Marco Rubio, the new U.S. secretary of state, has not been specific about his Africa policy, but South Africa’s president says he is confident in his country’s relationship with the U.S. under President Donald Trump, as Kate Bartlett reports from Johannesburg. Camera: Zaheer Cassim.
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Category: Africa
Africa news. Africa is highly biodiverse, it is the continent with the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. However, Africa also is heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity, and pollution
Nigerian journalist misleads on Trump’s ability to travel internationally
Some countries have laws that refuse entry to convicted felons. They can still allow entry to a felon with a valid reason. Canada, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom have already invited Trump.
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Chocolate industry braces as Ivory Coast expects dire cocoa crop
Ivory Coast expects to record one of the worst mid-crop cocoa harvests of the last 15 years this season with production seen no higher than 300,000 metric tons compared with a yearly average of 500,000 tons, regulator and industry sources said.
A poor harvest could add upward pressure to cocoa prices, which are already around record highs after nearly tripling last year. Analysts have said the chocolate industry is in for a rough 2025 that could see shelf prices increase by a percentage in the teens.
Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa producer, but a lack of rain and excessive heat since November across all its 13 growing regions have stalled development of the mid-crop harvest, which is meant to start in April.
The unfavorable conditions mean that the first beans will start to arrive in ports in June at the earliest, provided the weather improves and rains return in the coming weeks, the sources said.
“There is no sign of any production at all on almost any plantation in the country,” said a pod counter who had just visited Ivory Coast farms.
His words echo those of two regulator officials, who said that after touring farms their team decided to lower the outlook for cocoa production to 300,000 metric tons from 400,000 tons.
“Like everyone else, we’re seeing the same thing. The mid-crop harvest will be one of the worst in 15 years,” one of the officials said.
He added that the regulator had sold only about 250,000 tons in export contracts to grinders, preferring to be cautious.
The regulator sources said the entire mid-crop harvest would be sold to local grinders to guarantee them the volumes necessary to maintain their activity.
A dozen planters and middlemen across the West African country described the situation as unprecedented, characterized by a total absence of flowers and small pods after those that appeared in December and January dried up in the high heat.
“Even if the rain comes today … it’s already too late,” said Paul Kouame Kouakou, who owns four hectares of cocoa in Duekoue, a town in west Ivory Coast.
It usually takes a flower around 22 weeks to become a mature pod. While the harvest was expected to start in April, there will be no cocoa until at least June, the farmer said.
“Usually, it’s around November and December that we get the rains that herald the mid-crop harvest, but this year there’s been no rain so far, and February and March are the hottest months,” said another pod counter.
He visited dozens of plantations that did not have any sign of flowers or pods, which he called “very bad news” for the crop.
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Fighting reaches outskirts of eastern Congo’s largest city as rebels close in
GOMA, CONGO — Panic spread in eastern Congo’s main city on Thursday, with M23 rebels steadily inching closer to Goma and seizing a nearby town as they battle the Congolese army. Bombs were heard going off in the city’s distant outskirts, and hundreds of wounded civilians were brought in to the main hospital from the area of the fighting.
The rebel group has been making significant advances in recent weeks, closing in on Goma, which is home to around 2 million people and a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts. On Thursday, the rebels took Sake, a town only 27 kilometers (16 miles) from Goma and one of the last main routes into the provincial capital still under government control, according to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo, along the border with Rwanda, in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
More than 7 million people have been displaced by the fighting. Earlier this month, the M23 captured the towns of Minova, Katale and Masisi, west of Goma.
“The people of Goma have suffered greatly, like other Congolese,” an M23 spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka, said on X. “M23 is on its way to liberate them, and they must prepare to welcome this liberation.”
The M23 seized Goma in 2012 and controlled it for over a week.
As news of the fighting spread, schools in Goma sent students home Thursday morning.
“We are told that the enemy wants to enter the city. That’s why we are told to go home,” Hassan Kambale, a 19-year-old high school student, said. “We are constantly waiting for the bombs.”
Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, mainly composed of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army over a decade ago.
Rwanda’s government denies the claim but last year admitted that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border. U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
On Wednesday, Congo’s minister of communication, Patrick Muyaya, told French broadcaster France 24 that war with Rwanda is an “option to consider.”
Late Thursday, Guterres condemned, “in the strongest terms, the renewed offensive launched by the 23 March Movement [M23],” including the “seizure of Sake.”
“This offensive has a devastating toll on the civilian population and heightened the risk of a broader regional war,” Guterres’ statement read. He also urged “all parties to uphold human rights and international humanitarian law.”
Earlier in the day, Congolese authorities claimed that the military pushed back an attack from the “Rwandan army” on Sake. The Associated Press was unable to verify if Rwanda’s army took part in the offensive.
“The population is in panic. The M23 now control large parts of the town,” said Leopold Mwisha, president of civil society of the area of Sake.
Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” by the most recent reports about the “presence of Rwandan troops on Congolese soil and continued support to the M23.”
The U.S. Embassy in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, in a notice Thursday warned of “an increase in the severity of armed conflict near Sake” and advised U.S. nationals in North Kivu province, which includes Goma, to be on the alert in case they needed to leave their homes on short notice.
The United Kingdom also issued a travel advisory that said M23 now controls Sake and urged British nationals to leave Goma while roads remained open.
Many Sake residents have joined the more than 178,000 people who have fled the M23 advance in the last two weeks.
The CBCA Ndosho hospital in Goma was stretched to the limit, with hundreds of newly wounded on Thursday.
Thousands escaped the fighting by boat on Wednesday, making their way north across Lake Kivu and spilling out of packed wooden boats in Goma, some with bundles of their belongings strapped around their foreheads.
Neema Matondo said she fled Sake during the night, when the first explosions started to go off. She recounted seeing people around her torn to pieces and killed.
“We escaped, but unfortunately,” others did not, Matondo told AP.
Mariam Nasibu, who fled Sake with her three children, was in tears — one of her children lost a leg, blown off in the relentless shelling.
“As I continued to flee, another bomb fell in front of me, hitting my child,” she said, crying.
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Malawian woman creates haven for children, teen mothers
Tusaiwe Munkhondya knows what it’s like to feel alone in the world. She was abandoned by her mother at age six and raised by her grandmother. She now rescues abandoned babies, vulnerable children, and teen mothers in Malawi. Chimwemwe Padatha has this report.
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Gabon to hold presidential election April 12
LIBREVILLE, GABON — Gabon’s transitional government said presidential elections would be held on April 12, a key step to reestablish civilian rule after a coup ended the Bongo dynasty’s decades-long reign.
Government spokesman Seraphin Akure Davain made the announcement early Thursday following a Cabinet meeting.
“Voting will start at 7 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. in line with current laws,” he said.
