BOORSEE

KIAMBU, KENYA — Turn into Tatu City on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and it feels like entering a different world.

Even the country’s most reckless drivers are transformed, slowing to a crawl and not tossing trash out the window — thanks to surveillance cameras and rigorously enforced penalties for speeding and littering.

For the 5,000 people who have moved into Tatu, a “startup city” that welcomed its first residents four years ago, the ruthless upholding of such rules makes the place appealing.

“Tatu has more law and order than other places,” said Valerie Akoko, a digital content creator who moved in two years ago. “I’ve never seen Tatu City dirty.”

Situated on 2,023 hectares, Tatu City aspires to be what its name suggests: a city, privately owned, that its designers hope will eventually have a population of 250,000. It is already home to 88 businesses employing 15,000 people. They include CCI Global, which operates a 5,000-seat call center, and Zhende Medical, a Chinese medical supply manufacturer.

There are similar projects around the world. But in sub-Saharan Africa, champions of the idea hope that new-city developments can address the continent’s urbanization conundrum: While the growth of cities has rolled back poverty elsewhere, the region has largely been an exception.

History suggests that as people move into cities, productivity increases, wages rise, exports grow and a country gets richer. But in Africa, urbanization has rarely unleashed such economic transformation.

In theory, Africa should be prospering. The continent’s urban population is set to grow by 900 million by 2050, according to the United Nations, more than the present urban population of Europe and North America combined.

But sub-Saharan Africa is urbanizing while still poor.

“Towns and cities in Africa today simply lack the tax base needed to invest in the urban infrastructure needed to accommodate the tsunami of people being added to their ranks in a short period of time,” said Kurtis Lockhart, director of the Africa Urban Lab, a research center at the African School of Economics in Zanzibar.

Weak property rights and political tensions can make the problem worse.

Even Tatu City has battled Kenyan politicians and politically connected businessmen. In 2018, the London Court of International Arbitration ruled in favor of the development’s multinational owner, Rendeavour, in a dispute with its Kenyan former partners, including a former governor of the central bank. The dispute delayed project development by several years.

Last year, Tatu City’s Kenya head, Preston Mendenhall, took the unusual step of accusing the governor of the county where the development is based of extortion, saying he had demanded land worth $33 million in exchange for approving its updated master plan. The governor denied it and is suing Tatu City and Mendenhall for defamation. No ruling has been made.

Still, the case for building new cities, complete with new infrastructure, is compelling to some. The Charter Cities Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit, argues that, done properly, such projects could drive growth, create jobs and “lift tens of millions of people out of poverty.” The institute sees Tatu City as a model.

Yet building new cities is hard. Africa is littered with failed projects.

A handful have shown promise. Angola’s Quilamba city, whose construction began in 2002, is arguably the most successful, with a population of more than 130,000. It was built by CITIC, a state-owned Chinese company, but is owned by the Angolan government.

Perhaps a dozen new city projects — from Zanzibar to Zambia — are underway in Africa that stand a chance of emulating Quilamba, experts reckon. Of these, Tatu is the farthest along, with 26,400 people already living, working or studying there.

Experts agree that the private sector must play a role in African urbanization, saying African states are too fiscally constrained to fill the investment gap themselves. Rendeavour, a private company with a multibillion-dollar balance sheet, has deep enough pockets to make a difference.

But leaving city-building to the private sector alone can cause problems, for instance by worsening inequality. The average price of a property at Eko Atlantic, a new-city development on the outskirts of Lagos, is $415,000, far beyond the means of most Nigerians.

“Startup cities can serve as hubs for innovation and alleviate pressure on overcrowded urban centers,” said Anacláudia Rossbach, executive director of the U.N.’s Human Settlements Program, or UN-Habitat. “However, to be impactful, they must prioritize inclusivity, affordability and integration with existing urban areas, ensuring they serve all socioeconomic groups rather than becoming isolated enclaves for elites.”

A one-bedroom apartment in Tatu City sells for $45,500, still beyond the means of most Kenyans, but within reach of some in the emerging middle class. Kenya’s per capita GDP was $1,961 in 2023, according to the World Bank.

