A plane carrying 43 people plunged into Lake Victoria in Tanzania early on Sunday due to bad weather shortly before it was due to land in the northwestern city of Bukoba, police said, as rescuers searched for survivors.

“There was an accident involving a Precision Air plane which… crashed into water about 100 meters from the airport,” regional police commander William Mwampaghale told reporters at Bukoba airport.

Regional commissioner Albert Chalamila said 43 people, including 39 passengers, two pilots and two cabin crew, were aboard flight PW 494 from financial capital Dar es Salaam to the lakeside city in Kagera region.

“As we speak, we have managed to rescue 26 people who were taken to our referral hospital,” Chalamila said.

“The rescue operation is still ongoing and we are communicating with the pilots,” he said, adding that the aircraft was an ATR-42, manufactured by Toulouse-based Franco-Italian firm ATR.

Precision Air, which is Tanzania’s largest private airline, released a brief statement confirming the accident.

“The rescue team has been dispatched to the scene and more information will be released in 2 hours’ time,” the airline said.

Video footage broadcast on local media showed the plane largely submerged as rescuers, including fishermen, waded through water to bring people to safety.

Emergency workers attempted to lift the aircraft out of the water using ropes, assisted by cranes as local residents also sought to help in the effort.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed her condolences to those affected by the accident.

“Let’s continue to be calm while the rescue operation continues as we pray to God to help us,” she said on Twitter.

‘Hearts and prayers’

The African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat also shared his condolences, as did the secretary general of the regional East African Community bloc, Peter Mathuki.

“Our hearts and prayers go to the families of passengers on-board a plane that crashed into Lake Victoria, with our full solidarity to the Government & people of #Tanzania,” he said on Twitter. 

“The East African Community joins and sends our condolences to Mama Samia Suluhu Hassan, families and friends of all those who were affected by the Precision Air plane accident,” Mathuki said on Twitter.

Precision Air, which is partly owned by Kenya Airways, was founded in 1993 and operates domestic and regional flights as well as private charters to popular tourist destinations such as the Serengeti National Park and the Zanzibar archipelago.

The accident comes five years after 11 people died when a plane belonging to safari company Coastal Aviation crashed in northern Tanzania.

In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi plunged six minutes after take-off into a field southeast of the Ethiopian capital, killing all 157 people on board.

In 2007, a Kenya Airways flight from the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan to Kenya’s capital Nairobi crashed into a swamp after take-off, killing all 114 passengers.

In 2000, another Kenya Airways flight from Abidjan to Nairobi crashed into the Atlantic Ocean minutes after take-off, killing 169 people while 10 survived. 
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The United States military says it has carried out an airstrike in support of the Somali government’s operations against the al-Shabab extremist group that has killed some of the group’s fighters.

A statement by the U.S. Africa Command on Saturday describes the airstrike as being carried out Thursday in “collective self-defense” and at the request of the Somali National Army near the town of Cadale in the Middle Shabelle region.

Cadale is 220 kilometers north of the capital, Mogadishu.

The U.S. statement says al-Shabab fighters had been attacking Somali military forces. It says the initial assessment is that no civilians were killed.

The U.S. has carried out dozens of drone strikes against extremists in Somalia in recent years.
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South African police say the bodies of at least 21 suspected illegal miners were found outside an active mine this week in the town of Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg. Police said murder is not suspected, but the bodies do appear to have been moved. Security analysts say the deaths are indicative of the prevalence of illicit mining activity in the country.     

The discovery of the bodies has shocked the country and it is far from the first such incident. 

The town also saw eight women gang-raped at gunpoint in July, and police at the time arrested dozens of illegal miners among the suspects. 

“These guys are not random,” said Willem Els,a senior training coordinator with the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria. They are part of massive well-organized organized crime syndicates that have operating transnational. So, we need the intelligence to guide us in order to develop good strategies. And then we need well-trained police officers that are well equipped in order to challenge this unique challenge that we have in the mining industry.”

Els said the country’s intelligence and policing operations are failing and are even infiltrated by organized crime syndicates. 

