Month: August 2017

Charity Hospital Ship to Perform Free Surgeries in Cameroon

Posted on by SeeAF

The world’s largest non-government hospital ship is docked in Cameroon’s commercial capital, Douala, where local health care gaps remain enormous.

Medical staff and volunteers from around the world plan to provide nearly 3,000 free surgeries aboard the Africa Mercy over the next 10 months.

 

Bernadette Aboudjio traveled 600 kilometers from eastern Cameroon with her two children who suffer from club foot.

She said she brought them here because she has been told that they will get free operations. She said she is very grateful because she does not have the money to take the children to the hospital.

Club foot is just one of many ailments for which little surgical treatment is available in Cameroon.

The Ministry of Health reports that the country has just 4,200 medical doctors for a population of 23 million, and only about half are practicing.

One ambulance recently rushed to the Yaounde general hospital last month to find hundreds of patients suffering from kidney defects blocking the hospital entrance. They said they had not received treatment for two months. Their leader, Aloise Ovidi, said almost all equipment was broken.

He said the government has not been fulfilling its promises even though it is aware 32 people living with kidney defects had died in less than two months.

He said others can no longer walk because only eight of the 17 dialysis machines at the general hospital in Yaounde are functioning. He said instead of the four hours of treatment, patients are receiving just three.

Outside the two main cities of Yaounde and Douala, quality medical care is even harder to find. The Ministry of Health says the majority of the population relies instead of traditional healers.

Cameroon’s health minister, Andre Mama Fouda, told VOA only seven percent of the national budget is allocated for health care.

He said raising that allocation to 15 percent would enable the country to develop the health sector, including infrastructure and surgical equipment. He said many more people should have access to health care but unfortunately the country has many other development priorities and only limited resources.

Back in the waters off Douala, flags fly on the Africa Mercy, the gigantic white vessel housing Mercy Ships’ mobile hospital. The flags represent some of the 40 nationalities of the medical staff and volunteers on board.

Warie Blackburn is the managing director of Mercy Ships. The U.S.-based charity has operated hospital ships in developing nations since 1978.

“About 3,000 people from Cameroon we are hoping to help surgically. In addition, we are also planning to help with the training of the doctors, the nurses and other health professionals,” said Blackburn.

She said they have selected the patients on the basis of need, focusing on surgeries that cannot be performed in local hospitals for lack of equipment and qualified staff. Such surgeries include tumor removal and repair of hernias, obstetric fistulas, cleft palates and cataracts.

The government of Cameroon is providing transportation, lodging and food for patients and their families while they receive care.

Mercy Ships hopes to train 1,000 local health care workers to do follow up care and help other patients before the ship raises anchor in June 2018.
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Trump Aide Kushner Renews Push for Mideast Peace

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White House aide Jared Kushner renewed talks Thursday on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the Trump administration tries to re-start a peace deal between the two increasingly impatient sides.

Kushner began the renewed effort by meeting with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and is scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“The president is very committed to achieving a solution here that will be able to bring prosperity and peace to all people in this area,” Kushner said in Jeruslaem.

Netanyahu said he and Kushner were set to talk about “how to advance peace, stability and security in our region” and he thinks “all of them are within our reach.”

Kushner is joined on the trip by Trump aide Jason Greenblatt and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell. The group has also held talks with Egyptian, Saudi, Emirati, Qatari and Jordanian officials.

Trump, in the past, has said he hopes to mediate the “ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians. He has espoused staunchly pro-Israel rhetoric during his campaign and presidency, but Palestinian leaders have held out hope a deal could be reached.

Now, they are growing increasingly impatient, and Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki on Thursday told the Voice of Palestine radio station the Palestinians would be seeking “clear answers” from Kushner during his visit.

“Their answers to these questions will enable us to say if we have a historical chance for a peace process that can end the occupation or these visits are no more than a waste of time,” Malki said.

Malki said he plans to ask Kushner about the U.S. position on Palestinian independence and Israeli settlements.
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UN: Islamic State Militants Holding 20,000 Civilians as Human Shields in Raqqa

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A senior United Nations official warns some 20,000 civilians held hostage by Islamic State in the Syrian city of Raqqa are in great danger and everything possible must be done to help them escape.

The special adviser to the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Jan Egeland, Thursday said the needs of thousands of civilians trapped in five Raqqa neighborhoods under Islamic State control are beyond belief.   

Egeland voices concern about their lack of protection as the military offensive to retake this Syrian city from IS intensifies. He says civilians are suffering large casualties from heavy shelling by the Syria government and the constant air raids by the U.S.-backed coalition forces.

“There seems to be no real escape for these civilians… I cannot think of a worse place on Earth now than in these five neighborhoods for these 20,000 people,” he said. 

Egeland says the U.N. is urging the humanitarian task force, including members of the coalition fighting to retake Raqqa, to do whatever is possible to help people escape the embattled city.

“People that come out cannot risk air raids when they come and where they come. Is this the time when you also announce a humanitarian pause, which we did for many other places, including in Aleppo and elsewhere,” he said. 

Egeland acknowledges the difficulties of enacting a humanitarian pause in the fighting to allow the civilians to flee. He says that is mainly because the U.N. has no negotiating partner in Raqqa, IS’s self-declared capital.  

Unlike other areas, such as Aleppo, where it has been possible to achieve a pause, he says the U.N. has no contact with Islamic State fighters who are deliberately using the civilians as human shields. According to rights group Amnesty International, hundreds of people have been killed or injured since the offensive to retake Raqqa from Islamic State began in June.

 

 

 

 
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Switzerland Indicts Woman For Attempting to Join Islamic State

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Switzerland’s attorney general’s office said Thursday it indicted a 30-year-old woman for trying to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State militant group.

A statement said the attorney general had evidence that the woman, who is a Swiss citizen, traveled two years ago with her four-year-old son from Egypt to Greece in an attempt to go further to Turkey and into Syria.

The woman was stopped by Greek authorities, and then later arrested in Zurich in January 2016 as she returned to Switzerland.

Her name was not released.

The attorney general’s office said in its statement that it has a strict policy of prosecuting what it called “Jihadi travelers.”
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As Syria War Tightens, US-Russian Military Hotlines Hum

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Even as tensions between the United States and Russia fester, there is one surprising place where their military-to-military contacts are quietly weathering the storm: Syria.

