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It is impossible to discuss tourism without mentioning hotels, as after visiting the natural attractions of a given country, tourists need an adorable place to rest and receive excellent services.

In Rwanda, this has been a key focus, as in the last five years, the country had only 10,000 rooms, which means that in less than 60 months, 15,000 additional rooms have been established.

Yves Ngenzi, the Director of the Tourism Department at PSF, stated that this is a significant step forward in increasing the number of hotels that accommodate tourists visiting Rwanda.

'These are just rooms for sleeping. There are many others which provide other services such as dining facilities. The growth is impressive and we count hotel rooms to assess our progress,' he said.

Ngenzi also revealed that they are working hard to ensure that within the next five years, Rwanda will have 35,000 hotel rooms. Last year, tourism brought in $620 million for Rwanda.

As part of the second phase of the National Strategy for Transformation (NST2), it is projected that by 2029, tourism will generate $1.1 billion for the country.

The Director of the Tourism Department at the Private Sector Federation, Yves Ngenzi, stated that the number of hotel rooms in Rwanda has reached 25,000.

“This clearly shows that we need to expand our infrastructure, increase the number of hotels, improve our services, and attract more conferences, among other things. That is why we are committed to adding 10,000 more hotel rooms in the next five years,' he said.

Currently, the Tourism Department has registered 1,360 businesses and seven different tourism associations. This is a substantial number compared to five years ago when there were only about 450 businesses.
Ngenzi also highlighted that many others have not yet registered with PSF’s tourism department.

“This is a growing sector. Tourism used to be underestimated, but if you look at the revenue it generates, it’s significant. Currently, tourism has created 165,000 jobs when we consider those directly involved,” he said.

According to him, this is a considerable number of jobs, accounting for 10% of all new jobs created in the country, excluding agriculture and livestock.

Besides adding 10,000 more hotel rooms, Ngenzi explained that within the next five years, they will make efforts to boost local production to achieve the country’s goal of increasing tourism revenues by 13% annually and raising private sector investment to $4.6 billion by 2029, up from $2.2 billion in 2024.

Ngenzi said that this will go hand in hand with promoting conference tourism, religious tourism, and increasing the number of tourist attractions, so that the money tourists spend in Rwanda continues to grow.

When asked about domestic tourism, which helps the sector remain stable even when the number of international tourists decreases, Ngenzi said that it is doing well, but it is not yet at the required level.

'For example, visiting the gorillas costs $1,500 for foreigners. Few Rwandans can afford that. There are lower prices for Rwandans, but the revenue we want to generate won’t be achievable without foreign tourists. That’s why we are looking to attract more Africans to visit Rwanda,' he explained.

'These initiatives will also include building capacity for those in the sector, particularly in terms of knowledge, with students gaining internships, as we have seen that 30% of those who receive internships secure jobs,' he added.

These initiatives will also focus on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which play a significant role in the sector’s growth. For example, 80% of businesses offering tourism services in Rwanda are SMEs, showing the importance of closely monitoring this category.

The Director of the Tourism Department at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Michaella Rugwizangoga, speaking to participants at the International Tourism Day event.

On her part, Michaella Rugwizangoga, the Director of the Tourism Department at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), mentioned that as Rwanda’s tourism industry grows, so does the well-being of Rwandans, especially those living near tourist sites.

'We have a plan to share tourism revenues with the local communities, where 10% of the ticket value for visiting parks goes to projects like road construction, hospitals, schools, and others. This 10% is not tax but a portion of the revenue generated from visits to natural attractions.'

She mentioned that so far, 1,000 projects have been supported, and over Rwf 12 billion has been given to local communities, stressing that this will continue as the sector develops.

Statistics show that over 1.4 million people visited Rwanda in 2023, and this number is expected to double by 2029, with more destinations being added by RwandAir.

Ngabo Karegeya, famous as the founder of a cattle-based tourism company called Ibere rya Bigogwe Tourism Company Ltd, was also among those who spoke on how Rwanda’s tourism can be developed.

