Activists in Cameroon say there has been a 60% increase in people applying for the U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery, also known as the Green Card Lottery. Thousands of people have been lining up at internet cafes to apply for the program, citing a need to escape a poor economy and the country’s separatist conflict.

Twenty-nine-year-old teacher Getrude Tanlaka, who is among those entering the visa lottery at a cafe in Yaounde, says she is searching for better economic opportunities.  

“I just want to get out. That is why I am playing the American lottery. My family has suffered a lot and this is the time for me to take care of them,” she said. “In Cameroon, I cannot do that. I work every day from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the remuneration is very discouraging, but in America it will be very easy. It is an opportunity to step out and change my life.” 

Tanlaka says her mother also signed up for the lottery to increase the chances of them succeeding. 

The Digital Rights Coalition, an alliance of civil society groups advocating for online rights and safety, says Cameroon’s estimated 200 cybercafes have seen a 60 percent increase in people applying for the visa lottery this year.  

They say this follows a sharp dip in 2021 due to the high number of U.S. deaths from COVID-19. The State Department reports that entries to the American Visa Lottery program from Cameroon dropped to 151,000 last year — about half the number from the year before. 

Now, says the coalition, many people are hoping to escape economic hardship caused by high inflation and a separatist conflict in western Cameroon, which has claimed at least 3,500 lives.  

Akaba James, the coalition’s coordinator, says his organization is warning people to avoid scammers who charge money for unhelpful lottery advice.  

“There are thousands of fake sites, fake people on YouTube providing advice about the DV lottery when they themselves have very little understanding of that process,” James said. “Ensure that wherever you play the lottery, you collect your receipt, and preserve it very well so that by the time the results are out, and you happen to win, then you can proceed with the filling of your visa application form, the DS 260, and then eventually getting your second notification letter and going for an interview and eventually paying your green card fee and traveling to the U.S.” 

Police say some scammers have been arrested but are giving no details.

Meanwhile, some cybercafe owners have been charging illegal fees of between $2 and $7 for each electronic entry for the visa lottery.  

Applications can be submitted for free at www.state.gov as recommended by the U.S. Department of State. 

Jeffrey Presnell, vice consul at the U.S. embassy in Yaounde, said recently on local television channel STV that people enrolling for the Green Card Lottery must have at least a secondary education.  

He also advised applicants to closely follow the rules spelled out on the document. 

“Another common mistake that we see is that applicants do not include all of the members of their family. It is very sad because sometimes we see applicants that have won the lottery come and they are disqualified because they did not list all the members of their family. If you just have a fiancee, you should not list your partner on that application,” Presnell said. 

He advises applicants to only list the names of legal spouses or children who live with them. 
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With blue schoolbags bouncing off their backs, hundreds of schoolchildren hurtle down small sand dunes eager to attend class again.

But these boys and girls are survivors of suffering and trauma that few children of their age could conceive.

Their new school is in the town of Ouallam in southwestern Niger, a region that for five years has been plagued by attacks unleashed by groups linked with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

The pupils come from 18 villages near Mali whose inhabitants fled to the relative safety of Ouallam in 2021 after jihadist killings that also forced the closure of schools.

The U.N. children’s agency UNICEF says 817 schools with 72,421 pupils — including 34,464 girls — have closed in Niger, mostly in the Tillaberi, the border region where Ouallam is located.

In Ouallam alone, around 100 schools have had to shut their doors.

The chronic insecurity has prompted authorities to create dedicated educational centers where displaced children can resume their schooling, Mahamadou Illo Abarchi, an education official in Ouallam, told AFP.

Some 17,000 pupils have already re-entered the school system and another 55,300 are set to follow suit, enrolling in around 20 centers for displaced children across southwestern Niger, the government says.

‘Killed by the bandits’

In Ouallam, almost 1,600 schoolchildren — some of whom had not attended class for three years—are registered with three centers built near a site for displaced people.

The sites offer free canteens, a vital resource for families who have escaped violence in a nation that, by the U.N.’s human development index, is the poorest in the world.

Lessons take place in shelters or classrooms equipped with tables and benches provided by NGOs. But in others, the pupils must learn on the floor.

Fatima and Aissa, two young girls from Ngaba, a settlement near Mali, expressed their delight at returning to school as they clutched their slate boards.

But the euphoria of returning to school cannot wipe out the painful memories.

