The head of a high-level U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) delegation visiting a refugee camp in Maban, South Sudan, this week said threats and attacks against aid workers are continuing in parts of the country despite some government intervention.Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s country representative, said Thursday the delegation recently went to Maban to see how UNHCR and other agencies are working on the ground and to determine how aid work is sustaining the livelihoods of locals during and after the conflict.In 2019, up to 2,000 young people forcefully entered the UNHCR compound and those of 14 other aid agencies in Maban, which led to looting, arson, and the destruction of several vehicles and structures.The 2019 attacks forced aid agencies to suspend services in the area except for life-saving activities. Nearly 400 aid workers were evacuated from the Maban area.Even though the government has tried to address the threats and attacks on aid workers, the problem persists, according to Jamal.“The government is aware,” Jamal told South Sudan in Focus. “I know that they are doing their best to help us — we are also working with UNMISS [United Nations Mission in South Sudan], the peacekeepers, on this — but it is a problem, and it is not over yet, and I would like to [implore the government to] please enable us to do the work that we need to do.”Eastern Equatoria stateHumanitarians have faced similar attacks in Eastern Equatoria state. An aid worker with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) was killed Tuesday night in Unity State’s Panyijar County. The local worker was on his way home from a video hall he owned in Nyal when he was attacked, said County Commissioner Colonel William Gatjiek Mabor.“The late [aid worker] had a place for football, so he advised the other one to pay for the game — actually they are relatives. After [the alleged assailant] was told to go home and bring money, he went and picked up his Kalashnikov [rifle], and then when [the aid worker] wanted to go home, he came and attacked him,” Col. Mabor told South Sudan in Focus.Mabor said the alleged assailant is known, and county authorities expect to arrest him soon, although they still had not done so as of late Friday.Carol Sekyewe, IRC’s country director for South Sudan, said the repeated attacks on aid workers derail the delivery of humanitarian assistance to those who need it most.“It makes it very difficult for us to work when humanitarian workers are attacked and killed,” Sekywew told South Sudan in Focus. “Initial analysis does not show [the assailant] was directly against IRC, but still, [the aid worker] was our colleague and we all feel the pain of his loss. He was doing a lot for nutrition [for] a lot of people in Nyal.”Panyijar CountyLast month, IRC aid worker Dr. Louis Edward Saleh was found dead in Ganyiel Payam of Panyijar County, where he was serving in the only medical clinic in the area.A forensic report released by the government said Saleh bled to death from several cuts on his neck and other stab wounds. Two guards at the clinic were arrested.The IRC pulled out of the area following the murder. As a result, villagers are suffering, said Mabor.“They are dying every day and that is why I want NGOs to ask for their protection, not because they don’t have the right to pull out. They have rights, but I need them to ask for their protection and then serve the innocent people,” Mabor told VOA. “Panyijar people are not wild animals, they are human beings.”Lakes stateEarlier this month, two workers with the Italian charity Doctors with Africa were killed when their convoy was ambushed in a village about 64 kilometers from Rumbek in Lakes state.Arafat said the South Sudan government officials should address the problem of attacks on aid workers once and for all.“In South Sudan in general there is a problem of security of humanitarian workers, and I have discussed this at many levels with the government,” Jamal told VOA. “We are here to work together with the government and people of South Sudan, but it is essential for us to also be protected. You cannot attack the people who are here to protect.”Maban County Commissioner Peter Alberto said he took steps to beef up security and end the violence against aid workers after he was appointed to the post several months ago.“It was my first thing to do,” Alberto told South Sudan in Focus. “I formed a joint operation, which is stationed at a bridge at the river bisecting Maban into two, and I had to order the officers on the roads — nobody has to carry a gun.”Alberto said he is trying to restore law and order, and that he has instructed local authorities to hold criminal suspects accountable for their actions.
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Month: June 2021
At UN, States Condemn Myanmar’s Junta
The international community sent a strong signal Friday to Myanmar’s military, condemning its seizure of the civilian government and its monthslong violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. In a resolution adopted in the U.N. General Assembly by a vote of 119-1, with Belarus the only country voting against and 36 abstentions, member states called for an end to the violence and for respect of the will of the people as expressed in the November election. They called for the return to the democratic path, the release of political detainees and the end of the state of emergency imposed after the February 1 coup. While the legal power to impose an international arms embargo lies only with the Security Council, the resolution does call on “all member states to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar.” Myanmar’s ambassador, who is aligned with the national unity government, welcomed the resolution, saying that he hoped it would help pressure the military to stop “their inhumane acts” but was disappointed it fell “far short of our expectations.” FILE – Myanmar’s United Nations Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun addresses the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, March 11, 2019.Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun said it had been more than 130 days since the coup and there was no sign the brutal military crackdown was easing. He appealed to the international community, as well as to the U.N. Security Council, to take “collective and decisive action” to ease the violence. Nearly 900 civilian protesters have been confirmed killed and 6,000 arrested since the military seized power February 1, rejecting the outcome of the November elections that overwhelmingly gave power to the National League for Democracy party. “The military is still operating in its own twisted reality, ignoring the international community’s calls,” Kyaw Moe Tun said. The resolution also calls on the military to “immediately facilitate” a visit by U.N. Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener. She has been trying to return to the country since the coup, but the junta has repeatedly put her off. “Time is of the essence,” she told the gathering. “The opportunity to reverse the military takeover is narrowing, and the regional threat increasing.” FILE – Protesters react after tear gas is fired by police during a demonstration against the military coup in the northwestern town of Kalay, March 2, 2021.She said that fighting had emerged in areas covered in the 2015 nationwide cease-fire agreement, and that there had been “serious confrontations” in areas with long-standing bilateral truces with the military. “The risk of a large-scale civil war is real,” she warned. On April 24, at a summit in Indonesia, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations issued a five-point plan to lead the country out of the crisis. The plan included dialogue, ASEAN mediation and a halt to the hostilities. The Myanmar military has so far ignored it. The General Assembly called on the junta to engage with ASEAN to seek a peaceful outcome to the crisis. But not all ASEAN members supported the resolution. Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand abstained. FILE – A protester against Myanmar’s junta holds a placard criticizing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in Mandalay, Myanmar, June 5, 2021.Diplomats said the 10-member bloc preferred to support the measure in a “consensus” rather than a recorded vote. But Belarus demanded the recorded vote, and it chipped at the unity. China, which is not an ASEAN member and is close to the Myanmar military, also abstained. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media in New York City, New York, June 18, 2021.Earlier Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that the human rights abuses and killings must stop and that the conditions need to be created for democracy to be restored. “I hope the General Assembly will be able to send a very clear message in this direction because we cannot live in a world where military coups become a norm. It is totally unacceptable,” he told reporters. European Union envoy Olof Skoog, who was part of the core group that negotiated the text, said they did succeed in sending the military a powerful message “that is the broadest and most universal condemnation of the situation in Myanmar to date.” “It (the resolution) delegitimizes the military junta, condemns its abuse and violence against its own people, and demonstrates its isolation in the eyes of the world,” he said.
