Man’s best friend is being drafted into the war on wildlife trafficking in Africa. Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique have all enlisted canine rangers to help detect illegal wildlife contraband, in particular ivory. And now, Botswana is joining the trend. The country is home to Africa’s largest remaining population of elephants. Ten new canine rangers, along with 15 Botswana handlers, are completing their training in Tanzania. Lenny Ruvaga reports for VOA from Arusha, Tanzania.
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Month: December 2017
Protests Against US Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital Continue Friday
Protests unleashed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital continue in the Palestinian territories and outside U.S. missions elsewhere. Dozens have been wounded in clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protesters in the West Bank and Gaza. Muslims in other countries took to the streets Thursday in solidarity. The violence could worsen Friday when Muslims attend weekly prayers at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Congressman Says Africa Next ‘Hot Spot’ for Islamic State
The chair of the House Homeland Security Committee says Africa will be the next “hot spot” for Islamic extremism, amid growing concern about Islamic State migration and recruitment after U.S.-led forces in Iraq and Syria reclaimed the group’s so-called caliphate in the Middle East.
“They seek ungoverned territories and safe havens,” Republican Congressman Michael Thomas McCaul Sr. of Texas said Wednesday. “Africa is going to be the spot, it’s going to be the hot spot.”
Speaking at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said keeping track of where Islamic State fighters are fleeing is a priority for his department.
“We are very focused on where those terrorist fighters that are leaving the caliphate, what’s left of it and there isn’t much in Syria and Iraq, where they’re going,” he said.
He added that part of the African continent, especially northeastern Nigeria and Libya, have appeared to be a landing place for IS militants. He stressed, however, that Africa’s extremism problem cannot be solved by military action alone, emphasizing that good governance is important to help fulfill the needs of people across the continent.
Congressman Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Wednesday that African nations, with young populations and high unemployment, have become the “prime recruiting pool for terrorist groups.”
Niger
The U.S. focus on extremism in Africa continues to grow since four American soldiers, four Nigerien soldiers and a Nigerien interpreter were killed in an October attack by Islamic State militants in Niger.
For the first time, a Pentagon official Wednesday publicly identified the two American soldiers wounded in Niger during a deadly ambush earlier this year.
Captain Michael Perozeni and Sgt. First Class Brent Bartels were wounded near the village of Tongo Tongo on Oct. 4, according to Acting Defense Undersecretary for Policy David Trachtenberg, who wished the two a speedy recovery during his testimony in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
A formal investigation into the deadly ambush in Niger is not expected to be completed until January, according to the U.S. military.
Libya
Pockets of Islamic State fighters have also launched attacks in Somalia and Libya, a country Sullivan said was perhaps the “greatest counterterrorism challenge in Africa.” In the past couple of years, Libya’s ungoverned areas have produced droves of local extremists and foreign fighters.
Sullivan said the United States has focused on land-and-sea border security for Tunisia, Libya’s neighbor, while working alongside the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) to help rid the country of terrorists.
“What we don’t want is a place where, as there was in Sudan in the 1990s or Afghanistan in the late ’90s early 2000s, places where terrorist organizations can plant root, flourish, plan attacks against the United States,” Sullivan said.
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White House: Trump Decision on Jerusalem Doesn’t Kill Peace Process
The White House on Thursday denied that the president’s announcement on moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem meant his administration was pulling out of the Middle East peace process.
“In fact, in the president’s remarks, he said that we are as committed to the peace process as ever, and we want to continue to push forward in those conversations and those discussions,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. “And hopefully the ultimate goal, I think, of all those parties is to reach a peace deal. And that’s something that the United States is very much committed to.”
WATCH: Protests Against US Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital Continue
No other country has immediately followed President Donald Trump’s lead in planning to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something the White House is acknowledging.
“I’m not aware of any countries that we anticipate that happening at any point soon,” Sanders said. “I’m not saying that they aren’t, but I’m not aware of them.”
A day after the president’s declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, the Russian ambassador in Israel, Alexander Shein, said Moscow could move its embassy to West Jerusalem “after the Palestinians and the Israelis agree on all issues of the final status of the Palestinian territories.”
Russian statement
The Russian Foreign Ministry, in a statement viewed as a surprise by Israelis, said it considered “East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state. At the same time, we must state that in this context we view West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”
In response to Trump’s announcement, Palestinian factions announced that Friday would be a “Day of Rage,” while the Islamist group Hamas called for an uprising against Israel.
The Israeli military said one of its aircraft and a tank had targeted two militant posts in the Gaza Strip after three rockets were launched at Israel.
The Al-Tawheed Brigades — which has ignored the call of Hamas, the dominant force in Gaza, to desist from firing rockets — claimed responsibility for the launches.
Stone-throwing Palestinian protesters have clashed with Israeli troops, who responded by firing tear gas, rubber bullets and live bullets, on Gaza and the West Bank in response to Trump’s announcement.
Trump said Wednesday that he was directing the State Department to begin drawing up architectural plans for a U.S. embassy in the holy city. But the actual relocation of the embassy would take years, according to White House officials.
Both Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis expressed concern about the timing of Trump’s announcement, according to U.S. officials.
Asked by VOA whether the president’s declaration had been delayed at the request of the two Cabinet members in order to put in place adequate security at U.S. embassies, Sanders said the decision was made only after “a thoughtful and responsible process” and that “components of the decision went through the full interagency process.”
Palestinian officials said Trump’s decision had disqualified the U.S. as an honest broker in the peace process.
Many U.S. allies also disagreed with the move. The U.N. Security Council and the Arab League plan to meet soon to discuss the action.
’Recognizing the reality’
Tillerson defended the decision on a visit to Vienna.
“All of Israel’s government offices are largely in Jerusalem already, so the U.S. is just recognizing the reality of that,” the secretary of state said. He noted, however, that Trump “also said the U.S. would support a two-state solution if that is the desire of the two parties, and he also said this does not in any way finalize the status of Jerusalem.”
The Russian foreign minister, with whom Tillerson met Thursday in Vienna, warned that if Washington prematurely moved its embassy to Jerusalem, it could endanger the two-state solution.
“We have asked them to explain the meaning of the decisions on eventually moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Sergei Lavrov told reporters. “We have asked to explain what consequences of this move the Americans see for the efforts taken under the U.N. aegis and by the Quartet of international mediators.”
The Quartet, established in 2002, consists of entities involved in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The members are the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.
