US declares interest in developing African mining sector

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is interested in developing the mining sector in Africa. On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order focusing on minerals, mineral extraction, and mineral processing.

“Mainly in the United States but if you read closely there are also multiple references in that executive order to international partnerships and you know, cooperating with partner nations,” said Scott Woodard, the acting deputy assistant secretary of state for energy transformation at the U.S. State Department.

Woodard spoke at a recent African mining conference — also known as an indaba — in Cape Town, South Africa.

Moderator Zainab Usman, director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, asked Woodard whether the U.S. understands that in addition to mineral extraction, Africans want projects that add value to the raw material in order to boost the continent’s industrialization.

Woodard replied that the Trump administration is still putting together its policies.

In recent years, America’s investment in the African minerals needed for cleaner energy has been driven by the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

In 2022, the U.S. entered into agreements with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to establish a supply chain for electric vehicle batteries, underscoring its interest in both countries’ copper, lithium and cobalt resources.

The U.S. also has funded the rebuilding of the Lobito Rail Corridor, which will transport minerals from Congo, Zambia and Angola on the west coast.

Speaking in the exhibition hall during the indaba, Zambia’s minister of transport and logistics, Frank Tayali, thanked the U.S. for its leadership.

“We have something like a $350 billion gap in terms of infrastructure gap financing that the continent needs,” said Tayali. “Now this focus on infrastructure development is really key in helping the African economies to be able to improve so that they are able to look after their people more effectively.”

China, meanwhile, is invested in rehabilitating the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority — known as TAZARA — to bolster rail and sea transport in East Africa.

And in South Africa, the conference’s host country, transport and logistics problems at the state-owned Transnet railway system are being considered.

“The CEO of Transnet is very open about the state of the rail network,” said Allan Seccombe, head of communications at the Minerals Council of South Africa. ” … it needs a lot of work.”

How will they raise the money?

“They are going out on public tenders to try and get that investment in,” said Allan Seccombe, head of communications at the Minerals Council of South Africa. “Also, significantly they’re speaking to their customers who are by and large, large mining companies to maybe through tariffs they can invest in the rail network, improve it, then have private trains they can operate on the network.”

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African leaders call for ‘immediate ceasefire’ at DRC summit

BUKAVU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO — A summit of African leaders meeting to address the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday called for an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” within five days.

The M23 armed rebel group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.

The DRC government has officially designated the M23 rebel group as a terrorist organization, while the United Nations and the United States classify it as an armed rebel group.

The summit in Tanzania brought together Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi, as well as leaders from the East African Community bloc and 16-member Southern African Development Community.

Kagame appeared in person, while Tshisekedi joined via video call.

In the final statement, the summit called for army chiefs from both communities “to meet within five days and provide technical direction on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.”

It also called for the opening of humanitarian corridors to evacuate the dead and injured.

Meanwhile, fighting was ongoing about 60 kilometers from the South Kivu provincial capital of Bakuvu, local and security sources told AFP.

The M23 took the strategic city of Goma, capital of North Kivu province, last week and is pushing into neighboring South Kivu in the latest episode of decadeslong turmoil in the region.

Local fears

Since the M23 reemerged in 2021, peace talks hosted by Angola and Kenya have failed and multiple ceasefires have collapsed. 

While Rwanda continues to deny supporting the M23 militarily, a report by United Nations experts said last year Rwanda had around 4,000 troops in the DRC and profited from smuggling out of the country vast amounts of gold and coltan — a mineral vital for phones and laptops.

Rwanda accuses the DRC of sheltering the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The summit comes amid reports that the M23 is closing on the town of Kavumu in South Kivu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops.

There have also been reports of panic in the provincial capital, Bukavu, as residents board up shops and seek to escape.

“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they said.

Gang rape, slavery

U.N. rights chief Volker Turk warned Friday: “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come for the people of the eastern DRC but also beyond the country’s borders.”

Turk said that nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 wounded since the M23 entered Goma on Jan. 26, and that the final tolls were likely to be much higher.

He also said his team was “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.”

M23 has already installed its own mayor and local authorities in Goma.

It has vowed to march all the way to the national capital, Kinshasa, even though the city lies about 1,600 kilometers away across the vast country, which is roughly the size of Western Europe.

The DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats.

The M23 offensive has raised fears of a regional war, given that several countries are supporting the DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.

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Rwandan, Congolese leaders to meet over eastern DRC conflict

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA — Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was due to meet his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi in Tanzania on Saturday as regional leaders convene in a bid to defuse the conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo.

The M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.

The group took the strategic city of Goma last week and is pushing into the neighboring South Kivu province in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in the region.

Kagame and Tshisekedi are due to attend a joint summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, bringing together the eight countries of the East African Community and 16-member South African Development Community.

Since the M23 reemerged in 2021, several peace talks hosted by Angola and Kenya have failed.

Rwanda denies military support for the M23 but a U.N. report said last year it had around 4,000 troops in DRC and profited from smuggling vast amounts of gold and coltan — a mineral vital to phones and laptops — out of the country.

Rwanda accuses the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Local fears

The summit comes as the M23 advances on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops.

Kavumu is the last barrier before the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu on the Rwandan border, where panic has set in.

A Bukavu resident said shops were barricading their fronts and emptying storerooms for fear of looting, while schools and universities suspended classes on Friday.

“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they said.

U.N. rights chief Volker Turk warned: “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders.”

‘Gang rape, slavery’

Turk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 injured since M23 entered Goma on Jan. 26, and that final tolls were likely much higher.

He also said his team was “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.”

The M23 has already installed its own mayor and local authorities in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

It has vowed to go all the way to the national capital Kinshasa, even though it lies about 1,600 kilometers away across the vast country, which is roughly the size of Western Europe.

The DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats.

The offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.

Regional foreign ministers gathered on Friday for the first day of the summit in Tanzania ahead of their leaders on Saturday.

Kenyan foreign secretary Musalia Mudavadi said there was a “golden opportunity” to find a solution, calling for the previous peace processes hosted by Angola and Kenya to be merged into one.  

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Trump orders freeze of aid to South Africa, cites country’s land expropriation law

washington — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday formalizing his announcement earlier this week that he’ll freeze assistance to South Africa because of its law aiming to address some of the wrongs of South Africa’s racist apartheid era — a law the White House says amounts to discrimination against the country’s white minority. 

“As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country,” the White House said in a summary of the order. The White House said Trump is also going to announce a program to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees. 

Trump was responding to a new law in South Africa that gives the government powers in some instances to expropriate land from people. The White House said the law “blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority Afrikaners.” 

The Expropriation Act was signed into law by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month and allows the government to take land in specific instances where it is not being used, or where it would be in the public interest if it were redistributed. 

It aims to address some of the wrongs of South Africa’s racist apartheid era, when land was taken away from Black people and they were forced to live in areas designated for nonwhites. 

Elon Musk, who is a close Trump ally and head of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, has highlighted that law in recent social media posts and cast it as a threat to South Africa’s white minority. Musk was born in South Africa. 

The order also references South Africa’s role in bringing accusations of genocide against Israel before the International Court of Justice. 