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UN Calls for Halt of Weapons to Myanmar
The U.N. General Assembly on Friday called for a stop to the flow of arms to Myanmar and urged the military to respect November election results and release political detainees, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi.The General Assembly adopted a resolution with the support of 119 countries, several months after the military overthrew Suu Kyi’s elected government in a February 1 coup. Belarus requested the text be put to a vote and was the only country to oppose it, while 36 abstained, including China and Russia.”The risk of a large-scale civil war is real,” U.N. special envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told the General Assembly after the vote. “Time is of the essence. The opportunity to reverse the military takeover is narrowing.”Some countries that abstained said the crisis was an internal issue for Myanmar, others did not think the resolution would be helpful, while some states complained it did not adequately address the plight of Rohingya Muslims four years after a military crackdown forced nearly a million to flee Myanmar.European Union U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog said the U.N. resolution sent a powerful message: “It delegitimizes the military junta, condemns its abuse and violence against its own people and demonstrates its isolation in the eyes of the world.”U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had earlier on Friday pushed the General Assembly to act, telling reporters: “We cannot live in a world where military coups become a norm. It is totally unacceptable.”The military cited the government’s refusal to address what it said was fraud in a November election as the reason for the coup. International observers have said the ballot was fair.FILE – Military troops and police go on patrol at Kayah state, eastern Myanmar, May 23, 2021.ASEAN splitAn initial draft U.N. resolution included stronger language calling for an arms embargo on Myanmar. According to a proposal seen by Reuters last month, nine Southeast Asian countries wanted that language removed.The compromise text “calls on all member states to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar.”General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but carry political weight. Unlike the 15-member Security Council, no country has veto power in the General Assembly.The junta’s forces have killed more than 860 people since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The junta says the number is much lower.The U.N. resolution calls on the Myanmar military to “immediately stop all violence against peaceful protesters” and end restrictions on the internet and social media.The General Assembly also called on Myanmar to swiftly implement a five-point consensus the junta forged with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in April to halt violence and start dialogue with its opponents.ASEAN has led the main diplomatic effort to find a way out of the crisis but was split on Friday over the U.N. action.Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar’s U.N. Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, who speaks for the country’s elected civilian government, voted yes, while Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand abstained.Kyaw Moe Tun said he was disappointed it took so long for the General Assembly to adopt a “watered down” resolution, adding: “It is critically important that no country should support the military.”
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At Least 80 Students Missing After Latest School Raid in Nigeria
Police in Nigeria say armed men have attacked a school in the northwest state of Kebbi, killing a police officer and abducting at least 80 students and teachers. It’s the latest in a series of school kidnappings for ransom that have exposed growing insecurity in northern Nigeria.About 250 gunmen on motorbikes invaded the government college in Yauri, Kebbi state midday Thursday. They shot sporadically, killed a police officer and abducted five lecturers along with the students. However, one of the students with bullet wounds was dropped along the way.The attack is the latest in a string of kidnappings in northern Nigerian schools since December, and the third in the last month.Speaking to Lagos-based Channels Television Friday morning, Yusuf Sununu, a local constituent leader in Yauri said security operatives are making progress with the search mission.”We have made a lot of contacts and as at last night, even around 1 a.m. this morning, I had a discussion with the field commander, [he said] that they have succeeded in entering into the den of the kidnappers and I think this is a major success because security agents are now taking the fight to the base of the kidnappers” Bununu said. The government school and many others in Kebbi were shut down Friday.Amnesty International reports about 600 schools in northern Nigeria have closed as a result of persistent attacks since late last year.Earlier this year, the government promised more security deployment to schools.But Emmanuel Hwande, spokesperson of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, says schools remain poorly protected.”As far as the security situation as it affects our schools is concerned, nothing has changed” Hwande said. “We can only say things have changed where we receive reports of less of such occurrences. But in the span of just this week, we have heard a kidnap of a lecturer and a kidnap in a polytechnic in Kaduna.”Nigeria authorities have faced increased criticism over the kidnappings, one of the many security challenges including Boko Haram conflict in the northeast, and a growing separatist movement in the country’s southeast.The separatist calls have led to the creation of various regional security forces, which authorities say are illegal and threaten national security.The U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, says lack of opportunities is the major reason for the escalating security issues.”Challenges to security are more than just about a physical response. While there may be very many different reasons for insecurity in Nigeria for example, I think we may all agree that lack of opportunity underpins many of them,” Leonard said. “I was just in Kebbi last week, more farmers are being employed to grow rice to bring to the factory where people have jobs.”Late last month, armed men seized 136 young students from an Islamic Seminary school in central Niger state. So far, only 11 of them have been freed.
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Zimbabwe Imposes 12-Hour Curfew on Districts on Zambian Border
Zimbabwe has announced stricter coronavirus measures along its northern border with Zambia after a spike in confirmed infections. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights says the strict regulations should be followed by efforts to secure more vaccines once the situation is contained.Reading a statement from President Emmerson Mnangagwa on national television Thursday night, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said Zimbabwe had noticed a sharp spike in cases of COVID-19 in Zambia and in the areas near its northern neighbor.Vice President and health minister Constantino Chiwenga, seen in this Feb. 2021 file photo, says complacency had resulted in a recent spike in cases of the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 disease. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)”I therefore direct that the following measures be implemented in order to control the spread of COVID-19 in these areas: Curfew from 1800 hours to 0600 hours,” Chiwenga said. “Entry or exit into these districts is prohibited except for essential services. Public transport to carry half their carrying capacity to enable physical distancing. Every public transport vehicle be disinfected after every trip.”Chiwenga — who doubles as Zimbabwe’s health minister — said all restrictions imposed throughout Zimbabwe over the past weekend such as bans on gatherings except for funerals would also apply to the three districts of Makonde, Hurungwe and Kariba.Only 30 people would be allowed at funerals, according to the restrictions he announced over the weekend.There was no word on when the measures may be lifted.Speaking via messaging app, Dr. Norman Matara, from the Zimbabwe Association for Doctors for Human Rights, said the localized lockdowns have worked in countries like U.S., Britain, Italy and Germany.He urged tight enforcement by the government to ensure success.“Of course we have seen a decrease in terms of vaccinations, but when we see community spread of infections, what we really [need] to focus on is to implement things like lockdowns, increase testing capacity, quickly identify positive cases,” Matara said. “We isolate them and we do contact-tracing such that we minimize the number of cases we are recording every day. And once the cases go down, we can go on preaching the gospel of vaccinations.”Zimbabweans Protest COVID-19 Vaccine Shortages Government wants to inoculate at least 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s more than 14 million people by year’s end but has struggled to get necessary supplies Zimbabwe’s vaccination effort against the global pandemic has recently been hit by shortages of shots.But officials say the country still has some stocks of the 1.7 million COVID-19 vaccines it has received from China, Russia and India since February.So far, nearly 700,000 Zimbabweans have received their first shots, and close to 427,000 have received their second.Zimbabwe has just under 41,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,647 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, which tracks the global outbreak.