Robert Berger in Jerusalem and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
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FBI Says Its Support for Anti-corruption Unit Abides by Ukrainian Law
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is challenging suggestions of illegal conduct in an undercover sting operation targeting allegedly corrupt government officials in Kyiv, which the FBI conducted in concert with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
The United States and European Union have provided logistical support and training for NABU investigators tasked with ferreting out government graft in the Eastern European country. The support is part of the financial and diplomatic backing of the leadership that took power in Kyiv after the 2014 Maidan protests, which ousted the Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.
But Ukraine’s top prosecutor says NABU investigators overstepped the law in a recent probe of suspected corruption in Ukraine’s migration service.
‘Absolutely illegal’
General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko told parliament he wanted to address issues around “the relationship between various law enforcement agencies that causes public outrage and rather harsh statements by our strategic international partners — the U.S. and the EU.”
“A joint [FBI-NABU] operation … is an absolutely illegal action without the relevant legal procedures,” Lutsenko said in a recent television interview, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
In an interview with VOA, NABU Director Artem Sytnyk defended actions of his undercover agents, as well as the agency’s cooperation with FBI.
“This is about the survival of the corrupt elite,” he said. “It further proves that it is impossible to investigate corruption at the highest level and not run into resistance.”
In a statement to VOA, FBI spokeswoman Samantha T. Shero said the law enforcement agency entered into a June 2016 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NABU to provide investigative assistance, training and capacity building for NABU and Ukraine’s Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).
“The FBI abides by host nation laws and never operates outside the MOU,” she said, explaining that FBI personnel are temporarily assigned on a rotational basis at the NABU in support of this relationship.
“These special agents and analysts are not operational, and any statements to the contrary are not true,” she said. “Rooting out corruption is a priority for the FBI and we routinely work with our foreign law enforcement partners across the globe to investigate corruption and provide assistance when requested. We value our relationship with the NABU and SAPO, and have found their staff to be professional and trustworthy. NABU and SAPO are young organizations that face enormous challenges in the work that they are doing in Ukraine.”
The FBI, Shero added, will continue to provide NABU and SAPO with support and assistance in their “important work for the Ukrainian people.”
Committee chair dismissed
On Thursday, an opposition legislator who chairs the Ukrainian parliamentary anti-corruption committee was dismissed by fellow lawmakers, in what critics of President Petro Poroshenko’s ruling party are calling an open assault on NABU, the country’s only independent corruption watchdog.
The office of Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s and Poroshenko’s government have come under increasing pressure in recent weeks amid perceived backsliding on reform commitments, which has delayed billions of dollars in loans from the International Monetary Fund and tested the patience of Western countries, even as Kyiv pushes for closer EU integration and possible membership.
Ukraine’s general prosecutor on Wednesday denied that his office was impeding the NABU’s work as he sought to deflect charges by Kyiv’s Western backers that Ukraine was coming up short on promises to fight graft.
This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian service. Some information came from Reuters.
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Worsening Ukrainian Crisis Suffers from Severe Lack of Funding
The United Nations is appealing for $187 million to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to 2.3 million of the most vulnerable Ukrainians who, it says, have reached the limits of their endurance after four years of conflict.
Most people view the ongoing fighting between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed rebels in Eastern Ukraine as a political crisis. But U.N. Resident Coordinator in Ukraine, Neal Walker, views it as a forgotten humanitarian crisis in the heart of Europe.
While the existing problems directly affect the people in Ukraine, he warns the potential spillover effect into neighboring countries is powerful and worrisome.
“Just one simple example: increases in the number of cases of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV, as well as issues of immunization, even an isolated case of polio. All of this in the heart of Europe. Whether these people are immigrating away from the conflict going east, north or west, the spillover implications are quite severe,” Walker said.
After four years of war, people have exhausted their savings and their ability to cope. Aid workers say people cannot afford to buy food or medicine, to pay for shelter or heating or their children’s education. In addition, they say millions of women, children and elderly are at daily risk of shelling, intensive fighting and other hostilities.
On top of that, Walker says U.N. agencies are unable to get funding for humanitarian support.
“We can say definitively that the humanitarian situation today, and going into this winter, is significantly worse than it has been since the onset of this conflict in 2014,” he said. “Despite that, we are not getting the funding that we need to deal with it.”
The United Nations received only 30 percent of its multimillion-dollar 2017 appeal, according to Walker.
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Condom Clothing Designer Shocks Congo Into HIV Awareness
A Congolese fashion designer is promoting safe sex with a collection of clothes made of condoms that she hopes will help combat HIV/AIDS in the central African country.
Felicite Luwungu started making her condom line, which includes strapless evening gowns and tops, after the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit close to home.
“I have lost loved ones to HIV – that’s what inspired me to do this,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from the capital, Kinshasa. “The message that I hope people will apply is to be prudent.”
The number of people living with HIV/AIDS and dying from related infections in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been falling for more than a decade, according to the United Nations.
The prevalence rate of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is about 0.7 percent, among the lowest in southern and central Africa, UNAIDS data shows.
Luwungu, 40, displays her work in runway shows and exhibitions. When she finishes the condom collection, she plans to present it at a large fashion show next year.
The designs have shocked audiences but responses have been mostly positive, Luwungu said.
“People make jokes but it doesn’t discourage me,” she said. “That only pushes me to do this more.”
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Evicted White Zimbabwean Farmer Told He’s Going Home
A white Zimbabwean farmer kicked off his property at gunpoint in June has been told he will be going home within days, the first signs of the post-Robert Mugabe government making good on promises to respect agricultural property rights.
Rob Smart, a 71-year-old farmer from the eastern district of Rusape, said he understood his case had been taken up by new President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who heard of Smart’s violent eviction while at an investment conference in Johannesburg.
“Apparently Mnangagwa saw that and flipped his lid,” Smart told Reuters by telephone, saying new provincial minister of state Monica Mutsvangwa had assured him the eviction would be reversed.
“Our new governor is getting us back on the farm,” he said.
According to media reports at the time, Smart and his family, including two small grandchildren, were kicked off their Lesbury farm along with scores of workers in early June by riot police armed with tear gas and AK-47 assault rifles.
“They came with guns and riot gear and tear gas — it wasn’t just us, it was all our workers as well, the whole compound,” Smart said. In all, the eviction would have hit the livelihood of as many as 5,000 people, he said.
‘Land reform is over’
Reuters reported in September that Mnangagwa was plotting with the military, liberation war veterans and businessmen including current and former white farmers to take over from 93-year-old Mugabe.
