INTL Africa: Politics, Economics, Military- June 2022

[Plain Jane]

May's thread:

INTL - Africa: Politics, Economics, Military- May 2022

April’s thread: https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/africa-politics-economics-military-april-2022.617563/#post-9122466 Regional Conflict In Mediterranean beginning page 79...

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Conflict in Mediterranean beginning page 80:

WAR - Regional conflict brewing in the Mediterranean

Drone explodes near a military base inside Bagdad airport View: https://mobile.twitter.com/EndGameWW3/status/1528894841391824896?cxt=HHwWgICygcDw3LcqAAAA

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Main Coronavirus thread beginning page 1571:

CORONA - Main Coronavirus thread

[CONTINUED FROM POST ABOVE] September 2021 - Scotland launched it’s first investigation into an abnormal spike in newborn baby deaths that was triggered by surpassing a threshold in infant deaths that hadn’t been seen since the 1980’s. (Note- this spike did not occur in 2020, the Year of Covid)...

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UN condemns piracy in world's hotspot -- the Gulf of Guinea

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday strongly condemning piracy, armed robbery and hostage-taking in the Gulf of Guinea, the world’s top hotspot for attacks on shipping and seafarers.

apnews.com

UN condemns piracy in world's hotspot -- the Gulf of Guinea

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UN condemns piracy in world’s hotspot -- the Gulf of Guinea
By EDITH M. LEDERERtoday


UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday strongly condemning piracy, armed robbery and hostage-taking in the Gulf of Guinea, the world’s top hotspot for attacks on shipping and seafarers.

The resolution sponsored by Ghana and Norway calls on countries on Africa’s west coast along the Gulf of Guinea to criminalize piracy and armed robbery at sea and take action to penalize perpetrators.

It stresses the importance of enhanced coordination among countries on the Gulf of Guinea and international and regional organizations to deter pirates and robbers. It also urges all countries to share information with Interpol, the international law enforcement body.

Ghana’s U.N. ambassador, Harold Agyeman, told the council that despite a resolution it adopted 10 years ago and a code of conduct on the way in which states in the region address the issue of piracy, 130 of the 135 kidnappings of ships’ crews worldwide in 2020 took place in the Gulf of Guinea.


According to the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center, global piracy dropped in 2021 but the threat level in the Gulf of Guinea region remains high.

Calling maritime piracy “one of the foremost security concerns on the African continent,” Agyeman said that “urgent attention is required in combating the menace since it is detrimental to the development of coastal economies in the region.”

He said piracy also risks compounding a host of other challenges facing West Africa, including a surge in terrorism, a return of military coups and the worsening impact of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Norwegian Ambassador Mona Juul said, “Every day, more than a thousand boats and ships crisscross the waters of the Gulf of Guinea.”

“It is crucial for the development and economic welfare of dozens of countries in west, central and southern Africa” for the piracy to be ended, she said.

According to a recent U.N. study, Juul said, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea costs countries on the coast at least $2 billion a year.

“Even with the encouraging progress being made -- helped by renewed efforts by countries like Nigeria -- the Gulf of Guinea remains the world’s most dangerous places for ships and seafarers,” she said.

The resolution asks U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report within five months on the underlying causes of piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf of Guinea “including any possible and potential linkages with terrorism in west and central Africa and the Sahel.”

 

[Plain Jane]

Why do tensions between DR Congo and Rwanda persist? | DW | 31.05.2022

The atmosphere between Kinshasa and Kigali is explosive, with the two governments trading blame once more over brutal rebels. Experts say the longstanding dispute will persist until past issues are resolved.

www.dw.com

Why do tensions between DR Congo and Rwanda persist?
The atmosphere between Kinshasa and Kigali is explosive, with the two governments trading blame once more over brutal rebels. Experts say the longstanding dispute will persist until past issues are resolved.



Civilians have been fleeing the fighting between Congolese soldiers and M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Hundreds of houses in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are abandoned, their owners long gone.

Thousands more in the territory of Nyiragongo, near the North Kivu capital of Goma, have now fled their homes, as fighting between the Congolese army (FARDC) and M23 rebels continues.

They emptied their homes, taking mattresses, jerrycans, kitchenware, sheep and goats, and took off in the direction of the border with Uganda. Most are hopeful that their escape to Uganda is not permanent.

"We shall just stay around the border, and when the fighting takes a pause we go back to our gardens and harvest food for our children," says Pascal Muto, a father and husband.

"We fear living in camps because they are congested and lack sufficient food, water and medicine," he tells DW.

Tension on the increase
Renewed fighting between military forces and the rebel group M23 erupted on several fronts last week in North Kivu, along the border with Rwanda.

The latest attacks have led to increased tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali. The two countries are trading blame over the poor security situation in the region.


People flee fighting between Congolese forces and M23 rebels in North Kivu

Last week, Rwanda said that several civilians were injured in cross-border shelling of its territory by the Congolese military.

Kigali also accused the DRC of backing Hutu rebels it said had abducted two of its soldiers.

But the Congolese army said the soldiers had been trespassing on its soil and had been detained by locals.

Kinshasa suspended flights to the DRC by Rwanda's national carrier RwandAir in retaliation and summoned Kigali's ambassador. The DRC accuses Rwanda of backing M23.

The rebels last month attacked two Congolese army positions near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda and advanced on nearby towns. Hundreds of people staged an anti-Rwanda protest in Kinshasa on Monday.

Rwanda under fire
"Our forces are not fighting M23," says Pierre Kisunzu, a livestock farmer, who also fled the DRC and is now in Uganda.

"They are fighting Rwandan forces. Rwanda is the one destabilizing us and we are tired of this. DRC has joined the East African Community. The regional leaders should intervene," he says.


Congolese soldiers are frequently being attacked by M23 rebels

Kisunzu is not alone with his claim.

"We ask our government not to remain in this lethargy, it must understand better than anyone else that we are being attacked by Rwanda because the M23 is still sponsored by Rwanda," says John Banyene, a civil society leader in North Kivu.

"This is not the time to go to other dialogues either, because we have held enough of them without results. Our government must be responsible," Banyene tells DW.

In Goma, civil society representative Marrion Ngavo believes that the military presence along the border with Rwanda should be reinforced.

"The civil society of the city of Goma urgently asks the Congolese government to secure the city of Goma by closing the borders with Rwanda until the end of hostilities," she says.

The Congolese opposition group Bloc Patriotique Credible du Peuple (BPCP) supports the idea.

BPCP spokesman Augustin Bisimwa says that it would be a good time for the DRC to break diplomatic ties.

"The government should expel the Rwandan ambassador to Congo and immediately return the Congolese ambassador to Rwanda," Bisimwa says.

Why the explosive atmosphere?
According to Felix Ndahinda, a researcher on conflict and justice in the Great Lakes region, Rwanda also has its reasons for accusing DRC of not doing enough.

"It's a very well-known fact that the DRC does host groups, which Rwanda considers terrorist groups. For that very reason, Rwanda has done quite many interventions in eastern DRC directly, sometimes even through the authorities, claiming security concerns," says Ndahinda.


Who is supporting the M23?

Some rebel groups relocated to the DRC when the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front took over in Rwanda in 1994.

"And those have never been disarmed and have always been constituted a real threat to Rwandan government,", says Ndahinda. "So until those rebels are either fully demobilized or fully disarmed, I guess there will always be a security issue between the two countries."

However, the insecurity in the border region is not a matter of Congo and Rwanda alone, Ndahinda underlines.

"More than 120 different militia operation have been documented in that region. There are quite a number of those who origin from Rwanda, but a number of those are also from Kinyarwanda-speaking people from eastern Congo who are Congolese for all purposes. But disarming all of those groups is very difficult."

The M23, which is largely an ethnic Tutsi group, is opposed to the government that came to power in the DRC in 2012 and seized control of Goma.

The army and United Nations forces dislodged the M23 from Goma and many of rebels fled to Rwanda and Uganda before the signing of a 2013 peace agreement.

But they have since returned to stage attacks, saying the DRC government has failed to honor a 2009 agreement under which rebel fighters were to be incorporated into the army.

Kinshasa has designated M23 a terrorist group and excluded it from the peace talks being held in Kenya with other militia groups that are active in eastern DRC.


The head of the M23 Congolese rebels, Roger Lumbala

Peace talks exclude some rebels
"At least the narrative in Rwanda today is that the M23 is still contained in Rwanda, far from the border", says Ndahinda. "That faction was actually admitted to the talks in Nairobi, but the faction, which is in Uganda, seems to be the one active."

Ndahinda believes that part of the latest escalation in violence stems from the exclusion of the M23 faction from the talks in Nairobi.

"And one accusation is that the Congolese authorities are picking some of the groups rather than adopting a way of approaching the different groups," the researcher says. "That might be indeed quite dangerous."

The M23 has threatened to continue the violence until Kinshasa respects the agreements they jointly signed.

"This time we will go all the way, especially since we are claiming our most legitimate rights," says Major Willy Ngoma, the military spokesman for the M23.

"We spent 14 months negotiating in Kinshasa and as soon as we returned, the FARDC [Congolese military] started to attack us. We are simply asking the Congolese government to be an appropriate interlocutor. Everything we said during the negotiations, we must respect."


The President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame

Reasons for tensions lie in the past
The DRC and Rwanda have had a tumultuous relationship since the mass arrival in the republic of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Some of those accused of the killings have since set up militias in eastern DRC.

In 2019, relations had improved after Felix Tshisekedi became the president of DRC, but the resurgence of the M23 has reignited tensions.

But according to Ndahinda, the reason for the ongoing tensions lie in the past. "Those security issues have lasted more than 30 years. The collective grievances are the identity narrative — who belongs, who does not, the autonomy language and so on," he says.

"The population with Rwandan, Ugandan or Burundi origin have always been considered as recent immigrants, and that is a dynamic which is internal to Congo, which has never been solved."

On Sunday, African Union chair Macky Sall called for "calm and dialogue for a peaceful resolution of the crisis with the support of regional mechanisms and the African Union."

A day later Sall, who is president of Senegal, confirmed that he had brought President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Felix Tshisekedi of DRC in touch on the phone with a view to resolving the current impasse.


George Okachi, Nety Zaidi Zanem and Hawa Bihoga contributed to this article.

Edited by: Benita van Eyssen

 

[Plain Jane]

Tunisia's president fires 57 judges – DW – 06/02/2022

President Kais Saied issued the order with a list of judges to be dismissed, accusing them of corruption and stalling terrorism cases. Critics have blasted the dismissals as an "affront" to judicial independence.

www.dw.com

Tunisia's president fires 57 judges accused of corruption, critics outraged
President Kais Saied issued the order with a list of judges to be dismissed, accusing them of corruption and stalling terrorism cases. Critics have blasted the dismissals as an "affront" to judicial independence.




Tunisian President Kais Saied has been criticized for the actions he has taken, among them dissolving parliament and seizing power of the judiciary

Tunisian President Kais Saied has fired 57 of the country's judges, allegedly for involvement in corruption and obstructing hearings of terrorism cases.

A list of names of those who had been sacked was published in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Said accused the judges of financial and ethical corruption, collusion with political parties and "deviating the course of terrorism cases," among other allegations.


Watch video04:21
Tunisia's democracy in crisis: Analyst Mariam Salehi speaks to DW
Dismissals described as 'affront' to judicial independence
In February, Saied gave himself power over the judiciary by establishing a new judicial watchdog which allowed him to fire judges and block promotions and appointments.

Regional director of the International Commission of Jurists, Said Bernabia, slammed the dismissals in a series of tweets. "The amendment is an affront to the separation of powers and judicial independence. Through it, the collapse of the rule of law the constitutional order is now complete," Bernabia said.

The president has been accused of increasing his grip on power since last year's suspension of the country's parliament, the dismissal of the sitting prime minister and granting himself executive powers.

Saied has in the past said that the measures he has taken are intended to save Tunisia from collapse.

However, critics say he is leading the country firmly on the path toward authoritarian rule.
Saied, insists that his political moves are democratic and have been necessary to guide the country to a new constitution, through a referendum planned for July 2022.
kb/nm (AFP, dpa)

 

[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use.....

2 UN peacekeepers killed in 6th incident in Mali in 2 weeks

Two U.N. peacekeepers were killed when their armored personnel carrier hit an improvised explosive device in central Mali in the sixth incident in less than two weeks targeting the U.N. mission in the West African nation that has faced a decade-long Islamic insurgency.

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2 UN peacekeepers killed in 6th incident in Mali in 2 weeks
By EDITH M. LEDERER
yesterday

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Two U.N. peacekeepers were killed Friday when their armored personnel carrier hit an improvised explosive device in central Mali in the sixth incident in less than two weeks targeting the U.N. mission in the West African nation that has faced a decade-long Islamic insurgency.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the device that killed the Egyptian peacekeepers and wounded one other was planted on a road outside the town of Douentza in the Mopti region.

Their APC was escorting a civilian convoy and was on its way from Douentza to Timbuktu when it hit the device, he said.

“The intent is to disrupt the lives of the Malian people, to disrupt transport, to disrupt security,” Dujarric said. “These roads are used by civilians, civilian trucks, civilian buses, but also by the security forces, whether it’s the Malian army or U.N. peacekeepers … (who) have been victims over and over again of improvised explosive devices.”

It was the sixth incident in which a U.N. peacekeeping mission convoy was hit since May 22 and the second fatal attack on a convoy this week, the U.N. spokesman said.

A U.N. peacekeeping convoy was attacked by suspected terrorists in the northern Kidal region on Wednesday and a Jordanian peacekeeper was killed and three other Jordanians were wounded. Dujarric said the supply convoy came under sustained fire for about an hour from attackers who used small arms and rocket launchers.

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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the latest attack against the 18,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali whose primary mandate is to protect civilians.

Mali has struggled to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012. Extremist rebels were forced from power in Mali’s northern cities with the help of a French-led military operation, but they regrouped in the desert and began launching attacks on the Malian army and its allies. Insecurity has worsened with attacks in the northern and central regions on civilians and U.N. peacekeepers.

The U.N. mission says over 255 of its peacekeepers and personnel have died since 2013, making Mali the deadliest of the U.N.’s dozen peacekeeping missions worldwide.

“The word grateful isn’t strong enough to express how we feel towards those member states which continue to provide many peacekeepers around the world,” Dujarric said. “Egyptians, Jordanians, Chadians and others have given their lives for the people of Mali for the cause of peace and we’re eternally grateful for their continued support.”

The head of the U.N. mission in Mali, El Ghassim Wane, condemned Friday’s attack on the U.N. convoy, saying such attacks can constitute war crimes.

He also condemned an attack Wednesday near Kayes in western Mali on Wednesday by gunmen riding motorcycles against a vehicle marked with the Red Cross emblem that killed a worker for the Dutch Red Cross and the car’s driver.

 

[Plain Jane]

Grain supply tops Putin's talks with African Union leader

The chairman of the African Union, Senegal’s President Macy Sall, has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the fighting in Ukraine and Western sanctions had worsened food shortages, He appealed to other countries to ensure grain and fertilizer exports aren’t blocked.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-politics-africa-4d0fbfe2b121a4d015be09407e883a95#

Grain supply tops Putin’s talks with African Union leader
yesterday



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Russian President Vladimir Putin, left back to a camera, speaks greets African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, center, and Senegalese President and the chairman of the African Union Macky Sall during their meeting in the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Friday, June 3, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

MOSCOW (AP) — The chairman of the African Union, Senegal’s President Macy Sall, told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the fighting in Ukraine and Western sanctions had worsened food shortages, and appealed to other countries to ensure grain and fertilizer exports aren’t blocked.

For his part, Putin blamed the West for emerging global food and energy crises and repeated his government’s offers of safe passage for ships exporting grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s leading exporters of wheat and corn.

“We will facilitate the peaceful passage and guarantee the safety of arrivals to these ports, as well as the entry of foreign ships and their movement through the Azov and Black seas, in any direction,” Putin pledged, in remarks carried on Russian state TV after his meeting with Sall in the Black Sea city of Sochi.

Ukraine and its allies have said that Russia is to blame for blocking Ukraine’s grain exports, because of threats to shipping from Russian naval vessels. Ukraine also fears that opening up safe corridors to Ukrainian ports could make them vulnerable to Russian attack.