The halt in foreign aid to South Africa comes amid a broader pause in most U.S. overseas assistance under Trump, as he looks to shift to what he calls an “America First” foreign policy.

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African nations prepare for what’s to come after pause on US aid

NAIROBI, KENYA — African governments are gearing up for what is to come following the 90-day pause on most U.S.-funded foreign aid as they worry about the potential effects.

In Kenya, for instance, Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa said Wednesday in Nairobi that as her country navigates complex challenges, ensuring continuation of essential health services, especially with programs related to HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, is essential.

“For more than 40 years, we’ve been able to depend on partners. PEPFAR has done a great job in ensuring that HIV patients, TB patients are receiving health services,” she said, referring to the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program that works with partners in 55 countries worldwide.

“With more than 3.7 million being on HIV medication [in Kenya] … I believe it’s critical for us to think of sustainable solutions … [and] alternative forms of funding,” Barasa said.

While the freeze has been modified to allow waivers for “life-saving humanitarian assistance,” including “core life-saving medicine,” which may apply to health programs such as PEPFAR, many countries are working to assess the implications of what may amount to an end of U.S. foreign aid.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the waiver is clear: “If it saves lives, if it’s emergency lifesaving aid — food, medicine, whatever — they have a waiver. I don’t know how much clearer we can be.”

South Africa, with 7.8 million people with HIV, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the PEPFAR program the past two decades. Its health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, told reporters last week in Johannesburg that the country was taken by surprise by the pause in aid and that officials are still trying to decipher the full meaning.

This week, Motsoaledi met with U.S. Embassy officials to discuss bilateral health cooperation and the new U.S. policies on assistance. The two sides promised to keep the communications channels open as they discuss lifesaving health partnerships, according to a joint statement after the meeting.

Asanda Ngoasheng, a South African political analyst, said countries will be affected one way or the other because many public health systems exist only because of the PEPFAR program.

“Even in the case PEPFAR is not funding 100% of the programs, any money that is removed means that countries simply would not be able to afford programs that they were able to afford with the money that was being supplemented by PEPFAR before,” Ngoasheng said.

Programs not related to health are also affected. In Senegal, for example, an infrastructure and development project financed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an initiative that was started by Republican U.S. President George W. Bush, could lose funding.

The $550 million power project being implemented by Millennium Challenge Account Senegal was designed to improve the country’s transmission network and increase electricity access in rural areas and to those on the outskirts of cities in the south and central regions.

Mamadou Thior, a journalist and chair of the media watchdog CORED, told VOA: “The financing coming from the U.S. for this second phase will impact about 12 million people.”

Thior referred to a recent speech by Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko that emphasized the need for countries to work on being self-sufficient.

“It’s high time for Africans and other people to depend on themselves and not from Western aid because this is what can be the drawbacks,” Thior said.

“They will have to depend on national resources to go ahead with the rest of the [electricity] project because there’s no way to go backwards,” he said.

In Nigeria, a country that received about $1 billion in U.S. foreign aid last year, officials this week launched a committee with members from finance, health and environmental ministries to develop an alternative for some U.S.-funded programs.

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200 Kenyan police officers arrive at UN mission in Haiti

Two hundred Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti on Thursday to join the United Nations-backed mission to fight gangs in the crisis-plagued Caribbean country.

More than 600 Kenyan officers had already been stationed in Haiti as part of a multinational force of police officers and soldiers from other countries — including Jamaica, Guatemala and El Salvador — who assist Haiti’s police in fighting the violent gangs in control of much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

“The Haitian National Police are outnumbered and outgunned by the gangs,” William O’Neill, a U.N. expert on Haiti, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The U.N. mission plays a critical role in establishing security in Haiti, he said.

The arrival of the newly deployed police officers from Kenya was cast into doubt earlier this week, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a freeze on U.S. foreign aid that included $13.3 million slated for the U.N. mission in Haiti.

The U.S. State Department, however, announced it has approved waivers for $40.7 million in foreign aid for the Haitian mission and the police. The State Department also said it recently delivered “much-needed heavy armored equipment” to the mission and the police.

Godfrey Otunge, the U.N.’s mission’s force commander in Haiti, said in a statement Wednesday that the frozen funds make up under 3% of ongoing assistance to the mission. Both the state and the defense departments “remain actively engaged” in the mission, Otunge said.

“I want to assure everyone, especially the people of Haiti, that the mission remains on track,” the force commander said.

According to Otunge, the U.S. and other partner countries are continuing to contribute logistical, financial, and equipment support to the Haitian mission.

“Steady and predictable funding for the [mission] requires all states to contribute, especially those in the region,” O’Neill, the U.N. expert on Haiti, said. “More stability in Haiti will reduce the pressure to migrate, which is in everyone’s interest.”

The Kenyan-led U.N. mission faces a daunting task in a country that has never fully recovered from a devastating earthquake in 2010 and is now without a president or parliament. Haiti is ruled by a transitional body that faces enormous challenges, including gangs and extreme violence and poverty. Almost 6,000 people were killed in gang violence in the country last year.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto Thursday and thanked him for the country’s leadership of the mission in Haiti.

Last year, nearly 1 million people in Haiti fled their homes due to gang violence, a figure that French news agency Agence France-Presse reports as three times higher than the previous year.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Agence France Presse.    

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‘Confusion’ in South Africa over US HIV funding

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Some South African organizations that assist people with HIV are in limbo, after the United States put a 90-day freeze on most foreign aid. The U.S. State Department later added a waiver for “lifesaving” aid, but NGOs that have already shut their doors say the next steps aren’t clear, and they are worried this could set back years of progress.

South Africa has the highest number of HIV-positive people in the world — about 8 million — but has also been a huge success story in terms of treatment and preventing new infections.

That’s largely due to the money poured into expert HIV care here, 17% of which comes from a U.S. program called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR.

But, a 90-day foreign aid funding freeze is in effect, following an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump last month to check if U.S.-funded programs overseas are aligned with U.S. policies. This has caused some confusion in South Africa with health care organizations and their patients.

Thamsanqa Siyo, an HIV-positive transgender woman in South Africa, is anxious.

“People are frustrated, they’re living in fear, they don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Siyo. “They don’t know if it’s stopped temporarily or not temporarily.”

The Cape Town clinic that Siyo used to go to has now been closed for two weeks.

While the State Department has issued a waiver to continue paying for “lifesaving” services, what that includes remains unclear to many South African organizations that receive funding from PEPFAR.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that the waiver was clear.

“If it saves lives, if it’s emergency lifesaving aid — food, medicine, whatever — they have a waiver,” said Rubio. “I don’t know how much clearer we can be.”

The State Department also issued written clarification and guidance on February 1 regarding which activities are and are not covered by the waiver for PEPFAR programs.

The South African government said it was blindsided by the U.S. aid freeze, according to Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, who convened a meeting about PEPFAR on Wednesday.

Motsoaledi also said he has sought clarity on the waiver.

“If you say American money cannot be used for LGBTQWI+ and we do the counseling and testing and somebody who falls within that category, transgender, tests positive, can they not be helped?” he asked. “Even if it’s lifesaving?”

Linda-Gail Bekker is a doctor and scientist who heads the Desmond Tutu HIV Center in South Africa.

