CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Hope was fading Friday for 44 construction workers buried for days in the rubble of a building that collapsed in South Africa, with authorities saying rescuers are now faced with the challenge of moving thousands of tons of concrete with heavy machinery to see if there are any more survivors.

The death toll rose to nine after a worker who was in critical condition died in the hospital, authorities said.

Of the 28 workers rescued from the site, 21 were in critical condition or had life-threatening injuries following Monday’s collapse of the five-story apartment complex that was under construction.

With fears that the final death toll could exceed 50, authorities in the city of George on South Africa’s south coast said large earth-moving equipment had arrived and rescue teams were removing huge slabs of concrete and rubble to reach deeper into the wreckage.

City authorities said it was still a rescue rather than a recovery operation, but no survivors have been located or brought out since Wednesday.

“Despite the introduction of large machinery, rescue techniques will still be applied meticulously and sensitively by the highly skilled and experienced disaster management team,” the city said in a statement.

It also revised the number of missing from 38 to 44 after determining that there were more construction workers at the site than previously thought. New information provided by the construction company showed there were 81 workers when the building came crashing down, not 75 as authorities had initially announced, it said.

More than 600 personnel are involved in the rescue operation, with many brought in from nearby towns and cities. George, which is about 400 kilometers east of Cape Town, is a small city known as a vacation and golfing destination.

Authorities say multiple investigations are under way into the cause of the collapse, including by police, the provincial government and the national department of labor.
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N’DJAMENA, Chad — Chad’s state election body said on Thursday interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby had won the May 6 presidential election outright with more than 61% of the vote, citing provisional results, even as his main challenger declared himself the winner.

Chad’s junta has become the first of the coup-hit countries in West and Central Africa to stage a return to constitutional rule via the ballot box, but some opposition parties have cried foul over vote-rigging concerns.

With tensions running high, large numbers of security forces deployed at major intersections in the capital, N’Djamena, ahead of the results announcement.

National Election Management Agency chief Ahmed Bartichet said Deby had secured 61.3% of the vote, comfortably more than the 50% needed to avoid a runoff.

He said Deby’s prime minister and top opposition candidate Succes Masra, 40, had won 18.53%.

Just before the ceremony, Masra claimed victory in a live broadcast on Facebook and called on security forces and his supporters to oppose what he called an attempt to steal the vote.

“A small number of individuals believe they can make people believe that the election was won by the same system that has been ruling Chad for decades,” he said.

“To all Chadians who voted for change, who voted for me, I say: mobilize. Do it calmly, with a spirit of peace,” he said.

What happens next is unclear.

While Masra drew larger-than-expected crowds on the campaign trail, analysts had widely predicted that the victor would be Deby, who seized power when rebels killed his long-ruling father, Idriss Deby, in April 2021.

“Post-election protests are possible, though the threat of police repression could dissuade many people from taking to the streets,” Crisis Group experts said ahead of the vote.

The election is being closely watched from abroad.

While other juntas in the insurgency-torn Sahel region, including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, have told Paris and other Western powers to withdraw and turned to Moscow for support, Chad remains the last Sahel state with a substantial French military presence.

Security and the economy have been key campaign issues. One of the world’s least-developed countries, Chad’s meagre resources have been stretched thinner by multiple shocks including climate change-fueled heatwaves and a refugee crisis linked to the civil war in Sudan. 
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CAIRO — A leading rights group said on Thursday that attacks by Sudanese paramilitary forces and their allied militias, which killed thousands in the western region of Darfur last year, constituted a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the area’s non-Arab population.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has been fighting Sudan’s military for over a year, allied with armed militias to carry out attacks against the ethnic Masalit and other non-Arab groups in El Geneina, the capital city of West Darfur state, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.

Sudan has been rocked by violence since mid-April 2023, when tensions between the military and the rival paramilitary erupted into open fighting. Clashes quickly spread to other parts of the country, and Darfur was engulfed in brutal attacks on African civilians, especially the Masalit tribe.

According to the New York-based watchdog, the paramilitary forces and their allied militiamen targeted predominantly Masalit neighborhoods in El Geneina from April to June 2023, with attacks intensifying last November.

At least thousands of people were killed, and hundreds of thousands were displaced during the attacks, according to the report, titled “The Massalit Will Not Come Home: Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan.”

Masalit who were captured were tortured, women and girls were raped and entire neighborhoods were looted and destroyed, the report says. HRW said it interviewed more than 220 people who fled Darfur into neighboring countries and analyzed photos, videos and satellite imagery connected to the attacks.

United Nations experts have estimated that at least 10,000 people were killed in the city of El Geneina in 2023. More than 570,000 people, mostly Masalit, were displaced and sought refuge in neighboring Chad.

