Vote counting continues in Nigeria after last Saturday’s presidential election. Initial results indicate incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari is in the lead.

The official announcement of partial results started Monday and the process is moving slowly. Early results show Buhari by 1.5 million votes ahead of his closest challenger at the halfway point of state-by-state announcements of the results of Saturday’s election.

For supporters like Nasir Usman it’s a result he was hoping to see.

“We will be happy if Buhari wins this election. There is no problem in this country and Buhari has brought peace. Everything is working in this country,” Usman said.

For Nigerians like Taiwo Ogunkuade, who supports the main opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar, conceding defeat will not be easy.

“If Atiku loses in this election, I’ll feel so bad and I don’t think the majority of people fighting for him to become the president will feel so good about this. It’s really not going to be a good news for most of the people,” Ogunkuade said.

Jaiye Gaskia, a political analyst, says Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) could win but that the margin of victory might be slim.

“It seems from what is emerging that the APC has a slight edge over the PDP (opposition People Democratic Party) but the results are not showing any dramatic differences in terms of differences in the number of votes between the two parties. I think it’s going to be a close election,” she said.

Gaskia said he worries that neither of the top candidates is fit for the job.

“I’m worried because it does seem that one of these two is going to be president and very likely the incumbent but I don’t see it transforming into a better life for the common and average Nigerian because the growth model that both candidates have favored are models that are not inclusive,” Gaskia said.

But as more results emerge, Nigerians are watching and wondering.  Will the trends continue to favor the incumbent leader or is there still a glimmer of hope for his main challenger?

 
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General Thomas Cirillo Swaka, the leader of the National Salvation Front (NAS), said the international community should blame the South Sudan government for the fighting in Yei River State.

Swaka said the government’s South Sudan Peoples Defense Forces initiated the violence.

“We have been warning people [since a] few weeks ago that the government is preparing its forces, moving their forces from Juba toward Rokon, toward Torit, toward Lobonok and toward Yei. They are preparing to attack us,” Swaka said.

A joint statement last week from the United States, Britain and Norway, known as the Troika, said the fighting around the town of Yei represents a “flagrant breach” of a December 2017 cease-fire and the revitalized peace deal signed by South Sudan’s government and several rebel groups last September.

The NAS told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus that President Salva Kiir’s administration provoked the fighting in Yei River State, where thousands of civilians are caught in the crossfire.

“The government is attacking us [NAS] because the other forces decided to go to Juba under the Revitalized Peace Agreement, but [the] National Salvation and other forces of the South Sudan National Democratic Alliance refused to sign the agreement because it gave everything to Salva Kiir,” according to the NAS.

South Sudan’s conflict, which began in December 2013, killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 4.5 million, with 2 million people fleeing to other countries.

‘Forced to sign’

Several warring parties signed a revitalized peace agreement last September in the South Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to end the four years of fighting between the South Sudan government and various rebel groups, including the NAS.

“We are [South Sudanese leaders] forced to sign this agreement. Many people [party leaders] who signed the agreement did not sign it from their hearts. People [were] coerced to sign the agreement, and that is why we say this agreement is not for the people of South Sudan,” Swaka said.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s (IGAD) special envoy for South Sudan, Ambassador Ismail Wais, held a meeting Monday with Swaka to discuss the timeframe for further engagements.

The special envoy said in a statement that his office wants to stop the ongoing hostilities, especially in Yei River State and other areas. Wais called upon all other parties involved in the hostilities to abide by the Permanent Cease-fire in the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS).

Witness accounts

The United Nations refugee agency says a surge of violence in South Sudan’s Yei River State has displaced some 8,000 civilians and sent an estimated 5,000 people fleeing to the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Witnesses told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus that soldiers killed civilians, raped women and burned entire villages — a claim VOA could not independently verify.

The spokesman of the South Sudan Peoples Defense Forces has issued several statements calling the rebels of the NAS “enemies of peace.”
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Heads of the United Nations and the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement are pledging more action to prevent and end sexual and gender-based violence during conflicts. In Geneva, two humanitarian groups announced they have launched an effort to end the use of rape as a weapon of war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he has met many victims of rape and brutal sexual violence in war zones from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the former Yugoslavia. Guterres says he has heard firsthand accounts from Rohingya refugees who were gang-raped while trying to escape violence in Myanmar.   

