The state-owned company that runs South Africa’s freight rail and port systems is a step closer to ending a strike that has idled imports and exports for nearly two weeks. The union that represents a majority of workers from Transnet has signed a three-year wage deal to end the work stoppage. Not everyone is happy about the move.

The agreement is aimed at ending the walkout which began October 6 and cost the country $44 million a day.

Cobus van Vuuren is the general secretary of the majority United National Transport Union, or UNTU, which signed the multi-year agreement with Transnet. He says the deal is binding on all workers since it represents more than half of the company’s 40,000 unionized workers.

Van Vuuren made his comments as the South African Trade and Allied Workers Union, or SATAWU, the minority union in the dispute, said it would still picket and has consulted lawyers. Vân Vuuren explained his group’s position.

“Unfortunately, we don’t always see eye-to-eye because our philosophies and values both differ. And our understanding of the impact of a protracted strike and the effect that that can have on the greater economy and potential job losses that the economy can suffer is maybe not necessarily shared by SATAWU,” he said.

He added that SATAWU has the right to continue with the industrial action but their strike is now unprotected and they are exposing their members to disciplinary action, which could include dismissal.

Anele Kiet, the deputy secretary-general of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, says the majority union betrayed them.

“Even during the last negotiations, they left SATAWU and went to sign an agreement behind our back,” he said.

SATAWU has been holding out for an inflation-related increase. In July, South Africa’s inflation rate was at 7.8%, the highest in 13 years. UNTU settled for 6% as well as medical and housing allowance increases.

SATAWU also says it wants a no retrenchment (reduction) clause in the wage agreement.

UNTU’s van Vuuren says his union decided not to insist on that because Transnet gave guarantees that it will follow the legal procedures for retrenching (reducing) staff – should it be necessary.

He shed light on how Transnet, which like most state-owned enterprises in South Africa is battling financially, can afford the increases.

“So as far as what we have been informed,” he said. “Their customers especially in the ports has [sic] come on board. They have offered Transnet assistance through a [sic] extra charge which they are willing to pay on every container that is off-loaded or dealt with or processed. And the number that we have been told is R148 [$8.00] per container and taking into consideration that there’s millions of containers that is [sic] off-loaded during the year, you times that by R148, it does come to a substantial amount.”

He also says his union is concerned about intimidation of workers.

“Thus far for today we have not had any reports or any incidents that have been reported with regards to intimidation and violence,” he said. “We have however expressed our concern to Transnet with regards to this potential existing and we trust that Transnet will do anything in their power to make sure that our members can report to work safely… so that productivity can continue to resolve the backlog that exists currently.”

Meanwhile, South African politician Michael Bagraim, the labor spokesperson in parliament for the main opposition Democratic Alliance, praised UNTU and says he hopes the other union will come around.

“It is an enormous relief in that if this carried on for another few weeks, it would’ve crippled the entire economy,” he said.

Lumkile Mondi, economist and lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, acknowledges that a big part of the work force is still missing.

“The challenge is that they won’t be as efficient given the SATAWU workers that are absent,” he said.

SATAWU’s Kiet said the leadership of the union was heading to the country’s main port in Durban for talks with other members Wednesday on the legal opinion they have received. He said for now, they remain on strike.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged all parties to act in the best interest of the country.
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Cameroon says a fresh wave of cholera outbreak provoked by ongoing floods in its northern border with Chad and Nigeria has killed at least 17 people and many more are feared dead in difficult-to-access villages within a week. An emergency meeting by government officials and relief agencies on Wednesday ordered the deployment of humanitarian workers to overcrowded hospitals, especially on the border with Nigeria. 

Cameroon’s Public Health Ministry officials say several hundred fresh cholera cases have been detected on the country’s northern border with Nigeria with at least 17 people dead and many other civilians in desperate conditions at hospitals.

The government of the central African state on Wednesday said the death toll and suspected infections may be higher as humanitarian workers are not able to travel to towns and villages that are difficult to access.