It has been four months since U.S. President Donald Trump ordered cruise missile strikes against a Syrian airfield after an alleged chemical weapons attack.

In June, the U.S. military shot down a Syrian fighter aircraft, the first U.S. downing of a manned jet since 1999, and also shot down two Iranian-made drones that threatened U.S.-led coalition forces.

All the while, U.S. and Russian military officials have been regularly communicating, U.S. officials told Reuters. Some of the contacts are helping draw a line on the map that separates U.S.- and Russian-backed forces waging parallel campaigns on Syria’s shrinking battlefields.

There is also a telephone hotline linking the former Cold War foes’ air operations centers. U.S. officials told Reuters that there now are about 10 to 12 calls a day on the hotline, helping keep U.S. and Russian warplanes apart as they support different fighters on the ground.

That is no small task, given the complexities of Syria’s civil war. Moscow backs the Syrian government, which also is aided by Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah as it claws back territory from Syrian rebels and Islamic State fighters.

The U.S. military is backing a collection of Kurdish and Arab forces focusing their firepower against Islamic State, part of a strategy to collapse the group’s self-declared “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq.

Conversations maintained

Reuters was given rare access to the U.S. Air Force’s hotline station, inside the Qatar-based Combined Air Operations Area, last week, including meeting two Russian linguists, both native speakers, who serve as the U.S. interface for conversations with Russian commanders.

While the conversations are not easy, contacts between the two sides have remained resilient, senior U.S. commanders said.

“The reality is we’ve worked through some very hard problems and, in general, we have found a way to maintain the deconfliction line [that separates U.S. and Russian areas of operation] and found a way to continue our mission,” Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, the top U.S. Air Force commander in the Middle East, said in an interview.

As both sides scramble to capture what is left of Islamic State’s caliphate, the risk of accidental contacts is growing.

“We have to negotiate, and sometimes the phone calls are tense. Because for us, this is about protecting ourselves, our coalition partners and destroying the enemy,” Harrigian said, without commenting on the volume of calls.

The risks of miscalculation came into full view in June, when the United States shot down a Syrian Su-22 jet that was preparing to fire on U.S.-backed forces on the ground.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said those were not the only aircraft in the area. As the incident unfolded, two Russian fighter jets looked on from above and a American F-22 stealth aircraft kept watch from an even higher altitude, they told Reuters.

After the incident, Moscow publicly warned it would consider any planes flying west of the Euphrates River to be targets. But the U.S. military kept flying in the area, and kept talking with Russia.

“The Russians have been nothing but professional, cordial and disciplined,” Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the Iraq-based commander of the U.S.-led coalition, told Reuters.

Dividing line

In Syria, U.S.-backed forces are now consumed with the battle to capture Islamic State’s former capital of Raqqa. More than half the city has been retaken from Islamic State.

Officials said talks were underway to extend a demarcation line that has been separating U.S.- and Russian-backed fighters on the ground as fighting pushes toward Islamic State’s last major Syrian stronghold, the Deir ez-Zor region.

The line runs in an irregular arc from a point southwest of Tabqa east to a point on the Euphrates River and then down along the Euphrates River in the direction of Deir ez-Zor, they said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, during a visit to Jordan this week, said the line was important as U.S.- and Russian-backed forces come in closer proximity of each other. “We do not do that [communication] with the [Syrian] regime. It is with the Russians, is who we’re dealing with,” Mattis said. “We continue those procedures right on down the Euphrates River Valley.”

Bisected by the Euphrates River, Deir ez-Zor and its oil resources are critical to the Syrian state.

The province is largely in the hands of Islamic State, but has become a priority for pro-Syrian forces. It also is in the cross hairs of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

SDF spokesman Talal Silo told Reuters last week that there would be an SDF campaign toward Deir ez-Zor “in the near future,” though the SDF was still deciding whether it would be delayed until Raqqa was fully taken from Islamic State.
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Girl Scouts Accuse Boy Scouts of Trying to Steal Away Girl Recruits

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The Girl Scouts are taking on the Boy Scouts.

The Girls Scouts of the United States of America is accusing the Boy Scouts of America of a “covert campaign to recruit girls into programs run by the Boy Scouts,” according to a letter by the Girl Scouts’ president.

“We were disappointed in the lack of transparency as we learned that you are surreptitiously testing the appeal of a girls’ offering to millennial parents,” Girl Scouts President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan wrote in her letter to Boy Scouts President Randall Stephenson. “Furthermore, it is inherently dishonest to claim to be a single-gender organization while simultaneously endeavoring upon a coed model.”

Top leaders of the two youth organizations, both struggling to stem membership declines, conferred this month about possibilities for coordination. But Hopinkah Hannan, in her letter, said she came away from that discussion feeling the Boy Scouts had already committed to an expansion of coed programs that would damage the Girl Scouts.

The letter was first reported by BuzzFeed News.

The Boy Scouts said in a statement to The Washington Post they are considering including girls in their ranks, not to boost their numbers but in response to requests from families who want their daughters to be a part of the same organization as their sons.

“The Boy Scouts of America believes in the benefit of single-gender programs,” Effie Delimarkos, director of national communications for the Boy Scouts, said in a statement.

“Considering how many young girls and boys are not currently served by either of our programs, we believe we owe it to families to explore how we may be able to structure program offerings that fit into their busy lives, to deliver character development and values-based leadership training,” Delimarkos’ statement said.

Both organizations have been losing members in recent years.

The Girl Scouts’ membership fell from a peak of more than 3.8 million in 2003 to 2.8 million in 2014. The Boy Scouts said current youth participation is about 2.35 million, down from 2.6 million in 2013, after a peak of more than 4 million in years past.

Some women outside the Girl Scouts have lobbied the Boy Scouts to include girls.

In February, after the 107-year-old Boy Scouts organization announced it would admit transgender children in its scouting programs, the National Organization for Women called on the group to “honor its decree to help all children by permitting girls to gain full membership.” 

NOW said it was inspired by the efforts of a 15-year-old New York City girl, Sydney Ireland, to emulate her older brother, who is an Eagle Scout.

Unlike the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts have maintained girls-only status for all their programs; the empowerment of girls is at the core of their mission.
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Angolans Vote for Dos Santos’s Successor

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On Wednesday, Angola’s longtime president did something he hasn’t done in decades: He voted for someone else.

