The government of Zimbabwe says it will launch investigations into several people involved in gold smuggling and money laundering following the release of an undercover Al Jazeera investigation showing high-ranking officials involved in the illicit gold trade.

Gold Mafia, a four-part series by the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit (I-Unit), shows among others one of Zimbabwe’s highest-ranking diplomats offering to launder large amounts of money through illegal gold smuggling.

Only two parts have been released so far – with parts three and four releasing on April 6 and April 13, respectively – but the investigation has led to shocked responses in Zimbabwe.

“Government takes the allegations raised in the documentary seriously, and has directed relevant organs to institute investigations into the issues raised therein,” the statement released on Tuesday read.

“Any person found to have engaged in acts of corruption, fraud or any form of crime, will face the full wrath of the law.”

The statement added that the government was dedicated to upholding national and international law, and that “boastful behaviour and name-dropping by some personalities featured in the documentary, seeking personal gain and glory, should never be taken as an enunciation of Government Policy”.

Ambassador-at-large

One of the gold smugglers shown in the investigation is Uebert Angel, Zimbabwe’s ambassador-at-large for Europe and the Americas and a self-proclaimed prophet who runs a church.

In the film, Angel and his number two Rikki Doolan, also a pastor in Angel’s church, offered to launder the dirty money of Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters posing as Chinese criminals, using the ambassador’s diplomatic status. Angel and Doolan also claimed that Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa was aware of their scheme.

The money would be flown into Zimbabwe on private planes and would then be used to buy gold, which would be flown out of Zimbabwe again.

“You want gold, gold we can do it right now, we can make the call right now, and it’s done,” Angel told Al Jazeera’s reporters. “It will land in Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe can’t touch it too until I get to my house. So, there can be a diplomatic plan.”

“So, it is a very, very easy thing,” he said.

Pattni and Macmillan

The investigation shows multiple different gangs using gold as their preferred method for laundering money, with three of them operating mainly from Zimbabwe.

The process is as simple as it is cunning: Criminals from around the world with large volumes of unaccounted cash can give that money to the Zimbabwean government, directly or through smugglers.

Zimbabwe needs dollars because the country’s currency has lost its value in international trade due to hyperinflation. A commodity like gold is a good way to earn dollars, but international sanctions imposed on the country make it difficult for the government to export gold because of the additional scrutiny on officials in power.

One of the rival gangs is run by Kamlesh Pattni, a businessman who in the 1990s was accused of pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to the Kenyan exchequer through a gold smuggling scheme. Pattni was charged but never convicted, and Al Jazeera’s undercover operation shows that he is now involved in a similar scam in Zimbabwe.

Pattni’s operation works by exporting Zimbabwean gold to Dubai and then laundering the money and the precious metal.

Pattni’s biggest competitor is a gold smuggler named Ewan Macmillan, who also offered to help launder money for Al Jazeera’s reporters. Like Pattni, Macmillan uses a group of couriers to transport quintals of gold per week from Zimbabwe to Dubai.

When the gold arrives in Dubai, it is sold to refineries, and the proceeds are banked for the money launderers. The refining process removes traces of the gold’s origin. Central to Macmillan’s operations is his business partner Alistair Mathias, who advises clients on how to cleanse their dirty cash.

When asked about the findings of Al Jazeera’s investigations, Pattni said no allegation of criminal wrongdoing had been upheld against him in Kenya. He denied involvement in any kind of money laundering, as well as employing anyone to smuggle cash or offering to deal with funds he knew originated from illegal sources. He said when he met the Al Jazeera undercover team, he thought he was meeting an investor who wanted to sell a stake in hotel businesses and “to divest of a portfolio in China into gold buying and mining in Zimbabwe”.

Pattni said he is not involved in the day-to-day operation of most of the companies he identified to Al Jazeera’s team and that he believed them all to be engaged in a legitimate business.

Alistair Mathias denied that he designed mechanisms to launder money and said he had never laundered money or traded illegal gold. He told us he never had any working relationship with Ewan Macmillan.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe told Al Jazeera that it takes the issues of money laundering and illicit trade very seriously and will not participate, directly or indirectly, in such activities.

Rikki Doolan did not respond to Al Jazeera directly, but denied being involved in gold smuggling and money laundering in a videoposted on Twitter. Angel, Mnangagwa and Macmillan have not responded to Al Jazeera’s inquiries.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

Air Tanzania’s invoice for its freighter was inflated by nearly $50 million. Tanzania’s president Samia Suluhu Hassan has called for the resignation of all individuals involved in the fraud.

Air Tanzania was supposed to receive its first Boeing 767 freighter by the end of Q1 2023, but it is now expected to be delivered this month. According to the 2021/2022 Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report, the last installment for the plane’s manufacture was $37 million; however, an $86 million invoice was presented to the government.

Freighter price inflation

The Citizen reports that President Hassan read the CAG report on March 29th. The audit revealed that an $86 million invoice, over twice the original figure, was submitted to the government in an attempt to defraud the state.

Photo: Air Tanzania

Air Tanzania is wholly owned by the government. The new aircraft was sold to Tanzania Government Flight (TGF), which is expected to boost its cargo operations. President Hassan recognized that the price hike for the aircraft originated within the government, and she lashed out to all those involved. She said;

“Where did this invoice come from? What did the contract say? And when you received the invoice, you still presented it to the government for payment. Stupid, what step did you take after you received the invoice? When you look at it critically, you will notice that the price hike is something that started internally.”

