April 19, 2021 Uganda President Yoweri Museveni
The government of Uganda says it is baffled by a recent US government report titled ‘2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Uganda’ released on March 30, 2021.
In the report, the State Department of the United States of America raises various concerns and allegations of torture, kidnap, arbitrary arrests and murder, human rights violations against members of the opposition, refugees, gays among others. Based on the report, the US imposed travel sanctions against unnamed top Ugandan officials.
Now, in an undated and unsigned response released by the Uganda Media Centre, the Uganda government reminds the US government of its sovereignty and that their partnership and sustenance of that relationship depends on principles of mutual respect, non-interference.
Mele Kyari is driving the state company in the pathway of transparency and accountability, writes Ray Umukoro
For the first time in many decades, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, got into the good books of the United States and her global anti-corruption watch agencies. This time, rather than the usual splatter of graft and miasma, NNPC grabbed global attention for transparency in an industry tainted, globally, by corruption, sleaze and skulduggery.
The United States 2020 Report on Human Rights Practices in Nigeria released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour under the US Department of State gave more than a passing glance at the state of human rights in Nigeria. It exhumed buried carcasses of corruption in Nigeria’s public service. But the same report also highlighted an almost neglected radiance of rainbow in the operations of Nigeria’s petroleum products mother hen, the NNPC.
April 19, 2021
NIGERIA
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, H.E. Timipre Sylva announced that the Federal Government will commence the opening of micro gas distribution channels across all local councils in the federation. This was done at the launch of the Nigerian Women for Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG). The Minister noted that LPG will be used as a clean alternative to firewood, which is largely utilized for cooking in rural parts of the country. Minister Sylva stated that the LPG project aims to empower rural women as they use a cleaner energy source for cooking, with 99 million women across households in all local councils being targeted over the next three years. The project will cut across 120 political units and 800 political wards across the 774 Local Government Areas in the federation.
The East African
Monday April 19 2021
Summary
Kampala said in a 17-point rebuttal, that it always welcomes engagement with the United States and other partners on any matter, provided there is adherence to the principles of fairness, mutual respect, non-interference and sovereignty, in which Uganda’s views, are sacrosanct.
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After the United States threats of sanctions against Ugandan government officials became reality last week, Kampala remains defiant, accusing Washington of failure to adhere to the time-honoured and non-negotiable principles of fairness, mutual respect, non-interference and sovereignty.
On Friday, April 16, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced fresh visa restrictions on yet-to-be-named State officials believed to have undermined the democratic process in Uganda, particularly during campaigns ahead of the January 14 general elections.
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