Adenekan Ayomide had been attending the University of Abuja for two years when the lecturers went on strike in February. The 27-year-old undergraduate student hoped he would return to school quickly but immediately took a job as a taxi driver to pay bills.

Unfortunately for him, the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities has now clocked six months and Ayomide’s hopes of returning to classes anytime soon grow thin.

“Nobody is talking about school again,” said Ayomide, who said he is working more than one job and the budget he had for getting through university now looks unrealistic.

University strikes are common in Nigeria, which has more than 100 public universities and an estimated 2.5 million students, according to Nigeria’s National Universities Commission. The universities here have recorded at least 15 strikes covering a cumulative period of four years since 2000.

The latest strike, however, is biting harder on an education sector that is struggling to recover from a COVID-19 lockdown and an earlier strike that lasted for most of 2020.

No alternative means of learning is provided for students because “more than 90%” of lecturers in Nigerian universities are members of the academic staff union, according to Haruna Lawal Ajo, director of public affairs at Nigeria’s universities commission.

The striking lecturers are demanding a review of their conditions of service including the platform the government uses to pay their earnings, improved funding for the universities and the payment of their salaries withheld since the strike started.

Talks between the lecturers and the government ended in deadlock this month, dashing hopes of a compromise agreement.

Lecturers have faulted the government’s position, arguing that the government has still not provided higher pay for lecturers and more funds for the education sector which it agreed to in 2009.

If the government has not fulfilled a promise made in 2009 by 2022, how can it be trusted? asked Femi Atteh, a lecturer at the University of Ilorin in northcentral Kwara state who now works with his wife to run a food retail business.

“I just see ASUU (the union) trying to fight for the rights of its people. … Nigerian lecturers are far behind in terms of welfare when compared to others,” said Atteh.

Atteh said some of his colleagues are moving abroad for better opportunities and improved pay.

“Our situation in this country is just in a sorry state,” said lecturer Sabi Sani at the University of Abuja. After 12 years of teaching, Sani said his monthly salary is “not even enough to pay my children’s school fees.”

He said that when “more lecturers realize they can migrate, we will be left with unqualified lecturers to teach our children (because) all the qualified ones will run away.”

It is not just lecturers who are eyeing relocation for better opportunities.

Amidat Ahmed, a 22-year-old economics student at the University of Abuja said the strike has prevented her from getting clearance that would see her wrap up her undergraduate studies in the school because lectures are not available. She is now considering going abroad for a fresh undergraduate degree program.

“My life is stagnant,” said Ahmed who said she is working two jobs including one as a shoemaker where she is learning the skill to set up a business later in life.

It is a case of using the lemons to make lemonade, she said.

“Apart from this (learning the shoe-making trade), I don’t think I have done anything with my life all this while and it has been six months.”

Across Nigeria, students are looking for work to survive. Rent and other bills have accumulated, making things worse for many from poor backgrounds in this nation with a 40% poverty rate, according to the latest government statistics.

Some students’ financial situation is better when school is in session as a small proportion of the students get funding provided by nonprofits and government agencies.

After the latest round of talks to end the strike was unsuccessful, Ayomide remained on the roads as a taxi driver.

“I don’t have 5 naira ($0.012) in my account and I cannot go home because there is no money,” said Ayomide. His only option is to work long hours, he said. “Sometimes, I sleep at the airport or inside the car.”

“We just have to double our hustle and hope for the best,” he said. “This is the country where we are, so we have no choice.”
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Libya’s capital was quiet early Sunday, a day after the worst fighting there for two years killed 32 people and injured 159 as forces aligned with a parliament-backed administration failed to dislodge the Tripoli-based government.

Roads in the city were busy with motorists, shops were open, and people were clearing away smashed glass and other debris from Saturday’s violence, with burned out vehicles lining some streets in central Tripoli.

The fighting has raised fears of a wider conflict in Libya over the political standoff between Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah in Tripoli and Fathi Bashagha, who seeks to install a new government in the capital.

Bashagha’s attempt on Saturday to take over in Tripoli was his second such attempt since May.