In the latter half of his 37 years in power, Zimbabwe’s economy collapsed, especially after the violent and chaotic seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms under the banner of post-colonial land reform.
Mugabe resigned last month in the wake of a de facto military coup, paving the way for Mnangagwa, who had been purged as his deputy only a week before, to take over as leader of the southern African nation.
War veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa, husband of Monica Mutsvangwa and now a special adviser to Mnangagwa, said Smart’s treatment made clear the new administration was serious about restoring the rule of law and sanctity of property rights.
“Land reform is over. Now we want inclusiveness. All citizens who had a claim to land by birthright, we want them to feel they belong and we want them to build a new country because this economy is shattered,” he told Reuters.
Smart said he was working with the local authorities in Rusare who were under orders to track down looted and stolen property to allow him and his staff to bring the farm back to production.
“We will have a Christmas with no decorations in a house that’s a bit empty,” Smart said. “But mentally it’s going to be a bloody nice one.”
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UN: Sale of Migrants as Slaves in Libya May Be Crime Against Humanity
The sale of migrants into slavery in Libya may amount to crimes against humanity, the United Nations Security Council said Thursday, voicing “grave concern” after footage appearing to show Africans being auctioned there sparked global outrage.
The 15-member council unanimously adopted a formal statement calling on Libyan authorities to investigate the reports of migrants being sold and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Libya’s U.N.-backed government last month said it would take action after a video broadcast by CNN, which appeared to show the auction of African migrants as farmhands for $400, led to protests across Europe and Africa.
“The Security Council expresses grave concern about reports of migrants being sold into slavery in Libya,” the statement said. “[It] condemns such actions as heinous abuses of human rights which may also amount to crimes against humanity.”
Young African men bound for Europe are frequently caught in trafficking networks and sold for labor in Libya, where many migrants are detained, tortured, and even killed, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The IOM said last week that it was working with partners to try to empty the detention centers, condemned as inhumane by rights groups and estimated to hold as many as 20,000 migrants.
The Security Council also said the Libyan authorities should work with international organizations and U.N. agencies to ensure humanitarian access to detention centers in the country.
Hundreds of thousands of other migrants are believed to be in lawless Libya, and many of them are being held by smugglers under lock-and-key in a country consumed by factional violence since strong man Muammar Gaddafi was ousted six years ago.
“Reports that people escaping violence are being sold into slavery in Libya are horrifying,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said in a statement. “All countries must do everything they can to end this barbaric practice.”
The statement was adopted weeks after the Security Council unanimously backed a resolution urging tougher action to crack down on trafficking and modern slavery worldwide.
The resolution called on countries to adopt anti-trafficking laws, ramp up efforts to investigate and dismantle criminal networks, and provide greater support for survivors of slavery.
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Albania Woos Luxury Hotel Brands with Tax Breaks
Albania is planning to try to lure five-star hotel brands with tax breaks, including scrapping profit and property taxes, to increase its appeal for the higher-end of the tourist trade.
With travel and tourism accounting for 8.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2016, rising demand to visit the country between Montenegro and Greece washed by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas is not being met by present facilities and infrastructure.
One of Europe’s poorest but also most unspoiled countries, Albania has been wooing tourists by encouraging them to “Go Your Own Way,” counting on the appeal of adventure tourism.
Now, to lure international hotel brands, the government is to pass a law this month to exempt them from profit tax for 10 years, scrap infrastructure tax and property taxes, and have them pay a VAT tax of 6 percent for any service on their hotels or resorts.
International hotel chains or anyone possessing a franchise from them is welcome provided they invest no less than eight million euros for a four-star hotel and no less than 15 million euros for a five-star hotel, said Elton Orozi, an official at the tourism ministry.
“Albania is trying to offer more to tourists who spend more time and money so as to get acquainted with the culture, history and nature,” added Orozi.
The incentives will apply to developers only if they do not sell on the units since the government wants to avoid villas being built on the seashore by wealthy Albanians using them as second homes.
Building luxury hotels will also depend on whether the investors steer clear of land ownership troubles, which doomed an effort to lure the French Club Med holiday company to Albania more than a decade ago.
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Kurdish Leader Goes on Trial in Turkey Facing 142 Years in Jail
The trial of Kurdish opposition party leader Selahattin Demirtas has started in Ankara. Demirtas is charged with terrorism and has been held for more than a year in pretrial detention. The case is drawing growing international criticism.
Supporters of the jailed Kurdish leader gathered outside Ankara’s Sincan prison, where the Kurdish leader’s trial began Thursday.
In a 500 page indictment, Demirtas is accused of leading a terrorist organization, spreading terrorist propaganda, and inciting hate and crime.
Controversy surrounds the case over the decision to hold the trial in a prison and to allocate a court room that allows only 20 people to watch.
Hasip Kaplan a former parliamentary deputy of Demirtas’s HDP party, speaking outside the prison, voiced anger over the handling of the hearing.
“I have one thing to say to those who had unlawfully lifted the immunity of our political leader and who now cannot even bring him to a court near the parliament, but instead try him, within barbed fences after 399 day’s of detention,” Kaplan said.
Tried in absentia
The Kurdish leader is being tried in absentia after the court denied his right to attend, insisting he use a video link from the prison in which he is being held — an option he refused.
The trial has become a focal point of criticism over the government’s crackdown after last year’s failed coup and the introduction of emergency rule. Demirtas is widely seen as one of the most charismatic and effective political opponents to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In the past year, more than 11,000 HDP officials have been detained, including dozens of elected mayors and nine parliamentary deputies. Party co-leader Figen Yuksekdag appeared in court Wednesday on similar terrorism charges.
Rights groups criticize move
Human rights groups nationally and internationally claim there is little evidence to justify the case against Demirtas.
Senior researcher Emma Sinclair Webb of the U.S. based Human Rights Watch says the case is alarming .
“In general, we do not see any evidence of criminal activity. It is all about his speeches, and for this he faces multi charges,” she said. “The sentence altogether when you stack up all the charges comes to around 142 years.”
Ankara also has faced heavy criticism over the Kurdish leader being held for more than a year in pre-trial detention.
But the Turkish government strongly defends the prosecution and judiciary, claiming the HDP, Turkey’s second largest opposition party, is a terrorist organization linked to Kurdish insurgent group the PKK.
Demirtas denies all charges against him. The trial has adjourned until February and the judges ruled Demirtas will remain in prison.