African countries are especially hard hit by the food shortages and price increases. They imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to U.N. figures, and wheat prices have soared around 45% as a result of the supply disruption, according to the African Development Bank.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

• As
  https://apnews.com/article/russia-u...and-politics-139234bb95a3fe3ca2de0fe2c716dda8

Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, has urged the West to lift sanctions imposed over its military action in Ukraine so that grain starts flowing freely to global markets. While food and fertilizer are exempt, sanctions have targeted Russian shipping and made international shipping companies reluctant to transport Russian cargoes.

“The fact that this crisis brought the cessation of exports from Ukraine, but also from Russia because of sanctions, we have found ourselves in between these two,” Sall told reporters. “It’s of absolute necessity that they (Western partners) help to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grains, but also that Russia is able to export fertilizers, food products, but mainly cereals.”
In citing the sanctions as a contributing factor, Sall is partly supporting Putin’s explanations.

The Russian president appears to be attempting to drive a wedge in international support for sanctions and emphasize that other countries are suffering more than Russia, in terms of inflation, shortages of goods, the burden of refugees from Ukraine, increasing inflation, and the costs of economic and military aid to Ukraine.

Britain last week accused Russia of “trying to hold the world to ransom” by demanding relief from Western sanctions to allow grain exports.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of blocking Ukrainian ports to halt exports, endangering world food supplies.

“Russia has played hunger games recently to put the blame on Ukraine and others for blocking Ukrainian food exports,” Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine’s envoy to the U.N. office in Geneva, said in an interview Friday.


Putin on Friday again denied blocking Ukrainian ports, and said it was a “bluff” to blame Russia.
“Of course, we are now seeing attempts to shift the responsibility for what is happening on the world food market, the emerging problems in this market, onto Russia,” he said. on Russian TV. “I must say that this is an attempt, as our people say, to shift these problems from a sick to a healthy head.”

Putin on Friday proposed several corridors to allow foreign ships safely to leave ports along the Black and Azov seas. He said Odesa and other ports under Ukrainian control could be used for exports after mines are removed and also those now under Russian control – Berdyansk and Mariupol. He also suggested moving grain through other countries such as neighboring Belarus.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday that Ukraine was ready to create the necessary conditions to resume exports from Odesa, the country’s largest port.
“The question is how to make sure that Russia doesn’t abuse the trade route to attack the city of Odesa,” Kuleba tweeted. “No guarantees from Russia so far. We seek solutions together with the UN and partners.”

Sall noted problems with the Belarus option. “Another way is to pass through Belarus, but Belarus is also under sanctions, although it’s the most direct way in reality, through Belarus to the Baltic Sea,” he said.


The supply chain issues brought on by the fighting in Ukraine come as large portions of Africa already were grappling with drought and other problems.

Senegal was one of 17 African nations that abstained from voting on the U.N. resolution condemning Russia’s military action in Ukraine. According to the partial Kremlin transcript, Sall told Putin many African countries didn’t condemn Moscow despite what he described as strong pressure to do so.

The United Nations has warned that 18 million people are facing severe hunger in the Sahel, the part of Africa just below the Sahara Desert where farmers are facing their worst agricultural production in more than a decade. About 13 million more people face severe hunger in the Horn of Africa region as a result of a persistent drought.

With the conflict in Ukraine now in its fourth month, world leaders have ramped up calls for solutions. World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said about 25 million tons of Ukrainian grain are in storage and another 25 million tons could be harvested next month.

 

[Plain Jane]

Ethiopia’s mass arrests show rift with former Amhara allies

Once a key ally of Ethiopia’s federal government in its deadly war in the country’s northern Tigray region, the neighboring Amhara region has become the setting for thousands of government-led mass arrests and disappearances of activists, journalists and others in recent weeks.

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https://apnews.com/article/politics-kenya-africa-ethiopia-arrests-324b72c41ce1d991db8ff222e8469887#

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Ethiopia’s mass arrests show rift with former Amhara allies
June 3, 2022



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FILE - Passengers look out from an auto-rickshaw, known locally as a "bajaj", in Gondar, in the Amhara region of Ethiopia on May 2, 2021. Once a key ally of the federal government in its deadly war in the Tigray region, the neighboring Amhara region has in May 2022 experienced government-led mass arrests and disappearances of activists, journalists and other perceived critics. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Once a key ally of Ethiopia’s federal government in its deadly war in the country’s northern Tigray region, the neighboring Amhara region is now experiencing government-led mass arrests and disappearances of activists, journalists and other perceived critics.

More than 4,500 people have been arrested in the Amhara region as of May 23, according to officials, but some activists say the real figure could be much higher. They accuse Ethiopia’s government of targeting ethnic Amhara people it considers a threat to its authority as it tries to move on from the Tigray crisis.

The arrests are the latest sign that the federal government of Ethiopia — Africa’s second-most populous country with 115 million people — is struggling to centralize its authority among scores of ethnic groups. The Amhara are the second-largest ethnic group and, along with Tigrayans, the source of many of the country’s leaders — and critics, especially after frustration grew during the war when Tigray forces invaded the Amhara region and attacked civilians.


The federal government’s arrests among the Amhara are “a pre-emptive action to consolidate their power, which they think is slowly slipping out of their hands, especially in the Amhara region,” Yilkal Getnet, deputy chairman of the opposition party Hibir Ethiopia, told The Associated Press. “For me, these mass arrests are politically motivated.

• https://apnews.com/article/2022-mid...ampaign-2016-9126bc3a99e2084e6654a2bd112c467a

The independent Ethiopian Human Rights Council earlier this week said it’s not known where most detainees in the Amhara region are being held, alleging that many people were subjected to “kidnappings.” Separately, the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission called the “unlawful detention” of at least 19 journalists a “new low.”

On Wednesday, federal police announced it had identified 111 online media outlets it called illegal and are “attempting to cause a rift between the government and the general public.” It said 10 suspects are in custody.

Ethiopia’s government and Amhara regional officials defend the arrests and say they will continue.

“There were attempts to portray the government as weak, and to cause public unrest and violence,” regional spokesman Gizachew Muluneh told a press conference on Wednesday. “This conspiracy has failed. Anarchism and illegal activities have no place here.”

The Ethiopian Government Communication Service, citing requests by the public to ensure law and order, said measures are being taken against “groups that pit society against one another.”
The mass arrests aren’t limited to the Amhara region, but it’s there that outcry has been the loudest. Among those arrested are members of the Amhara militia known as the Fano which was an ally of federal forces when fighting Tigray forces. Fano members, while celebrated in state media, also were accused of some of the war’s worst atrocities.

They are now described in state media as an “irregular force,” and efforts are underway to disarm some of the fighters.

“Fano militia strengthened due to the war, and partly the arrests are an effort to bring them under government control,” said William Davison, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. “However, the broad sweep of the detentions, including multiple journalists, suggests the government is also trying to control the narrative as fears grow among Amhara that their interests will be undermined by federal government efforts to end its conflict with Tigray’s authorities.”



Three of Ethiopia’s largest opposition parties have called on the federal government to stop the arrests.

“Journalists, activists, Fano militia members, academicians, political party members and retirees are being abducted in a pretext of a ‘law enforcement operation,’” the Enat Party, All-Ethiopia Unity Party and Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Party said in a joint statement this week. “The government is using this operation to silence dissent, break the morale of the public and snatch the leaders away.”

The Amhara Association of America shared with the AP a list of several dozen detainees whom it said were targeted in recent weeks. It also alleged that seven people were killed on May 20 in Motta town in the Amhara region when army and regional special forces fired on a peaceful demonstration against the mass arrests.



The federal government fears Amhara political elites could emerge as its most pointed critics during the current respite from the Tigray war, said Yilkal with the opposition Hibir Ethiopia. The federal government in March declared a humanitarian cease-fire in the conflict that erupted in November 2020, though tensions continue.

“Those who coordinated, supported, and led the war are being arrested and chased,” Yilkal said. He now fears for his safety, saying his lawyer was arrested in recent days. He said the charge sheet says the lawyer is accused of “inciting violence and unrest.”

 

[jward]

Over 50 feared dead in Nigeria church attack, officials say
Among the dead were many children and the presiding priest was abducted

The gunmen targeted the St Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state on Sunday morning just as the worshippers gathered for the weekly Mass. © AP
June 6, 2022 07:48 JST
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Gunmen opened fire on worshippers and detonated explosives at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday, leaving dozens feared dead, state lawmakers said.

The attackers targeted the St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state just as the worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole said. Among the dead were many children, he said.
The presiding priest was abducted as well, said Adelegbe Timileyin, who represents the Owo area in Nigeria's lower legislative chamber.

"Our hearts are heavy," Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu tweeted Sunday. "Our peace and tranquility have been attacked by the enemies of the people."
Authorities did not immediately release an official death toll. Timileyin said at least 50 people had been killed, though others put the figure higher. Videos appearing to be from the scene of the attack showed church worshippers lying in pools of blood while people around them wailed.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said "only fiends from the nether region could have conceived and carried out such dastardly act," according to a statement from his spokesman.
"No matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome light. Nigeria will eventually win," said Buhari, who was elected after vowing to end Nigeria's prolonged security crisis.
In Rome, Pope Francis responded to news of the attack.

"The pope has learned of the attack on the church in Ondo, Nigeria and the deaths of dozens of worshippers, many children, during the celebration of Pentecost. While the details are being clarified, Pope Francis prays for the victims and the country, painfully affected at a time of celebration, and entrusts them both to the Lord so that he may send his spirit to console them," the pope said in a statement issued by the Vatican press office.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the church. While much of Nigeria has struggled with security issues, Ondo is widely known as one of Nigeria's most peaceful states. The state, though, has been caught up in a rising violent conflict between farmers and herders.

Nigeria's security forces did not immediately respond to questions about how the attack occurred or if there are any leads about suspects. Owo is about 345 kilometers (215 miles) east of Lagos.
"In the history of Owo, we have never experienced such an ugly incident," said lawmaker Oluwole. "This is too much."

Over 50 feared dead in Nigeria church attack, officials say

Among the dead were many children and the presiding priest was abducted

asia.nikkei.com

 

[Plain Jane]

West African leaders put off further post-coup sanctions

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — West African heads of state put off further punishing the leaders of Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso at a regional summit Saturday, as coup leaders in all three countries continue to insist that it will take years before new elections can be held.

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West African leaders put off further post-coup sanctions
By FRANCIS KOKUTSEJune 4, 2022


ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — West African heads of state put off further punishing the leaders of Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso at a regional summit Saturday, as coup leaders in all three countries continue to insist that it will take years before new elections can be held.
The 15-nation regional bloc known as ECOWAS will convene again on July 3 before determining if further sanctions will be implemented in the three suspended members states, ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said.

ECOWAS already imposed strong economic sanctions against Mali back in January — shutting down most commerce, along with land and air borders with other countries in the bloc. Those measures have crippled Mali’s economy, prompting concern about the humanitarian consequences on Malians.

The sanctions have not yet brought about a political breakthrough either: In the months since, Col. Assimi Goita has only further isolated the country internationally, pulling out of a regional security force and also shutting down two leading French media broadcasters.
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Goita’s government also still insists that no vote can be held until 2024, which would extend their time to power to nearly four years despite originally agreeing to an 18-month transition back to democracy.

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The juntas in Guinea and Burkina Faso also have proposed three-year transitions, which have been rejected by ECOWAS as too long a wait for new elections.

The wave of military coups began in August 2020, when Goita and other soldiers overthrew Mali’s democratically elected president. Nine months later, he carried out a second coup when he dismissed the country’s civilian transitional leader and became president himself.
Mutinous soldiers deposed Guinea’s president in September 2021, and Burkina Faso’s leader was ousted in yet another coup in the region back in January.

The political upheaval came at a time when many observers were starting to think that military power grabs were a thing of the past in West Africa: Mali had gone eight years without one, while Guinea had made it 13 years.
___
Associated Press writers Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali; and Boubacar Diallo in Conakry, Guinea contributed.
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[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use.....

Sudan military coup leaders tighten grip ahead of dialogue with civilians

The leaders of the coup in Sudan are gearing up for direct talks with civilians for the first time since their seizure of power about eight months ago, a few days after lifting the state of emergency in the country.

www.al-monitor.com

Sudan military coup leaders tighten grip ahead of dialogue with civilians

The leaders of the coup in Sudan are gearing up for direct talks with civilians for the first time since their seizure of power about eight months ago, a few days after lifting the state of emergency in the country.

Read more: Sudan military coup leaders tighten grip ahead of dialogue with civilians

Mohamed Saied

@MohamedSaiedF

June 6, 2022

Sudan’s rival parties are getting ready to sit face to face for the first time since the October 2021 military coup that continues to fuel a sharp political division in the country.

Volker Perthes, UN Special Representative to Sudan and head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITMAS), revealed to the press on June 2 that the Sudanese army will hold direct talks with politicians and civilian activists this month to seek a solution to the current political crisis.

The negotiating committee, which will represent the military component, will be chaired by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nicknamed Hemedti, who is the second man in the state and deputy head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council.

The news of the dialogue follows a meeting of representatives of the tripartite mechanism leading the political process in Sudan, which includes UNITMAS, the African Union (AU) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) with members of a quartet military committee formed by the Sudanese army and headed by Hemedti.

Muhammad Belish, spokesperson for the tripartite mechanism, said in a June 2 statement the meeting “was constructive and tackled issues related to the intra-Sudanese talks expected to launch next week. The talks are aimed at restoring constitutional rule and fulfilling the Sudanese people’s aspirations to democratic transition and the building of new Sudan.”

The tripartite mechanism has been holding since May 12 indirect talks with the political key players in Sudan in an attempt to reach a deal that ends the political crisis plaguing the country.

In the direct negotiations proposed by the mechanism, the Sudanese parties are to address a number of issues, most notably the relationship between the military rule and the civilian rule in the transitional period, as well as the new constitutional arrangements in addition to the mechanisms for choosing the prime minister and the executive government.
This political breakthrough came days after the ruling Sovereign Council, led by army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, announced lifting the state of emergency that has been imposed throughout the country since the Oct. 25 coup.

The council said in a statement on May 29 that the lifting order aims “to prepare the atmosphere for a fruitful and meaningful dialogue that achieves stability for the transitional period.”

The move came upon the recommendations of the Sudanese Security and Defense Council (which includes senior army leaders and is deemed the highest security body), which also called for the release of all political detainees under the emergency law.

The decision was widely welcomed internationally. The Troika countries (the United States, Britain and Norway) praised the recent steps aimed to create the appropriate environment for dialogue, calling on all Sudanese parties to engage in the political process facilitated by the tripartite mechanism.

In a May 30 statement, the tripartite mechanism also praised the decision to lift the state of emergency and release political detainees as a positive step to create the necessary conditions conducive to a peaceful solution to the ongoing political crisis.

The tripartite mechanism also called on the authorities to release the remaining detainees and take the necessary steps to guarantee the right to peaceful assembly and expression and put an end to the excessive use of force against protesters. “We encourage all stakeholders to be prepared for a constructive dialogue in good faith on a political solution and a peaceful way out of the current crisis,” the statement added.

Later, a group of lawyers reported that the Sudanese authorities released dozens of political detainees while dozens of others remain behind bars.

The Emergency Lawyers Committee, an independent human rights body that provides aid to detainees, said that 24 detainees linked to the anti-military protest movement in Port Sudan and another 39 detainees who took part in the protests in or near the capital, Khartoum, were released.

Sudan has been struggling to complete the transitional phase toward a civilian democratic government and overcome a deep political crisis that began with the popular protests in April 2019 that forced longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir out of power.

Emma DiNapoli, a legal officer focusing on Sudan for the London-based human rights organization REDRESS, said that the lifting of the state of emergency was to some extent an encouraging step.

DiNapoli told Al-Monitor that the state of emergency was declared in violation of Sudanese domestic law and international law. "It would seem premature to describe this move on its own as an indicator of progress, particularly given the continued use of excessive force against protesters and reports of additional arrests," DiNapoli added.

Sudan’s political and security instability has also led to difficult economic conditions in the country since the military coup that ended a power-sharing arrangement with civilian ruling partners, which was aimed at paving the way for democratic elections.

Burhan rejects accusations of carrying out a military coup. He labels what happened as a rectification of the course of the transitional period and pledged to hand over power through elections or a national consensus.

On April 28, Sudanese authorities released several anti-coup civilian leaders who had been arrested in the crackdown staged along the army's takeover.

In addition to the abolition of the state of emergency, political forces and pro-democracy groups demand the release of all political detainees and the cessation of violations against peaceful protesters as a prerequisite for entering into political dialogue to end the current state of tension.

