In Goma, a city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, residents say plastic and other waste is increasingly polluting Lake Kivu. A new initiative is keeping some of that waste out of the lake. Austere Malivika has this report from Goma, narrated by Aida Issa.
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The United States said Tuesday it would halt assistance to Gabon after the military took charge last month. 

“The U.S. government is pausing certain foreign assistance programs benefiting the government of Gabon while we evaluate the unconstitutional intervention by members of the country’s military,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

He said that the United States was maintaining diplomatic and consular operations in the oil-rich Central African country. 

The move is temporary as the State Department considers a formal determination that Gabon experienced a military coup, which under U.S. law would snap off assistance. 

U.S. officials have previously said that U.S. assistance was minimal to Gabon, run by the Bongo family for more than half a century. 

Washington has a larger presence in both security and economic assistance in Niger, another African nation where the military recently took power.

Gabonese military leaders on Aug. 30 overthrew Ali Bongo Ondimba just as he was proclaimed the winner of an election widely criticized for irregularities. 

The military installed as prime minister the opposition leader, Raymond Ndong Sima, who in an address to the United Nations last week promised to take steps to hold new elections and called on the West not to condemn the coup “without nuance.”
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Just weeks ago, Abdessamad Elgzouli earned a living introducing tourists to the rugged beauty of Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains and the ethnic Amazigh, or Berbers, who live here.

Today, Elgzouli has a new vocation: organizing a tent camp in the town of Amizmiz, for hundreds left homeless by this month’s earthquake.

“For me, the past is gone,” Elgzouli said as he surveyed his home, deeply fissured but still standing. “I live for today.”

The 6.8 magnitude quake on September 8 killed nearly 3,000 people, flattened mountain villages and demolished schools, hospitals and homes in the five provinces hardest hit. In a matter of seconds, it also wiped out a flourishing tourist economy that amounted to a windfall for this poor and underdeveloped slice of Morocco.

Now, the region faces the difficult job of rebuilding as winter looms, and harsh weather promises to complicate recovery — and intensify hardship for thousands of Moroccans living in tents perched high in the mountains.

While the government has pledged $11.7 billion to help more than 4 million earthquake-affected people rebuild, experts suggest the fallout could be steep. Earlier this month, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the quake — exacerbating a broader economic contraction — could cost Morocco up to 8% of its GDP this year.

The quake also has taken on a political edge, as the Moroccan government accepted aid from only a few countries, declining offers from regional rival Algeria and former colonial power France. Critics suggest authorities were slow to respond.

Morocco’s king, Mohammed VI, was in Paris when the quake struck. Only a few days later did he visit a hospital in the nearby city of Marrakech, which was damaged by the quake.

Authorities rebut the criticism, and Moroccans interviewed expressed pride in the king and their country’s response. They point to the mountains of clothes, blankets, food and medications donated by citizens across the country, and in the diaspora.

War zone

“This is the way Moroccans have always been,” said Anis Beri, an economics student from the northern city of Meknes, who came to the High Atlas region to join the earthquake response.

Nearby, half a dozen men tossed donated rugs and mattresses from a large truck into a barbed-wire enclosure. The bedding would later be transported up narrow mountain roads to quake-affected villages, where many homes are now rubble.

Fruit and vegetable seller Abdeslam Stuti flashed a peace sign at a picture of the king, plastered on one side of a truck.

“We came with eight trucks full of everything people need,” he said, describing a 900-kilometer journey from Morocco’s northern coast to support earthquake survivors. He praised the police and gendarmes for providing logistics and escorts along the way.

Bigger challenges lie ahead.

Amizmiz — a jumping off point for mountain tourist treks — looks like a war zone. Residents pick their way through piles of rubble that pockmark many streets. On one, the pink shell of a coffee shop is bent skyward. But a honey store up the road is intact, bees buzzing over golden pots once sold to locals and tourists alike.

The Al-Haouz province where Amizmiz sits, the epicenter of the quake, counts among the 15 poorest in the country. In a region where subsistence agriculture remains a top source of income — and homes are still built with clay bricks — tourism has been a boon.

“Tourism was helping this area to develop,” tour guide Elgzouli said. “It’s been good business.”