The government says insecurity from ongoing Boko Haram terrorist attacks prevents aid workers from providing assistance to suspected cholera patients in some localities on Cameroon’s northern border with Chad and Nigeria.

Midjiyawa Bakary, the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region on the border with Chad and Nigeria, says he presided at an emergency meeting ordered by Cameroon president Paul Biya on Wednesday.

Bakary says it was decided that all civilians on Cameroon’s northern border with Chad and Nigeria should immediately respect measures taken at the emergency meeting to reduce or stop the wave of cholera attacks. He says local councils must construct community toilets and latrines, civilians must use the toilets and people should stop drinking water from flooded streams that are likely contaminated. Bakary says Cameroon’s military will protect health workers dispatched to areas still suffering Boko Haram attacks.

Bakary said humanitarian workers in affected towns and villages are instructing civilians on consuming cooked food and boiling water to reduce cholera contamination and infections, especially among children.

Bakary called on civilians to stop the practice of defecating in streams, fields, forests, bushes, lakes and rivers and to wash their hands with soap and clean water regularly.

The government says Mayo-Sava, a department on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria, is hardest hit by the cholera outbreak.

Roger Saffo, the highest government official in Mayo-Sava, says international relief agencies are donating personal hygiene to children and medication for aid workers to take care of the needs of civilians in affected towns and villages.

“We have already received sanitary kits from the regional office of the World Health Organization based in Maroua and Doctors Without Borders which has permitted the medical personnel to take care of the suspected cases, disinfection of infected localities in collaboration with the community in Mayo-Sava division,” he said, speaking via the messaging app WhatsApp from Mora, the capital of Mayo-Sava.

The government says floods are triggering the spike in cholera cases.

Linda Esso, deputy director for the Fight against Epidemics and Pandemics at Cameroon’s Public Health Ministry, says Cameroonians should not think that the ongoing wave of infections originates in Nigeria, which reported a cholera outbreak after this month’s deadly floods on the border with Cameroon. She says there are possibilities that some civilians infected or affected by the outbreak are moving to access hospitals on both sides of the border to seek help.

The U.N. reports that up to this month, more than 1,000 cases of cholera were reported in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe — states in Nigeria that share a border with northern Cameroon and Chad.

Esso said the cholera outbreak is spreading rapidly in areas of the Lake Chad basin that are shared by Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Niger and the Central African Republic.

Cameroon government officials say they have engaged in discussions with Nigeria and Chad to jointly combat the outbreak along their borders.

Cholera is a bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, usually spread over water. It can be fatal if not treated in hospitals.

Cameroonian health officials are asking people with confirmed and suspected cholera cases to refrain from seeking treatment from African traditional healers.
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There are only about 1,000 mountain gorillas left in the wild and they live in only three countries — the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. To encourage tourists and locals to help protect the endangered gorillas, Rwanda has turned to social media platform Instagram with a project they call GorillaGram. Senanu Tord reports from Kinigi, Rwanda. Videographer: Senanu Tord   
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UNICEF warns that an unprecedented number of children are likely to die in drought-stricken, famine prone Somalia without greater, immediate action from the international community to provide lifesaving assistance.

Somalia has endured four consecutive years of failed rains and is facing a possible fifth season of drought. This has destroyed peoples’ ability to feed themselves and has forced millions to uproot themselves in search of something to eat and essential basic relief.

The humanitarian crisis is having a particularly disastrous impact on children.  UNICEF reports the number of severely acutely malnourished children is skyrocketing. In August alone, it reports that 44,000 children with severe acute malnutrition were admitted to health facilities for emergency treatment.

Speaking from Dolow, Somalia, UNICEF spokesman James Elder said this means today in Somalia, a child is admitted to a health care facility every single minute of every single day.