However, airline companies said early on Sunday that flights were operating normally at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, a sign that the security situation had eased for now.

The health ministry said on Sunday that 32 people were killed in Saturday’s violence and 159 were injured, up from a ministry source’s previous estimate of 23 deaths and 87 injured.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to the violence and for genuine dialogue to get around Libya’s political impasse.

Bashagha’s failure to oust Dbeibah showed that despite a period of realignment among armed factions in and around the capital, the Tripoli government can still count on a military coalition able to fight off its enemies.

Several groups aligned with Bashagha in Tripoli appeared to have lost control of territory inside the capital on Saturday, while attempts by forces to the west and south of the city to advance into it appeared to have failed.

A main military convoy that set out from Misrata, east of Tripoli, where Bashagha has been based for weeks, turned back before reaching the capital.

A major commander among the pro-Bashagha forces, Osama Juweili, said the fighting Saturday had been triggered by friction between armed forces in the capital. However, he added, in comments to Al-Ahrar television, that “it is not a crime” to try to bring in a government mandated by parliament.

Libya’s overarching political standoff over control of government appears largely unchanged by Bashagha’s attempt on Saturday to take over in Tripoli.

There is no sign of any move towards compromise between the main camps or of new diplomatic efforts to bring them together around a new push for national elections to resolve the dispute over control of government.

Meanwhile, while pro-Bashagha forces failed to install him on Saturday, they still hold strong positions around the capital, while the main eastern-based Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar waits in the wings.
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A leading Chad rebel group said Saturday it had killed 10 soldiers in the north of the country, a claim the government rejected as “fake news.”  

The Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR) said troops had attacked its forces in the Wouri district in the northern Tibesti region bordering Niger and Libya.  

The group, which has refused to sign a peace deal with the government, said its fighters had killed 10 soldiers and captured eight more.  

Government representative Abderaman Koulamallah told AFP that some 20 rebel vehicles had entered the country over the past week, but there had been “no skirmish” with government forces.  

“We have been monitoring these columns with planes and they left Chadian territory some days back,” he claimed, terming the CCMSR statement “fake news.”  

The Tibesti region has seen several major rebel movements emerge since independence from France in 1960. 

  

Since the 2012 discovery of gold there, the region’s mines have attracted panners by the thousand, as well as rebels from Chad and neighboring Sudan looking to use the precious metal as a means of funding their armed operations.  

The CCMSR also Saturday accused France of overflying its positions with planes from the French-led Barkhane anti-jihadist mission and warned it would regard any bombardment as a declaration of war. 

The CCMSR was formed in 2016 from a split within the Front for Change and Concorde (FACT) rebel group.  

FACT launched the offensive from Libya that led to the April 2021 death of former president Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled Chad for 30 years.  

Deby’s son General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno succeeded him at the head of a transitional administration of generals who were loyal to his father.  

Last week, the new leader launched a national dialogue toward restoring civilian rule with free and democratic elections within 18 months.  

The CCMSR is among the rebel groups that have refused to join.  

The group in April pulled out of peace talks in Qatar between the ruling junta and dozens of rebel groups, insisting the authorities had a “secret agenda” to destabilize peace efforts. 
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African heads of state, representatives of international organizations and private business leaders gathered in Tunisia on Saturday for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a triennial event launched by Japan to promote growth and security in Africa.

Economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, a food crisis worsened by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and climate change are among the challenges facing many African countries expected to define the two-day conference.

Tensions among African countries also weighed on the meeting: On Friday, Morocco announced a boycott of the event and recalled its ambassador to Tunisia to protest the inclusion of a representative of the Polisario Front movement fighting for independence for Western Sahara.

The conference comes as Russia and China have sought to increase their economic and other influence in Africa.

While 30 African heads of state and government attended the event in Tunis, Tunisia’s capital, many key talks are being held remotely, including those involving Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the summit.

The Japanese government created and hosted the first TICAD summit in 1993. The conferences now are co-organized with the United Nations, the African Union and the World Bank. The summits have generated 26 development projects in 20 African countries.

