A weeklong cease-fire in Sudan went into effect late Monday as witnesses in the capital, Khartoum, reported some clashes. 

Sudan’s rival sides, the Sudan Armed Forces of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Security Forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, can renew the agreement after its initial seven-day period.    

While fighting has continued during previous cease-fires, this one was agreed upon during formal negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and includes a monitoring mechanism made up of three representatives each from the Saudis, Americans and the two Sudanese forces.   

The United Nation’s top envoy in Sudan on Monday welcomed the U.S.-Saudi brokered cease-fire.    

“This is a welcome development, though the fighting and troop movements have continued even today, despite the commitment of both sides not to pursue military advantage before the cease-fire takes effect,” Volker Perthes told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.       

Perthes traveled to New York from Port Sudan. The United Nations has temporarily moved some of its staff and operations to that Red Sea city after intense fighting erupted in Khartoum on April 15.        

“I call on both [sides] to end the fighting and to return to dialogue in the interest of Sudan and its people,” Perthes said. “Lives and infrastructure have been destroyed. The growing ethnicization of the conflict risks to expand and prolong it, with implications for the region.”      

Perthes said five weeks of fighting has killed more than 700 people, including 190 children. Another 6,000 people have been injured. Over a million people are internally displaced, and 250,000 have fled the country.     

In addition to airstrikes and fighting in the capital, West Darfur has seen a resumption of large-scale intercommunal violence. Perthes said there are signs of tribal mobilization in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions, as well.       

He stressed that the temporary truce is not the ultimate goal but an instrument to go forward toward talks about a permanent cessation of hostilities and a new Sudanese-owned-and-led political process.       

“I think that both parties over the last five weeks have learned that they will not achieve an easy military victory,” Perthes told reporters. “That even if they were to achieve a victory over the other side after a long struggle, that could be at the expense of losing the country, and that there is no alternative if they want to preserve their country than ceasing the fire and going back to some form of political process.”      

Regional efforts      

The African Union commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security briefed Monday’s meeting by video link. He said the regional group is working “relentlessly” to bring an end to the conflict.    

“Our conviction is that only a well-coordinated, collective action will give chance to the success of international action of peace and stability in Sudan,” said Bankole Adeoye.   

“Separate, competing or rival actions will further complicate and undermine the search for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.”     

He said the AU has developed a comprehensive de-escalation plan for resolving the conflict — focusing on an immediate, unconditional, permanent cease-fire; humanitarian action; accountability for actions taken by the warring parties; support to neighboring countries impacted by the crisis; and the resumption of an inclusive political process aimed at the return to a democratic civilian-led government.      

Adeoye said African leaders will meet later this week at the AU Peace and Security Council to endorse the de-escalation plan.     

The executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the East African regional bloc, also briefed the Security Council by video. Workneh Gebeyehu said the chance of success is higher if efforts are coordinated.      

“We all have one purpose and goal in Sudan: to silence the guns and resume the inclusive Sudanese-led, Sudanese-owned political process that will pave way towards the formation of a civilian-led transitional government,” he said.    

Security Council members echoed support for the new cease-fire and a return to a civilian-led democratic transition. Members also called on the SAF and RSF to immediately stop fighting, protect civilians and allow safe access for humanitarians.     

The United Nations estimates that 15 million people needed assistance before the fighting erupted, and that has risen to 18 million. Last week, the organization appealed for $2.6 billion to help cope with growing needs. 

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

“The war never ends. Tomorrow it will start again,” remarks a character in “Goodbye Julia,” the first Sudanese film ever selected for Cannes.

It explores the racism fueling decades of conflict in the country, and director Mohamed Kordofani admitted to “contradictory feelings” about walking the glitzy red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival while his fellow Sudanese are cowering from bombs.

The irony is not lost on Kordofani, who did not expect his debut feature to coincide with the breakout of a new conflict in Sudan.

“Right now, I am stranded in Cannes,” he joked in an interview with AFP on a seaside terrace overlooking a flotilla of yachts, before adding on a serious note that he was “heartbroken” by the conflict and the fact he could not go home.

“The bombing needs to stop,” said the former aircraft engineer, who packed in his career to start a film production company.

“Goodbye Julia” is playing in the Un Certain Regard category in Cannes, a segment focusing on young, innovative talent.

The film starts in 2005 after the end of an earlier bout of fighting, between Khartoum and the separatist south, and ends as South Sudan gains independence in 2011.

It tells the story of how a covered-up murder brings a southern Sudanese woman, Julia, into contact with a northern Sudanese woman, Mona, and her overbearing conservative husband.

‘My own transformation’

The two women’s friendship is complex, and the racist undercurrent between Arabs and black Africans that stalks the Middle East and North Africa is on stark display.

Mona’s husband refers to the southerners as “slaves” and “savages,” and she is forced to confront her own ingrained racism, while gender roles are also explored.

Kordofani said he was inspired by how his own views had changed over the past decade.

“I started to review how I was behaving in my previous relationships. I reviewed my own racism.”

He said discrimination was so deeply ingrained in Sudan that “to this day, I don’t know if I’m completely not racist.”

While racism is not at the heart of Sudan’s current conflict, Kordifani said the film’s message was still relevant, as the country lurches from one broken cease-fire to the next, and residents hunker down with barely any food or supplies.

“I don’t think the war will end unless we change. We the people, not the government. We need to be equal, and we need to be inclusive, and we need to learn to coexist.”

Critics have warmly received “Goodbye Julia,” with Screen calling it “a gut-wrenching and emotionally rewarding tale.”

The Hollywood Reporter said it had “shades of a thriller” and praised Kordofani’s “fine direction.”
…

The United Nations Children’s Fund recently said Sudan’s war has displaced at least 450,000 children from their homes, with tens of thousands fleeing into neighboring countries. Aid groups say these refugee children are being deprived of education, without which they are at higher risk for exploitation, child marriage and recruitment into armed groups. Henry Wilkins has more on the story from Borota, Chad, near the border with Sudan.
…

As the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula approaches Tuesday, scores of women who have been treated for the medical condition are encouraging their peers in northern Cameroon to get help.

Many sufferers of obstetric fistula — characterized by urinary and fecal incontinence — believe the disease is a curse for wrongdoing. Now former patients and aid groups are telling families fistula can be treated.

The network of women who have been successfully operated on for obstetric fistula in Cameroon’s northern region say they are educating communities that it is a disease that can be treated.

Hospital workers say obstetric fistula is a hole between the birth canal and bladder or rectum, caused by prolonged, obstructed labor without access to timely, high-quality medical treatment. The disease leaves women and girls leaking urine, feces or both, and often leads to chronic medical problems, depression, social isolation and deepening poverty, medical staff members say.

Catherine Debong, 31, is the spokesperson for Women in Maroua, a group of women who have been operated on for obstetric fistula. Maroua is a town in Cameroon’s far north that shares a border with Chad and Nigeria. 

