Police and aid groups say more than 60 percent of illegal prostitutes in Belgium are trafficked from Nigeria. Many are only teenagers and almost all come from Benin City, a city in the south of Nigeria.

Rosa was sexually exploited by Nigerian traffickers and had to prostitute herself on the streets of Spain, Norway, France and Belgium. But Belgian police saved her after two years.

“The police took me and asked me question if I want to talk. If I talk they are going to make a better way for me. They will give me document, I say yes because the stress is too much,” she said.

Rosa – not her real name – was struggling in Nigeria, making ends meet for herself and her daughter. She was told she could marry a man in Europe. After crossing Morocco and reaching Spain by boat, she was told to repay a $55,000 debt and forced into prostitution.

Europol said last year that Nigerian human trafficking rings are one of the biggest challenges for European police forces.

Police now see those who were trafficked as victims, whether they have documents or not.

After speaking to the Belgium police, Rosa ended up in Payoke, a shelter for victims of sexual exploitation. There are three similar shelters in Belgium. Payoke has helped at least 4,000 women and witnessed a rise in Nigerian women from the early 1990s.

Payoke founder Patsy Sorenson says the shelter only helps victims who agree to file charges against the traffickers.

“The reason also that we ask their cooperation, is that we like to fight also against the traffickers,” she explained. ” It is a win-win situation also for them. When they cooperate we are able to offer them a lot of things. So that they are able to start a new life.”

Citizenship offered

A court case usually takes about two to three years. In that time, the shelter helps the girl get her life organized and after five years the victims can apply for Belgian citizenship.

Police commissioner Franz Vandelook says another big challenge is that most Nigerian illegal prostitutes end up trafficking and exploiting other girls once they have paid of their debt, meaning they will no longer be seen as a victim.

“They know very well what they have suffered in the past, and of course at a certain moment they decide to transform themselves to a madam too, because of the money of course,” he said. “And they need money to feed the family who is still in Nigeria. So I can understand the situation, but in our society, in our European society, we can not accept the situation.”

Sorensen of Payoke says the women still face many challenges once they have decided to start a new life. Their family in Nigeria still needs money, their health is often a concern, many are still scared of the traffickers, and they often feel lonely while dealing with their traumatic experiences.

Rosa says when she started the court procedures, friends of the traffickers in Nigeria would beat her mother so badly she needed hospital treatment.

Despite the challenges, Rosa feels it was worth it.

“I can say now I am very happy because I am getting a good life now. Because before I was having a lot of stress, but now my stress is gone down. I can really say that I am very OK,” she said.

The International Organization for Migration says last year about 37,000 Nigerians arrived by boat in Europe, about one-third of them women. It is estimated more than 8,000 of them will end up in prostitution.

 
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Gunfire rang out near a small jail in Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa on Thursday afternoon and a heavy army presence was deployed at the site, witnesses said on Thursday.

The army and police surrounded the jail in the Matonge neighborhood of Kinshasa. The cause of the gunfire was not clear.

Thousands of inmates have escaped from jails this year in Congo, including about 4,000 from the capital Kinshasa’s main high-security prison last month.

 
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This year’s World Food Prize has been awarded to African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina, for his work to improve the lives of millions of small farmers across the African continent —  especially in Nigeria, where he was once the agriculture minister.

Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, based in Des Moines, Iowa, said the $250,000 award reflected Adesina’s “breakthrough achievements” in Nigeria and his leadership role in the development of AGRA — the nonprofit Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

For example, Quinn said, “our laureate introduced the E-Wallet system, which broke the back of the corrupt elements that had controlled the fertilizer distribution system for 40 years. The reforms he implemented increased food production by 21 million metric tons and led to and attracted $5.6 billion in private-sector investments that earned him the reputation as the ‘farmers’ minister.'”

Adesina is the sixth African to win what some consider the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture. He will accept the prize in October in the Midwestern state of Iowa, where farming is a mainstay of the economy.

Challenges ahead

As president of the African Development Bank, the 57-year-old economist said he is honored by the recognition of decades of work, but he noted to VOA that the challenges ahead in Africa are quite immense.

“The big issue is how we’re going to make sure that 250 million people that still don’t have food in Africa get access to food,” Adesina said. “The other one is, we still have 58 million African children that are stunted today and, obviously, stunted children today are going to lead us to stunted economies tomorrow.”

Almost 30 percent of the 795 million people in the world who do not have enough to eat are in Africa, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

While Africa imports $35 billion worth of food every year, Adesina says the money spent on food imports should instead go into food production.

“Our task ahead is to make sure that Africa fully feeds itself,” the bank president said. “That Africa conserves that $35 billion and Africa transforms its rural economies and creates new hope and prosperity for a lot of the young people.”

Agriculture as ‘cool’ career

Adesina said he has worked to promote agriculture as a “cool” career for young people, so they can see their future in agriculture as a business, not just a way of life.