The oil-rich central African country, which had been under the rule of the Bongo family for 55 years, adopted a new constitution in a November referendum.
It provided for a maximum of two seven-year presidential terms, no prime minister and no dynastic transfer of power.
On Monday, a new law allowed military officials to stand in elections, subject to certain conditions.
Transitional President General Brice Oligui Nguema, who swiftly took over as leader after the August 2023 coup, has made no secret of his ambitions to remain in power.
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Nigeria’s new BRICS partner status sparks economic optimism, debate
ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigerian authorities said this week that the nation’s new partnership status with the BRICS bloc could unlock critical opportunities in trade, investment and agriculture.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s special adviser told Lagos-based Channels Television that the partnership, which became official Friday, is pivotal to promoting trade, investment, food security, infrastructure development and energy security.
The adviser, Daniel Bwala, said the pact enables Nigeria to forge deeper strategic relationships with BRICS members beyond traditional bilateral partnerships.
BRICS — an acronym for the founding members of Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa added a year later — is a political and economic bloc. BRICS introduced the “partner country” category in October. Partner nations are a step below full membership.
Economist Emeka Okengwu praised the arrangement.
“Look at the members of BRICS and the economies that they bring to the table. Brazil is probably the biggest producer of livestock and its products globally, then to aircraft, aviation and renewable energy,” Okengwu said. “Look at Russia, India, China and South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia. These are big populations.
If you put them together, they probably bring 10 times the value of whatever Europe and America can give to you,” he said.
In total, the 10 BRICS member states make up 40% of the global economy and 55% of the global population.
In a statement, Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said that the country’s participation in BRICS reflects its commitment to leveraging global economic opportunities to advance national development goals.
Last December, Nigeria intensified efforts to join not only BRICS but also the G20 organization of the world’s major economies and the BRICS New Development Bank.
Okengwu said the partnership will help Nigeria at “being productive, taking goods and services in there, being able to meet global standards and being competitive.”
“It would’ve been horrible if Nigeria was not in BRICS and then we would’ve been left hanging with all these challenges we’re having with our neighbors in the Sahel,” Okengwu said.
Despite the optimism, analysts say Nigeria faces significant hurdles.
The country’s struggling economy and inadequate infrastructure raise concerns about its capacity for meaningful growth through BRICS. There’s also concern about how Nigeria will balance its alliances with Western nations while deepening ties with BRICS.
However, Ndu Nwokolo, an economist with Nextier, suggested the challenge is manageable.
“It’s about how smart you are to benefit from everybody,” Nwokolo said. “With what we’re seeing by some of the pronouncements of [U.S.] President [Donald] Trump, Nigeria may benefit from it because already Trump is talking about increasing taxes [tariffs] even within ally states.
“So, if he’s going to do that with countries we think are traditional partners, so who’s telling you that he will not do more with countries that he considers outsiders,” he said. “So, we’re looking at a situation where countries that are not originally traditional allies of America will try to pull together, and Nigeria may benefit from that.”
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Botswana closes doors on foreign teachers, truck drivers
GABORONE, BOTSWANA — A Botswanan official said this week the nation will no longer issue work permits to foreign teachers and truck drivers in order to protect local jobs.
Minister of Labor and Home Affairs Pius Mokgware told a group of unemployed teachers protesting in Gaborone that the government already has stopped issuing permits to foreign educators and truck drivers.
He said that last month the government rejected 140 applications for work permits.
Thabang Kopelo, who was representing the unemployed teachers, said they want the new government, which took office in October, to go a step further.
“We now demand the cancellation and the immediate suspension of issuing of work permits to teachers who come from outside of Botswana. … There are [already] thousands and thousands” of local teachers, Kopelo said.
The group’s actions weren’t xenophobic, Kopelo said, but a plea to the government to prioritize citizens in hiring teachers.
“In other countries … they are being attacked,” Kopelo said. “Derogatory language is being used against them. We are not moving in that approach; we are fellow brothers and sisters.”
In neighboring South Africa, clashes between migrants and locals have often turned deadly, with citizens arguing foreigners are taking their jobs.
Gaborone-based Congolese teacher Patrice Okomi said there is not much foreign workers can do except abide by the host government’s regulations.
“We are here at the mercy of the government, and it is entirely up to the Botswana authorities to decide our future,” Okomi said. “If the feeling is that we have overstayed our welcome, there is not much we can do except to prepare for our exit.”
Botswana’s stable economy has attracted migrant workers, the majority fleeing hardship in neighboring Zimbabwe.
According to figures from the government office Statistics Botswana, there are 4,581 holders of foreign work permits in Botswana, with teachers comprising 18% of the total.
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Gabon dispatches government ministers to encourage voter registrations
Yaoundé, Cameroon — Civilians in Gabon are being encouraged this month to register to vote in presidential elections scheduled for August 2025, as ordered by transitional President General Brica Clotaire Oligui Nguema.
The planned elections are envisioned to end a two-year transition to civilian rule.
Voter registration began Jan. 2 and is due to conclude at the end of the month.
Gabon’s political opposition says voter registration has not been as robust as expected because civilians believe the transitional president wants to confiscate power, assertions that Nguema denies.
The elections are part of a plan for a return to constitutional order after an Aug. 30, 2023 coup that ousted longtime President Ali Bongo Ondimba.
Gabon officials say at least 300,000 new voters, who have either reached the legal voting age of 18 or who are not yet registered, are expected to be added to the 860,000 or so civilians that registered as part of Gabon’s November 16, 2024 constitutional referendum, and whose names are already in the elections database.
This week, officials of the central African nation said senior state functionaries were deployed to encourage civilians to register before the January 31 deadline.
Ministers dispatched to towns and villages this week are expected to work with voter enrollment teams and make sure civilians are formally registered as voters so they can participate in the August elections and cast ballots.
But Gabon’s opposition and civil society groups say civilians are not heeding calls by government officials to register because they are not sure Nguema is ready to hand power to civilian rule.
Cyrille Bissiengou is the deputy coordinator of Yes Volunteers, a group created in 2024 to encourage civilians to take part in Gabon’s electoral process.
Bissiengou said he is not sure that 300,000 new voters will register before the Jan. 31 deadline, as Gabon’s government expects.
Many young people told Yes Volunteers they weren’t sure about Nguemas’ willingness to hand power to civilians.
Bissiengou spoke on Gabon’s state TV on Tuesday.
Jean Remy Yama, leader of Unitary Dynamics, one of Gabon’s leading worker trade unions and member of Gabon’s senate, also expressed skepticism.
Yama said if Nguema truly wanted to hand power to civilian rule, he should have allowed Gabon’s parliament and senate to set up an independent elections management body to ensure free, fair and transparent elections.
