[Malawi has faced chronic food insecurity for years, but a 110% increase in maize prices from the previous year have made the situation worse. Chimwemwe Padatha has this report from the capital, Lilongwe. (Camera: Chimwemwe Padatha)
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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
Can Civil Society and Private Organizations Combat Russian Propaganda in Africa?
As Russia makes significant gains in its disinformation campaigns in Africa, experts say civil society groups and private organizations may hold the key to counter such propaganda.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago, analysts say the Kremlin has been using disinformation spread through social media to court other nations as it faces global isolation.
Dan Whitman, a foreign policy analyst and fellow at Philadelphia-based think tank Foreign Policy Research Institute, told VOA that Moscow has recently made “tremendous successes” in its disinformation campaigns on the continent, exploiting political instability in regions like the Sahel and Central Africa, and in nations like Mozambique.
“I would say (in) two or three years, (Russia) has made the most rapid propaganda successes in the history of propaganda,” Whitman said, adding “instability is the Garden of Eden for disinformation.”
Whitman says Russia doesn’t cause instability but takes advantage of existing instability, unlike other major powers. He said the difference is that “Russia is much more systematic, consequential, and much more strategic in the way they do this,” he said questioning Moscow’s true intentions in Africa. “Less than 1% of commercial exchange comes from Russia. So, in terms of material wealth, infrastructure, or really anything else, they have nothing to offer Africa.”
Trade between Russia and Africa has increased, but it remains relatively small compared to trade with the European Union, China, and the United States.
According to Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, trade between Russia and Africa has nearly doubled to $17.7 billion by 2021, but Africa’s trade values with other regions are significantly higher: $295 billion with the EU, $254 billion with China, and $65 billion with the U.S.
Whitman also highlighted the worry of possible Russian interference in the 2024 U.S. elections, as in previous elections, emphasizing the need for a mechanism to hold the Kremlin accountable for its disinformation activities. He suggested empowering civil society groups and private organizations, with support from the U.S. government and Western European governments, to counter Russian disinformation.
“I believe that small start-ups, private organizations and community groups like debunk.org in Lithuania, should be empowered to counter Russia’s disinformation. I hope they have open and transparent support from the U.S. government and governments of Western Europe,” Whitman told VOA.
Neil Melvin, director of International Security Studies at the London-based Royal United Security Institute, or RUSI, says while Russia seeks to advance its propaganda narrative, describing its efforts as the “biggest propaganda victory ever,” may be an exaggeration — even as Russia takes an opportunistic approach in regions with instability, aiming to establish partnerships with military groups seeking power.
“We saw that in Sudan, we’ve seen it recently in parts of Sahel and West Africa. Historically, they (Russia) have done it with Ethiopia,” he said. “I think that’s certainly part of the model, that’s quite disruptive, because, of course, it just accelerates instability.”
Melvin says the primary objective of these partnerships in Africa is to secure resources, and Russia, through its paramilitary, the Wagner Group, seeks access to these resources.
“It’s almost like a scavenging approach,” Melvin said.
Fighting Disinformation
Melvin said disinformation is not solely a Russian effort, as China and Iran also engage in state-backed disinformation campaigns, which many countries struggle to effectively counter.
“Civil society becomes almost a security asset because they challenge the disinformation that sometimes is coming down mainstream channels,” he told VOA’s English to Africa Service. “Maybe this is the moment for the African Union or some of the regional organizations to try and set up their own independent media monitoring organizations to make sure that the population can push back on Russian disinformation.”
According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, an academic and research program focused on security, in 2022, 60% of Africa’s more than 50 documented disinformation campaigns were externally coordinated.
However, the center says, figures of externally driven disinformation campaigns in Africa may not be entirely accurate with the growing trend of using local influencers to disseminate content, making their origins harder to trace.
Silas Jonathan, the lead open-source researcher at Nigeria’s Center for Journalism, Innovation, and Development, which operates the fact-checking platform Dubawa, said though official data on the number of fact-checking platforms in Africa is lacking, a number of fact-checking coalitions have noted increasing efforts by Russia and China to “influence Africa’s conversation.”
“In the past five months, what I have been seeing is a calculative spread of disinformation that seems to glorify Russia and the Wagner Group as if they’re the only way out to Africa’s problems,” Jonathan told VOA. He said he has observed social media users posting disinformation-and-misinformation to counter African democracy, emphasizing rhetoric for Africa to align with Russia.
Jonathan said organizations and coalitions should be working to raise awareness of Russia’s disinformation efforts on social media.
“What I have been doing is to assess social media awareness of Russia’s disinformation in Africa, and to find out whether Africans are even aware of such subtle influences.”
This story originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service.
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Military Leaders of 3 West African Countries Sign a Security Pact
The military leaders of three West African countries – Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger – signed a mutual defense pact deal over the weekend.
The junta leaders signed the Liptako-Gourma Charter, establishing the Alliance of Sahel States. The pact is named after the region where the three country’s borders meet.
Col. Assimi Goita, Mali’s junta leader, said in a statement, “I signed today with the heads of state of Burkina Faso and Niger the Liptako-Gourma Charter, establishing the Alliance of Sahel States with the objective of establishing an architecture of collective defense and assistance mutual for the benefit of our populations.”
The new pact calls for the three neighboring countries to come to the defense of each other.
All three are facing threats from jihadists.
Each of the countries has undergone coups since 2020.
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Armed Men Seize 2 Army Camps in Northern Mali: Officials
Armed men on Sunday took over two military camps in northern Mali, two elected officials told AFP, with a spokesman for an alliance of predominantly Tuareg armed groups claiming the attack.
The Malian military confirmed on social networks that the town of Lere, in the Timbuktu Region of northern Mali, had been attacked on Sunday.
A Malian military official told AFP it was “in the process of dealing with the situation.”
“Armed men attacked the two (military) camps in the town of Lere on Sunday,” an elected official from the town told AFP.
“After fighting, the armed men took the camps. We are waiting for reinforcement from the army, but for the moment it is the armed men who hold the camps,” he added.
An official from the administrative region also said armed men had attacked the two camps and continued to hold them.
He said there had been deaths but could not provide a toll.
Almou Ag Mohamed, a spokesman for the Coordination of Azawad Movements, an alliance of armed separatist groups dominated by Tuaregs, claimed the attack.
“We attacked and took control of the two military camps in the town of Lere this Sunday,” he told AFP. “The camps are under our control. We shot down an army plane.”
Rebellion revived
Officials have said the assailants have not yet been formally identified.
The successionist groups in 2012 launched a rebellion before signing a peace agreement with the state in 2015. But that accord is now generally considered moribund.
This month has seen a resumption of hostilities by the groups.
On Tuesday, the groups launched an offensive against army positions in the garrison town of Bourem, which the military said it had repelled.
The two sides provided contradictory reports of events, but both reported dozens of deaths.
The renewed military activity by the separatists has coincided with a series of attacks attributed mainly to the al-Qaida-linked jihadist alliance Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM).
In August, GSIM announced it was declaring “war in the Timbuktu region.”
In a separate incident on Sunday, two soldiers were killed and one injured in an ambush near the village of Akor in western Mali, the intelligence services said.
That attack took place on a supply mission returning from the town of Guire, it said, adding that four attackers had also been killed.
On Saturday, junta leader Assimi Goita signed a mutual defense pact with his Nigerien and Burkinabe counterparts establishing a military alliance and pledging to assist one another in the event of an attack on their sovereignty or territorial integrity.