Kholood Khair, founding director of Confluence Advisory, a think tank in Khartoum, said that lifting the state of emergency has not created the right level of confidence to encourage pro-democracy forces to join any negotiations with the military. "It seems like a maneuver that is being dressed up as a breakthrough," she told Al-Monitor.

Meanwhile, some pro-democracy groups and political parties that were ousted from power by the coup still refuse to negotiate directly with the military. They demand instead a civilian rule without any partnership with the military.

Since the military coup, protesters have been taking to the streets regularly to demand the establishment of civilian rule. Paramedics close to pro-democracy groups reported that 98 people have been killed in the clashes with security services since the October coup.

Cameron Hudson, senior associate on African peace, security, and governance issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Al-Monitor it feels unlikely that the lifting of the state of emergency is going to translate into tangible improvements on the ground, at least in the near term.

Hudson sees this move as an effort to create time and space for the military to strengthen its hold on power. “The military was committing abuses, arrests, and killings of protesters from the start of the revolution and well before it imposed its state of emergency. Lifting it now does not mean that it intends to reverse this trend,” he said.

He added, “They (military leaders) will now look to extract concessions of their own from protesters and the international community. However, relieving pressure on the military or praising them at this point is exactly what they want and would only empower them further."

When the army seized power, the country was brought back to square one — when the protests toppled Bashir in 2019 — while the vital international aid to the country became at stake. However, it seems clear that Sudan's military junta is not willing to relinquish power in the foreseeable future.

The army leaders are hoping to gain the approval of the Western donor countries that have suspended funds and grants, causing the economic conditions to worsen.

Sudan has recently lost 40% of its revenues, which were secured by grants and international aid. After the coup, Western financial institutions froze the funds paid to the transitional government.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund froze $2 billion in aid they were about to provide to Sudan.
The United States also suspended $700 million in aid to Sudan, in addition to a shipment of 400,000 tons of wheat that were supposed to be provided to Sudan later this year.

Yet Friends of Sudan, a group of donor countries and institutions, links the return to a civilian-led transition to the restoration of economic aid and international debt relief.

DiNapoli said that Sudan’s military has plenty of experience in cleverly managing the expectations of the international community, and the lifting of a state of emergency seems consistent with that experience. Minor concessions without more to dismantle the real systems of oppression, like Sudan’s detention centers and legal framework, are not really sufficient to demonstrate a turn toward respecting human rights or a political opening, she added.

On May 24, Perthes told the UN Security Council that if authorities want to build trust, those responsible for violence against protesters must be held to account, noting that it was time to end all violence, release remaining detainees and stop arbitrary arrests.

Earlier in March, Perthes had warned that Sudan was close to “economic and security collapse” if a civilian authority does not take over the transitional period.

Khair said that instead of any meaningful desire to engage in a political process toward a solution, this is a regime that is trying to survive — it’s not a regime that's trying to reconcile. “It does seem to be much more of a facade designed to convince the international community that the regime is looking for a solution to a crisis of its own making,” she added.

Read more: Sudan military coup leaders tighten grip ahead of dialogue with civilians

 

[Plain Jane]

Chad declares food emergency – DW – 06/06/2022

Chad's transitional government has declared a food and nutrition emergency in the wake of the Ukraine war and a poor harvest. In neighboring Niger and much of the African continent, food insecurity is skyrocketing.

www.dw.com

Chad declares food emergency as grain supplies fall
Chad's transitional government has declared a food and nutrition emergency in the wake of the Ukraine war and a poor harvest. In neighboring Niger and much of the African continent, food insecurity is skyrocketing.




A combination of poor harvest and the Ukraine war has led to Chad's food emergency
Last week, Chad declared a food emergency due to a lack of grain supplies. The landlocked African nation on Thursday urged the international community to help its population cope with rising food insecurity.

Cereal prices across Africa surged because of the slump in exports from Ukraine — a consequence of the war in Ukraine and a raft of international sanctions on Russia which have disrupted supplies of fertilizer, wheat and other commodities from both Russia and Ukraine.

Soaring prices
DW spoke with one couple in Chad who are dealing with the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Many Chadians have to dig deeper into their pockets to afford basic foodstuffs
Cedric Toralta and Anne Non-Assoum live in the Boutalbagar neighborhood of Chad's capital, N'Djamena.

Non-Assoum — who had just returned from the market — expressed her dissatisfaction with rising food prices.

''Look what I bought: Here is meat for 1,500 CFA francs ($2.45, €2.28), rice for 1,000 and spices for 600 — that's more than 3,000 CFA francs only for lunch for four people," she said.
She told DW that in the past, the same purchase would have cost around 2,000 CFA francs.
"My husband and I spent 60,000 CFA a month on food, but now, even 90,000 is not enough!''

The cost of basic necessities has also risen significantly in Chad's neighbor to the northwest, Niger

Less food for the family
The dire situation has forced Toralta to take drastic nutrition measures that are not without consequences.

"We can't make ends meet, even though I decided to increase our food ration by 30,000 CFA francs. So I'm forced to reduce the amount we eat every day — and you see it's affecting the children," Toralta told DW.

''We need urgent food aid for the population," Non-Assoum said, stressing the urgency.
"If even the middle-income population in the capital can't cope with this situation, how can the rural population? It's very complicated, and we need the international community to help us.''

On Friday, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that international wheat prices had risen for a fourth consecutive month — up 5.6% in May alone.

And the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Action (OCHA) recently warned that one-third of Chad — about 5.5 million people — urgently needs humanitarian assistance.


Watch video01:42
Ukraine war leads world toward food crisis
Government blamed for not acting fast
According to Daouda El Hadj Adam, secretary-general of Chad's consumer rights association, the country's transitional government should have acted early enough to prevent a food emergency.

"This situation was predictable because agricultural production was extremely deficient last year," El Hadj Adam told DW.

"The government could have made this decision very early and taken consistent action," he said, adding that extra measures need to be taken beyond food aid support.
The consumer rights defender attributed the food crisis to several factors.
"First, we have agricultural production that is in deficit year after year due to climate change. Secondly, it's the failure of agricultural policy in our country."

He added that the bodies entrusted with supporting the agricultural sector do not function, do not have financial means, and do not have resources.

For example, even though the budgets have been approved, the National Agency for Rural Development Support (ANADER) and the Chadian Institute of Agronomic Research for Development (ITRAD), which deals with research, do not have sufficient resources to carry out their operations.

"The situation has worsened due to the combination of climate change and bad [farming] seasons," El Hadj Adam said.

Farmers hit by fertilizer price hike
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the prices of basic necessities have risen significantly in Chad's neighbor to the northwest, Niger.

Milk, sugar, oil and flour are the products whose prices have skyrocketed there. The cost of fertilizer has also increased dramatically.

At a recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the African Union chairperson, Macky Sall, said the continent was bearing the brunt of the war in Ukraine due to a shortage of grain and fertilizer.

In the village of Falke, some 665 kilometers (413 miles) from the capital Niamey, Tassiou Adamou, a farmer, told DW that this year's harvest will likely be poor because producers cannot afford to buy enough fertilizer.

"Groundnuts, which are our main cash crop, need fertilizer," Adamou pointed out.
"Until last season, a bag of fertilizer cost 17,000 CFA francs. This year, it has reached 30,000," he said, adding that it is impossible to produce much for those in the countryside.

AU chairperson Macky Sall says Africa is a "victim" of the Ukraine war

Bracing for tough times ahead
"If you used to use three bags of fertilizer for your field, today, you can only have one bag with the same amount. Where you used to harvest 50 bunches of millet, you can barely produce 30 bunches without fertilizer."

People in Niger, Chad, and many in the continent have difficulty making ends meet. As a result, many are now turning to their savings or cutting down costs to deal with rising inflation.

"When you walk through the cities, you see too many beggars," Chadian consumer rights activist El Hadj Adam said.

"As for those who work, their purchasing power is affected because they have to take care of other people even more."
In most African cities, prices in the markets have gone up by more than 30% and 40%. Price increases aside, it is doubtful whether the continent will have a sufficient supply of grains from Ukraine, such as millet and wheat, which are widely consumed.
Kossivi Tiassou contributed to this article.
Edited by: Keith Walker.

 

[Plain Jane]

Gupta brothers arrested in UAE for South Africa graft case – DW – 06/07/2022

The two Indian-born businessmen stand accused of being at the center of a massive web of state corruption in South Africa. The brothers were arrested in Dubai and are facing extradition.

www.dw.com

Gupta brothers arrested in UAE for South Africa graft case
The two Indian-born businessmen stand accused of being at the center of a massive web of state corruption in South Africa. The brothers were arrested in Dubai and are facing extradition.




Atul Gupta and his brother left South Africa after former President Jacob Zuma was ousted in 2018

The South African government on Monday said authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have arrested Rajesh Gupta and Atul Gupta.

The Indian-born brothers are friends of former South Africa President Jacob Zuma.
They are accused in South Africa of using their connections with Zuma to profit financially and influence senior appointments.

The pair deny any wrongdoing.

On Tuesday Dubai police confirmed the brothers had been arrested in connection with money laundering and criminal charges in South Africa.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Dubai police said the arrests were made "after receiving a red notice for the Gupta brothers by Interpol."

The statement went on to say that authorities were coordinating with South African counterparts regarding extradition of the pair.

Why were the Guptas arrested in UAE?
The two countries ratified an extradition treaty in April of last year, which South African President Cyril Ramaphosa hoped would lead to the return of the Guptas.

The Gupta brothers left South Africa after Zuma was ousted in 2018. An inquiry was established in 2018 to examine allegations against Zuma.

Interpol issued a red notice for their arrest in July 2021. The organization said the Gupta brothers were being sought for fraud and money laundering in connection with a 25-million rand ($1.6 million, €1.5 million) contract paid to a Gupta-linked company.

South African opposition welcomes arrests of the Guptas
The centrist Democratic Alliance, which is South Africa's largest opposition party, welcomed the arrests.

"We hope that this is indeed the beginning of arrests and prosecution of those who have — locally and abroad — looted our country for years and are directly responsible for the hardships that millions of South Africans face today," the Democratic Alliance said.


Watch video03:15
South Africa reels from violence after Zuma arrest
kb, sdi, jsi/rt (Reuters, AFP)

 

[Plain Jane]

More violence feared in Nigeria – DW – 06/08/2022

A deadly attack on churchgoers has highlighted the failure of Nigeria's leaders to end the conflicts wracking the country. As campaigning gears up ahead of elections in February 2023, the violence could worsen.

www.dw.com

More violence feared in Nigeria as elections approach
A deadly attack on churchgoers has highlighted the failure of Nigeria's leaders to end the conflicts wracking the country. As campaigning gears up ahead of elections in February 2023, the violence could worsen.




Five children were among the victims of the attack in St Francis Catholic Church in Owo

At least 38 people are confirmed dead and scores of others were wounded in Sunday's attack on a Catholic church in Owo in southwest Nigeria, according to the Catholic diocese of Ondo State, where the incident took place.

No group has claimed responsibility for the massacre and authorities have yet to identify the attackers, a police spokesperson told AP news agency.

Until Sunday's attack, Ondo State was relatively peaceful.



Watch video02:45
Nigeria church attack: Bereaved face grief and trauma
But according to South Africa-based security expert Ryan Cummings, Ondo has been seeing growing tension between farmers, who are predominantly Christian, and pastoralists, who are mainly Muslim.

Confrontations between pastoralists and farmers
In August 2022, Ondo's state government passed an anti-grazing bill that protected farmers and severely limiting the use of pastures by nomadic pastoralists.

These pastoralists are largely Fulani from the north, who have been pushed south by climate change and degradation of grazing lands.

"Within this context we've seen quite a significant upsurge in communal violence," said Cummings, the director of the South African security risk management consultancy Signal Risk.

Farmers and pastoralists are forming armed militias and increasingly engaging in confrontations, he said.

Confrontations between farmers and pastoralists have increased significantly

The role of ethnicity and religion in this conflict remains unclear, however, with many analysts seeing a vicious cycle, whereby the conflict over land and other natural resources, such as water, fuels the enmity between the farmers and pastoralists. In turn, the ethnic and religious affiliation of those involved assumes more significance as the violence increases.

Conflicts all over the country
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the church attack, calling it a "heinous killing of worshipers".

Buhari promised to return peace to Nigeria during his electoral campaign, a promise the 79-year-old is far from fulfilling as he nears the end of his second, and final, term as president.
"Nigerians are certainly subject to an environment which one could qualify as deteriorating," Cummings told DW.

The 12-year-long Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast continues abated. A splinter group, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), is making headway in the same region.

123456
Criminal gangs called bandits, often affiliated with terrorist groups, are carrying out raids and mass kidnappings in the northwest and north-central parts of the country.

On top of this, the southeast is seeing a spate of killings and attacks carried out by separatist militants agitating to succeed from the rest of Nigeria.

Warnings of catastrophic food shortage
It is Nigeria's civilians who are bearing the brunt of the violence.

The jihadi conflict in the northeast has killed 40,000 and displaced two million people so far.

It is also a major factor contributing to the region's dire economic situation, which is now worsening because of Russia's war against Ukraine.

A report released on Monday by the UN agencies World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization placed Nigeria among six nations threatened with "catastrophic" food shortages.

A major crude oil exporter, Nigeria is unable to profit from the current surge in fossil fuel prices to assuage its people's hardships, security analyst Kabir Adamu said, with violence playing a role in cutting production.

Because Nigeria doesn't refine its own oil, it is forced to import fuel at high prices, putting further strain on the battered economy, which in turn inflames the country's various conflicts.


Nigeria in unable to benefit from the surge of global oil prices

Violence could impact elections
Some have taken to social media to protest the ruling party All Progressive Congress' (APC) alleged insensitivity to the suffering in Owo.

They accuse the APC of proceeding with "business as usual" in the face of the tragedy for failing to cancel a planned banquet to celebrate the nomination of a presidential candidate for the elections in February 2023.


The ACP started its primaries on Monday, a day after the attack.

On Wednesday the former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu was chosen by ACP delegates to run for the presidency.

Security analyst Cummings believes that the flaring insecurity across Nigeria will impact the upcoming elections.

"The intensification of the insurgency in 2015 leading up to the general elections was one of the primary reasons that President Goodluck Jonathan wasn't re-elected," he said.

Then opposition candidate Buhari was a surprise winner of the 2015 polls.

"And, obviously, Buhari's promise of bringing peace and stability to Nigeria was an issue that resonated with many voters," Cummings added.

Armed groups are likely to use the elections to further their aims through disruption.

"I certainly think that moving into Nigeria's election cycle we will see an uptick in violence," Cummings said.

 

[Plain Jane]

EU urges Algeria to restore friendship treaty with Spain

The European Union is urging Algeria to reverse its decision to suspend a two-decade-old friendship treaty with Spain.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/morocco-north-africa-european-union-5ee9675ec5016e2fa1136da2e96a3d0f#

Click to copy
EU urges Algeria to restore friendship treaty with Spain
By JOSEPH WILSONyesterday


BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The European Union on Thursday urged Algeria to reverse its decision to suspend a two-decade-old friendship treaty with Spain.

Algeria ordered the treaty’s suspension on Wednesday, the country’s latest move to ratchet up pressure on Madrid after the Spanish government changed its long-standing policy regarding the contested territory of Western Sahara.

Algeria recalled its ambassador to Spain in March after the government in Madrid came out in support of Morocco’s pretensions to keep Western Sahara under its rule. Algeria supports the territory’s independence movement from rival Morocco.

Spain was the former colonial power in Western Sahara until it was annexed by Morocco in 1975. Since then, neighbors Algeria and Morocco have been at odds over the fate of the Western Sahara, at one point fighting a desert war.

Algeria’s now openly hostile turn against a member of the European Union comes while Spain and the rest of the 27-nation bloc are hustling to find alternatives to Russian energy imports to protest Russia’s war in Ukraine.



European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali told reporters Thursday that the treaty decision is “deeply worrying, and we therefore call on the Algerian authorities to review their decision.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-u...and-politics-4f8a7e5079688797dfedb0054604ff3e
“Algeria is an important European Union partner in the Mediterranean (region), and a key actor for regional stability,” Massrali said. “We are evaluating the impact of the decision, and solutions must be found through dialogue and diplomatic means.

“We hope that Algeria will reverse its decision and work with Spain to overcome the current disagreement,” she said.

