Mai Mahiu, Kenya — Kenyan President William Ruto on Tuesday deployed the military to evacuate everyone living in flood-prone areas in a nation where 171 people have been killed since March by torrential rains. 

Seasonal rains, amplified by the El Nino weather pattern, have devastated the East African nation, with floodwaters engulfing villages and threatening to unleash even more damage in the weeks to come. 

In the worst incident, which killed nearly 50 villagers, a makeshift dam burst in the Rift Valley before dawn Monday, sending a torrent of water and mud gushing down a hill and swallowing everything in its path. 

The tragedy in Kamuchiri village, Nakuru county, was the deadliest episode in the country since the start of the March-May rainy season. 

Ruto, who visited the victims of the Kamuchiri deluge after chairing a Cabinet meeting in Nairobi, said his government had drawn up a map of neighborhoods at risk of flooding. 

“The military has been mobilized, the national youth service has been mobilized, all security agencies have been mobilized to assist citizens in such areas to evacuate to avoid any dangers of loss of lives,” he said. 

People living in the affected areas will have 48 hours to move, he said. 

“The forecast is that rain is going to continue, and the likelihood of flooding and people losing lives is real. Therefore, we must take preemptive action,” Ruto said. 

“It is not a time for guesswork, we are better off safe than sorry.” 

The Kamuchiri disaster — which killed at least 48 people dead — cut off a road, uprooted trees and destroyed homes and vehicles. Some 26 people were hospitalized, Ruto said, with fears the death toll could rise as search and rescue operations continued. 

The Cabinet warned that two dams — Masinga and Kiambere — both less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of the capital, had “reached historic highs,” portending disaster for those downstream.  

“While the government encourages voluntary evacuation, all those who remain within the areas affected by the directive will be relocated forcibly in the interest of their safety,” a statement said. 

Monday’s tragedy came six years after a dam accident at Solai, also in Nakuru county, killed 48 people, sending millions of liters of muddy water raging through homes and destroying power lines. 

The May 2018 disaster involving a private reservoir on a coffee estate also followed weeks of torrential rains that sparked deadly floods and mudslides. 

Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused Ruto’s government of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings, demanding that it declare the floods a national disaster. 

Kenya’s main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, said Tuesday the authorities had failed to make “advance contingency plans” for the extreme weather. 

“The government has been talking big on climate change, yet when the menace comes in full force, we have been caught unprepared,” he said. “We have therefore been reduced to planning, searching and rescuing at the same time.” 

Environment Minister Soipan Tuya told a press briefing in Nairobi that the government was stepping up efforts to be better prepared for such events. 

“We continue to focus on the need to invest in early warning systems that prepare our population — days, weeks and months ahead of extreme weather events, such as the heavy rainfall we’re experiencing.”  

The international community, including the United Nations and African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat, have sent condolences and pledged solidarity with the affected families. 

The weather has also left a trail of destruction in neighboring Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding and landslides. 

Late last year, more than 300 people died in rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades. 

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, leading to drought in some parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere. 
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South Africa’s treatment of its big cats has long tarnished its reputation for conservation, from allowing captive-bred lion hunting to selling lion bones to East Asia for their purported “medicinal” qualities. But now, the country is ending all that. Kate Bartlett reports from Lionsrock Sanctuary in Free State province. Camera and video editing by Zaheer Cassim.
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Human Rights Watch has released crucial archives from the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda, revealing ignored warnings that could have saved lives. These warnings by rights defenders highlight their vital role in safeguarding communities. Thirty years on, civil society groups are intensifying efforts by training more youth advocates to protect human rights in Rwanda. Senanu Tord reports from Kigali, Rwanda.
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U.S. officials are negotiating the removal of American troops from Niger after the country’s military junta ended a longstanding pact. Niger is the latest Sahel country to eject Western forces and replace them with Russian troops. Analysts say similar moves have not improved military security for Niger’s neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso. Henry Wilkins reports.
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Nairobi, Kenya — More than 40 people have died in southwestern Kenya after a dam burst Sunday night following heavy rains which spawned devastating flooding across the country. Earlier, several people went missing after their boat capsized in a river in eastern Kenya.

Kenyan rescue teams are searching for survivors swept away by floods  in the Mai Mahiu area of Nakuru County.

John Karungu, who lives near the dam, said it broke around 2:30 in the morning and that  people on the downstream side pleaded for help as the rushing water engulfed their homes. Karungu and his neighbors managed to rescue several children, but some were swept away.