He said by asking a minister appointed by transitional rulers to register voters and organize elections, Nguema is indicating that he wants to hold power.
Gabon’s constitution, voted in a Nov. 16 referendum to lay the groundwork for elections, bars transitional government members from running in the 2025 presidential polls but permits Nguema to run for president.
Nguema has not said whether he will be a candidate and the transitional government refutes claims the military leader is planning to maintain power.
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Namibia doctors fight cervical cancer
WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA — The cervical cancer rate in Namibia is 37.5 for every 100,000 women, about three times higher than the rate worldwide. Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers and doctors in Namibia are advocating greater access to healthcare and the HPV vaccine to reduce the prevalence of the disease.
November 2009 was a turning point in the life of Barbara Kamba-Nyathi. At the tender age of 29, she was diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer.
Her doctors recommended radiation therapy as opposed to chemotherapy, because at that time she had not yet had children and radiation therapy would help her avoid premature menopause.
But that was not her only struggle. Kamba-Nyathi, who lived in Windhoek at the time, said she faced stigma for cervical cancer’s association with HIV and the human papilloma virus.
“One of the challenges that come with having a diagnosis like cervical cancer is that our African society its usually taboo to talk about things of our reproductive organs, you know, our reproductive system is taboo,” said Kamba-Nyathi. “We don’t talk about such things and in the end, we tend to normalize pain and even things that don’t feel right in our bodies we tend to normalize them and they become part of our identity.”
Rolf Hansen, the chief executive officer of the Cancer Association of Namibia, said a lack of education and a lack of access to healthcare prevent many women from getting tested or being treated for cervical cancer or HPV, which is the second-leading cause of cancer among sub-Saharan women.
“Like I said, HIV and HPV work hand in hand to fuel the cervical cancer pandemic,” said Hansen. “Now, in our country as well we see that in our low-income setting as well as our rural setting, we have high HPV prevalence, high cervical cancer so a lot of work needs to be done at a grassroots level so that we can actually combat this disease.”
Doctors Simon and David Emvula provide health services to underprivileged communities, together with the Be Free/Break Free program — an initiative of former first lady Monica Geingos — in Namibia’s largest township of Katutura. They are advocating for the rollout of the HPV vaccine for girls between the ages of 9 and 14, before they become sexually active.
Emvula said that during one screening in Windhoek on Saturday, they treated more than 100 patients, screening girls and women for HPV, cervical cancer, fibroids and other sexually transmitted infections and sexually transmitted diseases.
Emvula spoke to VOA at his practice in Windhoek.
“The turnout was actually beyond what we expected and once again it was an eye-opener … that there is definitely a need for that,” said Emvula.
Emvula said HPV vaccination is among the most effective ways to prevent cervical cancer but the government of Namibia is lagging.
HPV vaccines have been introduced in 129 countries worldwide and the Namibian government has endorsed the rollout of the vaccines for girls ages 9 to 14. Despite promises made as reported by VOA last year, the vaccines have not yet been made available.
Namibia’s executive director of health, Ben Nangombe, could not be reached for comment.
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Trump’s executive orders on gender draw mixed reaction across Africa
ABUJA, NIGERIA — Conservatives across Africa applauded U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive orders Monday regarding gender and diversity, while gay rights activists and the LGBTQ community on the continent are expressing deep concern.
On his first day as the 47th U.S. president, Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders, including some that reversed policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
These included orders revoking some protections for transgender people and defining the sexes strictly as male and female.
Trump’s actions sparked a mix of reactions throughout Africa.
Some, like Bishop John Praise Daniel, vice president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, welcomed Trump’s moves.
“I’m very excited,” he said “I think Donald Trump has just done what is right, because how can some young persons wake up and say, ‘I don’t feel like being a girl, I want to be a boy,’ and their sexes will be changed. We don’t need that confusion. Bringing back righteousness, order and sanity to society.”
But while many in Africa’s conservative societies are in support, LGBTQ activists strongly opposed the decision, calling it a setback after years of progress and advocacy.
Frank Ejiogu, founder of Creme de la Creme, a Nigerian LGBTQ advocacy group, warned of serious consequences.
“We know this will have ripple effects that might catalyze violence against LGBTQ community members in the Global South, which will boil down to discrimination, assault, and a lot of [restrictive] policies that governments will start enacting,” he said.
Ejiogu said LGBTQ activists already are planning how to resist such measures.
“We’re strategizing on how to stand firm on what we believe in and for the community,” he said. “[Trump] can only be there for four years. The only thing we promise ourselves all over the globe and in the Global South is to making sure that we fight back against the policies against LGBTQ communities all around the world.”
Members of the LGBTQ community already face harsh penalties in many African countries.
In Nigeria, same-sex relationships are punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Uganda’s constitutional court upheld a life sentence for homosexuality offenders last year, while Mali’s junta criminalized homosexuality with imprisonment in December.
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Over 20 killed in clash between security forces, Islamic State fighters in Somalia
WASHINGTON — Over 20 people were killed and more than 10 others wounded during two days of fighting between Islamic State fighters and security forces from Somalia’s Puntland region, officials said Tuesday.
In an interview with VOA’s Somali Service, a spokesperson for Puntland security operations, Brigadier General Mohamud Mohamed Ahmed, said that 15 Islamic State militants and seven Puntland soldiers were killed in the clashes Sunday and Monday.
Ahmed said IS fighters used improvised explosive devices to protect their hideouts near the Ufeyn area. As soldiers were clearing landmines, one of the devices exploded, killing six soldiers and wounding three, he said.
The spokesperson said that during the operation, soldiers killed eight Islamic State militants.
Ahmed said the latest military operation, which centered around the Cal Miskat mountains in the Bari region, continued through Monday.
“On Monday, our soldiers encountered the terrorist fighters around Laba-Afle area, killing seven of them. One of our soldiers was also killed and four others injured,” he said.
Residents, who requested anonymity fearing for their lives, told VOA they saw the bodies of militants strewn along the roads leading into the Cal Miskat mountains.
Puntland began a military offensive last month against extremist groups in the region following months of preparations.
The region’s leader, Said Abdullahi Deni, appealed to the public to support the operation, which he said is aimed at dislodging the Islamic State militants from their hideouts in mountainous areas.
Puntland has endured terrorist attacks perpetrated by al-Shabab and Islamic State militants, but the ongoing military operation appears to be focused on IS.
The group has a relatively small presence in Somalia compared to the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, but experts have warned of growing activity.
U.S. military officials and Somali security experts reported that IS increased its membership numbers in Somalia last year.
The group was previously estimated to have between 100 and 400 fighters, but Somali security and intelligence experts estimate their current numbers to be 500 to 600 militants.
