The WEB GIST

Around 20 people are believed to be in a serious condition after the train crash in Pretoria, South Africa.

Tshwane emergency services spokesperson Johan Pieterse said they were dealing with the crash with the amount of wounded between 100 and 150 people.

Xander Loubser, spokesperson for the Care Ambulance Service, said the train crash was caused by two coaches colliding.

He said it was not known why the two trains were on the same track.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Seven Kenyan doctors who are officials of the medics union were jailed Monday for failing to call off a two-month strike by doctors at public hospitals that has seen several die due to lack of medical care.

Judge Hellen Wasilwa said she could not delay further the contempt of court sentence she had suspended earlier on condition the doctors call off their strike. At least 5,000 doctors are on strike for better pay and to protest the dilapidated state of Kenya's public health care.

"This court declines to review its order sentencing the applicants to one month jail term ... you can now start serving your sentences, those are the orders of the court," Wasilwa said.

The Kenyan Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union said it has called off all communications with President Uhuru Kenyatta's government until their officials are released.

"There will be no negotiations as long as the union officials are in jail ... Jailing them is actually stalling the negotiations to end the strike. It is not a solution," said Thuranira Kaugiria, a top union official.

Kenyan paramilitary police were later deployed to disperse hundreds of doctors holding a peaceful vigil in support of their colleagues that was being covered live on TV.

Doctors want the government to implement pay raises agreed upon in 2013. That agreement would raise their salaries by 180 percent. Currently doctors earn an average basic salary of $400 to $850 per month compared to a Kenya legislator who earns nearly $14,000 a month.

The strike has caused a near-total paralysis in the Kenya's public health sector and many are believed to have died from a lack of emergency services. Early in December, President Kenyatta said at least 20 people had died as a result of the strike.

Kenyatta has twice asked the doctors to return to work, first appealing to their humanity for the suffering masses and then offering a partial increase of the salary hikes agreed upon in 2013.

The doctors' union rejected both offers and urged the government to pay the full salary increases promised three years ago.

In 2012, Kenya's doctors went on strike to protest the bad state of public health care. Emergency rooms in some of Kenya's public hospitals frequently don't have gloves or medicine, and power outages sometimes force doctors to use their cell phones to provide adequate light for a surgical procedure.

Kenyatta has said his government must cut down on a ballooning wage bill which he says is not sustainable.

Respected anti-corruption crusaders have said the problem is not the wage bill but corruption. Several large-scale corruption scandals exposed recently — including one at the health ministry where government auditors questioned the diversion of $46 million — have brought many Kenyans to question the president's commitment to ending graft.

Leading economist David Ndii argues that Kenyatta's regime is the most corrupt of the all of the four presidents Kenya has had. In an opinion piece in Kenya's largest circulation newspaper, The Nation, in December, Ndii argued the reason the government does not want to increase salaries is because officials want to "create more headroom for looting."

John Githongo, a former Kenyan government adviser who exposed millions of dollars in government corruption in the previous regime, makes similar allegations.

"This is the most corrupt government we have in history," said Githongo, charging that the government has the resources to pay doctors, but officials are diverting the funds.

"Here we have entire government projects that are designed from the onset to steal," Githongo said. "We no longer have corruption in Kenya, we have theft and plunder."

Kenya has fallen six places to be ranked 145 out of 167 countries in an index by Transparency International for 2016.

President Donald Trump has been increasingly chatting with other world leaders during his first weeks in office. On Monday he turned his attention to Africa.

Trump spent Monday morning calling two of the continent’s most prominent leaders, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and South African President Jacob Zuma, to discuss combating terrorism, trade relations and other issues.

According to Buhari’s aide, Femi Adesina, Trump assured the Nigerian president that the US is ready to help obtain “a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism.”

In a statement to CNN, Adesina also said, “President Trump encouraged President Buhari to keep up the good work he is doing, and also commended him for the efforts made in rescuing 24 of the Chibok Girls and the strides being taken by the Nigerian military.”

