an eight-year-old boy may make headlines one day.</p>
<p>Caspar Lee’s sister, Theodora Lee, is also making money online. She created her self-titled YouTube channel in 2013, and currently has over 230,000 subscribers and 10 million views. She is known for her advice to the young.</p>
<p>“Currently, I post weekly videos on YouTube that aim to uplift and educate people on coming-of-age topics. I like to chat openly about stuff we all go through so that people can feel less alone and find ways to get through their issues and be the happiest they can be,” she says on her blog.</p>
<p>Last year, she won Best YouTube Channel at the African Blogger Awards and was a finalist for Best African Blogger at the 2016 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. She is also working on her debut novel. ﻿</p>


YouTube-preneurs are coining it

<p>BERLIN &#8211; German police are looking for a Tunisian man after finding an identity document under the driver&#8217;s seat of the truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people, on Monday evening, news website Spiegel Online reported.</p>
<p>The document was in the name of Anis A., born in the southern city of Tataouine in 1992. The man is also believed to use false names, it said.</p>
<p>Daily newspaper Bild reported he was known to police as a possibly dangerous individual, and part of a large Islamist network.</p>
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<p>Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday. Authorities have warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. It is not clear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others.</p>
<p>The 25-tonne truck, belonging to a Polish freight company, smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages, injuring about 45 people.</p>
<p>The Polish driver of the truck was found shot dead in the cabin of the vehicle. Bild reported that he was alive until the attack took place.</p>
<p>It quoted an investigator as saying there must have been a struggle with the attacker, who may have been injured.</p>
<p>Islamic State has claimed responsibility, as it did for a similar attack in July when a Tunisian-born man rammed a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice. Eighty-six people were killed, and the driver was shot dead by police.</p>
<p>The head of the Association of German Criminal Detectives, Andre Schulz, told German television late on Tuesday that police hoped to make another arrest soon.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am relatively confident that we will perhaps tomorrow or in the near future be able to present a new suspect,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Wednesday&#8217;s Passauer Neue Presse quoted the head of the group of interior ministers from Germany&#8217;s 16 federal states, Klaus Bouillon, as saying tougher security measures were needed.</p>
<p>&#8220;We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets. We will have more patrols. Officers will have machine guns. We want to make access to markets more difficult, with vehicles parked across them,&#8221; Bouillon told the paper.</p>
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<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, has said it would be particularly repulsive if a refugee, seeking protection in Germany, was the perpetrator.</p>
<p>Some politicians have blamed her open-door migrant policy for making such attacks more likely.</p>
<p>The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has won support in the last two years as Merkel&#8217;s own popularity has waned, said on Tuesday that Germany is no longer safe.</p>
<p>Some politicians have also called for changes to Merkel&#8217;s immigration and security policies after she allowed more than a million migrants to enter Germany in the last two years, many fleeing countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German radio on Wednesday that there was a higher risk of Islamist attacks because of the influx of migrants.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)﻿</p>
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Police hunt for Tunisian man in Berlin market attack

<p>KINSHASA &#8211; Germany has indefinitely postponed talks on development assistance to Congo after President Joseph Kabila stayed in power despite his mandate expiring this week, the German foreign office said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>&#8220;From now on, the Congolese Government&#8217;s scope for action will be restricted,&#8221; the statement said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The negotiations on development cooperation scheduled to take place next year will be postponed indefinitely. The German Government reserves the right to take further steps.&#8221; </p>
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<p>(Reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Aaron Ross)﻿</p>
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Germany puts aid talks with Congo on hold

