YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Opposition candidates are accusing Chad’s military ruler, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, of flouting election rules and launching his campaign before the official starting date of April 14.

Deby, the transitional president who seized power after the death of his father in 2021, is attempting to cement his rule with a victory in Chad’s presidential election on May 6.

The general said on state TV Wednesday that if elected as Chad’s president, he will maintain peace and develop the central African state, adding that he would fight what he called endemic poverty by creating jobs and funding youth agricultural projects.

Several hundred people, a majority from Deby’s Patriotic Salvation Movement party, applauded as he told them that more than 200 opposition political parties and about 1,000 civil society groups have agreed to support him.

Deby encouraged them to immediately begin campaigning for him.

Lydie Beassemda, a presidential candidate of The Party for Democracy and Full Independence of Chad, accused Deby of disrespecting Chad’s electoral code by launching his campaign early.

April 14 is the date set by Chad’s Constitutional Council for campaigning to begin.

Beassemda said nine opposition challengers notified the National Agency for the Management of Elections that Deby launched campaigning early. The agency said it is examining several complaints from opposition candidates but provided no details.

Beassemda urged Chad’s 8 million registered voters not to be intimidated by Deby, who wants to continue the role of his father, Idriss Deby Itno.

The 37-year-old Deby was proclaimed head of an army junta after rebels killed his father in 2021 after more than 30 years in power. The presidential election in May is meant to be a transition back to democracy.

Deby initially promised an 18-month transition period after he seized power. He later appointed himself as the head of a transitional government. Opposition parties say he uses the military to suppress the opposition.

Opposition candidates urged Chadians to be vigilant and report suspected election malpractices to the National Agency for the Management of Elections. They also called for the international community to take note that Deby is not respecting democratic norms by campaigning before the official start date.

The nine candidates challenging Deby in the election, including pro-democracy figure Success Masra, who now serves as transitional prime minister, say Deby does not want to lose his family’s grip on power.

Deby says he will respect the verdict of the ballot and hand over power if he is defeated.

The Constitutional Council set the first round of voting for May 6 and the second round for June 22.
…

your ad here

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — In Gabon, Christians joined Muslims this week to pray for peace as the country holds a month-long “national dialogue” intended to pave the way for military leaders to transfer power to a civilian government.

Clerics say that among the approximately 700 civilians who attended this year’s Eid al-Fitr prayers Wednesday at the Central Mosque in Gabon’s capital, Libreville, were scores of Christians. The Eid al-Fitr prayers marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan. 

Tidjani Babagana, grand imam of Muslims in Gabon, told Gabon’s state TV that during prayers he launched an appeal for reconciliation, peace, temperance and internal harmony among citizens who are looking forward to changes at the helm of the government. He also reminded civilians who are waiting for the government to improve their living conditions that it is a prescription in the Holy Quran to respect state authority. 

Babagana said both Muslims and Christians should celebrate Eid al-Fitr as a sign of fraternity, interreligious tolerance and living together in peace, despite the challenges Gabon is facing. 

The faithful who gathered for prayers say the country has suffered a crime wave — including theft, assault and highway robbery — since transitional president General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema ordered the release of over 500 prisoners in late March.  

The general seized power from President Ali Bongo in a bloodless coup last August. Nguema said he took control to improve living conditions in the oil-producing nation because its citizens remained poor during the 56 years of leadership by Ali Bongo and his father, Omar Bongo. 

Gabon’s Civil Society Group says the central African state now faces the challenges of a transition to civilian rule. A transitional charter introduced by the general last November bars all members of the current government from becoming candidates in presidential elections, with the exception of Nguema. 

This month, Nguema launched what is billed as an Inclusive National Dialogue, which he said will prepare an economic blueprint and a calendar to organize elections that will hand power to civilians. 

Bruno Nguema Ela, the president of Gabon’s citizens in the diaspora, took part in Eid al-Fitr prayers. He said opposition and civil society want Nguema to reassure civilians that he will not hang on to power. 

Ela said Gabon’s diaspora is happy with efforts by Nguema to stop the Bongo dynasty from maintaining its grip on power, and added that the transitional government should make sure it hands power to civilians so Gabon does not sink into social unrest and political crisis. 

