Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change, has turned to door-to-door campaigning ahead of next month’s election, saying police are turning down its applications for public rallies. The police acknowledge refusing to authorize a number of opposition rallies but say they are also turning down requests to rally from the ruling party. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe
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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
Former Mombasa Dentist Develops App to Tackle Garbage Along Kenyan Coast
Tayba Hatimy studied and practiced dentistry for seven years before she realized her real passion was caring for the environment. Since then, she has founded a garbage collection app that helps people in Mombasa, Kenya reduce garbage along the coast. Saida Swaleh has the story. (Camera: Moses Baya )
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Somalia’s National Museum Hosts First Post-War Exhibit
Somalia’s rebuilt national museum is hosting its first show after more than three decades of damaging war and conflict. The 90-year-old museum is holding an international exhibit for 18 artists. Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Mogadishu, Somalia.
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South Africans Lament State of the Nation on Mandela Day
Every year on Nelson Mandela’s birthday (July 18), the South African government calls on citizens to honor the global icon’s legacy by doing good deeds. But almost 10 years after the anti-apartheid legend’s death, with South Africa suffering record levels of unemployment, widespread blackouts and corruption scandals, many say the current government is itself failing to honor Mandela.
Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison in his fight against racist white minority rule, is a hero to many in South Africa and across the world. After he became the country’s first democratically elected president in 1994 there was a great sense of hope for South Africa under his leadership of the African National Congress party, or ANC.
But his successors — all from the ANC — have had mixed reviews, with one — former President Jacob Zuma — facing trial on multiple counts of corruption.
Many critics say the once-storied liberation party has become bloated, corrupt and inept, though others argue the brutal legacy of the apartheid system has made it hard to turn the country around.
What ordinary South Africans who spoke to VOA on the streets of Johannesburg did agree on this Mandela Day, however, was that the man many refer to as “tata,” or father, is sorely missed.
Isaac Rabotapi, a security guard, remembered the day in 1990 when he was a young child and Mandela was released from prison.
“We were so happy in Soweto… even children, we couldn’t sleep even in that day because we were so happy he was out of jail… We do remember so many things about him. Actually, we miss him,” Rabotapi said.
Rabotapi says the country’s current leaders haven’t lived up to Mandela’s huge legacy.“I’m very disappointed. I think Tata would be very crying to see that South Africa is collapsing; really, it’s collapsing about water, loadshedding, electricity, those stuffs, the shortage of food, you know, so many things. The crime,” Rabotapi said.
Agnes Mashole, who owns a beauty salon, also remembers the celebrations when Mandela and the ANC won the first election after apartheid.
But like Rabotapi, she laments the widespread power failures known here as “loadshedding” — which have badly affected Africa’s most developed economy — and expresses disappointment with the current government.
“They failed, they like really failed. I wish we could just wake up Mandela and fix everything… The economy is going down. This loadshedding, it’s worse,” Mashole said.
Asanda Ngoasheng, an independent political analyst, told VOA South Africa was a complex country because of its history.
“Yes, corruption does leave a stain in the ANC and it is a difficult issue to deal with and it is disappointing for South Africans considering the legacy of Mandela, but there is a lot that the ANC has done for South Africa and continues to do for South Africa, particularly Black South Africans,” Ngoasheng said.
To mark Mandela Day, President Cyril Ramaphosa inaugurated two new statues of the revered statesman, and made a speech about “following in his footsteps.”
However, if the ANC doesn’t fix some of the problems plaguing the country, it may no longer be able to retain power simply by trading on Mandela’s legacy.
South Africa holds elections next year and recent polls show the ANC might lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since coming to power.
your ad hereCameroon Military, Separatists Trade Accusations of Civilian Killings
Cameroon’s military says it has arrested scores of rebels suspected in the shooting deaths of 10 civilians Sunday in the northwest town of Bamenda. The military says separatists disguised themselves as government troops to try to frame them for the killings, which a rebel spokesperson denies.
Bamenda city mayor Achombong Paul, who visited Bamenda Regional Hospital on Tuesday morning, said residents of the city are living in fear after Sunday’s brutal killings.
“Every human life has value. Every human being has a right to live and nobody for whatever reason has a right to take away the life of an individual,” he said. “We cannot live in a town where there is chaos, fear and all the kinds of atrocities going on at the same time. We will never move forward with this attitude. No, we won’t. People can’t go to work, nothing works in this town because people are scared to be killed.”
Hospital director Nsame Denis said at least 600 people have visited the hospital since Sunday’s killings to find out if their family or friends are among the victims.
“We received in total 12 victims of firearm injuries. Out of this 12, one is in the intensive care, one took treatment and went home, and at the level of the mortuary, we have 10 corpses amongst whom three are female and seven are males ranging from 24 to 56 years,” Nsame said.
Cameroon’s military, in a July 17 statement, said about 12 heavily armed fighters dressed in military gear similar to that of the central African state’s military shot indiscriminately at civilians at Nacho Junction in Bamenda.
The military said scores of suspects have been arrested in a crackdown operation less than 48 hours after the killings.
Deben Tchoffo, governor of the Northwest region, said fighters want to create panic among civilians who collaborate with the military by reporting suspected separatists.