According to residents, at least 16 homes were swept away in the area.

Kenyan Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen and Nakuru County Governor Susan Kihika visited the flood zone to assess the damage and mobilize authorities and agencies for rescue operations and aid distribution to the victims.

Naivasha Police Commander Stephen Kirui told VOA they have recovered dozens of bodies, and some of the survivors were admitted to hospitals in the area.

“So far, we have retrieved 45 bodies. We have not identified the gender of adults and children. Almost three villages have been swept [away], and a large number of people, 110 persons, have been admitted to several hospitals within Naivasha Sub-County,” Kirui said.

Kirui said it was still raining in the area.

Last week, the Kenya Red Cross warned of more rains, called on Kenyans to brace for more flooding, and urged the population to take precautions.

Kirui said they have managed to clear the roads, but the flooding threat persists.

“The situation is now coming to a [sense of] normalcy, and the roads are passable,” Kirui said. “We are trying to remove the trees that have barricaded the roads, and now the roads are passable. I want to advise the members of the public within these areas that they should keep off from the floods. They should move to higher ground whereby they cannot be swept away by the water because there is heavy rain coming, and it may not be good.”

Kenyan media reports that flooding has claimed the lives of more than 100 people since the rainy season began in mid-March.

The death toll is expected to rise after a boat capsized in the Tana River in eastern Kenya over the weekend. The Kenyan Red Cross said it rescued 23 people from the boat, but more than a dozen were still missing.

The flooding has prompted the Kenyan government to delay the reopening of schools until next week.
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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — At least 23 members of Nigeria’s civilian joint task force were killed Saturday in separate attacks by militants and an armed kidnapping gang in the north, two officials from the force said Sunday. 

In northeast Borno state, the heartland of an Islamist insurgency, suspected Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters used an improvised explosive device (IED) to blow up a vehicle carrying the Civilian Joint Tast Force (CJTF) team, a local force chairman said. 

The CJTF was first formed in 2013 to protect communities in the northeast and help the military fight Boko Haram and later its offshoot ISWAP. The force has since been extended to other northern states that are grappling with armed kidnapping gangs. 

Tijjanima Umar, CJTF chairman for Gamboru Ngala area near the border with Cameroon, said his team was traveling to Borno state capital Maiduguri when they drove over the IED. 

“As the mine blew up, nine of them died instantly … while two other people had severe injuries and were immediately taken to hospital for treatment,” Umar told Reuters by phone. 

The Nigerian military was not immediately available to comment. 

Although severely curtailed by Nigerian security forces, Boko Haram and ISWAP still carry out deadly attacks against civilians and the military. 

In northwestern Soko state, 14 CJTF members were killed and several were missing following an ambush by gunmen Saturday, task force sector commandant Ismail Haruna told Reuters. 

Haruna said the CJTF members were killed in Sokoto’s Isa local government area, where they had raided and destroyed a bush camp belonging to a known armed kidnapping gang leader. 

The gang quickly regrouped and ambushed the CJTF as they drove back to Sokoto state capital, he added. 
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Lome, Togo — Togo on Monday holds legislative elections after a highly divisive constitutional reform that opponents say paves the way for President Faure Gnassingbe to further extend his family’s decadeslong grip on power.

At the helm of the small West African country for nearly 20 years, Faure Gnassingbe succeeded his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for almost four decades.

Critics say the political dynasty’s hold on the small West African nation will be extended by the reform.

People in the streets of the seaside capital, Lome, were split over the election, the role of Togo’s leader, and who it should be.

Building painter Komlan Gato said he hoped the vote could usher in a new leader but was unsure about the fairness of the ballot.

“I am certain that if these elections are transparent, there will be change in this country. We are tired of seeing the same family in power,” he said.

“I was born in January 1970, and I only know the Gnassingbe family in power.”

The reform, adopted by lawmakers on April 19, makes the president’s post a largely ceremonial one.

The president will now be elected by parliament and not the people for a four-year term.

Power will reside with the president of the council of ministers, a sort of super-prime minister who happens to be the leader of the majority party in the new assembly.

If the ruling Union for the Republic (UNIR) party — which has an overwhelming parliamentary majority — wins on Monday, Gnassingbe can assume the new post.

Critics say that will allow him to skip presidential term limits. As president he would have been able only to run for one more five-year term in an election next year.