Firman Maurice Nguema, one of the spokespersons with the commission that will lead discussions in Gabon’s national dialogue, said General Nguema is committed to providing Gabon with functioning state institutions before handing power to constitutional order. He said Nguema wants Gabon to be a peaceful country where democratic choices and rights and liberties of civilians are respected. 

The transitional government says Christians joined Muslims in feasts across the central African state this week. Muslim clerics say that nationwide, prayers were for peace and a return to constitutional order without chaos. 
…

your ad here

London — Environmental and human rights activists are calling on the Nigerian government to withhold approval of plans by the London-based oil giant Shell to sell off its operations in the Niger Delta, unless the oil giant does more to tackle pollution in the region caused by the industry.

For decades, foreign energy firms have extracted hydrocarbons from the Niger Delta, and Shell is by far the biggest investor. It has earned the companies — and the Nigerian government — billions of dollars. Locals, however, have long complained of massive environmental damage.

“You can’t grow crops. You can’t drink the water. You can’t fish because the fish are dying or they’re dead,” said Florence Kayemba, Nigeria director at the civil society group Stakeholder Democracy Network, based in Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta.

Shell Oil announced in January it is pulling out of its onshore and shallow water operations the region. It intends to sell its Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), to Renaissance, a consortium of five mainly local firms. The sale would include existing mining licenses and infrastructure. Shell says it is part of a plan to transition away from fossil fuels.

Civil society groups say Shell must do more to clean up the environment before it leaves. A recent report by a Dutch organization, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, or SOMO, warned the divestment plan is a “ticking time bomb.”

“Communities fear that, once Shell exits, they will never see their environment restored or receive compensation for lost livelihoods,” the SOMO report said. “Most people in the Delta depend on farming and fishing, occupations that are impossible when the soil and waterways are deeply contaminated.”

Florence Kayemba of the Stakeholder Democracy Network, which contributed to the SOMO report, told VOA that the Nigerian government must scrutinize the sale more closely.

“We are very concerned about the legacy of pollution being left behind by Shell — not only Shell but also other oil companies that have divested their assets from the Niger Delta,” she said.

“We believe that it’s very important for the federal government to look into these issues, because the oil is not going to flow forever,” Kayemba added. “You will have a post-oil Nigeria. You will have a post-oil Niger Delta. And we need to have an environment that is functional.”

Oil companies like Shell have often blamed theft and sabotage for oil spills, a claim contested by environmental groups. Locals also seek to make money from unlicensed small-scale production known as “artisanal refining,” according to Kayemba.

“What you have is a situation where artisanal oil refining is just reinforcing what has been happening,” she said. “And yet that pollution had already existed. So, by the time you get to disentangle this, it becomes really difficult. Who is to blame who?”

A report commissioned in May 2023 by Bayelsa State, one of the major oil producing regions in the Niger Delta, estimated that it would cost some $12 billion to clean up decades-old oil spills in the state over a 12-year period. It blamed Shell and the Italian oil firm ENI for most of the damage.

Both Shell and ENI dispute the findings.

The SOMO report claims Shell is now selling its operations to domestic companies that may not have the capability to deal with the aging infrastructure and legacy of oil exploration.

“Shell is selling its oil blocks and infrastructure as going concerns to companies that appear, in several cases, to lack the finances and willingness both to deal with the old and damaged infrastructure and to undertake responsible closure and decommissioning when this becomes necessary,” the report said.

“Shell’s exit exposes the communities of the Niger Delta to major ongoing risks to their environment, health, and human rights, long after the oil industry ceases and likely for generations to come,” it added.

In a statement to VOA, Shell said that “Onshore divestments by international energy companies are part of a wider reconfiguration of the Nigerian oil and gas sector in which, after decades of capability building, domestic companies are playing an increasingly important role in helping the country to deliver its aspirations for the sector.”

“As divestments occur, mandatory submissions to the Federal Government allow the regulators to apply scrutiny across a wide range of issues and recommend approval of these divestments, provided they meet all requirements,” the statement said.

Shell added that it will continue to deploy its “technical expertise” under the terms of the sale to the new buyers.

The Nigerian government has indicated it intends to approve Shell’s divestment plans. Heineken Lokpobiri, Nigeria’s petroleum minister, told the World Economic Forum in Davos that the government is committed to “fostering a business-friendly environment” in the sector.