The practical impact of the diplomatic move is yet to be seen, although Algeria has reportedly ordered its national bank to stop facilitating payments with Spain, which could disrupt trade.

The Spanish government quickly moved to assuage fears that the supply of natural gas which Algeria pumps and ships across the Mediterranean Sea could be at risk. Spain relies on gas for one-third of its energy needs as it phases out coal and nuclear plants and boosts its significant solar and wind power sources.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Albares said that so far no Spanish companies working with Algeria have reported any “inconveniences.”

“What the gas companies are telling us is that the decision has not caused any difficulties,” he said.

Algeria’s Sonatrach was Spain’s leading supplier of natural gas last year, with more than 40% of its imports. Spain has since pivoted to the United States, which has become its leading supplier of gas in recent months, ahead of Algeria.

Laurence Thieux, a professor of international relations at Complutense University of Madrid, said Spain’s government had miscalculated Algeria’s willingness to retaliate but that she doubted the North African nation would threaten to turn off the spigot.

“I see it more as a political move. Algeria, like many counties in the region, is doing whatever it can to pressure Spain to push the pendulum back away from Morocco,” Thieux said.

Going as far as actually breaking its contracts to supply with Spain gas would likely be too risky for Algeria, she said. The country’s fragile economy depends on its role as a energy provider yet needs foreign investment to boost its pumping capacity.

“It does not have much room for error,” Thieux said. “Since the invasion of Ukraine, Algeria has wanted to show that it can be a reliable gas supplier. It would hurt its image too much as a trustworthy partner” if it broke its contact with Spain.

Spain also imports large amounts of fertilizers from Algeria, while Spanish companies send primarily soy oil and meat products the other way.

While thousands of migrants from Africa depart Morocco for Spain each year, Algeria also plays an important role in controlling unauthorized migration from its coasts and in helping fight terrorism.

Spain, Morocco and Algeria have been caught in a three-way diplomatic tug-of-war over Western Sahara for the past year.

Trouble started when Spain allowed the leader of Western Sahara’s separatist movement to enter Spain to receive treatment for COVID-19 in May 2020. Morocco responded by dropping its border controls around Spain’s North Africa enclave of Ceuta, which was quickly overwhelmed by thousands of migrants.


Relations only normalized between Madrid and Rabat after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took the unpopular decision at home to back Morocco’s plan to keep Western Sahara under its control as an autonomous area.

But that, in turn, has pushed Algiers away and brought Sánchez’s government intense criticism at home while Spain struggles with high energy prices driven by global inflation.
___
Lorne Cook in Brussels, and Ciarán Giles in Madrid, contributed to this report.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-u...-korea-china-e434caaa0cb3193d4c4b1058828fe507

 

[Plain Jane]

Ethiopia says willing to resume dam talks with Egypt, Sudan

A senior Ethiopian official says his country is interested in resuming talks with Egypt and Sudan on a huge and controversial Blue Nile dam that will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/politics-africa-middle-east-egypt-kenya-1ddaf63927805e0e0f2aaab043008327#

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Ethiopia says willing to resume dam talks with Egypt, Sudan
yesterday

FILE - Ethiopians protest against international pressure on the government over the conflict in Tigray, below a banner referring to The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, at a demonstration organised by the city mayor's office held at a stadium in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on May 30, 2021. A senior Ethiopian official said Friday, June 10, 2022 his country is interested in resuming talks with Egypt and Sudan on the huge and controversial Blue Nile dam that will be Africa's largest hydroelectric power plant. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene, File)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A senior Ethiopian official says his country is interested in resuming talks with Egypt and Sudan on a huge and controversial Blue Nile dam that will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant.

The comment by Sileshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s former negotiator on the dam and now the country’s ambassador to the United States, came during a meeting with the new U.S. special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer.

A statement by Ethiopia’s foreign ministry on Friday cited the ambassador as highlighting “Ethiopia’s interest to resume the African Union-led trilateral negotiation over the GERD,” or Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The multi-billion-dollar project is expected to bring electricity to millions of off-grid Ethiopians, but Sudan and Egypt fear it will reduce the amount of water they receive from the Nile River.

Several past rounds of negotiations among Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have failed. Egypt fears a quick filling of the dam will reduce its share of Nile waters and seeks a binding legal agreement in case of a dispute.


In February, Ethiopia said it had begun producing power from one unit of the dam.
Earlier on Friday, the foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told reporters the third filling of the dam is on schedule this year.

“We have been saying since the start of the dam’s construction that tripartite talks will continue,” he added.

 

[Plain Jane]

Civilians bear brunt of heavy fighting in Mali – DW – 06/11/2022

Mali's northeast is seeing heavy fighting as Mali's army, together with pro-government militias, battle insurgents. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and tens of thousands are displaced.

www.dw.com

Civilians bear brunt of heavy fighting in Mali
Mali's northeast is seeing heavy fighting as Mali's army, together with pro-government militias, battle insurgents. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and tens of thousands are displaced.




Malian troops have allied themselves with local armed groups to fight extremists

"The principle victims are civilians," said Ibrahima Garigo, director of the regional station Radio Rurale de Meneka, in a telephone interview with DW.

The fighting between Mali's army and its Tuareg allies against Islamist militant groups in Mali's northeast Menaka region has intensified in the past weeks.

The local wing of extremist group known as the Islamic State has killed hundreds in the area since March, in retaliation for attacks by the Tuareg militias.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in reprisal killings, Garigo said.

The extremists have also looted and burned homes, markets and vehicles.

Many pastoralists in the region have also lost the animals they make their livelihoods from in the fighting, according to Garigo.

Aid workers in Menaka told Garigo at least 32,000 people had been displaced in the region. Most of those fleeing the violence are women and children.

"The security situation has deteriorated since March," Fatoumata Maigia, president of the Menaka-based Association of Women for Peace Initiatives said, adding that there were enormous human rights violations going on in Menaka at the moment.

Describing an attack in early March, when the fighting initially flared, she recounted how women were raped and thrown alive into wells. "This is inexplicable. This is not good for Mali," she said.

The head of MINUSMA, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, El Ghassim Wane, described the situation in the Menaka region as "extremely dramatic" during a visit at the end of May.

Who controls Menaka?
The fiercest battles are currently around Anderamboukane, a strategically important town near the border with Niger.

The Movement for the Salvation of Azawad, a largely Tuareg militia, and its ally, the Imghad Tuareg and Allies Self-Defense Group, known as GATIA, are trying to push the extremists out of Anderamboukane and the surrounding area.

These pro-government forces said last weekend that they had "total control" of Anderamboukane and had "routed" the extremists, the AFP news agency reported.
Since then, there have been conflicting reports over who actually controls the town and the region.

"A big part of the Menaka region is under the control of the jihadists today," Abdoul Wahab Ag Ahmed Mohamed, head of Menaka's interim authorities, told AFP on Tuesday.

Asked about this by DW, radio director Garigo said there was definitely territory in Menaka region "where the symbols of the state weren't present."

Watch video01:57
France pulls counter-terrorist troops out of Mali
Vacuum left after French withdrawal
The increased militant activity comes amid the withdrawal of French troops, who had been operating in the West African nation since 2013. They withdrew after a breakdown in relations with Mali's ruling military junta.

Military and police from the UN mission, along with Malian forces, have stepped up day and night patrols in Menaka.

Malian forces pulled out of Anderamboukane in late 2019 as part of a redeployment in the face of relentless attacks, mostly by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, or IS-GS.
The Tuareg movements fighting the group have complained that the army isn't doing enough in Menaka.

"The Malian government has not even bothered to issue a communique to deplore the unprecedented number of citizens killed," complained GATIA's Fahad Ag Al Mahmoud to the French language news magazine, Jeune Afrique in April.

"We are facing hundreds of fighters who are massacring civilians and the Malian army does not intervene. Is this a lack of sincerity on the part of the authorities in the fight against terrorism, or a deliberate desire to let the IS-GS decimate the Tuareg?"

Why is violence happening?
In 2012, the Tuareg separatist group, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, backed by a loose alliance of Islamist militant factions, moved to take control of territory in Mali's north.

The failure of former president, Amadou Toumani Toure, to end this rebellion led to his ousting in a coup in March 2012.

The Tuareg and Islamist groups quickly took much of Mali's north. But their alliance was short-lived. The National Movement broke with the jihadists over their push to impose Sharia law.

Several years later, these largely Tuareg armed groups signed what is known as the 2015 Algiers Peace Agreement to end years of violent conflict in the country.

MINUSMA forces have been in Mali since 2013

International forces
With the rebel groups advancing southwards towards the capital, Bamako, Mali's government appealed to France for help. Some 1,700 French troops were originally deployed in 2013, with this expanded to a 5,000-strong force known as Operation Barkhane.
That same year, the UN approved sending in peacekeepers to protect the civilian population under their own mission. This includes German forces.

The MINUSMA mission is considered the most dangerous UN operation in the world.
But even the increased presence of local and international counterterrorism forces has failed to stem the spread of Islamic militancy in Mali.

This again led to political turmoil. The first coup occurred in 2020 when the country's elected leader, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, was deposed because of his failure to rein in extremist activity.

The military then took control of the transitional government in May 2021. They are still in charge.

Some observers have compared the security problems in Menaka province to the situation in 2012 and 2013.

But according to Baba Dakono, an analyst in Mali, there are several differences.

Ten years ago, the Tuareg and extremist groups occupied almost all of northern Mali, including the important towns of Gao and Kidal and the city of Timbuktu, for nearly eight months, he said.

This time, he believes, the extremists are not interested in permanently controlling the region. Rather, he says, they want to control "territory which doesn't have a continuous presence of defense and security forces."

Frejus Quenum and Eric Topona contributed to this article.
Edited by: Dirke Köpp

 

[Plain Jane]

UN, elder: Week of tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur kill 100

CAIRO (AP) — Tribal clashes over the past week in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur have killed around 100 people, the U.N. refugee agency and a tribal elder said Monday, the latest surge in violence in the restive region.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-africa-sudan-united-nations-929f0da5e74f7c8b021d8e89affcee25#

UN, elder: Week of tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur kill 100
By SAMY MAGDYan hour ago


CAIRO (AP) — Tribal clashes over the past week in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur have killed around 100 people, the U.N. refugee agency and a tribal elder said Monday, the latest surge in violence in the restive region.

Toby Harward, a coordinator with the UNHCR, said the fighting grew out of a land dispute between Arab and African tribes in the town of Kulbus in West Darfur province. Local Arab militias then attacked multiple villages in the area, forcing thousands of people to flee, he said.

Abkar al-Toum, a tribal leader in the town, said the dead included at least 62 bodies found burned after militias set more than 20 villages on fire. He said many people were still unaccounted for. He claimed the attackers gained control of water resources, aggravating the humanitarian situation in the area. He did not elaborate.

Abbas Mustafa, a local official, said authorities have deployed more troops to the area. He said the past week of fighting displaced at least 5,000 families.



Harward called for “neutral joint forces” to provide protection for civilians in the area. “If there is no intervention or mediation, & violence is allowed to continue, farmers will not be able to cultivate & the agricultural season will fail,” he said in a series of posts on Twitter
https://apnews.com/article/gun-laws-senate-bipartisan-agreement-59d553f3d1e35fdbe4930e4341e74efb
The news outlet Radio Dabanga reported that the fighting reached the nearby province of North Darfur, causing partial damage to two villages there.

The fighting was the latest bout of tribal violence in Darfur. It came as the country remains mired in a wider crisis following an October military coup. The takeover upended Sudan’s transition to democracy after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

Since late last year, eruptions of tribal violence and surges in the fighting in Darfur have killed hundreds of people. In April, after a similar bout of cashes killed over 200, the Sudanese military said it deployed a brigade to the province.

However, the violence has raised questions over whether Sudanese military leaders are capable of bringing security to Darfur. In 2020, the U.N. Security Council ended its peacekeeping mission there. In recent months, local aid workers have called on the U.N. to redeploy peacekeepers to the region amid a sure in tribal violence.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when ethnic Africans rebelled, accusing the Arab-dominated government in the capital of Khartoum of discrimination. Al-Bashir’s government was accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes and unleashing militias known as the janjaweed on civilians there — a charge it denies.

Al-Bashir, who has been in prison in Khartoum since he was ousted from power in 2019, was indicted over a decade ago by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Darfur.

 

[Plain Jane]

DR Congo accuses Rwanda of 'invasion' as rebels attack town – DW – 06/14/2022

Rebels from the M23 group in DR Congo seized the border town of Bunagana, according to local activists. The Congolese army accused Rwanda of launching an invasion.

www.dw.com

DR Congo accuses Rwanda of 'invasion' as rebels attack town
Rebels from the M23 group in DR Congo seized the border town of Bunagana, according to local activists. The Congolese army accused Rwanda of launching an invasion.




About 30,000 have fled the violence and gone to Uganda

M23 rebels in DR Congo (DRC) have seized the eastern border town of Bunagana on Monday, the militia members and local activists said.

In a statement, the rebels appealed to DRC President Felix Tshisekedi to "seize this opportunity to put an end to the violence caused by this useless war and to open direct negotiations with our movement."

But the Congolese army said the town had been taken by Rwanda because the rebels, allegedly supported by Rwanda, were suffering "enormous setbacks."

DR Congo has repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing the M23, whose leadership hails from the same Tutsi ethnic group as Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

"The Rwandan defense forces have this time decided to violate ... our territorial integrity by occupying the border town of Bunagana," the military said in a statement, describing the incident as "no less than invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo."

Rwanda has not yet made any comments on the development, and has denied playing a role in any such recent attacks. Congo's government had broken off negotiations with the M23 in April this year.


Watch video02:58
Is Rwanda suppressing free speech or protecting the public?
DRC soldiers, civilians flee to Uganda
Local activist said the Congolese army "has just given way" and was moving into Uganda, which borders both DRC and Rwanda.

"An army truck has just gone past, four jeeps and other vehicles which are full of soldiers," Damien Sebusanane, head of a civil society association, who was on Uganda's border with the DRC, told the AFP news agency.

Shaffiq Sekandi, Uganda's resident district commissioner for Kisoro district told Reuters that the fighting caused more than 30,000 Congolese asylum seekers and 137 Congolese soldiers to cross into Uganda on Monday.

"They are all over, the streets are full, others have gone to churches, they are under trees, everywhere. It's a really desperate situation," he said.

Dozens of police officers were also said to have surrendered to Ugandan troops.

The United Nations and African Union have voiced alarm about violence the region.

The UN had previously said that 25,000 people fled the violence on Sunday.

African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for talks between DR Congo and Rwanda.

Conflict between Rwanda and DR Congo
Tensions have risen between the two neighboring countries in recent weeks, with accusations of strikes rife on both sides.

Conflicts in the region in the 1990s and 2000s, and disease and hunger have led to thousands of deaths in the region.

The M23, a primarily Congolese Tutsi militia, is one of more than 120 armed groups active in eastern DRC. It briefly captured Goma in 2012, but a joint offensive by UN troops and the Congolese army quelled the rebellion.

Rwanda denies supporting the M23. It accuses Congo of collaborating with another militia group, the FDLR, founded by ethnic Hutus who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide. Congo denies this charge.
tg/dj (AFP, AP, Reuters)

 

[Plain Jane]

Burkina Faso: Soldiers find 79 bodies after deadly attack – DW – 06/14/2022

An attack on a village in the West African country has left at least 79 people dead. A violent insurgency has been ravaging Burkina Faso for almost seven years.

www.dw.com

Burkina Faso: Soldiers find 79 bodies after deadly insurgent attack
An attack on a village in the West African country has left at least 79 people dead. A violent insurgency has been ravaging Burkina Faso for almost seven years.




Burkina Faso is struggling to combat an Islamist insurgency

The government of Burkina Faso revealed on Tuesday that soldiers had recovered the bodies of 79 victims killed in an attack in the northern province of Seno over the weekend.

No group has claimed responsibility for the armed assault on the town of Seytenga, but the West African country has been fighting an Islamist insurgency — with connections to al-Qaeda and the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) — for years.

Survivors of the attack who managed to flee to a nearby city said that they had been left defenseless after government soldiers left the area.

Burkina Faso has been ruled by the military since a coup ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore in January over allegations that he had not done enough to put down the insurgency.

Survivors say they were left defenseless
The attacks first began last Thursday when an unidentified group killed 11 gendarmes in an attack on a military police post near Seytenga.

The security forces then reportedly retreated to the regional capital of Dori, abandoning the security post and leaving no protection for when the attackers came.