This year, discussion around an increase of Japanese investments in Africa is anticipated, with particular focus on supporting start-ups and food security initiatives. Japan has said it plans to provide assistance for the production of rice, alongside a promised $130 million in food aid.

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies, an academic institution of the U.S. Defense Department, compared the conference’s format to the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “where government, business, and civil society leaders participate on an equal basis.”

However, this weekend’s summit has sparked controversy in Tunis, which faces its own acute economic crisis, including a recent spike in food and gasoline shortages.

Critics have spoken about the organizers’ alleged “white-washing” of the city, which has seen cleaner streets and infrastructure improvements in preparation for the conference summit. One local commentator said the North African capital looked like it had applied makeup to impress participants.

Meanwhile, the journalists’ union in Tunisia issued a statement Friday condemning restrictions on reporting and information around the summit.

Morocco’s complaint stemmed from Tunisia inviting the Polisario Front leader to attend. Morocco annexed Western Sahara from Spain in 1975, and the Polisario Front fought to make it an independent state until a 1991 cease-fire. It’s a highly sensitive issue in Morocco, which seeks international recognition for its authority over Western Sahara.

“The welcome given by the Tunisian head of state to the leader of the separatist militia is a serious and unprecedented act, which deeply hurts the feelings of the Moroccan people,” Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Morocco announced its withdrawal from the conference and the recall of its ambassador for consultations. But the ministry said the decision does not “call into question the commitment of the Kingdom of Morocco to the interests of Africa.”
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Intense fighting erupted in the Libyan capital overnight and lasted until Saturday morning, with rival factions exchanging heavy gunfire and the sounds of several loud blasts ricocheting around the city.

The clashes took place in Tripoli’s city center, witnesses said, amid a political standoff over control of Libya’s government that has seen armed groups increasingly mobilize around the capital in recent weeks.

Pictures and video shared online of the city center, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed military vehicles speeding through the streets, fighters shooting and local residents trying to douse fires.

“This is horrible. My family and I could not sleep because of the clashes. The sound was too loud and too frightening,” said Abdulmenam Salem, a central Tripoli resident. “We stayed awake in case we had to leave quickly. It’s a terrible feeling.”

There was no immediate comment from the interior and health ministries regarding the fighting, which stopped late in the morning, or any casualties.

The main Libyan standoff pits the Government of National Unity in Tripoli under Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah against a rival administration under Fathi Bashagha, which is backed by the eastern-based parliament.

The United Nations mission in the country warned this week against any attempt to resolve the dispute through violence.
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The Ocean Viking, a humanitarian ship of SOS Mediterranee, has rescued 268 people since Thursday during five rescues of migrants mostly found in overcrowded wooden boats between Libya and Malta, the NGO announced Friday.

“Many have high levels of exhaustion and dehydration” and “severe sunburn,” said the NGO, whose headquarters are in Marseille.

Several minors, including unaccompanied minors, pregnant women and even a 3-week-old baby are now cared for by SOS Mediterranee and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent on the Viking Ocean.

On Tuesday, the ship said it had spotted four empty boats in this area, including one without a motor. But “without communication from the maritime authorities, the fate of the people on board remains unknown,” the ship communicated.

Since the beginning of the year, 1,161 migrants have disappeared in the Mediterranean, including 918 in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migratory route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The U.N. agency estimated the number of dead and missing in 2021 at 2,048 in the Mediterranean, including 1,553 for the central Mediterranean alone.

Every year, thousands of people fleeing conflict or poverty attempt to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, whose coasts are 300 kilometers from Italy.
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The World Meteorological Organization warns millions of people in the greater Horn of Africa will likely face a fifth consecutive season of insufficient rains. According to the U.N. weather agency the terrible four-year long drought in the Horn of Africa is set to continue for another year.

World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman Claire Nullis says the seasonal climate outlook for the region, which was issued Thursday, bears bad news for millions of people who already have suffered the longest drought in 40 years.

“The predictions show high chances of drier than average conditions across most parts of the region. In particular, the drought affected areas of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia are expected to receive significantly below rainfall until the end of the year.”