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Experts See Progress, No Breakthroughs, in European Summits
President Joe Biden wrapped up a busy week of summits in Europe on Wednesday, as the United States reclaimed a leadership role among its democratic allies. Mike O’Sullivan reports.
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North Korea’s Kim Vows to Be Ready for Confrontation With US
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his government to be prepared for both dialogue and confrontation with the Biden administration — but more for confrontation — state media reported Friday, days after the United States and others urged the North to abandon its nuclear program and return to talks.Kim’s statement indicates he’ll likely push to strengthen his nuclear arsenal and increase pressure on Washington to give up what North Korea considers a hostile policy toward the North, though he’ll also prepare for talks to resume, some experts say.During an ongoing ruling party meeting Thursday, Kim analyzed in detail the policy tendencies of the U.S. under President Joe Biden and clarified steps to be taken in relations with Washington, the Korean Central News Agency said. It did not specify the steps.Kim “stressed the need to get prepared for both dialogue and confrontation, especially to get fully prepared for confrontation in order to protect the dignity of our state” and ensure national security, it said.In 2018-19, Kim held a series of summits with then-President Donald Trump to discuss North Korea’s advancing nuclear arsenal. But the negotiations fell apart after Trump rejected Kim’s calls for extensive sanctions relief in return for a partial surrender of his nuclear capability.Biden’s administration has worked to formulate a new approach on North Korea’s nuclear program that it describes as “calibrated and practical.” Details of his North Korea policy haven’t been publicized, but U.S. officials have suggested Biden will seek a middle ground between Trump’s direct meetings with Kim and former President Barack Obama’s “strategic patience” to curb Kim’s nuclear program.Earlier this week, leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations issued a statement calling for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and “the verifiable and irreversible abandonment” of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. They called on North Korea to engage and resume dialogue.Sung Kim, the top U.S. official on North Korea, is to visit Seoul on Saturday for a trilateral meeting with South Korean and Japanese officials. His travel emphasizes the importance of three-way cooperation in working toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the State Department said.Kim Jong Un has recently threatened to enlarge his nuclear arsenal and build high-tech weapons targeting the U.S. mainland if Washington refuses to abandon its hostile policy toward North Korea.In March, Kim’s military performed its first short-range ballistic missile tests in a year. But North Korea is still maintaining a moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests in an indication that Kim still wants to keep prospects for diplomacy alive.Kwak Gil Sup, head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korea affairs, wrote on Facebook that Kim’s statement suggested he’s taking a two-track approach of bolstering military capability and preparing for talks. But he said Kim will more likely focus on boosting military strength and repeating his demand for the U.S. to withdraw its hostile policy, rather than hastily returning to talks.Kim said last week North Korea’s military must stay on high alert to defend national security.
Analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea said North Korea will likely return to talks but won’t accept a call for immediate, complete denuclearization. He said North Korea may accede to a proposal to freeze its atomic program and partially reduce its nuclear arsenal in phased steps if the Biden administration relaxes sanctions and suspends its regular military drills with South Korea.Cha Duck Chul, a deputy spokesman at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said it’s closely monitoring the North’s ongoing political meeting and wants to reemphasize the best way to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula is through dialogue.In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang called for renewed dialogue between North Korea and the U.S., saying that “We believe that the Korean Peninsula situation is facing a new round of tension.”Kim called the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee meeting taking place this week to review efforts to rebuild the economy, which has been severely crippled by pandemic border closings, mismanagement amid the U.S.-led sanctions, and storm damage to crops and infrastructure last year.On Tuesday, Kim opened the meeting by warning of potential food shortages, urging officials to find ways to boost agricultural production because the country’s food situation “is now getting tense.” He also urged the country to brace for extended COVID-19 restrictions, suggesting North Korea would extend its border closure and other steps despite the stress on its economy.
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Declaration of Juneteenth Holiday Sparks Scramble in States
Congress and President Joe Biden acted with unusual swiftness this week in approving Juneteenth as a national holiday, a move that sent many states scrambling to clarify their policies on the observance with less than a business day’s notice.Nearly all states recognize Juneteenth in some fashion, at least on paper. But most have been slow to move beyond proclamations issued by governors or resolutions passed by lawmakers. At least seven states have designated it in law as an official paid state holiday — Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington.This year alone, legislation to formally recognize Juneteenth died in Florida and South Dakota and is stalled in Ohio, all states controlled by Republicans. In Maryland, where Democrats control the legislature, a Juneteenth bill passed one chamber but died in the other.The effort recalls the drawn-out battles over recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the last time the federal government designated a new holiday. That legislation, finally passed in 1983, scheduled the holiday to begin three years later. It set off bitter debates in the states over whether to enact their own holidays.Few states had laws on booksOnly a handful of states headed into Thursday’s signing of the federal Juneteenth law with the paid holiday on the books to be celebrated in 2021. The governors of Washington, Illinois and Louisiana, by contrast, all signed more recent laws that were set to kick in for 2022, adding to the muddled rollout.Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, announced that state offices would be closed for a half day on Friday, only a few days after he signed Juneteenth legislation. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker closed government offices in his state as well, though the new holiday would not have been observed until 2023, since June 19 falls on a Sunday in 2022.In another twist, many states have laws with provisions that automatically recognize all federal holidays — even those not named in state statute.Such was the case in Ohio, where Republican Governor Mike DeWine issued his Juneteenth statement on Thursday evening. In the manner of a hastily called school snow day, he noted the state’s automatic observance of all federal holidays and declared that most government offices would be closed Friday.State Senator Hearcel Craig, a Columbus Democrat who is Black, is sponsoring the bill making Juneteenth a paid state holiday in Ohio.Ohio urged to be a leaderHe said Friday that it remained essential that lawmakers pass the legislation even after the federal holiday was declared. His bill cleared the Ohio Senate unanimously last session, but time ran out for its consideration in the House.”This is the party of Lincoln,” he said of Republicans, who control both Ohio legislative chambers. “My hope and expectation is that Ohio will choose to be a leader in the quest to honor Black history and the movement toward a more equitable world. And that’s not hyperbole. Ohio can and should be a leader with regard to this issue. It concerns not only African Americans but all Americans. Put simply, Black history is American history.”West Virginia Governor Jim Justice held a last-minute virtual press conference after Biden’s bill-signing Thursday to declare Juneteenth an official state holiday. New Jersey passed a Juneteenth holiday in September.Minnesota has recognized the third Saturday in June as Juneteenth since 1996, but the statute obligates the governor only to issue a proclamation each year honoring the observance. That’s a common situation in the U.S.Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, has called for making it an official state holiday. The idea has not gotten traction so far in Minnesota’s legislature, the only one in the nation where Democrats control one chamber and Republicans control the other.Members of its People of Color and Indigenous Caucus are now drafting legislation patterned on the new federal law.
