Pentagon — After nearly a two-week delay, U.S. and Nigerien officials are holding high-level follow-on meetings to coordinate the withdrawal of American troops from the country.

Christopher Maier, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, and Lieutenant General Dagvin Anderson, joint staff director for joint force development, are meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Niamey with members of Niger’s new government, known as the National Council for Safeguarding the Homeland, or CNSP, two U.S. officials told VOA.

The CNSP posted on the social platform X Wednesday that Maier and Anderson met Wednesday with Lieutenant General Salifou Mody, one of the military coup members who was named minister of national defense. 

The CNSP noted that the meeting comes two months after Niger denounced its military basing agreements with the United States and aims to “ensure that this withdrawal takes place in the best possible conditions, guaranteeing order, security and compliance with set deadlines.”

There are about 900 U.S. military personnel in Niger, including active duty, civilians and contractors, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity ahead of the conclusion of the talks. Most of the U.S. military personnel have stayed in the country past their deployment’s planned end dates, as details for their withdrawal are ironed out.

“We’re still in a bit of a holding pattern,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said last week.

Counterterrorism in ‘disarray’

The U.S. has had two military bases — Air Base 101 in Niamey and Air Base 201 in Agadez —to monitor terror groups in the region. Officials say most U.S. forces are based in the latter, which cost the U.S. $110 million to build, and began drone operations in 2019.

Niger’s natural resources have increased its importance to global powers, and Niger’s location had provided the U.S. with the ability to conduct counterterror operations throughout much of West Africa.

“We’re in a different position now, and we’re going to continue to consult with the Nigeriens in terms of the orderly withdrawal of U.S. forces. We’re going to continue to stay engaged with the partners in the region when it comes to terrorism and countering the terrorist threat,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday.

Countries in the region, including Niger, Mali, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, have seen an expansive rise in jihadist movements. 

According to the Global Terrorism Index, an annual report covering terrorist incidents worldwide, more than half of the deaths caused by terrorism last year were in the Sahel. 

Niger’s neighbor, Burkina Faso, suffered the worst, with 1,907 fatalities from terrorism in 2023. 

“These are some of the most dangerous areas in the world,” Bill Roggio, editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, told VOA. “These countries are in dire threat of being overrun by jihadist groups.”

Now, Niger’s coup has put the West’s ability to monitor terrorists like the Islamic State and al-Qaida in the Sahel in “complete disarray,” according to Roggio. 

The United States’ intelligence-gathering capacity was limited before, “but we’re approaching the point where intelligence-gathering is practically at zero,” he said.

A U.S. defense official told VOA that “basically every flight,” even intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drone flights, must be approved by the junta. 

“The beginning of April is when things started getting slower,” the official told VOA. The junta began delaying and canceling the types of U.S. military flights that had been quickly approved before then.

Carla Martinez Machain, a political science professor at the University of Buffalo, believes the Pentagon will try to negotiate with Chad for a more significant American troop presence, as the U.S. struggles to find allies in what she called the “coup belt” — a reference to the recent coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. 

However, most U.S. forces have temporarily left from Chad for Germany in recent weeks, a move the Pentagon called a “temporary step” as part of an ongoing review of its security cooperation with Chad, which would resume after the country’s May 6 presidential election. 

Only a small group of service members remain in Chad as part of a multinational task force, officials tell VOA.

“Niger was somewhat of a rarity in the sense that it had one of the few democratically elected governments in the region, and also a democratically elected government that was friendly to the U.S. and willing to host a U.S. military presence,” Martinez Machain told VOA. “And so, finding a replacement for that for a military base is going to be somewhat difficult.” 

Unless the U.S. can find another base to use in West Africa, counterterror drones will likely have to spend most of their fuel supply flying thousands of kilometers from U.S. bases in Italy or Djibouti, severely limiting their time over the targets and their ability to gather intelligence.

“The beauty of having drones based in Niger was that they were in the thick of the fight. They were in the middle of where jihadist groups are operating. So, once you launch the drones, they’re in the midst of it, and all of the flight time being used can be used to gather information,” Roggio said.