Most of the newcomers are said to be from the Middle East and eastern and northern Africa.
IS in Somalia was formed in October 2015 by a group of former al-Shabab fighters led by the cleric Sheikh Abdulkadir Mumin, who reportedly pledged allegiance to the late IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Mumin appears to have survived a U.S. airstrike on May 31, 2024.
A United Nations counterterrorism official last year warned of increased attacks by Islamic State affiliates in Somalia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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East Congo hospital sees ‘influx’ of wounded as conflict escalates
GOMA, CONGO — A hospital in Goma has taken in more than 200 wounded since early January as fighting intensifies in eastern Congo, the Red Cross and local sources told AFP Monday.
In recent weeks, the Congo’s restive east has seen escalating clashes between the Congolese army and the M23 Movement — an armed group backed by Rwanda.
With the M23 closing in on Goma, the provincial capital’s hospital has had to tend to more and more people hit by the fighting, according to the Red Cross.
“We have seen an influx of wounded people since the start of January,” Myriam Favier, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in North Kivu province, told AFP.
“Between the 1 and 21 of December we saw 100 patients (and) between the 1 and 20 January we had 211 patients,” Favier added.
On Monday the fighting reached the hills of Sake, a town approximately 20 kilometers west of Goma.
Explosions could be heard from Goma in the morning, according to AFP journalists.
Since its resurgence in late 2021, the M23 — which claims to defend ethnic Tutsis — has seized vast swathes of the Congo’s mineral-rich east.
In early January the M23 seized control of Masisi, the administrative capital of Masisi territory located 80 kilometers from Goma.
‘Most alarming’
The Congolese army has since been attempting to retake the city in a counteroffensive that has provoked a fresh wave of displacements.
More than 230,000 people have fled violence in eastern Congo since the start of the year, the United Nations said Friday, labeling it one of the world’s “most alarming” humanitarian crises.
Humanitarian charity Doctors Without Borders on Monday said in a statement it was “reiterating” its call for “respect for health and humanitarian facilities.”
The statement came after two of its workers were “slightly injured when a rocket hit the MSF garage next to the Masisi General Referral hospital [and] … on the same day, another rocket hit a latrine near the hospital.”
Several security sources told AFP the intensity of the fighting is currently at a level not seen for months, with a high number of deaths and the use of heavy artillery.
An expert’s report commissioned by the U.N. Security Council said in July that 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers had been fighting alongside the M23 rebels and that Kigali had “de facto control” of the group’s operations.
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South African police launch manhunt for gang leader of illegal mine
JOHANNESBURG — South African police have launched a manhunt for a Lesotho gang member believed to have controlled operations at an illegal gold mine where 78 bodies were recovered last week during a police siege, from which he escaped.
The alleged kingpin, known as “Tiger,” surfaced from the mine in Stilfontein while it was under police surveillance and escaped from custody with the help of officials, a statement on Monday from the South African Police Service said.
“Extensive investigations and tracing operations are underway to find those officials who aided his escape between shaft 11 and the Stilfontein police holding cells,” the statement said.
Police were widely condemned for the months-long operation in which they cut off food and water supplies to the miners in an attempt to force them out of the mine to face arrest.
The stand-off culminated in a state-sponsored rescue operation last week in which 246 survivors were retrieved from the deep mine, many of whom were emaciated and weak from hunger.
But police claim the gang leaders were to blame for the deaths, citing reports from some miners who said there was food underground but the kingpins kept it for themselves.
Thousands of people are believed to be involved in illegal gold mining in abandoned industrial mines in South Africa in search of leftover gold. Some of the workers spend months at a time underground.
The lucrative industry is known to be run by Lesotho-based gangs, and police say some of the workers are illegal immigrants recruited from neighboring countries without knowledge of what they have come to do.
Tiger was named in statements by miners as a ring leader who ran operations, the police statement said.
“He is also being accused by some illegal miners… (as) being allegedly responsible for some deaths, assault and torture that is alleged to have taken place according to videos in police possession. He is also alleged to have hoarded and kept food away from other illegal miners,” it said.
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4 Moroccan truck drivers disappear on Burkina-Niger border
Rabat, Morocco — Four Moroccan truck drivers went missing Saturday as they crossed the restive border area between Burkina Faso and Niger, according to a source from the Moroccan Embassy in Burkina Faso and a Moroccan transport union.
Three trucks, one carrying a spare driver, disappeared as they drove without an escort from Dori in Burkina Faso to Tera in Niger, an area known for jihadi threats, the diplomatic source said.
Junta-led Burkina Faso and Niger are battling Islamist militant groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State, whose insurgencies have destabilized Sahel states in West Africa over the past decade.
The Moroccan diplomatic source said the embassy was working together with Burkina Faso authorities to find the drivers.
Authorities in Burkina Faso have been organizing security convoys to escort trucks in the border area to protect against militant attacks, the source said.
The trucks set off after waiting for a week without getting an escort, Echarki El Hachmi, secretary general of Morocco’s transporters’ union, told Reuters.
The trucks, loaded with infrastructure equipment, departed weeks ago from Casablanca heading to Niger, he said.
El Hachmi urged more protection in areas of high risk as the number of Moroccan trucks crossing the Sahel continues to rise.
Earlier this month, a convoy of Moroccan trucks was attacked on the Malian border with Mauritania, although there were no casualties, El Hachmi said.
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Chili paste heats up dishes and warms hearts at northeastern Tunisia’s harissa festival
NABEUL, Tunisia — For years, Tunisians have been picking bright red peppers, combining them with garlic, vinegar and spices and turning them into a saucy spread called harissa. The condiment is a national staple, found in homes, restaurants and food stalls throughout the coastal North African nation.
Brick-red, spicy and tangy, it can be scooped up on bread drizzled with olive oil or dabbed onto plates of eggs, fish, stews or sandwiches. Harissa can be sprinkled atop merguez sausages, smeared on savory pastries called brik or sandwiches called fricassées.
In Nabeul, the largest city in Tunisia’s harissa-producing Cap Bon region, local chef and harissa specialist Chahida Boufayed called it “essential to Tunisian cuisine.”
“Harissa is a love story,” she said at a festival held in honor of the chili paste sauce in the northeastern Tunisian city of Nabeul earlier this month. “I don’t make it for the money.”
Aficionados from across Tunisia and the world converged on the 43-year-old mother’s stand to try her recipe. Surrounded by strings of drying baklouti red peppers, she described how she grows her vegetables and blends them with spices to make harissa.
The region’s annual harissa festival has grown in the two-plus years since the United Nations cultural organization, UNESCO, recognized the sauce on a list of items of intangible cultural heritage, said Zouheir Belamin, the president of the association behind the event. He said its growing prominence worldwide was attracting new tourists to Tunisia, specifically to Nabeul.