The WMO notes the October to December season contributes up to 70 percent of the annual total rainfall in the equatorial parts of the greater Horn of Africa, particularly in eastern Kenya. It says the lack of rain is likely to extend to parts of Eritrea, most of Uganda and Tanzania.

Last month humanitarian agencies and the regional bloc IGAD issued an alarming report about the growing number of people suffering from acute hunger in the region.

World Food Program spokesman Tomson Phiri says drought is not a new phenomenon in the Horn of Africa. However, he says what is happening now is more severe and is occurring with greater frequency.

“Hunger and malnutrition is worsening across all drought-affected areas. And there is a very real risk of famine in Somalia”, says Phiri. “I think this is well documented. This is on the record. It is in the public domain…No one has called for a famine now, but it does not mean it may not be declared in the coming months. It is very much a real threat.”

U.N agencies estimate more than 50 million people in the greater Horn of Africa suffer from acute food insecurity. The director of the WMO’s regional climate center for East Africa, Guleid Artan, warns the region is on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
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Somali authorities say a record drought has created near-famine conditions in South West state.  New arrivals at relief camps say they are eating animal skins to survive.  

Baidoa, the administrative capital of Somalia’s South West state, is one of the worst drought-affected areas in the country. People who have lost their livelihoods due to drought arrive at relief camps every day in search of humanitarian assistance.

Sumadle,  a new camp on the outskirts of Baidoa, hosts hundreds of new arrivals, mostly from the marginalized Eyle community. 

Some of the Eyle walk over 150 kilometers to Sumadle after losing their livestock and harvests because of three consecutive seasons of no rain.

Iisho Mad Keer Madey, a young and pregnant mother of four, told VOA she took a difficult journey to arrive at the camp from Hawal-Barbar, in Bay region. 

Madey said she and her children walked for two days and two nights to arrive at camp. She said people helped the exhausted family with a ride in an auto-rickshaw. She migrated after losing 20 goats and 20 camels because of drought, forcing her to beg to feed her children.

Habibo Ibrahim Haydar, the administrator of the camp, said the camp houses more than 300 new arrivals who have nothing to eat, and some have started to eat animal skins because they have not received humanitarian aid so far.

Two and half kilometers away there is another relief camp. Mercy Corps, an American humanitarian group, is providing the people there with water and cash to live in the camp, but it is not enough.

Mukhtar Haji Abukar, 73, arrived at the camp three days ago from the Bakol region. He told VOA he lost everything because of the drought.

Abukar said he had 60 cattle before the drought and now the only thing remaining is the  animal skin he was sitting on. He said he and his family hadn’t cooked anything today or last night. It took him four days and four nights to get here from Bakol.

Abukar said this drought is the worst he has seen in his entire life.

In a trip for journalists arranged by Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna said the situation in Somalia is dire and “beyond comprehension.”

“I met two women who had lost babies along the way and had to bury them on the roads as part of their journey,” she said. “We at Mercy Corps are providing cash to vulnerable families to buy food and other essentials and also providing water and hygiene kits to prevent disease spread.”

Somalia is witnessing one of the worst droughts in recent history. More than 1 million people have already been displaced by the drought, according to the United Nations.

The U.N. said more than 7.7 million Somalis—nearly half of the country’s population – need humanitarian assistance because of the drought.

UNICEF earlier told VOA that drought-related malnutrition has already killed 500 children in Somalia.
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Nigerian authorities say gunmen have released four abducted Catholic nuns unharmed. The nuns’ church says no ransom was paid.

Imo State police commissioner Micheal Abattam said Wednesday the four Nigerian nuns were released “unhurt” without saying whether a payment was made to secure their release.

In a separate statement, officials with the Congregation of Sisters of Jesus the Savior Convent also confirmed the nuns release, and said no ransom was paid.

A spokesperson of the Catholic Society of Nigeria (CSN), Micheal Umoh says the sisters are recovering from their time in custody. He spoke to VOA via phone.

“At the moment, we’re thanking God that they’ve been released, they’re undergoing some therapy and care. I think it’s after all that that we can begin to discuss with them what they went through.”

The four women were abducted near the town of Okigwe on Sunday while on their way to a thanksgiving mass.