Just after 9 a.m., retiring President Jose Eduardo dos Santos shuffled slowly through a side entrance of Luanda’s polling station 1047, at the law school named after his predecessor, Angola’s first president, Agostinho Neto, who died in 1979.

After dos Santos cast his ballot, he slowly shuffled out, accompanied by his entourage. The 74-year-old head of state and government did not speak to reporters and ignored VOA’s question about whom he had voted for.

But he has made his choice clear.

“I am here,” dos Santos told a massive crowd during the final pre-election rally of the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, “to support our candidate.”

And as a man accused of bending this oil-rich nation to his will for 38 years, it’s likely his chosen successor, Defense Minister Joao Lourenco, will prevail. The MPLA was widely predicted to win Wednesday’s election to choose a new National Assembly, whose 220 members will elect the next president.

​Voting was calm, orderly

Observers and the electoral commission said the election was calm and orderly. Unofficial results could emerge by Friday, but full, official voting results may not be available until next month.

“I think that the election was very much peaceful, orderly, and the act started on time and closed on time” observer Joaquim Chissano, Mozambique’s former president, told VOA at a polling station in the capital. He also said the vote was “very free, indeed.”

The preliminary results Chissano observed at a polling station in central Luanda showed the ruling party winning by a comfortable margin. However, the two main opposition parties — the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, and Broad Convergence for the Salvation of Angola Electoral Coalition, or CASA-CE — have complained about irregularities during preparations for the vote.

They accused the ruling party of using government vehicles and resources for campaigning and said it received preferential treatment by the state broadcaster. The MPLA has denied any irregularities.

​Africa’s No. 2 oil producer

Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer, but the next president will inherit a country beset by high unemployment and inflation so dire that the black-market exchange rate for dollars is twice the official rate. Dos Santos has repeatedly been accused of flagrant corruption, and his children run several powerful state enterprises. Meanwhile, the majority of Angola’s 28 million people live in grinding poverty, without basic services.

Anger over this inequality propelled many voters to act, like Esperanca Francisco Domingos, 42: “Today is my first time voting, because I was never interested in voting and I never knew the value of voting.

“And today, I voted for change,” Domingos said. “I voted for change because everybody says that we have to vote for change. … And let’s see, as time goes by, if our lives change. Because we haven’t seen any change and we are suffering.”

Others, like 62-year-old Maria Boaventura, were more optimistic as they cast their ballots.

“I think there are better prospects,” she said. “It seems that there will be more transparency.”

Many first-time voters

Angola’s population is young, with a median age of just more than 18 years, and growing rapidly. Many of the 9.3 million registered voters were casting ballots for the first time.

Investors feel the next president must take steps to boost the private sector, implement fiscal reforms and improve transparency.

“While we expect broad continuity, investors will be hoping to see further measures to improve transparency and boost the private sector,” said Stuart Culverhouse, global head of macro and fixed income research at Exotix Capital, an investment bank specializing in “frontier and emerging markets.”

Culverhouse said Angola needs fiscal reforms, along with “an exchange-rate adjustment to correct macro imbalances built up since the decline in oil prices.”

Voters said one of their main interests was ending the high level of perceived corruption. A 65-year-old casting his ballot, Adolfo Macuanga, condemned the dos Santos family’s lavish lifestyle and the government’s failure to support Angolans who fought during the 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.

​War veterans say, ‘We have nothing’

“His son bought an $5,000 watch in London,” Macuanga said of President dos Santos. “And those of us who fought for the country, what do we have? Nothing.”

Economic issues have been the focus of debate among the six political parties contesting the election. MPLA’s Lourenco has promised to diversify the economy to reduce the dominance of the oil sector, which accounts for 45 percent of Angola’s gross domestic product and 95 percent of its export revenues. The leading opposition UNITA party has pledged to crack down on corruption and welcome foreign investment.

But for many voters, this election also marked a novel opportunity, to do as the president did: vote for someone new.

“It is an ambitious election,” said 55-year-old Joao Malungo, adding: “I am honored to vote in my country.”
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Not Just the Confederacy: Historic Statues, Monuments Native Americans Cite as Racist

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In the wake of racial violence in Virginia sparked by the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, cities across America have removed or relocated a number statues and monuments that speak to a history of racism in the United States. But Native American commentators say far less attention is given to monuments commemorating historic figures responsible for centuries of violence and suppression of their ancestors.

• Christopher Columbus, Baltimore, Maryland

The first monument to the Italian explorer was erected in 1792 to mark the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ so-called “discovery” of America. Dozens of Columbus monuments exist across the U.S. Native Americans view him as the man who opened the door to the genocide of their ancestors.

• Pioneer Monument in San Francisco, California

This granite and bronze statue, completed in 1897 by sculptor F.H. Happersberger, depicts a half-naked “Indian” sitting submissively at the feet of a Spanish settler and a Catholic priest. Spanish Franciscan missionary priests set up missions across California, where they imposed their faith upon “heathen Indians,” often by force. Later, Catholic boarding schools were the chief instrument of forced assimilation into Christianity and Western culture.

• The Bear Hunt Statue, erected at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, was sculpted in 1892 by Douglas Tilden.

It depicts two Native American men – again, half-naked – locked in combat with a mother bear. “Tilden’s ‘Indian’ was crafted in the same historical era as a number of other artworks that conveyed Native images as the defeated warrior, the primitive, and subhuman,” wrote sociologist Richard Clark Eckert, a deaf member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, in Indian Country Today in 2014. He also quoted a member of the Koyukon Tribe’s Caribou Clan as saying, “No Indian would be so dumb as to walk into a mother bear with cubs.”

• The Junipero Serra statue at the Mission Santa Ines in Solvang, California

Serra is known as the man who brought Christianity to California 300 years ago, founding nearly two dozen missions set up to convert and “civilize” tribal people. Tribes see nothing to celebrate: Historic documentation shows that Serra – who was named a saint in 2015 – enslaved and tortured Native Americans into abandoning their religions and culture.

• Andrew Jackson Monument, Washington, D.C.

Sculpted in 1852 by Clark Mills, the statue is dedicated to the controversial seventh U.S. president. Jackson oversaw the forced removal of Creeks and Cherokee from their homelands in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee along a westward “Trail of Tears” in which thousands of tribal people died. His action paved the way for the cotton industry in the South, built on the backs of African slaves. “And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his home than the settled, civilized Christian?” Jackson asked at the time.

