Giraffes are considered endangered, and in Kenya, the population of the world’s tallest animal is declining. Officials say four to five giraffes are being lost daily because of relentless poaching for meat and the harsh realities of climate change. Ahmed Hussein reports from Wajir County, Kenya.
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Month: June 2023
Turkey Cracks Down on Istanbul Pride Events
Turkey’s LGBT+ movement is celebrating pride this week in Istanbul, but authorities are cracking down on any public displays as newly reelected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the movement of posing a threat to Turkish society. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Summer Solstice Has Arrived
In astronomical terms, summer begins Wednesday with the arrival of the summer solstice, which marks the longest day of the year for everyone north of the equator.
This year, the summer solstice falls at exactly 10:57 a.m. EDT, when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer. South of the equator, the same time marks the astronomical start of winter.
On two moments each year, Earth’s axis tilts the most toward the sun. The hemisphere that tilts closer to the sun experiences its longest day, whereas the hemisphere that tilts away from the sun experiences its longest night.
The summer solstice takes place between June 20 and 22 each year. By meteorological standards, summer for the Northern Hemisphere begins on June 1.
This year, the winter solstice will take place on December 21, marking the shortest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere.
On the summer solstice, the amount of sunlight people experience depends on how far north they are. The northernmost latitudes experience a full 24 hours of sunlight. By comparison, most of the United States will experience between 14 and 16 hours of sunlight.
The word solstice comes from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).
Nowadays, the summer solstice comes and goes with little significance to many.
But for millennia, people around the world celebrated the summer solstice in various ways. Some still take part in festivities.
The most well-known celebration takes place at 5,000-year-old Stonehenge in England.
Crowds of about 10,000 people — including druids and pagans — often gather at Stonehenge to watch as the rising sun aligns perfectly with the complex’s Heel Stone, which stands outside the main circle.
In Scandinavian countries, Midsummer festivals mark the summer solstice. In Sweden, people dance around a maypole and feast on herring and vodka.
Some Alaskans celebrate with midnight baseball, and in Iceland, some celebrate with late-night hiking and golf.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, celebrations honor John the Baptist, known as Ivan Kupala.
This year, astronomical summer concludes with the autumn equinox on September 23.
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Kenyan Family Searches for Answers Amid Cult Deaths
Weeks after the discovery of mass graves on land owned by cult leader Pastor Paul Mackenzie, some families are still searching for news about their loved ones in Kenya. One family has been relying on accounts and clues from survivors to try to piece together the whereabouts of their lost brother. Saida Swaleh met this family from Mombasa and has this report. Camera: Moses Baya Produced by: Saida Swaleh
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Belarus Hands Lengthy Prison Terms to 18 Participants of 2020 Protests
A court in Belarus on Wednesday handed lengthy prison terms to 18 participants of mass anti-government protests that shook the country in 2020, the latest step in a brutal years-long effort to stifle all and any dissent.
Multiple charges against the activists, three of whom had left the country and were tried in absentia, included assault on law enforcement officers, conspiracy to overthrow the government, committing a terrorist act and others.
According to the authorities, the protesters formed a resistance movement, attacked law enforcement officers, carried out acts of sabotage and set police stations in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on fire. Some of them were also accused of attempting to set fire to the house of a pro-government lawmaker, Aleh Hayukevich, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus, by throwing Molotov cocktails at it.
Sentences handed to the demonstrators ranged from two to 25 years in prison.
Mass protests engulfed Belarus in 2020 in the wake of the disputed presidential election that handed authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko his sixth term in office. Both the Belarusian opposition and the West have denounced the vote as rigged.
The authorities responded to the demonstration with a harsh crackdown, arresting more than 35,000 people and brutally beating thousands. Dozens of rights groups and independent news outlets have been shut down.
The multi-pronged clampdown on government critics has continued to this day, with the authorities targeting opposition activists, rights advocates and journalists. Viasna, Belarus’ most prominent rights organization, has counted 1,492 political prisoners in the country.
Vadzim Prakopyeu, a key opposition figure, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison as an “organizer of a terrorist conspiracy.” Prakopyeu has left Belarus, so his sentence was announced in absentia. He has supported Belarusians who are fighting alongside Kyiv’s forces in Ukraine.
Commenting on the sentence, Prakopyeu told reporters that “Lukashenko’s criminal regime is rubberstamping criminal sentences.”
Also, among those convicted was the entire family of former serviceman Uladzislau Vaytsiachovich. He stood trial alongside his wife, son and daughter-in-law and was sentenced to 21 years in prison, while his relatives were handed sentences ranging from 11 to 19 years.
Another serviceman, Ihar Chamyakin, was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison.
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Sudan Conflict—A Regional Powder Keg
Nearly two-and-a-half months after deadly fighting between rival factions erupted in Sudan, ending tenuous moves toward democracy and shattering the hopes of millions for a brighter future, Sudan has descended into violence and chaos that threaten to engulf the entire region.
“It is heartbreaking to see that hope decimated,” said Volker Türk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
“This is a human rights and humanitarian crisis that is unfolding at an alarming rate, on a devastating scale and with a complexity not seen before in the country,” he said. “This is a crisis reverberating across an entire region. It is a powder keg.”
The high commissioner presented a grim assessment of the human rights situation in Sudan to participants of an interactive dialogue held at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday.
In his oral update on conditions in Sudan, he painted a bleak picture of a country that “has been plunged into chaos” since conflict erupted April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“The people of Sudan are suffering immeasurably,” he said. “The streets of Khartoum and its surrounding cities, of El Geneina and of El Obeid are stained with the blood of civilians.
“And millions are still in need of vital humanitarian assistance, which, in many places, has been all but impossible to deliver,” he said.
Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health reports more than 958 civilians have been killed and 6,083 injured, though the actual casualty numbers are believed to be much higher. The U.N. refugee agency says 1.42 million people are internally displaced and more than half-a-million have taken refuge in neighboring countries.
Türk said children were bearing the harrowing consequences of the war, “with more than 13 million across the country in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian support.”
He said he was appalled by allegations of sexual violence, including rape, noting that his office had received credible reports of 18 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence against at least 53 women and girls.
“In almost all cases, the RSF has been identified as the perpetrator,” he said.
He called on authorities to conduct prompt, impartial investigations into alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
He noted that “failure to pursue accountability for past grave violations has contributed to the current crisis.
“To break the cycle of violence, impunity must end,” he said.
Hassan Hamid Hassan, permanent representative of Sudan to the U.N. office in Geneva, blamed the rebel forces of breaching international human rights and humanitarian law.