Debong said she is urging parents, husbands, clerics, community leaders and traditional rulers to educate others that obstetric fistula is not a curse or divine punishment for wrongdoing. She said she wants communities to encourage women who have gone into hiding due to the disease to seek treatment.

Debong said a Roman Catholic priest took her to the hospital in 2012 after she had lived with fistula for six years. She is now committed to saving the lives of other women with fistula whom she said are dying without medical help. 

Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health says between 350 and 1,500 new cases of fistula are reported each year. Seventy-five percent of the cases are reported on Cameroon’s northern region, where more than 80% of civilians seek help from African traditional healers and seldom visit hospitals.

Cameroon reports that 60% of patients seeking help in hospitals have lived with obstetric fistula for more than 5 years. Eighty percent of patients have no formal education and 90% were teenagers when they had their first baby.

Many sufferers are accused of witchcraft and abandoned by their relatives.

The Cameron government is trying to end the stigma and discrimination attached to the condition through education programs.

Boyo Maurine is with the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services program, a nonprofit group that works with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The group educates communities about obstetric fistula and encourages women to seek treatment.

“Generally, the individuals perceive that people will not want to associate with them because of the odor that comes from them and from the embarrassment that will come from constantly being wet without any form of control,” Boyo said. “They already feel that they do not belong to society, and this leaves them sometimes with some negative emotions like sadness, depression, anger and aggression, which is as a result of this condition.”

In 2020, the U.N. launched a global commitment to fistula prevention and treatment, including surgical repair and social reintegration. The campaign hopes to end fistula by 2030, while transforming the lives of thousands of women and girls.

The International Day to End Obstetric Fistula draws attention to the condition, which affects tens of thousands of women globally. 
…

The United Nation’s top envoy in Sudan on Monday welcomed a U.S.-Saudi brokered cease-fire that was about to go into effect, even as he warned that the Sudan conflict shows no sign of slowing down.

“This is a welcome development, though the fighting and troop movements have continued even today, despite the commitment of both sides not to pursue military advantage before the cease-fire takes effect,” Volker Perthes told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Perthes traveled to New York from Port Sudan. The United Nations has temporarily moved some of its staff and operations to that Red Sea city after intense fighting erupted in the capital, Khartoum, on April 15.

The cease-fire, signed by the rival Sudan Armed Forces of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Security Forces led by General Mohamed Dagalo, is to go into effect at 9:45 p.m. local time on Monday and last for an initial period of seven days, which the parties can renew.

While fighting has continued during previous cease-fires, this one was agreed upon during formal negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and will include a monitoring mechanism made up of three representatives each from the Saudis, Americans and the two Sudanese forces.

“I call on both [sides] to end the fighting and to return to dialogue in the interest of Sudan and its people,” Perthes said. “Lives and infrastructure have been destroyed. The growing ethnicization of the conflict risks to expand and prolong it, with implications for the region.”

Perthes said five weeks of fighting has killed more than 700 people, including 190 children. Another 6,000 people have been injured. Over a million people are internally displaced, and 250,000 have fled the country.

In addition to airstrikes and fighting in the capital, West Darfur has seen a resumption of large-scale intercommunal violence. Perthes said there are signs of tribal mobilization in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions, as well.

He stressed that the temporary truce is not the ultimate goal but an instrument to go forward toward talks about a permanent cessation of hostilities and a new Sudanese-owned-and-led political process.

“I think that both parties over the last five weeks have learned that they will not achieve an easy military victory,” Perthes told reporters. “That even if they were to achieve a victory over the other side after a long struggle, that could be at the expense of losing the country, and that there is no alternative if they want to preserve their country than ceasing the fire and going back to some form of political process.”

Regional efforts

The African Union commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security briefed Monday’s meeting by video link. He said the regional group is working “relentlessly” to bring an end to the conflict.

“Our conviction is that only a well-coordinated, collective action will give chance to the success of international action of peace and stability in Sudan,” said Bankole Adeoye.

“Separate, competing or rival actions will further complicate and undermine the search for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.”

He said the AU has developed a comprehensive de-escalation plan for resolving the conflict — focusing on an immediate, unconditional, permanent cease-fire; humanitarian action; accountability for actions taken by the warring parties; support to neighboring countries impacted by the crisis; and the resumption of an inclusive political process aimed at the return to a democratic civilian-led government.

Adeoye said African leaders will meet later this week at the AU Peace and Security Council to endorse the de-escalation plan.

The executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the East African regional bloc, also briefed the Security Council by video. Workneh Gebeyehu said the chance of success is higher if efforts are coordinated.

“We all have one purpose and goal in Sudan: to silence the guns and resume the inclusive Sudanese-led, Sudanese-owned political process that will pave way towards the formation of a civilian-led transitional government,” he said.

Security Council members echoed support for the new cease-fire and a return to a civilian-led democratic transition. Members also called on the SAF and RSF to immediately stop fighting, protect civilians and allow safe access for humanitarians.

The United Nations estimates that 15 million people needed assistance before the fighting erupted, and that has risen to 18 million. Last week, the organization appealed for $2.6 billion to help cope with growing needs.
…

The president of minerals-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, will visit China from May 24 to 29 and is expected to meet President Xi Jinping to review and sign several key trade deals.

A meeting would pave the way for the two countries to formally overhaul and seal a $6 billion infrastructure-for-minerals deal with Chinese investors. The visit was announced by the Chinese foreign ministry on Monday.

Tshisekedi instructed his government at a Cabinet meeting on May 19 to move ahead with talks on the deal with Chinese counterparts after the DRC government and other stakeholders “consolidated their position,” a DRC government statement said.

He informed Cabinet members that a task force looking at the deal had submitted its conclusions, enabling discussions with Chinese partners to commence in the coming days.

During the visit to China, the two heads of state will hold talks and attend the signing ceremony of cooperation documents together, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

“The Democratic Republic of Congo is an important country in Africa, and the friendship between China and the Democratic Republic of Congo has a long history,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing.

“Both sides have always supported each other on issues related to each other’s core interests and major concerns. In recent years, political mutual trust between China and the Democratic Republic of Congo has been continuously deepening, and practical cooperation has yielded fruitful results,” Mao added.

Tshisekedi will also meet Premier Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world’s largest producer of battery material cobalt.
…

Though fighting has continued through previous cease-fires, this is the first truce to be formally agreed to following negotiations
…

Most filmmakers in the Cannes Film Festival’s top-rung competition are well-known directors who have been around for decades. One dramatic exception this year is Ramata-Toulaye Sy, a French-Senegalese filmmaker whose first film, “Banel & Adama,” landed among the 21 films competing for the Palme d’Or. 

“It’s only now that I realize that being in competition means being in a competition,” Sy said, laughing, in an interview shortly after “Banel & Adama” premiered in Cannes. “Now that we’re really in the middle of it, I realize there’s a lot of passion going around.” 