“On the part of the government, once we get the necessary documents, we will not waste time to give the necessary considerations and consent,” Lokpobiri said at Davos January 18, according to Reuters.

The Nigerian Ministry for Petroleum Resources did not respond to VOA requests for comment.
…

your ad here

Nairobi, Kenya — Kenyan doctors held new demonstrations Tuesday in their push for better pay and working conditions.

The doctors are demanding a commitment from the government to fulfill collective bargaining agreements signed in 2017, but President William Ruto says the country has no money to pay the doctors and asked them to return to work.

Thousands of striking doctors and medical trainees chanted, “The doctors united, shall never be defeated,” as they protested outside the Kenyan Parliament.

Led by officials of Kenya’s main health care professionals union, the doctors want the government to honor the agreement.

“The government has not implemented critical components of this collective bargaining agreement and instead, they have begun to violate it outrightly.” said Davji Atellah, secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union.

“Despite the inflation, despite the challenges [and] changes on all the other civil servants and public servants, doctors and other health workers have remained without it being considered,’ Atellah said. “Instead, we realized that the new doctor interns that are being posted, their salaries were reduced by 91%.”

President William Ruto has asked the doctors to call off the strike and go back to work, saying the government is struggling with a huge wage bill and cannot afford to review their salaries.

“I am telling our friends, the doctors, that we mind about them. We value the service they give to our nation. But we have to live within our means,” Ruto said.

Opposition lawmakers who joined the striking doctors Tuesday accuse the president of using the wage bill as an excuse to deny doctors their due pay at a time when there is exorbitant spending in government.

“The doctors must not be paid yesterday, they must not be paid tomorrow, but they must be paid today,” said Paul Ongili, also known as “Babu Owino,” an opposition member of parliament. “Ruto took loans, and Ruto is collecting taxes. And those taxes must be used to pay these doctors. Ruto is vicariously liable for all the deaths occurring in the hospitals, for all the deaths occurring in this country, because he has refused to pay the doctors.”

Another opposition member, Otiende Amollo, said there was support for the strike.

“We want to reassure you that we stand with you, and we stand with your right under the constitution to peacefully demonstrate. Nobody has the authority to outlaw a peaceful demonstration by doctors,” Amollo said.

Irene Kenyatta, a final year medical student at the University of Nairobi, was among those who joined the doctors in the demonstrations.

“I’m fighting for my future. I went to school to have a bright future. It can’t be the moment that I’m going to finish school you are telling me that I can’t have the bright future after all,” she said. “I have invested a lot. If I want a bright future, I have to get the bright future, even if it means coming to the streets to fight for my rights.”

The 2017 Kenyan doctors’ strike that lasted 100 days is the longest in the country’s history. 

Implementation of the collective bargaining agreement that ended that strike is the cause of the current strike, now in its fourth week.
…

your ad here

GENEVA — The United Nations refugee agency says thousands of people are still fleeing Sudan every day as clashes between two warring army factions, raging for nearly a year, show no signs of abating.  

The latest UNHCR figures show that more than 8.5 million people in Sudan have been forced to flee their homes since war erupted on April 15, 2023, making this one of the largest displacement and humanitarian crises in the world.  

The number includes 1.8 million Sudanese who have fled to neighboring countries seeking refuge.  

The UNHCR says fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has shattered peoples’ lives. It says attacks on civilians are escalating, human rights violations are widespread and rampant, conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence continues without stop, and the economy has collapsed.  

“While the war started one year ago, thousands are crossing borders daily as if the emergency had started yesterday,” UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado told journalists in Geneva Tuesday.  

“Chad has experienced the largest refugee arrivals in its history. While teams from UNHCR and partners continue to work and relocate refugees to expanded and new settlements, over 150,000 remain in border areas in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, mainly and largely due to funding shortfalls,” she said.  

The UNHCR says more than 1,800 people are arriving daily in South Sudan alone, increasing pressure on the country’s overstretched infrastructure and worsening vast humanitarian needs.  

“Some 635,000 people have arrived in South Sudan since the 15th of April last year, which represents more than 5% of the population of South Sudan,” said Marie-Helene Verney, UNHCR representative in South Sudan, speaking from the capital, Juba. 

