Almost two dozen people have died from cholera just outside South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, over the past two weeks, and hundreds have been hospitalized. VOA spoke to residents who have been affected and officials who are still searching for the source. Kate Bartlett reports from Hammanskraal, South Africa. Camera: Zaheer Cassim.
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Namibia’s president recently signed a projected $10 billion deal that calls for Namibia and the German company Hyphen Energy to produce “green hydrogen,” a clean energy source that advocates see as the fuel of the future.

Hyphen Energy last Friday concluded a multibillion-dollar agreement with the Namibian government to construct the project in the Tsau Khaeb National Park.

If a study finds the project to be feasible, Hyphen will build factories, pipelines and ports with the goal of producing 2 million tons of ammonia by 2030.

The ammonia, which could be used as fuel, would be produced using renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. The project would also produce oxygen and electricity for local consumption.

Speaking to the Voice of America, Namibia’s green hydrogen commissioner and economic adviser to the president, James Mnyupe, said Hyphen Energy has made agreements with companies from Germany, England, South Korea and Japan that will ensure buyers for the company’s main products.

The green hydrogen project, he said, will be vertically integrated.

“In other parts of the world you might get one player developing the port, another player developing the pipelines, another player developing the renewable energy and so on and so forth, whereas this project, we are envisioning to do all of that under one umbrella and that is what a vertically integrated project looks like,” he said.

Hyphen’s chief executive officer, Marco Raffinetti, said securing funding for green hydrogen projects is a massive undertaking but the investments are necessary if the world is to reduce the carbon output from fossil fuels which drive climate change.

Raffinetti said alternative sources of power, such as solar energy, were very expensive 20 years ago but have gradually become cheaper. He said green hydrogen might follow the same trajectory.

Namibian political commentators have raised red flags, however, regarding the speedy adoption of the project that is being spearheaded by the presidency. They question whether the project actually has national buy-in.

Speaking to VOA, political analyst Pendapala Hangala expressed some reservations about the project.

“This is a 45-year project, and a 40-year project, and … I don’t think it went through the right due process, and it is not clear what is going on because we are also looking at critical raw material…. It’s a comprehensive project, which is being fast tracked, that is my concern,” he said.

This green hydrogen project is touted as the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.

Other countries such as Morocco are also embarking on green hydrogen projects, and Namibian commentators question what competitive advantage Namibia would have with exports over countries in closer proximity to Europe, which is viewed as the main buyer.
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The Kenyan government says it has entered or plans to enter labor agreements with Canada, Germany, the United States, and certain Persian Gulf nations. The agreements aim to ease the path for Kenyans to work overseas. But advocates for workers’ rights say such agreements, especially with Gulf nations, leave workers vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Mohammed Yusuf reports.
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The Sudanese military has broken off negotiations with the country’s paramilitary forces over a new cease-fire agreement.

Agence France Presse quotes an anonymous Sudanese official who said the government walked away from the talks “because the rebels have never implemented a single one of the provisions of a short-term ceasefire,” including the withdrawal from hospitals and residential buildings, and accused the paramilitary forces of repeatedly violating the truce.

In a statement late Tuesday reported by Reuters the paramilitary forces said they were committed to the cease-fire “despite repeated violations” by the army.

Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, has been mired in violence and chaos since April 15, when fighting broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after relations between military leader General Abdel Fattah Burhan and RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Degalo ended in rancor.

The two generals are former allies who together orchestrated an October 2021 military coup that derailed a transition to civilian rule following the 2019 ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.

Tensions between the generals have been growing over disagreements about how the RSF should be integrated in the army and who should oversee that process. The restructuring of the military was part of an effort to restore the country to civilian rule and end the political crisis sparked by the 2021 military coup.

The two sides have been involved in continuous cease-fire talks overseen by the United States and Saudi Arabia in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, but both sides have repeatedly violated every agreement. Mediators said Monday the army and the RSF had agreed to extend a cease-fire that would allow humanitarian aid into Sudan for five days.

The war has killed hundreds of civilians and left more than 1.4 million others internally displaced, with about 350,000 escaping into neighboring countries. Khartoum has been forced to endure frequent power cuts, with many areas totally without running water, and most of the hospitals out of service.

Some information for this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse.
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Intense clashes could be heard in Sudan’s capital on Tuesday, residents said, after military factions battling for more than six weeks agreed to extend a cease-fire aimed at allowing aid to reach civilians.

The army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to extend a week-long cease-fire deal by five days just before it was due to expire late on Monday.