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Malawi Facing COVID Vaccine Shortage after Burning Expired Doses
Malawi authorities say the country is quickly running out of coronavirus vaccines as confirmed infections surge to nearly 35,000 and 1,200 deaths in a third wave of the pandemic. The shortage comes just weeks after Malawi destroyed about 20,000 doses that expired, partly due to vaccine hesitancy.Malawi health authorities said Friday they’ve shut down more than half the country’s vaccination centers because of shortages and that many people were turned way.In the commercial capital Blantyre, all the vaccination centers are closed.Dr. Charles Mwansambo is Malawi’s Secretary for Health.”Malawi received a total of 512,000 doses; 360,000 were from the COVAX facility, 102,000 were from the AU [African Union] and 50,000 doses were from the Indian government,” Mwansambo said. “And as we are talking now, more that 93% of those doses have been used.”The vaccine shortage comes just a month after Malawi destroyed nearly 20,000 doses that had expired in April – partly because of vaccine hesitancy. Mwansambo says authorities were forced to incinerate the doses to reassure Malawians that vaccines being used were effective. “The burning was of course regrettable, but we got those doses very late, they only had a very short shelf life,” Mwansambo said. “In fact, I am happy that we did that because we got back the confidence from the people. That’s why we are seeing what we are seeing now.”Malawi plans to vaccinate about 11 million of its 18 million people to achieve herd immunity. But only about 400,000 Malawians have been inoculated so far.Malawi is expecting a donation of 900,000 doses from the COVAX facility by the end of July. Malawi Burns Expired COVID-19 Vaccine Amid Concerns of Low Uptake Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo-Chiponda says the destruction is aimed to build public confidence in the safety of the vaccination programSome Malawians who got their first dose in March worry about their immunity being compromised as they were supposed to get the second jab after 12 weeks. But medical experts dismiss those fears.Dr. Gift Kawalazila is the director of Health and Social Services at Blantyre District Health Office.”The evidence that we have is that actually the longer you delay the (second dose of the) vaccine the more effective it becomes,” Kawalazila said. “So, 12 weeks, was just a guide. But the idea was that if you take it after 12 weeks that’s when actually it gets better with your immunity.”But Mwansambo worries the waiting time could deter people from getting the jab and is calling on donors to step in to bridge the gap.”So, this break will kill the momentum,” Mwansambo said. “I hope it’s not too long a break. That’s why we call upon other willing, and I know that a number of well-wishers out there, including the US government, the UK government, are ready to give out the extra doses they have.”Malawi’s parliament called on the government Thursday to set aside funds to purchase vaccines, so they are not dependent on donations.While Malawi is one of Africa’s poorest nations, Health Secretary Mwansambo says the issue is not money but where to get the vaccine.He noted India, which produces the AstraZeneca vaccine that does not require cold storage, has stopped exports to deal with its own surge with tens of thousands of daily, new infections.
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Central Bank: Nigeria Could Launch Pilot Digital Currency by Year-End
Nigeria’s Central Bank is preparing a digital currency pilot that could launch as early as the end of this year, its director of information technology said in a recording heard by Reuters on Friday.
Nigeria barred its banks and financial institutions from dealing in or facilitating transactions in cryptocurrencies in February after exponential growth in monthly cryptocurrency transfers to and from Africa.Central Bank director of information technology Rakiya Mohammed said the project to create some form of digital currency had been in the works for two years, and more announcements were likely in the coming weeks.”We’re all aware that about 80% of central banks in the world exploring the possibility of issuing central bank digital currency, and Nigeria cannot be left behind,” Mohammed said in the June 10 virtual briefing with bankers.The Central Bank communications team shared a recording of the briefing with Reuters.
She said the system would expand digital inclusion, make remittances from the diaspora easier and smooth international purchases for Nigerians.”If you have a central bank digital currency that is backed by the government, then people can make transactions online without fear of any default,” Mohammed said.Europe and the United States are working on regulating digital assets and their providers, while some other countries, including China, Britain and Russia, are also considering launching their own central bank digital currencies.
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Dozens of Migrants Rescued, Four Dead After Boat Runs Aground on Spain’s Lanzarote
More than 40 African migrants were rescued after their boat ran aground on the rocky coast of Lanzarote in Spain’s Canary Islands late on Thursday, emergency services said, while over 100 people on two more boats made it safely to other islands.Rescue workers pulled the body of a young boy out of the ocean on Friday afternoon, bringing the total death toll to four, while police divers were preparing to begin searching for one person who remains missing.The bodies of a man and two women, one of whom was pregnant, had been recovered earlier in the day, an emergency services spokesperson said.Local resident Marcos Lemes, who was first on the scene and alerted emergency services, told Reuters he had begun pulling people out of the water after giving his phone to a boy to use as a torch.”I ran out of the house with two buoys that I keep at home and when I got there it was madness … I saw a huge number of people on the reef.”A dozen of the rescued group, including two babies and two young children, were transferred to hospital, the regional emergency services said.Another boat carrying 58 people made it to Fuerteventura and a third with 52 people landed on the tiny island of El Hierro.So far this year more than 5,700 migrants have made the dangerous crossing from Africa to the Canaries archipelago, over twice as many as in the same period in 2020, which itself saw an eight-fold increase from 2019.A record 850 died on the route last year, according to the United Nations migration agency, which suggested COVID-19 had prompted many workers in struggling industries like fishing or agriculture to migrate.With arrival facilities on the Canaries packed to capacity, authorities have housed of migrants thousands in camps where conditions have criticized by rights groups.
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Inquiry Details 9 Missed Opportunities to Thwart British Concert Bombing
Families of the 22 people who died in the 2017 terrorist bombing of a concert at Britain’s Manchester Arena are urging authorities to mount corporate manslaughter prosecutions against the firm responsible for security on the night of the attack and the company that runs the arena. Their demand came Thursday in the wake of the release of a damning official report into the terror attack that detailed nine missed opportunities to thwart the bombing of the Ariana Grande concert by 22-year-old Salman Abedi, a British-Libyan citizen. The report by John Saunders, a former High Court judge, who has led a months-long inquiry into Abedi’s suicide bombing, which also left hundreds injured, found there were grave “systemic failures” ahead of the attack on May 22, 2017. “Everybody concerned with security at the arena should have been doing their job in the knowledge that a terrorist attack might occur on that night. They weren’t,” Saunders said in the report.Abedi, an Islamic State-inspired attacker, should have been identified as a threat on the night of the attack, and if he had been, it is “highly likely” more lives could have been saved, the inquiry found. Saunders concluded “more should have been done” by police and security before Abedi detonated his homemade device.The report concluded the arena’s operator, SMG, security company Showsec and British Transport Police were “principally responsible for the missed opportunities.” Saunders also noted “failings by individuals.” The report has paved the way for substantial civil damages claims to be filed by the families of the dead and those who were injured, according to lawyers acting for the families.Manchester Marks Anniversary of Concert Bombing
Like last year on May 22 bells will toll across the northern English city of Manchester to mark the anniversary — this time the second— of the suicide bombing of the Manchester Arena that left 23 concert-goers dead, including the attacker, and 139 wounded, more than half of them children.Many of the survivors and relatives of the dead say they remain unable two shake off the terrors of the blast and loss of loved ones.