Various leaders involved in tourism attended the dedicated day event

Source : https://en.igihe.com/news/article/the-beauty-of-over-25-000-hotel-rooms-in-rwanda-pictorial

Source : https://en.igihe.com/news/article/us-embassy-in-kigali-suspends-in-person-services-over-marburg-virus-outbreak

The Ukrainian military has been so depleted by attrition that new infantry troops are often unfit for combat and flee at the first sign of fighting, the Financial Times reported on Friday. In some units, around two thirds of soldiers are reportedly killed or wounded within days of arriving at the front.

Manpower shortages have plagued the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) for well over a year, according to reports in Ukrainian and Western media outlets. After multiple rounds of conscription, the average age of a Ukrainian soldier is now 45, and many of those sent to the front are unfit for combat, multiple commanders and soldiers told the British newspaper.

'When the new guys get to the position, a lot of them run away at the first shell explosion,' a deputy commander fighting near Ugledar in Donetsk Region said. Another commander whose unit is attempting to hold the nearby town of Khurakove said that 'some guys freeze [because] they are too afraid to shoot the enemy, and then they are the ones who leave in body bags or severely wounded.'

The commanders estimated that 50-70% of new infantry troops are killed or wounded within days of starting their first rotation.

Russian forces have gained ground near Ugledar, Khurakove, and the key logistics hub of Povrovsk in recent weeks. Many of the AFU's most experienced troops were pulled from this sector of the front in August to take part in the invasion of Russia's Kursk Region, an operation that has cost Kiev more than 17,750 servicemen, over 130 tanks, and hundreds of other combat vehicles, according to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Experienced soldiers 'are being killed off too quickly' and replaced by older and less fit men, another commander told the Financial Times. 'As infantry, you need to run, you need to be strong, you need to carry heavy equipment,' he said, adding: 'It's hard to do that if you aren't young.'

As of May, the Ukrainian military has been drafting 30,000 soldiers per month. However, AFU Commander-in-Chief General Aleksandr Syrsky admitted earlier this month that these new recruits are often sent to fight with as little as six weeks' training. The commanders who spoke to the Financial Times said that they consider this training worthless, as many of the AFU's instructors haven't seen combat themselves.

'Some of them don't even know how to hold their rifles,' one officer said. 'They peel more potatoes than they shoot bullets,' he complained, explaining that he had bought paintball guns in order to teach his new men how to shoot without wasting ammunition.

Those who survive often go AWOL after their first rotation, while others are so shell-shocked and exhausted that they are checked into psychiatric wards, the newspaper reported. With the AFU under no legal obligation to demobilize troops, joining the army or getting conscripted is viewed by recruits as 'a one-way ticket,' a ten-year veteran told the Financial Times.

While the Ukrainian military does not publish casualty figures, the Russian Defense Ministry estimates Kiev's losses since February 2022 at around half a million men.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, however, maintains that with more Western weapons and money, Russia can be 'forced into peace.' Moscow considers Zelensky's belief in military victory 'delusional,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week.

The post Most Ukrainian soldiers last only a few days — FT appeared first on The Custom Reports.

Source : https://thecustomreports.com/most-ukrainian-soldiers-last-only-a-few-days-ft/

The assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon shows that no place in the Middle East is beyond the reach of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in a televised address on Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed the leader of the Lebanese militant group in a bombing of an underground compound in Beirut. Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's death on Saturday.

Netanyahu warned Iran — referring to it as the 'ayatollahs' regime' — that Israel will retaliate against any state that threatens it.

'Those who strike at us, we will strike at them. There is nowhere in Iran or the Middle East beyond the reach of the long arm of Israel, and today you know how true that is.'

The killing of Nasrallah serves as an additional message to Hamas, Netanyahu said. 'The more that Hamas political chief Yahya Sinwar realizes that Hezbollah is no longer coming to save him, the greater the chances for the return of our hostages.'

The prime minister cautioned Israelis, however, that the coming days will be difficult. 'We will face significant challenges in the days ahead and will meet them,' he said, calling it a 'historical turning point.'