In 2014 nearly 300 girls were kidnapped from a boarding school in Chibok by terror group Boko Haram. Most remain missing, although the terror group released a group of them last October in a deal brokered in part by Nigerian authorities.

Trump also invited President Buhari to Washington at a mutually convenient date. Buhari, who congratulated Trump on his election, is currently in London on an extended break while he awaits the results of unspecified medical tests.

After his call with Buhari, President Trump also requested and completed a phone call with South Africa’s Zuma.

According to a statement from Zuma’s office, “The two presidents reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the already strong bilateral relations between the two countries. There are six hundred US companies in South Africa and strong trade relations between the two countries.”

Trump and Zuma also “discussed the need to work together on multilateral issues as well especially the quest for peace and stability on the African continent,” the statement said.

Trump, who so far has been mostly focused on his “America First” agenda, has not spoken at much length about his policies concerning Africa. But his controversial travel ban, one of his first major executive orders, has targeted three African countries: Sudan, Libya and Somalia.

NO fewer than 20 persons are feared dead in the renewed clash between the people of Oku Iboku in Itu Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and Odukpani Local Government Area in Cross River State.

The people of Ikot Offiong, who are an Efik speaking tribe of Calabar, were said to have been dislodged from their settlement at Ayadehe community, Oku Iboku council, over the decades.

It was gathered that in the clash between the two communities which started Friday night, combatants from both communities used sophisticated weapons.

It was further gathered that the highest number of casualties was on the Ikot Offiong side, as they were allegedly ambushed in the attack and chased to a neighbouring community in Odukpani Local Government Area of the state.

It was learned that travellers along the major link road between the two states, the Calabar-Itu high way, were held hostage for hours on Saturday until soldiers arrived the scene and chased the hoodlums away and cleared the road for smooth movement of traffic.

An eyewitness bemoaned the actions of the people of Ikot Offiong and wondered why they should start another war after both communities had entered into a peaceful settlement since 2014.

The eyewitness who spoke to newsmen on grounds of anonymity, said that the recent attack which was the third in recent times, must have been sponsored, adding that both communities have no justifiable reason to kill each other because they inter-marry.

The Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Cordelia Nwawe, confirmed the clash, but said the police was not in a position to speak on the casualty figure.

Meanwhile, on another front, community leaders in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State have told Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State to steer clear from the internal crisis of communities in Cross River State.

This is just as the member representing Obubra/Etung federal constituency of Cross River State, Mr Mike Etaba, has sued for peace among warring communities of Obubra so as to attract development to the area.

It will be recalled that about nine people were killed penultimate week and several houses destroyed in renewed skirmishes between Igbo speaking communities of Obubra, Ohanne Edda and their neighbouring Ogurube community while about 2,000 people are allegedly displaced.

A motor-cycle operator, Jonah Isangha, who was allegedly beheaded and his head allegedly used to perform the ritual rites for a chief in Ohanne Edda sparked off the crisis in the community.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja, weekend, one of the community leaders and former member of House of Representatives, Chief Ernest Irek, accused the Ebonyi State Government of interfering in the internal matters between communities in Cross River State.

He expressed surprise over the involvement and interest expressed by the Ebonyi State Government even when the communal crisis was between communities in Cross River State.

When contacted, the Commissioner of Police in Cross River State, Hafiz Mohammed, said he was not aware of the incident because he was only a week old in the state but promised to investigate.

But the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in Obubra, Noah Ntuen, confirmed the beheading in the area and said that the picture of the deceased was in his office.

He said, “If you want the picture of the deceased, it is in my office. The incident happened on January 10 and 11.  I was the one that removed the corpse. But I am  not aware if the blood was traced to anybody’s place. The situation is under control now.”

Ohanne Edda people trace their link to Ebonyi and speak the same language but the area was ceded to Cross River and named as returning communities by the Justice Nasir Boundary Adjustment Commission after the Nigeria/Biafra civil war.

The Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government is planning to buy four new X-class Mercedes Benz for his official use across the country.

This is an allegation made by the Member of Parliament for the Ningo-Prampram constituency, Samuel George on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday.

“We’ve heard that an order has been placed for four Mercedes Benz X-classes for our president,” he noted.

