In March 2022, Daniele Darlan, then-president of the Central African Republic’s Constitutional Court, faced intense pressure to modify her country’s constitution to allow the president to run for a third term in office.

The pressure came from local politicians and Russian diplomats, but she was unwavering in her belief that the constitution could not be undermined.

“The constitution is the fundamental law. It’s the text on which all other laws and regulations are based,” she told VOA, speaking in French. “If you don’t respect the constitution, if you violate it, it sets off a chain reaction of violations. It means that you don’t have to respect any law or any rule.”

In October 2022 she was removed from her position, clearing the way for President Faustin-Archange Touadéra to remain in power.

International reaction was immediate.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, “judicial independence is a central tenet of democracy,” at the time of her removal. “We call on the Central African authorities to ensure the safety and independence of the Constitutional Court.”

The court “must be free from interference and political influence from inside and outside,” said Yao Agbetse, a U.N. independent expert on the human rights situation in the country.

Darlan said she does not regret her stand even though it cost her dearly.

“As a constitutional judge and president of the Constitutional Court I am a guardian of the constitution,” she told VOA in a one-on-one interview at the State Department. “At that moment, I had to make sure that the constitution would be respected. In this sense I only did my job.”

Nicknamed the “Woman of Iron,” she was one of the recipients of the 2023 International Women of Courage Award presented by the State Department this month.

The Central African Republic has joined a controversial security agreement with the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-controlled paramilitary mercenary company that provides security to the country’s president and has become deeply enmeshed in the nation’s economy.

Darlan said while people initially had high hopes for the Russian fighters, those hopes have since been dashed.

“The impact, unfortunately, has not been positive,” she said. “If at first the population was happy because Wagner was combatting certain armed groups, afterward that was no longer the case.”

Human rights advocates accuse Wagner of human rights violations in the country.

“Wagner has committed many abuses against the population and against the armed forces of the Central African Republic. So, little by little, there has been a rejection. At the beginning they were seen as saviors, but now the population has begun to realize they were not what they expected and are demanding they leave,” Darlan said.

And it’s not just the Central African Republic that is facing threats to the rule of law. Across Africa there have been instances of presidents amending the constitutions to stay in power and soldiers grabbing power at the point of a gun.

As someone who has dedicated her life to the rule of law, Darlan said she is troubled by this trend. She says presidents who cling to power do so out of fear.

“Once you run a country poorly. Once you mismanage the public funds, when you favor your friends and family, you are fearful of leaving power because you are fearful that you won’t be protected,” she said.

She said she hopes more African leaders will follow the examples of presidents who willing give up power and enjoy a quiet retirement.

“I think the heads of state who lead with good governance do not want to stay in power because they know when they leave, they’ll be safe,” she said. “There won’t be a judicial pursuit, they don’t have illicit funds. They are at ease. And they are loved by their population.”
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Supporters of Nigeria’s ruling party are calling on the Department of State Services, often referred to as Nigeria’s secret police, to name the politicians the agency says are plotting to set up an interim government to prevent the handover of power to president-elect Bola Tinubu.

Opposition parties continue to reject the outcome of the February presidential election in which Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared the winner.

Felix Muoka, national publicity secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress, told VOA Thursday that the APC has yet to officially react to reports of a threat to the nation’s democracy.

The secret police, in a statement late Wednesday, said some Nigerian politicians were plotting to institute an interim government ahead of May 29 when President Muhammadu Buhari is due to hand over power to president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The Department of State Services said the politicians are trying to “sponsor endless violent mass protests in major cities to warrant a declaration of State of Emergency and obtain frivolous court injunctions to forestall the inauguration of new executive administrations.”

The DSS did not name politicians involved in the interim government plot but pledged to take legal measures against them.

The declaration of Tinubu as president-elect last month was rejected by the opposition People’s Democratic Party and Labour Party.

Both parties have challenged the outcome in court and have been speaking to local television stations, calling Tinubu’s election illegal.

Muoka voiced support for the DSS.

