US Holds Out Hope for Partnership with Niger

Pentagon — The United States is not ruling out a continued military presence in Niger, despite a statement by the country’s ruling military junta that it was ending an agreement allowing for the presence of American forces engaged in counterterrorism missions.

U.S. defense officials said Monday the U.S. has yet to withdraw any of its approximately 1,000 military personnel from Niger and, along with officials from the White House and the State Department, said conversations with Nigerien officials are continuing.

“We remain in contact,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday, adding that Niger’s military junta has yet to share information on a possible deadline for U.S. forces to leave the country.

“We have different lines of communications at all levels of government with Niger and our government,” she said. “Again, we want to see our partnership continue if there is a pathway forward.”

At the State Department, deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said most of the talks, for now, have been centered through the U.S. Embassy.

“We continue to have our ambassador and our embassy team there, and we’re continuing to discuss with them [Nigerien officials],” he said.

“We believe our security partnerships in West Africa are mutually beneficial and they are intended [to] achieve, I should say, what we think to be shared goals of detecting, deterring and reducing terrorist violence,” Patel added.

A spokesperson for the ruling military junta announced Saturday that it had revoked, effective immediately, the status of forces agreement that allowed U.S. forces to operate in the country and cooperate with the Nigerien military against militants linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State terror group.

Colonel Amadou Abdramane said the decision was based, in part, on what he called a “condescending attitude” by U.S. officials in a high-level delegation that met with Nigerien officials in the capital of Niamey last week.

“Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism,” he said.

U.S. officials, in contrast, described last week’s talks, as “direct and frank,” providing U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee, Assistant Secretary of Defense Celeste Wallander and U.S. Africa Command’s General Michael Langley a chance to express Washington’s concerns while also hearing from Nigerien military and civilian officials.

“We were troubled on the path that Niger is on,” the Pentagon’s Singh told reporters Monday, admitting that some of the concerns centered on Niger’s “potential relationships with Russia and Iran.”

Iran hosted Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine in January and voiced a willingness to help Niger cope with international sanctions levied following the July 2023 coup.

But Niger’s military junta bristled at what it said were “misleading allegations” by U.S. officials that Niger had struck a secret deal to provide Tehran with uranium.

The junta also defended its relationship with Moscow, saying Russia partners with Niger to provide its military with equipment needed in the country’s fight against various terrorist groups.

U.S. officials, though, have previously expressed concerns about Russian defense officials making visits to Niger following the July coup.

And a top U.S. lawmaker Monday, suggested Russian influence may have played a role in the military junta’s announcement.

“Part of this is Russia’s attempt to insinuate themselves in the region dramatically and to cause us [the U.S.] problems,” said Senator Jack Reed, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Reed, a Democrat, told a virtual meeting of the Washington-based Defense Writers Group that Niger’s ruling junta has been sending the U.S. signals for months that it might seek to evict U.S. forces.

“We will have to counter that … by repositioning forces and capabilities so we can still have observation and influence in that area of the Sahel,” Reed said, noting that U.S. military officials have been considering other options.

U.S. military officials confirmed last August, following the coup, that a search for alternative sites was underway. But the Pentagon refused to say Monday how much progress had been made.

There are also concerns about getting other allies or partners in the region to agree to host a significant U.S. presence, and whether the location can provide the same kind of quick and easy access to terrorist targets, like the U.S. bases in Niger.

Most U.S. forces in Niger are currently located at Air Base 201 in the Nigerien city of Agadez, on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

The base, built about six years ago at a cost of $110 million, allowed the U.S. to conduct surveillance and counterterrorism missions with a fleet of U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones.

But the U.S. suspended all counterterrorism missions from the base following the July 2023 coup, saying personnel have been limited to conducting operations only for the purpose of protecting U.S. forces.

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Regional Analysts Concerned Over Niger’s Future Military Cooperation With US

abuja, nigeria — Analysts in West Africa are raising concerns about U.S. military operations across the Sahel after Niger ended military cooperation with the United States on Saturday. The U.S has hundreds of troops stationed at a drone base in northern Niger and has been helping with regional counterterrorism operations against jihadist groups.

Saturday’s announcement from Niger’s National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland came days after a U.S. delegation visited Niger, the second American team to visit since a group of military officers seized power last July.

It remains unclear what prompted the decision to cut military ties with Washington, but Council spokesman Colonel Abdou Ab’daramane said U.S. flights over Niger’s territory in recent weeks were illegal.

He also said the U.S. delegation had accused Niger of a secret deal to supply uranium to Iran and showed “condescending attitude against the government and people of Niger.”

Niger plays a pivotal role in the U.S counterterrorism operations in Africa’s Sahel region and hosts a major military air base in the city of Agadez.

Security expert Saheed Shehu of says there will be implications for regional security.

“Certainly we’ll see a spike of insecurity in those areas because the bad guys are also looking at the development,” Shehu said. “But I believe it’s not going to last because America is not going to sleep. America is going back to the drawing table to see how they can accommodate the complaints that were made by Niger.”

The U.S. has invested millions of dollars in its security operations in the region and has helped train Niger’s military — some of whom took part in the ousting of President Mohammed Bazoum last July.

The U.S. State Department Sunday said in a post on X that it was in touch with Niger’s military junta.

In October, U.S. authorities officially designated the military takeover in Niger as a coup and curbed security and development support to the nation.

Sam Amadi, a director at the School of Social and Political Thoughts, said Niger’s government could be looking elsewhere for a security alliance.

“It’s a loss because they’ve spent time, money by investing in that capability in Niger,” Amadi said. “I think they’ll lean towards Russia, but the question is nobody knows how effective it will be.”

Niger, like neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, turned to Russia for security support after last July’s coup.

In December, Niger ended its security partnership with the European Union, prompting France to withdraw its troops from the country.

Shehu said the various moves by the junta are a negotiation strategy.

“It will affect the general security in the area but at the same time I think the earlier agreement was more in favor of the United States,” Shehu said. “I do not see this as the end of Niger-U.S. relationship but they’re sending a signal that we need more of collaborations of equals going forward. What I see happening later is that the kind of cooperation has to be the kind that is mutually beneficial. The signal that Niger is sending is to tell America that ‘Look, we could go elsewhere.’”

The U.S. and France had a combined force of 2,500 troops in Niger before the military takeover.

It’s not clear when or if Niger will ask the U.S. will withdraw its troops as it did with France.