Speaking after the publication of the 204-page report examining events leading up to the bombing, Paul Hett, the father of 30-year-old victim Martyn Hett, said the families were failed by the authorities “on every level.” He added, “This atrocity should and could have been prevented, and 22 people would not have lost their lives.” The mother of 32-year-old victim Philip Tron, June Tron, told reporters it was “very hard to accept and understand” the series of security failures and missed opportunities to stop Salman Abedi from detonating his device.“We hope that, as a result of this inquiry, many lessons are learnt and that laws are introduced and changes made quickly to ensure people can go to a concert or a big public event in confidence that they have the best possible protection,” she added.“Prosecutions should be commenced without further delay,” lawyer Elkan Abrahamson, who represents five of the victims’ families, said in a statement to the press.Among the “most striking missed opportunity,” the report found, was when a concert-goer, Christopher Wild, raised his suspicions about Abedi minutes before he detonated his device, but no action was taken and a security guard “fobbed off” the alert. “Christopher Wild’s behavior was very responsible. He stated that he formed the view that Abedi might ‘let a bomb off’. This was sadly all too prescient and makes all the more distressing the fact that no effective steps were taken as a result of the efforts made by Christopher Wild,” Saunders said in the report, which is one of three to be delivered on errors ahead of the attack.The inquiry also was critical of two police officers who, despite being on duty, took a two-hour break to go for a kebab five miles away from the arena. The British Transport Police (BTP), the force responsible for patrolling the concert, was accused by Saunders of failing “to give adequate consideration to the threat of terrorism” despite Britain being under a “severe” terrorism warning at the time.Abedi was wearing a large backpack containing his shrapnel-filled bomb and was able to hide for more than an hour in a room inside the arena complex. The inquiry viewed security video of the suicide bomber as he entered the arena “bent over” and was “struggling to walk” because of the 32-kilogram weight of the bag containing the bomb. He detonated the device as thousands of concertgoers, many of them children and teenagers, were leaving the auditorium.FILE – Concert goers flee the Manchester Arena in northern England where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing in Manchester, Britain, May 22, 2017.SMG, the arena’s operator, failed to “instruct an expert in security” to conduct a comprehensive review of security arrangements for the event, according to Saunders. Its specific risk assessment also was “inadequate” and “descended into a box-ticking exercise.”
Showsec, the security firm hired by SMG, also came in for scathing criticism, over the absence of patrols and inadequate training for security staff. Showsec is owned by Live Nation, the world’s biggest music promotion company.Future reports into the bombing will examine whether Britain’s security services and counterterrorism police should have mounted surveillance on the Manchester-born Abedi, who had just returned to Britain before the bombing after a month-long stay in Tripoli, ostensibly to visit family.
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Will the Philippines Take Sides as US, China Send Military Units to Disputed Sea?
A wave of U.S. and Chinese military activity in the contested South China Sea is making it challenging for the Philippines, at the heart of the maritime dispute, to stick with the neutral foreign policy it has formulated over the past half-decade, analysts say.The U.S. Navy’s Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group “is operating in the South China Sea,” the Navy said on its website June 14. The group is flying aircraft, conducting maritime strike exercises and training for surface-air unit coordination. It calls this voyage part of the Navy’s “routine presence in the Indo-Pacific.”U.S. officials have said exercises like these – it carried out 10 last year – support Asian allies, including the Philippines, with which the U.S. has had a Mutual Defense Treaty since 1951.China’s navy, for its part, has increased surveillance on one of its artificial-island military bases in the sea, the U.S. Naval Institute’s USNI News reported June 10. It says a Chinese intelligence-gathering ship and a maritime patrol aircraft, plus one other plane, have appeared at Fiery Cross Reef in the sea’s Spratly Islands, where Manila occupies 10 other features.The Philippines has fretted for a decade over China’s landfilling of Spratly islets for military use.In April, Manila sent four of its own navy ships to support coast guard and fishing vessels near an unoccupied Spratly reef where 220 Chinese boats moored in March, domestic media said. A Chinese vessel had sunk a Philippine fishing boat in 2019 and other vessels periodically pressure Filipino fishing operations to leave disputed sea tracts.“China could slowly expand its maritime presence in the South China Sea using the China Coast Guard, maritime militia and fishing fleet,” said Carl Thayer, Asia-specialized emeritus professor from the University of New South Wales in Australia. China has done this already, he said. “These so-called grey zone operations … were designed to habituate the Philippines to defer to Chinese maritime power because the Philippines was too weak” to fight back, Thayer said.Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim parts of the sea, areas that overlap China’s self-proclaimed boundary line. Flare-ups involving the Philippines occur particularly often because of its long coastlines and wide-ranging fishing fleet.When the U.S. Navy shows up, “it sends reassurances to countries like the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia about the United States being here in a position where China won’t be allowed to do what it wants to do without any pushback,” said Herman Kraft, a political science professor at University of the Philippines at Diliman.However, while Manila rejects Beijing’s claims to parts of the South China sea closest to the Philippine archipelago’s west coasts, it hopes to keep receiving Chinese economic help, particularly for infrastructure.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has panned U.S. influence over domestic policy, including his deadly anti-drug campaign, while forming an all-new friendship with China since he took office in 2016.Direct investment from China to the Philippines, a largely impoverished nation trying to fight COVID-19 while boosting infrastructure, came to $140 million last year, 36% more than the amount in 2019, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said.“Ushering into the new era, President Xi Jinping and President Duterte have met eight times face-to-face, drawing up strategic blueprints for the continuous development of China-Philippine relations,” the embassy said June 9.Disputes between China and the Philippines in the sea, however, have increased public pressure at home against Duterte’s engagement with Beijing. The Quezon City-based research institution Social Weather Stations found in a survey last July that people’s trust in the United States was “good” but trust was “bad” in China.China sees friendship with the Philippines as a way to reduce U.S. influence in Asia, scholars have said. China cites old fishing records to back its claim over about 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway that is rich in fisheries and fossil fuel reserves. The United States has no claim.China’s activity in the Spratly is probably aimed more at resisting the United States than at the Philippines, Kraft said.“Beijing will surely complain about the USS Ronald Reagan’s sail through the South China Sea, but I suspect that it will be more muted in its disapproval of Manila’s deployments so as not to alienate Filipino voters ahead of next year’s presidential election, much of which could turn on relations with Beijing,” said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York.Duterte must leave office next June because of term limits, opening the field to candidates with other foreign policy views.The Philippines hit another diplomatic crossroads this week when Duterte suspended his decision to cancel a U.S.-Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement. The 1999 pact smooths arms sales and joint exercises. Duterte, once adamant about scrapping it, is looking now for more favorable terms, analysts have said.“We will have to see what the election renders next year” in the Philippines, said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center in Washington. In the United States, she said, “the hope is that Duterte will continue to extend the suspension and the next president will adopt a more rational position on the issue.”