The president will not tolerate such conduct, as she added that the nation could not be run that way. Although she did not state the individuals who were involved in the fraud, she ordered all of them to step down from their positions.

Air Tanzania losses

The 2021/2022 Controller and Auditor General report also indicates that Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) incurred losses of $1.5 billion. The Citizen reported that about 25% of the losses were attributed to flight delays.

CAG Charles Kichere stated the above while handing over the report to President Hassan. ATCL’s strategy was to reach a 92% level, but an analysis shows a quarter of the losses resulted from flight delays.

Photo:  Kelvin Mwanasoko via Wikimedia Commons

CAG Kichere recommended stakeholders focus on improving efficiency and revenue collection. Air Tanzania was one of 42 government entities that recorded losses. This reveals that the airline is among the corporations that cannot pay debts quickly.

The delivery of the freighter

Air Tanzania is ready to take delivery of its first freighter, which will become Africa’s first production B767-300F. Last month, plane spotters were excited when they saw the aircraft conducting test flights at the Boeing Factory at Paine Field.

The cargo aircraft was expected to be delivered by March 31st, but the flag carrier might have to wait until later this month. According to Airspace Africa, the delivery of the aircraft was delayed because of supplier issues. Boeing acknowledged that “quality issues” had forced the company to rework the 767Fs before delivery.

Photo: Boeing

The new freighter will be based at Kilimanjaro Airport, which will become a strategic hub for cargo operations. This will allow Air Tanzania to increase its cargo operations and boost trade with other states.

Several key officials at three major South African banks are helping a gold smuggling gang launder millions of dollars of dirty cash in exchange for regular bribes, an Al Jazeera investigation has found.

The officers at Standard Bank, ABSA Bank and Sasfin Bank have been on the payroll of Mohamed Khan, a money launderer working for cigarette magnate and smuggler Simon Rudland, thousands of documents and interviews with Khan’s former colleagues reveal.

These officers would enable dubious money transfers from Khan’s companies and remove evidence from the computer systems, all while getting monthly payments from Khan.

The revelation is part of Gold Mafia, a four-part investigation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit), which shows how multiple gangs smuggle gold from Zimbabwe and use it to launder vast amounts of money.

The documents obtained by the I-Unit include ledgers, contracts and emails showing the process Khan and Rudland used. The I-Unit also interviewed Dawood Khan, Mohamed Khan’s brother who helped forge documents; another of Khan’s former partners who we are calling Jimmy to protect his identity; and Khan’s ex-wife Wardah Latief.

Fake identities, fraud invoices

Khan, who goes by the nickname Mo Dollars, heads PKSA and Salt Asset Management, South Africa-based financial services firms. Among their biggest clients is Zimbabwean millionaire Simon Rudland, owner of Gold Leaf Tobacco, one of Southern Africa’s largest cigarette brands.

South African revenue authorities have accused Rudland of evading taxes by selling cigarettes on the black market. “The illicit cigarette trade earns rand cash. So he gets a ginormous amount of rand cash,” fellow Zimbabwean gold smuggler Ewan Macmillan told Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters, who were posing as Chinese criminals looking to launder unaccounted cash. “He has the same problem in legitimising his money as you have.”

Mo Dollars does this for Rudland; cleansing his dirty money using a complicated web of front companies, fake invoices, bribery and gold.

At the centre of this scheme is a set of companies with bank accounts in different parts of the world – Aulion in Dubai, Vantage Leaf in Mauritius, Velmont Valley in Switzerland and Liberty Gold in the United States.

PKSA and Salt Asset Management, which send the money, claim to be doing so in lieu of imports of tobacco, clothes and gold – imports that never actually enter South Africa. “It’s Simon laundering that money,” said Dawood Khan, referring to Rudland. “Money that was not reported through the legitimate streams, and needed to be moved.”

To “move” that money, he said, his brother Mo Dollars bribes influential officers at several South African banks so no red flags are raised during the transactions.

The bribes range from monthly payments to paid holidays and house renovations, according to Latief, Mo Dollars’s ex-wife, and documents accessed by Al Jazeera.

‘The most valuable jewel’

Sasfin Bank, which caters to small businesses is one of the institutions that Mo Dollars infiltrated.

Hussain Choonara, who was in charge of the bank’s foreign exchange payments, was listed as receiving $1,600 per month, ledgers maintained by Mo Dollars and his aides show. “Mohamed and Hussain had a magnificent relationship,” Dawood Khan told Al Jazeera. “He would basically ensure that his staff is pushing through this work unquestioned.

“He was like the most valuable jewel or component, if I can put it that way, in Sasfin, to ensure the success of the money being laundered.”

Choonara would also tell Mo Dollars who else he needed to bribe at Sasfin, Dawood Khan claimed. Among them was Lulama Kene, an IT technician who ensured fraudulent transactions were wiped from the bank’s digital system. Choonara left Sasfin in 2019.

Others on Mo Dollars’s payroll included Cheryl Simons, who worked in the compliance office, and Brandon Marshall, the head of onboarding new business customers, the ledgers suggest. Kene and Simons were each paid $800 a month, while Marshall received $3,200 every month. Marshall and Kene have left Sasfin, and the bank suspended Simons after allegations about her role in helping Rudland launder his money first emerged.