The development collaborates with Kenya’s government, which has designated Tatu City a special economic zone. That means companies setting up there are eligible for tax benefits and other incentives, making it a model of private-public partnership, experts say.

Tatu City also appeals to businesses and residents with its transparent governance structure and services that are often lacking elsewhere in Kenya, including its own water supply and energy grid. It falls under national law but can set its own rules on matters like traffic and what kind of houses can be built, with all plans requiring approval from Tatu’s management.

“If you look at the infrastructure, if you look at the utilities, if you look at the controls, if you look at the security, it is one of the best,” said Sylvester Njuguna, who lives and owns a restaurant there.

Unlike many startup cities built far from urban centers, Tatu City is 19 kilometers north of Nairobi, close enough to plug into its labor markets.

According to Lockhart with the Africa Urban Lab, new city projects usually succeed if they are close enough to a major urban center and house both a high-quality anchor tenant — CCI Global in Tatu City’s case — and good schools. They should operate under effective management and respond to market demand.

Tatu meets these criteria and, unlike many grandiosely conceived African city projects, it has grown organically like Rendeavour’s other city projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and the Congo, according to Mendenhall.

“We are building what the market needs,” he said. “We are not putting all the infrastructure on day one.” 
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GENEVA — U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned on Friday that Sudanese civilians were in greater peril than ever as ethnically motivated attacks and hate speech by the warring parties becomes “increasingly common.”

“As the Sudanese Armed Forces [SAF] and Rapid Support Forces [RSF] battle for control at all costs in the senseless war that [has] raged for close to two years now, direct and ethnically motivated attacks on civilians are becoming increasingly common,” he said in a statement.

“The situation for civilians in Sudan is already desperate, and there is evidence of the commission of war crimes and other atrocity crimes,” Türk said.  “I fear the situation is now taking a further, even more dangerous turn.”

Since the rival forces and generals went to war in mid-April 2023, the United Nations has said, more than 24,000 people have been killed and more than 14 million have been displaced — 11 million inside the country and over 3 million as refugees in neighboring countries.

Widespread hunger

The World Food Program has reported that nearly 24.6 million people — nearly half the population — suffer from acute hunger and an estimated 1.5 million are on the verge of famine.  The World Health Organization has said around 90% of health facilities are not functional, and that cholera, malaria, dengue and measles have been reported in over 12 states.

“This is an extremely dire situation which deserves all the attention it can get to put whatever pressure the international community can to bring this conflict to an end,”  Türk’s spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, told journalists Friday at a briefing in Geneva.

In the last week alone, she said, the U.N. Human Rights Office documented at least 21 deaths in two attacks in Al Jazirah state, “although the actual numbers of attacks directed at civilians and of civilians killed are very likely much higher.”

“The reason why we felt we had to speak out today is because of reports of an imminent battle for Khartoum,” she said.  “We are worried about the kinds of violations that we may see as the parties to the conflict battle for control at all costs for Khartoum, and we are worried that this is taking us further away from peace and further into a horrific situation for civilians.”

Türk expressed concern about retaliatory attacks of “shocking brutality” on entire communities based on real or perceived ethnic identity and hate speech, which he said were on the rise and were acting as “an incitement to violence.”

“This must, urgently, be brought to an end,” he said.

Shamdasani reported that the human rights office has received three videos that document scenes of violence, including summary executions that were hailed by perpetrators as “a cleaning operation.” The victims were referred to as animals and dirt before being killed.

“The videos reportedly were filmed in Wad Madani with men in SAF uniforms visibly present,” the spokesperson said.

“Serious concerns also persist for civilians in North Darfur, where ethnically motivated attacks by the RSF and its allied Arab militias against African ethnic groups, particularly the Zaghawa and Fur, continue to exact a horrific toll,” she said.

Effects on neighbors

Aid workers in the region have reported that the multiplying horrors of the war in Sudan are having serious effects on neighboring countries, particularly South Sudan.

Speaking from the South Sudanese capital, Juba, Florence Gillette, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in South Sudan, said ICRC’s mobile surgical team in the town of Renk had treated more than 230 patients wounded by weapons in just one month.