“Law enforcement in South Africa is not what it’s supposed to be,” he said.”They’re not on the level that they can really prevent this. We also have a challenge with porous borders in the region, where for instance, in countries like Zimbabwe, their deposits of gold are dwindling, the mines are closing, and those people are without work. And then it’s a welcome opportunity for them to cross the border into South Africa, most of the time illegally.” 

Experts say foreigners aren’t just digging underground but are part of international networks to sell the minerals overseas. 

Witness Maluleke, professor of criminology at the University of Limpopo, said the activity wouldn’t be possible without South African involvement. 

“The South African youth are part of it. And South African organized criminal networks are part of it, he said. “So, there’s not much to say that it is only illegal immigrants that are contributing largely to this crime or this practice. It is misleading.”

Maluleke said tackling illegal mining requires efforts to address other factors that drive people to crime.    

“People are not working,” he said. “So, they take these enterprises and opportunity to get money and to commit various crimes that are happening on our mines.” 

The illicit activity is costing South Africa and the mining industry millions.  

There are more than 6,000 derelict mines in the country, some of which have been abandoned for decades. 

Police officials and experts say the mining industry needs to take more responsibility for properly closing old sites.  

“Mining houses must take responsibility in policing themselves, in taking ethical and moral accountability, plan more effectively, and so forth,” said Jean Steyn, a criminal justice professor at the University of Zululand. “Mining houses must preventively act towards reducing illegal artisanal mining and use, for example, those that don’t have work to rehabilitate the mines.”

The mine shaft near where the bodies were found had been flooded by recent rains, but police say autopsies will be conducted to determine cause of death.
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With turquoise seawaters and rich coral reefs, Egypt’s resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh is a picturesque location for this year’s United Nations global summit on climate change, known as COP27.

But behind postcard-perfect appearances, it’s a tightly controlled fortress on the Red Sea. Climate activists say the restrictions will discourage protests that have been a way for the public to raise their voices at past summits. 

Many working in tourism have been sent home; those who stayed need special security cards. Vacationers have been turned back at security checkpoints surrounding the town. Hotel rates have increased tenfold, pricing out many. Local workers are prevented from speaking freely with visitors. 

In a country where protests are virtually banned, the government has set up a specific venue for climate protests — except no one is quite sure where it is. Notifications are required 36 hours in advance.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. In past statements, officials have pledged to allow protest and participation from activists.

As COP27 approaches, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government has touted its efforts to make Sharm el-Sheikh a more eco-friendly city, with new solar panels and electric vehicles. 

“From the beginning, there was a big question mark on the choice of Egypt as a host country,” said one Egyptian activist, who was detained for over two years without trial during the government’s crackdown on dissent. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing he could be re-arrested. “They know that the choice of Sharm means there would be no protests.”

The scene is likely to be a sharp contrast to COP26 last year in Glasgow, Scotland, where some 100,000 people marched through the streets in one rally and protesters massed frequently in public squares, parks and bridges.

On Friday, a group of activists took part in a small protest calling for climate action on the African continent at a roundabout in front of the conference venue in Sharm el-Sheikh. A line of police stood by.

A group of U.N.-appointed experts has expressed concern that the environment in Egypt will not be conducive to full and open participation.

Since 2013, el-Sissi, a U.S. ally with deep economic ties to European countries, has overseen a massive crackdown, jailing thousands of Islamists, but also secular activists involved in the 2011 popular uprising. Many others have fled the country. A prominent rights activist, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, escalated his hunger strike this week, refusing also water. 

Outside the Sinai Peninsula, where Sharm el-Sheikh is located, rights groups say more than 100 people have been detained the past two weeks in Cairo and other cities as security forces stepped up their presence in main squares after rumors of planned protests on Nov. 11. COP27 starts on Sunday and is expected to last through Nov. 18. 

The government has repeatedly said its security measures are vital to maintaining stability in a nation of more than 104 million people after a decade of turmoil that started with the Arab Spring and was followed by years of deadly Islamic militant attacks.