Resupply concerns

Amid the negotiations and flight cancellations, U.S. troops in Niger began raising concerns about their supply chain. Service members in Niamey told the office of Representative Matt Gaetz that blood for the blood bank, hygiene supplies, malaria pills and other medications were running low. 

A U.S. defense official acknowledged to VOA that “they were concerned about medication levels.” The official also said that troops in Niamey had gone through April without a resupply flight but had received food and water supplies through ground-based transportation.

A flight with medical supplies finally went from Agadez to Niamey last week, the defense official told VOA.

Coup forced withdrawal

Tensions between the U.S. and Niger began in 2023 when Niger’s military junta removed the democratically elected president from power. 

After months of delay, the Biden administration formally declared in October that the military takeover in Niger was a coup, a determination that prevented Niger from receiving a significant amount of U.S. military and foreign assistance.

In March, after tense meetings between U.S. representatives and the CNSP, the junta called the U.S. military presence “illegal” and announced it was ending an agreement that allowed American forces to be based in the country.

During that meeting, the U.S. and Niger fundamentally disagreed about Niger’s desire to supply Iran with uranium and work more closely with Russian military forces.

“They [Niger] saw this as kind of an imperialistic move, and this was seen negatively and was part of the reason why the U.S. was told to leave the country,” Martinez Machain said.

Russia has made significant military inroads across the African continent, Martinez Machain added, because human rights violators are able to obtain military training, assistance and defense systems “without the conditions that the U.S. would attach them.”

“Especially for nondemocratic countries, this can seem very appealing,” she said.
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Blantyre, Malawi — A new report finds that gaps in family laws in most African countries are fueling discrimination of women and girls. The report from the international NGO Equality Now says laws that favor men in matters of sex, marriage and inheritance, among other issues, leave many women in despair.

The study, released to coincide with the United Nations-declared International Day of the Family on Wednesday, highlights how legal frameworks and customary practices in 20 African countries have fueled discrimination in marriage, divorce, custody and property rights.

Esther Waweru is a senior legal adviser at Equality Now and co-author of the report.

She spoke with VOA from Kenya on how gaps in family laws have affected the lives of women in Africa.

“Take a case of Sudan for instance, where women cannot initiate divorce, unlike men. So, it therefore means that the woman will be trapped in a marriage that they don’t want to live [in], just because they can’t initiate a divorce,” she said.

Waweru said in some countries where women initiate a divorce, they are not allowed to take custody of the children from a previous marriage when they remarry.

In Malawi, the report notes that courts have ruled rape does not extend to marriage. It says customary law in Malawi presumes perpetual consent to sex within marriage and that a wife can deny her husband sex only when she is sick or legally separated.

While in Tanzania, the report says marital rape is only criminalized upon separation.

It also says customary and religious laws in countries like Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Nigeria undermine women and girls in matters of inheritance, as they receive less than men and boys.

Hala Alkarib is the executive director for Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa.

She told VOA from Ethiopia that the legal imbalance in many African countries leaves women feeling helpless.

“Imagine that you are not treated equally and discriminated against. It automatically goes without saying you are typically poor. You are exposed to violence systematically. You are dehumanized and undermined. You don’t have equal access to opportunities. You are subjected to different forms of sexual violence, and your dignity is compromised,” said Alkarib.

Francis Selasini is the executive director for Network Against Female Genital Mutilation in Tanzania. He said communities also play a role in undermining or sidestepping laws meant to protect women.

He cited issues of genital mutilation in northern parts of Tanzania, where he said communities have changed tactics to protect their traditional norms.

“For example, initially they were mutilating girls from 10 and above, for the reason of preparing her for marriage. But nowadays, they are mutilating even babies. They are doing so because they would like to defeat the legal process. Because they know if they mutilate babies, babies will not be able to take them to court. They will not be able to report,” he said.

Waweru of Equality Now says although many countries have ratified key international treaties that protect women’s rights, existing domestic laws make implementation and enforcement of these treaties difficult. 

She calls upon African states to fully align their family laws and their practices with international human rights standards.
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The U.N. environmental agency says Africa is the lowest contributor of global greenhouse emissions yet remains the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. A U.S. charity called GiveDirectly is helping some African communities build resilience. Juma Majanga reports from Baringo, Kenya.
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Kampala — An official of the International Criminal Court has promised victims of Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army that the court will provide reparations that were promised after the conviction of a top LRA leader. However, the Tribunal Trust Fund does not have enough money to make the payments, and now some victims worry other world conflicts are drawing down donor funds.