“I would like, on behalf of the head of state, to assure the population that measures are being taken by the security services to locate the authors of that barbaric act and sanction them. I would like to strongly condemn those attacks by a terrorist group,” he said.
Separatists on social media, including Facebook and WhatsApp, denied responsibility for the killings. They said government troops were responsible, asserting that the military wants to give separatists a bad image to the international community.
The Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa reports that Sunday’s killing comes two days after Cameroon’s military was said to have raided Awing Quarter, another neighborhood in Bamenda, and killed at least five people.
Northwest Region Governor Tchoffo acknowledges that civilians were killed in Awing Quarter but blames fighters for the killings.
The Cameroon government said people wounded in both attacks are being treated free of charge in hospitals in Bamenda.
Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Center for Human Rights and Democracy, accuse both the military and rebels of abuses, including rape, torture and killings.
Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions have seen years of deadly battles between government troops and separatists fighting to carve out an English-speaking state from French-speaking majority Cameroon.
The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced more than 760,000 others, according to the International Crisis Group.
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Al-Shabab Imposes Blockade on Baidoa Town in Somalia
Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has condemned the militant group al-Shabab for imposing a weeklong blockade on the southwestern town of Baidoa. Authorities say the Islamist group has cut off supplies in and out of the area, worsening hunger caused by record drought and insecurity.
Al-Shabaab set up the blockade Tuesday, cutting off transport to and from Baidoa, the capital of South West state.
The blockade, which comes ahead of a planned government military offensive in the region, has affected businesses and resulted in price hikes as vehicles transporting goods from towns such as Mogadishu are stranded.
Hussein Mohamud, the chief of staff for Somalia’s president, said the blockade demonstrates that al-Shabab is at war against the people of Somalia.
Mohamed Edin, a trader in Baidoa, told VOA businesses will soon be forced to close as supplies dwindle.
He said he relies on supplies from Mogadishu that pass through Afgoye but his business has suffered since the blockade. With his stock nearly depleted, Edin said he might be forced to close his business if the blockade continues.
According to the United Nations, Baidoa is home to about 600,000 internally displaced people pushed from their homes by the al-Shabab insurgency and drought.
Analysts say by imposing the blockade, al-Shabab is affirming its strength and that could worsen the situation in the region.
Abdirahman Azari, director of the Mogadishu-based Center for Analysis and Strategic Studies, said al-Shabab is sending direct and indirect messages to the Somali government that they are still in control in parts of the country and can impose sanctions anywhere and people will obey their orders.
Azari added that the blockade could jolt the government into an earlier launch of a planned offensive.
The Somali government says it is on course to launch Operation Black Lion, which will focus on South West and Jubaland states in the southern part of the country.
Government forces with the help of local militias reclaimed part of the central area of the country from al-Shabab control last summer in the first phase of the offensive.
Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti are expected to send in about 20,000 troops to bolster Somali forces and clan militia in the second phase of the operation.
Abdiaziz Isaack, a security and political analyst at the Hamad Bin Khalifa Civilization Center, said al-Shabab’s blockade on Baidoa is sending a message.
He said it demonstrates the al-Shabab’s ability to challenge the government despite local and international efforts to defeat the group. Isaack said al-Shabab is telling the Somali government that it will face stiff resistance when it begins the second phase.
The South West state perennially remains the most vulnerable region in Somalia in terms of insecurity and drought. In April, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Baidoa to launch a humanitarian campaign for Somalia, appealing for “massive international aid” to stave off famine.
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Zimbabwe Rights Groups, Opposition Furious Over Signed Patriotic Bill
Rights activists and opposition groups in Zimbabwe say President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s signing into law a so-called “Patriotic Bill” is a grave attack on fundamental freedoms and rights. The new law authorizes harsh penalties, including the death penalty, for anyone found guilty of “willfully damaging the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe.”
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party and human rights groups are calling Mnangagwa to repeal the bill he signed into law last Friday.
“We condemn their signing into law of the unconstitutional ‘Patriotic Bill,’ which will criminalize free speech and freedom of association which are protected under our constitution,” said Fadzayi Mahere, spokesman for Citizens Coalition for Change. “The introduction of this repressive legislation confirms beyond any doubt that Mr. Mnangagwa is worse than Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe as become a full-blown dictatorship in an outpost of tyranny.”
Mahere called on Zimbabweans to, as he put it, “vote decisively for change” in the August 23 general election.
Obert Masaraure is spokesman for another rights group, the Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe. His group says the new law is vague in its definition of offenses.
“Some of the penalties proposed by the law for deliberately injuring the sovereignty and national interests of Zimbabwe, such as the death penalty, long imprisonment, loss of citizenship and binding of persons from electoral participation for five years, are too harsh and inappropriate for vaguely defined offenses,” he said. “The provision of the death penalty means that the new law violates the constitution which only allows for the death penalty in cases of murder and aggravating circumstances. We firmly oppose the death penalty without exceptions. We are completely against the death penalty and we condemn it and unreservedly.”
Amnesty International said the new law is evidence that Zimbabwean authorities are “bent on closing civic space as well as suppressing any form of dissent.”
But Rutendo Matinyarare, chairman of the pro-government Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement, has a different view.
