INTL Africa: Politics, Economics, Military- May 2020

[Plain Jane]

April's thread:

INTL - Africa: Politics, Economics, Military- April 2020

March thread is here: https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/africa-politics-economics-and-military-march-2020.568965/ Regional conflict in Mediterranean pages 15-18 here: https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/regional-conflict-brewing-in-the-mediterranean.565195/page-15...

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Main Coronavirus Thread:

CORONA - Main Coronavirus thread

“Everybody calls me when they can’t get masks,” said Mr. Bowen of Prestige Ameritech. “When everything goes back to normal, everyone goes back to the foreign masks.” In a nutshell. We are in this situation by our own hand.

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Conflict in North Africa and Mediterranean Region

WAR - Regional conflict brewing in the Mediterranean

Gohar Nawaz Khan @goharkhan47 Libya: Russian Media: Turkey preparing a big military operation in Libya using F-16s and Stratotankers. Oh crap....

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Nigeria: How Boko Haram Sustain Operations Through International Trade in Smoked Fish

Among the major economic activities disrupted by the insurgency in Lake Chad are commercial fishing and farming of red pepper. These were major trading products upon which the local economy of a vast array of communities in the Lake Chad Basin, particularly Borno state in Nigeria, was dependent.

allafrica.com

Nigeria: How Boko Haram Sustain Operations Through International Trade in Smoked Fish
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Photo: Pixabay
Fishing net

26 APRIL 2020
Premium Times (Abuja)


Nigeria: How Boko Haram Sustain Operations Through International Trade in Smoked Fish
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Photo: Pixabay
Fishing net

26 APRIL 2020
Premium Times (Abuja)
By Ahmad Salkida
Among the major economic activities disrupted by the insurgency in Lake Chad are commercial fishing and farming of red pepper. These were major trading products upon which the local economy of a vast array of communities in the Lake Chad Basin, particularly Borno state in Nigeria, was dependent.
But in 2015 the insurgents took strategic steps to control and re-order trade in both products. They encouraged local fishing among the communities by the banks of the lake and created a new regime of levies and secure routes for fish traders to reach designated markets.

According to the World Food Programme, before the Boko Haram crisis, the combined fish and red pepper trades contributed 28 billion CFA Francs ($48 million) to the Nigerien economy, with most of this coming from exports to Nigeria. The red pepper or red gold farming and trade is estimated to employ over 300,000 people.

The leadership of the break-away Boko Haram, which metamorphosed into the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), seemingly more adept at economic planning, saw this and went ahead to design an elaborate scheme to control the sectors.

Because the structures of both the production and trade had collapsed, the ISWAP leadership sent emissaries to various camps of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Borno State requesting them to return to their farms, fishing and trading under their watch, HumAngle was told.

HumAngle gathered that several hundreds of households in the (IDPs) camps heeded the call, returning to resume farming and fishing activities in the islands. For many households among the IDPs, the desperate and inhuman conditions in the camps made their decision to follow the ISWAP offers easy.

In the years following the insurgency and cessation of fishing and farming, aquatic resources in Lake Chad had improved considerably.

Human activity

HumAngle investigations showed that the new deposit of aquatic resources made the islands very attractive for several farmers and fishermen scattered across IDPs camps in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria to return.

The new conditions of the lake served ISWAP in two ways: cobbling together an economy under its control and creating a strong basis for recruiting new fighters into its fold. They described the renewed aquatic life in the lake as a strong pointer that Allah had been pleased with the war they had been waging and was rewarding them on the instant with this symbolic manna from heaven.

But experts have attributed the blossoming of aquatic resources in the lake to the reduction of human activity in the region. These included reduced or cessation of irrigation farming for some years and reduced population around the lake.

The individuals and households in IDPs camps who heeded the call of ISWAP seem not taken in by any of the views. "It was difficult to choose between hunger where there is safety such as in an IDPs camp and the abundance of food, where life can end any minute," said Adamu Baga, who just fled the Island in April to Diffa in Niger Republic.

Mr Baga, who spoke with HumAngle, confirmed that he paid taxes for the past three years for every carton of smoked fish and every bag of pepper.

"I can't say exactly how much money I have paid in three years but I am sure I and my three children have paid not less than N400,000 to N500,000 and we are not amongst the big farmers," he said.

Paying for protection

There are hundreds of people that produce more than Mr Baga across the lake's fishing and farming communities. Apart from the revenue that ISWAP makes from the levies paid by the likes of Mr Baga, it further makes a fortune from providing security to the farmers and on every product sold in the market.

The insurgents, as a group, are also directly involved in the businesses, HumAngle gathered.

An official of the Borno State government, who does not want to be quoted, said, "fish and other agricultural products from Baga were among the biggest sources of revenue in the state before the insurgency crippled the region.

"Now, most of the revenue from fish is shared between the military that confiscates the goods and the terrorists that charge levies for these items."

A fish merchant who spoke to HumAngle said his "fishermen pay N15,000 each, every two weeks for fishing rights and for every six cartons of smoked fish, the local dealers on the ground give one cartoon to the landlords.



The landlords are ISWAP officials. "Buyers pay N1,000 to ISWAP officials for every one cartoon of smoked fish they purchase," our source revealed.

The levies constitute a steady stream of revenue fueling the activities of insurgents in the Northeast of Nigeria. Sources who are familiar with the trade and the collecting points along the supply chain estimate that the insurgents make millions in naira every day during the peak season of business.

"The insurgents also collect taxes from livestock farmers and herders that are based in the lake basin," said our source. "It is called Hadaya, which is due every six months, and it is paid in the form of one large cow for every 30 cows in the herd."

In return for the levies and taxes the community dwellers pay, the insurgents provide a framework for arbitration through its Hisbah, as well as access to basic medical services and security. The provision of security is principally for traders travelling from the islands to Kusiri Market in northern Cameroon and the Kinchandi Market in Niger Republic.

HumAngle reliably learned that fish from Kinchandi Market regularly end up in Hadeija, a commercial town in Jigawa state, as well as Kano, in Kano state while those from Kusiri Market in northern Cameroon end up in Mubi, Adamawa state, from where they are moved to different markets across Nigeria.

A Boko Haram defector, confirming the extent of fish trade and how important it is for the insurgents in the region, told HumAngle that most of the holes covered with rods and zinc as seen in photos from the recent Chadian operations were dug to process fish and package them for distribution to the market.

Every effort to get the exact figure that the Boko Haram factions make in Lake Chad was futile as the group does not declare revenue generated openly. "It is only in the Shura meeting that issues should be raised," said a mid-level Boko Haram fighter, who added that apart from revenue from ransom, nothing could match the revenues from trade and taxes.

HumAngle, however, estimates that the revenues from these trades accruing to both ISWAP and the sub-faction of Boko Haram in Lake Chad run into several millions of naira every month, especially in the peak seasons for fish and red pepper.

Rather than disrupt the entire production and supply chain, the Nigerian military only focuses on tokenism by seizing consignments from traders on their way to the local markets. A fish merchant whose truckload of fish was seized by the army early in 2019 in Borno state, said traders continued to be in dilemma.

"I didn't have any option but to pay the levy imposed on me for safe passage. It is the same thing if armed robbers stop you on the way, you either pay or be killed," said the merchant.

He said up to date, the military had not given any explanation for destroying his truck and stock and that he did not know the whereabouts of his driver who was detained in Maiduguri.

Several accounts revealed that nutritionally, the fish from Lake Chad provide the bulk of the protein requirements of the rural communities in the territory. Additionally, fish supply from the region is known to account for over 70 per cent of fish products traded in large urban markets of southern Nigeria, namely Onitsha, Enugu, Lagos, Ilorin and Ibadan.

This carefully woven economic network created by ISWAP may have collapsed temporarily or permanently, considering that recent military onslaught on the insurgents by Chadian forces may have disrupted the very foundations of that economy.

HumAngle learned that the March 23 assault under which the Chadian forces routed the positions of the insurgents in the Lake Chad communities may have put paid to the economic lifelines of the terror groups.

In addition, sources said that a clinical and silent campaign of identifying and eliminating suspected insurgents by members of the public was gaining popularity across major Chadian towns and cities.

Speaking concerning the implications of the sudden hostilities by Chadians against the insurgents, a source who is familiar with the cover that ISWAP and Boko Haram members had received in Chad, told HumAngle that "it will limit the group's access to essential goods that are smuggled daily to the fighters."

For example, HumAngle learned that some of the taxes or proceeds from trade were not paid in cash. They come in the form of trade by batter for essential commodities such as prescription drugs, spices, petrol, cooking stoves, phones, recharge cards, among others, sources said.

While the Chadians are making efforts to put a stop to this dark window, at least in their territories, it is business as usual in the Niger and Nigerian territories around the Lake Chad basin, sources said.

This news analysis is a partnership between the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism and Humangle Media Foundation under the media and terrorism project.



Read the original article on Premium Times.

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

LatAm Bailout Veteran Says Emerging Market Crisis Is The "Worst He's Ever Seen"

by Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/30/2020 - 22:00
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With the Nasdaq set to erase all of its 2020 losses after strong earnings from the tech giants, and stocks generally surging on the assumption that, as UBS put it, "lockdowns are lifted by the end of June and do not need to be re-imposed", especially with today's favorable if conflicting remdesivir news, it is easy to forget that emerging markets are facing their private hell as a result of widespread economic shutdowns, poor healthcare conditions which will only exacerbate the coronavirus pandemic, the dollar's relentless strength, and trillions in dollar-denominated debt maturing in the next few years which the chronically strong US dollar will make prohibitively impossible to repay.

But don't take our word for it: according to Bill Rhodes, CEO of Rhodes Global Advisors and a veteran of countless international bailouts in the 1980s and 1990s, the debt crisis that’s erupted across the world’s emerging markets is "the worst he’s ever seen."

Rhodes, 84, is perhaps the world's foremost expert on emerging markets in peril: the former Citigroup executive is a veteran of the 1980s Brady Plan that re-set the clock for Latin America’s struggling economies by creating a new debt structure for developing nations that’s largely in place to this day.

"It’s going to be difficult,” Rhodes said in an interview with Bloomberg discussing the coming EM crisis. "You need to have some sort of coordination between the private and the public sectors."




Pedestrian walks through the deserted Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires on March 20. Photographer: Sarah Pabst/Bloomberg
The problem: three decades after a coordinated rescue of emerging markets orchestrated by US Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady (the person responsible for the term Brady Bonds) the global pandemic is again challenging the world for a solution, and this time a raft of private bondholders must also be on board. More than 90 nations have already asked the IMF for help amid the pandemic.

The first challenge is that the $160 billion debt renegotiated during the Brady Plan pales next to the $730 billion that the Institute of International Finance says must be restructured by the end of 2020; the final number could be far greater.

Adding to the difficulties of the next global bailout, unlike 1989, when the loans were mostly held by banks and defaults had already happened, now it’s split between hundreds of creditors ranging from New York hedge funds to Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and Asian pension funds. Getting them all in the same room will be a challenge, forget about getting them all to agree on one outcome.

Following in the footsteps of forbearance protocols enabled across the US, academics and officials are pushing for steps that would allow developing nations to pause bond payments through at least 2020, if not even longer, until the coronavirus fades and economies stabilize enough to analyze debt sustainability. And since one's debt is always someone else's asset, that proposal is upsetting creditors on Wall Street who depend on those funds to keep their portfolios afloat and to generate current income.



Meanwhile, G-20 leaders and multilateral organizations are already working toward relief for nations to stay current on debt. The IMF and Paris Club asked the Washington-based IIF to coordinate a standstill, and the United Nations is calling for a new global debt body.

The other big challenge is that bureaucrats have to not only reach a solution, they have a strict time limit in which to do so: dollar-denominated debt from 18 developing nations already trades at spreads of at least 1,000 basis points over U.S. Treasuries. While the top three insolvent outliers - Venezuela, Argentina and Lebanon - were grappling with their own problems before the pandemic, others are fast approaching those levels amid currency sell-offs and record-shattering outflows.

Rhodes' dire warning echoes that of another EM expert: Anna Stupnytska, Fidelity International’s head of global macro and investment strategy, told Bloomberg "I’m really worried about emerging markets," adding that Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, India and Indonesia may be among the most vulnerable to a virus-related crisis. She expects the coming months to be critical.

Stupnytska, who isn't expecting a V-shaped economic recovery anywhere, said that weak public health systems, political worries and doubts on central bank independence are "really unhelpful" for EM nations, and that other than parts of Asia, large sections of developing nations are yet to see a peak in coronavirus cases.

"So we are potentially looking at some emerging markets crisis even over the next few months."

With the clocking ticking, some sort of forbearance on debt payments - currently the most popular idea to help emerging markets - has to be agreed upon and soon; it would also need to extend beyond 2020, according to Anna Gelpern, a law professor at Georgetown University who spent six years at the Treasury. A coordination group could offer standardized terms to all of a country’s creditors that automatically push out payments, however how all creditors will get on the same page is unclear. After all, with memories still fresh of the massive profits Elliott Management earned by holding out on the Argentina debt restructuring early this century, what is to prevent all creditors to pursue this path?

Bloomberg agrees, noting that "it will be no easy task to convince private creditors, especially those with large emerging-market exposure, to take a hit by deferring debt payments."

Zambia has started talks to postpone its arrears, while Argentina has proposed a plan to restructure its debt that includes a three-year payment moratorium. Neither country has found much traction with its creditors who demand a payment and in full upon maturity.

"Countries that look to markets and are willing to engage market participants have found success in bridging the Covid financial shock," said an optimistic Hans Humes, CEO of Greylock Capital Management, which has been involved in most emerging-market restructurings over the past quarter-century. Many would disagree with his cheerful assumption.

Then again maybe creditors will find it in their bank accounts, if not hearts, to grant a reprieve: bondholders already granted Ecuador a delay on coupon payments until August, which may save the government as much as $1.35 billion this year, as it deals with one of the region’s worst virus outbreaks and a sell-off in oil.

Alternatively, "the time and resource costs of pursuing market debt relief may outweigh the benefits,” especially if a country plans to default anyway, Goldman's Dylan Smith wrote in an April 17 note. Plus, "it is not clear that the fiduciary duties of large bondholders toward their investors would allow them to provide lenience to debtors, even if they privately support the initiative."
And you thought OPEC deals were complicated.
Lee Buchheit, a four-decade veteran of the restructuring world, said forcing each nation to renegotiate on its own would only exacerbate the pain. "Here we have a planet-wide phenomenon that is going to make a number of countries have to face unsustainable debt positions."