The opposition boycotted the last elections in 2018, citing irregularities. But they have asked supporters to turn out massively to challenge the UNIR’s stranglehold on power.

“The youth are desperate. The country is poorly managed and we are tired of the system in place,” said trader Ayaovi Sohou, 32.

Bernado Agbve, a baker, 28, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to “publish results from the polls: good results and not fictitious results.”

Gnassingbe has been reelected four times since being put in power in 2005 by the military to succeed his father after his sudden death. Each of the votes was rejected as a sham by the opposition.

‘Much remains to be done’

For Elvire Atchou, 38, an accountant in an insurance company, Gnassingbe should be allowed to continue.

“Togo is changing, let President Faure Gnassingbe continue the major projects: construction of roads, schools, health centers,” she said, adding, “I know that much remains to be done.”

With the country facing the risk of spillover from jihadist conflicts in the Sahel to its north, security and stability are key concerns.

Nutsugan Koffi, 25, a taxi driver, said Gnassingbe should be allowed to stay as long as Togo is stable.

“There is peace in Togo. It is very important for the development of a country. President Faure Gnassingbe can remain at the head of this country as long as possible, that does not bother me, provided that we are comfortable,” he said.

“The only thing that young people expect is employment.”

The constitutional reform also means Togo can shift away from presidential elections that have often sparked violence, he said.

All the presidential elections since the start of democracy in 1990 have been contested by the opposition, often with waves of violence, notably during the April 2005 vote.

Violence left at least 105 and perhaps more than 800 people killed, depending on figures from the government or from the opposition. The United Nations estimated at the time that there were between 400 to 500 deaths.

Leaders of opposition parties and civil society organizations brand the reform an “institutional coup” tailor-made to keep Faure in power.

They have announced “large-scale actions” without giving details, though the last attempt to bring supporters to the streets was quickly banned and blocked by authorities.
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LAGOS, Nigeria — When a small number of cases of locally transmitted malaria were found in the United States last year, it was a reminder that climate change is reviving or migrating the threat of some diseases. But across the African continent malaria has never left, killing or sickening millions of people.

Take Funmilayo Kotun, a 66-year-old resident of Makoko, an informal neighborhood in Nigeria’s Lagos city. Its ponds of dirty water provide favorable breeding conditions for malaria-spreading mosquitoes. Kotun can’t afford insecticide-treated bed nets that cost between $7 and $21 each, much less antimalarial medications or treatment.

For World Malaria Day on Thursday, here is what you need to know about the situation in Africa:

Malaria is still widespread

The malaria parasite mostly spreads to people via infected mosquitoes and can cause symptoms including fever, headaches and chills. It mostly affects children under 5 and pregnant women.

Vaccine efforts are still in early stages: Cameroon this year became the first country to routinely give children a new malaria vaccine, which is only about 30% effective and doesn’t stop transmission. A second vaccine was recently approved. On Thursday, WHO announced that three African countries — Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone — were rolling out vaccine programs for millions of children.

Cases of resistance to antimalarial drugs and insecticides are increasing, while funding by governments and donors for innovation is slowing.

Living conditions play a role, with crowded neighborhoods, stagnant water, poor sanitation and lack of access to treatment and prevention materials all issues in many areas. And an invasive species of mosquito previously seen mostly in India and the Persian Gulf is a new concern.

A growing problem

Globally, malaria cases are on the rise. Infections increased from 233 million in 2019 to 249 million in 85 countries in 2022. Malaria deaths rose from 576,000 in 2019 to 608,000 in 2022, according to the World Health Organization.

Of the 12 countries that carry about 70% of the global burden of malaria, 11 are in Africa and the other is India. Children under 5 constituted 80% of the 580,000 malaria deaths recorded in Africa in 2022.

COVID-19 hurt progress

The fight against malaria saw some progress in areas such as rapid diagnostic tests, vaccines and new bed nets meant to counter insecticide resistance, but the COVID-19 pandemic and a shift in focus and funding set back efforts.

A study published in Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease last year said COVID-19-induced lockdowns led to disruptions at 30% of rural community health service points across Africa. Malaria cases started spiking again, breaking a downward trend between 2000 and 2019.

That downward trend could soon return, according to the WHO.

A warming world and new frontiers

Africa is “at the sharp end of climate change,” and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events causes havoc in efforts to combat malaria in low- and middle-income regions, Peter Sands, the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, warned in December.