“I’m over the moon because of the fact that the president is finally signed this criminal law amendment,” Matinyarare said. “And I’m happy because I was one of the people that proposed the Patriotic Bill.”
Matinyarare said his group is pleased about laws that punish people who advocate for sanctions and call for the invasion of the country and stabilization of the country.
“It puts us in step with other nations across the world that have similar laws,” Matinyarare said. “Let’s hope it deters people and unites Zimbabweans to not sabotage their own country.”
Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party have pushed for years for an end to Western sanctions against Zimbabwean leaders. The sanctions were imposed during the rule of the late Robert Mugabe for human rights violations and alleged election rigging.
Mnangagwa has not commented on the law, known as the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Act, since he signed it into law last week.
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Sierra Leone’s New Gender Equality Bill Doubles Female Lawmakers
Sierra Leone’s new parliament will have the largest female representation in the country’s history, with 41 women lawmakers, more than double that of the last election. Activists say that number could have been higher had a new law that reserves 30 percent of leadership roles for women been followed correctly. Senanu Tord reports from Port Loko, Sierra Leone
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Reuters Report: Sudan Slipping Deeper into Hunger, Poverty
The ongoing war between Sudan’s military and a paramilitary force has placed the country in jeopardy of not being able to feed itself and has thrown many people into deeper depths of hunger and poverty, according to a Reuters report.
Reuters said Monday that the delays in planting are also “partly due” to the farmers not being able to receive any credit from banks and the high prices of items like fertilizer and fuel.
The news agency said it talked with more than a dozen people, including farmers, experts and workers.
Four of the farmers, Reuters said, reported that they might not be able to plant before this month’s heavy rains.
Farmers also said Sudan is heading towards a famine, despite a U.N. analysis that says it is too early to make that prediction.
“Peanuts should have been sowed,” said one farmer. “Until now, our preparation is zero. . . We think we’re threatened with a famine.”
In addition, aid agencies have accused both warring factions of blocking humanitarian access to areas. Both sides have said they have facilitated access, and both accuse the other of blocking aid.
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Time to Revalue African Economies, African Development Bank Chief Says
The year 2023 has so far not been a good one for Africa. Conflict has erupted in Sudan, deepened in the Democratic Republic of Congo and spread southward from the Sahel.
Extreme weather, often attributed to climate change, has triggered devastating droughts and floods in places like Kenya and South Sudan, deepening poverty. Many African economies are struggling under massive debt.
But the head of the African Development Bank, or AfDB, prefers to focus on the continent’s promise: notably, how to better harness its assets — from its massive natural resource wealth to its large and young workforce — to fight climate change, invest in sustainable development and green and grow economies.
“I’ve been pushing that we need to revalue our countries based on their natural capital,” the bank’s president, Akinwumi Adesina, told VOA during a recent trip to Paris.
“This fundamentally for me is how we are going get a lot of capital going into Africa,” he added, “by the greening of African economies, by the proper valuation of carbon” that contributes to rising emissions but can also be stored and sequestered in areas rich in land and forests.
Adesina spoke after a financing summit in the French capital that drew dozens of developing country leaders, but few from richer nations. Still, many observers note it delivered some concrete results in development and climate financing for poor countries — possibly paving the way for bigger changes.
Among the takeaways: China and other creditors agreed to restructure Zambia’s debt; Senegal received financing to develop renewable energy, and rich nations agreed to reallocate $100 billion in International Monetary Fund money to fight climate change and poverty in developing countries.
For Adesina, the summit, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, led to “a new sense of commitment, a sense of urgency of the need to move forward.”
He also echoed other critics, though, in calling on rich nations to meet promises of climate financing made about a decade ago to poorer ones. The aim is to be more aggressive in building a more equitable world — siding with calls made by a group of developing countries led by Jamaica called the Bridgetown Initiative.
China key
A Nigerian economist famous for his bowties — one was firmly affixed during the Paris interview — 63-year-old Adesina was tapped as AfDB head in 2015 and reelected for a second term in 2020. As the son of a farmer from southwestern Nigeria, he understands Africa’s development challenges firsthand.
“The global financial architecture is failing,” Adesina said, adding the world was also “way off course” in achieving U.N. sustainable development goals that include ending poverty and hunger, and ensuring quality education, along with clean water and energy.
Africa alone will need $2.7 trillion to tackle climate change between now and 2030, he noted. Yet it gets only a fraction of global financing to cope with a climate crisis for which it is largely not responsible.
“We all live on the same planet,” Adesina said. “We are not going to another one, so we’ve got to save it.”
While sustainable financing may be slow to come, competition for Africa’s riches is intensifying. In recent months, top officials from the U.S., China and Russia have crisscrossed the continent, seeking to ramp up diplomatic and economic ties.
China, in particular, is a top lender and Africa’s biggest trading partner. Critics, including Washington, have slammed Beijing for fostering debt traps — locking in loans for political leverage — which Beijing strongly denies.
But the Paris summit marked a change. China, Zambia’s largest creditor, joined others in agreeing to restructure the country’s debt — in what some, like Adesina, hope will pave the way for similar deals.
“There’s no way we can solve the challenges of debt in Africa without China at the table,” he said, noting Beijing currently holds 14 percent of the continent’s debt.
