A Cameroonian official said Friday he had found evidence that, as widely suspected, Boko Haram militants have been establishing close ties in Cameroonian political and business circles. The revelation came after Cameroon’s military arrested a former lawmaker for allegedly supplying cattle to the Nigerian terrorist group.Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, on Nigeria’s border, says that within the past two months, Boko Haram has been establishing ties with top officials of his region. He spoke via a messaging app from the northern town of Maroua.Boko Haram Releases Hundreds of Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolboys The Katsina state governor said 344 boys were found in a neighboring state He says security reports indicate that Boko Haram has infiltrated some political, business and elite circles along Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. He says Boko Haram accomplices in the communities supply food and money for the terrorists to procure weapons. Bakari says the military has been assigned to arrest those who have established ties with Boko Haram.Bakari did not say how many people have been arrested for establishing ties with the terrorist group, but this week, local media reported the arrest by Cameroon’s military of a former member of parliament, Blama Malla, for alleged ties with the Boko Haram. He has been detained in the northern town of Mora.The media reports that Malla, a member of President Paul Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party, is accused of supplying cattle and money to Boko Haram. More Than 100 Boko Haram, Captives Surrender Along Cameroon-Nigeria Border Commander tells VOA campaign calling for members to surrender and be pardoned has helped in the fight Malla was arrested after his cousin, a member of a local militia in the border town of Kolofata in the Mayo Sava administrative unit, was seen transporting 10 cattle to a border area where Boko Haram fighters hide. He was arrested by the military. Local media said the cousin confessed that he had received orders from Malla to supply the cattle to Boko Haram. The government has not issued a statement. VOA could not independently confirm his account. Retired Colonel Didier Bajeck, a security specialist and former Cameroon defense spokesperson, says while the military is stepping up intelligence to arrest the suspects, civilians should be on the alert.Bajeck says it is imperative for civilians to inform the military of the presence of strange people in their areas. It is also important, he says, that civilians report their neighbors who invite suspected Boko Haram members. He says civilians may not know of financial transactions between suspects and Boko Haram, but that the population should immediately call the military when they see food and cattle being transported to the bush, where terrorists may be hiding.Ejani Leonard Kulu, a political analyst at the University of Dschang in Cameroon, says Boko Haram has historically had ties with some top business figures and politicians in Nigeria. He says it is the same situation in Cameroon.”Nigeria and Cameroon share so much ties together, cultural, religious ties, socio-economic ties,” Kulu said. “Boko Haram in its modus operandi infiltrates the society, touch key persons at different areas. So it is something that has been a routine in Nigeria and in Cameroon when the president of the National Assembly said, “Il y a les Boko Haram parmi nous,” such an information was not supposed to be taken lightly because these are people who are highly informed.”The “Il y a les Boko Haram parmi nous” that Kulu refers to means there are Boko Haram members in our midst. It is a statement made in 2018 by Cavaye Yegui Djibril, speaker of Cameroon’s National Assembly during a plenary session. At the time, Malla was still a lawmaker from the Mayo Sava administrative unit. Djibrli did not specify names.Kulu said the government should not have taken such a statement lightly.Cameroon has also always accused Boko Haram of infiltrating militias created to fight the terrorists.Boko Haram terrorists have been fighting for 11 years to create an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The fighting has spread to Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin, with regular killings, abductions and burnings of mosques, churches, markets and schools. The United Nations reports that Boko Haram violence has cost the lives of 30,000 people and displaced about 2 million in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
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Month: December 2020
Thousands Protest in Sudan in Call for Faster Reform
Thousands of Sudanese protesters took to the streets of the capital Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman on Saturday, demanding an acceleration of reforms on the second anniversary of the start of an uprising that ousted Omar al-Bashir.
The veteran leader was deposed by the military in April 2019 after months of mass protests against poor economic conditions and Bashir’s autocratic, three-decade rule.FILE – In this Sept. 15, 2020 file photo, Sudan’s ousted president Omar al-Bashir sits at the defendant’s cage during his trial a courthouse in Khartoum, Sudan, Sept. 15, 2020.
Many Sudanese are unhappy with what they see as the slow or even negligible pace of change under the transitional government that has struggled to fix an economy in crisis.
The government was formed under a three-year power sharing agreement between the military and civilian groups, which is meant to lead to fair presidential and parliamentary elections.
Sudan’s state TV aired footage of thousands of protesters gathering outside the presidential residence in Khartoum that now hosts the sovereign council, a joint military-civilian ruling body.
The country also has a civilian cabinet of technocrats led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
“We have come out today, not to celebrate the anniversary or to congratulate the transitional government. This government, unfortunately, over the past two years has not made any progress in the retribution file for our martyrs,” protester Waleed El Tom told the state TV in Khartoum.
Protesters gather in Khartoum, Sudan, Dec. 19, 2020.Hundreds of Sudanese civilians were killed in protests before and after the former president’s ouster.
On Saturday, thousands more protesters gathered outside the abandoned parliament building in Omdurman, across the river Nile from the capital. Small protests took place in other cities across the country, state media said.
At the top of the protesters’ demands is the formation of a long-awaited transitional parliament, part of the power sharing deal, to pass the necessary legislation for building a democratic state.
Others called for the dissolution of the sovereign council, the cabinet and the ruling coalition.
Sudan’s economy has worsened since Bashir’s removal, as the weak transitional government has failed to kick-start reforms and halt a fall in the Sudanese pound on the black market.
“The Sudanese people had hopes that their revolution would be great, that it would achieve things, but today the Sudanese people are standing in bread lines,” a protester told state TV. Security was tightened in Khartoum and Omdurman but no major incidents of violence or casualties were reported.
Social media users shared pictures and videos of protesters burning tires and security forces firing tear gas. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the images.
Sudan’s government has signed peace deals with most of the rebel groups that caused unrest during Bashir’s rule, and it hopes that the United States’ recent decision to remove the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism will help the ailing economy.