In 2023, the WHO’s World Malaria Report included a chapter on the link between malaria and climate change for the first time, highlighting its significance as a potential risk multiplier. Scientists worry that people living in areas once inhospitable to mosquitoes, including the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and the mountains of eastern Ethiopia, could be exposed.

In Zimbabwe, which has recorded some of its hottest days in decades, malaria transmission periods have extended in some districts, “and this shift has been attributed to climate change,” said Dr. Precious Andifasi, a WHO technical officer for malaria in Zimbabwe.
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KIGALI, Rwanda — Rwanda says it’s ready to receive migrants from the United Kingdom after British Parliament this week approved a long-stalled and controversial bill seeking to stem the tide of people crossing the English Channel in small boats by deporting some of them to the East African country.

There is even a place ready and waiting for the migrants — a refurbished Hope Hostel in the vibrant upscale neighborhood of Kagugu, an area of the Rwandan capital of Kigali that is home to many expats and several international schools.

The hostel once housed college students whose parents died in the 1994 genocide, this African nation’s most horrific period in history when an estimated 800,000 Tutsi were killed by extremist Hutu in massacres that lasted over 100 days.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged the deportation flights would begin in July but has refused to provide details or say how many people would be deported.

Rwanda government’s deputy spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda told The Associated Press on Tuesday that authorities here have been planning for the migrants’ arrival for two years.

“Even if they arrive now or tomorrow, all arrangements are in place,” he said.

The plan was long held up in British courts and by opposition from human rights activists who say it is illegal and inhumane. It envisages deporting to Rwanda some of those who enter the U.K. illegally and migrant advocates have vowed to continue to fight against the plan.

The measure is also meant to be a deterrent to migrants who risk their lives in leaky, inflatable boats in hopes that they will be able to claim asylum once they reach Britain. The U.K. also signed a new treaty with Rwanda to beef up protections for migrants, and adopted new legislation declaring Rwanda to be a safe country.

“The Rwanda critics and the U.K. judges who earlier said Rwanda is not a safe country have been proven wrong,” Mukuralinda said. “Rwanda is safe.”

The management at the four-story Hope Hostel says the facility is ready and can accommodate 100 people at full capacity. The government says it will serve as a transit center and that more accommodations would be made available as needed.

Thousands of migrants arrive in Britain every year.

After they arrive from Britain, the migrants will be shown to their rooms to rest, after which they will be offered food and given some orientation points about Kigali and Rwanda, said hostel manager Ismael Bakina.

Tents will be set up within the hostel’s compound for processing their documentation and for various briefings. The site is equipped with security cameras, visible across the compound.

Within the compound are also entertainment places, a mini-soccer field, a basketball and a volleyball court as well as a red-carpeted prayer room. For those who want to light up, “there is even a smoking room,” Bakina explained.

Meals will be prepared in the hostel’s main kitchen but provisions are also being made for those who want to prepare their own meals, he said. The migrants will be free to walk outside the hostel and even visit the nearby Kigali city center.

“We will have different translators, according to (their) languages,” Bakina added, saying they include English and Arabic.

The government has said the migrants will have their papers processed within the first three months. Those who want to remain in Rwanda will be allowed to do so while authorities will also assist those who wish to return to their home countries.

While in Rwanda, migrants who obtain legal status — presumably for Britain — will also be processed, authorities have said, though it’s unclear what that means exactly.

For those who choose to stay, Mukurilinda said Rwanda’s government will bear full financial and other responsibilities for five years, after which they will be considered integrated into the society.

At that point, they can start managing on their own.
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GENEVA — The United Nations says Sudan’s warring parties appear headed toward major clashes in the northern Darfur city of El Fasher, home to 2 million people and about a half-million internally displaced.

The office of the spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general said in a statement Friday that “The Rapid Support Forces [RSF] are reportedly encircling El Fasher, suggesting a coordinated move to attack the city may be imminent. Simultaneously, the Sudanese Armed Forces [SAF] appear to be positioning themselves.”

The statement said the secretary-general’s personal envoy, Ramtane Lamamra, is working with the parties to de-escalate tensions in El Fasher.

At least 43 people, including women and children, reportedly have been killed in fighting in the northern Darfur city since April 14 when the RSF, backed by its allied militia, began a push to gain control of the city, the SAF’s last remaining stronghold in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Earlier, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged the parties to immediately halt violence in and around El Fasher.