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Crash Kills 4 Rescue Workers Dispatched to Libya
Four Greek rescue workers dispatched to Libya following devastating flooding in the eastern city of Derna were killed in a road collision Sunday, Libya’s health minister said.
Some 11,300 people died when two dams collapsed during Mediterranean storm Daniel last week sending a wall of water gushing through the city, according to the Red Crescent aid group. A further 10,000 people are missing, and presumed dead.
Rescue workers from Greece, Turkey, Egypt and other countries have flocked to the decimated port city to offer help.
On Sunday, a bus carrying 19 Greek rescue workers collided with a vehicle carrying five Libyan nationals on the road between the cities of Benghazi and Derna, health minister Othman Abduljaleel said at a news conference. Three Libyans in the oncoming vehicle were also killed.
Seven of the surviving Greek rescue workers were in critical condition, the minister said.
In a parallel statement, the Greek Foreign Ministry acknowledged the crash but said only three of its nationals had died while two others were missing. The Associated Press was not immediately able to reconcile the conflicting reports.
The disaster has brought some rare unity to oil-rich Libya, which has been divided between rival governments in the country’s east and west that are backed by various militia forces and international patrons. Residents from the nearby cities of Benghazi and Tobruk have offered to put up the displaced, while volunteers have helped hunt for survivors buried beneath the rubble.
But the opposing governments have struggled to respond to the crisis. Their recovery efforts have been hampered by confusion, difficulty getting aid to the hardest-hit areas, and the destruction of Derna’s infrastructure, including several bridges.
More than 3,283 bodies were buried as of Sunday, Abduljaleel said, many in mass graves outside Derna, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities.
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Analysts: Sudan War Could Impact South Sudan’s Transition to Democracy
South Sudanese people are fleeing Sudan’s war for their home country, and the United Nations and analysts say the move could trigger intercommunal violence and endanger the country’s transition to democracy. From Renk, South Sudan, reporter Henry Wilkins talks to returnees about their uncertain futures and to analysts about potential effects.
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Real Estate Expansion Drives Kenyan Farmers to Abandon Coffee Cultivation
The International Coffee Organization says Kenya is the fifth-largest coffee producer in Africa. But like farmers elsewhere, Kenya’s coffee growers are being squeezed by climate change, price fluctuations and now a real estate boom. Francis Ontomwa reports from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Camera and video editing by Amos Wangwa.
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Al-Shabab Attacks Ethiopian Military Convoys in Somalia
Al-Shabab militants attacked convoys carrying Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia’s southwestern Bakool region early Sunday, Somali officials said.
The ambush targeted two convoys, one traveling from the Somali town of Yeed to Wajid and the second convoy as it traveled from El Barde to the town of Huddur. Ethiopian troops have bases in Wajid and Huddur.
A Somali official said local forces were accompanying the convoy that was en route to Huddur from El Barde.
The mayor of Huddur, Omar Abdullahi Mohamud, told VOA Somali that the fighting started after the al-Shabab ambushes.
“The fighting started after the anti-peace elements attacked the Ethiopian and Somali military convoy moving towards Wajid and Huddur, starting off their attack with explosion,” Mohamud said. “The troops have repulsed, and the situation is calm.”
Mohamud claimed the militants lost as many as 50 fighters.
A senior Somali regional official who asked not to be identified told VOA Somali that the more intense ambush targeted Ethiopian troops escorting military supplies to Ethiopian soldiers in Wajid.
He said when that convoy left the town of Yeed on Saturday, it spent the night near the village of Booco, about 40 kilometers north of Wajid.
“At dawn the convoy resumed its journey towards Wajid but were ambushed by al-Shabab,” he said.
“We heard two vehicles were hit by explosions.”
He said the fighting lasted for hours.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the ambush. Al-Shabab in a statement claimed it killed 167 Ethiopian soldiers, destroyed military vehicles, and seized a cache of weapons and ammunition. Casualty figures given by both sides have not been independently verified.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Somalia, Mukhtar Mohamed Ware told VOA he saw al-Shabab’s claim on social media and described it as “propaganda.”
“They may try [to attack Ethiopian forces] but they cannot even fire for more than 10 minutes against Ethiopian defenses’ forces,” he said.
“This is a professional army; it’s a very well equipped, very well organized, it’s always hitting hard when it comes to al-Shabab, so this is a mere propaganda; it’s not more than a propaganda against Ethiopia and against Ethiopian defense forces.”
He rejected al-Shabab’s statement, which labeled Ethiopian troops as “crusaders.”
“We are not crusaders; we are there under the African Union and international community decisions to support legitimate government of Somalia in its effort to establish peace in this country. So, this is a mere propaganda blown by al-Shabab that is commonly known.”
Ethiopia has thousands of troops in Somalia serving as part of the African Union Transition Mission, or ATMIS, and other forces in Somalia that are there based on arrangements with the government in Mogadishu.
A security source told VOA the ambushed troops were not part of ATMIS.
“The ambush is true, the incident was bad, but the numbers given by al-Shabab have been exaggerated,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Somali officials have reported that government troops have captured the main town of Ba’adweyne and the three smaller villages of Qodqod, Qay’ad, and Shabelow.
Local forces commander Mohamed Nur Ali Gadaar told VOA that al-Shabab fled Ba’adweyne and two of the villages after a brief firefight on Sunday. Government troops supported by local fighters are now heading toward a fourth town, Amaara, in Galmudug state, he said.
The Somali government also reported conducting an operation in collaboration with “international partners” near the village of Ali Foldhere in the Middle Shabelle region on Saturday and Sunday against al-Shabab militants who have been trying to cross a river.
The role of international partners in the ongoing operations has been limited to airstrikes against al-Shabab fighters and vehicles.
Abdiwahid Moalin Isak contributed to this report.
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Central Khartoum in Flames as War Rages Across Sudan
Flames gripped the Sudanese capital Sunday and paramilitary forces attacked the army headquarters for the second day in a row, witnesses reported, as fighting raged into its six month.
“Clashes are now happening around the army headquarters with various types of weapons,” witnesses told AFP Sunday from Khartoum, while others reported fighting in the city of El-Obeid, 350 kilometers (about 220 miles) south.
Battles between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces intensified Saturday, resulting in several key buildings in central Khartoum being set alight.
In social media posts verified by AFP, users shared footage of flames devouring landmarks of the Khartoum skyline, including the Greater Nile Petroleum Oil Company Tower — a conical building with glass facades that had become an emblem of the city.
Users mourned Khartoum, a shell of its former self, in posts that showed buildings — their windows blown out and their walls charred or pockmarked with bullets — continuing to smolder.
Since war erupted on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, nearly 7,500 people have been killed, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
It has displaced more than five million people, including 2.8 million who have fled the relentless air strikes, artillery fire and street battles in Khartoum’s densely-populated neighborhoods.
The millions that remain in the city woke up Sunday to find clouds of smoke obscuring the skyline, as the sound of bombs and gunfire burst through the capital.
“We can hear huge bangs,” witnesses told AFP Sunday from the Mayo district of southern Khartoum, where the army targeted RSF bases with artillery fire.
At least 51 people were killed last week in air strikes on a market in Mayo, according to the United Nations, in one of the deadliest single attacks of the war.