For decades, Sharm el-Sheikh has been the government’s favorite spot for conferences and high-level summits precisely because it is so easy to control. The 1996 Mideast peace summit attended by then-President Bill Clinton was held there. 

Isolated in the desert near the Sinai’s southern tip, Sharm — as it’s often referred to — is a six-hour drive from the capital, Cairo. Vehicles must pass through a closely guarded tunnel under the Suez Canal, then numerous checkpoints along the highway, enabling authorities to turn back those considered undesirable.

A concrete and razor-wire barrier surrounds parts of Sharm. One entrance is set into a several-story-high concrete wall, painted with a gigantic peace sign — a reference to the “City of Peace,” a nickname authorities have tried to make stick to Sharm. Large boulevards in the desert link walled resorts, with few public spaces for people to gather.

Hussein Baoumi, Amnesty International’s researcher for Egypt and Libya, called it a “dystopic city.”

“There is so much surveillance, so much control over who enters and who leaves the city, which is again an attempt to control who gets to speak to the international community,” he said. 

Hotel workers say security is particularly tight for COP27 — all must obtain security clearance and since Tuesday, they have been barred from leaving their places of work or housing. Some decided to return to their hometowns until the conference ends.

“We are accustomed to restrictions, but this time it is very harsh and there were no exceptions,” said a waiter at a four-star hotel.

Security has always been high in Sharm because to the north, across the length of the peninsula, Egypt’s military has been battling a decade-old insurgency led by a local branch of the Islamic State group. In 2015, a Russian MetroJet plane crashed soon after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people onboard, an attack claimed by IS.

Sinai has twice been occupied by neighboring Israel: first during the Suez Crisis in 1956, which also involved France and Britain, and later in the 1967 Middle East war. It was returned to Egypt in 1982 as part of the U.S.-brokered peace deal between Egypt and Israel.

Since then, government-licensed development has helped resorts along Sinai’s southern coast become a top beach and scuba-diving destination.

The COP27 conference is taking place at Sharm’s large convention center. As in past COPs, only official U.N.-accredited delegates can enter the venue, known as the Blue Zone, which during the gathering is considered U.N. territory and subject to international law.

Another venue, the Green Zone, is for businesses, youth and civil society to hold events on the sidelines of the summit. It remains unclear where protests are meant to happen. 

A government COP27 website says that besides the 36-hour notification for protests inside the venue, a 48-hour notice via email is required for protests outside it.

From the few photos of the Green Zone in pro-government press, it appears to be on a section of highway or a parking area with cafeterias set up. Maj. Gen. Khaled Fouda, the provincial governor, called the site “very chic and clean” in comments to local TV last month.

“Protests are allowed, but smashing and insulting are not allowed,” he said.

The government has dispatched 500 taxis to transport COP27 attendants, Fouda said — all with cameras connected to a “security observatory” meant to monitor the drivers’ behavior. 

None of this bodes well for activism, climate protest leaders say. 

Greta Thunberg, a youth leader of the protest movement, has said she would not attend. “The space for civil society this year is extremely limited,” she said at a recent London event. “It will be very difficult for activists to make their voice heard.”

Cost is another factor. The recently released Egyptian activist said that many can’t afford to travel, with the cost of a plane ticket from Cairo out of reach for many amid double-digit domestic inflation.

Cristine Majeni, a youth environment volunteer from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, scraped together thousands of dollars required for her 10-day trip, after struggling through the accreditation process. 

“It’s crucial for us to be given an opportunity to take part,” she said.
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A cease-fire deal in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region has raised cautious hope among millions of people impacted by the bloody two-year conflict that their anguish could be coming to an end. 

Many civilians are also reflecting on the terrible losses they suffered, and look to promised aid to rebuild their lives after a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands facing famine. 

“I’m very happy — because this will put a hold on the suffering,” said a Tigrayan man in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa who declined to be named out of fear of repercussions at his place of work. 

“The positivity comes from humanitarian assistance and the restoration of basic services,” he said, referring to pledges made by Tigrayan regional forces and the federal government in a joint statement on Wednesday after eight days of formal peace talks. 