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Britain Sounds Alarm About Mutant Coronavirus Strain
British scientists were scrambling Saturday to work out whether a mutant strain of the coronavirus, which has been spreading rapidly in England this month, may be resistant to the crop of newly developed vaccines.The strain was first identified on December 13 in the county of Kent in southern England, and initial analysis by government scientists suggested it is “growing faster than the existing variants.”Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a news conference in response to the ongoing situation with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, inside 10 Downing Street, London ,Britain, Dec. 19, 2020.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held an unscheduled meeting of ministers Friday amid mounting alarm about the threat posed by the mutant strain, which has been named VUI-202012/01. Johnson said at a press conference Saturday that there was no evidence so far to suggest vaccines would be any less effective against the new strain, but he added that “there is still much we don’t know.”He noted the new strain was up to 70% more transmissible than prior strains.The British leader announced a virtual lockdown for London and the southeast of England, with people urged to stay at home. All nonessential stores are now to close, and people should not enter or leave the British capital or large parts of southeast of England.“We can’t continue with Christmas as planned,” said Johnson, noting that a previously announced relaxation of rules for the holidays would be reversed. In London and southern England, households now can’t mix to celebrate Christmas. Elsewhere in the country, up to three households can mix but only for Christmas Day itself.“I must stress how complicated it is to work out, in a situation where things might be growing for other reasons, to really put your finger on that it’s actually the virus that is doing it, but the evidence is pointing in that direction,” Ewan Birney, deputy director of the European Molecular Biological Laboratory, told the BBC.More Than 75 Million Global Coronavirus CasesUS has more COVID cases than any other countryMidweek, Health Minister Matt Hancock said the new strain might be associated with the faster transmission of the virus in the southeast of England and London, but there was “nothing to suggest” it caused a worse disease, or that it might be resistant to vaccines that have only just received approval in Britain and the U.S.England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said Britain had alerted the World Health Organization about the fast transmissibility of the variant strain.“There is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is under way to confirm this,” he said in a statement.Jeremy Farrar, a government adviser and director of the Wellcome Trust, Britain’s largest medical research endowment, warned Saturday of his concern. He tweeted: “The new strain of COVID-19 is worrying & real cause for concern & extra caution. Research is ongoing to understand more but acting urgently now is critical. There is no part of the UK & globally that should not be concerned. As in many countries, the situation is fragile.”The new strain of Covid-19 is worrying & real cause for concern & extra caution. Research is ongoing to understand more, but acting urgently now is critical. There is no part of the UK & globally that should not be concerned. As in many countries, the situation is fragile.
— Jeremy Farrar (@JeremyFarrar) Britain’s PM Boris Johnson attends a news conference, together with Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer and Patrick Vallance, UK Gov. Chief Scientific Adviser, in response to the ongoing situation with the coronavirus, London , Dec. 19, 2020.Hospitals in England are seeing a record number of patients suffering from COVID-19, the disease triggered by the coronavirus. About 38 million people in England already were under tough coronavirus restrictions before Saturday’s announcement. The new measures amount to a virtual lockdown, something Johnson had said just a few days ago he would do everything to avoid.Johnson’s decision to cancel Christmas for much of England prompted the fury of some lawmakers from his ruling Conservative Party. Many have fulminated for weeks against what they see as heavy-handed government and a lack of parliamentary oversight.“The changes must be put to a vote on the Commons at the earliest opportunity,” said Mark Harper, chairman of the COVID Recovery Group of Tory MPs who have criticized government handling of the pandemic.Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition party, Labour, accused Johnson of indecisiveness. He had been calling for tougher restrictions for weeks and had warned against relaxing Christmas rules.“Millions of families across the country are going to be heartbroken by this news — having their Christmas plans ripped up. And I’m really frustrated because I raised this with the prime minister on Wednesday and he dismissed that and went on to tell people to have a merry little Christmas, only three days later to rip up their plans,” Starmer told British broadcasters.British health authorities announced a further 27,052 confirmed cases of infection across Britain on Saturday and 534 more fatalities.In all, 66,541 Britons have died from COVID-19, just 4,500 short of the total British civilian death toll in the Second World War.
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Beijing Slams US Blacklisting of Chinese Companies
Beijing accused the United States Saturday of “bullying” after Washington announced export controls on dozens of Chinese firms over alleged ties to China’s military. The announcement – in the final weeks of President Donald Trump’s term – comes after relations between Washington and Beijing soured under his administration, which saw the U.S. start a trade war with China and expand its list of sanctioned entities to a few hundred Chinese companies and subsidiaries.China’s commerce ministry on Saturday said it “firmly opposes” the move, which will affect the country’s biggest chipmaker, SMIC, and vowed to “take necessary measures” to safeguard Chinese companies’ rights.US Blacklists Dozens of Chinese Firms Including Chip, Drone Makers Move is seen as latest in President Donald Trump’s efforts to burnish his tough-on-China image as part of lengthy fight between Washington and Beijing over trade, numerous economic issuesThe ministry accused the United States of “abusing export controls and other measures to continuously suppress” foreign entities and urged Washington to “stop unilateralism and bullying.”U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Friday said the designations, which restrict U.S. companies’ abilities to do business with the firms, are over an array of charges including human rights abuses and the activities of the Chinese military – particularly in the South China Sea – as well as theft of U.S. technology.SMIC has received billions of dollars in support from Beijing and is at the heart of its efforts to improve the country’s technological self-sufficiency.The designation means U.S. companies must apply for a license before exporting to SMIC, and specifically targets the Chinese firm’s ability to acquire materials for producing chips of 10 nanometers or smaller, the best class in the industry.
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UN Steps Up Aid for Somalis Displaced by Cyclone Gati
U.N. agencies are rushing emergency aid to thousands of victims of Cyclone Gati, the most powerful tropical storm ever to hit Somalia.Somalia has experienced 15 tropical storms, cyclones and flash floods over the last three-and-a-half decades but has never seen anything like Cyclone Gati. The storm made landfall in Puntland’s Bari region November 22, dumping around two years of rainfall in just a few days. The United Nations says the cyclone has caused widespread destruction to schools, health facilities and other infrastructure, killed thousands of livestock and destroyed livelihoods. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Babar Baloch says more than 180,000 peoples’ lives have been upended by Gati, including 42,000 displaced from their homes. “Cyclone Gati is resulting in a humanitarian emergency on top of existing emergencies in a country grappling with conflict, the coronavirus pandemic and desert locusts, making this an exceptionally difficult year for those displaced in Somalia,” Baloch said. The UNHCR is planning to assist 36,000 cyclone victims in the hard-hit Bari region. They include internally displaced people, refugees and members of local host communities. The agency together with the World Food Program and other humanitarian organizations recently airlifted relief supplies from Mogadishu to the city of Bosaso in the Bari region. The consignment includes essential non-food items, such as mosquito nets, jerrycans, soap, blankets, sleeping mats and plastic sheets. Baloch says the UNHCR also will provide cash for emergency shelter to some of the victims. “The world’s vulnerable face some of the worst effects of climate change, including food, water, and land insecurity, and disrupted services necessary for human health, livelihood, settlement, and survival,” Baloch said. “Invariably, among the most affected are older people, women, children and people with disabilities.” Baloch says Cyclone Gati has separated families, destroyed livelihoods and increased the risk of gender-based violence. He says many of the displaced are returning to their damaged or destroyed homes but that rebuilding their lives will be difficult.