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Palestinians Dismiss US Role After Jerusalem Pivot
The dramatic U.S. policy shift on contested Jerusalem is seen by the Western-backed Palestinian leadership as a dangerous betrayal and game changer that is bound to propel them into a risky confrontation with the U.S. and Israel on the global stage.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas hasn’t decided yet whether to formally abandon U.S.-led negotiations with Israel, a troubled process that after two decades has failed to bring the Palestinians closer to statehood. However, those close to Abbas say the long era of stop-and-go negotiations and Washington’s monopoly as mediator is now over.
Here is a look at what could come next.
Why Jerusalem matters
Trump’s recognition Wednesday of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital contradicts longstanding international assurances to the Palestinians that the fate of the holy city will be determined in negotiations. With Trump’s sharp pivot, the U.S. is seen as siding with Israel, which claims all of Jerusalem, including the Israeli-annexed eastern sector the Palestinians seek as a future capital.
The dispute over Jerusalem forms the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but transcends a mere real estate argument. The city, home to Judaism’s holiest site, is also sacred to billions of Muslims and Christians worldwide, and perceived slights to their claims have triggered major protests or violence in the past.
Abbas’ response so far
Abbas has been trying to rally international support, reaching out to leaders from Pope Francis to the EU foreign policy chief and Arab leaders. He warned Trump in a phone call that the U.S. shift will rock the region and threaten Washington’s plans for a Mideast peace deal.
In a speech after Trump’s announcement, Abbas said the U.S. has effectively removed itself from any role as a Mideast broker, but he did not say what immediate steps, if any, the Palestinians plan to take.
Abbas is to hold internal consultations with officials from the Palestine Liberation Organization and his Fatah party. On Thursday, he met with his closest Arab ally, King Abdullah II of Jordan.
A moment of truth
The crisis over Jerusalem may push Abbas, the most steadfast Palestinian champion of seeking statehood through negotiations, to a point he avoided for so long — acknowledgment that the “peace process” isn’t working, at least in its current format.
Critics have argued that endless negotiations mainly serve Israel by providing diplomatic cover for its expansion of settlements on war-won lands. Abbas also derived some political legitimacy from the process, positioning himself as the only leader with a shot at delivering statehood.
Trump says he remains committed to brokering a Mideast deal, despite the Jerusalem pivot. However, those close to Abbas say it’s time to look for alternatives.
Any talks with U.S. officials are now “superfluous and irrelevant,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior PLO official. “The peace process is finished.”
Abbas has warned in the past that a failure to achieve a so-called two-state solution could prompt Palestinians to pursue a single state for two peoples, a prospect most Israelis reject.
The Palestinian leader may be reluctant to break away from his longstanding policies or lack the political courage to do so, but not shifting course now would be worse, said analyst Bassem Zbaidi.
“It’s time for the Palestinians to say no before coming under pressure to accept” future U.S. proposals that could fall far short of their minimal demands, he said.
Other options?
Some PLO and Fatah officials suggested shifting from cooperation with the U.S. and avoidance of conflict with Israel to a more confrontational approach.
Fatah supports halting contacts with the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, closing the PLO office in Washington and filing a complaint against the U.S. at the U.N. Security Council over plans to start a multi-year process of moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, said senior Fatah official Nasser al-Kidwa.
The Palestinians could also try to press prosecutors at the International Criminal Court to charge Israeli leaders with war crimes, including over settlement building, others said.
Abbas has refrained from such a step until now, under apparent U.S. pressure.
The International Criminal Court prosecutor is currently conducting a preliminary examination of the situation in the Palestinian territories, but this is a more open-ended review and could take years. The probe was triggered by “Palestine” becoming a member state of the court. The status change, in turn, was made possible by the 2012 U.N. General Assembly recognition of a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967.
Help from Europe?
The Palestinians are increasingly looking to Europe for help, encouraged by the harsh criticism of Trump’s Jerusalem policy by European leaders.
European states in the past were relegated by Washington to the role of paymaster, sending hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to support the Palestinian self-rule government and help manage the long-running conflict.
European states often take a more critical view of Israeli policies than the U.S, especially on settlements, but have failed to challenge Washington’s monopoly as mediator.
Palestinians now hope the growing rift between European leaders and the U.S. over Jerusalem will earn them diplomatic points. An immediate goal is to persuade influential Western European countries to recognize a state of Palestine.
Risk or opportunity?
For Palestinians, Trump’s policy shift offers both risk and opportunity.
Jerusalem has repeatedly been a flashpoint for violence, and Palestinian protest marches planned later this week could lead to clashes with Israeli troops.
Such confrontations can spin out of control, as they did more than a decade ago when they escalated into an armed uprising. Abbas staunchly opposes violence as counterproductive, but he may not be able to contain widespread public anger.
Some say Trump’s policy shift may create a moment of clarity and help end years of paralysis — by making it impossible to perpetuate the idea that statehood is possible under the old paradigm.
“That option is now off the table and that’s a good thing,” said Diana Buttu, a former legal adviser of the Palestinian self-rule government. “This had really held us up for so many years.”
Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report. Laub, the AP bureau chief for Jordan, has covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1987.
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Trump, Congressional Leaders Meeting on US Spending Issues
U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting Thursday with congressional leaders about key spending issues as the government faces a Friday midnight deadline to approve at least short-term funding legislation to prevent a government shutdown.
The top Democratic lawmakers, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, boycotted White House spending talks a week ago after Trump, a Republican, said he did not see a deal in the offing. But Schumer and Pelosi said earlier this week they would attend the new talks alongside their Republican counterparts.
Trump, in a Twitter remark, contended a week ago that Schumer and Pelosi “want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes.” But in setting up Thursday’s meeting, he praised them for choosing to “put their responsibility to the American people above partisanship.”
The House of Representatives is set to vote Thursday to extend government funding through December 22, and the Senate seemed ready to approve the deal, too. That would give Trump and the congressional leaders more time to set spending levels for the remainder of the current fiscal year that extends through next September.
Republicans and Democrats remain divided, however, on spending priorities in politically fractious Washington. Republicans generally favor more money for defense programs, while Democrats often demand equal increases for domestic social programs.
The year-end budget talks have been complicated by demands from conservative Republican lawmakers to sharply cut overall spending totals, even as Republicans try to complete an overhaul of U.S. tax policies, and cut corporate and individual taxes by $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
At the same time, Democratic lawmakers want to attach a provision to any spending legislation to keep about 690,000 undocumented young immigrants, who were brought illegally to the United States years ago, from being deported to their homelands.