Human Rights Watch said the campaign of attacks on the non-Arab people in Darfur, including the Masalit, with the “apparent objective” of pushing them out, “constitutes ethnic cleansing.”

“Governments, the African Union, and the United Nations need to act now to protect civilians,” Tirana Hassan, HRW’s executive director, said Thursday.

“The global inaction in the face of atrocities of this magnitude is inexcusable,” Hassan said. “Government should ensure those responsible are held to account.”

The group called for the United Nations, African Union and states from the International Criminal Court to investigate whether the atrocities documented in the report reveal a specific intent by the RSF paramilitary and armed allies “to commit genocide” by destroying the Masalit and other non-Arab groups in West Darfur.

The media office of the Rapid Support Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

In late January, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, said there are grounds to believe both the RSF and the Sudanese military may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.

Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African.

The Rapid Support Forces were formed from Janjaweed fighters by former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades before being overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s.
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Windhoek, Namibia — The World Health Organization (WHO) says Africa has a shortage of health care workers. The issue was addressed in Namibia this week at a forum in Windhoek.

Speaking at the first WHO Africa Health Workforce Forum held in the capital, Namibia’s minister of health and social services, Kalumbi Shangula, warned that Africa’s shortage of health workers will impede the continent from achieving universal health coverage by 2030. 

In order to reach universal health coverage by 2030 as envisaged in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals report, Africa needs to invest in training programs, offer incentives for health practitioners to remain in their home countries, and create initiatives to attract health professionals in the diaspora back to the continent. 

Shangula spoke at the Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter event this week.

“The number of Africans who have left the continent in search of greener pastures in other parts of the world are staggering,” Shangula said. “It is a matter that needs to be addressed as a top priority for African governments and indeed all those who wish to see a shift in the historical as well as current trends.”

Africa has a ratio of 1.55 health workers per 1,000 people. That is below the recommended WHO threshold of 4.55 health workers per 1,000 people.

Africa’s Center for Disease Control Director-General Jean Kesaya says achieving universal health coverage by 2030 will require an additional 1.8 million health workers on the continent. 

He says the critical shortage is projected to reach about 6.1 million by 2030 and is made worse by recurrent public health emergencies faced by countries on a daily basis.

“In 2023 alone, Africa recorded 166 disease outbreaks and the trend I see in 2024 is not good,” Kesaya said. “AU member states are far from realizing the 2017 AU Assembly decisions that called for rapid recruitment, training and deployment of 2 million institutionalized community health workers by 2030.”

Global Health Director for the Africa Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI) Lee Whitaker says the institution has opened doors for diasporan healthcare workers to return to Africa and reverse the brain drain. He says the organization has “access to over forty-five-thousand black African physicians in America and only needs an invitation from the heart of any African state to come abroad.”

Dr. Arikana Chihombori is the president of the ADDI, an organization that is mobilizing the African diaspora to return and invest in the continent.

“Let the diaspora come in and invest in for-profit-clinics in Africa as well as for volunteer work in Africa,” Chihombori said. “It has to be balanced! Because if they are going to leave their work where they are in Europe, in America, they can be here a little bit longer if they are going to make money and also donate some of their time. So a program that allows them to make money while they are stopping Africans from going to India and at the same time also giving to those who are less fortunate is actually a program that can be sustained but to completely hundred percent volunteer is not going to work, it’s not sustainable”.

The forum, which was attended by health dignitaries from all over the world, concluded Wednesday with the launch of the Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter that aims to mobilize and sustain development, performance and retention of the health workforce in African Union countries.
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Issue of hiring intern doctors is still under discussion
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Nairobi, Kenya — Digital experts called on African countries Tuesday for laws to protect the data of individuals and businesses, saying that a single digital market in which data can safely flow across borders would help overcome barriers to commerce and trade on the continent.

African government information and communications technology representatives, international organizations, diplomats and experts are meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, this week to discuss how data can move freely from one country to another without risking people’s privacy and safety.

Kenyan Information, Communication and Digital Economy Minister Eliud Owalo said Africa needs to improve its laws to deal with emerging issues in the digital space.

“What will enable African countries to remain relevant in the digital marketplace will be our level of creativity and innovation, strategic agility and maneuverability in the digital space,” he said. “And that means we need to continuously, based on what is happening in our operational environment, look at our laws, policies and regulations.”

In its 2023 Londa report, the Paradigm Initiative — an organization that monitors digital rights, environment and inclusion in Africa — said internet shutdowns and disruptions, data protection, disinformation, cybersecurity, surveillance and a lack of freedom of expression and information affect the continent’s digital growth and sustenance.