The two sides agreed to “a permanent cessation of hostilities” and to “systematic, orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament,” but the scars are still fresh and run deep. 

All sides fighting in the Tigray war committed violations that may amount to war crimes, according to a joint investigation by the United Nations and Ethiopia’s state-appointed human rights commission. 

Last month, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is from Tigray, said food and health care were being used as weapons of war in the region, which has been largely cut off from the outside world. 

Hospitals have run out of crucial medicines, while hundreds of thousands are teetering on the brink of famine. 

The Ethiopian government has repeatedly denied blocking humanitarian supplies to Tigray. 

“My father — we haven’t spoken to him in more than three years. We haven’t even gotten any voice messages from him,” the Tigrayan man in Addis Ababa told Reuters. 

Another man, Molla, who declined to use his full name, said he was in his home in the northern Amhara town of Kobo when Tigrayan fighters attacked in September last year. 

Human Rights Watch, citing witnesses, said 23 civilians were killed by Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters in Kobo at that time. Tigray leaders said they would punish any fighters targeting non-combatants. 

“They shot at us. My brothers died, we had to bury [them],” said Molla, who escaped with a bullet wound in his shoulder. “We would be happy if this is a real peace. We would be so relieved. We will have to find a way to stop re-living the past.” 

‘We lost everything’ 

The seesawing fortunes of the belligerents saw Tigray forces advance to within a day’s drive of Addis Ababa in November last year, prompting some foreign embassies to evacuate all but essential staff, but the TPLF was later pushed back. 

Last month, the government made significant battlefield gains, capturing several large towns in Tigray, before the two sides finally sat down face to face in Pretoria, South Africa. 

“We lost everything. Just, literally everything,” said Andom Gebreyesus, who ran a tour company in Tigray before the war. 

He managed to escape to Kenya with his children but, like many, has not heard from the rest of his family in more than a year. 

The cessation of hostilities may bring relief to them, he said, but is unlikely to offer lasting peace. 

“It’s the most … the most unreachable place. No communication, no power, no banking system. I don’t even know if they are alive. I don’t know.” 
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Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told lawmakers Friday fires burning on Mount Kilimanjaro the past two weeks have been largely contained after hundreds of military personnel were deployed this week to fight the blazes. 

 

Speaking to Tanzania’s parliament, Majaliwa said the fire destroyed some 33 square kilometers of the Kilimanjaro National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is home to many endangered species. He said fires also spread to other areas on the mountain adjacent to the park, but they were contained, and tourist areas were saved. 

 

“Efforts to tackle the fires continue and most areas are under control. The government is still investigating the source of the fires to take appropriate action,” Majaliwa said. He noted that high winds complicated efforts to bring the fires under control. 

 

He reported that 878 soldiers and two helicopters were deployed this week to reinforce civilian firefighters and volunteers battling the blaze in the Karanga area, where the blaze started October 21. 

 

The distinctive, snow-capped mountain is visited annually by thousands of tourists from around the world who come to climb the 5.9-kilometer-high mountain. 

 

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 

 
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Somalia’s military says its latest offensive against al-Shabab in the central part of the country Thursday killed more 100 of the extremist group’s militants. Witnesses report heavy gun battles and airstrikes.

The Somali National Army (SNA) said Friday that its operation was focused on the country’s central provinces.

At a news conference, Somali Defense Ministry spokesman Abdullahi Ali Anod said the army conducted the operation with the support of local militias.The main operation took place in the vicinity of El-Harari, located on the outskirts of the town of Adanyabal in the Middle Shabelle region.

Residents who spoke to VOA by phone reported heavy gunfire and airstrikes targeting al-Shabab militants.

Anod said there was a fierce fighting in the villages of Hawalo Hussien and Qura’dhere followed by a large operation that started on around 9:00 am on Thursday morning that took place in El-Herari, where the militants were gathering a large force to defend Adanyabal. He said the operation was conducted by Danab forces along with revolutionary forces, a reference to local armed militia.

Danab is the army’s U.S.-trained special forces unit.