He says the place and circumstance of the abuse may differ, but the pain and trauma remain the same.

“Let me be clear. Sexual and gender-based violence in conflict is not only a horrendous and life-changing crime, most often perpetrated against women and girls,” Guterres said. “It is also used as a tactic of war, to terrorize families, dehumanize communities and destabilize societies, so that they struggle to recover for years or even decades after the guns fall silent.”  

Guterres says sexual and gender-based violence in conflict is now widely recognized as a war crime that is preventable and punishable.

Congolese human rights activist Julienne Lusenge is president of the group Sofepadi and the director of the Congolese Women’s Fund. For her, the suffering endured by women and young girls who have been violated by men at war is an every day personal matter.

“During this month of February, our medical center Karibuni Wa Mama a Bunia received in one week 28 children who were victims of serious sexual offenses, including a baby of two years,” she said. “We continue to see women who have been captives held by various different armed groups in our regional offices.”  

Not only are these women used as sex slaves, but she says they also are victims of forced marriages, forced labor, physical and psychological violence, and inhuman and degrading treatment.

Lusenge says her organization provides survivors of these atrocities medical, psychological and legal support. She says in the past 20 years her group has been organizing socio-economic rehabilitation for victims. She says the communities as a whole — traditional leaders, young people, and survivors themselves are involved in this struggle.

“Women come to us as victims, but they go home as agents of change,” Lusenge said. “Once they have been instructed on their rights and on the laws, which punish sexual violence, they join the fight at our side.”  

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, says sexual violence too often is accepted as an inevitable by-product of war. He says this must end. He says the law is clear that rape and other forms of sexual violence are a violation and those guilty of these crimes must be held accountable and punished.

Maurer says the ICRC will do more on behalf of victims.

“Today, the International Committee of the Red Cross is launching an appeal of $27 million to help us better respond to sexual violence in 14 key countries, including expanded services in Colombia, improved responses in Syria and new services in Central African Republic,” he said. “For the first time, we will place dedicated specialists in six countries this year to increase the field coordination and response of the ICRC.”  

Among its many recommendations, the U.N. and ICRC are urging governments to ensure survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict receive adequate protection. They are calling for measures to protect detainees from sexual abuse. They also say governments must provide training for police and armed forces to prevent these atrocities from occurring.

They agree with Julienne Lusenge, who says it is time to stop using women’s bodies as battlefields.
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Attackers set fire to an Ebola treatment center run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo late Sunday, forcing staff to evacuate patients, the charity said.

There were no immediate details on the identity or motive of the people who torched the center in the district of Katwa, at the heart of the country’s worst outbreak of the deadly disease.

But the World Health Organization has said aid workers face mistrust in some areas, fueled by false rumors about treatments and preference for traditional medicine.

“As a result of the burning of the building, it is no longer possible to care for patients there,” MSF said Monday on Twitter. None of the patients or staff were harmed, it added.

The outbreak has killed 546 people since July, according to the Congolese health ministry.

Most of the cases since the start of the year have been in Katwa, which is close to the border with Uganda.

Three volunteers for the Congolese Red Cross were attacked as they helped with the burial of an Ebola victim in eastern Congo in October. Two months later, political protesters ransacked a nearby Ebola isolation center.
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In the 17th century, a fearsome group of African soldiers defended their kingdom against invaders and marauders. Well-trained and thousands strong, the Women Warriors of Dahomey inspired fear and won battles for more than 200 years in what is now Benin.

In 20th-century Eritrea, women fought alongside men and led soldiers into combat throughout the country’s 30-year struggle for independence. They healed the wounded in underground hospitals sheltered from enemy fire and helped repair equipment for return to the battlefield.

For hundreds of years, women have played a vital role in African peace and security. They’ve sacrificed in liberation struggles and offered unique skills in peacekeeping operations.