The truce was brokered and is being remotely monitored by Saudi Arabia and the United States, which say it has been violated by both sides but has still allowed for the delivery of aid to an estimated 2 million people.

“We hope this truce succeeds even if only to stop the war a little and that we can return to our normal lives. We have hope in the truce, and we don’t have other options,” said Hind Saber, a 53-year-old resident of Khartoum.

Hours before the cease-fire extension was signed, residents reported intensive fighting in all three of the adjoining cities that make up Sudan’s greater capital around the confluence of the Nile: Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri.

Clashes resumed late on Tuesday on the outskirts of the cities.

In a statement, the RSF accused the army of violating the cease-fire, saying that it defended itself against an attack and took over an army base.

The war has caused nearly 1.4 million people to flee their homes, including more than 350,000 who have crossed into neighboring countries.

Areas of the capital have been hit by widespread looting and frequent cuts to power and water supplies. Most hospitals have been put out of service.

The United Nations, some aid agencies, embassies and parts of Sudan’s central government have moved operations to Port Sudan, in Sudan’s Red Sea state, the main shipping hub, which has seen little unrest.

Curfew declared in Port Sudan 

On Tuesday, the state’s security committee said it had caught several “rebellious” sleeper cells that it said had sneaked in from outside and warned that they were planning activities.

“We thank the citizens of Red Sea state for their total cooperation and for immediately reporting the presence of these rebellious elements and their agents within their neighborhoods,” it said, without specifying their identity.

The committee later extended a state of emergency and declared a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. in Port Sudan.

The conflict erupted on April 15 over internationally backed plans for a transition to elections under a civilian government.

Leaders of the army and the RSF had held the top positions on Sudan’s ruling council since former leader Omar al-Bashir was toppled during a popular uprising in 2019.

They staged a coup in 2021 as they were due to hand leadership of the council to civilians, before falling out over the chain of command and restructuring of the RSF under the planned transition.

Army leader General Abdel-Fattah Burhan appeared in a video on Tuesday greeting troops. He said that the army had agreed to the cease-fire extension to ease citizens’ access to services.

“The army hasn’t used its full deadly power, but it will be forced to do so if the enemy does not obey or listen to the voice of reason,” he said in a statement.

Millions need humanitarian aid

The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said more than 13.6 million children in Sudan, a country of 49 million people, were in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian support.

The U.N. World Food Program, which expects up to 2.5 million people in Sudan to slip into hunger in coming months, said that 17,000 metric tons of food had been looted since the conflict began.

WFP said on Monday that it had begun to distribute food in parts of the capital for the first time since the outbreak of fighting.

U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk warned on Tuesday that fighting in Khartoum, which has spread to the war-weary Darfur region, could take on an “inter-ethnic dimension, which would be terrible.”
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Intercommunal violence and fighting between Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in West Darfur state have intensified in recent days, according to reports. Witnesses who escaped the city of Geneina say their hometown is being ripped apart. Henry Wilkins reports from Adre, Chad.
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Uganda on Tuesday condemned the Western response to the East African country’s new anti-LGBTQ law, considered one of the harshest in the world, and said sanctions threats from donors amounted to “blackmail.”

The law signed by President Yoweri Museveni carries the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” an offense that includes transmitting HIV through gay sex.  

Its enactment, announced on Monday, drew immediate rebukes from Western governments and puts in jeopardy some of the billions of dollars in foreign aid the country receives each year.  

U.S. President Joe Biden threatened aid cuts and other sanctions, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the government would consider visa restrictions against Ugandan officials.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the law would impact Uganda’s ties with international partners.

In the Ugandan government’s first detailed comments since Museveni signed the law, Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi rejected the condemnation.

“We do not consider homosexuality as a constitutional right. It is just a sexual deviation which we do not promote as Ugandans and Africans,” he told Reuters.  

“While we appreciate the support we get from partners, they must be reminded that we are a sovereign country and we do not legislate for the Western world. We legislate for our own people here in Uganda. So that kind of blackmail is not acceptable.”

Ugandan activists and lawyers filed a lawsuit on Monday against the law. They said it encourages discrimination and stigmatization and allege it was passed without meaningful public participation.  

In an interview, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk told Reuters he expects the courts to agree.

“I hope that the judiciary is going to look into it and I can tell you, if they look at human rights law, their own constitution, they will find it in violation of it,” Türk said, describing the law as “devastating.”

He did not elaborate on which aspect of the constitution had been violated.  