“Friday afternoons after lunch they get their money,” Latief recalled. But it wasn’t just money, she said. “He also used to give them holidays overseas. And he used to renovate their houses for them.”

Banking on bribery at the biggies

Mo Dollars also targeted two of South Africa’s three biggest financial institutions with a similar strategy: Standard Bank and ABSA Bank.

Videsh Seeripat, a relationship manager at ABSA, is listed in the ledgers as receiving $800 a month. His job was to open bank accounts in the name of people who were not present to apply themselves, a mechanism that allowed Mo Dollars to start accounts using fake identities.

“He would get the compliance people to sign it off, have another representative sign the document, and claim that all the necessary compliance boxes were ticked,” Dawood Khan said.

At Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank, Vivian Naicker, a senior manager in the compliance division, made sure Khan’s companies received the documentation needed to evade the scrutiny of South Africa’s central bank, Dawood said. Naicker communicated with Khan using a pseudonym, Vic Grimes, according to emails between the two.

“We would then provide him with the necessary documentation. He would then, by himself, set up and complete the application,” Dawood said. “He would then submit it to the Reserve Bank, get approval, which would allow us to facilitate payments without any scrutiny, through any bank.”

Asked for a response to Al Jazeera’s investigation, Simon Rudland told Al Jazeera that the allegations against him formed part of a smear campaign by an unidentified third party. He described himself as “a strong businessman…competing against the greedy and the envious”. He denied any involvement in the sale of illicit cigarettes, in gold or other smuggling and in sanctions busting.

He accepted that he had had dealings with Mohamed Khan, who he agreed “appeared” to be a money launderer, and that Gold Leaf and another of his companies had authorised Khan’s SALT Asset Management to act as their agent, but denied that any form of money laundering had been undertaken for him or any of his businesses. Payments made to Vantage Leaf, Liberty Gold and Velmont Valley had nothing to do with Rudland or his companies, he said.

Gold Leaf said that it emphatically denied any involvement, past or present, in money laundering, the trade in illegal gold or related matters. The company said that no “untaxed” or “illegal” cigarettes could be “attributed” to Gold Leaf, though the proceeds of the illicit sale of its products by others did appear to have been moved between jurisdictions and thereby laundered.

Gold Leaf said its limited transactions with Khan and SALT had always been lawful and proper. Gold Leaf had never made any payment to Aulion, it claimed.

Mohamed Khan told Al Jazeera that all allegations against him were false and were based on speculation, conjecture and manufactured and doctored evidence. He confirmed that he was the owner of the PKSA Group and of SALT and that Gold Leaf was a client of SALT but he denied involvement in money laundering or other criminal activity. He denied bribing anyone who worked in the South African banking sector.

Liberty Gold denied all knowledge of the matters and individuals we featured, while Vantage Leaf denied any knowing involvement in money laundering or false invoicing.

Sasfin Bank told Al Jazeera it was taking vigorous action against suspended and former employees and clients of its foreign exchange unit and said that it no longer had a relationship with any of the businesses identified in this investigation, including SALT.

ABSA said it had passed Al Jazeera’s findings to its Forensic Investigative Unit, while Standard Bank told Al Jazeera it has a zero-tolerance stance relating to fraud and criminality and would report and assist in any legal investigation. Vivian Naicker denied involvement in a money-laundering syndicate.

(Al Jazeera)

An investigation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit infiltrates rival gangs that control Africa’s gold. Criminal networks turn dirty cash into gold, which is sold around the world. The investigation leads to the highest offices of state in southern Africa.

GOLD MAFIA is a four-part series by the I-Unit to be released on March 23rd 2023. The series looks at how society’s obsession with gold through the ages underwrites a global shadow economy. It exposes the complicity of global financial institutions, regulators and governments in the criminality.

Through thousands of confidential documents and exclusive interviews with whistleblowers from within the criminal underworld, investigators obtain the blueprints of billion-dollar money laundering operations that service the political elite.

Undercover reporters pose as criminals with over a billion dollars of black money that needs to be cleaned. The team is led by a fictitious Mr Stanley, a Chinese gangster with links to the Triads. His undercover reporters befriend members of rival gold mafia gangs.

In Episode 1: The Laundry Service

The founder of the UK-based Good News Church, which has 15 branches around the world, offers to launder 1.2 billion dollars of dirty cash from China.

“I am the 2nd largest diplomat in the country,” Uebert Angel tells undercover reporters.

Angel is also presidential envoy and Zimbabwe’s ambassador-at-large to 85 countries. He offers to use his diplomatic cover to fly Mr Stanlev’s dirty cash into Zimbabwe where it can be laundered through gold and other investments.

“Right now I can have a bag like this with 1.2 billion and put red tape written diplomat. Nobody can touch it”, Angel says. “It is a very, very easy thing.”

Mr Stanley and his team get invited to closed door meetings with Kamlesh Pattni, notorious for devising a gold export scam that siphoned $600 million from Kenya in the nineties. They also sit down with Pattni’s competitor and convicted gold smuggler, Ewan Macmillan.

“There is an opportunity, a hell of a big opportunity to wash money here,” Macmillan says.