• George Armstrong Custer Equestrian Monument, located in Custer’s hometown of Monroe, Michigan

Custer was defeated by Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors in the Battle of Little Bighorn, or “Greasy Grass,” as the Plains tribes call it. Originally celebrated as a great American hero, Custer’s reputation has tarnished over time. He ordered an Army attack on a village of 10,000 Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho camped along the Little Big Horn River, killing hundreds of their horses. Tribal warriors struck back, wiping out Custer’s army. Custer had earlier discovered gold in the Black Hills and historians say he was driven by a desire to violate an 1868 treaty and drive the Lakota onto reservations.

• Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Keystone, South Dakota

This sculpture was carved directly into the face of a mountain in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, in treaty land retaken by the U.S. government. The resulting legal dispute continues today. Carved into the face of a mountain Sioux tribes call “Six Grandfathers,” the memorial depicts four U.S. presidents — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. “Carving icons of presidents who were known for their insensitivity to Indian issues into a living sacred mountain would be similar to painting anti-Christian graffiti inside of a cathedral, or anti-Semitic symbols inside a synagogue,” reads a post in Native American Netroots blog.

• Don Juan de Onate Statue, El Paso, Texas

Eleven meters tall on a two-and-a-half-meter base, the world’s largest bronze equestrian statue was sculpted by John Sherrill Houser to honor the conquistador who established the colony of New Mexico for Spain in the late 16th century. He is best known for a punitive two-day expedition against the Ancoma Pueblo, in which as many as 1,000 Acoma died “by fire and bloodshed.” The $2-million statue was erected in 2006 at the El Paso International Airport where, it was believed, it would escape vandalism; a few years earlier, Native American activists removed the right foot off of a smaller statue of Onate in north Espanola, New Mexico, a reference to the fact that de Onate once ordered his men to cut off the feet of all Acoma men over the age of 25.
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Trump’s NAFTA Termination Comment Falls Flat in Arizona

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President Donald Trump’s comments at a Phoenix rally that he will probably end up terminating the North American Free Trade Agreement brought cheers from the crowd but groans from the state’s top business group.

Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Glenn Hamer posted a video calling any termination a “terrible mistake” within hours of Trump’s remarks Tuesday night. Hamer is in Mexico on a trade mission with a bipartisan delegation of about two dozen state lawmakers.

 

“It would be a mistake that the administration would feel each and every day,” Hamer said. “And why would that be? The administration has set a noble goal of 3 percent growth. You can’t get there if your start unraveling trade agreements.

 

“You need good tax policy, you need good regulatory policy and you need good trade policy,” he said.

Trump hints NAFTA is done

Trump said at the campaign-style rally that he believes Mexico and Canada are coming out ahead on the 23-year-old trade agreement. Renegotiations began in recent weeks.

 

“Personally, I don’t think we can make a deal, because we have been so badly taken advantage of,” Trump said. “I think we’ll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point, OK? Probably.”

Modernizing agreement

Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain have called for modernizing an agreement they say has brought huge benefits for Arizonans.

 

Flake has put on a full court press in recent months, launched an effort in May to highlight what he calls the agreement’s “huge boon to Arizona and the U.S.” He’s put out videos featuring people and businesses that have benefited from the trade pact.

On Wednesday, he said he won’t stop that effort.

“I will continue to speak up for the countless Arizonans whose jobs and businesses rely on the billions of dollars that NAFTA injects into our state’s economy,” Flake said in a statement.

 
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Pence in Florida: US Won’t Stand By as Venezuela Crumbles

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Vice President Mike Pence addressed a sympathetic crowd of Venezuelans in South Florida on Wednesday and pledged the U.S. will use its economic and diplomatic power to push for free elections.

 

Pence spoke at a church in the city of Doral, the exile enclave, to a crowd of about 300. They occasionally shouted “freedom, freedom” and cheered every time the vice president spoke of President Donald Trump’s interest in Venezuela, a socialist nation that has been undergoing an economic crisis.

 

“Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the United States of America will continue to bring the full measure of American economic and diplomatic power to bear until democracy is restored in Venezuela,” Pence said, threatening there were more sanctions to come against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

‘We stand with you’

 
As other countries in Latin America have improved their economies, Venezuela has gone downhill, Pence said, calling Maduro’s presidency, a “dictatorship.”

 

“We hear you, we stand with you. We will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles,” Pence said.

 

A woman held a sign at the event that read, “Venezuelan resistance asks for military resistance. We can’t do it alone,” an apparent reference to Trump’s remarks earlier this month that there was a possibility for the U.S. to invade Venezuela.

 

Last week, Pence visited Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama in an attempt to rally the region against Venezuela, but because of Trump’s comments, the vice president switched to damage control to soothe fears in a region scarred by past U.S. invasions.

In South Florida, Pence found a supportive and grateful crowd.

 

Earlier on Wednesday, Pence met with 15 Venezuelan exiles in South Florida who said more help is needed to restore democracy in the socialist regime.

 

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, and Republicans Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart joined Pence in listening to testimonies of established leaders of the Venezuelan diaspora and recently exiled politicians and judges.

 

‘A criminal state’

Ramon Muchacho was the mayor of the municipality of Chacao since 2013 but fled in July, saying he was being persecuted by the government.

 

“There is no way to get [the government] out by democratic means,” Muchacho said, pleading for more help from Latin America, the U.S. and Europe.

 

Two other mayors told Pence the U.S. government should impose more sanctions.

 

Carlos Vecchio, a well-known leader of an opposition party, said that Venezuela is a failed state that criminals had taken control of.

 

“It is a criminal state,” Vecchio said. “It is led by a mafia involved in drug trafficking and close to terrorist groups.”

 

Alejandro Jesus Rebolledo, a Venezuelan judge who fled the country recently, also accused the government of crimes such as money laundering and drug trafficking.

 

The country’s vice president, Tareck El Aissami, was sanctioned by the Trump administration in February after being accused of running a drug trafficking network of corrupt officials in Venezuela. More recently, Washington slapped sanctions on Maduro and other top officials involved in the installation of a new, all-powerful constitutional assembly.