“There’s been quite a lot of incendiary statements made by leaders of the opposition, in particular, leaders of the Labour Party,” Muoka said. “I think it is absolutely wrong and unpatriotic and in fact almost teetering on the edge of treasonable felony to instigate civil disobedience that may bring the country into severe crisis.”

Muoka added that the DSS is within its statutory authority to make arrests if it decides threats are sufficient.

“I am certain that the DSS will do everything within its authority to keep the peace in Nigeria,” he said.

Observers say the February elections lacked transparency. There were numerous reports of violence, voter intimidation and technical problems that caused delays.

But the DSS said in its statement the election was peaceful and that it is the alleged plot by politicians that could plunge Nigeria into crisis.

A civil society group, the Free Nigeria Movement, has been holding daily demonstrations in the capital to pressure the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, and Nigerian authorities to review the February and March elections.

Tochukwu Ezeoke is a Labour Party presidential campaign member who took part in the protest. He said the protests are not politically motivated and that the DSS is applying a double standard.

“We’re a group of Nigerians who have come together and are demanding that the right things be done,” Ezeoke said. “To be honest with you I’d say it smacks of hypocrisy that when something is coming from the ruling party they all feign ignorance. But on the other side when the citizens march the streets, then we get strokes. We are law-abiding citizens, if they want to arrest us, so be it.”

Paul James, elections program officer at YIAGA Africa, a nonprofit promoting democracy, said the timing of the DSS statement is suspicious. He said people are demanding what they said didn’t represent their wishes and aspirations and is worried about the timing of the DSS statement.

“To the best that I know they have not constituted any nuisance,” he said about protesters.

Last week, the ruling party’s presidential campaign spokesman and labor minister Festus Keyamo filed a complaint with the DSS about the opposition party’s commentaries on local television stations.

The petition came after the Labour Party’s vice presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti-Ahmed, told a station that Tinubu’s election was a sham and said he must not be sworn in.
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Officials in Malawi say hope has all but disappeared for finding some 500 people who are still missing two weeks after Cyclone Freddy hit the country. Disaster management officials said Wednesday that the country will now focus on rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by the cyclone.

Charles Kalemba, commissioner for the Department of Disaster Management Affairs, told reporters that the search and rescue team has ended operations in some districts, including Chiradzulu, where the government used excavators to sift through the muddy rubble.

However, Kalemba said the search team comprising police and military is still working in two other mudslide-hit districts, Phalombe and Mulanje.

“At this point … the work that they have done, even using the sniffing dogs, the chances of them being found are very slim,” Kalemba said. “But we have a process that would be followed where we would declare the missing [people] to have been passed on.”

The storm killed at least 676 people and displaced more than 650,000 others in southern Malawi. The cyclone, which also hit Mozambique and Madagascar, destroyed many bridges and roads in Malawi, making many areas only reachable by boats and aircraft.

Kalemba said the country has started working on road reconstruction, using military engineers from Malawi and Tanzania.

Major General Saiford Kalisha, chief of military operations and training for the Malawi defense force, told reporters that areas that are cut off are expected to be accessible by road in about four weeks.

The cyclone has also raised fears of an imminent food shortage in affected areas.

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs said about 2.3 million people in southern Malawi have lost their crops and livestock.

Speaking during a televised prayer organized by the Evangelical Association of Malawi on Wednesday, President Lazarus Chakwera said Malawians should not lose hope but instead turn to God.

“Because there can be no hope if you know that there is no one to call up and too many of us are losing it because our hearts are failing us, because of fear,” Chakwera said. “But we need to understand that there is a higher power who loves each one of us and loves this nation and who gives hope where there seems to be no hope at all.”

In the meantime, the Malawi government has made significant changes to its 2023-2024 national budget to deal with the cyclone’s devastation. For instance, the government has allocated money for the purchase of two aircraft to help in search and rescue operations in time of disasters.
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As the world marks International Day of Zero Waste on Thursday, South Africa is taking steps to ensure that those collecting recyclables from homes and rubbish dumps register so they will be eligible for benefits such as higher payments for the items they collect. Authorities say this is necessary because the work they do contributes to the economy and helps fight against climate change. Vicky Stark reports for VOA from Cape Town, South Africa.
Camera: Shadley Lombard 
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On the eve of her meeting with Africa’s only female head of state, Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that having more women in power is a key ingredient for a healthy democracy.

