Aissata Sall was scrolling through WhatsApp in May when she first learned about the new route to the United States. For Ibrahima Sow, the discovery came on TikTok a few weeks later.

By the time their paths crossed at the tidy one-story brick house in Cincinnati, they had encountered hundreds of other Mauritanians, nearly all of them following a new path surging in popularity among younger migrants from the West African nation, thanks largely to social media.

“Four months ago, it just went crazy,” said Oumar Ball, who arrived in Cincinnati from Mauritania in 1997 and recently opened his home to Sow, Sall and more than a dozen other new migrants. “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing.”

The spike in migration was made possible by the discovery this year of a new route through Nicaragua, where relaxed entry requirements allow Mauritanians and a handful of other foreign nationals to purchase a low-cost visa without proof of onward travel.

As word of the entry point spreads, travel agencies and paid influencers have taken to TikTok to promote the trip, selling packages of flights that leave from Mauritania, then connect through Turkey, Colombia and El Salvador, and wind up in Managua, Nicaragua. From there, the migrants, along with asylum seekers from other nations, are whisked north by bus with the help of smugglers.

“The American dream is still available,” promises a video on TikTok, one of dozens of similar posts from French-speaking “guides” that help Mauritanians make the trip. “Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today.”

“We wish you success. Nicaragua loves you very much,” a man working for a travel agency says in Spanish in another video.

The influx of Mauritanians has surprised officials in the U.S. It came without a triggering event — such as a natural disaster, coup or sudden economic collapse — suggesting the growing power of social media to reshape migration patterns: From March to June, more than 8,500 Mauritanians arrived in the country by crossing the border illegally from Mexico, up from just 1,000 in the four months prior, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

The new arrivals likely now outnumber the estimated 8,000 foreign-born Mauritanians previously living in the U.S., about half of whom are in Ohio. Many arrived in the 1990s as refugees after the Arab-led military government began expelling Black citizens.

Some who left say they’re again fleeing state violence directed against Black Mauritanians. Racial tensions have increased since the May death of a young Black man, Oumar Diop, in police custody, with the government moving aggressively to crush protests and disconnect the country’s mobile internet.

The nation was one of the last to criminalize slavery, and the practice is widely believed to persist in parts of the country. Several Mauritanians who spoke to The Associated Press said police targeted them because of anti-slavery activism.

“Life is very difficult, especially for the Black Mauritanian population,” said Sow, 38, who described himself as an activist in the country. “The authorities became threatening and repressive.”

It became difficult to fight, he said, and his life was threatened. So he fled via the new route to Cincinnati, where he’d heard a thriving Mauritanian community was helping new arrivals get on their feet.

Previously, applying for asylum in the U.S. meant flying to Brazil, then risking a dangerous trek through the dense jungle of the Darien Gap. The new route through Nicaragua bypasses that link.

The trip can cost $8,000 to $10,000, a hefty sum that some families manage by selling land or livestock. With economic growth over the past decade, Mauritania has moved into the lower ranks of middle-income countries, according to the U.N. refugee agency, but the poverty rate remains high, with 28.2% living below the poverty line.

The Nicaragua route also allows migrants to avoid the boat voyages to Europe that have killed tens of thousands in the past decade. Mauritanian and Spanish authorities have cracked down on boats crossing the Atlantic for Spain’s Canary Islands, and people are increasingly being intercepted after trekking to North Africa to try to cross the Mediterranean. Flying to Nicaragua is legal, and the rest of the trip is on land — attractive options for Mauritanians and others who want to leave Africa.

The new passage presents a rare opportunity to a generation yearning for a better life, said Bakary Tandia, a Mauritanian activist living in New York: “No matter what is your burning desire to come, if there is no route, you will not even think about it. The reality is: People are seeing a window of opportunity, that’s why they are rushing.”

Still, some who’ve followed the Nicaragua route say they were misled about potential dangers and the future awaiting them in the U.S. This month, a bus carrying migrants tumbled down a steep hillside in Mexico, killing 18 people, including one Mauritanian. Two other Mauritians were hospitalized.

Sall, a 23-year-old nurse, said she was robbed of her remaining money on a bus in Mexico by men dressed as police officers. After crossing the border, she was hospitalized with dehydration.

“On WhatsApp they say, ‘Oh, it’s not very difficult.’ But it’s not true,” she said. “We confront so much pain along the way.”