The worst of the violence has been concentrated in Khartoum and the western region of Darfur, where ethnically-motivated attacks by the RSF and allied militias have triggered renewed investigations by the International Criminal Court into possible war crimes.
There has also been fighting in the southern Kordofan region, where witnesses again reported on Sunday artillery fire exchanged between the army and the RSF in the city of El-Obeid.
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Libya’s Flooding Death Toll Soars to 11,300
The death toll in Libya’s coastal city of Derna has soared to 11,300 as search efforts continue following a massive flood fed by the breaching of two dams in heavy rains, the Libyan Red Crescent said Thursday.
Marie el-Drese, the aid group’s secretary-general, told The Associated Press by phone that a further 10,100 people are reported missing in the Mediterranean city. Health authorities previously put the death toll in Derna at 5,500. The storm also killed about 170 people elsewhere in the country.
The flooding swept away entire families in Derna on Sunday night and exposed vulnerabilities in the oil-rich country that has been mired in conflict since a 2011 uprising that toppled long-ruling dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Here’s a look at where things stand:
What happened in Libya? Daniel, an unusually strong Mediterranean storm, caused deadly flooding in communities across eastern Libya, but the worst-hit was Derna. As the storm pounded the coast Sunday night, residents said they heard loud explosions when two dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters gushed down Wadi Derna, a valley that cuts through the city, crashing through buildings and washing people out to sea.
A U.N. official said Thursday that most casualties could have been avoided.
“If there would have been a normal operating meteorological service, they could have issued the warnings,” World Meteorological Organization head Petteri Taalas told reporters in Geneva. “The emergency management authorities would have been able to carry out the evacuation.”
The WMO said earlier this week that the National Meteorological Center issued warnings 72 hours before the flooding, notifying all governmental authorities by email and through media.
Officials in eastern Libya warned the public about the coming storm, and on Saturday, they ordered residents to evacuate coastal areas, fearing a surge from the sea. But there was no warning about the dams collapsing.
How does conflict in Libya affect the disaster? The startling devastation reflected the storm’s intensity, but also Libya’s vulnerability. Oil-rich Libya has been divided between rival governments for most of the past decade — one in the east, the other in the capital, Tripoli — and one result has been the widespread neglect of infrastructure.
The two dams that collapsed outside Derna were built in the 1970s. A report by a state-run audit agency in 2021 said the dams had not been maintained despite the allocation of more than 2 million euros for that purpose in 2012 and 2013.
Libya’s Tripoli-based prime minister, Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, acknowledged the maintenance issues during a Cabinet meeting Thursday and called on the Public Prosecutor to open an urgent investigation into the dams’ collapse.
The disaster brought a rare moment of unity, as government agencies across the country rushed to help the affected areas.
While the Tobruk-based government of eastern Libya is leading relief efforts, the Tripoli-based western government allocated the equivalent of $412 million for reconstruction in Derna and other eastern towns, and an armed group in Tripoli sent a convoy with humanitarian aid.
What’s happening now? Derna has begun burying its dead, mostly in mass graves, said eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel on Thursday.
More than 3,000 bodies were buried by Thursday morning, the minister said, while another 2,000 were still being processed, He said most of the dead were buried in mass graves outside Derna, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities.
Abduljaleel said rescue teams were still searching wrecked buildings in the city center, and divers were combing the sea off Derna.
Untold numbers could be buried under drifts of mud and debris, including overturned cars and chunks of concrete, that rise up to 4 meters high. Rescuers have struggled to bring in heavy equipment as the floods washed out or blocked roads leading to the area.
Libya’s eastern based parliament, The House of Representatives, on Thursday approved an emergency budget of 10 billion Libyan dinars — roughly $2 billion — to address the flooding and help those affected.
How many people have been killed?
As of Thursday, the Libyan Red Crescent said that 11,300 people have been killed, and a further 10,100 are reported missing.
However, local officials suggested that the death toll could be much higher than announced.
In comments to the Saudi-owned Al Arabia television station on Thursday, Derna Mayor Abdel-Moneim al-Ghaithi said the tally could climb to 20,000 given the number of neighborhoods that were washed out.
The storm also killed around 170 people in other parts of eastern Libya, including the towns of Bayda, Susa, Um Razaz and Marj, the health minister said.
The dead in eastern Libya included at least 84 Egyptians, whose remains were transferred to their home country on Wednesday. More than 70 came from one village in the southern province of Beni Suef. Libyan media also said dozens of Sudanese migrants were killed in the disaster.
Is help reaching survivors? The floods have displaced at least 30,000 people in Derna, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, and several thousand others were forced to leave their homes in other eastern towns, it said.
The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to Derna, hampering the arrival of international rescue teams and humanitarian assistance. Local authorities were able to clear some routes, and humanitarian convoys have been able to enter the city over the past couple of days.
The U.N. humanitarian office issued an emergency appeal for $71.4 million to respond to urgent needs of 250,000 Libyans most affected. The office, known as OCHA, estimated that approximately 884,000 people in five provinces live in areas directly affected by the rain and flooding.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that it has provided 6,000 body bags to local authorities, as well as medical, food and other supplies distributed to hard-hit communities.
International aid started to arrive earlier this week in Benghazi, 250 kilometers west of Derna. Several countries have sent aid and rescue teams, including neighboring Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia.
Italy dispatched a naval vessel on Thursday carrying humanitarian aid and two navy helicopters to be used for search and rescue operations.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States would send money to relief organizations and coordinate with Libyan authorities and the United Nations to provide additional support.
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Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso Sign Sahel Security Pact
Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, three West African Sahel nations ruled by military juntas, signed a security pact on Saturday promising to come to each other’s aid in case of rebellion or external aggression.
The three countries are struggling to contain Islamist insurgents linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group and have also seen their relations with neighbors and international partners strained because of the coups.
The latest coup in Niger drove a further wedge between the three and countries of the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, which has threatened to use force to restore constitutional rule in the country.
Mali and Burkina Faso have vowed to come to Niger’s aid if it is attacked.
“Any attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of one or more contracted parties will be considered an aggression against the other parties,” according to the charter of the pact, known as the Alliance of Sahel States.
It said the other states will assist individually or collectively, including with the use of armed force.
“I have today signed with the Heads of State of Burkina Faso and Niger the Liptako-Gourma charter establishing the Alliance of Sahel States, with the aim of establishing a collective defense and mutual assistance framework,” Mali junta leader Assimi Goita said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
All three states were members of the France-supported G5 Sahel alliance joint force with Chad and Mauritania, launched in 2017 to tackle Islamist groups in the region.
Mali has since left the dormant organization after a military coup, prompting Niger’s now-ousted President Mohamed Bazoum to say in May of last year that the force was now dead.
Relations between France and the three states have soured since the coups.
France has been forced to withdraw its troops from Mali and Burkina Faso and is in a tense standoff with the junta that seized power in Niger after it asked France to withdraw its troops and its ambassador.
France has refused to recognize the authority of the junta.
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Somalia’s Digital ID Revolution: A Journey From Standstill to Progress
For more than three decades, Somalia’s digital identity system remained stagnant, untouched by the major technological changes sweeping the globe. That standstill is now coming to an end, says Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre.
In a historic move, Barre convened a two-day conference in Mogadishu on Saturday, marking the official return of civil registration and the issuance of national ID cards.
“Today marks a great day for Somalia as we finally lay the foundations of a reliable and all-inclusive national identification system that is recognized worldwide,” Barre said.
