Ten people died and around 40 others were injured when a fuel tanker exploded in Boksburg, a South African city east of Johannesburg, emergency services said Saturday. 

The tanker, transporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), was caught beneath a bridge close to a hospital and houses on Saturday morning. 

“We received a call at 0750 telling us a gas tanker was stuck under a bridge. Firefighters were called to extinguish the flames. Unfortunately, the tanker exploded,” William Ntladi, spokesperson for the emergency services in the region, told AFP. 

One of those injured was the driver, who was taken to a hospital, he added.  

The injured were in serious condition, Ntladi said. Six firefighters also suffered minor injuries. 

Videos on social media showed a huge fireball under the bridge, which the tanker appeared to have been too tall to fit under. 

It was carrying 60,000 liters of LPG, which is used in cooking and gas stoves and had come from the southeast of the country. 

Witness Jean Marie Booysen described a “huge jolt” shortly after 6:30 a.m. local time.  

“Today is indeed a very sad day in our little suburb,” she said, standing near a forensics team combing the scene. 

“I went upstairs to have my cup of tea and I saw immense flames. I thought a house was on fire,” she said. 

She said she later learned young neighbors had died from “here across the road, 16, the girl, and 25, the boy, who came and did my lawn every weekend for me.” 

Another witness named William, who did not give his surname, described a series of explosions and said people nearby had felt the blast. 

“I think I was 50 meters away from the scene and when the third one exploded, I was about 400 meters away,” he said. “We did burn behind our backs.” 

 
…

Somali officials are denying that a member of the presidential office made calls to several media outlets to issue directives.

VOA this week spoke with members of at least four news outlets who said they had received calls from a person who identified himself as Abdikadir Hussein Wehliye.

The caller, who also said he was from Villa Somalia, the presidential office,  ordered them to submit news content to authorities before it was aired.

The Somali Journalists Syndicate said at that time that at least seven media houses had received the same call.

Among those affected was Risaala Media Corporation in the capital, Mogadishu.

Managing director Mohamed Abdiwahab told VOA that a person identifying himself as being from the presidential office had called the media outlet on December 17 and had said the newsroom needed to submit content in writing before it was aired.

Deputy Information Minister Abdirahman Yusuf Adala told VOA earlier this week via a messaging app that he was not aware of such a directive.

Order ‘from above’

But a representative of the Somali Journalists Syndicate said that a spokesperson from the presidential office, who asked not to be identified, had confirmed that a directive was made and that the “order came from above.”

Abdikadir Dige of the Presidential Communications Office in an email to VOA denied any such directive was issued from his office or elsewhere in the government.

The Somali government denied to VOA’s Somali Service that anyone named Abdikadir Hussein Wehliye had worked in the presidential office.

VOA requested a statement from the Information Ministry early Friday and did not receive a response before publishing.

Journalists who spoke with VOA earlier this week believed the order did come from the government, which had issued two other directives to media in recent months on how they should cover the militant group al-Shabab.

The government this year has warned off journalists from publishing al-Shabab content and said they should refer to the militant group only as Khawarij, which loosely translates as “those who deviate from the Islamic faith.”

The Somali government is engaged in a military campaign against al-Shabab. But journalists say the directives on covering the group will limit press freedom and could put them at risk of retaliation from the militant group.

Censorship bid suspected

Because of those orders, journalists who spoke with VOA this week said they believed this was a new order with an aim to censor the media.

Abdiwahab of Risaala said he thought the order infringed on the country’s constitution and media law, both of which provide guarantees for media freedom.

He and Somali Journalist Syndicate member Mohamed Bulbul thought the order was a further attempt to curtail their independence.

Somalia is already a difficult environment for reporters, media watchdogs say. As well as attacks and threats, journalists risk arrest.

The Associated Press on Friday reported that police in central Hirshabelle state had detained four media workers over coverage of al-Shabab attacks in rural areas. 

The chief editor of Radio Hiiraanweyn, Mustaf Ali Adow, and three others were detained Thursday and the station was taken off the air, AP reported.
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Spanish prosecutors have dropped their investigation into the deaths of more than 20 migrants last June at the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave city of Melilla, saying in a statement Friday they found no evidence of criminal misconduct by Spanish security forces.

Prosecutors said they spent six months investigating what happened when hundreds of migrants — some estimates say around 2,000 — stormed the Melilla border fence in northwest Africa from the Moroccan side in an attempt to reach European soil. At least 23 migrants were officially reported dead, though human rights groups say the number was higher.