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Bulgaria Expels Russian Diplomat on Spying Charges
Bulgaria accuses a Russian diplomat of spying and is expelling him from the country. “The foreign ministry of the Republic of Bulgaria declared persona non grata a diplomat from the Russian embassy in Sofia and gave him 72 hours to leave the country due to activities incompatible with his diplomatic status,” Bulgaria’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.Russia said the charges against its diplomat are “groundless.” Prosecutors say the diplomat had been gathering information for years on the deployment of U.S. troops in Bulgaria. The U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria said in a statement: “We have in recent weeks and months seen too many examples of Russian officials carrying out aggressive actions, from espionage in Bulgaria to poisoning opponents both at home and abroad. Bulgaria is a strong NATO ally and partner and has an unalienable right to defend its sovereignty.”Neither Bulgaria nor Russia revealed the identity of the diplomat, but the Associated Press reports that local media identified the diplomat as Colonel Vasiliy Sazanovich.Bulgaria has expelled at least five Russia diplomats over the past year that it has accused of spying. The eastern European country is a NATO and European Union member, but it was once one of Russia’s closest allies during the Cold War.
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China Issues National Security Rules on Foreign Investment
China published rules on Saturday for reviewing foreign investment on national security grounds, potentially broad measures that it insisted did not amount to protectionism.The review system announced by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) covers foreign investments in military sectors and the acquisition of controlling stakes in such sectors as energy, natural resources, agriculture, internet technology and financial services.”Only by tightening the fence against security risks can China lay the solid foundations for a new round of opening up that is broader, wider and deeper,” the commission said.This was in line with international practice and would help balance the economic benefits of further opening with the need to ensure national security, the NDRC said.The announcement comes as U.S. President Donald Trump ratchets up tensions with China in his final weeks in office. Washington added dozens of Chinese companies to a trade blacklist on Friday.Publishing the investment rules is “not protectionism or backtracking from opening-up policies,” the NDRC said, asserting that “opening up without protection is not sustainable.”Major economies like the United States, the European Union, Australia, Germany and Japan have established or improved their review mechanisms on foreign investment in recent years, it said.The new system will establish a body dedicated to security reviews, headed by the NDRC and the Ministry of Commerce. The rules, which take effect in 30 days, follow a foreign investment law published last year aimed at broadening market access for overseas investors.Last year’s foreign investment law made it clear China would set up a review mechanism for foreign investment, and foreign companies and trade associations have been awaiting the new rules so that they can make investment decisions, the NDRC said.
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2 Dead, Hundreds Fleeing Floods in Philippine Storm
At least two people were killed and hundreds forced to flee their inundated homes in the Philippines as torrential rain triggered flooding and landslides in the storm-battered archipelago, officials said Saturday.Huge waves smashed into a coastal village on Lapu-Lapu island in the central province of Cebu on Friday night, wiping out dozens of houses and leaving around 290 people homeless, Mayor Junard Chan said on Facebook.Photos posted online by the mayor showed piles of wood and bamboo near the few houses still standing after the region was drenched by heavy rain.Rescuers retrieved the bodies of two elderly women who were killed when a landslide hit an area of Mahaplag town before dawn in the nearby province of Leyte, police officer Racquel Hernandez said.A boy was also pulled from the rubble of his home and treated for his injuries, Hernandez told AFP.About 1,500 people were forced to leave their homes on the major southern island of Mindanao as floodwaters engulfed 13 villages, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons every year, which typically wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure in already impoverished areas.The latest storm comes after a succession of typhoons in recent months pummeled the country, taking the lives 148 people, destroying hundreds of thousands of houses, wrecking cash crops and leaving swathes of the country without power.
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Bosnian City of Mostar to Hold First Local Election in 12 Years
Irma Baralija is looking forward to Sunday, when she intends to vote and hopes win her race in the first local election in 12 years held in her hometown — the southern Bosnian city of Mostar.To make that possible, the 36-year-old Baralija had to sue her country in the European Court of Human Rights for letting a stalemate between two major nationalist political parties in Bosnia prevent her, along about 100,000 other Mostar residents, from voting or running in a municipal election for over a decade.By winning in court in October 2019, Baralija believes she has “busted the myth (that nationalist parties) have been feeding to us, that an individual cannot move things forward, that we matter only as members of our ethnic groups.”Parties representing only one ethnic group have dominated Bosnian politics since the end of the country’s devastating 1992-95 war, which pitted its three main ethnic factions — Serbs, Croats and Muslims — against each other after the break-up of Yugoslavia.”I hope that my example will inspire citizens of Mostar, when they vote on Sunday, to be brave, to realize that as individuals we can bring positive change,” said Baralija, who is running for a seat in the city council on the ticket of the small, multi-ethnic Our Party.Divided between Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats, who fought fiercely for control over the city during the 1990s conflict, Mostar has not held local polls since 2008, when Bosnia’s constitutional court declared its election rules to be discriminatory and ordered that they be changed.The dominant nationalist Bosniak and Croat political parties, the SDA and the HDZ respectively, have spent over a decade failing to agree about how to do that. Meanwhile, Mostar was run by a de facto acting mayor, HDZ’s Ljubo Beslic, and his office, which included the SDA’s representatives, with no local council to oversee their work or the allocation of nearly 230 million euros from the city’s coffers they have spent over the years.Left without fully functioning institutions, Mostar — one of the Balkan nation’s main tourist destinations — had seen its infrastructure crumble, trash repeatedly pile up on its streets and hazardous waste and wastewater treatment sludge dumped in its only landfill, which was supposed to be for non-hazardous waste.An agreement between the two parties, endorsed by the top European Union and the U.S. diplomats in Bosnia, was finally reached last June — eight months after the court in Strasbourg had ruled in favor of Baralija and gave Bosnia six months to amend its election laws so a vote can be held in Mostar.A city dividedMostar is divided in half by a river. During the war, Croats moved to the western side and Muslims to the east. Since the fighting stopped, the city has had two post offices, two electricity and water suppliers, two phone networks, two public hospitals and more — one crumbling set for each ethnic group.On Sunday, several small, multiethnic parties will be vying for seats in the city council after campaigning on bread-and-butter issues. But the nationalist HDZ and SDA parties hope that, among them, they will secure a two-thirds majority in the council and keep their grip on power.While acknowledging that the nationalists have armies of faithful voters whom they mobilize by stoking ethnic mistrust, non-nationalist election candidates in Mostar hope the past 12 years has shown that those two parties are too corrupt and incompetent.”I think that many people finally realized that the abstract, ethnic interests are meaningless while their children are leaving (Mostar) in droves in search of decent jobs and a decent life” elsewhere in Europe, said Amna Popovac, a candidate from the multi-ethnic Platform for Progress party.The nationalists are now promising to fix the city’s many problems as if “Martians and not they were running Mostar, unchecked, for the past 12 years,” she added.Miljan Rupar’s name will also be on the ballot. The 35-year-old, who is running as a candidate from the multi-ethnic Social Democrat Party, decided to get involved in politics after realizing that over 38 friends and relatives, including his sister, had left Mostar “for good” in search of a better life abroad.Rupar wants his city focused on the future, just like the international school where he teaches physics, the United World College branch in Mostar. The school is one of 17 around the globe and run by a movement founded in 1962 with the aim of overcoming Cold War divisions by bringing high-achieving youngsters from all over to live and learn together.”When I walk into the classroom or attend our bi-weekly assembly and see students and teachers from all over the world, including from various parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who share the same values and goals, it gives me hope,” he said.Political journalist Faruk Kajtaz, however, thinks that hope could prove to be treacherous in the divided city, despite local voters’ well-justified grievances. He notes that not just Mostar but all of Bosnia has long been politically and administratively fragmented along ethnic lines.”Maybe too much is expected from the people of Mostar,” he said. “(But) just the fact that citizens of Mostar will finally get a chance to vote for their local legislators is in itself a big win for democracy.”