 

[Plain Jane]

Africa: When closed borders become a problem – DW – 05/02/2020

Many African states have closed their borders due to COVID-19. The movement of goods continues, albeit slowly. For people, transiting countries is difficult and the consequences for workers and small businesses are dire.

www.dw.com

Africa: When closed borders become a problem
Many African states have closed their borders due to COVID-19. The movement of goods continues, albeit slowly. For people, transiting countries is difficult and the consequences for workers and small businesses are dire.





2020 should be the year of open borders in Africa. After years of negotiations, the concrete implementation of the African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was finally on the agenda. The common African passport was also to become a reality this year.
But then came the coronavirus pandemic — and 43 of the 54 states in Africa closed their borders as a result. This figure was published by the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) in early April.
It is true that many countries allow goods to pass through, at least partially. However, the consequences for the continent, especially the long-term effects, can hardly be estimated. The African Union warns that border closures for people and goods could have a "devastating effect on the health, economy and social stability of many African states" that rely on trade with neighbors.

Tobacco is the second largest source of foreign exchange income for Zimbabwe. Producers now fear a slump in trade profits
This danger is quickly becoming a reality. Earlier this month, the GAVI vaccine alliance warned that vaccines are running out in some African countries due to border closures and restricted air traffic. Although GAVI says the problem has now been resolved, the example shows how much health care on the continent also depends on porous borders.

Africa thrives on mobility

The restricted transportation of goods is only one of the negative outcomes of border closures Africa is heavily dependent on the mobility of its workforce, explains to Robert Kappel, Professor Emeritus of the Institute for African Studies at the University of Leipzig. But right now, that workforce is stuck in place.


Watch video02:33
Ghanaian traders fear to run out of stock
"Mobility is part of everyday life for most Africans," Kappel told DW. "You go somewhere else for a while, work, earn income and send it to your family, acquire and bring back skills, create networks across borders," Kappel said. The economist is certain that the longer mobility is restricted, the more African states will suffer from reduced economic growth.

Kappel cites Ivory Coast as an example. Just as Western European countries depend on eastern European harvest workers, many people come from Burkina Faso to work on Ivorian cocoa plantations.


Traffic control in Madagascar: Many countries have introduced internal roadside checks to curb COVID-19
Even people who have been living in Ivory Coast for a long time are now being sent back because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kappel said the reason for their expulsion is simply because they are foreigners. "Cote d'Ivoire, one of the world's largest cocoa producers, has been relying on the exchange of workers for decades and now suddenly has to limit this," he said.

Southern Africa moving in the 'right direction'

For goods transported by truck, meanwhile, the restrictions on the continent appear to be slowly easing. That's according to Sean Menzies, responsible for road freight transport at the South African logistics company CFR Freight. The company's trucks transport goods to almost all neighboring countries and member states of southern Africa's regional bloc, SADC, including food to Zimbabwe and mining equipment to the Democratic Republic of Congo or to Zambia. The spread of coronavirus and the resulting border closures brought restrictions for CFR Freight.


Border post between South Africa and Lesotho: South Africa has nearly 6,000 cases of coronavirus whereas Lesotho has none.
Initially, only essential goods such as food, hygiene products or personal protective equipment could be transported across borders, Menzies said. Shortly afterwards, the regulations were also relaxed for cargo that reaches South Africa by sea but is destined for other SADC countries. These containers may be transported across borders, regardless of whether their contents are vital or not.

Menzies said the new regulations and controls will not delay the transport too much. "At the very beginning there were problems and a lot of confusion about what is required. But within a week, the customs officers understood and implemented the guidelines," said the logistics expert. From then on, he said, traffic at the border posts has been fairly smooth. Menzies praised the cooperation in the region regarding the movement of goods during the pandemic.


Watch video01:26
South Africa eases one of world's strictest lockdowns
COVID-19 test for East Africa truck drivers

The East African Community (EAC) is also trying to simplify the transport of goods between member states. On Monday the EAC issued new guidelines. Among other things, the regional bloc suggested that all border crossings should be kept open for freight traffic so that trucks can be cleared as quickly as possible.

EAC member states are interlinked at many levels, Kenneth Bagamuhunda, Director General for Customs and Trade in the Secretariat, the executive body of the EAC, said. "This forces us to really come together and issue regional guidelines," Bagamuhunda told DW in an interview. Although the guidelines are not binding, they are intended to enable joint action.

The situation at the borders in East Africa could not be described as "very stable," it was changing from day to day. But things were beginning to improve. Some states had started to test all truck drivers. "This led to some delays at first," Bagamuhunda said.


Africa's economic growth is partly dependent on open borders for moving freight and labor
30 kilometers (18 miles) — that's how long the traffic jam was last weekend at the Kenyan town of Malaba on the border with Uganda, a Kenyan media house, Citizen TV, reported. Because truck drivers are particularly mobile, there is a risk that they will contribute to the spread of the virus. At least 20 of the 79 officially registered cases in Uganda are truck drivers, according to the BBC.

The EAC's new guidelines now require testing for all truck drivers. The states are also to set up special stopping points so that drivers have as little contact with the population as possible.

Impact on farmers and small businesses

Small and medium-sized companies that depend on cross-border trade are particularly threatened by delays and restrictions, economist Robert Kappel said. "Many of the farmers or small entrepreneurs must now try to sell their products elsewhere but often the local market is limited."

The EAC is now considering how to support these small businesses. According to Bagamuhunda, different approaches are being discussed: "Can we, for example, create an online mechanism so that they can handle their goods? Or systems that help them to trade with as little interaction as possible?" Soon, proposals will be made to politicians.

 

[Plain Jane]

Armed group in northeast Congo says to lay down weapons

An armed group in northeast Congo known for using fetishes to protect its fighters said on Monday it would lay down its arms and end attacks against civilians and the army, weeks after its leader was killed and other senior figures arrested.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 4, 2020 / 5:29 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Armed group in northeast Congo says to lay down weapons


3 MIN READ

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - An armed group in northeast Congo known for using fetishes to protect its fighters said on Monday it would lay down its arms and end attacks against civilians and the army, weeks after its leader was killed and other senior figures arrested.

The new leader of the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO), Ngabu Ngawi Olivier, called on the army to enact a ceasefire to allow talks with the government, a potential breakthrough for President Felix Tshisekedi who has promised to bring an end to decades of unrest in the region.

Olivier did not give a date when CODECO would halt violence.

In recent weeks intense fighting in Djugu Territory in northern Ituri province has forced thousands of people from their homes, complicating the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, and an Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 2,200 people.

We are a peaceful sect and war does not benefit us,” Olivier told Reuters by telephone.


“We took up arms to protect ourselves against attacks by the (army) and other religious communities on our followers. But now I think it is no longer important to continue killing civilians or attacking the army.”

Last week the army said an operation to uproot CODECO, which is drawn from the Lendu ethnic group, was gaining ground following the killing of its leader Justin Ngondjolu in late March.

Jean-Bosco Lalo, civil society coordinator of Ituri province, said the ceasefire was unexpected but a welcome opportunity to bring peace to the area.

“It is a first since the massacres began and we pray to God that it will be a success,” Lalo said. “It remains to be seen whether he will be understood by all the militiamen.”

Founded in 1978 as an agricultural cooperative, researchers say CODECO produced mystical potions that fighters believed protected them during previous conflicts in the area.

Little is known about the secretive group which took up arms itself in recent years and which local rights groups accuse of killing hundreds of civilians.

Reporting by Djaffar Al Katanty; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Six dead as plane carrying coronavirus aid crashes in Somalia

A plane carrying aid supplies for use in the fight against the coronavirus crashed in Somalia on Monday, killing all six people on board, the Somali transport minister said.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 4, 2020 / 12:39 PM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO
Six dead as plane carrying coronavirus aid crashes in Somalia


3 MIN READ

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A plane carrying aid supplies for use in the fight against the coronavirus crashed in Somalia on Monday, killing all six people on board, the Somali transport minister said.

He declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, but a former defence minister told Reuters he had spoken to a witness at the airfield who said it appeared to have been shot down.
Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked insurgency al Shabaab has a presence in the area where the plane came down, although the town of Bardale, in the southern Bay region, and its airfield is secured by Somali forces and Ethiopian troops.

Six people — the pilot, copilot, flight engineer and a trainee pilot, as well as two people working for the airline — were onboard, Transport Minister Mohamed Salad told Reuters. Five bodies have been recovered so far, he said.

Salad said he was sending a unit to investigate, who will arrive on Tuesday, and welcomed international assistance.

State-run Somalia News Agency said the plane belonged to African Express Airways and was ferrying supplies for use in the fight against the coronavirus.

“An African (Express) Airways plane from Mogadishu flew to Baidoa and then continued its flight to Bardale town where it crashed,” the agency said on its website. “It is not clear why it crashed.”

Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed, Somalia’s former minister of defence, told Reuters he had spoken to a witness at the airfield who said the plane had made an initial attempt to land, had to swing around again due to wildlife on the airfield, and then appeared to be shot on one wing on its second approach.

He provided pictures that showed the plane in flames, pieces of it scattered over a small area and its tail intact, and provided a passenger list with six names. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the images or confirm the names.

Ethiopia has troops in Baidoa and Bardale as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission. The spokesman for the Ethiopian army said he was unaware of the crash.

The al Shabaab insurgency was not immediately available for comment.

Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Additional reporting by Katharine Houreld in Nairobi and Giulia Paravicini in Addis Ababa; Writing George Obulutsa; Editing by Giles Elgood and Alison Williams
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Mine collapse in Liberia kills unknown number of miners: assistant mines minister

The collapse of a mine in western Liberia has killed an unknown number of miners, Assistant Minister for Mines Emmanuel Swen told Reuters on Tuesday.

www.reuters.com

Mine collapse in Liberia kills unknown number of miners: assistant mines minister


1 MIN READ

MONROVIA (Reuters) - The collapse of a mine in western Liberia has killed an unknown number of miners, Assistant Minister for Mines Emmanuel Swen told Reuters on Tuesday.
Swen said he did not yet know the number of casualties at the artisanal mine in Liberia’s western mining hub.

Reporting by James Giahyue; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Alex Richardson
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Exclusive: Lesotho's murdered first lady agreed to divorce on day she died - sources

Hours before she was shot dead on the outskirts of the capital, Lesotho's former first lady, Lipolelo Thabane, made a surprising decision.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 5, 2020 / 2:06 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Exclusive: Lesotho's murdered first lady agreed to divorce on day she died - sources

Tim Cocks
6 MIN READ

MASERU (Reuters) - Hours before she was shot dead on the outskirts of the capital, Lesotho’s former first lady, Lipolelo Thabane, made a surprising decision.

According to both a close friend and a well-connected businessman, she agreed to divorce her husband, Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, after years of refusing to make way for her rival.

With the blessing of that rival - Thabane’s current wife and first lady - the entrepreneur, Teboho Mojapela, met with Lipolelo on the day of her death to mediate.

“She said: ‘...I am ready to free him’,” Mojapela told Reuters. “‘I just want to be looked after.’”

The exchange was confirmed by her friend and confidante Thato Sibolla, who was present at the meeting.

Lipolelo’s change of heart, which has not previously been reported, adds a new twist to a scandal that has attracted rare international attention to Lesotho, the tiny kingdom of 2 million people tucked inside South Africa.

Gunmen ambushed Lipolelo, 58, in her car as she made her way home on the outskirts of the capital Maseru on June 14, 2017. Sibolla was with her in the vehicle.

Two days after the killing, Thabane, now 80, was sworn in for a second term. Two months later he married Lipolelo’s successor and one-time rival Maesaiah Liabiloe Ramoholi, now Maesaiah Thabane.

Police charged Maesaiah with Lipolelo’s murder in February and named Thabane as a suspect, although he has yet to be formally charged in court. They both deny any involvement.

In Thabane’s case, the high court must first decide whether he can be prosecuted while in office. The case has been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although Lesotho remains one of a small number of nations yet to register a case.

Thabane’s own government is trying to force him from office before the end of July, when he said he was willing to step down. It is unclear if he will bow to their demands.

Thabane and his wife declined to be interviewed or respond to written questions while the case is pending, and their lawyers said they had been instructed not to speak to the press.

“He’s waiting for the police to lodge a complaint to court so that he can clear his name,” Thabane’s private secretary, Thabo Thakalekoala, said by telephone.

First lady Maesaiah also “wants to present her side of the story,” her adviser, Manama Letsie, told Reuters. “But she has already been found guilty in the public (opinion) court.”

The high-profile murder case has destabilised a country already in turmoil.

Lesotho has seen four military coups since independence from Britain in 1966. South Africa, for whom this nation of jagged green mountains is an important source of tap water, is sometimes drawn in to help resolve upheavals, and it has stepped in as mediator in the latest crisis.

FATEFUL DAYS
Thabane was an up-and-coming politician in the All Basotho Convention (ABC) party when he divorced his first wife, Yayi, and married Lipolelo in 1987.

By the time he became prime minister in 2012, he had filed for another divorce so he could marry Maesaiah.

Maesaiah had gone to court in 2015 to claim the right to be first lady on the basis of a 2012 so-called customary marriage – a practice common in a number of African countries that entitles a man to more than one wife.

She lost the case in 2015, on the grounds that Lipolelo was still married to Thabane.

“There was this perpetual animosity between them,” Lesotho’s Deputy Police Commissioner Paseka Mokete, in charge of the murder investigation, told Reuters.

Three days before the killing, a Sunday, Lipolelo asked Sibolla to call Mojapela, a politically connected businessman who had funded the ruling party’s election campaign.

Lipolelo seemed jumpy, was sleeping at friends’ houses and said she feared her life was in danger, Sibolla and a neighbour recalled.

Mojapela, a wealthy money-lender known to friends as J.P., was a friend of Thabane and Maesaiah, Sibolla said, and Lipolelo hoped he could mediate a truce between them.

Before meeting with Lipolelo, Mojapela says he sought the blessing of Thabane and Maesaiah. Maesaiah told him “by all means” mediate, he said, but do not expect the two women to meet face-to-face.

On Wednesday, Sibolla and Lipolelo set off in Lipolelo’s grey Chevrolet minivan to meet Mojapela at his lavish house, decked with Italian-style curtains and gilded furniture, in the South African border town of Ladybrand.

He told them Maesaiah wanted more than anything to be first lady. Lipolelo gave her assent.

After Lipolelo and Sibolla left, Mojapela headed back to Maseru, where he says he met Thabane and Maesaiah at the Fu Li Chinese restaurant at around 6 p.m. and relayed Lipolelo’s message.

“Maesaiah asked me to be more specific about what she wants,” Mojapela said.