ICC Registrar Osvaldo Zavala Giler, speaking to the media Tuesday in Uganda, assured victims of the violent, long-running LRA rebellion that the court would do as much as possible to ensure victims get their reparations.

In February, ICC judges ordered $56 million in reparations to recognize the harm suffered by 50,000 victims of war crimes for which Dominic Ongwen has been convicted. Those include murder, rape, forced marriage, and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Giler’s commitment comes despite Ongwen’s appeal of his conviction.  Giler said while the appeal is still pending, the ICC will continue efforts to raise funds to pay the reparations and comply with the court order. He also indicated not all victims would receive payments at the same time.

“And that will depend on the fundraising efforts of the trust fund to do this. I am confident that there is enough interest in the international donor-based community to support the effort of the trust fund in trying to achieve its goals,” said Giler.

Speaking to VOA before meeting the ICC registrar, Bishop Nelson Onono-Onweng, a community leader from Gulu district, said what he is hearing from the ICC is worrying.

Bishop Onono said the promised $795 per person allocation for the 50,000 victims is too little, yet the ICC has no money.

“So, if it comes now it will be great. But, we are told they are still raising the money. Fundraising today as you know with the war in the world. I don’t know. But, personally I am worried. Because the international community is now overwhelmed with the needs in the world to support the suffering people,” he said.

Peter Labeja, a journalist from Gulu district, lost his father during the 20-year rebellion. He was also abducted but was lucky to escape.   

Labeja told VOA victims still have questions on how the money will be shared.

“Who is going to take the money? Is it the head of the family taking the money or the entire group in the household taking the money? And, we were quick to calculate. We said this is about three-million shillings in Uganda. What can three-million shillings do? It can’t even send a child to the university for two semesters,” he said.

The community remains hopeful that the communal reparation will be used to build schools and health facilities and improve roads.

Victims will have to wait until September, not for the money, but for the ICC to prepare the implementation plan now being developed.

Dominic Ongwen is serving his 25-year prison sentence in Norway. The LRA fought the Ugandan government for 20 years resulting in the deaths of about 100,000 people.

Meanwhile, 19 years after an arrest warrant was issued for LRA leader Joseph Kony, the ICC pre-trial chamber has set October 15 to hold a hearing confirming charges against him. But according to ICC Mofficials, Kony qualifies as a person who cannot be found so no confirmation hearing can be held.
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The United Nations is pledging to help Malawi recover from a widespread drought linked to the El Nino climate pattern. Government officials say the crisis has created a food shortage for nearly half of the country’s population. The pledge comes after U.N. officials visited Malawi to see the damage firsthand and identify ways to offer support. Lameck Masina has more from southern Malawi.
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Juba, South Sudan — In a significant policy reversal, the government of South Sudan has responded to a U.N. appeal and reversed its decision to impose taxes and fees on humanitarian services and products.

However, Titus Osundina, the U.N. Development Program’s deputy resident representative for South Sudan, told VOA that questions remain because some private suppliers and companies that provide services to the U.N. may still be taxed. “We need to see how that clarifies,” Osundina said.

South Sudan’s finance minister explained in a press release that while U.N. humanitarian organizations and diplomatic missions are tax-exempt, companies contracted by the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) are not exempt because they are “profit-making entities” and are subject to taxes under the agreement the mission originally signed with South Sudan.

As South Sudan’s largest humanitarian agency, the United Nations conducts crucial air drops, feeding more than 16,300 people monthly, especially in regions grappling with food insecurity, conflict and natural disasters.  

With nearly half the country’s population facing acute food shortages and the looming threat of floods, the U.N. stressed that new taxes would have added $339,000 to the UNMISS monthly operational costs, affecting food and humanitarian assistance operations.  

No figures have been released about how much the new taxes will cost the U.N. contractors. 

Timo Olkkonen, who heads up the European Union delegation to South Sudan, one of the major international donors to the African country, said agencies need ample time and resources to prepare and deliver relief assistance.