UNESCO in 2022 called harissa “an integral part of domestic provisions and the daily culinary and food traditions of Tunisian society, adding it to a list of traditions and practices that mark intangible cultural heritage including Ukrainian borscht and Cuban rum.
Already popular across North Africa as well as in France, the condiment is gaining popularity throughout the world from the United States to China.
Seen as sriracha’s North African cousin, harissa is typically prepared by women who sun-dry harvested red peppers and then deseed, wash and ground them. Its name comes from “haras” – the Arabic verb for “to crush” – because of the next stage in the process.
The finished peppers are combined with a mixture of garlic cloves, vinegar, salt, olive oil and spices in a mortar and pestle to make a fragrant blend. Variants on display at Nabeul’s Jan. 3-5 festival used cumin, coriander and different spice blends or types of peppers, including smoked ones, to create pastes ranging in color from burgundy to crimson.
“Making harissa is an art. If you master it, you can create wonders,” Boufayed said.
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Niger journalist held after channel suspended, association says
NIAMEY, NIGER — A major journalist in Niger was in custody Saturday, an association said, a day after the private TV channel he runs was suspended following a report critical of the military-led regime.
Seyni Amadou, editor in chief of Canal 4 TV, has been arrested, said CAP-Medias-Niger, which represents media workers in the country.
On Friday, Niger’s communications ministry announced the channel had been taken off the air for a month.
State television channel Tele Sahel said Canal 3 TV had been punished “for violating the rules of ethics and deontology.”
Canal 3 told AFP in a statement that the suspension was “linked to a broadcast on the ranking of ministers” in the government of Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, a civilian appointed by the military regime.
In the report’s ranking, Zeine was placed first and several of his ministers were called the “soft underbelly” of the government.
CAP said in a statement Friday it regretted Amadou’s arrest and detention and called for the rights of journalists to be respected.
“Never in the history of media regulation in Niger has the decision to suspend a media been taken by the executive, including in so-called exceptional periods,” it added.
CAP called on Communications Minister Sidi Raliou Mohamed to reconsider his decision.
Niger lies 80th out of 180 countries on the 2024 Press Freedom Index published by Paris-based media rights campaigners Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Already in November, another journalist at Canal 3, Serge Mathurin Adou, was detained and later convicted on allegations he attempted to destabilize fellow junta-led Sahel nation Burkina Faso.
General Abdourahamane Tiani, the chief of Niger’s powerful presidential guard, in 2023 ousted president Mohamed Bazoum, a key ally of the West in fighting jihadis in sub-Saharan Africa.
Since the coup, Niger’s military rulers have turned their back on former colonial power France and forged ties with fellow juntas in Burkina Faso and Mali, as well as with Russia.
It has also blocked international channels including Radio France International (RFI), France 24 and the BBC.
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Nigeria fuel tanker truck blast kills at least 60
MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA — At least 60 people were killed and more injured in northern Nigeria on Saturday when a fuel tanker truck overturned and spilled the cargo, which exploded, the Federal Road Safety Corps said.
The accident in Niger state follows a similar blast in Jigawa state in October that killed 147 people, one of the worst such tragedies in Africa’s most-populous nation.
Kumar Tsukwam, FRSC sector commander for Niger state, said most of the victims were impoverished residents who had rushed to scoop up the spilled gasoline after the truck overturned.
“Large crowds of people gathered to scoop fuel despite concerted efforts to stop them,” Tsukwam said in a statement.
“Suddenly, the tanker burst into flames, engulfing another tanker. So far 60 corpses [have been] recovered from the scene.”
Tsukwam said firefighters put out the blaze.
Such accidents have become common in Africa’s largest oil producer, killing dozens of people in the country grappling with its worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
The price of fuel in Nigeria has soared more than 400% since President Bola Tinubu scrapped a decades-old subsidy when he took office in May 2023.
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Kenyan startup city tries to tackle Africa’s problem of urbanizing while poor
KIAMBU, KENYA — Turn into Tatu City on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and it feels like entering a different world.
Even the country’s most reckless drivers are transformed, slowing to a crawl and not tossing trash out the window — thanks to surveillance cameras and rigorously enforced penalties for speeding and littering.
For the 5,000 people who have moved into Tatu, a “startup city” that welcomed its first residents four years ago, the ruthless upholding of such rules makes the place appealing.
“Tatu has more law and order than other places,” said Valerie Akoko, a digital content creator who moved in two years ago. “I’ve never seen Tatu City dirty.”
Situated on 2,023 hectares, Tatu City aspires to be what its name suggests: a city, privately owned, that its designers hope will eventually have a population of 250,000. It is already home to 88 businesses employing 15,000 people. They include CCI Global, which operates a 5,000-seat call center, and Zhende Medical, a Chinese medical supply manufacturer.
There are similar projects around the world. But in sub-Saharan Africa, champions of the idea hope that new-city developments can address the continent’s urbanization conundrum: While the growth of cities has rolled back poverty elsewhere, the region has largely been an exception.
History suggests that as people move into cities, productivity increases, wages rise, exports grow and a country gets richer. But in Africa, urbanization has rarely unleashed such economic transformation.
In theory, Africa should be prospering. The continent’s urban population is set to grow by 900 million by 2050, according to the United Nations, more than the present urban population of Europe and North America combined.
But sub-Saharan Africa is urbanizing while still poor.
“Towns and cities in Africa today simply lack the tax base needed to invest in the urban infrastructure needed to accommodate the tsunami of people being added to their ranks in a short period of time,” said Kurtis Lockhart, director of the Africa Urban Lab, a research center at the African School of Economics in Zanzibar.
Weak property rights and political tensions can make the problem worse.
Even Tatu City has battled Kenyan politicians and politically connected businessmen. In 2018, the London Court of International Arbitration ruled in favor of the development’s multinational owner, Rendeavour, in a dispute with its Kenyan former partners, including a former governor of the central bank. The dispute delayed project development by several years.
Last year, Tatu City’s Kenya head, Preston Mendenhall, took the unusual step of accusing the governor of the county where the development is based of extortion, saying he had demanded land worth $33 million in exchange for approving its updated master plan. The governor denied it and is suing Tatu City and Mendenhall for defamation. No ruling has been made.
Still, the case for building new cities, complete with new infrastructure, is compelling to some. The Charter Cities Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit, argues that, done properly, such projects could drive growth, create jobs and “lift tens of millions of people out of poverty.” The institute sees Tatu City as a model.
Yet building new cities is hard. Africa is littered with failed projects.
A handful have shown promise. Angola’s Quilamba city, whose construction began in 2002, is arguably the most successful, with a population of more than 130,000. It was built by CITIC, a state-owned Chinese company, but is owned by the Angolan government.