Reuters could not confirm the meeting. When a reporter visited the restaurant, it was under new management.

Thabane’s private secretary, Thakalekoala, said he was not aware of a mediation attempt. Neither was Maesaiah’s close friend, Motlatsi Kompi. The first lady’s aide, Letsie, declined to comment.

Shortly afterwards, Lipolelo was dead.

“I saw the blood running down,” said Sibolla, who was shot twice in the side in the attack. “She was quite light in complexion, so you could really see it.”


Police found 9mm pistol shells at the scene, Mokete, the deputy commissioner, said. He added that the assassination was carried out by one of several gangs of traditional musicians, who are engaged in a deadly turf war.

Three men linked to the gang received calls from the phones of Thabane and Maesaiah in the days leading up to the killing, he said. Police issued arrest warrants for them, but they remain at large.

Finishing up at the Chinese restaurant, Mojapela says he headed to a friend’s house where, at around 8 p.m., his bodyguard delivered the news of Lipolelo’s death.

“I was disgusted. I cried,” he said. “There was absolutely no need for this woman to be assassinated.”

Additional reporting by Marafaele Mohloboli in Maseru; Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Mike Collett-White
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Update to post 5.

Kenya questions deadly plane crash in Somalia that killed 6

Somalia’s president has promised his Kenyan counterpart a “thorough investigation” into the deadly crash of a Kenyan plane carrying medical supplies in Somalia.

apnews.com

Kenya questions deadly plane crash in Somalia that killed 6
By ABDI GULEDyesterday


NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Somalia’s president has promised his Kenyan counterpart a “thorough investigation” into the deadly crash of a Kenyan plane carrying medical supplies in Somalia, while one Somali official asserts that the aircraft was shot down. Six people on board were killed.

The Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday said the twin-engine plane with African Express crashed Monday afternoon on approach to Bardale “under circumstances we are yet to confirm.”

A projectile fired from the ground hit the plane as it approached the airstrip in Bay region, Ahmed isaq, a local official with the Southwestern State regional administration, told The Associated Press.


The airstrip is a base for the Ethiopian military under the multinational African Union mission, which is combating the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group. The group controls parts of rural southern and central Somalia.

There was no immediate comment from Ethiopian authorities Tuesday.

The plane had left Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and stopped in Baidoa before going on toward Bardale, the Kenyan statement said. Kenyan authorities said they were in contact with the Somali Civil Aviation Authority.

Somalia’s transport ministry called the crash “a terrible accident” and said the government was investigating.

Somali President Abdullahi Mohamed Abdullahi in a phone call with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta offered his support and condolences, Somalia’s foreign ministry said.

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[Plain Jane]

Nigeria: Senate Asks Govt to Suspend Deployment of 5G Network in Nigeria

The Senate on Tuesday directed the Federal Government to suspend the planned deployment of the Fifth Generation Network in Nigeria.

allafrica.com

Nigeria: Senate Asks Govt to Suspend Deployment of 5G Network in Nigeria
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5 MAY 2020
Vanguard (Lagos)
By Emmanuel Okogba
The Senate on Tuesday directed the Federal Government to suspend the planned deployment of the Fifth Generation Network in Nigeria.

The Senate resolution is sequel to a motion on the present status of 5G Network in Nigeria.
The motion was sponsored by Sen. Uche Ekwunife (PDP Anambra), who in her lead debate said there were growing concerns on the on-going discussion about the current status of 5G network in Nigeria, especially in regards to the question, 'if Nigeria is presently connected to 5G.'

She said there were further concerns by some scientists and medical experts that emission from 5G towers could adversely affect the health of citizens by causing symptoms like damage to the eyes and immune systems, among other adverse effects.

She, however, said that 5G network has also been reported to hold a lot of promises for mobile broadband services because of its faster speed and better capacity.

She expressed concern over the uncertainty surrounding whether or not the 5G network has been launched in Nigeria will continue to fuel the speculations and rumours concerning the deployment of 5G network and its faster effect on the citizen of Nigerian.



She said that several countries, including Switzerland, one of the world leaders in the roll out of 5G mobile technology has placed an indefinite moratorium on the use of 5G network because of the health concern.

She said that it was important to investigate the status of 5G network in Nigeria to ensure that Nigerian citizens are not exposed to unreasonable risk of great bodily injury or harm.

The Senate in its other resolution directed the concerned committees to also investigate the technological impact of the network on Nigerians and report back to plenary within two weeks.

The red chamber, however, asked the relevant federal agency supervising the ICT operations in the country to suspend the 5G deployment until a thorough probe to determine its suitability for human health had been achieved.

NAN



Read the original article on Vanguard.

 

[Plain Jane]

Sudanese corruption committee confiscates Bashir family properties

A Sudanese anti-corruption committee said on Thursday that it will confiscate several large plots of land and residential properties in the capital Khartoum from relatives of ousted President Omar al-Bashir after investigations found they were acquired largely due to family...

www.reuters.com

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese anti-corruption committee said on Thursday that it will confiscate several large plots of land and residential properties in the capital Khartoum from relatives of ousted President Omar al-Bashir after investigations found they were acquired largely due to family ties.

The Empowerment Removal Committee said it confiscated property from Bashir’s brother-in-law, nieces, nephews, and even a former defence minister, who was a close ally of the former president. It transferred the ownership of the several plots, which totalled around 92,000 square meters (990,000 square feet) in size, to the finance ministry.

Separately, it also dissolved the boards of the Khartoum International Airport Company and the Sudan Airports Holding Company over corruption accusations.

The committee was charged by the attorney general with dismantling the system built by Bashir after his ouster in April last year. It oversees investigations into crimes involving public funds and corruption by the former president and members of his extended family and old regime.

Bashir, who has been jailed in Khartoum since he was toppled following mass protests against his 30-year rule, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.

A Sudanese court handed Bashir a first, two-year sentence in December on corruption charges. He also faces trials and investigations over the killing of protesters and his role in the 1989 coup that brought him to power.

Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Nadine Awadalla and Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Aurora Ellis
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

At least 65 killed in flooding, landslides in Rwanda

Officials say at least 65 people are dead after flooding and landslides in Rwanda after overnight heavy rains. Nearly 100 homes were washed away.

apnews.com

Click to copy
At least 65 killed in flooding, landslides in Rwanda
By IGNATIUS SSUUNAyesterday


KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — At least 65 people are dead after flooding and landslides in Rwanda, officials said Thursday after overnight heavy rains. Nearly 100 homes were washed away.
The landslides were still occurring in the morning in Gakenke district in the mountainous northwest, resident Gilbert Mugabo told The Associated Press.

The East African nation has seen dozens of deaths caused by torrential rains in recent weeks but Wednesday night’s downpour was the worst in months, the ministry of emergency management said.

“We have so far counted 65 people dead from last night’s heavy rains. We urge people to leave risk areas,” the ministry tweeted.


The flooding and mudslides swept away bridges and left some roads inaccessible.
The floods have also affected the region. In Kenya, the government has recorded 194 deaths in the past few weeks.

Meteorologists in Rwanda predict that the heavier-than-usual rains will continue and warn people to relocate from risk-prone areas.

The capital, Kigali, and northern Rwanda are particularly hilly and vulnerable to landslides during the rainy season.

 

[Plain Jane]

This flooding event must be huge! And these areas are where the locust outbreaks are.

Ugandan hospital, Somali town washed away by East Africa floods

Flooding washed away roads, bridges and a hospital in Uganda and an entire small town in Somalia as torrential rain across East Africa compounded problems for governments struggling to respond to the new coronavirus.

www.reuters.com

Ugandan hospital, Somali town washed away by East Africa floods

Duncan Miriri, Elias Biryabarema
3 MIN READ

NAIROBI/KAMPALA (Reuters) - Flooding washed away roads, bridges and a hospital in Uganda and an entire small town in Somalia as torrential rain across East Africa compounded problems for governments struggling to respond to the new coronavirus.

Hundreds of people have been killed by floodwaters in Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Rwanda and Ethiopia which have also displaced hundreds of thousands across the region.

Heavy overnight rains flooded areas around Mountain Rwenzori in Western Uganda after the River Nyamwamba burst its banks, forcing people to seek refuge in nearby schools and destroying roads and bridges, a senior government official said.

“What complicates the matter is that this is the era of COVID. People are expected to maintain social distance but how do you maintain distance in such a situation?” Julius Mucunguzi, spokesman for the prime minister’s office, said by telephone.

One of the hospitals in the area, Kilembe, was also overrun by the gushing waters despite being built on a raised bank and reinforced with sandbags.

“There are wards which were completely washed away. The mortuary was swept away. You wouldn’t know that once upon a time there was a mortuary there. The drugs and drug stores were washed away,” Mucunguzi said.

In Ethiopia, the Somali region in the east of the country has borne the brunt of the floods, which have displaced more than 100,000 people, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

In neighbouring Somalia, an unspecified number of people were killed when floods washed away an entire small town in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, officials said.

The heavy rains stem from moisture dumped in the region by winds coming in from the Indian Ocean where temperatures have risen in recent months, Chris Shisanya, a professor of climatology at Nairobi-based Kenyatta University, said.

“This is a carry-over of what we had last year,” he said, referring to floods and landslides in the region.

Nearly 200 people in Kenya have been killed by the floods, which have also displaced 100,000 more.

This is compounding the COVID-19 response,” Kenya Health Ministry Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman told a news conference.

“The displaced people have been forced to congregate in makeshift camps with the risk of banding together exposing them to the possibility of contracting the virus.”

Official recorded deaths from COVID-19 are at least 102 across East Africa, where the virus arrived later than many other parts of the world.

Reporting by Duncan Miriri and George Obulutsa in Nairobi, Elias Biryabarema in Kampala, Dawit Endeshaw in Addis Ababa and Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by George Obulutsa and Philippa Fletcher
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Madagascar coronavirus herbal mix draws demand from across Africa despite WHO misgivings

Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed, plant-based "cure" for COVID-19 on sale and several countries in Africa have already put in orders for purchase, despite warnings from the World Health Organisation that its efficacy is unproven.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 8, 2020 / 7:34 AM / UPDATED 17 MINUTES AGO
Madagascar coronavirus herbal mix draws demand from across Africa despite WHO misgivings

Lovasoa Rabary
4 MIN READ

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed, plant-based “cure” for COVID-19 on sale and several countries in Africa have already put in orders for purchase, despite warnings from the World Health Organisation that its efficacy is unproven.

Last month President Andry Rajoelina launched the remedy at a news conference, drinking from a sleekly-branded bottle filled with an amber liquid which he said had already cured two people.

On Friday, a Tanzanian delegation arrived in Madagascar to collect their consignment.

The tonic, based on the plant Artemisia annua which has anti-malarial properties, has not undergone any internationally recognised scientific testing. While Rajoelina extolled its virtues, the WHO cautioned it needs to be tested for efficacy and side effects.


Madagascar has been giving away thousands of bottles of “COVID-19 Organics”, developed by the state-run Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.

Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Guinea Bissau have all already received thousands of doses of COVID-19 Organics free of charge.

A legal adviser in the president’s office told Reuters on Wednesday that Madagascar would now begin selling the remedy, which domestically can be bought for around 40 U.S. cents per bottle.

“This remedy can be put on the market,” Marie Michelle Sahondrarimalala, director of Legal Studies at the Presidency, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “Madagascar has already received orders from state authorities in other countries, but also from private individuals.”

Heads of other African countries said they were placing orders.

Isolated compounds extracted from Artemisia are effective in malaria drugs, the WHO noted, but the plant itself cannot treat malaria.

WHO Africa head Matshidiso Moeti said she was concerned people who drank the product might feel they were immune to COVID-19 and engage in risky behaviour.

“We are concerned that touting this product as a preventive measure might then make people feel safe,” she said.

Guinea Bissau has received over 16,000 doses which it is distributing to the 14 other West African nations. Liberia’s deputy Information Minister Eugene Farghon said this week there was no plan to test the remedy before distribution.

It will be used by Liberians and will be used on Liberians,” he said, noting WHO had not tested other popular local remedies. “Madagascar is an African country ... Therefore we will proceed as an African nation and will continue to use our African herbs.”

By Thursday, Madagascar had a total 225 confirmed coronavirus cases, 98 recoveries, and no deaths.

The African Union (AU) said on Monday that it was trying to get Madagascar’s technical data on the remedy, and would pass that to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for evaluation.

“This review will be based on global technical and ethical norms to garner the necessary scientific evidence,” the AU said.

Additional reporting by David Lewis in Nairobi; Alphonso Toweh and James Giahyue in Monrovia; Writing by George Obulutsa and Ayenat Mersie; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Troubled Zimbabwe hopes for some relief in tobacco sales

Troubled Zimbabwe has officially opened the tobacco selling season after a month-long delay amid a coronavirus lockdown.

apnews.com

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Troubled Zimbabwe hopes for some relief in tobacco sales
By FARAI MUTSAKAyesterday



1 of 6
In this photo taken Thursday, April 30 2020, Adjust Saidi, a foreman at a farm outside Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, inspects tobacco crops. Troubled Zimbabwe has officially opened the tobacco selling season after a month-long delay amid a coronavirus lockdown. Tobacco is the country's second biggest foreign currency earner after gold, and it brought in about $750 million last year. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Adjust Saidi, a foreman at a farm outside Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, paced through rows of tobacco plants. Desperate to complete the harvest and sell the crop, he pushed workers picking leaves to “hurry it up.” Some carried up to 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of leaves, bound by wire, on their shoulders. Some wore face masks.

With most economic activity stalled by a coronavirus lockdown, troubled Zimbabwe last month officially opened the tobacco selling season after a month-long delay.

Tobacco is Zimbabwe’s second biggest foreign currency earner after gold, and it brought in about $750 million last year. Allowing tobacco selling gives the government an opportunity to ease acute foreign currency shortages in a country whose economy had been collapsing well before the virus.


The government’s decision came as a relief to thousands of farmers who were already hard hit by a severe drought.

In a normal season, Saidi would be heading to the auction floors by mid-May but will only be able to finish harvesting at the end of the month because some workers have not reported for duty “fearing coronavirus,” he said.

Other farmers said the new virus restrictions are making things difficult.
Biggie Muronda said it took five hours to travel about 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the auction floors because of police harassment on the roads “despite producing the letter (authorizing movement).”

Zimbabwe’s government later eased restrictions on movement and farmers were given special dispensation to move their crops without hindrance.

“We are not afraid of coronavirus,” said another farmer, Walter Dangarembizi. “The risk is that farmers could be cheated out of their money due to the new guidelines which say we must give our crop to a representative who will come here to sell on our behalf.”