After the official inauguration of the system Saturday by the prime minister in Mogadishu, the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was in the city of Dhusamareb commanding the fight against al-Shabab militants in central Somalia, received his national identification card.
“The ID card issuance was started by the president and the PM and it is part of a rollout in the country, which every Somali citizen is eligible to acquire,” a government statement said.
“It is a significant milestone in Somalia’s state-building journey. The national ID rollout is set to enhance security and address crucial national issues,” Mohamud said as he received his card.
Digital identity systems, often referred to as eID, are the bedrock of Somalia’s new digital services. The government says they empower citizens to exercise their liberties and businesses to operate efficiently.
“Through this system, the government reaffirms its endeavor to ensure that Somali citizens enjoy equal rights with regard to the participation of all national commitments,” Barre said.
Barre cited the need to combat security threats, terrorism and identity fraud as compelling reasons to introduce a national ID.
“This system will boost our businesses and economy, our banks, communication and Hawala money transfer systems. It will strictly deal with terror networks and the fight against extremism,” Barre said.
In a video message to the conference from the front line in central Somalia, Somalia’s minister of Interior, Federal Affairs and Reconciliation, Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, reiterated the importance of a reliable national ID for the government’s fight against al-Shabab militants.
“A national identification system is a powerful tool in our fight against extremism, providing a sense of belonging and identity to our citizens,” Fiqi said. “National ID is not only a piece of plastic, but it represents access to essential services like health care, education, elections and economic opportunities to the Somali people.”
In March, Somalia’s upper house passed the National Identification and Registration Authority Bill, which enables every Somali citizen to legally register their identity and gain access to the government and private services to which they are entitled.
Somali government officials, businessmen, members of civil society and international partners were among participants in the conference in Mogadishu.
Speakers at the conference included United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia Catriona Laing and the World Bank country manager, Kristina Svensson.
Those who spoke at the conference expressed optimism that the national ID will help in the fight against the al-Shabab terror group.
The story of Somalia’s digital identity resurgence finds its roots in the turbulent year 1991, when the national citizen registry collapsed. National unrest, instability, disorder and economic turmoil led to the downfall of government leadership and the disintegration of the registration system.
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Dozens of Syrians Are Among Missing in Libya Floods
A Syrian dentist, a confectioner who made mouthwatering Arabic sweets, a carpenter.
Syrians from all walks of life had left their war-torn country for the Libyan city of Derna over the past years, looking for work and better opportunities.
Now, dozens of them are missing and feared dead after Mediterranean storm Daniel unleashed catastrophic flooding that tore through the coastal city on Sunday night, wreaking destruction and washing entire neighborhoods out to sea.
The death toll has eclipsed 11,000 and more than 10,000 are missing. Five days on, searchers are still digging through mud and hollowed-out buildings in Derna, looking for bodies.
According to a war monitoring group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 42 Syrians have been confirmed dead in Libya while the real number could be as high as 150.
The victims include both Syrians who were living and working in Libya long term and Syrian migrants who were using Libya as a transit point in efforts to reach Europe, most often by way of perilous voyages across the Mediterranean Sea in unsafe boats organized by smugglers.
Two years ago, Nisma Jbawi’s 19-year-old son, Ammar Kanaan, left their home in Syria’s southern province of Daraa — one of the epicenters of the 2011 uprising against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
He headed to Libya, where he planned to work and save money to pay Syrian authorities a fee of about $8,000 that would spare him from compulsory military service.
Jbawi said her son last spoke with her on Sunday afternoon. He told her he would close the sweet shop where he worked and go home because a strong storm was expected. She tried repeatedly to call him on Monday, without success. His WhatsApp account shows his phone was last online around 1:30 a.m. Monday.
“We still have hope,” she said, tears choking her up.
As the storm pounded Derna late Sunday, residents said they heard loud explosions when the dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters washed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea.
On Tuesday, Kanaan’s uncle drove to Derna from the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi where he works — only to find that the building where his nephew lived had been washed out to sea.
“All who were inside are presumed dead,” Jbawi said.
Rami Abdurrahman, who runs the Observatory, said he has not been able to confirm a single survivor out of the 150 Syrians missing in Derna. But definite numbers are hard to come by in the chaotic aftermath of the destruction.
Like Syria, where the civil war has killed half a million people and forced more than 5 million to become refugees around the world, Libya has been through its own years of conflict.
The oil-rich North African country has been split between rival governments in the east and west since 2014, backed by various militia forces and international patrons. Derna is governed by Libya’s eastern administration, where military commander Khalifa Hiftar wields significant power.
Still, for some Syrians, Libya offered prospects of a better life. Syrians can easily get into Libya on a tourist visa and find work — wages are higher than what many earn at home.
Zeid Marabeh, 19, went to Libya two years ago from the central city of Homs and worked as a carpenter.
He recounted to The Associated Press over the phone from Derna how he watched water surging toward his building on Sunday night.
“Then I heard a loud boom,” Marabeh said. It was the moment the dams collapsed.
When water levels started rising in his neighborhood, he frantically ran toward higher ground — the nearby Eastern Shiha hill. From there, he saw the water destroy almost everything in its path.
He went back on Monday morning, after the waters subsided, to check on his uncle and relatives. The building where they lived had disappeared. His uncle, Abdul-Ilah Marabeh, his aunt, Zeinab, and their 1-year-old daughter, Shahd, were gone.
Marabeh said he looked through the rows of bodies laid out on their street but could not find his uncle’s family.
In the Syrian capital of Damascus on Thursday, members of the Qalaji family were receiving condolences for their eight family members killed in Derna.
Firas Qalaji, 45, his wife, Rana Khateeb, and their six children were to be buried in Libya, the family said in a statement. Mohammed Khier Qalaji said in Damascus on Saturday that his brother, a car mechanic, had been living in Libya since 2000.
He said that he has another brother, Shadi, in Derna, who survived the floods despite swallowing large amounts of water. He said Shadi was only able to find the bodies of his brother and one of his nieces — the bodies of the rest were still missing.
He said that three hours before the storm, Firas and his family had a video call with his mother and sisters in Damascus and they started reciting verses from the Muslim holy book, the Quran. “Forgive me mother,” he quoted his brother as telling their mother.
“It was as if he felt something was about to happen,” Mohammed Kheir Qalaji said.
Ghina al-Qassim said her nephew, Hani Turkomani, was a dentist who arrived in Derna some nine months ago “to improve his life.” His cousins, already there, had found him a job.
After the floodwaters subsided, the cousins, who survived the tragedy, went looking for him. They said his apartment was full of water and mud but a large hole in the wall raised their hopes that he might have escaped from the building or been pulled out by rescue workers, al-Qassim said.
“God willing,” she added.
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Competing Interests for UN Spotlight at Annual Meeting
The war in Ukraine is likely to be the big topic for a second year when leaders gather at the U.N. General Assembly next week, but many developing countries are hoping to shine a light on issues important to them, including development, the economy and climate.
This year’s general assembly will take place after Asian countries met in Indonesia for the ASEAN summit, G20 leaders gathered in India, and developing countries in the Group of 77 plus China met in Cuba. After a busy September, several high-profile leaders are skipping New York, but more than 140 heads of state and government are attending.
With the world literally on fire in places, there will be plenty to talk about.