He took umbrage at the United Nations, which he accused of holding the SAF and RSF equally responsible for the violence and widespread violations and abuse.
“After two months and five days, United Nations entities are still speaking the same grainy language, referring to two warring parties,” he said.
“The United Nations was still not calling a spade a spade,” he said. “The perpetrators were documenting their atrocities on social media,” he said, “while some United Nations entities were hiding behind gray language, instead of calling out the rebel forces to stop their behavior.”
Mohamed Belaiche, head of the African Union Liaison Office in Sudan, disagreed with the Sudanese ambassador’s criticism of the United Nations, maintaining that the ongoing dialogue “was a demonstration of support for Sudan.”
He said, “We are not here to judge; we are here to help.”
However, he warned that the “fratricidal clashes between two military entities,” resulting in a tragic humanitarian situation and destruction of civilian infrastructure posed “a real threat to peace and security throughout the Horn of Africa region.”
The Sudanese Armed Forces overthrew Sudan’s long-ruling president, Omar al-Bashir, from power April 11, 2019, following popular protests for his removal.
Belaiche reminded the Sudanese ambassador of the pivotal role played by the African Union as the architect of the transition to democracy in August 2019.
As such, he said the AU “firmly rejects the option of a military solution to this crisis, and advocates the search for a consensual political solution, through an inclusive and transparent political dialogue.”
Enass Muzamel is a human rights defender from Sudan and co-founder of Mandaniva, a group that supports the active participation of women and youth in their communities and in policymaking.
She said the war raging in Sudan was not a civil war but a war between two factions fighting to further their own interests.
“The war is a result of generals who put their interests over those of their citizens,” she said. “The Sudanese people have nothing to do with this war, except to pay the price. The Sudanese people have been standing up against the oppressive regime,” she said, “and now this bitter experience is what they have got.”
She called on the international community to apply the strongest pressure, including sanctions on the war generals and “to hold those accountable for their crimes against the Sudanese people.”
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Andrew Tate Appears in Romanian Court on Rape and Human Trafficking Charges
Andrew Tate, a social media personality known for expressing misogynistic views online, appeared Wednesday at a court in Romania, where prosecutors have charged him with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women.
Tate and his brother, Tristan, who is also charged with the offenses, arrived Wednesday at a court in the capital Bucharest, flanked by six bodyguards.
Prosecutors have also filed charges against two Romanian women in the case. Romania’s anti-organized crime agency alleged that the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania as well as the United States and Britain.
The agency alleged that seven female victims were misled and transported to Romania, where they were sexually exploited and subjected to physical violence by the gang. One defendant is accused of raping a woman twice in March 2022, according to the statement.
Tate, 36, has resided in Romania since 2017. The former professional kickboxer has repeatedly claimed Romanian prosecutors have no evidence and alleged the case is a political conspiracy to silence him.
Asked by reporters “how much money have you made from trafficking women?” outside court ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, Tate snapped: “Zero.”
Tate’s spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said Tuesday that the brothers were prepared to “demonstrate their innocence and vindicate their reputation.”
“Tate’s legal team are prepared to cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities, presenting all necessary evidence to exonerate the brothers and expose any misinterpretations or false accusations,” Petrescu said.
The Tate brothers, who are dual British-U.S. citizens, and the two Romanian suspects were detained in late December in Bucharest. The brothers won an appeal on March 31 to be moved from police custody to house arrest.
Tate is a successful social media figure with more than 6 million Twitter followers, many of them young men and schoolchildren. He previously was banned from TikTok, YouTube and Facebook for hate speech and his misogynistic comments, including that women should bear responsibility for getting sexually assaulted.
He returned to Twitter last year after the platform’s new CEO, Elon Musk, reinstated Tate’s account. Hope Not Hate, a group campaigning against far-right extremism in the U.K., has warned that Tate continues to attract a huge following among young men and teenage boys who are drawn to his “misogynist, homophobic and racist content” by the luxurious lifestyle the influencer projects online.
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, known as DIICOT, said the seven alleged victims were recruited with false declarations of love and taken to Romania’s Ilfov county, where they were forced to take part in pornography. The women were allegedly controlled by “intimidation, constant surveillance” and claims they were in debt, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors ordered the confiscation of the Tate brothers’ assets, including 15 luxury cars, luxury watches and about $3 million in cryptocurrency, the agency’s statement said.
Several women in Britain also are pursuing civil claims to obtain damages from Tate, alleging they were victims of sexual violence. In a recent interview with the BBC, Tate denied spreading a culture of misogyny and accusations that he manipulated women for financial gain.
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With Trump Under Indictment, House GOP Calls on Trump-era Special Counsel Who Studied Russia Probe
At stake are surveillance powers that US intelligence say are critical but expire at this year’s end
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Hundreds Still Missing as Greece Pressed to Investigate Migrant Shipwreck
Greece is under growing pressure to launch an investigation into the June 13 sinking of a vessel that was carrying up to 750 migrants. At least 82 people died and hundreds are still missing, including many women and children. Most were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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Fighting Surges in Sudan’s Capital as Three-day Cease-Fire Expires
Heavy clashes broke out between rival military factions in several parts of Sudan’s capital on Wednesday as a 72-hour cease-fire that saw several reports of violations expired, witnesses said.
Shortly before the truce ended at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) fighting was reported in all three of the cities that make up the wider capital around the confluence of the Nile: Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman.
Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been battling each other for more than two months, wreaking destruction on the capital, triggering widespread violence in the western region of Darfur and causing more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes.
Witnesses said army aircraft carried out air strikes in Bahri and the RSF responded with anti-aircraft fire. They reported artillery fire and heavy clashes in Omdurman and ground fighting in southern Khartoum.
Residents also reported clashes near an army camp in South Kordofan State, where a large rebel force that is not clearly aligned with either of the factions fighting in Khartoum has been mobilizing.
The ceasefire was the latest of several truce deals brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States at talks in Jeddah.
As with previous ceasefires, there were reports of violations by both sides.
Late on Tuesday, both factions blamed the other for a large fire at the intelligence headquarters, which is housed in a defense compound in central Khartoum that has been fought over since the fighting erupted on April 15.
Saudi Arabia and the U.S. said that if the warring factions failed to observe the cease-fire they would consider adjourning the Jeddah talks, which critics have questioned as ineffective.
The conflict in Sudan erupted amid disputes over internationally backed plans for a transition away from military rule following a coup in 2021 and four years after long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir was ousted during a popular uprising.
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London Conference Focuses on Rebuilding Ukraine
Britain and Ukraine are co-hosting a two-day conference to rally support for Ukraine’s rebuilding and recovery from the Russian invasion that began early last year.