“This is not one homogenous picture,” said Bekker. “In some places, it’s parts of services that have been stopped. In other places, the whole clinic, if it was supplied by PEPFAR, has been closed down.”

She also said that some transgender health services have been completely closed, and in other areas, counselors haven’t been able to come in.

In addition, she said some services and drugs are no longer available, such as community-based testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis, a medicine that prevents people at high risk from contracting HIV.

Ling Sheperd, who works for Triangle Project, an nongovernmental organization that provides services for the queer community, said there’s a risk of “undoing decades of progress.”

“The impact is devastating,” said Sheperd. “The PEPFAR funding has been a lifeline for millions and it ensures access to HIV treatment, prevention services, and of course community-based health care. And without it we are seeing interruptions in medication supply, clinics are scaling back services, and community health workers have literally been losing their livelihoods.”

About 5.5 million South Africans are on anti-retroviral medication for HIV. Motsoaledi noted that most of that is funded by the government here.

However, he said, a PEPFAR shortfall will affect training, facilities and service delivery. The government said it is working on contingency plans that would reduce dependence on foreign aid in the HIV sector.

On Wednesday, a group of health organizations sent a letter to the South African government saying at least 900,000 patients with HIV were directly affected by the U.S. stop-work orders.

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Darfuri women face sexual violence in war, refuge

Aid groups say sexual violence is a constant threat for women in Sudan’s Darfur, but refugees also say it’s a problem for those who have fled the region. Reporting from a refugee camp on Chad’s border with Darfur, Henry Wilkins looks at the phenomenon of “firewood rape.” Camera: Henry Wilkins.

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UN: Deaths near 3,000 in fighting for DRC’s Goma

UNITED NATIONS — A senior U.N. official in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Wednesday that nearly 3,000 people have been killed in a fighting between M23 militants and the national army over control of a key eastern city.

Vivian van de Perre, the deputy head of the United Nations mission in the DRC, told reporters in a video call from Goma that U.N. teams are “actively helping” the M23 to collect the dead from the city’s streets. She said that, so far, 2,000 bodies have been retrieved and 900 others are in hospital morgues.

“We expect this number to go up,” she said. “There are still many decomposing bodies in many areas. The World Health Organization is really worried about what kind of epidemic outbreaks that can contribute to.”

In early January, the M23 broke a ceasefire agreement, launching a large-scale offensive in the mineral-rich east with the support of the Rwandan army. On Jan. 27, the M23 said it had captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and a city of more than a million people, thousands of whom have been displaced from other conflict areas.

The DRC government has repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group, a claim that Rwanda denies. Kigali, in turn, alleges that Kinshasa collaborates with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or the FDLR, an armed Hutu group with ties to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, an allegation the DRC rejects.

M23 holds Goma

Van de Perre said Goma is “firmly under control at the moment of M23.” The Congolese government has officially designated the M23 as a terrorist organization, while the United Nations and the United States classify it as an armed rebel group.

“All exit routes from Goma are under their control, and the airport, also under M23 control, is closed until further notice,” she told reporters. “The escalating violence has led to immense human suffering, displacement and a growing humanitarian crisis.”

She said nearly 2,000 civilians are sheltering at U.N. peacekeeping bases in Goma and that “our bases are full, full, full.” She said they cannot handle any more people, and they are concerned that the overcrowding and unsanitary conditions could lead to disease outbreaks at the bases.

Water and electricity had been cut off to the city during the intense fighting but have been partially restored. Markets are also reopening, but van de Perre said prices have skyrocketed.

She said peacekeepers with the U.N. mission, known as MONUSCO, are operating under limited movements imposed by the M23. They are not patrolling the city, but they are able to resupply their bases.

“Any movement we have to announce 48 hours in advance,” she said. Asked about reports that M23 rebels have suspended some aid work and are interfering with the work of journalists, she said that there are indications of harassment, but that she did not know the extent of it.

On the move

The M23 is reported to be progressing toward the South Kivu capital of Bukavu. Van de Perre said heavy fighting has been reported along the main route between Kinyezire and Nyabibwe.

“In Bukavu, tensions are rising as the M23 moves closer, just 50 kilometers north of the city,” she said.

MONUSCO has been in the process of drawing down its peacekeepers at the request of the Congolese government. In June, it left South Kivu province entirely.

“While the 4 February unilateral ceasefire announced by the M23 offers assurances that Bukavu will not be taken, we are gravely concerned for Kavumu airport, which is critical for ongoing civilian and humanitarian use,” she said of South Kivu’s airport.

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Scores killed in Somalia in clash between security forces, Islamic State

WASHINGTON — Nearly 70 people were killed and up to 50 others wounded during 24 hours of fighting between Islamic State fighters and security forces from Somalia’s Puntland region, officials said Wednesday. 

At least 15 Puntland soldiers and more than 50 militants were slain in the fierce fighting around the Dharin and Qurac areas of the Cal Miskaad mountains in Puntland’s Bari region, multiple Puntland security officials told VOA, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. 

In an interview Wednesday with VOA’s Somali Service, a spokesperson for Puntland security operations, Brigadier General Mohamud Mohamed Ahmed, said the fighting, which began Tuesday, was the heaviest since Puntland launched an offensive last month against Islamic State groups that have hideouts in the mountains.  

“We have confirmed that at least 57 Islamic State militants, all of them foreigners, were killed during the fighting in the last 24 hours,” Ahmed said. 

Ahmed declined to say how many Puntland soldiers were wounded or lost but suggested casualties were heavy.  

“The fighting is taking place in a mountainous area where the militants are using improvised explosives. The fighting of this nature in such an environment, the attacking force often suffers more casualties than the defenders,” he said. 

VOA could not independently verify the claim of 57 militants killed but graphic video circulated on social media was said to show scenes of militants’ bodies strewn in a mountainous area. 

Ahmed said Tuesday night the United Arab Emirates conducted a drone strike against the IS militants in the area to support Puntland forces. 

A statement from the Puntland forces said their troops have gained ground.  

“Puntland forces have successfully captured the strategic village of Dharin in Togga Jecel, dealing a significant blow to the extremist group’s operational capabilities in the region,” the statement said. 

It added: “The forces have expelled the enemy from the areas they fought along the Togga Jecel.” 

These latest clashes came just days after U.S. warplanes targeted the Islamic State affiliate in Somalia, hitting what officials described as high-ranking operatives in the terror group’s mountainous stronghold. 

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the airstrike Saturday on social media, describing the main target as a “Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited and led.” 

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud thanked the U.S. for its “unwavering support” in the “fight against international terrorism.” 

Military campaign

Puntland began a military offensive dubbed “Hilac Campaign” last month against extremist groups in the region following months of preparations. 

Claims by Puntland commanders made regarding different battles indicate more than 150 Islamic State militants have been killed.  

Puntland’s leader, Said Abdullahi Deni, appealed to the public to support the operation, which he said is aimed at dislodging the Islamic State militants from their hideouts in mountainous areas. 

The operation has garnered public support. Monday, hundreds of residents took to the streets of Bosaso, the commercial hub of Puntland state, to demonstrate against the terrorist group and show support for the military campaign. 