The spokesman said the offensive was a combined land and air operation but did not say which country supporting Somali troops conducted the airstrikes.

The offensive comes six days after twin bombings in Mogadishu that killed more than 120 people and wounded at least 300 others, mostly civilians.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud recently announced a “total war” against al-Shabab militants. 

Since his announcement, the military, working with militias, has recaptured some strategic towns and villages from al-Shabab.

The al-Qaida-linked group has been fighting since 2007 to remove the Somali government and impose its strict version of Islamic law on the Horn of Africa nation.
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Christine Akuol — not her real name — is just 15 years old but already is the mother of two children.

Three years ago, her impoverished family married her off in exchange for food.

Unfortunately, the man she was married to delivered only pain, both physical and emotional. A scarcity of resources forced her into subsistence farming.

Even that was taken away this year by the persistent floods that have plagued much of South Sudan. Now, like many South Sudanese, Christine is not sure where her next meal is coming from.

She said would welcome any kind of support from NGOs. She said she doesn’t have a room for sleeping because floods destroyed all of her possessions. She said she and her children don’t have food or money for medical treatment.

Joint report describes stark situation

Josephine Lagu, South Sudan’s minister of Agriculture and Food Security, said a report produced by the World Food Program, UNICEF and the Food and Agricultural Organization points to a very worrying situation for South Sudan.

“The most severe acute food insecure populations are in locations with chronic vulnerabilities, worsened by frequent climate-related shocks, severe flooding and dry spells, the war in Ukraine, the macroeconomic crisis, and of course, low agricultural production,” he said. “These chronic vulnerabilities are found in 47 counties.”

George Otto, U.N. humanitarian resident coordinator, said urgent action is needed to save nearly 8 million people, including 1.4 million who could face severe malnutrition.

“The report is here. This is the time for action,” he said. “The U.S. is committed to working hand in hand with the government in its effort to ensure that over time, we’ll be able to address the key particular issue of food security in South Sudan.”

According to the U.N. report, eastern Equatoria, in the country’s southeast, has seen the most significant deterioration in food security among South Sudan’s drought-affected counties.

Meshack Malo, FAO representative in South Sudan, said South Sudan needs urgent support to promote self-reliance through smart agricultural practices that mitigate the impact of climate change.

“It is significantly important that peace, which is one of the factors that affect food security, is put in place,” said Malo. “Second, flooding continues to be a factor. We now need to put into planning. It is just not going to be unprecedented because it is something that has become a reality, so smart agriculture planning is going to be significant so that we plan with these aspects in mind.”

Climate, conflict, climbing costs linked to hunger

Experts say the decline in food security and the high prevalence of malnutrition is linked to a combination of conflict, poor macroeconomic conditions, climate change, and spiraling costs of food and fuel.

A drop in the funding of humanitarian programs despite the steadily rising need also has been cited as a major contributor to the worsening situation.

The U.N. agencies say funding for next year’s humanitarian response in South Sudan is needed within the next few months, or agencies will be unable to position aid, leaving millions of families at risk of sinking deeper into hunger.
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Tanzania’s Ministry of Tourism released a census this week showing the country’s elephant population has stabilized.

Tanzania’s elephants were among the hardest hit by poaching in Africa, with numbers dropping 60 percent between 2009 and 2014. But authorities say joint efforts with conservation groups and local communities have drastically reduced poaching and helped to attract tourist dollars.

Just under 20,000 elephants were recorded in a survey that covered about 90,000 square kilometers of the Katavi-Rukwa and Ruaha-Rungwa landscapes in western Tanzania, including parks, game reserves and other protected areas.

The government said the results confirm that the landscape remains the most important in East Africa in terms of elephant numbers and contains the largest population on the continent outside Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Ernest Mjingo, a managing director of the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, a department of the Ministry of Tourism, said the world would now see Tanzania as very serious about conservation and doing well at it. And if the world does see that, he said, it would be a credit to the government and would also increase revenue, because Tanzania will become a prime destination for tourists because of the animal population. He added that it could also become a U.N. World Heritage Site, since it would have species that would not be available in other places.