Her meeting comes as the White House hosts its second-ever Summit for Democracy in Washington.

Harris said that in a vibrant democracy, women winning positions of power should be a common occurrence, not a rare and newsworthy one, as her ascension was.

As she prepared to meet Thursday with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, she spoke Wednesday with female entrepreneurs and leaders in Ghana’s capital, and announced more than  $1 billion in private-sector-led funding to advance women’s economic participation in Africa.

Afterward, in response to a question from VOA, Harris said women’s leadership is fundamental to a healthy democracy, and that it’s a topic she often raises in high-level meetings.

“In every bilateral conversation I have with almost any world leader, that is a topic that we raise because we do believe it is in the best interest of prosperity and security for the globe,” she said.

And, she says, it’s not about pushing women into power — in a healthy democracy, more citizens will feel empowered, and more women will gravitate toward higher office.

“When it comes specifically to this continent and the correlation between that and women’s empowerment, there’s no question when you have transparency in systems, when you have accountability in systems, when you create a system where rule of law is important, equal rights are defended and protected, you will see greater empowerment of all people including women — especially if they have been behind or you see extreme disparities,” she said. “So, there’s a correlation there, and we’re going to continue to work on it knowing that they’re interconnected.”

That’s one of the aims of the largely virtual summit in Washington, which is co-hosted by Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia.

In  Zambia, the Carter Center, founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, will host a summit-related program this week. David Carroll is director of the democracy program there, and told VOA that inclusivity is key.

“Healthy democracies are ones that are inclusive,” he told VOA on Zoom. “They are ones that have transparency, that respect core fundamental freedoms and rights. And hopefully, they’re also showing that they’re able to deliver for their people in ways that really meet the needs of their populations.”

Carroll added, “Another central element of the problem is democracies need to be respectful of core rights. They need to be inclusive as possible. They need to ensure that broad respect, but they also need to deliver for their populations.”

That is an uphill battle, especially amid what President Joe Biden has described as a global tug-of-war between democracies and autocracies in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And data recently released by civil society group CIVICUS shows that 43 of the 120 nations invited to the summit “severely and routinely” restrict civic rights. According to their data, six countries have seen backsliding this year, including Ghana, the United Kingdom and Greece.

“In too many countries that have been invited to the Summit for Democracy, governments are stifling civil society and going to extreme lengths to silence their critics,” said Marianna Belalba Barreto, civic space research lead at CIVICUS.

“Without freedom of speech and the right to peacefully protest, democracy cannot function effectively, as people lose their most important tools to hold governments accountable and promote change.”
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The representative of the U.N. refugee agency in Mozambique said refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo are making an already complicated humanitarian crisis in northern Mozambique even worse.

Samuel Chakwera told VOA in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that the agency now needs additional resources to cater to the arriving asylum seekers, on top of already settled refugees and Mozambique’s own internally displaced persons.

“They are coming from Kivu north and Kivu south which is still in conflict as we speak. So, their situation is far from the best solution,” Chakwera said. “We have others integrated, we have quite a few in Maputo, in Beira and Tete.”

Violent clashes between non-state armed groups and government forces periodically drive hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC.

In February alone, according to aid agencies, nearly 300,000 people fled homes across the Rutshuru and Masisi territories in the DRC’s North Kivu province.

Now, small numbers of these people have entered Mozambique’s troubled northern regions where Islamist-linked insurgents are fighting with government troops in oil-rich Cabo Delgado province.

According to the U.N official, Mozambique hosts close to 30,000 refugees and asylum seekers, of which around 9,500 reside in Maratane settlement camp in Nampula province, while the remaining 19,000 reside in urban areas with host families.

The U.N. refugee agency says it works in full coordination with the Mozambican government, responding to lifesaving needs and advancing protection and solutions for forcibly displaced persons.

Chakwera said the increasing number of temporary refugees and asylum seekers from the DRC has strained Mozambique’s resources.