The armed group "went from shop to shop, sometimes torching them," one man told AFP news agency. "They opened fire on anyone who tried to run away. They stayed in the town all night."

"They looted homes — they killed anyone they found, men, children. There are so many dead. It's just awful," a woman survivor said.

The government said that over 3,000 people, most of them children, arrived in Dori on Monday after fleeing the attack. A project coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres in Dori said the number had risen to more than 6,800 by Tuesday.

Watch video00:57
Damiba: 'The main priority remains security'
Attacks continue after coup
The government has announced a three-day period of mourning to remember the victims of the attack, the deadliest in the country this year.

An attack in the northeastern village of Solhan in June last year left at least 132 people dead. Anger over that attack eventually led to the overthrow of the elected government.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who replaced President Kabore as Burkina Faso's new strongman leader, has previously stated that security is his top priority.

Nevertheless, attacks have continued and the death toll over the past few months is in the hundreds.
ab/wd (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

 

[Plain Jane]

As Rwanda hosts Commonwealth summit, bloc's role questioned

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — With fresh coats of paint and streets swept clean, Rwanda's capital is preparing for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit, which will bring leaders of the 54-nation group of mostly former British colonies whose relevance is sometimes questioned.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/boris-jo...alth-africa-f4eac18def77739ecd7cb9279d209545#

As Rwanda hosts Commonwealth summit, bloc’s role questioned
By RODNEY MUHUMUZA and IGNATIUS SSUUNA25 minutes ago



1 of 4
FILE - The Rwandan capital of Kigali is seen from one of the overlooking hills on April 6, 2014. Expectations are high in Rwanda as the East African nation prepares to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in June 2022. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — With fresh coats of paint and streets swept clean, Rwanda’s capital is preparing for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit, which will bring leaders of the 54-nation group of mostly former British colonies whose relevance is sometimes questioned.

President Paul Kagame will host Prince Charles, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and scores of world leaders in a glittering summit, which takes place between June 20 and 25, that he hopes will promote this East African country’s standing.

The summit is an opportunity to highlight Rwanda’s stability and relative prosperity under Kagame’s rule. It also will focus attention on Rwanda’s widely criticized deal with Britain to deport asylum-seekers from the U.K. to Rwanda. Legal challenges stopped a flight that would have brought the first group just days before the summit.

The Commonwealth is a bloc of many developing nations but includes richer ones such as Singapore and Australia. Members range from established democracies such as Canada to more authoritarian ones like Rwanda itself.


Homeless people and sex workers have recently been removed from Kigali’s streets as the government detained them ahead of the summit, according to Human Rights Watch.

https://apnews.com/article/uk-rwand...oris-johnson-9ca56e7a1736dd803690ceac544fc7e8
What do the Commonwealth’s countries have in common aside from their colonial past? Where is the bloc’s voice in international affairs? And how does Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion people, benefit?

Climate change, and how to rebuild the global economy facing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, will be high on the summit’s agenda, organizers say. The event also will discuss business, civil society, youth and gender issues.

Rwanda, a former Belgian colony now ruled by an Anglophile leader, seeks to show how the country of 13 million people has progressed since the genocide in 1994. It is the sixth African country to host the Commonwealth’s biennial summit since 1971. Neighboring Uganda hosted the summit in 2007.

Commonwealth summits in Africa have been noteworthy. The 1979 gathering in Zambia helped to bring an end to white minority rule in Rhodesia, which became majority-ruled Zimbabwe in 1980. The 1991 summit in Zimbabwe saw the Commonwealth increase international pressure to bring an end to South Africa’s racist system of apartheid.

“The Commonwealth is relevant, but the question is to whom? Do governments get political capital out of it? You profile your country, you profile your name,” said Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a political historian at Uganda’s Makerere University. “You can derive political legitimacy out of hosting such an event.”

That rare opportunity is why countries such as Rwanda appear eager to “spend their meager resources” to host the summit, he said.

Rwandan authorities said they would spend roughly $10 million improving infrastructure ahead of the summit, which was initially scheduled to happen in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hotels and restaurants are fully booked, ensuring the summit’s popularity among some Rwandans.


“The bottom line is to showcase what products we Africans have, and visitors will always come back to buy or invest,” said teacher Agnes Nadin. “This is the beauty as CHOGM attracts a big gathering.”

But others who spoke to The Associated Press were less enthusiastic, asking what the Commonwealth means for Africans.

“The former master’s underlying motivation is not good governance in Africa or improvement on the human rights platform but influence-seeking,” said Dias Nyesiga, a business consultant in Kigali.

The Commonwealth should establish a peer-review mechanism of steps each member should take to achieve the bloc’s values, including good governance and the protection of human rights, he said.

The Commonwealth would be more influential if it worked boldly to address global challenges such as “the consequences of pandemics,” said Eric Ndushabandi, a professor of political science at the University of Rwanda.

Representing 2.5 billion people, the Commonwealth notably monitors elections among member countries and makes recommendations in its reports.

The bloc has suspended member states in response to events deemed to be in violation of its values. Nigeria was suspended for years after a harsh military government executed environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others in 1995.


Zimbabwe left the bloc in 2003 as President Robert Mugabe’s government faced criticism over disputed elections and seizures of farms owned by white people. Zimbabwe’s current government now seeks readmission, and analysts say President Emmerson Mnangagwa is pushing for greater international legitimacy after taking power from Mugabe in 2017. Zimbabwe remains under international sanctions.

“Mnangagwa sees it as politically expedient to be added back into the Commonwealth because in as much he has been described as ‘worse than Mugabe,’ he wishes to be seen as a good global citizen,” said Zimbabwean political analyst David Chikwaza. “The Commonwealth’s association is something he believes will cement his mantra of reengagement.”

The Commonwealth undermines its influence by appearing to be more of a nostalgic political group rather than a trading bloc, Chikwaza said.

Commonwealth leaders at a summit in 2018 pledged to boost trade within the bloc to $2 trillion by 2030. But trade between Britain and Commonwealth countries was so low by 2020 that the bloc accounted for only about 9% of the U.K.’s total trade, with the value of exports to the Commonwealth falling by 16% between 2019 and 2020, according to the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics.


With China now Africa’s leading trade partner, the U.K.’s political influence in its former colonies has waned. In Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, a mountain-top parliamentary building erected by the Chinese is set to replace the Victorian-style chamber.

Edson Sangwa, a Zimbabwean vendor of cheap electronics and children’s toys imported from China, quipped: “What is the Commonwealth? We know China!”
___
Muhumuza reported from Kampala, Uganda. Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe, contributed.

 

[Plain Jane]

Kenyan president calls for peacekeeping force in DR Congo – DW – 06/16/2022

President Uhuru Kenyatta says the East African Regional Force will deploy in three provinces in DR Congo to "enforce peace." The call comes amid a resurgence of the M23 rebel group.

www.dw.com

Kenya's president calls for regional force to deploy in DR Congo
President Uhuru Kenyatta says the East African Regional Force will deploy in three provinces in DR Congo to "enforce peace." The call comes amid a resurgence of the M23 rebel group.




Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for the immediate deployment of a regional force to quell violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday called for the rapid deployment of a regional force to stop unrest in three provinces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
"I call for the activation of the East African Regional Force under the auspices of the East African Community (EAC)," Kenyatta said in a statement.

Regional force to deploy 'immediately'
Kenyatta said that the regional force "shall be deployed to the Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces immediately to stabilize the zone and enforce peace."

The Kenyan president said the operation would be done in support of the DR Congo security forces and in close coordination with the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO.

It's unclear whether the Congolese government supports the intervention.

This latest development comes as the M23 rebel group resurfaced earlier this year after a 10-year lull, launching an offensive in North Kivu in eastern Congo.

M23 stoke tensions
Congo and Rwanda have had a fractious relationship since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
Some of those accused of involvement in the killings of an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda have since set up militias in eastern Congo.

The government in Kinshasa blames Kigali for the resurgence of M23, which is led mainly by ethnic Tutsis. Rwanda denies the allegations.

Tensions have been heightened in the region since March, when M23 militias attacked two Congolese army positions near the borders with Uganda and Rwanda and advanced on nearby towns.

The group seized swaths of territory in eastern Congo during an insurrection in 2012 and 2013 before its fighters were driven out by Congolese and United Nations forces. They have since returned from neighboring countries to stage attacks.

M23 resumed fighting earlier this year, accusing the Congolese government of having failed to respect a 2009 agreement under which their fighters were to be incorporated into the army.
kb/jcg (Reuters, AFP)

 

[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use.....

EXPLAINER: Why Rwanda and Congo are sliding toward war again

The threat of war with neighboring Congo is simmering under the tidy surface of Rwanda’s capital as the East African nation hosts the British prime minister and other world leaders next week for the Commonwealth summit.

apnews.com

EXPLAINER: Why Rwanda and Congo are sliding toward war again

By CARA ANNA
yesterday

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The threat of war with neighboring Congo is simmering under the tidy surface of Rwanda’s capital as the East African nation hosts the British prime minister and other world leaders next week for the Commonwealth summit.

Decades-old tensions between Rwanda, which has one of Africa’s most effective militaries, and Congo, one of the continent’s largest and most troubled countries, have spiked along their shared border a few hours’ drive from Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. Alarm has reached the point where Kenya’s president is urging the immediate deployment of a newly created regional force to eastern Congo to keep the peace.

Each side has accused the other of incursions. Congo now seeks to suspend all agreements with Rwanda. If Rwanda wants war, “it will have war,” a spokesman for the military governor of Congo’s North Kivu province told thousands of protesters on Wednesday.

Here’s what’s at stake.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

Eastern Congo lives with the daily threat from dozens of armed groups that jostle for a piece of the region’s rich mineral wealth that the world mines for electric cars, laptops and mobile phones. Earlier this year, one of the most notorious rebel groups, the M23, surged anew.

The M23 launched an offensive against Congo’s military after saying the government had failed to live up to its decade-long promises made under a peace deal to integrate its fighters into Congo’s military. This week the M23 seized a key trading town, Bunagana, sending thousands of people fleeing into neighboring Uganda and elsewhere.

At that, Congo’s military accused Rwandan forces of “no less than an invasion,” alleging that Rwanda backed the rebels in their capture of Bunagana.

Congo’s government has long accused Rwanda of supporting the M23, which Rwanda denies. The accusations have surged again in recent weeks. Many of the M23 fighters are ethnic Tutsis, the same as Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.

Rwanda, for its part, has accused Congolese forces of injuring several civilians in cross-border shelling.

WHAT’S THE HISTORY OF TENSIONS?

Relations between Rwanda and Congo have been fraught for decades. Rwanda alleges that Congo gave refuge to the ethnic Hutus who carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In the late 1990s, Rwanda twice sent its forces deep into Congo, joining forces with Congolese rebel leader Laurent Kabila to depose the country’s longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. The Rwandan forces in Congo were widely accused of hunting down and killing ethnic Hutu, even civilians.

Millions of Congo’s people died during the years of conflict, according to rights groups, and the effects still run deep today. Many women live with the scars and trauma of rape.

Eastern Congo continues to see divisions along ethnic lines at times. The region’s history of instability, loose governance and its vast distance — more than 1,600 miles — from Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, have dampened investment and left some basic infrastructure such as roads tattered or nonexistent.

Congo and Rwanda have long accused each other of supporting various rival armed groups in eastern Congo, a restless region and major hub for humanitarian aid. A United Nations peacekeeping force of more than 17,000 personnel is based in Goma, but a top official this week made clear that the tensions with Rwanda and Uganda are not a part of its role.

“That’s not the reason why were are here,” said Lt. Col. Frederic Harvey, the U.N. mission’s chief of liaison with the Congolese military. “We are here to accomplish our mandate, which consists of protecting the civilian population and preserving national integrity.”

Goma, the region’s key city of more than 1 million people, was briefly seized by M23 fighters a decade ago. Many Goma residents now call on the international community to intervene to help establish peace and stability. “Kagame, enough is enough,” read one sign in a protest on Wednesday.

Pope Francis had planned to visit Goma next month as part of a trip to Congo and South Sudan but canceled it last week, citing doctor’s orders because of his knee problems. The visit was meant to draw further global attention to populations long wrestling with conflict, even as this new one develops.

NOW WHAT?

With an eye on the growing tensions, the six-nation East African Community — Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania — earlier this year created a regional force meant to respond to trouble. Now Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the current chairman of the bloc, wants the force to be activated immediately and deployed to eastern Congo, noting the “open hostilities” there.

Kenyatta also calls for the eastern Congo provinces of North and South Kivu and Ituri to be declared a “weapons-free zone” where anyone outside mandated forces can be disarmed. Within hours, his call was “warmly” welcomed by the president of Burundi, which borders both Rwanda and Congo.

Regional commanders of the member defense forces will meet on Sunday in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, at the heart of East Africa’s economic hub.

The regional force was agreed to by leaders from the countries now seemingly closing in on war — Congo, the EAC’s newest member, and Rwanda, the largest African troop contributor to U.N. peacekeeping missions worldwide.

But Rwanda notably was the only EAC member to skip a meeting of the heads of regional armed forces earlier this month in Goma. And there was no immediate response from Rwanda on Thursday to Kenyatta’s call to action.

Congo, too, didn’t comment directly on the call to deploy the regional force, but government spokesman Patrick Muyaya welcomed the Kenyan president’s request for a cessation of hostilities and weapons-free zones.

___

Associated Press writer Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo, contributed.

 

[Plain Jane]

Tanzania accused of violence on Maasai protesting eviction

Tanzania’s government has been accused of using violence against Maasai herders protesting efforts to evict them from one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations.

apnews.com

Tanzania accused of violence on Maasai protesting eviction

Tanzania accused of violence on Maasai protesting eviction
By CARA ANNAyesterday



1 of 9
Jonathan Mpute ole Pasha, national coordinator of the Maa Unity Agenda group, is surrounded by tear gas thrown by police to break up a small demonstration of Maasai rights activists outside the Tanzanian high commission in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Friday, June 17, 2022. Tanzania's government is accused of violently trying to evict Maasai herders from one of the country's most popular tourist destinations, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tanzania’s government has been accused of using violence against Maasai herders protesting efforts to evict them from one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations, in the latest friction between those who see certain African landscapes as a lucrative playground and those who simply call them home.

Witnesses of the confrontations in the Ngorongoro area told The Associated Press that some of the wounded people fled to neighboring Kenya to seek medical care, fearing retaliation from Tanzanian authorities. Video shared with the AP shows Maasai taking cover amid gunfire and tear gas, and others injured.

“We saw many people being beaten,” said Stephen Parmuat, who said he helped carry some of those wounded across the border after the confrontations late last week. “For now, the situation is still bad. We don’t know what’s next. Many people are displaced. We don’t know where to go.”


A Tanzanian advocate for the Maasai told the AP that 20 people arrested, including political leaders, were charged with murder on Thursday at the Resident Magistrate’s Court in Arusha without advocates being notified, contrary to procedure. The AP saw a copy of the court documents, with many of those charged described as “peasants.” Speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, the advocate asked how so many people could be charged with the murder of the one police officer that authorities said was killed.
Watergate 50th meets Jan. 6. Common thread: Thirst for power
A call to the court in Arusha was not answered.

The confrontations, which erupted after Maasai community members noticed Tanzanian authorities marking off land reportedly for a game reserve, occurred just days before the East African Court of Justice is set to rule next week on the merits of a case filed by supporters of the Maasai against Tanzania’s government.

The government was served notice of the upcoming judgment, and lawyer Donald Deya wondered whether Tanzanian authorities were trying to pre-empt it by marking off the land.

“In 2018 the court issued an interim order that stopped the government from doing exactly the kind of things it’s doing now,” said Deya, who leads the Pan African Lawyers Union. “Do not evict Maasai, do not touch disputed land. These actions of the government are in contempt of court.”

Human rights lawyers in Tanzania were searching police stations in the region for more than 30 people, including Maasai leaders, allegedly detained amid the confrontations, he said.

A march by a small number of Maasai in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, to the Tanzanian embassy on Friday was broken up by police who used tear gas and arrested a national community leader.

In order to take land in the public interest, Tanzanian authorities must consult communities and give justification, Deya said. He doesn’t believe that has occurred, and he warns that a court decision favoring the Maasai could be followed by a public campaign pressuring Tanzania’s government to respect it.

“Embarrassment might stop them,” he said, adding that some “tourists want to have exclusive use so they don’t have to run into cows.”