“Severely acutely malnourished children are 11 times more likely to die of diarrhea and measles than are well-nourished children. With rates like those, I have mentioned, Somali is really on the brink of a tragedy at a scale not seen in decades.  And of course, the children behind what is a staggering, slightly appalling statistic are those who make it to a treatment center,” he said.

Elder notes that many people are prevented from getting the help they need because of ongoing instability in the country and the dangers posed by the Islamist militant al-Shabab group. In response, he said UNICEF is deploying mobile teams to find and treat malnourished children in hard-to-reach locations.

“When people speak of the crisis facing Somalia and Somalians today, it has become very common to make these frightful comparisons to the famine, of course, of 2011 when around 260,000 people — half of those children — died. However, everything I am hearing on the ground from nutritionists to famine experts to pastoralists is that things today actually, unfortunately, look worse,” said Elder.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates 7.8 million people in Somalia are affected by the drought, including more than 1.1. million displaced people.

OCHA reports famine is projected in Baidoa and Burhakaba districts in Bay Region between now and December if humanitarian aid does not reach people most in need. As of now, 45 percent of the U.N.’s $2.26 billion appeal has been funded.
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Gunmen attacked a church in north central Nigeria during a service, killing a woman and her young daughter, a government official said Monday as the hunt for the suspects intensified.

The motorcycle-riding assailants arrived at the Celestial Church on Sunday and fatally shot the two victims, according to Jerry Omodara, Kogi state’s top security official. The church is located in the Lokoja area of Kogi state, 105 kilometers (65 miles) from Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja.

Sunday’s violence renewed concerns about safety at houses of worship in Nigeria, where at least seven attacks have targeted churches or mosques so far this year. In June, a massacre in Ondo state left 40 worshippers dead.

Authorities suspect that the assailants in the latest attack in Kogi had specifically targeted the church and its members.
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Three United Nations peacekeepers were killed and three others seriously injured when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in northern Mali on Monday, a U.N. spokesperson said. 

Islamist militants, some with links to al-Qaida and Islamic State, have been waging an insurgency in northern Mali for the last decade. 

The peacekeepers were on a mine search and detection patrol in the northern commune of Tessalit, in Kidal region, when they were hit, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. 

“We send our deepest condolences to the families of the peacekeepers, to our colleagues in the mission and we wish a speedy recovery to those who were injured,” Dujarric said. 

MINUSMA — the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali — currently has about 12,000 military personnel deployed in the country. 

At least 174 peacekeepers have been killed in hostile acts in Mali since the start of the mission in 2013, making it the deadliest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world. 

 
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Diplomats are calling on Ethiopia ‘s federal authorities and their rivals in the northern region of Tigray to agree to a cease-fire as heavy fighting raises growing humanitarian fears.

African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed “grave concern” in a statement Sunday over the fighting and called for an “immediate, unconditional cease-fire and the resumption of humanitarian services.”

AU-led peace talks were due to take place in South Africa earlier this month but were postponed because of logistical and technical issues.

The warring parties had said they were ready to participate in the process, even though fighting persists in Tigray.

“The Chairperson urges the parties to recommit to dialogue as per their agreement to direct talks to be convened in South Africa by a high-level team led by the AU High Representative for the Horn of Africa, and supported by the international community,” Mahamat said in a statement.

The AU statement followed one issued late Saturday by a U.N. representative who said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “gravely concerned about the escalation of the fighting” and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

Fighting resumed between the Tigray forces and the federal troops in August, bringing an end to a cease-fire in place since March that had allowed much-needed aid to enter the region. Fighting has drawn in forces from Eritrea, on the side of Ethiopia’s federal military.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power called on Eritrean forces to withdraw from Tigray and urged the parties to observe a cease-fire, warning in a tweet that up to a 1 million people are “teetering on the edge of famine” in the region.

“The conflict has displaced millions of people, and camps for displaced Ethiopians have also fallen under attack,” said Power, who warned of further bloodshed if Eritrean and Ethiopian federal forces take charge of the camps.