Both men are licensed gold traders in Zimbabwe and Dubai. They offer our undercover team lucrative deals to launder over $100 million through government gold export schemes. The rival crime bosses reveal that at the centre of it their operations is southern Africa’s biggest laundromat, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

The investigation reveals that the Gold Mafia are employed by Zimbabwe’s Fuling elite to export gold on the government’s behalf. It is a scheme to bust international sanctions placed on political leaders and government entities.

Mr Stanley speaks to Henrietta Rushwaya, president of Zimbabwe Miners Federation and niece of President Emmerson Mangagwa. Within minutes, she offers them a laundry service that can clean $10 million of dirty cash a week through the reserve bank and gold producers she knows.

By Prof Abdiwahab Abdisamad

US meddling in Somalia has gone on for decades. It has included the disastrous “Black Hawk Down” operation of 1993, the US-backed Ethiopian invasion from 2006 to 2009, the current presence of US troops, and the drone bombing campaign that began under Obama in 2011. In 2021, with the help of Minnesota Congresswoman and Somali American Ilhan Omar, it engineered the defeat of President Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed, aka Farmaajo., who had been trying to re-establish the nation’s sovereignty and control of its own security forces. Farmaajo was replaced by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who has done the opposite, as Dr. Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad writes here.

Dr. Abdiwahab is a Somali Kenyan and Kenyan citizen. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for Horn of Africa Studies and a specialist in political science, conflict resolution, and rural development. On September 8, 2021, he was abducted by Kenyan police working as mercenaries for Somali elites. Upon his release 12 days later, they warned him to stay out of Somali and Ethiopian affairs, to stop supporting former Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, aka Farmaajo, to stop opposing former Somali prime minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, and to warn his colleagues to do the same. His 12-day captivity shocked the nation.

On January 11, Nairobi Law Monthly published this essay but then removed it several days later without explanation.  — BAR Contributing Editor Ann Garrison

Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is at the center of a spiraling disaster, and the country is mired in a protracted self-inflicted crisis. The army is disintegrating, the economy is in disarray, and public trust in the government is eroding.

Mohamud came to power by running one of the most unconventional campaigns, rife with hate and a threat to violence. He tweeted a few weeks before the election, “If those who lead our country refuse to listen and accommodate the voices of reason, soon they will deal with those of unreasonable voices equipped with violence.”

It’s fair to say Mohamud came to power through threats of violence and was ready to risk it all to return the country to the ugly events of 1991, the year Somalia lost the central government, followed by a bloody civil war. At some point, he could not conceal his desire for violence.

“The time-proven democratic principle of the ballot rather than the bullet is what our people are eagerly waiting for now. History teaches us stability and prosperity are conditioned on VOICE OF REASON to lead the processes,” said Mohamud in another tweet.

In any case, Mohamud prevailed in the election with many factors, including direct cash support from foreign entities, and is currently in the seventh month of his term as president, half of which he has spent outside the country on foreign trips that have cost the country millions of dollars to accommodate his large entourage, primarily comprised of cabinet members – mostly members of his clan.

On a rampage

Immediately after his election, the president went on the rampage, destroying legitimate institutions, empowering clan militias, and going against anything that was in favor of the state-building process. As a result, the national army is demoralized, and the arming of the militia and the availability of government weapons to clan militia who may use them against other clans has hampered the government’s efforts to have a UN arms embargo lifted.

Abdi Ismail Samatar, a Somali senator, has warned the president against arming clan militia and dividing the army along clan lines. Samatar says, “To call for tribal groups to arm themselves and fight al-Shabaab without a national civic pact and credible national leadership repeats the mistakes of the 1980s and 1990s, and may yet usher in decades of internal conflict after al-Shabaab is defeated.”

The cabinet, which the president handpicked, reveals a lot about the sort of government that now exists. A glaring unfairness is that it does not reflect on the regional and clan balance; worse, this government has rewarded a man who led a group that killed tens of thousands of Somali civilians with a ministerial position. Mukhtar Robow the minister of religious affairs, is one of the founders of al-Shabaab. Until recently he was in prison but was rewarded with a ministerial office. As a result, al-Shabaab is more confident than they have been in the past, and they have every reason to be optimistic that they can survive four years of misrule.

To evade accountability, Mohamud undid three state institutions—the anti-corruption agency, the economic advisory body, and the judicial services commission—in less than six months.

Failed uprising, insecurity in the capital

A month into his rule, a popular revolt against al-Shabaab occurred in the Hiiraan Region, in central Somalia. Mohamud used the uprising as a means to arm specific militias that he created himself, with the result of pitting clans against one another. He soon abandoned the militias which have fallen prey to al-Shabaab. The popular revolt is now on the edge of collapsing, and al-Shabaab is regaining regions.

One of Mohamud’s biggest failures is his appointment of Mahad Salad as the head of the intelligence agency NISA even though he had no experience in security matters. Mogadishu is currently in a state of disarray as a result.

Salad, who has also embarked on a mission to demolish the intelligence agency, began by punishing NISA workers close to the previous administration. He then began targeting individuals he thought were favorable to the former leader of NISA, Fahad Yasin, some of whom were valuable to the agency and the country’s security. Critics saw Yasin as someone with a lot of power in the government and a threat to the winners of the election.

The mismanagement and mistrust at NISA resulted in a vacuum and confusion inside the body, which just a few months before was acknowledged as being on the verge of becoming a sophisticated intelligence body.