Tourism is a major source of income in Tanzania, which drew global attention when its previous president, John Magufuli, largely denied the presence of COVID-19 and urged tourists to keep coming to the East African nation.

The confrontations in Ngorongoro district led to an outcry among supporters of indigenous communities in general and of the Maasai, many of whom are employed in the safari industry in both Tanzania and Kenya.

Several United Nations human rights experts in a joint statement on Wednesday said they were “deeply alarmed” by the reports of Tanzanian security forces using live ammunition and tear gas against the Maasai and protested “continuous encroachment” on their ancestral lands.

Up to 70,000 Maasai could be displaced by the planned game reserve which would take up 1,500 square kilometers (580 square miles) of 4,000 square kilometers (1,544 square miles) designated as village land, experts said.

The entire Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the U.N. experts urged Tanzania’s government to make sure any plans for the area meet human rights standards.

The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights this week called on Tanzanian authorities to “halt the ongoing forcible eviction.”


Tanzania’s government, including the tourism minister and prime minister, have said the goal for the disputed area is conservation and alleged that the growing number of Maasai and cattle on the land could put it at risk.

Police inspector general Simon Sirro accused some Maasai of being mobilized by local leaders to disobey the law. “I have instructed the police to apply force where necessary,” he said.

 

[Plain Jane]

Senegal opposition leader gives 'ultimatum' to president after deadly clashes

Senegal's main opposition leader has issued what he called an "ultimatum" to President Macky Sall, urging him to release those arrested during a day of clashes that reportedly left three people dead.

www.france24.com

Senegal opposition leader gives 'ultimatum' to president after deadly clashes
Issued on: 18/06/2022 - 16:31
Senegalese opposition figure Ousmane Sonko talks to police officers outside his residence in Dakar on June 17, 2022. © Seyllou, AFP

Text by:NEWS WIRES
1 min
Senegal's main opposition leader has issued what he called an "ultimatum" to President Macky Sall, urging him to release those arrested during a day of clashes that reportedly left three people dead.

Violence broke out between youths and police in the capital Dakar on Friday, as officers blocked off access to the home of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.

Three opposition figures were also arrested and the city's mayor was prevented from leaving his home, Sonko's PASTEF party spokesman said.

Media and the opposition have now reported a third, collateral death from the clashes -- a taxi driver shot in Ziguinchor, Casamance.


In a Facebook post late on Friday, Sonko said: "Mr Macky Sall, we give you an ultimatum (to) release all political hostages in your hands; beyond that, we will come and get these political hostages, whatever the cost."

Sonko accused Sall of being "a murderous president". Referring to riots that shook Senegal last year, he said: "After having murdered 14 people during the events of February-March 2021, here he is adding three more victims to his list in June 2022".

The clashes come as the country is in the grip of pre-election tension.
Sonko had called for protests against a decision to bar a list of candidates for Senegal's legislative elections on July 31.

The move also bans him and other opposition figures from contesting the ballot.
(AFP)

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

A Triple-Barreled Gun Is Destroying African Economies: Inflation, Government Debt, & Taxes

BY TYLER DURDEN
SUNDAY, JUN 19, 2022 - 08:10 AM
Authored by Manuel Tacanho via The Mises Institute,
Today it is conclusive that Africa's socialist experiments failed, as did the state-led development approach. Not only was the heavily statist approach unable to develop African economies, but it made poverty worse. In this context of repressive state-driven economic systems, most African countries are trapped in a morass of high inflation, high debt, high taxation, high dependency, worsening poverty, food insecurity, chronic mass unemployment, and other pervasive problems.


Barrel One: High Inflation
Africa’s unstable and inflationary currencies have been a significant impediment to economic development because of their destabilizing and impoverishing effect. Organic and lasting economic growth must necessarily be driven by savings, not by debt, deficit spending, or money printing.

In the long run, inflation ends in the breakdown of the currency. This is what happened in Angola in the 1990s and in Zimbabwe in the first decade of the 2000s.

Evidence from the past and present, from developed and developing countries, unequivocally shows that inflation is a government and central bank policy that cannot go on forever and that does come to a catastrophic end, however long the run may be.

Postcolonial Africa has been plagued by severe monetary instability due to inflation: currency crises, erratic currency fluctuations, currency devaluations, currency resets, and even hyperinflation. Such a chaotic, destabilizing, and impoverishing monetary situation is not accidental or natural. It is the inherent consequence of Africa’s fiat money systems in the context of monetary colonialism.

On the one hand, a stable and trustworthy currency spurs local capital formation (i.e., saving), leading to homegrown investment and entrepreneurship, which leads to organic, decentralized, and enduring economic growth. An economy based on a reliable currency (e.g., gold money), coupled with other factors like low taxes and economic freedom, also attracts more foreign capital and talent, which leads to broad-based prosperity.

On the other hand, untrustworthy and inflationary currencies, such as today’s African currencies, will have the opposite effect. In a context of monetary instability and rampant inflation, people will tend to save less, spend faster, and avoid long-term investments and business ventures. And capital formation, capital attraction, and long-term capital deployment are essential to industrialization and lasting prosperity.


By shifting incentives from long-term thinking, savings, and production to short-term thinking, consumption, and short-term economic activities, inflationary currencies undermine economic development. They lead to deindustrialization and leave society more dependent on the state. Notice that the more a system depends on the state, the crueler, more oppressive, and thus unsustainable it becomes.

Moreover, by maintaining monetary instability and high inflation, African governments are destroying local capital, undermining capital formation, and ensuring that local capital remains dismally scant. This keeps African countries poor and dependent on systemic aid (loans and grants) and foreign capital injections. This situation, created by misguided government policy, leaves African governments indebted and at the mercy of predatory foreign actors.

Barrel Two: High Debt
Though debt is a global economic issue, debt burdens affect countries differently. The pernicious consequences of indebtedness are more crippling and swifter to manifest in developing countries than in developed ones.

Unable or unwilling to see deficit spending for the ruinous model it is, many African governments are repeating past mistakes and driving their economies further into economic ruin by accumulating excessive debt (and consequently imposing heavier tax burdens). Although reports of an imminent debt crisis in Africa are likely an exaggeration, African countries’ debt buildup is alarming.

Apart from Sudan, Eritrea, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola, Mauritius, and Zambia, which have debt-to-GDP ratios near or above the 100 percent threshold, the average debt-to-GDP ratio in Africa hovers around 60 percent, which is lower than the average ratio for developed countries, many of which have long passed the 100 percent benchmark. Still, Africa’s debt buildup is unwise, unsustainable, and dangerous.

Excessive debt is detrimental to African economies in eight ways:

1. It perpetuates the state-led development approach, which has failed to generate economic prosperity and left most African economies in a precarious situation characterized by dependency, poverty, tyranny, corruption, rampant inflation, and deindustrialization.
2. By perpetuating the state-driven development approach, debt-fueled government spending makes poverty worse, consolidates political and economic repression, and thus further delays promarket reforms that African societies urgently need to truly develop and weather global economic storms.
3. Debt repayments further cripple already crippled economies by diverting increasingly significant portions of government revenue to debt servicing. Worse still, African countries pay much higher interest rates (5 to 16 percent) on their Eurobonds than developed countries, which, thanks to their central banks' artificial ultralow interest rates, tend to pay near-zero interest on their debt;
4. Like most government spending, African government spending tends to be mired in corruption, cronyism, embezzlement, rent seeking, overbilling, and wastefulness, which ultimately means it does more harm than good. It leads only to further debt to keep the spending binge going—a vicious cycle that attracts more political and economic opportunists seeking office or to get rich on government spending and favor.
5. It leads to injustice and a broader income and wealth inequality gap, as politicians and their associates (e.g., large businesses and other interest groups) benefit first and most from such money injections through various schemes.
6. Debt-driven government spending also means a heavier (i.e., more oppressive) tax burden in the future. High taxes are one of the main impediments to economic development. Less development means more poverty, more human suffering, and more poverty-related deaths.
7. Moreover, excessive debt leads to a situation where the people, their children, and even the unborn will have to be taxed to pay for today's largely wasteful and counterproductive government spending, which only makes politicians and associates rich.
8. On top of all that, debt (loans and grants) traps African countries in poverty and vassalage to foreign governments (primarily Western states but others too, nowadays).

Now, why do African politicians still willingly go for this ruinous model?

Part of it is monetary colonialism; part of it is philosophical colonialism. But a significant reason is that this model is rather convenient politically. It enables politicians to make fairytale electoral promises.

Barrel Three: High Taxation
Nnete Okorie-Egbe was a princess from Akwete in Nigeria who led a women's revolt against British colonial tyranny, particularly against oppressive taxation, in 1929.

Likewise, a famous folktale in Angola is that once, in protest against Portuguese colonial taxation, locals of the then village of Caxito did some magic and sent a crocodile with a bag of money in its mouth to the local colonial office to pay taxes. Although this is most likely a myth, the message is clear, and the symbolism is real. So much so that there is an alligator monument eternalizing this tale.

Protest stories such as these abound across Africa. This is unsurprising because the concept of permanent and excessive taxation is a colonial imposition that postcolonial African governments, instead of rejecting, have doubled down on. Precolonial Africa was characterized by little to no taxation due to the tradition of self-governance, free markets, and free trade. Stateless societies were ubiquitous in precolonial Africa.


However, today’s Africa is characterized by such degrees of tyrannical taxation as would resuscitate Nnete Okorie-Egbe to lead another tax revolt or make the then villagers of Caxito send not one but a hundred crocodiles to the tax office in protest.

Business Insider Africa reports that

corporate tax rates are generally higher in developing countries. In Africa, the average corporate tax rate is 27.5%—the highest of any region. Chad, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Sudan, and Zambia all tie for the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world at 35.0%. Many countries in the region also rank as the worse for ease of doing business, with high start-up costs and multiple barriers to entry.

The fact that the poorest region has the highest business tax rates globally is both revealing and perplexing.

Instead of maintaining some of the most oppressive tax regimes globally, Africa should boast the simplest and lowest tax burdens, which would greatly encourage local capital formation, investment, entrepreneurship, and lasting economic growth.

Moreover, as we all know, developing countries can barely ever repay their debts because they lack a robust economy. Increasing the tax burdens in these precarious economies will only further impoverish already impoverished societies.

In Closing
Such is the triple-barreled gun with which most African governments, intentionally or unintentionally, bombard African societies. It is unclear why African, not colonial, governments would deploy such a destructive economic gun against the very people they should serve and uplift. What is clear is that by maintaining an environment of high inflation, high debt, and high taxation, African governments ensure that African societies remain trapped in tyranny, dependency, and poverty.

 

[Plain Jane]

Witnesses say more than 200 killed in Ethiopia ethnic attack

Witnesses in Ethiopia say more than 200 people, mostly ethnic Amhara, have been killed in an attack in the country’s Oromia region and are blaming a rebel group, which denies it.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia...e-ethnicity-8313964aace8621130ecdf75917818cc#

Witnesses say more than 200 killed in Ethiopia ethnic attack
yesterday


NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Witnesses in Ethiopia said Sunday that more than 200 people, mostly ethnic Amhara, have been killed in an attack in the country’s Oromia region and are blaming a rebel group, which denies it.

It is one of the deadliest such attacks in recent memory as ethnic tensions continue in Africa’s second most populous country.

“I have counted 230 bodies. I am afraid this is the deadliest attack against civilians we have seen in our lifetime,” Abdul-Seid Tahir, a resident of Gimbi county, told The Associated Press after barely escaping the attack on Saturday. “We are burying them in mass graves, and we are still collecting bodies. Federal army units have now arrived, but we fear that the attacks could continue if they leave.”

Another witness, who gave only his first name, Shambel over fears for his safety, said the local Amhara community is now desperately seeking to be relocated somewhere else “before another round of mass killings happen.” He said ethnic Amhara that settled in the area about 30 years ago in resettlement programs are now being “killed like chickens.”


Both witnesses blamed the Oromo Liberation Army for the attacks. In a statement, the Oromia regional government also blamed the OLA, saying the rebels attacked “after being unable to resist the operations launched by (federal) security forces.”

An OLA spokesman, Odaa Tarbii, denied the allegations.

“The attack you are referring to was committed by the regime’s military and local militia as they retreated from their camp in Gimbi following our recent offensive,” he said in a message to the AP. “They escaped to an area called Tole, where they attacked the local population and destroyed their property as retaliation for their perceived support for the OLA. Our fighters had not even reached that area when the attacks took place.”

Ethiopia is experiencing widespread ethnic tensions in several regions, most of them over historical grievances and political tensions. The Amhara people, the second-largest ethnic group among Ethiopia’s more than 110 million population, have been targeted frequently in regions like Oromia.

The government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission on Sunday called on the federal government find a “lasting solution” to the killing of civilians and protect them from such attacks.

 

[Plain Jane]

Mali government says jihadi rebels kill 132 civilians

Recent attacks by jihadi rebels in central Mali have killed 132 civilians, the government announced Monday.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/politics...mali-africa-295e86bbe9796f69109f01e530841f0b#

Mali government says jihadi rebels kill 132 civilians
By BABA AHMEDyesterday


BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Recent attacks by jihadi rebels in central Mali have killed 132 civilians, the government announced Monday.

The killings happened when several villages in the Bankass area were attacked on Saturday and Sunday, the government said in a statement Monday.

Three days of national mourning starting Tuesday have been declared by the head of the ruling junta, Col. Assimi Goita.

The government said the attacks were carried out by jihadi rebels of the Katiba group.
The attacks had earlier been reported by Moulaye Guindo, the mayor of Bankass, the biggest town near the attacked villages.

The attacks show that Islamic extremist violence is spreading from Mali’s north to more central areas like Bankass.

For several weeks extremist rebels in central Mali have been blocking the road between the northern city of Gao and Mopti in central Mali.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali issued a statement about the attacks on Twitter saying it is concerned by “attacks against civilians in the Bandiagara region (the area of central Mali) perpetrated by extremist groups. These attacks have reportedly caused casualties and displacement of populations.”


In a separate incident, a U.N. peacekeeper died on Sunday from injuries sustained from an improvised explosive device, the U.N. mission to Mali said in a statement.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-u...ulf-tensions-8c6bd3929ee3fe407ea9627168fc6132
The head of the U.N. Mission to Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, said that since the beginning of 2022, several attacks have killed U.N. uniformed peacekeepers.

He said that attacks on peacekeepers can constitute war crimes under international law and reaffirmed the mission’s commitment to supporting peace and security in Mali.

Since the beginning of the year, several hundred civilians have died in attacks in central and northern Mali. The attacks are blamed on jihadi rebels as well as the Malian army, according to a report by the human rights division of the U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali began in 2013, after France led a military intervention to oust extremist rebels who had taken over cities and major towns in northern Mali the year before. The mission now has about roughly 12,000 troops in Mali and an additional 2,000 police and other officers. More than 270 peacekeepers have died in Mali, making it the U.N.’s deadliest peacekeeping mission, say officials.

 

[Plain Jane]

Rwanda hosts Commonwealth summit – DW – 06/20/2022

Rwanda is hosting the CHOGM summit. It brings together leaders from Commonwealth countries, including 19 African states.

www.dw.com

Rwanda hosts Commonwealth summit amid rights, security concerns
Rwanda is hosting the CHOGM summit. It brings together leaders from Commonwealth countries, including 19 African states.




The Commonwealth has 54 member states, encompassing 2.4 billion people

Rwanda is hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which brings together leaders and representatives from the group's 54 members, most of which are former British colonies.

It's the first time the biennial meeting has been held in four years, after the 2020 CHOGM was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Enhancing women's role in leadership, boosting business among Commonwealth countries and supporting the youth in leadership roles are among the key issues at the six-day summit, which starts on Monday June 20 and runs until Saturday.

The summit will be an opportunity for Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, often referred to as the "West's favorite dictator" to boost his status and promote his country to the outside world.

Rwanda often comes under fire from rights groups for its repressive treatment of critics and dissenting voices — a reason, some say, that the East African nation shouldn't be staging the Commonwealth summit.

The regime of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has been accused of serious human rights abuses

Rwanda's capital, Kigali, "should never have been chosen as the [CHOGM] venue," said Michela Wrong, a British author and former journalist with years of experience covering Africa. "This endorsement of Kagame's rule sends out a really worrying signal for the future of the Commonwealth."