 

During the meeting, Ernesto Ackerman, a local leader of Venezuelan-Americans, approached Pence and gave him a black hat with the colors of the Venezuelan flag. It read, “Make Venezuela Great Again.”
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Northern Mali State Governor Returns as Part of Cease-fire

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Rival armed groups in northern Mali agreed to the return of a state governor to the desert city of Kidal for the first time in years as part of a ceasefire deal

signed on Wednesday after weeks of fighting.

The return of Governor Sidi Mohamed Ag Ichrach follows a truce among fighters drawn mostly from competing Tuareg clans involved in remote desert battles since July that have killed dozens.

The clashes have undermined a Western-backed peace process in the country and complicated efforts to counter al-Qaida-linked militants.

Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the United Nations mission in Mali, said the truce had been agreed between CMA, an alliance of separatist groups seeking autonomy for a region of northern Mali, and Platform, their pro-government opponents.

The deal signed in the capital Bamako amid jokes and handshakes envisages a ceasefire for an initial period of 15 days. The U.N. and Mali’s government helped broker it.

“We hope that his [Ag Ichrach’s] presence in Kidal will contribute to advancing the implementation of the peace agreement and addressing populations’ needs,” Achouri said.

The latest upsurge in fighting around the strategic city of Kidal, which lies on a nexus of desert trade routes, marks the resumption of decades-old score-settling between the semi-nomadic clans that has continued despite a 2015 peace agreement.

Mediators at the time said that the peace accord would allow Malian and French troops to counter an Islamist insurgency led by jihadists who briefly seized north Mali in 2012. Instead, their attacks on Western and Malian targets have increased.

Interim state authorities have already returned to other north Malian towns as part of the implementation of the deal.

But progress had stalled over Kidal, which is prized by both sides and has changed hands several times.

There has been no permanent state presence in Kidal since 2014, when the governor fled after a visiting government delegation came under fire from angry CMA fighters.

International Committee of the Red Cross field coordinator Assem Elessawy told Reuters thousands of people had been displaced by fighting that resumed in July, and has since led to the CMA seizing back significant territory from its rivals.

Forty people injured in the battles have been treated in hospitals in Gao and Kidal, Elessawy added.

Senior CMA official Attaye Ag Mohamed told Reuters the group still held dozens of Platform prisoners but had released nine child soldiers.

A spokesman for Platform could not be reached for comment.
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Angolans Will Elect a New President, But Reform Seen Unlikely

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Angolans voted for a new parliament and president on Wednesday, but many say the balance of power in Africa’s fifth-largest economy is unlikely to shift.

Outgoing President José Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled the country for 38 years, has left in place safeguards to ensure his legacy and influence, including the continued role of his daughter, Isabel dos Santos, as chief executive of the oil-rich nation’s energy company, Sonangol.

Dos Santos will also remain leader of Angola’s ruling party, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA. Last month, the MPLA-controlled parliament enacted a law that will prevent the incoming president from removing heads of the country’s army, security and intelligence services until 2025.

A victory by the opposition would be a massive upset. The MPLA has ruled Angola since it won independence in 1975. In the 2008 election, the party won nearly 82 percent of the vote. In the 2012 election, it won nearly 72 percent.

In stark contrast, the most powerful opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, received less than 20 percent of the vote in those two elections.

“I don’t believe there is a chance of any change of power, except if the opposition parties are able to put their delegates in every electoral precinct,” Luaty Beirão, a prominent Angolan activist and musician, recently told VOA Portuguese. “If they can be able to monitor and control the whole process before and after the actual voting act, then maybe the result can be more balanced.”

Economy, infrastructure

Despite such predictions, there have been warning signs that Angolans are not happy with the MPLA.

Angolan investigative journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, a longtime critic of the government, reported that the office of the presidency commissioned a poll earlier this month to gauge people’s sentiments ahead of the election.

For the ruling party, the results were damning. Just 38 percent felt the MPLA would win the election, while 91 percent believed MPLA leadership acted in its own interest, and a similar number said the government’s performance was “bad” or “very bad.”

Brazilian firm Sensus Pesquisa e Consultoria conducted the survey of 9,000 people in all 18 provinces, according to Marques de Morais.

The dissatisfaction most likely stems from economic concerns and perceived government wrongdoing.

Because of falling oil prices, Angola’s economy has declined sharply since 2014. Three years ago, the country’s gross domestic product was nearly $127 billion. Since then, it’s decreased by nearly 30 percent. Last year, Sudan’s GDP surpassed Angola’s for the first time in over a decade.

Even when the economy was booming, most regular Angolans did not reap any benefits from the oil riches. Rather than build infrastructure or improve basic health services, opposition groups say, government officials diverted funds into their own bank accounts.

“Health and education were left completely unattended and, above all, there is the phenomena that overlays any other, which is corruption,” Beirão said.

Fair election?

During the campaign, opposition parties also questioned the fairness of the election process. Sylvia Croese, a research fellow at the African Center for Cities and the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town, told World Politics Review, an international affairs publication, that promises of equal treatment weren’t being met.

“There is significant concern in Angolan civil society about the ability of opposition parties to make their voices heard,” she said. “For instance, all parties are entitled to receive about $1 million from the state for campaign purposes, but the opposition only received them in July, with the elections slated for August 23.”

All parties are guaranteed equal airtime on public media to campaign, Croese said, but independent research showed that the MPLA received far more coverage on both public and private media. “Opposition parties, especially UNITA, have repeatedly denounced and protested the National Election Commission’s absence of transparency and accountability,” Croese said.

Between the 2008 and 2012 elections, a time when the economy was booming, political engagement shrank. Voter turnout decreased by 25 percent, despite increases in both registered voters and the overall population.

But before this election, many Angolans expressed enthusiasm about voting, partly because they could choose a new president. About 93 percent of the population, those 54 and younger, weren’t yet born or were only children when dos Santos first rose to power. Dos Santos is almost the only president they’ve ever known.

For Angolans, that made Wednesday’s election an unprecedented chance to vote for a new leader. Substantive change, however, is far from certain.