In his first interview, Fahad Yasin, the former head of NISA, claimed that the current leader of the spy agency, Mahad Salad, has a close relationship with al-Shabaab and helped facilitate some of the group’s attacks on government officials. Salad is yet to respond to the allegation that he works with al-Shabaab.

By the time I began writing this piece, the first batch of 5,000 Somali soldiers trained in Eritrea returned – in late December – to join the country’s ongoing offensive against al-Shabaab. President Mohamud says he is happy to receive Eritrean military help despite being one of the fiercest critics of his predecessor’s military cooperation with the government of President Isaias Afwerki. Mohamud’s flip-flopping on important national security is unbecoming of a president.

Unfavorable deals

The Coastline Exploration oil and gas company claims that it has revived a defunct oil production-sharing deal with Somalia’s government. While Coastline Exploration celebrated the deal and claimed to have paid $7 million as a signing bonus, the president hasn’t publicly acknowledged it.

Coastline Exploration, however, reported that it has “received final authorization for it to proceed with its exploration program from the competent authorities within the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS).”

“Today marks a major step forward for Somalia, as we look to develop our energy industry which should deliver material benefits for all Somalis. Energy independence, new tax revenues, and further foreign investment in Somalia now beckon,” its statement read.

The US company, which was established in 2018, paid $7 million for at least 12 oil blocks. Mohamud’s government signed the agreement despite the opposition of the Financial Governance Committee, a group of experts comprised of the Somali finance minister, parliamentarians, and World Bank members, which warned against signing any oil deals because the country lacked a legal framework to protect its own interests.

Insecurity and foreign naval operations in Somali waters

Some Somali legislators have called for an end to foreign naval operations off the Somali coast and called for building a Somali coast guard and national navy capable of guaranteeing the country’s maritime security. The EU has its own naval force, EU NAVFOR Somalia , in Somali waters, and it has begun training Somali maritime police, but this is unlikely to have any impact on a country dealing with insecurity and external interference, including the EU’s.

The piracy threat in Somalia began when Somali fishermen found it difficult to fish in their own waters and claimed to have seen vessels from other countries fishing unchecked. EU NAVFOR claims to operate in Somali waters for the purpose of deterring, preventing, and repressing piracy.

Last week the European Union extended its operation in Somali waters for another two years even though piracy has been in decline.

“Capitalizing on the successes of suppressing piracy off the coast of the Horn of Africa and Somalia, the overall mandate of Operation Atalanta was consolidated. With this mandate, Operation Atalanta is now in a better position to contribute to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on Somalia, reduce drug traffic, support the ongoing fight against al-Shabaab and its funding stream, and the progress of the government of Somalia,” the European Council said in a statement.

President Mohamud agreed to a two-year extension for the European Union to operate in Somali waters. This counteracts the previous president’s efforts to develop its own naval force to protect its own territory from illegal fishing and armed smuggling.

The EU shipping fleet is the “number-one harvester” of the depleted supply of yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean. These industrial boats take three different kinds of tropical tuna simultaneously, in addition to bigeye tuna and skipjack, whose catch limit has been disregarded for the last three years despite being overfished.

President Mohamud is not a disaster waiting to happen; he is a disaster that has already happened to Somalia. He is accused of swindling Somalia’s fortune during his first term (2012-2017), when he suddenly became one of the wealthiest men in Africa, in a country where more than half of the population rely on aid agencies for food, water, and medicine. It is difficult to predict what kind of chaos and destruction he will leave behind by the time he finishes his term in office. However, judging from what he has done so far in seven short months, the nation currently known as Somalia may no longer exist.

A small-scale miner in the East African country of Tanzania, Anselim Kawishe, stumbled upon two giant Tanzanite gemstones worth 2.2 billion Tanzanian shillings, or nearly a million dollars ($978,260), officials announced Saturday.

Adolf Ndunguru, permanent secretary in Tanzania’s Mining Ministry, said the government would buy the tanzanite stones, which weigh 3.74 and 1.48 kilograms (8.24 and 3.26 pounds), respectively.

“We congratulate him on his luck, the government will pay him accordingly,” said Ndunguru.

Mawe Makubwa Mawili ya Tanzanite moja likiwa na uzito wa kilo 3.74 na jingine likiwa na uzito wa kilo 1.48 yamepatikana ndani ya machimbo ya Tanzanite Mirerani kutoka kwa mchimbaji mdogo, Anselm Kawishe.Mawe hayo yanatarajiwa kununuliwa na Serikali kwa shilingi 2,245,571,543.46 pic.twitter.com/wK8xC5ywk8

— Wizara ya Madini (@MadiniTanzania) August 27, 2022

Tanzanite, found in northern Tanzania, is used to make luxury goods.

It is one of the rarest gemstones on Earth, and some geologists believe its supply may be entirely depleted within the next 20 years.

The precious stone’s appeal lies in its variety of hues, including green, red, purple, and blue.

Its value is determined by rarity – the finer the color or clarity, the higher the price.

A Sudanese diplomat who was arrested for raping his 24-year-old neighbor twice has “vanished” after his diplomatic immunity helped him evade the rape charges. Charles Dickens Imene Oliha, a father of four kids, is a career diplomat for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in South Sudan.

The diplomat, who works at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Sudan to the United Nations, allegedly raped the victim at her Washington Heights apartment building.