The new rules stipulating that crops will be sold in the absence of farmers are aimed at preventing thousands of farmers and their families, as well as vendors seeking to cash in on the farmers’ payouts, from camping at auction floors as usual.

Agriculture Minister Perrance Shiri said tobacco-buying companies should set up centers in districts outside Harare to avoid farmers packing the auction floors in the capital as part of the new measures.

Rodney Ambrose, the president of Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, a representative group for farmers, said the companies were yet to set up such centers in most parts of the country.


“So most farmers are likely to flock into Harare,” he told The Associated Press.

Zimbabwe has been experiencing a rebound in tobacco growing after the planting of the crop plummeted about two decades ago following often violent seizures of land owned by whites under former president Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reforms.

Last year, farmers produced 259 million kilograms, “a second consecutive record output,” said Pat Devenish, chairman of industry regulator the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board. The government says the rebound is justification that black farmers are up to the task.

The crop is down to about 230 million kilograms this year due to “grim” weather conditions, according to TIMB.

One of the world’s top tobacco exporters alongside Brazil, Zimbabwe sends most of its crop to China, Europe and the Middle East.

Shiri, the agriculture minister, said the coronavirus could affect exports.

“It’s likely to affect tobacco sales, yes, in that most countries have now directed their resources towards dealing with the coronavirus epidemic,” Shiri told reporters recently. “It’s too early to say how much it’s going to affect us.”

As the minister spoke, an auctioneer rapidly announcing prices and an official using a loudspeaker to encourage social distancing competed for the attention of a few mask-wearing buyers allowed onto the auction floor.

 

[Plain Jane]

Africa's forgotten World War II veterans – DW – 05/07/2020

More than a million African soldiers served in colonial armies in World War II. Many veterans experienced prejudice during the war and little gratitude or compensation for their services afterwards.

www.dw.com

Africa's forgotten World War II veterans
More than a million African soldiers served in colonial armies in World War II. Many veterans experienced prejudice during the war and little gratitude or compensation for their services afterwards.




This Senegalese soldier served with the French army in 1942
May 8, 1945, marks the 75th anniversary of the surrender of the German armed forces and the end of the Second World War in Europe.
Japan, a German ally, continued fighting and only conceded defeat in August 1945 when the Americans dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
More than a million Africans served as combatants as well as war workers and carriers in World War II for the colonial powers - more than half enlisted by Britain with the rest serving France and Belgium.
Some served in Africa or Europe; others fought on battlegrounds in the Middle East or as far afield as India, Myanmar and the Pacific Islands. Many were wounded or killed.
Their services have been rarely acknowledged by the governments of the former colonizers.
Some progress has been made - at least symbolically. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Allied landing in Provence in southern France, President Emmanuel Macron expressed gratitude for the contribution of African soldiers in defeating the German forces occupying France.
"Thousands of people sacrificed themselves to defend a distant land, an unknown land, a land they had until then never trod, a land they have forever marked with their blood," Macron said in a speech.
"France has a part of Africa in her, and on this Provence soil, this part was that of shed blood."

Forced recruitment
European newscasts of the time referred to the African soldiers as volunteers. But a considerable share of those recruited were forced into the colonial armed forces.

In an interview with DW in 2015, Albert Kunyuku, who served as Congolese corporal in the Belgian colonial army, explained how he and others were forced to enlist.

"I was working in a textile company when they came to take us away. Then they went to other companies. All the young workers were recruited. No one was younger than 30," said Kunyukua, who is now 97 and one to two surviving Congolese World War II veterans.

Read more: World War I: The 'Black Army' that marched in from Africa

Baby Sy, a veteran from Burkina Faso (then the French colony of Upper Volta), said at the time; he didn't understand what the war was really about.

"People didn't understand when they heard talk of fascism," he said in an interview with DW in 2015.

"We were just told that the Germans had attacked us and considered us Africans to be apes. As soldiers, we could prove that we were human beings. That was it. That was all the political explanation there was at the time."

Not always equal in war

In a recent interview with AFP, Congolese veteran Kunyuka remembered racial segregation the Congolese suffered even as they fought together with Belgians.

"We were like slaves because it was Belgium that brought us into this war. We could not say anything," Kunyuka was quoted as saying.

In 2019, an investigation by Al Jazeera discovered that African soldiers who served in the British army were paid a fraction of what their white colleagues were. The investigation called their treatment "akin to slavery".


Troops from the East Africa Division fought in Burma, today Myanmar
War experiences influenced independence movements

This close contact with European soldiers and with the reality of life in Europe changed the awareness of many of those Africans serving. It later sparked them to be politically active when they returned home.

Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, himself a former colonial soldier, put it like this in a 2015 interview with DW: "In war, we saw the white men naked and we have not forgotten that picture."

Read more: Léopold Sédar Senghor: From WWII prisoner to president

These kind of experience had far-reaching consequences, says German journalist Karl Rössel who spent 10 years researching the topic in West Africa.

During the war, the African soldiers saw Europeans lying in mud and filth and suffering and dying.

"As a result, they realized that there are no differences between people," he said. This. in turn, led to many former soldiers joining independence movements in their home countries.


African solidiers in Burma read about the end of WWII in Europe
Not all veterans, however, were accepted by the continent's burgeoning independence movements, says historian Raffael Scheck of Colby College in the USA. Many liberation fighters criticized that the African veterans for serving alongside the colonial oppressors.

The vast majority of veterans have died in the meantime.

Those who are still alive often feel a certain bitterness: although they have fought for the victory over fascism, they would hardly have received any recognition for it.

"I only get 5,000 Congolese francs (around five euros) per month in war pension. This is unworthy of someone who has fought for the interests of Belgium," complained veteran Albert Kunyuku.

Lack of recognition even today

The lack of gratitude and recognition in European countries - and especially in Germany, is something that needs to change.

"If there is to be a serious attempt to deal with the past, then one must treat the descendants of our liberators in a different manner than is the case under present refugee policy," Rössel says. "Compensation for the consequences of the war should be paid around the globe. But almost nowhere has postwar reconstruction taken place."


Albert Kunyuku speaks to DW in 2015

Congolese veteran Albert Kunyuku returned home in 1946 after fighting in Myanmar (then Burma) side by side with Belgian troops against the Japanese.
When asked if he was proud of his military service, he paused. With tears flowing down his cheeks, he replies: "No".
His grief for his fallen comrades is deep. Only a few of the 25,000 African soldiers who left with him for the front in Southeast Asia came back.
This article was originally published on May 21, 2015 and has been updated to include recent events. Saleh Mwanamilongo in Kinshasa contributed to the report.

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[Plain Jane]

Italian aid worker kidnapped in Kenya has been freed: PM Conte

(This May 9 story corrects location where Romano was seized to southeastern Kenya, not northern Kenya in 7th paragraph)

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 9, 2020 / 1:29 PM / UPDATED 13 HOURS AGO
Italian aid worker kidnapped in Kenya has been freed: PM Conte

Francesca Landini
2 MIN READ

MILAN (Reuters) - Silvia Romano, an Italian aid worker who was kidnapped in Kenya 18 months ago, has been freed and is expected back in Italy on Sunday, the Italian government announced on Saturday.

Silvia Romano has been freed. I thank the men and women of the external intelligence service. Silvia, we await for you in Italy!,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wrote on his Twitter account.

Speaking to state broadcaster RAI, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Romano was found in Somalia and was released thanks to the external intelligence agency.

“She is now at the Italian embassy in Mogadishu (the Somali capital) and she will arrive in Rome tomorrow on a special flight,” Di Maio said.


Asked about the release, Di Maio said he could not reveal any details. Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported on its website that Italy paid a ransom to free the woman.

Kenyan government officials were not immediately available to comment on Romano’s release.

Gunmen seized Romano, who was working for an Italian charity called Africa Milele, in northern Kenya in November 2018.

No group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, which brought fears of an upsurge in attacks by militant Islamists.

Police and residents said at the time that the gunmen seized the young woman from a guesthouse in Chakama, a small town south of the border with Somalia and near the coast.

The Somali militant group al Shabaab has periodically staged attacks in Kenya, including an attack on a university in April 2015 in which 148 people were killed.

Additional reporting by George Obulutsa in Nairobi and Giuseppe Fonte in Rome; Editing by Frances Kerry
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Sierra Leone's president accuses main opposition party of inciting violence

Sierra Leone's president Julius Maada Bio has accused the main opposition party of orchestrating a spate of violent incidents, deepening a political standoff that risks undermining the country's efforts to contain a coronavirus outbreak.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 9, 2020 / 11:25 AM / UPDATED 17 HOURS AGO
Sierra Leone's president accuses main opposition party of inciting violence


2 MIN READ

FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone’s president Julius Maada Bio has accused the main opposition party of orchestrating a spate of violent incidents, deepening a political standoff that risks undermining the country’s efforts to contain a coronavirus outbreak.

At least 18 people have died in three riots in separate parts of the country in recent weeks, including a disturbance at Freetown’s central prison on April 29 which started after an inmate tested positive for the virus.

In a televised address, Bio claimed members of the All People’s Congress (APC) party were behind the violence.

“These attacks are therefore premeditated, orchestrated, and executed with a clear objective – to make the state ungovernable,” he said in the unscheduled broadcast on Friday.


The APC has denied the accusations. “It is shocking, the claims the president is making,” party spokesman Sidi Yayah Tunis said.

Last week, the United Nations called on the authorities and all political parties to work together to avoid distracting from the fight against the virus, which has so far infected 291 people and killed 17.

Since then, two prominent opposition members have been detained without charge. Amnesty International and local rights groups have called for their immediate release.

Without referring to specific incidents, Bio said any recent arrests were not politically motivated, but linked to investigations into the violence. The authorities will take further steps to protect security and rule of law, he said, without giving further details.

As part of the country’s response to the health crisis, courts have been closed and those considered to be serious offenders can be held without bail, the chief justice ruled last month.

The APC and Bio’s Sierra Leone People’s Party are long-time foes. After beating an APC candidate to the presidency in 2018, Bio launched a crackdown on alleged graft that has resulted in several former APC ministers being imprisoned.

Reporting by Cooper Inveen; Editing by Mike Harrison
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Kenyans protest house demolitions amid virus restrictions

Hundreds of protesters in Kenya blocked one of Nairobi’s major highways with burning tires to protest government demolitions of the homes of more than 7,000 people and the closure of a major food market.

apnews.com

Kenyans protest house demolitions amid virus restrictions
By TOM ODULAMay 8, 2020



1 of 10
A police officer holds a pistol during clashes with protesters near a burning tyre barricade in the Kariobangi slum of Nairobi, Kenya Friday, May 8, 2020. Hundreds of protesters blocked one of the capital's major highways with burning tires to protest government demolitions of the homes of more than 7,000 people and the closure of a major food market, causing many to sleep out in the rain and cold because of restrictions on movement due to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Hundreds of protesters in Kenya blocked one of Nairobi’s major highways with burning tires to protest government demolitions of the homes of more than 7,000 people and the closure of an adjacent food market.

Police used teargas and water cannons on the protesters, who then looted shops and parked cars.

“Police responded to a rowdy group that was destroying property on the road,” said Nairobi police chief Philip Ndolo. “If they have grievances they should express them through the right channels. We will not tolerate destruction of property,” Ndolo said.

The government had on Thursday closed Korogocho market which served an estimated 100,000 people who depend on it for their livelihoods and fresh vegetable produce, said Patrick Maina, the market’s chairman. He said the market serves several informal settlements.


Residents of Kariobangi, a poor informal settlement, woke up Monday to the sound of bulldozers crushing their rickety structures made of metal sheeting, said resident and human rights activist Habib Omar.

The demolitions continued through the week and displaced thousands of residents, who are sleeping out in the rain and cold because Nairobi has restrictions on movement due to the coronavirus.

The government claims that it owns the land where the demolitions took place and it ignored a court order that barred it from evicting the slum residents until their case arguing for their right to live on the land is determined. Some of the residents had official allotment letters dating to 2008 which give them permission to live there, said Omar.

“It is so inhuman for the government to evict us from our houses at a time like this. Where should we go. Where will I take my children because now I don’t have a house and there’s the curfew at night,” said Mary Njeri, a mother of three who also sells vegetables in the market.
For mechanic Kennedy Achoki, the demolition happened as they awaited another court decision.

“It is a violation of our rights because we have been living here for long,” said Achoki. “They should have waited for the court outcome because there’s an injunction in court. At least they could have waited for it and not destroy our houses during the pandemic.”

The government says it want the land for expansion of the capital’s sewerage system.
In a letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Housing Coalition, an alliance of non-governmental organizations, asked the leader to allow the residents to rebuild their homes until alternatives are found and the court decides on the matter.

“ It is unbelievable that this action should be taken by your administration at this time ... For the last three nights thousands of displaced have slept out in the open during curfew. The stay at home and cessation of movement guidelines and economic hardships have made it even more difficult to stay with relatives or leave Nairobi at this time,” the coalition’s letter said.

The coalition said the government has done nothing to alleviate the suffering of those who are now homeless and instead arrested activists who presented a petition to the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company that is seeking to repossess the land.

 

[Plain Jane]

Mayor killed in ambush in Cameroon's restive region

Separatist gunmen killed the mayor of a town in Cameroon's restive Anglophone South West Region on Sunday, the country's state broadcaster and a senior military official said.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 10, 2020 / 11:53 AM / UPDATED 5 HOURS AGO
Mayor killed in ambush in Cameroon's restive region


1 MIN READ

PARIS (Reuters) - Separatist gunmen killed the mayor of a town in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone South West Region on Sunday, the country’s state broadcaster and a senior military official said.
Ashu Prisley Ojong, mayor of Mamfe, around 500 km (300 miles) from the capital in the southwest of the country, was killed when his convoy came under gunfire from Anglophone separatist fighters, broadcaster CRTV said.

A senior military officer in the region, who requested anonymity, told Reuters that two soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Ojong is one of the first senior elected official to be killed in the conflict between Cameroon’s army and English-speaking militias.

The insurgency began after the government cracked down violently on peaceful protests by lawyers and teachers in 2016 who complained of marginalization by the French-speaking majority.

Reporting by Josiane Kouagheu; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Alex Richardson
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Three U.N. peacekeepers killed in roadside bomb in northern Mali: statement

Three United Nations peacekeepers were killed and four severely wounded after a routine patrol hit improvised explosive devices in the northern Mali region of Aguelhok, the United Nations said on Sunday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 10, 2020 / 2:58 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Three U.N. peacekeepers killed in roadside bomb in northern Mali: statement


1 MIN READ

DAKAR (Reuters) - Three United Nations peacekeepers were killed and four severely wounded after a routine patrol hit improvised explosive devices in the northern Mali region of Aguelhok, the United Nations said on Sunday.