The New Patriotic Party government has in the last few days accused the erstwhile John Mahama government of hording over 200 vehicles meant for the presidency before exiting office, a claim the National Democratic Congress had denied.

According to Sam George, although he has no qualms if the President buys new vehicles his only worry is that it is part of a ploy by the NPP to “denigrate the legacy of former President Mahama and create a lacuna that will enable them import supersonic luxury vehicles for President Akufo-Addo.” “Personally, I have no problem if our President drives in an X-500.

President Mahama chose to drive in an Avalons while his vice was driving in Mercedes Benz. So if our president wants to drive an X-500 he should go ahead and buy it, but he shouldn’t come and paint a picture that we have stolen cars…Is it just what the conspiracy theorists are saying?”

Claims of car importation not true Meanwhile an NPP Member of Parliament for the Effiduase Asokore, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie who was also on The Big Issue rejected Sam George’s claim describing it as untrue. Nana Addo forced to use 10-yr old BMW

Banjul, Gambia: Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh flew out Saturday from the country he ruled for 22 years to cede power to President Adama Barrow and end a political crisis.

Jammeh refused to step down after a December 1 election in which Barrow was declared the winner, triggering weeks of uncertainty that almost ended in a military intervention involving five other west African nations.

The longtime leader, wearing his habitual white flowing robes, waved to supporters before boarding a small, unmarked plane at Banjul airport alongside Guinea’s President Alpha Conde after two days of talks over a departure deal.

He landed in Conakry, Guinea’s capital but set off again for Equatorial Guinea, where he will remain in exile, the president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Marcel Alain de Souza, said at a Dakar press conference.

“No legislative measures” would be taken that would infringe the “dignity, security, safety and rights” of Jammeh or his family, ECOWAS said in a joint declaration with the African Union and United Nations.

Jammeh could return to The Gambia when he pleased, the statement added, and property “lawfully” belonging to him would not be seized.

Jammeh finally said he would step aside in the early hours of Saturday morning and hand power to Barrow, who has been in neighbouring Senegal but is expected back in The Gambia imminently.

“I call on President Barrow to come in immediately and take over the supreme responsibility of president, head of state, commander in chief and first citizen of our republic,” Jammeh said, according to remarks read out on state television before he left the country.

It would be improper not to “sincerely wish him and his administration all the best,” he added.

Jammeh took power in a 1994 coup from the country’s only other president since independence from Britain, Dawda Jawara, making this The Gambia’s first democratic transition of power.

The choice of Equatorial Guinea for his exile helps ease concerns that Jammeh might interfere in his nation’s politics if he stayed in Guinea, whose border is not far from The Gambia’s eastern region.

Scenes of jubilation broke out almost immediately on streets near Banjul, the port capital, after the news filtered out that Jammeh had gone.

“We are free now. We are no longer in prison. We do not have to watch our back before we express our opinions,” said Fatou Cham, 28, who was celebrating with her friends.

Activists will be keen to see Jammeh — who controlled certain sections of the security forces — refused amnesty for crimes committed during his tenure, which was marked by systematic rights abuses.

Jim Wormington, West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, called Jammeh’s departure “the chance to usher in an era based on respect for the rule of law and human rights.”

Jammeh’s departure followed days of mediation led by Mauritanian President Mohammad Ould Abdul Aziz and Guinea’s Conde, who said in a statement he “welcomed the successful outcome of the crisis in The Gambia, which, through dialogue, avoided a bloodbath.”

Jammeh attempted to build a personality cult and has left behind a small minority of diehard supporters, some of whom wept as his plane departed.

“We wanted to be behind this man for a century or more,” said Alagie Samu, speaking on the tarmac. “He is the most successful, visionary leader in the entire world.”

Dressed in green, the colour of his political party, some were loyal to the end.

“No human being is perfect, but for 22 years in the country here he has tried hard for Gambians,” said a woman with cheeks wet from tears, who did not wish to be named.

The Gambia is one of the world’s poorest nations and although education and health standards have lifted in recent years, poverty remains endemic.

