Rights groups and the political opposition in Chad have been organizing protests and issuing statements ahead of Friday’s first anniversary of a crackdown that killed 128 people and injured more than 500 who were demanding an end to military rule.

Mahamat El Mahdi Abderrahmane, president of the nongovernmental group Collective Action of Youths for Peace, Development and the Emergence of Chad, said he was requesting an immediate withdrawal of an international arrest warrant that the Transitional Military Council issued for exiled pro-democracy opposition leader Succes Masra.

Abderrahmane said the decision to arrest Masra was very unpopular and indicated that military President Mahamat Idriss Deby neither respects his promises nor resolutions of the October 2022 Inclusive and Sovereign National Dialogue.

Abderrahmane said Mahamat Elhadj Abba Nana, the state prosecutor based in the capital, N’Djamena, signed an international arrest warrant for Masra on June 8, 2023, but the warrant was never made public.

On October 5, after Masra informed Chad’s government in a letter that he planned to return from exile in the coming weeks, state TV reported that the arrest warrant had been leaked to social media, including WhatsApp and Facebook, the same day Masra informed authorities of his pending return.

Chad’s military government says the arrest warrant shared on social media is authentic. The warrant accuses Masra of crimes including an attempted attack on constitutional order, incitement to hatred and an insurrection.

Masra says the accusations are trumped up and a bid to stop him for running for president.

Thousands protested

Opposition and rights groups say Masra and many Chadians who are in exile cannot return home because the political and security situation remains tense since October 20 of last year. Some 128 people were killed and 518 injured as thousands in towns and villages protested the military government’s refusal to hand power to civilian leaders.

Masra heads the Transformers, Chad’s main opposition party. He says he will delay his trip until November for security reasons.

Theophile Bebzoune Bongoro, president of Chad’s Progressive Workers for Cohesion Union, said Chad’s Transitional Military Council should have rendered justice to the thousands of civilians who were either killed, injured, maimed or psychologically tortured during the peaceful protests.

Speaking via a messaging app from N’Djamena, he said the proliferation of armed groups is an indication of displeasure with junta leader Deby for violently suppressing opponents.

Bongoro said Deby should free political prisoners and stop the regular arrest and torture of civilians who hold views contrary to those of the military government.

In a message on state TV on Wednesday, Deby said he is implementing all the resolutions of the national dialogue aimed at bringing together all sides in the political spectrum. He also promised a return to constitutional rule.

Deby said he hopes the peace and tranquility that has characterized the first year of the Inclusive and Sovereign National Dialogue will continue as Chad prepares for a return to civilian rule. He said that he’d visited all 23 provinces in the country and that his government was bringing back security and improving living conditions as requested by civilians.

Deby did not comment on allegations of abuses of liberties and the arrest and torture of his opponents.

The junta leader became head of an 18-month transitional council on April 21, 2021, following the death of his 68-year-old father from injuries suffered while visiting troops fighting rebels in the north of the country.

Deby was supposed to hand power to a civilian government in October 2022 but did not do so. Instead, the transition period was extended by two years.

Human Rights Watch said in a report last week that the arrests of supporters of Chad’s main opposition party seemed to be an attempt to limit political dissent ahead of a vote on a new constitution, set for December.

Chad is expected to hold presidential elections in 2024.
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China remains the single leading source of imports to Kenya, accounting for over 20% of total imports, according to the country’s bureau of statistics. Many local manufacturers say the Chinese imports are hurting their bottom line. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo.
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The first French road convoy containing troops withdrawing from Niger following the overthrow of its president has arrived in neighboring Chad, the French military said on Thursday.

The convoy “has arrived without any particular problems” in the Chadian capital N’Djamena after nine days on the road, French general staff spokesman colonel Pierre Gaudilliere told AFP.

The troops will from there depart by air back to France. Gaudilliere said the road journey had taken place in coordination with Nigerien forces.

Last week, France started the pullout from Niger following the overthrow in July of President Mohamed Bazoum, a key ally of Paris in the region, which threw French strategy for the Sahel into disarray.

The French army faces repatriating its equipment mostly overland through Chad and then Cameroon — a distance of more than 3,000 kilometers, some of which is known to harbour jihadist groups.

Roughly 1,400 soldiers were based in the capital Niamey and western Niger to battle fighters linked to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, bringing with them fighter jets, drones, helicopters and armored vehicles — as well as the equipment to support them.