“We will combine all efforts to identify and apprehend those responsible for these terrorist acts so that they can answer for their crimes,” Mahamat Saleh Annadif, U.N. mission chief in Mali, said in a statement.

Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Alex Richardson
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

We Sent Them Samples Of A Goat, A Papaya & A Pheasant": Tanzanian President Catches WHO In Epic Lie

by Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/10/2020 - 09:55
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As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases explodes across Africa, the creeping involvement of the WHO has made some leaders suspicious of the NGO. Tanzanian President John Magufuli was growing suspicious of the organization, so he reportedly decided to investigate whether the organization was as trustworthy and reliable as it claimed to be.
He played what the local press described as "a trick" on the organization: He sent the WHO samples of a goat, a papaya and a quail for testing.

All three samples reportedly tested positive. When the president heard the news, he reportedly confronted the WHO, then kicked the organization out of the country. Though, to be sure, the WHO has yet to comment on the situation.

All three samples reportedly tested positive. When the president heard the news, he reportedly confronted the WHO, then kicked the organization out of the country. Though, to be sure, the WHO has yet to comment on the situation.

That would suggest one of two conclusions: either the strain of SARS-CoV-2 running amok in Tanzania is much, much more infectious than scientists understand, or the WHO has been reporting incorrect results either on purpose (as an attempt to bolster its credibility in the face of President Trump's attacks) or via error (yet another indication that the WHO truly is "badly brokem" - as Vox described it back in 2015).

Most rational people would probably accept the latter scenario as the most accurate one.

View: https://youtu.be/dYfSqMult6c



Magufuli has garnered plenty of controversy himself over the past few weeks. He recently requested stockpiles of an 'herbal tea' that has been falsely branded as a COVID-19 cure, and has launched investigations impacting domestic labs and even frontline medical workers as he's claimed the number of positive tests in his country is too high. The reality is that Tanzania doesn't have much of a outbreak: It has recorded only 503 cases and 21 deaths. Though its mortality rate of 4% would suggest that the true number of cases likely numbers in the thousands.

Following the results, Magufuli fired the head of Tanzania's national lab, sparking a political firestorm. Of course, though Magufuli has been criticized for trying to play down the impact of the virus, the government has so far refused to answer questions about where its test kits were manufactured, as Al Jazeera points out. On Thursday, the head of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention rejected claims of faulty tests by Tanzania's president.

The unreliability of COVID-19 tests manufactured in China has been a major problem for the US, and for Europe, as countries and states have been forced to discard PPE purchased in China - often after purchasing it at inflated prices - because only one-third of the masks actually work, and many of the tests have been found to produce positive and negative results more or less at random.

But we'd love to hear Bill Gates regale us with "data-based arguments" about why the WHO is indispensable to the international effort to combat the coronavirus.

 

[Plain Jane]

Tunisia reports no new coronavirus cases for first time since early March

Tunisia recorded zero new coronavirus cases for the first time since early March, health authorities said on Monday, as the government will further relax restrictions on movement and businesses.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 10, 2020 / 9:21 PM / UPDATED 8 HOURS AGO
Tunisia reports no new coronavirus cases for first time since early March


1 MIN READ

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia recorded zero new coronavirus cases for the first time since early March, health authorities said on Monday, as the government will further relax restrictions on movement and businesses.

Tunisia, which reported its first case on March 2, has confirmed 1,032 cases in all and 45 deaths.

The North Africa country, which has about 500 intensive care beds, said 745 patients recovered and only 11 were still in hospital.

Tunisia started relaxing its coronavirus lockdown last week, reopening parts of the food, construction and transport sectors and allowing half of government employees to return to work.

Shopping centres, clothing shops and hairdressers will open on Monday, with more indications that Tunisia is close to controlling the pandemic.

Tunisia said the country’s economy will shrink by up to 4.3%, the steepest drop since independence in 1956. The key tourism sector could lose $1.4 billion and 400,000 jobs this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Kim Coghill
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
MORE FROM REUTERS

 

[Plain Jane]

Three killed and 79 wounded in tribal clashes in eastern Sudan

Clashes between two tribes in Sudan's eastern city of Kassala killed three people and wounded 79 others, the state's acting governor said on Sunday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 10, 2020 / 7:04 PM / UPDATED 11 HOURS AGO
Three killed and 79 wounded in tribal clashes in eastern Sudan


1 MIN READ

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Clashes between two tribes in Sudan’s eastern city of Kassala killed three people and wounded 79 others, the state’s acting governor said on Sunday.

Violence between members of the Beni Amer and Nuba ethnic groups, which has flared in the past, reignited on Thursday and escalated on Friday when houses were set ablaze, Brigade Mahmoud Baker Homd said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear what caused Thursday’s clash.

Violence between the Beni Amer and Nuba was reported in Port Sudan in January by a local doctors’ group that said eight people were killed and dozens injured.

The two groups had made peace in September 2019 after Sudan’s top military commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, threatened to expel both tribes from the country if they did not commit to reconciliation.

Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by Daniel Wallis
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

African nations seek their own solutions in virus crisis

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A loud hiss and grunt come from a green bag pressing air through a tube, as Senegalese researchers work to develop a prototype ventilator that could cost a mere $160 each instead of tens of thousands of dollars.

apnews.com

African nations seek their own solutions in virus crisis
By CARLEY PETESCH2 hours ago



1 of 8
In this photo taken Monday, April 13, 2020, medical students test a self-designed computer-controlled ventilator prototype at the Chandaria Business and Incubation Centre of Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. Researchers across Africa are looking for ways to make their own ventilators, protective equipment and hand sanitizers as the continent faces a peak in coronavirus cases long after the United States and European countries have bought up global supplies during the pandemic. (AP Photo/John Muchucha)
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A loud hiss and grunt come from a green bag pressing air through a tube, as Senegalese researchers work to develop a prototype ventilator that could cost a mere $160 each instead of tens of thousands of dollars.

The team is using 3-D printed parts as it works to find a homegrown solution to a medical shortfall that has struck even the richest countries: how to have enough breathing machines to handle an avalanche of COVID-19 patients who need the devices to help increase their blood oxygen levels.

Complicating the task in Africa is the fact that the peak in coronavirus cases for the continent’ is expected to come later than in Europe and the United States, well after dozens of other countries have bought out available supplies.

“Africans must find their own solutions to their problems. We must show our independence. It’s a big motivation for this,” said Ibrahima Gueye, a professor at the Polytechnic School of Thies in Senegal, on the 12-member team developing the prototype ventilator.

Their efforts are being mirrored elsewhere across the continent, where medical supplies are usually imported.

Many hope that these efforts to develop ventilators, personal protective equipment, sanitizers and quick-result antibody tests will lead to more independent solutions for future health crises.
Although the quality of some products won’t meet as high a standard as in the U.S. or Europe, Gueye said there is excitement that level can be reached eventually, with enough time and investment.

In Ethiopia, biomedical engineer Bilisumma Anbesse is among those volunteers repairing and upgrading old ventilators. While the country has tried to procure more than 1,000 ventilators abroad, progress has been thwarted by the high demand.

“U.S. and Chinese companies that produce mechanical ventilators are saying they can’t accept new orders until July. The same is true with other medical items like PPE and gloves,” Annbesse said, referring to the personal protective gear worn to minimize exposure to health hazards.

Africans also are helping to develop tools for disease prevention and surveillance.
Institut Pasteur in Dakar is working on a rapid test for COVID-19 in partnership with the British biotech company Mologic, which developed a rapid Ebola test. They hope the coronavirus test, which can give results in 10 minutes, could be distributed across Africa as early as June. Once a prototype is validated, the test kits will be made in the U.K. and at a new facility in Senegal for infectious disease testing, DiaTropix, that was founded by Institut Pasteur.

Workers in Dakar are using laser cutters to make about 1,000 face shields per week for health care workers. They also are creating key chains with prevention messages such as “Stay Home.”

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are being produced in Zimbabwe on university and technical college campuses that have been transformed into “COVID response factories.” Higher Education Minister Amon Murwira said the teams are also producing face masks, gowns and aprons.

It’s not known whether these projects will be finished before the virus hits its peak in Africa, but observers say the longer-term impact of such ingenuity is substantial.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” Dr. Ahmed Ogwell, deputy director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press. “What we’re seeing in Africa is going to change the way medical supplies in particular are manufactured.”

He predicted there would be a “new public health order” after the pandemic, with changes in global supply chains. Countries already are taking steps toward not having to rely on help from abroad.

Developing countries are scrambling for equipment as deliveries are hindered. But even India, where some engineers are also trying to build low-cost ventilators, has access to more than 19,000 of them in addition to domestic manufacturers who are expected to deliver tens of thousands more.

African nations are understanding the importance of local production and ingenuity.
Ghana is using drone technology to transport COVID-19 tests and protective gear in collaboration with a U.S.-based company called Zipline that already was distributing vaccines and other medical products to remote parts of the country.

“This is a global pandemic: 210 countries and territories across the globe are affected,” Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted recently. “We cannot expect others to come to our assistance. No one is coming to defeat this virus for us.”
—-
Associated Press writers Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe; and Cara Anna in Johannesburg contributed.

 

[Plain Jane]

How East Africa is fighting locusts amid coronavirus – DW – 05/11/2020

East Africa is battling its worst locust invasion in decades. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, countries are fighting to stop a new generation of locusts swarms, which could jeopardize food security.

www.dw.com

How East Africa is fighting locusts amid coronavirus
East Africa is still battling its worst locust invasion in decades. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, countries are fighting to stop a new generation of locusts swarms.




Men try to fend-off a swarm of desert locusts flying over grazing land in Kenya. East Africa is hit by one of the worst locusts outbreak in 25 years.
Since 2019, East Africa has been desperately trying to control a devastating desert locust invasion. The long rains that typically fall across the region from March to May this year will probably allow yet another generation of locusts to mature, further threatening crops and livelihoods.
This would be an additional blow to food security in East African countries, which are also facing economic disruption from the coronavirus pandemic response.
In the region, swarms of desert locusts covered more than 2,000 square km – an area as big at Ethiopia's Lake Tana – in April alone.
Swarms of this size are made up of billions of insects, which can obliterate vegetation, eating more in a day than the combined population of Kenya and Somalia do.

Ethiopia and Kenya are currently the worst hit by the locust infestation.

New waves of locusts are forecast for the coming months in Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia as seasonal rains create favorable breeding conditions.

The next generation of swarms will be around late June or early part of July," says Keith Cressman, senior locust forecasting officer at the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

The timing is particularly worrying as this would coincide with the start of the harvest season.

Crops wiped out

Desert locust swarms strip almost all green vegetation from crops and trees over immense areas, leaving behind ravaged fields and pasture lands and putting both farmers and pastoralists at risk of severe food shortages.

It's predicted more than 25 million people in East Africa will experience food insecurity in 2020 with the locust infestations compounding the situation.

Some farmers lost 90 percent of their crops in the first wave of locust to hit Ethiopia, says Yimer Seid of Ethiopia's South Wollo agricultural department.

"I visited families who have no food in their house. They sold their animals," he says.

Perfect conditions for desert locusts

A disastrous combination of circumstances fueled the current desert locust plague.

In 2018, two cyclones in succession unleashed rain in the immense sandy desert on the southern Arabian Peninsula known as the Empty Quarter. The moist sand and sprouting vegetation provided favorable conditions for the locusts to thrive.

Solitary desert locusts are usually harmless. If they are packed densely enough, however, the insects change behavior and even appearance, forming large groups that devour everything in their path. Groups of young, wingless locusts form bands, which eventually mature into fast-moving swarms.

In the Empty Quarter, the locusts multiplied unnoticed for three generations, increasing their original number 8,000-fold before swarms migrated up the Arabian Peninsula to Yemen.

Locusts are common in Yemen but its ongoing civil war has devastated the country's ability to monitor and fight the insects.

From Yemen, in 2019 the desert locust swarms traveled north to Iran then to Pakistan and India.

They were also carried on the wind across the Red Sea to northeastern Ethiopia, south Eritrea and Somalia, where higher than average rainfalls over the 2019 summer allowed the locusts to proliferate.

Ongoing locust crisis

That's when FAO declared an emergency, increasing and prioritizing equipment and monitoring efforts.

"We started fast tracking everything because we knew the situation was going to be out of control very quickly," says Cressman from the FAO.

But despite FAO and other organizations moving as fast as they could to curb the spread of the locusts, their sheer numbers meant they were already hard to control.

In December 2019, the insects started swarming into Kenya in what has turned into the worst outbreak the country has experienced in 70 years.



To make matters worse, East Africa's short rains, which normally fall from October to December, continued into 2020, allowing this first wave of swarms to mature and start laying eggs.

Now, the region has to fight this new generation as it hatches, before it creates the new swarms predicted for June.

Fighting the locusts

Managing locust swarms is best done before they even form. Regular monitoring is essential, since small numbers of the insects can be controlled relatively easily.

"It's not difficult to kill a locust. You put pesticide on the locust and it dies," says Cressman.

Normally, this is done by teams on the ground spraying pesticides from hand-held tanks, reinforced by planes or helicopters.

Read more: Why locusts are so destructive in East Africa

The problem with the current infestation is its sheer scale, he says.

"It's like a forest fire. If you find it really small as a campfire, you just put it out. But if you miss it, then it becomes a wildfire, and the problem gets much more difficult and expensive to control."

******
Continued on next post.

 

[Plain Jane]

Time of the essence

Countries like Kenya, having little recent experience with locusts, took a few months to set up control operations. With locusts multiplying exponentially, that's valuable time lost.

Authorities in the affected countries have already sprayed pesticides on thousands of hectares of land. But if the weather conditions don't dry up, that might not be enough.

Control operations are falling behind: In April, only a quarter of the area affected by locusts was treated. Locust populations are expected to increase 20- or even 400-fold in the months to come.

Helping hands

Spraying isn't the only way of weathering the devastation caused by the locusts.

In Ethiopia's South Wollo Zone, the community worked together in 2019 to bring in the harvest before the locusts could devour them.

"We harvested the crops in cooperation with everyone," says Yimer Seid. "There would have been around 100 people in a large field …, all volunteers from the region."

He's also seen more examples of people in the community sharing crops and food with each other to make sure people don't go hungry.

Two crises at once

The coronavirus pandemic makes such community action much harder. Although Ethiopia isn't under a strict lockdown, the movement of people is restricted by a national emergency decree.