Sy, 36, is the sole first-timer in Cannes’ main lineup this year. She is also only the second Black female director to ever compete for the Palme, following Mati Diop, also a French-Senegalese filmmaker, whose “Atlantics” debuted in 2019. For the Paris-raised Sy, it’s not a distinction of significance. 

“I’m a filmmaker and I really wish we stopped being counted as women, as Black or Arab or Asian,” she said. 

In “Banel & Adama,” also the only Africa-set film competing for the Palme this year, Sy crafts a radiant and languorous fable tinged with myth and tragedy. 

Banel (Khady Mane) and Adama (Mamadou Diallo) are a deeply in love married couple living in a small village in northern Senegal. In their intimate romantic idyll, they wish to pull away from the local traditions. Adama is set to become village chief but is uninterested in doing so. Banel dreams of living outside the village, in a home buried under a mountain of sand. 

While Banel and Adama slowly work to sweep away the sand, their yearning to live on their own causes angst in the village, especially when a drought arrives that some take as a curse for their independence. Though often opaque, the film stays largely with the psychology of Banel, whose single-mindedness grows increasingly dark. 

“I was quite reluctant at the start to acknowledge that Banel is me,” Sy said. “Now I have to confess that it’s definitely me. I see myself, my questions, my struggle in her journey. How to become an individual inside a community is really my own question.” 

Sy began writing “Banel & Adama” in 2014 as a student at La Fémis, the French film school. Sy, the daughter of Senegalese immigrants, says she was first drawn to literature. Novels like Toni Morrison’s “Sula” and Elena Frenate’s “My Brilliant Friend” inspired “Banel & Adama.” 

“The love story was a pretext for to deal with myth,” she says. “I wanted to have this kind of mythological female character that you find in Greek tragedy.” 

Sy co-wrote Atiq Rahimi’s “Our Lady of the Nile” and Çagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti’s “Sibel” — both of which played at international festivals. Her first short film, “Astel,” was well-received. 

But little prepared her for the stresses of shooting in rural Senegal. Along with heat, sandstorms and bouts of illness among the crew, Sy struggled to find her Banel. In the end, she found Mane while walking around. 

“We had all the cast except for her. We started five months before shooting and one month before shooting we still didn’t have her. One day I was walking down the street and my eyes locked on this girl,” Sy said. “It was the way that she looked at me. Her gaze had something a bit wise and a bit crazy.” 
…

A delegation of six African leaders set to hold talks with Kyiv and Moscow aim to “initiate a peace process,” but also broach the thorny issue of how a heavily sanctioned Russia can be paid for the fertilizer exports Africa desperately needs, a key mediator who helped broker the talks said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Jean-Yves Ollivier, an international negotiator who has been working for six months to put the talks together, said the African leaders would also discuss the related issue of easing the passage of more grain shipments out of Ukraine amid the war and the possibility of more prisoner swaps when they travel to both countries on what they’ve characterized as a peace mission.

The talks will likely be next month, Ollivier said.

He arrived in Moscow on Sunday and will also go to Kyiv for meetings with high-level officials to work out “logistics” for the upcoming talks. For one, the six African presidents would likely have to travel to Kyiv by night train from Poland amid the fighting, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have both agreed to separately host the delegation of presidents from South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Republic of Congo, Uganda and Zambia.

The talks also have the approval of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, the African Union and China, Ollivier said in a video call with the AP on Friday.

Neither side in the war appears ready to stop fighting, though.

The talks were announced last week by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa just as Russia launched an intense air attack on Kyiv. On Sunday, Russia claimed to have taken the key eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after fierce fighting, a claim denied by Ukraine.

“We are not dreamers,” Ollivier said on the chances the African leaders will achieve an immediate breakthrough with regard to stopping the 15-month conflict. “Unless something happens, I don’t think we are going to finish our first mission with a ceasefire.”

The aim was to make a start, said Ollivier, a 78-year-old Frenchman who brought opposing sides together in high-stakes negotiations in the late 1980s that helped end apartheid in South Africa.

“It starts with signs. It starts with dialogue. And this is what we are going to try to do,” Ollivier said. “No guarantee that we are going to succeed but, for the time being, Russia and Ukraine have accepted … a delegation coming specifically to their countries to talk about peace.”

A key starting point for Africa is grain and fertilizers.

The war has severely restricted the export of grain from Ukraine and fertilizers from Russia, exacerbating global food insecurity and hunger. Africa has been one of the hardest-hit continents. Last week, Russia agreed to a two-month extension of a deal brokered by Turkey and the U.N. that allows Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea and out to the world, and the six African presidents would like to see that extended further.

But they also need to broach ways of making it easier for African nations to receive shipments and pay Russia for fertilizers, Ollivier said. Russian fertilizer is not under international sanctions but the U.S. and some Western nations have targeted Russian cargo ships for sanctions. Russia’s access to the SWIFT global financial transaction system also has been restricted by the sanctions, leaving African nations struggling to order and pay for critical fertilizers.

“We will need to have a window whereby SWIFT will be authorized for this specific point,” Ollivier said. “That will be on the table and we hope that in that case we will gain the support of the Russians for the grains from Ukraine, and we will gain the support of the Ukrainians to find payments and shipments possible for the Russian fertilizer.”

The African mission is not the only mediation effort. China offered its own peace proposal in February and a Chinese envoy has been in discussions with Ukrainian officials. But China’s plan has largely been dismissed by Ukraine’s Western allies and is clouded by Beijing’s political support for Moscow.

Ukraine and Russia are far apart in terms of any agreements that might form the base of a peace deal.

The African delegation still had a wide cross-section of backing, Ollivier said, after China also “came to us and offered support” on the basis it would be a “parallel effort” to Beijing’s plan.

“More support, more weight will be put on the negotiation (with Moscow and Kyiv),” said Ollivier, the founding chairman of the London-based Brazzaville Foundation, an organization that deals with conflict resolution. “If one party says no, they will consider to who they are saying no. Are they saying no only to Jean-Yves Ollivier? To the Brazzaville Foundation? To the six (African) heads of state?”

“Or are they saying no to the United Nations, or to the Chinese, or to the Americans. To the British? To the European Union?”
…

The provincial health department in the South African province of Gauteng on Sunday announced 19 new cases of Cholera in Hammanskraal, including 10 deaths.

South Africa reported its first cholera death in February, after the virus arrived in the country from Malawi.

It was unclear how many cholera cases there was nationally as of Sunday, but the most populous province of Gauteng, where Johannesburg and Pretoria are situated, has been hardest hit.

Cholera can cause acute diarrhea, vomiting and weakness and is mainly spread by contaminated food or water. It can kill within hours if untreated.

The last outbreak in South Africa was in 2008/2009 when about 12,000 cases were reported following an outbreak in neighboring Zimbabwe, which led to a surge of imported cases and subsequent local transmission.
…

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) pledged Sunday to adhere to a newly agreed, short-term cease-fire with the Sudanese army.