Perhaps a dozen new city projects — from Zanzibar to Zambia — are underway in Africa that stand a chance of emulating Quilamba, experts reckon. Of these, Tatu is the farthest along, with 26,400 people already living, working or studying there.
Experts agree that the private sector must play a role in African urbanization, saying African states are too fiscally constrained to fill the investment gap themselves. Rendeavour, a private company with a multibillion-dollar balance sheet, has deep enough pockets to make a difference.
But leaving city-building to the private sector alone can cause problems, for instance by worsening inequality. The average price of a property at Eko Atlantic, a new-city development on the outskirts of Lagos, is $415,000, far beyond the means of most Nigerians.
“Startup cities can serve as hubs for innovation and alleviate pressure on overcrowded urban centers,” said Anacláudia Rossbach, executive director of the U.N.’s Human Settlements Program, or UN-Habitat. “However, to be impactful, they must prioritize inclusivity, affordability and integration with existing urban areas, ensuring they serve all socioeconomic groups rather than becoming isolated enclaves for elites.”
A one-bedroom apartment in Tatu City sells for $45,500, still beyond the means of most Kenyans, but within reach of some in the emerging middle class. Kenya’s per capita GDP was $1,961 in 2023, according to the World Bank.
The development collaborates with Kenya’s government, which has designated Tatu City a special economic zone. That means companies setting up there are eligible for tax benefits and other incentives, making it a model of private-public partnership, experts say.
Tatu City also appeals to businesses and residents with its transparent governance structure and services that are often lacking elsewhere in Kenya, including its own water supply and energy grid. It falls under national law but can set its own rules on matters like traffic and what kind of houses can be built, with all plans requiring approval from Tatu’s management.
“If you look at the infrastructure, if you look at the utilities, if you look at the controls, if you look at the security, it is one of the best,” said Sylvester Njuguna, who lives and owns a restaurant there.
Unlike many startup cities built far from urban centers, Tatu City is 19 kilometers north of Nairobi, close enough to plug into its labor markets.
According to Lockhart with the Africa Urban Lab, new city projects usually succeed if they are close enough to a major urban center and house both a high-quality anchor tenant — CCI Global in Tatu City’s case — and good schools. They should operate under effective management and respond to market demand.
Tatu meets these criteria and, unlike many grandiosely conceived African city projects, it has grown organically like Rendeavour’s other city projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and the Congo, according to Mendenhall.
“We are building what the market needs,” he said. “We are not putting all the infrastructure on day one.”
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Ethnic attacks, hate speech surging in Sudan, UN rights office says
GENEVA — U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned on Friday that Sudanese civilians were in greater peril than ever as ethnically motivated attacks and hate speech by the warring parties becomes “increasingly common.”
“As the Sudanese Armed Forces [SAF] and Rapid Support Forces [RSF] battle for control at all costs in the senseless war that [has] raged for close to two years now, direct and ethnically motivated attacks on civilians are becoming increasingly common,” he said in a statement.
“The situation for civilians in Sudan is already desperate, and there is evidence of the commission of war crimes and other atrocity crimes,” Türk said. “I fear the situation is now taking a further, even more dangerous turn.”
Since the rival forces and generals went to war in mid-April 2023, the United Nations has said, more than 24,000 people have been killed and more than 14 million have been displaced — 11 million inside the country and over 3 million as refugees in neighboring countries.
Widespread hunger
The World Food Program has reported that nearly 24.6 million people — nearly half the population — suffer from acute hunger and an estimated 1.5 million are on the verge of famine. The World Health Organization has said around 90% of health facilities are not functional, and that cholera, malaria, dengue and measles have been reported in over 12 states.
“This is an extremely dire situation which deserves all the attention it can get to put whatever pressure the international community can to bring this conflict to an end,” Türk’s spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, told journalists Friday at a briefing in Geneva.
In the last week alone, she said, the U.N. Human Rights Office documented at least 21 deaths in two attacks in Al Jazirah state, “although the actual numbers of attacks directed at civilians and of civilians killed are very likely much higher.”
“The reason why we felt we had to speak out today is because of reports of an imminent battle for Khartoum,” she said. “We are worried about the kinds of violations that we may see as the parties to the conflict battle for control at all costs for Khartoum, and we are worried that this is taking us further away from peace and further into a horrific situation for civilians.”
Türk expressed concern about retaliatory attacks of “shocking brutality” on entire communities based on real or perceived ethnic identity and hate speech, which he said were on the rise and were acting as “an incitement to violence.”
“This must, urgently, be brought to an end,” he said.
Shamdasani reported that the human rights office has received three videos that document scenes of violence, including summary executions that were hailed by perpetrators as “a cleaning operation.” The victims were referred to as animals and dirt before being killed.
“The videos reportedly were filmed in Wad Madani with men in SAF uniforms visibly present,” the spokesperson said.
“Serious concerns also persist for civilians in North Darfur, where ethnically motivated attacks by the RSF and its allied Arab militias against African ethnic groups, particularly the Zaghawa and Fur, continue to exact a horrific toll,” she said.
Effects on neighbors
Aid workers in the region have reported that the multiplying horrors of the war in Sudan are having serious effects on neighboring countries, particularly South Sudan.
Speaking from the South Sudanese capital, Juba, Florence Gillette, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in South Sudan, said ICRC’s mobile surgical team in the town of Renk had treated more than 230 patients wounded by weapons in just one month.
She said more than 120,000 people from Sudan had fled to South Sudan since early December — this on top of 800,000 people who already had sought safety in South Sudan since the war began.
“Dozens of them, wounded by the violence, have required urgent medical care by ICRC doctors,” she said.
“The ongoing influx of Sudanese refugees and South Sudanese returnees is straining resources throughout Renk communities,” she said. “This is particularly worrying as South Sudan continues to face a cholera outbreak with more than 20,000 cases recorded in the country so far.”
Meanwhile, Türk renewed his call for both warring parties to abide by international humanitarian and human rights law. “Attacks must never be directed against civilians,” he said
Arms embargo
Shamdasani said the high commissioner also was calling on all states to abide by a U.N. arms embargo and “to refrain from providing all types of military support in Sudan.”
Just as nations fail to abide by the U.N. arms embargo, she acknowledged, sanctions imposed by individual countries often are not respected.
This was a reference to the United States, which declared sanctions on army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Thursday, a week after the U.S. slapped sanctions on RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Sudan’s army-aligned foreign ministry has rejected the U.S. sanctions, calling them “immoral.”
Shamdasani said her office generally opposed broad sanctions because they can damage human rights in a country. “But targeted sanctions can be effective in exerting pressure on specific individuals and organizations that are responsible for the perpetration of conflict,” she said. “So we are calling on states to use whatever measures they can, to use whatever leverage they have to pressure the parties to the conflict to bring this war to an end.”