“My uncle was a village chief, he was killed by the bandits in front of our eyes,” said Mariama, who also lived in Ngaba. “There was a lot of blood.”

Nassirou, Malick, Hasane, Abdou and their parents fled their village of Adabdab on foot after a series of jihadist attacks, the last of which on October 22 claimed the lives of 11 civilians.

“It was the bandits who chased us away, they killed many men,” Nassirou said quietly in the playground.

Moussa, who hails from a hamlet in the same area, said: “I’m not afraid anymore, I no longer hide when I hear the sound of motorcycles” often used by jihadists to attack villages.

‘Encouraging results’

When they first arrived at the new centers, many children showed “signs of distress and trauma, others were very aggressive,” said education official Morou Chaibou.

He spoke of how some pupils recounted harrowing memories — including seeing their parents being shot.

Adamou Dari, the regional director of the centers, said they also offered the children psychological and social support to give them some stability after their traumatic experience.

“Now they concentrate in class and the results are encouraging,” said a teacher as she played in the courtyard with some of her pupils.

Absenteeism is minor but a source of worry, Dari said, explaining that some pupils played truant to work in the town and help feed their families.

Harlem Desir of the International Rescue Committee, who recently visited the site for displaced people in Ouallam, said impoverished families often put their children to work or marry their daughters at a young age.

Chaibou warned that neglected children could become prime recruitment targets for the very jihadist groups whose depredations have left their families in such difficulties.

In 2021, Amnesty International warned that boys aged between 15 and 17 were filling the ranks of armed groups, especially the al-Qaeda-affiliated GSIM, in the Torodi region near Burkina Faso — with the blessing of their parents.
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The death toll from two al-Shabab bombings in Mogadishu has risen to 121, Somalia’s Health Minister Dr. Ali Haji Adam, said Tuesday. 

In an interview with VOA’s Somali Service, Adam said 10 people have been recorded as missing from the Saturday bombings. He said the National Response Committee appointed by the government also recorded 333 injuries.  

“This morning there are 142 injured people in the hospitals, some of them in the intensive care unit,” he said. 

Adam said the government set up a call center for people who are missing their loved ones to contact. He said the government has also been distributing food and water to the wounded and their relatives who are coming to the hospitals. 

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has appealed to the international community to send doctors to help treat the wounded. 

Adam said Turkey was the first country to respond to the appeal made by the president. 

“We were expecting an air ambulance, carrying medical supplies and doctors (from Turkey) today but it was delayed,” he said. 

He said they are also expecting medical supplies, two ambulances and a trauma team from the World Health Organization.   

Adam said the government also set up a victims’ support fund, to which the government has donated $1 million. Three private companies, Dahabshiil, Hormud and BECO have donated $500,000, $200,000, and $50,000 respectively. 

The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the Saturday explosions. A senior Somali government official who requested not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak with the media told VOA Somali the first explosion was caused by a suicide car bomb that targeted the Ministry of Education. A three-wheeled motorcycle pulling a small trailer full of explosives caused the second blast. 

The rising death toll makes the attack the second deadliest in Somalia’s history. The deadliest bombing occurred on October 14, 2017, when a truck laden with explosives blew up at a major intersection in the capital, killing 587 people and injuring hundreds more.  

The Somali government and the international community condemned the latest incidents.  

President Mohamud described the bombings as a “cruel & cowardly terrorist attack on innocent people by the morally bankrupt & criminal al-Shabab group.”   

   

In Washington, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said the United States strongly condemns the “tragic terrorist attack.”  

“We send our deepest condolences to the Somali people and to all those who lost loved ones or were injured by these unconscionable attacks against innocent civilians. The United States remains committed to supporting the federal government of Somalia in its fight to prevent such callous terrorist acts.”  

In New York, a spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is “deeply saddened” by what happened.  

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns these heinous attacks and reiterates that the United Nations stands in solidarity with Somalia against violent extremism,” said Stephane Dujarric.  

Al-Shabab has been fighting to topple the internationally recognized Somali government for more than 15 years. Government troops supported by local militias are currently engaged in an offensive that has succeeded in retaking some areas that were controlled by al-Shabab in central Somalia.
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Somalia’s government has promised support for victims of the twin bombings in the capital Saturday that killed at least 100 people and injured close to 300 others. Saturday’s attack by al-Shabab comes as security forces have been waging a large-scale offensive against the militants. 