“It cannot be concluded that the conduct of the (Spanish) security officers involved increased the threat to the life and well-being of the immigrants, so no charge of reckless homicide can be brought,” said the Spanish prosecutors.

The migrants, according to the prosecutors’ statement, were “hostile and violent.”

Hundreds of men, some wielding sticks, climbed over the fence from Moroccan territory and were corralled into a border crossing area. When they managed to break through the gate to the Spanish side, a stampede apparently led to the crushing of many people.

Moroccan police launched tear gas and beat men with batons, even when some were prone on the ground. Spanish guards surrounded a group that managed to get through before apparently sending them back.

The clash ended with African men, clearly injured or even dead, piled on top of one another while Moroccan police in riot gear looked on.

The Spanish prosecutors said that “at no point did (Spanish) security officers have reason to believe that there were people at risk who required help.”

Spanish security officers who turned 470 of the immigrants back to Morocco did so in accordance with their duty and in conformity with Spain’s immigration law, the statement said.

So-called “pushbacks” — the forcible return of people across an international border without an assessment of their rights to apply for asylum or other protection, violating both international and EU law — are a contentious issue in Europe.

The prosecutors did fault some security officers who threw rocks at the immigrants, recommending disciplinary procedures against them.

Amnesty International said earlier this month that the handling of the investigation by Spain and Morocco, which has remained mostly silent on the matter, “smacks of a cover-up and racism.”
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Kenya’s former president, Uhuru Kenyatta, will travel to Ethiopia’s Tigray region to oversee monitoring of last month’s peace deal. Ethiopian federal and Tigray region officials agreed late Thursday at talks in Nairobi to grant the African Union full access to the region to oversee an end to the two-year conflict.

Ethiopian military leadership and representatives of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front have agreed to establish a joint monitoring team to oversee the peace agreement signed in November.

The agreement, signed in South Africa, ended two years of fighting between the federal government and TPLF that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

Former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also part of the mediating team, said Thursday the warring factions have agreed to have a body monitor the peace deal.

“They have all concurred and agreed to give the monitoring and verification team of the African Union full access, full 360-degree viewpoint to ensure all the elements of the agreements are actually going to be implemented,” Kenyatta said.

The mediators, who met peace negotiators in Nairobi this week, expressed confidence in normalcy returning to the Tigray region and peace in Ethiopia.

Professor Chacha Nyaigoti Chacha, an expert in diplomacy and international relations, said the African Union must play its role in solving conflicts in the continent.

“The problem with the African Union is that sometimes the resolutions and determination of this nature have not been followed with tangible results in the field,” Chacha said. “But we are hoping this time round the warring parties will be able to appreciate the fact that they need very urgently to have a solution to the problems.”

The war between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray rebel group broke out in November 2020 and spread to the Amhara and Afar regions.

The peace deal has brought some relief to the suffering population in the north of the country.

Ethiopian leaders have been meeting to discuss ways of carrying out the disarmament of rebels in Tigray and neighboring regions and negotiate the withdrawal of Eritrean forces who assisted the Ethiopian army.

Kenyatta said his team and African Union representatives will visit Tigray’s capital to check on the progress of the peace agreement.

“They have been negotiating for the last two days but we agreed that the true statement that they need to make would be the statement they make when we are in Mekelle in the next few days observing and verifying the actions because documents are one thing, what we want now is the deliverables and this is why we are heading to Mekele,” Kenyatta said.

There was no immediate word on when Kenyatta will go to Tigray.

Chacha said the Kenyatta team’s visit will help solve the outstanding issues in the peace deal.

“The actions of visiting will give them firsthand information and knowledge about the situation on the ground and when the situation on the ground is clearly understood, then the parties concerned, including the mediators, can understand and appreciate the way they will approach the resolution in order for them to create an atmosphere that can bring about peace,” Chacha said.

Some of the peace deal’s provisions have already been implemented, including humanitarian aid and the restoration of banking and telecommunications services.
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Despite abolishing a tenancy system last year that was blamed for fueling child labor, Malawi has 3,000 children working in its tobacco industry, according to a United Nations report.

On Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement expressing concern about the findings of the report.

Siobhán Mullally, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on trafficking in persons and an expert who contributed to the report, told VOA Thursday that the U.N.’s concerns come after the U.N. communicated with Malawi government and tobacco companies operating in Malawi.

“Over two months ago, we sent formal communications to the companies and to the government of Malawi,” said Mullally. “Those published are their responses. So we will continue working with them to raise these concerns.”