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Nigeria Kidnap Victims Oppose Government Move to Ban Ransom Payments
Nigerian lawmakers are set to vote on a bill criminalizing ransom payments after reports that payoffs were made to resolve a series of mass kidnappings. The bill, which would impose stiff prison sentences, is being criticized by relatives of kidnap victims. Timothy Obiezu reports from Kaduna, where many kidnappings have taken place recently.
Camera: Emeka Gibson Producer: Jason Godman
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UN: Forced Displacement from Conflicts Soaring Despite Pandemic
The U.N. refugee agency, which just released its 2020 Global Trends report, said the number of people forcibly displaced last year by wars, violence, persecution and human rights violations hit a record high of 82.4 million, 4% more than in 2019.This is the ninth consecutive year that forced displacement figures have continued to rise. Even lockdowns and border closures because of the coronavirus pandemic have not stopped people from fleeing for their lives in the face of war and atrocities.Of the more than 82 million forcibly displaced, 26.4 million are refugees, who have crossed international borders in search of protection. Most of the rest are people displaced within their own countries because of conflict and violence.U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the number of internally displaced people has doubled over the past 10 years.“We are now in excess of one percent of humanity being forcibly displaced,” Grandi said. “And one of the many figures that to me is quite interesting and striking is that 42% of these people are children.”The report found that more than two-thirds of all refugees who have fled abroad come from just five countries — Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar. For the seventh consecutive year, Turkey has hosted the largest number of refugees, followed by Colombia, Pakistan, Uganda, and Germany.Grandi said new crises that have caused fresh displacements include northern Mozambique, where violence by armed groups, poverty, climate change and other factors have displaced up to 700,000 people.He said violence in countries in the Central Sahel, including Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, has prompted 750,000 people to flee their homes.“And then, of course, Ethiopia, where the Tigray crisis has provoked up to — and we are not even sure about that — up to 1 million additional internally displaced people in addition to about 50 to 60,000 that have crossed the border into Sudan.”High Commissioner Grandi said the global trend for displacement crises in 2021 is not looking good. In the first six months of this year, he said, very few refugees have returned home and protracted refugee crises have stagnated.At the same time, he said, new crises are arising, churning out new refugees and internally displaced people faster than solutions can be found.
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Officers Resign From Portland, Oregon, Protest Response Unit
A team of 50 police officers who serve on a specialized crowd-control unit in Oregon and respond to Portland’s ongoing, often violent protests have resigned en masse after a team member was indicted on criminal charges.During a Wednesday night meeting, officers, detectives and sergeants on the Rapid Response Team voted to resign from the team because of a perceived lack of support from City Hall and from the district attorney over the past year, according to the mayor’s office and officers.The move by officers to disband their own team came a day after Officer Cody Budworth was indicted and accused of fourth-degree assault stemming from a baton strike against a protester last summer.”I don’t think it is just an indictment that caused this to happen, I think it is a very long complicated history of things that have gone on over the last 14 months,” Acting Portland Police Chief Chris Davis said.Davis told reporters Thursday that while the officers on the unit have “left their voluntary positions and no longer comprise a team,” they will continue with their regular assignments.The Rapid Response Team is an “all-hazard incident” unit that responds to natural or human-made disasters, large-scale searches and, most recently, public order policing or riots. Members of the team are trained in advanced skills related to crowd management, crowd psychology and behavior, team formations and movements, the use of enhanced personal protective equipment, use of force, and de-escalation and arrests.Last summer, when Portland became the epicenter of Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, the team was on the front lines.Many demonstrations started peacefully but devolved into clashes with officers late at night, and at times ended with vandalism, property damage and fires. The crowd-control team was the unit often directed to disperse groups after police declared unlawful assemblies or riots.”Our entire organization has been put through something none of us have ever seen through our careers — and at a level and intensity that I don’t think any other city in the United States has experienced,” Davis said.Portland police confront May Day protesters at the ICE facility on May 1, 2021 in Portland, Ore.In late October, the president of the police union, the Portland Police Association, sent the mayor and police chief a letter, urging both to “stand up and publicly support Police Bureau members who voluntarily serve on the Rapid Response Team.””Our RRT members do not volunteer to have Molotov cocktails, fireworks, explosives, rocks, bottles, urine, feces and other dangerous objects thrown at them,” wrote Daryl Turner, then-president of the union. He noted that the team members volunteer for the work without any specialty pay.On Thursday, Davis acknowledged that members of the team have been exposed and subjected to “unbelievable things” in the past 14 months, including ongoing protests, increased violence and the pandemic.”I understand that those are very complex issues, but I also understand their perspective,” Davis said about the team’s decision. “If you put a human being through what they went through, that takes a toll.”While protests have significantly decreased in the city, there are still small protests by self-described anarchists in contained areas of Portland.Davis said in the event there’s a declared riot in the coming days, there will still be a police response from other officers within the bureau “with as close to adequate resources as we can get.”Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who has led efforts to defund the police and proposed disbanding the team last fall, said that the “resignations are yet another example of a rogue paramilitary organization that is unaccountable to the elected officials and residents of Portland.”FILE – In this Nov. 4, 2020, photo, police form a perimeter during protests following the Nov. 3 presidential election in Portland, Ore.”Earlier this week, for the first time in Portland’s history, an officer from PPB’s Rapid Response Team was charged with a misdemeanor for assaulting a photojournalist during a protest last summer,” Hardesty said. “Ironically, we now see some PPB officers engaging in the act they showed so much disdain for last summer by staging their own protest.”From May 29 through Nov. 15 last year, during the height of the social justice protests in Portland, the city’s police used force more than 6,000 times, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report.Budworth marked the first Rapid Response Team officer to face criminal prosecution stemming from force used during a protest. The police union has called the prosecution politically driven and said Budworth’s baton “push” to a woman’s head was accidental.Also this week, authorities said a Portland Police Bureau detective is under review by the Oregon Department of Justice for possible criminal charges related to use of force at last year’s racial justice protests.”I have confidence that the (Portland Police) Bureau will continue their mission to maintain public safety,” Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt said Thursday. “In the meantime, my office will continue to focus on the fair and just prosecution of criminal matters.”