“So we are appealing for more funding from our donors to provide for things like shelter,” Chakwera said. “It’s quite a thing especially given the fact that we need resilient shelter because of the weather conditions. So that is the biggest thing that we are requesting from international partners for support.”

As Mozambique’s low-lying coast is prone to climate-induced disasters, the U.N. also provides emergency assistance in the wake of powerful cyclones that periodically ravage the region.

Powerful Cyclone Freddy struck Mozambique twice in February and in March, leaving behind a trail of damage, killing dozens of people and displacing 250,000 others in the central and northern parts of Mozambique.
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The U.N. humanitarian agency says Malawi needs immediate help to deal with diseases spreading in displacement camps for Cyclone Freddy survivors. The Malawi health minister told reporters Tuesday that the government is beefing up its medical staff but a local newspaper says the country needs more money to adequately deal with healthcare needs.

Malawi has over 500 displacement camps for people affected by Cyclone Freddy, which also hit Mozambique and Madagascar.

In its Tuesday Flash Update, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, says heath issues are rising in the camps due to a lack of clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. 

It says diseases such as cholera, scabies, and acute respiratory infections have been reported in some camps.

Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda is minister of health in Malawi.

She told a press conference that the main challenge has been a shortage of medical workers.

 

“So, we are beefing up our staff levels as well. We have been recruiting. I think over the past two weeks we have recruited over 300 health workers in the southern region just to beef up our health services in the health sector,” said Chiponda.

However, a local newspaper reported Tuesday that Malawi needs about $3 million to address health needs created by the devastating cyclone.

The World Health Organization says the unusually long-running cyclone destroyed more than 300 health facilities in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique, leaving many communities without sufficient access to health services.  

In Malawi and Mozambique, the cyclone hit amid already-exisitng cholera outbreaks.

It says additionally, malaria cases have been reported in multiple camps, requiring medical attention and the provision of mosquito nets to prevent further spread of the disease.

Maziko Matemba is the community health ambassador in Malawi.

He told VOA that outbreaks of diseases in the camps were expected.

“And already Blantyre and those sites already had cholera. So, this would just be an increase to where we came from,” said Matemba. “But also, another assessment which we have done, you know, people are coming from different places to support people who are trapped. What would happen is that those people can also migrate several diseases; cholera, COVID.”

Matemba says that for people displaced from their homes, mental health is also a challenge.

“Before parliament signs off, or of all the requests that are happening in parliament, health has to be considered as one of the areas apart from infrastructure reconstruction because we are talking of mental health; it’s a big issue in those areas as well,” said Matemba.

In the meantime, several humanitarian organizations are supporting Malawi to address its health concerns.

The WHO and Doctors Without Borders have sent medical workers to hard-to-reach areas to assist those trapped because of roads that remain cut off.

 
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The U.S. ambassador to Somalia said the Somali government’s military operations against al-Shabab have cost the militants one third of their territory. 

“Somali-led offensives have restored Somalia’s sovereignty to 1/3 of the territory formerly misruled by al-Shabaab,” Larry André told VOA Somali in an email. “Ending al-Shabab’s oppression is one step further toward Somalia’s full revival.”  

Since January, the United States donated weapons to the Somali national forces to support operations against al-Shabab. The U.S. also trains an elite Somali army unit known as Danab, which means “lightning” and has been leading the offensive against al-Shabab.

The Somali government this week reported that the military operations have inflicted heavy losses on the militant group during the past six months.    

In a statement on March 25, Ministry of Information said that 3,000 al-Shabab militants were killed and 3,700 more were injured in the first phase of military operations between August of last year and January. The government also said 70 towns and villages have been liberated from al-Shabab. 

Meanwhile, the militant group has claimed that the first phase of military operations by the Somali government and local fighters has failed.     

In an interview with al-Shabab-affiliated radio, the militant group’s spokesman, Ali Mohamoud Rage, who is also known as Ali Dhere, accused the U.S. of mobilizing forces against the group.    

He said the original plan was to eliminate al-Shabab within six months.    

“The first phase of the operation concocted by the infidels has turned futile,” he said.     