The cease-fire calls came as heavy clashes were reported near the northwestern Tigray town of Shire, where an attack Friday killed an International Rescue Committee worker who was distributing aid supplies.

European Union foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell said he was “horrified by the reports of continuous violence, including the targeting of civilians in Shire.”

Tigray forces said in a statement that they welcomed the AU’s cease-fire call.

“We are ready to abide by an immediate cessation of hostilities,” the statement said. Ethiopia’s federal government has yet to respond.

Aid distributions are being hampered by a lack of fuel and an ongoing communications blackout in Tigray. The Associated Press reported Saturday that a U.N. team found there were “10 starvation-related deaths” at seven camps for internally displaced people in northwestern Tigray, according to an internal document prepared by a humanitarian agency.

Millions of people in northern Ethiopia, including the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, have been uprooted from their homes and tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed since the conflict broke out in November 2020.
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Nigerian prosecutors say they will appeal a court’s decision to drop terrorism charges against separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu. An appeals court dismissed the charges Thursday, saying a lower court had no authority in the case and that Kanu was illegally extradited from Kenya. Kanu leads the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group that wants to break away from Nigeria the government has labeled a terrorist organization. 

Nigeria’s attorney general, Abubakar Malami, responded to Thursday’s ruling in a statement saying the separatist is discharged but not acquitted.

Malami said authorities will explore legal steps to revisit the court’s decision. He said the court failed to take into account issues that took place before Nnamdi Kanu was extradited to Nigeria from Kenya last year.

A three-judge panel of an appeals court Thursday ruled that Kanu’s trial was unlawful, and said authorities flouted international treaties to “abduct” the separatist.

The court said the circumstances surrounding his arrest did not give the government the jurisdiction to continue to keep him on trial.

The court also ruled that the government did not provide clear evidence of when and where Kanu committed the many allegations against him.

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to calls for further comment. But Kanu’s lawyer, Ifanyi Ejiofor, spoke to VOA via phone.

“The right of appeal is a constitutional right but the fact is that order of court must be obeyed, it’s sacrosanct. Saying that Nnamdi Kanu was discharged not acquitted I believe is an impudence on the judgement of the court of appeals. The court used the word abduction, that is to tell you the level of the atrocity they committed,” he said.

It’s not clear when he will be freed.

“We expect them to comply immediately with the court order because detention became illegal as of yesterday. Yesterday, the court directed he should be released immediately. They should release him to us without any further ado,” Ejiofor said.

Kanu is leading a movement to break off southeastern Nigeria from the rest of the country to form a republic called Biafra.

A previous Biafra independence movement led to a civil war between 1967 and 1970 that killed an estimated one million people.

On Friday, as news of Kanu’s court discharge spread, so did excitement in Nigeria’s Southwest region.

Christian Paul hails from Imo state, one of the strong bases for the separatist movement. He believes that with Kanu’s release, the court may have been sending a message.

“They violated his human rights and kept making fresh allegations against him. At this point in time, it becomes really strategic if his release is granted by a court. It might have some political undertone,” he said.

Nigerian voters head to the polls in February of next year to elect a new leader.
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Behind their homes is an oil pipeline, and above them are high-voltage cables suspended between pylons. A little further off is a flare tower, burning off excess gas 24 hours a day. 

Yet these potent symbols of Republic of Congo’s oil and gas bonanza mean little to the villagers who live in their shadow. 

When darkness falls, they have to fire up a generator or light lamps. None of their homes have mains electricity. 

“I’m 68 years old and I live in darkness,” said Florent Makosso, seated beneath a giant banana tree. 

“My parents and grandparents had a better quality of life when it [Republic of Congo] was French Equatorial Africa.” 

Makosso lives in Tchicanou, a small village 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Pointe-Noire — the energy hub of the Republic of Congo. 

The former French colony gained complete independence in 1960 and became a major oil producer some two decades later. 