“We will be gathering at a time when humanity faces huge challenges – from the worsening climate emergency to escalating conflicts, the global cost-of-living crisis, soaring inequalities and dramatic technological disruptions,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters ahead of the high-level week. “People are looking to their leaders for a way out of this mess.”
War in Ukraine
Guterres said the war in Ukraine is aggravating geopolitical divisions.
“And so, the solution — a peace in Ukraine, in line with [the] U.N. Charter, and in line with international law — would be very important to allow for geopolitical divisions to be reduced,” he said. “But those geopolitical divisions have other dimensions. And one of my main concerns is that we see the risk of fragmentation.”
The war is certain to be a feature during the week, with media attention on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is scheduled to attend the U.N. General Assembly in person for the first time since Russia invaded his country in February 2022. Last year a special exception was made for him to address the gathering in a prerecorded video because he could not travel to New York.
In addition to his General Assembly speech Tuesday, he is expected to attend a high-level U.N. Security Council meeting the next day on Ukraine. Zelenskyy has previously only briefed the council remotely since the war started. There is also potential for some diplomatic drama, if Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov represents his country at the meeting and the two leaders come face-to-face in the same room.
Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group, says Zelenskyy is likely to get a lot of press attention, but he should be careful not to overshadow the priorities of other leaders, especially from the developing world.
“I think this is a great opportunity for Zelenskyy to talk to the wider world about Ukraine’s situation and try and push back against some of the Russian propaganda about the war,” he told VOA. “However, Zelenskyy has to be conscious that there are a lot of leaders from developing countries who have problems of their own – such as debt and poor economic growth – and they want to talk about those topics, and not just the war between Russia and Ukraine.”
Push for SDGs
What leaders from developing nations are hoping for is real action on sustainable development, climate mitigation and adaptation, and pandemic prevention and preparedness. There will be separate summits on all those issues during the week.
Guterres will kick off the high-level week with a two-day summit on Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.
In 2015, leaders pledged to work toward progress on 17 goals that aim to end hunger and extreme poverty. Now at the half-way point to the 2030 deadline, only 15% of the SDGs are on track. The rest are either making too little progress or backsliding to pre-2015 levels.
“This is in part due to the lingering drag of the COVID-19 pandemic, the highest level of armed conflict globally since 1945, and climate-related disasters, as well as inflation and the rising cost of living,” said Astra Bonini, U.N. senior sustainable development officer.
The number of people living in extreme poverty rose for the first time in a generation with the onset of the pandemic. The U.N. says if present trends continue, a staggering 575 million people will remain trapped in extreme poverty by the end of this decade and 600 million will be facing hunger.
Guterres told reporters that getting the SDGs back on track is his main objective during the week. A big part of that is financing, and he hopes to secure an ambitious commitment of $500 billion a year from nations to help “rescue” the SDGs.
“I’m very hopeful that the SDG Summit will indeed represent a quantum leap in the response to the dramatic failures that we have witnessed until now in relation to the implementation of the SDGs,” he said.
Leaders are expected to adopt a political declaration at the start of Monday’s summit committing “to bold, ambitious, accelerated, just and transformative actions” to meet the targets by the end of this decade.
On Wednesday, the secretary-general is convening a climate ambition summit, bringing together government leaders with representatives from business and civil society. He has repeatedly warned that time is running out to prevent a climate catastrophe.
On the health front, leaders will discuss lessons learned from COVID-19 during the pandemic prevention, preparedness and response meeting, also on Wednesday. In addition to focusing on elements like vaccination programs and supporting healthcare systems, the meeting will look at the health inequalities and inequities among countries that need attention.
“If COVID-19 taught us nothing else, it’s that when health is at risk, everything is at risk,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization director-general, of the social, economic and political impacts of the pandemic.
Out of the spotlight
“The gathering itself isn’t the game, the game is what happens on the sidelines and behind-the-scenes that matters when everyone is in town,” said Richard Goldberg of the Washington-based research group Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
To that point, there will be hundreds of meetings on the sidelines of the General Assembly. There will be bilateral meetings between leaders – Secretary-General Guterres usually has more than a hundred of those himself. Smaller meetings on pressing issues will also take place. Look for the humanitarian situation in Sudan, the security crisis in Haiti, and how to help Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh to be a focus in smaller format sessions.
There will also be a ministerial meeting Monday hosted by the European Union, Saudi Arabia and the Arab League to see what’s possible on relaunching the stalled Middle East peace process. Israel and the Palestinians have not been invited.
U.S. President Joe Biden is the only leader from the five U.N. Security Council powers attending this year’s General Assembly. The British prime minister and the French, Russian and Chinese presidents are sitting out the gathering for various reasons.
“That’s a missed opportunity for the U.S.,” FDD’s Goldberg says.
President Biden will speak Tuesday morning, laying out U.S. priorities.
“He will address the General Assembly, where he will reaffirm our country’s leadership in countering threats to international peace and security, protecting human rights, and advancing global prosperity and development,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters Thursday.
She said the United States will also reaffirm its commitments to the SDGs and discuss how they are working to meet them.
With a packed week and much on the line, the world’s citizens will be looking to leaders to take action to improve their daily lives and safeguard their future.
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VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, Sept. 10–16, 2023
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.
Federal Judge Says DACA Is Illegal, So What’s Next?
A federal judge has ruled again that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is illegal. The policy protected from deportation hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. The decision does not immediately affect DACA recipients, whose status remains the same through the legal appeals process. They also can continue to renew their status, as they are required to do every two years. So, what is next? VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros has the story.
Florida Authorities Arrest Undocumented Migrant Under State’s New Law
A Mexican citizen taken into custody for allegedly driving without U.S. papers and transporting undocumented people was one of the first people to be arrested under Florida’s controversial SB 1718, considered the most restrictive state law regarding migrants in the United States. Yeny Garcia reports.
52 Documentary: Emma’s Torch
What would you do if you had to find work in a new country, far from home? Emma’s Torch, a New York-based nonprofit, offers refugees and asylum-seekers a chance to train in the culinary arts. Founder Kerrie Brodie, a daughter of Lithuanian immigrants, was inspired to provide those in need with a pathway to independence in America — through the restaurant industry. Meet Mazen and Rosette from Syria, Vanya from Ukraine, Jhack from Senegal and other graduates of the program who are building a future in food.
Immigration around the world
Rohingya Say No Return to Myanmar Without Guaranteed Citizenship
Members of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya community living as refugees in Bangladesh are again voicing opposition to efforts to repatriate many of them. They say that the Myanmar government has not met their demands over citizenship rights and that it is not safe for them to go back to Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Shaikh Azizur Rahman reports.
UN Rights Rapporteur ‘Extremely Concerned’ About Forced Repatriation Amid North Korea’s Border Reopening
A U.N. human rights official says that while the reopening of North Korea’s borders is a welcome development as Pyongyang eases its COVID-19 controls, there are also concerns, including the imminent risk of forced repatriation of North Koreans detained in other countries. Reported by VOA’s State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching.
5 Killed as Rival Factions Clash in Lebanon’s Largest Palestinian Refugee Camp
Clashes intensified Wednesday in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, leaving at least five people dead and more than a dozen wounded, Lebanese state media and security officials said. Scores of civilians have been forced to flee to safer areas. The Associated Press reports.