Puntland is a member state of Somalia but its relationship with the country’s federal government has been strained by political conflicts and the region is considered semi-autonomous.  

Analysts say the rift between the two sides has limited any collaboration between the federal government and the Puntland regional state, including the fight against terrorists. 

“An operation like this needs logistical support and reinforcements, and the regional states alone cannot handle it. Federal government support and involvement is a must,” Somalia’s former Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake told VOA. 

“The Islamic State is a common enemy for Somalis. Politicians should separate the national interests and the political differences that can be later solved through negotiations. National interests including security and development should not be politicized,” former national intelligence chief Brigadier General Abdirahman Turyare told VOA. 

IS in Puntland  

Puntland has endured terrorist attacks perpetrated by al-Shabab and Islamic State militants, but the ongoing military operation appears to be focused on IS. 

The group has a relatively small presence in Somalia compared to the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, but experts have warned of growing activity. 

U.S. military officials and Somali security experts reported that IS increased its membership numbers in Somalia last year. 

The group was previously estimated to have between 100 and 400 fighters, but Somali security and intelligence experts say the number has grown to between 500 and 600. 

Most of the newcomers are said to be from the Middle East and eastern and northern Africa. 

Faadumo Yasin Jama contributed to this report.

 

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2 Mozambicans with disabilities overcome social stigma

Living with a disability presents unique challenges, but some living with a disability say resilience, determination, and support can help individuals thrive. From Maputo, Mozambique, reporter Amarilis Gule has this story of two Mozambicans who refuse to let disabilities define their lives. (Video edited by Amarilis Gule)

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South Africa’s unity government steady after stormy start

Johannesburg — In the seven months since it was formed, South Africa’s unlikely unity government has been stretched and cracked but remains intact under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who delivers its first state of the nation address Thursday.

Several loud quarrels have erupted over sticking points such as language education in schools and Ramaphosa’s warm words towards Russia but nothing that has made real the threats and fears of collapse.

“They think we are at each other’s throats. We are not. We continue to meet and talk,” Ramaphosa said in the wake of the latest crisis sparked by his signing of a property expropriation bill last month.

The second-largest partner in the 10-party coalition, the Democratic Alliance, was angry that Ramaphosa signed the act without consulting his partners in the government of national unity (GNU).

“This is not how coalitions work,” DA leader John Steenhuisen fumed. “We will not be reduced to being spectators.”

But the party did not object to the need for land reform in the country, where most farmland is owned by whites. It also sided with Ramaphosa when the bill was attacked by US President Donald Trump for allowing the “confiscation” of property, saying this was untrue.

The DA has six ministries in exchange for propping up Ramaphosa’s ANC in government after it failed to win enough votes in the May election to govern alone, a first since the party took power in 1994 and ended decades of white-minority apartheid rule.

It was an unlikely collaboration, with the DA a long and critical rival of the African National Congress (ANC).

But the GNU, which includes eight other smaller parties, has been credited with bringing some stability to the continent’s most industrialized economy as it faces a host of challenges, from an unemployment rate topping 30%, to high rates of crime.

Big business

While it has fumed and flexed, the center-right DA is also aware that, should it quit the unity government, the ANC could find support from the radical-left EFF and the populist MK parties, now in opposition.

It is a scenario it calls a “doomsday coalition”.

“This is something the DA will move Table Mountain to avoid,” Sunday Times editor-in-chief Makhudu Sefara wrote in a weekend column. “And therein lies the extent to which they’re prepared to compromise.”

The DA will not walk out, said political scientist Sandile Swana. 

“It is the political party of big business,” he said. “And the GNU was mandated, or demanded or directed, to come into existence by big business in South Africa.”

Despite some cynical maneuvring at local government level — for example, to push out the DA mayor of the city of Tshwane in September — the coalition will even survive bitter local elections due in late 2026, said political scientist Susan Booysen told AFP.

“They could actually go into a poisonous, toxic local government election campaign and continue with the national coalition,” she said. “It’s such a schizophrenic type of coalition.”

Ramaphosa, meanwhile, is walking a fine line within his own party, where a large faction of the ANC wants him to assert that it “is not in the DA’s pocket,” Booysen said.

But even if Ramaphosa does not complete his term as president, with his future as head of the party not guaranteed after ANC leadership elections in 2027, his successor is also unlikely to end the fractious collaboration, Swana said.

“Even if Ramaphosa is removed, I do not think they will kick the DA out of government,” Swana said.

“The GNU, as things stand, will last the five-year period.”

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South Africa tests radioactivity in rhino horns to deter poachers

Scientists are testing a novel technique to deter poachers targeting endangered rhinoceros for their prized horns. As part of a pilot study in South Africa, researchers have injected small, radioactive pellets into the horns of live rhinos. The goal is to make the horns radioactive so there is less demand for them on the black market. Marize de Klerk reports from the UNESCO Waterberg Biosphere Reserve in South Africa.

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Scientists test injecting radioactivity into rhino horns to deter poachers

Scientists are testing a novel technique to deter poachers targeting endangered rhinoceroses for their prized horns. As part of a pilot study in South Africa, researchers have injected small, radioactive pellets into the horns of live rhinos. The goal is to make the horns radioactive so there is less demand for them on the black market. Marize de Klerk reports from the UNESCO Waterberg Biosphere Reserve.

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Chadians who worked for now-departed French troops appeal to government for jobs 

Yaounde, Cameroon — More than 400 civilians rendered jobless by the departure of French troops from Chad are asking the government to hire them and provide the job benefits they had when they worked for the French. The last French troops left Chad on January 31, following an order by President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.

Chadian officials say hundreds of civilians who were employed by the French assembled in the capital N’djamena on Monday to ask the government to immediately give them jobs.

French forces departed Chad at the order of the central African state’s president, Field Marshal Mahamat Idriss Deby.

The last French troops left the country on Friday after handing over the Kossei military base in N’djamena, which they had occupied for about 70 years. Earlier, French forces handed over two other bases at Faya-Largeau and Abeche.

Mbaitoubam Bruno, the spokesperson for civilians who worked at the French military bases, spoke to VOA from N’djamena via a messaging app. He said Chad’s government should immediately recruit them because at least half of the over 400 Chadians who lost their jobs as French troops departed are already in precarious situations that do not permit them to support their families.

Mbaitoubam added that it is imperative for Chad’s government to guarantee the security and social well-being of all former workers at French military bases by making sure each and every one of them has a job.

The former workers mostly held jobs in hospitals, schools and dining facilities that served the French troops. Others provided humanitarian assistance to those who lived around the bases.

Mbaitoubam said a majority of the workers were asked to leave French military bases on November 28 when Chad announced an end to military cooperation with France.

The workers say they have remained without jobs and salaries and cannot take care of their medical bills.

Aziz Mahamat Saleh is a member of a Chadian commission overseeing the dismantling of military agreements between Paris and N’Djamena. He is also Chad’s former communications minister and government spokesman.

He said Chad’s president, Field Marshal Mahamat Idriss Deby, ordered the commission to make a census of all civilians who worked with French troops in three bases at Kossei, Faya-Largeau and Abeche. He says after the census, the commission will propose a list of workers whose services are needed to the government of Chad for recruitment.