It notched up sales last year averaging 344,000 barrels a day, making it the third-biggest exporter south of the Sahara after Angola and Nigeria.  

The country is sitting on 100 billion cubic meters (3,500 billion cubic feet) of natural gas — more than the entire annual consumption of Germany, the world’s fourth-largest economy. 

But little of this wealth has translated into prosperity for the country’s 5.5 million people. About half live in extreme poverty, according to World Bank figures. 

Tchicanou is emblematic of a community that suffers the downsides of fossil fuels but gets few of its benefits. 

Surrounded by fruit trees, the village of 700 straddles Highway 1, the lifeline between the Atlantic port of Pointe-Noire and the capital, Brazzaville. 

Tchicanou and the neighboring village Bondi host pipelines and pylons for carrying oil products and electricity. 

But they find themselves in the same situation as communities in the remotest parts of the country: They are still not hooked up to the national grid. 

The village has no streetlights, and the biggest source of illumination comes from the flare tower at a nearby 487-megawatt gas-fired power plant, the country’s largest. 

“It’s an ordeal living here,” Makosso said. 

“We have to buy generators, which are expensive, and running them is a challenge in itself.” 

Without power, “television and the other electrical appliances are just decoration,” he said, pointing to the simple challenge of keeping food refrigerated. 

A fellow resident, Flodem Tchicaya, said Tchicanou “is in a good location. But the only use of the gas that they burn here is to cause pollution and make us sick.” 

Inequality 

Roger Dimina, 57, said that access to electricity in Republic of Congo was “unfair.” 

“Instead of it starting at the bottom and heading to the top, it starts at the top and the bottom has nothing,” he said. 

Across the country, electrification in urban areas reaches less than 40% of homes, while in rural zones, it is less than 1 home in 10. 

In a recent interview in the Depeches de Brazzaville, the capital’s sole daily newspaper, Energy Minister Emile Ouosso said the goal was to reach 50% by 2030. 

A group close to the Catholic church, the Justice and Peace Commission, has been running an “electricity for all” campaign, focusing especially on villages in the orbit of Pointe-Noire. 

The group’s deputy coordinator, Brice Makosso, said the government has declared a budget surplus of 700 billion CFA francs (more than $1 billion dollars) for 2022. 

Just a small amount of this could hook villages up to the grid, he said, pointing to duties that oil companies in the area paid to the government. 

 
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Somalia’s government Saturday threatened to sanction businesses that pay extortion money to al-Shabab, looking to choke a lucrative cash pipeline the Islamist militants use to fund a deadly insurgency.

Somalia’s ministry of commerce and industry said the full force of the law would be brought against traders who pay the al-Qaida ally, which experts say raises millions of dollars through a complex and extensive taxation system.

The ministry said any business found to have paid or collaborated with al-Shabab in any way would “face legal action” including having their government-issued trading permits revoked.

“Any merchant who obeys instructions issued by the terrorists, and pays them income, will never be allowed to do business in Somalia again,” the ministry said in a letter to traders.

“Any company found to involve members of al-Shabab, or that sponsors their merchandise, will have their property including real estate confiscated by the government.”

Al-Shabab has been trying to overthrow the central government in Mogadishu for more than 15 years and regularly stages deadly bombings and armed attacks on civilian and military targets.  

Despite an international effort to degrade the group, the militants control swaths of countryside, and use threats of violence to collect taxes in territory under their jurisdiction.

The group taxes real estate, road cargo at checkpoints and slaps customs on imports passing through the capital’s main port, according to a 2020 report by the Mogadishu-based Hiraal Institute.

The think tank then estimated al-Shabab raised at least $15 million a month, rivalling the government’s own tax collection efforts.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has vowed all-out war on al-Shabab and the warning to traders comes as the armed forces, backed by local militias and international allies, wage an aggressive counter-insurgency campaign.