Malawi Police Recover Ammunition in Containers Confiscated From Refugees
Police in Malawi have recovered ammunition and cash in steel containers searched during the forced relocation of refugees illegally staying outside a refugee camp. Malawi police confiscated the large containers from refugees and asylum-seekers on suspicion they contained rifles, ammunition and counterfeiting machines for criminal activities. Lameck Masina reports for VOA from Blantyre, Malawi.
UN: Hundreds Killed in Ethnic Attacks in Sudan’s West Darfur
Ethnically motivated attacks perpetrated by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied militia have killed hundreds in the West Darfur region, the United Nations human rights chief said on Tuesday. Bloodshed, violence and displacement have escalated since fighting between the Sudanese army and RSF erupted in April, driving the country to the brink of civil war. Reuters reports.
News brief
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released the 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment and reports the agency continues to identify a high risk of foreign and domestic terrorism in 2024.
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Ethiopian Migrants Stuck in Yemen as Repatriation Pauses
Hundreds of Ethiopian migrants are stranded in conflict-torn Yemen, unable to work for better wages and without the means to get back to their home.
Tens of thousands of Ethiopians head to Arabian Peninsula countries each year, seeking better work opportunities. Often, they undertake a perilous journey, and end up being trafficked and stranded along the way.
Roman, who first went to Saudi Arabia at 18, said that despite getting gainful employment, working conditions were extremely challenging.
“There were two of us working together and then my co-worker left,” said Roman. “When she left, I was overwhelmed with a lot of work.”
Roman said there was no rest, and she was not able to eat.
“I couldn’t even wash my clothes, my feet,” she said. After that, she said, “I escaped from the house.”
IOM halts returns
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which oversees voluntary humanitarian returns from Yemen, recently paused the return of migrants from Ethiopia’s Tigray and Amhara regions due to insecurity in the two regions.
The IOM cannot stop the migrants from returning to Ethiopia but is currently not facilitating their return to Tigray and Amhara regions.
Ethiopian migrants protested that decision in front of an IOM facility in the Yemeni city of Aden last week, which led to fighting and the deaths of an unconfirmed number of people.
Tewodrose Tirfe, chairman of the Amhara Association of America, an Amhara rights advocacy group, said the decision is unilaterally the Ethiopian government’s and is a discriminatory policy, which has singled out migrants who have Amhara and Tigrayan ethnic roots.
“These Ethiopians can be repatriated back to their country and be … provided services, housing and other services that they need in Addis Ababa and other parts of the country,” said Teodrose. “Just because they are Amharas they do not have to return, they do not have to go to the Amhara region and Amharas live all across all of Ethiopia.”
The two-year war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region came to an end in November of last year, after a peace deal was signed between Tigrayan forces and the federal government.
This year, another conflict started in the country’s second most-populous region, the Amhara region, home to a regional militia known as Fano.
In early August, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency in the Amhara region, following open fighting.
Poor economy drives migrants
Messay Mulugeta, an associate professor at Addis Ababa University, said that there needs to be an economic solution to dissuade migrants from taking unsafe journeys.
“Even though there are other reasons people leave, most of it comes from economic issues,” he said. “If there were job opportunities, and if there was a larger economy that could accommodate everyone, then migration might still continue, but it would be possible to be done in a professionally safe way.”
A recent report from Human Rights Watch said Saudi border guards killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum-seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June of this year.
The rights group said the shootings could amount to crimes against humanity.
The Ethiopian government has announced an investigation into the alleged killings. The Saudi government has denied the accusations.
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Regional State President Survives Suicide Bombing in Central Somalia
The president of Somalia’s Galmudug regional state was unhurt but two federal lawmakers were wounded when a bomb-laden car exploded in a central Somali village Friday, according to witnesses and officials.
The al-Shabab militant group said it was behind the suicide attack that appears to have targeted regional president Ahmed Abdi Kariye, also known as Qorqor.
The officials were in Las-Ga’amey, a small village in the Mudug region, when the blast struck, the commander of Galmudug regional troops, General Mohamed Nur Ali Gadar, told VOA.
“Our valiant soldiers foiled the attack by opening fire on the suicide car bomb as it speedily tried to enter the center of the village. The bomber was shot dead and his car bomb exploded,” the commander said.
Local officials said the car blew up about 300 meters from the guest house where the president and his traveling party were staying.
Abshir Abdi Shikhow, the Galmudug information minister, said three government soldiers were killed and several others, including the lawmakers, were wounded.
Lawmaker Abdisalam Haji Dhabancad said he and Senator Abdi Hassan Qaybdid sustained minor injuries when pieces of wall fell on them after the blast.
The two federal lawmakers wounded in the attack were visiting the village to encourage government troops. Somali government forces and local militia recently liberated Las-Ga’amey from al-Shabab control.
In a recorded video, Galmudug President Kariye said that the al-Shabab attack had failed.
“The cowardly terrorist attack had failed. Thank God. We are safe and sound. Such attacks show how they are desperate in the war and in coming days you would hear significant government [progress] in the war against al-Shabab,” said Kariye.
Earlier this week, a member of the Galmudug regional parliament and a local councilor were killed in a landmine explosion in El-Garas town in the Galgadud region.
In August 2022, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud launched what he called a “total war” against al-Shabab. In the first phase, Somali forces, backed by local militia, took control of al-Shabab-ruled areas in the central regions of Hiiran and Middle Shabelle.
Last week, President Mohamud said the ongoing military offensive against al-Shabab aims to eliminate the al-Qaida-linked group within a few months.
Somalia’s federal government has been engaged in a protracted war against al-Shabab for more than a decade, with support from international partners and the African Union military.
Despite significant progress, the extremist group maintains control of large rural areas of the country and continues to carry out attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and other areas.
Abdiwahid Isaq contributed to this report.
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Conflict in Northern Mali Resumes Amid UN Withdrawal
As the U.N. mission to Mali withdraws from the northern part of the country, hostilities between the Malian army and Tuareg rebels have reignited and Islamist attacks have increased amid the chaos.
Residents say they are effectively stuck in a war zone as the north is cut off from the south via road, air and river after a deadly attack on a passenger boat and the suspension of flights by Mali’s only commercial airline.
The Coordination of Azawad Movements, or CMA, a coalition of Tuareg separatist groups who signed a peace agreement with the Malian government in 2015, declared itself at war with Mali this week.
Tuareg rebels launched an offensive in 2012 in northern Mali backed by Islamist militants. The rebels and militants eventually splintered, and Islamist forces seized control of northern Mali before the French army intervened and pushed them out of power in 2013.
An Islamist insurgency continues to ravage the north and center of the country.
On Tuesday, CMA rebels launched an attack on the Malian army in Bourem, a town in northern Mali.
People started to hear heavy weapons, loud shouting and vehicle motors around 9:15 a.m., a resident of Bourem who wished to remain anonymous for safety reason told VOA via a messaging app.
Before long, he said, he heard the shout of “Allahu Akbar.”
The Malian army retains control of the town, the resident said, but much of the population depends on farming to survive and cannot access their fields.
The CMA said in a statement that it temporarily took control of Bourem and killed 97 Malian soldiers. The Malian army said it lost 10 soldiers and “neutralized” 46 “terrorists” in the incident.
Fatouma Harber, a journalist and blogger from the northern city of Timbuktu, said Islamist forces have blockaded the city for weeks.