The conference Wednesday and Thursday in London is bringing together leaders from 60 nations as well as officials from the private sector.
Britain said specific areas of focus included technology, logistics, green energy, agriculture, health and infrastructure.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office announced $3 billion in World Bank loan guarantees as part of a new financial support package for Ukraine that will help support public services such as hospitals and schools.
“The question for us today is what can we do to support this – to fast-track recovery and help Ukraine unleash its potential. We must bring to bear a partnership of governments, international financial institutions, and business leaders, all of us here today, to make this happen,” Sunak said in remarks released ahead of the conference opening.
Sunak’s office also said 400 companies from 38 nations have pledged to support recovery and reconstruction efforts in Ukraine.
“Ukraine’s reconstruction needs are — and will be — immense,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Tuesday. “Through our new measures today, we’re strengthening the U.K.’s sanctions approach, affirming that the U.K. is prepared to use sanctions to ensure Russia pays to repair the country it has so recklessly attacked.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States would continue to support Ukraine, including announcing Wednesday a “new robust U.S. assistance package.”
Blinken said the conference was a show of the “powerful and enduring support for Ukraine, not only militarily but also economically, and also in everything we’re trying to do to build the strongest possible democracy. So, we’re very pleased to be part of this and very pleased that Ukraine and our friends here are hosting this conference.”
Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Chinese Nationalists Accuse Western Media of Darkening Sky in Photos of Blinken’s Visit to China
Chinese state media and nationalist netizens accused Western media of deliberately darkening China’s image by dimming footage of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent visit to Beijing. However, VOA Mandarin found the same gloomy tones in coverage published by China’s official media outlets.
A collage started circulating on China’s social media shortly after Blinken’s arrival early Sunday. It compares three photos from the scene. The first was taken at a distance from Blinken’s plane, showing a blue sky over Beijing with green trees in the distance. The second and third images were screenshots from video by BBC and The Washington Post showing Blinken descending from the jet with sky in the background that looks darker than that in the first photo.
Some nationalist netizens reposted the collage, saying it offered evidence of Western media bias.
“When Blinken visited China yesterday, the weather in Beijing was fine. As a result, the BBC’s footage shows a gray sky, and Blinken looks like a black man in The Washington Post’s shot,” posted the blogger “Former HR at HW” on Weibo.
The post, which referred to “the underworld filter of the Western media,” went on to say that western media “do whatever they can to use small tricks to spread rumors to vilify and slander China.”
The post received thousands of likes.
China’s state-owned Global Times tweeted,
“The Western media’s usual grayish ‘underworld filter’ on China has been applied to Blinken’s China visit. With colored glasses, they tend to perceive everything as gray.”
However, Chinese state media CGTN used the same footage in its news broadcast. In CGTN’s YouTube video, the tone of the image of Blinken getting off the plane is almost the same as that in The Washington Post.
Phil Cunningham, China state media watcher, told VOA Mandarin that “China’s state-affiliated media, while still rather clumsy, is increasingly conversant in the kind of news analysis that goes on in U.S. journalism seminars, with talk of narrative frames, memes, AI, photo manipulation, meta-narratives, etc.”
“They don’t necessary get it right,” he said, “but in imitating Western critiques of China they inadvertently reveal A) hidden admiration B) Western critiques really bug them.”
The BBC Chinese service refuted the netizens’ accusation on Twitter, pointing out that CGTN used the same footage.
“They don’t necessary get it right,” he said, “but in imitating Western critiques of China they inadvertently reveal A) hidden admiration B) Western critiques really bug them.”
The BBC Chinese service refuted the netizens’ accusation on Twitter, pointing out that CGTN used the same footage.
VOA Mandarin found that the Chinese news outlet, The Paper, which criticized the tone of the clips released by the BBC and The Washington Post, also used the same dark footage in its own coverage.
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Media Show Resiliency Under Pressure in Europe, Report Finds
Off the top of his head, Piotr Stasinski doesn’t know how many lawsuits his newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, has faced over the years.
After some thought, the longtime editor at the Polish daily told VOA the number is around 100 since the conservative Law and Justice Party came to power in 2015.
About one-third of those cases are still active, he estimates, adding that he believes they are designed to silence the newspaper and its critical coverage.
But Gazeta Wyborcza is not alone.
“There is an avalanche of lawsuits against independent media,” Stasinski told VOA, as he spoke about the current state of press freedom in Poland. “They know that this is the way to tire us, to exhaust our resources.”
The lawsuits that Gazeta Wyborcza is fighting underscore the broader use of legal action by ruling politicians in Poland to target critical journalists. It’s a tactic that isn’t unique to Poland.
The Polish Embassy in Washington did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.
In recent years, the global news industry has been pummeled by an array of forces, ranging from lawsuits and democratic backsliding to corroded public trust and financial pressures.
But at least in the European Union, all hope is not lost, according to a new Freedom House report examining independent media on the continent.
Released on Wednesday, “Reviving News Media in an Embattled Europe” explores the pressures for journalists in Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Poland — and how they’re overcoming those challenges in resilient ways.
“We see that newsrooms are finding new ways to sustain journalism and defend themselves against attacks,” the report’s author, Jessica White, told VOA.
Digital media start-ups in France and Italy are taking new approaches to building credibility. In Estonia, a public broadcaster launched a Russian-language service to better counter Moscow’s propaganda. And support networks have been established across Poland and Hungary to support reporters facing lawsuits over their coverage, the report found.
“What’s inspiring to see,” White said, “is that when some of the stresses are greatest, some of the responses are more creative.”
The six countries studied vary by a number of factors, including size, history and level of democracy. But financial insecurity is among the issues confronting newsrooms in all six countries studied in the report.
“Financial survival is at the heart of challenges facing many news media organizations in Europe,” White said. “So, we find that news outlets are having to find new ways to fund independent reporting, but they’re also facing cost cutting and job precarity that affects the diversity of news coverage.”
Attacks on media in Europe parallel attacks on media around the world — all of which are a primary element of a 17-year decline in global freedom, according to Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz.
Watch related video by Veronica Balderas Iglesias:
“Free and independent media is a cornerstone of democracy,” Abramowitz said in a statement about the new report. “Amid war and rising authoritarianism, leaders in Europe and beyond must work to ensure that news outlets play a continued, constructive role for democracy, and that media freedoms are defended and bolstered.”
White agreed, telling VOA, “There are very broad and systemic issues that are facing media organizations around the world.”
Financial difficulties present a particular challenge to Polish and Hungarian media, the report found, because public entities are directing the majority of state advertising to outlets that Freedom House says are perceived as friendly to the government. In turn, more critical outlets are shunned and lose out on state advertising.