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Prosecutors Request Life Sentence for ‘Hotel Rwanda’ Hero
Rwandan prosecutors on Thursday requested a life sentence for the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda as he faces terrorism charges, while his family asserts that he faces mistreatment and an unfair trial.Paul Rusesabagina, once praised for saving hundreds of ethnic Tutsis from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide as a hotel manager, faces charges related to attacks by an armed group inside Rwanda in 2018 and 2019. The nine charges include the formation of an irregular armed group, membership in a terrorist group and financing terrorism. Prosecutors seek to link him to activities that killed at least nine people.Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen and U.S. resident, has denied the charges, arguing his case is politically motivated in response to his criticism of Rwanda’s longtime President Paul Kagame.Rusesabagina alleges that he was abducted last year while visiting Dubai and taken to Rwanda, where he was charged. But a court ruled that he was not kidnapped when he was tricked into boarding a chartered flight. Rwanda’s government has asserted that Rusesabagina was going to Burundi to coordinate with armed groups based there and in neighboring Congo.”My father Paul Rusesabagina is a political prisoner. He is accused of invented charges, and zero evidence against him has been presented in the Rwandan kangaroo court,” daughter Carina Kanimba tweeted after the prosecution sought the life sentence.The family also has said Rusesabagina was being denied access to food and water, but Rwanda’s prison authority has denied it.The case has received global attention. This month the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice said it had filed a formal submission in the U.S. recommending sanctions against Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye and the head of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau, Col. Jeannot Ruhunga, for their role in Rusesabagina’s detention.Rusesabagina stopped appearing in court in March, saying he doesn’t expect justice after his request to postpone the trial to prepare his defense was rejected. His attorney, Felix Rudakemwa, has asserted that Rusesabagina’s legal papers were confiscated by prison authorities.
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US Says Biden, Erdogan Agreed on Afghanistan, But S-400 Issue Unresolved
U.S. President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed in a meeting this week that Turkey would take a lead role in securing Kabul’s airport as the United States withdraws troops from Afghanistan, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday. The two leaders, however, could not resolve the long-standing issue of Turkey’s purchase of a Russian S-400 defense system, Sullivan said, a bitter dispute that strained ties between the NATO allies. He added that dialogue on the issue would continue. Sullivan told reporters that Biden and Erdogan, in their meeting on Monday at the NATO summit, had discussed the Afghanistan issue. Erdogan sought certain forms of U.S. support to secure the airport, and Biden committed to providing that support, Sullivan said. “The clear commitment from the leaders was established that Turkey would play a lead role in securing Hamid Karzai International Airport, and we are now working through how to execute to get to that,” Sullivan said, giving the first details from the U.S. side of the meeting, for which the Turkish presidency has not provided details. FILE – People arrive at the domestic terminal of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, May 8, 2018.Turkey and the United States have been at odds over a host of issues including Ankara’s purchase of Russian weaponry and policy differences in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean, and expectations for a breakthrough in first face-to-face meeting between Erdogan and Biden were slim. The leaders sounded upbeat after their meeting, although they did not announce what concrete progress they made. One potential area of cooperation has been Afghanistan, where Ankara has offered to guard and operate the Kabul airport after U.S. and NATO forces withdraw in coming weeks. The security of the airport is crucial for the operation of diplomatic missions out of Afghanistan as Western forces pull out. Last week, a Taliban spokesman said Turkey should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan under the 2020 deal for the pullout of U.S. forces, but Sullivan said the Taliban comments did not deter the “detailed and effective” security plan the United States was putting together. “Obviously we take seriously the concern that Taliban or other elements in Afghanistan will attack the Western or the international presence. … We do not believe that what the Taliban has said publicly should or will deter the efforts under way right now to establish that security presence,” he said. As president, Biden has adopted a cooler tone toward Erdogan than had predecessor Donald Trump. Biden quickly recognized the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide — a position that angers Turkey — and stepped up criticism of Turkey’s human rights record. But it was not clear whether Biden raised the human rights issue with Erdogan during his meeting, and Sullivan provided little detail on how, if at all, the impasse over the S-400, which prompted Washington to remove Ankara from the F-35 fighter jet program and impose sanctions, would be resolved. FILE – First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are unloaded from a Russian plane near Ankara, Turkey, July 12, 2019.”They discussed it. There was not a resolution of the issue. There was a commitment to continue the dialogue on the S-400, and the two teams will be following up on that coming out of the meeting,” he said.
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US House Repeals 2002 Iraq War Authorization
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 268-161 Thursday to repeal a nearly two-decades-old bill giving American presidents sweeping powers to conduct the war on terror. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson explains why many U.S. lawmakers believe curbing these powers was long overdue. Produced by: Katherine Gypson, Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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Former President Gbagbo Back in Ivory Coast After Acquittal
Former President Laurent Gbagbo returned home to Ivory Coast on Thursday, a decade after his refusal to concede defeat in a presidential election sparked months of violence that left more than 3,000 people dead.Gbagbo was extradited to the International Criminal Court at The Hague in 2011 and spent eight years awaiting trial on war crimes charges. A judge acquitted him in 2019, saying prosecutors had failed to prove their case.The verdict was appealed but upheld in late March, clearing the way for Gbagbo to leave Belgium, where he had spent the past two years.Gbagbo was escorted to a VIP hall at the airport, where he was greeted by political allies and his wife, Simone. She did not attend his trial at The Hague because the ICC also had issued a warrant for her arrest on charges related to the postelection violence.What’s next?There are already concerns about what role the divisive former leader may play in national politics.Gbagbo’s supporters began arriving near the airport at 6 a.m., long before the ex-president had even boarded his flight in Brussels, which was delayed. Tensions between the jubilant crowds and security forces were high, with tear gas being used to disperse people coming to greet Gbagbo.The ex-president made no comment to journalists before getting into a vehicle that was soon encircled by crowds. Officials from his political party had said he planned to make a tour of Abidjan to visit supporters in his strongholds, but it was not immediately clear how his flight’s delayed arrival might affect those plans.Gbagbo’s opponents maintain he should be jailed in Ivory Coast, not given a statesman’s welcome. Some demonstrated outside Gbagbo’s residence in the Cocody neighborhood of Abidjan on Wednesday.Supporters celebrate the arrival of the former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, June 17, 2021.Thursday, though, was mostly a day of jubilation for Gbagbo’s supporters, who long have maintained his prosecution was unfair and politically motivated. The ex-president garnered nearly 46% of the vote in 2010 and maintains a strong base of supporters.”After his arrival we want peace and reconciliation. We want to live together because we were born together, so we are obliged to live together,” said Chief Tanouh, a traditional leader from the country’s east.President Alassane Ouattara, Gbagbo’s longtime rival who was ultimately declared the winner of the 2010 vote and has led the nation ever since, did not greet Gbagbo at the airport. Government spokesman Amadou Coulibaly said that was not the protocol for other former heads of state.”For us, it is a normal arrival of a citizen returning to his country,” he said.After the ex-president’s acquittal was upheld, Ouattara had said the former president’s travel expenses, and those of his family, would be covered by the state.Other chargesIt remains unclear what will become of other pending criminal charges against the ex-president.Gbagbo and three of his former ministers were sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges they broke into the Abidjan branch of the Central Bank of West African States to get cash amid the postelection crisis in January 2011.It’s unlikely that Ivorian authorities will jail the ex-president, said Ousmane Zina, a political scientist at the University of Bouake. However, Ouattara is likely to attach conditions to Gbagbo’s return in an effort to avoid reigniting tensions of the past, he added.”Before granting a pardon or amnesty, he will want to obtain a guarantee that the country will remain peaceful,” Zina said.