Contacted by VOA about the remarks by the al-Shabab spokesman, a senior Somali security official dismissed Ali Dhere’s claims.    

The “definition of failure has to be revisited if liberating Middle Shabelle, Hiran, South Mudug and parts of Galgadud is a failure,” said Kamal Dahir Hassan Gutale, national security adviser to Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre.    

The “Somali people and their government made possible all those successes reached by our security forces in a very short time,” he said.    

Gutale said Ali Dhere’s claim that the U.S. mobilized the Somali military offensive is baseless.    

“He is facing young Somali soldiers who are well-trained, battle-hardened, who took the battle towards the front lines,” he said. “Let him face them — they have liberated over 500 KMs from al-Shabab, and still they are after him.”    

Criticism  

Government officials said the second phase of military operations will start during Ramadan. But preparations for the second phase have faced criticism before it officially launches.  

Abdullahi Mohamed Ali Sanbalolshe, the former director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency, says preparations for the second offensive focus more on the role of the government and less on the participation of local fighters who have been integral to the relative success of the first phase. 

Sanbalolshe told VOA the local fighters have a low awareness about the new offensive. He alleges that the government is lowering the importance of the clans, locals and states.     

“All Somalis were interested and were part of the first one [offensive] – the members of the parliament, clan elders, business community, the civil society, the diaspora,” he said. 

“The participation of the clans [in the 2nd offensive] is low; it appears it’s confined to the government,” he said.    

Defense Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur has rejected the criticism that the government is not valuing the role of the locals.    

“This fight belongs to the Somali people, and it is true that the successes were achieved with the collaboration of the people,” he said.     

“Every area that is going to be liberated, its people will be consulted with and informed.”    

Nur said most of the locals do not need the government to inform them about military offensives because they approach and ask for support. 

Mohamed Abdurahman contributed to this report.  
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African nations called on the world Tuesday to pay attention to how terrorism targeted their continent, particularly its Sahel region, telling the United Nations Security Council that Africans made up nearly half the world’s terror attack victims. 

Using his country’s bully pulpit as Security Council chair for March, Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi told the council that “though terrorism is a global threat, the situation in Africa remains more critical.” 

His words were echoed by a series of ambassadors from African countries who discussed terror groups’ threats to their nations. 

One global terrorism index shows that 48% of terror victims last year were African, Nyusi said, “and the Sahel region is the new epicenter of terrorist attacks.” Many speakers said they were deeply concerned by terror groups’ operations in the vast, semi-arid expanse below the Sahara Desert. 

According to the U.N., the countries of the Sahel include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. The latest Global Terrorism Index says the number of terror victims has risen 2,000% in the past 15 years, and it ranks Burkina Faso first in the region. 

“The situation in Africa is especially concerning,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council. “Despair, poverty, hunger, lack of basic services, unemployment and unconstitutional changes in government continue to lay fertile ground. … I am deeply concerned by the gains terrorist groups are making in the Sahel and elsewhere.” 

Mozambique’s Islamist extremist insurgency, which started in October 2017, is blamed for the deaths of more than 3,000 people and for displacing an estimated 900,000 people. In March 2021 the rebel violence forced the France-based firm TotalEnergies to put on hold its $20 billion liquefied natural gas project in the northeast. TotalEnergies invoked force majeure after the insurgents attacked the town of Palma, very near the gas project. 

Palma was later recaptured by Mozambican and Rwandan forces, and the government has urged TotalEnergies to resume work on the gas project. 

While gains have been made by Mozambique’s armed forces and its regional allies, the rebels are still capable of carrying out lethal attacks, including on the main north-south road that links the city of Pemba with the gas project in Palma. 

“Mozambique has been engaged in countering terrorism with some success,” Nyusi said, “thanks to a combination of internal efforts and the support from partners.” 

The U.N. is undergoing a regular review of its counterterror strategies. 

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council that when she visited Mozambique in January, among the issues she discussed with officials there was how “we faced a host of challenges, especially when it comes to the dramatic rise in terrorism in Africa.” 