“We affirm our full commitment to the cease-fire … to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, open passages for civilians and provide everything that would alleviate the suffering of our people,” the paramilitary group said in a statement.

“Today we are more insistent and determined … to break this vicious circle that has been controlling the fate of our people unjustly and tyrannically,” it said.

The Sudanese army and RSF signed a weeklong cease-fire deal Saturday after talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah. The halt in fighting is set to take effect Monday evening with an internationally supported monitoring mechanism.

Several previous attempts to broker a sustained truce have failed, with both sides accusing the other of violating it.

The new agreement states, “Both parties have conveyed to the Saudi and U.S. facilitators their commitment not to seek military advantage during the 48-hour notification period after signing the agreement and prior to the start of the cease-fire.”

A U.S.-Saudi statement said, “It is well known that the parties have previously announced cease-fires that have not been observed. Unlike previous cease-fires, the agreement reached in Jeddah was signed by the parties and will be supported by a U.S.-Saudi and international-supported cease-fire monitoring mechanism.”

The Monitoring and Coordination Committee is to be made up of three representatives each from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and three representatives from each party.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

Democratic Republic of Congo security forces fired tear gas and fought running battles in the streets of the capital Kinshasa with anti-government protesters demonstrating Saturday over alleged irregularities in voter registration.

The protesters are also angry over the rising cost of living and prolonged insecurity in the east of the country, where armed militias and rebel groups have killed hundreds and displaced over a million.

Around a dozen protesters were detained by security forces just after the start of the demonstration, which was called for by opposition leaders.

A video shared on social media showed a shirtless youth being kicked, repeatedly bashed with a helmet and dragged along the ground by several men in uniform. Reuters could not authenticate the video.

Police spokesperson Sylvano Kasongo told Reuters that three policemen had been detained for violence against a minor during the demonstration. He added that 27 police officers were injured during the clashes.

Congo’s human rights minister Albert-Fabrice Puela, in a statement Saturday, condemned the violence by security forces against demonstrators and the minor, and called for an investigation.

Congo is due to hold a general election Dec. 20 when President Felix Tshisekedi is expected to seek a second term.

But political tension is on the rise in the world’s leading cobalt producer, with some opposition candidates complaining of delays and alleged irregularities in a voter registration drive.

Four opposition leaders including Martin Fayulu, who came second in the 2018 presidential election, and Moise Katumbi, a millionaire businessman and former regional governor who is expected to run in 2023, called for the protest Saturday.

“It’s sad, you see, they are firing tear gas. Just before, it was real ammunition,” Katumbi told journalists near the protest venue.

Fayulu said by telephone that his vehicle was surrounded by security forces who continued to fire tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

“The electoral register is not reliable, and we’ll not compromise on this issue,” Fayulu added.

Congo’s electoral commission is expected to publish voter registration data Sunday.
…

Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko is giving a platform to voices that have long been silenced at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens Saturday, the first ever curated by an African, featuring a preponderance of work by Africans and the African diaspora. 

The 18th architectural Biennale, titled “The Laboratory of the Future,” explores decolonization and decarbonization, topics about which Africans have much to say, Lokko said, citing the long exploitation of the continent for both human and environmental resources. 

“The Black body was Europe’s first unit of energy,” Lokko told The Associated Press this week. “We have had a relationship to resources since time immemorial. We operate at a place where resources are not stable. They are also often fragile. They’re often exploited. Our relationship to them is exploitative.” 

Lokko tapped global stars like David Adjaye and Theaster Gates among 89 participants in the main show — more than half of them from Africa or the African diaspora. To reduce the Biennale’s carbon footprint, Lokko encouraged the participating architects, artists and designers to be as “paper-thin” as possible with their exhibits, resulting in more drawings, film and projections as well as the reuse of materials from last year’s contemporary art Biennale. 

“This exhibition is a way of showing that this work, this imagination, this creativity, has been around for a very, very long time,” Lokko said. “It’s just that it hasn’t found quite the right space, in the same way.” 

It is a fair question why an African-centric exhibition has been so long in coming to such a high-profile, international platform like Venice. 

Okwui Enwezor, the late Nigerian art critic and museum director, was the first African to head the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair, which alternates years with the architectural show, in 2015. Lokko was the first Biennale curator selected by President Roberto Cicutto, who was appointed in 2020 during the global push for inclusion ignited by the killing of George Floyd in the United States. 

“This is more for us than for them,” Cicutto said, “to see the production, hear the voices we have heard too little, or heard in the way we wanted to.” 

Impediments in the West to inclusive events with a focus on the global south were evident in the refusal by the Italian embassy in Ghana to approve visas for three of Lokko’s collaborators, which Lokko decried this week as “an old and familiar tale.” 

A refocusing of the North-South relationship is suggested in the main pavilion’s facade: a corrugated metal roof cut into deconstructed images of the Venetian winged lion. The material is ubiquitous in Africa and other developing regions, and here offers free shade. The lion, native to Africa and for centuries a symbol of Venice, serves as a reminder of how deeply cultural appropriation runs. 

“I don’t see any lions around here,’’ Lokko said wryly. 

Inside, Adjaye’s studio exhibits architectural models created “outside the dominant canon,” like the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in South Africa that takes inspiration from pre-colonial buildings. Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama explores the colonial exploitation in the installation, “Parliament of Ghosts.” 

And Olalekan Jeyifous, a Brooklyn-based Nigerian national, creates a sprawling retro-futuristic narrative around the fictional formation of a united African Conservation Effort, something he imagines would have been constructed a decade after African decolonization in an alternative 1972. 

“It’s never utopia/dystopia. Such binary Western terms, that I’m really interested in operating outside of,” said Jeyifous, who won the Silver Lion for a promising young participant. “It’s not just: We’ve solved all the problems now. Everything’s fantastic. It’s never that simple.” 

The Golden Lion for the best participant in the main show, went to Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal for their exhibit DAAR, exploring the legacy and reuse of fascist colonial architecture. 

More than in previous editions, the 64 national participants responded to Lokko’s themes with pavilions that found a natural echo with the main show and its focus on climate change issues and an expanded, more-inclusive dialogue. 

Denmark offered practical solutions for coastal areas to work with nature to create solutions to rising seas, proposing Copenhagen islands that invite the sea in to form canals, not unlike Venice’s.  

Decolonization was a natural theme at the Brazilian pavilion, where curators Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares show the architectural heritage of Indigenous and African Brazilians and challenge the “hegemonic” narrative that the capital, Brasilia, was built in the “middle of nowhere.” Their exhibit, titled “Terra,” was awarded the Golden Lion for the best national participant. 

The U.S. Pavilion looked at ubiquitous plastic, invented and propagated in the United States, and how to cope with its durability, under the title “Everlasting Plastic.” In one of the five exhibits, Norman Teague, a Chicago-based African American artist, designer and furniture-maker, used recycled plastics from such everyday items as Tide laundry detergent bottles to create one-off baskets, referencing weaves from Senegal and Ghana. 