‘Toxic’ debt
Adesina also denounced loans repaid by depleting Africa’s rich trove of natural resources — from timber and oil and gas to diamonds and rare earth metals, like cobalt, that are key for electric vehicles — with often disastrous environmental consequences.
The World Bank estimates such loans represented nearly 10 percent of new borrowing in sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2018. Critics single out China and Russia for especially harmful practices. Russia’s Wagner Group notoriously trades its much-criticized military services for opportunities to exploit timber, diamond and gold mines in countries where it operates — but they are not the only ones.
“Natural resource-backed loans should stop completely,” said Adesina, without naming any particular country. “They should never be on the table. They are toxic, non-transparent debt, which mortgages the future of countries.”
But he also called on African countries to be more active in mobilizing resources for their own development by raising taxes on multinational companies, for example, stopping illicit capital flows out of the continent, and cracking down on corruption.
Africa, Adesina argues, is a good investment. He cited a Moody’s Analytics report that found the continent’s default rate for infrastructure projects to be the second lowest in the world.
Accounting for Africa resource wealth, or natural capital — including the positive contribution of its rainforests and other wild areas in fighting climate change and preserving biodiversity — would also substantially change its balance sheets.
“If that re-estimation were to be taken into account, the debt-to-GDP ratio would fall dramatically,” Adesina said, allowing countries like mineral- and forest-rich Democratic Republic of Congo to raise money at a much lower interest rate.
He points to the AfDB’s own green investments — including in a vast solar energy project in the Sahel that is aimed at providing electricity to a quarter-million people and the development of at-home skills in solar assembly and manufacturing.
Such investments carry larger payoffs, Adesina added, describing how solar drip irrigation could help green the Sahel, or how parallel investments in development could help address root causes of the region’s years-long conflict.
He added that young people would stay in the African continent instead of moving to Europe “because there’s economic activity powered by available energy.”
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11 Killed in Rebel Attack in Northeast Congo, Official Says
A rebel group has killed at least 11 people in northeastern Congo, a local official said Sunday.
Isaac Kibira, a deputy to the governor of the Bwito area in North Kivu, said the victims were killed by M23, a rebel group the United Nations says has links to neighboring Rwanda. Rwanda denies the accusation.
M23 rose to prominence 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city on the border with Rwanda. It derives its name from a March 23, 2009, peace deal that it accuses the Congo government of not implementing.
The bodies of 11 civilians were discovered Sunday morning, left in two neat rows in the grass. M23 had occupied the area since Tuesday, according to Paris-based research group Sahel Intelligence, before withdrawing.
M23 is one of more than 120 armed groups fighting in eastern Congo, most of whom are vying for land and control of mines with valuable minerals, while others are trying to protect their communities from rival armed groups.
Last week’s armed occupation in the Bwito region forced hundreds of people out of their homes and into neighboring communities, adding to what the U.N. estimates are 5.5 million people displaced within Congo due to violence.
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Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Launches Campaign With Promise of Prosperity
Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa promised economic prosperity and an end to corruption as he launched his party’s campaign Sunday for national elections set for Aug. 23.
Chamisa, who leads the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), is running against 80-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has led the ruling Zanu-PF since a coup ousted Robert Mugabe in 2017.
The 45-year-old politician, lawyer and pastor launched his “For Everyone” campaign in the city of Gweru, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of the capital Harare, vowing to fix the country’s unrelenting economic crises.
Chamisa lamented the lack of development in the country, saying there was little to show after 43 years of democracy.
“All we see is poverty, unemployment and millions going to the diaspora,” Chamisa told thousands of supporters gathered at a stadium in the city.
Supporters clad in the party’s yellow regalia braved chilly weather to attend the rally following sustained efforts by the police and judiciary to ban opposition party rallies.
“They have been banning our campaigns, but no one will ban us from people’s hearts,” Chamisa said to thunderous applause.
Chamisa promised to deal with endemic corruption and misuse of the country’s resources by the ruling elite, adding that the mineral-rich country should benefit all.
This is Chamisa’s second bid for the presidency and first under the banner of the CCC, which launched early last year.
In 2018, he became Zimbabwe’s youngest-ever presidential candidate, narrowly losing to incumbent Mnangagwa in the disputed poll.
Chamisa said his party would remain vigilant against electoral malpractice. “We will not accept a rigged election this time,” he said, promising other reforms including improved salaries for the civil service.
The upcoming general election is expected to be close, with both Mnangagwa and Chamisa enjoying support across the country.
Chamisa plans to take his campaign to the countryside in an effort to win over historically Zanu-PF voters.
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Sudan Violence Rages as Paramilitaries Deny Darfur War Crimes
Airstrikes pummeled Khartoum on Sunday and fighting raged in Sudan’s western Darfur region, witnesses said, as a three-month war between the army and rival paramilitaries showed no signs of abating.
In the capital’s east and northwest, army fighter jets “targeted bases” belonging to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who “responded with anti-aircraft weapons,” witnesses told AFP.
RSF drones targeted Khartoum’s largest military hospital, according to witnesses. A similar attack Saturday on the same facility left five dead and 22 injured, the army said.
The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has claimed at least 3,000 lives and displaced over 3 million people since it erupted on April 15.