Armed groups kidnapping for ransom has become rampant in northwest and central Nigeria and has recently increased in the southeast.

Days before the nuns were kidnapped, a Catholic priest and a seminarian were also kidnapped in the same region. The hostages are often released after paying ransom but some have been killed.

The chief press secretary to the Imo State government, Oguwike Nwachukwu, says authorities are taking measures against the recent spate of kidnapping attacks.

“All I know is that working in collaboration with security agencies in terms of information, precisely last week, the inspector general of police was here to formally launch armored personnel carriers that the governor procured for the police high command. So far so good, I think we’re winning the battle.”

Since last year, southeast Nigeria has seen a surge in violent attacks blamed on a separatist group, the Indigeneous People of Biafra or IPOB.

According to local media reports, more than 100 security operatives have been killed there in violent clashes.

IPOB denies responsibility for attacks.
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A recent announcement by China that it is forgiving 23 loans for 17 African countries may be motivated by accusations of “debt-trap diplomacy,” say some analysts.

Critics have long accused Beijing of practicing debt-trap diplomacy, suggesting it deliberately lends to countries that it knows cannot repay the money, thereby increasing its political leverage. China vehemently rejects this, alleging it’s a way for the U.S. to discredit Beijing, Washington’s main challenger in the quest for influence in Africa.

China’s decision to forgive the zero-interest loans is, in part, aimed at countering the debt-trap narrative, said Harry Verhoeven, senior research scholar at Columbia University in New York.

“It is not uncommon for China to do something like this [forgive interest-free loans] … now obviously it is connected to the overall debt-trap diplomacy narrative in the sense that clearly there’s a felt need on the part of China to push back,” Verhoeven told VOA.

China’s announcement did not specify the countries or the amount of loan forgiveness, but analysts say that since 2000, China has regularly forgiven loans that are nearing their end but have a small balance.

“This is not a loan cancellation per se, but the cancellation of the remaining unpaid portion of interest-free loans that have reached maturity, that is if a loan was supposed to be fully paid off over 20 years, but it still has an outstanding balance, they cancel that outstanding balance,” Deborah Brautigam, director of the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, told VOA.

China’s motivations

Brautigam’s research shows that between 2000 and 2019, China canceled at least $3.4 billion of such debt in Africa.

While this applies to the Chinese government’s interest-free loans, it is not the case with the country’s interest-bearing commercial loans, which can be restructured but are never considered for cancellation, analysts explained.

Verhoeven said the sums of money involved in the 23 loans forgiven would likely be modest, but the politics of such gestures are noteworthy because “for many years the Chinese would kind of shrug at various aspects, various lines of criticism, pertaining to their engagement in different African countries.” But with the debt-trap allegations, “China has belatedly woken up to the fact that this is a bit of a PR [public relations] nightmare,” said Verhoeven.

China has also been playing a role in restructuring the external debt of some African countries such as Zambia, which became the first African country to default on its debt during the pandemic. China, along with France, is chairing a committee to deal with debt relief efforts. The move, welcomed by the International Monetary Fund, is ongoing.

China is Zambia’s biggest creditor. Lusaka owes some $6 billion to Chinese entities. In July, Zambia’s finance ministry announced it was canceling $2 billion of undisbursed loans from its external creditors, $1.6 billion of which are from Chinese banks. The move stopped construction of infrastructure projects largely funded by a Chinese bank, the South China Morning Post reported.

Shahar Hameiri, a political economist from the University of Queensland in Australia, agreed that the latest move by Beijing in forgiving African nations’ interest-free loans was probably just “a goodwill gesture.”

“The bigger loans are likelier to be restructured, if repayment problems loom, as we saw in Zambia,” Hameiri wrote in an email to VOA.

US ‘debt trap’ claim

Senior officials in the U.S. have regularly warned developing countries, particularly in Africa, about the dangers of Chinese loans, and a 2020 State Department document, titled “The Elements of the China Challenge,” referred to China’s “predatory development program and debt-trap diplomacy.”