Then came COVID-19. Amizmiz craftsman Ahmed Lawza, who sells silver-decorated furniture and mirrors to tourists, was forced to close shop. He worked in marble quarries to make ends meet. Since the earthquake, he said, “work has stopped again.”

Tough times ahead

“The impact is going to be big — enormous,” predicted Bruno Dubois-Roquebert, the owner of Maroc Lodge, a boutique hotel in Amizmiz, of the economic toll. “For [a] certain period of time there will be no tourists. It will take some time before they come back.”

The quake damaged or destroyed many area hotels. But Maroc Lodge escaped intact. Dubois-Roquebert, a Frenchman who was born and raised in Morocco, credits sound building.

On a recent day, he and friends loaded vehicles and navigated steep hairpin turns to donate bedding to families of staff living in a remote mountain hamlet.

“They have everything they need for the short term,” he said. “But we must not abandon these people. Because tomorrow is going to be very hard.”

Tour guide Elgzouli shares that sentiment. He and his family sleep outside, fearful of aftershocks. Soon after the quake, he began organizing the sprawling tent camp, which sits across from his house. Friends and clients have contacted him, offering support.

“People need me. I’m doing my best to help,” he said.

Elgzouli is thankful his family is alive … and for another gift.

The earthquake that struck late on a Friday night knocked out the neighborhood’s power.

“For the first time here,” he said, “I saw the stars.”
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Conservationists in Kenya are ramping up efforts to protect elephants and increase their dwindling population. This follows a study published earlier this year that shows elephants play an important role in mitigating climate change. Juma Majanga reports from Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, home to over 2,500 elephants. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo.
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The charity group Mercy Corps is helping rural communities in Kenya preserve rangelands and protect themselves against the impact of climate change. Ahmed Hussein reports from Wajir County, Kenya.
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Egypt will hold a presidential election over three days in December, officials announced Monday, with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi highly likely to remain in power until 2030.

Waleed Hamza, the chairman of the National Election Authority, said the vote will take place on Dec. 10-12, with a runoff on Jan. 8-10 if no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote. Egyptian expatriates will vote on Dec. 1-3, and in the runoff on Jan. 5-7, he added.

A handful of politicians have already announced their bids to run for the country’s highest post, but none poses a serious challenge to el-Sissi, who has been in power since 2014 and has faced criticism from the West over his country’s human rights record.

El-Sissi, a former defense minister, led the military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013 amid street protests against his one-year rule. Since then, authorities have launched a major crackdown on dissent. Thousands of government critics have been silenced or jailed, mainly Islamists but also many prominent secular activists, including many of those behind the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

El-Sissi has not announced his candidacy yet.

He was first elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018 for a second four-year term. Constitutional amendments, passed in a referendum in 2019, added two years to his second term, and allowed him to run for a third, six-year term.

In the 2018 vote, el-Sissi faced only a little-known politician who joined the race at the last minute to spare the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election after several hopefuls were forced out or arrested.

Among the presidential hopefuls in the December election is Ahmed Altantawy, a former lawmaker, who has repeatedly complained of harassment by security agencies of his campaign staff. He also claimed that authorities have spied on him through cutting-edge technology.

Others who announced their bid include Abdel-Sanad Yamama, head of the Wafd party, one of Egypt’s oldest; Gameela Ismail, head of the liberal Dostour, or Constitution, party; and Farid Zahran, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party.

The board of trustees of National Dialogue, a forum announced by el-Sissi last year to help chart Egypt’s roadmap through recommendations, called for reforms to ensure a “multicandidate and competitive” presidential election.

In a statement last week, the trustees demanded that all candidates and opposition parties be allowed to interact directly with the public.

“The state institutions and agencies are required to keep an equal distance from all presidential candidates so as to safeguard their legal and constitutional rights as well as equal opportunity to all of them,” the trustees said.

The board of trustees also called on the government to accelerate the release of critics held in pretrial detention and to amend the relevant legislation, which it said established “a sort of penal punishment without a court verdict.”
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The mayor of Libya’s eastern city of Derna was detained along with other officials on suspicion of mismanagement and negligence over the collapse of dams that flooded the city two weeks ago, Libya’s attorney general’s office said on Monday.