“We encourage all the stakeholders to resolve this issue so that the fuel and other essential items will be coming here for the service of the South Sudanese, and so that the humanitarian community and the U.N. can continue with their lifesaving and peacekeeping work,” Olkkonen said.

The U.N.’s role in ensuring stability in South Sudan ahead of the upcoming national election in December highlights the urgency of resolving this issue promptly.

 
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Rescue teams in South Africa forged ahead Monday with efforts to find any survivors still trapped under rubble a week after an apartment building that was under construction collapsed.

Their hopes were boosted over the weekend when one of the construction workers was found alive after six days without food and water.

Authorities said 24 construction workers who were on the site when the unfinished five-story building came down have been confirmed dead, while another 28 are missing, raising the possibility that the death toll could ultimately be above 50.

More than 600 emergency services and other personnel have been involved in the search for survivors in the wreckage of the building in the city of George on South Africa’s south coast, which collapsed last Monday.

There were 81 workers on the site when it collapsed, and 29 have been pulled out alive, the city said. It said 13 of them remained in a hospital without giving details of their condition. The city has previously said that many of the survivors were in critical condition when they were found.

The disaster management team overseeing the emergency response maintained that the operation was still rescue rather than recovery, pointing to the survivor pulled out on Saturday.

The man, who was identified as 32-year-old Gabriel Guambe, was in stable condition in the hospital and “remarkably sustained only minor injuries,” the city said. Guambe was trapped in the rubble for 118 hours, it said.

His survival underlined rescuers’ hopes that there may be more people alive in what they called voids in the ruins of the building — areas where there are gaps between the concrete that might have allowed some workers to survive the collapse.

Rescue teams have been using cranes and other heavy machinery to move some of the thousands of tons of concrete in an attempt to reach deeper into the wreckage. Sniffer dogs were also being used and one was responsible for locating Guambe.

Many of the workers were foreign nationals from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi and authorities were calling for translators to help communicate with survivors. They also said it was making the identification of victims difficult.

Multiple investigations into the cause of the building collapse were underway, including by police, who declared the site a crime scene. The construction company responsible is being investigated to see if it followed proper safety protocols.

People began leaving flowers around the edge of the site as a mark of respect for the victims, while the city and the disaster response team issued a joint statement asking South Africans to observe a moment of silence at 2.09 p.m. on Monday, the exact time the building collapsed last week.
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With Chad recently confirming Mahamat Déby as civilian president after a long-delayed election, Western powers are watching to see what role, if any, they will play in countering terror threats in the Sahel region. Henry Wilkins has more on the election, which follows a series of military coups in the region.
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BANGUI — Armed rebels Sunday attacked a Chinese-run gold mining town and killed at least four people in Central African Republic, authorities said. 

Maxime Balalu, a local government spokesperson, told The Associated Press that the Coalition of Patriots for Change, an alliance of rebel groups aligned with former President Francois Bozize, had carried out the attack in Gaga, a village roughly 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the capital, Bangui. 

He said the death toll might rise and included several individuals who worked at the nearby mine. Several others were injured in the attack, Balalu said. 

Central African Republic has been in conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim rebels seized power and forced President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias fought back. 

A 2019 peace deal only lessened the fighting, and six of the 14 armed groups that signed later left the agreement. The Coalition of Patriots for Change was founded in 2020 in the aftermath of the agreement. 

The country remains one of the poorest in the world despite its vast mineral wealth of gold and diamonds among others. Rebel groups have operated with impunity across the embattled country over the past decade, thwarting mining exploration by foreign companies. 

Many of those now operating in the country are Chinese-run and have faced security challenges. Last year, nine Chinese nationals were killed at another gold mine in Central African Republic during an attack that the government blamed on the same rebel alliance. In 2020, two Chinese nationals died when residents led an uprising against a Chinese-operated mine in Sosso Nakombo. 
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Tunis, Tunisia — Tunisian authorities on Sunday ordered the arrest of two journalists over critical comments, a lawyer told AFP, a day after security forces stormed the bar association and took political commentator Sonia Dahmani into custody.  

Dahmani, also a lawyer, was arrested late Saturday after criticizing the state of Tunisia on television, her attorney Dalila Msaddek said in a post on Facebook. 