According to sources from ABC News, the IDF may be planning a ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel have engaged in increasingly frequent cross-border strikes recently, raising concerns of a full-scale conflict since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war last October.

Tensions escalated earlier in September when thousands of pagers and handheld radios detonated across Lebanon, resulting in dozens of deaths and thousands of injuries. The UN condemned the attacks as 'unacceptable,' with the organization's human rights chief, Volker Turk, calling for a thorough investigation.

While Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement, the covert attack is widely believed to have been conducted by Israeli intelligence.

The post Netanyahu threatens Iran with Israel's 'long arm' appeared first on The Custom Reports.

Source : https://thecustomreports.com/netanyahu-threatens-iran-with-israels-long-arm/

Six people have died of Marburg virus disease (MVD, a haemorrhagic fever, Minister of Health Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, announced on September 28.

'A high-fever disease caused by Marburg virus has been identified in Rwanda. We count 20 people who are suffering from it, and six it has killed,' Nsanzimana said in a video posted on X by Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA).

The update comes after the Ministry of Health, on Friday, September 27, announced that Marburg virus disease had been confirmed in a few patients in health facilities in the country.

Nsanzimana said that most of the people who suffer from and those who died from the disease are healthcare workers [at health facilities], especially in intensive care units.

'The Ministry of Health, other government entities and partners, we are collaborating on contact tracing to get those who had contact with those patients and the deceased.'

He indicated that the virus infections are transmitted through contact with blood and body fluids of people who are visibly sick, and sharing equipment or clothes with them.

He indicated that it can take between three days and three weeks without the person who contracted it showing signs.

'It is a very severe disease such that a person who contracted it has high risk of losing life to it,' he said.

'But we are ensuring that tests are carried out early so that those who were affected by the disease be provided treatment to prevent serious cases or more deaths,' he added.

According to the World Health Organisation, Marburg virus disease (MVD) is a severe, often fatal illness caused by the Marburg virus. The virus causes severe viral haemorrhagic fever in humans characterized by fever, headache, back pain, muscle pain, abdominal pain, vomiting, confusion, diarrhoea, and bleeding at very late stages.

It has a fatality ratio of up to 88 per cent, and it is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease, as per WHO.

Nsanzimana said that Rwanda is working with the international organisation to curb the disease.

He requested the public not to panic, and to comply with measures to deal with the outbreak, especially by avoiding sharing equipment with a person who shows signs like those of Marburg, washing hands with clean water and soap, as well as sanitizers, among others.

He condoled with the families of the virus victims and promised that the government will continue being by their side.

'It is our partnership that enabled us to defeat previous epidemics. We hope we will also defeat this one soon,' he said.

The post Marburg update in Rwanda: Six people succumb to viral disease appeared first on The Custom Reports.

Source : https://thecustomreports.com/marburg-update-in-rwanda-six-people-succumb-to-viral-disease/

On Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is dead after Israel announced he was killed in an airstrike in Beirut on Friday.

His death marks a major moment in recent Middle East history, but the long-term consequences are uncertain. It raises a key question: Do 'decapitation strikes' killing the leaders of terrorist groups cripple them? The short answer is not really.

Israel should know from its own history that such strikes don't always succeed in crippling a militant group. In 2008, Israel killed Hezbollah's military leader, Imad Mughniyeh, in Damascus, Syria, yet the group only gathered strength in the years that followed.

Four years earlier, Israel killed a founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in an airstrike. Yet, the group did not collapse, and almost two decades later it still carried out the October 7 attacks in Israel, killing some 1,200 Israelis in a single day.

More recently, in July, Israel said it killed one of the October 7 masterminds, Mohammed Deif, a key Hamas military commander, yet the militant group fights on in Gaza.

The US has its own history of killing terrorist leaders in the hope that it will cripple its foes. When Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a US bombing raid in 2006, it was treated as a major breakthrough because al Qaeda in Iraq was significantly contributing to the civil war that was then tearing the country apart.