Ibrahim Dia, a 38-year-old who owns a cleaning company in the Mauritanian city of Nouadhibou, said his brother left the country in June, following the Nicaragua trip he’d seen countless others take in recent months. But he was detained at the border and remains jailed at a Texas detention site, Dia said.

Many Mauritanians enter the U.S. in Yuma, Arizona. Some are dropped off on a Mexican highway by smugglers for a roughly two-hour walk through a knee-deep river and flat desert shrub and rocks. They surrender to Border Patrol agents in Yuma waiting under stadium lights where a wall built during Donald Trump’s presidency abruptly ends.

After a period of detention and screening that could last hours or days, they may enter the country to await a court date, a process that can take years. Others are kept in detention for weeks, or placed on a small number of flights deporting them back to Mauritania.

Human rights groups have called on the Biden administration to grant Temporary Protected Status to Mauritania, pointing to reports of abuse against Black residents who are deported after fleeing.

Those who can enter are often put in touch with a close-knit group of American and Mauritanian-born advocates who connect them to housing and help pay for flights across the U.S. Some head to Philadelphia, Denver, Dallas or New York, where an overwhelmed shelter system has left migrants — many from Mauritania and elsewhere in Africa — sleeping on the sidewalk.

Ohio remains the most common destination. Several thousands have found their way to Cincinnati, settling in with the small but vibrant existing community. A group of volunteers, led by longtime resident Ball, help with paperwork and adjustments to the country. Some days, Ball makes multiple trips to the airport to pick up people coming from the border, bringing them to his home or a block of apartments rented out by the community.

On a recent Friday evening, more than a dozen Mauritanians carpooled to a nearby mosque to pray. After the service, they piled into the living room of another friend’s house for dinner: steaming bowls of lamb and couscous served on the floor, with cans of Coca-Cola. A women’s World Cup game played as the group discussed their pasts and futures.

Sall, the onetime nurse, said she wants to go back to school. She’s taken on an unofficial role as cook in the house she shares with others new to Ohio. She hopes to stay in Cincinnati with the community that’s embraced her and many others.

“The Mauritanian people gave me a big welcome,” she said. “And they gave me hope.”
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Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Security Council discusses DPRK human rights

The U.N. human rights chief said Thursday that many of the severe and widespread rights violations in North Korea are directly linked to the regime’s pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile technology. Volker Türk told a special meeting of the Security Council on human rights in North Korea that the use of forced labor and confiscation of wages from overseas workers “all support the military apparatus of the state and its ability to build weapons.”

Secretary-general proposes options for Haiti multinational force

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling on the international community to “act now” and deploy a robust non-U.N. armed force to Haiti to support the national police in stopping the gang violence that is overwhelming the island nation. In a report to the Security Council, the secretary-general said the current situation is not conducive to a U.N. peacekeeping mission, and he offered two options for the United Nations to support a multinational force. The first would provide logistical support for the multinational force and the Haitian national police. The second option would be strengthening the U.N. special political mission in Haiti, known by its acronym BINUH, to expand its current support to the Haitian police.

Education envoy urges ICC to prosecute Taliban for gender discrimination

U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown said Tuesday that the International Criminal Court should investigate and pursue charges against the Taliban for their denial of basic rights to Afghan women and girls. He told reporters that denying Afghan girls an education and women the right to work is gender discrimination, which should rise to the level of a crime against humanity and be prosecuted by The Hague-based tribunal.

U.N. and NGO leaders call for immediate cease-fire and ‘reset’ in Sudan

As the fighting in Sudan entered its fifth month this week, the heads of U.N. agencies and several NGO leaders issued a joint statement appealing to the parties to end the war. They said that the situation is spiraling out of control and that millions of Sudanese, including 6 million on the verge of famine, are paying the price.

In brief

— U.N. West Africa envoy Leonardo Santos Simão is due to arrive Friday in the capital of Niger. He is expected to meet with the military leaders behind the July 26 coup against President Mohamed Bazoum. A U.N. spokesperson said the envoy remains in contact with member states of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, stakeholders in Niger and other concerned parties in order to facilitate a swift and peaceful resolution to the crisis.

— U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths made a three-day visit to Myanmar this week, where he met with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. Griffiths called for expanded humanitarian access and increased funding to assist 18 million people in need of assistance across the country. U.N. aid operations are only 22% funded eight months into the year. Nearly 2 million people are displaced inside Myanmar. Griffiths traveled to Rakhine State, which is still coping with the impact from cyclone Mocha three months ago.