Following an emergency Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Hamza Barre said his government will contribute one million dollars to offset the medical bills for victims of the Saturday twin bombings and support families affected.

The government said it will also cover education costs for children whose parents and dependents were affected in the attacks.

Barre also said the government will double down on the offensive against al-Shabab to avenge the lives lost.

“We pledge that we will get revenge for the Somali people and the final decision is to liberate the country from terrorists. So, as we go through pain, I urge Somalis to show patience, stability and resilience for casualties of the ongoing war. We hope in the shortest time to see our country free of explosions, killings and to have freedom of movement in our country,” he said.

The twin bombings came as the Somali National Army, with the backing of clan militias, continue a campaign against al-Shabab in central Somalia.

Rashid Abdi, a security and political analyst from Sahan, a research think tank in Nairobi, says the attacks were a message from al-Shabab to Somalis who are supporting the government offensives.

“Al-Shabab, you know, is using this kind of urban terror, first of all, to intimidate and create fear. Because remember, if they conduct this kind of attacks, frequently, people will begin to tell the government, you need to review your strategy. So, this is a way of creating public fear and anxiety and pressure on the government to stop the military campaign,” he said.

But Rashid predicts the attacks will galvanize more Somalis to join the war and ensure al-Shabab is defeated.

He says al-Shabab is also trying to show it still has power despite recent reversals.

“Their back essentially is to the wall,” he said. “More territory has been taken from al-Shabab’s hands in the last four months than in the whole of the last five years. The al-Shabab finances and economic power is being dismantled. So, I think this is an indication that al-Shabab is actually very desperate and wants to show the adversary and the government in particular that it still has the capacity and the will to conduct these sorts of bombs.”

On Sunday, the Somali government said that 100 al-Shabab fighters and leaders had been killed by government forces in the Middle Shabelle region.

Saturday’s bombings in Mogadishu took place near an intersection where another bombing five years ago killed nearly 600 people. That bombing, widely blamed on al-Shabab, is still the deadliest terrorist attack in African history.
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Kenyan President William Ruto said during a meeting Monday with the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) that extrajudicial killings by police in the country must end.

Five police officers who were members of a now-disbanded special services unit went on trial Monday for the murders of Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai — two Indian nationals who advised Ruto’s election campaign — and their taxi driver, Nicodemus Mwania.  

Four other officers had been tried last week in connection with the deaths. 

Ruto wants the IPOA to develop a plan to help end extrajudicial killings in Kenya. 

”Extrajudicial killings must come to an end,” Ruto said. “It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it offends every principle of the right to life.” 

An August 2022 report by Human Rights Watch found that the failure of Kenyan authorities to address accountability for past abuses by police heightened the risk for more abuse. George Musamali, a security analyst in Kenya, says arresting the officers and trying them is a sign of progress.

“You’ll find that in Kenya, we’ve been having a lot of misuse of this because sometimes you’ll find that people who are innocent, there is no evidence that these people are a danger to national security,” Musamali said. “You’ll find them being eliminated, and this is what we are trying to deal with right now, And I believe the Ruto government will [get] to the bottom of this.” 

Rights groups such as Amnesty International say police abuse could completely end if the inquiries were extended to all other police units.

“Expand the inquiry into other formations,” said Demas Kiprono, campaign manager at Amnesty International. “There are formations that have happened by ATPU [the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit]. There are violations by other police units and formations. There are violations by certain police stations that are notorious.” 

Investigations into the killing last week of Pakistani investigative journalist Arshadi Sharif by Kenyan police are underway. According to the police, Sharif’s murder was a case of mistaken identity. 

Kenya’s director of public prosecution, Noordin Haji, said last week that 12 police officers, most of them senior officials, will face charges for crimes against humanity concerning a crackdown on post-election protests in 2017.

According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, 94 people were killed at the time, and more than 300 were injured.  

In a statement, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk commended Haji’s decision, which the United Nations says is an advance toward accountability for gross human rights violations in Kenya. 

 
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Cameroon says Equatorial Guinea has deported several hundred Cameroonians, some of whom say they were fleeing terrorist and rebel attacks at home. The government of Equatorial Guinea says the deportees were economic migrants and is planning to deport 7,000 Cameroonians in all by the end of the year.

Scores of Cameroonians applauded Monday while welcoming back at least 200 of their citizens who were deported. But the well-wishers are not happy with Equatorial Guinea’s actions. Civilians shouted that by deporting Cameroonians, the oil-rich country is being indifferent to people who have rendered services as mechanics, electricians, bricklayers, miners and other types of workers.

