- Title: The first part of a retrospective on the top political events in 2019
- Date: 26th December 2019
- Summary: KHARTOUM, SUDAN (DECEMBER 14, 2019) (REUTERS) FORMER SUDANESE PRESIDENT OMAR AL-BASHIR WAVING TO AUDIENCE MEMBER IN COURTROOM BASHIR IN CAGE IN COURTROOM
- Embargoed: 9th January 2020 12:42
- Keywords: Abiy Bashir Ethiopia Nobel Pope Francic Ramaphosa Riek Machar Salva Kiir South Africa South Sudan Sudan
- Location: OSLO, NORWAY / ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA / VATICAN CITY / KHARTOUM, SUDAN / JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- City: OSLO, NORWAY / ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA / VATICAN CITY / KHARTOUM, SUDAN / JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: Various
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA004BBM37TJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received his Nobel Peace Prize on Tuesday (December 10) at a ceremony in Norway for his peacemaking efforts, which ended two decades of hostility with Ethiopia's longtime enemy Eritrea.
Since taking power in 2018, Abiy, who at 43 is Africa's youngest political leader, has implemented sweeping political reforms that won him praise but also lifted the lid on long-repressed tensions between Ethiopia's many ethnic groups.
In a dramatic gesture at the Vatican, Pope Francis, knelt with difficulty to kiss the feet of South Sudan's previously warring leaders, President Salva Kiir and his former deputy turned rebel leader Riek Machar urging them to peace.
Meanwhile, a Sudanese court convicted former president Omar al-Bashir on corruption charges on Saturday (December 14) and sentenced him to two years detention in a reform facility. Dressed in traditional white robes and a turban, Bashir watched silently from inside a metal defendant's cage while the judge read out the verdict.
Bashir is also wanted by the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants against him in 2009 and 2010 on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's restive Darfur region.
Protests triggered by a deepening economic crisis began to spread across Sudan on December 19, 2018. The Sudanese protests have been a source of inspiration for many local artists and youth indulging in arts, music and literature to express their hopes for a better future.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa led the African National Congress (ANC) to victory to win 57.5% of the parliamentary vote, its worst parliamentary result since it swept to power at the end of white minority rule.
Voter enthusiasm for the ANC has been eroded by its faltering efforts to address corruption, high unemployment and persistent racial disparities in housing, services and land distribution in Africa's most advanced economy which remains one of the most unequal societies in the world, according to the World Bank. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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