In Darfur, a vast region which has seen some of the worst of the fighting, witnesses on Sunday reported “heavy clashes using various types of weapons” in the town of Kas.
Residents of Kas, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of the South Darfur state capital of Nyala, said houses were broken into and looted by RSF fighters.
The paramilitaries in a statement hailed their “victory” in the town.
Darfur, home to around a quarter of Sudan’s 48 million people, has seen entire towns razed to the ground, with reports of mass civilian deaths and ethnically charged assassinations blamed on the RSF and allied Arab militias.
On Saturday, the RSF said it “categorically refutes” a recent report by Human Rights Watch that detailed the summary execution of “at least 28 ethnic Massalit” — a non-Arab minority group — and the “total destruction of the town of Misterei” in West Darfur state.
The RSF blamed the violence on “longstanding tribal conflict” and said it “strictly adheres” to “international humanitarian law.”
The paramilitary force stemmed from the Janjaweed militia, which was armed and unleashed against ethnic minority rebels in Darfur in the early 2000s.
That conflict killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million, the U.N. estimates.
Atrocities committed at the time led the International Criminal Court to charge former dictator Omar al-Bashir with offenses including genocide.
The court’s chief prosecutor has launched a new investigation into suspected war crimes in the current fighting, including sexual violence and civilians being targeted for their ethnicity.
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5 Killed in Suspected Jihadi Attack in Niger
A police officer and four civilians were killed in a suspected terrorist attack in southwestern Niger, the army said Saturday, in an area where thousands fled their homes this month to escape jihadi violence.
An army statement said the attack took place on Friday afternoon, targeting “a group of paramilitary police escorting a convoy” along a road near the border with Burkina Faso.
The statement said five people had been killed and 19 injured, including seven officers, five soldiers, and seven civilians, who were all taken to the capital, Niamey.
“On the side of the enemy, two terrorists were killed,” the statement said.
The attack took place in the southwestern Tillaberi region, in the border area where Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali meet — a hotbed of activity for insurgents linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
The vast arid area, roughly the size of South Korea, has about 150,000 internally displaced people, according to the United Nations.
On Wednesday, the U.N. and local authorities said nearly 11,000 had fled their homes this month alone.
One of the poorest countries in the world, Niger is also struggling with jihadi violence that has spilled into its southeast from northeastern Nigeria.
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Sudan Government Representatives Arrive in Jeddah to Resume Talks With RSF
Sudanese representatives have arrived in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah to resume talks with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudanese government sources told Reuters Saturday, after three months of fighting between the army and RSF.
Previous talks in Jeddah facilitated by Saudi Arabia and the United States were suspended by both countries in early June after numerous cease-fire violations. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have yet to confirm the resumption of talks between Sudan’s warring factions.
Separately, a mediation attempt launched by Egypt began Thursday, an effort welcomed both by the Sudanese army, which has close ties to Egypt, and the RSF.
A series of cease-fires have failed to halt the fighting which broke out on April 15 as the army and RSF vied for power.
The conflict has seen more than 3 million people uprooted, including more than 700,000 who have fled to neighboring countries.
On Saturday, at least four civilians were killed and four injured in a drone attack that targeted a hospital in the city of Omdurman, Sudan’s health ministry said, accusing the RSF of carrying out the attack.
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UN: Sudan Health Care Near Collapse Due to Conflict
United Nations agencies said Friday that millions of Sudanese cannot obtain treatment for emergency and chronic health conditions because fighting has brought the country’s fragile health system to near total collapse.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement violence and “shortages of supplies, damage or occupation of facilities and assaults on medical staff” are having a devastating impact on people’s lives and on their ability to access health care.
The World Health Organization has said that some 50 attacks on health care facilities have caused 10 deaths and 21 injuries since fighting began between the Sudanese armed forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces three months ago.
“Ongoing violence, rampant insecurity, repeated attacks on health, and limited access to essential health supplies, are putting the people of Sudan in a life-or-death situation, with no immediate political solution in sight,” Rick Brennan, emergency director for the WHO’s regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean said.
Speaking from Cairo, Brennan said the violence has had a huge impact on access to the most basic health care, including treatment of such common infections as pneumonia and diarrhea, trauma treatment, and obstetric care.
He said the conflict is preventing people with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension from getting treatment.
“Patients who have been receiving dialysis for kidney failure and treatment for cancer are facing a sudden cessation of their treatment, with life-threatening consequences,” he said.
He said disrupted access to those services is risking the lives of 8,000 people, including 240 children who need regular dialysis sessions. He said many of an estimated 49,000 Sudanese cancer patients could die “without restoration of access to their cancer care.”
He said lack of access to health care is raising the risk of malaria, measles, dengue, and cholera outbreaks. The dangers, he said, are particularly acute with the onset of the rainy season.
“The delivery of health care across the entire country is limited by shortage of supplies, lack of health workers and functioning health facilities, and logistic constraints due to insecurity and roadblocks by militias,” he said.
The World Health Organization estimates 11 million people in Sudan need urgent health assistance, but few health facilities still are functioning. Brennan said that between two-thirds and 80% of hospitals are not functioning and “in West Darfur, only one hospital is operational, but only partially.”