Mahamat spoke on Chad’s state TV. He said Deby has asked health and humanitarian workers to continue working in hospitals formerly controlled by French troops.

He said he was pleading with the former workers to have confidence in their government, which he said is doing everything possible to protect their rights and provide jobs despite the difficult economic situation the country is facing.

The workers say that under the French, they earned an average salary of more than 130 dollars per month.

Before leaving Chad last week, General Pascal Ianni, the commander of French forces in Africa, told Chadian state TV that their departure was abrupt. Paris has not said anything concerning the former workers, Chad’s government says.

The workers say the decision to order out the French may have been patriotic for the government, but that it undermined their well-being, and did not take into consideration the needs of several thousand civilians who had health care and education thanks to the French troops’ presence.

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Rwanda-backed rebels in DRC declare a unilateral ceasefire

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — The Rwanda-backed rebels who seized eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s key city of Goma announced a unilateral ceasefire in the region Monday for humanitarian reasons, following calls for a safe corridor for aid and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

The M23 rebels said the ceasefire would start Tuesday. The announcement came shortly after the U.N. health agency said at least 900 people were killed in last week’s fighting in Goma between the rebels and Congolese forces.

The city of 2 million people is at the heart of a region home to trillions of dollars in mineral wealth and remains in rebel control. The M23 were reported to be gaining ground in other areas of eastern Congo and advancing on another provincial capital, Bukavu.

But the rebels said Monday they did not intend to seize Bukavu, though they earlier expressed ambition to march on Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, a thousand miles away.

“It must be made clear that we have no intention of capturing Bukavu or other areas. However, we reiterate our commitment to protecting and defending the civilian population and our positions,” M23 rebel spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from Congo’s government.

The rebels’ announcement came ahead of a joint summit this week by the regional blocs for southern and eastern Africa, which have called for a ceasefire. Kenya’s President William Ruto said the presidents of Congo and Rwanda would attend.

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies, or G7, urged parties in the conflict to return to negotiations. In a statement on Monday, they called for a “rapid, safe and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians.”

Congolese authorities have said they are open to talks to resolve the conflict, but that such a dialogue must be done within the context of previous peace agreements. Rwanda and the rebels have accused the Congo government of defaulting on previous agreements.

The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, far more than in 2012 when they first briefly captured Goma then withdrew after international pressure. They are the most potent of the more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the world’s technology.

The latest fighting forced hundreds of thousands of people who had been displaced by years of conflict to carry what remained of their belongings and flee again. Thousands poured into nearby Rwanda.

The fighting in Congo has connections with a decades-long ethnic conflict.

M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda.

Many Hutus fled to Congo after the genocide and founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda militia group. Rwanda said the group is “fully integrated” into the Congolese military, which denies the charges.

On Monday, families desperate to identify their loved ones besieged morgues as body bags were loaded onto trucks for burials in Goma.

A weeping Chiza Nyenyezi recalled how her son died from a gunshot injury after a bullet went through his chest. “His entire chest was open,” Nyenyezi said.

Louise Shalukoma said her son’s body could not be immediately recovered from the streets because a bomb detonated as people tried to retrieve it.

“My God, my fourth child, when I saw that he was dead I said, ‘Lord, what am I going to do?’” she lamented. “This M23 war came for me in Goma.”

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Uganda begins Ebola vaccine trial

Uganda began a vaccine trial Monday against the Sudan strain of Ebola that has killed one person in the outbreak declared last week.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday in a post on the X social media platform that the trial was “initiated with record speed, only three days since the outbreak was declared, while ensuring full compliance with international and national regulatory and ethical requirements.”

Officials have not identified the vaccine manufacturer that is providing the East African country with access to more than 2,000 doses of the candidate vaccine.

WHO is supporting Uganda’s response to the outbreak with a $1 million allocation from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies.

So far, there has been only one death attributed to the virus — a nurse who worked at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Two more cases were confirmed on Monday. The Associated Press reported they were members of the nurse’s family.

The nurse sought treatment at several hospitals and had also consulted with a traditional healer before tests confirmed an Ebola diagnosis, according to authorities.

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa said in a statement after the outbreak was confirmed, “We welcome the prompt declaration of this outbreak, and as a comprehensive response is being established, we are supporting the government and partners to scale up measures to quicky identify cases, isolate and provide care, curb the spread of the virus and protect the population.”

Uganda’s Health Ministry has identified at least 234 of the nurse’s contacts, according to the AP. Containing the virus could prove challenging in Kampala with its population of 4 million people.

The symptoms of Ebola, an often-fatal disease, include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health care workers and family members caring for someone with Ebola are at high risk for contracting the disease.

WHO said Ebola “is transmitted to people from wild animals (such as fruit bats, porcupines and non-human primates) and then spreads in the human population through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g., bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids.”

Ebola’s fatality rate is around 50%, WHO said on its website, but it also said that fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in some outbreaks.

The outbreak in Uganda is the first Ebola outbreak since U.S. President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

Some information was provided by The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

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Sudan fighting escalates; at least 65 killed

Port Sudan, Sudan — Fierce fighting in south and west Sudan killed at least 65 people and wounded more than 130 Monday, medics said, as the devastating war between the army and paramilitary forces rages on.

In South Kordofan, artillery fire on the state capital Kadugli killed at least 40 people and wounded 70, according to two medical sources.

The city, controlled by the Sudanese army, was targeted in an attack that Governor Mohamed Ibrahim blamed on a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, which also maintains a foothold in the state.

“Hilu’s attack on civilians in Kadugli aims to destabilize” the area, Ibrahim said in a statement to AFP, vowing to “clear the mountains around Kadugli” of rebel forces.

The governor said that the shelling targeted a local market.

SPLM-N has clashed with both the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in different parts of South Kordofan throughout their war.

Sudan has been mired in conflict since April 2023, with battles between the regular army and RSF escalating in recent weeks.

In the vast western region of Darfur, a military air strike on South Darfur’s capital, Nyala, killed 25 people and wounded 63 on Monday, a medical source told AFP.

The attack hit “the Cinema District in Nyala,” an area under RSF control, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity over safety concerns.

The RSF holds sway over much of Darfur, including Nyala, which lies 195 kilometers from El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur, which is the only state in the region still under army control.

El-Fasher is home to some two million people who have been under RSF siege since May.

The city has seen some of the worst fighting of the war as the army battles to keep its last foothold in the region.

The attacks in South Kordofan and Darfur also come amid intensified fighting between the army and the RSF in Khartoum, where the army has made advances against the paramilitaries.

Last week, the army broke a siege of its headquarters in the capital and the Signal Corps in Khartoum North, which had both been encircled by the RSF since the war began.

On Saturday, at least 60 people were killed and more than 150 injured when the RSF shelled a busy market in army-controlled Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum.

Across the Nile in the capital itself, an air strike on an RSF-controlled area left two civilians dead and dozens wounded, rescuers said.

Both warring sides have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and devastated Sudan ‘s fragile infrastructure, forcing most health facilities out of service.

The U.N.’s migration agency said on Monday that more than 600,000 people have been displaced from North Darfur since April 2024.

The International Organization for Migration reported 95 incidents across North Darfur, more than half occurring in El-Fasher.