Oliha Followed the Woman into Her Apartment

The New York Post reported that the victim was out walking a dog in the Upper Manhattan when the Sudanese diplomat made a pass at her. After she rejected his advances, Oliha followed her to their apartment building after which he forced himself inside her apartment. The assault took place in the same building where the 46-year-old accused also lives with his wife and four kids.

As per the police report, after following the victim into the lift, Oliha told her that he was coming to her apartment. Even though she said, “No, you’re not,” the Sudanese diplomat forced his way into her apartment. He then went on to pin the victim against the wall and proceeded to rape her twice, once with condom and later without. The alleged assault took place in the afternoon, while the victim, who claimed to be in shock after the incident, called the police in the night after her friend convinced her to report.

As per NYPD since Oliha was entitled to the diplomatic immunity they were forced to let him go without any charges. The outlet further reported that after he was released Oliha has not been seen and no sound came from his apartment.

Oliha is Known as a Drunk

In a communique to the outlet, the State Department while declining to comment on the location of the Sudanese diplomat said that they do not comment on the specifics of ongoing investigations. “We are aware of the incident referenced involving a diplomat accredited to the United Nations. We take these allegations seriously, and we are working closely with the New York Police Department and the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs, as we do in all legal and criminal cases involving foreign diplomats assigned to Permanent Missions and Observer Offices at the UN,” the representative said in the e-mail.

The Daily Mail reported that a video showing a drunk Oliha passed out on the street has surfaced. The outlet further reported that the Sudanese diplomat is often seen passed outside his building. He usually spent his days drinking Coors Light while standing outside his building. Speaking to the outlet one of the neighbors said that Oliha is known as a drunk here. “Everyone knows him around here as a drunk, he drinks every night on that front step. He’s not a diplomat. In the morning he’s a gentleman in his suit. In the evening, he’s drunk. He sits on those steps every day drunk and drinking.”

Claiming that no one believed when Oliha said that he was a diplomat. “He used to tell everyone he worked for the UN but no one believed him because he was always drunk. It wasn’t until this happened that we all were like wow he wasn’t lying,” said another neighbor.

Fled

South Sudan has confirmed that diplomat Charles Dickens Imene Oliha is back in his home country despite an ongoing NYPD and Manhattan DA investigation against him.

“The leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation took the decision to immediately recall the diplomat in question, pending a full investigation from a specialized committee. The diplomat is now back in South Sudan and has been suspended.”

Two Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 pilots are said to have fallen asleep mid-flight on their way to Addis Ababa, Bole International airport from Khartoum, Sudan.

According to Aviation Herald, the plane missed its descent after numberous attempts by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) to contact the crew. The flight was cruising at 37,000 feet. After overflying the runway, the autopilot immediatley went off and the alarm went on, in the process waking up the pilots. They managed to land the plane 25 minutes later

“The aircraft continued past the top of descent maintaining FL370 and continued along the FMC route set up for an approach to runway 25L without descending however. ATC tried to contact the crew numerous times without success. After overflying runway 25L at FL370 the autopilot disconnected, the disconnect wailer woke the crew up who then maneouver the aircraft for a safe landing on runway 25L about 25 minutes after overflying the runway at FL370,” the Aviation Herald reported.

Deeply concerning incident at Africa’s largest airline — Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 #ET343 was still at cruising altitude of 37,000ft by the time it reached destination Addis Ababa

Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep. https://t.co/cPPMsVHIJD pic.twitter.com/RpnxsdtRBf

— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 18, 2022

The aircraft, however, remained on the ground for about two-and-a-half hours before departing for its next flight.

Concerning incident

Aviation analyst Alex Macheras posted on his on Twitter page: “Deeply concerning incident at Africa’s largest airline — Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 #ET343 was still at cruising altitude of 37,000ft by the time it reached destination Addis Ababa. Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep.”

He referred to ‘pilot fatigue’, which he described as ‘nothing new’.

In 2019, a Boeing 737 Max 8 Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed with 149 passengers. Among those who perished were 32 Kenyans. The plane plane crashed shortly after taking off from Bole.

KTN news channel has apologized to President Salva Kiir Mayardit after exiled activists and economist Peter Biar Ajak made remarks in one of its programs accusing Kiir of being ‘drunk’ while in Kenya.

During the program, Dr. Biar alleged that President Salva Kiir could not address mourners in Kenya last week due to a “hangover”.

Kiir traveled to Nairobi on April 28 where he joined others to mourn former Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki’s funeral prayers.

But he was unable to address the gathering due to a throat issue and he delegated his Cabinet Minister Dr. Martin Ellia Lomoro to speak on his behalf.

The statements sparked outrage in South Sudan with the Kenyan ambassador to South Sudan being summoned and a letter of protest being handed over to the Kenyan ministry of foreign affairs.

In a statement, the KTN apologized to Kiir and the government and proposed an air-time for him on the same program where the remarks where broadcasted.

“Sir, on behalf of the Standard Group PLC management and employees, I take this early opportunity to sincerely apologize to you personally for the agony and anguish our mistake has caused you, the government and the people of South Sudan,” the apology letter signed by KTN editor-in-chief, Ochieng Rapuro party reads.

“We proposed to offer an official retraction to you on air this Wednesday morning when the weekly programme in which the mistake was made will run. Further, we are taking substantive internal measures to ensure such as incident doesn’t happen again,” it added.

Kiir who has been mentioned by American based war crimes investigative agency The Sentry as a profiteer of the endless war in South Sudan is not a visitor in Nairobi as his family is said to be residing in the city.