— The U.N. children’s agency says Congo is facing its worst cholera outbreak since 2017 with more than 31,000 suspected or confirmed cases. At least 230 deaths were recorded from January to July, many of them children. UNICEF says North Kivu is the most affected province. With more than 6.3 million people displaced across the country, many in overcrowded camps without sufficient clean water, humanitarians worry about it being fertile ground for the disease to spread. UNICEF is appealing for $62.5 million to scale up its prevention and response activities over the next five months. Ethiopia is also dealing with a large cholera outbreak in the Oromia, Sidama, SNNP and Somali regions, where more than 16,800 cases have been reported, including 212 cholera-related deaths.

Did you know?

The General Assembly designated Aug. 19 as World Humanitarian Day to honor the work and sacrifice of humanitarians. The date is in memory of the 22 U.N. staffers who were killed on that day in 2003 when their Baghdad compound was struck in a suicide truck bomb attack. This year’s theme is the importance, effectiveness and positive impact of humanitarian work. Aid workers carry out their duties in complex and often dangerous environments. So far this year, 62 humanitarian workers have been killed, 84 wounded and 34 kidnapped.
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Three weeks into the coup in Niger, the military junta continues to cling to power while West African army chiefs hold a second day of talks in Ghana to determine whether their next course of action is diplomacy or a military intervention.

West African defense ministers held a second day of talks on Friday in Ghana’s capital, Accra, where they are mapping out a possible military intervention if diplomacy fails to reinstate Niger’s deposed President Mohamed Bazoum. 

Rida Lyammouri, an analyst who has done a lot of field work in the Sahel/Lake Chad Basin, says the West African bloc, ECOWAS, is in a difficult position trying to discourage coups in the region but grappling with whether diplomacy or military intervention is the best deterrent. 

“At the moment there are still some divisions in terms of the military intervention not only between ECOWAS and the African Union but also among the ECOWAS members, as well as the position of regional members that are excluded from these meetings who are currently run by junta, – like Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea,” said Lyammouri.

Lyammouri, also a senior fellow at the Policy Center New South, a Moroccan-based policy research firm in Washington told VOA, a military intervention could not only be catastrophic to Niger but also to other countries in the already volatile region. And, he says, it could spill over beyond the Sahel. 

“I think North African countries do have a role to play in terms of their diplomatic effort – because North Africa should be and would be concerned if there’s a military intervention because of borders, Algeria specifically but also there are lots of economic and diplomatic ties between North Africa and Niger and West Africa in general. Morocco has a lot of economic interest with Niger in terms of food security – telecom, insurance, banking, etc,” said Lyammouri.

Emira Woods is the executive director of the Green Leadership Trust and also a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She applauds the recent efforts by regional religious leaders who visited Niamey. 

“We had an incredible engagement of faith leaders coming from the region to Niger, stepping forward to say war is not the answer, to say diplomacy must be first and foremost to find a path to the democratic process,” said Woods.

Woods says it is time for African unity and directly points the finger at the West.

“What we have before us is an incredible juxtaposition of the international community with its interest and focus on resources, particularly the uranium that’s in Niger, and building up military forces, training and equipping those military forces,” said Woods.

Most Western countries have condemned the coup and have thrown their support behind efforts by the African Union and the ECOWAS bloc.

Niger holds strategic economic and geopolitical significance internationally. Uranium and oil, two natural resources plentiful in Niger, are sought after in the international commodities market. And under President Bazoum, the country was a big ally to the West in the fight against insurgency groups in the region linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. 

Junta leaders have justified toppling the democratically elected president because they accused him of not handling rampant insecurity in some parts of the country. On Wednesday, 17 of its soldiers were killed in an ambush by insurgents about 60 kilometers from the Nigerien capital, Niamey, in an area that borders Burkina Faso.  

“What we have is an undermining of peace and security in the region that goes back to – the ouster of [Moammar] Gadhafi in Libya and the flow of weapons into Libya, and then from Libya throughout the region in the Sahel. What we have is a steady equipping of military actors and literally laying the groundwork for these military actors to gain power, strength, visibility and legitimacy in a way that has emboldened them to launch coups – from Mali, Burkina, to now Niger and of course you have a similar situation on the other side of the Sahel, in the Sudan region,” said Woods.