“These incidents displaced an estimated 605,257 individuals (121,179 households),” the IOM report said.

The U.N. secretary-general’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed alarm on Monday over reports of summary executions of civilians in Khartoum North, allegedly by fighters and militias allied with the army.

“Many of the victims of these incidents were allegedly originally from Darfur or the Kordofan regions of Sudan,” he said, calling on all parties to stop fighting and work towards a lasting peace.

Sudanese women, children and men “are paying the price for the continued fighting by the belligerents,” Dujarric added. 

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South Africa defends itself against Trump and Musk attacks on land policy 

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa defended itself on Monday against attacks on its land confiscation policy by Donald Trump and his South African-born billionaire backer Elon Musk after the U.S. president said he would cut off funding to the country over the issue. 

Trump said on Sunday, without citing evidence, that “South Africa is confiscating land” and “certain classes of people” were being treated “very badly.” 

“I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” he said. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government had not confiscated any land, and he looked forward to engaging with Trump to foster a better understanding over the matter. 

The United States committed nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, the most recent U.S. government data showed. The lion’s share of the sum, $315 million, was for HIV/AIDS. 

Ramaphosa said U.S. funding accounted for 17% of South Africa’s HIV/AIDS program but it was reliant on “no other significant funding” from the United States. 

The president signed into law a bill last month to make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest, despite objections by some parties in his ruling coalition. The law aims to address stark racial disparities in land ownership that persist three decades after the end of apartheid in 1994. 

“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution,” the presidency said. 

The question of land reform is highly politically charged in South Africa due to the legacy of the colonial and apartheid eras, when Black people were dispossessed of their lands and denied property rights. 

Musk, the world’s richest person and a South African-born U.S. citizen who has Trump’s ear and more than 200 million followers on the X social media platform that he owns, quickly waded into the dispute. 

“Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?” he said in a post on X, responding to Ramaphosa who had posted the presidency statement. He was apparently suggesting white people were the victims of the racism he alleged. 

Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya urged Musk to talk constructively with the South African president. 

“My brother, you would know that owing to a devastating legacy of centuries of oppressive and brutal colonialism and apartheid, our constitution provides for redressing the ills of the past,” he said. 

Under the Expropriation Act, special conditions have to be met before expropriating land such as it having longtime informal occupants, being unused and held purely for speculation, or being abandoned. 

South Africa’s rand fell nearly 2% against the dollar early on Monday after Trump’s remarks. Stocks and the benchmark government bond also tumbled. 

Charles Robertson, an emerging markets specialist at FIM Partners, said that African countries were relatively well positioned to withstand an attack by Trump because the United States was a far less important investor than China and Europe. 

But any U.S. measures against South Africa would represent a serious challenge for Ramaphosa, who has been trying to boost the sluggish economy and attract foreign investors, he said. 

“The difficulty with South Africa is, do you want to set up a factory in a country where today, Trump’s cutting off all aid. Maybe tomorrow, he’s ripping up AGOA (a trade deal with Africa) and maybe on Wednesday, he’s adding 25% tariffs because they’re too close to China,” he said. 

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Hospitals in eastern Congo are crowded with wounded and exhausting their supplies  

GOMA, Congo — Hundreds of wounded people have poured into overcrowded hospitals in Goma, a major city in eastern Congo, as fighting rages on between government forces and the Rwanda-backed rebels who seized the city of around 2 million people.

“They will get infected before we can treat them all,” said Florence Douet, an operating room nurse at Bethesda Hospital, as she attended to patients with varying degrees of injuries.

Since the start of the M23 rebels’ offensive on Goma on Jan. 26, more than 700 people have been killed and nearly 3,000 have been wounded in the city and its vicinity, officials say. Bethesda Hospital alone said it receives more than 100 new patients each day, overstretching its capacity of 250 beds.

Bethesda is one of several hospitals in Goma that The Associated Press visited that has inadequate personnel and supplies. The city hosts many of the close to 6.5 million people displaced by the conflict, which is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

As more people arrived at the hospitals with gunshot or shrapnel wounds, many were forced to share beds while others lay on the floor, writhing in pain as they waited for medical attention.

“This is the first time I’m experiencing this,” said Patrick Bagamuhunda, who was wounded in the fighting. “This war has caused a lot of damage, but at least we are still breathing.”

The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, far more than in 2012, when they first captured Goma before withdrawing under international pressure. They are the most potent of the more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the world’s technology.

Unlike in 2012, the rebels say they now plan to march to Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, 1,600 kilometers away, describing the country as a failed state under President Félix Tshisekedi.

The fighting in Congo has connections with a decadeslong ethnic conflict. M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda. Many Hutus fled to Congo after the genocide and founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia group. Rwanda said the group is “fully integrated” into the Congolese military, which denies the charges.

Hospitals are running out of supplies

Medical workers at Kyeshero Hospital in Goma say they are treating an increasing number of patients with bullet wounds.

“We removed 48 bullets yesterday,” Johnny Kasangati, a surgeon, said Friday as he examined a patient under a tent.

Kyeshero is also severely overcrowded, hitting more than 200% of its capacity on some days, according to Joseph Amadomon Sagara, a project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, which runs the hospital.

In the past, hospitals in Goma could transport wounded patients by boat to South Kivu’s main city, Bukavu, 180 kilometers to the south, but transport across Lake Kivu was suspended during the rebellion and roads have been mostly cut.

The fighting in and around Goma has also disrupted supply chains, leading to shortages in medical supplies that aid groups rely on. Some of it previously entered the city through its international airport, which is now under rebel control.

“Goma was cut off from the world. It was a total blackout,” said Virginie Napolitano, Goma’s emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders.

The aid group’s stockpiles, along with those of other groups, have been looted.

“We’re getting by with what we had in the cabinets, but I don’t know for how long,” Napolitano said.

How many have died in the conflict?

Congo’s government has confirmed 773 deaths and 2,880 injured persons at morgues and hospitals. The toll could be higher, it said, citing fears of finding mass graves and more bodies.

The Maternité de la Charité Hospital in Goma was among those struggling to find space for the dead.

“We had 66 bodies here. Fifty-six were transferred to the provincial hospital, where the morgue has more space than ours,” said Jules Kafitiye, the hospital’s medical director.

“We need to avoid decomposition due to disease,” he added, pointing to a tent where bodies were being stored.

Fears of disease spread as morgues overflow

Scores of bodies lay on streets and in hospitals in Goma after the city’s capture, raising fears of disease outbreaks in the region, which is also facing mpox and cholera outbreaks.

The U.N. health body warned last week that repeated mass displacement in Congo has created ideal conditions for the spread of endemic diseases in displacement camps and surrounding communities, including cholera, which saw more than 22,000 infections last year, and measles, which affected close to 12,000 people. The region also battles with chronic child malnutrition.

“There’s a fear for the disease to be spreading widely in communities,” said Dr. Boureima Hama Sambo, the World Health Organization’s representative in Congo. “But at this point, we cannot say because we have not been able to get there.”

 

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Uganda set to begin Ebola vaccine trial after new outbreak kills nurse

Kampala, Uganda — Ugandan officials are preparing to deploy a trial vaccine as part of efforts to stem an outbreak of Ebola in the capital, Kampala, a top health official said Sunday.