Stasinski has witnessed that process firsthand. He said state-owned companies have removed nearly all of their advertising from Gazeta Wyborcza and other independent outlets.
The situation is similar in Hungary, according to Marton Karpati, co-founder of the independent Hungarian news outlet Telex.
“In the friendly press there are state advertisements, elsewhere there are essentially none,” he told VOA.
“This is where fragilities can be exploited,” White said. “These weaknesses are more actively being exploited by illiberal governments to skew landscapes in their favor and to make it more challenging for independent media to hold power to account.”
Her report found that in Hungary and Poland, independent media does exist — but in an increasingly hostile and repressive environment.
The picture is particularly stark in Hungary, where about 80% of the country’s media are considered pro-government.
Hungary’s Washington embassy did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.
Both Warsaw and Budapest have consolidated control over public media, turning such outlets into tools for pro-government propaganda as critics are targeted and state-owned companies take over press distribution networks and regional media, the report said.
“They’re part of the propaganda machine of the ruling party,” Stasinski said. “We don’t call them journalists anymore. They’re media workers, and they’re functionaries of the party propaganda.”
But there’s still reason for optimism, White said.
“I think that it’s not all bleak,” she said, pointing to how Hungary’s dwindling independent outlets are building new revenue models to survive.
Telex, for instance, turned to crowdfunding from its audience to help support its work. About 25,000 people contributed to its initial fundraising campaign in just five days when it first launched in 2020.
“At Telex, we try to do our best,” Karpati said. “We ask questions, even if we know we won’t get any answers. We are trying to be fair with all sides of a story.”
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Counterterrorism Experts Say Africa Is World’s Terrorism Hot Spot With Half of 2022’s Victims
Counterterrorism experts said Tuesday that Africa is now the world’s terrorism hot spot, with half of the victims killed last year in sub-Saharan Africa, though al-Qaida and Islamic State affiliates remain widespread, persistent and active elsewhere around the globe.
Interpol, the international criminal police agency, also reported during a panel discussion at the U.N. that terrorism linked to extreme right-wing ideology increased an estimated 50-fold over the past decade, particularly in Europe, North America and parts of the Asia-Pacific.
The experts see other trends: Deteriorating global security is making the terrorism threat “more complex and decentralized.” Extremists are increasingly using sophisticated technology, and drones and artificial intelligence have opened new ways to plan and carry out attacks.
The United Nations this week is hosting its third high-level conference of heads of counterterrorism agencies. Tuesday’s panel on assessing current and emerging terrorist trends and threats brought together experts from the U.N., Interpol, Russia, the United States and Qatar, and Google’s senior manager for strategic intelligence.
The overall theme for the week is addressing terrorism through reinvigorated international cooperation. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during Monday’s opening session the key is to unite not only in foiling attacks but also critically to focus on preventing terrorism by tackling poverty, discrimination, poor infrastructure, gross human rights violations and other underlying drivers.
Africa ‘key battleground’
At Tuesday’s session, it was Africa that took the spotlight.
“Africa has emerged as the key battleground for terrorism, with a major increase in the number of active groups operating on the continent,” U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari said, noting that local political, economic and social “fractures,” porous borders, and “identity-based mobilization” had fueled the emergence of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.
Several areas of the continent, from Burkina Faso and the Sahel and more broadly to Chad and Sudan, still face the consequences of the flow of weapons and foreign fighters from Libya, Khiari said.
Oil-rich Libya plunged into chaos following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. After the Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate was defeated in Iraq in 2017, many of its foreign fighters fled to the North African nation.
Colonel General Igor Sirotkin, deputy director of Russia’s Federal Security Service and head of its National Anti-Terrorism Committee, told the meeting that West Africa, especially the Maghreb and the Sahel, “are becoming the epicenter of the Islamist terrorist threat, with the armed terrorist groups expanding their influence, and we see the danger of ISIS being reincarnated as an African caliphate.”
Qatar’s special envoy for counterterrorism, Mutiaq Al-Qahtani, who said half the victims of terrorist acts last year were in sub-Saharan Africa, called for counterterrorism efforts to focus on the continent.
Justin Hustwitt, the coordinator of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against the Islamic State and al-Qaida, said the situation in West Africa continues to deteriorate and IS “seems to be trying to position itself as a political actor.”
He said IS in the greater Sahara is taking advantage of the lack of counterterrorism operations, especially in the tri-border area of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, and there are “growing concerns” about IS and al-Qaida taking advantage of any opportunity in Congo.
‘Aftershocks’ from wars
Elsewhere, the U.N.’s Khiari said the Middle East also continues to suffer “aftershocks” from the wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Interpol’s counterterrorism director, Gregory Hinds, said al-Qaida- and IS-related groups continue to inspire and carry out attacks in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, North America, Europe “and now across Africa and Asia at alarming pace.”
Hinds said the 50-fold increase in terrorism linked to extreme right-wing ideology “is being influenced by global events and global agenda.”
Secretary-General Guterres also said “neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements are fast becoming the primary internal security threats in a number of countries.”
Number of conflicts growing
On the significant deterioration of global security in the last few years, the U.N.’s Khiari said the number of conflicts globally is on the rise again after two decades of consistent decline, and their nature has changed.
“Civil wars that start off locally are more likely to become internationalized, and conflict parties are increasingly fragmented,” he said. “Civil wars aggravate grievances and foment regional international instabilities creating a fertile ground for non-state armed groups, including terrorist groups, to proliferate.”
On a more positive note, Gregory LoGerfo, the U.S. State Department’s deputy coordinator for counterterrorism, said IS has not only been defeated in Iraq and Syria but its leadership has been “taken out or captured,” large-scale attacks have been prevented, and billions have been invested in stabilizing the region.
“But for all of our progress, we’re not done yet,” he said, expressing concern at increasingly frequent attacks by al-Qaida affiliates and expanding IS branches that are “ravaging” West Africa.
The U.N.’s Hustwitt echoed that Daesh’s leadership has suffered serious attrition, adding that “the group’s resources are depleting, and they are very focused on revenue generation.”
Tobias Peyeri, Google’s senior manager for strategic intelligence who formerly worked for the U.N. Office of Counter-Terrorism, said the company bans content produced by or supporting designated terrorist organizations, and is committed to fighting “the hatred and extremism that leads to terrorist violence.”
But he said bad actors, such as extremist groups, “continue to become more savvy in evading detection,” citing as examples their use of coded communications, complex narratives and conspiracy theories, and their modifications of existing popular computer games.