But women’s contributions have come at a cost. Despite making strides toward representation across the continent’s militaries, women continue to fight harassment and discrimination at all levels of service. And when conflicts subside, they often receive fewer recognitions than their male counterparts.

Marginalization

South Africa’s military typifies the challenges women face. Gender-mainstreaming policies in the post-apartheid era have led to a steady improvement in representation; women now make up nearly a quarter of the country’s full-time armed forces.

But difficulties persist. Ingrained attitudes about women’s roles and abilities have led to systemic marginalization and sexualization, according to research funded by the African Peacekeeping Network and the Nation Research Foundation of South Africa.

Elsewhere on the continent, women constitute a small number of the armed forces, particularly at higher ranks. And in some countries, women are blocked from certain roles or excluded from the military altogether.

Leading armies

Preconceptions about women’s roles and abilities haven’t prevented some female soldiers from ascending to the highest ranks of their country’s militaries.

Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the continent’s longest-serving female defense minister, has held her post in South Africa since 2012. Kenya’s defense minister, Raychelle Omamo, has served since 2013.

And the Central African Republic’s Marie-Noëlle Koyara has led her country’s armed forces for nearly two years.

In a conversation with Koyara and VOA’s French-to-Africa service, Elizabeth Fitzsimmons, the United States’ deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, highlighted the bilateral opportunities that a female defense minister creates.

“We have a democratically elected government [in the Central African Republic]. We have a military with a minister of defense at the head who is a woman. And I think that speaks volumes about the potential for cooperation between the United States and the Central African Republic,” Fitzsimmons said.

The CAR has a newfound chance to improve representation throughout it ranks. As part of an effort to bolster security and assume transfer from international peacekeepers, Koyara plans to rebuild the country’s army.

“For there to be a return to security, it is necessary for our security forces, of which the Central African Army is part, to be reconstructed, because we have experienced the highs and the lows with this army,” Koyara said. “So it’s necessary for an army to be republican and engaged in defending its country and its population.”

New posts

Elsewhere in Africa, Aisha Mohammed Mussa became Ethiopia’s defense minister in late 2018, after a cabinet reshuffle. And Rose Christiane Raponda, the continent’s newest female defense minister, assumed office earlier this month after Gabon reorganized its government following a failed coup attempt in January.

Other top posts are also going to women. In the last two years, Kenya and Uganda promoted their first female major generals.

Peacekeeping role

Women also face challenges in peacekeeping missions across Africa, despite offering unique strengths.

Female peacekeepers play a critical role in bringing women in conflict areas into the peace process and giving them a voice, according to the United Nations.

Women can assist victims of sexual assault and shield children from violence in ways male soldiers cannot. In some cultures, only female peacekeepers can speak to women in need of aid — an unknown man doing so could cause fear or offense, shutting down important conversations and interventions.

Women make up 22 percent of civilian peacekeeping posts, but they are poorly represented in military roles.

In the seven active peacekeeping operations in Africa, women make up less than 4 percent of military personnel. MINURSO, the United Nations Mission for Referendum in Western Sahara, has the highest rate of female troops, at nearly 19 percent, but it’s also the smallest operation, with just over 200 personnel involved.

Bintou Keita of Guinea, the U.N.’s assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, said the U.N. is committed to achieving gender parity by 2030. “Women peacekeepers act as role models in the local environment, inspiring women and girls in often male-dominated societies to push for their own rights and for participation in peace processes,” Keita wrote.

As more women take on leadership roles across Africa’s military, the prospects for representation appear to be growing. Fatuma Ahmed, Kenya’s recently appointed major general, told Kenya CitizenTV that women in her country have accomplished a lot, but they’re just getting started.

“We have doctors, we have engineers, we have lawyers, we have jet pilots, we have pilots in air defense. We’ve been able to be deployed in various phases of operations in the military at the tactical level, the operational level. Basically, in defense, in attack, in rescue, in reconnaissance. We are spoiled for choice. This is just the beginning.”

Idrissa Fall, with VOA’s French-to-Africa service, contributed to this report.
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