A range of scientists are developing research protocols relating to the planned deployment of more than 2,000 doses of a candidate vaccine against the Sudan strain of Ebola, said Pontiano Kaleebu, executive director of Uganda Virus Research Institute.

“Protocol is being accelerated” to get all the necessary regulatory approvals, he said. “This vaccine is not yet licensed.”

The World Health Organization said in a statement that its support to Uganda’s response to the outbreak includes access to 2,160 doses of trial vaccine.

“Research teams have been deployed to the field to work along with the surveillance teams as approvals are awaited,” the WHO statement said.

The candidate vaccine as well as candidate treatments are being made available through clinical trial protocols to further test for efficacy and safety, it said.

The vaccine maker wasn’t immediately known. There are no approved vaccines for the Sudan strain of Ebola that killed a nurse employed at Kampala’s main referral hospital. The man died on Wednesday and authorities declared an outbreak the next day.

 Officials are still investigating the source of the outbreak, and there has been no other confirmed case.

Uganda has had access to candidate vaccine doses since the end of an Ebola outbreak in September 2022 that killed at least 55 people. Ugandan officials ran out of time to begin a vaccine study when that outbreak, in central Uganda, was declared over about four months later, Kaleebu said.

A trial vaccine known as rVSV-ZEBOV, used to vaccinate 3,000 people at risk of infection during an outbreak of the Zaire strain of Ebola in eastern Congo between 2018 and 2020, proved effective in containing the spread of the disease there.

Uganda has had multiple Ebola outbreaks, including one in 2000 that killed hundreds. The 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed more than 11,000 people, the disease’s largest death toll.

Tracing contacts is also key to stemming the spread of Ebola, which manifests as a viral hemorrhagic fever.

At least 44 contacts of the victim in the current outbreak have been identified, including 30 health workers and patients, according to Uganda’s Ministry of Health.

Confirmation of Ebola in Uganda is the latest in a series of outbreaks of viral hemorrhagic fevers in the east African region. Tanzania declared an outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg disease earlier this month, while in December Rwanda announced that its own outbreak of Marburg was over. The ongoing Marburg outbreak in northern Tanzania’s Kagera region has killed at least two people, according to local health authorities.

Kampala’s outbreak could prove difficult to respond to, because the city has a highly mobile population of about 4 million. The nurse who died had sought treatment at a hospital just outside Kampala and later traveled to Mbale, in the country’s east, where he was admitted to a public hospital. Health authorities said the man also sought the services of a traditional healer.

Ebola is spread by contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.

Scientists don’t know the natural reservoir of Ebola, but they suspect the first person infected in an outbreak acquired the virus through contact with an infected animal or eating its raw meat.

Ebola was discovered in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo, where it occurred in a village near the Ebola River, after which the disease is named.

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DR Congo: Near Goma, displaced people begin long journey home

GOMA, DRC — Once crowded with white makeshift huts, the huge Kanyaruchinya camp for displaced people on the outskirts of Goma, in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, looked eerily empty Sunday.

Since Goma was taken by M23 fighters earlier this week, some 100,000 internally displaced people have left the jam-packed hillside where they had set up several years ago.

The ongoing crisis in the eastern DRC continues to escalate, with tensions involving the Congolese government, and the M23 rebel group. The DRC government has officially designated the M23 rebel group as a terrorist organization, while the U.N. and the U.S. classify it as an armed rebel group.

The DRC government has repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group, a claim that Rwanda denies. Kigali, in turn, alleges that Kinshasa collaborates with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu armed group with ties to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, an allegation the DRC rejects.

Military operations in the region remain fluid, with clashes leading to significant displacement and humanitarian concerns.

The M23 offensive in the mineral-rich eastern DRC is the latest to scar a region that has seen relentless conflict involving dozens of armed groups kill an estimated 6 million people over three decades.

“Life in the camp is a life of suffering and hunger,” said Christine Bwiza, one of the last people to leave camp Kanyaruchinya, which sits near the Rwandan border.

There, residents had cobbled together makeshift huts from sticks and tarpaulin. Hunger was rampant and poor hygiene regularly caused cholera outbreaks.

Many had mixed feelings about finally going home.

Some said they were relieved, others stressed they had no choice. All worried about their future.

On the side of the road, a convoy of overcrowded trucks picked up some of the last contingents of travelers.

“I was a displaced person who came with nothing. And today I’m going home just as I came,” said Denise Zaninga, seated at the back of a vehicle, adding that she had no idea where she was headed.  

“I am leaving but I don’t know where I’m going to live,” she said.

Others shared her anxiety.

“Our homes are destroyed, our children are lost because of the war, and we are returning home hungry,” said Bwiza.

For Aline Irafasha, “hunger will kill us wherever we go, but it’s better to suffer at home.”

The driver of the truck they had boarded said the M23 had paid for the vehicle and financed the trip.

Since M23 fighters and Rwandan troops have taken control of the city, the nearby front line has disappeared.

Surrounding territories are now accessible by road, bordered by abandoned military posts and charred armored vehicles.

Under pressure

The M23 has vowed to send displaced people back to where they came from, and their violent takeover of Goma meant people in the camp had little choice but to leave.

The overall population in Goma, a city of 1 million people, has nearly doubled in the past 30 years, swollen by victims fleeing violence.

At the camp, now a deserted, littered field, some said they had been pressured into leaving, but most preferred to go home before being forced to.

This sudden exodus sits well with locals whose farmlands were invaded and occupied for years.

“Here we used to have fields,” said Elizabeth Base Sembimbi, pointing to a plot of land in ruins in front of her plank house.

“But we had to stop harvesting because of the robberies,” she said, adding that she was looking forward to farming again.

On the side of the road, armed men, apparently from the Rwandan army, patrolled the street on foot.

One resident said that at nightfall, armed men had broken into people’s homes looking for weapons and forcing young people to carry food and water over long distances without paying them.

“People are starting to feel scared,” he said. “We can’t say anything, we keep our mouths shut and observe.”

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Farmers’ lawsuit targets ban on sharing seeds in Kenya

KIKUYU, Kenya — Tucked away in a lush, forested area of central Kenya’s Kikuyu town, the National Seed Bank stands as a crucial safeguard for the future of the country’s agriculture.  

Inside two chilly rooms of a government building, more than 50,000 seed varieties are cataloged and stored.

The bank was established in 1988 after the realization that some traditional varieties of seeds were being lost, an occurrence that is becoming more common with climate change. It aims to conserve seeds for research and reintroduction to farms.  

“We realize that some of the traditional varieties that we had abandoned then are actually more resilient to climate change, so when you introduce them, especially in marginal areas, those varieties outperform the improved varieties,” said Desterio Nyamongo, director of the Genetic Resources Research Institute that operates the bank, referring to hybrid seeds that must be bought every planting season.  

He said the some of bank’s seeds also were found to be more resistant to diseases and pests and were high-yielding. This gives hope to a country that relies heavily on rain-fed agriculture instead of irrigation, leaving it more vulnerable to climate shocks like drought. The sector contributes a third of Kenya’s GDP.  