With Jammeh gone, all eyes will be on the Barrow administration as they make their first steps as a government of reform and development.

“The will of the people has come to be at last,” said Isatou Touray, a key official in the government-in-waiting. “Democracy is back, you can’t stop the people.”

Army chief Ousman Badjie, a former Jammeh loyalist, has pledged allegiance to Barrow along with top defence, civil service and security chiefs.

The first priority will be to help the tens of thousands who have fled in recent weeks fearing a bloody end to the crisis to return safely, Touray said earlier Saturday.

Heavy gunfire erupted Saturday at a military camp in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city, witnesses said, a sign that a mutiny by disgruntled soldiers could be escalating despite government efforts to bring it to a swift end.

Shooting also took place for the second day in a row in Bouake, Ivory Coast's second-largest city, as well as in the western city of Man, witnesses said.

The mutiny began in Bouake early Friday morning. The government says soldiers' demands include salary increases and a quicker promotion schedule.

Top security officials were expected to meet with soldiers in Bouake on Saturday, and an emergency cabinet meeting was scheduled for 5 p.m. President Alassane Ouattara traveled to Ghana for the inauguration of new President Nana Akufo-Addo, though he was due to return Saturday evening.

The government used payouts to appease soldiers who staged a similar operation in 2014.

The unrest points to lingering security worries in Ivory Coast, which boasts Africa's fastest-growing economy and is eager to move past its history of conflict.

The gunfire Saturday at the Akouedo camp, located in Abidjan's residential Cocody district, began at around 8 a.m. and lasted for about two hours, said Louise Kouame, who lives nearby. "It's calm for the moment, but we are more and more afraid," she said.

Security forces blocked off at least some roads heading toward the camp.

In Man, civilians stayed indoors as mutinous soldiers cruised through the streets, said resident Herve Singo.

A similar scene was playing out in Bouake, where gunfire began at 3 a.m. and continued for several hours before dying down, said Moussa Fofana, a taxi driver.

Appearing on state television Friday night, Defense Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi said officials were determined to end what he called a "deplorable" situation.

BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Disgruntled soldiers demanding salary increases and the payment of bonuses seized control of Ivory Coast's second-largest city, Bouake, on Friday, in an uprising that spread to at least two other cities.

A statement from Defence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi read out on state television said a group of soldiers had used their weapons to force their way into the military headquarters in Bouake soon after midnight and then made their demands.

Ivory Coast - French-speaking West Africa's largest economy - has emerged from a 2002-2011 political crisis as one of the continent's rising economic stars.

But its army, thrown together at the end of the conflict from a mixture of former rebel factions and government soldiers, remains an unruly force riddled with divisions.

"All soldiers are asked to remain calm and return to barracks so that lasting solutions can be found," Donwahi's statement said.

Heavy gunfire was heard from around 2 a.m. (0200 GMT) in the city of around a half million inhabitants, but later died down.

Shooting also broke out at a military base in Daloa, the main trading hub in the western cocoa belt, and residents said soldiers, some of them masked, were patrolling the streets in 4x4s.

FORMER REBELS

Residents of the northern city of Korhogo reported hearing sporadic gunfire in the afternoon as military sources said some soldiers there had also joined the uprising. Protests took place in at least two other locations.

Bouake was the seat of a rebellion that controlled the northern half of the country from 2002, until Ivory Coast was reunited following a civil war in 2011.

Most of those involved in the mutiny appeared to be former rebels who were integrated into the army.

Bema Fofana, a member of parliament representing Bouake who spoke to several of the soldiers, said they were demanding 5 million CFA francs ($8,000) each, as well as a house.

"There are fewer than 200 of them that I saw," he said.

Ivory Coast is the world's leading cocoa producer, and prices rose as the unrest prompted a wave of buying.

The mutineers set up positions at entry points into Bouake. Footage from state-owned RTI television showed a pick-up truck laden with soldiers racing through mostly-empty streets.

Ami Soro, a teacher living in Bouake, said men in balaclavas were patrolling the city on motorcycles or in cars.