Militants attacked a passenger boat heading into Timbuktu last week, killing at least 49 people by official government counts, with residents claiming a higher death toll. Sky Mali, the only commercial airline in the country, stopped flights to Timbuktu last week amid frequent attacks on the airport.
Harber said that authorities need to stop their denial of the situation in Timbuktu and find a solution quickly. The city is being asphyxiated and the people are suffering, she said.
Fodié Tandjigora, a sociology professor at the University of Bamako and researcher on security in Mali for several organizations, told VOA that he anticipated increased tensions amid the withdrawal of the United Nations mission, known as MINUSMA.
Mali’s military government asked MINUSMA to leave the country after MINUSMA launched investigations into atrocities allegedly committed by the Malian army.
MINUSMA withdrew from its base in Ber last month, and CMA forces quickly attempted to take control.
The situation could be fixed with dialogue between the government and the CMA, Tandjigora said, but the CMA has refused because the MINUSMA camps have been transferred only to the Malian state.
MINUSMA states on its website that it is transferring camps only to state authorities.
Tandjigora also said there already are signs of CMA collaborating with Islamists as they did in 2012.
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Analysts: Effect of Libya’s Killer Storm Made Worse by Decade of Conflict
Just hours after epic storm Daniel dumped torrential rains on Libya’s coast, breaching dams and killing thousands, some called it perhaps the deadliest and costliest Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone ever recorded.
Described by some scientists as the latest extreme weather event linked to climate change, analysts tell VOA that conflict, political division and neglect of public infrastructure also played a role in making Libya helpless as Daniel’s downpour burst two dams, sweeping entire neighborhoods of the coastal city of Derna into the sea.
“Bodies are lying everywhere in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” one Libyan official told the Associated Press.
Some experts familiar with the stricken region say the sheer scope of the devastation goes beyond a climate crisis-induced catastrophe.
“Years of conflict and division, administrative malfeasance and misgovernance hitting this very vulnerable area” has compounded the impact of the storm, said Stephanie Williams, a non-resident senior fellow at Washington’s Brookings Institution, who served as a U.N. special advisor on Libya.
“All of this converged to create a terribly catastrophic situation now,” she told VOA. “Political instability is quite complicating in this environment and I’m sure there will be many who will want to play the blame game.”
Saudi Arabia’s Arab News newspaper said the “startling death and devastation” caused by the storm’s intensity also exposed Libya’s vulnerability after being divided between rival governments and “torn apart by chaos for more than a decade.”
“Libya, for the past 10 years, has gone [from] one war to another, one political crisis to another,” Claudia Gazzini, a senior Libya analyst for the International Crisis Group told The New York Times newspaper. “Essentially this has meant that, for the past 10 years, there hasn’t really been much investment in the country’s infrastructure.”
Malak Eltaeb, an analyst with Washington’s Middle East Institute, told VOA by email that conflict and unrest have left social services severely weakened.
“And a failure to maintain facilities, like dams — unfortunately, there were no mitigation strategies, early warning systems or evacuation plans in place,” he said of the disaster in Derna, which lies some 900 kilometers east of the capital, Tripoli, an area controlled by military commander Khalifa Haftar’s forces. “No measures were taken to protect civilians or reduce damage.”
But Brookings analyst Williams said that despite the geopolitical divide, the rival, internationally recognized government based in Tripoli in western Libya and allied with other armed groups, is coming to the aid of citizens in the country’s east.
“There’s a great outreach from all Libyans to the people, particularly in Derna, of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli,” she said. “It has sent assistance; it’s allocating funds to help with immediate humanitarian needs and long-term rebuilding.”
Desperately needed aid, she added, is also reaching people by civilian convoys from western Libya and by the national oil company to Libyans in the east. “The division right now is not a barrier to assistance,” she said.
Addressing a news conference on Tuesday, World Health Organization spokesperson Margaret Harris described the flooding as being of “epic” proportions.
Humanitarian groups have also expressed concerns that migrants and refugees from more than 40 countries who use Libya as a launch point for Europe may have been caught up in the floods.
Some information is from the Associated Press.
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Libya Seals off Flooded City as Search for 10,000 Missing Continues; Death Toll Passes 11,000
Libyan authorities sealed off an inundated city on Friday to allow search teams to dig through the mud and hollowed-out buildings for 10,000 people missing and feared dead after the official toll from flooding soared past 11,000. Authorities warned that disease and explosives shifted by the waters could take yet more lives.
Two dams collapsed in exceptionally heavy rains from Mediterranean storm Daniel early Monday, sending a wall of water several meters high gushing down a valley that cuts through the city of Derna.
The unusual flooding and Libya’s political chaos contributed to the enormous toll. The oil-rich state has been split since 2014 between rival governments in the east and west backed by various militia forces and international patrons.
The disaster has brought rare unity, as government agencies across Libya’s divide rushed to help the affected areas. But relief efforts have been slowed by the destruction after several bridges that connect the city were destroyed.
Heaps of twisted metal and flooded cars littered Derna’s streets, which are caked in a tan mud. Teams have buried bodies in mass graves outside the city and in nearby towns, Eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, said.
But officials worried that thousands of bodies were still hidden in the muck — or floating in the sea, where divers were sent to search.
Adel Ayad, a survivor of the flood, recalled watching as the waters rose to the fourth floor of his building.
“The waves swept people away from the tops of buildings, and we could see people carried by floodwater,” among them his neighbors, he said.
Health officials warned that standing water opened the door to disease — but said there was no need to rush burials or put the dead in mass graves, as bodies usually do not pose a risk in such cases.
“You’ve got a lot of standing water. It doesn’t mean the dead bodies pose a risk, but it does mean that the water itself is contaminated by everything,” Dr. Margaret Harris, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, told reporters in Geneva. “So you really have to focus on ensuring that people have have access to safe water.”
Imene Trabelsi, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, warned that another danger lurked in the mud: landmines and other explosive remnants left behind by the country’s protracted conflict.
There are leftover explosives in Libya dating back to World War II, but most of the remaining ones are from the civil conflict that began in 2011. Between 2011 and 2021, some 3,457 people were killed and wounded by landmines and explosive weapon remnants in Libya, according to the international Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor.
Even before the flooding, Trabelsi said the “efforts and the capacity” to detect and demine areas were limited. After the floods, she said, explosive devices may have been swept to “new, undetected areas.”
To allow emergency crews to do their work, residents were being evacuated from Derna and only search-and-rescue teams would be allowed to enter, Salam al-Fergany, director general of the Ambulance and Emergency Service in eastern Libya, announced late Thursday.
The Libyan Red Crescent said as of Thursday that 11,300 people in Derna had died and another 10,100 were reported missing. The storm also killed about 170 people elsewhere in the country.
Officials have said that Libya’s political chaos has contributed to the loss of life.
“Government institutions are not functioning as they should,” Lori Hieber Girardet, the head of the risk knowledge branch the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Khalifa Othman, a Derna resident who is searching desperately for missing loved ones, said he blamed authorities for the extent of the disaster.
“My son, a doctor who is graduated this year, my nephew and all his family, my grandchild, my daughter and her husband are all missing, and we are still searching for them,” he said. “All the people are upset and angry — there was no preparedness.”
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US Gave ‘Remote’ Help to Somali Military Operation That Killed Civilians
The U.S. military acknowledged providing assistance to a Somali government operation against al-Shabab leaders last week in which five civilians died.
A spokesperson for the U.S. military’s Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, said the U.S. forces didn’t accompany Somali forces during the operation but assisted them remotely.