The attorney general’s office, based in the capital Tripoli, said it had issued orders to detain eight local officials over the collapse of dams in a storm, which unleashed the torrent that swept neighborhoods into the sea, killing thousands.

Those detained included the mayor and an official in charge of water resources, it said, without identifying them.

Angry residents have blamed the authorities for the collapse of the dams, which had been built to hold back the flow into the seasonal riverbed running through the city.

A 2007 contract to repair the dams was never completed amid civil war that began with the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Derna was controlled until 2019 by fighters from a series of groups including Islamic State.

Demonstrators torched the home of mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi last week, and the administration in the east of the country said he was suspended and the entire city council was sacked.

Thousands of people are confirmed dead from the floods and thousands more are still missing, with whole buildings washed out to sea. International rescue teams continue efforts to recover bodies from under the rubble and in the city’s port, with hopes of finding survivors dwindling.

The flood and rescue effort have also exposed friction between the central government and a rival administration that controls the east of the country and does not recognize the authorities in Tripoli.
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French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday, France is imminently to withdraw its ambassador from Niger, followed by the French military contingent in the next months, in the wake of the coup in the west African country that ousted the pro-Paris president.

Macron’s announcement appeared to end two months of French defiance over the coup, which had seen Paris keep its ambassador in place in Niamey despite him being ordered by the coup leaders to go.

“France has decided to withdraw its ambassador. In the next hours our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France,” Macron told French television in an interview, without giving details over how this would be organized.  

Niger’s military rulers have banned “French aircraft” from flying over the country’s airspace, according to the Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA) website. It was not clear if this would affect the ambassador being flown out.

Macron added that military cooperation was “over,” and French troops would withdraw in “the months and weeks to come” with a full pullout “by the end of the year.”

“In the weeks and months to come, we will consult with the putschists, because we want this to be done peacefully,” he added.

France keeps about 1,500 soldiers in Niger as part of an anti-jihadis deployment in the Sahel region. Macron said the post-coup authorities “no longer wanted to fight against terrorism.”  

Niger’s military leaders told French ambassador Sylvain Itte he had to leave the country after they overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.  

But a 48-hour ultimatum for him to leave, issued in August, passed with him still in place as the French government refused to comply, or to recognize the military regime as legitimate.

Earlier this month, Macron said the ambassador and his staff were “literally being held hostage” in the mission eating military rations with no food deliveries taking place.  

Macron in the interview reaffirmed France’s position that Bazoum was being held “hostage” and remained the “sole legitimate authority” in the country.

“He was targeted by this coup d’état because he was carrying out courageous reforms and because there was a largely ethnic settling of scores and a lot of political cowardice,” he argued.

The coup against Bazoum was the third such putsch in the region in as many years, following similar actions in Mali and Burkina Faso in 2021 and 2022 that also forced the pullouts of French troops.

But the Niger coup is particularly bruising for Macron after he sought to make a special ally of Niamey, and a hub for France’s presence in the region following the Mali coup. The U.S. also has over 1,000 troops in the country.

Macron regularly speaks by phone to Bazoum who remains under house arrest in the presidential residence.

The French president has repeatedly spoken of making a historic change to France’s post-colonial imprint in Africa, but analysts say Paris is losing influence across the continent especially in the face of a growing Chinese, Turkish and Russian presence.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threatened military action to restore Bazoum but so far, its threats, which were strongly supported by France, have not transferred into action.

“We are not here to be hostages of the putschists,” said Macron. “The putschists are the allies of disorder,” he added.

Macron said that jihadi attacks were causing “dozens of deaths every day in Mali” after its coup and that now such assaults had resumed in Niger.  

“I am very worried about this region,” he said.

“France, sometimes alone, has taken all its responsibilities and I am proud of our military. But we are not responsible for the political life of these countries, and we draw all the consequences.”
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Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s marathon world record in Berlin on Sunday, lopping off more than two minutes from the previous best to clock an official time of two hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds.

Assefa, who had set a course record with a personal best last year, set a blistering early pace, gradually shaking off any competition to pulverize Kenyan Brigid Kosgei’s record of two hours 14 minutes and four seconds set in 2019.

Remarkably, her splits were faster after the halfway mark.

“I knew I wanted to go for the world record but I never thought I would do this time,” said the 26-year-old, a former 800-metre runner. “It was the result of hard work.”