Trump has given Congress until March to resolve the issue, with Democrats wanting to vote now, and Republicans mostly hoping to put off any immigration vote until next year after approving the tax and budget legislation.
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Cameroon’s Military Moves In on Separatist-held Villages
Cameroon’s military has taken over two villages held hostage by separatists the government says are terrorists. The suspects have been collecting taxes, rendering justice in their law courts and sentencing people who refused collaborating with them to prison time.
Hundreds of people have returned to the Bafia’s market in southwestern Cameroon nearly two months after they fled. Bafia is one of two villages that local government authorities said was occupied by separatists they describe as suspected terrorists.
Enow Basile, 31, says he and about 100 villagers were arrested by the armed groups and detained at a local government school where a man calling himself general Amstrong, leader of the group, had installed his headquarters.
“When you come, they tie your eye, they beat you up. If you don’t have from 100,000 francs ($180 US) and above they promise to take your life so people were paying,” he told VOA. ” More than 100 and something people paid that money. And they always attacked trucks that were transporting cocoa to Douala. They attack them, each pay 50,000 francs ($90 US) to pay a pass, but if you don’t pay, you will not pass. You don’t take cocoa to Douala.”
Muyenge village, situated some 10 kilometers from Bafia, was another village that the armed separatists occupied for a month. Resident Ayuk Lucas says the invaders were judging and sanctioning anyone who did not respect them.
“They even create a court. Every thing. A whole government where they send to come and collect some body and ask you to pay some money to them,” he said.
Undeterred by army
Last week Cameroon military arrested 20 members of the armed group. But their supporters are still distributing recordings that preach their doctrine of total independence of the English speaking regions of Cameroon.
Muyenge resident Ebune Francis says the armed separatists are expressing anger over what he describes as the total negligence the government of Cameroon has manifested on the English speaking regions. He says he, however, does not support secessionists but stands for the early demands of a federal state that were made by teachers and lawyers when they began a strike more than a year ago that later degenerated.
“We had been supporting the government, supporting the government. Nothing is coming so we all are annoyed,” he said. “We are abandoned by the government. We don’t have water, sometimes we don’t have electricity. You want us to be happy with the government? No.”
There are fears the armed separatists may be nearby. They have attacked and killed members of the military and police within the past two weeks. The government said it had dismantled some of their training camps, but officials said some of the fighters were crossing over to be trained in Nigeria.
Peter Mboua, traditional ruler of Bafia village says he has appealed to the government of Cameroon to assure people’s safety.
“I will appeal to the government to create a brigade here or a military base that will take care of these security issues here,” Maboua told VOA.
Government reassurance
The government has assured the population of the English speaking regions that it will assure their safety.
Schools have been closed in most of the English-speaking northwest and southwest since November last year when lawyers and teachers called for a strike to stop what they contend is the overuse of the French language. Violence erupted when separatists joined in and started asking for complete independence of an English-speaking state.
On the first of October, they declared what they called the independence of the Republic of Ambazonia and asked the military to surrender and join them or leave their territory. They have so far killed at least 11 soldiers and policemen.
In response, president Biya labeled them as terrorists and declared war on them.
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Oscars Organization Adopts Code of Conduct After Weinstein Expulsion
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science announced Wednesday that it has adopted its first code of conduct for its 8,427 members.
Film academy chief executive Dawn Hudson introduced the new rules to members in an email. In October, the academy broke with tradition and made Harvey Weinstein just the second person ever expelled from the Oscars’ governing body.
The new code of conduct stipulates that the academy is no place for “people who abuse their status, power or influence in a manner that violates standards of decency.”
The academy’s board may now suspend or expel those who violate the code of conduct or who “compromise the integrity” of the academy.
The standards of conduct were drafted by a task force launched by the academy in October. It was formed after Weinstein was accused by dozens of women of sexual harassment and abuse. Weinstein, who won an Academy Award for 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
Hudson told members that more details on the process by which offending members will be judged will be announced later.
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One Woman’s Journey Through Oxycodone Addiction
Before it became the worst day of her life, Allison Norland spread a blanket on the grass outside her father-in–law’s house so her infant daughter could crawl on the soft ground. New to motherhood, her first child was a surprise. “I found out when I was six and a half months pregnant, which was unbelievable for me,” she said. “Then I went to the hospital, found out I was in labor, obviously still using.”
The daughter of an alcoholic, Allison says she has a highly addictive personality. Her drug use started with marijuana when she was 18. “I would start kind of hanging out with my sister and the older crowd and drink, and then the coke [cocaine] started. I was actually dating a man at the time who was selling weed and cocaine. So, easy access I guess,” she told us.
At 19, she met the man she would eventually marry. He introduced her to Oxycodone, a commonly prescribed, but highly addictive, semi-synthetic opioid.
“We started using when we would go out of town to visit his friends and then it kind of proceeded to [finding] some people down where we live who were selling [Oxycodone] and it kind of became more common place,” she said.
After two back-to-back car accidents while driving high, she was sent to a pain doctor for her injuries. “It was straight to 30 milligrams of Oxycodone. I was getting 90 pills a month. That doctor shut down and I went to another doctor and proceeded to 150 pills a month,” she said. “I was using every day.”
Pain medication
She says the doctors never asked her if she had a history of illegal drug use or had ever abused opioids. Estimates are six out of 10 heroin users on the street started out with pain medication prescribed by a doctor. As the opioid crisis has exploded across the country, the medical community has come under scrutiny for the way they treat pain, and addiction specialists often point a finger directly at the conduct of the medical community.
Allison developed what she described as an intense addiction. The birth of her daughter was her wake-up call. Her obvious drug use was called to the attention of child protective services in Miami-Dade County where she lived. She says they almost took her newborn from her.
“I was so guilty and so ashamed that I had let that go on as long as I did. But I had her, she was healthy, no withdrawal symptoms, no anything,” she said.
She stayed clean for seven months. Then tragedy struck. As Allison watched her daughter play on the blanket that day in the back yard, her father-in-law accidentally drove his car off the driveway, striking and killing the little girl.
After seeing her daughter in the hospital for the last time, Allison drove straight to where she knew she could get pills. She says she used every day for the next year.
“Every day I pushed the limit further and further because I didn’t know how to be anymore, and what to be anymore. To go from being a mom and loving this thing so much, so much more than I love myself, to having her gone and this absence in my heart, it was really hard,” she said.