Teague said he was inspired by Lokko’s themes to consider “how I could really think about the lineage between the continent and Chicago.” 

Ukraine returns to the Biennale with two installations that, in the gentlest possible way, serve as a reminder that war continues to rage in Europe. The pavilion in the Arsenale has been decked out in black-out materials to represent ad-hoc, if futile protective measures ordinary Ukrainians are taking against the threat of Russian bombardment. 

In the center of the Giardini, curators Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov and Borys Filonenko have recreated earthen mounds that served as barriers against 10th century invaders. Though long abandoned, overtaken by modern farming and sprawl, they proved effective against Russian tanks last spring. 

“These spaces, the fortifications, are a place to be quiet, to chill. But it is also kind of a reminder that somewhere, someone is fearing for their safety,” Filonenko said. 
…

Airstrikes hit outer areas of the Sudanese capital Khartoum overnight and Saturday morning, as fighting that has trapped civilians in a humanitarian crisis and displaced more than 1 million entered its sixth week.

The fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has led to a collapse in law and order with looting that both sides blame the other for. Stocks of food, cash, and essentials are rapidly dwindling.

Airstrikes were reported by eyewitnesses in southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities that lie across the Nile from Khartoum, forming Sudan’s “triple capital.” Some of the strikes took place near the state broadcaster in Omdurman, the eyewitnesses said.

“We faced heavy artillery fire early this morning, the whole house was shaking,” Sanaa Hassan, a 33-year-old living in the al-Salha neighborhood of Omdurman, told Reuters by phone.

“It was terrifying, everyone was lying under their beds. What’s happening is a nightmare,” she said.

The RSF is embedded in residential districts, drawing almost continual airstrikes by the regular armed forces.

Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said that the situation was relatively calm, although sporadic gunshots could be heard.

More than 1 million displaced

The conflict, which began on April 15, has displaced almost 1.1 million people internally and into neighboring countries. More than 700 people have been killed and at least 5,287 injured, according to the World Health Organization.

Saudi- and U.S-sponsored talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah have not been fruitful, and the two warring sides have accused each other of violating multiple ceasefire agreements.

In recent days, ground fighting has flared once again in the Darfur region, in the cities of Nyala and Zalenjei.

In statements late Friday, both sides blamed each other for sparking the fighting in Nyala, one of the country’s largest cities, which had been relatively calm for weeks due to a locally brokered truce.

A local activist told Reuters there were sporadic gun clashes near the city’s main market close to army headquarters on Saturday morning. Almost 30 people have died in the two previous days of fighting, according to activists.

Churches among looted buildings

The war broke out in Khartoum after disputes over plans for the RSF to be integrated into the army and over the future chain of command under an internationally backed deal to shift Sudan towards democracy following decades of conflict-ridden autocracy.

On Friday, army leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan removed RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo as his deputy on the ruling council they lead. He replaced him with former rebel leader Malik Agar.

In a statement on Saturday, Agar said he had accepted the position in order to help secure peace and support for the upcoming agricultural season, whose failure would spell widespread hunger.

He said his message to the army was that “there is no alternative to peace but peace and no way to peace other than dialog.”

“My message to the RSF is that there is no way for stability except with one united army,” he added, but it remains unclear how much influence he will have on either side.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced late on Friday more than $100 million in aid to Sudan and countries receiving fleeing Sudanese, including much-needed food and medical assistance.

“It’s hard to convey the extent of the suffering occurring right now in Sudan,” said agency head Samantha Power.

Among the many looted buildings in the capital are several churches, including the Virgin Mary church in downtown Khartoum, according to a church official. Armed men gave the bishop a week to vacate the church’s premises, after which they looted it before setting it up as their base, he said.

Church leaders have said they are not sure if attacks are targeted or part of the overall “chaos” gripping Khartoum.

In a statement, Qatar said that its embassy was the latest in a string of looted embassies.
…

Sudan’s de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, sacked his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo on Friday, as forces loyal to the feuding generals pressed on with fighting in both Khartoum and Darfur.

The United Nations meanwhile warned that humanitarian needs are increasing in Sudan, with aid chief Martin Griffith allocating $22 million in emergency funds to help Sudanese fleeing the violence.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) says more than 1 million people have been displaced by the power struggle between Burhan and Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting, which has now raged for more than a month.

On Friday, witnesses reported exchanges of fire both in the capital Khartoum and in the troubled Darfur region, where armed civilians have also entered the fray, stoking ethnic and tribal rivalries.

In Central Darfur, RSF fighters are trying to push Burhan’s military from its headquarters in the capital Zalingei, residents said.

In South Darfur capital Nyala, fighting killed 18 people Thursday, Sudan’s doctors syndicate said. Witnesses told AFP clashes were ongoing Friday.

Cease-fire efforts

The persistent violence has defied regional and international calls for a humanitarian cease-fire.

Sudan has been gripped by economic and political turmoil since veteran leader Omar al-Bashir was ousted by the military in 2019.

Two years later, a coup by Burhan and Daglo derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule, and forces loyal to the two men have been fighting relentlessly since April 15.

Representatives of the warring generals have been in Saudi Arabia, which hosted an Arab summit Friday and has been trying to hammer out a humanitarian cease-fire.

Asked about those talks, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the focus was “on reaching a truce that allows Sudanese civilians to take a breather.”

Neighboring South Sudan on Friday defended its own efforts to broker an end to the conflict after the Sudanese foreign ministry protested its hosting of a delegation from Daglo earlier this week.

South Sudan’s government “has continued to play its part within (East African bloc) IGAD with absolute impartiality,” the foreign ministry in Juba said in a statement.

Daglo’s envoy Yusif Isha held talks with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and IGAD officials in Juba on Wednesday.

With neither side appearing to have the upper hand, on Friday Burhan sacked Daglo and appointed three allies to top jobs in the military.

“General Burhan has issued a constitutional decree assigning Malik Agar to the post of vice-president of the ruling transitional Sovereignty Council, effective today,” the council said on its Facebook page.

The military also reported that Burhan named General Shamsedding Kabashi to be his deputy, and chose two other loyal officers to be his assistants.

Emergency aid

Agar, a former rebel leader and governor of Blue Nile state on the South Sudan border, signed a peace deal with Khartoum in 2020 and was appointed to the Sovereignty Council in February 2021.

He leads one wing of the SPLM-North, formed in 2011 by northern fighters of the movement which led South Sudan to independence that year.

Observers consider Agar’s promotion as a symbolic move which is not expected to impact the power struggle between Burhan and Daglo.

The United Nations has voiced fears the crisis in Khartoum could spread to neighboring countries now flooded with Sudanese fleeing the violence. It renewed its appeals for the safety of civilians caught in the crossfire to be respected.

“Over a month since the fighting started, UNHCR … is making an urgent appeal for the safety of civilians and to allow humanitarian aid to move freely in Sudan,” Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, said Friday.