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><em>This article first appeared in Forbes Woman Africa and is republished with its permission. Subscribe today by contacting Shanna Jacobsen </em><a href="mailto:Shanna.Jacobsen@abn360.com"><em>Shanna.Jacobsen@abn360.com</em></a></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">﻿</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">In a case of David against Goliath, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim beat her male opponent by a landslide to become the first female president of Mauritius, a small island off the coast of Africa that has a population of just over 1.2 million. No one expected her to win.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">Gurib-Fakim, who joined the presidential office on June 5, relishes shuttering glass ceilings. In Africa, there aren’t many women at the helm of countries.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">“When the people voted, they voted for a package, they knew that they would have a lady president and yet they voted massively for a party that has not made any provision for constitutional change,” says Gurib-Fakim.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">Born into a Muslim Indian family, Gurib-Fakim, 56, is also a former bio-scientist and the Vice Chairman of the Planet Earth Institute, an international NGO and charity that builds a path for the scientific independence of Africa.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Gurib-Fakim published more than 28 scientific books that have been devoured around the world by students and researchers. She graduated with a bachelor of science in chemistry from the University of Surrey in 1983. She then obtained her PhD in organic chemistry at Exeter University in Britain.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">“I became interested in sciences at a very young age because I had good motivated teachers who infected me with the virus of science. I went into sciences following my heart because passion was there.”</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">Back at home, she worked at the University of Mauritius before becoming the Managing Director at CEPHYR, a centre for phytotherapy research that focuses on using plants in cosmetics, nutrition and therapy.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">“When I went back to Mauritius, I realized that the work I was doing in synthetic chemistry, the infrastructure wasn’t there and yet in the academic world you either publish or perish. I chose to publish. To publish novel things you have to have novel avenues,” she says.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">This is when she started to probe into the biodiversity of Mauritius. The Indian Ocean island nation is known as a global biodiversity hotspot – it is home to about 300 plant species that can only be found on the island, which are under threat as a result of human activity and climate change.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">Gurib-Fakim says she wants to drive science and technology in Africa.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">“We believe a scientifically independent Africa is one with science, technology and innovation fully embedded in governmental policies and priorities, delivered by properly resourced and empowered educational institutions. A scientifically independent Africa will have both the ability to train and keep brilliant scientists on the continent, and create an inspiring new generation of academic leaders. Ultimately, we believe scientific independence means that African problems can be solved by African-led solutions,” it says on the Planet Earth Institute website.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Gurib-Fakim is also an entrepreneur.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">“I didn’t stay in the academic world because my second life was that of an entrepreneur. I translated that research work on herbal medicine into a business so I can safely say I am now living my third life.”</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">In Mauritius many girls couldn’t go to school. After 1976, this changed and yet transformation is still the biggest problem.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">“Coming back to tertiary education this is again an area where we find many women coming to do studies at tertiary level but still find the gap and where we find the downside of this, is for them to get jobs, for them to be leaders in their respective fields because society in Mauritius remains fairly conservative,” she says.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">According to Gurib-Fakim, science is still dominated by males in many parts of the world.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">As African countries aspire for economic growth and socio-economic transformation, Gurib-Fakim says: “It is becoming clear that any innovation or ambition to become a knowledge economy has to be driven by talented African scientists and with the knowledge that innovation is not instructed!”</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">She has a strong passion for protecting nature, fostering research and creating a better environment for women scientists.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 11.35pt;">This year Gurib-Fakim is nominated for FORBES AFRICA’s Person of The Year in recognition of her drive to protect her nation’s environment. She was listed by FORBES in June as being the 96th most powerful woman in 2016.</p>
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">Her motto is: “Follow your heart, do what you enjoy best and you won’t have to work a day in your life.”﻿</p>


What Mauritius’ first female president plans for Africa

<p>LUANDA &#8211; The head of Angola&#8217;s state oil company Sonangol has fired the executive committee of subsidiary Sonangol Exploration and Production, the company said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Sonangol&#8217;s chief executive Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire daughter of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, has told the Financial Times she plans to split the company into three units.</p>
<p>Dos Santos has said she wants to improve transparency at Sonangol, long been regarded as one of the most opaque institutions in Africa.</p>
<p>Sonangol cited &#8220;management weakness&#8221; and financial concerns for the dismissals.</p>
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<p>&#8220;This decision is in line with the stance of the new Board of Directors of the oil company to be consistent with the principles of rigour and transparency,&#8221; its statement said.</p>
<p>Sonangol Exploration and Production is also involved in prospecting.</p>
<p>The Financial Times quoted Dos Santos as saying Sonangol would be divided into three units: exploration and production, logistics and a division that handles its concessions to international oil companies. Non-oil interests will be placed in a fund.</p>
<p>Angola, a member of OPEC and currently Africa’s top oil producer and third largest economy, has been hit hard by the slump in global crude prices. Oil export revenues account for more than 90 percent of its foreign exchange revenues, which critics say have been squandered and siphoned for decades.</p>
<p> (Reporting by Herculano Coroado; Writing by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)﻿</p>
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Angola's state-run oil company fires subsidiary's board