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Chad Expects Some 20 Candidates to Compete With Military Ruler in Elections

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Officials in Chad say close to 20 candidates will be challenging military ruler General Mahamat Idriss Deby in Chad’s May 6 presidential election. The final list of candidates for the polls expected to end three years of military rule in the central African state will be officially declared on March 24, according to Chad’s Constitutional Council.

Among the presidential hopefuls is Ndjelar Koumadji Mariam, president of the National Union for Alternation in Chad, the only female candidate.  

Mariam said she is committed to bringing social justice and ensuring parity between men and women as stated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. She spoke to VOA by telephone from Chad’s capital N’djamena on Monday.

Mariam said she intends to fight widespread corruption that has plunged a majority of Chad’s close to 17 million people into abject poverty. If Chad’s resources are equally distributed, she said, several million hungry women and children will have food, water and basic humanitarian needs.  

Mariam said corruption breeds hatred and is responsible for the anger, proliferation of armed groups and killings in Chad. 

Opposition leader and pro-democracy figure Success Masra, who was appointed transitional prime minister in January, said he is the candidate of The Transformers, a party he heads.  

Masra told Chad’s state TV that he agreed to be a candidate to mend hearts and reunite Chad’s citizens. 

Transitional president General Mahamat Idriss Deby is the nominee of Chad’s former ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement, or MPS party, which says he has the support of a coalition of over 200 opposition parties and about 1,000 civil society groups. 

Mbaiodji Ghislain, secretary general of the Alliance of Chad Civil Society Groups, said civil society groups believe that if given the opportunity, Deby will continue bringing back peace, stability, security, national concord and development, as he has done since he took power three years ago after the death of his father. 

But candidates Nasra Djimasngar, national secretary of A New Day party, and Bruce Mbaimon of the Movement of Chad Patriots for the Republic say Deby is manipulating civil society groups to stay in office. The two men accuse Deby of stoking political tensions and allowing what they call persistent social injustices to degenerate into violent conflicts in Chad. 

Chad’s opposition and civil society groups say the elections will be taking place in a very difficult political context following the killing of opposition leader Yaya Dillo, who was the president of the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders and Deby’s cousin. 

Dillo was killed during an exchange of fire with security forces on February 28, according to Chad’s government. But opposition and civil society groups say Dillo was eliminated because he was widely viewed as a strong challenger to Deby.  

The MPS party denies Deby is responsible for the several crises Chad is facing and says the transitional president will hand over power if beaten in the polls. 

But opposition candidates say voters should be vigilant before, during and after the polls. They say voters should be ready to defend their votes and report fraud or irregularities for legal action. 

The central African state’s constitutional council says campaigning for the first round of the presidential election begins April 14 and ends May 4.  

Chad’s electoral commission says May 6 presidential polls will mark a return to constitutional order and the end of Deby’s transitional period, now in its third year. 

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WHO: World Ignores Catastrophic Humanitarian Situation in Sudan

Geneva — April marks the one-year anniversary of the war in Sudan, sparked by a power struggle between two rival generals. Aid organizations say the war is having catastrophic consequences for the population of nearly 49 million people — more than half of whom need life-saving humanitarian assistance.

Since the conflict began April 15, 2023, tens of thousands of people have been killed and injured, millions have been forcibly uprooted from their homes and among the 18 million people suffering from acute hunger, 5 million are on the brink of famine, according to the World Food Program.

“And yet this catastrophic humanitarian situation in Sudan today hardly receives the international attention that it warrants,” said Dr. Richard Brennan, the regional emergency director for the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Cairo-based Brennan, who went on his first mission to an emergency country early last week since assuming his post just over a month ago, noted that he has visited Sudan multiple times over the past 25 years and seen the country through many crises — such as floods, displacement, conflict and political turmoil.

Nevertheless, Brennan said he was taken aback by “the devastation that decades of fragility, and nearly a year of brutal war, have wreaked on the country.”

“In fact, I was just reading the report from my 2014 mission which described a desperate situation with over 6.1 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

“It is extraordinary to reflect that today over 24.8 million people are in need — four times what we observed 10 years ago,” he said, adding that the health needs are massive.

“We estimate that almost 14,000 have been killed and 28,000 injured; there are ongoing outbreaks of cholera, measles, dengue fever, and malaria; around 3.4 million children are acutely malnourished; and 70 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas are non-functional or only partially functional,” he said.

Early last week, Jill Lawler, chief of field operations and emergency for UNICEF in Sudan, led a team of 12 UNICEF staff on a mission to Omdurman – in the greater Khartoum area. Omdurman is a region that has been under near-constant fire since the war broke out.

She described the intolerable conditions under which millions of children are forced to live and told journalists in Geneva Friday about the difficulties of providing medical care to children in need.

She said, “At Al Nau Hospital, one of the only hospitals in Khartoum with a functional and very crowded trauma ward, we met with two young people who had recent amputations — two young lives changed forever — and we learned from the hospital director that about 300 had limbs amputated in the hospital in just the past month alone.”

She said Al Nau and other hospitals she and her team visited were overcrowded, with two or three patients having to share the same bed. She said medicine and equipment were in short supply, health care workers were overworked, exhausted, and that most “have not been paid regular salaries in months.”

“During our visit, we learned that women and girls who had been raped in the first months of war are now delivering babies — some of whom have been abandoned to the care of hospital staff, who have built a nursery near the delivery ward,” she said.

UNICEF projects nearly 3.7 million children in Sudan will be acutely malnourished this year, including 730,000 who need lifesaving treatment. “The scale and magnitude of needs for children across the country are simply staggering,” said Lawler, noting that Sudan is the world’s largest displacement crisis, adding, “Some of the most vulnerable children are in the hardest-to-reach places.”

The World Health Organization reports escalating fighting is preventing desperately needed humanitarian aid from reaching millions of people across the country.

“We are especially concerned about the situation in Darfur states, where no direct humanitarian access has been possible for several months, and only limited aid is reaching people in these areas,” said Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, in a statement Friday.

Balkhy, who went on the mission to Sudan early last week with her colleague, Richard Brennan, said, “Most health facilities have been looted, damaged, or destroyed. In West Darfur, the local health system has essentially ground to a halt.”

“We have consistently shown that when we are provided with sufficient access and resources, we achieve good health outcomes.