Kenya is not alone facing food security pressures. According to a U.N Food and Agriculture and Organization report in 2023, over a billion people across Africa are unable to afford healthful diets, and the number of hungry people is increasing.  

But in Kenya, another complication has emerged. Farmers in recent months suffered losses in the millions of shillings (tens of thousands of dollars) after planting counterfeit seeds bought from private sellers.  

Kenyan officials have acknowledged that the seed sector is critical. During the country’s first international seed quality conference in August, the agriculture ministry’s permanent secretary, Paul Rono, said Africa has limited capacity to produce high-quality certified seeds that are subjected to quality standards.  

The head of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation, Stephen Muchiri, said the vigor of crops in Kenya has become low, and he believes that the main reason is a flawed seed breeding and propagation program.  

But some farmers say efforts to improve the seed system in Kenya have been limited by a 2012 law banning seed sharing, which is what millions of farmers did every planting season to cut their production cost.  

The government has said the law is meant to prevent the circulation of uncertified seeds and protects farmers, but it faces a court challenge from more than a dozen farmers across Kenya who say it’s expensive having to buy new seeds every planting season. 

The next hearing in the case is in March. Francis Ngiri is one of the farmers who filed the case. He runs an indigenous seed bank for the local community on his five-acre farm in the semi-arid Gilgil area located 120 kilometers from the capital, Nairobi.  

His work has become a learning ground for farmers who have experienced disappointing yields from hybrid seeds. “We have seen that indigenous seeds are more resilient and perform better in our area even when there is reduced rainfall,” he told The Associated Press.  

He passionately shares his knowledge on conserving the seeds using traditional methods such as covering them with wood ash — believed to repel weevils — or keeping them in earthen pots.  

He emphasized the use of locally available materials at no cost. Farmer Maximilla Onyura, who farms sorghum in the western county of Busia, said indigenous crops offer a food security solution.  

She isn’t part of the legal challenge but collaborates with Ngiri through a Kenyan organization called the Seed Savers Network. However, “instead of our government encouraging those offering solutions through indigenous crops, they are now cracking down on those sharing seeds at community level,” she said.  

Seed sharing in Kenya can bring two years in prison, a fine of up to 1 million Kenyan shillings ($7,700), or both. No farmer has been charged.  

The National Seed Bank occasionally distributes some of its collection to farmers at no cost in the hope that the varieties that had long adopted to local conditions will be more resilient.  

The director, Nyamongo, said farmers who cannot afford farm inputs like fertilizers required for hybrid seeds are better off planting the traditional varieties.  

“It would be wrong for farmers, especially farmers in marginal areas, to start thinking that using the indigenous seed is backwardness,” he said. “Far from it, because some of the indigenous varieties have adopted over time to the local conditions, and therefore they are more resilient.”  

Nyamongo did not comment on the farmers’ court challenge to the seed-sharing ban. 

 The president of the Dutch-based climate change adaptation nonprofit Global Center on Adaptation, Patrick V. Verkooijen, said governments can invest in community-based seed programs to preserve a diversity of indigenous varieties.  

“Indigenous crop varieties offer many benefits, particularly their genetic diversity, which helps farmers adapt to climate change, combat pests and diseases, and manage poor soil fertility. However, they also come with challenges, such as potentially lower yields or susceptibility to new pests and diseases,” he said.  

Kenyan proponents of indigenous seeds like Ngiri said lower yields and susceptibility to new pests and diseases only happen when a seed variety is taken from its native location.  

“The reason why they are indigenous is because they have adapted to the climatic conditions and the diseases found in the area they originally came from,” Ngiri said.

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US strikes stronghold of Islamic State affiliate in Somalia

WASHINGTON — U.S. warplanes took aim at the Islamic State affiliate in Somalia, hitting what officials described as high-ranking operatives in the terror group’s mountainous stronghold.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the precision strike Saturday on social media, describing the main target as a “Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited and led.”

“These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies,” Trump said. “The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians.”

A separate statement from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes targeted an area in Somalia’s Golis mountains, and “further degrades ISIS’s ability to plot and conduct terrorist attacks threatening US citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians.”

Neither Trump nor Hegseth named the IS planner, though U.S. officials said the strikes were carried out in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia.

General Adan Abdi Hashi, commander of the Puntland Devish Forces said the airstrikes targeted at least 10 locations of the Islamic State militants in the Cal-Miskaad area, which is part of the Golis mountains.

“The strikes targeted about 10 locations in the Cal-Miskaad areas, most of them caves, and we believe that many of the militants were killed,” said the general.

Residents in Qandala, a small town in Bari region of Puntland told VOA on the condition of anonymity because they feared for their lives, that they could see from the distance plumes of smoke and flames, and that they could hear at least seven huge explosions.

Officials from Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region thanked the U.S. on social media, calling the operation a success.

“The latest airstrike, carried out today, resulted in the elimination of several high-ranking #ISIS members,” according to the statement.

U.S. Africa Command, which oversees U.S, military efforts on the continent, said it, too, assessed multiple terror operatives had been killed.

The Islamic State, also known as IS or Daesh, has increasingly played a key role in the terror group’s operations in Africa and beyond.

Since 2022, Somalia has been home to al-Karrar, one of nine regional Islamic State offices established to help sustain the terror group’s capabilities. As a result, IS-Somalia has become both a key cog in the IS financial network, funneling money to affiliates in Afghanistan and elsewhere in Africa.

IS-Somalia has, at the same time, become more influential under the leadership of Abdulkadir Mumin, a former militant with the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, who is thought to now head IS’ directorate of provinces, overseeing the terror group’s affiliates in Africa.

Some U.S. officials worry Mumin has risen even higher, perhaps acting as the Islamic State’s top emir. Others disagree but there is consensus that Mumin is nonetheless a pivotal figure.

The U.S. previously targeted Mumin in May of last year.

Recent intelligence assessments have further warned IS-Somalia has more than doubled in size over the past year and may now boast up to as many as 1,600 fighters, bolstered by an influx of fighters from Ethiopia, Morocco, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania and Yemen.

Most of IS-Somalia’s manpower has been concentrated in Puntland, especially in the Golis Mountains, also known as the Cal-Miskaad mountains.

Saturday’s airstrike, the first against IS in Somalia so far this year, was carried out by fighter jets launched from the USS Harry S. Truman, currently in the Red Sea, according to defense officials who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss details of the operation.

It comes as Somali forces in Puntland continue a military offensive against ISIS militants hiding in Cal-Miskaad mountains. Puntland also thanked the United Arab Emirates which they say provided air support to the ongoing offensive.

The operations, which started in late December, drove militants from vast areas in the northeastern highlands of Somalia.

The militants, many of them foreigners, have claimed carrying out IED attacks against Puntland forces.

The fiercest clashes occurred late last week when the regional forces dislodged the militants from Turmasaale, a strategic location about 150 kilometers southeast of Bosaso.

The Somali government called Saturday’s airstrikes by the U.S. “a critical step in our shared fight against terrorism.”

“The Federal Government of Somalia welcomes the firm and decisive counterterrorism efforts led by the United States,” it said in a statement. “Together, we will continue to dismantle extremist networks … and build a future free from the scourge of terrorism.”

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