<p>KINSHASA &#8211; Sporadic gunfire echoed across Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s capital on Wednesday, the day after security forces killed at least 26 protesters demanding President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate as elected leader expired.</p>
<p>A government spokesman could not be reached to comment on the nationwide death toll, compiled by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which said it was yet to give a final tally.</p>
<p>The United Nations human rights director for the vast central African state said it had &#8220;solid&#8221; reports of at least 20 dead civilians in the capital, Kinshasa.</p>
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<p>Some Kinshasa residents ventured from their homes on Wednesday morning but most streets were clear of traffic and public transport was extremely limited.</p>
<p>Africa and the West fear the political crisis around Kabila could spiral into a broader conflict, triggering a repeat of the 1996-2003 wars that killed millions and sucked in half a dozen neighboring countries&#8217; armies.</p>
<p>The former Belgian colony has never experienced a peaceful transition of power.</p>
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<div class="slick-list draggable" aria-live="polite">The main opposition bloc gave mixed signals about whether it would return on Wednesday to talks mediated by Congo&#8217;s Catholic bishops, with a final decision expected during the morning.</div>
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<p>Protests had erupted in the early hours of Tuesday, moments after the expiry of Kabila&#8217;s mandate cast the nation of 70 million into the constitutional unknown. Elections to choose a successor were delayed from November this year to mid-2018.</p>
<p>Gangs of mainly young men burned tyres in the streets of Kinshasa and threw stones at riot police and soldiers who responded with live rounds and teargas.</p>
<p>Clashes also happened in the southeastern mining city of Lubumbashi and the western port cities of Matadi and Boma, and Goma in the east, next to the border with Rwanda.</p>
<p>Scores of arrests were made in Kinshasa and other cities.</p>
<p>A police spokesman said he did not yet have information on the number of deaths or arrests.</p>
<div class="related-content group-one">Kabila&#8217;s government blamed delays in the election on problems with registering millions of voters, and the constitutional court ruled in May that Kabila could stay in power until the delayed vote in April 2018.</div>
<p>However, the main opposition faction in parliament refused to endorse the deal to allow him to stay on. Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi called on Congolese people on Tuesday to peacefully resist Kabila.</p>
<p>The opposition says Kabila is deliberately delaying the poll in order to cling to power &#8211; a charge he denies.</p>
<p> (Editing by Ed Cropley and Louise Ireland)﻿</p>
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Unofficial death toll in Congo protests rises to 26