The incident left Allison with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and depression. The years passed in a fog. After an arrest, and time at another rehabilitation facility, Allison was ordered by the court to go to The Village, in Miami Florida, one of several residential and outpatient rehab centers run by Westcare, a non-profit healthcare corporation that specializes in addiction services.
Treating addiction
At first, she was hostile toward being at The Village, a renovated old Florida motel-style complex a few blocks from Biscayne Bay in the Edgewater neighborhood north of downtown Miami. Now 28, Allison sat with us in the room she shares with two other women, the walls lined with metal bunk beds and cabinets decorated with family pictures.
“I snuck in phones [which are forbidden]. I would get caught smoking on the facility, but then again I fought a lot. I fought in here, I fought out there. I just fought. I was so angry and broken down that I couldn’t be that person anymore,” she said.
Allison was initially ordered to stay at the facility for 90 days. She has chosen to stay longer. Now in her fourth month, she has slowly begun to unravel the threads of her addiction. The problems were not socio-economic. “I didn’t grow up on the streets,” she told us. “My family was upper middle-class.”
For decades, opioid abuse predominantly affected people of color in poverty-wracked inner cities. Today’s crisis has moved into the white middle-class suburbs and spread to small towns across the country.
When we asked her what an addict loses, she said “everything.” At the core of her loss were the morals and values she grew up with.
“To learn to look people in the eye and tell the truth because that is a big part of addiction – lying. I have to learn how to look people in the eye. I have to learn how to stand up straight. I have to learn how to love myself. That is what I lost most of all,” she said.
The Village uses a combination of medication, and individual and group therapy to treat its clients.
Patients are given Suboxone, a synthetic opioid strip that dissolves under the tongue. There has been some controversy with treating opioid addiction with opioids, but The Village says it has used Suboxone with great success. Delivered in small doses, the strips can eliminate withdrawal symptoms in 15 minutes. Suboxone also eliminates the cravings for opioids with limited side effects. Clients continue on the drug for months.
“With medication, we can begin to have an effect on your cravings for drugs and keep you engaged in your recovery,” says Frank Rabbito, senior vice president for Westcare, which runs The Village. “Medication keeps you away from illegal drugs and gives you an opportunity to engage in your recovery, be monitored by us for a period of time, and move toward a greater independent lifestyle.”
Therapy sessions
Allison credits the relationship and trust she has built with her therapist for her turnaround. Like many substance abusers, she has a history of physical, mental and sexual abuse going back to her childhood.
“I would say 80 percent of substance users have trauma in their past,” said Alexandra Kirkland, a therapist who works with patients at The Village. “And it causes them to have depressive symptoms. So when they flash back and think about the trauma, it breaks into their daily functioning, and many times they use substances as an escape to deal with the trauma.”
“My therapist has been incredible and has helped me through things I have done in the dark that I never thought would come to light,” Allison told us. “There are things that happened to me that I never wanted to talk about I have talked about with her. And it is because I know she can understand.”
The sessions have helped her confront some painful realities, such as using drugs while pregnant.
“I put my daughter in harm’s way for a pill. I put my life in danger for a pill. I was risking everything for this drug. And that is it – chasing a high that was never going to be enough, “she said.
It’s hard to reconcile the darkness she describes with the person in front of us; she now carries herself with an air of happiness and confidence, and can flash a smile that lights up the room. Allison wants to stay even longer at the The Village and further her recovery.
The odds are against her. Researchers estimate a mere three percent of addicts stay clean for life. Allison is not deterred. She now wants to become an addiction specialist.
“That is my goal,” she says, brimming with energy. “It is exciting to work toward something. That is a huge thing. I want to help people. People like me.”
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FBI Director Wray Defends Agency Before Lawmakers
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray defended the nation’s top law enforcement agency before lawmakers Thursday, saying agents are “working their tails off” to keep Americans safe from terrorist attacks and other threats.
“The FBI that I see is tens of thousands of brave men and women who are working as hard as they can to keep people that they will never know safe from harm,” Wray said before the House Judiciary Committee.
Wray’s testimony comes after the FBI has been the target of scornful attacks from President Donald Trump and some other Republicans who have alleged that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible links between Trump’s campaign and Russia during last year’s presidential election is politically biased.
Trump tweeted last weekend the FBI’s reputation is “in Tatters _ worst in History!” and urged Wray to “clean house.” Trump and some Republican lawmakers have also capitalized on disclosures that an FBI agent was taken off of Mueller’s team because of anti-Trump text messages.
Mueller, who led the FBI for 12 years, was appointed head of the special counsel probe by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey in May as he was leading the Russia probe.
The probe has consumed Trump’s White House tenure, with Trump branding the investigation a “witch hunt” and an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset victory over Hillary Clinton, his Democratic challenger.
Trump’s weekend tweets about the FBI created a new dilemma for Wray. His bosses, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein, remained publicly silent, leaving Wray to defend the agency.
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Senator Al Franken Resigns Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations
U.S. Senator Al Franken announced he will resign amid a growing firestorm stemming from sexual misconduct allegationsthe second Democratic lawmaker to announce a departure this week under a cloud of moral impropriety.
“Today I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate,” said Franken, who has represented Minnesota since 2009, speaking Thursday on the Senate floor.
More than two-dozen fellow Democratic senators had called on Franken to resign after a news media report quoted a former congressional aide as saying Franken forcibly tried to kiss her in 2006.
In recent weeks, several other women accused Franken of groping them, including a Los Angeles radio host who posted a picture of a smiling Franken posing with his hands over her breasts while she slept on a flight during a 2006 tour to entertain U.S. troops in the Middle East.
“Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember very differently. I have used my power to be a champion of women,” Franken said, adding, “I may be resigning my seat, but I am not giving up my voice. I will continue to stand up for the things I believe in as a citizen and as an activist.”
The senator also took aim at President Donald Trump and Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. Moore has been accused of making sexual advances toward teenage girls and young adult women.
“I of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving, while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,” Franken said.
The senator’s colleagues praised his decision to resign.
“This is the right decision,” Senator Amy Klobuchar, a fellow Minnesota Democrat, said in a statement. “Nothing is easy or pleasant about this, but we all must recognize that our workplace cultures — and the way we treat each other as human beings — must change.”