Speaking from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, Seif Magango warned that the fight for El Fasher, already raging outside the city for several weeks, may be taking a turn for the worse. 

“Reports indicate that both parties have launched indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons with wide-area effects, such as mortar shells and rockets fired from fighter jets, in residential districts,” the spokesperson said. “Since early April, the RSF has conducted several large-scale attacks on the villages in western El Fasher mostly inhabited by the African Zaghawa ethnic community,” he said, noting that several Zaghawa villages have been burned down.

“Such attacks raise the specter of further ethnically motivated violence in Darfur, including mass killings,” he said.

Last year, fighting and attacks between the Rizeigat and the African Masalit communities in West Darfur left hundreds of civilians dead or injured, and thousands displaced from their homes.

The earlier Darfur conflict that erupted in 2003 between Arab and non-Arab communities killed at least 200,000 people and left a deadly legacy of mines and explosive remnants of war, which continue to wreak havoc on communities long after that war ended.

The new war between rival factions of Sudan’s military that broke out last year has left more than 18 million people facing acute food insecurity and uprooted nearly 9 million from their homes.

OHCHR spokesperson Magango said civilians trapped in El Fasher are afraid they will be killed if they try to flee the city.

“This dire situation is compounded by a severe shortage of essential supplies as deliveries of commercial goods and humanitarian aid have been heavily constrained by the fighting, and delivery trucks are unable to freely transit through RSF-controlled territory,” he said.

High Commissioner Türk is urging both parties to the conflict and their allies to grant civilians safe passage to other areas and allow safe and unhindered humanitarian aid to reach civilians in dire need.

For his part, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reiterated his call on all warring parties “to refrain from fighting in the El Fasher area,” warning of devastating consequences for the civilian population that is “in an area already on the brink of famine.”
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Abuja, Nigeria — Thursday, April 25, marked World Malaria Day, a day to mark progress against the deadly disease. In Nigeria, that progress is being threatened by soaring drug costs caused by inflation, a poor exchange rate and the exit of pharmaceutical companies. Nigeria accounts for 27 percent of the global malaria burden – the highest in the world.

Two months ago, Abuja resident Damian Gaau came down with fever. He immediately suspected malaria and went to a local clinic for treatment.

But he says the price of his regular anti-malarial medicine had more than doubled.

“Before, I can use a little amount of money to get some drugs to care for my malaria but now, everything is cost [expensive] even to get medicine is not easy, for you to get medicine you age to take half of your salary before you get drugs to treat yourself,” said Gaau.

Gaau says to get the care he needed, he had to forgo other necessities.

“The increase of the medicine has cost me a lot, like I have to cut down some of my expenses to get some drugs for myself, even to buy food, clothes, all those kinds of stuff I have to cut down from there to get my medicine,” said Gaau.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Africa accounted for about ninety five percent of malaria cases and deaths globally in 2021. That year, Nigeria reported 194,000 deaths from the mosquito-borne disease, more than any other country.

Health experts say pregnant women and children younger than five are most at risk of the disease and access to affordable treatment and poverty are some of the reasons malaria cases are high.

“What has driven up all the prices is the exchange rate. Almost 70 percent of medicines we use in this country are imported if not more. Most of the pharmaceutical companies working in Nigeria, some of them are closing up and leaving so that means the foreign exchange component is very high so if the dollar to Naira ratio is not favorable, it will drive up this cost which is what’s going on,” said Orji.

Last year, Nigeria’s health ministry said the economic burden of malaria in the country will increase from $1.6 billion to $2.8 billion by 2030.

Like most commodities, the cost of anti-malarial drugs has gone through the roof in recent months amid Nigeria’s growing cost of living crisis, fueled by the withdrawal of fuel subsidy payments and currency control measures.

Nigerian authorities say they’re working to address the rising cost of medicine, but Orji says there are other factors.

“There are a lot of interventions government has actually put in place but unfortunately the implementation is so poor that Nigerians are still suffering,” said Orji. “The only one that is working, not so well but at least working, is the National Health insurance scheme. What we should also pay attention [to] is our population. Our population is galloping in a way that whatever economic sense we’re making will not make any sense.”

As Nigerian health officials marked World Malaria Day under the theme “Accelerate the fight against malaria for a more equitable world,” progress against the disease is under threat, leaving many people like Damian Gaau more vulnerable.

 
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