The first convoy arrived in Chad after travelling by road in armored vehicles under Nigerien escort for the journey of over 1,600 kilometers.

Chad’s capital N’Djamena is the site of France’s military headquarters for the whole Sahel region, with around 1,000 troops deployed there.

It is the third time in 18 months that French troops have been sent packing by a former African colony, dealing a severe blow to France’s influence on the continent and prestige on the international stage.

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby for talks at the Elysee.

They discussed regional issues as well as “the return to France of our military assets”, said the French presidency.
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Malawi has begun moving female inmates from prison facilities they shared with male prisoners. Authorities say the transfer to female only prisons is intended to place the women in an environment more conducive to their well-being.

The more than 20 prisons in Malawi are categorized as maximum security and medium security, offering various correctional programs for inmates.

Authorities, however, say those facilities were not built with women in mind.

Chimwemwe Shaba, a spokesperson for the Malawi Prisons Service, said that correctional programs “like formal and informal education, vocational training and others were biased towards men because of the structural design of the prisons, which are gender insensitive. And they made it impossible to mix the female and male prisoners so that they could equally benefit from their programs.”

Shaba said the workshops are very close to male cells, where women prisoners do not dare go for fear of being bullied or verbally harassed.

The spokesperson also said that the general prisons do not provide a conducive environment for women for their education. As a result, only male inmates advance in their prison educations.

In 2020, Malawi temporarily put female prisoners in isolated jails to slow the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent incoming prisoners from infecting the women and their babies.

“Because of that, some of them expressed interest in pursuing formal education and one of them managed to do well,” Shaba said. “Now, you would see that it was like a coincidence, but the results were so positive. So that’s why we are saying, ‘No, if we design programs for them and we give them a conducive environment,’” they can succeed.

Shaba said that of 412 female prisoners in Malawi, 59 have so far relocated to an all-female prison known as Kachere, formally used as a rehabilitation center for juveniles, in central Malawi.

“It means that all the school blocks will be used by female prisoners and that we have already started sending competent teachers who are officers to make sure that they provide quality education to this female prison,” the spokesperson said.

Complicating visits

Victor Mhango, executive director of the nongovernmental Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance, which advocates for the welfare of prisoners, said he welcomed the relocation of the female prisoners but feared that the move would end some family visits.

“Many prisoners are taken to prisons close to their area,” he said. “But in this case, it will be like a prisoner from Chitipa [district] will be kept in Mzuzu [city]. It means that it will be difficult for their relations to go and see her. I think that will be a challenge, but otherwise, the idea is good.”

National prisons spokesperson Shaba acknowledged the concern, saying currently only three facilities have been selected for the all-female prisons.

He said plans are under way to have as many female prisons as possible across the country, which would help reduce distances for family visits.
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Ghana’s forests are shrinking largely to make room to grow cocoa, the raw ingredient in chocolate. The country lost a record amount of forest last year, and experts say it’s not sustainable. Under an upcoming European Union regulation, chocolate companies will have to show there is no deforestation in their supply chains. But such a rule will affect Ghana’s roughly 800,000 cocoa farmers, many of whom live in poverty. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more. Camera: Mary Cieslak, Senanu Tord
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Jostling for space, people jam the crowded footpaths crisscrossing a massive open market in Uganda’s capital. They are mostly looking for secondhand clothing, sifting through piles or trying on shoes despite getting pushed around in the crush.

Downtown Kampala’s Owino Market has long been a go-to enclave for rich and poor people looking for affordable but well-made used clothes, underscoring perceptions that Western fashion is superior to what is made at home.

Discarded by Europeans and Americans, these clothes are often purchased from wholesalers and then shipped to African countries by middlemen. It’s a multimillion-dollar business, with some two-thirds of people in seven countries in East Africa having “purchased at least a portion of their clothes from the secondhand clothing market,” according to a 2017 U.S. Agency for International Development study, the most recent with such details.

Despite the popularity, secondhand clothes are facing increasing pushback. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a semi-authoritarian leader who has held power since 1986, declared in August that he was banning imports of used clothing, saying the items are coming “from dead people.”

“When a white person dies, they gather their clothes and send them to Africa,” Museveni said.

Trade authorities have not yet enforced the president’s order, which needs to be backed by a legal measure such as an executive order.

Other African governments also are trying to stop the shipments, saying the business amounts to dumping and undermines the growth of local textile industries. The East African Community trade bloc — consisting of Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda — has recommended banning imports of used apparel since 2016. However, member states have not enforced it at the same pace amid pressure from Washington.