Nguenang Rigobert, one of the deported Cameroonians, says he lost his teaching job in Equatorial Guinea. Nguenang says he, like many Cameroonians in Equatorial Guinea, are victims of what he calls the Cameroon government’s lack of interest in the plight of its citizens outside the country. He says Cameroon should have negotiated for Equatorial Guinea to give Cameroonians more time to acquire resident and work permits.

Nguenang said several dozen of the deported Cameroonians fled their country in part because of its ongoing separatist crisis. Others left because of Boko Haram terrorism in the north.

Some deportees said they were tortured and their property looted in Equatorial Guinea. Others said they spent several nights in detention centers and were freed after agreeing to return to Cameroon unconditionally.

Nouhou Bello, the most senior Cameroon government official in Ocean, the administrative unit where Campo is located, says President Paul Biya asked him to receive the deported civilians and make sure they travel to their towns and villages in peace.

Bello says Cameroonians who have arrived in Campo since Friday have confirmed to government officials that they were in the neighboring state illegally. He says some of the deportees told officials their visas had expired while others acknowledged lacking travel documents when they went to Equatorial Guinea.

Bello called on Cameroonians staying in Equatorial Guinea illegally to return home or risk being locked up.

Earlier in October, the government of Equatorial Guinea said it would embark on a mass deportation of people living illegally in its territory.

Officials said insecurity has mounted due to an influx of about 30,000 economic migrants within the past three years. Equatorial Guinea accused job-seeking youths, especially from Cameroon and Nigeria, of harassment, theft and armed banditry.

Essomba Innocent is an economic analyst at the National University of Equatorial Guinea. He says in January 2020, the country signaled that it did not want illegal economic migrants in its territory and laid the foundation stone for construction of a border wall with Cameroon.

Essomba says in June 2020, Equatorial Guinea agreed to pause the construction of the controversial wall after Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Central African Republic agreed to voluntarily repatriate their citizens living in Equatorial Guinea illegally. He says people who are being deported should not ask the government of Equatorial Guinea for compensation for goods they acquired when their stay was illegal.

Equatorial Guinea is a tiny central African nation of around 1.5 million people. The International Monetary Fund reports that the nation took in approximately $45 billion in oil revenues between 2000 and 2013, catapulting it from one of the world’s poorest countries to the one with the highest per capita income on the African continent.
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The veterinarian and conservationist was kidnapped Friday
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The African Union on Sunday said it was worried about the deteriorating security situation in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rebels have made fresh gains.

In a joint statement, AU Chairman Macky Sall and AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat said expressed “extreme concern” at the failing security and appealed for calm and dialogue.

They called “on all the parties to establish an immediate cease-fire, respect international law, the safety and security of civilians,” the statement said.

The M23 rebels seized more territory in the vast, mineral-rich DRC on Saturday, prompting the U.N. peacekeeping mission to increase its “troop alert level” and boost support for the army.

The latest advance came as diplomatic relations between neighbors DRC and Rwanda worsened. The authorities in Kinshasa, who accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels, on Saturday announced the Rwandan ambassador would be expelled, a move Kigali said was regrettable.

The AU urged all the parties to engage “in a constructive dialogue” to ensure peace in the troubled region.

M23, a mostly Congolese Tutsi group, resumed fighting in late 2021 after lying dormant for years, accusing the government of having failed to honor an agreement over the demobilization of its fighters.

It has since captured swaths of territory in North Kivu, including the key town of Bunagana on the Ugandan border in June.
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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has given Rwandan ambassador Vincent Karenga 48-hours to leave the country in retaliation for Rwanda’s alleged support of the M23 rebels in the Congo’s eastern provinces. 

“This is, in part, due to the persistence of (Karenga’s) country to attack the DRC and to support the terrorist movements of the M23,” government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a televised statement Saturday evening. 

The rebel group, which Congo authorities accuse Rwanda of backing but Rwanda denies, seized the town of Kiwanja in eastern Congo Saturday, effectively cutting North Kivu’s capital Goma off from the upper half of the province. 

Three Kiwanja residents told Reuters that droves of fighters entered the town without significant resistance after a short spat of gunfire Saturday morning. 

A U.N. intervention brigade, which has been supporting government forces, said in a statement that four peacekeepers were wounded in the fighting. The statement did not comment on the fate of the town. 