To put that number in perspective, she said 635,000 people would be equivalent to 4.5 million people arriving in less than one year in Germany or about 17.6 million people arriving in less than one year in the United States. 

“This is the world’s poorest country, so you can imagine the pressure that is being put on this country,” she said. “There are very few roads, pretty much all humanitarian assistance has to be airlifted, at significant cost. We are approaching the rainy season again, so we are facing the risk of disease, particularly cholera. 

“Unfortunately, we all know that the risk of sexual violence is high during transit,” she said, “and we have heard of heartbreaking stories of what has happened to women who have had to flee when they were in Sudan.” 

Verney said the profile of many of the refugees presents challenge and opportunity as “many tend to be very urban.”  

She said those who arrive from Sudan mostly lived in the capital, Khartoum, and the city of Wad Madani and “are very middle class, very educated, and have professional skills, mainly in health and education.”  

The urban people are “reluctant to live in refugee camps,” she said, so UNHCR is working with South Sudan to match their skills with the gaps that exist in the country. 

The UNHCR’s Sarrado notes other countries of asylum, including the Central African Republic, Egypt and Ethiopia, also are experiencing large daily inflows of Sudanese refugees and the many logistical challenges that come with them. 

“Those crossing borders, mostly women and children, are arriving in remote areas with little to nothing and in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical care. Many families have been separated and arrive in distress. People and children have witnessed or experienced appalling violence, making psychosocial support a priority. Many children arrive malnourished,” she said. 

As the conflict continues and the lack of assistance and opportunities deepens, Sarrado warned that “more people will be forced to flee Sudan to neighboring countries or to move further, risking their lives by embarking on long, dangerous journeys,” seeking safety in countries further afield.  

In the last year, the UNHCR reports Uganda has welcomed 30,000 Sudanese refugees, including over 14,000 since the start of the year. 

Additionally, UNHCR statistics show more Sudanese refugees are going to Europe, with 6,000 arriving in Italy from Tunisia and Libya since the beginning of 2023 — an almost six-fold increase from the previous year. 

Despite the magnitude of the crisis, Sarrado said funding remains critically low, saying that “only 7%” of the UNHCR’s $1.4 billion 2024 Regional Refugee Response Plan for Sudan has been received. 

She said UNHCR and partners are saving lives in many locations, but firm commitments from international donors to support Sudan and the countries hosting refugees “are needed to ensure those forced to flee by the war can live in dignity.” 
…

your ad here

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Police in Gabon say a crime wave has hit the capital, Libreville, several days after the country’s transitional president pardoned and set free over 500 prisoners. Civil society groups on Tuesday launched a campaign asking the government to give the former prisoners more support and for freed prisoners to be law-abiding citizens. 

General Jean Germain Effayong Onong, commander in chief of Gabon’s Penitentiary Administration, told Gabon’s state TV that former prisoners caught committing crimes will either be punished or sent back to prison.

Onong said the country’s transitional government led by General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema wants civilians to live in peace with total freedom to carry out their daily activities.

Onong spoke about a week after the government set free more than 560 of the close to 4,000 inmates at the Libreville Central Prison.

In December, President Oligui, who seized power from President Ali Ben Bongo following a disputed election last August, promised to set free over 1,000 prisoners. He said most were civilians were unjustifiably held in prison by Gabon’s former leaders. The general said a majority of prisoners were held in pretrial detention for a long time with no evidence of wrongdoing.

The presidential pardon did not extend to prisoners who had been convicted of drug-related offenses or violent crimes.

However, Gabon’s police this week reported that many people who regained freedom following the presidential clemency have been arrested for involvement in crimes such as theft, assault and highway robbery. 

Firman Ollo’o Obiang is secretary general of S.O.S Prisoners, a non-governmental organization that works for the well-being of Gabon’s inmates.

Obiang said it is very surprising that less than two weeks after regaining freedom, former prisoners whose liberation was hard earned are again arrested by the police for committing crimes. Obiang said while waiting for families and the government to socially and economically reintegrate the freed prisoners, his organization is providing moral and financial assistance to poor and unemployed civilians who were freed by Gabon’s transitional government.

Obiang did not say how much financial assistance S.O.S Prisoners provides to the freed inmates.