“During my meetings with the deputy prime minister and minister of health, I received reassurances that all efforts will be made to facilitate the scale up of the health response throughout Sudan,” she said.

UNICEF is appealing to the warring parties to enable rapid, sustained, and unimpeded humanitarian access both across conflict lines within Sudan and across borders with Sudan’s neighboring countries.

“Chad has provided a crucial lifeline to communities in Darfur, and access through its border remains absolutely critical, along with access through South Sudan,” Lawler said, adding that providing a lifeline for millions of destitute people will require generous support from the international community.

“We need a massive mobilization of resources by the end of March so that humanitarian partners can get the supplies and capacity on the ground, in time, to limit the impending humanitarian catastrophe that we are seeing,” she said.

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US Military Operations Across the Sahel at Risk After Niger Ends Cooperation 

DAKAR, Senegal — The United States scrambled on Sunday to assess the future of its counterterrorism operations in the Sahel after Niger’s junta said it was ending its yearslong military cooperation with Washington following a visit by top U.S. officials.

The U.S. military has hundreds of troops stationed at a major airbase in northern Niger that deploys flights over the vast Sahel region — south of the Sahara Desert — where jihadi groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.

Top U.S. envoy Molly Phee returned to the capital, Niamey, this week to meet with senior government officials, accompanied by Marine Gen. Michael Langley, head of the U.S. military’s African Command. She had previously visited in December, while acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland traveled to the country in August.

The State Department said Sunday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that talks were frank and that it was in touch with the junta. It wasn’t clear whether the U.S. has any leeway left to negotiate a deal to stay in the country.

Niger had been seen as one of the last nations in the restive region that Western nations could partner with to beat back growing jihadi insurgencies. The U.S. and France had more than 2,500 military personnel in the region until recently, and together with other European countries had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance and training.

But that changed in July when mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president and months later asked French forces to leave.

The U.S. military still had some 650 personnel working in Niger in December, according to a White House report to Congress. The Niger base is used for both manned and unmanned surveillance operations. In the Sahel the U.S. also supports ground troops, including accompanying them on missions. However, such accompanied missions have been scaled back since U.S. troops were killed in a joint operation in Niger in 2017.

It’s unclear what prompted the junta’s decision to suspend military ties. On Saturday, the junta’s spokesperson, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, said U.S. flights over Niger’s territory in recent weeks were illegal. Meanwhile, Insa Garba Saidou, a local activist who assists Niger’s military rulers with their communications, criticized U.S. efforts to force the junta to pick between strategic partners.

“The American bases and civilian personnel cannot stay on Nigerien soil any longer,” he told The Associated Press.

After her trip in December, Phee, the top U.S. envoy, told reporters she had “good discussions” with junta leaders and called on them to set a timeline for elections in return for restoring military and aid ties. But she also said the U.S. had warned Niamey against forging closer ties with Russia.

Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which have experienced two coups each since 2020, have turned to Moscow for security support. After the coup in Niger, the military also turned to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for help.

Cameron Hudson, who served with the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department in Africa, said the incident shows the diminution of U.S. leverage in the region and that Niger was angered by Washington’s attempt to pressure the junta to steer clear of Russia. “This is ironic since one mantra of the Biden Administration has been that Africans are free to choose their partners,” he said.

The U.S. delegation visit coincided with the start of Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting and intense prayer for Muslims. Niger’s junta leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, refused to meet them. A U.S. press conference at the embassy in Niger was canceled.

The junta spokesperson, speaking on state television, said junta leaders met the U.S. delegation only out of courtesy and described their tone as condescending.

Aneliese Bernard, a former U.S. State Department official who specialized in African affairs and director of Strategic Stabilization Advisors, a risk advisory group, said the recent visit had failed and the U.S. needs to take a critical look at how it’s doing diplomacy not just in Niger but in the whole region.

“What’s going on in Niger and the Sahel cannot be looked at continuously in a vacuum as we always do,” she said. “The United States government tends to operate with blinders on. We can’t deny that our deteriorating relationships in other parts of the world: the Gulf, Israel and others, all have an influential impact on our bilateral relations in countries in West Africa.”

 

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Extermination Planned for Island Mice Breeding Out of Control, Eating Birds

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Mice accidentally introduced to a remote island near Antarctica 200 years ago are breeding out of control because of climate change, and they are eating seabirds and causing major harm in a special nature reserve with “unique biodiversity.”

Now conservationists are planning a mass extermination using helicopters and hundreds of tons of rodent poison, which needs to be dropped over every part of Marion Island’s 297 square kilometers (115 square miles) to ensure success.

If even one pregnant mouse survives, their prolific breeding ability means it may have all been for nothing.

The Mouse-Free Marion project — pest control on a grand scale — is seen as critical for the ecology of the uninhabited South African territory and the wider Southern Ocean. It would be the largest eradication of its kind if it succeeds.

The island is home to globally significant populations of nearly 30 bird species and a rare undisturbed habitat for wandering albatrosses — with their 10-foot wingspan — and many others.

An undisturbed habitat, at least, until stowaway house mice arrived on seal hunter ships in the early 1800s, introducing the island’s first mammal predators.

The past few decades have been the most significant for the damage the mice have caused, said Dr. Anton Wolfaardt, the Mouse-Free Marion project manager. He said their numbers have increased hugely, mainly due to rising temperatures from climate change, which has turned a cold, windswept island into a warmer, drier, more hospitable home.

“They are probably one of the most successful animals in the world. They’ve got to all sorts of places,” Wolfaardt said. But now on Marion Island, “their breeding season has been extended, and this has resulted in a massive increase in the densities of mice.”

Mice don’t need encouragement. They can reproduce from about 60 days old and females can have four or five litters a year, each with seven or eight babies.

Rough estimates indicate there are more than 1 million mice on Marion Island. They are feeding on invertebrates and, more and more, on seabirds — both chicks in their nests and adults.

A single mouse will feed on a bird several times its size.

Conservationists snapped a photo of one perched on the bloodied head of a wandering albatross chick.

The phenomenon of mice eating seabirds has been recorded on only a handful of the world’s islands.

The scale and frequency of mice preying on seabirds on Marion has risen alarmingly, Wolfaardt said, after the first reports of it in 2003. He said the birds have not developed the defense mechanisms to protect themselves against these unfamiliar predators and often sit there while mice nibble away at them. Sometimes, multiple mice swarm over a bird.