President’s order spreads panic

In Uganda, the president’s order has spread panic among traders, for whom such a ban, if implemented, spells disaster. They hawk used clothes in scores of large open-air markets across the country of 45 million people, at roadside stands and even in shops in malls where it’s possible to buy secondhand clothes marketed as new.

The clothes are cheap and drop further in price as traders make room for new shipments: a pair of denim jeans can go for 20 cents, a cashmere scarf for even less.

At one of Uganda’s Green Shops, a chain specializing in used clothes, apparel reseller Glen Kalungi shopped for items his customers might want: vintage pants for men and cotton tops for women.

“I am a thrift shopper,” he said. “I usually come to these Green Shops to check out clothes because they have the best prices around town.”

Kalungi likes to visit on clearance days when he can buy clothes for a fraction of a dollar. Then he sells them at a profit.

The chain, whose owners include Europeans, unveils new clothes every two weeks at its three stores. Some of the items are sourced from suppliers in countries including China and Germany, retail manager Allan Zavuga said.

“How they collect the clothes, we are not aware of that,” Zavuga said of their suppliers. “But [the clothes] go through all the verification, the fumigation, all that, before they are shipped to Uganda. And we get all documents for that.”

The Green Shops are environmentally friendly because they recycle used clothes in bulk, he said.

Traders group opposes ban

The association of traders in Kampala, known by the acronym KACITA, opposes a firm ban on used apparel, recommending a phased embargo that allows local clothing producers to build capacity to meet demand.

Some Ugandan apparel makers, like Winfred Arinaitwe, acknowledge that the quality of locally made fabric is often poor. Not surprisingly, many people would rather buy used clothing, she said.

“Because it lasts longer,” she said.

In Owino Market, a ban on used clothes is inconceivable to many, including some who say they don’t think the president’s threat was serious.

Abdulrashid Ssuuna, who tries to persuade customers in the market to stop by his brother’s used clothing business, said a ban would deny him a livelihood.

“It’s like they want to chase us out of the country,” he said of the president’s order. “From these old clothes, we get what to eat. If you say we leave this business, you are saying we go into new clothes. But we can’t afford to go there.”
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Military rulers in Gabon on Tuesday threatened to arrest the heads of businesses who have collected money for work that was not performed.

While ordering the resumption of work at utility and construction sites after years of abandonment, Gabon’s military-appointed prime minister, Raymond Ndong Sima, told state TV that the junta-led government will ask contractors who abandoned work after collecting money to resume their projects or face arrest.

The announcement was part of a promised crackdown on corruption.

Sima said that scores of companies have resumed work after the central African state’s coup leader, Gen. Brice Oligui Neguema, visited several abandoned road, water and electricity projects in the capital, Libreville, on Saturday.

On Monday, Gabon’s state TV showed images of people celebrating as Nguema visited the sites in several poor suburbs. Women and children embraced and shook hands with Nguema, with some shedding tears. They said it was the first time a Gabonese leader had visited poor suburban neighborhoods, a claim VOA could not independently verify.

Civilians told Nguema that each time elections approached, ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba would promise drinkable water, electricity and good roads and dispatch equipment to start construction. But after the elections, construction work would be abandoned, and the equipment removed.

Nguema said on TV that an anti-corruption task force created by the military junta has a list of companies that received money from the former regime but never executed projects.

Civilians said several companies resumed work as soon as Nguema left.

Barber Jacques Abossolo, who lives in Bizango-Bibere, said on state TV that some of the projects there had been abandoned for 10 years.

Joseph Dotse, a road construction engineer in Libreville, said Nguema asked his company to resume work it temporarily suspended due to heavy rains. He predicted that in 10 days, his company, Gabon Construction, would complete work on a 6-kilometer stretch of road Nguema visited.

Dotse said that Bongo paid half of the money for the road work and that he expects the military junta to settle the remaining bill.

He said Bongo, his family and friends own companies that never executed projects after receiving money. Bongo’s lawyers deny the accusations.

Gabon’s military-appointed government said that Nguema will visit other towns and villages in the days ahead to make sure work on abandoned sites is relaunched and that contractors who swindled state funds will be arrested if they do not refund the money.

Guy Roger Makongo, a political science lecturer at Omar Bongo University in Libreville, said on a messaging app that Nguema has been respecting the roadmap he set up to restore democratic rule following the August 30 bloodless coup.