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Report: 67 journalists jailed for their work across Africa
WASHINGTON — At least 67 journalists are imprisoned across Africa, reflecting the continent’s ongoing struggle for a free press, according to a report released Thursday.
The cases in Africa contribute to a global total of 361 journalists jailed as of Dec. 1, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. It is the second-highest number ever recorded by CPJ.
Muthoki Mumo, the Africa program coordinator at CPJ, said the report highlights a global trend in which authoritarian regimes weaponize laws against journalists, using national security, anti-terror and cybercrime legislation to justify crackdowns.
While these trends are not confined to Africa, the continent has seen alarming cases of journalists facing prosecution under such laws, said Mumo. Countries such as Burundi, Ethiopia and Nigeria are using legislation intended for public safety to criminalize journalism, Mumo said.
In Nigeria, “You have four journalists behind bars being prosecuted under cybercrime legislation in connection to their reporting on corruption,” Mumo told VOA in a video interview.
And in Ethiopia, six journalists are behind bars. “Five of them are facing prosecution under anti-terrorism laws. They could potentially face very harsh penalties if they are convicted,” said Mumo.
Another trend, the media advocacy group says, is the use of vague and broad laws to target journalists.
In Burundi, Sandra Muhoza, a reporter for the online media outlet La Nova Burundi was convicted under national security laws after posting a WhatsApp message. The case, said Mumo, is a clear example of the criminalization of journalism.
Muhoza was convicted recently of trying to “undermine the ‘integrity of the national territory’ — which is a mouthful — but it’s essentially, a provision in Burundian laws about national security, and this was turned against this journalist,” Mumo said.
VOA sent messages to Burundi’s government spokesperson, Jerome Niyonzima, along with the Ethiopian communication services minister, Legesse Tulu, and Eritrea’s information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, requesting comment, but inquiries went unanswered. The Washington embassy of Nigeria has not yet responded to VOA requests for comment.
The continent’s top jailers are familiar names, with Egypt topping the list as the worst jailer of journalists, with 17 held. “In Egypt, we’ve seen anti-state laws being turned against the media,” Mumo said.
Eritrea, known for its long-standing detention of journalists, follows closely behind, with 16 journalists behind bars — some since 2001. Eritrea is home to the longest-detained journalists in the world, many of whom have never been tried in court.
“That’s a very dubious honor on the part of Eritrea that the journalists who have been behind jail the longest in the world are actually Eritreans,” Mumo said.
Jodie Ginsberg, the head of CPJ, said it is important to keep advocating for those imprisoned in Eritrea. The country “falls off the radar internationally,” she told VOA, “Because of how little press freedom and media freedom there is to report on what’s happening inside.”
“It’s very easy sometimes to forget some of those longer cases. They go out of the public eye,” Ginsberg told VOA, adding that it is important to talk about “places where journalists have been in jail for a very, very long time and still need to be fought for.”
Ethiopia, where journalists have been held without trial for extended periods, is another major offender, along with Cameroon, Rwanda and Tunisia. In these countries, journalists are often detained under “anti-state regulation, the use of false news regulations to throw a journalist behind bars and to prosecute them.” Mumo said.
CPJ’s report highlights press freedom issues in Angola, where Carlos Raimundo Alberto, an editor who was arrested on Sept. 29, 2023, remains detained. Raimundo qualified for parole in November 2024 but has yet to comply with a court order to publicly apologize to a government official.
And in Senegal, journalist Rene Capain Bassene has been jailed for life for a crime that witnesses said he could not have committed, the report said.
Mumo said CPJ faces challenges accessing information in some regions about the state of media freedom.
But, she said, “It could also be about intimidation; family members and others who are aware of arrest may not always want to speak out about them.”
Despite obstacles, she said, CPJ strives to keep the names of detained journalists alive. The media advocacy group calls on governments to respect the rights of journalists and make sure that their work is not criminalized.
While the prison census offers a snapshot of the situation on a specific date, Mumo said the report alone cannot fully capture the often-fluid reality journalists face.
The report offers a small window into the larger picture of press freedom, Mumo said, “because there are journalists who go in and out of prison during other times of the year. They’re not reflected in this number.”
VOA’s Liam Scott contributed to this report.
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Standoff in South Africa ends with 87 miners dead, anger at police tactics
STILFONTEIN, South Africa — The death toll in a monthslong standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87, police said Thursday. Authorities faced growing anger and a possible investigation into their initial refusal to help the miners and instead “smoke them out” by cutting off their food supplies.
National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said 78 bodies were retrieved in a court-ordered rescue operation, with 246 survivors also pulled out from deep underground since the operation began on Monday. Mathe said nine other bodies had been recovered before the rescue operation, without giving details.
Community groups launched their own rescue attempts when authorities said last year that they would not help the hundreds of miners because they were “criminals.”
The miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released.
South African authorities have been fiercely criticized for cutting off food and supplies to the miners in the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine last year. That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a prominent Cabinet minister, was condemned by one of South Africa’s biggest trade unions.
Police and the mine owners also were accused of taking away ropes and dismantling a pulley system the miners used to enter the mine and send supplies down from the surface.
A court ordered authorities last year to allow food and water to be sent down to the miners, while another court ruling last week forced them to launch a rescue operation.
‘A disgrace’
Many say the unfolding disaster underground was clear weeks ago, when community members sporadically pulled decomposing bodies out of the mine, some with notes attached pleading for food to be sent down.
“If the police had acted earlier, we would not be in this situation, with bodies piling up,” said Johannes Qankase, a local community leader. “It is a disgrace for a constitutional democracy like ours. Somebody needs to account for what has happened here.”
South Africa’s second biggest political party, which is part of a government coalition, called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish an independent inquiry to find out “why the situation was allowed to get so badly out of hand.”
“The scale of the disaster underground at Buffelsfontein is rapidly proving to be as bad as feared,” the Democratic Alliance party said.
Authorities now believe that nearly 2,000 miners were working illegally in the mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, since August. Most of them resurfaced on their own over the last few months, police said, and all the survivors have been arrested, even as some emerged this week badly emaciated and barely able to walk to waiting ambulances.
A convoy of mortuary vans arrived at the mine to carry away the bodies.
Mathe said at least 13 children had also come out of the mine before the official rescue operation.
Police announced Wednesday that they were ending the operation after three days and believed no one else was underground. To be sure, a camera was sent down Thursday in a cage that was used to pull out survivors and bodies.
Two volunteer rescuers from the community went down in the small cage during the rescue operation to help miners. Authorities had refused to allow any official rescue personnel to go into the shaft because it was too dangerous.