Despite the ongoing insecurity and bureaucratic impediments, he said the WHO was working with local health authorities and U.N. agencies, including UNICEF and the U.N. Population Fund, to provide health care.
For example, he said more than 170 tons of medical supplies have been delivered to hospitals and therapeutic treatments have been provided for more than 100,000 severely malnourished children.
He said the WHO and and the U.N. Population Fund were working to provide women and girls access to sexual, reproductive, and maternal health care.
He added that survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, which reportedly “is widespread in this conflict, as it is in so many conflicts,” were receiving medical and psychosocial support.
“But the reality is that there are large proportions of the population to whom we do not have access, especially in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan,” he said.
“Therefore, together with our U.N. partners, we are exploring all options to expand our operations, including through cross-border assistance.”
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Sudan Warring Factions Clash in City of Bahri as Army Tries to Make Gains
Sudan’s warring factions fought heavy clashes in parts of the city of Bahri on Friday, residents said, a day after both sides welcomed a new mediation effort that seeks to end the three-month conflict.
The fighting that broke out on April 15 has driven civilians out of the wider capital region — consisting of the cities of Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman — and triggered ethnically motivated attacks in the Darfur region.
Regional and international mediation efforts have so far failed to end the fighting, and U.N. officials have said Sudan could slide into civil war.
The latest mediation attempt was launched Thursday in Egypt. Both the army, which has close ties to Egypt, and the RSF paramilitary group welcomed the effort.
But four residents of northern Bahri told Reuters they awoke to heavy early morning clashes between the two sides, apparently centered near the Halfaya bridge.
While the RSF quickly fanned out across the capital in the early days of the conflict, the army has focused on air and artillery strikes that have done little to change the scene.
The army has conducted more ground operations in recent weeks, particularly in Omdurman.
The Bahri residents said they heard air strikes, artillery fire and gunshots, continuing into the afternoon.
An army source said the army had succeeded in pushing the RSF out of neighborhoods in the far north of the city in the morning, but the RSF said in a statement they were able to defeat the forces and claimed to kill hundreds.
the Sudanese army said in a statement that it had launched ground operations in all three cities of the capital and that it had been successful, acknowledging some losses in Bahri but calling the RSF number inflated.
Residents of the wider capital area reported a communications outage for several hours in the morning.
Other eyewitnesses reported clashes around an army base in southern Khartoum as well.
On Friday, Sudanese human rights organizations said they had evidence the RSF had detained more than 5,000 people in the capital and were keeping them in inhumane conditions.
When asked for comment, the RSF said the reports were incorrect, and that it only held prisoners of war who were well-treated.
“These organizations are ignoring violations by the army against civilians, including air and artillery strikes, detentions and arming of civilians,” a representative for the force said.
Among those detained in several locations across Khartoum were combatants, but also 3,500 civilians, including vulnerable women and foreign nationals, said the organizations, who asked to have their names withheld for fear of retribution.
They said they would present to the United Nations documentation of cases of death by torture, as well as “degrading, inhumane conditions of detention devoid of human dignity and the most basic necessities of life.”
The U.N. human rights office said on Thursday at least 87 people had been buried in a mass grave in the Darfur city of El Geneina, accusing the RSF and allied militias of the killings, which the paramilitary force denied.
Late on Thursday, the International Criminal Court said it would investigate killings across the region. The RSF did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation.
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Chad, Other African Countries Not Thriving, UN Index Shows
Chad consistently ranks among the bottom five countries in the U.N.’s Human Development Index, with poor life expectancy, education and living standards. In this report from N’Djamena, Henry Wilkins speaks to residents who struggle to imagine a decent future for their families and to experts about what can be done to kick-start development. Camera: Henry Wilkins.
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African Clerics: Muslim Women Leadership Fine Under Islamic Teachings
YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Leaders from 25 Muslim-majority countries in Africa meeting in Cameroon on Friday called for an end to the exclusion of women from political, social, economic and religious issues in the name of Islamic teachings.
The more than 300 clerics, Islamic scholars and researchers at the U.N. conference on Islam, Women’s Empowerment and Peace Building said they were launching a campaign in Africa to counter stereotypes that impede the emancipation of Muslim women.
The consensus of the conference was that Muslim women are the most affected by conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa and should take lead roles in communities and decision-making.
Mamadou Lamine Diallo, a Muslim scholar and researcher at the Lansana Conte University in Guinea Conakry, said the campaign will begin in communities where some Muslim leaders teach and practice concepts that are strange to Islam. Diallo said teachings that girls should be given to marriage in their teens, and that women should leave social, economic and political activities to men, are misleading.
He said that in the Quran, Prophet Muhammad, who is the founder of Islam, established complete equality between men and women. He said the fact that Muhammad’s first wife, Khadija, was a highly respected business leader who traded in furniture, pottery and silks, is an indication that women should not be excluded from political, social, economic and religious issues in the name of Islamic teachings.
Some ideas called outdated
Diallo said the idea that women should be allowed to carry out only domestic chores and farm work is an outdated African practice. He said Boko Haram has been using female suicide bombers since 2010 with false promises that when a woman dies while fighting for Islam, she immediately goes to heaven.