Normally, agricultural officers in South Wollo would monitor the locusts in the field, explained Seid. Now farmers send in their reports online or over the phone, making it harder to assess the situation.

Overall, though, monitoring efforts and pesticide spraying operations are continuing in Ethiopia as locust control counts as an essential service.


But with new swarms on their way, Ethiopia desperately needs to scale up its operations, says Fatouma Seid from FAO Ethiopia. This should include "more teams on the ground, more vehicles for the government and more pesticides on the ground in addition to the air control."

However, the current stock of pesticides will only tide over locust control in Ethiopia up to June, she says.

As for neighboring Somalia, the country currently has enough pesticide at hand to spray around 2,000 square km.

That will cover the first phase of controlling hoppers (the juvenile locust, which can't fly) up to July, says Alphonse Owuor, Crop Protection Officer with FAO Somalia.

More pesticide is available if needed, Owuor says.

"We have been in constant contact with the supplier since late 2019. They are aware of our requirements for the rest of the year and are on standby on the event we will need more supplies urgently."

Anticipating future invasions difficult

African countries are much better equipped to tackle the locust threat than they used to be.

In the past, locusts plagues regularly swept across the continent. In the 1950s, the insects ate their way through countries in West and East Africa all the way to India and Pakistan in a plague lasting 13 years.

But in the last few decades, thanks to better monitoring and control, the infestations have tended to last for a shorter time and cover less area. Ethiopia and Somalia, for example, haven't experienced an outbreak of this scale in 25 years.

Now though, predicting locust invasions has become harder is harder as weather patterns become more erratic due to climate change change.

"The desert locust is just one long, continuous story," says Cressman. "It's about figuring out the current chapter of that story."

 

[Plain Jane]

Violence in northwest Nigeria drives 23,000 into Niger: UNHCR

Violence in northwest Nigeria has forced about 23,000 refugees to flee to Niger since April and raised concerns about the deteriorating security situation, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 12, 2020 / 9:55 AM / UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO
Violence in northwest Nigeria drives 23,000 into Niger: UNHCR


3 MIN READ

GENEVA (Reuters) - Violence in northwest Nigeria has forced about 23,000 refugees to flee to Niger since April and raised concerns about the deteriorating security situation, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

The numbers fleeing to neighbouring Niger have almost tripled from last year when the agency reported the first influx of 20,000 people following an insurgency and banditry in northern Nigeria which killed hundreds and displaced thousands.

The latest influx of mostly women and children came after attacks by gunmen in Nigeria’s Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara states during April.

The deadliest attack claimed 47 lives in Katsina State, the agency said, prompting air strikes by Nigerian security forces already stretched tackling a decade-long insurgency by Islamist group Boko Haram in the northeast.

“We are working closely with authorities in Niger to relocate at least 7,000 refugees to safety ... where water, food, shelter, access to health and other essential assistance can be provided,” UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told a media briefing.

Discussions are also ongoing with the authorities to recognize on a prima facie basis the refugees fleeing Nigeria and arriving in the region,” he said.

Nigeria closed all land borders in March to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected over 4,600 people in the country with 150 deaths. It first shut parts of its borders last year to fight smuggling but people could still cross both ways.

The agency said refugees from Nigeria are being allowed to seek protection in Niger despite border closures with people in need of food, shelter and basic services including healthcare.

Baloch said around 19,000 Niger nationals have been displaced in their own country as they fled, fearing insecurity in border areas. The refugees are found in Niger’s southern Maradi region, the agency said.

Many have also been caught up in clashes blamed on farmers and herders over dwindling land in Nigeria which have killed more people than the Boko Haram conflict.

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay,; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha, editing by Ed Osmond
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Murder case claims turbulent career of veteran Lesotho PM

A love triangle murder case that made front page news proved one problem too many for Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who survived repeated security crises to become Lesotho's dominant politician but is expected to submit his resignation on Wednesday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 12, 2020 / 11:09 PM / UPDATED 5 HOURS AGO
Murder case claims turbulent career of veteran Lesotho PM

Tim Cocks
5 MIN READ

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A love triangle murder case that made front page news proved one problem too many for Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who survived repeated security crises to become Lesotho’s dominant politician but is expected to submit his resignation on Wednesday.

The 80-year-old’s ruling coalition collapsed in parliament on Monday, leaving him until May 22 to leave office. On Tuesday night French news agency AFP quoted him as saying he would inform King Letsie III of his intention to leave in a letter the following day.

His departure brings down the curtain on a career marked by exile, political feuding, intrigue and strains with the military.

Thabane leaves nearly three years after the event that stunned his fellow citizens and overshadowed his second term in office, the unsolved killing of his then wife Lipolelo in June 2017.

Police this year accused his current wife, Maesaiah, of assassinating Lipolelo. Police also accuse Thabane of being involved, but have yet to bring their charges to court.

Both he and Maesaiah have repeatedly denied having anything to do with the killing of Lipolelo, who was shot dead while driving her car towards her home just outside of the capital.

But the charges plunged the country into turmoil and battered Thabane’s prestige and influence. Voices in his own party began pushing for him to be declared unfit for office.

It is not the first time Thabane, a stocky, shaven-headed figure fond of quoting Bible passages, has been at the centre of intrigue.

In 2014, he fled the mountainous kingdom to neighbouring South Africa after accusing the military of having staged a coup against him, which the military denied at the time. South African security forces had to escort him back.

Thabane was born on May 28, 1939, in what was then Britain’s colony of Basutoland, composed of mountains running along South Africa’s Drakensberg range. Lesotho is often nicknamed the ‘kingdom in the sky’ because its lowest point of elevation is higher than any other nation’s.

Though small and with a population of not much more than 2 million, its political upheavals often draw in its bigger neighbour, South Africa, a parched country that gets essential supplies of tap water from Lesotho’s well-rained mountains.

MILITARY JUNTA
Thabane began his career in the civil service in 1966, the year of Lesotho’s independence. He stayed there for two decades before the military seized power in a 1986 coup, one of several since independence.

The military junta promoted him, making him foreign, and then information, minister, effectively launching his political career. Thabane later helped negotiate a return to civilian rule and repatriation of exiles, culminating in elections in 1993.

In the next poll, in 1998, he won a seat in parliament and became foreign minister. Months later, accusations of electoral fraud triggered rioting, and Nelson Mandela, then president of South Africa, deployed troops to try to quell it, which they failed to do, pulling out after seven months.

In 2006, after several ministerial posts in the LCD ruling party, Thabane left to form his own, the All Basotho Convention (ABC), enabling him to take power as prime minister in 2012.

In the same year, he filed for divorce from his wife, Lipolelo, so that he could marry his then lover, Maesaiah. Lipolelo refused, and a very public spat erupted between the two rivals for his affections that sometimes ended up in court.

Less than a year after the alleged coup against him, Thabane failed to retain his majority in a 2015 election. He resigned as premier before fleeing again to South Africa, whose security forces he saw as his only protection against his own military.

He spent much of his time there, at his house in the town of Ficksberg, where he often lived while in opposition, until a subsequent poll brought him to power again on June 3, 2017.

Asked in 2017 what was the worst problem his country faced, he replied, “Abject poverty”. He said his party’s motto was “Man’s biggest enemy is hunger”.

In the same month, on June 14, say police, a gang of eight gunmen shot Lipolelo in the head, killing her instantly. Two days later, Thabane was sworn in as prime minister for a second time. He married Measaiah a month later.

When police named him and Measaiah as suspects in Lipolelo’s murder earlier this year, he came under pressure to resign.

He promised to do so by the end of July, but several members of his now divided ABC party demanded he go immediately.

On Feb. 21, the day he was due to appear in court on charges of murdering Lipolelo, he again crossed into South Africa, his aides said for medical reasons, but returned days later.

Editing by William Maclean
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Cape Town and its province are South Africa's virus hotspot

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Cape Town and the surrounding Western Cape province have become South Africa's coronavirus hotspot, accounting for more than half of the nation’s confirmed cases, which have gone above 10,600.

apnews.com

Cape Town and its province are South Africa’s virus hotspot
By MOGOMOTSI MAGOMEMay 11, 2020



1 of 7
People wearing face masks queue at a South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to collect their government grant in Cape Town South Africa, Monday, May 11, 2020. South Africa's Western Cape province, which includes the city of Cape Town, has emerged as the country's coronavirus hotspot, accounting for more than half of the nation's confirmed cases, which have gone above 10,000.(AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Cape Town and the surrounding Western Cape province have become South Africa’s coronavirus hotspot, accounting for more than half of the nation’s confirmed cases, which have gone above 10,600.

The Western Cape province has 5,621 cases, according to figures released Monday, and of the country’s 206 deaths registered from COVID-19, 116 have occurred in the province.
Cape Town, with its poor, densely populated townships, is the center of the cases in the province.

South Africa has the continent’s highest number of confirmed cases and has eased its restrictions to allow an estimated 1.6 million people to return to work in selected mines, factories and businesses.

However, the concentration of cases in Cape Town may see the city return to a stricter lockdown, according to Health Minister Zweli Mkizhe.

“That is what is going happen in Cape Town. Where the higher rate of transmission is, it is going to require that there are even stricter restrictions,” said Mkhize over the weekend.

“Our data indicated that the virus is spreading faster, and that we are in a new phase of the pandemic,” said Western Cape premier Alan Winde on Sunday, saying the province is now experiencing greater community transmission. “This is a phase that every part of the country will experience at some point,” said Winde, adding that South Africa is expected to reach its peak of cases in August.

The Western Cape’s increase in recorded cases has become a political battle as its governing party, the liberal opposition party Democratic Alliance, has called for the lifting of the lockdown restrictions for economic reasons. But President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ruling African National Congress party are calling for the Western Cape to return to strict lockdown to try to contain its outbreak.

Ramaphosa is expected to visit the Western Cape province this week.
Ramaphosa warned in his weekly letter to the nation on Monday that South Africans must be aware that the coronavirus will be active in the country for more that a year and people must prepare for a new reality where fighting it is part of their daily lives.

“Even after lockdown — especially after lockdown — we still need to observe social distancing, wear face masks, wash hands regularly, and avoid contact with other people,” wrote Ramaphosa, “We will need to re-organize workplaces, schools, universities, colleges and other public places to limit transmissions.”

 

[Plain Jane]

Burundi expels WHO team as it prepares for presidential election

Burundi is expelling the national head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and three members of his team as it prepares for a presidential election that is being held next week despite concern about health risks during the coronavirus pandemic.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 14, 2020 / 3:33 AM / UPDATED 12 MINUTES AGO
Burundi expels national WHO head during election campaign


2 MIN READ

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Burundi is expelling the national head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) during a presidential election campaign where politicians have pressed ahead with large rallies despite the risk from the coronavirus pandemic.

The government confirmed on Thursday that a May 12 letter from the foreign ministry was sent to WHO country head Walter Kazadi Mulombo and three aides ordering them out by Friday.


The vote for a successor to President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose government has been repeatedly accused of rights abuses and has previously expelled other representatives of international bodies, is due on May 20.

Bernard Ntahiraja, the foreign affairs assistant minister, confirmed the WHO officials had been declared “persona non grata” but did not give reasons. There was no immediate comment from the WHO, which is an agency of the United Nations.

Burundi has so far reported a relatively low caseload of the COVID-19 disease: 27 infections and one death.

In 2018, it expelled U.N. investigators looking into allegations of rights abuses. The United Nations has previously accused security personnel and a ruling party militia of orchestrating gang rapes, torture and killings.

Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Mozambique government kill 50 insurgents in recent days -minister

Mozambican security forces have killed around 50 insurgents in recent days in the northern Cabo Delgado region that has been plagued by violence for several years, the interior minister said on Thursday.

www.reuters.com

WORLD NEWS
MAY 14, 2020 / 4:05 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Mozambique government kill 50 insurgents in recent days -minister


2 MIN READ

MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambican security forces have killed around 50 insurgents in recent days in the northern Cabo Delgado region that has been plagued by violence for several years, the interior minister said on Thursday.

Since 2017, infrequent but violent raids on government buildings and villages by militias with suspected links to Islamic State have intensified in the gas-rich northernmost province of one Africa’s poorest nations.

“On May 13 the insurgents were surprised by our forces on a road that connects Chinda to Mbau, ... in the confrontation 42 terrorists were killed,” Interior Minister Amade Miquidade said at a news conference.

He added that on Thursday security forces had killed another eight insurgents who were attacking the Quissanga district, also in Cabo Delgado.

“These acts of terror are aimed at demoralising and sowing confusion amongst the communities,” Miquidade said.

Little is known about the insurgents, though initial attacks were claimed by a group known as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama. More recently, Islamic State has claimed a number of attacks which security officials have struggled to contain.

Since starting a second term in January, President Filipe Nyusi has vowed to dedicate more resources to fighting the insurgency.

Exxon Mobil and Total are among big international energy companies developing natural gas projects offshore northern Mozambique.

Reporting by Manuel Mucari; Editing by Toby Chopra
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Burundi defies COVID-19 for election ending a bloody rule

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Burundi is pushing ahead with an election on Wednesday that will end the president's divisive and bloody 15-year rule.

apnews.com

Burundi defies COVID-19 for election ending a bloody rule
By RODNEY MUHUMUZA and IGNATIUS SSUUNAan hour ago



1 of 4
FILE - In this April 27, 2020, file photo, crowds of supporters of the ruling party gather for the start of the election campaign, in Bugendana, Gitega province, Burundi. Burundi is pushing ahead with an election in this month that will end President Pierre Nkurunziza's divisive and bloody 15-year rule but the coronavirus poses a threat to the May 20, 2020 vote which could be the first truly peaceful transfer of authority in the central African nation that has seen coups and ethnic fighting since independence in 1962. (AP Photo/Berthier Mugiraneza, File)
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Burundi is pushing ahead with an election on Wednesday that will end the president’s divisive and bloody 15-year rule.

When President Pierre Nkurunziza hands over power, it could be the first truly peaceful transfer of authority in the East African nation since independence in 1962.

But the coronavirus poses a threat to the May 20 vote. Burundi has kicked out World Health Organization workers after concerns were raised. The WHO Africa director messaged the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief about political rallies the day that Burundi’s campaigning launched and images of crowds circulated online.


Authorities have been accused by critics of downplaying the pandemic and citing divine protection. But the government appears to be using virus measures to limit election observers, warning the East African regional bloc on May 8 that arriving foreigners face a 14-day quarantine.

More than the virus, however, it’s the fear of violence that weighs on many of the more than 5 million people eligible to vote.