Rights groups and S.O.S Prisoners blame unemployment, the high cost of living and poverty for the crime wave reported by Gabon police.

They also say if prisons in Gabon were the correctional facilities they are supposed to be, freed prisoners would not be involved with crime. 

Stanislas Kouma is Gabon’s director general of penitentiary affairs. 

Kouma said Gabon’s transitional government is planning to improve living conditions of inmates while in prison and when the inmates eventually regain their freedom. He said conditions deteriorated during ousted president Ali Bongo Ondimba’s term in office. 

Kouma said Gabon’s central prison in Libreville, constructed for less than a thousand inmates, had about 4.000 detainees when General Oligui seized power in an August 30 coup.

Shortly after the coup, President Oligui freed several political prisoners who had jailed for years without trial.

Included in that release were Jean-Remy Yama, leader of the Coalition of Gabon State Workers Trade Unions, Renaud Allogho Akoue, former director general of Gabon’s National Social Insurance and Health Fund, and Léandre Nzué, former mayor of Gabon’s capital, Libreville.

Hundreds more less prominent prisoners pardoned by Oligui are scheduled to be released by the end of April.
…

your ad here

Political violence in Sudan is forcing thousands of refugees, many of them children, to neighboring South Sudan for safety. There, they face a different threat — a collapsing health care system. Sheila Ponnie reports from Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan.
…

your ad here

abuja, nigeria — Nigeria’s former central bank governor on Monday pleaded not guilty to fresh charges brought against him by the country’s anti-corruption body,

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, last week filed 26 charges accusing Godwin Emefiele of corrupt practices and misuse of authority while in office. Emefiele appeared before the Lagos State High Court on Monday with a co-defendant, Henry Omoile.

In its suit filed April 3, the EFCC said Emefiele violated Nigeria’s corrupt practices act by receiving bribes and gifts and acquiring property through fraud.

The EFCC also accused Emefiele of arbitrarily allocating $2 billion dollars in foreign exchange without bids or due process and conferring undue advantage to his associates.

Emefiele and Omoile both pleaded not guilty to the charges. But the court remanded Emefiele into custody until Thursday, when a verdict on his bail application is expected.

Emefiele’s legal counsel was not immediately available to comment on the new charges.

But public affairs analyst Chris Kwaja said, “On the strength of the allegations, if he’s found wanting them, he’ll face justice as required by the laws of the land. For every individual that has been given the mandate to occupy public office, that mandate is a product of trust. This case represents that. The only thing for me is that in pursuit of accountability, the Nigerian state must be conscious of the right of every individual.”

Former President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Emefiele as CBN governor in 2014, and he served until last year. He was arrested in June, days after President Bola Tinubu took office.

Last year, the former Central Bank governor faced charges in another court in  Abuja, for illegally awarding contracts and violating Nigeria’s procurement laws — charges that he denied.

Eze Onyekpere, founder of the Center for Social Justice, wondered whether the government was looking for a scapegoat.

“I’m getting a bit worried, because we’ve seen this happen before in previous administrations,” Onyekpere said. “Let it not appear to be looking for a fall guy,  somebody that could easily be shaken off … and trying to provide excuses for their inability to manage the economy very well. It’s beginning to look a little bit not based on empirical legal evidence.”

Emefiele withdrew from a possible presidential bid in 2022.

Last July, Tinubu hired a special investigator to scrutinize the operations of the Central Bank under Emefiele. On Friday, the investigator said his work was complete, but his report has not been released.
…

your ad here

Lusaka, Zambia — Two senior U.N. officials are wrapping up their visit to Zambia to assess the country’s worst drought in 20 years, which affected some 8 million people and left at least 6 million at risk of food insecurity. The officials say communities affected by the drought need immediate humanitarian aid and food assistance.

Reena Ghelani, the U.N. assistant secretary-general, and climate crisis coordinator for the El Niño and La Niña response, and Eva Kadilli, UNICEF regional director for eastern and southern Africa, called for international solidarity to support the humanitarian response during their visit to Zambia.

Speaking in Lusaka Sunday, Ghelani said the country received less than normal rainfall, leaving hundreds of thousands of hectares of maize destroyed. This accounted for more than half of the country’s cultivation of maize, which is a staple food in Zambia.