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US Defense Chief Warns of al-Qaida, IS Rebound in Afghanistan
Top U.S. defense officials are sounding a dire warning about the danger Afghanistan’s top terror groups will pose to America once the last U.S. and coalition troops leave the country in the coming months.Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers Thursday that it will take groups like al-Qaida or Islamic State “possibly about two years” to regenerate the capability to plan attacks against the United States and its Western allies.The nation’s top-ranking military officer, Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, further warned that this timeline could be accelerated depending on the fate of the current Afghan government.Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley looks on during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in Washington, June 17, 2021.“If there was a collapse of the government or a dissolution of the Afghan security forces, that risk would obviously increase,” Milley said.U.S. President Joe Biden announced in April the decision to pull all remaining U.S. forces from Afghanistan, arguing that the United States has already achieved its original goal — to hold al-Qaida and its leader Osama bin Laden to account for carrying out the deadly September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon.“We delivered justice to bin Laden,” Biden said in a speech to a joint session of Congress. “And we degraded the terror threat of al-Qaida in Afghanistan. … After 20 years of valiant valor and sacrifice, it’s time to bring those troops home.”But concerns about the potential for al-Qaida and Islamic State in Afghanistan, known as IS-Khorasan, to reemerge without U.S. boots on the ground have persisted.U.S. military and intelligence officials have warned repeatedly of a possible ripple effect that could destabilize Afghanistan, as well as its neighbors, giving terror groups a long-awaited opening to strengthen and grow their operations.”Anywhere that we see a significant terror presence, there is a danger of that becoming some kind of platform to threaten the homeland from,” Christine Abizaid, nominated to lead the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, told lawmakers last week, noting the need for the U.S. to maintain “relentless pressure” on groups like al-Qaida and IS to minimize the danger.”That is true for the Af-Pak region just as it is true for #Iraq-#Syria, for North #Africa & various other areas where an #ISIS & #alQaida presence, in particular remain” per #NCTC nominee Abizaid, noting need for “relentless pressure”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 9, 2021A recent assessment by United Nations member states has likewise raised concern, warning that Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents appear poised to topple the current Afghan government by force if negotiations fail to produce favorable results.It also warned that contrary to the Taliban’s promise to sever ties with al-Qaida, the relationship “has grown deeper as a consequence of personal bonds of marriage and shared partnership in struggle, now cemented through second-generational ties.”For the most part, officials at the White House and at the Pentagon have sought to assure the public that it will be possible to counter the potential reemergence of al-Qaida and IS, also known as ISIS, with long-range strikes, whether from bases or aircraft carriers in the Middle East.“We’re still going to have the capability to go in over-the-horizon to get after al-Qaida and ISIS should those targets emerge and be ones that we want to take,” General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told VOA this past week. In the case of the several hundred IS fighters in Afghanistan, however, McKenzie warned that “continued CT [counterterrorism] pressure, continued direct pressure,” is all that has stood in the way of the group “coming back together and expanding their numbers.”And even though the U.S. withdrawal is more than 50% complete, plans for what the “over-the-horizon” capability will look like appear to be in flux.”We are talking to a wide range of countries about how we build effective over-the-horizon capacity, both from an intelligence & from a defense perspective” per @JakeSullivan46#Afghanistan#Pakistan#alQaida#ISIS— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 7, 2021″We’re in the process now of looking at the over-the-horizon architecture that we need to have,” Ronald Moultrie, the Defense Department’s undersecretary for intelligence and security, told lawmakers last week.“We’ve been having weekly, almost daily discussions on how to do this,” Moultrie added. “We’re going to have to work very closely with our partners and allies to ensure that it’s a robust architecture.”Time is running out, with U.S. and coalition troops likely to be out of Afghanistan well before the September deadline set by Biden.”There are no guarantees in any of this,” Milley told lawmakers Thursday. “There’s a range of outcomes here.”Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Congolese Refugees Look Inward for Support Amid COVID-19 Scourge
Uganda, Africa’s largest refugee host, is imposing restrictions on movement after another spike in COVID-19 cases, and that’s creating an even greater economic struggle for the vulnerable in urban areas. One refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo is finding a way to overcome that struggle and help other refugees. Halima Athumani has her story in this report for World Refugee Day (June 20) from Kampala.Camera: Francis Mukasa
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Detained American Journalist Appears in Myanmar Special Court
An American journalist detained in Myanmar since last month appeared Thursday for the first time in a special court facing charges of working to foment dissent against the country’s military government. Danny Fenster, who is the managing editor of the website Frontier Myanmar, appeared in a special court in Yangon’s Insein Prison where he is being held for allegedly violating section 505-A of the country’s penal code, Frontier Myanmar said in a statement.If he is found guilty, he could face up to three years in prison.Fenster is scheduled to have another hearing on July 1.American Journalist Detained in Myanmar’Frontier Myanmar’ news magazine says its managing editor Danny Fenster was taken to Yangon’s Insein Prison “No reason was given for the filing of the charge against him,” Frontier Myanmar said. “We know that Danny has done nothing to warrant this 505-A charge.”Fenster was arrested May 24 at Yangon’s airport as he tried to leave the country.”We condemn his detention and demand his immediate and unconditional release,” Frontier Myanmar said.Bryan Fenster, Danny’s brother, tweeted that there was “finally some movement” on his brother’s case, but said “frustration is mounting” as the hearing took place “without official communication with the U.S. Embassy or our family.”He lamented his brother’s “continued detainment without access to legal counsel or official charges against him.”Another American journalist, Nathan Maung, who was detained in March for allegedly violating 505-A, was released Monday and left the country.Two Myanmar journalists were jailed for two years under the law, The Associated Press reported earlier this month.The military took power February 1, overthrowing the civilian government and detaining de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other high-ranking officials.Since the coup, widespread protests have rocked Myanmar, many of them turning violent as government officials cracked down. Hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed by government troops and police since the coup.The U.S has sanctioned military leaders, some of their family members and other businesses in the country. The U.S. has also called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy Party, ousted President Win Myint, and protesters, journalists and human rights activists it says have been unjustly detained since the coup. Military officials claimed widespread fraud in last November’s general election, which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide, as justification for the February takeover. The fraud allegations have been denied by Myanmar’s electoral commission.
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Thousands of Afghan Emigrants Deported Back to Afghanistan
In an effort to escape the insecurity and war in Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans make a difficult journey to Turkey illegally each year. VOA’s Lima Niazi brings us the story of two friends whose journey through Turkey and Europe ended, back in Afghanistan. Bezhan Hamdard narrates.Camera: Lima Niazi Produced by: Lima Niazi
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