Rwanda was accused in 2021 of targeting the phones ofmore than 3,500 activists, journalists, diplomats and foreign politicians with spyware called Pegasus. The surveillance software can reveal intimate details of what the phone's owners are doing.

Michela Wrong warns that Rwanda's failure to abide by rights conventions opens up the more than 5,000 CHOGM delegates to privacy abuses.

They'll be "advised not to stage heart-to-heart conversations on their mobiles while in the country because Rwanda is an enthusiastic consumer of Pegasus spyware, which it uses to bug visiting ministers and heads of state," she said at a virtual event about Rwanda hosting CHOGM organised by the London-based Institute of Commonwealth Studies.

She also pointed to Rwanda's habit of clearing Kigali of beggars, street children and the homeless ahead of big conferences like CHOGM, as documented by organization such as Human Rights Watch.

These people are detained in transit centers where they are "re-educated", she said, adding that this is a "polite euphemism for some pretty harsh treatment."

Ahead of CHOGM, 21 rights groups in an open letter called on the heads of state attending the meeting to pressure Rwanda's government to respect human rights.



Watch video02:58
Is Rwanda suppressing free speech or protecting the public?

History of hosts with questionable human rights
Africa conflict expert Phil Clark believes, however, that the criticism of Rwanda, whether justified or not, shows a "hypocrisy" in relation to other nations within the Commonwealth.
"There's a perception amongst many Commonwealth members that close human rights and democratic scrutiny is only for the non-white colonized member states of the Commonwealth like Sri Lanka and Rwanda," said Clark, a politics professor at SOAS University of London.

"It's certainly not for the UK itself and it's not for the white settler colonial states of the Commonwealth such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand," he said.

Australia hosted the 2011 Commonwealth summit at the height of the country's use of offshore detention centers to process those seeking asylum in Australia, Clark said, yet "Australia wasn't subjected to nearly as much scrutiny as Rwanda."

Australia's offshore processing model, which has parallels with the attempts by the UK to process asylum seekers in Rwanda, has been heavily criticized for being cruel and degrading, and violating international law.

Several thousand people demonstrated in DRC on the border with Rwanda to denounce 'Rwandan aggression'

Security concerns
CHOGM has been partly overshadowed by Rwanda's alleged support of M23 rebels, who are active in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the border to Rwanda.
Rwanda has repeatedly denied backing the armed group, which launched their biggest offensive in a decade in May 2022.

The tension between DR Congo and Rwanda escalated late last week after clashes on the border between the security forces of both countries.

Rwanda government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said delegates will be safe during their stay in Kigali, which is some 100 km from the border to DR Congo.

"What happened at the border is being investigated. However, our visitors are assured of their security in Kigali or elsewhere in the country," Makolo said at a media briefing.

Youth speak out
The violence in nearby Congo and the questions around Rwanda's suitability to host the summit failed to dampen the enthusiasm of participants of the Commonwealth Youth Forum, which took place in the days before CHOGM officially opened.

Cameroon National Youth Council chairperson Fadimatou Iyawa Ousmanou called the forum an "opportunity" for young people while Caribbean delegate Kendell Vincent praised how participants could learn from each and connect.

The 2022 youth forum focuses on the adverse impacts of climate change, conflict and COVID-19, all of which which disproportionately hit young people by cutting employment, training and education opportunities.

Approximately 60% of unemployed people in Commonwealth countries are young, according to the forum organizers.

Speaking at the CHOGM youth forum, Rwanda's Youth Minister Rosemary Mbabazi challenged Africa's youth to play active roles in running state affairs in their respective countries.

"Are you present to take charge of your future, or are you only procrastinating?," she asked. "Are you doing what is necessary to create your future, or do you leave it to chance?"

Edited by: Kate Hairsine

 

[Plain Jane]

Africa 'taken hostage' by Russia's invasion, Zelenskyy says

Ukraine's leader has told the African Union that the continent has been "taken hostage” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid catastrophically rising food prices.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/russia-u...nskyy-kenya-908eea69f9761d032afcc29cdd628302#

Africa ‘taken hostage’ by Russia’s invasion, Zelenskyy says
By CARA ANNAJune 21, 2022

FILE - A shopkeeper sells wheat flour in the Hamar-Weyne market in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia on May 26, 2022. "Africa is actually taken hostage" in Russia's invasion of Ukraine amid catastrophically rising food prices, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the African Union during a closed-door address on Monday, June 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — “Africa is actually taken hostage” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid catastrophically rising food prices, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the African Union continental body during a closed-door address on Monday.

It took weeks of requests for Zelenskyy to address African nations, many of whom retain close ties to Russia and failed to support a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning the invasion earlier this year.

Ukraine and the West hope to weaken those ties by emphasizing that Russia’s actions are to blame for dramatic shortages of wheat and edible oils and skyrocketing food and fuel prices across the African continent of 1.3 billion people. Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian exports is a “war crime,” the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on Monday.

“They are trying to use you and the suffering of the people to put pressure on the democracies that have imposed sanctions on Russia,” Zelenskyy told the AU, whose leaders recently met in Russia with President Vladimir Putin and echoed Moscow’s assertion that Western sanctions are in part to blame for the food security crisis. They appealed to other countries to ensure grain and fertilizer exports from Russia and Ukraine aren’t blocked.



Millions of people in the Horn of Africa, including Ethiopia and Somalia, are now struggling to find food or even humanitarian food aid amid a historic drought. The Associated Press was the first to report hundreds of deaths this year in Somalia alone.

“We know for a fact there will be increased deaths ... well into 2023,” USAID Ethiopia mission director Sean Jones told the AP last week.

Official reaction to Zelenskyy’s speech was muted. African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat, one of those who met with Putin, tweeted that African nations “reiterated the AU position of the urgent need for dialogue to end the conflict.” Current AU chair and Senegalese President Macky Sall tweeted that Africa respects “the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the freedom of commerce.”

Russia is the largest weapons exporter to sub-Saharan Africa, and Moscow emphasizes its long ties with African nations dating to the Soviet Union. Some African leaders, meanwhile, are exasperated by global powers’ efforts to choose one side or another.

Ukraine will press its case again later this week when its foreign minister speaks to Africa-based reporters in a briefing organized by the United States government on how “Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine affects food security on the African continent.”

The EU’s top diplomat said he has written to all African foreign ministers to explain that the bloc’s sanctions on Russia are not responsible for the looming global food crisis, and pledged to work out ways for exports of food and fertilizers to reach their continent.

 

[Zagdid]

Maritime Criminality/Oil Theft: Navy foils criminal’s attempt to steal N2.7bn crude products

Maritime Criminality/Oil Theft: Navy foils criminal’s attempt to steal N2.7bn crude products

www.vanguardngr.com

Maritime Criminality/Oil Theft: Navy foils criminal’s attempt to steal N2.7bn crude products
June 23, 2022
By Kingsley Omonobi

Following the determination of the leadership of the Nigerian Navy to checkmate activities of economic saboteurs and maritime criminality, Special Forces in Operation’s Dakatar Da Barawo, Calm Waters 2 and Tri-Partite Joint Border Patrol have busted/foiled attempts to steal crude oil products worth over #2.7billion.

During the operations, 5 Illegal Refining Sites, 14 Storage Tanks, 80 Wooden Boats, 22 Ovens, 40 Speed Boats, 2 Vehicles, 1 tanker, 1 truck, 1 barge and a Toyota Sienna were arrested/recovered.

A breakdown of the recovered/seized products showed that Crude Oil accounted for 2, 30 million litres valued at over #594million (N594,335,343.36);

AGO accounted for over 2.6million litres, 2, 642,000, valued at over #28million (N28,250,000) and other recoveries bringing the total value of product’s denied oil thieves to N2,789,025,343.36 (Two Billion, Seven Hundred Eighty Nine Million, Twenty Five Thousand, Three Hundred and Forty Three Naira Thirty Six Kobo.)

Making this known in a statement, Director of Naval Information, Commodore AO Ayo-Vaughan said several Illegal Refining Sites (IRS), metal storage tanks, wooden boats, dugout pits and ovens were destroyed by the Navy in Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers

“On 14 June 2022, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder in Rivers state intercepted and seized 2 wooden boats at Rumoparale within Port Harcourt channel.

“The boats were laden with about 200,000 litres of illegally refined AGO. Accordingly, the boats and products were destroyed.

“Similarly, NNS Victory in Cross Rivers state intercepted and impounded 3 wooden boats laden with drums of suspected illegally refined PMS around Ikang channel, suspected to be transported to Cameroon. The boats and products are in custody.

“Also, Forward Operating Base (FOB) Bonny in Rivers State intercepted 2 wooden boats laden with about 400,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil at Iwokiri. The wooden boats and products were destroyed.

“On 15 June 2022, NNS Pathfinder arrested one wooden boat laden with about 450,000 litres of suspected illegally refined AGO at Choba within Port Harcourt Channel. The boat and products were destroyed appropriately.

“Also, the patrol team located and deactivated an IRS which had 8 metal storage tanks with about 400,000litres of suspected stolen crude oil and 4 metal storage tanks containing about 200,000litres of illegally refined AGO as well as one metal storage tank filled with about 50,000litres of suspected illegally refined DPK.

“The products were destroyed accordingly. Similarly, NNS Soroh in Bayelsa State intercepted a wooden boat laden with about60,000 litres of suspected illegally refined AGO. The boat and contents were destroyed.

“Also, a reactivated IRS at Okubotuwo Camp, Brass LGA was discovered with one oven, one dug-out pit, and 3 metal tanks cumulatively filled with about 40,000 litres of suspected illegally refined AGO and 10,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil.

Additionally, a wooden boat containing unspecified quantity of crude oil was also discovered. All were handled appropriately.

“Furthermore, the team located and deactivated another IRS within same vicinity. The site had 3 metal storage tanks filled with about 50,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil and illegally refined AGO respectively.

“Additionally, one wooden boat laden with unspecified quantity of suspected stolen crude oil was discovered and handled appropriately.

“Relatedly, NNS Delta in Warri, Delta State intercepted 2 speedboats cumulatively laden with about 2000 litres of suspected illegally refined AGO around Isaba Community in Warri South LGA.

“Also, the team located and deactivated an IRS around Benett Island in Warri South LGA. The site had 15 metal storage tanks and 7 ovens cumulatively filled with about 25,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil and 100,000 litres of illegally refined AGO.

“On 16 June 2022, NNS Delta located an IRS around Okpobene Creek in Warri South-West LGA. During the raid, 7 ovens and 12 metal storage tanks cumulatively laden with about 120,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil and about 190,000 litres of suspected illegally refined AGO were destroyed.

“Additionally, an IRS around KohCreek in Warri South LGA with 5 metal storage tanks, 2 ovens and 5 pits cumulatively laden with about 150,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil and about 70,000 litres of suspected illegally refined AGO was deactivated.

“Also, one wooden boat was discovered and destroyed. FOB Escravos in Delta State located a reactivated IRS at Agor in Warri Southwest LGA. The site had 3 pits, 8 ovens and 12 metal storage tanks cumulatively filled with about 215,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil which were handled appropriately.

“On 17 June 2022, NNS Pathfinder arrested and destroyed a wooden boat laden with about 60,000 litres of illegally refined AGO along Isaka Axis, Port Harcourt Channel.

“Also, NNS Delta seized a Tanker and a wooden boat at a jetty around Oghara Market in Ethiope West LGA. The tanker was receiving about 30,000 litres of suspected illegally refined AGO from the wooden boat.

“Accordingly, the truck and boat were destroyed. Furthermore, 5 suspects and a wooden boat laden with about 70,000litres of suspected illegally refined AGO were apprehended under Kiama bridge.

“Additionally, a Toyota Sienna Vehicle in the same location was seized. The suspects, vehicle and items are currently in the custody of NNS Soroh while the boat was destroyed accordingly. In a similar development, an open truck laden with about 500sacks of suspected crude oil was impounded without its occupants along new expressway in Yenagoa.

“The truck and its content were also destroyed accordingly. Similarly, an IRS at Emenudong creek, Ataba in Andoni LGA Rivers State was discovered and deactivated. The site had 4 metal storage tanks filled with about 250,000litres suspected illegally refined AGO.
“Furthermore, the team discovered and destroyed a barge laden with about 200,000 litres of suspected illegally refined AGO and 2 wooden boats laden with about 180,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil.

“On 18 June 2022, NNS Pathfinder intercepted and destroyed a wooden boat laden with about 500,000litres of suspected stolen crude oil at Mingidukuri River and another wooden boat laden with about 200,000 liters of illegally refined AGO.

“Furthermore, on the same day the team discovered an illegal crude oil loading point at Eroton creek, Cawthorne channel with a wooden boat taking in crude oil from a well head. The boat could not be moved due to safety concerns. However, the Base established a guard post at the entrance of the creek to deny miscreants access to the well head.

“Furthermore, NNS Delta located and destroyed a wooden boat laden with about 20,000 liters of illegally refined AGO along Sara Creek in Warri Southwest LGA. On 19 June 2022, NNS Delta located 3 IRS around Opumami Creek in Warri South LGA.

“Accordingly, 2 metal storage tanks, 5 ovens and 7 dugout pits cumulatively laden with about 120,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil were destroyed. Equally, a boat was discovered within the vicinity and was destroyed.

“On the same day, the Base located and deactivated 2 IRS at Atumakiri. The sites had about 10 ovens and 15 metal storage tanks cumulatively filled with about 450,000 litres suspected illegally refined AGO and 350,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil.

“Furthermore, the Base intercepted and destroyed a wooden boat laden with unspecified quantity of suspected stolen crude oil in a creek at Adiakwo and Ugbunku.

“In another development, Op Calm Waters II (OCW) and Op Tri-Partite Joint Border Patrol (TJBP) were sustained during the period.

“Accordingly, on 15 June 2022, FOB Igbokoda in Ondo State intercepted and seized Toyota Camry with and a Nissan Primera along Mahim and Ugbonla junction Ilage LGA of Ondo State.

“The vehicles were discovered to be carrying a total of 84 x 25 litre jerry cans containing illegally refined AGO. The vehicles and products are in the custody of FOB Igbokoda for further investigation.

 

[Plain Jane]

EU seeks to equalize trade relations with Africa – DW – 06/24/2022

The European Union should change the way it does business with Africa to redress imbalances left over in part from the colonial era, EU lawmakers have said.

www.dw.com

European Parliament advocates equalizing EU trade relations with Africa
The European Union should change the way it does business with Africa to redress imbalances left over in part from the colonial era, EU lawmakers have said.




Africa exports primary goods to Europe, while importing higher-valued manufactured goods

The European Parliament on Thursday backed a report advocating the use of trade policy to equalize relations between African countries and the European Union.

"For too long, Africa has been reduced to a supplier of raw materials, with the result that the continent's immense economic potential remains untapped," Kathleen Van Brempt, a Belgian Social Democrat member of the European Parliament, said in a statement.

The 27-country bloc should focus on five strategic areas as set out in the report, according to fellow Belgian MEP Saskia Bricmont of the Green Party: efficient infrastructure, food security, civil society, fair-trade agreements and sustainable economic development.

Trade still linked to colonial era
In the European Parliament report on the future of African trade relations, one major issue highlighted is how the majority of goods imported into the EU from Africa are cheaper primary goods such as food, drink and energy, while the EU ships mostly higher-value manufactured items the other direction, such as machinery and pharmaceutical products.


Watch video03:24
Can Africa bridge the gas gap in Europe?


"Due to the continued direction of trade from colonial times, wealth is being transferred continuously from the African periphery to the industrialized and increasingly digitized centers," the report states.

The EU therefore ought to share more of its technical knowledge with Africa to encourage on-the-ground manufacturing, Van Brempt told journalists in a briefing.

Countering Chinese, Russian influence
As well as mutual commercial benefits in areas of strategic importance, like the supply of hydrogen for green energy, Van Brempt said overhauled trade ties could help bring Africa back to the EU. Chinese and Russian investment has been booming in Africa in recent years.

"On China, for sure the advantage that we have right now is that I think a lot of African countries, not all of them, but a lot of African countries have had negative experiences the last couple of years with Chinese investments," Van Brempt said. Many are now having to pay back loans from Beijing in an "indecent way," she added.

Commission head Ursula von der Leyen (left) announced a €150-billion investment plan for Africa with Senegal's Macky Sall

The European Parliament itself has limited powers in foreign policy and trade. "We want to push the [European] Commission to fundamentally redefine relations with Africa," Van Brempt said.