The report said poaching had dramatically decreased over the last few years.

In the last report, conducted in 2018, the ratio of elephant carcasses to live animals was 14 percent. Now, it’s just 1.4 percent, thanks to government and stakeholders’ efforts in strengthening wildlife protection.

Tourism experts such as Makubi Mabula see the results of the census as a good sign for Tanzania’s economic prospects.

“Honestly, the results show a green light toward the future of tourism in our country,” he said through a translator. ” … Many tourists come to see animals like elephants, lions, rhinos and others. So, with the elephant population stabilizing, the national income will increase. It really gives us the peace we tourist stakeholders need to believe that the tourism industry will grow fast.”

Along with elephants, the survey also confirmed that the populations of 25 other key mammal species in Tanzania have stabilized, including buffaloes, zebras, hartebeests, impalas and giraffes.
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Security forces in northwest Nigeria’s Katsina state are searching for 21 teenagers, most of them girls, who were abducted by gunmen from a farm Sunday and are being held for ransom.

Katsina state spokesperson Gambo Isah said police have launched a joint rescue operation with the military and other security agencies in the state to rescue the captives. 

He said the victims include 17 females and four males between 15 and 18 years old. The teens were working on a farm between the villages of Kamfanin Mailafiya and Kurmim Doka on Sunday when armed men invaded and took them away. 

“In the local government area where the incident happened we have a unit of the military there. So we are working assiduously with the view of [rescuing] the victims alive and unhurt by the special grace of God,” Isah told VOA over the phone. 

A local village chief told Reuters news agency that the kidnappers are demanding about $68,000 in ransom. 

Such large-scale kidnappings have become all too common in Nigeria over the past two years, with armed gangs known locally as bandits abducting scores of people at a time, and demanding huge sums for their release.  

In December 2020, more than 300 pupils were kidnapped from a boys secondary boarding school in Katsina state. They were released after a week in captivity, and the government insisted no ransom was paid. 

The kidnappings and general insecurity have sparked criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari and the government. Officials say they are doing everything they can keep Nigerians safe. 

 
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World leaders are reacting with cautious optimism after the announcement of a peace deal and a cease-fire between warring parties in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

It “represents an important step towards peace,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said. “We applaud the parties in their commitment to peace in reaching this agreement. The United States remains committed to supporting this African Union-led process and peace and to partnering to advance peace in northern Ethiopia.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “welcomed the signing of a cessation of hostilities” in a Twitter post Wednesday, praising the African Union for “its extraordinary efforts to bring peace to northern Ethiopia.”

 

“Two years into the war in northern Ethiopia, the government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front have just agreed to a cessation of hostilities, while millions remain cut off from humanitarian assistance and following countless deaths and atrocities,” U.S. Senator Jim Risch, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

 

Risch called on U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to “make an atrocities determination or hold Ethiopian leaders accountable for the human rights abuses committed. This inaction has contributed to continued atrocities.”

Negotiations began on October 25 in Johannesburg and concluded after 10 days. The deal calls for the disarming of Tigrayan forces with both parties agreeing to “permanently silence the guns.” The parties agreed to “stop all forms of conflicts, and hostile propaganda,” calling Ethiopians within the country and abroad to support efforts for lasting peace.

The brief joint statement notes “a detailed program of disarmament” and “restoration of Constitutional order” in Tigray.

The Ethiopian government also committed to restoring public services in the Tigray region, where communications, transport and banking links for more than 5 million people have been severed since war broke out. “Students must go to school, farmers, and pastoralists to their fields, and public servants to their offices,” the statement read.

The parties also committed to allowing unfettered access to humanitarian relief organizations.

The Tigray region has been under a government-imposed blackout, making it difficult to gauge the scale of the impact of the war. With little to no internet access, mobile phone and landline communications, journalists struggled to get information from within Tigray.

It is unclear where Eritrea stands, but it has been involved in the Tigray war since the beginning, fighting alongside Ethiopia’s federal government. The neighboring country was not represented at the peace talks and warring parties did not directly address the subject of withdrawal of Eritrean troops in the statement issued.