“Attacks against U.N. peacekeepers may constitute war crimes,” it said. “(The mission) calls on this rebel group to immediately cease all belligerence and warns that it stands ready to respond vigorously in the event of further aggression.”

The Congolese army contingent protecting the town had departed the previous day, residents said. The army has conducted strategic retreats from populated areas to move fighting away from towns and protect civilians. 

Kivu Security Tracker, which maps unrest in eastern Congo, said the army retreated Saturday from positions at Rumangabo, their largest camp in the area, and that M23 had surrounded the local U.N. peacekeeper camp and the Virunga National Park. 

Saidi Balikwisha Emil, a member of North Kivu’s provincial parliament, said in a WhatsApp message: “The fall of Kiwanja and elsewhere is a national disgrace, especially for those of us who spend entire days on social networks casting aspersions on our army.” 

“Kiwanja (is) an important entity that opens the direct way to Goma,” he added. 

Neither General Sylvain Ekenge, the army’s national spokesman, nor Colonel Ndjike Kaiko, the army’s spokesman for North Kivu, immediately responded to calls and messages requesting comment. 

Unrest in North Kivu has broken months of relative calm in eastern Congo after the resumption of clashes between the army and the M23 militants. 

Army forces have clashed with rebel fighters several times since fighting resumed Oct. 20, killing at least four civilians and forcing more than 23,000 people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations. Both groups have accused the other of initiating the violence.  

When it formed in 2012, M23 was the newest in a series of ethnic Tutsi-led insurgencies to rise against Congolese forces. 
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A journalist was among those killed, and media workers and first responders were injured in a double car bombing Saturday in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

The dual car bomb blasts took place near the Ministry of Education and targeted the busy Zobe intersection in Mogadishu. The second blast detonated as first responders and local media arrived on the scene.

Somali police spokesperson Sadiq Dodishe said, “scores of people were killed in the attack.”

He said they could not immediately determine the number of fatalities or how many people had been injured in both blasts. Dodishe said they will share that information with the media as soon as an ongoing assessment concludes.

Multiple witnesses who spoke with VOA put the death toll as high as 20.

Witnesses say the first car bomb detonated at the checkpoint of the Ministry of Education.  

The second blast occurred within minutes as people who rushed to help the wounded gathered, and ambulances arrived to transport the victims, one witness, who owns a shop nearby, told VOA on the condition of anonymity.

A police officer, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said there are massive casualties from the attack, but it is too early to say how many have been killed or injured.

He confirmed that a local journalist, Mohamed Isse Konan, who worked for Universal TV, was among those killed.

 

The journalist’s station confirmed the death in a post to its Facebook page Saturday.

At least two journalists were injured, including Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle, a freelancer who works with VOA’s Somali Service, and Reuters photojournalist Feisal Omar, according to Abdulle’s colleagues and the Somali Journalists’ Syndicate.

One of Abdulle’s relatives told VOA the journalist was hit in the abdomen by shrapnel and sustained other injuries, including the loss of at least two fingers, but that his condition is stable.  

 

THE SJS said on Twitter that Omar is having emergency surgery to remove shrapnel from his chest and stomach.   

Abdulle had previously survived a 2017 bombing in Mogadishu, the statement by SJS said.

VOA Acting Director Yolanda Lopez said Saturday she was “devastated” to learn that one of the broadcaster’s freelance journalists had been injured, and she condemned acts of violence that “endanger the lives of VOA reporters while covering news events.”

 

“The bravery and courage of our journalists – and their dedication that takes them wherever the story leads them – often means that they put themselves in harm’s way,” Lopez said in a statement. “We will continue to closely monitor the situation there on the ground and will provide support to our colleague as he recovers from his injuries.”

Abdulkadir Abdirahman, founder of the Aamin Ambulance Service said that two of his staff were injured in the second blast. “A driver and a first aid worker had been injured in the second blast as they arrived to transport the wounded.”

 

“It was a deafening and huge blast that sent plumes of smoke into the sky. The walls of the ministry building, and several other surrounding buildings [were] destroyed,” eyewitness Cabdullahi Osman, a driver of a three-wheeled motorized taxi, told VOA.

 

Briefing the media about the attack, a police spokesperson said the security forces foiled the attackers’ plan to enter the building.

 

“The purpose of the attack was to target and destroy an educational center that was serving Somali students, but the brave national army, who were tipped about the terrorist plot, prevented it,” he said.