Clerics said Muslim women constitute a majority of those enduring unprecedented levels of sexual violence, increased food insecurity and displacement. Muslim women are the largest group of the 3 million people displaced by Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger, according to the clerics.
Maryam Amsha, a female Muslim leader in Bambari, a commercial town in the Central African Republic (CAR), said exclusion makes Muslim women ignorant of their roles in building peace in that country.
“It will be an abuse of democratic norms if a majority of the more than 51% of CAR’s 900,000 Muslims who are women do not take part in expected elections because they have been taught to avoid politics,” Amsha said.
She said she is “inviting imams to make sure that Muslim women are taking part in negotiations to end a decade of political tensions and develop CAR.”
Presidential elections in 2025
The Central African Republic will hold presidential elections in 2025. Amsha said a president elected by a majority of civilians, including women, will be a major step to peace. CAR descended into chaos after longtime leader Francois Bozize was overthrown in 2013 by a predominantly Muslim rebel alliance called Seleka.
Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, who chaired the conference, said that if not stopped, some religious beliefs will slow Africa’s development.
“Culture is an important lever of people’s development,” Ngute said. “In this context, it is essential that women in general and those from the Islamic tradition in particular, see it as an instrument of personal development. That is why the government [of Cameroon] trains citizens who are rooted in their culture, respectful of the general interest and open to the world.”
The Muslim leaders said that if Africa provided greater impetus to Muslim women, high levels of poverty would be reduced, and several million people would free themselves from the bondage of slavery caused by erroneous beliefs about Islam.
Participants at the conference came from countries including Nigeria, Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritania, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea Conakry, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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ICC Confirms $30 Million Reparations in DR Congo Warlord Case
The International Criminal Court on Friday confirmed a more than $30 million reparations package for thousands of victims of Democratic Republic of the Congo warlord Bosco Ntaganda, including former child soldiers.
Named “the Terminator” for his reign of terror in the vast African country in the early 2000s, Ntaganda was jailed for 30 years in 2019 for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Judges afterward awarded $30.3 million in reparations, but last year ordered a review, saying the number of victims was unclear.
But on Friday “the chamber unanimously assesses Mr. Ntaganda’s liability for reparations at USD $31,300,000,” the Hague-based court said in a statement.
Although Ntaganda is liable for the payment, the ICC found that he did not have the funds, which would now be paid from the Trust Fund for Victims at the ICC.
Judges asked court officials to “continue exploring whether Mr. Ntaganda possessed any undiscovered assets” and monitor his finances “on an ongoing basis.”
Judges added that based on available information, there were an estimated 7,500 direct and indirect victims of violent attacks, as well as 3,000 direct or indirect victims of crimes against child soldiers.
No financial amounts were given for specific victims, but payment would include about $11 million in socioeconomic support and $5 million for mental care resulting from “psychological harm” suffered during the attacks.
Rehabilitation of former child soldiers was estimated at roughly $4,000 per person.
The ICC in 2021 upheld a 30-year sentence on appeal for war crimes against Ntaganda.
“The chamber reiterates that Mr. Ntaganda’s conviction is final and his liability to repair the harm caused to the victims of his crimes is under no discussion,” the judges stressed in Friday’s order.
“The chamber will continue striving to advance these reparation proceedings in the most efficient and effective manner possible … ensuring that the victims of his crimes receive the reparations they are entitled to, and for which they have waited for more than two decades, without further delay,” they said.
The Rwandan-born Ntaganda, 49, was convicted of 18 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, sexual slavery, rape and using child soldiers.
Ntaganda was the first person to be convicted of sexual slavery by the court.
Many of the other charges related to massacres of villagers in the mineral-rich Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Al-Shabab Kills Police Officers, Teacher in Northeastern Kenya
Suspected al-Shabab militants killed two police officers and a teacher early Friday morning in an attack on the Wargadud police camp in the Mandera South area, in Kenya’s northeast, Kenyan authorities say.
The militants also carjacked a police vehicle and destroyed two communications towers.
Security officials declined VOA’s request for a comment. However, Mandera South Member of Parliament Abdul Haro confirmed the incident.
“I can confirm last night there was a terror attack in my constituency in a place called Wargadud and there are some casualties. Also, there was another attack a few kilometers away in a place called Iresuki and a probing attack in Elwak,” Haro said.
The incidents took place as Kenya’s defense secretary, Aden Duale, is touring the northeastern region to meet security officials and residents. Addressing residents in the border town of Diif, in Wajir County, Duale said Kenya will fight militants within and outside Kenya to secure its territory.
“We will fight al-Shabab along our borders. We will fight and take the war to them in Somalia because Kenya has a moral responsibility to bring peace and stability along the countries in the horn of Africa,” Duale said.
Last week, Kenyan security forces killed 23 suspected al-Shabab militants during an ambush at the Orgene area, in Kenya’s Mandera County. The encounter also left six Kenyan soldiers dead and eight others injured.
Duale said Kenya will use all possible means to flush terrorists and their sympathizers from the region.
“I’m talking to the leadership of al-Shabab, wherever you are: prepare yourself. We will use our land forces, we will use our air force, we will use our navy, we will use our special forces to hunt you down,” Duale said.