A helicopter, which residents said was from Ivory Coast's U.N. peacekeeping mission, buzzed overhead.

A Reuters journalist saw some 20 U.N. military vehicles heading towards Bouake from 15 km (9 miles) to the south.

PREVIOUS MUTINY OVER PAY

An army officer who was not part of the mutiny told Reuters by telephone from inside Bouake: "We are on alert and await instructions from the hierarchy."

An officer at Ivory Coast's military headquarters in the commercial capital Abidjan said reinforcements had been sent.

During a similar uprising in 2014, when hundreds of soldiers barricaded roads in cities across Ivory Coast demanding back pay, the government agreed a financial settlement.

That may have emboldened them to try it again.

"If you don't really sort out the real problems and open the door to this kind of behaviour, what can you expect?" said Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa project director for International Crisis Group. "You can expect it to happen again."

Members of the National Security Council, who include President Alassane Ouattara, the defence minister and top military officers, held an emergency meeting on Friday evening.

While paying the soldiers off again could worsen the problem in the long run, military action to force them out is made tricky by the presence of rival factions and parallel chains of command within the army.

"The only guys they could count on to send in are the Republican Guard or special forces," said a diplomat based in the region. "But the Republican Guard protects the president, and the special forces -- there simply aren't enough of them." ($1 = 622.7800 CFA francs) (Additional reporting and writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Tim Cocks and Kevin Liffey)

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Representatives of two indigenous groups have filed a class action suit in New York against Germany seeking reparations for an alleged genocide of their peoples by German colonial rulers over a century ago in what is now Namibia.

The suit filed by the Ovaherero and Nama people yesterday in New York also demands that their representatives be included in negotiations between Germany and Namibia on the issue.

The two countries have been in talks about a joint declaration on the 1904-05 massacres, although Germany has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that a genocide occurred or to pay reparations.

The plaintiffs said they were bringing the class action suit "on behalf of all Ovaherero and Nama worldwide, seeking reparations and compensation for the genocide" suffered at the hands of the German colonial authorities.

They said they were also seeking a declaration of their right "to be included in any negotiation between Germany and Namibia" and that no settlements can be reached unless they are among the signatories.

The dispute harkens back to a period in the late 19th and early 20th century when South West Africa, now known as Namibia, was a German colony.

The suit alleges that from 1885 to 1903 about a quarter of Ovaherero and Nama lands - thousands of square kilometres - was taken without compensation by German settlers with the explicit consent of German colonial authorities.

It also claims that German colonial authorities turned a blind eye to rapes by colonists of Ovaherero and Nama women and girls, and the use of forced labour.

Tensions boiled over in early 1904 when the Ovaherero rose up, followed by the Nama, in an insurrection crushed by German imperial troops.

The suit alleges that as many 100,000 Ovaherero and Nama people died in a campaign of annihilation led by German General Lothar von Trotha.

The plaintiffs include Vekuii Rukoro, identified as the paramount chief of the Ovaherero people, David Frederick, chief and chairman of the Nama Traditional Authorities Association, and the non-profit Association of the Ovaherero Genocide in the USA, Inc

The authorities in The Gambia have shut down a popular radio station critical of long-serving ruler Yahya Jammeh.
Intelligence agents ordered Teranga FM's closure without giving reasons, said Emil Touray, the head of the Gambia Press Union.
This is the first sign of a crackdown on the media since Mr Jammeh rejected defeat in the 1 December poll.
Mr Jammeh first seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994.
He initially conceded to property developer Adama Barrow, but then launched court action to annul the result, saying the poll was marred by irregularities.

Four National Intelligence Agency operatives and a police officer visited the offices of Teranga FM on Sunday to demand its closure, a staff member told AFP on condition of anonymity.
There has been no official comment from the government.
'Climate of terror'
Station manager Alagie Ceesay was arrested in July 2015 on charges of sedition and "publication of false news" - allegations he denied.
The Gambia ranked 145 out of 180 countries in media campaign group Reporters Without Borders' 2016 World Press Freedom Index.
It said there was "a climate of terror around anything remotely to do with journalism".
The UN and West African regional body Ecowas have urged Mr Jammeh to respect the will of the people and step down when his term ends.