He said more than 1 million people have been displaced within Sudan or as refugees in neighboring countries.

“Inside Sudan, people are braving danger, moving notably from Khartoum, Darfur and other unsafe areas,” Saltmarsh said.

U.N. aid chief Griffiths said on Twitter he was “allocating $22 million… to support relief efforts in Chad, the Central African Republic, Egypt and South Sudan,” where Sudanese have sought refuge.

The United States on Friday promised $103 million for Sudan and neighboring countries to support displaced people.
…

About 40 people have been killed in a wave of attacks in Burkina Faso, in areas where jihadi attacks are rife, sources said Friday. 

In the most recent violence, about 20 people were killed in a series of raids on villages in Burkina Faso’s troubled north, security sources and local residents told AFP. 

Armed men attacked three villages early on Thursday in the country’s northern Yatenga province. 

“Yesterday around 5 a.m. [local and GMT], armed groups attacked the villages of Pelle, Zanna and Nongfaire,” a local resident said Friday, giving a toll of 25 people killed. 

There were “many others wounded,” the resident said. 

Another resident said “the assailants, who came on motorbikes, were chased by volunteers [civilian auxiliaries of the army] and soldiers.” 

The attack was confirmed by a security source, who put the death toll at about 20, adding that search operations were underway to find the assailants.  

The attackers “were hit by air support after taking refuge in the Barga forest,” said another security source. “Several of them died.” 

Raids in east

Earlier Friday, there were reports that another 20 people had been killed in separate attacks by suspected jihadis in eastern Burkina Faso this week. 

Armed men on Monday raided the village of Kaongo in the southeastern province of Koulpelogo, killing at least 11 people, including two women and children. 

Two days later, the neighboring village of Bilguimdoure was targeted, “leaving around 10 dead,” a local official said. 

The attackers torched homes and stores in the two villages and made off with cattle, the official added. 

Sources in the security forces confirmed those attacks and said that operations were underway to secure the area. 

People living in the district said residents were fleeing the area, terrified of further attacks. 

Koulpelogo, on Burkina’s border with Togo and Ghana, has been repeatedly attacked by Islamist militants this year, despite a crackdown by the army and a volunteer civilian militia, the VDP. 

Last month, at least 24 people, including 20 VDP members, were killed in two raids in the troubled region. 

The impoverished landlocked Sahel state is struggling with a jihadi insurgency that swept in from neighboring Mali in 2015. 

More than 10,000 civilians, troops and police have died, according to nongovernment organization estimates, while at least 2 million people have fled their homes and more than a third of the country lies outside the government’s control. 

Anger within the military at the mounting toll triggered two coups last year.

Doctor freed 

On Friday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that Australian doctor Kenneth Elliott, 88, had been freed more than seven years after he and his wife were abducted in Burkina by al-Qaida-linked jihadis.  

The couple had run the sole medical clinic in Djibo, a town near the border with Mali, since 1972. Elliott’s spouse, Jocelyn, was released three weeks after the abduction. 

Her husband returned to Australia on Thursday night, according to the Australian government.  

Wong’s statement said that the government and Elliott’s family had “worked tirelessly” for his freedom. It gave no details about the circumstances of his release. 
…

Sudan’s capital Khartoum and sister city Bahri came under renewed air attack on Friday as the war between the army and paramilitary forces entered its fifth week, deepening a humanitarian crisis for trapped and displaced civilians. 

Mass looting by armed men and civilians alike is making life an even greater misery for Khartoum residents pinned down by fierce fighting between the regular military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, witnesses said. 

The conflict has displaced an estimated 843,000 people within Sudan and caused the flight of about 250,000 into neighboring countries, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday. 

Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan took the long-anticipated step on Friday of removing RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, from his post as his deputy on the ruling Sovereign Council. 

The two had run the council since 2019 when they overthrew strongman President Omar al-Bashir amid mass protests of his rule, before staging a coup in 2021 as a deadline neared to hand power to civilians for a transition toward free elections. 

There has been no breakthrough in Saudi- and U.S.-sponsored cease-fire talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah. 

At an Arab League meeting there on Friday, a statement by Sudan’s envoy accused the RSF of looting and rape, and of violating a succession of cease-fires. 

“We trust that you will stand by the Sudanese army and will accompany us in the next step of reconstruction,” envoy Dafallah al-Haj added. 

The RSF has accused the army of starting the conflict and violating cease-fires. It says those who have committed crimes are wearing stolen RSF uniforms. 

Fighting broke out on April 15 after disputes over plans for the RSF to be integrated into the army and over the future chain of command under an internationally backed deal to shift Sudan towards democracy after decades of conflict-ridden autocracy. 

Burhan installed Malik Agar, leader of a rebel group who joined the council in 2020 after signing a peace agreement with the government, as his new deputy, according to a second decree. 

Later that day, Burhan promoted other military officers who served on the council, including appointing General Shams El-Din Kabbashi as deputy commander of the armed forces. Generals Yasser Al-Atta and Ibrahim Jabir were each appointed as assistants to the commander. 

‘Bodies everywhere’ 

Airstrikes on Friday targeted districts in eastern Khartoum and witnesses reported hearing anti-aircraft weapons used by the RSF. Bahri and Sharg el-Nil across the Nile River from Khartoum were subjected to airstrikes overnight and Friday morning. 

“On the road I saw about 30 military trucks destroyed by [air]strikes. There were bodies everywhere, some of them army and some RSF. Some had started decomposing. It was really horrible,” said Ahmed, a young man making his way through Bahri. 

The RSF is embedded in residential districts of much of Khartoum and adjoining Bahri and Omdurman, drawing almost continual airstrikes by the regular armed forces. 

Witnesses said the army had also started placing barriers on some roads in southern Khartoum to keep the RSF away from an important military base there. 

Fighting also flared in the city of Nyala, capital of the South Darfur region in the southwest, for a second day after weeks of relative calm. 

Heavy gunfire and artillery detonations went on all day in Nyala. A local market caught fire and it was difficult for those injured to get to hospitals, local activists said. The Darfur Bar Association, a human rights group, said that 27 people had been killed and dozens injured so far. 

They called on the RSF, whose movements it blamed for the flare-up, to re-commit to a locally brokered truce. 

Militia attacks and subsequent clashes in the West Darfur city of Geneina have claimed the lives of hundreds. 

With the fighting has come a collapse in law and order, with rampant looting, blamed by the army and RSF on each other, hitting Sudanese homes, factories, gold markets, banks, vehicles and churches. A rapid dwindling of stocks of food, cash and other essentials is driving much of the pillaging. 

“Nobody protects us. No police. No state. The criminals are attacking our houses and taking everything we own,” said Sarah Abdelazim, 35, a government employee in Khartoum. 

Some 705 people have been killed and at least 5,287 injured, according to the World Health Organization. 
…

Nigerian police said Friday that officers had arrested seven suspects in connection with the massacre of dozens of villagers in central Plateau state.