Barbara Santos, James Butty and Mariano Bartolomeu contributed to this report.
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Egypt’s Top Islamic Religious Leaders Work to Promote Moderate Vision of Islam

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Al Azhar University, Egypt’s venerable seat of Islamic law, has been working to portray a more modern image of Islam to counter the violent versions being espoused by Islamic State, al-Qaida and other militant groups. Efforts by Al Azhar religious authorities to control the tenor of Islamic religious edicts or “fatwas” are part of the strategy that moderate forces are using to battle clerics espousing death and violence. Edward Yeranian reports for VOA from Cairo.
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Trans-Alaska Pipeline Celebrates 40 Years

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Oil is the main revenue source in Alaska. This year, the trans-Alaska pipeline celebrated 40 years of service. From Alaska, VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya looks at the history of North America’s largest oil field.
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Themes From President Trump’s Phoenix Rally

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President Donald Trump talked about shared American values, the media, the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, and America’s history, including the Confederacy.
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No US-Russia Cyber Unit Without Telling Congress, Bill Says

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U.S. President Donald Trump would be required to notify U.S. lawmakers before creating a joint U.S.-Russia cybersecurity unit, an idea that has drawn criticism across the political spectrum, under legislation advancing in Congress.

The proposal, if it becomes law, would be the latest in a series of maneuvers by Congress that either limit the president’s authority on Russia matters or rebuke his desire to warm relations with Moscow.

A provision contained within the annual Intelligence Authorization Act and passed by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee 14-1 would require the Trump administration to provide Congress with a report describing what intelligence would be shared with Russia, any counterintelligence concerns and how those concerns would be addressed.

Election meddling

The bill, which grants congressional approval for clandestine operations carried out by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies, passed the Senate Intelligence Committee in July, but its text was only recently made public because it involves sensitive intelligence operations.

Trump last month said via Twitter that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed establishing “an impenetrable Cyber Security unit” to address issues like the risk of cyber meddling in elections.

Trump quickly backpedaled on the idea, which was criticized by Democrats, senior Republicans and the National Security Agency director.

The White House and Senator Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the intelligence panel, were not immediately available for comment on the bill.

Warmer Russia relations

Trump wants to improve relations with Russia, a desire that has been hamstrung by the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Republican Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

U.S. congressional panels and a special counsel are investigating the interference and possible collusion between Russia and members of Trump’s campaign. Moscow has denied any meddling and Trump has denied any collusion.

Previous checks on Trump

Previously, Congress tied the president’s hands on Russia by passing a bill that Trump cannot ease the sanctions against Russia unless he seeks congressional approval. 

In August, the Senate blocked Trump from being able to make recess appointments while lawmakers were on break, fearing the president would fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his handling of the Russian probe.

Lawmakers have also introduced legislation to stop Trump from having the ability to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed to determine whether there was collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Moscow.

The annual Intelligence Authorization Act requires approval by the full Senate and House and the president’s signature before it can become law. No vote has been scheduled and the last act was passed by Congress in March.

The legislation’s provision requiring notification of any U.S.-Russia cybersecurity unit was pushed by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, his office said Tuesday.

Wyden also helped secure provisions in the bill that call for an intelligence report assessing the threat posed to the United States by Russian money laundering and another report examining whether cyber vulnerabilities in U.S. cell networks, including a known bug in the global mobile network Signaling System No. 7, or SS7, are being exploited by foreign governments to conduct surveillance on Americans.

Wyden was the lone committee vote against the bill, however.

He said in a statement Tuesday that he objected to language that identified the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service” because doing so could have implications for journalists.
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Report: Navy to Relieve 7th Fleet Commander After Collisions

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The U.S. Navy will relieve Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin after a series of collisions involving its warships in Asia, a U.S. official told Reuters, as the search goes on for 10 sailors missing since the latest mishap.

“An expedited change in leadership was needed,” the official said in Washington Tuesday of the decision to relieve Aucoin of his command.

The Navy declined to comment on any plans to relieve Aucoin, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The official told Reuters that Admiral Scott Swift, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, would relieve Aucoin, a three-star admiral, when the two meet in Japan.

It was not clear when the formal announcement would be made. The Seventh Fleet is headquartered in Japan.

Commander scheduled to step down

Aucoin was scheduled to step down next month, with Phillip Sawyer, deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet and a submariner, slated to succeed him. Aucoin came up through the Navy’s air wing as an F-14 navigator.

The move to replace Aucoin comes days after the collision between a guided-missile destroyer and a merchant vessel east of Singapore and Malaysia before dawn Monday, the fourth major incident in the U.S. Pacific Fleet this year.

An international search-and-rescue operation involving aircraft, divers and vessels from the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia is looking for the 10 U.S. sailors missing since the accident.

Remains found aboard damaged ship

On Tuesday, U.S. Navy and Marine Divers found human remains inside sealed sections of the damaged hull of the USS John S McCain, which is moored at Singapore’s Changi Naval Base. The Navy has not yet announced the identities of the bodies discovered.

The U.S. Navy is also working to identify a body found by the Malaysian navy about eight nautical miles northwest of the collision site.

The latest collision has prompted a fleetwide investigation and plans for temporary halts in U.S. Navy operations.

The USS John S. McCain’s sister ship, the USS Fitzgerald, almost sank off the coast of Japan after colliding with a Philippine container ship June 17. The bodies of seven U.S. sailors were found in a flooded berthing area after that collision.

The USS John S. McCain and the tanker Alnic MC collided Monday while the U.S. ship was approaching Singapore on a routine port call. The impact tore a hole in the warship’s port side at the waterline, flooding compartments that included a crew sleeping area.
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Trump Hints at Amnesty for Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio

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U.S. President Donald Trump gave the strongest indication at a campaign-style rally in Arizona late Tuesday that he will pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an immigration hard-liner who was recently convicted of contempt of court for ignoring a judicial order to halt his immigration patrols.

“The most sacred duty of government is to protect the lives of its citizens and that includes securing our borders and enforcing our immigration laws,” Trump told supporters.

“Do the people in this room like Sheriff Joe Arpaio? So was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job? He should have had a jury, but you know what, I’ll make a prediction, I think he’ll be just fine, OK? But I won’t do it tonight, because I don’t want to cause any controversy, is that OK? But Sheriff Joe can feel good.”

Border Patrol meeting

Before the political event in the state’s capital city, the president headed to a Marine Corps base in Yuma, along the U.S. border with Mexico. At the main base of operations for the Yuma sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, he inspected enforcement aircraft, including a drone and a helicopter.

The stop was intended to allow Trump to “evaluate USBP operational results, policy initiatives and personnel morale in the lead-up to fiscal year 2018,” an administration official told reporters before the visit began.