“It has been a tough few days. There were many people who [we] saved but I still feel bad for those whose family members came out in body bags,” said Mandla Charles, one of the volunteer rescuers. “We did all we could.” The two volunteers were being offered trauma counseling, police said.
The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa. It’s a maze of tunnels and levels and has several shafts leading into it. The miners were working up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) underground in different groups.
Exits possible, police say
Police have maintained that the miners were able to come out through several shafts but refused out of fear of being arrested. That’s been disputed by groups representing the miners, who say hundreds were trapped and left starving in dark and damp conditions with decomposing bodies around them.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu denied in an interview with a national TV station that the police were responsible for any starvation and said they had allowed food to go down.
The initial police operation last year to force the miners to come out and give themselves up for arrest was part of a larger nationwide clampdown on illegal mining called Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole. Illegal mining is often in the news in South Africa and a major problem for authorities as large groups go into mines that have been shut down to extract leftover deposits.
Gold-rich South Africa has an estimated 6,000 abandoned or closed mines.
The illicit miners, known as “zama zamas” — “hustlers” or “chancers” in the Zulu language — are usually armed and part of criminal syndicates, the government says, and they rob South Africa of more than $1 billion a year in gold deposits. They are often undocumented foreign nationals, and authorities said that the vast majority who came out of the Buffelsfontein mine were from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and were in South Africa illegally.
Police said they seized gold, explosives, firearms and more than $2 million in cash from the miners and have defended their hardline approach.
“By providing food, water and necessities to these illegal miners, it would be the police entertaining and allowing criminality to thrive,” Mathe said Wednesday.
But the South African Federation of Trade Unions questioned the government’s humanity and how it could “allow anyone — be they citizens or undocumented immigrants — to starve to death in the depths of the earth.”
While the police operation has been condemned by civic groups, the disaster hasn’t provoked a strong outpouring of anger across South Africa, where the mostly foreign zama zamas have long been considered unwelcome in a country that already struggles with high rates of violent crime.
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HRW report: Governments, armed groups intensify abuses in Africa
NAIROBI, KENYA — Human Rights Watch has found that African governments continue to crack down and wrongly arrest political opponents, critics, activists and journalists. The rights group also says armed forces and armed groups in some African countries have targeted civilians, killing them and driving them from their homes.
The conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia feature prominently in a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday.
The report says that in Sudan, the war between the armed forces and the rebel Rapid Support Forces has displaced 12 million people, destroyed infrastructure and blocked humanitarian assistance.
In Ethiopia, rights group investigators found that government forces in the Amhara region committed widespread attacks against medical professionals, patients and health facilities.
Mausi Segun, head of the Human Rights Watch Africa Division, said armed conflict is not the only form of rights violation on the continent.
“On top of all of that, you have civic space restriction abuses, including intolerance for freedom of expression, intolerance for freedom of association and assembly,” Segun said. “Protests are being clamped down on, and people who are pushing for their rights or even commenting on government policies and measures are being hunted down. Here in East Africa, we are seeing very disturbing trends towards abductions.”
Kenya has captured the attention of human rights groups for recent alleged abductions of anti-government protesters and activists from foreign countries, some of whom have been deported to Turkey and Uganda.
The HRW report also focuses on the seemingly endless conflict in the Congo, where civilians are killed, women raped, and attacks on camps for the internally displaced push more people into neighboring countries.
Congo has accused Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels, an allegation Rwanda denies.
Clementine de Montoye, Human Rights Watch senior researcher, said the expansion of conflict worsens civilians’ harm, adding, “we are not seeing significant signs of pressure on the different parties to the conflict to reduce violations and harms to civilians.”
The report says that countries in West Africa ruled by the military — like Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — have cracked down on opposition and dissent, freedom of expression, and backsliding in the fight against corruption.
It notes that in Southern Africa, Mozambique is grappling with post-election violence in which hundreds of people have been killed.
Elizabeth Kamundia, deputy director of disability rights at Human Rights Watch, said conflict and violence are causing a rise in physical and psychological issues.
“We have seen a rise in the number of people acquiring injuries that lead to disabilities,” Kamundia said. “We’ve seen increased psychological distress and mental health impacts on people, families and communities as a result of war and conflict. We’ve seen difficulties with access to medication for people who have mental health conditions, and therefore, they are forced to stop their treatment.”
Human Rights Watch’s newly-released World Report reviewed human rights records of more than 100 countries, including 25 in Africa.
Despite the widespread abuses and violence against people in Africa, HRW notes that, like the rest of the world, African people are resisting and pushing back against autocratic rule and abuse of their rights. It notes they are mobilizing on social media and streets to demand an end to the abuses and bad governance that has contributed to divisions and conflict among communities.
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Congo court sentences Chinese nationals to 7 years in prison in illegal mining crackdown
UVIRA, THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO — A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced three Chinese nationals to seven years in prison for engaging in activities related to illegal mining.
The court, in Congo’s eastern city of Bukavu, the capital of Congo’s gold-rich South Kivu province, sentenced the men late Tuesday for the illegal purchase and possession of minerals, money laundering and other offenses.
The suspects were found in possession of $400,000 in cash and a substantial amount of gold on Sunday, raising concerns about the scale of their operations and the potential involvement of organized networks.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, the governor of South Kivu province, Jean Jacque Purusi, said people there are tired of those who plunder the country’s resources.
“This is only one-tenth of what they have already taken from us. We will not let it go. This is the wealth of the people of South Kivu. We are determined to go all the way because enough is enough,” Purusi said.
Jean Paul Kasinga a local official, told VOA that it was unusual for someone to be moving around with that much money.
“They didn’t have any official document allowing them to work and without government knowledge.”
Etienne Mutware, a lecturer at the Evangelical University in Africa in Panzi, Bukavu, said that illegal mining activities rob the local community of potential revenue.
“Partnerships are meant to bring mutual benefits like infrastructure, schools, and development. However, fraud, corruption, and illegal mining in the Congo have thwarted these expectations, resulting in a significant loss for both the population and the nation,” Mutware told VOA.
Purusi halted mineral mining in July to curb illegal mining and ensure that mining operations are conducted in a regulated and sustainable manner.
In December religious groups and civil society members in South Kivu’s Mwenga territory took to the streets, voicing their concerns over the activities of Chinese mining companies. Protesters demanded infrastructure development and accountability from foreign companies.
“These Chinese companies in (the towns of) Lugusha, Kitutu, Kaboke, Suguru, and Mitobo have failed to fulfill their promises. They promised to build schools, bridges, roads, hospitals, and a stadium, and to provide scholarships for our students. But they have done nothing,” one protester told VOA’s Central Africa Service.
This story originated in VOA’s Central Africa Service. Some information also came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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