State police spokesperson Alfred Alabo said security operatives had restored calm to the affected Kubwat and Fungzai villages in the remote Mangu district. He said police would continue to monitor the area to try to prevent more attacks.

Witnesses said gunmen invaded Mangu early Tuesday morning and opened fire on villagers. They also burned many houses before security forces arrived.

Residents said more than 100 people were killed, and they blamed ethnic Fulani militias for the bloodshed.

Alabo said that even before the attacks, tensions had been high in the area because of disputes between farmers and herders over grazing land.

In a phone interview with VOA, he said he was not sure of the death toll.

“It’s a place that was riddled with crisis,” he said. “You can’t just be jumping [to conclusions] and be giving figures. They told me over 30 persons at that time, so we’ll get more information.”

Residents said thousands of people who fled their homes to escape the violence had yet to return to the villages.

But Alabo said the situation had been brought under control. “We have so far been able to calm the situation in that general area,” he said. “But we’re still monitoring. We have some suspects already in custody presently with Operation Safe Haven.”

Communal clashes over scarce grazing land and water resources have plagued Nigeria’s central region for decades. Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau states are among the ones most impacted by the disputes.

On Thursday, rights group Amnesty International condemned the killings and called for accountability. Police have promised to continue investigating.

A Plateau state resident, who survived the attack and asked for safety reasons that his name not be used, said security officials arrived too late.

“It was something that I never expected to happen,” he said. “Many people were killed. It was a big tragedy, what I saw in that place. About 100 people were killed, many were displaced, and some are in the hospital.”

Nigerian authorities are struggling to control a wave of violence across the country.

On Tuesday, police announced they were investigating an attack last week in which gunmen killed 15 people in a farming community in Nasarawa state. Police said those killings appeared to be carried out in retaliation for the death of an ethnic Fulani herder who was attacked days earlier.
…

Britain has called for reform of the European Court of Human Rights, as the government attempts to push through new legislation that would allow asylum seekers arriving on small boats to be immediately sent to Rwanda for processing and resettlement, with no right to appeal.

Last June, judges at the court imposed a last-minute injunction preventing the first flight from taking off. The European Court of Human Rights is the judicial body of the Council of Europe, a human rights organization with 46 member states, and it is not part of the European Union.

There has been a sharp rise in the number of migrants arriving in small boats on Britain’s shores from France in recent years. The government hopes the prospect of being sent to Rwanda, with no right to return to Britain, will dissuade many migrants from making the dangerous journey across the English Channel. It also asserts the policy will lead to the dissolution of human-smuggling gangs.

‘Stop the boats’

British authorities have detected almost 7,000 migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats so far this year. The total for 2022 exceeded 45,000.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has repeatedly pledged to, in his words, “stop the boats.” Last year, Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson signed a deal with Kigali that would see an unspecified number of migrants flown there for processing, asylum and resettlement with no right to appeal. Britain has already paid Rwanda $150 million under the agreement.

Prime Minister Sunak pledged this week to push ahead with the plan.

“It is, of course, a shared challenge. Many countries in Europe are experiencing what we are experiencing at home, and I want to work together with others to help solve it and to stop the boats,” Sunak told reporters at a meeting of the Council of Europe in Iceland Tuesday.

“Part of my approach is to put new laws in place in the U.K., that’s our ‘stop the boats’ bill. It’s novel, it’s ambitious, but I believe it is compliant with our international obligations,” Sunak added.

Injunction issued

Judges at the European Court of Human Rights disagree. Just as the first plane was about to take off for Rwanda on June 14 last year with dozens of migrants on board, the court issued what’s known as a “Rule 39” injunction — blocking the flights on the grounds that they likely breach the Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights, to which Britain is a signatory.

In response, the British government has introduced new legislation that would override European court decisions. The law is currently being debated in Parliament.

At the Council of Europe meeting this week in Iceland, Sunak said he would try to persuade European partners to reform the court itself.

“We want to make sure that the European Court is always conducting itself in a way which is fair, which is effective, which is transparent,” he said.

European relations

But Europe is not in the mood to meet Britain’s demands after its exit from the European Union, says Camino Mortera-Martinez, a Brussels-based analyst with the Center for European Reform.

“I’m not necessarily sure that they will go the extra mile to go and enter into reform of yet another European institution to please Mr. Sunak and his hardline government, when it comes to migration,” she told VOA.

Some members of Sunak’s Conservative party want Britain to quit altogether the Council of Europe and its convention on human rights. The last country to leave the organization was Russia, which was expelled last year after its invasion of Ukraine.

“Faced with the threats of ‘right, give us what we want, or we just leave the European Convention of Human Rights and the Council of Europe,’ the answer could very well be, ‘well, go ahead and be a pariah state, just like Russia is,'” Mortera-Martinez told VOA. “I think it would be a mistake for Britain to do that at the moment, especially, as I say, given that we have a war next door [in Ukraine].”

‘Nervous breakdown’

About a quarter of the migrants arriving on small boats in 2022 were Albanian. Britain has deported more than 1,000 back to their home country. The Albanian prime minister last month criticized Britain for singling out his country’s citizens.

“[Britain is] going through a nervous breakdown as a country, so we have to understand them,” Prime Minister Edi Rama said at a policy forum in Greece on April 30. “We have to understand them. They have lost a lot of points of reference, and they are really in a bad, bad place.”

Britain did not respond to the comments.
…

Officials in Cameroon have shut down markets in an attempt to stop a wave of cholera infections spreading through all 10 regions of the central African state.

The government says more than 20,000 people have been infected, but the figures may be higher as a majority of the country’s 26 million people do not go to hospitals for treatment. Some hospitals are overwhelmed with cholera patients.

Sanitation workers on Friday washed and disinfected toilets, pits and septic tanks at Acacia market in Yaounde’s Sixth district.

The market sees at least 5,000 merchants and buyers each day, but district officials say it has been sealed to stop cholera from spreading.

Catherine Mubah Tatah is one of the district’s workers.

“When the Ministry of Public Health announced on April 19 that there was a resurgence of cholera, we immediately started telling civilians to boil water before drinking, clean or disinfect their toilets regularly, stop defecating in open spaces and in the bush and to wash all fruits before selling and before consuming the fruits. The fast spread of the disease is an indication that a majority of Cameroonians are not respecting basic cholera prevention steps,” said Tatah.

Tatah said ongoing heavy rains in Yaounde trigger floods that cause breakdowns in the sanitation system and contaminate the environment and water sources.

The Cameroon government says the Mfoundi, Etoudi and Mokolo markets in the capital were also sealed this week to stop the cholera spread.

The government says men between the ages of 21 and 35 years, who constitute a majority of traders, are the most affected by the ongoing wave of infections.

The present wave has affected more than 20,000 people and killed several dozen since April 17, according to the government. Cholera treatment centers like the Djoungolo hospital in Yaounde say they are overwhelmed by an influx of patients.