Gold lying in the ground in the rough can look like a clump of dirt, and won’t look like the extremely valuable metal it is unless it is cleaned and polished, Adesina said, and “that’s how it is with agriculture.”

“The size of the food and agribusiness market in Africa will rise to $1 trillion by 2030,” he added, “so this should be the sector where the millionaires and billionaires of Africa are coming out of.”

The African Development Bank launched an almost $800 million initiative last year called “Enable Youth.” The aim, Adesina said, “is to develop a new generation of young commercial farmers in both production, logistics, processing, marketing and all of that, all across the value chain.”
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The Trump administration on Wednesday set new criteria for visa applicants from six mainly Muslim nations and all refugees that require a “close” family or business tie to the United States. The move came after the Supreme Court partially restored President Donald Trump’s executive order that was widely criticized as a ban on Muslims.

Visas that have already been approved will not be revoked, but instructions issued by the State Department say that new applicants from Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen must prove a relationship with a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already in the United States to be eligible. The same requirement, with some exceptions, holds for would-be refugees from all nations that are still awaiting approval for admission to the U.S.

Grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiancees or other extended family members are not considered to be close relationships, according to the guidelines that were issued in a cable sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates late on Wednesday. The new rules take effect at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday (0000GMT on Friday), according to the cable, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

As far as business or professional links are concerned, the State Department said a legitimate relationship must be “formal, documented and formed in the ordinary course rather than for the purpose of evading” the ban. Journalists, students, workers or lecturers who have valid invitations or employment contracts in the U.S. would be exempt from the ban. The exemption does not apply to those who seek a relationship with an American business or educational institution purely for the purpose of avoiding the rules, the cable said.  A hotel reservation or car rental contract, even if it was pre-paid, would also not count, it said.

Consular officers may grant other exemptions to applicants from the six nations if they have “previously established significant contacts with the United States;” “significant business or professional obligations” in the U.S.; if they are an infant, adopted child or in need of urgent medical care; if they are traveling for business with a recognized international organization or the U.S. government or if they are a legal resident of Canada who applies for a visa in Canada, according to the cable.

On Monday, the Supreme Court partially lifted lower court injunctions against Trump’s executive order that had temporarily banned visas for citizens of the six countries. The justices’ ruling exempted applicants from the ban if they could prove a “bona fide relationship” with a U.S. person or entity, but the court offered only broad guidelines – suggesting they would include a relative, job offer or invitation to lecture in the U.S.  – as to how that should be defined.

Senior officials from the departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security had labored since the decision to clarify the ruling and Wednesday’s instructions were the result. The new guidance will remain in place until the Supreme Court issues a final ruling on the matter. Arguments before the justices will not be held until at least October, so the interim rules will remain in place at least until the fall.

Shortly after taking office, Trump ordered the refugee ban and a travel ban affecting the six countries, plus Iraq. He said it was needed to protect the U.S. from terrorists, but opponents said it was unfairly harsh and was intended to meet his campaign promise to keep Muslims out of the United States.

After a federal judge struck down the bans, Trump signed a revised order intended to overcome legal hurdles. That was also struck down by lower courts, but the Supreme Court’s action Monday partially reinstated it.

The initial travel ban led to chaos at airports around the world, but because the guidelines exempt previously issued visas, similar problems are not expected.  After a judge blocked the original ban, Trump issued a scaled-down order and the court’s action Monday further reduced the number of people who would be covered by it. Also, while the initial order took effect immediately, adding to the confusion, this one was delayed 72 hours after the court’s ruling.

Under the new rules, would-be immigrants from the six countries who won a coveted visa in the government’s diversity lottery – a program that randomly awards 50,000 green cards annually to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States – will also have to prove they have a “bona fide relationship” with in the U.S. or are eligible for another waiver or face being banned for at least 90 days. That hurdle may be a difficult one for those immigrants to overcome, as many visa lottery winners don’t have relatives in the U.S. or jobs in advance of arriving in the country.

Generally, winners in the diversity lottery only need prove they were born in an eligible county and have completed high school or have at least two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two other years of training or experience.
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Unspooling the rope tied to a metal bucket, Shylet Nhari listened to the repeated clangs of the tin striking the walls of the well as her bucket made its way down.

When she pulled the container back up, she found it filled with undrinkable, muddy water. Water levels in the well are dwindling fast and not being replenished, she said.

Nhari, 46, lives in Westlea, a middle-class suburb of the Zimbabwean capital and an area built on wetlands. Like many residents, she has no piped water and relies on the well, which has become more erratic in the face of longer drought.

“Since 2015, our wells here started having problems in storing groundwater for longer periods as they began to dry up quickly,” she said.

Residents like Nhari, and a growing number of newcomers to Harare, find themselves in a bind. They need somewhere to live, and developers are all too ready to sell them land in wetland areas. But as construction covers more wetlands, water sources are drying up.