On a visit to the continent this month, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, touched on the idea that “the wealthy and powerful have extracted Africa’s natural resources for their own gain. And it continues today through bad deals and debt traps.” She did not mention China by name.

Africa’s view

African politicians themselves have had mixed reactions to the debt-trap theory, with some, such as Ethiopia’s ambassador to China, Teshome Toga Chanaka, refuting the idea, saying, “A partnership that does not benefit both will not sustain long.”

Others, including Kenya’s new president-elect, William Ruto, and Angolan opposition presidential candidate Adalberto Costa Jr., have expressed concern over taking Chinese loans.

China’s response

The debt trap allegations have infuriated Beijing, which says Western private lenders are responsible for the bulk of poor countries’ debt and charge much higher interest rates.

The U.S. allegation against China “is simply untenable,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said this month.

Chinese state media constantly run articles aiming to debunk the narrative.

Debunking the narrative

A number of economists and researchers are also saying the debt-trap narrative against China is unfounded.

“The debt-trap idea is that Chinese banks had ulterior motives: deliberately lending to countries when they knew those countries couldn’t repay,” Brautigam said. “The reality is that like bondholders, which hold the majority of Africa’s debt, Chinese banks lent to countries that looked quite promising. All of these creditors have belatedly realized that risk profiles can shift dramatically in a short period of time.”

China restructured or refinanced about $15 billion in African debt between 2000 and 2019, Brautigam’s research has found. She did not find that China had been involved in any “asset seizures.”

Echoing Brautigam, Hameiri wrote in an email to VOA, “There is scant evidence that China has pursued ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ – i.e., the idea that it would on purpose issue loans to ensnare recipients in unsustainable debt, in order to seize strategic assets or exercise control over their governments.”

Problematic loans

Chinese lending has at times been problematic, Hameiri wrote, because “in a frenzy to issue loans, Chinese lenders often spent little time considering debt sustainability. Hence, Chinese lending has contributed to debt problems in a number of countries, although it is not necessarily the only or even the primary cause as in Sri Lanka.”

Some critics blamed China for the crisis in Sri Lanka earlier this year, when the cash-strapped government – which had defaulted on its debt – was deposed by mass protests. Beijing also is Colombo’s biggest bilateral creditor; however, Sri Lanka’s largest foreign lending source is in sovereign bonds sold in several countries.

Verhoeven said the growth in sovereign bonds has been an important factor in African nations’ debt too and rejected the Chinese debt-trap narrative.

“When it comes to China, the debt-trap narrative suggests … this is being done on purpose,” to get countries to vote with China in the U.N. General Assembly and to reduce Western influence, he said.

There “is little actual evidence that China’s been doing this for political gain,” Verhoeven said, “which is not to in any way say that Chinese lending is all fine, or that it’s always responsible or the best thing for countries to do, far from it.”

Since China has now been burned several times regarding its lending, with several countries defaulting on the loans, plus its own economic difficulties at home, “there’s certainly a sense that the good old days of 10 or 15 years ago where [it] could sort of give out loans left and right … are over,” said Verhoeven.
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Amid protests that turned deadly, persistent drought and election controversies, Somaliland’s media are coming under attack.

Arbitrary arrests, threats, beatings. Somaliland’s journalists are bearing the brunt of a spike in attacks, media associations say.

In a recent incident, police in Hargeisa, the capital of the breakaway region, detained two Horyaal 24 TV journalists — Abdinasir Abdi Haji Nur and Ahmed-Zaki Ibrahim Mohamud — on August 11, as they reported on violent protests over claims that elections could be delayed.

According to journalists in Hargeisa who spoke with VOA over the phone, police initially held the pair at the criminal investigation department before transferring them to the Mandera prison on August 15. The pair, who were accused of taking part in the unrest, were finally freed on Wednesday.

The Somali Journalists Syndicate, which tracks violations, says members of the police and national intelligence often perpetrate hostilities against the media, and that in many cases, no one is held accountable for attacks. 

Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, secretary-general for the Somali Journalists Syndicate, believes the media are attacked to silence reporting on issues of national interest. 