Sudan’s two rival generals have been engaged in a brutal war against each other the past four months, with no end in sight.  

 
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The BRICS group of developing economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – meet in Johannesburg from Tuesday to Thursday for their annual summit, during which expansion of the bloc is expected to figure high on the agenda.

On the surface, the members of this bloc have little in common. Brazil, India and South Africa are democracies, while China and Russia are autocracies. However, one thing they do share is a disillusionment with the current U.S.-led world order and a desire to create an alternative in which the Global South has more clout.

If the number of new countries looking to join the bloc is any indication, this is proving to be a popular idea. Some 40 nations, including Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are all interested in joining, and discussions about new members will likely feature high on the agenda of the summit, with BRICS members differing on the benefits of expansion.

While some analysts, including Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs economist who coined the acronym, say the group has not actually achieved much since its founding in 2009, Mikatekiso Kubayi, a researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue at the University of South Africa, disputes that.

“There are over 40 countries that have expressed an interest in joining BRICS,” said Kubayi. “Clearly those more than 40 countries have seen something, you know, some sort of benefit or use or value of BRICS to want to join it.”

And this is how South Africa’s Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor put it last week.

“The current geopolitical context has driven renewed interest in BRICS membership as countries of the Global South look for alternatives in a multipolar world.”

Steven Gruzd, an analyst at the South African Institute of International affairs, said if more nondemocratic states join it could make the bloc more stridently anti-Western.

“Certainly, if BRICS expands and includes countries like Iran, this will definitely enhance the anti-Western tone and tenor of discussions,” said Gruzd.

Already, BRICS accounts for some 40% of the world’s population, and an estimated one-quarter of global gross domestic product. In terms of purchasing power parity, BRICS countries now have a larger share of global economic activity than G-7 countries.

A previously touted BRICS common currency is not something that will be discussed, according to South African organizers. However, the bloc’s New Development Bank does want to de-dollarize.

“The other issue that’s going to be talked about is the currencies that countries trade in and talk about more trade in local currencies rather than U.S. dollars,” said Gruzd.

Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Xi Jinping of China, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil have all confirmed their attendance. Russia will be sending Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while President Vladimir Putin will be taking part remotely as he is wanted for war crimes in Ukraine by the International Criminal Court.

As a signatory to the court, Pretoria would be obliged to arrest Putin if he entered the country, a diplomatic nightmare they have now avoided.

Separately, Ramaphosa will host Xi on the sidelines of the summit for an official state visit. China is South Africa’s biggest trading partner.
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A total of 62 humanitarian aid workers have died this year around the world, the United Nations said Thursday as it prepared to mark 20 years since a devastating attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

The U.N. observes World Humanitarian Day on Aug. 19 each year as it remembers the suicide bombing, which claimed 22 lives, including that of Sergio Vieira de Mello, then the U.N. high commissioner for human rights and the head of the U.N. mission in Iraq.

Besides the 62 deaths this year in the world’s conflict zones, another 84 aid workers were wounded and 34 were kidnapped, according to the Aid Worker Security Database, compiled by the consulting firm Humanitarian Outcomes. The fatality figure for all of 2022 was 116.

For several years running, South Sudan has been the world’s most dangerous place for aid workers. As of Aug. 10, there had been 40 attacks on humanitarian staffers there with 22 lives lost, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Next on the list was Sudan to the north, with 17 attacks on aid workers and 19 deaths so far this year. Such high figures had not been seen since the Darfur conflict from 2006 to 2009.

Other countries where humanitarian workers died include the Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia, Ukraine and Yemen.

“The risks we face are beyond human comprehension,” says a report compiled by NGOs including Doctors of the World, Action Against Hunger and Handicap International, with help from the European Union.

Every year more than 90% of the people who die in attacks on aid workers are locals, according to the International NGO Safety Organization.

This year World Humanitarian Day marks 20 years since the bombing in Baghdad against the Canal Hotel, which was serving as the U.N. headquarters in the Iraqi capital.

That 2003 blast, carried out amid the chaos of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, killed 22 people, including the Brazilian Vieira de Mello, and wounded around 150 local and international aid workers.

“World Humanitarian Day and the Canal Hotel bombing will always be an occasion of mixed and still raw emotions for me and many others,” said the U.N.’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths.

“Every year, nearly six times more aid workers are killed in the line of duty than were killed on that dark day in Baghdad, and they are overwhelmingly local aid workers,” he added. “Impunity for these crimes is a scar on our collective conscience.”