Conservationists estimate that if nothing is done, 19 seabird species will disappear from the island in 50 to 100 years, he said.

“This incredibly important island as a haven for seabirds has a very tenuous future because of the impacts of mice,” Wolfaardt said.

The eradication project is a single shot at success, with not even a whisker of room for error. Burgeoning mice and rat populations have been problematic for other islands. South Georgia, in the southern Atlantic, was declared rodent-free in 2018 after an eradication, but that was a multiyear project; the one on Marion could be the biggest single intervention.

Wolfaardt said four to six helicopters will likely be used to drop up to 550 tons of rodenticide bait across the island. Pilots will be given exact flight lines and Wolfaardt’s team will be able to track the drop using GPS mapping.

The bait has been designed to not affect the soil or the island’s water sources. It shouldn’t harm the seabirds, who feed out at sea, and won’t have negative impacts for the environment, Wolfaardt said. Some animals will be affected at an individual level, but those species will recover.

“There’s no perfect solution in these kinds of things,” he said. “There is nothing that just zaps mice and nothing else.”

The eradication project is a partnership between BirdLife South Africa and the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, which designated Marion Island as a special nature reserve with the highest level of environmental protection. It has a weather and research station but is otherwise uninhabited and dedicated to conservation.

The department said the eradication of mice was “essential if the unique biodiversity of the island is to be preserved.”

Wolfaardt said the amount of planning needed means a likely go-ahead date in 2027. The project also needs to raise about $25 million — some of which has been funded by the South African government — and get final regulatory approvals from authorities.

Scientists have tried to control the mice of Marion in the past.

They were already a pest for researchers in the 1940s, so five domestic cats were introduced. By the 1970s, there were around 2,000 feral cats on the island, killing half a million seabirds per year. The cats were eliminated by introducing a feline flu virus and hunting down any survivors.

Islands are critical to conservation efforts, but fragile. The Island Conservation organization says they are “extinction epicenters” and 75% of all species that have gone extinct lived on islands. About 95% of those were bird species.

“This really is an ecological restoration project,” Wolfaardt said. “It’s one of those rare conservation opportunities where you solve once and for all a conservation threat.”

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Niger Revokes Military Accord With US, Junta Spokesperson Says

Niamey, Niger — Niger’s ruling military junta has revoked a military accord that allows military personnel and civilian staff from the U.S. Department of Defense on its soil, junta spokesperson Colonel Amadou Abdramane said on Saturday. 

The decision, which takes effect immediately, follows a visit this week by U.S. officials led by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee and included General Michael Langley, commander of the U.S. Africa Command. 

Abdramane, speaking on television in the West African nation, said the U.S. delegation did not follow diplomatic protocol and that Niger was not informed about the composition of the delegation, the date of its arrival, or the agenda. 

He added that the discussions were around the current military transition in Niger, military cooperation between the two countries and Niger’s choice of partners in the fight against militants linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. 

Since seizing power in July of last year, the Niger junta, like the military rulers in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, have kicked out French and other European forces, and turned to Russia for support.  

“Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism,” Abdramane said.

“Also, the government of Niger forcefully denounces the condescending attitude accompanied by the threat of retaliation from the head of the American delegation towards the Nigerien government and people,” he added. 

The U.S. Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

There were about 1,100 U.S. troops in Niger as of last year, where the U.S. military operates out of two bases including a drone base known as Air Base 201, built near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million.  

Since 2018, the base has been used to target Islamic State militants and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, an al-Qaida affiliate, in the Sahel region. 

Abdramane said the status and presence of U.S. troops in Niger was illegal and violated constitutional and democratic rules because, according to the spokesperson, it was unilaterally imposed on the African nation in 2012. 

He said Niger was not aware of the number of U.S. civilian and military personnel on its soil or the amount of equipment deployed and, according to the agreement, the U.S. military had no obligation to respond to any request for help against militants. 

“In light of all the above, the government of Niger, revokes with immediate effect the agreement concerning the status of United States military personnel and civilian employees of the American Department of Defense on the territory of the Republic of Niger,” Abdramane said.  

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Indian Navy Frees Cargo Ship From Somali Pirates After Shootout

Washington — The Indian navy has freed the hijacked MV Ruen cargo ship in Somalia’s Puntland region Saturday after a 24-hour standoff and shootout, and it has detained 35 pirates, according to Puntland Ports Minister Ahmed Yasin Salah. The crew is reported to be unharmed.

The pirates — who allegedly hijacked the Maltese-flagged bulk cargo vessel on December 14 — exchanged heavy gunfire with the Indian navy Friday.

“The Indian navy successfully conducted the operation, which has been going on since last night. The navy captured 35 pirates and released the MV Ruen ship, and its crew are safe,” Salah said.

 

“We received the information regarding the gunfight Friday afternoon. Once we followed up with our reliable sources, we were told that the Indian navy engaged in a gunfight with the Somali pirates.”

 

In an interview with VOA Somali, Salah said the pirates on the Ruen had been sailing back and forth across the Somali coast for months, and that the Indians intercepted them Friday, as they approached another pirate-held ship the MV Abdullah.

 

It was not immediately clear if the Somali pirates were using the hijacked ship MV Ruen to take over the Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship, MV Abdullah.

 

The MV Abdullah was sailing from Mozambique’s capital Maputo to the United Arab Emirates with a cargo of 55,000 tons of coal when Somali pirates attacked and seized it on the evening of March 12, taking 23 of its crew members hostage.

 

Quoting an Indian navy spokesperson, Reuters reported Saturday that the Somali pirates opened fire on the Indian navy ship in international waters Friday.

According to the Reuters report, the navy had called on the pirates to surrender and release the vessel and any civilians they may be holding.

 

Until the Ruen was seized, there had been no successful hijacking of a merchant ship by Somali pirates since 2017.

 

At least 17 incidents of hijacking, attempted hijacking or suspicious approaches have been recorded by the Indian navy since December, Indian officials have said.

 

India deployed at least a dozen warships east of the Red Sea in January to provide security against pirates and has investigated more than 250 vessels.

 

Somalia had for years been blighted by piracy, with the peak being 2011, when the U.N. says more than 160 attacks were recorded off the Somali coast.

 

The incidents have declined drastically since then, largely because of the presence of American and allied navies in international waters.

 

A small number of Somalia’s maritime forces have been recently seen conducting patrols in the waters of the Indian Ocean close to Mogadishu, the country’s capital, as part of an ongoing measure by Mogadishu to rebuild its maritime security presence.