 

Msaddek said there was a “police attack against the bar association headquarters” in Tunis, with “lawyers assaulted and the abduction of colleague Sonia Dahmani to an unknown location.” 

 

It came on the same evening that TV and radio presenter Borhen Bssais and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were arrested for critical comments, lawyer Ghazi Mrabet told AFP. 

 

Mrabet said that the judiciary on Sunday placed the pair under a “48-hour detention warrant and [they] will have to appear before an examining magistrate.” 

 

According to Mrabet, Zeghidi was being pursued “for a social media post in which he supported an arrested journalist,” referring to Mohamed Boughalleb, who was sentenced to six months in prison for defamation of a public official, as well as for “statements made during television shows since February.” 

 

Zeghidi is a commentator on Tunisian television and works with Bssais, who hosts programs on private radio and TV channels. 

 

The exact motivation for Bssais’s arrest remains unclear, but according to Mrabet, he was detained under Decree 54 which punishes the production and dissemination of “false news.” 

 

The law, signed by President Kais Saied in September 2022, has been criticized by journalists and opposition figures who say it has been used to stifle dissent. 

 

Since the decree came into force, more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures have been prosecuted under it, according to the National Union of Tunisian Journalists. 

 

Dahmani was also arrested under Article 54, Tunisian media reported, saying she was detained while seeking safety at the bar association. 

 

The event was being filmed live by news channel France 24, which said it was forced to stop broadcasting by masked police officers. 

 

The channel denounced the police officers in a statement, saying they had “torn the camera from its tripod” and briefly detained their cameraman. 

 

It condemned what it said was a “brutal intervention by security forces that prevented journalists from practicing their profession as they were covering a lawyers’ protest for justice and in support of freedom of expression.” 

 

The bar association condemned what it described as an “invasion of its headquarters and blatant aggression” in front of the press, demanding the immediate release of Dahmani and announcing a regional strike starting Monday.  

 

‘Extraordinary country?’

 

Msaddek said Dahmani was summoned to court on Friday to explain her remarks but refused to appear. A court then issued a warrant ordering law enforcement to bring Dahmani before the investigating judge. 

 

Islam Hamza, another lawyer in Dahmani’s defense team, confirmed to AFP that she had been arrested. 

 

Dahmani told journalists before her arrest that she refused to appear “without knowing the reasons for this summons.” 

 

During a show on the Carthage Plus TV channel on Tuesday, she responded to another pundit’s claim that migrants from sub-Saharan African countries were seeking to settle in Tunisia. 

 

“What extraordinary country are we talking about?” she asked sarcastically, triggering angry reactions from some Tunisian social media users. 

 

The North African country is a key departure point for thousands of migrants who risk perilous Mediterranean Sea crossings each year hoping for a better life in Europe. 

 

But the situation of sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia has worsened, particularly after a speech by Saied last year in which he painted “hordes of illegal migrants” as a demographic threat. 

 

Decree 54 mandates up to five years in prison for the use of communications networks to “produce, spread [or] disseminate … false news” or to “slander others, tarnish their reputation, financially or morally harm them.”
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON   — Chad says it has deployed combat-ready troops to stop armed attacks and maintain peace as the death toll increased to 12 people in post-election violence on Saturday. At least 90 people have sustained severe injuries in the capital, N’djamena. 

Chad state TV reports that keeping and using war weapons and firearms is prohibited until further notice by the central African state’s military. It noted the prohibition of weapons was imposed after 9 people were killed and upwards of 60 were injured in shootings in N’djamena on Thursday night, after provisional results of the May 6 presidential elections were announced.  

Chad’s police say three other injured victims died in two hospitals in N’djamena on Friday night. About 30 other civilians were injured in confrontations and shootings, and they were rushed to hospitals, where the government has ordered they be treated at no charge. 

Opposition and civil society say several hundred civilians who protested the May 6 presidential election results have been arrested and detained, especially in the capital city and in Moundou, Chad’s second-largest city. 

Chad’s elections management body, known as ANGE, has proclaimed transitional ruler General Mahamat Idriss Deby the winner, with more than 61% of the vote. His main challenger, Succes Masra, is second, scoring 18.53% of the vote. Masra claimed he won, but Deby stole his victory. 