As upheavals around the world have grown, the United Nations says it is working to help nearly 250 million people living in crisis areas. That is 10 times more than in 2003.
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Pollution from discarded plastic, metals and other items is a persistent problem in Nigeria. Some young people are doing what they can to clean up the trash and make strides toward sustainable development. Gibson Emeka has this story from Abuja, Nigeria, narrated by Salem Solomon.
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With the growing impact of droughts caused by climate change and high food prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, food banks are emerging as a growing solution to hunger and poverty in Africa. A non-profit group in Nairobi, Food Banking Kenya, distributed more than 500,000 kilograms of food last year to hungry families. Mohammed Yusuf reports from Nairobi.
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Military chiefs from the Economic Community of West African States meet Thursday and Friday in Ghana to discuss a potential military intervention in response to last month’s coup in Niger.

ECOWAS said Wednesday it had “commenced the activation of the ECOWAS Standby Force for the restoration of constitutional order in the Republic of Niger.”

The regional bloc said the meetings in Accra would be to finalize plans for deploying the standby force.

The talks follow an insurgent attack in which Niger’s military junta said 17 of its soldiers were killed.

Junta leaders have said deposing President Mohamed Bazoum was necessary to respond to violence by Islamic extremists.

ECOWAS said in a statement following the attack that junta leaders should restore constitutional order in Niger “in order to focus on the security of the country that has become increasingly fragile” since the coup.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The start of the rainy season in Sudan and neighboring Chad is making it difficult to deliver aid to refugees from Sudan’s war. From Adenour, Chad, Henry Wilkins looks at some of the logistical challenges faced by those trying to deliver aid. Camera: Henry Wilkins.
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The new U.S. ambassador to Niger, Kathleen FitzGibbon, will arrive in Niamey following a coup last month, the State Department said on Wednesday, in a signal of Washington’s continued engagement with the situation.

A U.S. official said she is expected to arrive in Niger later this week. The Senate confirmed FitzGibbon, a career foreign service officer, as U.S. ambassador late last month just after the coup, nearly a year after she was nominated.

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that there are no plans for her to present her credentials to coup leaders and that it is not necessary for the work at the embassy.

“She is going there to lead the mission during a critical time and to support the American community and to coordinate on the U.S. government’s efforts,” Patel said.

“Her arrival does not reflect a change in our position, and we continue to advocate for a diplomatic solution that respects the constitutional order in Niger,” he said.

Western powers and democratic African governments have called for the coup leaders to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, whom coup leaders have been detaining since July 26, but the military leaders have refused and rejected attempts at negotiation.

The coup and its aftermath have sucked in international powers with strategic interests in the region.

The U.S. State Department’s acting No. 2 traveled to Niger and held talks earlier this month with senior officials from the country’s junta, but made no progress in meetings she described as “difficult.”
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A new report by Human Rights Watch finds that racist content denigrating Black people is increasingly common on the Chinese internet, and that major social media platforms and Chinese authorities have failed to address the issue systematically.

HRW analyzed hundreds of videos and posts on popular Chinese social media platforms, including Bilibili, Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo and Xiaohongshu, since late 2021. It found that content portraying Black people based on offensive racial stereotypes has become rampant.

It says much of the content is created to generate money.

“There are clicks and viewership involved, and that usually means profit for social media content creators,” Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at HRW, told VOA.

Racism fueled by stereotypes and censorship

According to the report, one type of video that’s widely shared on Chinese social media usually portrays Africans as poor and dependent while framing Chinese people, who are often the content creators of those videos, as wealthy providers of jobs, housing and money.

In addition to stereotypes against Black people, online content featuring interracial relationships often attracts hostile comments or threats to individuals in the photos or videos.

HRW found that Chinese internet users will accuse Black people married to Chinese people of “contaminating and threatening” the Chinese race and unleash online threats against Chinese women who share photos with their Black male partners.

In some cases, these women will receive death or rape threats or experience doxing, meaning their personal information is shared online without their consent.

In 2019, a “study buddy” program involving foreign and Chinese students at Shandong University became the target of racist and sexist attacks online. Some netizens accused the school of assigning Chinese female students to foreign male students, particularly Black students. Some Chinese female students involved in the program experienced harassment and intimidation on campus.

