FUNGUKA

  LAGOS— Nearly 300 girls and women are now free from Boko Haram captivity after a raid by Nigeria’s military.  But some may have nowhere to go back to. The identities of 200 girls and 93 women the Nigerian military says it rescued from Boko Haram in the Sambisa Forest on Tuesday remain unknown. As part of its six-year insurgency, Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of people in northeastern Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon.  Its most infamous mass kidnapping was in the town of Chibok, when the militants kidnapped 219 schoolgirls last year. Military spokesmen have been unclear on whether the girls rescued Tuesday are or are not from the town. Whoever they are, these nearly 300 women have a long journey back to normalcy.  Psychologist and a counterterrorism adviser to the government Fatima Akilu says many may not be able to go home because Boko Haram has destroyed their houses, families or businesses, or continues to threaten their towns. Others may be trauma...

A semblance of normalcy returned Wednesday to the eastern U.S. city of Baltimore, with schools reopening and authorities declaring the city safe two days after rioting and looting erupted. Some weekday commuters headed to work. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra played a free midday, outdoor concert under sun-drenched skies. Two baseball teams, the hometown Orioles and the Chicago White Sox, played an afternoon game, but with no fans allowed in the stadium as officials continued to take precautions against further unrest. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said, "The city is now safe." He said an overnight curfew had quieted tensions after Monday's rampaging rioting, looting and fires imperiled impoverished neighborhoods, but he would not predict when a state of emergency would be called off. City police reported that "Baltimore is stable." They said 35 people had been arrested during the first night of a seven-hour overnight curfew in which police an...

Forty years after the fall of Saigon signaled the end of the Vietnam War, the event still stings for many Vietnamese-Americans. Hundreds of Vietnamese-Americans recently participated in a somber event to mark the 40th anniversary of the war's end by singing the anthem and waving the flag of American-backed South Vietnam. While many in the U.S.-Vietnamese community still call April 30 a “National Hatred Day,” authorities in Vietnam have mobilized thousands of people to join military parades and festive activities to celebrate what they call a reunification day or victory day. Do Thai Kieu, who fled Vietnam for the U.S. as a 16-year-old refugee, said it is emotional for her and for members of the Vietnamese community as the day approaches. “I did not like the communist regime, so I had to flee from our country," she said. "Hatred fades with time, but I will never forget that I lost my nation, and I hope that the country will become a democratic one where people ar...

Hillary Clinton will discuss the violent protests in Baltimore and call for reform in the U.S. justice system, including the use of body cameras by police across the country, in a speech in New York on Wednesday, according to her presidential campaign. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner in the 2016 race for the White House, will urge an end to the "era of mass incarceration," and propose pursuing alternative punishments for low-level offenders, the campaign said in a statement. She will call for "every police department in the country to have body cameras to improve transparency and accountability in order to protect those on both sides of the lens," it said. Jerald Miller helps clean up debris from a CVS pharmacy that was set on fire yesterday during rioting after the funeral of Freddie Gray, on April 28, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. Clinton will also address the violence in Baltimore, where shops were looted and buildings were burned to the ...

Top Tanzanian religious leaders are Friday expected to make a tour of North Mara Gold Mine to assess the mine’s contribution to the surrounding communities and the nation’s economy. Ms Grace Masalakulangwa from the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) confirmed the tour by the religious leaders to the mine on Wednesday evening. However, she would not go into details about its aim. “It is a national interfaith committee and I have also been invited to join the mine’s visit. The tour has been organised in Dar es Salaam and the delegation will involve CCT, BAKWATA (National Muslim Council of Tanzania) and RC (Roman Catholic ),” a senior religious leader in Mara Region said on Thursday. The management of North Mara Gold Mine has been readying itself to receive the delegation, with a view to furnishing it with detailed reports about the mine’s operations. Sources said the leaders would also be interested in seeing the efforts taken by the mine to prevent environmental damage in th...

The Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), in collaboration with the East African Business Council (EABC), will introduce a programme for providing skills to university students that suit their job demands in the East African Community states. Addressing journalists in Dar es Salaam on the second day of the Academia – Private Sector Partnership Forum and Exhibition 2013 which began on Wednesday and ends on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya, IUCEA Executive Secretary, Prof Mayunga Nkunya, said the aim was to develop skills for youths on their innovations so as to enable them employ themselves and be employed by the private sector after their graduation. He said the other objective of the forum was to provide a convergence platform for academia and the private sector through engagement with the public sector for discussing and strategizing on effective mechanisms for promoting academia and private sector partnership in order to sustain the bloc’s socio-economic developme...

Marie Stopes Tanzania (MST) has issued five tri-cycles (Bajaj’s) worth 25m/- as soft loan to five youth who have been dedicated to disseminating family planning service in the outskirts of Dar es Salaam city. over the Bajajis at Tandale Uwanja wa Fisi area in Manzese ward, the MST Director Ms Ulla Muller said the Bajajis will operate in all the three municipalities of Kinondoni, Ilala and Temeke. “The youth will visit local government health clinics as well as people’s homes to deliver the family planning services. All the youth are well trained in family planning issues and will be accompanied by a registered nurse to ensure high quality counselling is offered. She stated that, the drivers will be charging for the service rendered and will be required to re-pay back 1200/- everyday until they complete the loan within a set period of one year. Ms Muller was concerned with available data that indicate that most of girls were not aware of the family planning services as st...