The government of the central African state says the real number of infections and fatalities may be higher as humanitarian workers are not able to visit more remote towns and villages.

Humanitarian groups say about one-third percent of Cameroon’s 26 million people visit hospitals when they are sick. A majority prefer to go to African traditional healers.

Andjembe Essola is the highest government health official along Cameroon’s eastern border.

Essola says cholera has also been spreading in Cameroon’s East region that shares a border with the Central African Republic since April 27, when the first cases were detected from travelers that came to the region from Yaounde. Essola says the government is taking measures to ensure that the disease does not reach congested C.A.R. refugee camps.

The government and humanitarian agencies are cleaning the refugee camps, providing clean drinkable water and educating civilians to wash their hands regularly and stop open air defecation.

Cameroon’s Public Health ministry says all 10 of the country’s regions have reported the spread of cholera, a bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, usually spread by eating or drinking contaminated food or water. It can be fatal if not treated in hospitals.

Humanitarian groups say poor and unreliable water supplies in all Cameroonian towns and villages contribute to regular cholera outbreaks.
…

Mass looting by armed men and civilians is making life an even greater misery for Khartoum residents trapped by fierce fighting between Sudan’s army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), witnesses said.

While the RSF dominates the capital on the ground and the army conducts frequent airstrikes, the witnesses said police had simply vanished from the streets when the fighting started in Khartoum on April 15.

“Nobody protects us. No police. No state. The criminals are attacking our houses and taking everything we own,” said Sarah Abdelazim, 35, a government employee.

As mayhem grips Khartoum, the army accuses the RSF of looting banks, gold markets, homes and vehicles. The RSF denies the charge and has released videos showing its men arresting looters. The paramilitary force says some people wear RSF uniforms and steal to make them look bad.

Some witnesses said the RSF was stealing vehicles and setting up camps in people’s houses. The RSF also denies this.

More than 17,000 men who were jailed in Sudan’s two most dangerous prisons — Kobar and Al Huda — were released early in the fighting. Both sides blame the other for the prison break.

‘The Devil’s City’

“We are now living in the devil’s city. People are looting everything and neither the army nor the RSF nor the police, none of them want to protect ordinary people. Where is the state?”

said Mohamed Saleh, 39, a primary school teacher.

The fighting erupted after disputes over plans for the RSF to join the army and the chain of command as part of a political transition. It has caused some 200,000 to flee to nearby countries and more than 700,000 have been displaced inside Sudan, triggering a humanitarian crisis that threatens to destabilize the region.

Intense battles have continued to rage in Khartoum and its sister cities of Bahri and Omdurman despite Saudi and U.S.-brokered talks between the army and the RSF in Jeddah aimed at securing humanitarian access and a cease-fire.

Most attention is focused on the battles, not the chaos which is demoralizing the population, or the rapidly depleting supplies of food, cash, and other essentials that drive much of the looting.

Huge groups have been seen looting mobile phone, gold, and clothes stores.

Factories, including a wheat mill belonging to DAL Group, the country’s largest conglomerate, were looted in Sudan’s main industrial zone, which contains key food and industrial manufacturers.

“They were brandishing machetes, they wave them in the air,” said Qassim Mahmoud, a bank general manager who passed through the zone as he fled Khartoum for Egypt and saw people carrying away sacks of wheat and large appliances.

Three commodities and storage facilities were burned down in Omdurman. On Thursday, people could be seen in a video stealing mattresses and clothes and loading them onto trucks. Others used donkey carts.

“Yesterday thieves came and burgled my house in Omdurman. Who do I complain to,” said Ahmed Zahar, 42, a trader.

Many Khartoum residents have put posts on social media seeking assistance in retrieving stolen cars.

At one bank where money had already been looted, people were also seizing televisions and furniture, said a Reuters witness.

Aid warehouses have also been targeted by the looters.

The medical aid agency Medicin Sans Frontier, also known as Doctors Without Borders, one of few entities continuing to provide aid in Khartoum, said armed men had broken into its warehouse in Khartoum on Tuesday and taken two cars filled with supplies.

 
…

On May 17th a VOA reporter on Chad’s border with Sudan heard gunfire and explosions and witnessed bodies, casualties, and even stray bullets coming across the border from the town of Tendelti, Sudan, about 900 meters away. Observers say concerns are growing that the intense violence in Sudan’s Western Darfur region could spread to neighboring countries. Meanwhile, Chad’s police chief told VOA he is urging citizens to remain calm. Henry Wilkins reports from Koufroun in Chad. Warning: This report contains graphic and disturbing images.
Camera: Henry Wilkins Video Editor: Henry Wilkins
…

More than half of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the early 1990s, chiefly because of climate change, intensifying concerns about water for agriculture, hydropower and human consumption, a study published Thursday found.

An international team of researchers reported that some of the world’s most important water sources — from the Caspian Sea between Europe and Asia to South America’s Lake Titicaca — lost water at a cumulative rate of about 22 gigatonnes per year for nearly three decades. That’s about 17 times the volume of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States.

Fangfang Yao, a surface hydrologist at the University of Virginia who led the study in the journal Science, said 56% of the decline in natural lakes was driven by climate warming and human consumption, with warming “the larger share of that.”

Climate scientists generally think that the world’s arid areas will become drier under climate change and wet areas will get wetter, but the study found significant water loss even in humid regions. “This should not be overlooked,” Yao said.

Scientists assessed almost 2,000 large lakes using satellite measurements combined with climate and hydrological models.

They found that unsustainable human use, changes in rainfall and runoff, sedimentation, and rising temperatures have driven lake levels down globally, with 53% of lakes showing a decline from 1992 to 2020.

Nearly 2 billion people who live in drying lake basins are directly affected, and many regions have faced water shortages in recent years.

Scientists and campaigners have long said it is necessary to prevent global warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. The world has already warmed about 1.1C (1.9F).

Thursday’s study found unsustainable human use dried up lakes such as the Aral Sea in Central Asia and the Dead Sea in the Middle East, while lakes in Afghanistan, Egypt and Mongolia were hit by rising temperatures, which can increase water loss to the atmosphere.

Water levels rose in a quarter of the lakes, often as a result of dam construction in remote areas such as the Inner Tibetan Plateau.
…

An Australian doctor held captive by al-Qaida-linked extremists for more than seven years in West Africa has been released, the Australian government said Friday.

Kenneth Elliott, 88, is safe and well and has been reunited with his wife, Jocelyn, and their children, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

The couple were seized in January 2016 from Djibo, near Burkina Faso’s border with Mali, where they had operated a 120-bed clinic for more than 40 years.

Jocelyn Elliott was freed after three weeks. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb then said it had kidnapped the couple and would release the woman unconditionally because of public pressure and guidance from leaders not to involve women in war.

“At 88 years of age, and after many years away from home, Dr. Elliott now needs time and privacy to rest and rebuild strength. We thank you for your understanding and sympathy,” his family said in a statement. 
…