To counter these efforts, he said Google relies on expertise in local markets, “advanced AI-driven visual matching technologies,” special detection technologies, and other measures.
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Biden Refers to Chinese President Xi as a Dictator During Speech at Fundraiser
U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday called Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator, adding that Xi was very embarrassed when a Chinese balloon was blown off course over the U.S. recently earlier this year.
Biden made the remarks at a fundraiser in California a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Xi on a trip to China that was aimed at easing tensions between the two countries.
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said in the fundraiser.
“That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course,” Biden added.
A suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over U.S. airspace in February. That incident and exchanges of visits by U.S. and Taiwanese officials have recently magnified U.S.-China tensions.
Blinken and Xi on Monday agreed in their meeting to stabilize the intense rivalry between Washington and Beijing so it does not veer into conflict but failed to produce any major breakthrough during a rare visit to China by the secretary of state.
They did agree to continue diplomatic engagement with more visits by U.S. officials in the coming weeks and months.
Biden himself said on Monday he thought relations between the two countries were on the right path, and he indicated that progress was made during Blinken’s trip.
Biden said on Tuesday that Xi had been concerned by the so-called Quad strategic security group, which includes Japan, Australia, India and the United States. The U.S. president said he previously told Xi the U.S. was not trying to encircle China with the Quad.
Later this week, Biden will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China is expected to be a topic of discussion between the two leaders.
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Biden Says Risks Posed by AI to Security, Economy Must be Addressed
The risks of artificial intelligence to national security and the economy need to be addressed, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding he would seek expert advice.
“My administration is committed to safeguarding Americans’ rights and safety while protecting privacy, to addressing bias and misinformation, to making sure AI systems are safe before they are released,” Biden said at an event in San Francisco.
Biden met a group of civil society leaders and advocates who have previously criticized the influence of major tech companies, to discuss artificial intelligence.
“I wanted to hear directly from the experts,” he said.
Several governments are considering how to mitigate the dangers of the emerging technology, which has experienced a boom in investment and consumer popularity in recent months after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Biden’s meeting on Tuesday included Tristan Harris, executive director of the Center for Humane Technology, Algorithmic Justice League founder Joy Buolamwini, and Stanford University Professor Rob Reich.
Regulators globally have been working to draw up rules governing the use of generative AI, which can create text and images, and whose impact has been compared to that of the internet.
Biden has also recently discussed the issue of AI with other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak whose government will later this year hold a first global summit on artificial intelligence safety. Biden is expected to discuss the topic with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his ongoing U.S. visit.
European Union lawmakers agreed last week to changes in draft rules on artificial intelligence proposed by the European Commission in a bid to set a global standard for a technology used on everything from automated factories to self-driving cars to chatbots.
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UN Urges South Sudan to Make Progress Toward Elections
The top United Nations official in South Sudan on Tuesday urged leaders in that country to accelerate implementation of the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement, including holding elections late next year.
“Now is not the time to take our eyes off the ball in South Sudan,” Nicholas Haysom, head of the U.N. Mission in South Sudan, told the U.N. Security Council. “What we can learn from Sudan is how quickly hard-won peace gains can unravel.”
This is a critical year for the world’s youngest country. A new constitution must be drafted and preparations completed for the first national elections scheduled for December 2024.
“In our estimation, the constitution-making process is 10 months behind schedule, election planning eight months behind, and several aspects of the transitional security arrangements are hanging,” Haysom reported.
He said it is possible for South Sudan to close the gap on election preparations. He urged legislators to pass the National Elections Act in parliament and establish the National Elections Commission.
After independence from Sudan in July 2011, South Sudan slid into more than five years of civil war, with forces loyal to President Salva Kiir battling supporters of Vice President Riek Machar.
Thousands died in the war, and more than 2 million fled to neighboring countries, including Sudan. Since mid-April, when a rivalry between two Sudanese generals turned into open conflict, more than 117,000 people have crossed back into South Sudan seeking safety. Haysom told council members that 93% of them are South Sudanese returning home.
“I want to commend the government of South Sudan for its open border policy to all those who are fleeing the conflict, with or without travel documents,” Haysom said. “The absorption capacity of the government and humanitarians, however, is under strain, with limited local resources and bottlenecks of arrivals in South Sudan’s border towns, notably in Renk.”
Before the conflict erupted in Sudan, at least 9.4 million people in South Sudan needed humanitarian assistance. That number is likely to rise with the returnees.
Haysom noted that the fighting in Sudan is also impacting South Sudan’s economy, as many goods imported from its northern neighbor have been disrupted, driving up prices. South Sudan’s economy is dependent on its oil exports, which Haysom noted go out via Port Sudan. Their interruption could have devastating effects on the economy.
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Sudanese Civilians Killed, Shot At as They Flee Darfur City by Foot
An increasing number of Sudanese civilians fleeing El Geneina, a city in Darfur hit by repeated militia attacks, have been killed or shot at as they tried to escape by foot to Chad since last week, witnesses said.
The violence in El Geneina over the past two months has been driven by militias from Arab nomadic tribes along with members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a military faction engaged in a power struggle with Sudan’s army in the capital, Khartoum, witnesses and activists said.
A large number of people tried to seek protection near the army headquarters in El Geneina on June 14 but were blocked, said Ibrahim, a resident who made it to the Chadian town of Adre, about 27 kilometers (17 miles) from El Geneina.
“All of a sudden, the militias came out and sprayed people with gunfire,” he said by phone, asking to use only his first name. “We got surprised by thousands of people running back. People were killed. They were trampled.”
Reuters spoke to three witnesses who sustained gunshot wounds as they tried to flee El Geneina and to more than a dozen witnesses who said they had seen violence on the route from the city. It was not clear how many people had been killed in recent days.
Medical charity MSF said on Monday that some 15,000 people had fled West Darfur over the previous four days, and it said many arrivals reported seeing people shot and killed as they tried to escape El Geneina. MSF also reported rapes.
“It was a collective decision of the people of El Geneina to leave,” one resident told MSF from Chad. “Most of them fled on foot heading northeast of El Geneina, but many of them were killed on this route.”
People decided to flee when the state governor of West Darfur was killed on June 14, hours after he accused the RSF and allied militias of “genocide” in a TV interview, said Ibrahim.
Ibrahim later found out that eight of his family members had been killed, including his grandmother, and that his mother had been beaten.
The war that erupted in April has uprooted more than 2.5 million people, according to United Nations estimates, mainly from the capital and from Darfur, which was already suffering from two decades of conflict and mass displacement. Nearly 600,000 people have crossed into neighboring countries, including more than 155,000 who have fled Darfur for Chad.