Experts say that data plays an important role in every sector and that sharing it makes information more accessible, increases collaboration and facilitates knowledge exchange, leading to innovation and growth in business and relations among states.

Paul Russo, the head of Kenya Commercial Group, which operates in seven African countries, says the discussion about data sharing and security is important for businesses.

“This is not only a new area that we need to work together to bring to life, but I also think it’s important for our own businesses to be sustainable,” he said. “At the heart of every business, particularly for those of us in the private sector, is data — both integrity and confidentiality and protection of that data.”

Data misuse and abuse is a worldwide concern, and fears continue to spark debate on how best to safeguard, regulate, monitor and benefit from the available data.

European Union Deputy Head of Mission to Kenya Ondrej Simek said that data protection requires global effort and that gaps must be filled through law.

“Collaboration between data protection authorities around the world is needed to advance the regional and global harmonization of legal and regulatory frameworks,” Simek said.

“One area of specific importance is that of safe cross-border data flows,” he said. “A first step is ensuring the data protection laws are in place. The second one is obviously to operationalize them effectively. These are critical steps toward Africa’s single digital market and toward a global area for safe data exchange.”
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windhoek, namibia — Two alleged poachers were recently shot to death by Namibian law enforcement officials who say the men had opened fire on police while being pursued for suspected poaching in the Etosha National Park.

A press release issued by the Namibian police on Friday said that an exchange of gunfire at the Etosha National Park earlier that week led to the death of two suspected poachers. They were pursued for more than 60 kilometers (37.2 miles) and opened fire on the police, resulting in them returning fire that led to their deaths.

A Namibian activist says poverty and inequality lead to wildlife crime. But police say they may shoot at anyone who brings guns into the park, where weapons are banned.

Namibia has seen a recent surge in rhino poaching, with 28 rhinos killed in the first four months of this year, compared to seven in the same period of 2023.

The police commander for Etosha National Park, Theopolina Nashikaku, said officers will not hesitate to use deadly force against suspected poachers.

“Only authorized personnel, and only authorized security personnel are permitted to carry firearms,” said Nashikaku. “So, if we meet you being the person who wants to carry firearms in that restricted environment, if we just meet you trying to cross the boundary into the national park or if we find you inside the park off course, we shall assist you to return to your maker.”

Poverty fuels crimes

Michael Amushelelo, a Namibian activist and commissar for Economic Development of the Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters, a political party in Namibia, said the high levels of poverty and inequality fuel wildlife crime.

“You cannot tell me that you have an entire army, you have an entire police force, you have a directorate of ranger parks but still our wildlife are still being killed like there is no one protecting them,” Amushelelo said.

Romeo Muyunda, the spokesperson of the environment ministry tasked with the protection of Namibia’s wildlife, said the killing of the suspects is an isolated incident that doesn’t take into account the many arrests that are made without the suspects being harmed.

“This incident is isolated,” Muyunda said. “I am sure this is the first of many that one [may] have heard [of] in Namibia, happening in Namibia. That means that we have been apprehending poachers sometimes in the park sometimes outside the park without fire.”
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Maputo — Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party picked Daniel Francisco Chapo, the 47-year-old governor of a southern province, to be its candidate for October’s presidential election, after heated internal debates that lasted three days. 

Sunday’s selection of Chapo halted speculation that President Filipe Nyusi planned to cling to power at the conclusion of his term through an amendment to the constitution. 

Nyusi said the endorsement puts an end to a soap opera of rumors, including talk of a possible third term. Frelimo respects the laws, he added, so there was no reason to speculate about new term limits.

Nyusi also encouraged party members to support Chapo in the upcoming elections.

Since Mozambique’s independence in 1975, all heads of state have been nominated by Frelimo.  

The party has won all elections since multi-party democracy was introduced 30 years ago at the end of a crippling 16-year civil war which left over one million people dead and five million others internally displaced.  

Chapo has been governor of Inhambane province since 2016. He holds a master’s degree in development management from a university in Mozambique. Prior to entering politics, he taught constitutional law and political science at the Universidade Catolica in the port city of Beira, and worked as an announcer at a private radio station in the same city.  

After being confirmed as Frelimo’s candidate, Chapo promised to work to promote the country’s economic development.  

If elected, Chapo will become Mozambique’s fourth democratically elected head of state.  

Chapo is viewed by analysts as a leader who may be able to restore security in the troubled oil- and gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado, where Islamic State-linked insurgents have been terrorizing civilians and destroying public infrastructure since 2017, forcing the interruption of multibillion-dollar projects. 

The violence has continued despite support by troops from other countries of the Southern African Development Community, and soldiers from Rwanda. 