Wetlands — which include bogs and swamps — are essential to the well-being of the city, environmentalists say. They can ease the impacts of a changing climate by helping maintain groundwater levels, and protect areas from the worst impacts of floods by absorbing excess water.

Permit needed

By law, anyone intending to build on a wetland must apply for a permit from the government’s Environmental Management Agency (EMA).

In January, EMA threatened to evict wetland residents in Masvingo, one of the country’s oldest towns, saying their homes had been built without government approval.

But in Westlea, Nhari is skeptical about the likelihood of enforcement.

“I have lived here for close to 10 years and have not seen any resident being questioned for building on this so-called wetland,” she said. She added that she didn’t know how wetlands function and why they are important.

According to EMA spokesman Steady Kangata, 27 wetland areas in Harare and Chitungwiza, a town 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Zimbabwean capital, have been partially built on.

In Chitungwiza, 14 out of 15 wetlands have been built on, and 13 of Harare’s 29 wetlands have been taken over for construction, Kangata told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Approximately 60 percent of Harare’s and Chitungwiza’s wetlands have been invaded or taken over for construction purposes. All these constructions on wetlands are unlawful,” Kangata said.

The Westlea wetland is an area of 123 hectares (304 acres). It has 87 houses, the first of which was built in 2008, according to the Harare Residents Trust, a nongovernmental organization.

Nhari moved into her home in 2009 with her husband, after he bought a 600-square-meter plot from a private landowner. She says she has a deed of sale to prove it, but what she doesn’t have is water.

Less water absorbed

Environmental experts say residents like Nhari are the source of their own problems.

“A wetland acts like a sponge which absorbs water and then recharges underground water so that the water table remains high. Construction disrupts this process,” said Sandra Gobvu of Environment Africa, a nongovernmental organization that works in southern Africa to promote sustainable development.

When wetland areas are concreted over, much less water is absorbed, Gobvu added.

Wetlands also help control flooding by absorbing excess water and releasing it gradually into water bodies, she said.

“If we preserved them in their natural state, wetlands would actually help us adapt to the changing climatic conditions,” said Barnabas Mawire, Environment Africa’s Zimbabwe country director.

He thinks that while Zimbabwe’s widespread water problems are due to a number of factors, wetland destruction plays a role.

“Climate change will make future efforts to restore or rehabilitate wetlands more difficult, especially if we continue to destroy them at this rate,” said Mawire.

Environmental activists in Zimbabwe say they are struggling to keep up with the rate of wetlands encroachment.

“It is hard to measure the proportion of construction work occurring on wetlands here, because daily we wake up to new building activities emerging around many wetlands,” said Liberty Chiura, a member of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association.

Meanwhile, landowners say they are not acting illegally by selling wetlands plots.

“We don’t just wake up and start pegging land at wetlands for people without binding permits from local authorities,” said Elton Javangwe, a private landowner based in Harare.

“This is part of a farm I bought and later decided to subdivide before selling housing stands, after local authorities and EMA regularized it,” Javangwe said.

Uninformed, defiant

Mawire said that some construction on wetlands is authorized.

“Developers know they have to apply to the Environmental Management Authority for permits to build, and they do get these permits at times,” he said.

“However, there are many other people who invade pieces of land without any knowledge that there are wetlands and start construction. And there are others who know but deliberately ignore what the law says and go on to build,” Mawire added.

He said that as people migrate from the countryside and demand for land in urban areas increases, new residents are unlikely to be aware of the risks of building on wetlands, to themselves and the broader community.

“The developer might know, but sadly for many people, they only realize the consequences once they finish building and start experiencing floods, cracks and collapse of infrastructure,” said Mawire.

Failure to abide by Zimbabwe’s laws governing wetlands can result in a fine of up to $500, imprisonment of up to two years, or both.

Minister of Environment, Water and Climate Oppah Muchinguri has the power to serve a written order to stop development on any wetland.

“As government, we are accountable for handling wetlands and we have to accept accountability where we would have failed,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“We now have an interministerial task force to investigate the building of properties on wetlands and take possible action in order to protect our threatened wetlands, [which are] crucial to restoring water basins,” Muchinguri added.
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A Zimbabwean pastor and anti-government activist who was arrested for addressing protesting university students has been freed on bail.

Evan Mawarire was released Wednesday. He had been in police custody since Monday. He is charged with disorderly conduct in a public place and is free on $200 bail.

 

Mawarire rose to prominence in July 2016 when he used social media to organize the Zimbabwe’s biggest anti-government protest in a decade.

 

He later left for the United States after a court dismissed charges against him, claiming his life was in danger. He returned to Zimbabwe in February.

 

He is due to appear in court on Sep. 25 on other charges of allegedly subverting a constitutionally elected government.

 

 
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