Yet eight years later, al Qaeda in Iraq eventually morphed into ISIS, which took over territory the size of Portugal and presided over a population of some eight million people in Iraq and Syria. ISIS also carried out devastating terrorist attacks in the West, for instance, in Paris in 2015 that killed 130 people.

What actually ended ISIS's geographical 'caliphate' was not a strike on its leadership but a ground campaign against the terrorist army from 2014 to 2019 waged by the Iraqi military and Syrian Kurdish forces backed by thousands of US troops and significant American airpower. ISIS's base, the second largest city in Iraq, Mosul, was largely destroyed during this war.

In May 2016, then-President Barack Obama authorized a drone strike in Pakistan that killed the overall leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour. Yet, today, the Taliban control all of Afghanistan.

Then-President Donald Trump ordered a strike in Baghdad, Iraq, in early January 2020 that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force who was crucial to Iran's relationships with its proxy forces in the region such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen and Shia militias in Iraq.

After Soleimani was killed, Trump said, 'Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.'

Yet, his death had no lasting impact on Iran's regional power and ambitions, and Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis in Yemen have continued their attacks on Israeli targets and Shia militias continued their attacks on American targets in Iraq.

The United States has designated the Taliban, the Houthis, Hamas, ISIS and Hezbollah as terrorist groups.

What can disable a terrorist group?

What can cripple a terrorist group is a sustained campaign to take out as many of its leaders and middle managers as possible. A CIA drone campaign that was ramped up in 2008 in Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan killed many of al Qaeda's leaders, according to New America, a research institution (where I am a vice president).

Documents recovered by the US Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011 show that al Qaeda's leader regularly wrote to his followers living in the country's tribal regions, urging them to move around only on cloudy days when the drones were less effective. As a result, bin Laden was planning to pull all his followers out of the tribal region and resettle them in other parts of Pakistan.

Bin Laden's death certainly significantly contributed to undercutting al Qaeda's appeal to terrorists and its abilities to carry out attacks since it was bin Laden who had founded the group, had directed its most lethal operations, and members of the group had sworn a personal oath of allegiance to him.

Bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, didn't have the charisma or the organizational skills to resuscitate al Qaeda, and Zawahiri himself was killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan two years ago. The UN estimates there are about four hundred members of al Qaeda living in Afghanistan today.

While al Qaeda is a relatively small terrorist group, Hezbollah has been in existence for four decades and is backed by Iran, which is a key player in the region and has an army of some 30,000 soldiers armed with an extensive arsenal, including some 150,000 rockets and missiles.

The killing of Nasrallah is a key prize for Israel as part of its larger wave of attacks on Hezbollah that intensified earlier this month with its covert action exploding thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies followed by massive airstrikes that have taken out infrastructure and other senior leaders.

But it's too early to write the militant group off, though it's clearly in disarray. History suggests it will reorganize and appoint other leaders to continue its long fight against Israel.

The post Killing of Nasrallah is a key prize for Israel, but it's too early to write off Hezbollah appeared first on The Custom Reports.

Source : https://thecustomreports.com/killing-of-nasrallah-is-a-key-prize-for-israel-but-its-too-early-to-write-off-hezbollah/

Source : https://en.igihe.com/health/article/5-key-measures-to-protect-yourself-from-the-marburg-virus

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he had spoken with Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday, following an Israeli airstrike on Beirut which killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

'We agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the bloodshed. A diplomatic solution is the only way to restore security and stability for the Lebanese and Israeli people,' Lammy said in a statement on social media platform X.

Earlier in the week Lammy told the United Nations' General Assembly that there should be an immediate ceasefire between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel and that a full-blown war was not in the interest of the people in the region.

Britain's foreign ministry has advised its nationals to leave Lebanon as soon as possible.

The post UK calls again for immediate ceasefire in Lebanon appeared first on The Custom Reports.

Source : https://thecustomreports.com/uk-calls-again-for-immediate-ceasefire-in-lebanon/

Washington should stop 'smearing' China, especially when it comes to Beijing's stance on the Ukraine conflict, Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told US counterpart Antony Blinken.