Economic analyst and university lecturer Alcidio Bachita has high hopes for Chapo. 

“He is an individual who has not been accused of any corruption schemes,” Bachita said. “And I believe that this change of leadership will open a new page in the history of Mozambique, given that he is a young man and was born after [the] independence period of the country. So I believe that the economy of Mozambique will witness a great performance in the coming years.”  

Mozambique will hold its seventh presidential and legislative elections on October 9.

The deadline for presenting lists of candidates for president to the Constitutional Council is June 10.  
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Zimbabwe’s parliament has started nationwide consultations after the Cabinet in February agreed to abolish the death penalty to conform with international standards. Columbus Mavhunga has the story from a public hearing in Bindura, Zimbabwe.
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Nairobi, Kenya — Kenya Airways said Monday that it would resume flights to Kinshasa after military authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo released two of its employees who were detained last month. 

The airline announced on April 29 that it would suspend flights to the DRC capital, calling the arrests “unlawful.” 

“Kenya Airways confirms that military authorities have unconditionally released our two employees who had been detained since 19 April 2024,” Kenya’s flag carrier said in a statement. “With the necessary ground support in place, we are pleased to announce that Kenya Airways will resume flights to Kinshasa on 8 May 2024.” 

Earlier, the Kenyan government had announced the release of one of the employees. 

“Deeply grateful to inform that Lydia Mbotela, KQ [Kenya Airways] manager in DRC, has just been released by the authorities in Kinshasa,” Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya’s principal secretary for foreign affairs, said on X, formerly Twitter. 

The two employees, who work at the airline’s office in Kinshasa, were arrested on April 19 by a military intelligence unit, according to Kenya Airways. 

The airline had described it as “harassment targeting Kenya Airways’ business,” while the head of a powerful parliamentary committee called it a breach of diplomatic rules. 

Kenya Airways said the employees were held allegedly because of “missing custom documentation on valuable cargo.”  

The DRC government has not commented on the allegations. 

But the airline’s CEO, Allan Kilavuka, had said it did not accept the cargo, whose contents were not specified, because of incomplete documentation. 

This cargo “was still in the baggage section being cleared by customs when the security team arrived and alleged that KQ was transporting goods without customs clearance,” he said. “All efforts to explain to the military officers that KQ had not accepted the cargo because of incomplete documentation proved futile.”  

The airline said its employees were held incommunicado in a military facility until April 23, when embassy officials and a KQ team were allowed to visit them.
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N’DJAMENA, Chad — Chadians go to the polls on Monday three years after their military leader seized power, in the first presidential election in Africa’s Sahel region since a wave of coups.

Analysts say Mahamat Idriss Deby, who seized power the day rebels killed his long-ruling father Idriss Deby in April 2021, is most likely to win, although his chief opponent has been drawing larger-than-expected crowds on the campaign trail.

Deby has promised to bolster security, strengthen the rule of law and increase electricity production.

The vote coincides with a temporary withdrawal of U.S. troops from Chad, an important Western ally in a region of West and Central Africa courted by Russia and wracked by jihadism.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 5 p.m., with some 8.5 million people registered to vote.

Soldiers began early voting on Sunday.

Provisional results are expected by May 21 and final results by June 5. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes, a run-off will be held on June 22.

Since replacing his father at the helm of the oil-producing Central African country, Deby has remained close with former colonial power and longtime ally France.

While other junta-ruled Sahel countries including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have told Paris and other Western powers to withdraw and turned to Moscow for support, Chad remains the last Sahel state with a substantial French military presence.

The U.S., however, announced a temporary withdrawal of at least some troops last month, saying it would continue with a review of security operations after the election.

Opposition concerns

Monday’s vote pits Deby against his prime minister Succes Masra, previously a political opponent who fled into exile in 2022 but was allowed back a year later. Also running are former prime minister Albert Pahimi Padacke and seven other candidates.

Yaya Dillo, an opposition politician who had been expected to run against Deby despite coming from the same clan, was shot and killed in the capital N’Djamena on Feb. 28, the day the election date was announced.

Padacke has accused Masra of collaborating with Deby. But Masra has attracted large crowds to his own rallies.

Some opposition members and civil society groups have called for a boycott, citing concerns about possible vote-rigging.

That has raised fears of potential violence.

“This presidential election is of capital importance for the country because an entire people aspires for change,” said Baniara Yoyana, a former minister and magistrate.

“The process must be conducted with transparency to avoid any risk of confrontation.”

One Deby supporter, however, said he expected no problems.

“We want the election to go well and peacefully,” said Abdelkhader Sougui, a 28-year-old student.

“My wish is to go out and vote the morning of May 6 to confirm our victory… in the first round.”
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