Manyani East Road – Kiir family residence – about a quarter mile after the entrance to a gated community within Lavington—one of Nairobi’s most upscale neighborhoods—is a well-guarded compound, lined with a 10-to-12-foot cinderblock fence topped with two additional feet of taut, high-voltage wiring.

For Zainab Oladehinde April marks her birthday and in 2021, she decided to travel to Zanzibar a island in Tanzania to celebrate her 23rd birthday miles away from her home in Nigeria.

She embarked on a journey she envisioned would be adventurous with no one by herself, an introvert by nature, she wanted a time for herself.

In a horrific story that has taken the internet by storm, it took Zainab a whole year to gather courage to come out and tell her story. She narrates how her holiday in Zanzibar turned horrific as she was sexually assaulted in her hotel and how the local authorities didn’t make anything better when she sought for help and if anything, tried to coverup for alleged perpetrators. According to her story, one would conclude this not an isolated case abs from the the authorities’ reactions, they’re accustomed.

”This incident happened a year ago in April of 2021 but I haven’t been able to talk about it cause I’ve been in therapy for a year to heal from the psychological trauma as this experience has been the most painful and traumatic experience I’ve ever faced in my entire life. Infact! I’m glad I’m still alive today to share my story.” She opens up.

The incident she says happened in Warere Beach Hotel in Nungwi Zanzibar. She left Lagos, Nigeria on 15th April 2021 having fully made reservations for her stay in the foreign country. Arrived on the hotel on 16th having booked for 6 days accommodation.

The reception was welcoming and she interacted with other guests including a Russian couple who would later in her story played a key role.

Having received calls from friends and families wishing her birthday, she resorted to bed with plans of exploring the hotel’s environs the next to celebrate her big day.

Unknown to her, things were about to take the worst turn, like a dream she narrates, an intruder was in her room and with lights switched off, she was getting touched, “At around 12am, a few friends and family called to wish me a happy birthday and then I went back to my room to sleep. Few hours into my sleep, I started to feel a strange hand touching my breast. Now, this was me sleeping naked on my bed in my hotel room with my doors locked so this was definitely a dream. I told myself and went back to sleep. Some few minutes afterwards, I started to feel my hands stroking someone’s penis. At this moment, I opened my eyes to confirm if It was actually a dream or I was in real danger.” She narrates.

“Low and behold, it wasn’t a dream. There was a naked man lying on my bed and touching me at 2am in my hotel room! He started calling me “baby” and then I became scared cause the room was dark as I had switched off the lights before I went to bed. Now, I was extremely scared I asked the man “who are you?” But all he kept saying was “baby, baby” . I asked in a louder tone this time around cause I was getting angry and then he quickly stuffed his hands over my mouth in an attempt to stop me from shouting.” She continues.

The intruder realizing he wasn’t going to get his way, threatened her with violence, survival instincts had to kick in with the reality of either being raped or worse killed kicking in.

“In this moment, I became very scared as I didn’t know who this was and why this person was in my room. A lot of things were going through my head at the same time. Who is this ? Does he have a weapon? Will I get raped and killed on my birthday in a strange land?” She pondered.

At this moment, a lot was going through her mind like whether the man was armed, how the man got into her room that was initially locked and only her opened after interacting with other guests, subdued, she asked herself wether to allow him have his way, Rape her to save her life or scream.

”While all these was going through my head, this man tried to climb on top of me in an attempt to force his penis inside of me.” She says.

“At this point, I became scared cause he was stinking so badly and that was the only thing I could smell. I couldn’t see his face so I started touching his body so I’d get some clarity on how to identify him if I ever get out of my room alive.”

With a language barrier as the intruder didn’t speak English but in Swahili the local dialect, she quickly thought of a way out, something that would scare the smelly animal to get off her and escape being raped.

”I was crying profusely now and needed to find a quick way to distract him so I started begging him not to rape me but he didn’t understand English as he kept on speaking Swahili to me. I then lied to him that I have HIV and he’d need to get a condom before sleeping with me.” She narrates.

“He didn’t understand a word I said but immediately he heard HIV, he paused for a while. I quickly wanted to use the opportunity to run but then he started strangling my neck. I became very scared for my life as I saw my life flash right before me in an instant.”

“So I continued begging him and telling him I’d allow him have sex with me but he’d need to go get a condom so as not to get HIV. I saw that he reacted to the word “HIV” so I kept on saying HIV whilst crying profusely at this point.” She continues.

“His belt fell off the bed so I got an instant feeling that this man came to my room fully clothed before removing his clothes right on my bed. He wore his shoes and came back to press my neck against the bed.”

”As I struggled to not let him strangle me, he left the room and told me he’d be back with a condom.
Immediately he left, I switched on the light, tried to call hotel reception but to my surprise, there was no intercom or phone lines to reach the hotel reception through the room.”

After he left, she locked herself in and rushed to the bathroom where she frantically called the reception to ring the alarm but alas! Calls went unanswered, for a hotel that brags of being a 4.5 star, this was disturbing. The shaken lady was at this point left on her own. She had seconds to make up her mind whether to flee or wait for her rapist to come back after getting the condom.

“I couldn’t stay back in the room and wait for the rapist to come back. Hell! Who knows what would happen to me this time around when he comes back to my room. Should I leave my room? I don’t know who or what is outside my hotel room either.”