Last year, Malawi enacted laws against the tenancy system, an often exploitative agrarian labor practice also known as sharecropping, which was long blamed for fueling child labor in the tobacco industry.

The U.N. expert report says human rights abuses reported within the sector affected more than 3,000 children and 7,000 adults.

It also says in the aftermath of COVID-19, more than 400,000 children were reported not to have returned to school.

“This is really why we want to see much more urgent action to monitor the situation and prevent such occurrences,” said Mullally. “And risks of exploitation need to be better addressed. The tobacco companies and government need to take greater efforts to prevent the recruitment and exploitation of children on tobacco farms to ensure their protection.”

Allegations

Tobacco is Malawi’s dominant cash crop, accounting for about 13 percent of its gross domestic product and 60 percent of the country’s exchange earnings.

However, in 2019, the U.S. government suspended Malawi tobacco imports after allegations of child labor.

This forced Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera to assent to legislation in 2021 amending the Employment Act, establishing provisions that abolish the tenancy system.

The Malawi government is currently running programs aimed to end child labor, including the National Social Cash Transfer Program, which supports low-income families in high-risk districts so children can stay in school.

However, the U.N. has reported that efforts undertaken by Malawi and some tobacco companies, including by supporting school feeding programs and scholarships, are proving insufficient to address the problem.

“The government can ensure that there is access for labor inspectors for civil society and ensure that all steps have been taken by those companies that have permission to operate,” said Mullally. “If it is [a] trafficking issue, it also requires cooperation with law enforcements.”

Big names in tobacco

The U.N. researchers said they already discussed the matter with some of the companies involved in the tobacco industry in Malawi, including British American Tobacco, Imperial, Philip Morris International, and Japan Tobacco Group.

Simon Evans, the group media relations manager for Imperial Brands PLC tobacco company, told VOA via email Thursday that the company takes the matters raised in U.N. report seriously and that the company does not condone exploitative practices in its supply chains, as outlined in the Code of Conduct on its corporate website.

As a long-standing member of the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing Foundation, Evans said the company is working to prevent exploitation through multi-stakeholder initiatives.

These include the industry-wide Sustainable Tobacco Program in which all tobacco source suppliers are expected to participate to address child labor.

Malawi’s Minister of Labor Vera Kamtukule told VOA that the Malawi government is running a program that enrolls children withdrawn from child labor into schools as well as vocational training institutions.

“The total number that was withdrawn this year is 528, compared to 173 last year,” said Kamtukule. “The total number that have put into vocation is 196, compared to three last year. Those they have sent back to school this year alone, is 65 compared to 54 last year.”

The Malawi government, said Kamtukule, is working to eliminate child labor by 2025.

“What I can tell you is that the fight against child labor is really ongoing,” said Kamtukule. “It is not something that is ad hoc.”
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Uganda on Thursday received two more potential vaccines for a trial against the Sudan strain of the deadly Ebola virus. Uganda has recorded 142 confirmed cases and 55 deaths since the September outbreak but has had no new cases since late November. While having no active cases is welcomed, it also means the trial will have to be revamped to test the vaccines’ effectiveness.

The World Health Organization handed Ugandan officials more than 4,000 doses of Ebola trial vaccines on Thursday — 2,000 of the Indian Serum Institute’s Oxford vaccine and just over 2,000 from U.S. manufacturer Merck.

It brings the total number of Ebola vaccine doses available in Uganda to more than 5,000 after an initial 1,000 from the U.S.’s Sabin Vaccine Institute were received last week.

The vaccines were sent for use in a trial against an outbreak of the Sudan strain of the virus that since September killed 55 people.  

But Uganda has not recorded any new Ebola infections since November 27.

While that success in halting the outbreak has been welcomed, Uganda’s Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said it also means plans will have to be changed to test the vaccines on people who had contact with those infected.

“There are no more cases and no more contacts,” she said. “So, the scientists are evaluating alternative research designs to assess the usefulness of these vaccines in protecting people against Ebola infection.”

The principal investigator of the Ebola vaccine trial, Dr. Bruce Kirenga, said his team is engaging communities but will have to wait for a global expert meeting on January 12 to finalize and approve the trial revamp.

“The trial that we have is designed to answer three questions, abbreviated as I-S-E. Immunogenicity, Efficacy, and Safety,” he said. “These vaccines, can they induce immunity in people if they are administered? Are they safe? Can that immunity prevent disease?”

Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, the WHO country representative for Uganda, said the country’s success in stemming the outbreak means it has gained the capacity, knowledge, and skills to carry out an Ebola Sudan strain vaccine trial.  

He said the trial is still worth doing, even if Uganda doesn’t register another Ebola infection.  

“Uganda would contribute from this trial, another tool for us to manage Ebola Sudan if it ever happens in a major population,” he said.

Since Uganda announced the Ebola outbreak 100 days ago, aside from confirmed cases and deaths, the country recorded 87 discharges.

Despite having no new cases since November, Uganda will have to wait until January 10 to declare the country Ebola-free.   

There is currently no effective vaccine available for the Sudan strain of Ebola.

The WHO says Uganda’s last Ebola outbreak in 2019 was triggered by the more common Zaire strain.  

Uganda last reported an outbreak of the relatively rare Sudan strain in 2012.
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Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso says significant developments came out of this year’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington.

In an interview with VOA this week, Sassou Nguesso said that during this summit, the goals were more defined, including helping the African Union gain a greater voice at the United Nations.

“For example, President [Joe] Biden declared that Africa [African Union] is certainly going to be a member of the G-20. I believe this is a clear orientation that we appreciate. Mr. Biden also declared that in the next few years, America is going to get involved with Africa [the African Union] finding its right place at the Security Council of the United Nations as a permanent member,” he said in French.

The G-20 comprises the world’s major industrial and emerging economies. South Africa is currently its only African member. 

Biden also said his administration would spend $55 billion to help African countries over the next three years and that he hoped to deepen Africa-U.S. cooperation.

“Our nations have worked closely together for a long time to improve the lives of countless people in all our countries in meaningful ways, on both sides of the Atlantic. And with this summit and with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, our eyes are fixed squarely on the future,” Biden said at the summit.

“That’s also an important development,” Sassou Nguesso said, “especially when the debate allowed us to highlight Africa’s priorities. [African Union chair] Macky Sall and all the other leaders emphasized Africa’s priorities, whether it’s related to basic infrastructure, developing the agriculture sector, digital, education, health, the energy question.” 

The White House said $165 million of the funds would be used to strengthen democracy and good governance. Yet some criticized Biden for inviting leaders who have been in power for a long time. U.S. officials said all leaders in good standing with the African Union and the United States received an invitation.

“Democracy and good governance are a process,” Sassou Nguesso said. “I always give this particular example: The French Revolution triumphed in 1789 with all the problems related to freedom, human rights and democracy. Imagine that in France after all the struggles that had happened during that time, women only had the right to vote after the Second World War. … The process had developed and until today in certain countries in Europe, there are [election] challenges. Even here, in the U.S., we were surprised to see what happened at the Capitol [on January 6, 2021].”

“There is considerable progress in Africa,” he continued. “Now, as for the leaders who have stayed in power for a long time, what if that was the will of the people? Elections are meant to ask people to share their opinions. What if the people vote in favor of stability?”

Coups, conflict

Some African countries have also recently seen a recurrence of coups and, in the case of Libya, ongoing conflict. Sassou Nguesso said that without peace, security and stability, development cannot be achieved. And what happens in one country has the potential to affect an entire region, he noted.

“As long as we don’t resolve the Libya issue, we won’t see the light at the end of the tunnel in the Sahel region. So, the terrorism and violent extremism in Africa, the problem related to peace in general is an important one. As the chairperson of the AU’s High-Level Committee on Libya, we are in the process of organizing a reconciliation forum there,” he told VOA.

Libya has had little peace since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted Moammar Gadhafi.

The Congolese leader shared his hopes that the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which was extended in 2015 for another 10 years, would be renewed.

According to U.S. officials, AGOA has been a focus of U.S. economic policy and commercial engagement with Africa since it took effect in 2000. It provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market for nearly 2,000 products.

Leading trade officials in sub-Saharan Africa and the Biden-Harris administration held a ministerial during the summit where they discussed the need to strengthen implementation and modernize AGOA to translate opportunity into concrete benefits for the African people.

Sassou Nguesso has been in and out of power for more than three decades. Asked if he’s going to be a candidate at the next elections, he said that people who govern while thinking of the next elections are abandoning their essential tasks. He told VOA he was not one of those people and was concentrating on trying to execute the programs for which he was elected. 
…

Officials from Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray region are meeting in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, to discuss the next steps for a peace deal to end two years of war.

Senior Ethiopian government officials and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) representatives are meeting in Kenya to discuss implementation of the November peace agreement signed in South Africa.