<p>Risks may be rising across emerging markets, but there are still pockets of opportunity, Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, said in a blog post.</p>
<p>Emerging markets have been hit by hefty outflows as <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/.DXY" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="586968" data-inline-quote-symbol=".DXY">the U.S. dollar</a> surged in the wake of Donald Trump&#8217;s surprise election win and the U.S. Federal Reserve&#8217;s move to hike interest rates for only the second time in a decade.</p>
<p>But in the blog post, co-written by Stephen Dover, chief investment officer at Templeton Emerging Markets Group and Franklin Local Asset Management, Mobius pointed to sectors that may benefit from faster economic growth in emerging markets.</p>
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<p>&#8220;Companies in the consumer-related and information technology (IT) sectors are particularly attractive,&#8221; Mobius and Dover said in the post issued on Tuesday.</p>
<p>They added that some consumer-sector stocks offer effective exposure not just to emerging-market economic growth, but also to the burgeoning consumer class&#8217;s spending growth.</p>
<p>Additionally, the two were positive on emerging market information technology plays.</p>
<p>&#8220;Although we are cautious of the recent rapid share-price advances in many of the China-based Internet stocks, we see value in the sector across emerging markets as a whole,&#8221; they said.</p>
<p>Select commodity shares were also attractively valued, despite the recent rally in oil prices, they added.</p>
<p>The two also said they liked Asia&#8217;s small-capitalization stocks for exposure to regional economic growth.</p>
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<div class="embed-container image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject">&#8220;This is helped by small-cap companies&#8217; generally greater domestic focus than their larger peers, binding them less to challenging macroeconomic factors at a global level,&#8221; they said. &#8220;Their valuations typically reflect the stronger growth expected from the smaller equities, but, given there are thousands of small-cap stocks in Asia, the opportunities to discover mispriced securities are often plentiful.&#8221;</div>
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<p>But Dover and Mobius were concerned about some sectors on the mainland.</p>
<p>&#8220;We remain cautious of China&#8217;s banks as non-performing loan recognition dampens our outlook for the country&#8217;s financial firms,&#8221; they said. &#8220;Like banks, China&#8217;s real estate sector has staged a striking turnaround from a lengthy downturn, but we have remained on the sidelines, in part due to risks of overleverage and regulation.&#8221;</p>
<p>But while the pair pointed to better valuations in emerging markets, with the <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/%40MEM14H" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="21546650" data-inline-quote-symbol="@MEM14H">MSCI Emerging Markets Index</a> trading at a &#8220;significant discount&#8221; to the <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/%40MLWLF16J-GB" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="93297784" data-inline-quote-symbol="@MLWLF16J-GB">MSCI World Index</a> on a price-to-earnings basis, they noted that risks to the segment were rising.</p>
<p>For one, there are concerns about the Fed, they noted.</p>
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<p>At its meeting earlier this month, the Fed increased interest rates for only the second time in a decade, hiking by 25 basis points to a target range of 0.5 to 0.75 percent. That hike was well-expected by the market, but the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) surprised by sending smoke signals indicating that they now expect to hike rates three times in 2017, up from a previous forecast for two hikes.</p>
<p>&#8220;We expect the trajectory of any rate increases to be gradual, although larger- or faster-than-expected US interest-rate moves could dampen sentiment and lead to volatility,&#8221; Dover and Mobius said.</p>
<p>They also pointed to other risks, including geopolitical troubles globally, currency fluctuations from Brexit and commodity prices.</p>
<p>&#8220;Recent political events in the United States may also test markets,&#8221; they added. &#8220;The U.S. presidential election victory for <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a> is likely to have many implications for markets around the world, including emerging markets, and may well add to volatility in equities.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>—By CNBC.Com&#8217;s Leslie Shaffer; Follow her on Twitter</em> <a href="https://twitter.com/LeslieShaffer1" target="_self" class="inline_asset">@LeslieShaffer1﻿</a></p>
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Navigating emerging markets in 2017

<p>The families of three men killed at Orlando&#8217;s Pulse gay nightclub have sued Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc&#8217;s Google and Facebook Inc in federal court, accusing the companies of providing &#8220;material support&#8221; to the self-radicalized gunman.</p>
<p>The gunman, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group before police fatally shot him after the June attack, officials said.</p>
<p>The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Detroit federal court by the families of Tevin Crosby, Javier Jorge-Reyes and Juan Ramon Guerrero, who were killed during the massacre.</p>
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<p>Similar lawsuits in the past have faced an uphill fight because of strong protections in U.S. federal law for the technology industry.</p>
<p>The three families claim Twitter, Google&#8217;s YouTube and Facebook &#8220;provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts they use to spread extremist propaganda, raise funds and attract new recruits.&#8221;</p>
<p>The suit alleges the &#8220;material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be carried out, numerous terrorist attacks.&#8221;</p>
<p>Facebook said on Tuesday there is no place on its service for groups that engage in or support terrorism, and that it takes swift action to remove that content when it is reported.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are committed to providing a service where people feel safe when using Facebook,&#8221; it said in a statement. &#8220;We sympathize with the victims and their families.&#8221;</p>
<p>Twitter declined to comment. In August, the company said it had suspended 360,000 accounts since mid-2015 for violating policies related to promotion of terrorism.</p>
<p>Representatives of Google could not immediately be reached.</p>
<p>The three companies plus Microsoft Corp said this month they would coordinate more to remove extremist content, sharing digital &#8220;fingerprints&#8221; with each other.</p>
<div class="related-content group-one">Technology companies are protected from many lawsuits under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which says website operators are not liable for content posted by others.</div>
<p>Monday&#8217;s lawsuit claims that the companies create unique content by combining ISIS postings with advertisements to target the viewer. It also says they share revenue with ISIS for its content and profit from ISIS postings through advertising revenue.</p>
<p>The families in the case in Michigan, where one of the victims is from, are seeking damages and for the court to rule that the sites have violated the Anti-Terrorism Act in the United States.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Brendan O&#8217;Brien in Milwaukee and David Ingram in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Andrew Hay)﻿</p>