The jihadis have staged a series of attacks in recent months, with a triple bombing in the city of Beledweyne this month killing 30 people, and a hotel siege in Mogadishu leaving 21 dead in August.

The government has announced a crackdown on media outlets that publish what it deems propaganda for al-Shabab and warned that offenders would be punished.
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Six people, including two army colonels, were condemned to death by a DR Congo military court Friday for the killings of two Chinese mine workers. 

Four other military personnel were sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Ituri Military Court. 

All but one of those receiving the death sentence were members of the military. 

The two colonels were accused of planning an attack on a convoy in March, with the aim of stealing four gold bars and $6,000 in cash being transported by the victims, who were returning from a gold mine. 

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, death penalties are regularly handed down but then systematically commuted to life imprisonment. 

“This must serve as an example for the black sheep in the armed forces,” Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, a representative for military operations in the gold-rich Ituri province, told AFP.  

Attacks on Chinese-managed mines and Chinese workers are not uncommon in resource-rich eastern DRC, which has been ravaged by militia violence for decades.  

Last year, the DRC government placed security officials in charge of the administration of Ituri and the neighboring North Kivu province in a bid to curb violence. However, the measure has failed to stop attacks. 

The defense team said it would appeal. 
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Media freedom activists in Uganda have decried President Yoweri Museveni’s signing of the Computer Misuse Act into law, saying its vague wording will be used to silence government critics.

The law, which Museveni signed Thursday, bans the use of social media to publish, distribute or share information prohibited under the laws of Uganda.  It also bans the use of a disguised or false identity online. Violators could face jail terms of five to 10 years.

In June, Ugandan journalist Agather Atuhaire tweeted and broke a story about how parliament approved the procurement of luxury cars for Speaker Anita Among and her deputy, Thomas Tayebwa. The vehicles cost over $730,000, causing an uproar from the public.

A week later, Kampala Central Legislator Muhammad Nsereko introduced the bill to control social media use.

Atuhaire told VOA the new law duplicates others on the books and is designed to cripple investigative journalism.

“Everything in there is ridiculous,” Atuhaire said. “It is saying that we can’t publish unsolicited information. The freedom of expression that the constitution guarantees doesn’t require me to first seek solicitation for my information. Freedom of expressing talks about imparting information, receiving it, disseminating it, so that’s really limiting.”

Other penalties

The law also mandates jail sentences of up to five years and penalties of $3,900 for users who share information about children without the authorization of parents or guardians.

Using a video or voice of an individual without authorization could lead to a 10-year prison term.

The Committee to Protect Journalists’ sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo, said the law, right from its creation, was surprising. She said she was dismayed at the definition of hate speech in the law.

“Hate speech is defined to include things like demeaning or ridiculing an individual,” she said. “That is a personal reputational concern. If you look at the provisions about spreading malicious information, is it going to be malicious if you investigate and publish allegations of corruption of political actors, if you critique their behavior? And depending on who’s interpreting that, we are going to see people being muzzled.”

Recently, the president’s son Muhoozi Kainerugaba was promoted to the position of general despite boasting on Twitter that Ugandan forces were capable of invading and taking over Kenya. Museuveni was forced to send a written apology to Nairobi.

Human rights lawyer Eron Kiiza expressed fear that the new law would curb those who dare to criticize such tweets.

“For example, if you’re in the military and you fall out with the military top guys, this law would be used against you as long as you speak something,” Kiiza said. ” … People who are going to oppose the Muhoozi project, they are the primary target and will be the worst victims. And any verbal opposition will be strangulated with ruthlessness using the prism of this law.”

Responsible use

Speaking to VOA, Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi said the law was meant to promote responsible use of social media and the internet.

“The message from the amendment is that please do not forward messages which are insulting, which are immoral, which do not meet the standards of the country. Do not initiate offensive messages. It’s an innocent law, in my view,” the minister said.

Press freedom activists said they were going to challenge the law in court, with hopes of having it repealed.
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