The Wednesday meeting comes as the rebel TPLF said some parts of the Tigray region are finding it difficult to access much-needed humanitarian assistance. The rebels blame the problems on the presence of Eritrean troops, who entered Tigray during the war, to support the Ethiopian government.

Pro-Tigray media reports say a regional official, Atinkut Mezgebo, called on the Ethiopian government to address what he called Eritrean forces’ attacks on civilians and the looting of the aid intended for the suffering masses.

Experts warn the alleged continued clashes and blockage of humanitarian supplies could complicate the peace agreement.

Early this month, Tigray rebel group commander Tadesse Warede said two-thirds of his fighters have left the battlefield as part of the agreement.

The peace deal has allowed the passage of humanitarian aid to Tigray and the restoration of telecommunication and banking systems after more than a year-and-a-half.

The Ethiopian government says more than eight million people in the Afar, Amhara and Tigray regions have received humanitarian supplies since the signing of the peace deal.

The war in Tigray broke out between Ethiopian government forces and the rebel group in November 2020, displacing millions and killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Leaders of the warring factions have been meeting on a regular basis to push for the implementation of the peace agreement signed last month.

The Nairobi meeting is expected to end later this week.
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Burkina Faso’s mines minister on Tuesday denied an allegation by the president of Ghana that Burkina Faso had paid Russian mercenaries by giving them the rights to a mine.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo caused a controversy by stating last week that Burkina Faso had hired mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group to help it fight Islamist militants.

“I believe a mine in southern Burkina has been allocated to them as a form of payment for their services,” Akufo-Addo said, speaking to reporters alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Burkina Faso’s government has not formally confirmed nor denied the allegation that it has made an agreement with Wagner, but it summoned the Ghanaian ambassador for a meeting on Friday to explain the president’s remarks.

“We have not granted any permit to a Russian company in southern Burkina,” said mines minister Simon Pierre Boussim, speaking to reporters after a meeting with civil society groups that were concerned about the allegations.

“We made a list of all the exploitation or research permits for large industrial mines in the south, so they can see clearly that there is no hidden site,” he said.

The Burkinabe government did recently award a new exploration permit to Russian firm Nordgold for a gold mine in Yimiougou, in the center-north region, Boussim said, but the company has been active in Burkina Faso for over a decade.

Burkina Faso’s neighbor, Mali, hired Wagner last year to help it fight insurgents. The prospect of the group expanding its presence in Africa has troubled Western powers such as France and the United States, who say it exploits mineral resources and commits human rights abuses in countries where it operates.
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U.N. agencies say that large-scale, sustained humanitarian assistance can prevent Somalia’s looming famine from turning into a full-blown disaster in the coming months.

Thanks to generous international support this year, famine in Somalia has been delayed. But the threat of mass starvation in 2023 remains due to a fifth year of consecutive drought, skyrocketing food prices, and intensifying conflict.

A recent U.N. food assessment found the number of people facing acute food insecurity could rise to 8.3 million by April and the number of Somalis facing catastrophic food insecurity could increase to more than 700,000 by June. It warned some areas will face outright famine if humanitarian assistance is not scaled up and sustained.

Etienne Peterschmitt is the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization representative in Somalia. Speaking from the capital Mogadishu, he says the specter of Somalia’s 2011 famine continues to haunt aid agencies and what happened then must not be repeated now. 

“Just to recall that in 2011, we have mentioned that in several reports, and we keep highlighting that fact is that by the time famine was declared, half of the people who actually died of famine had already died,” Peterschmitt said.

More than a quarter million people died of famine that year, half of them children under age five.

FAO reports rural communities are currently among those at greatest risk and in greatest need. The unprecedented drought, it notes, has forced entire pastoral, agropastoral, and farming communities to leave home and seek humanitarian aid in crowded displacement camps in towns.

Peterschmitt says their ability to stave off hunger and famine depends on the survival of their herds and ability to grow crops.

“Their children’s nutrition, and we mentioned that before, is directly linked to the health and productivity of their animals,” Peterschmitt said. “Unable to produce milk, those animals have been dying at a skyrocketing rate for the last year…Of great concern is the approximately 1.8 million children who are likely to be malnourished.”

Earlier projections of famine so far have been averted because humanitarian assistance has covered much of the most basic needs. U.N. agencies say this aid must continue and be increased.

On December 1, the United Nations launched a record $51.5 billion humanitarian response plan to assist 69 countries in 2023. The plan asks for $2.2 billion in support of 7.6 million people in Somalia.