Chad’s military said among the shooters were armed supporters celebrating Deby’s victory. They may have run into a confrontation with armed opposition supporters, Chad’s military said Saturday, noting that illegal arms proliferation is rampant in the central African state. 

Mbairamadji Desire, president of the N’djamena headquarters of the Rainbow Youth Association for Social Stability in Africa, said he is pleading with armed civilians to drop their weapons and spare Chad from looming civil strife.  

Mbairamadji said all Chadians, especially youths, should put down their weapons they are keeping illegally because peace is priceless. He warned that Chad could descend into worsening chaos because it is very difficult for its military to be effective on multiple fronts, including seizing weapons hidden in homes, fighting Boko Haram terrorists who are infiltrating the Lake Chad basin, and stopping violence between farmers and nomadic herders that has worsened all over Chad in recent years.

In a message after ANGE proclaimed the results, Deby said he is the democratically elected president of all Chadians, including opposition party leaders who are contesting his victory. Deby said he will do everything possible to strengthen Chad’s internal security to guarantee threatened peace and stability.  

Hussein Abdoulaye, a political analyst and lecturer at the University of Ndjamena, spoke with VOA via a messaging app from N’djamena.  

He said civilians are increasingly aware that Chad’s government has a tradition of rigging elections and using the military to crack down on the opposition, but that Chadians know their rights and may use violence if they think the opposition was deprived unfairly of victory. 

In several messages shared on social media, including WhatsApp and Facebook, Masra is calling on civilians to calmly mobilize and demonstrate peacefully for what he calls his stolen victory to be restored.  

Chad’s government and the elections body say candidates have five days from the date of publication of provisional results to file complaints at the constitutional council. 

 

The action could cancel the elections if it establishes that there was massive fraud, including stuffing of ballot boxes and intimidation of civilians at polling stations as the opposition claims. 

 

Definitive results are scheduled to be declared by Chad’s Constitutional Council on May 21. 
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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Research into online abuse and hate speech reveals most women in Ethiopia face gender-targeted attacks across Facebook, Telegram and X.

The abuse and hate speech are prompting many Ethiopian women to withdraw from public life, online and off, according to the recent research.

The Center for Information Resilience, a U.K.-based nonprofit organization, spearheaded the study. The CIR report, released Wednesday, says that women in Ethiopia are on the receiving end of abuse and hate speech across all three social media platforms, with Facebook cited as the worst.

Over 2,000 inflammatory keywords were found in the research, which looked at three Ethiopian languages — Amharic, Afan Oromo and Tigrigna — as well as English. The list is the most comprehensive inflammatory word lexicon in Ethiopia, according to the researchers.

Over 78% of the women interviewed reported feelings of fear or anxiety after experiencing online abuse.

It is highly likely similar problems exist in areas of society that have not been analyzed yet, said Felicity Mulford, editor and researcher at CIR.

“This data can be used by human rights advocates, women’s rights advocates, in their advocacy,” she said. “We believe that it’s incredibly impactful, because even though we’ve only got four languages, it shows some of the [trends] that exist across Ethiopia.”

Online abuse is so widespread in Ethiopia that it has been “normalized to the point of invisibility,” the report’s authors said.

Betelehem Akalework, co-founder of Setaset Power, an Afro-feminist movement in Ethiopia, said her work has opened doors to more-serious, targeted attacks.

“We [were] mentally prepared for it to some extent,” she said. “We [weren’t] surprised that the backlash was that heavy, but then we did not anticipate the gravity of that backlash. So, we took media training, and we took digital security trainings.”

The Ethiopian Human Rights Defenders Center, established three years ago, offers protection for human rights defenders and social media activists in the country.

The center’s program coordinator, Kalkidan Tesfaye, said there must be more initiative from the government in education and policymaking to help women protect themselves from online abuse.

“In our recommendation earlier, we were talking about how the Ministry of Education can incorporate digital safety training … a very essential element to learning about computers or acquiring digital skills,” Tesfaye said.

The researchers also investigated other protected characteristics under Ethiopian law, including ethnicity, religion and race. The findings showed that women face compounded attacks, as they are also often targeted for their ethnicity and religion.
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