Government agents have been accused of harassing the main opposition party, the CNL, whose leader Agathon Rwasa is believed to be in a close race with Nkurunziza’s chosen successor in the ruling CNDD-FDD, Evariste Ndayishimiye.

More than 145 CNL members have been arrested since campaigning began on April 27, according to SOS Medias Burundi, a group of independent journalists. Police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye has accused Rwasa of making “incendiary and defamatory” remarks and inciting revolt.

Rwasa, the deputy parliament speaker, has drawn large crowds despite the risks of openly supporting him, according to an online group of activists known as i-Burundi.

The group worries that a rigged election could spark the kind of street demonstrations that marked the previous vote in 2015.

“The ruling party was hoping to use this post-Nkurunziza election to gain a semblance of legitimacy, but given what’s happening we might end up with more violence,” i-Burundi said in an interview. “People want change. ... But the ruling party has the incumbent advantage and controls the electoral process.”

Rwasa told The Associated Press he feels it’s important not to boycott the election even if the outcome is not expected to be fair.

“Everything has its right time,” he said. “Right now, it is not the time to give up and abandon our people.”


Ndayishimiye, a retired general, would be a weak president because he will be a front for Nkurunziza and other powerful ruling party members, said David Gakunzi, a Burundian political analyst: “He consults but he will fear to take independent decisions.”

Ndayishimiye fought alongside Nkurunziza as a rebel in the civil war from 1993 to 2005 that killed about 300,000 people. Nkurunziza was chosen by lawmakers to be president during the peace process known as the Arusha Accords, which specified that a president’s term can be renewed only once.

But Nkurunziza, who won a second term in 2010, said he was eligible for a third term in 2015 because he had not been chosen the first time by universal suffrage.

The deadly turmoil that followed badly damaged ties with the international community, and Burundi became the first country to leave the International Criminal Court after it started investigating allegations of abuses. The U.N. human rights office reported more than 300 extrajudicial killings and was kicked out of the country.

Nkurunziza survived a coup attempt shortly after the 2015 vote while traveling in Tanzania and has left Burundi only once since then. Meanwhile international donors have cut support, leaving the government struggling. It has ordered citizens to pay for the upcoming vote.

Many Burundians were surprised when the president announced in 2018 that he was serving his last term. Skepticism persists. The government has approved legislation that bestows upon Nkurunziza the title of “paramount leader” after he steps down.

“It’s hard to know what’s going to happen ... Nkurunziza has a track record of being quite unpredictable,” said researcher Lane Hartill of the Burundi Human Rights Initiative. “Both the ruling party and the main opposition party, the CNL, are convinced their candidates are going to win the presidential election. It’s telling, though, that government officials continue to arrest large numbers of CNL members.”

Even some senior members of the ruling party are tired of rights violations and the cratering economy but are afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs or being killed, Hartill said.
Burundi’s government has denied allegations it targets its people, calling them malicious propaganda by dissidents.

Memories of the 2015 violence are still raw. Jean Baptiste Bakunzi said he remains traumatized by his brother’s death at the hands of the police and the Imbonerakure, a militarized youth group associated with the ruling party. His brother, accused of participating in anti-government activities, “knelt down and begged them to save his life,” Bakunzi said.
“Instead, one policeman pulled the trigger and shot him dead,” he said. “Whoever opposes the ruling party becomes an enemy even today.”

The violence has dimmed hopes for those outside Burundi who will not be able to vote. Over 330,000 refugees are sheltering in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Congo, according to U.N. figures.

“These elections will not bring hope for us because we have lost so much,” said Solange Teta, a refugee in Rwanda. “The ruling party candidate cannot alleviate our suffering.”

Sporadic violence persists. Police said two people were killed and eight wounded in a grenade attack Sunday on a bar in Bujumbura that’s a popular hangout for ruling party supporters. Opposition supporters worry the security services may retaliate.

Charles Nditije, a former government minister who lives in exile, described the election as a “joke,” calling the polls a formality aimed at installing Nkurunziza’s chosen successor.

“What Burundians want now is anything that can bring to (an) end the reign of CNDD-FDD. But the ruling (party) candidate will fight tooth and nail to win fraudulently and set another round of crisis,” he said.

Hartill, the Burundi researcher, said disputed election results could put the country back on edge. The big question, he said, is whether the opposition leader will “say enough is enough.”
___
Ssuuna reported from Kigali, Rwanda. Eloge Willy Kaneza in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed.
PAID

https://apnews.com/f4127e69c7ba56331c0da5b8264b0852

 

[Plain Jane]

South Africa's Impala closes platinum mine due to coronavirus cases

South Africa's Impala Platinum said on Saturday it would temporarily close its Marula mine after detecting 19 coronavirus cases among workers reporting back for duty at the site in northern Limpopo province.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 16, 2020 / 9:46 AM / UPDATED 7 HOURS AGO
South Africa's Impala closes platinum mine due to coronavirus cases


2 MIN READ

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s Impala Platinum said on Saturday it would temporarily close its Marula mine after detecting 19 coronavirus cases among workers reporting back for duty at the site in northern Limpopo province.

“Implats has identified 19 positive cases during the week, all of them asymptomatic. Of these cases, 14 were identified as the result of proactive testing of employees returning to work. None of these employees had started work at the mine,” the company said in a statement.
It said the site would not reopen until the appropriate health measures had been put in place.

South Africa, the world’s No. 1 platinum producer, is gradually restarting operations in its key mining sector, which was shut down as part of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown now in its seventh week.

Authorities have eased the restrictions to allow mines to operate at 50% capacity, but labour unions have since won a court case against the government, forcing it to impose stricter safety guidelines.

Impala said it was concerned that 17 of the cases were from employees living in nearby communities, while two had travelled from another province, suggesting “the prevalence of COVID-19 among local communities is far higher than the company’s initial estimates”.

South Africa has reported more than 13,500 cases of the highly infectious respiratory disease, the most on the continent, with close to 250 deaths so far.

Most cases have been concentrated in Cape Town and in and around Johannesburg but recent testing patterns have shown rising infection rates in poorer, more rural provinces as government expands its screening and testing programme.

Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana and Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Helen Popper
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Nigeria impounds British plane for breaking coronavirus flight ban rules: aviation minister

Nigeria impounded a plane operated by a British company for allegedly contravening a flight ban imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the aviation minister said on Sunday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 17, 2020 / 4:38 PM / UPDATED 10 HOURS AGO
Nigeria impounds British plane for breaking coronavirus flight ban rules: aviation minister

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria impounded a plane operated by a British company for allegedly contravening a flight ban imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the aviation minister said on Sunday.

Passenger flights into the country, with the exception of ones to evacuate people or repatriate Nigerian citizens, have been banned for weeks. The ban will remain in place until at least June 4.

Flights for essential services, such as the delivery of food supplies and items for humanitarian use, are permitted.


Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said on Twitter on Sunday that a plane had been impounded after the rules were broken.

Sirika said a UK company “was given approval for humanitarian operations but regrettably we caught them conducting commercial flights”.

The message added: “The craft is impounded, crew being interrogated. There shall be maximum penalty.”

James Oduadu, an aviation ministry spokesman, told Reuters later in a telephone interview that the plane was operated by a company called FlairJet.

FlairJet, a British private charter company that is an affiliate of Flexjet, in a statement said the matter was an “evolving situation”.

“We are continuing to respectfully work with the Nigerian authorities to resolve this situation,” it said.

Reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja; Additional reporting and writing by Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos; Editing by Peter Cooney and Daniel Wallis
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

As mosques reopen in West Africa, COVID-19 fears grow

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — It’s been a Ramadan unlike any other for Abdourahmane Sall, far from the mosque during the Muslim holy month as coronavirus cases mount.

apnews.com

As mosques reopen in West Africa, COVID-19 fears grow
By KRISTA LARSONyesterday



1 of 9
In this photo taken Friday, May 15, 2020, a follower of the Senegalese Mouride brotherhood, an order of Sufi Islam, films with his smartphone as he and others practice social distancing as they attend Muslim Friday prayers at West Africa's largest mosque the Massalikul Jinaan, in Dakar, Senegal. A growing number of mosques are reopening across West Africa even as confirmed coronavirus cases soar, as governments find it increasingly difficult to keep them closed during the holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — It’s been a Ramadan unlike any other for Abdourahmane Sall, far from the mosque during the Muslim holy month as coronavirus cases mount. With only a little over a week left, he decided joining thousands of others in tradition was worth the risk after authorities allowed prayers to resume.

Men formed orderly lines outside the Massalikul Jinaan mosque in Dakar as they waited to receive hand sanitizer before entering while uniformed police watched on nearby. Inside, some 2,000 men set their prayer mats 1.5 meters apart while 3,000 others spread out into the courtyard of West Africa’s largest mosque.


“We are being careful but to be honest we cannot escape the virus,” said Sall, a 58-year-old tailor in a flowing orange tunic and face mask made of thick fabric. “If we abide by the precautions that health officials tell us, then God will protect us.”

The World Health Organization has warned that as many as 190,000 Africans could die from the coronavirus in the first year of the pandemic, and countless more from other diseases as the continent’s limited medical resources are stretched even further.

But across West Africa, countries are finding it increasingly difficult to keep mosques closed during Ramadan even as confirmed virus cases mount and testing remains limited. The holy month is already a time of heightened spiritual devotion for Muslims, and many say prayer is now more important than ever.

Last week Niger and Senegal allowed mass prayers to resume, and Liberia is reopening its houses of worship beginning Sunday. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, several states recently signaled the reopening of mosques even as the number of confirmed cases nationwide exceeded 5,000.

The warnings about resuming public gatherings are being made worldwide — but the stakes are particularly high in West Africa, where countries with fewer hospitals and ventilators have been prioritizing disease prevention as a public health strategy. As elsewhere, though, decisions here are starting to reflect an acknowledgement that the coronavirus crisis might last longer than some restrictions can be tolerated.

“We must now learn to live in the presence of the virus, adapting our individual and collective behavior to the evolution of the pandemic,” Senegalese President Macky Sall said in an address announcing the easing of several social distancing measures.

His speech came just hours after Senegal marked its highest daily number of newly confirmed cases since the crisis began here in early March, prompting concerns that the easing was premature. With a large diaspora population in Europe, Senegal was among the first African countries to report COVID-19 cases as citizens returned home, but it has maintained a relatively low death toll despite having never enforced a total lockdown as other nations have.


Those early successes have been attributed to the limits on public gatherings and on regional transport, as mosques, churches and schools were swiftly shut down. Critics fear Senegal now risks an explosion of new cases if people pray in large numbers and hold gatherings to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of Ramadan.

“We have passed the 2,000 case mark,” lamented 39-year-old teacher Daba Senghor. “The opening of the mosques will help the spread of the virus. I am really afraid for my country.”

Even some religious leaders in Senegal are still urging their followers to stay home: The Cheikh-Oumar-Foutiyou mosque in Dakar remained closed even after the president’s announcement because the COVID-19 threat “is not yet totally under control,” according to a statement put out before anyone showed up for prayers Friday.

Where bans have remained in place in West Africa, the restrictions have been contentious.

Two prominent imams were suspended in northern Nigeria, while a Gambian court fined several Muslim clerics who led prayers despite the state of emergency in place.

And in Guinea, a group of young men recently used force to physically open the mosques’ doors in Dubreka, a city located 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Guinea’s capital, Conakry.
“The gels, the soaps, the barriers, it’s all a joke. It is God who cures this disease, that’s why we must open the mosques,” said Mouctar Camara, a 26-year-old student who was briefly detained after the incident.

Local leader Alseny Bangoura said they brought together the imams and tried to educate the young men about the risks of COVID-19. Guinea now has more than 2,500 cases even with limited testing.

“We were shocked that they had taken crowbars to open the mosques,” he said. “We told them even Mecca is closed.”
___
Babacar Dione in Dakar, Senegal; Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria; Boubacar Diallo in Conakry, Guinea; and Dalatou Mamane in Niamey, Niger contributed.


https://apnews.com/32d153f269f1f509883b17dcae9ade0b

 

[Plain Jane]

Burundi voting ends in calm despite fraud allegation

Voting in Burundi’s presidential election passed calmly on Wednesday despite simmering political violence, the coronavirus pandemic and the opposition accusing the authorities of fraud.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MAY 19, 2020 / 9:15 PM / UPDATED 13 HOURS AGO
Burundi voting ends in calm despite fraud allegation


4 MIN READ

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Voting in Burundi’s presidential election passed calmly on Wednesday despite simmering political violence, the coronavirus pandemic and the opposition accusing the authorities of fraud.

In what could be the first competitive presidential election in Burundi since a civil war erupted in 1993, the ruling CNDD-FDD party’s candidate, retired general Evariste Ndayishimiye, is running against opposition leader Agathon Rwasa and five others.

President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose government has repeatedly been accused of rights abuses, will step down after 15 years.

Rwasa said electoral observers from his party were chased away from the polling stations.

“There is a massive electoral fraud. Our representatives, mandated to follow the electoral process to the end, have been chased. So how can you agree on results counted out of your sights?” he told Reuters.

The government did not respond to requests for comment about the fraud accusation.

Last week it expelled the head of the mission in Burundi of the World Health Organization, who had criticized all parties for holding rallies despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Burundi has reported 42 coronavirus cases and one death. But only 633 tests have been carried out, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The authorities said it was safe to vote despite the disease and called on Burundians to turn out.

“We call on Burundians to vote in massive numbers and vote peacefully. We need good elections,” Pierre Claver Kazihise, chairman of the election commission, said in comments aired by state broadcaster RTNB.

Queues to vote were long in the morning in the main commercial city Bujumbura’s Musaga neighbourhood, where the opposition is popular.

The voting is really taking place smoothly and I voted for change but I am pessimistic about the counting of votes,” said one resident who did not wish to be identified.

Several voters were worried that Twitter and WhatsApp - messaging services that can spread information quickly - seemed to be shut down.

The election is meant to usher in the first democratic transition in 58 years of independence, after widespread international criticism of the last election in 2015, when Nkurunziza won a third term and the opposition boycotted.

That election sparked violent protests that drove hundreds of thousands of Burundians into exile. The United Nations documented hundreds of killings and the torture and gang-rape of opposition activists. Donors withdrew funding.

The government denies accusations of rights violations.

Burundi’s population is divided between majority Hutu and minority Tutsi ethnic groups, as is its neighbour Rwanda. Both major candidates in Wednesday’s vote are former leaders of mainly Hutu rebel militia groups.

The United Nations and the African Union said on Sunday they remained “concerned about reports of intimidation and violent clashes between supporters of opposing sides”.