US tech giants face law suit

<p>BRUSSELS &#8211; Anheuser-Busch InBev has agreed to sell its majority stake in Africa&#8217;s largest Coke bottler to the Coca Cola Company for $3.15 billion, the final planned divestment following its purchase of rival brewer SABMiller.</p>
<p>The world&#8217;s largest beer maker and Coca Cola said in a joint statement on Wednesday that they had agreed the transfer of AB InBev&#8217;s 54.5 percent stake in Coca-Cola Beverages (CCBA).</p>
<p>CCBA has operations in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Mayotte and Comoros.</p>
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<p>The companies have also reached an agreement in principle for Coca Cola to acquire AB InBev&#8217;s interest in bottling operations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, El Salvador and Honduras for an undisclosed amount.</p>
<p>The transactions, subject to relevant regulatory and minority approvals, are expected to close by the end of 2017.</p>
<p>Coca Cola said it planned to hold all operations temporarily until they can be refranchised to other partners. Its existing bottling partners include Coca-Cola European Partners and Coca-Cola Hellenic.</p>
<p>AB InBev has now raised some $27 billion from divestments of SABMiller&#8217;s European, U.S. and Chinese interests, recouping more than a quarter of the 79 billion pounds ($97.7 billion) it paid for the world&#8217;s second largest brewer.</p>
<p>Coca-Cola Co said in October it would exercise its right to buy AB InBev&#8217;s stake in Africa&#8217;s CCBA after the brewer&#8217;s takeover of SABMiller. AB InBev is a major bottler of Coke rival Pepsi in Latin America.</p>
<p>Coke, which formed CCBA along with SABMiller and the South African owners of bottler Coca-Cola Sabco in 2014, had retained the right to buy SABMiller&#8217;s stake in the event of a change of control at the brewer.</p>
<div class="related-content group-one">(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by David Clarke)﻿</div>


South Africa introduces $260 a month national minimum wage

AB InBev sells Coke stake for $3.15bn

<p>Gambian President Yahya Jammeh said he would not step down and condemned mediation by West African regional bloc ECOWAS that aims to get him to leave power after he lost a Dec. 1 election to challenger Adama Barrow.</p>
<p>The comments on state television late on Tuesday were a hardening of the veteran president&#8217;s position after days in which hopes mounted he could be persuaded to hand over power at the end of his mandate on Jan. 18, when Barrow is due to be inaugurated.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am not a coward. My right cannot be intimidated and violated. This is my position. Nobody can deprive me of that victory except the Almighty Allah,&#8221; Jammeh said.</p>
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<p>&#8220;Already the ECOWAS meeting was a formality. Before they came, they had already said Jammeh must step down. I will not step down,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Jammeh initially accepted the results of an election whose outcome was seen across Africa as a moment of hope. He is accused by human rights groups of the detention, torture and killing of perceived opponents during his 22-year rule.</p>
<p>On Dec. 9, he reversed his position and said he would challenge in the country&#8217;s Supreme Court the results of an election he said was riddled with irregularities.</p>
<p>(Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by; Editing by Peter Cooney)﻿</p>


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