A 72-hour cease-fire, brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States and due to expire early on Wednesday morning, has brought a lull in fighting in Khartoum, though residents report looting has spread, and the army said the RSF had caused a huge fire at the intelligence headquarters late on Tuesday.
The United States will give about $172 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Sudan and neighboring countries, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. International donors have made total pledges of close to $1.5 billion for Sudan and the surrounding region.
‘Systematic’ killing
The violence in Darfur has increased and taken on a more overtly ethnic nature, with assailants targeting non-Arab residents by their skin color, witnesses said.
There are warning signs of a repeat of the atrocities perpetrated in Darfur after 2003, when Janjaweed militias from which the RSF was formed helped the government crush a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups in Darfur.
More than 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced, according to U.N. estimates.
RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said on Tuesday his force would investigate events in El Geneina. He accused the army of fomenting violence by arming tribes, while the army has blamed the RSF for the governor’s death and other violence in the region.
Sultan Saad Bahreldin, leader of the Masalit tribe, the largest bloc of El Geneina residents, said there had been “systematic” killing in recent days.
“The road between El Geneina and Adre has a lot of bodies. No one can count them,” he told Al Hadath TV.
One activist who left El Geneina on Sunday told Reuters that Arab militias and the RSF had reinforced their presence in the city since the governor’s killing, adding that Arab groups controlled the route to Chad.
Eyewitnesses had reported cases of rape, murder and enforced disappearance along the route, said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears for his safety.
Competition for land has long been a driver of conflict in Darfur. Villages on the road from El Geneina to Adre used to be Masalit, but had been settled by Arab tribes since 2003, Ibrahim said.
Several witnesses from El Geneina, largely cut off from phone networks for weeks, said darker skinned non-Arabs were being targeted, especially the Masalit.
One resident who arrived in Chad on June 15, Abdel Nasser Abdullah, said his house was one of many in his neighborhood that was stormed, and that his cousin was killed while he hid on the roof.
“They are not only looking for the Masalit but anyone Black,” he said, adding that the streets of the city were strewn with bodies, including those of women and children.
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Young Plaintiffs’ Attorney Closes Montana Climate Change Trial with Call for Action
An attorney for 16 young plaintiffs urged a judge Tuesday to strike down as unconstitutional a Montana law that prohibits state agencies from considering the environmental effects when it weighs permits allowing the release of greenhouse gases.
Attorney Nate Bellinger made the plea in his closing argument at the end of a seven-day trial. Plaintiffs say state officials violated their right to a clean and healthful environment, part of the Montana Constitution, by allowing companies to build power plants and expand coal mines, among other things.
“Like other monumental constitutional cases before, the state of Montana comes before this court because of a pervasive systemic infringement of rights,” Bellinger said.
During the trial, plaintiffs testified about how increased heat, smoke from wildfires and drought affect their activities and mental health. Native Americans said climate change affects their ceremonies and traditional food sources, and climate experts warned the window to address the environmental damage is rapidly closing.
Montana Assistant Attorney General Michael Russell said Tuesday that the climate change issue is much larger than Montana can address on its own and that the legislature had the right to enact the law that limits greenhouse gas reviews.
He said that the calls by plaintiffs to take the lead in addressing climate change were a social statement, not a legal argument.
A ruling from state District Judge Kathy Seeley is expected sometime after the parties file their proposed findings in the case, which are due in early July.
If Seeley sides with the plaintiffs and declares the state law unconstitutional, it would be up to the Republican-led legislative and executive branches of the Montana government to respond. Representatives of Governor Greg Gianforte’s administration indicated during the trial that there is no basis under state law for rejecting permits for projects, even if their climate impacts are disclosed.
That means a ruling for plaintiffs could increase political pressure on state officials, but it would not have any immediate consequences, said James Huffman, a former professor and dean emeritus at Lewis & Clark Law School who is now living in Montana.
“Republicans in Montana seem pretty fixed in their ways, and I don’t think a decision by this district court is going to change the way that they think about these issues,” Huffman said.
A decision against the state also could establish new legal precedent and add to the small number of rulings that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change. However, only a handful of states — including Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts — have similar environmental protections in their constitutions.
Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, described the trial as a “publicity stunt staged by an out-of-state organization that is exploiting well-intentioned children.”
The plaintiffs were represented by attorneys for Our Children’s Trust, an Oregon environmental group that has filed similar lawsuits in every state since 2011 and raised more than $20 million in contributions. None of the previous cases had reached trial.
“Anyone who has [a] question about the legitimacy of our plaintiffs’ claims wasn’t listening at trial last week,” Julia Olson, the group’s founder, said in response to Flower’s statement. She noted that the evidence presented by the young people and by scientists for the plaintiffs was largely uncontested by the state’s attorneys.
“The trial has shown the facts are irrefutable,” Olson said.
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Escaping Conflict, Ukraine’s Refugee Women Go It Alone
The U.N. says that among 8 million refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine, 90% are women and children. With martial law prohibiting most men from leaving the country, many of Ukraine’s women who go abroad have no choice but to take care of their families alone. As part of VOA World Refugee Day coverage, Warsaw reporter Lesia Bakalets heard from some of the women who have taken refuge in Poland. VOA footage by Daniil Batushchak.
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Albanian Police Raid Iranian Dissidents Camp
Albanian police on Tuesday raided a camp home to members of an Iranian opposition movement, with local media reporting that the group is suspected of orchestrating cyberattacks against foreign institutions.
The Ashraf-3 camp northwest of Tirana has been home for a decade to thousands of members of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), exiled opponents of the government in Tehran.
Police said in a statement they had acted on the orders of the Albanian judiciary due to the “violation of agreements and commitments” made by the group “when they settled in Albania solely for humanitarian purposes.”
Local media reported that the police operation was part of an investigation into cybercrime and that officers seized computers.
Media reports said that when police arrived at the camp, hundreds of PMOI members tried to repel the officers. The group accused the police of using pepper spray.
The PMOI said one person died, but police denied this.
“During the operation, the police caused no casualties and did not use weapons under any circumstances,” the police statement said, adding that it had launched a probe into the PMOI’s allegations.
The group also said a dozen of its members were injured during clashes with police.
Under a U.N. and U.S.-backed deal in 2013 that saw them leave Iraq, the PMOI settled in other countries, including their unlikely home in Albania, a poor Balkan state in southeast Europe.
Their numbers have grown to around 2,800 people at Ashraf 3, the largest PMOI camp in the world.
The arrival of the group had raised fears of attacks in Albania.
In 2022, Tirana cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran, accusing it of carrying out massive cyberattacks against Albania.