With her time she set a marker for next year’s Paris Olympics while also almost certainly nailing down a spot on the Ethiopian Olympic team for 2024.

“I have set a mark now. The decision does not lie with me but with officials. It is up to the National Committee to select me for the team.”

Her remarkable victory overshadowed men’s world record holder Eliud Kipchoge’s record fifth victory on Berlin’s quick and flat inner-city course.

The 38-year-old Kenyan, who is aiming to win his third Olympic marathon medal next year in Paris, did not come close to the record he set in Berlin last year, finishing with a time of two hours two minutes 42 seconds.

“I always learn from every race and every victory,” Kipchoge said. “I’m very happy to win for the fifth time in Berlin and I shall use these lessons in my preparation for the Olympics.”

Compatriot Vincent Kipkemoi was second, with a time of two hours three minutes 13 seconds and Ethiopia’s Tadese Takele third.

Climate activists, who had threatened to disrupt the event, tried to run onto the course with buckets of orange paint but were quickly stopped and taken away by police just minutes before the start.

Assefa, who only started racing marathons in April last year, made her intentions clear from the start with a lightning-quick pace of her own.

Along with compatriot Workenesh Edesa they carved out a gap from the chasing pack but Edesa could not keep up and was dropped by the 17th kilometer.

She clocked an hour six minutes 20 seconds at the halfway mark and was one of six women to be on world record time at that stage as the Berlin marathon lived up to its reputation as one of the world’s fastest.

She had no problem maintaining her pace and at the 37km mark she was just three seconds per kilometer slower than Kipchoge’s time at the same stage, cruising to a sensational world record.

Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya came second almost six minutes behind, with Tanzania’s Magdalena Shauri in third.

 
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At least 34 people died in Benin near Nigeria’s border on Saturday when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames, sending up a black cloud of smoke into the sky and leaving dozens of charred bodies at the site, a government official and residents said.

The blaze erupted at a warehouse for smuggled fuel in the southern Benin town of Seme Podji, where cars, motorbikes and tricycle taxis came to stock up on fuel, according to local residents.

Nigeria is a major oil producer and fuel smuggling is common inside the country and along its borders, with illegal refineries, fuel dumps and pipelines sometimes causing fires.

“I am still in shock. We heard people screaming for help. But the intensity of the flames was too much for people to try to approach,” said Innocent Sidokpohou, a local carpenter.

“I got gas for my motorbike to go do my shopping. I left and barely 5 meters away I heard an explosion. When I turned around it was all black smoke.”

Benin’s Interior Minister Alassane Seidou told reporters a serious fire had occurred in the town but did not give details about exactly how it had happened.

“Unfortunately, we have 34 deaths including two babies. Their bodies are charred because the cause of the fire is smuggled fuel,” the official said.

The minister said another 20 people were being treated in hospital, including some in serious condition.

“I live not far from the tragedy,” said Semevo Nounagnon, a local bike driver.

“I can’t really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening.”

For decades, Nigeria’s low-cost subsidized gasoline was transported illegally by road to neighboring countries, primarily Benin, where it is resold on the black market by informal sellers.

When he come to office in May, Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu abandoned the long-standing subsidy meant to keep petrol prices artificially low for Nigerians.

The subsidy cost the government billions of dollars a year and Tinubu made it his first of a series of reforms aimed at revamping Nigeria’s economy and attracting more investment.

That decision caused a tripling in petrol prices in Nigeria, but also impacted the price of black market fuel smuggled over the border into Benin and other countries.

Nigeria’s subsidy decision illustrated Benin’s deep economic dependence on its giant neighbor, with 215 million inhabitants, the continent’s largest economy and status as one of Africa’s top oil producers.
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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the Ghanaian capital Accra on Saturday for a third day of anti-government protests linked to economic hardship that have led to dozens of arrests. 

Protesters, some waving placards or the Ghanaian flag, decried the high cost of living and a lack of jobs as they marched under the watch of riot police. The gold-, oil- and cocoa-producing nation has been battling its worst economic crisis in a generation brought on by spiraling public debt. 

“The average Ghanaian can’t afford three square meals [per day] … the government doesn’t care,” said 24-year-old unemployed protester Romeo, who like others at the demonstration was wearing a red beret.