She said more than 120,000 people from Sudan had fled to South Sudan since early December — this on top of 800,000 people who already had sought safety in South Sudan since the war began.

“Dozens of them, wounded by the violence, have required urgent medical care by ICRC doctors,” she said.

“The ongoing influx of Sudanese refugees and South Sudanese returnees is straining resources throughout Renk communities,” she said. “This is particularly worrying as South Sudan continues to face a cholera outbreak with more than 20,000 cases recorded in the country so far.”

Meanwhile, Türk renewed his call for both warring parties to abide by international humanitarian and human rights law.  “Attacks must never be directed against civilians,” he said

Arms embargo

Shamdasani said the high commissioner also was calling on all states to abide by a U.N. arms embargo and “to refrain from providing all types of military support in Sudan.”

Just as nations fail to abide by the U.N. arms embargo, she acknowledged, sanctions imposed by individual countries often are not respected.

This was a reference to the United States, which declared sanctions on army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Thursday, a week after the U.S. slapped sanctions on RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Sudan’s army-aligned foreign ministry has rejected the U.S. sanctions, calling them “immoral.”

Shamdasani said her office generally opposed broad sanctions because they can damage human rights in a country. “But targeted sanctions can be effective in exerting pressure on specific individuals and organizations that are responsible for the perpetration of conflict,” she said. “So we are calling on states to use whatever measures they can, to use whatever leverage they have to pressure the parties to the conflict to bring this war to an end.”
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WASHINGTON — At least 67 journalists are imprisoned across Africa, reflecting the continent’s ongoing struggle for a free press, according to a report released Thursday.

The cases in Africa contribute to a global total of 361 journalists jailed as of Dec. 1, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. It is the second-highest number ever recorded by CPJ.

Muthoki Mumo, the Africa program coordinator at CPJ, said the report highlights a global trend in which authoritarian regimes weaponize laws against journalists, using national security, anti-terror and cybercrime legislation to justify crackdowns.

While these trends are not confined to Africa, the continent has seen alarming cases of journalists facing prosecution under such laws, said Mumo. Countries such as Burundi, Ethiopia and Nigeria are using legislation intended for public safety to criminalize journalism, Mumo said.

In Nigeria, “You have four journalists behind bars being prosecuted under cybercrime legislation in connection to their reporting on corruption,” Mumo told VOA in a video interview.

And in Ethiopia, six journalists are behind bars. “Five of them are facing prosecution under anti-terrorism laws. They could potentially face very harsh penalties if they are convicted,” said Mumo.

Another trend, the media advocacy group says, is the use of vague and broad laws to target journalists.

In Burundi, Sandra Muhoza, a reporter for the online media outlet La Nova Burundi was convicted under national security laws after posting a WhatsApp message. The case, said Mumo, is a clear example of the criminalization of journalism.

Muhoza was convicted recently of trying to “undermine the ‘integrity of the national territory’ — which is a mouthful — but it’s essentially, a provision in Burundian laws about national security, and this was turned against this journalist,” Mumo said.

VOA sent messages to Burundi’s government spokesperson, Jerome Niyonzima, along with the Ethiopian communication services minister, Legesse Tulu, and Eritrea’s information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, requesting comment, but inquiries went unanswered. The Washington embassy of Nigeria has not yet responded to VOA requests for comment.

The continent’s top jailers are familiar names, with Egypt topping the list as the worst jailer of journalists, with 17 held. “In Egypt, we’ve seen anti-state laws being turned against the media,” Mumo said.

Eritrea, known for its long-standing detention of journalists, follows closely behind, with 16 journalists behind bars — some since 2001. Eritrea is home to the longest-detained journalists in the world, many of whom have never been tried in court.

“That’s a very dubious honor on the part of Eritrea that the journalists who have been behind jail the longest in the world are actually Eritreans,” Mumo said.

Jodie Ginsberg, the head of CPJ, said it is important to keep advocating for those imprisoned in Eritrea. The country “falls off the radar internationally,” she told VOA, “Because of how little press freedom and media freedom there is to report on what’s happening inside.”