 

In tandem with that effort, Somalia’s executive and legislative branches approved last month a crucial 10-year defense and economic cooperation agreement with Turkey.

 

Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said under the agreement, Turkey will build, train and equip the Somali navy and help to remove “any fears of terrorism, piracy, illegal fishing, toxic dumping and any external violations or threats” to Somalia’s sea coast. Somalia has Africa’s longest coastline.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters. 

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Somali Pirates in Shootout With Indian Navy Ship

Washington — Authorities in Somalia’s Puntland region said Saturday that Somali pirates who hijacked the cargo ship MV Ruen engaged in a shootout with an Indian navy warship in international waters.

Puntland Ports Minister Ahmed Yasin Salah said the pirates — who allegedly hijacked the Maltese-flagged bulk cargo vessel on December 14 — exchanged gunfire with the Indian navy Friday.

“We received the information regarding the gunfight Friday afternoon,” Salah said. “Once we followed up with our reliable sources, we were told that the Indian navy engaged in a gunfight with the Somali pirates.”

In an interview with VOA Somali Service, Salah said that the pirates on the Ruen have been sailing back and forth across the Somali coast for months and that the Indians intercepted them Friday as they approached another pirate-held ship, the MV Abdullah.

It was not immediately clear if the Somali pirates were using the hijacked ship Ruen to take over the Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship Abdullah.

The Abdullah was sailing from Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, to the United Arab Emirates with a cargo of 55,000 tons of coal when Somali pirates attacked and seized it on the evening of March 12, taking 23 of its crew members hostage.

Quoting an Indian navy spokesperson, Reuters reported Saturday that the Somali pirates opened fire on the Indian navy ship in international waters on Friday.

According to the Reuters report, the navy had called on the pirates to surrender and release the vessel and any civilians they may be holding.

Salah said his administration could not provide details regarding casualties or if the Indian navy warship succeeded in forcing the pirates to surrender.

Until the Ruen was seized, there had been no successful hijacking of a merchant ship by Somali pirates since 2017.

At least 17 incidents of hijacking, attempted hijacking or suspicious approaches have been recorded by the Indian navy since December, Indian officials have said.

India deployed at least a dozen warships east of the Red Sea in January to provide security against pirates and has investigated more than 250 vessels.

Somalia had for years been blighted by piracy, with the peak being 2011, when more than 160 attacks were recorded off the Somali coast, the U.N. says.

The incidents have declined drastically since then, largely because of the presence of American and allied navies in international waters.

A small number of Somalia’s maritime forces have recently been seen conducting patrols in the waters of the Indian Ocean close to Mogadishu, the country’s capital, as part of an ongoing measure by Mogadishu to rebuild its maritime security presence.

In tandem with that effort, Somalia’s executive and legislative branches approved a crucial 10-year defense and economic cooperation agreement with Turkey last month.

Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said under the agreement, Turkey will build, train and equip the Somali navy and help to remove “any fears of terrorism, piracy, illegal fishing, toxic dumping and any external violations or threats” to Somalia’s sea coast.

Somalia has Africa’s longest coastline.

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Number of Chinese Workers in Africa Drops Substantially

Johannesburg, South Africa — The number of Chinese workers across Africa has hit its lowest level in more than a decade, new data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics show.

From a record high of 263,696 workers on the continent in 2015, only 88,371 were recorded in 2022, the most recent year on record.

The China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, which analyzed data from 2009 to 2022, attributed the drop in numbers partially to the pandemic as Chinese workers left during that period and the country only reopened in early 2023.

But the plummeting numbers are also due to a variety of other factors, experts said, including oil prices and the downscaling of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s global Belt and Road Initiative, which initially saw thousands of Chinese sent out across the continent to work on large infrastructure projects.

Uptick expected?

“We have no data for 2023, but anecdotally we hear that more postponed projects are resuming. Yet we are unlikely to see the high numbers of the past,” said Deborah Brautigam, director at the China Africa Research Initiative, when asked whether the numbers could have rebounded last year and might continue to do so.

Yunnan Chen, a researcher at ODI Global, a U.K.-based research group, was also bearish.

“It might be that some construction has restarted since 2022, but we know the number of overall Chinese-financed projects has been in decline for a number of years, and the last few years have put a damper on any new project deals. So I wouldn’t expect any dramatic increases in these numbers anytime soon,” she told VOA.

The five countries with the most Chinese workers in 2022 were Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While still leading in the number of workers, Algeria and Angola also saw the biggest drops.

Algeria had more than 91,000 Chinese workers in 2016 while Angola had a peak of 50,000. By 2022, only about 7,000 workers remained in each country.

Brautigam told VOA the huge drops “are explained by the price of oil. They’re both highly reliant on oil exports and they use this oil to pay for nearly all government spending.”

In Angola, after its civil war ended in 2002, the Chinese helped the country rebuild, with the Export-Import Bank of China pledging $2 billion in oil-backed loans. But then global oil prices fell and Angola become mired in debt.

The country’s president, Joao Lourenco, who was first elected in 2017, has sought to diversify the economy and reduce reliance on China, resulting in fewer Chinese projects and workers.

But more Chinese workers may soon be in Angola’s future. During a visit to Beijing on Friday, Lourenco and China’s Xi agreed to upgrade bilateral ties, which will allow for more trade and investment.

Bucking the trend

Not all countries in Africa have seen recent declines in Chinese workers, however, with the DRC, Egypt and Zimbabwe being the most notable outliers.

Egypt had more than 7,000 Chinese working in 2022, compared with around 2,000 pre-pandemic. The DRC had more than 8,000 in 2022, a rise from around 3,000 in 2012. Zimbabwe, meanwhile, has been stable with around 1,000 Chinese workers over the past four years.

“Zimbabwe is especially interesting as there is a big near-completion steel plant and other minerals processing going on,” said Lauren Johnston, an expert on China with the University of Sydney, noting China was becoming less dependent on African oil and was shifting toward green energy and minerals.

Zimbabwe has huge deposits of lithium, one of the critical minerals needed for the move to electric vehicles, and China has invested heavily in the industry there.

“There are large value-added mineral-processing facilities being constructed in Zimbabwe and also power projects which are needed for mining and mineral processing,” Brautigam noted.

The DRC is likewise rich in minerals, particularly cobalt, and in Egypt, the Chinese are building the government a whole new capital outside Cairo.