Police blocked the road to prevent protesters approaching Jubilee House, the seat of the presidency, which organizers Democracy Hub have vowed to occupy.  

On Thursday, police said 49 people had been detained for unlawful assembly and violating the public order act on the first day of the three-day action. There was no sign of further arrests and the situation appeared calm on Saturday. 

Last year, protests over soaring prices and other economic challenges led to clashes with police. 

The government sealed a $3 billion, three-year loan program with the International Monetary Fund in May, but detractors say the authorities have done too little to help those struggling to make ends meet amid the protracted downturn. 

Economic growth is forecast to slow to 1.5% this year from 3.1% in 2022. 
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Somalia is facing a dilemma over plans to continue a drawdown of peacekeepers from the country by a deadline of the end of 2024 because it’s not known whether the country’s poorly equipped security forces can put down al-Shabab militants’ security threat to the government by that time.

Hussein Sheikh Ali, national security adviser for Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, wrote to the United Nations requesting a 90-day delay in the second phase of the departure of African Union Transition troops in Somalia.

Somalia “formally requests a technical pause in the drawdown of the 3,000 African Union Transition in Somalia uniformed personnel by three months,” the letter read.

According to the letter, if continued under the current plan, the pullout would mean the departure of 3,000 troops by the end of September.

A diplomatic source in the government who requested anonymity because of a lack of authority to comment on the issue confirmed to VOA the authenticity of the letter. The source said the government wants to buy time for its effort to have an arms embargo lifted — a campaign supported by Ethiopia and Uganda, two regional powers.

“Somalia believes its campaign for lifting the U.N. arms embargo depends on proving that it can take the responsibility for its security without the dependence of AU peacekeepers, so it can better fight al-Shabab terrorists. At the same time, it does not want ATMIS [the African Transition Mission in Somalia] with its stronger military hardware to leave the country in the middle of unpredictable war with al-Shabab,” the diplomat said. “It is buying a time.” 

Appeal to General Assembly

In an exclusive interview with VOA, Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said he would appeal to the U.N. General Assembly this weekend about removing an international arms embargo, so Somalia could be capable of eliminating al-Shabab, a U.N.- and U.S.-designated terrorist organization that has fought the Somali government for 16 years.

A U.N. resolution calls for the ATMIS force to be reduced to zero by the end of next year, surrendering security responsibility fully to the Somalia’s national army and police forces.

The Somali government had repeatedly said it would be ready to take over security responsibilities from ATMIS when those troops withdrew from the country, in line with U.N. Security Council Resolution 2687.

Mohamud, who is in central Somalia to command the government fight against al-Shabab, said on August 18 that he believed the government would “eliminate” the jihadists by the end of the year.

According to the government letter to the United Nations, during the ongoing military offensive against the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab militant group in central Somalia, the government had “managed to re-liberate towns, villages and critical supply routes.”

The government military gains, however, did not prevent the militant group from waging deadly counterattacks on government bases.

The government letter said the military operation had suffered.

“Several significant setbacks” have occurred since late August, the letter said, following a deadly dawn attack by the militants on a newly captured base in the village of Cowsweyne, Galguduud region, in central Somalia.

As a result of the attack, the Somali military suffered heavy losses, forcing other military units to retreat from towns and villages captured in recent months in the same region.

“This unforeseen turn of events has stretched our military forces thin, exposed vulnerabilities in our front lines, and necessitated a thorough reorganization to ensure we maintain our momentum in countering the al-Shabab threat,” the letter said.

“We hold firm in our belief that this technical pause will, in the long run, contribute to the enduring peace, stability and prosperity of Somalia,” it said, adding that the government remained fully committed to the complete ATMIS drawdown by the end-of-2024 deadline.

Security experts in Somalia said al-Shabab militants have been withdrawing from towns and villages and retreating into the bush with the intention of prosecuting a prolonged guerrilla war.

The government request to the United Nations came days after ATMIS announced it had kicked off the second phase of the drawdown, with the projected departure of 3,000 troops by the end of September.

Since the beginning of the ATMIS drawdown, 2,000 AU troops had left by the end of June, and six bases have been handed over to Somali forces.

Before the troop reductions began, ATMIS was made up of about 20,000 uniformed personnel drawn from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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