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Armenia Mourns Karabakh War Victims
Armenia on Saturday began three days of mourning for the victims of clashes with Azerbaijan as the opposition kept up pressure on the country’s leader to resign over the handling of the conflict.More than 5,000 people including civilians were killed in Armenia and Azerbaijan when clashes erupted between the ex-Soviet enemies in late September over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.The war ended in November with a Moscow-brokered peace agreement that saw the Armenians cede swathes of territory to Azerbaijan, which has been backed by close ally Turkey.The deal sparked fury in Armenia, with the opposition urging Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign.On the first day of the national mourning on Saturday, Pashinyan was expected to lead a procession to a memorial complex in the capital Yerevan where victims of the conflict are buried.The opposition planned to hold a separate march later in the day. Pashinyan’s critics have called on supporters to stage a national strike, starting Tuesday.”The entire nation has been through and is going through a nightmare,” Pashinyan said in a video address ahead of the memorial march.”Sometimes it seems that all of our dreams have been dashed and our optimism destroyed,” he added.The 45-year-old former newspaper editor was propelled to power in 2018 after he channeled widespread desire for change into a broad protest movement against corrupt post-Soviet elites.But after six weeks of clashes with Azerbaijan, many have called Pashinyan a “traitor” for agreeing to what they say is a humiliating deal with Azerbaijan. He has so far refused to step down.As part of the peace deal Russia deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Karabakh.Moscow said on Friday that a Russian mine clearer was killed by a blast in Karabakh when an explosive went off earlier this week.
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Fiji Scrambles to Provide Aid as Cyclone Toll Rises
Reconnaissance flights showed entire villages wiped out in Fiji on Saturday as authorities put the cost of devastating Cyclone Yasa at hundreds of millions of dollars and the death toll rose to four.A state of natural disaster has been declared for 30 days as emergency services scrambled to provide food and clothing to the worst affected areas.The superstorm slammed into Fiji’s second largest island Vanua Levu late Thursday, leaving a trail of destruction.Of the 24,000 people who evacuated their homes at the height of the storm, 16,113 are still unable to return.A New Zealand Air Force reconnaissance flight flew over the area on Saturday to assess the scale of the damage, with reports of houses, crops and entire livelihoods wiped out.The storm also damaged schools and caused widespread flooding and landslides.More than 93,000 people were affected, and the number of casualties may rise when communications are restored to hard-hit areas, the National Disaster Management Office said in a statement.Communications with the eastern Lau islands group were cut during the storm and the extent of damage there was unknown.National Disaster Management Office director Vasiti Soki said that while it would take days to assess the full scale of the damage, “we are likely looking at hundreds of millions of dollars.”She said the immediate focus was on restoring critical infrastructure, reestablishing communication with severely affected areas and maintaining public safety.The deaths of a 45-year-old man and a 3-month-old baby were confirmed after the storm swept through on Friday, and Soko said two more bodies had since been found.One, a 70-year-old man, was inside his home when the roof blew away and timber fell on his head.”There were villages that were totally wiped out by the storm surge and the only clothes (the villagers have) are those on their backs,” Fiji Red Cross operations manager Maciu Nokelvu told AFP.”We are providing temporary shelters with the provision of tarpaulins and shelter toolkits, and dry clothes,” Nokelvu said. “The most devastated area is in the second largest island Vanua Levu, however we haven’t received any information from the Lau group of islands on the eastern side.”More than 10,000 food parcels were being prepared for distribution on Sunday.Yasa weakened after leaving Fiji and initially headed toward Tonga.It has since veered south, away from the islands, although a heavy rain warning and flash flood advisory remain in force for parts of Tonga.
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US Plans to Close Last 2 Consulates in Russia
The Trump administration has notified Congress that it intends to shutter the two remaining U.S. consulates in Russia.The State Department told lawmakers last week that it would permanently close the consulate in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok and temporarily suspend operations at the consulate in Yekaterinburg just east of the Ural Mountains.The notice was sent to Congress on Dec. 10 but received little attention at the time. That timing predates by three days the public emergence of news about a major suspected Russian computer intrusion into U.S. government and private computer systems that has raised grave cybersecurity fears.The department’s notification to Congress, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, says the closures are because of caps placed by Russian authorities in 2017 on the number of U.S. diplomats allowed to work in the country.Artists from Russia’s city of Yekaterinburg work on the ice sculpture “Muse of Victory” during the annual international festival of snow and ice sculptures “Magical Ice of Siberia”, in Krasnoyarsk, Russia Feb. 28, 2019.The moves are “in response to ongoing staffing challenges of the U.S. Mission in Russia in the wake of the 2017 Russian-imposed personnel cap on the U.S. Mission and resultant impasse with Russia over diplomatic visas,” it said.Following the closures, the only diplomatic facility the U.S. will have in Russia will be the embassy in Moscow. Russia ordered the closure of the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg in 2018 after the U.S. ordered the Russian consulate in Seattle closed in tit-for-tat actions over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain.The consulate in Vladivostok had been temporarily closed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, and staffers there had already begun removing sensitive equipment, documents and other items. The consulates in Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg employ a total of 10 American diplomats and 33 local staff.The exact timing of the closures has yet to be determined. The American staff are to be relocated to the embassy in Moscow, while the locals will be laid off, according to the notice. The department estimated the permanent closure of the Vladivostok consulate would save $3.2 million per year.The closures will leave the U.S. without diplomatic representation in a massive swath of Russia — everywhere east of Moscow — and present a major inconvenience for American travelers in Russia’s far east, as well as Russians in the region seeking visas to come to the United States, as all consular services will be handled out of the Moscow embassy.