The African Union played a lead role in the negotiations including the high representative for the Horn of Africa, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, along with former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Deputy President of South Africa Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki congratulated the parties on reaching a deal.

“I warmly commend the Parties for signing a cessations of hostilities agreement following talks facilitated by the AU Panel,” he said in a Twitter post. The AU, he added, is “committed to continue supporting the Parties to find lasting peace & reconciliation for all Ethiopians.”

 

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Ethiopians and the international community to “support the bold step” taken by the warring parties. And European Union’s foreign affairs chief Joseph Borrell urged that “swift implementation of the agreement” was needed and underscored the need to “resume humanitarian access in all affected areas and to restore basic services.”

The civil war in Africa’s second-most populous country marks its second anniversary on November 4. The United Nations says the conflict has claimed thousands of lives, with about 3.5 million internally displaced in Tigray in 2022. Humanitarian convoy movements to Mekelle, the capital city of Tigray, through Afar “came to a complete stop” since 24 August, the U.N. said with many facing hunger.
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Ahead of the COP27 climate talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh next week, there are concerns that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reversed progress on tackling global warming, diverting the world’s attention from the climate emergency.

However, there is also some optimism that the energy crisis is turning some countries away from fossil fuels.

Global tensions

U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are among world leaders due to attend the two-week summit, which begins Sunday. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has also confirmed his attendance.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stoked global geopolitical tensions—and the destruction limited to the battlefield. Recent progress in tackling climate change, forged at the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year, has taken a hit, according to Antony Froggatt of the London-based analyst group Chatham House.

“What we saw in Glasgow is a coming together in a very positive way of countries wanting to take action on climate change, the development of coalitions — joint, large coalitions, but also bilateral initiatives such as U.S. and China proposing a new program of work to address climate change. And some of that goodwill has disappeared,” Froggatt told VOA.

“It’s not just in terms of Russia. We see that China has pulled out of that arrangement with the U.S. as a result of [tensions over] Taiwan,” he added. “So, across a number of areas, the geopolitics isn’t so positive.”

Green transition

Speaking to VOA, the executive director of United Nations Environment Program Inger Andersen said the world cannot afford to let the Ukraine conflict distract from the climate emergency.

“We can’t deal with only one crisis and drop everything else. We need to be able to deal with multiple crises. And the truth is, with the war on Ukraine, and with the complexity around oil and gas supplies, there’s an opportunity — and I say that with respect — there is a chance now to really invest in clean and green rather than to invest in hydrocarbon infrastructure,” Andersen said.

Energy outlook

In its annual World Energy Outlook published last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said last week the war in Ukraine will hasten the green energy transition.

“The numbers here … do confirm that the government responses around the world given to this energy crisis, promise to be that we are seeing a turning point in the history of energy, and this crisis indeed accelerates clean energy transitions,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol in an October 27 press conference in Paris.

The IEA added that Europe’s transition away from Russian oil and gas will have a big impact on Moscow’s revenues.

“My colleagues have calculated that the result of the decline in the oil and gas sales between now and 2030, Russia will lose about one trillion U.S. dollars of export revenues,” Birol said.

Coal returns

However, the green energy transition also appears to have taken a backward step. Many European nations, including Germany, France and the Netherlands, are restarting coal-fired power stations in breach of climate pledges, as Russia turns off the gas taps.

“There is a short-term supply gap that will have to be met,” said Froggatt of Chatham House. “But as long as there isn’t huge investment in those fossil fuels, then maybe we just have to accept that. It is sort of the medium-to-longer-term trajectory that I hope we see an acceleration of decarbonization as a result of the war in Ukraine.

“Energy efficiency and energy saving becomes much more economically attractive, which I think is a very positive thing,” he said.

Russia’s invasion has also stoked a global economic crisis, with soaring inflation and looming recessions.

“The attention that global leaders are placing on climate change has diminished,” Froggatt added. “I think there will be increased awareness of the economic predicament that many countries find themselves in the looming global recession that will make financing more difficult.”
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