The U.S. “did not conduct airstrikes during or in support of this operation, nor were there U.S. personnel accompanying Somali forces during this counterterrorism operation against high-level al-Shabab combatants on September 6, 2023, in the vicinity of El Lahelay, Somalia,” Major Jessica Tait said in an email. “U.S. forces were advising and assisting the Somali forces’ mission from a remote location.”
Tait confirmed that Somali children were among those killed in the incident. “The command’s initial assessment is that one woman and three children were killed at the site,” she said. “At the request of the government of Somalia, U.S. Africa Command medically evacuated two injured children, with one surviving.”
The al-Shabab militant group in a statement on September 7 blamed the U.S. military for the killing of the civilians. Al-Shabab alleged the U.S. forces took away the bodies to “conceal” the truth of the incident.
The U.S. denied al-Shabab’s accusation. “The claim being spread by al- Shabab that U.S. forces caused the unfortunate harm to civilians is false,” AFRICOM said in the September 8 statement.
Tait said that U.S. forces “did not fire at any time while conducting the medical evacuation.”
The Somali government said it was investigating the incident.
“The government has received reports that civilians were hurt. An investigation is ongoing to verify that,” Minister of Information Daud Aweis told VOA Somali on Thursday. “We can’t confirm yet until the investigation is done.”
The Somali government declared in a statement on September 7 that three al-Shabab operatives had been killed in the operation. It identified the three as Olol Ali Guled, head of mobilization for al-Shabab’s Jabhat [military] in the area; Isse Barre and Shuuke Ali Dheeg. All were described as “wanted criminals.”
A Somali security commander who did not want to be identified told VOA that Guled was involved in an attack on a Somali base used by U.S. forces to train Somali forces in September 2019.
Barre was one of the commanders of al-Shabab’s police in the Bay and Bakool regions but was recently sent back to his clan base to mobilize fighters in light of the government offensive, while Dheeg was a weapons storage keeper, according to the commander.
Grandfather speaks out
The grandfather of the children, Ahmed Mohamud Shuuke, told VOA Somali that the children – four boys by his son and a girl from his daughter – were staying with his wife on the night of the operation. He said he was away from home that night along with the parents of the children and didn’t hear about what had happened until dawn.
“This disaster came upon them, and we don’t know where it came from,” he told VOA Somalia in a telephone interview.
Shuuke said he thought there had been an airstrike. He also said the family saw the tracks of vehicles at the site of the incident on the morning after the operation.
He said the bodies of his wife and grandchildren were unaccounted for. “Their bodies have been taken away,” he said. “Up to now we don’t know their whereabouts.”
He said he had not had any contact from the government. He appealed for the return of any surviving relative.
During the interview, he did not single out any side or group for the killing, although when he spoke to al-Shabab media he appeared to have blamed “U.S. planes.”
“The people who killed [the children] know themselves, and the world sees it,” he said.
“I want any surviving ones given back,” plus compsenation for the deaths, he said.
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Congolese Government Watching Detained Journalist’s Case, Official Says
The government of Democratic Republic of the Congo will closely follow the case of detained journalist Stanis Bujakera, communications minister Patrick Muyaya said on Thursday in the government’s first comments since his detention last week.
Bujakera, who works for international media outlets including Reuters, was detained at the airport in the capital, Kinshasa, on September 8 on suspicion of spreading false information about the killing of a prominent opposition politician in an article published by French news magazine Jeune Afrique, the magazine said.
Bukajera is accused of “spreading false rumors” and the “dissemination of false information” about the case, the magazine said in online statements. But it said the article in question did not carry his name, and “he cannot be held responsible” for its content.
Local and international rights groups including Human Rights Watch have expressed concern about his detention, calling it an attack on press freedom.
Speaking to journalists in Kinshasa, Muyaya said “a journalist going to prison is not good news.”
Muyaya declined to comment on the merits of the case, citing the independence of the judiciary from the government, but said “we will follow the case closely until its conclusion.”
“We hold freedom of the press dear. It is a cardinal value of democracy, but it is also a freedom which does not give a blank check for disinformation,” he said. “We hope that the case, which is following a normal course, … can be resolved quickly.”
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Zimbabwe Digs for Oil, Gas Despite Environmentalists’ Opposition
Zimbabwe’s government is continuing with oil drilling near the border with Mozambique and Zambia, despite opposition from activists who warn that fossil fuel exploration will damage the environment. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Mbire. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe.
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Cameroon, CAR Blame Rebels for Kidnappings
Government officials in Cameroon and the Central African Republic say the number of civilian kidnappings has spiked along their borders, with armed gangs and rebels demanding as much as $50,000 in ransom.
In addition to the abductions, the rebels and armed gangs loot markets and ranches and send villagers fleeing for safety, said officials in Cameroon’s eastern border with the Central African Republic, or CAR.
Abdoulahi Bobo, a cattle rancher, said his two wives, three children and elder brother have yet to be found a week after they were taken to the bush by armed men. He said the abductors called him and demanded payment of about $10,000 to secure his family’s freedom.
Bobo spoke to VOA by messaging app on Thursday from Cameroon’s eastern district of Ngaoui, which borders Mont Ngaoui, the highest point in the Central African Republic. He said his family may have been taken to the mountain or neighboring forests.
Cameroon and CAR said rebel attacks are reported on both sides of the border almost daily.
Oumarou Abbo, mayor of Nyambaka, the capital of Cameroon’s Nyambaka district, said the rebels and armed gangs also attack remote communities throughout the district, so he has created militias in all the villages of his district to help government troops fight hostage takers. The militias are expected to report strangers as well as places where rebels and armed gangs hide, he said.
Cameroon and CAR officials said that some armed rebels disguise themselves as people displaced by the ongoing armed conflicts in CAR.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission to CAR, known as MINUSCA, which has troops from Cameroon, this week said forces were deployed to border regions to fight the rebels and seize weapons the rebels abandon when attacked. Cameroon and CAR officials said armed gangs often collect weapons abandoned by rebels and use them in either abducting civilians or stealing.
Cameroonian Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said President Paul Biya dispatched him to Motcheboum — about halfway between the capital, Yaounde, and the border with CAR — to mobilize troops for civilian protection.
Kildadi Taguieke Boukar, governor of Cameroon’s Adamawa region, said rebel attacks on civilians have also been reported along Cameroon’s northern border with Chad. He said that government troops were deployed to the Adamawa region immediately to protect civilians after Assomo’s visit.
Boukar said military posts in all districts where the kidnappings are happening have been equipped with enough troops, weapons, artillery, vehicles and tracking devices. Troops with special training to investigate, arrest or eliminate armed gangs and rebels have also been deployed to protect civilians on both sides of the porous and permeable border between Cameroon and the CAR, he said.
In December, defense ministers from Cameroon and the CAR agreed to deploy a joint force along the 900-kilometer (560-mile) border to protect civilians. The ministers said the joint force would also seize weapons that rebels hid in border towns and villages.
Civilians said that after those troops retreated in March, rebels relaunched kidnappings and increased the ransoms from $20,000 to $50,000. Abductees whom rebels suspect of collaborating with government troops are tortured and ordered to pay more, according to border villagers.
Cameroonian military officials said the majority of abductees are merchants and cattle ranchers.
Cameroon officials said the nation is intensifying collaboration with neighboring countries to safeguard civilians.
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