Asked about alleged breaches of international law, a spokesperson later added: “a whole range,” saying these included the rights to equality, non-discrimination and to life.

France’s TotalEnergies TTEF.PA, which is developing a $3.5 billion oil pipeline between Uganda and Tanzania, told Reuters on Tuesday that its CEO had expressed the company’s views on the bill to Museveni before he signed it.  

“Respect for others is a core value at TotalEnergies,” a spokesperson said.
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Health care providers in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp say an ongoing cholera outbreak is becoming a looming catastrophe. Doctors Without Borders has described the six-month-long cholera outbreak as the worst yet, amid an influx of new refugees from Somalia.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, popularly known as Doctors Without Borders, told a news conference Tuesday that a cholera outbreak the Dadaab camp is approaching epidemic proportions and that urgent attention in the areas of water and sanitation is needed. Dr. Nitya Udayraj is the medical coordinator. 

“The humanitarian conditions there are already at its limit. An outbreak like cholera, like measles, is literally the last stroke that will bring it to the breaking point,” said Dr. Nitya Udayraj, MSF’s medical coordinator. “Which is why today we want to bring focus that the humanitarian situation is already precarious. … We would like to bring attention that after six months, the outbreak is still continuing. It is not normal.”

The cholera outbreak hit East Africa’s largest refugee camp last November. At least five people have died since then. The Dadaab complex in Kenya’s northeastern region is home to over 300,000 refugees, most from neighboring Somalia.

Their numbers have exceeded capacity due to the extended drought in Somalia. At least 67,000 more refugees arrived in the camp last year, according to national data, putting pressure on already limited resources. Doctors Without Borders’ country director Hassan Maiyaki said sanitary conditions are dire.

“Today, according to humanitarian organizations working in the camps, almost half of the camp population has no access to functional latrines, leading to open defecation in and around the camp, which raises the risk of disease outbreaks.”

Kenya’s Ministry of Health conducted cholera vaccinations at the camp, but the doctors say curbing the outbreak remains elusive without sanitation and hygiene intervention.
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Dozens of protesters clashed with security forces in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, on Monday after lawmakers and supporters were blocked from visiting the home of a prominent opposition politician on trial for rape and libel. 

Police fired tear gas at demonstrators who built makeshift barricades along one of Dakar’s main highways and in one neighborhood set cars and a ministerial building on fire.  

It is the latest round in months of unrest triggered by President Macky Sall’s refusal to rule out running for a third term in office and by court cases involving a leading rival, Ousmane Sonko, who denies wrongdoing and says the charges against him are aimed at ruling him out of presidential elections next February. 

Police diverted Sonko to his house on Sunday after a caravan of vehicles including him and some supporters had planned to enter Dakar ahead of a court judgment in the rape trial expected on June 1. 

Opposition MP Ramatoulaye Bodian said politicians and mayors had planned to visit Sonko at home on Monday but were prevented by police who fired tear gas at them. Reuters could not immediately verify that claim.  

Senegal’s interior minister said Sunday’s caravan had not sought permission and was stopped for security reasons. 

“Sonko can’t leave his house. … No one can go see him, but why? Where is this democracy?” said El Malick Ndiaye, a spokesman for Sonko’s Pastef Party.  

The police and Sall’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.  

Senegal is seen as one of West Africa’s strongest democracies and has a two-term limit for presidents. But critics of Sall worry that he will use a change in the constitution in 2016 as an excuse to reset his mandate and run again, as other long-standing rulers in the region have done. 

Sonko has strong support among young people, but his degrading comments last week about a woman who accused him of rape in a massage parlor in 2021 sparked backlash from Senegalese women’s groups and dozens of well-known figures.  

Last week, a prosecutor in the trial requested a 10-year prison sentence. A guilty verdict could rule Sonko out of the election.  
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Bola Tinubu became Nigeria’s president Monday during a period of unprecedented challenges for Africa’s most populous country, leaving some citizens hopeful for a better life and others skeptical that his government would perform better than the one he succeeded.

Thousands of Nigerians and several heads of government attended the swearing-in ceremony for the 71-year-old Tinubu in the country’s capital, Abuja. He succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari to lead a country that by 2050 is forecast to become the third most populous nation in the world, tied with the United States after India and China.

Tinubu — the former governor of Lagos, which is Nigeria’s economic hub — has promised to build on Buhari’s efforts to deliver democratic dividends to citizens in a country where deadly security crises, widespread poverty and hunger have left many frustrated and angry. And with his election still being contested in court by opposition parties and among many young Nigerians, Tinubu has also pledged to reunite the country.