Media outlets and journalists who cover corruption, human rights abuses and other violations are continuously targeted, he said, impeding their work.

“The attacks against the journalists and the detention and raid on media houses have also increased,” he said. “This is because Somaliland is facing various crises. Number one, the humanitarian crisis in Somaliland because of the drought, has forced the government to become unable to respond to this crisis. Secondly, the election dispute and the latest deadline is expiring on November. That’s why the authorities have now resorted to attacking journalists to stop [these] critical voices.”

The federal police did not respond to VOA’s request for comment. But in July, a police spokesperson announced that an officer had been arrested over allegations that he had assaulted a journalist in Mogadishu.

Muthoki Mumo, the Sub-Saharan Africa representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists or CPJ, says journalists have a duty to cover issues of public interest such as protests, and that their work should never be equated with criminal activity.

The CPJ is concerned by recent actions against the press, including a ban on the BBC, that point to an increasingly hostile environment, she said.

“The impact of these violations is to send a message of fear to the broader media community,” she said. “These violations create an environment where journalists might choose to self-censor rather than risk their livelihoods or liberty in telling the truth. In such an environment, it is the public that ultimately suffers for lack of access to diverse and critical sources of information.”

Part of the problem, says veteran human rights defender Ahmed Yusuf Hussein, is that a press law protecting journalists has yet to be enacted.

“The press law, which was of special importance to the media and journalists, has not been given its importance and it has not been forwarded to the legislatures to pass it into the law,” he said.

Journalists also face danger in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, where a video journalist for media house M24 needed emergency surgery on Sunday after being hit by a bullet that witnesses say was fired by police.

Ahmed Omar Nur was shot while covering an attack on the Hayat hotel in Mogadishu. Colleagues who witnessed the incident say the shot was fired from the direction of a group of elite police officers.

Nur is recovering. But others have not been so lucky.

Somalia is one of the deadliest countries for journalists in the world, with more than 50 killed since 2010, according to Reporters Without Borders. The media watchdog describes Somalia as “the most dangerous country for journalists in Africa.”
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Nigeria this week added a rotavirus vaccine to its national program that is expected to prevent 50,000 deaths of children per year from the diarrheal disease. But the launch comes amid shortages of the vaccine in countries such as Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal and Tanzania.

The launch Monday coincided with the commemoration of Africa Vaccination Week.

Officials from the World Health Organization, the United Nations children’s agency, as well as Nigeria’s Health Ministry, attended the launch in the capital.

During the event, many young children received the vaccine for free, while authorities urged citizens to embrace the measure.

“They’ll get the opportunity of taking it when they’re taking other vaccines,” said Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency. “We need to seize this opportunity — mothers, caregivers — so that our children will be protected from this virus.”

Rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrheal disease in children under 5 years old. WHO says that globally, up to 200,000 children die each year from the disease.

Authorities say the oral vaccine could prevent up to a third of severe diarrhea cases in Nigeria.

WHO country representative Walter Kazadi Mulombo also attended the launch.

“The introduction of the rotavirus vaccine provides the opportunity to reduce the number of children dying every day from diarrheal disease caused by rotavirus,” he said.

But this month, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline said manufacturing challenges had led to a shortfall of 4 million doses of the rotavirus this year, as well as delays in delivery.

According to GAVI-the Vaccine Alliance, the company already said it would reduce deliveries of the rotavirus vaccine by 10 million a year between 2022 and 2028.

Moses Njoku, a research fellow at Nigeria’s National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, said a shortfall should not be a challenge to Nigeria.

“The issue of them thinning out shouldn’t be a threat to a country like Nigeria if we use our internal potential,” Njoku said. “Nigeria is beginning to see the need to start indigenous efforts to start research and production, development of vaccines, as well as production of known vaccines.”

Njoku also said authorities must take delivery of the rotavirus vaccines in batches to avoid waste.

“If care is not taken, they will not be imported at the right time,” he said, adding that some might ship with little time left before an expiration date. “So, eventually you won’t even use up to 10,000 doses and you have paid the money. The supply chain management system is also very poor.”

For now, authorities will be trying to get as many children vaccinated as possible.
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