Meanwhile, she reached out to the hotel’s owner a Mr Shauna whom she had been in touch prior to her travel and informed him of what had transpired. This was at around 4am.

Zainab says she was forced to make the unthinkable, she wasn’t going to wait for the worst to happen in her room and instead decided to flee not knowing what was awaiting her outside, it was a better decision for her than waiting for her rapist to come back.

“On getting outside the room, I wanted to make my way to the reception but then I saw two men who happened to be security men standing outside by the pool side having a conversation. I wanted to go meet them to tell them I had just just been attacked by a stranger in my room but I thought to myself “what if this was the person (s) who actually attacked me? ”Then I became extremely scared cause I’d have to find a way to get to the reception without those men seeing me.”

“Then I started to crawl on my knees chest around the leaves so no one could see me. When I got to hotel reception, I knocked on every door but no one answered me. I was crying profusely at this point cause I thought I wouldn’t survive this night. How could it be that there was no one in all these rooms at the reception?” She wondered.

In what sounds like a movie script, Zainab had to make quick and swift decision to escape, “ the only issue was that the security men were directly opposite their room and I may get noticed if I go there. At this point, I put my phone on silence and started crawling on my chest till I got to their room.”

Luckily for her, the doors were open and the couple allowed her to stay for the night after narrating to then what had just happened.

https://twitter.com/zainabdehinde/status/1515330925793583104?s=21&t=3C4CQ6k1iZu-32L-O5I2Ug

As sky opened up, she went to the reception where she was attended to by one Mussa the hotels manager, went to her room only to discover that $1,100 was stolen from her purse, she was not only sexually assaulted but robbed from too.

The first suspects in her mind were the security guards from the previous night, they were all summoned, “they all came out. I couldn’t recognize any of them but I could smell the man that that was in my room that midnight.“

In the company of her taxi driver, they left for Nungwi police station where the incident was reported but she says the authorities were hostile insisting on speaking to her in Swahili while knowing she wasn’t conversant.

https://twitter.com/zainabdehinde/status/1515310487726080001?s=21&t=3C4CQ6k1iZu-32L-O5I2Ug

https://twitter.com/zainabdehinde/status/1515312628947685379?s=21&t=3C4CQ6k1iZu-32L-O5I2Ug

https://twitter.com/zainabdehinde/status/1515318224581181442?s=21&t=3C4CQ6k1iZu-32L-O5I2Ug

Contrary to what she had planned, Zainab’s holiday in Zanzibar turned out to be hell.

“This was 3pm already. This day was my BIRTHDAY. My friends and family back in Lagos didn’t know all that was happening to me in Zanzibar. I was so frustrated, sad and scared. How could the police do this to me? How could the hotel do this to me?” She ask herself.

The hotel in response has gone cold on the matter.

https://twitter.com/zainabdehinde/status/1515338173949300736?s=21&t=3C4CQ6k1iZu-32L-O5I2Ug

In a statement, the country’s commission of tourism released a statement on Sunday saying they’ve opened an investigation into the matter.

Zanzibar has sold itself as ideal tourism destination, the latest outburst has led to others coming out telling about their past ordeals.

Clearly this is a common thing in Tanzania because I have friend who went to Zanzibar and suffered the same and the culprit was the hotel receptionist! https://t.co/bjjNnEWH94

— YT: Nolitha Abroad (@NKhungwayo) April 16, 2022

https://twitter.com/xilgoris/status/1515380116666298370?s=21&t=3C4CQ6k1iZu-32L-O5I2Ug

I have visited Tanzania each year since 2017 till date and was a resident for two years. I have been in Zanzibar too. This story is really sad. One thing with Tanzania, no matter the offense, the police will side with a Tanzanian against a foreigner. Pole sana my sister. https://t.co/LutN6m9gIY

— Ancient Agulu man (@UgoMaduagwu) April 16, 2022

https://twitter.com/mariastsehai/status/1515380383780589578?s=21&t=3C4CQ6k1iZu-32L-O5I2Ug

https://twitter.com/miidpsych/status/1515367797748076545?s=21&t=3C4CQ6k1iZu-32L-O5I2Ug

On 171 there is a story of a mexican aldy who went on a solo trip to zanzibar on her birthday and went missing… Not found to this day. The family spoke to her at around 1am when she said is going to sleep. She was in her hotel room. The show was DISSAPPEARED on 171 https://t.co/rZrWLyctSa

— Tlotlo Charity Letebele (@LetebeleCharity) April 16, 2022

Zanzibar is not safe. Ladies are being raped there & One thing about Tanzania is that no matter the offense, the police in Tanzania will side with a Tanzanian against a foreigner.

— Man’s NOT Barry Roux (@AdvoBarryRoux) April 17, 2022

I suspect that thread isn’t an isolated incident in Zanzibar. Every time I’ve visited, each hotel, both on the website and in person has been extremely insistent on making sure we lock the doors, even when we were both men or a group. The tone is often somewhat concerning…

— Lateef 🙃 (@LateefSaka) April 16, 2022

Zanzibar and Tanzania at Large has never been A good tourist Destination for Fellow Africans,Those Dweebs Only Respect Wazungu,Its Funny but you can be Racially discriminated on African Soil .If you want good Hospitality Kenya should be your Destination🔥

— kamoste (@Kamoste_M) April 17, 2022