Local jobs boost?

China has often been criticized for failing to aid job creation in Africa or equip locals with new skills, despite its massive projects. While large numbers of local workers have indeed been employed, it’s often been in the most basic of roles, while more senior jobs have been reserved for Chinese.

“Generally, Chinese projects do hire local laborers,” said Chen.

“Usually at the beginning of projects there is a higher proportion of Chinese engineers and skilled labor, but over time this tends to shift, as more local laborers are hired,” she said, noting however that the majority are in unskilled roles.

Even as China sends fewer of its own people to Africa, hiring Africans for higher-paid, skilled jobs by Chinese companies may not happen immediately, said Brautigam.

“What they need to increase is hiring managers locally,” said Brautigam. “But this will take time and the development of Chinese language skills among local managers.”

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UN Says 5 Million at Risk of Starvation in Sudan

United Nations — The United Nations appealed Friday for Sudan’s battling factions to allow delivery of humanitarian relief to fend off looming catastrophic hunger.

About 5 million Sudanese could face calamitous food insecurity in coming months as a nearly yearlong war between rival generals continues to tear the country apart, according to a U.N. document seen Friday by AFP.

The war between army chief Abdel Fattah Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has since April last year killed tens of thousands, destroyed infrastructure and crippled the economy.

It also has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis and acute food shortages, with the country teetering on the brink of famine.

Noting that 18 million Sudanese are facing acute food insecurity — a record during harvest season — U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned in a letter to the Security Council that “almost 5 million people could slip into catastrophic food insecurity in some parts of the country in the coming months.”

He noted that nearly 730,000 Sudanese children, including more than 240,000 in Darfur, are thought to suffer from severe malnutrition.

“Aid organizations require safe, rapid, sustained and unimpeded access, including across conflict lines within Sudan,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric. “A massive mobilization of resources from the international community is also critical.”

The U.N.’s World Food Program has warned that the war risks “triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis.”

Jill Lawler, the emergency chief in Sudan for the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, said there were enough aid stocks in Port Sudan, but the problem was getting the aid from there to the people in need.

Lawler said that last week that she led the first U.N. mission to reach Khartoum state since war erupted 11 months ago.

They had seen firsthand that “the scale and magnitude of needs for children across the country are simply staggering,” she told reporters in Geneva via video link from New York.

The war “is pushing the country towards a famine” with hunger “the number one concern people expressed.”

Mandeep O’Brien, UNICEF representative in Sudan, said 14 million children needed humanitarian aid and 4 million were displaced.

There was only a “small window left to prevent mass loss of children’s lives and future,” she warned on X, formerly known as Twitter.

World Health Organization regional director Hanan Balkhy, who recently returned from Sudan, underlined the acute needs in Darfur, saying most health facilities had been looted, damaged or destroyed.

Griffiths, the U.N. aid chief, lamented that fighting continued to rage during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan despite a Security Council resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities.

“This is a moment of truth,” he wrote on X. “The parties must silence the guns, protect civilians and ensure humanitarian access.”

The U.N. on Friday called for more financial support for aid operations in Sudan.

U.N. spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told reporters in Geneva that the world body had appealed for $2.7 billion to provide aid this year but had received 5% of that amount so far.

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Kenyan Doctors Strike; Patients Left Unattended or Turned Away

NAIROBI, Kenya — Doctors at Kenya’s public hospitals began a nationwide strike Thursday, accusing the government of failing to implement a raft of promises from a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2017 after a 100-day strike that saw people dying from lack of care.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union said they went on strike to demand comprehensive medical cover for the doctors and because the government has yet to post 1,200 medical interns.

Davji Bhimji, secretary-general of KMPDU, said 4,000 doctors took part in the strike despite a labor court order asking the union to put the strike on hold to allow talks with the government. And Dennis Miskellah, deputy secretary general of the union, said they would disregard the court order the same way the government had disregarded three court orders to increase basic pay for doctors and reinstate suspended doctors.

Miskellah said medical interns make up 27% of the workforce in Kenya’s public hospitals, and their absence means more sick people are being turned away from hospitals. Some doctors, however, have remained on duty to ensure patients in the intensive care units don’t die.

In an interview with broadcaster Citizen TV, Miskellah said doctors were committing suicide out of work-related frustration, while others have had to fund-raise to get treated for sickness due to a lack of comprehensive health coverage.

The impact of the strike was felt across the country with many patients left unattended or being turned away from hospitals across the East African nation.

Pauline Wanjiru said she brought her 12-year-old son for treatment on his broken leg, which had started to produce a smell, but she was turned away from a hospital in Kakamega county in western Kenya.

In 2017, doctors at Kenya’s public hospitals held a 100-day strike — the longest ever held in the country — to demand better wages and for the government to restore the country’s dilapidated public-health facilities. They also demanded continuous training of and hiring of doctors to address a severe shortage of health professionals.

At the time, public doctors, who train for six years in university, earned a basic salary of $400 to $850 a month, similar to some police officers who train for just six months.

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Namibia to Begin HPV Vaccine Rollout in April

Windhoek, Namibia — A top Namibian health official tells VOA the southern Africa country is set to begin distribution of the HPV vaccine to adolescent girls in April as a preventative measure in the fight against cervical cancer.

Namibia has a population of about 1 million women ages 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer.

Each year, about 375 women in Namibia are diagnosed with the disease, and the fatality rate is over 50%.

The Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, known as HPV, has been proven to greatly lessen the chance of getting cervical cancer.

Ben Nangombe, executive director at Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services, says health workers will begin vaccinating about 183,000 girls between the ages of nine and 14 next month.

He says the ministry has been allocated $7 million to procure single dose vaccines for this purpose.

Mehafo Amunyela, who works at the #Be Free Youth Program in the capital’s Katutura Township, told VOA that vaccine hesitancy could be a hurdle to fully immunizing the target population. She said she hopes that through awareness campaigns, children and their families can be educated about the advantages of getting the vaccine.

“We saw the reaction of the public toward the COVID vaccine when it came out, but I think we need to be honest with ourselves and remember that the reason we don’t have illnesses like polio is because of vaccines, that they worked then, and they still do now,” she said.

The Cancer Association of Namibia says the vast distances between most towns and villages in Namibia could present another logistical challenge in the immunization program.

The association says to achieve the target of immunizing 183,000 girls, awareness campaigns should be undertaken in the different indigenous languages spoken in the country.