“Senator Franken made the right decision today, but the Senate has so much more work to do … to foster safe work environments and ensure harassers are held accountable,” Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia wrote on Twitter. “Let’s get to work.”
On Tuesday, the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, Michigan Democrat John Conyers, quit in the face of sexual misconduct allegations against him. House leaders of both parties had called for his resignation after several women who worked for Conyers accused him of unwanted sexual advances spanning several years.
Allegations of sexual misconduct have roiled the United States for weeks, with dozens of powerful men in the world of politics, business, entertainment and the media losing their jobs after women came forward with graphic allegations of abuse.
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Putin to Visit Egypt Next Week
The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin will visit Egypt next week to discuss expanding political, economic, energy and trade ties.
During Monday’s trip the Russian leader will hold talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on issues related to stability and security in the Middle East and North Africa.
Putin’s visit follows the Russian government’s announcement last week that Moscow and Cairo have drafted an agreement for Russian warplanes to use Egyptian military bases.
The deal comes as part of Moscow’s efforts to further expand its military foothold in the region following its military campaign in Syria.
Under Sissi, Egypt has expanded military ties with Russia and signed a slew of deals to buy Russian weapons.
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Experts Scramble to Monitor Long-dormant Iceland Volcano
At the summit of one of Iceland’s most dangerous volcanoes, a 72-foot (22-meter) depression in the snow is the only visible sign of an alarming development.
The Oraefajokull volcano, dormant since its last eruption in 1727-1728, has seen a recent increase in seismic activity and geothermal water leakage that has worried scientists. With the snow hole on Iceland’s highest peak deepening 18 inches (45 centimeters) each day, authorities have raised the volcano’s alert safety code to yellow.
Experts at Iceland’s Meteorological Office have detected 160 earthquakes in the region in the past week alone as they step up their monitoring of the volcano. The earthquakes are mostly small but their sheer number is exceptionally high.
“Oraefajokull is one of the most dangerous volcanos in Iceland. It’s a volcano for which we need to be very careful,” said Sara Barsotti, Coordinator for Volcanic Hazards at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
What worries scientists the most is the devastating potential impact of an eruption at Oraefajokull.
Located in southeast Iceland about 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the capital, Reykjavik, the volcano lies under the Vatnajokull glacier, the largest glacier in Europe. Its 1362 eruption was the most explosive since the island was populated, even more explosive that the eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that destroyed the city of Pompei.
Adding to the danger is the lack of historical data that could help scientists predict the volcano’s behavior.
“It’s not one of the best-known volcanos,” Barsotti said. “One of the most dangerous things is to have volcanos for which we know that there is potential for big eruptions but with not that much historical data.”
Iceland is home to 32 active volcanic sites, and its history is punctuated with eruptions, some of them catastrophic. The 1783 eruption of Laki spewed a toxic cloud over Europe, killing tens of thousands of people and sparking famine when crops failed. Some historians cite it as a contributing factor to the French Revolution.
The Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in April 2010, prompting aviation authorities to close much of Europe’s airspace for five days out of fear that its volcanic ash could damage jet engines. Millions of travelers were stranded by the move.
To remedy the lack of data for Oraefajokull, scientists are rushing to install new equipment on and around the volcano. Those include ultra-sensitive GPS sensors that can detect even the slightest tremors, webcams for real-time imagery of the volcano and sensors in the rivers that drain the volcano’s glaciers to measure the chemical composition of the water.
Associated Press journalists last week visited scientists working near the mouth of the Kvia River, where the stench of sulfur was strong and the water was murky, clear signs that geothermal water was draining from the caldera.
“The most plausible explanation is that new magma is on the move deep below the surface,” said Magnus Gudmundsson, professor of geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Reykjavik.
But what happens next is anyone’s guess. In the most benign scenario, the phenomenon could simply cease. More concerning would be the development of a subglacial lake that could lead to massive flooding. At the far end of the spectrum of consequences would be a full eruption.
With such high-risk developments at stake, authorities are taking precautions. Police inspector Adolf Arnason now is patrolling the road around the volcano, which will be used for any evacuation, and residents have received evacuation briefings.
“Some farmers have only 20 minutes (to leave),” he said, pulling up to a small farm on the flank of the mountain.
If an evacuation is ordered, everyone in the area will receive a text message and the radio will broadcast updates. Police are confident that Oraefi’s 200 residents will know how to react, but their biggest concern is contacting tourists.
Iceland has seen a huge boom in tourism since the 2010 eruption — a record 2.4 million people are expected to visit this year and about 2,000 tourists travel through Oraefi every day. While some stay in hotels that could alert their guests, others spend the night in camper vans spread across the remote area.
“The locals know what to do. They know every plan and how to react. But the tourists, they don’t,” said Police Chief superintendent Sveinn Runarsson. “That’s our worst nightmare.”
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UAE ‘Surprised and Disappointed’ Over EU Blacklisting
The United Arab Emirates says it is “surprised and disappointed” about being blacklisted by the European Union along with 16 other countries the EU deems guilty of unfairly offering tax avoidance schemes.
The UAE said in a statement on Thursday that it’s “committed to a reform process which will be finalized by October 2018” and that it’s “absolutely confident this will ensure the UAE is swiftly removed from the list.”
The EU announced the list on Wednesday, though penalties still need to be confirmed.
The UAE is a federation of seven sheikhdoms that includes Dubai and the oil-rich capital of Abu Dhabi. Dubai’s massive real estate market has attracted both scrupulous and unscrupulous investors.
The UAE is largely tax-free, though value-added taxes will begin in the country on Jan. 1.
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Pope Francis Names New Archbishops for Paris, Mexico City
Pope Francis has given Paris and Mexico City new archbishops, filling two important positions in the Catholic Church with churchmen he has known and promoted in recent years.
Francis named Monsignor Michel Aupetit to replace the retiring Paris archbishop, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois. Aupetit was a doctor specializing in bioethics before entering the seminary and had been vicar in Paris before he was named bishop of Nanterre by Francis in 2014.
Mexico City’s new archbishop is Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, whom Francis made a cardinal last year in a clear sign that he intended him to eventually replace Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera as archbishop.
Aguiar, archbishop of Tlalnepantla, had worked with the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in the Latin American Bishops’ Conference, where he held leading positions for 15 years.
your ad hereCameroon Escalates Military Crackdown on Anglophone Separatists
Cameroon’s government has ordered thousands of villagers to leave their homes in the Anglophone Southwest region as it deploys troops to root out armed separatists who have vowed to loosen President Paul Biya’s long grip on power.