Makongo said besides fighting corruption and carrying out consultations to organize a national dialogue by the end of this year, Nguema has set up a constitutional council and appointed a government and members of the senate and national assembly from the opposition, civil society and the army.

Many people, however, are skeptical that Nguema will hand power to civilian rule soon because he has not given a possible date for a return to constitutional order, Makongo said.

Last week, Gabon’s military junta promised to invest more than $10 million of what it called recovered ill-gotten wealth on water, electricity, roads and school infrastructure to improve living conditions, especially in the hinterlands.

The military junta said it also recovered more than 300 luxury vehicles. Both vehicles and money, the junta said, were taken from Bongo family and friends.

The military-appointed government said Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin, the Franco-Gabonese wife of Gabon’s ousted president; Bongo’s son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin; and eight of the deposed leader’s aides and members of his Cabinet have been arrested in an anti-corruption drive launched by the military junta.

They were charged with various crimes that include treason, corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, forgery and abuse of state institutions.
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Moussa Ndoye, a 28-year-old beachgoer in Senegal’s capital Dakar, gulps down the water from two plastic sachets in quick succession and throws them in the sand.

“This is our rubbish bin,” he says with a laugh, sitting with friends in the shade of a large wooden fishing boat.

The white sand shore is littered with plastic waste, including discarded transparent pocket-sized drinking water sachets.

Practical, easily purchased in shops or from street hawkers, and cheaper than water bottles, the sachets are integral to everyday life in Senegal.

But they are a key contributor to plastic waste marring the West African nation’s streets and coastlines.

Water sachets take 400 years to decompose into microplastics, according to Adams Tidjanis, professor of environmental studies at a private university in Dakar.

In Senegal, more than 250,000 metric tons of plastic are discarded each year, while only about 30,000 tons are recycled, according to a 2022 report by the Ministry of Urban Planning.

“There are a lot of them on the beaches, they’re part of the plastic waste we see the most,” says Pape Diop, head of an environmental protection association.

Previously, “fishermen took cans (of water) to sea, but now they use sachets of water, drink them, then throw them away — this waste all end up here (on the beach) because the sea rejects it,” he adds.

Plastic pollution

In addition to polluting the water, the sachets obstruct drains, contributing to urban flooding. 

They are often burned with other trash, releasing toxins into the air.

In Dakar, they litter sports fields, construction sites and busy intersections.

They are particularly noticeable during the hot season, which runs from June to October.

It is a phenomenon seen across much of the continent, with water sachets common in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. 

They are outlawed in Kenya and Rwanda under bans on single-use plastics dating back to 2017 and 2019, respectively. 

Senegal passed similar single-use plastics legislation in 2020, supplementing a 2015 law.

But exceptions were made for the sachets and other types of plastics in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely affected people who live from day to day.

“Our socio-economic realities do not allow us to move towards their total ban,” explains Khadidjatou Drame, who runs legal affairs at the environment ministry.

Around 50 brands compete for Dakar’s water sachet market. They sell the sachets individually or in batches of 30. 

The 400 ml sachets fetch 50 CFA francs ($0.08) on the street. For 250 ml sachets, it’s 25 CFA francs.

Health concerns

Amadou Diallo, 63, launched the “Debeya” brand in 2017. 

In his small factory in the Dakar suburb of Guediawaye, tap water passes through three blue tubes containing cotton, thread and coal to purify it.

The water flows on through two 1,000-liter tanks and then into a packaging machine that fills the sachets, seals them and places them in a blue basin.

Diallo says he produces 9,000 to 12,000 sachets per day during the hot season. 

Getting started does not cost much — a cubic meter of tap water costs 202 CFA francs.

All producers are meant to have government authorization in order to operate — but many fail to follow hygiene rules, according to Mbaye Loum, head of the health ministry’s National Hygiene Service.

Many customers told AFP they wonder about the source of the water they drink.

“We can’t even count” how many rivals operate clandestinely, admits Diallo, whose operation is authorized.

“They set up their factories behind closed doors and you wouldn’t even suspect that water is produced (inside).” 
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Succes Masra said increasing threats to civil liberties by Chad’s Transitional Military Council make it impossible for him to return
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At least four children were killed Sunday in Burundi when a church wall collapsed while the children were attending a religious education class.

Fifteen people found in the rubble were also injured at the Kiyange Pentecaostal church when the wall fell, according to local officials.