 
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The “loss and damage” fund agreed to last month at the COP27 climate conference aims for rich nations to help those that have borne the brunt of their global warming emissions. In Niger, climate change has fueled desertification and conflict as communities compete for dwindling resources.

It’s often said those least responsible for climate change will suffer the most because of it. This is especially true in Niger.

According to nonprofits such as Concern International, Niger, along with its neighbors in Africa’s Sahel region, is likely to see a 3-to-6-degree Celsius increase in temperatures by the end of the century, with devastating impacts for one of the poorest and most difficult-to-farm regions on earth.

Yet in 2021, Niger produced just 0.007% of global emissions.

The changing climate is also adding to a rise in militant groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State, according to the United Nations.

Jean-Noel Gentile is the U.N.’s World Food Program Niger Country Director.

“Climate change is contributing to the deterioration of natural resources, with the population then competing for the same resources, which are shrinking,” Gentile said. “So, there is a direct correlation between climate change and insecurity.”

To help countries like Niger, a “loss and damage” fund was agreed upon at the U.N.’s recent COP27 climate conference in Egypt. In theory, richer countries and bigger emitters of greenhouse gases will pay to assist the countries suffering from climate change the most.

Nonprofits say the cost of the damage caused by climate change could hit $1.8 trillion by 2050.

Niger’s environment minister, Garama Saratou Rabiou Inoussa, told VOA the fund needs to become operational quickly.

She says, there’s an urgency to make the funds operational. Not only making the funds operational, she says, but also the urgency to make the funds available through an easy funding mechanism that favors countries such as Niger.”

Haoua Coba Maigardaye lives in a village in Niger’s border region with Nigeria, an area that could benefit from the fund. A project run by the World Food Program has reorganized the village’s farming practices, allowing them to farm during the dry season, in addition to the rainy season.

She says, food production has increased and the older and younger generations of the village no longer have to go elsewhere to find work, since they can grow crops twice in a year. “It’s an improvement because there is now not only enough food to survive, but also enough to sell,” she adds.

In a neighboring village where there is no assistance, a farmer says they do not have enough to eat.

Environmentalists say that details, such as how the fund will work — and how the money will make it to villages like those in Zinder — need to be nailed down.

Steve Trent is with the Environmental Justice Foundation, a U.K.-based environmental nonprofit.

“The political pitfalls are that developed states just decide not to pay. It’s hard when you want to get governments to write that check,” said Trent. “It’s difficult to get them to do it, particularly in the economic climate that we face globally now.”

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change declined to give an interview on how the fund might work and how long it may take to become active.
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Nigerian officials say seven Chinese nationals received medical attention Monday after being rescued from nearly six months in captivity. Nigerian military forces recovered the abductees in a weekend operation in the central state of Kaduna.

A spokesperson for the Nigerian Air Force, Gabriel Gabkwet, said in a statement Sunday that the Chinese nationals were rescued from the Kanfani Doka and Gwaska areas of Kaduna state after a tactical overnight operation.

He said the captors abandoned their enclaves, including the abductees and their weapons.

He said the abductees had been held for more than five months by terrorists who seized them from a mining site in the Shiroro local government area of Niger state.

Gabkwet did not immediately respond to calls for comment from VOA.

In a statement Monday, Niger state Governor Abubakar Sani Bello praised the air force for the rescue and said authorities will continue to collaborate with all security forces in the state to ensure citizens are safe and secure.

Officials said the rescued Chinese nationals were taken to an unidentified medical facility.

During the June attack at the mining site, at least 22 security operatives were killed, including police and the military.

Nigeria’s central and northwestern states have seen increasing incidents of attacks by armed groups known as bandits.

On Monday, a local government spokesperson in the Kaura area of Kaduna state told Lagos-based Channels Television that armed men killed at least 37 people in an attack Sunday and burned down more than 100 houses.

Police have not commented on the development but security analyst Chidi Omeje blames the violence on the July escape of hundreds of inmates from the Abuja prison.

“When that jailbreak happened, and we were told that tens and tens of terrorists who were being held there escaped, where do you think they went to?” Omeje said. “We’ve not been told that they were rearrested, so they’ve now gone to reactivate their terrorist cells. So, it becomes very understandable if somebody begins to put two and two together.”

For more than 13 years Nigeria has been battling Boko Haram and other insurgent groups in the country’s northeastern region. An estimated 300,000 people have been killed in the crisis.

Authorities are also struggling to contain kidnap-for-ransom gangs active across other regions of the country.
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