The deployment marks an escalation of Biya’s year-long crackdown on peaceful protests in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions that has killed dozens of civilians and forced thousands to flee their homes in fear of reprisals.
Now, the government is using force to confront an insurgency that has sprung up alongside the civil unrest.
The separatists have killed at least eight soldiers and policemen over the past month as part of their campaign to break from the capital Yaounde in Francophone Cameroon and form a separate state called Ambazonia.
Authorities of the Manyu Division in the Southwest on Dec. 1 gave the order to evacuate 16 villages across the region. They warned that anyone deciding to stay “will be treated as accomplices or perpetrators of ongoing criminal occurrences.”
Motorbikes, a preferred mode of transport for separatist attackers, were ordered off the roads between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.
“People ran helter skelter when they saw the statement,” said Agbor Valery, a lawyer in Mamfe, which is near some of the evacuated villages. He said people were afraid of being rounded up and put in jail, as has happened since September in other areas of the English-speaking part of the country. “If you go to the villages, everyone has fled. Only the old people stayed. The streets are quiet. It is highly militarized. At night, you hear gunfire.”
Valery said he saw hundreds of troops and truck loads of military equipment arrive in Mamfe on Sunday that were then deployed to the surrounding villages.
Reuters was unable to independently verify his account but two military sources in the city of Bamenda in Northwest region confirmed that additional security forces have been deployed in the English-speaking regions.
Problems for Biya
The separatist movement compounds problems for 84-year-old Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982 and plans to stand for another term next year. The economy has slowed sharply since 2014, while attacks in the Far North region by Islamist militant group Boko Haram have strained the military.
The fall last month of Zimbabwe’s leader Robert Mugabe after decades in power highlights the potential vulnerability of Africa’s long serving rulers amid a growing grassroots push for strict term limits for presidents.
Last week Biya vowed to flush out secessionists, whom he called “criminals.” Defense minister Joseph Beti Assomo said on Monday the new deployment would “prevent terrorists from harming others.”
Violence has spiraled since last year when government forces crushed peaceful protests by Anglophone teachers and lawyers protesting their perceived marginalization by the French-speaking majority.
The heavy-handed government response fuelled support for the separatist movement, which has existed on the fringes of Cameroonian politics for decades.
The response has also forced thousands out of their homes.
More than 5,000 have fled Anglophone Cameroon across the border to Nigeria since Oct. 1, the United Nations said. Nigeria is also English-speaking.
The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said it is making preparations for up to 40,000 refugees.
“Go home to where?”
Refugees’ stories have been slow to emerge because of government-imposed internet outages that have blocked messaging and social media sites like Facebook and Whatsapp. But they are beginning to shed light on what new refugees will likely face.
Abia David told Reuters that he left Bamenda in Northwest Cameroon on Oct. 27 amid widespread arrests in the town. He heard from friends that the police were coming to arrest him because he is a member of an opposition political group.
To escape Bamenda, and avoid its increasingly crowded jail, he cycled 16 kilometers into the countryside to the head of a bush road. From there he walked some 100 km (62 miles) alone north through a series of remote villages towards Nigeria.
“There was no time to carry food. I had one change of clothes but I lost that.”
He slept on strangers’ floors and arrived in Nigeria a week later, where he fell ill with malaria. He said NGOs on the border had estimated an extra 1,000-odd people had arrived since the weekend.
The UNHCR is offering provisions like mosquito nets and is helping refugees find housing. So far there is no central camp for refugees and they rely on the hospitality of Nigerians for room and board.
For David, it beats going home. Asked if he planned to return, he said: “Go home to where? Go home to be killed? To go to jail without trial? I can only go back once this is resolved.”
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US Restricts Visas for Cambodians ‘Undermining Democracy’
The Trump administration announced Wednesday it will restrict visas for Cambodians “undermining democracy” in the Southeast Asian nation following the dissolution of the main opposition party and a crackdown on independent media.
The State Department said it was a direct response to “anti-democratic actions” by the Cambodian government but did not disclose which individuals would be affected. It said visa records are confidential under U.S. law.
Spokeswoman Heather Nauert called on the Cambodian government to reinstate the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was dissolved by Supreme Court order last month, and free its leader Kem Sokha, imprisoned since September. She also urged Cambodia to allow civil society and media to operate freely.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has held power for more than three decades, has sought to neutralize political opponents and silence critics ahead of national elections next year. Kem Sokha has been charged with trying to topple the government with U.S. support, which Washington has said is a baseless accusation.
Nauert said Cambodia’s actions run counter to the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991. The United States and 18 other governments signed the accords, which ushered in democracy after the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s, then occupation by Vietnam and civil war.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will restrict entry into the United States of “those individuals involved in undermining democracy in Cambodia,” Nauert said in a statement, adding that in certain circumstances, family members of those individuals will also be subject to visa restrictions. The department cited a provision of U.S. immigration law under which individuals can be denied entry if the secretary determines it would have “adverse foreign policy consequences.”
The White House has already terminated U.S. support of Cambodia’s national election committee, saying last month that the July 2018 vote “will not be legitimate, free or fair.”
“We will continue to monitor the situation and take additional steps as necessary, while maintaining our close and enduring ties with the people of Cambodia,” Nauert said.
Monovithya Kem, an opposition spokeswoman currently in the U.S., welcomed the visa restrictions and called for targeted financial sanctions on senior officials in Hun Sen’s government. Kem, who is the daughter of Kem Sokha, urged the U.S., Japan, Australia and the European Union to coordinate responses to the “crisis” in Cambodia and help win her father’s freedom.
Like many prominent opposition figures, Kem has fled Cambodia as she fears arrest.
Hun Sen has been in office since 1985 and has held a tight grip on power since ousting a co-prime minister in a bloody 1997 coup.
In recent months, the government has intensified restrictions on civil society groups and independent media outlets. In September, it shut down the English-language Cambodia Daily. Authorities have shuttered radio stations that aired programming from U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, whose reports they allege are biased.
The government also expelled the U.S. National Democratic Institute, which helped train political parties and election monitors, accusing it of colluding with its opponents.
Hun Sen has moved Cambodia closer to China in recent years and become increasingly critical of Washington. However, he’s been complimentary of President Donald Trump.
Speaking at Asian leaders’ summit attended by Trump last month, Hun Sen praised the U.S. leader for non-interference in affairs of other nations, but complained the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia was not adhering to the policy.
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