In Photos: Bola Tinubu Sworn In as Nigeria’s President 

In his first comments as president, Tinubu, also from Buhari’s party, declared that “hope is back for Nigeria” and said he would work beyond improving the economic and security conditions to unite a deeply divided nation and ensure fairness and justice for aggrieved groups.

“We have endured hardship that would have other societies crumble,” said Tinubu. “Our mission is to improve our ways of life in a manner that nurtures our humanity, encourages compassion towards one another and duly rewards our collective efforts.”

Symbolic of a transition of power and loyalty to the new president, Gen. Lucky Irabor, Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, presented old national and defense flags of Nigeria to Buhari and received new ones from Tinubu, who is also the Chief of the Armed Forces.

Following the national elections in February, newly elected governors also took their oath of office in many Nigerian states Monday.

At the inauguration venue, neither of the two main opposition candidates challenging Tinubu’s election in court was present and many Nigerians tweeted in protest to Tinubu’s inauguration. The outcome of the court challenge is due in about three weeks. If the opposition challenges are upheld, it would be the first time a presidential election would be nullified by the court in Nigeria’s history.

Tinubu’s manifesto of “renewed hope” prioritizes the creation of sufficient jobs and ramping up of local production of goods, investing in agriculture and public infrastructure, providing economic opportunities for the poorest and most vulnerable as well as creating better national security architecture to tackle all forms of insecurity.

However, Tinubu’s ambitious plans could be threatened in his first 100 days in office by a mountain of challenges, from insecurity to a fiscal crisis, poverty and deepening public discontent with the state, said Mucahid Durmaz, senior West Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

In Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, locals identified economic hardship and insecurity as the biggest challenges they struggled with during Buhari’s eight-year rule. “People have really suffered [during] this period. People have been dying because of a lack of money, and I pray and hope we should not experience this kind of thing again under the new president,” said Princess Taiwo, a fruit seller.

Long before Buhari came to power in 2015, Nigeria’s development has for many years slowed under the weight of poor governance and endemic corruption, making it difficult for citizens to benefit from the country’s high earnings as Africa’s top oil producer.

Though he has whittled down the power of Islamic extremists in the northeast and has built key infrastructure with the aid of foreign loans, many believe the quality of life and standard of living has reduced under Buhari. They cite widening insecurity in other parts of the country, growing poverty as well as an economy struggling with record unemployment, inflation at an 18-year high of 22.2%, and rising debt.

“When you combine the lack of opportunities in an environment that is disabling with a strong youth population that is frustrated, that is a ticking time bomb and that is the story of Nigeria over the past 50 years and Buhari has made it worse,” said development expert Kolade.

Coming from the ruling All Progressives Congress, which has been dogged with allegations of corruption, Tinubu’s emergence as Nigeria’s president-elect has also drawn concerns about how transparent he would be in office.

Although he has often talked about assembling the best hands to lead Nigeria, the nation’s problem has never been about the quality of public officials but about accountability, said Leena Koni Hoffmann-Atar, associate fellow in the Africa program at the Chatham House think tank.

“What we underestimate is that for state institutions to be strengthened, beyond the character and competence of the individuals, you have to have processes of accountability. And it remains to be seen whether accountability in state institutions will be strengthened under his administration,” said Hoffmann-Atar.

Tinubu must also act quickly and decisively to tackle Nigeria’s security crises with the country already in a critical situation, analysts said.

“There is already a very substantial loss of confidence in the government as a protector of citizens,” said Nnamdi Obasi, senior adviser for Nigeria at the International Crisis Group. “If the new government fails to act very decisively, we would have more people seeking their own self-help and protection.”

Among those now contemplating self-protection are villagers in north central Plateau state’s Mangu district where gunmen killed more than 100 people in a late-night attack earlier in May. Yaputat Pokyes, one of the survivors, said all that they want from the incoming president is to help them stay alive.
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Zimbabwe officials hope vaccinations will tame a cholera outbreak as citizens continue to drink unsafe water. As Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, authorities are urging people to practice good hygiene to contain the waterborne disease. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe    
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The Mogadishu Book Fair, an annual literary event that was launched in 2015, took place last week after a three-year break because of the COVID pandemic. The fair, meant to promote reading and Somali culture and heritage by bringing together literary creatives and young people, was held at the National Theatre of Somalia. Mohamed Sheikh Nor has more from Mogadishu.
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