Media Gambia's erratic President Yahya Jammeh
Ecowas officials say that neighbouring Senegal's troops are ready to intervene if Mr Jammeh refuses to hand power to Mr Barrow on 19 January.
Mr Jammeh said that any deployment would be an "act of war".
Mr Barrow caused a major upset by defeating Mr Jammeh by 43.3% to 39.6%.
The Gambia has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965.
It is a popular tourist destination because of its beaches.

Nine people died when an overloaded fishing boat capsized in Lake Albert in southwestern Uganda on Christmas Day, police said Monday.

Police confirmed that 21 people initially missing from the accident had been found alive, after fears that as many as 30 people had perished.

Buliisa district Police Commander Rutagira John told Anadolu Agency via telephone that the fishing boat was supposed to carry only 18 people, not 45.

“Witnesses tell us majority of the group that was heading to watch a friendly football match at a neighboring landing site were already drunk including the boat operator.

“None of them was wearing any life jackets yet many sat on one side of the boat as they drummed, whistled, and blew trumpets,” he added.

The accident comes just two days after another boat accident claimed six lives in Lake Victoria in the Kalangala district in central Uganda.

Since 2000, over 250 people have lost their lives in Lake Albert alone with the worst accident occurring in February 2004, when 45 people died.

Attacks in villages and fighting between militias killed at least 35 people over the Christmas weekend in North Kivu, a majority Christian area in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The bloodshed began in Eringeti -- a town 55 kilometres (35 miles) north of the regional hub Beni, which for two years has been hit by massacres killing hundreds, many of whom were hacked to death.

Rebels from The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) -- dominated by puritanical Ugandan Muslims -- killed 22 people after storming Eringeti on Saturday, regional official Amisi Kalonda told AFP.

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A military operation was deployed to put an end to the Christmas Day killing spree ©Junior D. Kannah (AFP/File)

The toll climbed to 35 on Monday with the announcement that at least 13 Hutu civilians, mostly women and an eight-year-old girl, were killed on Sunday by a militia from the Nande ethnic group.

"The victims were all Hutu. There was an eight-year-old girl, a father and the rest were women," said local official Alphonse Mahano.

They were killed around the village of Nyanzale, a Hutu majority community.

The Nande and some other ethnic groups regard the Hutus as outsiders because of their attachment to the majority ethnic group in neighbouring Rwanda.

A string of attacks in the past year by both Hutu and Nande militia forces has deepened hatred between the communities.

Hutu farmers have also been forced to abandon land further south because of high property costs and under pressure from major landowners.

- Relentless bloodshed -

Although Congolese officials have blamed the attacks on the ADF, several expert reports have suggested that other groups, including elements within the Congolese army, took part in some killings.

When the Beni massacres began in October 2014, the ADF was quickly branded the culprit by both DR Congo authorities and MONUSCO, the UN mission in DR Congo.

More than two years on, Congolese authorities and the UN have been unable to protect civilians and the ADF remains the only official explanation -- with the government insisting on a jihadist link to the killings.

It comes as relations with the international community have soured over President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down despite his term ending on December 20.

Separately, the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) announced Monday that its troops had killed 10 soldiers from neighbouring Burundi after they crossed the border last week in pursuit of rebels.

"There were 10 deaths," Major Dieudonne Kajibwami, told AFP, following a previous statement that five bodies had been taken to Uvira, a lakeside town in the eastern South Kivu province.

Kivu is rich in natural, mainly mineral resources, such as gold, coltan and cassiterite, coveted by the telecommunications industry. Both south and north Kivu have rich agricultural and forestry resources.

North Kivu is one of the DRC's most densely populated areas.

Tiny compared to the vast size of the country, the two provinces suffer not only because of fighting over their mineral resources but because of their proximity to an unstable border with Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, along with Tanzania.

At least 13 civilians, including an eight-year-old girl, were massacred in an ethnically charged attack in the easter Democratic Republic of Congo on Christmas Day.