Tehran considers the People’s Mujahedin a terrorist group and has banned it since 1981.
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3 Men Convicted in US Trial that Scrutinized China’s ‘Operation Fox Hunt’ Repatriation Campaign
Three men were convicted of various charges Tuesday in a trial showcasing U.S. claims that China has engineered pressure campaigns on American soil to bully expatriates into returning home, part of an effort called “Operation Fox Hunt.”
American private investigator Michael McMahon and two Chinese citizens living in the U.S. — Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong — all were accused of taking part in scare tactics aimed at a former Chinese official. He was living quietly in New Jersey, and Beijing wanted him back.
Zhu was convicted of acting as an illegal foreign agent, stalking, interstate stalking conspiracy and conspiring to act as an illegal foreign agent. Zheng was convicted of stalking and stalking conspiracy but acquitted of the other charges.
McMahon was convicted of all except conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.
The Brooklyn federal court trial was the first to result from a spate of U.S. prosecutions scrutinizing China’s Operation Fox Hunt, a nearly decade-old initiative that Beijing characterizes as a pursuit of fugitives from justice. U.S. authorities view it, at least sometimes, as an exercise in “transnational repression,” or deploying government operatives to harass, threaten and silence critics living abroad.
China has denied trying to force repatriations through intimidation and says the U.S. is maligning an effort to fight crime.
Prosecutors say pressure from Beijing was brought to bear in suburban New Jersey, where former Wuhan city official Xu Jin and his family moved in 2010. China has accused him and wife, Liu Fang, of taking bribes; they deny it and say they were targeted because he got crosswise with China’s Communist power structure.
According to prosecutors, Zhu, Zheng and McMahon took part in a yearslong, multipronged effort to goad Xu into going back to China. The country couldn’t officially compel him to do so, as it has no extradition treaty with the U.S.
The defense acknowledged that Zhu, Zheng and McMahon took various actions but said the three had no idea that Beijing was allegedly behind it all.
McMahon said he was “devastated by the verdict,” insisting that all he had done was his job as a private investigator.
Zheng and Zhu left court without speaking to reporters. Messages seeking comment were sent to their attorneys.
McMahon, a former New York City police sergeant, conducted surveillance and data searches to smoke out Xu’s carefully guarded address and information about his loved ones. Zhu, a retiree who also goes by Jason Zhu and Yong Zhu, helped hire McMahon and equip him with details to get started.
Zheng later went to Xu’s home and left an ominous note: “If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!”
“Before I saw this, I felt that the threats from the Chinese Communist Party was only a mental threat to me. However, when I saw that note, I realized that it had become a physical threat,” Xu testified, through a court interpreter.
The defense said McMahon, Zheng and Zhu were told they were helping to collect a debt or achieve some other end for a company or individuals — not for China.
“They were used, cheated, misguided by a foreign government to work for them,” Zhu’s attorney, Kevin Tung, said in a closing argument.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Heeren said the three “agreed to participate in something that went way, way over the line … a line that all three defendants knew they were crossing.”
Prosecutors said the arm-twisting included derogatory Facebook messages to friends of Xu’s adult daughter and an onslaught of letters to a relative in New Jersey.
At one point, a Chinese prosecutor even flew Xu’s unwilling, octogenarian father to New Jersey to lean on his son to return to their homeland, according to prosecutors and trial testimony.
The trial unfolded at a fraught time in U.S.-China relations. The two powers have been at odds in recent years over a growing list of issues: trade, industrial espionage, human rights, Taiwan, the South China Sea, Russia’s war against Ukraine, U.S. allegations of Chinese spying, and Washington’s claims that Beijing is tracking and harassing dissidents overseas.
China announced Operation Fox Hunt in July 2014 as an effort to go after corrupt officials and criminals who had fled the country. However, Beijing’s wanted list has included people whose political and cultural views conflicted with those of China’s ruling Communist Party.
U.S. prosecutors have brought several criminal cases involving alleged Operation Fox Hunt endeavors. In one, a pregnant U.S. citizen was held in China for eight months and pressured to persuade her mother to return to the country, prosecutors said.
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Young Refugees from Somalia Caught Between ‘Open Prison’ and Unstable Homeland
Nasra Abdi Hassan, a public health officer for the World Health Organization, arrived in Mogadishu on the morning of June 9 to attend a training for women on security awareness.
Later that day, she went to the beautiful Lido Pearl Beach hotel for an evening meal with a friend. At around 7:55 p.m., al-Shabab militants attacked the hotel. Hassan was one of six civilians shot and killed.
The death of someone who moved to her ancestral homeland to provide health service symbolized the heartbreak and sadness felt by many Somali refugees. She dared to go to Somalia while hundreds of thousands of Somalis remain in Kenya still feeling unsafe and unsure about returning home.
“I was not happy with her return,” says her father, Abdi Hassan. “She and her mother overwhelmed me. I told them, ‘Don’t risk her life for several hundred dollars. We’ll find something to eat.'”
Hassan was born and raised in Dhagahley, one of the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya. Her family spent everything they could afford to send her to a school in Nairobi to help advance her education. She was a bright student. She obtained a diploma in nutrition and dietetics from Mount Kenya University.
Two years ago, she traveled to Afmadow in Somalia’s Jubaland State to work for a local nongovernmental organization on women’s health. Last year, she was appointed as the public health officer of Afmadow district, helping with the drought support operations of WHO.
After she was shot, the WHO posted a tweet in remembrance of Hassan, who was 27.
“She played a vital role in supporting the drought response operation in Jubaland and inspired many with her unwavering commitment,” the WHO Somalia office tweeted.
Fardawsa Sirad Gelle, who was born the same year as Hassan in Dadaab, says her death was a reminder of the dangers in Somalia.
“Somalia is not a country we have ever seen,” she said. “Whenever you hear a slight optimism, that it’s improving, a disaster strikes. My heart doesn’t allow me to return, the family doesn’t want you to return.”
Youth in Dadaab also remember what happened to Abbas Abdullahi Sheikh Siraji, a refugee who returned to Somalia to become minister for public works and reconstruction. Siraji was shot dead by the bodyguard of another government official in May 2017. He was 31.
Another prominent Dadaab youth leader who returned to Somalia, Weli Aden Mohamed, was killed in an al-Shabab raid on a hotel in Kismayo in July 2019.
Dadaab youths say Somalia’s insecurity is a primary reason they continue live in the “open prison” of Dadaab, as they call it.
“When you are in a refugee camp you are like in a prison,” Gelle said. “You walk within the prison, but you can’t exit.”