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, is on a weeklong visit to Africa, intended to deepen U.S. ties with the continent. 
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With an International Criminal Court arrest warrant out for Vladimir Putin, South Africa is weighing what to do if the Russian president accepts an earlier invitation to attend an August summit in the country.

The court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader on March 17 for war crimes involving the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. South Africa is a signatory to the ICC’s Rome Statute that obligates countries to execute the court’s international arrest warrants.

But Pretoria is also a close ally with Moscow and has refrained from criticizing Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine – going as far as holding bilateral talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this year and hosting Russian war ships in February for joint military exercises.

Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister for international relations, told local radio station SAfm in an interview that the government was awaiting a refreshed legal opinion on the matter and would then consider its options.

“It is a difficult situation, but, you know, I think that the Cabinet needs to discuss this,” she said. “Once I have the opinion I will take it to Cabinet, so our actions will be guided by the overall views of government.”

However, the minister demurred on the possibility of withdrawing Putin’s invitation to the summit of the group of emerging economic powers known as BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. South Africa is due to host a summit of the bloc’s leaders this August. Moscow has not yet confirmed whether Putin will attend in person.

Pandor also criticized the ICC for not having what she called an “evenhanded approach” to all leaders responsible for abuses of international law, and for focusing on some states rather than others.

But Darren Bergman, shadow minister for international relations with South Africa’s main opposition party the Democratic Alliance, said the government must stick by its ICC commitments.

“The Democratic Alliance believes that the Cabinet should not be extending the invitation any more to President Putin and therefore should withdraw that invitation,” he said. “If they do not, they should be ready to effect the warrant of arrest on President Putin.”

Steven Gruzd, a Russia analyst at the South African Institute for International Affairs, told VOA there are a number of routes the government could take. It could dodge the issue by making the BRICS summit virtual, withdraw from the court entirely, or, most likely, he said, they could try looking for some sort of diplomatic immunity for Putin as a sitting head of state.

“We’ve seen this dilemma before,” he said. “In 2015, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan came to South Africa for the African Union Summit and South Africa was ordered to arrest him. There was a local court order. But this was ignored and defied, and he was allowed to escape from a military base.”

Lunga Ngqengelele, a spokesman for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation told VOA the Cabinet would likely discuss the matter this week.
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Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday pledged more than $100 million in U.S. assistance to Ghana and stressed that U.S. interests in African nations extend beyond competing with China, on the first full day of her weeklong tour of the continent. 

Harris said Monday that the U.S. will commit more than $139 million in assistance, most of which will support conflict prevention in the Sahel region, where Islamist extremists have expanded their footprint. 

She spoke Monday at Jubilee House, seat of Ghana’s presidency, alongside Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo. 

“To help address the threats of violent extremism and instability, today I am pleased to announce $100 million in support of Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo,” she said. “Last week, President Joe Biden announced a strategic plan for coastal West Africa as part of the United States Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability. Today, funding and the announcement that I’ve just made will help implement that plan and will address security, governance and development issues in the region.” 

Harris is the fifth top U.S. official to visit the continent this year, and she deflected criticism that the U.S. sees African nations through the lens of its own competition with China, which has built massive infrastructure projects and loaned billions of dollars to African nations in what many see as a fight for influence and access.  

“The president and I had a conversation on this very topic, but the conversation was not about China as much as it is about the enduring and important direct relationship that the United States has with Ghana and with African nations,” she said. “I will tell you that we are very clear — and I will speak for myself and on behalf of the Biden-Harris administration — that the relationship between the United States and this continent and African leaders is an important one. There’s a historical basis for the relationship, not to mention as we look forward, as all governments should, and recognize the unachieved — as of yet — opportunities that exist going forward.”  

Akufo-Addo agreed.  

“There may be an obsession in America about the Chinese activities on the continent, but there’s no such obsession here,” he said. “China is one of the many countries with whom Ghana is engaged in the world. Your country is one of them. Virtually all the countries of the world are friends of Ghana, and we have relations in varying degrees of intensity with all of them. Our relationship with America is a relationship that has been forged over several decades, right from the time of independence up till now.” 