WATCH: Trump on former Arizona Sheriff Arpaio

In addition, Trump was discussing “future legislative efforts to support USBP, such as Kate’s Law, the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, the border wall, and funding for ICE and Border Patrol agents.” 

“You’ve seen it, you’ve lived it, and you elected me to put a stop to it. We are doing a phenomenal job putting a stop to it. That I can tell you,” Trump said during the late night rally.

“Years of uncontrolled immigration have placed enormous pressure on the wages of working families and they’ve put great burdens on local schools and hospitals,” he added.
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US: Does UN Check Iran Military Sites Under Nuclear Deal?

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The United States wants to know if the United Nations atomic watchdog plans to inspect Iranian military sites to verify Tehran’s compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Tuesday.

Haley will meet with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials in Vienna Wednesday for what she described as a fact-finding mission, which is part of President Donald Trump’s review of the deal Iran made with world powers to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of most sanctions.

“If you look … at past Iranian behavior, what you’ve seen is there have been covert actions at military sites, at universities, things like that,” Haley, a member of Trump’s Cabinet, told Reuters in an interview.

“There were already issues in those locations, so are they including that in what they look at to make sure that those issues no longer remain?” she said. “They have the authority to look at military sites now. They have the authority to look at any suspicious sites now, it’s just are they doing it?”

Fact-finding only

She said she was traveling to Vienna to ask questions, not to push the IAEA to do anything.

Iran’s top authorities have flatly rejected giving international inspectors access to their military sites, and Iranian officials have told Reuters that any such move would trigger harsh consequences.

“Why would they say that if they had nothing to hide? Why wouldn’t they let the IAEA go there?” Haley said.

Iran’s atomic chief was quoted by state media as saying Tuesday that Iran could resume production of highly enriched uranium within five days if the nuclear deal was revoked.

Review ordered in April

In April, Trump ordered a review of whether a suspension of sanctions on Iran related to the nuclear deal — negotiated under President Barack Obama — was in the U.S. national security interest. He has called it “the worst deal ever negotiated.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned last week that Iran could abandon the nuclear agreement “within hours” if the United States imposes any more new sanctions.

Most U.N. and Western sanctions were lifted 18 months ago under the nuclear deal. Iran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions, which are not technically part of the deal.

The IAEA polices restrictions the deal placed on Iran’s nuclear activities and reports quarterly.

Haley said some of the questions she had were: “Are you looking at everything? Are you looking at those places where there has been covert activity in the past? Are you able to get access to these areas? Or are you being delayed? Are you being shut out from those things?”

Congress must be notified

Under U.S. law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal. The next deadline is October, and Trump has said he thinks by then the United States will declare Iran to be noncompliant.

“We don’t know if he’s going to certify or decertify the deal,” said Haley, adding that she would report back to Trump and the national security team.

The U.S. review of its policy toward Iran is also looking at Tehran’s behavior in the Middle East, which Washington has said undermines U.S. interests in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believes the Iran nuclear deal is “one of the most important diplomatic achievements in our search for, for peace and stability,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday.

“Everyone involved needs to do its utmost to protect and support that agreement,” Dujarric told reporters.
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UN Official Sees Genocide Threat in Central African Republic

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U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien said Tuesday he saw “the early warnings of genocide” during a recent visit to Central African Republic, which has faced sectarian fighting since 2013.

He said in an interview with The Associated Press that “there’s a terrible development of militias now using ethnic or religious” reasons for attacks. He spoke with AP after briefing the U.N. Security Council on his trip behind closed doors at the request of France.

During a visit to the southeastern town of Bangassou last month, O’Brien said, he saw 2,000 Muslims trapped in a Catholic church where they fled after their homes were burned by mostly Christian anti-Balaka militiamen who were “just lying in wait to kill them if they tried to move.” By contrast, he said, “every Christian family’s house was left standing.”

Central African Republic, one of the world’s most impoverished nations, has been wracked by violence since predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels overthrew the Christian president in 2013 and seized power. Anti-Balaka militias fought back, resulting in thousands of deaths, the displacement of hundreds of thousands more and the flight of many Muslims to the country’s north or across the border into Chad and Cameroon.

Despite peaceful elections in early 2016, violence has continued. Sectarian fighting has moved into the country’s central and southeastern regions, prompting warnings of a national conflict roaring back to life. More than 300 people have been killed and over 100,000 displaced since May.

‘Early warnings are there’

O’Brien’s report to the Security Council follows a warning from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in late July that hard-won gains toward lasting peace in Central African Republic are threatened by fighting in the country’s southeast and heightened ethnic tensions.

But the U.N. humanitarian chief went further on Tuesday, saying: “The early warnings of genocide are there.”

O’Brien noted Central African Republic is twice the size of France, with only 1,300 kilometers (810 miles) of paved roads and just over 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers mandated to protect civilians.

He said that “there are massive flare-ups” not only in Bangassou but in Obo and Bria, also in the southeast, and “the concern is that there’s no control.”

“The escalation is very real,” O’Brien said. “We’re looking at things which we haven’t heard about for a long time. There’s a very deep ethnic cleansing approach.”

Peacekeepers targeted

He said he felt very strongly it was his special duty to tell the Security Council what he saw in Bangassou, where U.N. peacekeeping troops from the Muslim country of Morocco are based. Those peacekeepers “were being described as a legitimate target by the various [Christian] militias who saw them as partial to protecting the Muslim community they were trying to get rid of,” he said.

O’Brien said the response to the Moroccan peacekeepers was “totally wrong,” saying the U.N. force is there to protect all civilians, regardless of their backgrounds.

He said all Security Council members are deeply concerned about escalating ethnic tensions and violence in the Central African Republic.

O’Brien said the government controls only the capital of Bangui and the surrounding area, leaving a pressing need for finding “a way of enforcing some sort of government authority” everywhere. The international community also must find “a very clear, practical methodology to get these individuals to lay down their arms,” he said.

As for humanitarian aid, he said, increased donations are necessary for helping those forced from their homes by the conflict.
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US Cuts, Delays $300 Million in Aid to Egypt, Citing Rights

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The Trump administration on Tuesday cut nearly $100 million in military and economic aid to Egypt and delayed almost $200 million more in military financing to Egypt, pending human rights improvements and action to ease harsh restrictions on civic and other non-governmental groups.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had decided to withhold $65.7 million in military assistance and $30 million in economic aid to Egypt that has been on hold since fiscal 2014, the officials said. That money will be reprogrammed, meaning it will now be sent to other countries, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Congress had not been formally notified of the decision.