“That means there’s not going to be food on the table for many families, and they are not going to be able to purchase,” she said. “So we need to respond swiftly with assistance today. This might become the new normal so we need to prepare, as the president has said, for the future.”

The U.N. representatives met with government and local partners involved in ongoing efforts to address both the drought and a historic cholera outbreak that claimed more than 700 lives.

The U.N. officials also heard from communities and NGOs working on the frontlines of the humanitarian crisis.

Eva Kadilli, UNICEF regional director for eastern and southern Africa, told VOA that about 3 million of the people in need are children. She said those most vulnerable to the impact of a climate crisis are children, specifically those under 5. They were also impacted by COVID and cholera, she said.

“Now to drought … this has a huge toll on children, on communities and families but also mothers, pregnant women lactating women as well, young adolescent girls,” she said.

Felesia Manico, a small-scale farmer in Chongwe near the capital Lusaka, told VOA that the drought has been a nightmare as she lost hundreds of hectares of crops such as maize and various vegetables.

“Our fields dried up one month in we couldn’t get anything from all the inputs that we put in,” she said. “We invested quite a bit in seed and labor and also fertilizer and all the other requirements that come with farming.”

Another small-scale farmer, Sam Tembo, said he has lost all 40 hectares of maize field to the drought. He borrowed $5,000 from the bank.

“All my crops are gone and now I cannot afford any meals,” he said. “Already I have lost money investing in the crops … but nothing came out. I don’t know how I am going to feed the children as it is.”

Worsened by climate change and the El Niño weather pattern, the crisis threatens national food security as well as water and energy supply, Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema said recently.

Zambia is highly dependent on hydroelectric power as experts warn that the drought consequences could last until early 2025.

The U.N. mission follows a recent declaration by Hichilema of a state of emergency and national disaster, as 84 of the country’s 116 districts are affected by the prolonged drought.

The crisis could have regional implications as Zambia is a major maize exporter in the region.
…

your ad here

On his farm near Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, Clark Lungren studies and breeds wild animals, some of them endangered species. The Canadian, who has been living in the country for several decades, is also giving tourists an opportunity to see his animals up close. But fighting and unrest in the country has put the farm at risk. VOA’s Gildas Da has more in this report narrated by Jackson Mvunganyi. (Solomane Nikiema contributed to this report)
…

your ad here

Red Sea State, Sudan — Sudanese paramilitary forces have killed at least 28 people in an attack on a village south of the capital Khartoum, a local doctors’ committee said Sunday.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out a “massacre” in “the village of Um Adam” 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of the city Saturday, the Sudan Doctors Committee said in a statement.

Sudan’s war between the military, under army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, began last April 15.

Many thousands of people have been killed, including up to 15,000 in a single town in the war-ravaged Darfur region, according to United Nations experts.

The war has also displaced more than 8.5 million people, practically destroyed Sudan’s already fragile infrastructure and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

Saturday’s attack “resulted in the killing (of) at least 28 innocent villagers and more than 240 people wounded,” the committee said.

It added that “there are a number of dead and wounded in the village that we were not able to count” due to the fighting and difficulty in reaching health facilities.

A local activists’ committee had given a toll of 25 earlier in the day.

A medical source at the Manaqil hospital, 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) away, confirmed to AFP that they had “received 200 wounded, some of whom arrived too late.”

“We’re facing a shortage of blood, and we don’t have enough medical personnel,” he added.

More than 70 percent of Sudan’s health facilities are out of service, according to the U.N., while those remaining receive many times their capacity and have meager resources.

Both sides in the conflict have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and looting and obstructing aid.

Since taking over Al-Jazira state just south of Khartoum in December, the RSF has laid siege to and attacked entire villages such as Um Adam.

By March, at least 108 villages and settlements across the country had been set on fire and “partially or completely destroyed,” the U.K.-based Center for Information Resilience has found.
…

your ad here

ACCRA, Ghana — When Efua, a 25-year-old fashion designer and single mother in Ghana, became pregnant last year, she sought an abortion at a health clinic but worried the procedure might be illegal. Health workers assured her abortions were lawful under certain conditions in the West African country, but Efua said she was still nervous.

“I had lots of questions, just to be sure I would be safe,” Efua told The Associated Press, on condition that only her middle name be used, for fear of reprisals from the growing anti-abortion movement in her country.