Wang from HRW says the rampant circulation of racist content against Black people and Africans on Chinese social media is prompted by the Chinese government’s portrayal of Africa as a “poor, backward” continent that needs investment from China.

“This gives Chinese people the impression that Africans are less developed, less intelligent and less diligent, and it contributes to the rampant racism [against Black people] in China,” she told VOA in a phone interview.

Videos or posts that promote racial equality or criticize racism in China will often be censored after becoming a trending topic on Chinese social media platforms. “Unlike the U.S., where racism is widely discussed in the media and academia, there is no press and academic freedom in China, so it’s hard for good content on racism to spread,” Wang said.

Lack of incentive to censor racist content online

Even though most Chinese social media platforms have community guidelines that ban content promoting racism and discrimination, the HRW report argues that the amount of racist content on the internet suggests that these platforms either fail to enforce content moderation based on their guidelines or their existing policies are inadequate to address racist content.

In one case, the Chinese Embassy in Malawi said it strongly condemns “racism in any form” and that it urged social media platforms to “strictly prohibit the dissemination of all racist contents.” The comments came after the BBC released a documentary exposing a Chinese man using local children to film personalized greeting videos that contained racist content. 

Following the BBC expose, Chinese social media platforms censored videos containing the term “Africa,” which affected some educational videos. Analysts say this incident reflects Chinese social media platforms’ typical practice of suppressing content that has generated widespread public discussion.

“When social media platforms try to silence discussions related to certain issues, they usually impose search bans on words or phrases,” Eric Liu, an analyst at China Digital Times, told VOA. “[In the BBC case,] Chinese social media platforms censored the word ‘Africa’ for a short period of time, and when the news had blown over, they removed censorship over the word.”

And since censorship tools on Chinese social media platforms focus on only blocking keywords, deleting posts or suppressing public opinion, they can’t effectively stop the circulation of discriminatory content, said Liu, a former censor operator for Weibo. “They can censor the word ‘Africa,’ but they can’t respond to discriminatory content,” he said.

Some Black people living in China expressed shock at the lack of actions taken to do away with online hate speech.

“For me, it’s shocking that [racist] stuff like that doesn’t get censored or banned given how quickly the Great Firewall works to ban,” a West African man in Shanghai told HRW. He was referring to China’s internet firewall.

VOA reached out to Chinese social media companies, including Bytedance, Weibo and Tencent, for comments, and so far, only Tencent has responded. In an e-mailed response, Tencent referred VOA to clauses related to inciting national hatred or hate speech in its community guidelines but didn’t explain how the platform addresses racist content against Black people.

In a written response to HRW’s inquiry, the Chinese short video platform Douyin said that it relies on a combination of people and technology to enforce content moderation guidelines, and that it takes action on approximately more than 300 videos and comments per day that “include violative content targeting Black people.”

Wang from HRW says Chinese social media platforms’ ways of handling online racist content is an “appeasement” of the Chinese government. “When the Chinese government no longer pays attention to this issue, they just go back to the old ways of allowing racist content to spread as it creates business for them,” she told VOA.

HRW said that while Beijing often touts China-Africa anti-colonial solidarity and unity, Chinese authorities have ignored pervasive hate speech against Black people on the Chinese internet. “Beijing should recognize that undertaking investments in Africa and embracing China-Africa friendship won’t undo the harm caused by unaddressed racism,” Wang said.

To effectively address online hate speech against Black people, HRW urged Beijing to implement efforts that include public education, promotion of tolerance, publicly countering incendiary misinformation and strengthening the protection of individuals whose security is threatened.

Despite these suggestions, Liu from China Digital Times said he thinks it’s unlikely that online racist content will disappear anytime soon.

“Instead of cultivating capabilities to combat online racist content, [Chinese] social media platforms may respond to the report by blocking words such as ‘Black people’ or ‘Africans,’ ” he told VOA.
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Niger’s defense ministry said late Tuesday an attack by suspected jihadists in the western part of the country killed 17 Nigerien soldiers.

A defense ministry statement said its forces were ambushed near the town of Koutougou, which is located near Niger’s borders with Mali and Burkina Faso.

In addition to those killed, the statement said the attack wounded 20 other soldiers, and that all of the casualties had been evacuated to Niamey.

The defense ministry also said Nigerien troops killed more than one hundred militants.

The incident comes three weeks after a military coup in Niger, with leaders saying they acted after the elected government’s lack of action to control jihadi violence.

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