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Boeing ‘Inappropriately Coached’ Pilots in 737 MAX Testing, US Senate Report Says
Boeing officials “inappropriately coached” test pilots during recertification efforts after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people, according to a lengthy congressional report released Friday.The report from the Senate Commerce Committee Republican staff said testing this year of a key safety system known as MCAS tied to both fatal crashes was contrary to proper protocol.The committee concluded Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing officials “had established a pre-determined outcome to reaffirm a long-held human factor assumption related to pilot reaction time. … It appears, in this instance, FAA and Boeing were attempting to cover up important information that may have contributed to the 737 MAX tragedies.”The report citing a whistleblower who alleged Boeing officials encouraged test pilots to “remember, get right on that pickle switch” before the exercise that resulted in pilot reaction in about four seconds, while another pilot in a separate test reacted in about 16 seconds.The account was corroborated during an FAA staff interview, the committee added.A Boeing 737 Max airplane of Brazilian airlines GOL Linhas Aereas prepares to land at Salgado Filho airport in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Dec. 9, 2020.Numerous reports have found Boeing failed to adequately consider how pilots respond to cockpit emergencies in its development of the 737 MAX.Boeing said Friday it takes “seriously the committee’s findings and will continue to review the report in full.”Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker said the report “details a number of significant examples of lapses in aviation safety oversight and failed leadership in the FAA.”The committee also said that “multiple independent whistleblowers contacted the committee to allege FAA senior management was complicit in determining the 737 MAX training certification level prior to any evaluation.”Boeing resisted requiring simulator training for pilots before operating the 737 MAX but reversed course in January.The report also noted Southwest Airlines was able to operate more than 150,000 flights carrying 17.2 million passengers on jets without confirmation that required maintenance had been completed.The Senate report said the Southwest flights “put millions of passengers at potential risk.” Southwest did not immediately comment.Boeing still faces an ongoing criminal probe into the MAX. The committee said its review was “constrained due to the continued criminal investigation”Last month, the FAA approved the 737 MAX’s return to service, and flights have resumed in Brazil. The first U.S. 737 MAX commercial flight is set for Dec. 29.Last month, the Senate committee unanimously approved a bill to reform how FAA certifies new airplanes and to grant new protections for whistleblowers, among other reforms, while the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a similar bill.
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Ethiopian Refugees Evacuate Border Camps in Sudan
Ethiopian refugees are evacuating border camps in Sudan as aid resources are diverted to Um Rakouba, the country’s main camp where many still lack food and shelter. But refugees say the camp, far from the border, may be safer after the Sudanese army reported a cross border raid on Tuesday. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports.
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US Blacklists Dozens of Chinese Firms Including Chip, Drone Makers
The United States added dozens of Chinese companies, including the country’s top chipmaker SMIC and Chinese drone manufacturer SZ DJI Technology, to a trade blacklist on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration ratchets up tensions with China in his final weeks in office.Reuters first reported the addition of SMIC and other companies earlier Friday. The move was seen as the latest in Republican Trump’s efforts to burnish his tough-on-China image as part of a lengthy fight between Washington and Beijing over trade and numerous economic issues. The U.S. Commerce Department said the action against SMIC stemmed from Beijing’s efforts to harness civilian technologies for military purposes and evidence of activities between SMIC and Chinese military industrial companies of concern. The Commerce Department will “not allow advanced U.S. technology to help build the military of an increasingly belligerent adversary,” Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement. Others on the list The department also said it was adding the world’s biggest drone company, DJI, to the list, along with AGCU Scientech, China National Scientific Instruments & Materials, and Kuang-Chi Group, for allegedly enabling “wide-scale human rights abuses.” FILE – People are seen in a DJI store in Shanghai, May 22, 2019.”The United States will use all countermeasures available, including actions to prevent [Chinese] companies and institutions from exploiting U.S. goods and technologies for malign purposes,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added in a separate release. SMIC and the other companies did not immediately comment. But some lawyers and industry executives raised questions about the impact of Friday’s move against SMIC. Generally, entity-listed companies are required to apply for licenses from the Commerce Department that face tough scrutiny when they seek permission to receive items from U.S. suppliers. But SMIC will face a tough review standard only when it seeks licenses for highly advanced U.S. chipmaking equipment at 10 nanometers or below. Licenses for all other items shipped to the company will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, the Commerce Department said. “It’s a nice [public relations] line: ‘We’re putting it on this bad-guys list,’ ” said William Reinsch, a former Commerce Department official, who said he assumed the agency was already blocking shipments of such technology to SMIC. “As a practical matter … it doesn’t change anything.” ‘Arbitrary suppression’ But Chinese authorities did not mince words about Washington’s latest gambit. In an address to the Asia Society on Friday, Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi, who is also the country’s foreign minister, noted the expanding list of U.S. sanctions and called on Washington to stop its “arbitrary suppression” of Chinese companies. FILE – China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi waves as he leaves a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 24, 2020.China’s Foreign Ministry said that if true, the blacklisting would be evidence of U.S. oppression of Chinese companies and that Beijing would continue to take “necessary measures” to protect their rights. “We urge the U.S. to cease its mistaken behavior of unwarranted oppression of foreign companies,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news conference in Beijing on Friday. The Commerce Department released a list of 77 companies and affiliates to the so-called entity list, including 60 Chinese companies. The designations by the Commerce Department included some entities in China that allegedly enable human rights abuses and some helping construct and militarize artificial islands in the South China Sea, the agency said. It also cited entities that acquired U.S.-origin items to support the Chinese military and those engaged in the theft of U.S. trade secrets. Companies previously added to the list included telecom equipment giants Huawei Technologies and 150 affiliates and ZTE Corp. over sanctions violations, as well as surveillance camera maker Hikvision over suppression of China’s Uighur minority. Fraying ties Shares in SMIC, formally the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., fell 5.2% in Hong Kong on Friday, while the company’s Shanghai-listed shares declined 1.8%. The benchmark indexes in the two markets were down less than 1%. SMIC had already been in Washington’s crosshairs. In September, the Commerce Department mandated that suppliers of certain equipment to the company apply for export licenses after concluding there was an “unacceptable risk” that equipment supplied to it could be used for military purposes. Last month, the Defense Department added the company to a separate blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies, effectively banning U.S. investors from buying its shares starting late next year. SMIC has repeatedly said that it has no relationship with the Chinese military. SMIC is the largest Chinese chip manufacturer but trails Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the industry’s market leader. It has sought to build out foundries for the manufacture of computer chips that can compete with those of TSMC. Ties between Washington and Beijing have grown increasingly antagonistic over the past year as the world’s top two economies sparred over Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong and rising tensions in the South China Sea.