At the same time, the officials said Rex Tillerson had signed a waiver saying that $195 million in military assistance to Egypt is in the U.S. national interest but had decided to hold off on spending it. Under federal law, Tillerson had until the end of this fiscal year, Sept. 30, to either sign the waiver, certify that Egypt is meeting the human rights conditions or return the money to the Treasury.

The waiver gives Egypt additional time to meet the requirements for the $195 million, which Congress appropriated for fiscal year 2016.

The officials stressed that the U.S. continues to consider Egypt a key strategic partner but that it remains seriously concerned about a lack of progress on the human rights front, including the passage of the new law on non-governmental organizations that has been widely criticized for being excessive and being used to crack down on opposition.

The $195 million will be held in reserve until Egypt makes progress in those areas, the officials said.
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Flexibility, Planning Cut Somali Famine Threat, Report Says

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People suffering in Somalia’s latest drought have fared better when donors deftly shift funding to emergency projects that help residents save money and stockpile food, a charity said Tuesday.

Severe drought in the Horn of Africa nation is expected to deepen until the October rainy season, and humanitarians are racing to avoid a repeat of the 2011 famine when more than 250,000 people died of starvation.

Funding from major donors, including the United States, Britain and the European Union, has been used effectively in Somalia for community warehousing of food and for savings and loan programs, the rights group Refugees International said in a report.

Flexible use of that funding allowed agencies in Somalia to switch to emergency preparedness projects once it became clear in June 2016 that the drought would be prolonged, it said.

It was easier for donors to send funds to agencies in Somalia because they already had contracts in place, it said.

“By acting early to heed pre-famine warnings, the humanitarian community in Somalia and donors were able to stabilize what could have been a catastrophic situation,” it said.

“Many of the target communities were better able to maintain food security, preserve their assets and avoid having to flee to other areas during the drought.”

More than 6 million Somalis — about half the country’s population — need emergency aid, the United Nations says.

Another sign of progress since the 2011 famine is that the government’s national development plan and the U.N.’s humanitarian appeal included long-term resilience projects, Refugees International said.

Along with a shift to longer-term planning, Somalia needs a stronger government and peace to end its recurrent hunger crises, Mark Yarnell, a senior advocate with Refugees International, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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Kenyan Voters Starting to Shun Handouts Culture, Youngest MP Says

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A 23-year-old university student, who broke the mould of Kenya’s corrupt political system by getting elected to parliament after a campaign conducted on foot, says Kenyans are gradually learning not to choose leaders who simply buy their vote.

John Paul Mwirigi, was elected this month to the rural constituency of Igembe South, at the foot of Mount Kenya, beating four well-funded candidates, who roared around the tea and banana farming area in convoys of sleek four-by-four vehicles.

Works at tea factory

Mwirigi, who supported himself by casual employment at a tea factory before launching his campaign as an independent, said he had had to educate the electorate on the dangers of voting for candidates who give them handouts.

“I explained to them that a leader who is giving them a lot of money, that leader will not deliver but what he will do first is just take back his money, then he will stay for five years without doing anything for them,” he told Reuters by phone.

He is now Kenya’s youngest member of parliament.

Transparency campaigners says the East African nation has a history of high profile corruption in which ill-gotten proceeds are used to sway voters in general elections every five years.

Boniface Mwangi, a well known anti-corruption activist who ran for a parliamentary seat in the capital Nairobi, ended up third behind two large-party candidates.

Many perks for legislators

Kenyan legislators enjoy some of the highest salaries in the world and other perks including lucrative travel and other allowances, as well as subsidized car and home loans.

Helicopters featured heavily in campaigns for the Aug. 8 election as politicians combed for votes in remote villages, where voters often turned up for rallies wearing party colors distributed beforehand.

As an independent candidate without cash, Mwirigi did not enjoy that luxury — something that his opponents thought would doom his campaign.

His modest campaign drew taunts from his opponents.

“My opponents were just abusing me because they saw nothing in me,” he said. They mocked him for wearing just one sweater, having no car and not handing out any printed posters.

Voters are wiser

His win of more than 18,000 votes, against 15,000 for his closest competitor who was sponsored by the ruling Jubilee party, showed voters were getting wiser, he said.

“They understand that a good leader is not somebody who normally gives them cash. It is somebody who can advise them on how they can conduct themselves to get something,” he said.

His priorities include helping other young people in the area to start small businesses and get skills training to help them secure jobs, he said.

 
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Tanzania Charges Mob with Killing, Burning Five ‘Witches’

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A Tanzanian court has charged 32 people with murder after five women suspected of witchcraft were beaten to death, and their corpses burned, in a move which could help to deter such killings.

It is the first time a mob has been charged with witch killings, said Athanasia Soka, chairwoman of the Tanzania Women Lawyers Association, although hundreds of suspected witches are murdered in the east African country each year.

The suspects, among them the leader of a local militia, are accused of killing the women in Tanzania’s western Tabora region on July 25, state attorney Melito Ukongoji told a magistrates court on Monday.

“I am happy to see that authorities are taking appropriate actions to prevent violent crimes against innocent women,” said Lweno Masali, a local resident.

Most of the women were beaten to death before being burned, a police spokesman told Reuters.

Rights groups have lobbied for the government to step up prosecutions, but it is usually very difficult for the government to identify people who have taken part in such crimes.

Tanzanians’ belief in witchcraft dates back centuries as a way of explaining common misfortunes like death, failed harvests and infertility, although this is often a smokescreen for other disputes, such as over land.

Thousands of elderly Tanzanian women have been strangled, stabbed to death, and burned or buried alive over the last two decades after being denounced as witches.

Women with red eyes are often accused of being witches.

The suspects did not enter any pleas because the court does not have the jurisdiction to preside over murder cases.

They were remanded in jail until Sept. 4, when the case will move to a higher court.

Almost 500 people were killed by mob justice in the first six months of 2017, many of them women accused of witchcraft, Tanzania’s Legal and Human Rights Center said.

Most of the murders took place in the large city of Dar es Salaam and in the southern highlands where superstitions are strongly held, it said.
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