 

The al-Qaida-affiliated Islamist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the deadly attack and said it had struck one of the Somali government ministries in Mogadishu.

Police spokesperson Dodishe told a news conference in Mogadishu that the terrorist group targeted civilians, including women, children and the elderly.

He said the cowardly terrorists targeted civilians with bomb blasts and they killed mothers with babies on their backs. He said that reveals the heinous action of the terrorists. 

The Somali Journalist Syndicate called for those responsible to be “held accountable.”

“Today we are shocked and outraged by this heinous attack that killed our colleague,” said SJS President Mohamed Ibrahim in a statement.

Koona, 29, is the second journalist killed so far in Somalia this year, the SJS said. It added that the prominent journalist left behind his wife and young son.

Somalia is considered the most dangerous county for media in Africa, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. Al-Shabab is the main killer of journalists in the country, with more than 50 killed since 2010, the RSF says.

A five-day national conference on combating violent extremism concluded Saturday in Mogadishu. Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, regional leaders and religious scholars attended the closing ceremony of the conference.

The Somali president recently announced a “total war” against al-Shabab militants. At the closing ceremony he said that everyone who pays money to al-Shabab knows they are responsible for every explosion, every bullet fired and for all the destruction of every water well.

Prime Minister Barre said al-Shabab misrepresents the Islamic religion and praised religious scholars’ efforts to overcome the deadly al-Shabab ideology.

After the conference, Somali religious scholars issued a communique that called out al-Shabab and denounced their ideology. The scholars announced it is forbidden in Islam to pay money to al-Shabab.

Somalia has been grappling with security threats for years, with al-Shabab being one of the main threats in the Horn of Africa nation.

Since at least 2007, al-Shabaab has waged a deadly campaign against the Somali government and international forces that has claimed thousands of lives.

 

Ahmed Mohamed contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters.
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Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.    

Russia and Ukraine trade allegations at Security Council

Russia called three meetings of the Security Council this week to press its allegations against Ukraine and its Western allies that they are building dirty bombs to use against Russia and to deny that Moscow had received drones from Iran in violation of a Security Council resolution. Western countries said the dirty bomb meetings were a waste of time and accused Russia of using the council to promote Kremlin disinformation. They have asked the U.N. to send investigators to Ukraine to examine drone debris to determine their origin.

In a private session, International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi updated the council on his efforts to establish a de-militarized protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The Russian-occupied facility has been repeatedly shelled during the conflict and has raised fears of a nuclear incident or accident.

Difficult winter ahead for millions of Syrians

The United Nations appealed Tuesday for more money and access to needy Syrians, as winter sets in and a cholera outbreak strains limited resources. At least 14.6 million people need assistance – more than at any other time during the 11-year civil war. In January, the U.N. Security Council will consider renewing the authorization for the cross-border aid operation from Turkey into northwest Syria. Russia has long sought to end the operation, and the already difficult negotiations will take place against the backdrop of council divisions intensified by the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a new study of U.N. contracts in Syria found that a large share of donor funds went to companies owned by individuals with troubling human rights records or associated with the Bashar al-Assad regime. The report, by U.K.-based nongovernmental organization Syrian Legal Development Program and the Observatory of Political and Economic Networks, said nearly half of U.N. procurement funds went to “risky” or “highly risky” suppliers.

UNEP: Greenhouse gases need to be drastically cut by 2030

Ten days before leaders meet at the COP27 climate review conference in Egypt, the U.N. Environment Program warned Thursday that the window for preventing a climate catastrophe is quickly closing. The agency’s latest Emissions Gap Report says greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 45% by 2030 to stop climate change. UNEP says the world is falling far short of the Paris climate agreement goals, with no credible pathway for limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.

Rights expert calls for new strategy on Myanmar

The U.N. special rapporteur for Myanmar warns that unless the international community changes how it deals with the military junta in that country, the already catastrophic situation will only get worse. Tom Andrews told VOA in an interview this week that countries should form a coalition to implement a coordinated strategy to deprive the military of arms, fuel for their aircraft, financing and the legitimacy the junta seeks.

He singled out Myanmar’s civil society, human rights defenders and journalists as “heroes” who are risking their lives to document atrocities and deserve international support. The junta, he said, has committed crimes against humanity and war crimes.