With the rollout of the HPV vaccine, Namibia is on the path to do its part in meeting the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 90% of girls worldwide by 2030, with the long-term goal of eliminating cervical cancer within the next century.

Although cervical cancer is preventable and curable, the disease claimed 350,000 lives worldwide in 2022 according to the WHO. 

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Negligence Escalates Hunger Crisis in Northwest Nigeria, Aid Group Says

Abuja, Nigeria — The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said this week that Nigeria’s northwest region is experiencing “catastrophic” levels of malnutrition and disease outbreaks as it copes with a decline in humanitarian support.

The aid group, known by its French initials MSF, said that while heavy conflict continues to affect both the northeast and northwest regions of Nigeria, the humanitarian needs of the northwest have yet to be met under the national response plan.

In a media statement, MSF said that the region has more than 500,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition and that 854 children admitted to its facilities last year died within 48 hours of their arrival.

MSF blamed the failure of authorities and donor partners to formally recognize the crisis in the northwest for delaying a much-needed response.

Abdullahi Mohammed Ali, the head of MSF’s Nigeria mission, said the aid group has been raising the alarm for a few years.

“But the region has never been included in the U.N. humanitarian response plan,” Ali said. “We’re deeply concerned given the seriousness of the humanitarian crisis in this region — a home to around 50 million people. The levels of malnutrition and outbreak of diseases are catastrophic in the context of persistent and relentless violence.”

Northwest Nigeria has been plagued by armed gangs of bandits who often kill, loot and take hostages. MSF said that last year alone, more than 2,000 people were killed in hundreds of reported attacks.

But humanitarian aid groups have largely focused their attention on the northeast, site of the long-running Boko Haram insurgency, where Nigerian forces are stepping up attacks against the Islamist militant groups.

Ali said the situation improved briefly in the northwest last year.

“We saw a little improvement in 2023, with a few actors mobilizing to provide support to vulnerable people,” he said, “but this is far from being enough, and medical aid is just a drop in the ocean.

“We would like to see a collective and concerted strategy by both the humanitarian community and the Nigerian government in order to scale up the humanitarian response plan,” Ali said.

MSF said it treated 170,000 children in the northwestern states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and Kano last year for severe acute malnutrition — a 14% rise compared with the previous year.

Nigeria’s humanitarian affairs ministry did not respond to calls for comment.

An official who did not want to be named said the investigation of the humanitarian affairs minister, Betta Edu, has affected planned responses to humanitarian emergencies. President Bola Tinubu suspended Edu in January over alleged misappropriation of public funds. On Wednesday, Nigeria’s parliament asked the president to hasten the suspended minister’s probe.

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Central Africa Says Economic Bloc Poorest, Integration Stagnant at 4%

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — The Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, marks its 30th anniversary this week but by some measures has little to celebrate. The bloc says member countries conduct most of their trade with outside countries and have made little attempt to break down economic barriers between them, leaving CEMAC the least developed and poorest economic bloc in Africa.

Officials say the Central African Economic and Monetary Community remains the least integrated economic bloc in Africa, despite its very strong economic and social potential.

CEMAC officials say member countries conduct more than 80 percent of their foreign trade with Europe, China and Russia – and only 4 percent with each other.

The CEMAC countries — Cameroon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Gabon and the Central African Republic — created the bloc in 1994 to promote the free movement of goods and persons across borders and promote regional integration. 

Sylvestre Michel Nkou is an economic adviser to the Congo government and CEMAC. He spoke during celebrations marking the economic bloc’s 30th anniversary in Yaounde Thursday.  

Nkou says CEMAC member states should emulate the Economic Community of West African States, in which civilians and merchants move from one country to the other without fear of police harassment, brutality or the confiscation of their goods. He says poverty will be reduced in central Africa and the economic bloc will cease to become the poorest on the continent when integration becomes a reality, not a political slogan.  

Nkou said CEMAC countries continue to erroneously believe that each state can develop on its own. He said CEMACs close to 70 million population constitute a large market which remains underused. 

Achingale Queen Anyifuet, an international relations scholar at Cameroon’s International Relations Institute, says insecurity, Boko Haram conflicts affecting Chad and Cameroon, political tensions and armed attacks in the CAR and the military juntas in Chad and Gabon have diverted the CEMAC leaders’ attention from economic development.  

“If you look at the rankings of ‘Ease to do Business’ countries in the world, the CEMAC region is far below,” saod Achingale. “Out of the 197 countries, Cameroon which is the first [among CEMAC states], is ranked 167, so there is a lot to do. We have to put in place programs that address the key roots of conflicts, we have to look at security, ensuring a stable environment which is very key to economic development. We need to promote peace, which is one of the objectives of CEMAC.”

Achingale said the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report quantitatively measures the ease of doing business in countries around the world, focusing on business regulations and property rights protections. 

Thierry Ndong, an expert in regional integration and analyst working with CEMAC, says the regional economic bloc has also failed to create a regional airline, build roads linking capitals of CEMAC member states and create a regional stock exchange.

Ndong says a program to develop an economic zone in the border towns of Kye-Ossi, in Cameroon, Bitam in Gabon and Ebebiyin in Equatorial Guinea is among failed projects initiated by CEMAC officials. He says he is surprised that CEMAC keeps money to organize seminars to evaluate nonexistent projects that were initiated 15 years ago as a sign of economic integration without consulting the people who are the main beneficiaries.

CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who is also the CEMAC president, is expected to address issues concerning the underdevelopment of the economic bloc in a March 16 message. 

 

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Political Spat Brews Over South African Opposition’s Appeal to US 

JOHANNESBURG    — South Africa’s president has slammed a request by the country’s main opposition party that the U.S. help monitor upcoming elections. The governing party says the request is misguided given issues with “the West’s” own polls.

A letter by South Africa’s leading opposition party, the Democratic Alliance or DA, to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other Western governments asking for help monitoring South Africa’s May 29 election, caused a political furor this week.

South Africa is well-regarded as having held free and fair polls in the past, but the DA’s letter asks for foreign help to “safeguard the integrity” of what it notes will be “the most crucial election” in 30 years of democracy.

A new poll this week showed the governing African National Congress getting just 39% of the vote, which would mean losing its majority for the first time, since 1994 in the first post-apartheid elections.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the DA’s letter was “’disingenuous” as the country has always employed international election observers and accused the opposition of trying to “mortgage” the country’s sovereignty to foreign powers.