Finding reliable information was difficult, she said, and she didn’t tell her family about her procedure. “It comes with too many judgments,” she decided.

More than 20 countries across Africa have loosened restrictions on abortion in recent years, but experts say that like Efua, many women probably don’t realize they are entitled to a legal abortion. And despite the expanded legality of the procedure in places like Ghana, Congo, Ethiopia and Mozambique, some doctors and nurses say they’ve become increasingly wary of openly providing abortions. They’re fearful of triggering the ire of opposition groups that have become emboldened since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the nationwide right to abortion.

“We are providing a legal service for women who want an abortion, but we do not advertise it openly,” said Esi Asare Prah, who works at the clinic where Efua had the procedure — legal under Ghana’s law, passed in 1985. “We’ve found that people are OK with our clinic providing abortions, as long as we don’t make it too obvious what we are doing.”

The Maputo Protocol, a human rights treaty in effect since 2005 for all 55 countries of the African Union, says every nation on the continent should grant women the right to a medical abortion in cases of rape, sexual assault, incest, and endangerment for the mental or physical health of the mother or fetus.

Africa is alone globally in having such a treaty, but more than a dozen of its countries have yet to pass laws granting women access to abortions. Even in those that have legalized the procedure, obstacles to access remain. And misinformation is rampant in many countries, with a recent study faulting practices by Google and Meta.

“The right to abortion exists in law, but in practice, the reality may be a little different,” said Evelyne Opondo, of the International Center for Research on Women. She noted that poorer countries in particular, such as Benin and Ethiopia, may permit abortions in some instances but struggle with a lack of resources to make them available to all women. Many women learn of their options only through word of mouth.

Across Africa, MSI Reproductive Choices — which provides contraception and abortion in 37 countries worldwide — reports that staff have been repeatedly targeted by anti-abortion groups. The group cites harassment and intimidation of staff in Ethiopia. And in Nigeria, MSI’s clinic was raided and temporarily closed after false allegations that staffers had illegally accessed confidential documents.

“The opposition to abortion in Africa has always existed, but now they are better organized,” said Mallah Tabot, of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in Kenya. She noted that a significant amount of money backing anti-abortion efforts appears to have come from conservative American groups — and several reports have found millions in such funding from conservative Christian organizations.

The spike from opposition groups is alarming, said Angela Akol, of the reproductive rights advocacy group Ipas.

“We’ve seen them in Kenya and Uganda advocating at the highest levels of government for reductions to abortion access,” she said. “There are patriarchal and almost misogynistic norms across much of Africa. … The West is tapping into that momentum after the Roe v. Wade reversal to challenge abortion rights here.”

Congo, one of the world’s poorest countries, introduced a law in 2018 permitting abortions in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape, incest, and physical or mental health risks to the woman.

Even so, pamphlets aimed at women who might want an abortion use coded language, said Patrick Djemo, of MSI in Congo.

“We talk about the management of unwanted pregnancies,” he said, noting that they don’t use the word abortion. “It could cause a backlash.”

Accurate language and information can be hard to find online, too. Last week, a study from MSI and the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that Google and Meta — which operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — restricted access to accurate information about abortion in countries including Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya.

The study said the tech giants banned local abortion providers from advertising services while approving paid ads from anti-abortion groups pushing false claims about decriminalization efforts as part of a global conspiracy to “eliminate” local populations.

Google didn’t respond to a request for comment on the study. Meta said via email that its platforms “prohibit ads that mislead people about services a business provides” and that it would review the report.

Opondo, of the international women’s center, said she’s deeply concerned about the future of abortion-rights movements in Africa, with opponents using the same tactics that helped overturn Roe vs. Wade in the U.S.

Yet, she said, for now it’s “still probably easier for a woman in Benin to get an abortion than in Texas.”

For Efua, information and cost were obstacles. She cobbled together the necessary 1,000 Ghana cedis ($77) for her abortion after asking a friend to help.

She said she wishes women could easily get reliable information, especially given the physical and mental stress she experienced. She said she wouldn’t have been able to handle another baby on her own and believes many other women face similar dilemmas.

“If you’re pregnant and not ready,” she said, “it could really affect you mentally and for the rest of your life.”
…

your ad here