In her entire life, Gelle, a humanitarian worker, spent only 15 days outside the camps, attending seminars in Nairobi and Garissa.
“You feel a lot of stress,” she said. “Every morning for nearly 30 years you see the same place you saw yesterday. You are not even growing mentally. Somalis say, ‘Nin aan dhul marin dhaayo ma le.’ ‘He who hasn’t traveled has no eyes.'”
In April, Gelle’s life entered a new stage when she got married. Despite the uncertainty in the refugee camp, she is clear about what she wants for her children.
“I don’t want my children to be in a homeless situation, to grow up in a refugee camp, someone with no identity,” she said. “I never want that for them.”
When Gelle is not doing humanitarian work, she works as a news presenter at a radio station for the refugees called Gargaar or Help, delivering humanitarian news. She follows global news on her phone, checks on information posted by those she follows on social media, and watches reports by investigative journalists, an ambition for her in journalism.
Fellow journalist Mohamed Abdullahi Jimale, who was born in Dadaab, echoes similar hopelessness and anxiety about security concerns in returning to Somalia.
He said some of the youth in Dadaab refer to themselves as the “Lost Generation,” because they are suffering from an identity crisis.
“They were born here, their children were born here, some have their grandchildren born here, and they are still in refugee life,” he said. “Therefore, I would like to tell the world to get us out of this open prison, so that we can become free people.”
Since 2016, more than 90,000 have voluntarily returned to Somalia, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
“Some people want to go back but others don’t,” Jimale said. “There are not a lot of opportunities back home, you don’t know where to start, opportunities come very rarely. When Siraji died a lot of people were demoralized.”
Mohamed Abdi Affey, special envoy of the Horn of Africa for UNHCR, says he hopes the Dadaab refugees will be able to leave their camps through an integration program that was launched Tuesday by the Kenyan government and UNHCR.
He says the integration plan will allow the refugees to seek education, health services, and work outside the camps.
“No one wants to live in a refugee camp forever,” Affey said. “What we have in Kenya is youth people who were born here, studied here. It would have been good for them to return to their country to serve and benefit themselves, but that is not being allowed by conditions in Somalia because young people have lots of fear to return.”
Affey says support from the international community has been dwindling lately given all the situations in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia.
“We are collaborating with the Kenya government and the international community to work to create hope for these young people,” he said.
Kenya and UNHCR believe the integration plan will benefit refugees as well as the host communities find more opportunities.
“We hope these integrated settlements will receive significant funds which will benefit the host communities,” Affey said. “It will require turning the plan into action, we see that will create new hope … but that in itself will take time to feel the change.”
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Vatican Document Highlights Need for Concrete Steps for Women, ‘Radical Inclusion’ of LGBTQ+
An unprecedented global canvassing of Catholics has called for the church to take concrete steps to promote women to decision-making roles, for a “radical inclusion” of the LGBTQ+ community and for new accountability measures to check how bishops exercise authority.
The Vatican on Tuesday released the synthesis of a two-year consultation process, publishing a working document that will form the basis of discussion for a big meeting of bishops and laypeople in October. The synod, as it is known, is a key priority of Pope Francis, reflecting his vision of a church that is more about the faithful rank-and-file than its priests.
Already Francis has made his mark on the synod, letting lay people and in particular women have a vote alongside bishops. That reform is a concrete step toward what he calls “synodality,” a new way of being a church that envisions more co-responsibility in governance and the key mission of spreading the Catholic faith.
The document highlights key concerns that emerged during the consultation process, which began at the local parish level and concluded with seven continent-wide assemblies. It flagged in particular the devastating impact that clergy sexual abuse crisis has had on the faithful, costing the hierarchy its credibility and sparking calls for structural changes to remove their near-absolute power.
The synthesis found a “unanimous” and “crucial” call for women to be allowed to access positions of responsibility and governance. Without raising the prospect of women’s ordination to the priesthood, it asked whether new ministries could be created, including the diaconate – a reflection of a years-long call by some women to be ordained deacons in the church.
The document noted that “most” of the continent-wide assemblies and “several” bishops conferences called for the diaconate question to be considered by the synod.
The document also asked what concrete steps the church can take to better welcome LGBTQ+ people and others who have felt marginalized and unrecognized by the church so that they don’t feel judged: the poor, migrants, the elderly and disabled, as well as those who by tribal or caste feel excluded.
Perhaps most significantly, the document used the terminology “LGBTQ+ persons” rather than the Vatican’s traditional “persons with homosexual tendencies,” suggesting a level of acceptance that Francis ushered in a decade ago with his famous “Who am I to judge” comment.
Even the seating arrangements for the synod are designed to be inclusive. Delegates are to be seated at round tables, with around a dozen laity and clergy mixed together in the Vatican’s big auditorium. Previously, synods took place in the Vatican’s theater-like synod hall, where cardinals and bishops would take the front rows and priests, nuns and finally lay people being seated in the back rows, far from the stage.
Unlike past working documents, the synthesis doesn’t stake out firm points, proposals or conclusions, but rather poses a series of questions for further discussion by the October assembly. The synod process continues in 2024 with the second phase, after which Francis is expected to issue a concluding document considering the proposals that have been put to him by the delegates.
The working document re-proposed a call for debate on whether married priests could be considered to relieve the clergy shortage in some parts of the world. Amazonian bishops had proposed allowing married priests to minister to their faithful who sometimes go months at a time without Mass, but Francis shot down the proposal after an Amazonian synod in 2019.
It called for more “meaningful and concrete steps” to offer justice to survivors of sexual abuse. It noted that the faithful have also been victims of other types of abuse: “spiritual, economic, power and conscience abuse” that have “eroded the credibility of the Church and compromised the effectiveness of its mission.”
It suggested that the church must reevaluate the way authority is exercised by the hierarchy, suggesting structural, canonical and institutional reforms to eradicate the “clericalism,” or privilege that is afforded to clergy.
It acknowledged the fear and opposition that the synodal process has sparked among some bishops who see it as undermining their authority and power, but said transparency and accountability were absolutely necessary and that bishops should even be evaluated as a way to rebuild trust.
“The synodal process asks them (bishops) to live a radical trust in the action of the spirit in the life of their communities, without fear that the participation of everyone need be a threat to their ministry of community leadership,” it says.
Even before the synod began, the document and the consultative process that preceded it were already having an effect.
Sister Nadia Coppa, who heads the umbrella group of women’s religious orders, said anyone who exercises governance in religious orders was being called to develop a new way of exercising authority.
“It will be important for us to propose a style of governance that develops structures and participatory procedures in which members can together discern a new vision for the church,” Coppa told a press conference.
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