“It’s very easy sometimes to forget some of those longer cases. They go out of the public eye,” Ginsberg told VOA, adding that it is important to talk about “places where journalists have been in jail for a very, very long time and still need to be fought for.”

Ethiopia, where journalists have been held without trial for extended periods, is another major offender, along with Cameroon, Rwanda and Tunisia. In these countries, journalists are often detained under “anti-state regulation, the use of false news regulations to throw a journalist behind bars and to prosecute them.” Mumo said.

CPJ’s report highlights press freedom issues in Angola, where Carlos Raimundo Alberto, an editor who was arrested on Sept. 29, 2023, remains detained. Raimundo qualified for parole in November 2024 but has yet to comply with a court order to publicly apologize to a government official.

And in Senegal, journalist Rene Capain Bassene has been jailed for life for a crime that witnesses said he could not have committed, the report said.

Mumo said CPJ faces challenges accessing information in some regions about the state of media freedom.

But, she said, “It could also be about intimidation; family members and others who are aware of arrest may not always want to speak out about them.”

Despite obstacles, she said, CPJ strives to keep the names of detained journalists alive. The media advocacy group calls on governments to respect the rights of journalists and make sure that their work is not criminalized.

While the prison census offers a snapshot of the situation on a specific date, Mumo said the report alone cannot fully capture the often-fluid reality journalists face.

The report offers a small window into the larger picture of press freedom, Mumo said, “because there are journalists who go in and out of prison during other times of the year. They’re not reflected in this number.”

VOA’s Liam Scott contributed to this report.
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NAIROBI, KENYA — Human Rights Watch has found that African governments continue to crack down and wrongly arrest political opponents, critics, activists and journalists. The rights group also says armed forces and armed groups in some African countries have targeted civilians, killing them and driving them from their homes.

The conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia feature prominently in a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday.

The report says that in Sudan, the war between the armed forces and the rebel Rapid Support Forces has displaced 12 million people, destroyed infrastructure and blocked humanitarian assistance.

In Ethiopia, rights group investigators found that government forces in the Amhara region committed widespread attacks against medical professionals, patients and health facilities.

Mausi Segun, head of the Human Rights Watch Africa Division, said armed conflict is not the only form of rights violation on the continent.

“On top of all of that, you have civic space restriction abuses, including intolerance for freedom of expression, intolerance for freedom of association and assembly,” Segun said. “Protests are being clamped down on, and people who are pushing for their rights or even commenting on government policies and measures are being hunted down. Here in East Africa, we are seeing very disturbing trends towards abductions.”

Kenya has captured the attention of human rights groups for recent alleged abductions of anti-government protesters and activists from foreign countries, some of whom have been deported to Turkey and Uganda.

The HRW report also focuses on the seemingly endless conflict in the Congo, where civilians are killed, women raped, and attacks on camps for the internally displaced push more people into neighboring countries.

Congo has accused Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels, an allegation Rwanda denies.

Clementine de Montoye, Human Rights Watch senior researcher, said the expansion of conflict worsens civilians’ harm, adding, “we are not seeing significant signs of pressure on the different parties to the conflict to reduce violations and harms to civilians.”

The report says that countries in West Africa ruled by the military — like Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — have cracked down on opposition and dissent, freedom of expression, and backsliding in the fight against corruption.

It notes that in Southern Africa, Mozambique is grappling with post-election violence in which hundreds of people have been killed.

Elizabeth Kamundia, deputy director of disability rights at Human Rights Watch, said conflict and violence are causing a rise in physical and psychological issues.

“We have seen a rise in the number of people acquiring injuries that lead to disabilities,” Kamundia said. “We’ve seen increased psychological distress and mental health impacts on people, families and communities as a result of war and conflict. We’ve seen difficulties with access to medication for people who have mental health conditions, and therefore, they are forced to stop their treatment.”

Human Rights Watch’s newly-released World Report reviewed human rights records of more than 100 countries, including 25 in Africa.

Despite the widespread abuses and violence against people in Africa, HRW notes that, like the rest of the world, African people are resisting and pushing back against autocratic rule and abuse of their rights. It notes they are mobilizing on social media and streets to demand an end to the abuses and bad governance that has contributed to divisions and conflict among communities.
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