The attack, understood to have targeted an Hutu village and perpetrated by an ethnic Nande militia, took place after another 22 civilians were killed in clashes on Saturday.

The weekend of violence stokes fears that the country’s current political instability is fuelling localised conflicts while leaving its security forces incapable of keeping order. 

The Christmas Day massacre occurred in the eastern town of Nyanzale, and resulted in the deaths of the young girl, a man and 11 women, local activists said.

Innocent Gasigwa told Reuters men from a Nande militia entered the town armed with guns and machetes, in an apparent revenge attack for the deaths of Nande civilians last week.

On Thursday, at least 17 Nande civilians were killed by an ethnic Hutu militia in a nearby village.

A demonstrator holds a sign reading 'Kabila must leave without any conditions' during a protest against plans of Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila to stay in office past the end of his term (Reuters)
“This must be the response for last time,” Gasigwa said.

Local army spokesman Major Guillaume Djike confirmed to the AFP news that all the victims of the Christmas Day attack were Hutu, but refused to say whether the two attacks were linked. He said six members of the Nande militia were killed, adding: “The army intervened to restore order.”

Saturday’s attack occurred some 300km (185 miles) north of Nyanzale, near the city of Beni which has been plagued by violence since October 2014.

Captain Mak Hazukay said 21 civilians and four militiamen died in this weekend’s clashes, for which the authorities blamed the ADF, a Ugandan Islamist group.

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'Up to 20 killed' in DRC protests hours after end of president's term
Last week at least 40 people died in protests against President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last Tuesday. The government says he will remain in office until an election can be organised in 2018.

Local mediators from the Catholic church hope talks between Kabila's ruling coalition and the main opposition bloc will produce a deal by Friday for Kabila to step down after an election in late 2017.

Catholic priests across Congo on Sunday read out a message from the church's national head, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, saying: "The time is over when one tried to hold onto power with arms by killing one's people, these young people who only seek out their right to live with a little more dignity."

African and Western powers fear the violence could spark another conflict in a country where millions died between 1996 and 2003 in regional wars. The central African country has not achieved a peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1960.

SARS has rejected suggestions by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan that its leadership lacks accountability, saying the allegations are unfounded and concerning.

“The SARS wishes to express its deepest concern and disturbance at this turn of events that cast aspersions and blemishes on the character and integrity of its leadership,” it says in a statement.

Gordhan recently responded to a question by the Democratic Alliance’s Shadow Minister of Finance David Maynier, who had asked whether or not SARS currently operates a ‘spy unit’ such as the one allegedly present during the Minister’s time as SARS Commissioner.

In his response, Gordhan forwarded information given to him by SARS, but warned Maynier that it may not be accurate, specifically “because of lack of accountability and co-operation from the SARS top management.

The relationship between Gordhan and current SARS Commissioner Tom Moyane has appeared strained in recent times, and this comment has once again stoked the tax chief’s fire.

“Since the current Finance Minister took office during December 2015, the SARS’ leadership has received 29 parliamentary questions through the office of the Finance Minister,” says the tax organisation, listing examples of its transparency and accountability. “All Parliamentary questions were responded to timeously and no single deadline was ever missed.”

“Since the current Finance Minister took office, the SARS’ leadership has appeared before the Standing Committee on Finance and SCOPA 5 times. At all material times, the SARS’ leadership has never missed a single Parliamentary Committee meetings;

“The SARS leadership has met the current Finance Minister 8 times since he took office to discuss issues of mutual interest. In this regard, the SARS’ record of meetings attest that the current Finance Minister has never at any point expressed lack of confidence and/or lack of accountability in the leadership of the SARS.”

Finally, it notes, all information submissions to Gordhan and any Parliamentary Committees “are always honest, truthful, correct and factual”. “To date and as a matter of fact, the SARS’ leadership has no record from the Ministry requesting it to verify the factual and correctness of the information provided,” it claims.

While Gordhan’s comments have caused ripples in the news, SARS says it feels no need to engage the Minister via the media, opting rather to focus on its professional working relationship with the National Treasury