There were few international election monitors after the government said they would have to spend 14 days in quarantine to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Full results are expected within a week. If no one wins 50% in the first round then a run-off is held within a fortnight.

Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by Giles Elgood and Peter Graff
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Rwanda genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga appears in court – DW – 05/20/2020

Investigators have requested the extradition of Rwandan genocide suspect for his alleged role in financing the country’s 1994 genocide. Felicien Kabuga was arrested after police tracked him down through his children.

www.dw.com

Rwanda genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga appears in court
Investigators have requested the extradition of Rwandan genocide suspect for his alleged role in financing the country’s 1994 genocide. Felicien Kabuga was arrested after police tracked him down through his children.





Prosecutors on Wednesday filed a request for Felicien Kabuga to be transferred to United Nations custody for trial in international courts.

Kabuga was brought into court in a wheelchair, dressed in jeans and a blue jumper and wearing a face mask.

The 84-year-old was detained in a Paris suburb on Saturday after spending a quarter-of-a-century on the run.

Kabuga could be transferred to The Hague in the Netherlands before a trial in the city of Arusha in northern Tanzania. A UN court there is handling cases that date back to the 1994 genocide of an estimated 800,000 people.

The former tea and coffee tycoon is Rwanda's most wanted man and had a $5 million bounty on his head.

He was indicted in 1997 on seven criminal counts including genocide and incitement to commit genocide.

Read more: Opinion: Rwandan genocide arrest offers solace to survivors
According to Rwandan prosecutors, Kabuga used his companies to import machetes and gardening tools knowing they would be used as weapons in 100-day killing spree that killed some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus in the East African country. He is believed to have established the notorious Interahamwe Hutu ethnic militia and provided training and equipment used in the massacres.

He also co-owned Radio Television Milles Collines, whose radio station broadcast messages that fanned the ethnic hatred against the Tutsis.

Kabuga was found living under a false name in an apartment near Paris after decades on the run.

French intelligence agents spied on Kabuga's children in their effort to track him down. Because of the coronavirus lockdown, many active investigations were placed on hold, and French police were able to focus on Kabuga's file.

The inquiry gathered pace in March after an intelligence-sharing meeting between investigators from France, Britain, and Belgium, where some of Kabuga's children live, as well as officials from the UN and Europe's Europol law enforcement agency.
Read more: 20 years under Rwanda's 'benevolent dictator' Paul Kagame

"We realized ... that trail from the children protecting their father converged on Asnieres-sur-Seine," Eric Emeraux, head of the Gendarmerie's Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity, told the Reuters news agency, referring to the Paris suburb where Kabuga was eventually arrested. "We also discovered one of his children was renting an apartment there."

Investigators installed wiretaps and the property was placed under surveillance, with intelligence indicating that someone other than one of the children was living there.
"We decided to open the door, without being entirely sure of who we would find inside," Emeraux said. "I didn't sleep the night before."

Kabuga — who had 28 known aliases — was arrested by a squad of 16 elite officers and was formally identified in a DNA test, matching against a sample taken when he was hospitalized in Germany in 2007.

Lawyers acting for Kabuga said they would request an eight-day postponement to the legal process, which — under French law — is granted automatically.
rc/msh (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Sjursen: What On Earth Is The US Doing By Bombing Somalia?

by Tyler Durden
Thu, 05/21/2020 - 03:10
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Authored by Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.) via AntiWar.com,
The Trump administration has quietly ramped up a vicious bombing – and covert raiding – campaign in Somalia amid a global coronavirus pandemic. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has provided any explanation for the deadly escalation of a war that Congress hasn’t declared and the media rarely reports. At stake are many thousands of lives.

The public statistics show a considerable increase in airstrikes from Obama’s presidency. From 2009 to 2016, the U.S. military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced 36 airstrikes in Somalia. Under Trump, it conducted at least 63 bombing raids just last year, with another 39 such attacks in the first four months of 2020. The ostensible US target has usually been the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab, but often the real – or at least consequent – victims are long-embattled Somali civilians.

As for the most direct victims, it’s become clear that notoriously image-conscious AFRICOM public affairs officers have long undercounted and underreported the number of civilians killed in their expanding aerial bombardments. According to Airwars, a UK-based airstrike monitoring group, civilian fatalities – while low relative to other bombing campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Syria – may exceed official Pentagon estimates by as much as 6,800 percent. Only these deaths don’t tell the half of it. Tens of thousands of Somalis have fled areas that the US regularly bombs, filtering into already overcrowded refugee camps outside of the capital of Mogadishu.

There are approximately 2.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia who barely survive and are often reliant on humanitarian aid. So vulnerable are the refugees in the pandemic-petri-dish camps, that one mother of seven described feeling “like we are waiting for death to come.” Her fears may prove justified. Recently, coronavirus cases have risen rapidly in Somalia – a country with no public health system to speak of – and due to severely limited testing availability, experts believe the actual tally is much higher than reported. No matter how AFRICOM spins it, their escalatory war will only exacerbate the country’s slow-boiling crisis.

A Sordid Backstory
While comprehensive analysis of the sordid history of US military operations in Somalia would fill multiple volumes, it’s worth recalling the basic contours of Washington’s record. During the Cold War, the US pressured the United Nations to hand over the ethnically Somali Ogaden region to Ethiopia, then proceeded to arm and back this sworn enemy of Mogadishu. That is until Marxist Ethiopian military officers took power in a 1974 putsch, at which point America turned on a dime, and changed sides. Washington then backed Somalia in the ensuing war over Ogaden. Over the next decade and a half, the US propped up the abusive and corrupt Somali dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.

Nevertheless, after the Berlin Wall came down and Barre, a notorious human rights-violator, had outlived his Cold War usefulness, Congress cut off military and – more importantly – economic aid. Barre was soon toppled in a coup, and clan-based militias carved up the remnants of the Somali state. Civil war raged, and hundreds of thousands of civilians starved to death in the ensuing famine. Thanks to the blockbuster 2001 Hollywood film “Blackhawk Down,” what came next is the one bit of Somali history most Americans know. In 1992, US troops filtered into Somalia to support what began as a United Nations humanitarian response. No doubt, they eventually did some good.

In the chaos, the UN and especially the UStook sides in the civil war. Then after American special operators killed numerous civilians in the hunt for one particular warlord, thousands of angry Somalis turned on a group of army rangers and Delta Force commandos during another botched raid. In the day-long battle that inspired the film, 18 US soldiers and – far less reported – some 500 Somali men, women, and children were killed. With no stomach for the bad press of body bags being brought home, President Bill Clinton pulled the troops out within months.

For several years, Washington reverted to largely ignoring the ongoing Somali tragedy. That is until the 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., placed the region – and anything vaguely Islamist – into the Pentagon’s crosshairs. There hadn’t been much of an al-Qaeda presence in Somalia at the time, so the US basically “invented” one. In 2006, after an imperfect but popular Islamic Courts movement brought some stability to the capitol, Washington encouraged, backed, and even took part in an Ethiopian invasion.

This too backfired. The more hardline al-Shabab was empowered, largely catalyzed, and grew in popularity through its resistance to the illegal Ethiopian occupation and to the corrupt UN and U.S.-backed interim governments that followed. What AFRICOM’s director of operations called the “disease” of al-Shabab is now used as a vague justification of the latest escalation in US airstrikes.

AFRICOM Inertia

How many Americans know that some 500–800 US troops are based in Somalia at any given time? Fewer still likely have the faintest idea that three Americans were killed in neighboring Kenya just a few months back, when al-Shabab nearly overran an airbase that housed some US troops.

Apathy and ignorance are troubling enough, but as has been the case for nearly all recent interventions in the Greater Middle East, Washington’s aggressive Somalia policy has proven counterproductive. The more intense and overt the US military strikes and presence, the more empowered al-Shabab becomes since the group is as much nationalist resistant movement as terror group. While this admittedly abhorrent crew kills and oppresses Somali civilians as much as or more than American bombs or U.S.-backed government security forces, Washington’s self-sabotage is real. As a Brown University Costs of War Project report concludes: “Al-Shabaab is fueled, in part, by the US war against it.” Though affiliated with al-Qaeda, al-Shabab’s recruits, expertise, and grievances are mainly local. Most funding comes from piracy and other criminal enterprises.

The United Nations with tacit support from even America’s NATO allies has called for a global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump team has only escalated military actions in various hotspots – particularly Somalia. This won’t play well with allies, adversaries, or neutral nations alike. If anything, it will drive the latter into the arms of Russia or China. In the face of such strategic inertia, one can’t help but wish the US military would heed its own doctrine.

It might start with number four on its list of the eight “paradoxes” of counterinsurgency: “Doing Nothing is Sometimes the Best Action.”

 

[Plain Jane]

Hundreds killed in South Sudan tribal clashes: ICRC

Hundreds of civilians, including three aid workers, were killed in a series of tribal clashes in villages in South Sudan's vast Jonglei state, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday.

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MAY 21, 2020 / 11:13 AM / UPDATED 18 HOURS AGO
Hundreds killed in South Sudan tribal clashes: ICRC

Denis Dumo
2 MIN READ

JUBA (Reuters) - Hundreds of civilians, including three aid workers, were killed in a series of tribal clashes in villages in South Sudan’s vast Jonglei state, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday.

The territory of South Sudan has been plagued for decades by ethnic clashes over cattle and land, as well as blood feuds. But violence has risen in recent months after the government in February designated ten new states, including Jonglei, but failed to agree on governor appointments, creating a power vacuum.

Fighting between Lou Nuer and Murle groups broke out on Saturday in and around the town of Pieri, leaving hundreds injured and thousands displaced.

Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a statement on Tuesday it had lost a South Sudanese staff member and two others were injured in the clashes. A South Sudan Red Cross volunteer was also killed.

ICRC warned that COVID-19 restrictions have made it more difficult to evacuate wounded by air and to provide surgical care for trauma injuries. They said more lives will be lost if violence keeps escalating.

South Sudan’s five-year civil war erupted soon after the country’s formation in 2011 and created the worst refugee crisis in Africa since the Rwandan genocide.

“If we see the same level of violence that we saw in 2019 we can expect a greater loss of life and deeper suffering as COVID-19 hampers our ability to respond,” said James Reynolds, the ICRC’s head of delegation in South Sudan.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, which is currently investigating the clashes, condemned the violence and urged the government to find a deal over the appointment of governors.

“We strongly urge the Government and other parties to compromise and agree on these critical positions so the states can take measures to prevent conflict, build peace, and assist with the COVID-19 response,” said David Shearer, head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Reporting by Denis Dumo, Writing by Giulia Paravicini, Editing by Alexandra Hudson
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Locusts, COVID-19, flooding pose 'triple threat' in Africa

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Locusts, COVID-19 and deadly flooding pose a “triple threat” to millions of people across East Africa, officials warned Thursday, while the World Bank announced a $500 million program for countries affected by the historic desert locust swarms.

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Locusts, COVID-19, flooding pose ‘triple threat’ in Africa
By RODNEY MUHUMUZAyesterday



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FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 24, 2020 file photo, a farmer's son raises his arms as he is surrounded by desert locusts while trying to chase them away from his crops, in Katitika village, Kitui county, Kenya. Locusts, COVID-19 and deadly flooding pose a "triple threat" to millions of people across East Africa, officials warned Thursday, May 21, 2020 while the World Bank announced a $500 million program for countries affected by the historic desert locust swarms. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Locusts, COVID-19 and deadly flooding pose a “triple threat” to millions of people across East Africa, officials warned Thursday, while the World Bank announced a $500 million program for countries affected by the historic desert locust swarms.
A new and larger generation of the voracious insects, numbering in the billions, is on the move in East Africa, where some countries haven’t seen such an outbreak in 70 years. Climate change is in part to blame.

The added threat of COVID-19 imperils a region that already was home to about 20% of the world’s population of food-insecure people, including millions in South Sudan and Somalia.


Yemen in the nearby Arabian Peninsula is also threatened, and United Nations officials warn that if locusts are not brought under control there, the conflict-hit country will remain a reservoir for further infestations in the region.

Lockdowns imposed for the COVID-19 pandemic have slowed efforts to combat the locusts, especially imports of the pesticides needed for aerial spraying that is called the only effective control.

“We’re not in a plague, but if there are good rains in the summer and unsuccessful control operations, we could be in a plague by the end of this year,” said Keith Cressman, senior locust forecasting officer with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

He later told a U.N. briefing in New York that “the locust invasion is most serious now in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia” and is also “very serious in southern Iran and in parts of Pakistan.”

Starting in June, Cressman said, the locusts will move “from Kenya to throughout Ethiopia as well as to Sudan, perhaps West Africa” and the swarms in southern Iran and southwestern Pakistan “will move to India and Pakistan in the border areas.” He said the latter “could be supplemented by other swarms coming from East Africa, or coming from northern Somalia.”

He said FAO is appealing for tens of millions of dollars of additional funds for operations in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia that will now be extended to Yemen, Iran, to Pakistan and if need be to West Africa.

In West Africa, he said, there’s a risk that the locusts could make their way in the coming months into the sprawling and arid Sahel region just south of the Sahara Desert, he said. Chad, Niger and Mauritania could be affected —another burden for a region under growing threat from extremist attacks.

The FAO is preparing to increase its appeal for aid to $310 million as the livelihoods of millions of people across Ethiopia, Kenya and elsewhere are at stake, including farmers and herders.
Already about 400,000 hectares of land have been protected from the locusts, or enough crops to feed about 5 million people, said Dominique Burgeon, FAO’s director of emergencies, “but it is only one part of the equation.”

The number of locusts continues to grow despite the control efforts, and if that work is not sustained, the combined threat with COVID-10 and flooding “could have a catastrophic effect,” said FAO director-general Qu Dongyu.

The FAO in its latest assessment says the situation in parts of East Africa remains “extremely alarming” because new swarms will form from mid-June onward, coinciding with the start of the harvest season for many farmers.


The World Bank’s new $500 million program will benefit affected countries in Africa and the Middle East, and Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia benefit from an initial disbursement of $160 million. Some of the money will go directly to farmers as cash payments. Plans to help Yemen and Somalia are at an “advanced stage,” the bank said.

“This food supply emergency combined with the pandemic and economic shutdown in advanced economies places some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people at even greater risk,” World Bank Group president David Malpass said in a statement.

The recent floods in parts of East Africa have killed nearly 300 people and displaced 500,000, slowing locust control work and increasing the risk of the virus’ spread, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

“We are facing an unusually complex humanitarian situation,” Simon Missiri, the group’s Africa director, said in a statement.
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Associated Press writers Cara Anna in Johannesburg and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.