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Massive ‘Sea Base’ Ship Joins Effort to Withdraw US Troops From Somalia
The U.S. continues to remove troops from Somalia following President Donald Trump’s directive earlier this month.According to the Pentagon, the Expeditionary Sea Base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams is “conducting maritime operations off the coast of Somalia” to “reposition U.S. DOD personnel from Somalia to other locations in East Africa,” AFRICOM spokesperson Kelly Cahalan told VOA in an email. The operation is dubbed Operation Octave Quartz.The nearly 800-foot-long ship, which is based at Souda Bay, Crete, can support a variety of maritime-based missions, including supporting special operations forces and humanitarian support, according to the Navy.Trump’s order is part of an effort to draw down U.S. forces globally, including in Afghanistan and Iraq, before he leaves office January 20.About 700 U.S. troops had been in Somalia, helping local forces in the fight against the al-Shabab insurgency. The mission has gone largely unnoticed in the U.S., but it has been a key component of the Pentagon’s campaign to combat al-Qaida worldwide.Pentagon ‘committed’The Pentagon said the relocated troops would continue their mission fighting violent extremist organizations in the region. It would not comment on specifics, including how many troops have been moved or when the relocation will be complete.“The U.S. remains committed to our work in East Africa and Somalia, to include maintaining regional security, training, as well as continuing to pressure al-Qaida’s franchise al-Shabab,” Cahalan wrote. “U.S. Africa Command is committed to advancing mutual interests with our East African partners.”The U.S. withdrew some troops earlier this year from the Somali cities of Bossaso and Galkayo. As of last month, American troops remained in the capital, Mogadishu, in the port city of Kismayo and at the Baledogle airbase, 96 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu.The Pentagon said in an unsigned statement December 4 that an unspecified number of U.S. troops would be moved to neighboring countries, while others would be reassigned outside East Africa.Elections are set in SomaliaTrump’s order to withdraw from Somalia comes as the country prepares for parliamentary and presidential elections, and weeks before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office.Somalia has been torn by a nearly 20-year civil war, but an African Union-supported peacekeeping force and U.S. troops have regained control of Mogadishu and large parts of the country over the past decade.
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Shutdown Deadline Looms Over COVID-19 Relief Talks
With a key issue proving difficult to resolve, a midnight government shutdown loomed Friday, though congressional negotiators seemed tantalizingly close to agreement on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package. An air of exhausted frustration infused the Capitol. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said early in the day he was “even more optimistic now than I was last night,” but Democrats launched a concerted campaign to block an effort by Republicans to rein in emergency Federal Reserve lending powers. They said the GOP proposal would deprive President-elect Joe Biden of crucial tools to manage the economy. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, walks to his office from the Senate Floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2020.Believing a deal could be reached Friday “would be a triumph of hope over experience,” said a downbeat No. 2 Senate Republican, John Thune of South Dakota. Government funding was to lapse at midnight, and a partial, low-impact shutdown would ensue if Congress failed to pass a stopgap spending bill before then. House leaders hoped to pass a two-day stopgap bill before then, said an Appropriations Committee spokesman, but Senate passage was uncertain.FILE – Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., asks questions during a hearing in Washington, Dec. 16, 2020.Senators including Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, were demanding to see what was in the bigger COVID-19 package before they would agree to the stopgap bill, keeping the pressure on if the COVID-19 talks haven’t borne fruit by the deadline. Democrats came out swinging at a key obstacle: a provision by Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania that would close down more than $400 billion in potential Federal Reserve lending powers established under a relief bill in March. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is shutting down the programs at the end of December, but Toomey’s language goes further, by barring the Fed from restarting the lending next year, and Democrats say the provision would tie Biden’s hands and put the economy at risk. FILE – Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., speaks via video conference during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 1, 2020.”As we navigate through an unprecedented economic crisis, it is in the interests of the American people to maintain the Fed’s ability to respond quickly and forcefully,” said Biden economic adviser Brian Deese. “Undermining that authority could mean less lending to Main Street businesses, higher unemployment and greater economic pain across the nation.” The key Fed programs at issue provided loans to small and midsized businesses and bought state and local government bonds, making it easier for those governments to borrow, at a time when their finances are under pressure from the pandemic. FILE – Janet Yellen, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to be treasury secretary, speaks in Wilmington, Delaware, Dec. 1, 2020.The Fed would need the support of the Treasury Department to restart the programs, which Biden’s treasury secretary nominee, Janet Yellen, a former Fed chair, would likely provide. The Treasury Department could also provide funds to backstop those programs without congressional approval and could ease the lending requirements. That could encourage more lending under the programs, which have seen only limited use so far. The battle obscured progress on other elements of the hoped-for agreement. After being bogged down for much of Thursday, negotiators turned more optimistic, though the complexity of finalizing the remaining issues and drafting agreements in precise legislative form was proving daunting. The central elements appeared in place: more than $300 billion in aid to businesses; a $300-per-week bonus federal jobless benefit and renewal of soon-to-expire state benefits; $600 direct payments to individuals; vaccine distribution funds; and money for renters, schools, the Postal Service and people needing food aid. Lawmakers were told to expect to be in session and voting this weekend. The delays weren’t unusual for legislation of this size and importance, but lawmakers were eager to leave Washington for the holidays and were getting antsy. CARES ActThe pending bill is the first significant legislative response to the pandemic since the landmark CARES Act passed virtually unanimously in March, delivering $1.8 trillion in aid, more generous $600-per-week bonus jobless benefits and $1,200 direct payments to individuals. The CARES legislation passed at a moment of great uncertainty and unprecedented shutdowns aimed at stopping the coronavirus, but after that, many Republicans focused more on loosening social and economic restrictions as the key to recovery instead of more taxpayer-funded aid. Now, Republicans are motivated chiefly to extend business subsidies and some jobless benefits and provide money for schools and vaccines. Democrats have focused on bigger economic stimulus measures and more help for those struggling economically during the pandemic. The urgency was underscored Thursday by the weekly unemployment numbers, which revealed that 885,000 people applied for jobless benefits last week, the highest weekly total since September. Support for economic stimulusThe emerging package falls well short of the $2 trillion-plus Democrats were demanding this fall before the election, but Biden is eager for an aid package to prop up the economy and help the jobless and poor. While he says more economic stimulus will be needed early next year, some Republicans say the current package may be the last. FILE – U.S. Senator John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 8, 2020.”If we address the critical needs right now, and things improve next year as the vaccine gets out there and the economy starts to pick up again, you know, there may be less of a need,” said Thune. Most economists, however, strongly support additional economic stimulus as necessary to keep businesses and households afloat through what is widely anticipated to be a tough winter. Many forecast the economy could shrink in the first three months of 2021 without more help. Standard & Poor’s said in a report Tuesday that the economy would be 1.5 percentage points smaller in 2021 without more aid. The details were still being worked out, but the measure includes a second round of “paycheck protection” payments to especially hard-hit businesses, $25 billion to help struggling renters with their payments, $45 billion for airlines and transit systems, a temporary 15% or so increase in food stamp benefits, additional farm subsidies and a $10 billion bailout for the Postal Service. The emerging package would combine the $900 billion in COVID-19 relief with a $1.4 trillion government-wide funding bill. Then there are numerous unrelated add-ons that are catching a ride, known as “ash and trash” in appropriations panel shorthand.A key breakthrough occurred earlier this week when Democrats agreed to drop their much-sought $160 billion state and local government aid package in exchange for McConnell abandoning a key priority of his own — a liability shield for businesses and other institutions such as universities fearing COVID-19 lawsuits.