The Central African country is home to more than 13 million people and has recently experienced heavy rains and strong winds.
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South Africa’s military said Sunday it ordered home a group of soldiers, accused of serious misconduct related to sexual exploitation and abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo, pending an investigation.

The eight, part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission, were detained and confined to their barracks in the eastern city of Beni earlier this month.

“Due to the serious nature of the allegations, the SANDF took a decision to recall the implicated soldiers back to South Africa to answer to the allegations and to give account of events that transpired,” the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said.  

Investigators have been dispatched to the DRC to conduct a formal probe, it added.

The soldiers may have been involved in what the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) described in internal reports as a “systematic widespread violation” of U.N. rules.

Earlier this week, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said MONUSCO had received reports that the personnel involved “were fraternizing, after curfew hours, at an out-of-bounds bar known to be a place where transactional sex occurs.”

U.N. military police officers who went to the premises to assess the situation “were physically assaulted and threatened by the contingent members,” as they moved to detain the soldiers, he added.

The SANDF said it was “unfortunate” that Pretoria was not directly informed of the allegations but learnt about them from the media. 

Since May, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has been calling on SADC (Southern African Development Community) countries, including South Africa, to deploy in the country in support of the Congolese army in the face of the M23 rebels, who have seized large swathes of North Kivu province.

Kinshasa has also been calling for an “accelerated” departure of the U.N. force from December, accusing it of having failed to put an end to violence by armed groups during its 25-year presence. 
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A Kenyan court has dismissed a case challenging the importation of genetically modified foods, letting stand an earlier court ruling allowing the entry of so-called GMOs.

The Law Society of Kenya, the nation’s premier bar association that petitioned the court, argued that genetically modified food was unsafe for humans and that lifting a ban on its importation was unconstitutional.

But in a decision handed down Thursday, High Court Justice Oscar Angote ruled that the petitioners failed to prove that such food was harmful for human consumption.

Last October, the Kenyan government lifted a ban on the importation of genetically modified foods because of growing food insecurity and the inability of farmers to produce enough food to feed the population.

Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are produced using scientific methods, including recombinant DNA technology, which involves using enzymes and various laboratory techniques to manipulate and isolate DNA segments of interest. In animals, it requires reproductive cloning — making a genetic duplicate through somatic cell nuclear transfer.

Angote ruled there was no evidence to show that the modified food can harm human beings.

He also said there is a need for the population to trust the institutions set up to check the quality of food.

There is skepticism on that point. Cidy Otieno, the national coordinator of Kenya Peasants League, a lobby group acting on behalf of peasant farmers, said the country’s regulatory bodies cannot be trusted.

“In Kenya, for over one year, there was a product that was found on the shelves, Aromat,” he said. “It was being sold in Kenya from South Africa, yet it had GMOs, yet the country has not allowed for GMOs.

“So,” he said, “we realize that we have very weak regulations in Kenya.”

Agriculture accounts for one-third of Kenya’s gross domestic product, and farming lobby groups have expressed concerns about the future of agriculture in the country. They argue that U.S. farmers who use sophisticated technology and have government financial support could kill Kenya’s agriculture sector.

Kenya’s acceptance of GMO products also worries its neighbors Tanzania and Uganda, which do not allow them.

Tanzania said it would be vigilant against importing genetically modified food to its country.

The East African region has an agreement through the regional bloc, the East African Community, which allows the free flow of people and goods.

Nason’go Muliro, a Kenyan international relations and diplomacy lecturer, said the importation of GMOs into the region threatens trade relations between Kenya and its neighbors.

“There will be a return to the nontariff barriers because now it will not be about customs, but it will be about standardization,” Muliro predicted. For instance, he said, Tanzania might say, “We may not even accept the cereals from Kenya because of fear of GMO. … And that will bring friction.”

Otieno, of the Peasants League, said the planting of GMO seeds could also bring legal battles among farmers in Kenya and its neighbors.

“Those are some of the issues that we are raising, because a farmer in Busia, Kenya, and a farmer on the Busia border, how will they ensure that there’s no cross-pollination?” he asked. “[What] if I’m on the border and I’m growing GMOs and somebody’s in Uganda and is not growing GMOs and there’s pollination? We are exposing our people to companies so that they can be charged hefty penalties.”

The lobby group said it also has challenged the lifting of bans of GMO products and cultivation in the country, but that case is to be determined later this year.
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