The two top diplomats met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss tensions in bilateral relations and international issues. Hostilities between Moscow and Kiev loomed large on the agenda, as Blinken rebuked China for what he claimed was the fueling of Russia's 'war machine.'

The US Secretary of State charged that while Beijing says it wants peace, it is 'allowing its companies to take actions that are actually helping [Russian President Vladimir] Putin continue the aggression, that doesn't add up.'

Wang Yi fired back, saying, as quoted by China's Foreign Ministry, that 'the United States should stop smearing and framing China, imposing sanctions indiscriminately, and stop using this as an excuse to create confrontation and incite confrontation between camps.'

Beijing, he added, maintains an 'open and above board' position on the Ukraine conflict, and 'has always insisted on promoting peace and dialogue, and has made its own efforts to promote a political solution.'

Wang also noted that China opposes what he called 'the US suppression of China's economy, trade and technology,' adding that 'national security cannot be politicized, and the 'small courtyard and high walls' cannot become the 'big courtyard iron curtain'.'

Last month, the US released a new sanctions list targeting almost 400 companies and individuals, including those from China, UAE, and Türkiye, over what Washington says is their support for Russia in the Ukraine conflict. At the time, the State Department voiced particular concern about 'the magnitude of dual-use goods exports' from China to Russia which it claimed helped Moscow address 'critical gaps in Russia's defense production cycle.'

Following the start of the Ukraine conflict, China refused to join Western sanctions against Russia, and trade between the two has since steadily increased. Beijing has also positioned itself as a neutral party in the crisis, repeatedly calling for peace talks.

Commenting on ties with Beijing, Putin has rejected the idea that Russia is becoming too dependent on China economically, insisting that the EU economy is much more vulnerable in that regard.

The post China demands US stop 'smearing' campaign over Ukraine conflict appeared first on The Custom Reports.

Source : https://thecustomreports.com/china-demands-us-stop-smearing-campaign-over-ukraine-conflict/

Israel's Hostages Families Forum called for renewed efforts to free the remaining hostages held in Gaza on Saturday, following the Israeli military's claim that it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

'And now, to the most important mission, after a year's delay: returning all the hostages home,' the organization wrote in a post on X.

As escalating attacks between Israel and Hezbollah over the past week have dominated news coverage and political attention, the families of the hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza have expressed dismay that government's efforts to secure the release of their loved ones is being overshadowed.

The number of Israeli captives still in the enclave stands at 101, including 35 believed to be dead, according to data from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

The Israeli military has claimed that the group's chain of command 'has been almost completely dismantled' after it killed a series of what it says are top officials in the organization this week.

The chain of command is not publicly known, however, and CNN cannot independently verify Israel's claims.

'Hezbollah has taken the biggest blow to its military infrastructure since its inception. In addition to losing weapon depots and facilities, the group has lost most of its senior commanders, and its communications network is broken,' said Hanin Ghaddar, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute and author of 'Hezbollahland.'

Despite its losses however, the group still retains skilled commanders and many of its most powerful assets, including precision-guided missiles and long-range missiles that could inflict significant damage to Israel's military and civilian infrastructure, said Ghaddar. Most of those missiles haven't been deployed yet.

Since Israel stepped up its campaign, Hezbollah's military performance 'has proven that it was able to absorb that shock and was able to bounce back and it has been striking hard at northern Israel for days now,' said Amal Saad, Hezbollah expert and lecturer in politics and international relations at Cardiff University in Wales.

On Wednesday, Israel intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Hezbollah near Tel Aviv, an unprecedented attack that reached deep into the country's commercial heartland. Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of Israel's intelligence agency.

The post Israel's Hostages Families Forum calls for renewed efforts to free hostages in Gaza appeared first on The Custom Reports.

Source : https://thecustomreports.com/israels-hostages-families-forum-calls-for-renewed-efforts-to-free-hostages-in-gaza/