South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor said, “To write such a letter, particularly to countries that don’t have observation and very low participation rates in their elections, is rather surprising and a demeaning attitude about South Africa.”

Meanwhile, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, an ANC spokesperson, said “the West’s” own elections have not always been without controversy.

“Despite our impeccable track record of running free and fair elections in South Africa, we’ve never sought to comment on the elections in the West, even when their own citizens question the credibility of their electoral processes,” she said.

While she did not mention the U.S. directly, some South Africans have pointed to disputes over American elections; for example in 2000 when George W. Bush beat Al Gore, and in 2020 when Donald Trump falsely declared the election had been stolen.

Asanda Ngoasheng, a political analyst, said the U.S. had its own political troubles.

“I think it’s ironic that the DA has sent the letter that it sent because in the United States former President Trump is still to this day challenging their last election,” she said.

Asked to respond to the backlash, DA shadow minister for international relations Emma Powell doubled down.

“It is clear however that the ANC’s ferocious response to the request made by opposition parties for observer support is because the ANC themselves have something to hide,” she said.

The U.S. has distanced itself from the controversy.

David S. Feldmann, mission spokesperson at U.S. Embassy Pretoria told VOA, “South Africa is a sovereign democracy that runs its own electoral processes. The Independent Electoral Commission has a longstanding and excellent reputation for conducting free and fair elections.”

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Zimbabwe Police Rescue 251 Children, Find Graves in Raid of Compound

Harare, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe police on Wednesday said they have arrested a man claiming to be a prophet of an apostolic sect at a shrine where believers stay in a compound, and authorities found 16 unregistered graves, including those of infants, and more than 250 children used as cheap labor.

In a statement, police spokesman Paul Nyathi said Ishmael Chokurongerwa, 56, a “self-styled” prophet, led a sect with more than 1,000 members at a farm about 34 kilometers [21 miles] northwest of the capital, Harare, where the children were staying alongside other believers.

The children “were being used to perform various physical activities for the benefit of the sect’s leadership,” he said. Of the 251 children, 246 had no birth certificates.

“Police established that all children of school-going age did not attend formal education and were subjected to abuse as cheap labor, doing manual work in the name of being taught life skills,” said Nyathi.

Police said among the graves they found were those of seven infants whose burials were not registered with authorities.

He said police officers raided the shrine on Tuesday. Chokurongerwa, who called himself the Prophet Ishmael, was arrested together with seven of his aides “for criminal activities which include abuse of minors.”

Nyathi said more details will be released “in due course as investigations unfold.”

A state-run tabloid, H-Metro, which accompanied police during the raid, showed police in riot gear arguing with female believers in white garments and head cloths who demanded the return of children who were put into a waiting police bus. It is not clear where police took the children and some women who accompanied then.

“Why are they taking our children? We are comfortable here. We don’t have a problem here,” shouted one of the women in a video posted on the newspaper’s account on X.

According to the newspaper, police officers armed with guns, tear smoke and trained dogs “staged a spectacular raid” on the shrine. Believers described the compound as “their promised land.”

One of Chokurongerwa’s aides gave an interview to the newspaper.

“Our belief is not from scriptures. We got it directly from God, who gave us rules on how we can enter heaven. God forbids formal education, because the lessons learned at such schools go against his dictates,” he said, adding that “God told us that it won’t rain if we send our children to school. Look at the drought out there, yet we are receiving rains here. We have the gift of a spiritual ear to hear God’s voice,” he said.

Apostolic groups that infuse traditional beliefs into a Pentecostal doctrine are popular in the deeply religious southern African country.

There has been little detailed research on Apostolic churches in Zimbabwe, but UNICEF studies estimate it is the largest religious denomination with around 2.5 million followers in a country of 15 million. Some of the groups adhere to a doctrine demanding that followers avoid formal education for their children, as well as medicines and medical care for members who must instead seek healing through their faith in prayer, holy water and anointed stones.

However, others have in recent years begun allowing their members to visit hospitals and enroll children in school following intense campaigns by the government and nongovernmental organizations.

In Kenya, police in April 2003 arrested a pastor, Paul Mackenzie, based in coastal Kenya who allegedly ordered congregants to starve to death in order to meet Jesus.

The country’s top prosecutor in January ordered that the pastor and over 90 people from the doomsday cult be charged with murder, cruelty, child torture and other crimes in the deaths of 429 people believed to be members of the church.

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Zimbabwe Pins Hope for Economy on Tobacco

Officials in Zimbabwe — Africa’s largest tobacco producer — hope this year’s crop will boost the country’s ailing economy. However, demand is not as high as it used to be, and calls are growing for Zimbabwe to move away from tobacco due to health concerns. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.

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Suspect Arrested in Fatal Attack on 3 Egyptian Coptic Monks in South Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A suspect has been arrested in the fatal stabbing attack on three Coptic Orthodox Church monks at a monastery in South Africa, police said Wednesday. 

The monks were killed Tuesday at the Saint Mark the Apostle and Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Cullinan, a town east of the capital, Pretoria. A fourth person was beaten with an iron rod before escaping and hiding in the monastery, police said. 

The suspect arrested was a 35-year-old man. Police did not provide his name or other details. He is to appear in court on Thursday. 

The motive for the attack was unclear. It appeared that nothing was stolen from the monastery, police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said in a statement. 

Police had said Tuesday that they were seeking multiple suspects. 

Deadly attacks on churches and other places of worship in South Africa are rare. 

The Coptic Orthodox Church has its headquarters in Egypt and dioceses in several countries. It is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world and has been the target of deadly attacks by Islamic militants in Egypt and elsewhere. 

The attacks in Egypt have subsided recently amid tighter security around Christian places of worship in the Muslim-majority country. 

The Coptic Orthodox Church named the monks killed in South Africa as Hegumen Takla el-Samuely, Yostos ava Markos and Mina ava Markos. All three were Egyptian nationals. 

The Coptic Orthodox Church of South Africa said that el-Samuely was the deputy of the local diocese. 

The Coptic church has its own pope, currently Pope Tawadros II. The South African diocese said he was aware of the attack and was “waiting to be informed of its causes.” 

The Egyptian ambassador to South Africa visited the monastery following the attack, the Coptic Orthodox Church of South Africa said. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said it was in communication with the embassy in South Africa. 

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