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Suicide Bomber Kills 10 in Somalia Just Before Scheduled Address by PM
At least 10 people were killed Friday and more than 10 others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a stadium in Galkayo town in the Mudug region of central Somalia, ahead of a planned address by Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Roble, authorities and witnesses said.The bomber targeted government officials and members of the prime minister’s security team heading to the stadium for a rally of government supporters, according to witnesses, who told VOA Somali the explosion was loud and shook the entire area.The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. “I cannot confirm the exact number of casualties. But I can tell you that at least 10 people, among them senior military officials, the former mayor of Galkayo North and other top security officers, have lost their lives in the blast,” Galmudug Information Minister Ahmed Shire Falagle told VOA Somali by phone.“The number could be higher,” he said.VictimsGovernment officials said among those killed in the blast were the commander of the 21st Division of the Somali National Army, General Abdiazis Abdullahi Abdi; the commander of the 10th Brigade of Somalia’s U.S-trained Danab military unit, Colonel Mukhtar Abdi Aden; and the former mayor of Galkayo North, Mohmus Yasin Tumey.Doctors at hospitals in the town said more than 10 people wounded in the blast had been admitted to their facilities.Falagle confirmed that Somalia’s prime minister was heading to the stadium at the time of the attack and that he was safe.A VOA stringer in the town, Abdiwahid Isaq, who was in the stadium at the time of the blast, said, “As people were waving flags and placards, a huge, deafening blast went off outside the soccer stadium, where security forces were checking incoming cars and people. The blast sent a huge plume of black smoke into the air above the stadium, forcing people at the rally to scramble for an exit.”A witness who requested anonymity said, “We were 30 meters away from the blast scene when it exploded. I could see a number of government officials and security officers lying on the ground in a pool of blood.”Galkayo SomaliaGalkayo, 574 kilometers north of Mogadishu, is the provincial capital of the Mudug region. Since the collapse of Somalia’s central government of Siad Barre in 1991, the town has been divided into two parts, south and north. The south is controlled by the Galmudug regional state and the north is controlled by Puntland. Friday’s blast occurred in the southern part of the town.Al-Shabab said Somalia’s prime minister was its target in Friday’s bombing.“Roble was the main target of our attack and we killed two senior military commanders in the attacks,” said an al-Shabab statement aired via the group’s mobile official station, Radio Andalus.The blast came as tension continues to simmer in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and as the country gets closer to presidential elections scheduled for February 8.Police prevented union supporters from staging a protest Thursday of more than a dozen Somali opposition politicians, among them former presidents and prime ministers, seeking to unseat President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo.’We will win’“Today’s terrorist attacks in Galkayo only show the goal of the enemy of the Somali people, which is to get rid of [our] selective figures and our people in general. We will win against the ruthless,” said Farmaajo in a statement posted on the government website.The opposition accuses Farmaajo of bypassing electoral laws by stacking the poll committee with his allies. It also accuses the government of violating the constitutional right to assemble.VOA’s Abdiwahid Isaq contributed to this report from Galkayo, Somalia.
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France Arrests Four Linked to Meat Cleaver Attack
France says it arrested four people linked to a September 25 meat cleaver attack in Paris, outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The four are of Pakistani origin, as is the main suspect, Agence France-Presse reported. Two people were wounded in the attack. According to news reports, the four were arrested Monday, with one being charged two days later with taking part in a terrorist conspiracy. The remaining three were set to be charged, as well. The four were suspected of knowing about the attack beforehand and encouraging Zaheer Hassan Mahmoud to carry it out, according to a report in the Le Parisien newspaper. Mahmoud, who said he wanted to attack the magazine for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, was arrested after the attack and remains in custody. Two days before the arrest, a French court convicted 13 accomplices in the 2015 gun attack on Charlie Hebdo offices that killed 12 and wounded 11.Charlie Hebdo vacated those offices after the 2015 attack and is now in a secret location. In October, a Chechen refugee in a Paris suburb beheaded a teacher, Samuel Paty, who had shown the Hebdo cartoons to his pupils.
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Switzerland Imposes COVID-19 Restrictions as Infections Surge
The Swiss government Friday ordered all bars, restaurants, cultural venues and sports facilities to close next week because of a surging number of coronavirus cases.At a news conference, Health Minister Alain Berset said the new restrictions, which take effect Tuesday, are necessary because the situation in health facilities ”is not tenable in the long term.”The government will also restrict the number of people who can be inside stores, which must close after 7 p.m. and on Sundays and public holidays.While the closures include restaurants and bars at ski resorts, the federal government is leaving it to Switzerland’s 26 cantons — or states — to decide whether to close skiing facilities.But Berset cautioned they should “think carefully” about their decision “because hospitals are full and putting a lot of people on snow slopes can lead to an increase in accidents and we need to be very careful.”The Swiss health minister’s cautionary stance is a reversal from earlier this month. As other European nations announced plans to close their ski facilities for at least the first several weeks of the season, he said Swiss resorts would be allowed to stay open if they put in place safety measures such as masks, proper hygiene, social distancing and limited capacity for bars and restaurants.At the time, he said he realized the stance could raise regional tensions, but said “We are a sovereign country and can decide ourselves what the facts are on our territory.”The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Switzerland has risen over the past two weeks from 43 cases per 100,000 people on December 3 to 50 cases per 100,000 people on Thursday.
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Migrant Deaths Top 3,000 This Year
In marking International Migrants Day, the United Nations says at least 3,174 migrants have died this year while seeking safety from persecution and violence or in hopes of bettering their impoverished lives.The International Organization for Migration says the number of recorded migrant deaths is likely to be highly underestimated. It says tens of thousands of people embark on dangerous journeys across deserts, jungles and seas. Many thousands do not survive but their deaths, it says, are not recorded.The IOM says the overall number of global migrant deaths recorded this year is lower than in previous years. However, it notes fatalities have increased significantly on some of the migratory routes. For example, IOM spokesman Paul Dillon says at least 593 deaths have been documented in 2020 on route to Spain’s Canary Islands, compared to 45 fatalities in 2018.“An increase in migrants’ deaths was also recorded in South America compared to previous years, with at least 104 lives lost—most of them Venezuelan migrants—compared to fewer than 40 in all previous years,” said Dillion. “This includes at least 23 people who drowned off the coast of Venezuela last weekend. Some 381 men, women and children also lost their lives on the U.S.-Mexican border.”Advocates Warn of More Immigrant Deaths without ICE Action More people will die of the coronavirus in US immigration custody unless the Trump administration rapidly improves conditions and releases more detainees, lawyers and advocates warn, following the first confirmed virus-related death of a detaineeThis year, migration within and on route to Europe claimed the largest number of lives, more than 1,700. Dillon says a significant number of the deaths were among migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.He says migrants are not just statistics. He says they are people who make significant contributions to their countries of migration, especially in this time of coronavirus.“What we see every day are the images of doctors and nurses and support staff in health care facilities and old age homes, many of whom are migrant workers contributing to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saving lives, putting in the long arduous hours on behalf of those who are stricken with the virus,” Dillion said. Dillon says migrants should be welcomed and appreciated for the services and beneficial roles they perform in their adopted societies instead of being vilified and subjected to discrimination.