Earlier this year, Kenya announced plans to reopen its border with Somalia that has been closed for over a decade, but has now suspended those plans following increased attacks by the militant group.
The militant group has in the past carried out a spate of attacks in Kenyan cities and towns in an attempt to drive Kenya to withdraw its troops from African Union-led peacekeeping forces in Somalia.
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Zuma’s Prison Release Ruled Unlawful
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled that former President Jacob Zuma’s early release from prison because of claimed medical conditions was unlawful.
In 2021, Zuma was released from prison less than eight weeks after beginning a 15-month sentence for contempt of court. That came after he refused to testify in an anti-corruption inquiry conducted while he was in office.
Zuma’s medical parole was granted by the prison service, led by Arthur Fraser, an ally of the former president.
It was not immediately clear after the ruling Thursday whether the former president’s return to prison was imminent.
More than 300 people died in riots sparked by Zuma’s arrest.
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International Criminal Court to Investigate Report of Sudan Mass Grave
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Thursday that his office is investigating reports that at least 87 people were found in a mass grave in Sudan’s West Darfur state.
“If this oft-repeated phrase of ‘never again’ is to mean anything, it must mean something here and now for the people of Darfur that have lived with this uncertainty and pain and scars of conflict for two decades,” Prosecutor Karim Khan told the U.N. Security Council.
In 2005, the council referred the situation in Sudan’s Darfur region to the Hague-based tribunal. An investigation was opened into the reported crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Several individuals have been indicted by the court, including former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted from power in 2019. The ICC has issued two arrest warrants for al-Bashir on charges including genocide and war crimes, but he is still at large.
Khan said the ICC has ongoing authority to investigate crimes committed in Darfur and is looking at violence committed there since fighting erupted on April 15 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Security Forces. There have been numerous reports of violence against civilians, especially in the West Darfur capital of El Geneina.
“The investigations that we are looking at encompass also many allegations in West Darfur — looting, extrajudicial killings, burning of homes. And also allegations in North Darfur,” he said.
The U.N. human rights office said earlier Thursday that the dead were found outside El Geneina and included members of the Masalit ethnic group. The bodies of seven women and seven children were among those found in the grave. Local residents said they were forced to bury the bodies June 20-21.
The U.N. said there was credible evidence that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces and an allied militia were responsible.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk condemned the killings and called for a “prompt, thorough and independent investigation.”
In an interview Thursday with VOA at the White House, officials said they were “deeply troubled” by the report.
“This is completely unacceptable, and the United States will be obviously taking this up with our allies and partners and with the U.N.,” said John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council.
“But we condemn it. It’s completely horrendous and unacceptable, and the Rapid Support Forces, they need to be held to account for this.”
Paris Huang, White House correspondent for VOA’s Mandarin Service, contributed to this report.
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Iran’s Raisi Visits Fellow Outlier Zimbabwe Ahead of Key Vote
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday urged nations targeted by Western sanctions to band together as he hosted the leader of fellow international outlier Iran.
President Ebrahim Raisi arrived for the last leg of the first Africa tour by an Iranian leader in 11 years, a trip aimed at easing the Islamic republic’s international isolation.
Raisi is the highest-profile leader to visit Zimbabwe in the thick of an election campaign for a closely watched August 23 presidential and parliamentary vote.
“It is critically important that we, the victims of Western sanctions, are talking to each other … that we show them that we’re united,” Mnangagwa told a press briefing after talks with Raisi.
“I am happy you have come to show solidarity,” Mnangagwa told Raisi on arrival, calling him “my brother.”
Mnangagwa, 80, who is seeking reelection in what analysts predict will be a tense ballot, has long blamed his country’s dire economic straits on sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union.
Western countries retort that the measures target specific individuals accused of graft and human rights abuses rather than the whole country.
Africa has emerged as a diplomatic battleground, with Russia and the West trying to court support for their respective positions on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The war has had a devastating economic impact on the continent, sending food prices soaring.
Western powers have also sought to deepen trade ties with Africa, along with India and China.
‘Continent of capacities, potentials’
Hundreds of people waving Zimbabwean and Iranian flags had gathered at Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare during the morning to greet Raisi.
Many were from the southern African country’s Muslim community, including women wearing headscarves and schoolchildren holding welcome banners.
The two leaders signed “a record” 12 agreements on energy, telecommunications and other topics, Mnangagwa said.
These will help Zimbabwe access innovation and technology from Iran and envisage the creation of a tractor factory to support agricultural mechanization, he added.
Raisi’s visit comes with Iran stepping up diplomacy to reduce its isolation and offset the impact of crippling sanctions reimposed since the 2018 withdrawal of the United States from a painstakingly negotiated nuclear deal.
Raisi has already been to Kenya and Uganda this week, holding talks with his counterparts William Ruto and Yoweri Museveni.
On Thursday, Raisi described Africa as “the continent of capacities and potentials,” adding that stronger cooperation would benefit “the advancement” of both parties.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani has described Raisi’s continental tour as “a new turning point” that could bolster economic and trade ties with African nations.
He also said on Monday that Tehran and the three African countries shared “common political views.”
Melody Muzenda, a spokeswoman for Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF Party, said the visit “shows we have good relations with other countries.”
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