Relations between African countries and the EU have been strained in recent years by, among things, a dispute over whether to waive intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines, many of these being produced by EU firms.

The EU executive branch under President Ursula von der Leyen has made closer ties to Africa one of its major foreign policy goals. At a summit of European and African leaders earlier this year, the commission announced plans to invest €150 billion ($156 billion) in Africa.
Edited by: Sonya Diehn

 

[Plain Jane]

Morocco: 18 migrants dead in stampede to enter Melilla

Moroccan authorities say 18 migrants were killed and scores of migrants and police officers were injured in a “stampede” of people trying to cross into the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla on Friday.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/africa-migration-spain-north-a52c8af0dc8c96ce37f265f1c41a9714#

Morocco: 18 migrants dead in stampede to enter Melilla
By CIARÁN GILES and TARIK EL-BARAKAHyesterday



1 of 9
Riot police officers cordon off the area after migrants arrive on Spanish soil and crossing the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla, Spain, Friday, June 24, 2022. Dozens of migrants stormed the border crossing between Morocco and the Spanish enclave city of Melilla on Friday in what is the first such incursion since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month. (AP Photo/Javier Bernardo)

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Eighteen Africans seeking to cross into Spain were killed and scores of migrants and police were injured in what Moroccan authorities called a “stampede” of people surging across Morocco’s border fence with the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla on Friday.

A total of 133 migrants breached the border between the Moroccan city of Nador and Melilla on Friday, the first such mass crossing since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month. A spokesperson for the Spanish government’s office in Melilla said about 2,000 people attempted to cross, but many were stopped by Spanish Civil Guard police and Moroccan forces on either side of the border fence.

Morocco’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the casualties occurred when people tried to climb the iron fence. It said five migrants were killed and 76 injured, and 140 Moroccan security officers were injured.


Thirteen of the injured migrants later died in the hospital, raising the death toll to 18, according to Morocco’s official news agency MAP., which cited local authorities. The Moroccan Human Rights Association reported 27 dead but the figure could immediately be confirmed.

Spanish officials said 49 Civil Guards sustained minor injuries. Four police vehicles were damaged by rocks thrown by some migrants.

https://apnews.com/article/queen-elizabeth-ii-politics-caribbean-cb98c2889afe6b09a39998c4e94d90d3
Those who succeeded in crossing went to a local migrant center, where authorities were evaluating their circumstances.

People fleeing poverty and violence sometimes make mass attempts to reach Melilla and the other Spanish territory on the North African coast, Ceuta, as a springboard to continental Europe.

Spain normally relies on Morocco to keep migrants away from the border.

Over two days at the beginning of March, more than 3,500 people tried to scale the six-meter (20-foot) barrier that surrounds Melilla and nearly 1,000 made it across, according to Spanish authorities.

Friday’s crossings were the first attempt since relations between Spain and Morocco improved in March after a year-long dispute centered on the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976.

Morocco loosened its controls around Ceuta last year, allowing thousands of migrants to cross into Spain. The move was viewed as retaliation for Spain’s decision to allow the leader of Western Sahara’s pro-independence movement to be treated for COVID-19 at a Spanish hospital.

Tensions between the two countries began to thaw earlier this year after Spain backed Morocco’s plan to grant more autonomy to Western Sahara, where activists are seeking full independence.
___
Ciarán Giles reported from Madrid.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of migration at Migration

 

[Plain Jane]

'Unjustified' force used against Melilla migrants – DW – 06/25/2022

Spanish and Moroccan activists called for a probe into the clash that left at least 23 people dead at Spain's North African exclave of Melilla. The unrest began when some 2,000 migrants tried to rush the border fence.

www.dw.com

Activists say Morocco used 'unjustified' force against Melilla migrants
Spanish and Moroccan activists called for a probe into the clash that left at least 23 people dead at Spain's North African exclave of Melilla. The unrest began when some 2,000 migrants tried to rush the border fence.




The confrontation also left some 250 people injured

A rights group on Saturday accused Morocco's security forces of using "unjustified" violence against migrants trying to force their way through a border fence between the North African country and the Spanish exclave of Melilla.

Morocco said 23 migrants died on its side of the fence on Friday.

What has the rights group alleged?
Amin Abidar, a spokesperson for the Moroccan Association of Human Rights, said the migrants had been "mistreated" by Moroccan security forces during the border rush.
He described how migrants had been left trapped on the ground for hours without medical assistance.

The rights group shared videos on social media that purportedly showed dozens of migrants, some bleeding and lying motionless on the ground, with Moroccan security forces standing over them.

The group said the lack of action by security forces likely led to many more deaths.

Abidar told the dpa news agency that the final death toll was likely to be much higher, and called on Moroccan authorities to hold an "urgent and fair investigation" into the incident.
Five other rights groups in Morocco and Spain backed up the call for a probe.

The Spanish Commission for Refugees described what it said was "the indiscriminate use of violence to manage migration and control borders."

It said the violence had stopped eligible asylum-seekers from reaching Spanish soil.

Esteban Beltran, director for Amnesty International Spain, said "although the migrants may have acted violently in their attempt to enter Melilla, when it comes to border control, not everything goes."

What happened at the Morocco-Melilla border?
Early on Friday morning, around 2,000 people attempted to storm the border fence but were stopped by security forces on either side of the barrier, said a government official in Melilla.
A Spanish police source told the Reuters news agency that the migrants had attacked border guards with sticks, knives and acid.

The source said the migrants had used a different tactic to enter Melilla.

Morocco claims both Ceuta and Melilla as its own territory

"Before they used to spread along the whole length of the fence. Now they concentrate on the part where they think it is weakest," the police said.

In addition to 23 people losing their lives, Morocco's state news agency MAP said dozens of migrants and 140 members of the security forces were injured on its side of the border.
No one died on the Spanish side, but 57 migrants and 49 police officers were injured, the Melilla official said.

Melilla officials said over 500 migrants made it across the border after the fence was cut with shears.

Footage posted online showed a group of mainly young men running through the streets of Melilla singing and dancing, before heading to an emergency reception center.

What was the reaction from Morocco and Spain?
The Moroccan Interior Ministry accused the migrants of using violence during the border fence storming.

It said that most were crushed to death in the "stampede."

A Moroccan official said some of the migrants fell from the top of the barrier.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the "violent assault" by migrants which he called an "attack on the territorial integrity" of Spain.

"if there is anyone responsible for everything that appears to have taken place at that border, it is the mafias that traffic in human beings,'' Sanchez added.

On Friday, Sanchez praised officers on both sides of the border for fighting off "a well-organized, violent assault."

Melilla, along with Ceuta, another Spanish exclave to the west , are the European Union's only two land borders with the African continent.

In recent years, both towns have regularly seen dramatic border incidents involving migrants trying to reach the bloc.

Thousands of people, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, often wait close to the borders for a chance to enter the EU.



Watch video02:08
Ceuta migrant crisis: Minors face uncertain future

 

[Plain Jane]

South Africa investigates unexplained pub deaths – DW – 06/26/2022

Investigations are underway after at least 20 young people were found dead in a township bar. Authorities have said the bodies shown no signs of injury.

www.dw.com

South Africa investigates unexplained pub deaths
Investigations are underway after at least 20 young people were found dead in a township bar. Authorities have said the bodies shown no signs of injury.




The incident took place in Enyobeni Tavern in the town of East London

South African police on Sunday were looking into the deaths of at least 20 young people who died at a bar in the coastal town on East London.

The cause of the deaths was unknown and local press reported that there were no signs of injuries.

"The number has increased to 20, three have died in hospital. But there are still two who are very critical," the head of the provincial government safety department Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe said on local TV.

"At this point, we cannot confirm the cause of death," said health department spokesperson Siyanda Manana.

"We are going to conduct autopsies as soon as possible to establish the probable cause of death. The deceased have been taken to state mortuaries,'' Manana added.

End of exam party
Provincial police spokesman brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana told AFP that the victims of the incident were between 18 and 20 years old.

They were reportedly attending a party at the Enyobeni Tavern to celebrate the end of the winter school exams.

Bar owner Siyakhangela Ndevu told local broadcaster eNCA that he had been called to the scene early on Sunday morning and that he was "still uncertain about what really happened."

Government safety official Unathi Binqose told AFP that "forensic [investigators] will take samples and test to see if there was any poisoning of any sort," but added that "the place had a lot more people than it normally takes."

Concerned parents gathered at the scene to find out their children were among the dead
Township pubs, commonly referred to as taverns or shebeens, are legally allowed to sell alcohol, but safety regulations are rarely enforced.

They are often located inside people's houses.
ab/dj (AFP, AP)

 

[Plain Jane]

Cameroonian separatists commit abuses: HRW – DW – 06/27/2022

A report by Human Rights Watch has accused Anglophone rebels of "kidnapping, terrorizing and killing civilians" in parts of the country.

www.dw.com

Cameroon: Separatist groups commit rights abuses, HRW says
A report by Human Rights Watch has accused Anglophone rebels of "kidnapping, terrorizing and killing civilians" in parts of the country.




A civil war between pro-Anglophone and pro-Francophone factions has caused devastation in parts of Cameroon

Separatist groups in Cameroon's Anglophone region have become increasingly more violent, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Monday.

"Armed separatist groups are kidnapping, terrorizing, and killing civilians across the English-speaking regions with no apparent fear of being held to account by either their own leaders or Cameroonian law enforcement," Ilaria Allegrozzi, HRW's senior central Africa researcher, said in the report.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 38 victims and witnesses for the report. The campaign group found that armed separatists had killed at least seven people, burned two schools, attacked a university, raped a girl, and kidnapped up to 82 people since January.

How separatists restrict citizen rights
In one case detailed by HRW, separatists stormed a university campus, shot in the air and caused a stampede that injured at least five people. Fighters were retaliating against the university for resisting a lockdown they had declared in the area, reported HRW.

The group also reported that on January 12, separatist fighters killed a taxi driver and an additional civilian unconnected to the fighting.

"These abusive calls trample the basic rights of an already terrorized civilian population,” HRW said.

Allegrozzi called on separatist group leaders to end civilian abuses committed by their fighters:

"Leaders of separatist groups should immediately instruct their fighters to stop abusing civilians and hand over abusive fighters for prosecution,” said Allegrozzi in the report.
However, these actors have only grown more dangerous as fighting has gone on.

At least 26 villagers were also killed by separatists in an attack on Saturday in a village in Cameroon's Southwest region. An additional 30 villagers were killed on Monday in another attack in Western Cameroon, local sources told Reuters.





Watch video02:06
Playing for peace in Cameroon
Why are separatist groups fighting in Cameroon?
HRW's Allegrozzi requested that Cameroon's regional and international partners put pressure on the country's government to protect civilians.

"They should also impose targeted sanctions, such as travel bans and asset freezes, on separatist leaders who bear responsibility for committing abuses,” Allegrozzi said.
Cameroon is embattled in an ongoing civil war between pro-Anglophone and pro-Francophone factions in the country. Both groups are fighting to capture the country's English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions. Members of Cameroon's English speaking secessionist movement hope to carve out the two regions and form the independent state of Ambazonia.

Human Rights Watch shared its findings with representatives from three major separatist groups — one leader responded.

There have been more than 6,000 casualties due to Cameroon's ongoing civil war. Violence in the region has also displaced around a million people, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.
asw/wd (Reuters, AFP)

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Nigerian Governor Orders Mass Issuance Of Gun Permits To Counter Murderous Hordes

BY TYLER DURDEN
MONDAY, JUN 27, 2022 - 08:55 PM
Gun permits have rarely been issued in Nigeria—but that's about to change.
In the face of rampant violence by huge gangs of heavily armed bandits, one state governor has ordered the mass issuance of gun permits to citizens desperate for a chance to protect themselves.

For over a decade, Nigerians living in the country's northwestern states have endured an endless plague of looting, kidnapping and murder at the hands of gangs and ethnic militias, which Nigerians call bandits. The violence has taken its steepest toll on the states of Zamfara and Kaduna.






The bandits operate from bases in remote forests where terrain makes offensive operations by Nigerian security forces more difficult and dangerous. In addition, "Nigeria's security forces are stretched fighting an Islamist insurgency in the northeast of the country, leaving individual states to rely on vigilante groups to tackle the bandits," reports Reuters.

In addition to the money they gain through robbery and kidnapping, the bandits also control gold mines, giving them additional resources to fund weapons purchases.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton helped give Nigeria's murderous bandits a powerful advantage over citizens and police alike. The collapse of Libya's government after the U.S.-NATO-led regime change war boosted the flow of military weapons throughout West Africa. According to a 2016 OXFAM report, Libya's illicit arms market has enabled online purchase of rifles, heavy machine guns, rocket-launchers, anti-tank guided missiles and grenade launchers.

With government increasingly incapable of stopping the onslaught, the bandits have been emboldened. In early January, some 200 people were killed in Zamfara as bandits used violence on civilians as a form of retaliation for government airstrikes on their base. In a two-day orgy of violence, up to nine villages were attacked, with bandits shooting villagers while looting and burning their homes.

Last week, bandits attacked two churches in the neighboring Kaduna state, killing eight people and kidnapping 38.

And now, Bello Matawalle, the governor of Zamfara state, has decided his citizens deserve at least a fighting chance against formidable foes. Specifically, the governor ordered the police commissioner to issue 500 licenses in each of the state's 19 emirate subdivisions.
"Government is ready to facilitate people, especially our farmers, to secure basic weapons for defending themselves," said Ibrahim Magaji Dosara, Zamfara information commissioner.
Nigerian bandits at their base in 2021 (via Wikipedia)

Perhaps betraying an affinity for gun control—even in as desperate a situation as that faced by Nigerians—Associated Press couldn't help but strike a skeptical tone: "It was not yet clear how arming citizens would help prevent the attacks; authorities have admitted that even the Nigerian police are sometimes overwhelmed during violent attacks."

The expansion of gun ownership is one of a variety of measures against the marauders. Others include the closure of gas stations in particularly dangerous areas, and a ban of motorcycles, which are integral to the bandits' modus operandi. Upwards of 300 or more motorcyclists descend on villages at once, typically with both an armed rider and an armed passenger.

"Anybody found riding a motorbike within the areas [are] considered bandits and security agencies are thereby directed to shoot such persons at sight," said Dosara.

 

[Plain Jane]

Ethiopia names negotiators for looming Tigray peace process

Ethiopian authorities have named a team of seven negotiators for possible peace talks with Tigray forces.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/politics...-abiy-ahmed-4d494b773bfa23bad2773dd33cace5c9#

Ethiopia names negotiators for looming Tigray peace process
June 28, 2022



1 of 3
Tesfay, center, sits with his wife and grandchildren, who have been displaced for 18 months, as they receive food assistance for the first time in 8 months from the World Food Programme (WFP), in the town of Adi Mehameday, in the western Tigray region of Ethiopia, Saturday, May 28, 2022. Hunger is tightening its grip on millions of people in Ethiopia who are facing a combination of conflict in the north and drought in the south while dwindling resources mean food and nutrition support may run dry from next month, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned Thursday, June 23, 2022. (Claire Nevill/WFP via AP)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopian authorities have named a team of seven negotiators for possible peace talks with Tigray forces.

The announcement comes after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced earlier in June the formation of a committee to handle negotiations with Tigray’s ruling party, which the government declared a terrorist group last year.

“The ruling Prosperity Party has laid out plans to settle the war in northern Ethiopia peacefully,” Justice Minister Gedion Timothewos told state media late Monday.

The government’s negotiating team will be led by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, he said.

Tigray’s leaders have not yet commented on the latest announcement by the federal
authorities of the East African nation. But the region’s top official, Debretsion Gebremichael, said in an open letter to the international community on June 15 that his side is open to peace talks. He also warned that his group’s “readiness to go the extra mile for peace must not be misunderstood as a readiness to abandon our principles from weakness or greed.”



The African Union special envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, has been traveling within Ethiopia in recent weeks as he tries to get both sides to talk.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-nato-putin-madrid-9b249117b645e461f09cd0b4cb4afc02
It remains unclear where the peace talks would happen. Tigray officials have said they are prepared to meet in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, in negotiations hosted and facilitated by the Kenyan president.

Ethiopia’s deadly war in the northern part of the country has caused tens of thousands of deaths and displaced millions more.

Tigray has been mostly cut off from the rest of Ethiopia after Tigray forces re-captured the regional capital a year ago and federal forces withdrew. A truce declared by the government in March has led to a significant increase in aid reaching Tigray by road after months of deprivation.