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Kidnapped Nigerian Boys to Be Reunited With Families Friday
A total of 344 boys were released Thursday after being abducted last week by gunmen from their school in Nigeria.”This is a huge relief to the entire country and international community,” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari posted on Twitter. “The entire country is grateful to [Katsina state] Governor [Aminu Bello] Masari, the intelligence agencies, the military and the police force.”Some boys, however, remain missing, Masari told state television.”We have recovered most of the boys. It’s not all of them,” he said on state channel NTA, noting that the boys who were released were found in a forest in neighboring Zamfara state.Masari said the boys would be reunited with their families Friday in the state capital after undergoing medical examinations.It was not immediately clear if a ransom had been paid for the children’s release.Before news of the boys’ release, a father of one of the kidnapped boys told The New York Times that he was in despair because “We don’t know if he has eaten, if he’s sick, dead or alive.”News of the boys’ release came shortly after a video appeared on social media Thursday, purportedly showing some of the hundreds of kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys with the Boko Haram Islamist militant group. The video showed a group of boys in a wooded area imploring security forces to leave the area.Nigerian spokesperson Abdul Labaran said in a statement the video was authentic but a message from the group’s leader was by an impersonator.Reuters and Agence France-Presse were not able to immediately confirm the authenticity of the video, but AFP reported it received the footage on the same channel previously used by Boko Haram.The jihadist group claimed responsibility earlier this week for the Dec. 11 kidnappings in northwest Nigeria but provided no proof. If Boko Haram’s claims are valid, its presence in the country’s northwestern Katsina state indicates it has expanded its activities into new territory.The video, which also featured Boko Haram’s logo, showed a distressed teenager surrounded by a large group of boys saying he was one of the 520 students kidnapped by the “gang of Abu Shekau.”The raid last Friday on a school in rural Kankara was first blamed on criminals who have terrorized the area for years.But Boko Haram subsequently claimed responsibility for the incursion, which took place hundreds of kilometers from its birthplace a decade ago in northeast Nigeria.In 2014, Boko Haram abducted more than 270 girls from the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok. Dozens of the girls never returned to their homes.
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UN Appeals for $254 Million to Assist Victims of Violence in Mozambique
The United Nations is appealing for $254 million to provide life-saving assistance for 1.1 million people caught in a devastating cycle of violence and abuse in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province. U.N. agencies report a sharp escalation in the number of people fleeing the chaos in Cabo Delgado. Increasing attacks and fighting by non-state armed groups, they say, have displaced nearly 530,000 people in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambezia and Niassa provinces. This is nearly five times the number registered in March. The U.N. refugee agency calls this volatile, unstable region a protection crisis. It says more than 2,000 people have been killed since the conflict started in 2017, and notes many of the more than half a million civilians on the run have been forced to move multiple times. FILE – The remains of a burned and destroyed home is seen in the recently attacked village of Aldeia da Paz outside Macomia, in the Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique, Aug. 24, 2019.“In the violence, houses have been looted and burned, families separated and health centers and schools seriously damaged,” said UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch. “Access to agricultural land has been blocked and other economic activities curtailed. There is a serious indication that this crisis could spread beyond the country’s borders if it goes unstopped.” The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs confirms that people fleeing violence in Cabo Delgado are exposed to severe violations and abuses. While women and girls are at higher risk of abduction, gender-based violence and exploitation, the U.N. office says boys are at risk of being killed or recruited by armed groups. OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke says essential services are overstretched, severely affecting the ability to help the growing number of victims of conflict and displacement. “More than 90% of the displaced people are living with relatives or friends, whose already scarce resources are being further strained,” he said. “Communities hosting the displaced people also need international support. Many areas hosting the displaced people will flood in the upcoming rainy season, we fear.” Aid agencies urgently need more funding, Laerke says, adding that people in Mozambique will have difficulty surviving without access to much-needed relief.
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US Supreme Court Throws Out Challenge to Trump Census Immigrant Plan
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday threw out a lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump’s plan to exclude immigrants living in the United States illegally from the population count used to allocate congressional districts to states.
The 6-3 ruling on ideological lines with the court’s six conservatives in the majority and three liberals dissenting, gives Trump a short-term victory as he pursues his hard-line policies toward immigration in the final weeks of his presidency.
However, his administration is battling against the clock to follow through on the vaguely defined proposal before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan 20. The justices left open the possibility of fresh litigation if Trump’s administration completes its plan.The unsigned decision said that “judicial resolution of this dispute is premature” in part because it is not clear what the administration plans to do. The ruling noted that the court was not weighing the merits of Trump’s plan.
Challengers led by New York state and the American Civil Liberties Union said Trump’s proposal would dilute the political clout of states with larger numbers of such immigrants, including heavily Democratic California, by undercounting state populations and depriving them of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to the benefit of his fellow Republicans.
“If the administration actually tries to implement this policy, we’ll sue. Again. And we’ll win,” said Dale Ho, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union who represents the challengers.
Supreme Court Seems Skeptical of Trump’s Census PlanTrump is trying to exclude people living in the country illegally from the population count used to allot seats in the House of RepresentativesThe administration has not disclosed what method it would use to calculate the number of people it proposed to exclude or which subsets of immigrants would be targeted. Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall told the justices during the November 30 oral argument in the case that the administration could miss a December 31 statutory deadline to finalize a Census Bureau report to Trump containing the final population data, including the number of immigrants excluded.
“The government does not deny that, if carried out, the policy will harm the plaintiffs. Nor does it deny that it will implement that policy imminently,” liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in a dissenting opinion.
Breyer noted that the government can currently try to exclude millions of individuals, including those who are in immigration detention or deportation proceedings, and the some 700,000 young people known as “Dreamers” who came to the U.S. illegally as children.
There are an estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally. The challengers have argued that Trump’s policy violates both the Constitution and the Census Act, a federal law that outlines how the census is conducted.
The Constitution requires apportionment of House seats to be based upon the “whole number of persons in each state.” Until now, the U.S. government’s practice was to count all people regardless of their citizenship or immigration status.
By statute, the president is required to send Congress a report in early January with the population of each of the states and their entitled number of House districts.
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