Harris also toured some of Accra’s vibrant arts scene, visiting a skateboard park and recording studio. Tagging along for the ride was actor Idris Elba, who spoke to journalists.  

“I think this is a great, significant signal for the VP to come to Ghana, to come to Africa and be that interface and, you know, to show the rest of the world that actually it’s a fantastic place to sort of look at in terms of partnership and investment,” he said.  

Harris plans to spend another full day in the West African nation before continuing east, to Tanzania, and then south, to Zambia.  
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U.N. investigators have accused Libyan state security forces and armed militia groups of committing a wide array of crimes with impunity, many of which could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The three-member U.N. Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya on Monday presented its final report on what it called “the country’s deteriorating human rights situation” since the beginning of 2016. And the picture it paints is not pretty.

The investigation has documented numerous cases of arbitrary detention, murder, rape, enslavement, extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance. Despite the gravity of these crimes, the investigators noted that nearly all the survivors interviewed refrained from lodging official complaints “out of fear of reprisals, arrest, extortion and a lack of confidence in the justice system.”

Mohamed Auajjar, chair of the Libya Fact-Finding Mission, said the body found “overwhelming evidence that migrants have been systematically tortured while in detention and that sexual slavery, a crime against humanity, was committed against migrants.”

Factual evidence gathered by the U.N. investigators found that state institutions, groups, and individuals were involved in the commission of violations and abuses.

The mission found that crimes against humanity were committed against migrants in places of detention under the actual or nominal control of the Libyan Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration, the Libyan coast guard and other entities.

Auajjar said, “These entities received technical, logistic and monetary support from the European Union and its member states.”

Chaloka Beyani, a member of the mission, added that “the support given by the E.U. to the Libyan coast guard in terms of fallbacks, pushbacks and interceptions lead to violations of certain human rights.”

“Non-refoulement, for example – you cannot push back people to areas that are unsafe,” he said, “and the Libyan waters are unsafe for embarkations of migrants quite clearly.”

The ongoing systemic widespread character of the crimes documented by the mission strongly suggests that individuals and officials of security and military agencies at all levels of the hierarchy and affiliated militias are implicated.

“The violations and abuses investigated by the mission were connected primarily to a reconsolidation of power and wealth by militias and other state-affiliated groups through, for instance, the misappropriation of public funds,” said Auajjar. “It is beyond question that significant revenue arising from the widescale exploitation of vulnerable irregular migrants incentivized the continuation of the violations documented.”

The mission has undertaken 13 field trips to Libya since it was established by the U.N. human rights council in June 2020. It has interviewed more than 400 survivors and witnesses and collected more than 2,800 items of information.

More than 670,000 migrants from over 41 countries were present in Libya when the mission began its investigation and these numbers have been increasing since 2021.

The International Organization for Migration reports around 5,000 migrants are held in official detention centers, though it believes that number is greatly underestimated. The number of migrants detained in secret facilities run by armed militia groups is unknown.

Many of the migrants, who include asylum seekers and refugees, come from West and East Africa and from lands as far away as Afghanistan.

Beyani notes smuggling and trafficking of migrants has become a huge money-making industry in Libya. He said geography largely determines which migrants are likely to be kidnapped and held for ransom.

“So, those coming from East Africa, for example, attract a fairer price in terms of smuggling and trafficking than those coming from West Africa.

“The perception is that perhaps they have a lot more money in this regard,” he added.

The report said there are reasonable grounds to believe migrants “were enslaved in official detention centers as well as ‘secret prisons,’ and that rape as a crime against humanity was committed.”

It said detainees were subjected regularly to torture, solitary confinement, held incommunicado and denied adequate access to water, food, toilets, medical care and other essentials.

It also deplored the systematic discrimination of women in Libya, saying that their situation has markedly deteriorated over the past three years.

The mission is calling for ending impunity through criminal accountability on the international and local level and recommends supporting the Libyan judiciary to strengthen its capacity for accountability.

The investigators are calling for the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained in Libya and for secret prisons to be dismantled. It stressed that perpetrators of gross human rights violations must be held accountable for their crimes.

The report will be submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council later this week.
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