More atrocities without peace in Ethiopia’s Tigray

A commission of independent U.N. experts examining rights violations and atrocities in the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region said Friday that without an end to the fighting, the risk of further atrocity crimes is growing. The U.N. International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said that Ethiopian, Eritrean and Tigrayan forces have all committed violations in the hostilities that began two years ago, several of which rise to war crimes and crimes against humanity.  

Read more on the humanitarian crisis in Tigray:

WHO: Blockade of Humanitarian Aid to Tigray Puts Millions at Risk of Deadly Diseases

In brief

—  The International Organization for Migration said Monday that at least 5,684 migrants have died on European migration routes since the start of 2021. The agency said the numbers of deaths are rising on routes across the Mediterranean, on land borders to Europe and within the continent. The IOM said this highlights the need for more legal and safe pathways for migration.

— As protests across Iran enter their seventh week, the U.N. said Friday it is increasingly concerned about reports of increasing fatalities. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric condemned “all incidents that have resulted in death or serious injury to protestors” and reiterated that security forces must “avoid all unnecessary or disproportionate use of force against peaceful protestors.” The U.N. has called for accountability and for the Iranian authorities to respect human rights, women’s rights and the rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of association.

—  The U.N. has expressed concern about outbreaks of cholera and watery diarrhea in at least 29 countries this year, including most recently, Haiti, Syria, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. The situation is even more worrying, as the World Health Organization said recently there is a shortage of cholera vaccines due to the high number of outbreaks.

Good news

On Thursday, the governments of Lebanon and Israel signed separate letters with the United States delineating the maritime border, ending a yearslong dispute. The signing took place at the U.N. peacekeeping premises in south Lebanon. The letters will be deposited with the United Nations. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the agreement can promote increased regional stability and enhanced prosperity for both nations. The deal between the two enemies that have fought multiple wars removes a hurdle to each country being able to exploit hydrocarbon fields along the border.

Quote of note

“A war without witnesses, as you know, can be terrible.” 

Radhika Coomaraswamy, a member of the three-person U.N. International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia to reporters Friday on the need for access to conflict areas in northern Ethiopia.

What we are watching next week

On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council will hold an informal meeting on the weeks of protests in Iran sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The United States and Albania have called the meeting to highlight “the ongoing repression of women and girls and members of religious and ethnic minority groups in Iran.” Briefers will include Nobel Laureate and human rights defender Shirin Ebadi and Javaid Rehman, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran.
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Nigerian security forces dismantled a terror cell and arrested 35 suspected members of the militant group Islamic State West Africa Province, including five commanders, Nigerian daily newspapers reported Friday.

Abuja, the capital, remained on guard, with some shops closing temporarily as a precaution.

Australian and Canadian embassies in the city were the latest to issue terror warnings; U.S. and British embassies on Sunday had told their citizens to be on alert and avoid crowds across Nigeria but especially in Abuja.

The foreign missions said government buildings, places of worship, schools, markets, shopping malls, bars and hotels were among possible terrorist targets.

The U.S. State Department ordered family members of U.S. employees to leave the Nigerian capital.

Security guards patrolled Friday near a huge shopping complex in Abuja’s Jabi district. The complex had closed Thursday because of security threats.

Workers and shoppers were not allowed into the premises, and the street was blocked off to car and foot traffic.

Abuja Police Public Relations Officer Josephine Adeh said authorities were stepping up security measures.

“We’re doing all we can. … We’ve strengthened our security, even though there’s no cause for concern, no cause for alarm. We don’t have any threat in our country,” she said.

Concerns about terror attacks have been growing in Nigeria. Militant groups have been pushing their operations beyond bases where they have been active for years.

In June, authorities blamed Islamic State West Africa Province for a church attack in southwest Nigeria that killed 40 worshippers.

One month later, the group claimed responsibility for attacking a correctional facility in Abuja and freeing hundreds of inmates. While hundreds of the escapees have been recaptured, many others remain on the loose, including more than 60 high-profile terror suspects.

Security analyst Chidi Omeje said authorities were trying to assure citizens of their safety.

“Our government on its part, naturally you should expect them to play down the situation,” Omeje said. “Every government would like to project a good image of itself.”

But Omeje said citizens must take the foreign missions’ warnings very seriously.

“Citizens must at this point begin to think for themselves what to do, because I don’t want to believe that America, the U.K. and all other countries who have come up with this alert are just being mischievous. These are countries that have robust intelligence assets. We should not play with what they’re informing us.”
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